Blogging from HDI 2008

Blogging from the annual HDI conference at the Gaylord hotel in Dallas. If you're looking for high fashion, high energy, or oxygen (we're in one of the world's largest atria - think Biosphere without the plants), go to Miami Beach. If you're looking for the epicenter of IT activity, this is the place. There are more than 2,500 attendees and about 80 vendors - all here discussing (ad nauseum) ITIL, the service desk of the future, and "fixing customers not problems."

I'm biased but I've seen two keys shifts in thinking since last year. The first is a broad rejection of "traditional", "antiquated" software pricing models. It seems the proliferation of subscription-based pricing is infiltrating the minds of IT management. Anecdotally, it's not influencing the minds of finance yet but that's not far behind. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had (actually, I can - five so far) with customers who are generally happy with their service and support products but are evaluating new ones because they're fed up with maintenance bills and rigid contracts and are using that as an excuse to switch.

The second is a shift in how the now-cliched "proliferation of all things wireless" is impacting IT. Last year, wireless was on the mind of HDI attendees (this year we lack oxygen, last year it was sleep - the event was held at the Mandalay Bay) but it was IT tools like help desk and asset management apps they were talking about mobilizing. Most of the mobile and wireless dialog was narrowly-focused around best practices for better-arming field technicians.

Today, not the case. The discussion is about how to support mobile employees - not just field techs. How new technologies like public WiFi, virtual teams, ultra mobile PCs, and iPhones create opportunities and challenges for IT. How IT processes and infrastructure can become as mobile as the business. Examples: one university customer said he needs a better way to disseminate information (from course catalog updates to security threats) to mobile phones and PDAs used by more than 50,000 faculty, students, and staff. Another said she needs to enable and support PDAs and wireless printers used by 1,000 police officers. Her department's goal is to reduce the time it takes to have traffic tickets enter the system from the current (abominable unless you're on the receiving end) six weeks to a more palatable one day.

Again, I'm biased, but I've been quietly applauding this shift in attitudes. Not because it benefits my company but because it's a sure sign the push to align IT with the business is finally transcending the call center.