HelpDesk Institute sold to United Business Media: what does this mean for ITSM and ITIL?
So Ron Muns has cashed in his HelpDesk Institute, also known as ThinkHDI, also known as Think Service Inc, for a cool $30 million, give or take small change. What does this mean for the Service Management community?
Think Service has been acquired by United Business Media for its subsidiary(?) CMP Technology. This will give them all something to talk about at the next HDI conference in March in Dallas (most of you have probably had the multiple brochures in the mail). And the nice fat cheque will inspire the likes of the IT Service Management Institute. Well done Ron!
The IT Skeptic had wondered in the past whether HDI represented a potential competitor to itSMF to provide a professional organisation for ITSM practitioners, or even an alternate BOK to ITIL.
To date they have skittered around the edge of ITSM, prefering to focus on the call centre side of the service market. The name change to Think Service showed signs of trying to align more closely with ITSM. The CMP acquisition means one of two things:
(1) CMP wants to go that way
(2) CMP will bring it back to call centres
A search of the CMP website for the word "ITIL" does not indicate high levels of attention to ITSM right now. Nor are media companies noted for taking conference organisations in new and innovative directions. The IT Skeptic suggests CMP will be more interested in running the existing formula for as long as the conferences pay.
So as far as the ITSM community is concerned, I think this means HDI will continue to operate at the periphery - no impact on status quo.
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