Check out this quick interview we conducted with Kevin J Smith, Senior Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Ivanti and author of the new book The Practical Guide to World-Class IT Service Management, available on Amazon.

As a product expert with Ivanti, your travels frequently take you to conferences and expos, meetings / presentations with customers and prospects, product advisory councils, meetings with industry analysts and the media, etc. What’s on the horizon for you over the next six to eight weeks?   

Lots of client meetings in Seattle, New York, Dallas, and Houston discussing current and future challenges for the IT organization. I also delivered sessions at the national HDI conference in Washington DC the week of May 8 in conjunction with Interchange.

Narrowing down to just one of the items in your answer to the first question, what will be your purpose for being there and what do you hope to accomplish?  

At the national HDI conference we addressed the future of IT.  IT organizations everywhere are undergoing a significant transformation and we are helping clients get ready for this, and then to thrive in the new order of IT.

Which way are the industry winds blowing?  

The Unification of IT will reshape everything we do over the next 10 years and this will include an IT organization that is much more personal, much faster, and works 24X7 in support of the business.

What’s your one key takeaway surrounding the future of Ivanti in the market space you’re primarily involved with? Where do you foresee both the challenges and opportunities for the company?  

I see Ivanti emerging as the one company that can help our clients in the unification of IT, which includes providing strong solutions in every element of what will be most important to IT organizations in the future.

What was your professional journey like to get you where you are today? What were some of the unexpected hurdles and some of the unexpected benefits?  

I spent 10 years at NASA as a Flight Engineer, then 10 years in product Management and product marketing at Manugistics Inc., and more recently, 12 years at HEAT Software. I’ve always had a strong connection to products and how clients use technology to get their job done.

If you were stranded on a desert island with a CD player, what are the top three music CD’s you’d want with you? 

Simon & Garfunkel, Adele, and Bruno Mars.