Pulse 2010: A Service Management Smorgasbord

For service management professionals, the argument for attending Pulse—the premiere service management of the year—has always been very strong. At Pulse, in just a few short days, they can bring themselves up to speed on the latest and greatest technological solutions, get early information on emerging challenges, watch technical demos, interact with professional contacts and peers, obtain lab-based certifications and much, much more.

And the argument for attending Pulse 2010 is the strongest yet. This year's show—to be held in Las Vegas from February 21st to February 24th at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas—will surpass all previous shows in the depth and richness of information and opportunities for professional interaction. Consider the following:

• More than 5000 attendees are expected, far more than in any other year.
• Three hundred client speakers will be on hand to discuss service management in the real world—and how to leverage it to obtain real-world business benefits.
• Over 100 IBM Business Partners will be available to showcase their offerings and share their industry insights.
• IBM itself will deliver more than 150 different exhibits of its hardware, software and services—a complete portfolio with a scope unmatched by any competitor, from which a tailored, integrated service management solution can be created for virtually any organization.

Numbers don't lie, and these numbers tell a clear story. Attending Pulse 2010 will be, for service management professionals at every level of the organizational hierarchy—and in fields ranging from security to storage to production to facilities to communications service—one of the strongest investments they can make.

Smarter service management helps to fulfill the possibilities of a smarter planet

Front and center at this year's show will be the relationship between service management and the smarter planet. As the world's infrastructure becomes more interconnected, intelligent and instrumented, many new opportunities to optimize that infrastructure are emerging. By capitalizing on those opportunities, organizations can benefit themselves, their clients and customers and even the world as a whole.

Consider energy efficiency as an example of this situation—and a mandate for organizational change. By reducing the energy required for key services, while also preserving or even increasing necessary service levels, organizations can certainly reduce their costs. That win for the organization, however, is paralleled by the win for the customer base, because money freed from operational overhead (energy expenses) can instead be channeled into innovative services that fulfill customer needs. And when organizations become more energy efficient, they also diminish their carbon footprints—a contribution to the entire world, extending not just to this generation but future generations as well.

The deep relationship between business growth, service management, customer satisfaction and global benefit is clearly an area of great promise, and an area which IBM is committed to exploring. As a sign of that commitment, IBM is pleased to announce, as one of the guest speakers of Pulse 2010, the world's most influential voice on climate change: former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore.

A chance to learn about service management in exactly the ways your organization needs

Engaging keynote speeches, however—even from such distinguished speakers—represent merely the tip of the value-proposition iceberg at Pulse 2010. Consider, for instance, the incredible scope and depth of the show's technical information as reflected by its five streams:

Service Management for IT

For most organizations, IT has become the central nervous system—the underlying service that makes all other services possible. Optimizing IT to achieve superior performance levels, reduce costs and proactively mitigate business risks, therefore, will almost certainly lead to a superior business outcome for the organization as a whole. This is particularly true when IT is optimized in such a way as to better support the services that most closely align with customer demand—the basis of effective service management.

IBM's deep expertise and vast range of solutions—collectively aimed at improving the visibility, control and automation needed to optimize IT—will be on display in this stream. Tracks include Service Delivery and Process Automation; Service Availability and Performance; Security, Risk Management, and Compliance; Storage and Information Infrastructure; Cloud Computing Technologies; and Energy and Efficiency.

Enterprise Asset Management

How can organizations get the best possible return on investment from the complete range of their assets? Answering that question involves taking into account many complexities, such as cross-domain management, length of asset lifecycles, reuse of assets when possible to create more business value, regulation compliance, labor efficiency, component status/change history and others.

Fortunately, the six tracks included in this stream address those complexities and many more. Showcased will be the versatile power of the IBM Maximo asset management family, which gives organizations end-to-end control over all assets, both on and off the IP network, at every stage in their lifecycles and under a single pane of glass. Specific tracks: Asset Management Best Practices, Implementation/Upgrades, Maximo Functional Sessions, Maximo Technical Sessions, the Maximo Utility Working Group and Smarter Asset Management for Your Industry.

Service Assurance for Service Providers

Communications service providers face a challenging environment at present. To diminish customer churn and improve market share, they must maintain or improve the quality of existing services, deliver new services to create a competitive distinction, and rapidly and accurately isolate and resolve technical problems in exceptionally complex infrastructures—ideally, before those problems can create a negative business impact, and if possible, before customers even have a chance to notice them.

Addressing this situation is a broad array of IBM Tivoli offerings that help communications service providers achieve target service levels, effectively manage many classes of content, meet or exceed customer expectations and assure service continuity even given unpredictable and demanding workloads. The Network and Service Management track focuses on the most pertinent factors facing communications service providers today; an Innovation and Futures track discusses tomorrow's.

Software Delivery Lifecycle Management

Achieving a competitive edge in the modern business arena often comes down to offering things competitors don't. That, given today's technological infrastructures, implies new software-driven services. Creating, implementing and enhancing such services, however, means optimizing the software delivery lifecycle to ensure software is created on time, under budget and as bug-free and feature-complete as possible.

In this stream, three tracks turn a spotlight on the many challenges involved in that process—and how IBM and IBM Business Partners can help customers to overcome them via automation, workflow integration, cross-domain collaboration and effective monitoring and tracking of every stage in the software lifecycle. These three tracks are Smarter Products Delivery and Management, Quality Management for Applications and Services and Change Management for Applications and Services.

Service Management for Business Leaders

Ultimately, technology and technology-driven services should operate in the service of business goals—and among the most important of those goals today is effective service management. Executives chartered with making the best use of the organization (including its complete infrastructure) in the ongoing pursuit of best-in-class service management will certainly benefit from this stream, which focuses on such intricacies as creating actionable business intelligence, improving process efficiency and team collaboration and optimizing core competencies to drive growth over time.

Two tracks—Service Management for Your Industry and Hot Topics in Service Management—exemplify the vast experience IBM has in working with organizations around the world to create a better business outcome through better service management.

And for mid-market, growing organizations, IBM will also be offering a third track—Service Management for Midsized Businesses—which takes into account the increased business agility, but reduced assets and resources, that often characterize organizations of this class.

Create a custom agenda, capitalize on social networking and get a reduced rate

Agenda Builder

Those who plan to attend the show and would like to develop a custom agenda to remind them of exactly which sessions they mean to attend on which days will be pleased to find that IBM has provided an online agenda builder to help them accomplish exactly that. Given that the user has an IBM ID, this resource can quickly and easily help show attendees create an agenda that will best meet their interests (and their organizations') by taking optimal advantage of the endless resources available at Pulse.

Pulse Palooza

While the educational opportunities of Pulse 2010 are truly exceptional, the opportunity for social interaction with 5000 peers and industry experts will be just as great. Making that case irrefutable is Pulse Palooza. This party, to be held from 7pm to 10pm on Tuesday, February 23rd at the Grand Garden Arena, will boast live music in a fun, informal environment where attendees can easily relax and get to know each other better.

This year, Haute Chile—a particular favorite from Pulse 2009—will be returning to entertain with their versatile range of hits from Motown, Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, Disco and Hip-Hop genres.

Available discounts

Now is the time to register for Pulse 2010! Those who intend to be at the show would do well to take advantage of the many discounts and financial bargains available. Among others:

• A $500 discount off the normal fee for all Pulse 2009 clients and partner attendees. If you attended in 2009, you can attend in 2010 at this reduced rate by using the code PULSE10ALUM when registering.
• Groups of five can save $100 per person.
• IBM clients, employees and business partners who travel to the show via American Airlines will qualify for an eight percent reduction in airfare if they use promotional code 92220AR when booking their flights. This option is available both when booking online and when booking through a travel agency.

• Pulse 2010 overview
• Streams and tracks details
• Agenda Builder
• Registration Page

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