The Next Generation Data Center by Alan Wilson

Alan Wilson rounded out our group of Monday morning keynote presenters, diving right into his presentation into Sun's vision of the next generation data center. Alan started with the concept that "the network is the computer" and the individual components driving infrastructure demand, introduced overall growth trends for data centers, general business issues such as utilization, space utilization, and energy costs, and how to get started to increase data center efficiency. What are your company's current data center initiatives and how do they reflect your services strategies such as providing managed services and supporting trends such as Software as a Service (SaaS)? After a break for lunch and presentations in the technology services expo, we'll return to blog on the Monday afternoon breakout sessions for service delivery, engineering, and marketing.

Jeff Bane's Take on Xerox Services Centers of Excellence

Shortly after Thomas' opening keynote presentation on The Package Paradox, Jeff Bane took the general session stage to discuss three cases where the Xerox Services Center of Excellence (COE) brings value to Xerox Global Services (XGS). Lessons learned included identification of the appropriate subject matter experts (SMEs) to accelerate response to RFPs, applying best practices from other regions and customers into new common standards, and enabling account management teams the tools and information to drive gross profit improvements. In order to apply these lessons at XGS, they underwent a major account services delivery transformation with clear short and long-term objectives such as providing delivery executive coverage for its largest services customers, decreasing time to revenue / time to profit, and transparent accountability measures. In closing, Jeff introduced the structural alignment of the COE, details and measurements for success, and why XGS decided to make the investments into the COE at this time in its services business.

Thomas Lah's Opening Keynote Address

TPSA Executive Director Thomas Lah opened Monday morning of the Summit with his keynote address and went right to the current state of the industry with "The Package Paradox". Thomas went right to the punch with an audience survey of attendees whose companies currently use industry buzzwords such as "consultative approach", "solutions provider", and "trusted advisor" compared to an eye-opening list of web-search results for each of these terms pointing to the current momentum in technology services.

Thomas then moved on to discuss seven metrics that matter in order to measure the effectiveness of consultative technology services. After laying the groundwork for the current state of the industry he then transitioned into The Package Paradox referring to the conflict between current optimization levers for technology services businesses and the changing trends of the industry.

Thomas then moved on to discuss the dynamics of change, specifically including overcoming company inertia and the forces of change such as the shift in product-service mix, revenue, and labor margins. Finally, Thomas closed with the target state of the industry moving from stove pipes of independent service offerings to embedded package services, also including the potential convergence of products, support and managed services, and professional and technical services.

As you listened to his presentation what were your thoughts or comments about his presentation? Or, if you're keeping in touch with the Summit remotely and have questions feel free to post them to keep in touch with the presenters and attendees to experience the Summit virtually.

Technology Services Expo Kicks Off the Event!

Good morning from Santa Clara and welcome to the May TPSA Summit event blog! The Summit kicked off yesterday evening at 5:30 PM with our technology services expo featuring almost 40 technology services partners from across the industry. The expo served as the ideal venue for repeat attendees to get back in touch with one another and for first time attendees to meet peers from other member companies after traveling into Santa Clara from locations all across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Tech expo partners introduced and explained a wide variety of offerings including remote services technologies, text mining, customer satisfaction and loyalty programs, analytics, service and sales training, CRM, online communities, PSA systems, and more. After spending a couple of hours together enjoying good company accompanied with appetizers and happy hour a number of our more adventurous attendees ventured out into downtown San Jose to brave the Cinco de Mayo crowds for dinner, while a number of others returned to recharge and be ready to go for breakfast and our opening keynote address. Feel free to post your comments and questions about the tech expo, and we'll be back to comment after Thomas Lah's opening address...