Pre-Conference Workshops

Pre-1: HDI Support Center Director

Sunday March 14 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Monday March 15 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Tuesday March 16 8:00AM - 3:30PM

Course Overview
Gaining senior management support and effectively communicating the pivotal role of the support center is crucial to any support operation’s success. For this reason, the support center director must serve as a support leader and strategically align the support center to the organization.

HDI Support Center Director training focuses on the development and execution of strategic plans that will take the organization to the next level. Participants discover how to realize greater return on investment, develop and maintain formal procedures for increased productivity and consistency, and manage customer perceptions.


What You Will Learn

• Assessment strategies for support center maturity mapping
• How to quantify your support center’s value, calculate and maximize Return on Investment (ROI)
• Twelve step process and decision matrix for selecting technologies and vendors
• The requirements of an effective service catalog
• How to align support strategies with business goals and objectives
• Knowledge management processes that can save you time and money
• Strategies for workforce management, coaching, team building and succession planning
• How to justify a service improvement project with a business case
• SMART methods for determining which quantitative and qualitative metrics are utilized
• Valuable reporting tools: Balanced Scorecard, Morning Report, and Executive Brief

Who Should Attend

• Seasoned technical service and support leaders who are responsible for an organization’s overall service delivery and provide strategic direction, financial accountability and performance reporting
• Individuals who are preparing for the HDI Support Center Director certification support center managers with more than five years of experience.

3-day Course Includes
Instruction, online certification exam, breakfast, lunch, and breaks

Presented By

John Custy
JPC Group
John Custy has more than 20 years experience in designing, developing, and implementing IT services management solutions, both as a practitioner and as a consultant. He has assisted many organizations in developing their service strategies and translating these strategies into functional business plans, resulting in improved IT services management practices. John is an ITIL-certified service manager and also holds ITIL Practitioner certifications in IT service management.

Link to this session.

Pre-2: HDI Support Center Manager

Sunday March 14 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Monday March 15 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Tuesday March 16 8:00AM - 3:30PM

Course Overview
The support center manager is responsible for executing the operational and tactical plans of the support organization while satisfying customer and business needs.

HDI Support Center Manager training explores how the support center’s strategy drives everything the support center does: service delivery, infrastructure implementation, operational processes, workforce management, and support center marketing.

Designed for both new and experienced support center managers, this course helps support center managers satisfy operational demands and build a support center that aligns with the organization, adds value to the business, and delivers on its commitments.

What You Will Learn

• Five characteristic of an effective support center manager
• How to create Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Operating Level Agreements (OLAs),and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in support of a service catalog
• Steps to cost-benefit analysis, total cost of ownership, and calculating Return on Investment (ROI)
• The relationships between IT service management processes
• The difference between and importance of strategic, tactical, and operational planning
• Benefits and challenges of self-service technologies
• Processes for building and managing effective security policies
• Various staffing models and the value of outsourcing
• Tactics for screening, hiring, training, and managing high performance teams
• The metrics, benchmarks, and KPIs essential to your performance reporting

Who Should Attend

• Experienced technical support professionals who must manage all day-to-day functions as well as master critical performance, benchmarking and customer service strategies
• Individuals who are preparing for the HDI Support Center Manager certification

3 day Course Includes
Instruction, online certification exam, breakfast, and breaks

Presented By

Rae Ann Bruno
Business Solutions Training
Rae Ann Bruno is an ITIL-certified instructor with more than 15 years of management experience emphasizing process reengineering, employee development, and business alignment of IT services. Formerly the vice president of strategic relations for Previo, Rae Ann consulted with Previo customers on process re-engineering and best practices and trained support professionals on industry best practices. Additionally, Rae Ann has authored many industry articles and white papers. Prior to joining Previo, Rae Ann was the director of IT customer service for Siemens Energy & Automation (SE&A).

Link to this session.

Pre-3: Knowledge Management Foundations: KCS Principles

Sunday March 14 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Monday March 15 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Tuesday March 16 8:00AM - 3:30PM

Course Overview
This knowledge management best-practices course will provide support center supervisors, managers, and directors with a set of practical steps for capturing, storing, and successfully reusing knowledge. Participants will learn how to implement a strategy adopting Knowledge-Centered Support^SM (KCS) which creates and maintains knowledge as a by-product of the incident management process.

KCS, developed by the Consortium for Service Innovation, is a methodology and a set of processes and practices that leverage knowledge as a key asset of the support organization. KCS is proven to allow service and support organizations to significantly improve service levels to customers, gain operational efficiencies, and increase the organization’s value to the company.

What You Will Learn

• How to efficiently create and maintain quality, easy-to-find content in the knowledge base
• Ways to motivate support analysts to use the knowledge base and to effectively assess individual and team contributions
• How to articulate the value of knowledge management practices for your organization
• A strategy for sustainable success that minimizes investments in knowledge workflow and maximizes the return
• How to identify and avoid the common pitfalls associated with knowledge management

Who Should Attend

• Technical support professionals and project managers who want actionable steps to improve time-to-resolve and reduce expense by utilizing a knowledge management program
• Individuals who are preparing for the Knowledge Management: KCS Principles certification

3-day Course Includes
Instruction, online exam certification, breakfast, and breaks

Presented By

Rick Joslin
HDI
Rick Joslin is the author of the HDI Focus books on Knowledge Management, the Knowledge Management Maturity Model, and is the contributing writer for the HDI Service and Support Handbook. He is a certified KCS instructor and guides organizations with the implementation of KCS. He is also a certified instructor for the HDI certification courses.

Link to this session.

Pre-4: ITIL v3 Foundation

Sunday March 14 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Monday March 15 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Tuesday March 16 8:00AM - 3:30PM

Course Overview
This LCS®-accredited course outlines the ITIL® best-practices framework and prepares the participant for the ITIL v3 Foundation certification exam, a prerequisite for all other ITIL certifications. This course provides an understanding of the service lifecycle and processes, as well as the best and common practices for IT Service Management.

Whether adopting ITIL or embarking on continuous service improvement, participants will gain a fundamental understanding of how IT service, support, and delivery can be best organized to align IT with business needs, improve service quality, and reduce long-term costs.

What You Will Learn

• Service Design — Transform business requirements into strategic solutions.
• Service Transition — Manage change, risk, and quality assurance.
• Service Operation — Establish day-to-day business operations and customer expectations.

Who Should Attend

• IT professionals who want a foundational understanding of the service lifecycle and processes and are interested in IT service management
• IT staff who are actively involved in the provision and support of IT services or have an interest in IT service management best practices
• Individuals preparing for the ITIL v3 Foundation certification

Free ITIL v3 LITE Course!
All participants in the ITIL v3 Foundation course will also receive one registration for ITIL v3 LITE;, a one-hour online introduction and review of ITIL v3.

3-day Course Includes
Instruction, on-site proctored exam, breakfast, and breaks

Presented By

Katherine Lord
Lord Consulting
With six years of hands-on service management consulting expertise, more than ten years of IT management experience, and a variety of certifications and accolades including, ITIL v3 Expert, and ITIL v2 Service Manager (with distinction), Six Sigma Yellow belt, Katherine’s skill set and knowledge turns support centers into value added entities. Katherine is a seasoned ITSM Practitioner with significant consulting expertise in the ITSM/ITIL education and implementation space. As a certified instructor for HDI and part of their global faculty, she teaches all of the HDI certification courses.

Link to this session.

Pre-5: HDI Support Center Team Lead

Monday March 15 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Tuesday March 16 8:00AM - 3:30PM

Course Overview
The support center team lead serves as the communication link between the team and the manager as well as the first point of internal escalation for the customer.

HDI Support Center Team Lead training ensures that participants learn how to deliver exceptional customer support, promote process improvement, coach for success, and take charge of the day-to-day operational activities of a team. This course is designed for support professionals who need to develop fundamental management and leadership skills.

What You Will Learn

• Essential Team Lead management and leadership skills
• The importance of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Operating Level Agreements (OLAs), and understanding priority levels
• The ITIL processes of Incident, Problem Change, Release, Asset, and Configuration Management
• An overview of Security Management and Knowledge Management
• Strategies for managing conflict
• The essentials of People Management: hiring, scheduling, evaluating, and retaining employees
• An eight-step method for effective coaching
• Proven team building and motivational techniques
• Essential performance metrics, quality assurance monitoring, and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Who Should Attend

• Technical support professionals who must understand support center processes and best practices and master important daily functions such as scheduling, coaching, and workforce management
• Individuals who are preparing for the HDI Support Center Team Lead certification

2-day Course Includes
Instruction, online certification exam, breakfast, and breaks

Presented By

Pete McGarahan
McGarahan and Associates
Peter McGarahan is the founder and president of McGarahan & Associates. Peter recently served as the Chairman of the IT Infrastructure Management Association, a sister organization to HDI. Pete offers 25 years of IT and Business experience helping IT organizations optimize their service delivery model to support business objectives. His value to the service and support industry and business is his thought leadership. As a practitioner, product manager and support industry analyst and expert, he has influenced the maturity of the service and support industry.

Link to this session.

Pre-6: HDI Desktop Support Technician

Monday March 15 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Tuesday March 16 8:00AM - 3:30PM

Course Overview
The desktop support technician is an IT support professional who spends much of their day visiting customers at their workstations or home office, providing technical support to many desktop systems.

HDI Desktop Support Technician training focuses on key support center processes and concepts to improve overall support operations, as well as customer service and interpersonal skills that improve the customer’s experience.

What You Will Learn:

• Proven techniques for improving on-site customer interaction
• How Service Level Agreements (SLAs) impact workflow and prioritization of requests
• Seven key steps for effective Root Cause Analysis
• The ITIL processes of Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Asset, and Configuration Management
• An overview of Security Management and Knowledge Management
• Essential time management and problem-solving skills
• Effective strategies for managing difficult customers

Who Should Attend

• Technical support professionals who provide in-person support to internal employees, remote workers, or external customers and therefore must develop best-practice skills specific to this unique form of customer contact
• Individuals who are preparing for the HDI Desktop Support Technician certification

2-day Course Includes
Instruction, online certification exam, breakfast, and breaks

Presented By

Deborah Monroe
Ignite Achievements Int'l, Inc.
Deborah Monroe, President of Ignite Achievements Int’l, is one of few Master EQ Practitioners in the world working specifically to change workplace behaviors and patterns. Deborah works with all levels of executive leadership, management and individual contributors while concentrating on integrating humans and processes for a balanced working environment. Her aim is to create understanding and empathy building a positive bottom line through employee and customer engagement and retention. Deborah is an HDI Faculty Member and well-known speaker at conferences delivering certification courses and exciting sessions with great takeaway’s that are easy to implement.

Link to this session.

Pre- 7: The Help Desk Managers Crash Course to Success

Tuesday March 16 8:30AM - 3:30PM
Not all help desks are created equally, and when you are a new manager, you have great dreams of being a great leader and building a standout team. You've got your team, and they’re working really hard to provide great customer service to your customers. But you've got limited resources to do it with. Your budget is a little tighter, and you are still expected to do things for your customers that seem impossible. Maybe your new job as a manager isn’t seeming as promising as you thought. GREAT news: you are not alone. Your new position just presents you with a new set of challenges, and you’re probably a bit overwhelmed about where to start. This in depth session will share tips and tools to help you focus on the most important things to do first and get you on the road to success as a new help desk manager.

Learning objectives:

• How to build a strong team
• Effective appraisals and reviews
• Creating metrics that matter
• Delegating for peak efficiency
• Rewards and recognition that don’t cost a bundle (the MUST model for recognition)
• Marketing your help desk
• Improving employee engagement
• Hiring right/Retaining right.

Join Phil and Jeffrey in a full day session that will include lecture, role-playing and practice work. You’ll leave the session with the basic tools, as well as sample documentation, to get you on the right track to be a model of management best practices.

Presented By

Phil Gerbyshak
Relationship Geek - Make It Great! Institute
Phil Gerbyshak, the Relationship Geek and the author of the book Help Desk Manager's Crash Course, has been working with clients to create great customer service experiences for the past 15 years. Phil's mission on this planet is simple: to help people unleash the greatness inside them, by connecting people to the ideas, people, and information they need to crank it up and take things to the next level. Phil has been writing at Make It Great! Institute since early 2005, where he has shared over 2200 articles on building business relationships management, leadership, customer service, personal empowerment, and personal productivity topics. Since 2007, Phil has also been writing for b5 Media, sharing his management and productivity insights. His work has been recognized as one of the top 50 HR blogs.

He currently serves vice president of information technology at a regional financial services firm in Milwaukee, WI, is president of the Milwaukee chapter of HDI and as Midwest regional director for HDI. Phil is a frequently sought after speaker at various companies and professional organizations. He energizes, educates, empowers, and entertains his audience by sharing the tools they need and helping them find the right questions so they can make it a great day. Jeff Brooks
Peak 10
Jeffrey Brooks, co-author of “Helpdesk Manager’s Crash Course,” has been working in the technology industry for over 15 years. His expertise is in joining developing organizations with diminutive service organizations and organizing teams able to handle the customer issues in a timely and professional manner. Well-versed in a variety of technologies, from both traditional training models and job-based experience, Jeffrey has received a Masters in computer information systems and an M.B.A.

Putting the customers’ needs first, Jeffrey maintains close ties with his customer base and his employees by joining in the trenches to understand the problems faced by both the install base and the team trying to assist them. Jeffrey currently serves as the President of Charlotte HDI and also sits on the HDI Member Advisory Board. He is also active in other industry organizations and sits on the Board of Directors for the NC LIG of itSMF, as well as on the Advisory Board for several local schools.

Link to this session.

Pre-8: How to Implement a Lite Version of ITIL v3

Tuesday March 16 8:30AM - 3:30PM
Since its introduction into the marketplace, there has been great debate over whether implementing full ITIL v3 is worthwhile or necessary. Ironically, very few organizations ever implemented full v2, so why should they be expected to implement full v3? However, there are elements of v3 that have huge benefits even if implemented in a Lite format. Implementing ITIL Lite successfully requires a well thought out plan, but there are some tricks and techniques that can help you in this quest. This workshop is designed to teach you how to successfully implement ITIL v3 Lite (that could also be used as a phase one stage of a full ITIL v3 implementation) following a logical, project-oriented approach.

You will learn:

• Why you should/would implement ITIL v3 Lite
• A simple but effective approach to ITIL process engineering
• The why’s and how’s of categorizing ITIL v3 components
• Arguments to include or exclude ITIL components
• How to decide which processes to include
• Building an ITIL Lite Quadrant chart
• How to decide in which order to implement ITIL Lite components

Presented By

Malcolm Fry
Fry Consultants
As a recognized IT industry luminary with over 40 years experience in Information Technology, Malcolm Fry serves as an Independent Executive Advisor, and brings an unparalleled breadth of knowledge and experience in IT business and technical issues. Malcolm is the author of many publications on IT service and support, has had numerous articles and papers published, and is regularly contacted as a source of information by technology journalists. His latest publications are 'A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a CMDB’ and a new ITIL complementary book 'How to Build a Service Management Department'. Malcolm was also a member of the v3 Advisory Group and a mentor for the 'Service Operations' book. In April 2009 he was awarded the prestigious ‘Ron Muns Lifetime Achievement Award for IT Service and Support.’

Link to this session.

Pre-9: Support Center Metrics and Measurements

Tuesday March 16 8:30AM - 3:30PM
How do you know if your support center is meeting its goals? Do you know how your support center performance compares to other organizations? Do you know what is important to measure? Where should you be focusing your improvement efforts? In this workshop you will learn the answers to these questions.

This course is designed to identify the metrics that every support center should have in place to measure individual, team, and organizational performance. Course participants will be introduced to key performance indicators (KPIs) for support centers and the important types of questions to ask when presented with benchmark data. In this interactive course, course participants will learn which support center metics are important, how to calculate them, and what do to with them.

By the end of this course, you will also learn to:

• Identify which metrics are important for your support center
• Explain the difference between baselines and benchmarks
• Explain what types of questions to ask when presented with benchmark data
• Explain the difference between leading and lagging indicators
• Describe how key performance indicators (KPIs) are linked to organizational goals
• Identify key factors in determining unit costs
• Calculate cost per incident/request
• Develop meaningful measureable objectives for individuals, the team, and the organization
• Explain the value of scorecards and balanced scorecards

Presented By

Shane Carlson
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Shane Carlson is a dynamic ITIL-certified and Six Sigma-trained IT professional with 10+ years of practical experience transforming organizations with IT service management.

Link to this session.

Pre-10: Building the Best Team Soup to Nuts

Tuesday March 16 8:30AM - 3:30PM
It’s more than a cliché. Customer service is what makes the difference in business today. As a leader, you’re responsible for putting together the best possible technical support team. But, how do you do that? From hiring to training to development, this session will help you develop a plan and specific strategies to create and keep the best possible customer service team. You will receive a skills matrix, motivational ideas to create a loyal team, and a list of interview questions that help you uncover the skills your need.

• Determine your desired team characteristics and skills
• Analyze what you have and what you need
• Develop a job description that helps you and your HR recruiter find the right candidates
• Create an interview process that gives you 360° feedback on your candidate
• Brainstorm training options that fit your environment
• Focus on performance management skills and strategies
• Keep good performers motivated without a big budget for reward dollars
• Address performance that is bringing your team down

Presented By

Mary Cruse
Genzyme Genetics
Passionate about customer service, Mary Cruse has led teams for Fortune 500 companies for 25+ years in the airline and healthcare industries. She has extensive experience in both technical and non-technical customer service centers, with an expertise in software implementation, call center design and technology, workflow definitions and design, and people leadership and development. At Genzyme Genetics, Mary leads 5 external customer support centers, supporting the medical community in ontological and prenatal diagnostic testing, with 50 customer service representatives in her centers around the Southwest. Mary carries the HDI certifications of HDA, HDM and Certified Training Instructor as well as the CIAC Call Center Operations Manager Certification. Mary is President of the Los Angeles Chapter of HDI, Chairman Emeritus of the Global Member Advisory Board and past member of the Strategic Advisory Board of HDI.

Link to this session.

Pre-11: Congratulations! Here is your BS in Social Media!

Tuesday March 16 8:30AM - 3:30PM
Oprah is on Twitter, and you are not. How did this place of shame happen to you? Even worse, how did it happen to your organization? Somewhere on your path to understanding your customers, they got a voice of their own. Not the type of voice that would write a letter to complain, ask to speak to a manager, or even call a company headquarters. This voice is one that lives out in "the cloud" and is stronger and has more ability to change the perception of your company than a multimillion dollar campaign. Oh, and this voice, is just one person, standing in line a bit too long.

This session is about the world outside and inside your organization that is thriving and becoming sentient. Avoiding it's evolution will only make it stronger. Do you remember the first reply to all email you saw, that was just full of anger, joy or frustration? Now multiply that times millions of people on that reply to all.

Social Media, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Digg, Wikipedia, Flickr, Last.fm, justin.tv, WAIT, STOP, WHAT IS JUSTIN.TV? Yes the list of social media reads like a who's who of internet today, but the hype is actually affecting businesses every day. Most organizations block social media sites, but that is not stopping their employees from finding ways to "get social" even from their desk.

You’ll leave this workshop with lots of practical ideas that you can implement immediately upon your return to your place of work and play. Want a certification in social media? Learn when to digg verse when to tweet or how to implement a policy for your employees around security and social media. This ground breaking workshop is your one stop!

We will uncover the fundamentals of social media and look firsthand at how organizations are bridging this divide between their customers and their support organization.

• Understand the evolving role of social media in everyday life
• Focus on how to embrace social media without losing your staff to FaceBook
• Why emails, surveys and polling are the fodder of yesterday's support organization
• How to knock down corporate barriers to the outside world through social media
• When is it ok to encourage your employees to be more visible on social media
• Learn how what tools are available to monitor social media
• Actually learn how to USE the social media tools
• Explore Five real life examples of using everything from YouTube to LinkedIn to assist your organization.
• Step by Step instructions on how to have "The Talk" with Senior Management
• How to create a social media policy for your organization

If you could take only one workshop this year that will change your business and life for years to come, this is that workshop. Tweet you later!

Presented By

Christopher M Dancy
ServiceSphere
Chris Dancy is the founder and Vice President of Sales and Marketing of ServiceSphere, an organization dedicated to the full lifecycle of IT support. ServiceSphere offers unique after-hours support for small IT Desks who want to extend their hours of operations. Previously Chris Dancy joined Touchpaper/Avocent as Vice President of Business Development in March 2007, advocating processed based approach to ITSM through people, process and tools. Chris has over 20 years of experience in IT, and was responsible for enterprise presales support ITIL consulting, best practices support and North American speaking ITSM engagements. Before joining Touchpaper/Avocent, Chris was the Director of Product Development Service Desk Technologies & Desktop Management Strategies at NetworkD.

Link to this session.

Pre-12: Mapping Support Processes: Blueprint for Success

Tuesday March 16 8:30AM - 3:30PM
The workshop will illustrate how to map out support processes utilizing swim-lane or cross-functional diagrams in detail with exercises to identify weaknesses and inefficiencies and how to avoid them. Multiple process mapping techniques will be explored including functional flow, cross-functional flow, task procedure analysis, value stream map and customer experience maps.

Julie will provide a detailed review of the incident management process that shows how to map all the processes including: call handling, incident management, incident dispatch, escalation, status update, and incident closure. She will depict all key technology interfaces along with the key function of the service desk throughout the incident management process. Julie places a strong focus on developing strong customer advocacy throughout the incident management process to facilitate the rapid restoration of service and ensure customer satisfaction.

The workshop will include the following:

• Introduction to process mapping
• The basics of process mapping
• Choose your method
• Top down flow
• Cross functional flow
• Task procedure analysis
• Customer experience maps
• Support organization structure
• Mapping the functional flow
• Cross-functional flow design
• Mapping multi-channel support flow
• Mapping incident management in detail

Presented By

Julie Mohr
BlueprintAudits.com
Julie Mohr’s experience includes teaching ITSM and COBIT, consulting, and functioning as a senior member of teams at IHS Support Solutions, Agilita, and Pomeroy.

Link to this session.

Pre-13: UP2 - DOUBLE UP YOURS Today by Unleashing your Peoples Unlimited Potential

Tuesday March 16 8:30AM - 3:30PM
WHAT’S UP? What do leaders do to help their people really step UP to the plate and swing for the fence? What can you do to get yourself and your people UP and more engaged, more focused, and have more fun at work? What is your teams’ Unrealized Potential? Is it really unlimited and what can you do to help them GET UP and stay UP? And can you really double UP YOURS?

LIGHTEN UP. With a purposeful sense of direction and a strong disposition towards laughing as we learn in this DOUBLE UP YOURS workshop we will explore the many aspects of how to lead UP and take yourself and your team to that elusive next level.

GET UP. Team Up. Huddle Up. Speak Up. Stand Up. Light Up. Tune Up. Give Up. Word Up. Write Up. Look Up. Grow Up. Climb Up. Pull Up. Push Up. Lift Up. Shut Up. Back Up. Listen Up. Get Up. And of course…Get Back Up!!

Life is hard and a lot of people start spending so much time in “DOWN Town” they forget how to get back UP. UP to where they belong and where they were designed to be. Don’t let life get you down… GET UP and Double UP YOURS today!!

Another Wonderfully Creative Workshop from Chief Morale Officer Kirk Weisler that’s sure to be just the leadership pick me UP you need.

Presented By

Kirk Weisler
Team Dynamics
Kirk Weisler is widely recognized as chief morale officer (CMO) of the support industry. A veteran of the customer service management industry, Kirk has worked to develop and implement a revolutionary strategy, philosophy, and approach to the call center world. Kirk is widely sought after to share his insightful stories and foundational philosophy of culture- and team-building with customer service and support center organizations around the country. In addition to his role as professional speaker and trainer, Kirk is currently helping to build a wilderness treatment and training facility for at-risk youth. His unique and diverse background as part of Outward Bound's professional development team, as a former US Army Ranger, and as an experiential team trainer make him a dynamic, outside-the-box motivator, trainer, and an inspiring and entertaining presenter.

Link to this session.