PinkLINK Newsletters
Friday, February 25, 2011
Pink Elephant Announces 2010 ITIL Award Winners
Las Vegas, NV – February 25, 2011 – Pink Elephant announced the winners of five prestigious awards at the company’s 15th Annual International IT Management Conference & Exhibition, which was held at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, February 20-23, 2011. Each year at Pink Elephant’s conference awards are presented to recognize individual and corporate commitment to ITIL® (IT Infrastructure Library) and ITSM (IT Service Management) excellence.
Since the UK’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC) first developed ITIL in the late 1980s, it has gained recognition as an international IT industry standard. Pink Elephant has worked diligently to increase awareness of the best practice framework on a global scale, and part of this effort has also included introducing the ITIL certification program to North America. To further increase ITIL’s recognition worldwide, Pink Elephant developed an awards program. Five awards are presented annually to individuals and organizations demonstrating a significant commitment and dedication to ITIL and ITSM excellence.
2010 ITIL Award Winners
1. ITIL Project of the Year: Recognizes an organization that has demonstrated significant commitment to ITIL and ITSM best practices with involvement of certified staff, and visible positive outcomes.
There are two winners: Ohio State University and State Compensation Insurance Board.
2. Innovation of the Year: This award is in recognition of a product or service developed by the vendor community that has made the greatest contribution to ITSM in the last calendar year.
The winner is Service-now for the company’s IT 3.0 product. To learn more visit www.service-now.com.
3. ITIL Practitioner of the Year: Recognizes an individual who has shown visible commitment to ITIL best practices, and is an industry champion for IT continuous improvement and quality principles.
The winner is Debra Jenkins, Branch Chief Service Level Management, U.S. Army.
4. Pink Elephant Student of the Year: Recognizes the ITIL Service Manager Course attendee with the highest score during the year.
The winner is Christopher Bolash, University of Michigan.
5. ITIL Case Study of the Year: Chosen by conference attendees, this award recognizes the individual with the highest overall rating for a case study presentation delivered at the conference.
The winner is Stephen Wrenn, SVP Enterprise IT Services, CVS Caremark. This is Stephen’s third win.
“On behalf of everyone at Pink Elephant, congratulations to all the winners!” said Pink Elephant’s president, David Ratcliffe. “There are many success stories out there and we are very happy to profile and recognize individuals and organizations for their hard work and achievements”.
The 2011 ITIL Awards will be presented at the 16th Annual International IT Management Conference & Exhibition, Las Vegas, February 19-22, 2012.
About Pink Elephant
Founded in 1980, Pink Elephant is the leader in providing IT Service Management best practice services. Operating in many locations across the globe including the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Netherlands, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia & Singapore, Pink Elephant is the world’s #1 supplier of ITIL® and IT Service Management conferences, education and consulting services.
For more information, visit www.pinkelephant.com.
###
For further information, please contact:
Kara Block
Marketing Department
Pink Elephant
Toll Free: 1-888-273-7465, Ext. 353
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.
Pink Elephant & Hornbill Announce “ITSM Extreme Makeover 2011”
Las Vegas, NV – February 25, 2011 – Today in a joint effort Hornbill Service Management and Pink Elephant are announcing the launch of “ITSM Extreme Makeover 2011”. This initiative involves Pink Elephant and Hornbill working with GamingWorks and Loyalist Certification Services to deliver an extreme makeover for a deserving IT practitioner organization.
Why “extreme makeover’? Whether fashion, body or property, an extreme makeover sets out to transform someone, or something, from mediocre to stunning, usually in a relatively short period of time.
Each participating IT service provider will donate products and services with a total combined value expected to exceed at least US $250K. The objective of the extreme makeover is to show how an IT Service Management (ITSM) organization can be transformed using best practices and good program management. Over a 12-month period it is expected that measurable value can be achieved.
“This is one of the most exciting projects we’ve ever embarked upon at Pink!” says Pink Elephant president David Ratcliffe, adding that the project will get major worldwide attention. “Documenting the whole journey as we go, we’re going to let the world see – in a very public way via social media – how we go about helping an organization improve their ITSM operation and deliver real positive results to their business. As far as we know this is a first-ever in the IT industry.”
“ITSM Extreme Makeover brings together a prestige team of partners to prove that IT Service Management can truly deliver value when an organization is focused on doing the right things” said Patrick Bolger, Chief Evangelist at Hornbill Service Management. “This is a fantastic opportunity for the chosen organization. The partners are donating world-class IT Service Management education, process definition and tools, free of charge. By registering on the project website, other IT organizations can follow the project and learn from our approach. We’re delighted to offer our software and services to such a worthy project.”
The chosen organization will be announced after the application submission deadline on April 8, 2011. The organization’s journey will be chronicled and shared across the globe on video, blogs and social networking sites throughout the following 12 months. The outcome will be presented for the world to see at Pink Elephant’s 16th Annual International IT Management Conference & Exhibition, February 19-22, 2012 in Las Vegas. Organizations wishing to apply should visit www.itsmextrememakeover.com.
About Pink Elephant
Founded in 1980, Pink Elephant is the leader in providing IT Service Management best practice services. Operating in many locations across the globe including the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Netherlands, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia & Singapore, Pink Elephant is the world’s #1 supplier of ITIL® and IT Service Management conferences, education and consulting services.
For more information, visit www.pinkelephant.com.
About Hornbill Service Management
Hornbill develops and markets Supportworks: platform technology and applications for IT Service Management and business helpdesks. Hornbill’s software enables its customers to provide excellent service and support, while benefiting from the economies of service desk consolidation on a single technology platform.
Hornbill was founded in 1995 and has offices in London and Dallas. Hornbill has earned many industry accolades including; Service Desk Institute “IT Service and Support Technology Supplier of the Year”, “Best Business use of Support Technology” with Sharp Electronics and “Support Excellence Award for Smaller Helpdesks” with Camelot.
For more information about Hornbill visit www.hornbill.com.
###
For further information, please contact:
Kara Block
Marketing Department
Pink Elephant
Toll Free: 1-888-273-7465, Ext. 353
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Pink Elephant Is Going Beyond ITIL With ISO/IEC 20000 Foundations
TORONTO, ON – June 25, 2010 – Pink Elephant today announced that it has recently added a new certification course to its education portfolio. The ISO/IEC 20000 Foundations course complements the existing IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) certification courses offered from Pink Elephant. Successful completion of the three-day course and examination provides participants with one (1) ITIL credit towards the ITIL Expert designation within the official ITIL V3 professional qualification scheme.
Additionally, many organizations – particularly those in the IT services business, such as outsourcers and managed service providers – have now recognized that attaining the ISO/IEC 20000 organizational certification provides them with the focus and motivation to bring their IT services operation up to the industry recognized standard for good practices in IT Service Management. Today, IT service providers are under increased pressure to deliver high quality service at minimum cost. Attaining an ISO/IEC 20000 organizational certification allows them to positively promote their abilities to reduce operational exposure to risk, meet contractual and tendering requirements, demonstrate service quality, and deliver best value.
Pink Elephant President, David Ratcliffe, comments “This new course can be viewed as a valuable first step towards an organization preparing for the ISO/IEC 20000 organizational certification. Alternatively, if organizational certification is not the immediate goal, the course provides IT service management professionals with a holistic view of all the critical success factors needed to establish an effective and efficient IT services organization.”
View more information on this new certification course and upcoming dates and locations.
About Pink Elephant
Pink Elephant leads the way in IT Management best practices. Operating through many offices across the globe, it is the world’s #1 provider of ITIL and ITSM conferences, education and consulting services. To date, more than 200,000 IT professionals have benefited from the organization’s expertise. Pink Elephant has championed the growth of ITIL worldwide since its inception in 1989, and was selected as an international expert to contribute to the ITIL V3 project as authors of the Continual Service Improvement book and through representation on the International Exam Panel. For more information, please visit www.pinkelephant.com.
ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.
###
For further information, please contact:
Kara Block
Marketing Services & Conference Coordinator
Pink Elephant
Toll Free: 1-888-273-7465, Ext. 353
E-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Service Management Concepts Made Easy
Part 1: Utility vs. Warranty
If you’ve read ITIL V3’s Service Strategy book, you will have been exposed to many best practices that IT organizations need for IT business alignment.
Some of the concepts written in the book seem fairly complex, but in this latest article, Pierre Bernard, Pink’s Manager of Education & Product Portfolio, provides easy to understand terms, using real life scenarios to help readers better visualize the meanings.
In part one, Pierre explains utility and warranty in relation to a product or service, and how, taken together, they help to create value in the eyes of the customer.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Top Ten Reasons To Apply Continual Improvement Out Of The Gate
Over the years organizations implementing ITIL have approached Continual Service Improvement from many different perspectives.
- Some organizations launch their Service Improvement program with a plan to phase in Continual Improvement after implementing their first round of formal process improvements
- Other organizations begin applying Continual Improvement as soon as they deploy newly designed Service Management processes
- And others talk about it, but don’t actually implement any type of Continual Improvement practice. These organizations have a very short minded goal of developing and implementing some ITIL processes and magically they all work well and never need to be revisited. Of course, this is a huge risk
However, many organizations can increase the effectiveness of their Service Management Improvement programs by applying Continual Improvement from the beginning.
Read the article.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Connecting The Concepts: From Configuration Item To Release Policy
“Everything is inter-connected. You cannot develop one process while ignoring the others. You cannot build your component hierarchy without understanding your services, just as you can’t build your Release Types without understanding your Change Models.”
Your Release Management Process Project team is struggling with the definition of the Release Policy. Through discussions, two views of the Release Policy have come up:
- One Release Policy for each IT service
- One generic Release Policy
Which view of Release Policy will be more effective with your Release Management Process design? Is one better than the other? What does ITIL say? These are all very valid questions that many organizations ask themselves.
The intent of this white paper is to provide insight into the various concepts required for an efficient Release Policy. We will travel through various processes, revisiting some key concepts and linking them together in a more comprehensive and cohesive manner. Both IT and not-IT examples will illustrate some key concepts and how the concepts are linked together.
Read the white paper.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The Rise & Re-Integration Of The ERP Empire
“In many of the organizations that participated in the online survey, a common pattern can be observed that shows why ERP groups are generally early adopters of formalized process in general and turn to ITIL specifically.”
In February 2007, BMC and Pink Elephant conducted online research, contacting over 54,000 people to determine where IT Service Management is headed in terms of global adoption. The results of this survey were released in a joint white paper in the July issue of PinkLink. Pink Elephant has also posted this white paper online.
This white paper builds on the survey results and examines the business reasons for the rise and separation of the SAP organization from the general IT function in the 1990s and early 2000s. Read some of the surprising findings from Pink Elephant’s Director or Product Strategy and author of this paper, Troy DuMoulin.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
How Do The New ITIL Certification Credits Work?
“Now that the new certification scheme has been announced by APMG and the OGC, what does it mean?”
Read Read this article from Pierre Bernard, Pink Elephant’s Manager of Education Products and member of the international ITIL certification panel. You’ll find out more about navigating through the new ITIL certification scheme and the prerequisites for attaining the new ITIL Diploma.
Balancing Process Formality With Innovation
Adoption of Service Management is about establishing a consistency and balance of service delivery that is in line with the expectations of providing a utility of service that does not place the business at risk, while at the same time exploring new opportunities to leverage information technology.
Read this article, which explores answers to the following questions:
- How much process formalization is necessary or beneficial?
- At what point do we cross a line with control and formality and begin to stifle innovation and creative thought?
Friday, May 04, 2007
ITIL V3 The Past & The Future: The Evolution Of Service Management Philosophy
The launch of ITIL V3 is just around the corner! And, the future of IT Service Management (ITSM) looks brighter than ever!
So what is changing? By now, most people know there will be five books; however, what about basic fundamentals, terminology, or overall approach? If these questions are on your mind, you’ll want to read our exclusive whitepaper ITIL V3 The Past & The Future: The Evolution Of Service Management Philosophy written by ITSM guru Troy DuMoulin. This paper identifies and interprets some key evolutions in ITSM philosophy and compares V2 to V3.
The details will give you a clearer picture of what you can expect moving forward. It’s a must-have resource if anyone is working in IT Service Management!
Read the article
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Three Qualities & Customers Of The IT Service Catalog
Have you ever stopped to consider that ITIL is a Service Management Framework?
This sounds pretty basic and you may be wondering what is meant by this obvious statement.
Consider that if ITIL is a Service Management framework, this means that all of the processes have only one goal: to plan for, deliver and support IT services! This being the case, then perhaps the Service Catalog is much more that an a la carte menu for the business customer. Rather, the Service Catalog is the cornerstone or foundation for any ITSM initiative!
Read the article and learn about the three qualities and three key customer groups of the IT Service Catalog.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Using A Process-Oriented Architecture To Improve IT Service Delivery
An IT organization needs clearly defined and documented processes in order to operate more efficiently in today’s fast-paced and complex world. The processes also need to be connected and working together; but, having a process framework requires a thorough understanding of the components of a generic process as well as understanding how processes can help an IT organization perform better and deliver quality services to the business.
Read this article and learn about the critical components of a process that contribute towards meeting the needs of the business, including:
- The process owner
- Process goal
- Quality parameters and KPIs
Monday, February 12, 2007
Employee Compliance A Key Factor For ITIL Process Implementation
Major projects, including ITIL implementations, fail because new processes, procedures and standards are not fully entrenched within an organization’s culture. To completely cement organizational-wide change, new ways of doing business must not only be understood, they must also be adhered to. That’s where employee compliance comes in.
Employee compliance is gaining ground within business culture around the globe. What is employee compliance? Why is important? What are its ties to ITIL process implementation? And, how can it protect your organization? Discover the answers to these questions in a white paper authored by ITSM guru, Troy DuMoulin.
Read the white paper.
Monday, January 15, 2007
The Federated Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
The emerging capability of federating data sources is the biggest boon and the largest potential pitfall that has arisen for the discipline and process ITIL calls Configuration Management! On the surface this may appear to be a contradictory statement. However, as is the case with all good intentions, it all comes down to the application. First and foremost, database federation is an absolute must for a successful Configuration Management Database (CMDB) implementation.
Read this latest white paper from Pink Elephant and learn about:
- The definition of CMDB federation
- Three applications of CMDB federation
- Which application of the term is the most appropriate for long-term success
Monday, December 04, 2006
Process Owners - ‘Architects’ Of ITIL Project Success
Read this paper developed by Pink Elephant’s Troy DuMoulin and published in the latest issue of Business Trends Quarterly, and learn about why the success of ITIL projects hinges on the process owner. Plus, in cases where there is ownership for multiple ITIL processes, discover what combinations work well and which represent a conflict of interest based on the process objectives.
Process Owners - ‘Architects’ Of ITIL Project Success