Thursday 5th March, Dynamic Earth Edinburgh

SESSION 1 

The opening session will consider the evolution of service management in the age of AI. We will begin with a look at ESM adoption, exploring the value of extending ITSM principles across the business, and examining some of the foremost challenges of ESM implementation and scale. The focus will then turn to the practical application of AI, and it’s potential to drive real term service improvement in speed, personalisation, and efficiency. 

09:15    Welcome from the Conference Chair

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Mark Stephen, Journalist & Broadcaster, BBC Scotland

09:25    Enterprise Service Management: From Zero to Value
 

• Why ESM Matters Today

• Practical steps to achieve ESM with no money & no remit

• Real-life journey of ESM adoption

• Do’s and Don’ts of ESM Roll-Out

• The Future of ESM

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Alex Cosma, Director: Enterprise Service Strategy, Square Enix 

09:45    Enterprise Service Management: Pitfalls and Lessons from a University Transformation

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• Key lessons learned from delivering a major transformation programme within a Scottish higher education institution

• A look at the end-to-end processes for onboarding service desk users across multiple departments, including IT, Finance, and HR

• The critical considerations at the outset of the transformation and practical insights for embarking on the journey

• How AI can be used to improve processes and outcomes.

• A look ahead to what’s next and how these approaches can continue to evolve

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Kenny Anderson, CGI Business Consulting 

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10:05    Delivering Real Service Impact from AI at NHS 24

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• Context: recent migration of entire NHS 24 IT estate to a new digital platform provides much better foundations for leveraging innovation from emerging technology like AI

• Intelligent call routing: improves speed, efficiency, and service by matching need to expertise

• Voice analytics: allows us to drive training and process improvements from call data

• Active trend monitoring: speeds up monitoring and analysis to create earlier warning of new diseases

• Key learnings & where next: observations, service enhancement and future potential

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Ann-Marie Gallacher, Chief Information Officer, NHS 24 Scotland 
 

10:25    Combined Q&A

10:55    Networking & Refreshments

SESSION 2

Session 2 will explore a series of key topics in a longer presentation format. The session will be run in a breakout format across three parallel streams, providing delegates the opportunity to attend two of the options.

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11:30    First Breakout Option (A-C)

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​Breakout Options Include:

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A: Service Design Can Enable True Value in Product Management - Yes it's True

 

• Is it possible for the worlds of Product and Service to meet?

• Learn how Service Design can make the real difference

• How can you make Service Design agile at scale to support the Product world 
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Karen Brusch, Head of Service Management and Design, Arqiva 

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B: From Hero to Zero: How to Keep the Company Running Even When Everything Else Catches Fire
 

• Why Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery really matter

• How cyberattacks can humble even billion-dollar organisations

• How some companies only survived because one server happened to be unplugged

• How to ensure you can keep the company running during an incident

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Ian Chisholm, Exec Director: Security, Charles River Labs 

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C:  Successful IT Service in an AI World - is Technical Debt Still Relevant?

 

• The pace of change, complexity, and expectations from stakeholders are still rising

• It’s now more important than ever to manage technical debt well

• In the blaze of hype around AI, don’t forget what we already know as engineers

• Important fundamentals like trust, engagement, and good process are as important as ever 

• But we do need to evolve our approach

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Ali Law, CIO, The Exeter

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12:05   Transition

12:15    Second Breakout Option (D-F)

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D: Level Up Your Employee Experience by Leveraging DEX & Agentic AI to Transform Your Service Desk

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• This session presents a strategic blueprint to move from reactive "firefighting" to a proactive, autonomous service model 

• By integrating Digital Employee Experience (DEX) with Agentic AI, organizations can consolidate their tool stacks, slash operational costs by up to 35%, and deliver a frictionless digital workplace

• Learn more about the benefits of real-time visibility across the complete estate, consolidating service desk tools, automated remediations including AI powered self service and how to make better business decisions based on quantitative data

 

Simon Townsend, SVP Marketing & The Office of CTO, ControlUp

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E. Automate, Track, and Prove: A Unified Approach to Cyber Essentials

 

• How ITSM + Analytics Together Simplify Cyber Compliance

• Automate cyber-related processes via ITSM workflows

• Track actions and outcomes using analytics dashboards

• Prove compliance with measurable evidence during audits or security reviews

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​Akshaya, Technical Evangelist, ManageEngine
 

F. Beyond Visibility: Turning IT Assets into Security Strength

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• Still ignoring ITAM? That’s like building a fortress and leaving the key under the mat

• Why ITAM is critical for closing security gaps

• How it supports your Cyber Sec compliance certifications

• Why it’s much easier to start than you probably think

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Jan Skrabanek, GTM & Alliances Lead, ALVAO

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12:45    Lunch and Networking

SESSION 3

The afternoon session will focus on optimising the customer experience: we will consider the shift to a more proactive IT service design strategy, explore what really makes a difference to employee DEX, and discuss why XLAs are the new performance standard. We will then turn to the increasing role of Conversational AI in service experience, and explore where hype meets reality when it comes to the potential and limitations of chatbots.

 

13:35   Third Breakout Option (G-I)

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G. Switching from Reactive to Proactive IT Services
 

• Linking service design strategy with service desk learnings for tangible customer improvements 

• Empowering the team through structure, roles and process to encourage ownership and initiative

• Eliminating silos and isolated thinking to harmonise teams and data flows

• Leveraging AI to help get rid of noise and increase efficiency

• Creating a system and culture of continuous improvement

 

Diane Rennie, Digital Director, Kingdom Housing Association

 

H. From SLAs to XLAs: Why Customer Experience is the New Performance Standard’
 

• What customers actually care about (beyond the SLA being “green”)

• Why organisations are moving towards XLAs – and what XLAs really measure

• The cultural shift required – why your teams must evolve before your metrics do

• The reality of starting the journey: what to do when your organisation isn’t fully ready
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Amanda Allan, VP Customer Success Support, Craneware

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I. Employee Experience Matters: Making Sense of the Digital Workplace
 

• What are the digital workplace and digital employee experience?

• The complexity employees face 

• Here comes AI

• Who owns the digital workplace and why does this matter?

• The opportunity for improvement - what good looks like

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Allan Tanner, DEX Team Lead: Digital Workplace & AI Transformation, Gallagher
 

14:05    Transition to Plenary
 

14:10    Not Another Chatbot: Where we Really Are with Conversational AI in Customer Service
 

• The evolution of our conversational AI

• Scaling across the enterprise

• Changing customer behaviour and trust

• Empowering colleagues with AI

• The humans behind the bots

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Jennifer Heape, Director of Product & AI, AKQA Leap

 

14:30 Building Smarter Conversations: How AI, Trust & Culture Shape Modern Customer Experience 
 

• The evolution of our conversational AI

• Scaling across the enterprise

• Changing customer behaviour and trust

• Empowering colleagues with AI

• The humans behind the bots

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Laura MacLeod, Conversational Banking Lead, Virgin Money

 

14:50    Combined Q&A Panel
15:20    Closing Remarks
15:25    Close of Session

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NETWORKING DRINKS RECEPTION

 

15:30    Networking Drinks Reception
16:30    Conference End

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*The conference agenda is provisional and subject to change​​