Author Archives: dick1stark

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About dick1stark

I am the President and founder of RightStar, Inc, an XTIVIA company. RightStar is a leading ITSM and DevOps consultancy and BMC Software Elite Solution Provider and Atlassian Gold Partner. My passion is customer success—whether it’s reducing the cost of service management, improving overall efficiency, or increasing end-user or employee satisfaction. Since founding RightStar in 2003, RightStar has made the INC 5000 list four times. In 2011, RightStar was awarded the prestigious National Capital Business Ethics Award (NCBEA) by the Society of Financial Service Professionals based upon RightStar’s foundation of honesty, ethics, and integrity. And in 2014, RightStar was selected by Forrester Research as one of 13 North American companies profiled in its ITSM Consultancy Wave Report. In 2019, BMC selected RightStar as its DSM North American Partner of the Year for its sales and partnership excellence. Finally, in November 2020, RightStar was acquired by XTIVIA, an innovative IT Solutions Provider. Dick is a graduate of Stanford University and a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Living the Dreamforce 2013

Posted on November 23, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark I virtually attended several of the Dreamforce keynotes held this week in San Francisco.  Hard to believe but this year’s Dreamforce had 135,000 attendees, making it the largest software conference in the world. Salesforce is now 15 … Continue reading →

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ITSM Project Lessons from Obamacare’s Failure to Launch

Posted on November 3, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark CGI Federal recently found itself in a place most companies hope they never appear: the front page of the Washington Post. In that article, senior VP Cheryl Campbell pointed fingers saying that CGI gave the government ample … Continue reading →

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ITIL: A Four-Letter Word?

Posted on October 28, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark ITIL is what happens when good ideas get absorbed by a bureaucracy and institutionalized and homogenized to a point where they are almost useless. Why is ITIL so obtuse that someone has to ask, “Is rebooting a … Continue reading →

Posted in ITIL, ITSM, Technology Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

David and Goliath at RightStar

Posted on October 14, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him: for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the … Continue reading →

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Ethics at RightStar + ToolBank

Posted on October 5, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark Several months ago, I received a call from one of our consultants on-site at a government agency.  We were a subcontractor to a systems integrator.  The consultant explained that the systems integrator was having trouble with its … Continue reading →

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Gartner’s Top Ten for 2013: How Do They Apply to ITSM?

Posted on September 29, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark Since RightStar supports many mid-size customers, I attended Midsize Enterprise Summit this week held in Phoenix.  More than 200 CIO’s from mid-market firms also attended this event.  (In case you’re wondering, Gartner defines an average mid-market firm … Continue reading →

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ServiceNow: No Real Competition?

Posted on September 10, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark “Our customers are actually frustrated because it’s tough to negotiate with a vendor who doesn’t have much competition” — ServiceNow CEO Frank Slootman, reported in The Street, August 2, 2013 ServiceNow (SNOW) is on a roll and … Continue reading →

Posted in BMC, ITSM, Remedy, RemedyForce, Technology Trends | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Simplify, Standardize, and Automate

Posted on August 12, 2013 by dick1stark

“Change is inevitable—except from a vending machine.             –Robert C. Gallagher By Dick Stark During our Automation webinar on Wednesday, I described how IT organizations must simplify, standardize, and automate in order to reduce overall costs.  Indeed, at the BMC … Continue reading →

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The Boys in the Boat

Posted on July 29, 2013 by dick1stark

By Dick Stark Note:  I just finished reading Daniel James Brown’s new book, the Boys in the Boat, about nine Americans and their quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  This is a must read, but Warning: the following … Continue reading →

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Next Generation PMO and Portfolio Management at RightStar

Posted on July 15, 2013 by dick1stark

By Nikki Haase Two weeks ago we attended a three-day seminar called “Next Generation PMO and Portfolio Management” at a Project Management Institute (PMI) SeminarsWorld. We had two objectives. We both need the PMI credits, which will help us to … Continue reading →

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