News Highlight 2009-06
19 June 2009

itSMF Hong Kong - News Highlight 2009-06

To keep our members and fellows staying in the forefront of the industry, we strive to deliver the hottest update on ITSM industry, local IT industry, and the Chapter. Here are headlines covered in this release:

Industry news
1. "IT and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)" Round Table Discussion 「IT與智能交通」圓桌研討會 (2009.06.15)

Chapter's updates
2. Annual General Meeting 2009
3. Professional Development Event - Visit to ISO/IEC 20000 Organization
4. Update on eBookshop
5. Launch of New Web Site
6. Access to Newsletter
7. New Chapter Sponsors

Industry News
1 " IT and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)" Round Table Discussion 「IT與智能交通」圓桌研討會 (2009.06.15)
Mr. William Lam, Director of Knowledge and Web Management attended the "IT and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)" roundtable discussion organized by the Legislative Councilor Hon. Samson Tam held on 15 June at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The roundtable discussion was also joined by Mr. K M Tsang, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Transport (Planning and Technical Services), Legislative Councilor Ir. Dr. Hon Raymond Ho, and representatives from Logistics, ICT, ITS, and Engineering professional associations.

Speakers from professional associations proposed many Intelligent Transportation System related solutions and applications for boosting the effectiveness of Hong Kong Transportation System. All speakers, including the representative from the Government, showed support to the Public-Private Partnership model (PPP). Speakers and Councilors urged the Government on taking the lead in and speeding up deploying ITS applications and related infrastructure, for example, GPS. Concerning the challenges about the availability of traffic data for ITS application developments, the meeting discussed some challenges including privacy, cost model, and data capturing from telecommunication operators, transportation operators, various government departments.

Chapter's Update
2 Annual General Meeting 2009
The Hong Kong Chapter successfully held the forth Annual General Meeting on 5 June 2009. Mr. Peter Miao, Mr. William, Mr. Y K Chau and Ms. Yantl Sze were re-elected to the Council. The meeting passed a special resolution of approving the Chinese designation of HK Chapter.

Click HERE for more information.

3 Professional Development Event - Visit to ISO/IEC 20000 Organization
The Chapter cordially invites you to a site visit to ISO/IEC 20000 Organization - Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS). HKHS acquired ISO/IEC 20000 certification in December 2007. In the event, there will be a lot of chances to know about their ISO/IEC 20000 journey as well as practical experience in applying IT Service Management concepts to day-to-day IT business. Registration will start soon.

4 Updates on eBookshop
Following is an announcement from eBookshop (Van Haren Publishing):-

I am writing to inform you that as of 1st June 2009 there will be some changes when ordering books from Van Haren Publishing.

1. We are increasing your discount to 40% off all Van Haren Titles. We hope this will be of great advantage to you during these tough economic times. You can claim this high discount only when ordering through our website www.vanharen.net Please use your discount code to claim the discount. If you are unsure what this is then please write to me and I will forward you a code. It is a really easy and simple process.
   
2. We will also be charging all shipping costs from the order. As of 1st June 2009 we will expect all itSMF chapters to absorb the cost of their shipment. There are various ways of making this easier, which include:-

• Collating orders and placing one order a month (min 25 copies), rather than ordering single copies really will save you a lot of money. This is because pro rata smaller parcels are more expensive than larger ones.
• Pass on shipment costs to your customer
• Holding stocks so that you only need to order every quarter or every 6 months
• Allow plenty of time for standard post rather than replying on expensive courier services. This is not applicable to all chapters around the world but many can benefit from much cheaper standard postal services

It is clear that the changes will mean savings to you in some areas and costs to you in some areas. Our intent is that hopefully the impact of both the above changes should overall mean minimal impact on most of your commercial positions. We hope the new model encourages efficient, cost effective ordering as this is a key factor in Van Haren's pricing policy of keeping titles as cheap as possible for your customers.

Van Haren Publishing

5 Launch of New Website
The chapter is glad to announce that the new website was launched on 2 June. Many new features and enhancements are included in the new face. Here is a list of new components:

• ITIL V3 Glossary Cross Reference
• Knowledge Library. The library contains useful knowledge on ITIL in various format including presentation slides, video clips and so on.
• Information on ITIL Qualification Scheme and ISO/IEC 20000 Certification
• Searching on Web pages.
• Auto fill-in. Once you have logged in the web site, your membership and contact information will be provided automatically to the Event Registration Form.

6 Access to Newsletter - Open to public now!
We endeavor to promote the sharing of latest development on HK IT Service Management to our members as well as IT practitioners. The HK Chapter is delighted to announce that the Newsletter page is now open for public access. Check out the here to read our Newsletter now!

7 New Chapter Sponsors
The HK Chapter welcomes our new GOLD sponsors: BMC Software and ITG Limited.


We will keep watching for the latest developments of the local IT industry as well as global ITSM. Stay tuned and visit our website http://www.itsmf.org.hk for the latest announcements.

itSMF Hong Kong Chapter