Case Study: MultiCare and CA co-present: Exploring ITIL: What is ITIL, How Does this Methodology Align Service with the Business Needs. How Does ITIL Work?

Do you want to maximize the business value of your IT services? Come hear and learn about the benefits of using IT infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices through real life experiences. Adopting ITIL is becoming more widely recognized everyday, by large and small companies alike. Learn about a pragmatic approach to implementations by experienced practitioners who will share analysis, roadmap plans and answer your burning ITIL questions.


About our speaker:

Greg Charles, Ph.D., is a Principal Consultant in CA’s Technical Services organization. Since joining CA in 1998, he has continually been focused on meeting clients' business challenges through CA's Enterprise Management solutions on both distributed and mainframe platforms.

Currently, he leads both CA’s ITIL and CA’s Sarbanes-Oxley practices for the Western United States. Prior to CA, Greg held various positions within Fortune 500 companies, including TRW, implementing and managing help desk applications for both mainframe and distributed applications.

Greg has been an IT professional since 1981, and holds a Ph.D. in Business Ethics, attained after completing his undergraduate studies in Information Technology.

 

iConclude

Stop Escalating and Start Resolving
 

• Alert floods and ignored alerts get you down?
• Too much escalation and too many pagers going off?
• Pulling your hair out dealing with routine, recurring problems?

There is a better way! New automated problem resolution software from iConclude can reduce alerts and escalations, reduce resolution time, and create huge savings.

Built on managed automation technology, iConclude Repair System works with your existing solutions to self-heal systems or enable service desk personnel to diagnose, repair, and maintain mission-critical applications in a repeatable way.

Download our FREE whitepapers to learn more:
ITIL Process and Problem/Incident Management
To p 10 Misconceptions of Problem Management and Incident Resolution

iConclude provides problem management and incident resolution solutions that increase ITIL incident and problem management visibility, reduce escalations and false alerts, and streamline the resolution process.

Our managed automation technology self-heals systems and enables frontline operations and support teams to diagnose, repair, and maintain business- critical applications in a guided and repeatable way. By providing access to critical problem resolution information and leveraging investments in your existing service desk and system management products, our solutions reduce support costs, time to resolution, and system downtime.

For more information.....

 

Opportunity to Attend an Incredible Help Desk and or Call Center Conference for a Deep Discount, or Even No Fee

NWCCP and HDNW boards have agreed to align our organizations with three primary conference events; ACCE, Help Desk Professionals (HDP), and the Government Customer Support (GCS) conference and expos in exchange for very aggressive discounts made available only to our members. You rarely see these deep discounts to attend conferences, so take advantage now.

Our members are also offered the opportunity to be considered to join the faculty of these events in exchange for free passes or even deeper discounted passes. There are a small number of these exclusive, highly rewarding, volunteer opportunities available.

Anyone who volunteers for at least 3 hours is eligible for 50% off the conference you volunteer at! To learn more, email nwccp@hthts.com or call 425-398-9292 and ask for details. Be specific which event you are interested in and what role you would like to perform.

______________________________

The 5th Annual Government Customer Support Conference and Expo for Call Centers, Help Desks, and Service Portals - Arlington, VA June 14-15, 2006
The Government Customer Support Conference and Expo (GCS) is the only event of its kind in the United States with its focus on "Establishing Advanced Federal, State, and Local Contact Centers, Help Desks, and Service Portals.

Captain Geoff Abbot of the U S Coast Guard from the Katrina and Rita disasters will be keynoting about leadership during a disaster. Visit www.governmentconference.com to check out the rest of this incredible program.

Anyone who emails GCS@hthts.com and says they are a member of NWCCP, HDNW or NWSP (Portland) will receive a special discount of $250 off the full conference fee until May 1st, 2005. Call 425- 398-9292 for more information and to register.

Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE) Featuring the ICMI Knowledge Exchange September 11-13, 2006 Washington State Convention & Trade Center http://www.accec mp.com

25% off 2005 early bird pricing!

Save over $800 with this special member discount! If you plan to attend ACCE, this is your opportunity for really big savings. Call 800-441-8826 and use priority code NWFEB. This offer expires March 31, 2006 and will not be offered again.

Volunteer Opportunities
We have special volunteer opportunities available to HDNW, NWCCP & NWSP members. Anyone who volunteers for at least 3 hours is eligible for 50% off the conference!

If you are interested in volunteering, please see or contact me – Rebecca Dawson – for more detailed information. Rebecca@the-event- solution.com or (206) 378- 4409. As your West Coast liaison for ACCE, I am always here to answer your questions!
______________________________

The 8th Annual Help Desk Professionals Conference and Expo will be held in San Antonio, September 25- 27, 2006 at the Hyatt on the Riverwalk, just across the street from The Alamo!

We have an incredible program already under construction - one that will truly rival other similar Help Desk conferences. The program includes topics focused on leadership to a level rarely experienced at a conference of this nature. ITIL will be a key part of the program. Our exclusive Mastermind discussions lead by experts will be held on the primary topics relative to our industry.

If you are interested in being part of the event, email HDP@hthts.com as soon as possible. There are still a few board positions left and a handful of volunteer opportunities. Ask others who were volunteers last year - they loved it! Proof: many are coming back and volunteering again.

This event continues to draw return attendees, many having attended all seven prior years. Our programs are fresh and innovative and explore topics that many don't approach at other similar conferences.

To register or get involved call 425-398-9292 or email Ivy at ivy@hthts.com.

 

Northwest Support Professional (NWSP): March 15th (SPECIAL DATE) Event "Keys to a Success Contact Center" Presented by Michelle Follette, PacifiCorp
http://www.nwsupportprofessionals.or g/p1.asp#December05

_______________ _______

Resource sharings have been submitted by Jerry Rice, Washington Mutual, VP Technology Manager III, a member of our organization.

Getting Things Done” - David Allen: http://www.davidco. com Renowned productivity expert, gives practical advice, tips, tools on being more individually efficient. A blog, a book, a newsletter, some Outlook add-ins. Also does seminars, public speaking. And, importantly, David Allen isn't "ivory tower": he gets well beyond the theoretical abstract and provides suggestions, tool, procedures that can be applied at an individual or team level.

“Presentation Zen” - Garr Reynolds: http://www. presentationzen.com/

"Death by PowerPoint" got you down, little buckaroo? Is the message getting caught up in the medium? Then Garr Reynolds has what you need. Mr. Reynolds gives guidance on how to create and use PowerPoint more effectively.

Of course, most of us have at one time or another seen the PowerPoint version of “The Gettysburg Address”, but I think this guy (Peter Norvig) kicked it up a notch: It starts:

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation
11/19/1863
And now please welcome President Abraham Lincoln.

Good morning. Just a second while I get this connection to work. Do I press this button here? Function-F7? No, that's not right. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to reboot. Hold on a minute. Um, my name is Abe Lincoln and I'm your president. While we're waiting, I want to thank Judge David Wills, chairman of the committee supervising the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery. It's great to be here, Dave, and you and the committee are doing a great job. Gee, sometimes this new technology does have glitches, but we couldn't live without it, could we? Oh - is it ready? OK, here we go:
http://norvig. com/Gettysburg/
--and then gets into the slide show. Quite funny, and permission to use granted on the site.

The Memory Jogger: A pocket guide of tools for Continuous Improvement and Effective Planning: http://www.goalqpc. com "GOAL/QPC offers people practical tools for continuous improvement, quality, and organizational transformation. Best known for our Memory Jogger series, its one of the world’s best selling organizational improvement tools. We also provide on-site training courses, and a membership program featuring innovative ideas for building real change and lasting improvement."

"Confidence – How winning streaks and losing streaks begin and end" - Rosabeth Moss Kanter (who also wrote ‘When Elephants Learn to Dance’ about how large corporations can be nimble and innovative) The three big things, according to her, on how to build confidence and continually win are:

1. Facing facts and reinforcing responsibility

2. Cultivating Collaboration

3. Inspiring initiative and innovation – this is about getting out of ‘passivity and learned helplessness.’ It’s about enabling people to be more self-directed, knowing they are working within the parameters of team success and knowing their role.

Harvard Business School's summary: http://hbswk.hbs.edu /item.jhtml?id=4539&t=audio_conferences

 

New Postings: Premera Blue Cross is currently seeking two new positions:

Director of Call Center Operations to participate in the development and implementation of overall call center strategy. If you are an innovative leader who can raise the bar in our call center and apply your skills and experience to create health- care solutions we need you!

Managers of Operations: Successful candidates will work collaboratively to identify, design and implement process improvement strategies than impact the call center and will be responsible for monitoring and supporting the performance improvement of assigned staff. Positions are available in our Customer Service and planning/forecasting teams.

For more information on the positions duties and qualifications please visit our website at: http:// www.premera.com/employment.

Pierce County Information Technology is seeking to fill an "IT Service Desk Team Lead" position in their IT Operations division. More information about the job, which will be posted for application submittals from March 20 - March 31st, will soon be available at their web site at http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/cfapps/jobs/joblist.cfm#o pen. Look for the position titled "Information Technology Specialist 4". Help them with the exciting journey of bringing ITIL Service Desk, Incident Management and Change Management processes to Pierce County.

Contact is Dawn Umstot at (253) 798-6752.

HouseValues has an opening for an Operations Analyst – Workforce Manager. The individual must have strong call center analysis experience, thrive under pressure, and want to take the lead in developing a best-of-class workforce management operation.

Contact Kylee Tonkin at kyleet@housevalues.com or 425-952- 5405.


High Tech High Touch Solutions has two sales position available. They will be working for me, Ivy Meadors. One position is for a commissioned sales person to sell sponsorships for our conferences. This individual can work anywhere in the United States from their home.

The other position is for an attendee sales person who contacts our prior conference attendees and reaches out to new attendees to invite them to come to our events. This role also includes office administration. The position is in Woodinville, but does offer some limited work at home opportunities.
Please contact Christine our executive assistant for details or to set up an appointment to talk to me about the roles. She can be reached by email at Christine@hthts.com or by phone at 425-398- 9292.


Attachmate/WRQ has an opening for a Sales Services Representative. You will be a part of a team that participates in and supports all sales activities. You must have previous expereince and multi-lingual skills are a plus.

Please contact Elaine Kaspar at elainek@attachmatewrq.com for more information.


Classmates.com has 21 job openings that have just been announced. Contact Carole Todd Anderson at 425.917.4722 or email canderson@classmates.com.



Please send your listings to nwccp@hthts.com to be included in the next announcement.

 

Driving and Parking Instructions to Swedish Medical Center in Seattle at 747 Broadway in Glaser Auditorium on the 1st floor

From the North, traveling south on I-5:· Take I-5 southbound to the James Street Exit (No. 165A). Turn left (east) onto James. Travel for six blocks to the intersection of James and Broadway. Turn left (north) onto Broadway and travel 1.5 blocks. Turn left into the main hospital entrance, and follow the signs to the underground parking garage.

From the South, traveling North on I-5:· Take I-5 northbound to the James Street Exit (No. 164A) · Turn right (east) onto James · Travel for six blocks to the intersection of James and Broadway · Turn left (north) onto Broadway and travel 1.5 blocks · Turn left into the main hospital entrance, and follow the signs to the underground parking garage.

From the Eastside, traveling west on I-90:· Take I-90 westbound to the I-5 North Exit (No. 2C) · Take the James Street Exit (No. 164A)Stay in the right lane and turn right (east) onto James · Travel for six blocks to the intersection of James and Broadway · Turn left (north) onto Broadway and travel 1.5 blocks · Turn left into the main hospital entrance, and follow the signs to the underground parking garage.

From the Eastside, traveling west on SR- 520:· Take SR-520 westbound to the I-5 South Exit · Take the James Street Exit (No. 165A)Turn left (east) onto James · Travel for six blocks to the intersection of James and Broadway · Turn left (north) onto Broadway and travel 1.5 blocks · Turn left into the main hospital entrance, and follow the signs to the underground parking garage.

Parking: You will need to park in the main garage underneath the hospital, There is a charge to park. You may be able to find parking on the street, but it is metered. Bus Service: The Number 9 bus goes right by the hospital. Several others, such as the 3 and 4, stop one or two streets over from the hospital (cross streets are Madison, Broadway, Minor, and James).

Directions to Glaser Auditorium: · Come into the main hospital entrance at 747 Broadway · Glaser Auditorium is on the first floor · From the main lobby, follow signs to the Southwest Elevators. · When you reach the end of the hall, take a right. · The auditorium will be on your left.

email: nwccp@hthts.com

HDNW website: http://www.hdnw.org

NWCCP website: http://www.nwccp.com