Technology Services Europe

Technology Services Europe - Closing Comments

2011-04-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

Technology Services Europe 2011 early feedback received, both at the event and through written evaluations, was very positive of both the content and conference format.

Initial planning is already underway for TSE12. Information will be forthcoming on the dates and location for Technology Services Europe 2012.

We look forward to having you join us at next year’s conference!

Technology Services Europe - Day Two Final Plenary Sessions

2011-04-17T18:36:00.000-07:00

The final plenary sessions for TSE11 included presentations by SAP and TSIA.

Michael Rehm, Head of Field Services, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, SAP Deutschland Ag & Co KG, presented Services as a Product. In this session, Mr. Rehm presented how SAP helps companies of all sizes and industries run better, extend, enhance, and optimize existing solutions or build innovative new applications according to their needs. SAP helps their customers achieve this by leveraging new delivery and partner models for software & services that make it easier, more affordable, and predictable for customers. And by doing so, this approach supports SAP in achieving their ambitious growth and profitability targets.

The closing plenary was presented by J.B. Wood, President and CEO, TSIA.

In The Changing Role of Services in the Sales Process, Mr. Wood challenged the attendees to further examine the role of services in growing profitable account revenue. His talk posed several questions to the delegates, encouraging them to examine their own operations, including:

-In a world where services that lead to consumption are becoming the key to account growth, what dynamics should be considered?

-How should we think about these opportunities?

-How should we realistically evaluate our ability to deliver on the promise given the people, processes and business models we have in services today?

This session provided some provocative thoughts around this major, upcoming revolution of the traditional “go-to-market” model and how this will require selling in the Services Motion.

Technology Services Europe - Day Two Plenary Sessions Continued

2011-04-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

TSE11 Plenary session continued with Novabase and Compuware and Siemens Healthcare.

Novabase and Compuware presented Professional Services Automation: A View of Novabase’s Strategy and Return on Investment. Presented by Dinis Adriano, Senior Professional IT Management, Novabase and Steven Krater, Client Executive, Compuware, Mr. Adriano reviewed the journey Novabase took from decentralized systems with outdated business processes housed in different applications to the implementation of a centralized professional services delivery system. Novabase shared how automation of the services delivery cycle improved Novabase’s competitive advantage and increased revenue and services margins. He also shared the different levels of ROI that have been achieved.

From Break-fix to Preventive Care, was presented by Dr. Wolfgang Heimsch, CEO Customer Services, Siemens Healthcare. In this session, Dr. Heimsch reviewed their unique approach to delivering pro-active 24x7 customer service for over 60,000 customers and 200,000 installed systems worldwide. Their trendsetting remote service and connectivity approach utilizes a global team of experts, a global network of material logistics and a global training concept to achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction year after year.

Technology Services Europe - Day Two Plenary Sessions

2011-04-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Technology Services Europe 2011 Day Two presented a full agenda of plenary sessions for the delegates. The topics ranged from Support Delivery in Virtualized IT Environments to a Case Study on the ROI of Professional Services Automation. From Effective Global Customer Support to Services as a Product. And a closing presentation on the Changing Role of Services in the Sales Process.

Each of the sessions challenged the audience to re-think their own operations and examine how the information presented could be applied in their own organisations.

In Innovation in Delivering Support in Virtualized IT Environments, Erwin Kepel, Director, Global Customer Support, EMEA North, EMC, covered EMC’s approach to virtualized IT environments, the challenges that IT organizations face as they take advantage of the changing models of IT, and more specifically key considerations when evaluating support providers in this context. He reviewed the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) Company as a case study, with a historical view of how the coalition of Cisco and EMC with VMware established a truly unique model for multi-vendor support in virtualized IT environments.

Technology Services Europe 2011 Networking Dinner

2011-04-08T02:43:00.000-07:00

The first day of TSE 2011 concluded with a networking dinner for all delegates. Hosted by TSIA, CFSMI and conference sponsors Compuware, PRTM, Sykes, Citrix Online, ServiceSource and Axeda, the dinner was a stellar opportunity for a good meal and great conversation.

Guests were treated to a three-course dinner at Restaurant Nolle, located right at the corner of Georgenstraße, Nolle offers international and Berlin cuisine and classic beverages in a unique and historical setting. It’s the place to go for a real taste of Berlin’s past and present.

After a full day of sessions, the dinner afforded delegates an opportunity to further discuss the content and how it applies to their own environments. Additionally, guests had time to learn more about each of the solutions offered by the dinner sponsors. All while enjoying a beautiful evening in Berlin with their peers.

Technology Services Europe - Day One Syndicate Sessions

2011-04-08T00:55:00.001-07:00

TSE 2011 Syndicate Sessions offered delegates four topics in the areas of Service Quality using Remote Services, the Impact of Cloud Computing, Using Online Services to Connect with Customers and Services Prototyping.

In Optimize Services Quality and Increase Customer Satisfaction through Servic

eability and Remote Services, Andreas Vogt, Director, Managed Services, discussed the Wincor Nixdorf end-to-end serviceability model. The idea behind the concept is as simple as it is evolutionary: service begins in the minds of their developers.

Attendees learned how to improve proactive services, how Wincor Nixdorf is providing a new Information World for their customers, and the positive impact remote services has on services quality.

In his session, The Impact of Cloud Computing, Thomas Lah encouraged delegates to examine their operations by asking these questions:

Is our company contemplating releasing a hosted, subsciption based product offering?
Do we still need to clearly define what servies are included in our basic subscription pricing?
Are customers asking for more help navigating this new cloud consumption model?
Do we need to create new services that will make our cloud offerings 'stickier'?
Are new cloud offerings cutting out our partners?

For those whose answer is 'yes' to any of the above questions, cloud computing is a market trend that impacts the service strategy of your company.

Connecting with Customers Online - TheBlackBerry Way, presented by Baldev Solanki, Manager, Self-Service, Research In Motion, reviewed considerations for getting into social media customer service, how to determine goals and objectives and use a pilot program effectively, and connecting with other social media activities within the enterprise.

Launched in 2009, social media support @blackberryhelp, is used to listen to what customers are saying – and to address support issues they may experience. Initially a pilot program, today, the @blackberryhelp account has more than 250, 000 followers and continues to focus on providing quick-response and personalized customer service.

Walter Ganz, Director, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, presented Prototyping of Services: New Ways of Designing and Testing New Services. In his talk, Mr. Ganz discussed how faced with competitive pressures, many companies are attempting to raise their profile in the market by offering new services. As a result, far greater attention has been accorded in the last few years to new service development and service engineering by researchers and businesses alike. However, the standard approaches for developing new services – from the original idea up to the market launch – overlook the importance of testing development results.

This presentation described how service designing and testing can be realized in practice and presented a possible technique – ServLab – for simulating services with the help of virtual reality and service theatre.

Technology Services Europe - Day One Plenary and Syndicate Sessions

2011-04-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

TSE 2011 speakers and delegates explored a variety of services topics in both plenary and syndicate sessions. Value-Added Services continues as an area of high interest in the European technology services sector and delegates enjoyed the insights presented by Michael Herzog, Corporate Director Service, Endress+Hausser.

His plenary session, titled How to Escape the Looming Commody Trap in Value-Added Services, explored the convergence of services and business process integration. When this convergence is supported by a "service oriented" IT architecture, VAS offers a solution to combat two primary concerns - overly complex business processes and a lack of perceived customer value.

First customer pilots with this new breed of "connected" and "managed" services in the process industry are giving first proof of concept. The common phone support process and the well perceived delivery of value within a performance based maintenance contract are two such scenarios. Ideas for the further deployment and productization were highlighted along with possible barriers to overcome.

TSE 2011 Day One Agenda - Networking Luncheon and Opening Plenary Session

2011-04-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

TSE 2011 started with a networking lunch attended by all, providing time to renew existing relationships, form new acquaintances and meet with the Platinum, Gold and Silver level conference sponsors (Compuware, PRTM, Sykes, Citrix Online, ServiceSource and Axeda), whose offerings represent the latest products and services available today.

A full day of Plenary and Syndicate sessions followed, with presentations on the topics and trends of primary importance to the attending delegates.

Opening Plenary - Disruptive Forces in Technology Services: How to Plan For and Stay Ahead of Key Trends

Presented by Thomas Lah, Executive Director, TSIA

In his talk, Mr. Lah outlined three trends that are disrupting traditional service business models:

-Cloud computing

-Utility computing

-Shift in major markets

These trends are creating specific challenges that service organisations must take a leadership role in addressing. These challenges include:

-Optimizing financial performance of the service lines

-Shifting from “net new sales” to “monthly recurring revenue”

-Restructuring the partner ecosystem

-Shifting the services portfolio

Throughout his talk, Lah referenced the extensive industry datasets TSIA manages. The datasets are used to assess how service organizations can best address these challenges.

The thought-provoking session set the tone for the conference and served as a conversation starter with delegates throughout the rest of the day.

Technology Services Europe 2011 Opens in Berlin, Germany

2011-04-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

Technology Services Europe 2011 opened today in Berlin, Germany. The annual conference draws attendance from the leading technology services companies in Europe. Over 135 delegates are participating in this year's event, representing 15 countries and organisations ranging in size from small-medium business (SMB) to many of the largest technology companies in the world.

Now in its fourth year, the TSE 2011 conference is co-presented by the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) and the Confederation for Services Management International (CSFMI). TSE is the premier learning and networking event for European services executives. Developed by and for Europe-based services leaders, the 2011 event addresses the key business challenges facing services executives in the region.

TSE brings the European technology services industry together.

Technology Services Europe 2010 Closing Keynote Address and Luncheon

2010-02-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

TSE10's closing luncheon gave attendees their final opportunity to network and discuss their learnings from the conference. Initial feedback received was quite positive and attendees are already looking forward to TSE11, including recommending the event to their colleagues.

We encourage you to participate in the call for speaker submissions once opened and to seeing you 6-8 April 2011 at Technology Services Europe!

Technology Services Europe 2010 Day Three Syndicate/Breakout Sessions

2010-02-05T14:21:00.000-08:00

The final day morning agenda of TSE10 included member case study and service science case study sessions. Attendees had various options to select from including member case study presentations by services executives from Microsoft, Genesys, Symantec and Vovici. An academic/member session from Siemens with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and a service science presentation by University of Duisburg-Essen.

Technology Services Europe 2010 Closing Keynote Address Hans van Grieken

2010-02-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

The closing luncheon and keynote address, Are You Ready for the Services Upswing?, was delivered by Hans van Grieken, Vice President Business Innovation, Capgemini Nederland B.V., In his address, van Grieken presented several examples to promote an understanding of why one’s place among the shifting borders between systems integrators and technology product companies is a critical strategic question.

Technology Services Europe 2010 Day Two Networking Activities

2010-02-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

At various times during Day Two, as well as each evening at offsite dinners, attendees took advantage of several opportunities to network with their peers and sponsoring solutions providers.

Whether in the Exhibition or at local area restaurant networking dinners, delegates made new connections, renewed relationships and expanded their professional networks.

Networking opportunities continue to rank as one of the primary benefits conference attendees site as key to the value they derive from attending TSIA events.

Technology Services Europe 2010 Day Two Academic Keynote Address Dr. Florian von Wangenheim

2010-02-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

TSE10 continued to bring the corporate and academic worlds together during Day Two with a thought-provoking keynote address presented by Dr. Florian von Wangenheim, Professor of Service & Technology Marketing, Technische Universitaet Muenchen Business School.

In his address to the delegates, Dr. von Wangenheim discussed seven levers that can help companies be successful with connected services. Each lever was discussed in connection with case study evidence as well as empirical qualitative and quantitative research, focusing on company results and customer perceptions.

Technology Services Europe Syndicate/Breakout Sessions

2010-02-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

Attendees participated in several syndicate/breakout sessions throughout Day Two of the conference, including Member Case Studies, Service Science Case Studies and a special addition of a Value-Added Services Workshop presented by TSIA CEO and President, J.B. Wood.

Featured speakers included services executives from Dell, Hitachi Data Systems, Motorola, EMC, Niles-Simmons Industrieanlagen GmbH and representatives from the academic community - ISS and RWH Aachen University.

In each session, the theme set on Day One was carried forward - challenge your assumptions, discuss and determine how you as a services executive will position your organization as critical to the overall economic success of your company and put the framework in place to do so.

Technology Services Europe 2010 Day Two Opening Keynote Thomas Lah

2010-02-04T03:53:00.001-08:00

TSE10 Day Two started with The Services Stress Test, presented by Thomas Lah, Executive Director, TSIA. In this keynote, Lah focused on the important role of services in the financial success of hardware and software companies. He presented a practical framework to help services organizations articulate the impact, value and contribution of service revenue streams to the overall economic success of technology companies.

Technology Services Europe 2010 Welcome Reception in Exhibition

2010-02-04T03:05:00.000-08:00

After an afternoon of opening day keynotes, attendees were extended their first opportunity to meet with sponsoring partners at the Welcome Reception in the Exhibition.

Exhibiting companies Capgemini, Compuware, Coveo, Language Weaver, LivePerson, Marketii, NextNine, PRTM and Service 800 learned more about the business challenges facing attendees and discussed their latest offerings to assist in addressing those challenges.

Technology Services Europe 2010 Keynote Address J.B. Wood

2010-02-04T02:01:00.001-08:00

TSE10's Featured Opening Day Keynote Speaker was, TSIA President and CEO, J.B. Wood. He introduced attendees to the concept of the Complexity Avalanche, from his groundbreaking book of the same name, and the challenges and opportunities that it presents to practitioners of technology services.

Wood offered an innovative new approach for companies in complex technology markets to better map their services portfolio to their customers' true need: getting value from the product.

Technology Services Europe 2010 Opening Day

2010-02-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

TSE10 kicked off on Wednesday with over 160 attendees, representing 17 countries from 80+ companies. Many of these companies sent teams to maximize their value from the conference.

Technology Services Industry Association Executive Director, Thomas Lah, set the stage for an exciting and thought-provoking event. In his opening comments, he challenged attendees to re-think some of their most basic assumptions about our industry.

Later, he led an executive panel discussion with three leading organizations - Dell, HP and Xerox - all who recently acquired independent service companies with the goal of significantly increasing their portfolio in technology services.

A special thanks

2009-04-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

To our conference team - we could not have had this great event without all of your hard work.

Thank you ALL.

Closing keynote: Service Engineering - What do we mean by it and do we really need it?

2009-04-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Professor Klaus-Peter Fahnrich took the stage after lunch and took one of the most complex topics discussed at the event and kept the audience riveted (even after a great lunch and wine!). He started by talking about his favorite words "services. components. services. componentized. service engineering." To say that he was a bundle of energy would be doing his presentation a dis-service - I think he had enough energy on that stage to power half of Barcelona.

Here's the abstract on what he discussed:

Service engineering is a notion that arose in the early 1990s. It was meant to bring an engineering perspective into the service businesses, and thus was pretty provocative. A brief characterization of service engineering could be described as: The attempt to use engineering—like models, methods, and tools—to improve the quality and effectiveness of certain classes of services. This attempt was, of course, criticized by prominent members of the services marketing community because it was believed that services, by nature, could not be the object of an engineering approach. Furthermore it was argued that the role of customers in this approach would not be represented appropriately. On the other hand, practitioners from various industries were highly interested in this concept, and by 2000, the discipline was established. This presentation will provide an overview of the achievements in service engineering thus far, and will try to answer the question of whether we really need it.

Clearly there is tremendous thinking going on in services engineering and the concepts around service components and Professor Fanrich made it real through his examples. We are clearly only at the beginning of this journey - but it's obvious after watching this presentation that all of us have a lot to learn and we should all expect a LOT of change. I'd encourage everyone to find out more about this concept (and also check out his presentation).

Day 3 - the last set of breakouts

2009-04-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

After the association updates there were three more concurrent break:

Member Case Study - Aligning End-User and Decision-Maker Needs to Create Differentiated Services. Eric Sisi, Vice President, EMEA Technical Support & Services, McAfee
Member Case Study - From Services to Solutions: Philips Utilization Services. Barbara Taylor, Customer Services Business Development Manager, Philips Healthcare and Kees Rutjes, Program Manager, Philips Healthcare

Member Case Study - True Partner Enablement. Mick Turnbull, PS Director UK&I and ECEMEA, Genesys Telecommunications

I had a chance to sit in on the McAfee presentation which had great example after great example on how McAfee understood their end-user needs and then tailored services to match. There were numerous questions at the end and Eric kept everyone engaged all the way through - great presentation.

Day 3 - opening with Association Updates

2009-04-06T11:49:00.001-07:00

Day 3 opened with JB Wood giving an update on AFSMI, Stephen Smith giving an update on the SSPA and Thomas Lah giving an update on TPSA.

The SSPA update covered a bunch of topics starting with a 20 year look back at tech support (the SSPA turned 20 years old on January 1st of this year!) - then moving to observations on the state of the industry today and finally with a view toward how to address support challenges in the future. Stephen introduced some new ways to think about the business which tied in very strongly to our closing keynotes concepts around services and components. All in all it was a great update with a lot of very good questions.

End of day two

2009-04-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

Day two ended with another set of concurrent breakout sessions and a networking reception in the exhibition with our partners. The design of this event flowed extremely well with all of the breakout rooms right off the exhibition hall - definitely something we'll appreciate when we do this again in Barcelona next year!

CIO's expectations

2009-04-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

After lunch, Didier Lambert, CIO, Essilor and Former President of CIGREF gave a presentation on how the CIO views the world and the impact it has on service providers (many of the people in the room). It was interesting, insightful and full of good advice on the CIO's role (he's not the end customer - his users are) - and what that means from a relationship perspective.

He used real-world examples to show that disagreements between suppliers and customers are very often related to a lack of understanding of each other's constraints and objectives.

The session was packed (as were all of the keynotes) and there were some excellent questions at the end.

First concurrent breakouts

2009-04-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

We had two concurrent breakouts: the Industry Panel on Service Science and Service Innovation: How to Drive Economic Return and a member case study on Balancing Flexibility and Standardization for Optimal Service Delivery in Heterogeneous Markets by EMC.

I had the chance to attend the first breakout which Thomas Lah moderated. The panelists included:

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Satzger, Director, Karlsruhe Service Research Institute
Dr. Wil Janssen, Manager of Business Development, Telematica Instituut/NOVAY, The Netherlands
Kris Singh, President, SRII & Director, Strategic Programs, Service Science Research, IBM Almaden Research Center

The discussion was engaging and clearly crossed the boundaries that often separate academic and business discussions. There clearly is a lot that all of us can and should be doing in this area and this really panel discussion really highlighted a couple of unique opportunities for industry and academia to collaborate.

Where is the "Science" in Services

2009-04-02T02:40:00.000-07:00

Day two opened up with Dr. Richard Straub giving a keynote that talked about the global transformation going on that's moved us from an agrarian society, to an industrial one to now a services-based one.

He gave a number of great examples from IBM's transformation from a hardware company to a services company, and then applied those to the general concepts to what Service Science is and why we should care.

Some of the key issues that Dr. Straub covered on Service Science included:

What is it?
Why now?
Is it a new academic discipline, or a combination of existing disciplines?
What need does it fill?
What research is it based on?
What role does business play in the evolution of Service Science?
What need does it fill for companies and national governments?
What can students who study it expect to learn?

It was the best example I've seen bringing together the concepts out of academia and showing how important they are to industry and how we need to work together.

Our Exhibitors

2009-04-02T02:31:00.000-07:00

After our first two keynotes we moved into the cocktail reception and there was a lot of dialogue between our partners and our members.

A number of great conversations got started here that carried on into the networking dinners and then the bars later on that night.

Alcatel-Lucent Services for Enterprise

2009-04-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

Stuart Cooper, Executive Vice President, Global Services, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Business Group followed the opening keynote with a great presentation talking about Alcatel-Lucent's transformation to a services company.

Stuart talked about each stage of the transformation that Alcatel-Lucent has gone through that gives their business partners global resources that they can use to expand their solution portfolio, gain new expertise, and improve customer satisfaction. These services and solutions were developed to complement their existing services and help them deliver more effectively, our services are available when they need them and can be tailored to meet their unique requirements, as well as their customers' requirements.

The prize for the best and most interesting examples so far definitely goes to Stuart as he described some of the work they had done with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The examples around transformation in Endonasal Brain Surgery were extremely well done and we're thankful that this happened way after we had finished lunch. :)

This was a great example of how a company has transformed from a single company model (traditional hardware provider) to a blended-services company.

"Services without Boundaries"

2009-04-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

JB Wood, CEO of AFSMI, SSPA and TPSA, kicked off the event with a session called "Services without Boundaries" noting that technology solution providers survived the beginning of the global downturn relatively unscathed. In 2008, top line revenues held and bottom line profits, on average, improved for hardware, software, and services providers. However, 2009 is proving a very different experience.

JB talked about how companies can begin breaking down organizational, financial and geographic barriers to maximize services success.” He started with a review of public and proprietary industry data that shows three distinct trends impacting technology providers in 2009:

Product revenues and margins are clearly under pressure.
With a decrease in product revenues, services revenues are becoming a larger percentage of overall company revenues.
There is immense pressure on services organizations to secure revenues and improve profitability.

Unfortunately, there is little or no money to invest in traditional business optimization tactics that drive incremental improvements. Services organizations must identify tactics that create step function improvements in profitability.

The presentation then turned to an important framework that services organizations can apply to identify opportunities in both organizational and offering convergence that break down existing barriers in services delivery. Organizational convergence creates leverage between the historically stove piped services lines within product companies. Offering convergence changes the way customers consume technology solutions. Together, these approaches create new models for developing, selling, and delivering technology services to customers with ever tightening budgets.

JB ended the presentation with a roadmap for horizon 1, 2, and 3 activities that services organizations can pursue to start navigating these challenging times.

TSE 2009 Kicks off Today

2009-04-01T02:12:00.000-07:00

Today starts the beginning of our Technology Services Europe Conference 2009 - Services without Boundaries in beautiful Barcelona. There is a definite energy in the air as service leaders from the biggest companies on the continent and from around the world gather for the next three days to discuss how to successfully meet the needs of European customers in this challenging economic environment.

We have world-class executive speakers from IBM, Alcatel-Lucent, Agilent Technologies, McAfee, EMC, OpenAir, Sun Microsystems, Philips Healthcare and more attending the event. There are representatives from 16 different countries and 60 companies, and a number of key partners are also attending the event including OpenAir, ISS, CLIC, HHL, SRII, Service 800 and Impact Learning Systems, Martin Wiesend & Partner and ITG.

The event today kicks off at 16:00 with JB Wood, President and CEO of AFSMI, SRII, SSPA and TPSA talking about Services without Boundaries. He will be followed by Stuart Cooper, Executive Vice President, Global Services of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Business Group.

Following the opening day keynotes we will have a reception with our partners and then networking dinners in the evening.

We will be posting live updates throughout the event with pictures, interviews and snapshots of the key insights. Stay tuned for more.

AFSMI Dinner

2008-04-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots from Pim's retirement party at the AFSMI dinner! Congratulations Pim and best wishes for the next stage of life.

It's a wrap

2008-04-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

We've come to a close on our first annual AFSMI, SSPA and TPSA conference here in Europe. The overall event was a huge success and the feedback we got was that this absolutely has to be an annual event (even if we hold it in cities outside of Paris!).

Thomas Lah closed the day summarizing the themes that JB started and were carried on by a number of speakers throughout the 2.5 days. His presentation on professional services and the challenges and opportunities was insightful, challenging and made everyone walk away with a set of ideas and concepts that we need to be focusing on as we move forward.

I'll put a more detailed summary of the whole event online in the next day or two (and for attendees, please remember that all of the presentations will be made available online on the association websites).

I hope you all have a great weekend -

Stephen

The final day

2008-04-04T01:21:00.000-07:00

The morning session started off with Laurie Young talking about how to make the successful transition from products to services. His presentation resonated strongly with the audience as this is an issue all of our members are facing. We're now into the last of the breakout sessions and then have a closing keynote by Thomas Lah, Executive Director of TPSA.

SSPA Dinner

2008-04-04T00:48:00.000-07:00

We had our association dinners last night. The SSPA dinner, attended by over 70 members and partners was at Alzacar over in the Latin District. TPSA and AFSMI also hosted their dinners and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the meals, the wine and the company. Here are a couple of shots from the SSPA dinner.

End of day 2

2008-04-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

A few more pictures to summarize the day. Matthias's presentation has just ended and everyone is heading back out to the Tech Expo to learn more from our partners and grab a glass of wine. Tonight we have the association dinners and I'll drop one more line to cap off the day after we get back from an evening in Paris.

Pictures from the day

2008-04-03T06:26:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy afternoon. After a great lunch session in the Tech Expo we had the association specific breakouts. The SSPA breakout was a packed room and went 30 minutes past its planned stopping time (so much for my time management skills). We had a great set of discussions around web 2.0, support metrics, certification and some of the specific needs of the European marketplace that we should be focusing on in the future.

We're heading into the last of the breakout sessions now and then it's once again the evening cocktail hour. Today has gone amazingly fast and tonight we have the association dinners around town. Here are a few shots from earlier today.

Start of Day 2

2008-04-03T04:05:00.000-07:00

Day two of the Technology Services Europe conference is off to a fast start. Tom Pridham kicked off the day by hosting a keynote titled "Succeeding through Service Innovation: Implications for Education, Business and Policy."

This opening session had a three-person panel including:

Professor Mike Gregory from the University of Cambridge
Kevin Bishop, Vice President of Marketing for IBM Europe
Tom Pridham, Executive Director, SRII

During the event, Tom noted "the importance of raising the awareness for the need for more targeted and funded service innovation activity through industry, academic and government collaboration."

Following the keynote, we moved into another series of concurrent breakout sessions which included presenters from Tetra Pak, Openwave Systems and Kaidara.

The afternoon includes SSPA, TPSA and AFSMI specific breakout sessions where the Executive Directors for each association will provide updates on the activities within each association.

Stay tuned for more pictures shortly.

Wrapping up the first day

2008-04-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

The keynotes and breakouts from day one are now a memory. I'd like to thank everyone who presented today - the feedback that I got in numerous conversations was astounding. The interactions were everything that people had hoped for and more .

At 1730 out came the appetizers and the cocktails and it was time for everyone to visit our Partners in the Technology Expo. It was a great first day - superb turnout, great interactions, a lot of questions, a lot of excitement and clearly an energy that made this conference seem like a natural. As we wrap up the first day and head off to our various dinners, I thought I'd post one last set of pictures from the tech expo to give everyone a sense of the how the day was wrapping up.

I would like to add a note of personal thanks on behalf of AFSMI, SSPA and TPSA to all of our Partners who joined us here for the Tech Expo at our first European conference. This event would not be the same without each and every one of you here - so "thank you."

So long for today --

The concurrent breakouts

2008-04-02T07:47:00.000-07:00

We have great breakouts going on right now -- all of them being led by members of SSPA, AFSMI and TPSA.

Keynote #2 - Gregory M. Sebasky, Senior Vice President and CEO, Global Customer Services, Philips Medical Systems

2008-04-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

Greg Sebasky followed JB wood with a fabulous presentation titled "Seasons of Ownership - Delivering Services from the Customer’s Perspective." It built on a number of JB's remarks around value-added support and products/services convergence and gave incredible insights into the transformation that Philip's is making.

He hit on a number of important themes including:

How they are using net promoter scores to identify and drive transformation priorities in their healthcare business
How they have built their transformation around a 'seasons of ownership' which has change the entire way they interact with their end customers
Gave a superb example of how multiple parts of Philip's come together to build a differentiating capability in the 'Ambient Experience'

At the end of his session Greg hosted a number of questions from the audience and a small group gather around him for further Q&A as the main group headed off into the first round of concurrent breakout sessions.

Keynote #1 - JB Wood and the future of services

2008-04-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

The event started with Tom Pridham, Senior Vice President of Membership Development and the Executive Director of SRII welcoming everyone to our first annual European Conference. After a brief welcome in both English and French (who knew he had it in him!) - Tom gave a quick overview of the next 2.5 days and then welcomed J.B. Wood to the stage.

J.B. Wood is the CEO and President of AFSMI, SSPA, TPSA and SRII. He was the first keynote speaker and spent an hour talking about the major market trends impacting the technology services industry and the implications for Europe today and in the future. A couple of key points he highlighted included the following:

Current opportunities to improve the business include moving PS organizations from a GEO based structure to a competency based structure
Cross-services convergence
The importance of figuring out who owns consumption - and most importantly - how to move support organizations into the role that drives that for the organization
The importance of a key new industry metric: DTR (Days-To-Repurchase)

He ended the session with a talk on the future of the services business: Value-Added Support. The path to start changing support organizations to becoming the proactive driver of value and consumption for end customers.

t-4 hours behind the scenes

2008-04-02T00:03:00.000-07:00

Everyone from the event staff to the tech expo partners are busy getting everything set up for the big day...

T-6 hours and counting

2008-04-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of our Technology Services Europe 2008 conference. Members, Speakers and Partners for AFSMI, SSPA and TPSA have been arriving since Monday to enjoy the best that Paris has to offer and engaging in final preparations for this event.

The conference agenda this year features over 30 sessions presented by experienced practitioners and industry thought leaders, offering a unique opportunity for European services managers to gain new ideas, network with peers and challenge current business and strategic assumptions.

As of Monday we had over 225 confirmed attendees representing the largest European and global technology companies - our largest European conference ever.

I will be blogging live throughout the event to keep you up to date on the latest insights and key takeaways from industry leaders from around the world as well as excerpts from key 1:1 interviews with industry leaders and partners.