Karen Ferris

Karen Ferris has an international reputation for providing both strategic and practical advice and insights for organisations in their implementation and maintenance of efficient and effective Service Management. She has worked as a Service Management practitioner, trainer, consultant and manager since 1994 and has assisted organisations such as Coles Myer, HP, IBM, Telstra, Department of Defence, National Australia Bank, Monash University, Vodafone and many others in their adoption of best practice guidance such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). Karen has helped organisations develop their Service Management strategy and provided guidance on the successful implementation of that strategy.

Karen is a very active member of the IT Service Management community. She holds many accreditations including ITIL Expert (Version 3) and ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant and is a Fellow of the Institute of Service Management (FISM). She is a Director on the itSMF Australia National Board with the portfolio of publications. She is a member of the itSMF International Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) working on the establishment of an international service management library and a member of the International Publication Editorial Sub-Committee which reviews and endorses publications worthy to carry the itSMF brand. She was a key member of the ITIL Advisory Group (IAG) which oversaw the creation of ITIL Version 3 and was the Lead Assessor on the Continual Service Improvement publication.

Karen has been delivering presentations and training programs since 1999 and is one of the highest-rated ITIL trainers in Australia.  She has been acclaimed as “inspiring”, “thought provoking”, “insightful”, and “providing practical and useable guidance”. She is able to share her experience and knowledge so that everyone is empowered with the ability to make a difference within their organisation. Karen is also a frequent contributor to service management publications with recent contributions including Service Management Global Best Practice (2007); Implementing Metrics for IT Service Management (2007); IT Service Management – A Pocket Guide (2007); Continual Service Improvement (2007); Service Operation (2007); Service Agreements – A Management Guide (2006); Frameworks for IT Management (2006); Six Sigma for IT Management (2006).

Awarded the inaugural Service Management Champion accolade by the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) Australia in 2007, Karen is also a distinguished conference speaker.  She holds the Presidents Prize for Best Speaker at the Australian National Conference in 2005. Recent and upcoming speaking engagements include PACRIM IT Service Management Conference (Sydney, May 2010), Keynote Speaker itSMF New Zealand (May 2010), Keynote Speaker itSMF Australia (August 2010).  Karen is a Director of Macanta Consulting Pty Ltd.