Enterprise Digital - the podcast

We revisit the discussion on the future life or death of the Service Desk – after getting a lot of feedback from the session in Episode 84. What will survive? There’s some stuff about predictive AI and also the need for human contact. We also do a short pre-SITS preview, with some surprising results about ESM and key topics…

Ian and Barclay discuss the current status of ESM – the original inspiration for the podcast. Is this still a viable and living ‘ology’? We focus on the original definitions that we discussed and look at whether or not these are applicable now and whether ESM is alive or dead? We look at the reality of what is in use around this area and also whether our own taxonomy and definitions really reflect this.  There’s also some clarity on the relative standing of ESM and ITSM. We also include some discussion about recent and upcoming events.

This session includes a detailed discussion of some of the ethical questions and impact associated with AI. Can we ascribe ethics to AI technology? Or is are these issues a further exposure of human frailty and ethical behaviour? Does the AI have a conscience and moral compass, or is it just a mirror to us as humans? This is the 3rd of the Entdig AI series, and we use a variety of experience and knowledge to tray and wrestle with these philosophical questions. We also talk about trains…

This week we discuss and explore the Service management and AI ‘Elephant in the room’. We hear a lot of very practical and senior discussions around the future of the Service Desk – do we really need this function if we can automate out the work? What are the implications, how realistic is this? What does this mean for the IT career path if Service Desk is an entry point? How do we continue to manage relationships with users? We discuss all the options including the ‘progressive’ service desk. Needless to say, although we have some differing view on this, we also have a lot o agreement… Well maybe. Is it inevitable, or should we be careful what we wish for..??!!

Our guest is industry analyst Eveline Oehrlich – who has significant analyst experience in previous roles with Forrester, RIA, DevOps institute and Peoplecert. We discuss and debate where the analysts fit in in the development of thought leadership, data and direction. The discussion also focuses on printed burgers, analyst relations, and how we need more flexible understanding and knowledge of how to make tools and frameworks work for us - i.e. how to ‘slice the tomato’ according to the type of cuisine… Listen in for more insight and a great discussion.

The one where we discuss what’s happened in the last year – the industry, the podcast, and us as people… We have had a year of absorption around AI and experience – what lies ahead..?. As people there have also been opportunities and challenges – and none less than for Ian, who has had to face some major health challenges. Thankfully he’s met them and on the mend. We are good to go for 2024 – lookout for some new podcast options..!

This week Ian and Barclay discuss some recent industry events, SDI Spark, itSMF UK, SMW and also the sad demise of itSMF USA. It’s also a year since the launch of ChatGPT – what will the next phase of this involve..?  Ian also mentions the concept of the ‘Innovathon’ – crazy ideas presented for innovation. What about robots that kill you…!? Or how can we really get some goodness from the AI revolution? Then we get silly and imagine a giant ‘clippy’ controlling us all…  Plus, look out for some new themed podcasts in 2024.

ESM revisited – what do we really mean by this? It was the original thought behind this podcast when started a couple of years ago. There’s always something new that comes along to get in the way of this, but it keeps on coming back – like the way CMDB remains as a brand and something we should do that we keep coming back to. Whilst we might want to focus on ESM, the world of marketing always loos to the next shiny thing… In this discussion we focus on some of the key elements in ESM which is effectively about how we work and pass work between us. The challenge often is how we get this moving and approved in a large organisation, where there are different agendas. Also we discuss what might be the next big shiny thing…??  Whilst there is talk of flow and digital and tools and projects and stuff – talking of flow, we move on to the bar for another, er ‘sandwich… ?’

We discuss the forthcoming itSMF UK conference in the UK, where James will be speaking and discussing Neurodiversity. This in relation to how we understand and work better with neurodiverse people – there are some roles and areas of work where there are particular skills and capabilities where the ‘superpower’ moniker works, and many where it doesn’t. The challenge is knowing the difference and how to manage people and get the best from them and for them. We also look forward to the next ‘emergent’ and ‘convergent’ things for our industry – these may include AI, governance and many other options, but it should be about doing things differently. Experimentation, elevated evolution, synchronicity, sustainability. How do we get away from doing the same old stuff..? The discussion is also peppered with conference and event references – ahead of the much anticipated ITSM23 conference.  

Is it a coincidence that ITSM sage Roy Atkinson will be speaking at The SDI Spark conference on Halloween? Maybe not, but he will certainly be presenting some quite terrifying statistics on the cost of failure in IT and Service Desks… For this podcast, Roy’s second appearance on the podcast, we discuss these stats and numbers, as well as some general trends in the industry. We also discuss the big metrics question – i.e. what do you do to respond to feedback? What actions do the metrics lead to? Are we really data-driven? We also discuss Roy’s favourite sandwich...

Ken returns to the podcast, now head of analyst relations at Freshworks, having moved from a major analyst firm to ‘the dark side’ - or the bright side, depending on your perspective! The discussion looks at how we view different roles and activities in our industry – particularly when seen from a different perspective. There are some great insights into analyst relations and the ethics and effort that goes into that, as well as the momentous definition of the ’perpetual confusion of IT managers’ – Classic!! All linked to the current beer/hops crisis. Listen on… (Ken’s voice get a little muffled at one point – he then changed his mike so it doesn’t last long).

What have we (Ian and Barclay) been up to,..?  Mapping, Wardley mapping, sustainability is service management and vice versa?, just use the best bits that work for you, why do people ask if ‘this is right according to BP’? Watch out for the best practice police, perfection is the enemy of execution, proportionality, move fast and break things – is this terrible and dangerous? Back to sustainability, and quality without paralysis. We’ll all make mistakes and resilience is key – like having a well-stocked bar… Yes it’s a service management word salad that makes perfect sense…

Simone is making her 2nd appearance on the podcast and this session is a discussion based on some current research that Ian, Simone and Barclay are working on. This is basically exploring the contrasting direction of AI capability with the growth of human and experience management. The discussion includes some agreements and also some challenges and disagreements – all of which make for fun and entertainment… and the word ‘dystopia’ features… it’s a crackling chat..!

Our guest is Anthony Orr, who is an experienced and well-known member of the ITSM community, as a member of the HDI top 25, with BMC and other vendors, and as an ITIl author. Anthony currently works with SDI Presence, which is an MSP that provides local levels of support (not the Service Desk Institute…). The discussion moves from internal IT transformation and business value to the wider scope of ESM and the ‘Zero Moment of Truth’..! i.e. how we can get smart to support customer success, not just fixing tech. In IT we do a lot of the right thigs but they are not connected – how do we move from transactional compliance, to compassion and customer success..!? Well, as ever we end up wine-tasing… Definitely worth listening and quaffing to..!

This is a short Ian and Barclay only discussion episode, introduced with some valuable advice on armadillo-related honey - yes..!?.  Actually, we discuss the notion of how we can manage teams and plan the levels of staffing that is needed, and how this is a key element in much operational and management thinking. The regular cry is that ‘more people in the team will mean we get things done better/faster’, although this not necessarily the case. We also discuss some of the different approaches to getting work done and include governance, the ’why’, plus also how we still need management, no matter how ‘agile’ we are… Well of course. This is a very focussed conversation, given that we started with armadillos.

Our guest is David Wright from SDI – Chief Value Officer and keen supporter of all things alien, UFO and sci-fi… We try to set out an intelligent discussion around the future and present with AI, GAI,  AGI and much more. The potential is huge, being developed at a challenging speed, now with AI tools to speed up how we work. Should we trust this technology, or how much can we trust this..? We also look at what the practical service management opportunities are in the short and medium term, in relation to risk, LLMs in ITSM tools, ‘shadow IT 2.0’, and Increasing the time to value. Is Prompt Engineer the role that is redundant before anyone gets the job..? ‘Predict, prevent automate and realise’ as a teaser for some new innovations with AI. Should we stop and take a check before ‘HAL’ takes us over…? Or should we stop and go to the bar ??!! A sizzling conversation… scary, fascinating and much more.

This episode is a revisit to Glasgow University, who are well on their way to a mature ESM operation, largely through the work and steering of Mark Temple. Mark was an early guest on the podcast when he had already created a number of ESM capabilities and now there are many further areas added, hours of work saved and successes to discuss. There’s still more to do, however, we discuss some great developments and successes, where e.g. over time, previous naysayers are now keen to develop collaboration. One area for more development is in marketing and promoting the successes – some of which are quite amazing in terms of thousands of hours saved. Great discussion which of course ends up in the bar again…

Our Guest is Mitchell Pautz, Senior Service Management Analyst at the University of California – a ‘small’ university of over 50,000 people… 😊 Mitchell has a key role in the university, supporting a diverse community, He also has a good practical approach to managing expectations and delivering effective solutions – not just about trying to ‘delight’ users. We discuss a variety of topics around service delivery, catalogue, risk and experience. Mitchell is also a leading light in Educause – the University membership organisation in North America – we discuss the value of this and other sector-based industry networking.  There’s some great practical advice and discussion, ending in the bar of course…  

Val Wilson manages a team of over 1000 service management practitioners in BT, across the UK and India. Despite the challenges of this role, she is an active member of the industry, as an itSMF board member and SITS/SDI events. This is a brilliant discussion on how to lead and inspire a successful organisation and its people. There are some great nuggets of wisdom on authentic and supportive leadership. We also discuss Val’s passion for supporting ex-military people into service management roles. We also discuss Val’s particular connection to a well-known drink (at the bar)…

This episode is another host interview session – this time with the ebullient Ian Aitchison. We trace his early career, through Studying Computer Science, then managing (murky?) night clubs and spinning vinyl, learning management and some great life and service skills. Then moving into IT, running a police service desk and moving to the software industry – from service desk to software product management - all with a ponytail and earring of course..!  Key themes include helping people through technology and managing and supporting service experience and promoting the industry… It’s an enlightening discussion to hear of Ian’s journey to date.

This is a fantastic episode with Hank Marquis – who works with Gartner but is speaking here on his own behalf, mostly around the psycho-metrics of service and service management people. The conversation focusses around feedback, how it is gathered and used, and the tools and academic background used to make some sense and develop practical and useful strategies for improvement. There’s a bit of Star Trek, people and personality profiling and experience management in there, plus a whole lot more. Ian is also surprised at Hank’s choice of go-to drink…

This is a discussion on the service management industry, based around a more broad and personal interview of host Barclay Rae. Ian provides suggested commentary on Barclay’s hair and sartorial style over the years, plus discussions about music, Glasgow, London, Mary Poppins, Live Aid, and his IT career, also, missing out some key bits like being CEO of itSMF UK. ..(senior moment). There is also some discussion around the life and challenges of working as a consultant. As ever we go to the bar where Barclay tries to dodge the idea of having a favourite drink.

This is a short episode and the first of an occasional series of ‘news’ or topical discussions around the industry. This Is with Barclay and Ian who talk about, well we can’t really say, but it’s about the stuff that’s going on in the industry, or what we can say about it, whatever it is… 

Humans collaborate, and parrots cooperate..! This is all you need to know about this episode. Our guest is French-Czech consultant David Billouz, who regularly provides ITSM insights via LinkedIn and other platforms. 

David clarifies some key elements of collaboration and cooperation, as well as the need for a phased approach. Somehow, we work parrots into this discussion. Confused. Curious? Then listen on..!  I ask the world’s longest-ever question… 

Some great discussion around the integration of ITSM, Agile, DevOps (C A L M S) and other different elements of a successful, sustainable, converged approach. I said CALMS…

This episode is a catch-up chat with Ian and Barclay – discussing a number of topics such as Pink23, digital experience management, global travel, the value of good partnerships in business, and other SMW– service management whimsy… As ever we chew the fat over a few points of trivia before setting the world to rights and the heading for the podcast bar. 

Ignore the socks comment, this is another piece of initial trivia, but this episode features our amazing guest Claire Agutter, who explains SIAM clearly to us and also discusses some of the findings and learnings from the Annual SIAM report, which she produces with Scopism. Claire has great insight and experience in training, and development of IP in the ITSM world and we discuss how SIAM makes sense in a multi-vendor environment, and also beyond IT.

Our guest this week is David Barrow, an experienced service Industry practitioner and consultant, and the author of a new book on co-creating value with ITIL 4. Whilst not directly discussing ITIL, we explore co-creation by co-creating the podcast discussion on different approaches to value, the value of the guiding principles, plus also how we can develop communities to focus on specific requirements for co-creation. There is also now a real challenge on who can ask the longest question on the podcast… it doesn’t matter but we d still end up in the bar…

This week we review the podcasts that we’ve produced over the last year – a diverse and fascinating variety of topics, as well as a brilliant spectrum of guests. We begin with a ‘poem’ about the podcast, created by an AI bot – fascinating and impressive content, if not a poem… We differ a little on the current level of practicality around XLAs – surely an ongoing topic for 2023. We both have our own little rants.. Mostly we reflect on some of the fantastic guests and conversations that have contributed to the podcast over 2022. This will continue and further develop in 2023 - we look forward to that. Cheers and Happy New Year!

Our guest is the debonair Duncan Watkins, from Forrester Consulting – Duncan is a well-known and respected member of the UK and global ITSM community. The discussion focuses on comparing current approaches to employee experience and customer/user experience. We discuss similarities and differences, with a focus on what organisations are trying to do – not just the hype. Duncan mentions a ‘spectrum of experience’ – a useful reflection. How do we avoid XLAs falling into the same traps as SLAs – maybe product management as a direction – certainly understanding different types of business… It’s a great discussion and a valuable debate on a highly current topic.

An excellent, enlightening, and exhilarating episode – with our guest Simon Wardley, of Wardley Maps fame..! Simon defines and discusses the challenges that led him to mapping and how this can really help decision-making by providing context and changing relationships as well as the fixed points that are usually shown on graphs. We discuss doctrine tables, principles, and how most maps are not really maps. We also discuss the people side and warning flags about the ‘re-org’ culture that bedevils most organisations on a permanent basis – good advice is to sort out principles first. Our principles take us regularly to the bar and we also discover Simon’s preferred tipple for (dis) ‘orientation…’

Lisa runs a successful and growing HR consultancy business – providing the ‘HR’ department for many organisations, particularly in the tech industry. Many changes have taken place over recent years with employee experience roles becoming prevalent.  We discuss culture, values, trust, and the implications of home-working surveillance tools, as well as the challenges of how to move from an entrepreneurial culture to a more structure and process-driven way (often a challenge…) business leaders are often not the best team leaders or managers…!! A great conversation around the intersection of people, tech, management and culture.

Sherry is an experienced and prolific trainer and coach, for leadership, particularly for women in Tech. She has come from the IT and service desk world but now focuses on leadership coaching as well as managing change projects. Sherry brings a different and refreshing focus to our discussion with the perspective of how we are developing our leaders and leadership capabilities. The discussion is full of sage nuggets of advice around leadership qualities, the value of coaching, and how we can help to develop people to be more effective in new management roles. This is a fascinating discussion and also a new perspective on our ESM theme. And yes it ends up in the bar..

Our guest is Alan Nance who has been a key player in the Service Management world since the beginning of time - or at least a while anyway since ITIL was knee high to a grasshopper. Alan is a driving force behind the XLA movement and is involved in developing and taking the whole XLA concept to market through his company XLA Collab. We discuss the essence of experience management, what it is and how it can be used in relation to service management. This is still a new area and the concepts are evolving as well as adoption growing. There’s much to learn and appreciate in this revealing and insightful conversation. And yes we do end up in the bar…

Jeffrey is a highly experienced ITSM practitioner and consultant with great energy and focus on doing the right things and doing them well. He also runs a successful podcast and has published lots of great advice on YouTube videos. We discuss how every organisation is an IT organisation but shouldn’t just focus on IT, how an organisation lost control of 159,000 laptops and why CMDB and why CMDB is important. This is a brilliant high energy and practical discussion around getting the basics as well as the shiny things right..! definitely a great bar-room chat!

We welcome Sandra from the Open University (and other university roles) to talk about how we can develop and integrate more rounded education of service management. How do we ensure that tech can IT education includes the relevant bits of service management that are relevant and useful? Too often we have young graduates with little business or SM skills or knowledge – and its important. Sandra has a breadth of knowledge and experience as an educator at the degree level in this area and we put the world to right on this, including how the Higher Education and commercial training organisations could work better together…

Rob is an ITSM renaissance man, with a keen interest and deep knowledge of a great variety of models, practices, standards and frameworks. His maps that bring these things together are legendary, as are his music videos..! We discuss how to get organisations working across barriers and frameworks and how to get product based (service management based?) consensus. Let’s talk simply about complexity..! Once it gets too tough for Barclay and Ian, we head for the bar..

This is our 50th episode and we are also celebrating now appearing on Apple podcasts! Our guest is the ‘very Dutch’ Dave Van Herpen (his quote)… Dave is an experienced practitioner and consultant for service transformation. He’s also been a core organiser for the SRVision/Service Manager days in Utrecht. He eschews ‘framework fetishists’ (don’t we all) and is clear on the need to clarify business goals before using specific models and frameworks. We discuss practical, positive approaches to Scrum, Kanban, Agile and Cynefin, amongst others, as well as the challenges of joined up DevOps and ITSM implementation. Dave makes a great point that a lot of the ‘framework wars’ occur more at conferences than the workplace. He also discusses valuable experience of agile and ITSM approaches outside of IT. Dave enjoys a good Dutch IPA who doesn’t?

Our intrepid (?),  mostly coherent (?) hosts have a focused discussion around the ITSM industry, recorded at the recent SITS show. Ian and Barclay discuss where we have come as an industry and some of the areas where there is increased activity. This includes experience management, enterprise service management (of course), and many other topics, including the fact that there has been a lot of change in ownership over recent years – highlighting the need and value of service management. Listen in for a shirt insightful discussion… and we don’t even go near a bar.

Once again we invite an industry legend to join the podcast. This week’s guest is the omnipresent Suresh GP – from TAUB solutions. Suresh has been a strong supporter and promoter of ITSM and other models and ways of working such SRE, BRM , Devops etc. This is a great discussion around how to make SRE work in particular – what is SRE? and how can we make it work in tandem with existing ways of working – if you want to learn about SRE and what’s involved in successful implementation then listen in now… We move from Incident management to storytelling about detect to correct etc. SRE is also clearly involved with customer experience, reliability, monitoring, observability and the long journey of successful transformation. Suresh enjoys a crisp lemonade refreshment, although the regular hosts need something stronger to take in all they have learned here…

We share the platform at SITS with David Wright, Chief Value and innovation Office from SDI, at the Service Desk and IT Support Show in London. Brilliant discussion relating to some recent SDI research, on the positive improvement in the perception of IT since Covid, recent changes, the impact of the pandemic – ‘this has moved things forward by 5 years, we’re all back, we’ve moved in and now we are talking about the future of the Service Desk and what this means in the new digital workplace. Experience management and new engagement… and much more. David talks 10 to the dozen, this is a dynamic and positive discussion – of course, we end up in the bar drinking Welsh beer..!?!?

Our guest is the chairman of Pink Elephant in North America, and has been working in the industry since before ITIL was a twinkle in anyone’s eyes… Originally from the UK North East and a keen Sunderland fan, Dave has lived in North America for over 30 years. Dave brings some real life pragmatic feedback on what organisations are still actually doing in terms of developing their (IT) services – and in IT that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot of the new ‘shiny’ stuff. Still a lot of core ITSM questions to answer and some basic courses are still the most popular..!

This is a really useful and practical discussion to bring us all back from the brink of ‘shiny-ism’... Of course, we end up at the bar as ever.

Our guest this week is Matthew who is an experienced ITSM expert from Skills Tx, with a focus on skills and competencies through his work with SFIA. We discuss all aspects of people development, from mental health to management, training, and development, and how we can move from a focus on knowledge to an understanding of what it means to develop real experience and competency. Learning to drive requires time and practice, not just reading the rules and details in a book. Matthew provides some insights on how organisations and countries (yes) are developing practical approaches.

We start with fish as possible cheap labour – yes. But then move on seriously to review the podcasts to date, our guests and topics over the last year. So many great sessions to review across the industry. We’re all getting out a bit more and attending events – we’ll also be at the SITS show in London 11th/12th May. Some of the themes keep coming back around the importance and need for focus on people, and experience – that’s what we’re talking about more and more, not just about Ai and bots… It’s also great to be in the same room with people..!. With Ian and Barclay.

This week’s guest is the multi-talented Karen Ferris – as author, trainer, consultant, who ‘accidentally’ wrote a book on Change – ‘Balanced Diversity’. We discuss a lot of current topics initially, from the value of horse-power and internet enabled cows to experience management. We also focus on the approach that Karen espouses in Balanced Diversity. The good new is that its quite straightforward – it’s about the ’why’, having good conversations and ongoing dialogue to engage people and bring them with us. Part of the challenge is to get people on board and remove their fears and uncertainties. All this takes time of course and that’s why many projects fail due to lack of realistic planning and the need for re-work. There’s a great example that comes up about how ‘nobody planned the pandemic’ – but still everyone ‘got it’ – ie had a shared sense of commitment. Thanks to Karen for a great discussion and also for getting up in the middle of the night to join us

This week’s guest is Tim Flower, a highly experienced IT thought leader and podcaster, with a wealth of varied experience across our industry. He is the Director of Business transformation at Nexthink and host of the Digital Experience DEC podcast.  The discussion centres around the developing world of Experience Management, XLAs, SLAs, SLDs, - with a focus on the ‘A’ – i.e. the ‘agreement. ‘ An XLA takes a village’ - we discuss, and also look at the current realistic and practical uptake of XLAs, and other aspects of how we can improve collaboration and data assimilation around service delivery, particularly in the new word of work… And yes we end up in the bar...

What do we mean by Experience Management? How do we make it work? Should we co-create experiences..? Are we going too far with this? Our guest this week is Greg Sanker, who works as CIO periodically, as well as podcasting, tweeting and authoring on ITSM and IT management. The conversation moves swiftly around enterprise and IT service management, then we look at experience from a fascinating ‘governance’ perspective. It’s not just asking people about their experience, maybe its also about already knowing this… Somehow we end up agreeing and having a drink at the bar.

This weeks’ guest Alan Berkson is Director of Analyst Relations for Freshservice – ‘the coolest job I the world’ – well he would say that. However, as we learn it is a much misunderstood and important role, that requires an understanding of everything going on in a company. Alan joined Freshworks in the early days in an ‘evangelist’ role – this has now grown into a major global brand.  The discussion focusses on various key aspects of trust – (PET)  Proactivity, Engagement and Transparency. Alan also draws on some clear distinctions around thought leadership and marketing, and how vendors can work with analysts to gain insight. After a really constructive and engaging chat, as ever we end up discussing exotic drinks in the bar.