Acoustic shock syndrome – don’t employ nervous anxious people in your call-centre, it will cost you

The IT Skeptic takes a break from ITIL and talks about call-centre absenteeism.

The CMDB boundary problem: stop chasing this technological rainbow of a unified CMDB repository

No matter how much you store in a central CMDB repository, there will always be some data somewhere else. Don't fall for all the vendor vapourware of federation tools. Stop chasing this technological rainbow of a unified CMDB repository. These are not technology problems. Fix the congiguration management process, then apply technology to the process if it helps.

A great article on how technology does not fix process in CMDB

Here is another source, George Spafford, saying that tools are not the solution to configuration problems, change process is. As I have said, technology does not fix process. People Process Technology, in that order.

Some things are more important than ITIL

If it seems the IT Skeptic has been a bit quiet in January this is why:

Book review: "I Think Something is Missing From ITIL" by Ian Clayton, reviewed by the IT Skeptic

Recently the IT Skeptic was given a review copy of the book “I Think Something is Missing from ITIL” by the author, Ian Clayton. While the influence of Clayton’s ongoing scrap with the ITIL powers-that-be colours the book and gives personal or negative content too much space, it still forms a powerful critique of ITIL, and even more importantly a fascinating set of ideas for where ITIL should be.

The IT Skeptic has banned Bloglines crawlers

If you use Bloglines and subscribe to http://www.itskeptic.org or http://www.itskeptic.org/rss.xml, sorry but it isn't going to work any more.

ITIL is on the wane - Bruton

Here is an excellent article by Noel Bruton on how ITIL has peaked, that I commend to your attention.

But not just for that concept, though it is a lovely skeptical read. I particularly enjoyed his take on CMDB:

2007 is the year when PC and TV merge.

Further to the predictions of the IT Swami, this is the year when the PC and the TV merge: Apple reveals plans for joining PC to TV. Of course they aren't there yet with this one.

Apple TV, as discussed in September, is a small white box that plugs into a flat-panel TV and wirelessly connects to a Mac or PC over an 802.11n network, allowing content stored on the computer to play on the television.

itSMF predicts competition to ITIL

Further to our recent comments about how ISO20000 will displace ITIL, and how the key players can be seen to be setting up for this, itSMF themselves predict emerging competition to ITIL:

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