When we started this blog, CMDBs were all the rage. ITIL was at its peak. Practically every single customer asked us about our “CMDB strategy”.
From the start we had the vision that passing event, performance, and business context data through the already overloaded CMDB was a terrible mistake.
First, it was not a “best practice” as opposed to the rest of ITIL initiatives. Back then the number of existing companies around the world that had finished such a CMDB was zero. And it remains zero.
Do you want to be much, much more successful? After introducing The Dilbert Factor at the Buenos Aires University in December and last month in an exclusive session for Catalonian entrepreneurs, I’ll be presenting at the itSMF/ISACA Congress in Barcelona this very Thursday (April 16th) the one and only “Engineering Success: The Dilbert Factor and other stuff I was not taught at the University”. Dilbert sessions coming up: one for Tango/04 customers in Argentina (May 5th) and hopefully many, many more (stay tuned).
The Dilbert Factor is my new keynote speech based on 30+ years of business / technical / life experience: a not-to-be-missed collection of academic and pragmatic practices to achieve success and be happier, taller and more handsome. Not all the stuff is guaranteed to work, though.
Yes, it’s that time of the year again. Got this quick 2014 summary for you, from Barcelona with love.
Tango/04
We launched Alignia, encapsulating the knowledge from hundreds of successful monitoring projects into a revolutionary software product.
Alignia allows you to control, optimize and align these nasty Business Applications, Business Processes, Online Business Services and Business Security in the Interconnected Era (hey, the Extended Enterprise is finally here… and you need to be ready for it).
It has been a major, multi-year, multi-million effort, and we can’t be happier with it. Alignia is rapidly getting traction among leading companies like yours all over the world as they realize that they can unlock lots of value in a matter of hours. (Yes, hours. And not that many.)
Corporate alignment between IT and the Business has never been this easy. Get the whole story here. You’ll thank me later 🙂
We kept adding talented staff, moved to bigger and better offices in Barcelona and we are remodeling our offices in Buenos Aires.
We keep gaining more and more customers in the financial sector. In some countries we help more banks that the whole competition together.
Personal
My mother passed away at the age of 86 on December 8th. She will be surely missed.
I also returned for a while to an old love of mine, cinema direction, and directed The CIO’s Office, a funny mockumentary that warns CIOs about the horrors they may face without Alignia 🙂 It premiered with a warm reception at our Tango/04 Monitoring Symposiums. Academy Awards, here we go!
I also celebrated the 25th anniversary of graduation from college at the University of Buenos Aires, which also invited me to give a speech there this month; it was a pleasure and an honor for me.
Well, thank you fellow readers, customers, friends, partners, suppliers, colleagues and teammates.
Have a really really really WONDERFUL (and ALIGNED) 2015!
And when we say there will be surprises this Friday at the European Monitoring Symposium, we mean exactly that. But here is a little teaser.
Miss it at your own risk.
It is not because it is the only European event solely dedicated to Monitoring, it is not because we are going to present a radical change in the way leading companies do business, it is not because of the fine Mediterranean cuisine, the nice people or the awesome venue.
Well, it is because of all these as well. And it is because of the nice surprises (many of them), but the main reason to attend the Monitoring Symposium is to propel your career forward, to go further faster, whether you are a CIO or a CISO or you are one in the making.
Particularly now, when not advancing means going back.
Because monitoring, understood as Corporate Visibility, is really powerful stuff (hey, that’s what I’ve created this blog for). A wonderful opportunity that many pass on, and regret when it is too late.
And what we are introducing is completely new. Promise.
Well, I said it already. Now it is up to you.
Hope to see you in Sitges this Friday (May 23rd)!
Hugs.
A few years ago, I was just graduating as a ScrumMaster and the Agile community looked to me like a vibrant, energetic group, full of opportunities for learning. Through all that inspiration, I have had the seminal ideas for Agile Service Management so Continue reading
How was our Monitoring Symposium? Fantastic, both the European and the Latin American versions: record attendance, record dizziness in PortAventura (with the highest roller coaster in Europe), record number of bird pictures taken at Temaikèn in Argentina, but above all, record quality of monitoring success story presentations, with experts from Zurich Insurance, BBVA, EMCF, International Card Services, and Supervielle Bank, among others…Many thanks to all speakers and attendees!
Next week I’ll tell you how Visibility could have prevented one of the most notorious astronautics accidents in history. But in the meantime I leave you with a brainteaser, which also has to do with Visibility:
What number comes next in this series?
10, 9, 60, 90, 70, 66
See you soon!
In December we usually have a general gathering with the entire company in Barcelona. We like to do a different activity each year: archery, kart racing, touring the old city competing to see who is first to find a series of historical keys (which is called a gymkhana here), things like that. And after that, go out to eat, of course. Continue reading
Where on Earth have I been? Well, here and there. End of year festivities came around, I went to Argentina, then I went to London, etc. But really I have no excuse. Therefore, I have something in store for you: on Monday I’ll tell you all about my experience leading a band. Wondering what this has to do with being a better CIO, a better CISO, a better manager or a better parent? I haven’t really thought about that yet, but I’ve got until Monday to think it through.
See you soon!
At the Tango/04 Monitoring Symposium in Europe this year, we invited serial entrepreneur and communications guru Conor Neill to open with a memorable keynote. Continue reading
The Visibility Blog by Raul Cristian Aguirre 