itSMF
itSMF is an international network of specialists that was founded back in the 1980s. In Russia, an association of specialists in the field of IT Service Management (ITSM) emerged 14 years ago. Since then, its members organize branch-specific events: conferences, forums, meetings, and webinars for both representatives of business and universities associated with this field.
The Russian itSMF branch has long-standing connections with Moscow universities: Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, National University of Science and Technology MISiS, Russian University of Transport (MIIT), Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics, and Informatics, and the Higher School of Economics. Open lectures, workshops, practical sessions and hackathons are being conducted for their students.
Since 2013, itSMF Russia has been conducting an all-Russian contest of graduation theses, “ITSM Junior League”, identifying the best managerial ideas and research and rewarding their authors.
ITMO and itSMF collaboration
On August 20, ITMO University hosted the meeting of the ITAM itSMF Russia expert committee. It’s worth mentioning that it was ITMO graduate Pavel Poteev who came up with the idea to organize the meeting here.
At the meeting, the specialists presented their work with a live online broadcast after which they held a roundtable and answered questions from the audience.
The meeting focused on working with IT assets. Ilya Pankratov from Softline spoke about the approaches to automating ITAM, as well as certification of companies for correspondence with the ISO 19770-1 standard. The presentation of ITIL expert Ilya Maslenkin, CEO of Axios Systems, was dedicated to the management of fixed assets. Anton Boganov, chairman of itSMF Russia, member of the Supervisory Board and development director at Axios Systems talked about applying the assyst ITSM platform and shared the project experience of developing a GRC platform.
It was no coincidence that ITMO became the event’s site. Pavel Poteev, ITMO graduate and expert of the CDTO training center of the Graduate School of Public Management (GSPM) of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), who collaborates with itSMF, recommended it to itSMF Chair.
“Anton asked whether there’s a suitable site in the city, and I answered that there’s not just a site but a university that focuses on IT. I studied at ITMO University myself, and I know that firsthand. I think that for ITMO students, our collaboration will be most beneficial, and will give them the opportunity to communicate with the real stars of the industry in person. Digital transformation is a hot topic nowadays, but for that reason, there’s too much hype associated with this topic. In reality, digital transformation is when a digital service makes it possible to do something that once took 10 days to complete in just 10 seconds. Specialists who made reports at the committee’s meeting are the very people who know the inner workings of such transformations. Every day, they remodel IT architectures into digital services. It’s hard to find people in Russia who are more competent in this field,” says Pavel Poteev.
Prospects
Anton Bogdanov announced that ITMO University and itSMF Russia have already agreed on organizing a series of open lectures for students. Presumably, they will be dedicated to the digital economy and economics of IT services. Currently, a pool of lecturers and a detailed list of topics are being discussed.
“We have a great number of experts who focus on a wide range of issues in the field of IT. We collaborate with young talents, as we understand that the institution of mentorship that once was is an important element of the professional market. We aim to surround ourselves with specialists, including those brought up by us,” adds Anton Bogdanov.
At the same time, ITMO’s Faculty of Technological Management and Innovations regularly invites practical specialists in order to offer high-quality education. Anton Bogdanov notes that first and foremost, teaching business skills is about transfer of experience.
“This year, itSMF became our new partner. The first joint event will take place this September as an open online lecture on the topic of digital transformation as part of a university-wide course “Launching a technological business”. We are glad that we’ve found like-minded people in a business environment. I hope that our collaboration will be a success, and in the future, we’ll be organizing not just open lectures and seminars, but some joint educational project, as well,” adds Natalia Aniskevich, mentor of the Entrepreneurial culture educational module and manager at ITMO’s Faculty of Technological Management and Innovations.
