Farewell 2013, Hello 2014!

Wow. I seriously cannot believe that it is nearly 2014. I mean that is just ridiculous! Surely it was only yesterday that I was setting out my team’s targets for 2013? Well, I guess they say that time flies when you’re having fun…

I was thinking of writing a blog about measuring year-end performance to finish off my blog roll for the year, but then I realized that the good majority of you are probably going to be finishing off work and getting ready for the holidays around about now. So the likelihood of you giving two hoots about a measurement blog at this very moment is probably minimal.

With that in mind, I thought I’d simply pull together a list of all my blogs from 2013 for those of you who would like to find them all in one place. Then I’ll shush and leave you all to all your celebrating, over-eating and over-drinking.

But first, for those of you who are still in work-mode, can you tell me if there was a specific blog I wrote that stood out for you this year? Or more importantly, is there anything specific you’d like to see me write about from a practitioner perspective next year? The topics I am currently playing around with are:

• Knowledge Management
• SIAM
• Continual Service Improvement
• Portfolio Management
• Basics of IT Asset Management

I will also be continuting my Vendor Interview series of course!

Please let me know, your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Wishing you all Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year. I’ll be back blogging week commencing 6^th January (well w/c 5^th January for me here in Israel), until then my friends, I hope you find the overview of my 2013 blogs below useful.

December 2013

• ITSM Views from a Vendor, with Patrick Bolger from Hornbill – This blog was the first in Vendor interview series and looks at Patrick’s views about the ITSM industry along with his tips for success. It was an honor to interview such an ITSM great, he really knows his stuff, and I’m pretty sure that his tips will be of great help to many ITSM practitioners.

• 5 Service Request Catalog And Self-Service Tips – I’m a big believer in the fact that your customers should always come first, and that you should consider everything (from big to small) that you do within the IT department with your end-user hat on. This blog gives you my thoughts and advice on how to make your Service Request Catalog end-user friendly.

November 2013

• Conversation between IT and the Business – is it really that difficult? – Whilst visiting the itSMF UK Conference and Exhibition I spoke with many people who stated that communication within their organization was a huge challenge. Given the success that our IT department has achieved at SysAid, in terms of having great relationships with the rest of the business, I thought it would be useful to many to share my experiences and advice.

• Problem Management: no problemo? – Problem Management has continued to be a hot topic of conversation within the ITSM industry in 2013, mostly around people’s lack of understanding or struggles to be successful with it. With that in mind, I wrote this article in the hope of explaining what I think Problem Management is and how it should be approached.

• Elton John I’m Not, But I Still Love IT ­– This blog provided a short summary of SysAid’s 350-user survey that heard directly from IT professionals. The aim was to find out what bugs people in IT, the parts of the job that are difficult or frustrating, and of course, the elements of the job that are exciting, fun and enjoyable. I also wrote a song based on the feedback which you can see here.

October 2013

• Hidden Costs Of Open Source Software ­– Because open source technology is easy free and easy to obtain, many don’t think about other stumbling blocks that can affect your business. Hidden costs being one of them.

• Viva la Virtualization! – This is my step-by-step guide on how to get started with virtualization.

September 2013

• Change Is In The Air? – Due to the increasing availability of cloud-based backup solutions, I was reconsidering my backup and DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan) strategy options. This post was less of a blog, and more of a shout out for advice / suggestions.

• Interview with Ben Clacy, Chief Executive of itSMF UK – Sadly Ben has now moved to another organization outside of the world of IT (we are sorry to see him go). However, at the time of interview Ben was still the CEO of one of the UK’s leading ITSM institution and I was interested to hear his views on tech trends, challenges and the future of IT.

August 2013

• All Hail the Start Button, Thanks Windows 8.1 – I was super-excited about the 8.1 blog so I wanted to shout about its new features prior to the launch.

• Avoid Becoming an IT Neanderthal – Tired of the stereotypes positioning IT teams as outdated and afraid of new tech trends, I gave my views of the reality, as well as advice on how to approach new technology and initiatives.

July 2013

• 5 IT Tools You Should Be Using If You Aren’t Already! – I’ve seen so many versions of this type of article on the internet, and half the time they are recommending some really useless tools. How to fix that? Come up with my own of course!

• The Active Directory Recycle Bin – I’m pretty sure that there are lots of IT guys and gals out there who may have deleted an Active Director object by mistake or perhaps, accidentally erased a user or group permission. NIGHTMARE! Thankfully, with the Recycle Bin from Microsoft, now doing so isn’t the most horrific mistake in the world. Here I explain how it works and how to activate it.

• Steve Jobs*: “IT is playing an increasingly crucial role within companies.” – Look I work in IT. I loved Steve Jobs… this blog was bound to happen at some point… my very own “interview” with the man himself (well kinda).

• Announcing my very own blog! – This is where it all started folks! Don’t worry, the end is no where near in sight. I shall be blogging a plenty in 2014!

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