President's Message

On behalf of the itSMF Singapore Council members, I would like to extend my warmest greetings to all the members of the chapter.

I am pleased and honored to write this short message for the inaugural issue of this itSMF Singapore Chapter newsletter. This is indeed another milestone in the short history of this chapter. The Singapore chapter was formed on 23 September 2004 and the council members appointed in Nov 2004. The first major event at SUNTEC city in May 2005 on IT Service Management forum featured 18 International practitioners who shared their experiences in the service management arena. A total of 238 delegates from 8 different countries attended the 2-day event. There were two smaller events in the later half of 2005 which drew similar good response. The chapter also started the website (www.itsmf.org.sg) in the 2005 to reach out to the members. Today we launched this newsletter initiative. I must thank the members of the Publications Sub-Committee under the guidance of Mr Ho Eu Jin and Ms Cindy Ling for their great efforts in starting this newsletter. The purpose of this newsletter is to keep in touch with our fellow members, to update them on the activities of and developments in the chapter. This is also an opportunity for us to keep abreast of developments in the IT service management area. This is, however, by no means intended as a one-way communication process. We welcome your views and contributions, or simply drop us a line and tell us about what you feel that this has been beneficial to you. We also like to hear from you how else can we improve on this newsletter to make it more useful.

Finally, I wish the Publications sub-committee much success and look forward to many more issues of the itSMF Singapore newsletter.

Kim-Hung, Ng
President
itSMF Singapore Chapter

Annoucements

Register Online by 25th May 2006 and Stay in the Loop!

Since its inception in December 2004, the itSMF Singapore Chapter has launched several revisions to the website to improve its usability and content. We have recently launched an online membership section that has attracted a good number of registrants. The Website Committee is working on a number of content enhancements catered to members including premiere members-only content, exclusive bookstore discounts for members, online membership update as well as event updates.

To-date, a good number of our members already have an online account. In a bid to centralize all membership processing to the web portal, we cordially invite all existing members to create an online account by 25 May 2006. Do elect to join our mailing list to get updates on news and events.

We look forward to building a closer online community through this effort.

Introduction to itSMF Council and Committee Members

President, Ng Kim Hung

Ng Kim Hung is the President for itSMF Singapore chapter and IT Director, Asia Pacific for EXEL Logistics.

Besides taking the lead for the itSMF chapter, Kim Hung is responsible for charting the IT directions and requirements for Exel Logistics in the Asia Pacific region. His achievements include leading the use of supply chain solutions to support EXEL logistics 3PL business. He has also successfully led his team in implementing the supply chain solutions for EXEL logistics 3PL.

Prior to Exel, Kim Hung was the General Manager of Business Administration & Quality Control department for Murata Electronics Singapore. He was responsible for IT, Warehousing, Sales Support and Quality Control. Before Murata, Kim Hung was in a regional role supporting the IT needs and requirements for AVX/Kyocera in ASIA/PACIFIC. He also spent 3 years with DFS leading a team of 3 analysts and 6 programmers to maintain and enhance the common retail system. He was instrumental in implementing the OTB system for planning.

Overall, Kim Hung has more than 22 years of experience in designing, implementing and managing IT departments. His first 5 years upon graduation was spent at PSA (Port of Singapore Authority). Apart from designing, developing and maintaining the seaport-related systems, he was actively involved in starting the end-user computing environment initiative. After PSA, he spent the next 4 years with CIAS (Changi International Airport Services). Managing a team of 10 IT-staff, he maintains the freight and warehousing systems. He also takes part in the setting up the duty free business and ticketing reservation system.

Kim Hung graduated from the National University of Singapore with his first degree and he also has a post-graduate diploma in Business Management from the University of Surrey, UK. He is married with 2 children and despite his busy schedules, he is pursuing an Executive MBA at the NUS Business School.

Kheng Tiong has over 23 years of extensive experience in various domains of the ICT industry. Over the last 14 plus years he has assumed various senior management roles. Most recently Kheng Tiong was, Director of ICUS.Net Pte Ltd, a global e-learning company, Managing Director (Asia Pacific) and board member of S.AI.L. Port Asia Pacific, a business incubation organization in the speech, artificial intelligence and language technologies, and Vice President (Asia Pacific) of Gartner, a global ICT market research and consultancy company. Before that he was the CIO of Scotts Holdings, a multi-national corporation with diversified business in Singapore. He is currently the Director, School of Information & Communications Technology and Centre for Professional Development of the Republic Polytechnic.

An ardent believer of life long learning, Kheng Tiong has managed to be constantly in the forefront of information and communications technology. He was a much sought after speaker in ICT seminars, events and forums. He is a member of the IT Advisory Committee of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), a board member of CommerceNet Singapore, an Assessor with SRING Singapore and council member of World Skills Council. Kheng Tiong also sits on the Academic Chapter of the Singapore Computer Society and is the Vice President of itSMF.

Peter Edwards is the leader of IBM's IT Optimization services for the ASEAN region. He is based in Singapore and is a Managing Consultant in the Infrastructure Technology Services (ITS) team.

Peter has many years of experience in consulting with customers whilst working in IBM, PWC, HP and a software vendor. He has a specialization in the design and implementation of software applications that support effective management of business environments including ERP packages. During his consulting career he has worked in various industry sectors including Oil & Gas, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Consumer Products, and Public Sector.

Country Director, Singapore, BMC Software Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. As Country Director for Singapore, Nick Lim is responsible for the both the sales and pre-sales technical operations and drives the development of the Singapore market through the direct and channel sales operations. .

Mr Lim joined BMC Software Asia Pacific Pte Ltd as the Enterprise Sales Manager in 1999 and was responsible for the Enterprise accounts sales in Singapore. He was then promoted to manage Indonesia sales operation in 2002 before moving back to focus on Singapore's major accounts sales operation again and subsequently resume the responsible as the Country Director for Singapore.

Prior to joining BMC, Mr Lim was with TMT Technology (previously known as Horizon.com) for about 2 years and had spent another 4 years with Matsushita Electric Work in the earlier days.

Umar Chandran is a retired Air Traffic Controller from the Air Force. Now the Senior Manager (IT Management) with the CIO Office in Defence Science & Technology Agency, responsible for IT Asset, Budget and Service Management.

Ho Eu Jin has been an active member of the itSMF community for many years.

Ho Eu Jin is no stranger to the ITIL/ITSM community and has many years of working experiences in field of ITIL/ITSM. Eu Jin has led many ITSM roles such as ITSM process owner, ITSM Implementation, Account Delivery Manager, IT Operations, IT Project Manager, and IT Governance throughout his working career in Procter & Gamble Company, Hewlett-Packard Company and currently in UBS Investment Bank.

Eu Jin has spoken on itSMF conference before and he is a certified ITIL Service Manager and Instructor. Eu Jin is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and has recently been accepted into the Institute of Service Management (IOSM). He is also a member of the British Computer Society (BCS).

On the sidetrack, Eujin has graduated from The University of Manchester, United Kingdom in Electrical and Electronic Engineering with 1st class honors. Eujin is an ardent traveler with personal travelogues across 40 countries in the world and the number is still growing each year.

As Director & Principal Consultant of Edutech Enterprises, Sushil has been providing advisory consulting and training services in the S. E. Asian region over the last 8 years. His primary areas of engagement are in IT Governance, IT Operations Excellence and Enterprise Architecture. Sushil and his associates work together to provide learning, facilitation and strategy deployment services to assist organisations in integrating process, knowledge, technology and change approaches for improving business and organisational performance. Sushil is a keen proponent of IT Governance.

Besides being a director on the board of the IS Audit & Control Association (ISACA) Singapore chapter, and a council member of the IT Service Management Forum Singapore (itSMF), he is a member of the Singapore Computer Society (SCS), the IT Managers Association (ITMA), the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID), and the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC). He holds a Masters degree in Business Management and has professional certification in Enterprise Architecture and also Managing Information Technology from the U.S.

Hwee Hiong is a Consultant in IT Strategy Services with IBM Global Services. He specializes in Information Technology (IT) Optimization services focusing on IT Service Management (ITSM). In his current assignment, Hwee Hiong conducts ITSM/ITIL workshops, training, assessments and consultation to assist clients in ASEAN/South Asia optimize the delivery of IT services. Hwee Hiong has broad experiences in running enterprise IT operations in regional and global contexts. Hwee Hiong has held various positions in Account Delivery Management, IT Governance, Process Implementation, IT Research and Server & Platform Management whilst with Hewlett-Packard and Procter & Gamble. Hwee Hiong is a certified ITIL Service Manager and Instructor.

Cindy Ling is the Asia Pacific Region Technical Services & ITSM Business Development Manager with Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. In this role, she assumes the responsibilities for planning, management, development and implementation of the Technical Services & ITSM portfolio & its growth initiatives. She has held this position since year 2004.

Cindy started her career with HP in year 2000 as the Asia Pacific Education Services Business Development Manager. She was responsible for the overall business management and business growth for the Instructor-led and ITSM training business. She developed business and process improvement programs to achieve margin, order and revenue goals.

Prior to joining HP, Cindy had assumed service sales and business management responsibilities in Digital, Compaq and Oracle. She has since gained more than 10 years of experience from the IT industry.

In addition to her corporate responsibilities, Cindy is also an active member of IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) Singapore chapter and International Publication Executive Sub-Committee (IPESC).

Cindy holds a Bachelor of Business Degree from Nanyang Technological University, with major in Marketing. She has also attained the ITSM certification in year 2001.

Mei Lim works as Program/Project Manager for Service Management in Intel Corporation. Mei is based in Penang. Prior to joining Intel, Mei was the ITSM Assistant Manager for Exel Asia Pacific operations based in Singapore. She had been involved in regional program implementation of IT Service Management policies, strategy and ITIL processes to deliver high quality IT Services, accountable for monitoring suppliers to agreed service levels, and worked with the Global IT Service Management to manage internal/external relationships to ensure delivery of the IT Service Management benefits.

Mei also played an active role as Chairman of Working Committees and Secretariat for itSMF Singapore Chapter formation. She is now holding Chairman of Event Committees.

She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Business Information Technology, Coventry University, United Kingdom, Dec 1999.

Karl D. Verhulst is the Director - Marketing, Asia South, at Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA). He joined CA in 2005 is responsible for driving the company's marketing strategies in the region. He oversees corporate, channel and product marketing as well as analyst and press relations. Karl works closely with the regional and local sales and CA Technology Services team to ensure that CA's corporate strategies for the region are realized.

Karl has more than 13 years of experience in product marketing, field marketing, sales and channels operations in Asia. Most recently, he was the regional manager of Expand Networks, where he played a key role in building the ASEAN channel infrastructure and best practices, and credited with increasing revenue by more than three folds.

Before that, Karl managed the channels and distribution operation of Citrix Systems in Singapore for 4 years. In that role, Karl managed a team of product manager and pre-sales engineers, developed and maintained channel business. He was instrumental for record sales revenue and closing one of the largest deals in ASEAN for Citrix.

Prior to joining Citrix, Karl held various product marketing and business development positions in Singapore and Indonesia, including companies such as ECS Computers and SiS Technologies.

Karl holds a Master of Science degree in Computing and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.

May 2006

Unveil the 4 Dimensions to Business Excellence - People, Partners, Process, Product of ITSM
1 & 2 Aug 2006 at Suntec Singapore, Ballroom 3 and Foyer

Buy these ITIL Books at 20% Discount!*
Service Support
  ISBN 0 11 330015 8
Service Delivery
  ISBN 0 11 330017 4

*Terms and Conditions Apply

Article of the Month

1. They all studied a common, formal body of knowledge, demonstrating their understanding through a series of rigorous exams and course projects. (so what is our common body of knowledge in IT?)
2. They had all had that knowledge tested in the real world through some form of internship, where their every action was scrutinized by a senior professional in their field (we don't have an internship, we get thrown in the deep end and either sink or swim – regardless of what casualties we cause through our mistakes)
3. They all subscribed to a code of ethics, which meant that the industry was protected against "bad" professionals (we don't often get fired, and when we do, we can still get the some job somewhere else and make the same mistakes again)
4. They could all define and communicate in lay terms what the profession actually did, and most important, how to measure their contribution to the business (Have you tried to describe your job to a non-IT person?)

• As the industry matures, the amount of knowledge needed just to get started has become vast, and IT systems have become too critical to the business to use them as a training ground.
• The business is too reliant on IT to tolerate a "Trial and Error" approach. Nobody should be allowed to manage IT without proven ability.
• IT presents a unique and critical set of challenges that are too complex to be met by applying the principals of another profession

• The industry does not have a standard management course for IT Managers. The options ranged anywhere from an MBA with IT as a major, to an Operations Management course offered by various vendors.
• Who mentors whom? If a person is not classified as a professional, how can they offer mentorship to people who want to become professionals
• There is no standard career experience for IT Managers, so it is difficult to define an acceptable Continuous Development Program

1. Establish a common theory for IT managers. It should be generic enough to apply to a wide range of IT managers, but specific enough so that it is relevant to real life. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is already being used by many companies, universities and countries as a basis for IT Management practice.
2. Establish a certification standard and use it as a basis for employment and continuous development. Although there are many IT Management courses available at various levels, the IT Service Management certification is gaining in credibility and usage.
3. Mentorship and Continuous Professional Development. This is often provided informally or semi-formally within companies, using their own application of ITIL, but recently the Institute of Service Management (www.iosm.com) has started offering a formal professional certification for IT Managers with a formal mentorship program being made available.
4. It is very important that these steps are owned by the industry as a whole, and not just driven by one or two vendors. It should also be expected that the steps will be done differently in different countries to allow for differences in business culture. However the basic steps and content will be the same, to ensure equivalence and continuity of professionals around the world. The IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) is already working to achieve this through various initiatives around the world. Their success will depend on how strongly they represent the industry in each country and throughout the world.