Updates from Pulse 2011 - Day 2/3
The highlight of Day-2 of course was our joint session with Arizona Public Services which was part of a Post Implementation Panel: Improving Operational Performance. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)'s Donnie Martin went first and then for 30 minutes, Ruchi Mitter from APS, Uma Shankar Padhy from our client services team and Venkat Aduri from the implementation team got to speak on the APS SOAR (not "SORE" as Ruchi reminded everyone) journey which stands for Standardize,Optimize,Automate and Review. I felt our session was a lot more content rich, going beyond program level aspects like change management, incident management and SDLC to more EAM/Maximo/Utility-level specifics.
There were a slew of meetings with IBM senior executive cutting across geographies, industry verticals and business functions. For me, the three areas of alliance focus for building a great EAM practice would be sales, marketing and competency.
- On the competency side of things, we have made significant strides thanks to a very helpful alliance partnership, the next level of evolution there would be to get the various internal IPs built over years including tools, accelerators and methodologies certified and vetted under the Tivoli umbrella.
- Marketing needs to continue to spread the message and for that, Pulse is as big a platform as one can get. Our several collaterals this time created on diverse aspects from EAM implementation to maturity model to after-sales service have given more momentum there.
- On the sales-front, it will always be about shared interests on the field. That's the message that I have been driving, in terms of focusing on key verticals of common focus and bringing in some cadence to the relationship.
Am I giving away all my practice strategy secrets? Not really, I do believe it all boils down to strategy execution once the thinking hats have been taken off.
Day-2 evening was spent with another set of client folks watching the much celebrated David Copperfield's show, who along with most of his ilk, have been thoroughly (and unfortunately) demystified thanks to the internet. So while the magic didn't always surprise, there is no question that he's a wonderful showman. More than anything else, magic is also about practice (sharpening your saw) and great team work (synchronicity) which is required to create the perfect illusion and the wow factor. This specific logistics client we had dinner with is trying to pull off something truly unique - think communication centers (facilities) with monitoring computers (ITSM), think locomotives (physical assets) with onboard computers (ITSM) and then think, IT servers (ITSM) and data centers (facilities). What smart planet envisaged, they're slowly crafting it all into reality.
I also took the time to walk around the various stalls and booths. Barring another major competitor, we had over a dozen tiny boutique shops focusing on Maximo implementations. It reaffirmed my thinking that we're on the right track here with our Maximo team. There is a strong case for a global SI to be the partner of choice for Maximo implementations worldwide, we need to be that go-to partner. An interesting booth was that of Ariba where they were offering Ariba marketplace for procurement transactions from Maximo, around spares purchase or other material indents going beyond the enterprise, with support also in the invoice & settlement (payment processing) area. There were several mobility providers as well, with iphone extensions naturally being the rage.
The most amazing aspect about being at Pulse (and for me Tivoli brand is all about Maximo!) was getting a feel of the sheer diversity of product usage. Its not about the same finance module in ERP being implemented across industries and geos. For EAM, each client is constructing his or her own totally unique story via a very tailored deployment of the product. We met non-profit medical research companies looking at facilities management & calibration to railroad companies planning out their convergence story to oil & gas companies deploying it for their far flung assets to clients providing maintenance as a service trying to figure out how to track their crews and mobile assets. No two EAM usages are truly alike. In that respect, it celebrates the diversity of assets for each of its customers, down to the individual user looking at his set of assets.
All in all, there is tremendous value to be at Pulse, so we'll surely be back next year. We have had expo theater session, a stump speech (so to speak) during oil & gas group focus meeting, co-session with the customer, one-to-one meetings with senior IBM executives, strong booth presence etc., so in the next year, we would need to up the game further.
Next up would be IBM Impact where the Sterling Commerce acquisition is going to be showcased under the umbrella for the first time, happening in less that 5 weeks from now. Infy will be there and in all likelihood, on an even bigger stage.
