Pulse is the premier service management event organised by IBM once a year.  During this event users, IBM employees, clients and business partner get a chance to meet each together. It is also an opportunity to discuss and learn more about the insights of all Tivoli Software products. This year it takes place in Las Vegas and MACS has sent a team to review all things new and interesting. The coming days you will find an account of their experiences in Las Vegas.

Tivoli software for a smarter planet: improve, gain and reduce

Today Pulse started with a general session, opened by Al Zollar, focusing on the story around a smarter planet. He discussed the issues we are all facing (economic recession, environmental, efficiency, etc.), and how IBM Tivoli products can help you improve services, gain value and even reduce environmental hazards. His presentation addressed the dynamic infrastructure IBM feels we need to be able to leverage competition and be ready for the future.

Interaction on one platform: Tivoli software  

Several other presentations were given by IBM executives, addressing the same topics, more specific for their business area’s. Most interesting for us was the live demo given by Laura Sanders and Alan Ganek, showing the audience how IBM Tivoli products can integrate and interact to address the smarter planet. The demo was build around a fake utility company, and the ability to control energy consumption, using smart meters and IBM Tivoli software to manage the environmental impact of energy wasted during off peak times.

IT processes streamlined as a Harley Davidson

A customer presentation by Jim Haney, CIO of Harley Davidson, showed the audience how IBM Tivoli was able to streamline the IT processes and deliver better efficiency to both dealerships and the customer. He mentioned the user experience and community feeling most Harley Davidson riders have, when buying a Harley Davidson motorcycle, which they wanted to have reflected in the IT environment.

Asset Management Track at Pulse: Smart Assets equals Smarter Business = Smarter Planet

After the general session we attended the asset management track kick-off. Bill Sawyer, Vice President, Tivoli Maximo Operations started the presentation by introducing Maximo as a key element to Smarter Planet outlined in the examples below:

• Smarter Asset management: Using Tube Lines as an example he presented how with the use of Maximo Tube Lines has improved their service delivery.
• Vertical Industry Focus
• How Maximo can provide better value by pairing with other Tivoli Products

Dan Miklovic with Gartner also presented how Smart Assets mean Smart Business.  He continued his presentation by outlining the changing landscape meaning that there could be no more separation of businesses.  Business needs flexibility but also needs to be agile.

Maximo Roadmap -  developments IBM Maximo Asset Management

Following Dan was Bill Cheng, Vice President, Asset and Financial Management. He presented the role of asset management in a Smarter Planet and presented the Future Roadmap for Maximo.  Some of the key features of Maximo that are going to be  released in the near future are listed below:

3rd Quarter 2009: First release of Maximo Scheduler
4th Quarter 2009: Maximo Archiving
1st Quarter 2010: Second release of Maximo Scheduler which will include PM Forecasting.

Service Delivery and Process Automation Track - Visibility, Control and Automation  

We also attended the Service Delivery and Process Automation track kick-off, addressing Visibility, Control and Automation and how cloud computing can help you achieve business goals. Michael McCarthey, Vice President Global Technology Services, presented the need for standards, such as ITIL V3 and COBIT, but also explained the different stages IBM uses to develop and deploy IBM Tivoli software. Most important topic was the new IBM Tivoli Service Automation Manager product, which integrated all the IBM Service Management products to not only have one single dashboard for all operations, but also provide the ability to manage the full service lifecycle for all processes and assets, managed by IBM Service Management products. He also addresses the importance of cloud computing, providing companies a private or public pool of resources they can use to better manage the business needs. Cloud computing helps solve issues on what is needed, when it is needed and how it should be delivered. Using the different IBM Tivoli products, such as Tivoli Service Request Manager and the Service Catalog, can help you manage resources more efficiently.

The afternoon was spend in the EXPO center, looking for different IBM Maximo add-on solutions, and successfully taking certification tests for Foundations of Tivoli process automation engine and Fundamentals of Applying Tivoli Service Management Solutions.