Enterprise Digital - the podcast

Our guest this week is the irrepressible industry analyst Stephen Mann, from ITSM.Tools. Stephen is a much respected figure in the industry who has created and defined several movements and initiatives around opening up access to information and data to practitioners. We discuss data from his recent work, which shows that 67% of organisations already do some sort of ESM. We also touch on whether ‘ESM’ is a name that will stick for this – its currently the best we’ve got. The conversation also covers the well-being of people working in IT and how we need to ensure that this is given the attention it deserves, particularly with the growing spectre of automation/Ai and the extra demands this puts on people. Ultimately Stephen’s focus in on ensuring that we do the right thing to do good business, and that includes looking after people.

What have we learned after 20 episodes of the podcast about Enterprise Service Management? Ian and Barclay review the content from the first few sessions, discussing the input that we have had from a variety of experienced people from our industry. We realise that ESM really does mean business, people and the need for leadership as well as automation, new tools and ways of working. Will robots take our jobs to save money or are we safe as we will be more needed than ever? The over-riding learning is that service management offers opportunities to the whole of business and is not just about ‘IT’. We also gained some insight on our guests via their preferences for drinks. One thing for sure – we are not just talking about IT or ITSM – ‘if its ITSM, its not strategic enough..’!

In this episode we are joined by the ‘mixologist’ Simone Moore – an Aussie ITSM consultant now living in France with a cornucopia of concepts to ponder on around the new world of work, communications and interaction. From Ian’s initial discussion on the options and changes with new ways of creating ‘meat’, we move through a myriad of ideas and concepts, including H2H – human to human, managing flow, plus how do we refocus on the human element, in order to achieve the opportunities with new technology and ways of working? We know that crocodile tastes like chicken – but we also have the opportunity to create a new type of chicken.. (it makes perfect sense when you listen). Listen and learn, and don’t put your fingers in a rock pool..!! Oh and Simone raises her favourite tipple at the podcast bar…

A fantastic journey of discussion around service management practice and philosophy, from Troy, Pink Elephant’s man ‘in the room where it happens…’ Troy is a Director of Pink Elephant and a highly regarded trainer, consultant and writer across a number of service management and IT disciplines. We discuss the challenges with the ‘enterprise’ approach, covering societal, tribal and organisational elements amongst others, as well as how to approach and engage with silos, which begs the question ‘How wide is your sense of us?’. We also get into 3 levels of transformation, 2 modes of operating, Conway’s Law, real Devops, leadership, governance, Toyota and much more that takes the discussion way beyond IT or ESM, and into culture and our development as people. After all that, you will need a ‘nut brown ale…’

Discussing the New Incident Management model, plus the sale of Axelos to PeopleCert. This SPECIAL episode discusses the big issues and questions of the day, with our special guest Ken Gonzalez..! Ken is a well-known and respected voice in the industry, as a practitioner and analyst. Ken works with Gartner, although he is expressing only his personal opinions here. We hear about Ken’s previous lives as a Marine and musician, then dive straight into looking at the big issues of the day – the new IT Revolution Incident Management Framework, plus the sale of Axelos to PeopleCert. What do we say about these things?? – listen in to hear..! We also hear that Ken enjoys beers, porter, stout and a good Belgian…?! (you need to listen to the end to get that..)

Doug Tedder is a highly experienced consultant and trainer, who always speaks his mind with clarity, good sense and great insight. Doug’s view is that ESM should not repeat the mistakes that have been made with ITSM – i.e. to ‘inflict’ people to do things, with good intent but often without explanation. We need good governance to make this work and we shouldn’t just rely on the IT team to do this. Digital transformation, Ai and automation also need to be viewed from beyond IT. Also, we can’t just expect the tools to deliver value and collaboration. We also discuss the tough question of who is the owner of this…is it COO, CIO, CEO..? We also learn about some very good bourbon…

We are joined by Roman Jouravlev, the Axelos programme manager for ITIL 4 and the conscience and brilliant mind of ITSM. The discussion moves from various current flavours of service management, to identifying these as being part of the same thing. We shouldn’t need ITSM and ESM – all organisations deliver and consume services to and within each other. This moves imperceptibly on to a fascinating and fundamental discussion on long term sustainability.! We also learn a number of new terms and about Roman’s move to London for Axelos. There’s also a surprise in his choice of drink.

The Kentish-Texan Daniel Breston, who claims to be ‘retiring’ joins and provides some sage insights. We dip into Dan’s 50 years of IT stories and discuss Lean, which Dan has been closely involved with. A key point is the need for all to participate in using and applying things like ‘Lean – including the CIO and board. On drinks Dan dons his tuxedo to sip Casino Royale…

If we can’t define services in IT what chance do other teams have..? We start off talking about agile and how we might apply that way of working to service management - also how huge the opportunity is (with ESM) and how much bigger this is than IT.. Our guest is the sci-fi geek/rocker Akshay from Axelos who also gives us his entire life story – obviously rivalling Barclay’s long questions. Actually Akshay is a key part of the ITIL 4 team and ITIL product ambassador/evangelist. We explore the key question about how we can use service management principles outside of IT – is ESM actually a thing? Akshay clarifies his commitment to ‘service management’ as a broad concept, with some scepticism around what we are calling Enterprise Service Management. After talking about service management for 30 years its worrying that we still struggle to define ‘service’ as in service management – how can we expect people in other teams to get it..?  There is then a great discussion around the practical definitions of service and products – is service management also about improvement? Ultimately we talk about spades and shovels, nouns or verbs and how language matters! Soon we move on to drinking of course (including a non-alcoholic drink..!) and explore multiple types of cardamon pods.

Margo is the Product owner for ITIL 4, which has been built using product management techniques, as well as being about product and service management. We discuss eating our own dog food, using blueprints, journey mapping and personas. We also discuss how there is a real ‘marriage’ or convergence between product and service management, in a way that develops a balanced and sustainable approach to work and business life. This also leads into how we can develop service management beyond IT – and how we get the (ESM) message across. The discussion also keeps returning to people and the need to hold on to talent. As ever we move to discuss drinking – Margo suggests 2 - a first for the podcast..! A brilliant discussion on the future direction for ITSM.