Cloud-based IT Service Management pioneer, Service-now.com is holding their annual user conference titled “Knowledge” at San Diego on April 18 – 22, 2010 at the Omni San Diego Hotel. The 4th annual conference of the SaaS player will officially start on April 20, with pre-conference sessions happening on the days before. The agenda has not been fixed yet and the call for papers is on.

Last year’s user conference was attended by 300 people, most of them being customers and partners from the Service-now eco-system.

User conferences are a good thing. It brings customers together with both the company and fellow customers. They learn from each other’s experiences and strategies. The vendor gets the opportunity to talk about best practices that can be used in the product(s). Case studies help understand different perspectives to tackle a problem. It can also be a great place for solution providers and partners to highlight their presence and expertise.

Some of the topics that could be covered in Service-now’s conference include:

• Creating a service catalog
• Designing an effective CMDB
• Workflow Automation
• Adopting ITIL v.3
• The full list is here.

I checked with Service-now and they have opened the conference to other vendors and speakers – it is not just restricted to people using/deploying Service-now. That is a good thing because finally the customer benefits.

Other interesting shows that you may be interested in going are:
- HDI’s 2010 Annual Conference and Expo – March 16 – 19, 2010 at Orlando Florida (http://www.thinkhdi.com/hdi2010/)
- Forrester’s Infrastructure & Operations Forum 2010 – March 17-18, 2010 at Dallas, Texas (http://www.forrester.com/events/eventdetail?eventID=2436)
- Interop Las Vegas – April 25 – 29, 2009 (http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/)

More details on upcoming events can be found on our events page.

- MEDIA ALERT -

ManageEngine (www.manageengine.com), makers of a globally renowned suite of cost effective network, systems, security and applications management software solutions, today announced it will demonstrate a number of its products at the HDI 2009 Annual Conference & Expo, in the Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Booth 634 (under parent company name, AdventNet), from April 6 – 9.

Conference attendees will have an opportunity to see and learn more about the following ManageEngine applications:
• ServiceDesk Plus (www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk/index.html) – an ITIL Ready Help Desk capable of quickly identifying the cause of, and resolving, internal technical problems by providing Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Remote Control, Reporting and a Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Integrated Asset Management, Purchase Management and Contracts Management functionality is included in some editions.
• Desktop Central (www.manageengine.com/products/desktop-central/index.html) – automates the management of thousands of PCs by providing a full range of desktop lifecycle management capabilities, from simple configuration management to complex software deployments.
• SupportCenter Plus (www.manageengine.com/products/support-center/index.html) – a web-based customer support Help Desk application that provides Trouble Ticketing, Account & Contact Management, SLA Management, a Customer Self-Service Portal and an extensible Knowledge Base.
• AssetExplorer (www.manageengine.com/products/asset-explorer/index.html) – provides enterprise-wide asset visibility and control by periodically scanning IT assets and keeping up-to-date track of inventory, ownership and software license usage.
• ADManager Plus (www.manageengine.com/products/ad-manager/index.html) – helps Active Directory Administrators and Help Desk Technicians with their day-to-day activities, including handling a variety of complex tasks, such as bulk management of user accounts and other Active Directory objects; delegating role-based access to Help Desk Technicians; and generating an exhaustive list of Active Directory reports, some of which are an essential requirement to satisfy compliance audits.

WHO: ManageEngine

WHAT: Demonstrating affordable, effective, enterprise management applications

WHERE: HDI 2009 Conference & Expo, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Booth 634

WHEN: April 6 – 9

Greg Wise

VP

Weber Shandwick, for ManageEngine

512-794-4716

gwise@webershandwick.com

HDI 2009 starts in less than 2 weeks. And I was going through the HDI website and found a lot of vendors showcasing this time – around 75. But the vendors serve a lot of interests. There are vendors who provide consulting, BPO services, call-centers, remote monitoring, password management, headsets, training solutions and of course, helpdesk software.

Since the interest here is help desk software, I thought I will pull out the list of help desk software vendors. I just thought it would be easy for someone attending the show and looking for a help desk software to know who those vendors are and maybe meet them directly. I know what it feels like to get lost on the show floor and hate having to figure out whether a booth has a solution that I need or not.

So here is the list of help desk software vendors (only):

• AdventNet, Inc. (www.adventnet.com)
• Axios Systems (www.axiossystems.com)
• BMC Software, Inc. (www.bmc.com)
• C2 Innovations, Inc. (www.c2innovations.ca)
• CA, Inc. (www.ca.com)
• Cherwell Software Inc. (www.cherwellsoftware.com)
• EMC Infra (www.infra-corp.com)
• Flowan Software, Inc. (www.flowan.com)
• FrontRange Solutions (www.frontrange.com)
• Hornbill Systems Inc. (www.hornbill.com)
• ICCM Solutions (www.iccm.co.uk)
• InteQ (www.inteqnet.com)
• ISOdx Solutions (www.isodxsolutions.com)
• Marval North America, Stroma Inc. (www.stroma.ca)
• Monitor 24-7 (www.monitor24-7.com)
• NetSupport, Inc. (www.netsupport-inc.com)
• Numara Software (www.numarasoftware.com)
• Parature (www.parature.com)
• PMG Software (www.pmg.net)
• RightAnswers, Inc. (www.rightanswers.com)
• Service-now.com (www.service-now.com)
• SITEHELPDESK.COM LTD (www.sitehelpdesk.ca)
• SpiceCSM (www.spicecsm.com)
• SunView Software Inc. (www.sunviewsoftware.com)
• Symantec (www.symantec.com)
• TechExcel, Inc. (www.techexcel.com)

If I have missed out anyone, please comment here and I will add them to the list.

I couldn’t find information on booth numbers on the HDI website (strange!). So if any of you vendors see this post, it would be appreciated if you comment with your booth numbers and I will append them here.

If you are someone looking for a help desk software, this is the list you need at HDI. You have 4 days. Look around. Ask for demos. Get their trial copies. Install and play around with it. And choose the one that suits you the best – features, price and value.

So who’s going to HDI?