|
 |
|
|
 For a current list of Presentation Abstracts, please click the picture of "Animated Pete". Pete's areas of expertise are:
- Support Leadership (as delivered at the HDI 2008 Event)
- Business Case Creation
- IT Customer Service
- IT Service Management (ITIL)
- Selling Senior Management
- Service Desk Operations
- Support Strategies & Structures
- Support Industry Trends and Directions
- Business case creation and presentation
- Marketing and communications
- Support best practices
- Leadership, coaching and mentoring
- Support Metrics and reporting
Pete continues to score in the top 5% of all speakers that are presenting at the conferences. He has frequently been selected "best speaker" at the top service and support conferences.
To access recent Customer Speaker Evaluations from Pete's Sessions at the 2005 Government Customer Support Conference, please click here.
To inquire about having Pete speak at your next conference or special event, please contact him at pete@mcgarahan.com or 714.694.1158.
Presentations:
2008 CSU Help Desk Leadership Conference
9:00 am – 11:00 am Presentation: "Executive Overview of ITIL Best Practices for Service Desk Management"
Presenter: Pete McGarahan, Founder and President of McGarahan & Associates
Download presentation:
HDI Sponsored: - http://www.thinkhdi.com/.
Career Opportunities for Support Professionals
Mark Twain said, "You can be on the right track and still get run over by a train". To prosper in a world of increasing globalization, fierce competition, downsizing, outsourcing and offshoring, support professionals must focus on differentiating themselves with a value proposition. It is important in today’s business world to continuously improve your skills to meet market demands. The importance of IT within the business is unquestioned – the importance of IT and support professionals continuing to build their business acumen, communication, financial and leadership skills should be a high priority! Pete speaks on acquiring the right skills and experiences to become a value-add to the organization. Support professionals and leaders need to broaden their scope of services and create expanded opportunities for their staff. Support professionals today must be the "CEO of You" and treat themselves and their careers like their own business. Pete covers topics like networking, continuous education, achieving and communicating results.
 Metrics That Matter
Organizations continue to struggle with measuring what is important to the business as well as the strategic and tactical role of the service desk. Best-in-class support organizations are always investing in their business to increase efficiency, effectiveness and improve customer satisfaction to positively impact the bottom-line. Support leaders not only know these investments improve customer satisfaction; they can prove it by better understanding the Metrics That Matter. It is important for these support leaders to get out of the office and spend time with their customers and the business to determine what is the foundation for developing metrics that matter. Upon the discovery of what matters most to the business, you then work to figure out how to measure it. There are more than enough metrics to measure. Focus on what you must measure in terms of operational, financial, customer and business performance metrics. Keep it simple and keep it relevant to what really matters most to your business.
 The Service Desk Survival Guide for 2005
Economic cycles bring alternating waves of funding and budget cuts, creating an atmosphere of success and/or tragedy. In this atmosphere, Service Desk managers must be prepared to defend the value of their support organization to the business, or they risk not surviving. How can Service Desk leaders prepare themselves for budget battles by not only surviving, but also thriving? What strategies and tactics can they employ to survive, operate a cost-effective, best practice driven Service Desk function? Please read on.............
Opportunities and challenges lie ahead in 2005 and beyond. What are they? What are the compelling issues, the potential successes, and the unforeseen landmines for support leaders in the Retail sector? Peter McGarahan addressed a group of Retail Help Desk leaders at the 2005 Retail Systems Conference with those intriguing questions and examined key trends in retail business, operations, technology, processes, and staffing. From infrastructure upgrades, multi-channel support, integration of complex back-office and front-office systems with emerging technologies, and doing it all with less, the group learned what they could do to better prepare themselves for the road ahead ¾ and for success.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Change or Irrelevance: Career Changing Technologies
07/14/2011
Rapid, breathtaking technology advances are forcing radical changes not only in how IT organizations function, but also in terms of their culture, leadership, and even careers. Combined with business, social and global trends, as well as technology investing (spending), IT organizations must accelerate their organizational change plans in order to survive and thrive. They must assess and plan for complete transformation - strategy, structure, people, processes, and tools.
Are we preparing our IT professionals to plan for and make these changes? Are we helping them position themselves and their organizations for success in this dynamically evolving world?
This Cutter Consortium article assess and addresses the impacting wave of the rapidly changing IT and business trends on traditional IT careers, positions, and skill sets.
This wake-up call is best described by a quote from four-star US General (Ret.) Eric Shineski: "If you don't like change, you'll like irrelevance even less."
The “Business” Service Leadership Agenda
07/14/2011
BSMReview.com
Next Practices in Business Service Management
The “Business” Service Leadership Agenda by Peter J. McGarahan
The Defining Moment of Truth
Why do some companies consistently exceed their business customers’ expectations and others fail to meet their customer’s basic demands and needs? Why do smaller, flexible companies seem to care more about the business impact of customer service than larger credit card, banking and cable organizations? Does the exuberant profits and size of these larger companies (“Too Big To Fail”) create a situation where customer service is no longer a competitive differentiator nor a strategic imperative? MSN Money’s fifth annual Customer Service Survey was recently published revealing the top ten companies earning a place in their Customer Service Hall of Shame and Hall of Fame. The “business” service differentiation comes down to knowledgeable and friendly staff, available and responsive staff, trust, transparency, genuine care and understanding of their customer. Simple you say, obviously not!
The Service Leadership Agenda
11/21/2011
The Service Leadership Agenda
The Defining Moment of Truth
Why do some companies consistently exceed their customers’ expectations and others fail to meet their customer’s basic demands and needs? Why do smaller, flexible companies seem to care more about customer service than larger credit card, banking and cable organizations? Does the exuberant profits and size of these larger companies (“Too Big To Fail”) create a situation where customer service is no longer a competitive differentiator nor a strategic imperative?
Learn How to Create a Highly Efficient and Effective Support Organization
04/21/2011
SupportIndustry.com Webinar:
Best Practice Strategies for Creating a Highly Efficient
and Effective Support Organization
In case you missed it, SupportIndustry.com recently conducted a webinar on Best Practice Strategies for Creating a Highly Efficient and Effective Support Organization, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive by attendees. In response to this, we are offering the on-demand version to you to watch at your convenience. More information about the event is below!
Professionalism in the Contact Center
04/21/2011
What is professionalism anyway & why does it matter?
Dana Pigford, founder of Professionalism Matters, Inc, defines professionalism as "being responsible and accountable and treating people the way you would like to be treated."1 Service and support consultants, Pete McGarahan and Ric Mims, in an excellent article, "The Essence of Professionalism,"2 suggest that professionalism is composed of such values as courtesy, respect in dealing with clients and, "Do they take pride in their appearance, their work ethic, and the quality of the work they do?"3 In addition, they observe that "In simpler days, professionalism had everything to do with customer service, relationship building, and creating the foundation for effective, persuasive communication across all levels of the organization."4 They also suggest that a good definition of professionalism "...isn’t your appearance and your aptitude, its attitude: knowing what to do, and doing it with passion and purpose."5
A CRM Approach to Business Service Management?
04/21/2011
A CRM Approach to Business Service Management?
by Peter J. McGarahan
I have been designing, delivering and supporting IT services for most of my 27 years as an IT professional. Time and time again I’ve encountered IT organizations that didn’t keep the customer or their business top of mind when designing and delivering services. Instead, they delivered “cool” technologies or strategies that met IT’s expectation and requirements, but didn’t directly benefit the business customers.
Are You Missing The Point About Customer Care?
12/04/2010
Are You Missing The Point About Customer Care?
By Peter J. McGarahan
Inbound Magazine - Issue 01:2010
Design customer centric services that improve service deliver.
Reducing Support Costs!
06/01/2010
Reducing Support Costs with a "Shift-Left" Strategy: An Interview with Pete McGarahan
By Cinda Daly
"Arise, ye service leader! The time is now!" proclaims Pete McGarahan, an industry thought leader and respected consultant for twenty-five years. It's not a new concept that service leaders need to run their support organization like a business. Achieving that point, however, is challenging. With continuing pressures to drive down support costs, service leaders need to optimize the business model: determine what's really important, then dive deep into the detail of structure, process, people, and tools. [More]
|
|
