Greg Sanker is a 24 year veteran of Hewlett-Packard, where he served in various Information Technology roles, including Network Operations Manager. He currently manages the Service Management Office for the Oregon Department of Revenue

The Real Value of IT Incident Management

The value of IT Incident Management is not restoring service. You heard me right. If you’re focusing on how quickly you resolve Incidents, you’re missing the point. Don’t believe me? Read to find the real value of Incident Management. Goal of Incident Management If you’ve been in IT for more than a few minutes, you’ve …

IT Transformation; Hitting ‘The Wall’

If you’ve been working on IT Service Management for some time, you’ve undoubtedly had times when you are just exhausted. Not sure you can take another step. Sound familiar? So much to do, so much opportunity; an endless uphill battle. And on top of that… …the regular job most of us in Service Management have …

What is Basic IT Request Fulfillment?

Like it or not, customers evaluate IT on two things: How well you fix things that break, and how well you get me things I need. This article focuses on making happy customers through Basic IT Request Fulfillment. Incidents and Requests Incidents and Requests are often lumped together in the Service Desk as “calls” or …

How Organizational Management of Change is Like Quitting Smoking

Organizational Management of Change is a lot like quitting smoking.  Most of us know a current or former smoker, and how hard it is to quit. What can we learn to help us better manage organizational change? I recently saw an on-line conversation between a currently-quitting smoker and a former smoker. The latter was encouraging …

Improving IT Service Delivery: CSI is NOT a Process

Thinking of CSI as a merely a process not only misses the point, it’s also hazardous to real improvement. CSI is NOT a process! CSI is Not a Process ITIL has a full book dedicated to Continual Service Improvement. CSI is a relative newcomer to IT Service Management. Want to know why? Because CSI is …

What Is Basic IT Incident Management

Thinking about IT Incident Management? You know how Incidents are handled has an enormous impact to customer satisfaction. This quick-start summary will tell you what you need to know to get started. I’ve Fallen and I can’t get up When things stop working, customers call Service Desk to get it fixed. Incident Management is the …

How to Measure a Basic IT Change Management Process

Have a basic IT Change Management process, or planning to implement one? Change Management should implement changes faster and reduce the risk of business impact. I’ll show you how the right metrics get you there. What does ‘Success’ look like? In IT Operations, we talk about Critical Success Factors (CSF). Which sounds grandiose, but is …

How Apple Reduces Time To Value (and what your IT can learn from them)

Apple has a reputation for the right products at the right time. What can IT learn from Apple about creating raving fans by reducing Time to Value? Christopher Meyer did a great piece on Apple’s Most Obvious Secret: Reducing Time to Value. Apple has built a corporate culture around customer value. It’s not how quickly …

Help! I’ve been asked to Implement Change Management. What do I do?

Your boss says he wants you to implement IT Change Management. Google it (which is probably why you’re reading this now) and you get countless pages of mind numbing details. What do I do? Where do I even start? Where to Start with IT Change Management First of all, don’t panic. You’re in the right …

How IT Change Management Improves Incident Management

IT Change Management is usually thought of as a back office function that minimizes the chances of screwing things up while making changes. When done right, it does a lot more. Read how IT Change Management improves Incident Management. Added Value of Change Management In How to Implement Basic IT Change Management I talked about …

Confessions of an ITSM practitioner

If you’re  one of the countless ITSM practitioners who  work daily in organizations large and small, in countries around the world, listen up. You know how hard, lonely, and thankless  it can be. You have friends out there. I listened to Mark Kawasaki’s presentation at this week’s Tomorrow’s Future Today 2013 conference. The guy shows …

IT Change Management: Going Faster with Good Brakes.

With business moving at the speed of light, IT must match pace with implementing IT Changes. What can IT Change Management learn about going fast from the world of auto racing? On Going Fast… Race cars are designed to go fast, right? Every ounce of a race car is carefully engineered for maximum performance. Driver …

What’s an ITSM CAB? A Simple Explanation

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The Change Advisory Board (CAB) is arguably  the most widely known ITSM activity. It’s also widely misunderstood. Here’s the quick lowdown on CAB. What is CAB? CAB – known formally as the Change Advisory Board, is a group of people who are tasked with evaluating changes to the IT environment. It can be as simple …

Five lessons learned implementing IT Change Management

 Here are my top 5 lessons learned implementing IT Change Management that will save you endless heartache. Having recently implemented a Basic IT Change Management Process, I’m sometimes asked about lessons learned implementing IT Change Management. – What would I do differently. Lots. Here’s the top 5, in no particular order:  1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate …

ITSM Frameworks: What you can Learn from Intel’s Adoption

As a technology powerhouse, Intel is in the perfect position to re-engineer their IT processes. Why then did they chose to adopt an ITSM framework? Intel CIO Kim Stevenson recently said that Business Executives need to have Higher Expectations of IT.  She also credits their Service Management  program with “…lean out our process, and minimize …

How to Mature a Basic IT Change Management Process

Implementing Basic IT Change Management is a great place to start, but eventually you’ll need a more business-value focused process. In this article I’ll tell you how to  take the next step in maturing your Change Management program. The Basic IT Change Management Process I described earlier helps get control of what’s happening in your …

How to Select a Great Service Management Trainer

You know selecting the right trainer is important, but how do you sort through the hype and get the best fit? Here’s 7 sure fire ways to pick a Great Trainer! The training Market While not all trainers are equal, the courses they teach pretty much are. All accredited courses are required to meet certain …

Why ITSM success demands Ownership

Does lack of clear Ownership leave your organization spending a lot of time trying to determine  who makes decisions? Do they suffer from decision deja vu, again and again?  Ownership is prominent in the Service Management frameworks. I’ll tell you why. Ownership In  IT Value is Created  Horizontally,  I talked about horizontal vs vertical mindset …

ITSM Rapid Process Implementation: CSI is a Verb!

I’d rather drop a bowling ball on my tongue than endure another marathon meeting about the target maturity level of an ITSM process! If you find yourself muttering colorful metaphors when you’d rather be doing ITSM process work, this article is for you. Analysis Paralysis I hear a lot of discussion when it comes to …

How to Implement Basic IT Change Management

Implementing IT Change Management doesn’t need to be as overwhelming as  it may it seem at first glance.  In this article, I’ll show how to begin a basic IT Change Management program, especially for  organizations with little or no other formal processes in place Where to Begin 1. Start small and keep it simple Identify …