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Thomas Lah, executive director of the Technology Professional Services Association

... widget-centric thinking among Fortune 1,000 CIOs. And feeding the growing need for IT services also happens to be a nice way for vendors to pocket more of the dollars in those CIOs' budgets, says Thomas Lah, executive director of the Technology Professional Services Association in San Diego. Formed last month as a sister organization to the Service & Support Professionals Association for IT help desk workers, the TPSA hopes its members will share best practices information. Its first event will be a webcast on Oct. 20, and its initial conference will be in April. "There's been a mental shift in how Fortune 1,000 companies consume technology," Lah argues. Open systems, he says, have created vast integration problems that CIOs are now pushing back on vendors to resolve. "Suddenly, professional services capabilities are critical if a vendor wants to get the sale," Lah notes. But not all IT services organizations are equal, so CIOs need to scrutinize them carefully, he advises. First, is the vendor's professional services strategy mature? That is, does its business model make sense, and is it attacking the right verticals or services specialities? Second, Lah says, make sure your vendor's services group has the right infrastructure. Is it staffed appropriately? Are its operations automated? Finally, Lah suggests that you should "learn how embedded the culture of professional services [is] in the company." If a vendor is more interested in selling you widgets than in learning about your overall IT issues, you might want to opt for another one, he says.

Peter West, vice president of marketing at RiverOne Inc.

European Union rules on safer hardware ...

... have produced a "picture of inaction and confusion." So says Peter West, vice president of marketing at RiverOne Inc. in Irvine, Calif. Two EU directives -- one dealing with the disposal of electrical and electronic equipment, and the other focusing on reducing the use of hazardous substances -- are set to take effect next July. They will regulate the chemical compounds used in computers and other hardware and define what can and can't go into Europe's landfills. West calls the new rules "a major supply chain issue" for IT vendors and users. According to West, RiverOne's Interactive 6.5 software tool, which is due to ship by the end of the year, will be able to track IT gear from the moment the equipment hits your SAP-based ERP system. That should help users "prove compliance for a whole [product] and not just the individual parts," he says.

Steve Kahan, vice president of marketing at BindView Corp.

Compliance tools keep coming ...

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