The Journey of a IBM Tivoli PULSE 2009 Abstract Submission

Well, I thought I had a great idea for a session in what is to be a “business leader” centric track at our upcoming IBM Tivoli PULSE 2009 conference in February. Apparently, someone didn’t agree. The “presentation police” sent a not so nice “REJECTED” form letter to me recently.

Here’s what they were positioning this track as:

IBM Service Management for Business

“A convergence of key economic and technology trends compels today’s business and IT leaders to place unprecedented focus on service management. No longer consigned to the data center, service management has become a boardroom-level topic with relevance across the entire business infrastructure. If your organization – like most – is contending with new customer demands, intensifying competitive and cost pressures, and new technology challenges, then you need a comprehensive strategy for efficient delivery and management of customer-centric services. In this stream we are looking for presentations that illustrate how IBM service management solutions are helping you leverage today’s “hot” technologies, delight your most demanding customers, augment business performance, and minimize business risk.”

and another description within the abstract submission site:

“Continuing innovation coupled with a challenging economic environment, are putting the onus on business and IT leaders to deliver higher business value at lower cost, and in a flexible and responsive manner. Ongoing digitization is blurring the boundaries between IT and the “real” world, raising the level of management complexity at the same time as making business processes evermore interconnected and mission critical. How should business respond to these challenges? In this Business Leaders stream,we will explore the two major approaches overcoming these challenges and exploiting current opportunities: migrating to a dynamic, cloud computing infrastructure and transforming to a service-led, business-wide approach to service management.”

Here is the topic abstract that I submitted in what I feel is desperately needed for business leaders who are considering a Business Service Management (BSM) solution within their environment.

Title: Business Service Management – Moving beyond Alignment to Integration

Abstract:

You’ve heard the “IT Business Alignment” mantra for the past decade. You’ve likely completed many IT projects that were touted to help you get there. Chances are these IT point projects only provided domain specific value and did little to provide a higher level of expected value for the business. Business Service Management is often marketed as a concept for “aligning IT with the business” but in reality it requires much more be successfully adopted. Learn about the Tivoli Global BSM Practice’s current thinking and best practices for starting your BSM journey with a focus on integrating BSM into your organization rather than just aligning with it.

What will your audience walk away with? Provide 3 key bullets:

• Insight into developing your own Business Service Management strategy
• Organizational change and transformation that enables Business Service Management success
• How to start your Tivoli Business Service Management journey based on the Global BSM Practice BSM Methodology

Not sure if I didn’t use the appropriate buzz words here or not to be selected or even kept as a backup. IT integration is where everyone needs to be thinking rather than just IT alignment with the business. I’m going to spend a lot of time thinking around this area in 2009 as I focus on defining and expanding the BSM Value Proposition. Maybe the user conference track and session contents should be voted on by the community in the future? What do you think?

If there’s interest in a session like this or some other one-on-one mentoring or dialog at Pulse 2009 feel free to ping me or get me in touch with your business and IT leaders who you feel should hear our latest thinking in this area. I’d be happy to speak with them! (over dinner, adult beverages, craps table, etc.)