The secret of my success
As we try and profile all of our regular contributors in the Secret Of My Success section at the back of every VitAL issue, I decided it was high time I put myself in the chair and shone the angle poise lamp of truth in my own eyes for a change. So, this month we feature Matt Bailey, journeyman business-to-business journalist, editor and IT enthusiast.
A maverick in the IT service management market, Cherwell Software is starting to challenge the proprietary software giants of ITSM according to industry pundits. VitAL editor Matt Bailey spoke to the company’s Europe managing director Tony Probert.
Knowing that the roots of Cherwell are in the United States, I was always a little intrigued as to why the company was named after a river that flows near Oxford in the UK and lends its name to a service station on the M40. I suspected there must be a town or area in the States that could account for the brand. In fact the company is named after the Oxfordshire river. “The name Cherwell comes from the River Cherwell, which flows through the central part of England and joins the River Thames in Oxford,” says the company. “Even though we are a US-based company, we are fond of the history surrounding this river. The graphic in our logo is symbolic of these two rivers merging together.”
We ask Gareth Davies, managing director of schools learning platform solutions company Frog, to divulge the secret of his success.
VitAL: Name, company and job title please? Married? Kids?
Gareth Davies: Gareth Davies, Managing Director, Frog. Married with two kids, Alex aged six and Evie aged three.
VitAL: What got you started in IT?
GD: I borrowed a friend’s Sinclair Spectrum when I was 11. My dad bought me a BBC Micro for Christmas – after tinkering with it for a while I realised that I could make it do anything I wanted. I wrote my first stock control system at 12, started developing games from home at 16 for two companies and left school at 16 knowing what I wanted to do.
A new paper from Hornbill examines the initial stages of the ITSM maturity journey, starting with the ‘chaotic’ initial steps and explaining how the adoption of ITIL can provide fast benefit, setting the stage for further maturity. Patrick Bolger, CMO of Hornbill, explains
The journey of service improvement can take the IT organisation from the reactive and technology-centric focus characterised by the helpdesk, to a vision of business-centred services which drive value to the ultimate benefit of the organisation.
A common sense approach to ITIL significantly improves service delivery at at high street retailer Comet and enhances credibility of IT within the business. “We don’t call it ITIL – it’s just good common sense customer service, and we have cut call volumes by 40 percent!” says Rob Gwatkin, service desk manager at Comet Group.
Comet is a leading specialist electrical retailer with more than 250 stores throughout the UK, offering a wide range of electrical products. The company offers a unique all-round shopping experience with a range of services including home delivery, full installation of products such as televisions and computers, take back and recycling facilities for large products and comprehensive after sales service.
As the public sector cuts start to bite across the board, VitAL Magazine editor Matt Bailey speaks to West Lancashire Borough Council chief executive Bill Taylor MBE and finds out what one council in North West England can do with its IT in order to meet the challenge. It is certainly a time of upheaval, [...]
Kevin T McDonald, Washington USA-based senior information technology analyst and cloud strategist for ICF International Inc offers his perspective and strategies for greening your business. The planet has entered a new era where everything is on-demand. The public and private sectors are all in, with YouTube videos explaining everything, from how to play jacks to [...]
A timely and detailed guide as to how to embark on a cloud project, what to consider and how far to commit. John Rollason of NetApp heads into the cloud. Cloud computing is a reality, and it’s a force that I believe IT professionals need to come to terms with quickly. The economic motivation for [...]
As recent news reports prove, the problem of hacking is not going away, if anything it is increasing. Steve Smith, managing director of Pentura offers advice on what to do if you’ve been hacked. When your business discovers it has been hacked there are different mentalities on how to deal with it; for the Private [...]
Forrester study shows 108% ROI 
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