We've got a few open time slots for one-on-one meetings at #Think2018

The #Pink18 ITSM conference was a great success for us, and we're now looking forward to #Think2018. It's going to be a jam packed week, but we've still got a few time slots open to schedule sit down discussions with existing and potential clients and partners. Contact Frank (frank.tate@gulfsoft.com) or Mark (mark.hudson@gulfsoft.com) today to set up a 30-60 minute meeting!

#Pink18 is off to a Great Start

The #Pink18 ITSM conference kicked off last night with a reception, and it looks to be another great conference this year. Pink Elephant always has great thought leaders presenting at the sessions, and this year will continue that tradition.

If you're at the conference, please stop by our booth, #601, in the exhibitors showcase.

IBM Maximo named a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Asset Management!

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/a9ba1efe-b731-4317-9724-a181d6155e3a/entry/IBM_Maximo_named_a_Leader_in_Gartner_Magic_Quadrant_for_Enterprise_Asset_Management?lang=en

Something very important to note is that the IBM Control Desk product is built entirely on Maximo. So almost all of the features and capabilities that put Maximo into Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Asset Management are also included in IBM Control Desk.

Gulf Breeze Software Partners is now Gulfsoft Consulting

Gulf Breeze Software Partners was started 15 years ago as a consulting firm that also had small
aspirations to write software at some point. Along the way, we realized that we really prefer
implementing and customizing software over writing new applications from scratch. And while
we've advertised that we're specialists in the implementation and customization of the IBM suite
of products up to this point, we're now marketing the fact that we have experience in and offer
services on a much larger array of products from multiple vendors. To effectively market our
capabilities to new customers, we decided to change our name from Gulf Breeze Software Partners
to Gulfsoft Consulting. We've still got the same amazing people and the same drive to make customers
successful, and now we've got a name that more accurately describes what we do. Here’s a link to some of the technologies we work with every day.

We look forward to continuing our relationships with existing customers and making new ones.

We will be at multiple conferences this year: Pink Elephant's Pink18, IBM's Think 2018, and ServiceNow's Knowledge18

We are growing in size and capabilities! That's why you'll see us at three great conferences this year:

Pink18 Feb 18-21, 2018 at the JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes

Adopt, Adapt & Apply!

DevOps, Agile, Lean IT, ITIL® & More

The conference theme will be covered in over 120+ sessions and 12 tracks to show how you can master the dynamics of today's business environments by adopting, adapting and applying tried and true best practices. Subjects include: ITSM, ITIL, Lean IT, Agile, Scrum, DevOps, COBIT®, Organizational Change Management, Business Relationship Management, and more!

Think 2018 Mar 19—22, 2018 Las Vegas, NV

Think Campus

100s of core sessions, Think Tanks, and opportunities to get out of traditional sessions. You’ll experience face to face conversations with experts and product developers, network with clients that face similar challenges as you, and meet with 100s of IBM strategic business partners.

Think Academy

1000s of labs, certifications, client and technical deep dives that provide the info you need to take back to your organization and make it your own.

Knowledge18 May 7-10, 2018 Las Vegas, NV

Spark Your Transformation

Create smart, delightful experiences for your employees and customers

An updated version of MxLoader is available

While Bruno Portaluri left IBM a few months ago, he is still updating and maintaining MxLoader. He made his most recent updates on Nov 14, 2017, available here:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/groups/service/html/communityview?communityUuid=220c5757-ac28-4f25-bd08-457c5a3364c3#fullpageWidgetId=W9cbbfec147e6_4341_9578_7671e722619f&file=31d8347f-219f-45b2-a1d2-18f777e38810

Canada's Secret Spy Agency Has Open-Sourced a Malware-Fighting Tool

A link to the code:

https://bitbucket.org/cse-assemblyline/

All of the details about the release can be found here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/cse-canada-cyber-spy-malware-assemblyline-open-source-1.4361728

Every IT department in the world should download and use this if they don't already have something in place.

We're a sponsor at Pink18 in Orlando!

We'll be a sponsor of the Pink18 conference in Orlando, Florida Feb. 18-21, 2018. Come by booth #601 to see what we're offering or just to say hi.

How Netcool Operations Insight delivers cognitive automation by Kristian Stewart

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud-computing/2017/08/netcool-operations-insight-cognitive-automation/

One important topic that Kristian omitted from his excellent article is the optional Agile Service Manager (ASM) component of NOI. ASM provides a context aware topology view of your applications and infrastructure, which gives you a clear view of the impacts causes by events. Take a look at our other articles and YouTube videos for more information on ASM.

What to use instead of ITMSuper

ITMSuper is a JavaScript based tool that can be used for maintaining the health of your ITM 6.x environment. It was written by IBM and made available as a separate download, but was never completely supported. It's even less supported today, as it only supports Internet Explorer 8. Here is a great blog post from Shaun R at IBM pointing to different tools that you should use instead, all written by IBM's own John Alvord:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/0587adbc-8477-431f-8c68-9226adea11ed/entry/Helping_us_help_you_ITM_Bitesize_Edition_ITMSuper?lang=en

Free mobile app for monitoring the status of your Maximo and ICD environments

I just found the MxAdmin app in IBM Marketplace:

https://www.ibm.com/us-en/marketplace/mxadmin

It was written by A3J Group and appears to have some pretty nice functionality.

IBM Control Desk 7.6.0.3 is available

Introduction

IBM has released the ICD 7.6.0.3 FixPack:

https://www-945.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/swg/selectFixes?parent=ibm~Tivoli&product=ibm/Tivoli/IBM+SmartCloud+Control+Desk&release=7.6.0.2&platform=All&function=all&source=fc

Installation issues

On linux, the service_portal.bin installer crashes unless you use the "-i silent" install option. See this link for more information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSWT9A_7.6.0.3/com.ibm.sccd.doc/cdui_install/c_ctr_cdui_install_unattended.html

New/Updated Functionality

Here are IBM's links for the new capabilities:

Control Desk Platform

-------------------------------------

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSWT9A_7.6.0.3/com.ibm.sccd.doc/whats_new/c_ctr_whats_new_7603_top.html

Control Desk Service Portal

-------------------------------------

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSWT9A_7.6.0.3/com.ibm.sccd.doc/whats_new/c_whats_new_serviceportal_7603.html

I've found a couple of additional things that have been fixed that I didn't find in the documentation. Specifically:

Service Portal

- Default values for specifications now completely work. This means that you can specify a default value for a specification for an offering, and you will see that default value filled in when you go to request that offering.

- Specifications tied to Table Domains now work again. This function existed in 7.6.0.1, but was broken in 7.6.0.2, and is now back. Specifically, if you define a specification to be tied to a table domain, when you click in the field for that specification in the offering, you'll get a popup with all of the possible values. 

- Users can add an attachment before hitting the Submit button. One thing this allows you to do is require an attachment through the use of an "Add to Cart" or "On Submit" validation script.

Update 9/25/17: Control Desk Platform

The Person Groups "Group Availability" Gantt chart works now. It was broken in 7.6.0.1 and 7.6.0.2, but it does work again in 7.6.0.3.