Oct 2007

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Editor's Corner

On 17th Aug 2007, our 3rd Annual General Meeting was held and a new council was newly elected into office. This marks another chapter in itSMF Singapore's short 3 year history.

At the start of the term, we have invited our President, Umar Chandran, to pen his thoughts for the new year ahead, as well as highlights on what the council has been embarking on since their appointments. We thought it would also be apt for each member of the council to provide a short introduction of their portfolio and the planned activities that our members can look forward to in the coming months.

Certainly, all eyes will be on the up-coming Asia Summit in November. The organizing committee is glad to announce an impressive list of experts and practitioners who will be speaking this year. It certainly looks like a great gathering of like-minded ITSM enthusiats that should not be missed. Watch this space for coverage of the event in our next issue. Till then, we hope to see you at the Summit!

We welcome questions, feedback and your input. If there is anything you want to see covered in the next issue, please feel free to email to us at newsletter@itsmf.org.sg

Yours sincerely,
Cindy Ling, Ho Eu Jin & Chan Hwee Hiong

Feature

Letter from the President

Dear Members,

I am pleased to announce that the new itSMF Singapore Council, elected by the last AGM on 17 Aug 07, has been working feverously to enhance the operations and activities within the Forum.

Firstly, we have established our itSMF Singapore Secretariat with ieIDEAS located at 180B Bencoolen Street, #06-05 The Bencoolen, Singapore 189648. This is a key step towards establishing a more permanent premises for the Forum in the future. Henceforth, you only need to call one number to get information on the Forum and its activities. However, the Secretariat has just commenced operations and we request members to be understanding as we attempt to streamline its operations. We expect the Secretariat to be fully operational, by end of the year, processing membership applications, publications purchases, raising all invoices and processing all payments, including receipt of mail, etc.

Secondly, our Membership Sub-Committee has been enhancing the Forum's Membership Management System to consolidate a comprehensive membership database online to enable better communications within the Forum. The online Members Registration system has also been overhauled and by now you should have received email notifications to re-register yourselves as a member for have access to the Member's Only areas. The enhancements will allow mass email notifications of activities, events, etc., and enable members to register online for the Forum's activities and events.

Thirdly, following endorsement at the AGM, itSMF Singapore will be engaging a professional events management company to manage the itSMF Singapore Annual Conference for an initial period of 5 years. The next Annual Conference will be held in late Nov 07. Read all about it in the itSMF Website. The Forum will earn revenue from the engagement, which in turn will be used to fund activities and events within the Forum.

Fourthly, following the dearth of events in the past one year, the new Council will focus on bi-monthly events to bring members together to share and learn more about ITIL and ITSM. An annual calendar of desired subject matter is being prepared to enable vendor members to offer to take up slots to host the event or activity. As an added bonus, itSMF Singapore will offset the cost of hosting the events, up to a specified limit, using funds earned from the engagement described above.

And finally, the Council will commence engaging the vendor members to understand their needs and desires within the Forum. We are considering offering website space to vendor members to promote their services, capabilities, products and publish the white papers, etc., on the itSMF Singapore website. We also intend to make the itSMF Singapore website be the one-stop shop for all members and non-members to viewed and read about the various ITSM services, products and search for vendors in the ITSM arena. To reach this goal we look towards members proposing ideas and suggestions to the Council.

Its sure gonna be a hectic schedule for all of us. Join us and feel the fun!

Umar Chandran

itSMF Singapore Chapter Council

Coming your way!

itSMF Asia Summit 2007

Join us at the first ever regional itSMF Asia Summit 2007 and plug into the Asia-wide ITSM community and benefit first-hand from the knowledge and idea exchange at this executive-level summit dedicated to business and operational needs of Asia businesses.

Seats are selling out fast...
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Book your place now!

To register, contact our customer service hotline:
Tel: +65 6322 2701 or click here

New office bearers nominated and elected include:

• Mr. Umar Chandran - President
• Mr. Ho Eu Jin - Vice President
• Mr. Peter Edwards - Honorary Secretary
• Mr. Rama Prasad Mamidi - Assistant Honorary Secretary
• Ms. Anne Lim-Tan - Treasurer
• Mr. Sushil Chatterji - Ordinary Council Member (Events)
• Mr. JC Sekar - Ordinary Council Member (Intellectual Capital)

The meeting was then open to members who shared ideas on increasing the visibility and value proposition of the itSMF Singapore Chapter. Peter Edwards, took the opportunity to invite members to update their details in the enhanced membership database. Members adjourned to a networking session and sumptuous buffet dinner.

Treasurer - Anne Lim-Tan Mission: To ensure that the financial integrity of the society is upheld the financial records are maintained expenditures are in accordance with decisions made by the Council budgetary management is instituted and maintained

High level activities planned for the year:

• ensure successful implementation of financial accounting package (Quicken Quickbooks Pro) to facilitate keeping of proper accounting records.
• Ensure process is in place to ensure proper transaction processing, invoicing and payment tracking
• liaise with the Secretariat for overall control and management of financial transactions
• financial reporting
• liaise with auditor and bank on financial matters
  
  

Web Management Committee - Peter Edwards Mission: To support the ongoing enhancement in functionality of the itSMF web site. Some of the enhancements that are currently under consideration are as follows: High level activities planned for the year: The following activities have been suggested as enhancements to the web site for 2007-8. These enhancement requests will be initiated by the other committees, and the Web Committee will oversee the development of the approved requests:

• Enhance the Publications function to provide a better user interface, and support the administrative activities related to publications orders.
• Develop a function for members to enrol for events via the web. This would be a fairly simple function, where members and non-members can select from a list of events, and enrol for that event. Therefore this function will be available to non-members
• For items 1 and 2, provide validation of the login against the membership DB ie you can't order a publication, or enrol for an event unless we have your contact details in the membership DB, either as a member or a non-member.
• Provide a function for the submission of Intellectual Capital to the members area of the web-site.
• Provide a chat forum / blog for members to discuss specific topics

These enhancements will be reviewed by the Council, and a strategy will be developed to provide an integrated web development project for the next year.

Publication Committee – Ho Eu Jin Mission: To develop and establish publication policies for itSMF Singapore for Newsletter, Periodicals, Journals, Newspapers and Books Ensure that all publications produced by itSMF Singapore meet a consistent standard of quality and benefit to its members Sales, delivery, supplier and order management of itSMF Singapore Bookstore Represent and participate in Global Publication Initiatives (IPESC) Publication of newsletter

High level activities planned for the year:

• Enhancement of the bookstore to have shopping cart and check-out feature
• Increase the number of titles on our bookstore
• Continuation of Newsletter publication
  

Event Management Committee - Sushil Chatterji Mission: To enhance and increase program activities for members through events High level activities planned for the year: Bi-monthly member gathering/evening talks with a featured speaker Joint member-activities with other complementary IT-related associations (e.g. SCS, ISACA, PMI, etc.) Briefings on relevant standards development (ISO/ITSM); and other ITSM-related topics of interest to members

The following events are currently being planned

• Best practices in Service Desk
• Outsourcing
• Introduction to ISO 20000
• Updates to ITSM standards
• CobiT and ICT Governance
• Value & Portfolio management
• ITIL V3
• ITSM tools – architectures and functionalities
• Asset and Configuration management
• Change management

Are you an expert in this area? Would you like to speak on any of the topics? Contact us.