Wisdom Australia 2019 Speaker Spotlight: A focus on Quest

This is the fourth “speaker spotlight” article for Wisdom Australia 2019 – a chance for you to see some of the wonderful speakers and sessions we’ve got in store for you this November in Melbourne.

If you’ve not yet registered, go and do it now – https://marketplace.itassetmanagement.net/event/itam-review-annual-conference-2019-australia/ …then come back and read this article 😁

This time I spoke to Kristy Hawkins of Xcite Consulting.

What is your session called?

Quest Software Audits.

What is your session about?

How a Quest Audit is conducted, typical focus areas, common pitfalls, challenges, and how you can be better prepared. I have been both an auditor and auditee of Quest and am happy to share my perspective on both sides.

How did you get started in ITAM?

I’ll be honest and say that I really just fell into ITAM. I’d been working in service desk and operations when I was wrapping up my MBA and a friend suggested that I apply at one of the Big-4. I landed the job at KPMG and ended up in their software licensing and SAM consulting practice. That was back in 2004 and here we are.

How would you describe what your company does?

Xcite Consulting is an ITAM services and training company. We go into organisations and help them to reduce their risk and software spends. A big area of our business is helping organisations who may no longer have the skills to maintain their ITAM toolset get skilled up, as well as get the tool updated and back in shape so they start seeing value again.

What’s your favourite part of the job?

Helping people. I find that when we are brought in the ITAM team is so understaffed they feel helpless and it’s nice to see the relaxed “I can breathe again” looks when we are wrapping up.

What topics should delegates ask you about in Melbourne?

• Software auditing in general or specifically on my experience with Quest, IBM, Microsoft, and Software AG.
• My perspective on SAM tool capabilities.
• What I’ve seen that works well / less well in the ITAM function.

What one thing would improve the ITAM industry?

Management not thinking that a tool will solve everything

What’s your favourite movie?

Jaws.

I wrote a couple of articles around the very interesting Nike vs Quest case and definitely think Quest is a vendor to be aware of – this should be a great session.