The result of this was the development of a viable personal brand, while at the same time he saw the potential of ITIL in a way few others did. It was a powerful combination. Peter decided, as in made the conscious decision, to become the acknowledged expert – that ‘go-to’ person we mentioned earlier.
You have a problem! – you go to Peter for the solution.
Eventually Stirling Software was bought out by Computer Associates, CA, and they transitioned from mainframe to the suite of CA products, in particular Unicenter Service Desk, USD. Peter’s employers seem to keep getting acquired and he essentially went with the company. He stayed with CA until 2012 when he joined Service Now. At that stage not much more than an advanced ‘Startup’ and with only 16 people in Australia and four in the Melbourne office.
The Service Now products represented a total shift from everything he’d been used to. For one thing, they removed the huge costs of upgrades because of their centralised ‘pre-cloud’ model. But once again, Peter attached himself to innovating solutions, grew with them, became the evangelist, then the champion and the known expert.
While large organisations such as the banks were reluctant to come on board with the new cloud only model, smaller and medium sizes enterprises rushed to sign up to a system where they could off-load many of their most substantial, and frustrating costs and streamline their entire IT exposure. Peter was doing three pre-sales presentations a day, every day, to these smaller businesses.
The culture of Service Now was another factor, and this was reflected in their hires. They strove to be, as much as possible, an ‘ego-free’ zone, so close cooperation between the crew was never an issue. If you needed help, you simply asked for it and inevitably it would be provided free of any games, or second guessing about your motives. It was, Peter remarked, ‘rather like a family in that regard’. And that suited him.
Those first 18 months in pre-sales worked to highlight his ITIL background, but at about the same time, Peter’s Boss was promoted to an Asia / Pacific role and suggested as part of his hand-over that Peter take on Aust / NZ. It was as a direct consequence of this promotion that Peter found himself managing a team for the very first time, but his extensive informal leadership roles stood him in excellent stead, and he viewed this new role as being an extension of his ‘coach and mentor’ outlook. He also adopted a ‘ride-along’ approach where he could better see the seller / buyer relationship and he coupled this with an active debriefing program to better fine-tune these efforts.
Around 2016, Peter found his job morphing from mentoring to admin, not an enjoyable change, and his then Boss suggested that what they really needed was an Asia / Pacific evangelist. Peter’s response: “Sign me up!”
Of course it was – this was playing exactly to his formidable strengths. So, he once again became the acknowledged expert across the ServiceNow range, but to a new broader audience.
The ‘Go to guy!’
2020 rolls around and Peter is asked to instigate, essentially to ‘start-up,’ a new Korean office. Then COVID hit – with all of the disruption that followed including, of course, no international travel. All the hiring for the pre-sales roles needed to be done remotely, completely removing those elements of human contact that he valued so highly. It was, Peter said, the hardest thing he has ever done.
More change was on its way – in 2022 ServiceNow began to invest, both financially and in personnel, in ITSM and once again Peter was ideally placed to make this happen. He found himself running Business Development, and what he called ‘the pipeline generation material for the Asia / Pacific region’. His unique selling skills and deep product knowledge saw this role bloom, but as sometimes seem inevitable, the brilliant salesman, the great mentor, the bloke who worked so hard to bring you along with him, seeing your success as his
The result of this was the development of a viable personal brand, while at the same time he saw the potential of ITIL in a way few others did. It was a powerful combination. Peter decided, as in made the conscious decision, to become the acknowledged expert – that ‘go-to’ person we mentioned earlier.
You have a problem! – you go to Peter for the solution.
Eventually Stirling Software was bought out by Computer Associates, CA, and they transitioned from mainframe to the suite of CA products, in particular Unicenter Service Desk, USD. Peter’s employers seem to keep getting acquired and he essentially went with the company. He stayed with CA until 2012 when he joined Service Now. At that stage not much more than an advanced ‘Startup’ and with only 16 people in Australia and four in the Melbourne office.
The Service Now products represented a total shift from everything he’d been used to. For one thing, they removed the huge costs of upgrades because of their centralised ‘pre-cloud’ model. But once again, Peter attached himself to innovating solutions, grew with them, became the evangelist, then the champion and the known expert.
While large organisations such as the banks were reluctant to come on board with the new cloud only model, smaller and medium sizes enterprises rushed to sign up to a system where they could off-load many of their most substantial, and frustrating costs and streamline their entire IT exposure. Peter was doing three pre-sales presentations a day, every day, to these smaller businesses.
The culture of Service Now was another factor, and this was reflected in their hires. They strove to be, as much as possible, an ‘ego-free’ zone, so close cooperation between the crew was never an issue. If you needed help, you simply asked for it and inevitably it would be provided free of any games, or second guessing about your motives. It was, Peter remarked, ‘rather like a family in that regard’. And that suited him.
Those first 18 months in pre-sales worked to highlight his ITIL background, but at about the same time, Peter’s Boss was promoted to an Asia / Pacific role and suggested as part of his hand-over that Peter take on Aust / NZ. It was as a direct consequence of this promotion that Peter found himself managing a team for the very first time, but his extensive informal leadership roles stood him in excellent stead, and he viewed this new role as being an extension of his ‘coach and mentor’ outlook. He also adopted a ‘ride-along’ approach where he could better see the seller / buyer relationship and he coupled this with an active debriefing program to better fine-tune these efforts.
Around 2016, Peter found his job morphing from mentoring to admin, not an enjoyable change, and his then Boss suggested that what they really needed was an Asia / Pacific evangelist. Peter’s response: “Sign me up!”
Of course it was – this was playing exactly to his formidable strengths. So, he once again became the acknowledged expert across the ServiceNow range, but to a new broader audience.
The ‘Go to guy!’
2020 rolls around and Peter is asked to instigate, essentially to ‘start-up,’ a new Korean office. Then COVID hit – with all of the disruption that followed including, of course, no international travel. All the hiring for the pre-sales roles needed to be done remotely, completely removing those elements of human contact that he valued so highly. It was, Peter said, the hardest thing he has ever done.
More change was on its way – in 2022 ServiceNow began to invest, both financially and in personnel, in ITSM and once again Peter was ideally placed to make this happen. He found himself running Business Development, and what he called ‘the pipeline generation material for the Asia / Pacific region’. His unique selling skills and deep product knowledge saw this role bloom, but as sometimes seem inevitable, the brilliant salesman, the great mentor, the bloke who worked so hard to bring you along with him, seeing your success as his