The Service Management Soapbox

As I write this, I am on the long flight home from São Paulo to Washington (and delayed, so I’ll most likely miss my connection home … again!). I was just in Brasil (their spelling) for the national itSMF conference. As always, my visit was wonderful! The Brazilians are such warm and wonderful people, and our EMC team there is second to none. They are always gracious hosts!

This is my second year speaking at the itSMF Brasil conference and there are a few observations I must note. First, the event felt a bit smaller this year than in 2006, which is contrary to what one would think, since ITIL adoption and itSMF membership are on the rise. We shall see what the numbers tell us. I heard one report of 500 attendees. This is very respectable, since the U.S. conference the prior month drew 2000.

I was informed that this coming weekend is the Brazilian Gran Prix and that hotel rooms are nearly impossible to find. This might contribute to the apparent decline in attendance from those needing to travel into São Paulo from other parts of Brazil. I’m amazed that my local colleagues were able to book me a room in the Hotel Transamerica, where the event was held! I did notice a lot of race team jumpsuits on people in the hotel!

One other aspect that made it appear smaller was the exhibit floor. Last year, it was a rather large room with all vendors together. This year, the major vendors (including EMC placed front and center!) were in the main room and the smaller services companies were in an adjoining room. I suspect we actually had a few more vendors this year, but the smaller rooms gave the illusion of a smaller event. Again, we shall see what the official numbers tell us.

My presentation was well attended, so I thank all who came to hear the big American speak to them in English. Yes, I learned a little Portuguese prior to my visit, but “Eu no falo Portuguese muito bem!” (I don’t speak Portuguese very well). For me personally, this year’s event was much better because I had more attendance and many nice comments on the speech.

Another observation was the passion with which the Brazilians are pursuing ITSM. I was impressed. They all confess that they are behind the curve in ITIL adoption relative to the U.S. and Europe. Anyone will tell you that the entire hemisphere (North and South America alike) is behind Europe, but I don’t believe Brazil is behind the U.S. They seem to be at about the same stage. Brazil jumped on the bandwagon only two or three years ago, but this coincides with the U.S. inflection also. Both countries had their early adopters, but ITIL suddenly hit its tipping point in late 2004. I would admit that the U.S. has seen more overall attention, but actual maturity levels appear similar. I’ll try to dig up some empirical data to support this hypothesis.

Brazil has some large native enterprises that are making great strides in ITIL; companies such as Petrobras, Banco do Brasil, and CTBC. Many multinationals such as HSBC, Citicorp, and Siemens also have major operations in Brazil. Some of them are forced to follow edicts from the home office, but most have some freedom to innovate and prove to headquarters how ITSM can improve operations worldwide.

EMC has not been well known as an ITSM leader, but this is changing rapidly and extensively. In addition to my presentation, we held another that was a case study at CTBC that highlighted our services and our software solutions to help CTBC achieve dramatic gains in their process execution. Two years ago, almost nobody associated EMC with ITSM, but now they seek us out for our innovative solutions. Camila Fusco, a journalist from Computerworld Brasil interviewed me about EMC’s strategy and she also interviewed our CTBC customer who presented the case study.

It is always enlightening for me to participate in such events in other countries, as it helps put our U.S. status in perspective. The best element, however, is that I get to meet some brilliant people who are determined to improve and are willing to take the difficult steps to get there. And above all, they tolerate my almost total reliance on English. To the Brazilians, I can only say, “Muito obrigado!” I can’t wait to come back!

I have some critical advice to the uninitiated visitor to Brazil: If your local hosts invite you to a churrascaria, go*, but be warned that you may eat enough meat to explode! These are the traditional Brazilian barbecue restaurants you see in the airline magazines and maybe in a city you know. I went to the original Fogo de Chão last year and also this year. The meat was unbelievable and sliced right at your table, but they just keep bringing it, like the relentless storm surge of a hurricane. You must flip the little circular card to the red side to make them stop. After they do, you will be totally satisfied … and probably feeling a bit like Mr. Creosote from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life!

* vegetarians need not apply! These are clearly places for die-hard carnivores!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 21:53 and is filed under ITIL, General ITSM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.