Newsletter October 2010 / Issue # 3

We now have our second site live on VMware Service Manager version 9 – the new infraEnterprise. Wellington City Council followed the Reserve Bank in boarding the VSM express train. We currently have 4 more sites in Wellington and one in each of New Plymouth, Christchurch and Hamilton actively underway with V9 upgrades.

All of these sites are really excited about the opportunities that V9 brings for helping improve their Service Delivery. The new feature is generating the most interest is the built-in designer. This allows you to have complete control and real time access to your screens and portal forms, providing drag and drop access to customizations that historically took us hours.

From a project perspective, the upgrade projects are shaping up how we expected. This is a major upgrade and there can be a reasonable amount of reconfiguration required, particularly around the user directory integrations (AD and LDAP). However, this does provide a much simpler and more functional integration when completed. The formal training is also adding a lot of value as we often find sites neglect training for IT’s internal system while telling their business users that it is important.

THE MAD MOUSE TONGARIRO CHALLENGE:     25-26 November
STOP PRESS – We now have 51 mousketeers!

There are many worthy community causes out there, and we’re often asked to contribute, and do. This one moves us to a completely new level. The Kia Timata Ano Trust funds a women’s refuge centre in Rodney, which does fantastic work. Without community support and donations, these women have very little help – what’s available from govt. agencies isn’t enough. Read the stories:

Last year, three IT colleagues scaled North Island’s highest peaks, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu and Taranaki in a mere 35 grueling hours. This year’s challenge is to walk the 19.4 kilometre Tongariro crossing four times within a 24-hour period – and raise at least $55,000. The fund is already up to $21,530 with 65 days to go.

“For me to do this, despite the fact that we burn the candle at both ends at work, is really enjoyable,” says Carter Holt Harvey CIO Jonathan Iles. “It gives you a different dimension rather than focusing on business all the time.“

Other founding members of the Mad Mouse Challenge are Pat O’Connell, CIO of Rank Group and Glenda Godfrey, AM at Tango Group but this year they’ll be joined by volunteers known as Mouseketeers who can walk one or more of the four tracks they will traverse. Each Mouseketeer is committed to raise at least $1000.

Delta Software is the lead sponsor with several other IT companies for the Mad Mouse challenge to raise money for the KTA Trust in support of the women’s refuge. Other sponsors are Oxygen, Brother, gen-I and just announced, Equico. Along with CHH there are teams from Datacom, Air NZ, iStart and The Warehouse.

We’re delighted to be involved for both the IT industry and as a personal challenge to help raise awareness for the charity.

You can help by making a donation here or by becoming a Mouseketeer yourself. Details are at the Three Blind Mice website.

For those interested in the challenge, registering will get you on the news list – kindly run by iStart who are a fantastic supporter – for details of the challenge, training tips, what gear and where to get it for good prices.
 

Alliance Partners and Conference

With the recent changes in the Infra Service Management software becoming part of a bigger VMware software portfolio, the Infra partners have taken the opportunity to create a forum for sharing ideas. We had a partner conference in the Waitakere countryside recently and identified a number of ways we can work together, informally, to continue a strong ITSM focus for the projects business for VMware.

One of the initiatives to come out of the Alliance partners discussion – a commitment to set up a 24x7 service desk for VMware Service Manager users. We all have clients who operate global operations, and recognise a need to.

We’ll continue to inform you of initiatives from the Alliance partner forum as they evolve. Any comments or suggestions from you are most welcome.

TRAINING UPDATE

We’re pleased to announce we have signed an authorised training agreement with VMware (a VATC), to continue the VMware Service Manager version 9 training as we have been delivering for many years over prior releases.

 While this is a business-as-usual announcement, it is significant to note that many of the former Infra partners do not have this level of training certification. It is a recognition of the quality of our training delivery and our track record.

 The agreement mandates our ability to deliver authorised VMware training material, to use the authorised VMware logo, and we will work to maintain the high standard we have set.

 To all our consulting staff, and to our training guru Barry Humphreys, very well done and thank you.