Lessons from 8 Years as an Ivanti Community MVP

This year marks my eighth year in a row as an Ivanti Community MVP. I’ve worked hard to become an Ivanti Master Consultant and the MVP milestone is one that I’m proud of. It also feels like a good time to look back and look ahead to see what the future holds.

Ivanti recognises the importance of having a thriving community and to help promote contributions, it runs a Community MVP program which rewards contributors that have gone above and beyond to answer questions within the Ivanti Community and serve as an ambassador for the community outside of the forums.

However, my journey to becoming an MVP wasn’t planned or predictable. Like a lot of people, I didn’t set out to work in IT or service management. I followed my instincts and interests, took a few wrong turns here and there but ultimately found a job I love. If you’d asked me at the start of my career where I’d end up, I don’t think CTO of a service management consultancy would have been the answer!

An early interest in electronics

My career started with an electrical engineering apprenticeship with a medical equipment company. The appeal was simple back then: get paid while learning something practical. It was an added bonus that it was an area I’d already spent years tinkering with and enjoying growing up.

That apprenticeship gave me a solid grounding in a number of areas. I learned to solder circuit boards, test equipment, work in production control and spent time in sales and development. It was great to get broad hands-on experience in how technology fits into a real business. It also set me up with a strong technical appreciation that has stayed with me.

A short detour into Sales

From engineering, I moved into sales but I quickly realised it wasn’t the right fit for me long-term. Having a company car and getting to travel was fun but I enjoyed understanding technology far more than selling it.

What I did learn was how to communicate, listen and understand what people are really asking for. As it turns out those skills have become key to how I deliver solutions to customers today. I had time with an online auction company during the dot-com boom. It was exciting, fast-moving, and well-funded, until the bubble burst and the company went bust! It was a harsh lesson that stuck with me: technology changes quickly and nothing is guaranteed.

Finding a home in IT

After a short stint in sales (again!) and redundancy from a manufacturing company where I started to take more of an interest in IT infrastructure, I joined CTMS. This move changed everything for me.

At CTMS, I essentially got into servers, operating systems, hardware, virtual machines and more. I spent a lot of time experimenting at home, breaking things and fixing them. I’ve always believed the best way to learn about technology is to play with it. This is a philosophy that I have passed on to my son.

The software that CTMS was working with included Centennial Discovery and FrontRange Solutions, which later became HEAT Software, and eventually Ivanti. Without realising it at the time, I’d found the ecosystem that I would go on to spend the next couple of decades working in.

Discovering ITSM

Around 2012–2013, help desks were evolving into full service management platforms. Ivanti made the decision to rebuild their ITSM product from the ground up as a modern, web-based solution.

I remember seeing it for the first time and thinking ‘wow that looks cool’. It felt clean, flexible and genuinely forward-thinking.

Becoming an ITSM consultant just sort of happened naturally. I enjoyed customer conversations, getting to grip with their challenges and helping them to understand what they actually needed and then turning that into an operational system. Over time, my role evolved and as anyone that has worked for an SME knows, you take on a number of roles. This saw me work in consultancy, solution design, a bit of pre-sales and more.

Always learning

One thing I firmly believe in is that you can never stop learning. And Ivanti reflects that mindset perfectly. You can just scratch the surface and be a competent admin or you can choose to go deeper and uncover some incredibly powerful ways to solve customer problems. That depth is a big part of what’s kept me interested for so long.

My first involvement with the Ivanti community goes back to the days of a HEAT Software forum. I found that I enjoyed answering questions and helping out where I could.

When Ivanti formalised the community, I decided to stay involved. 2017 marked the first time I was invited to join the Ivanti Community MVP programme. Since then, I’ve maintained MVP status for eight consecutive years.

One of the most rewarding parts has been the occasional bit of recognition that comes from just being helpful. I’ve even had people come up to me at Ivanti events saying they recognised my name from the forums.

I’ve also seen first-hand how community involvement can open doors. When someone consistently demonstrates clear thinking, practical expertise and a genuine willingness to help others, it says a lot about how they’ll perform beyond the community. And it reflects well on their CV too. In today’s competitive job market, having a differentiator like that can make all the difference when you are looking to take the next step in your career.

What lies ahead

I’m genuinely excited about what’s coming next for the Ivanti community.

A new Ivanti Innovators Hub launched in February, which combines product forums, knowledge articles, support cases, exclusive events and peer connections, with embedded AI capabilities.

That has huge potential for making it easier for people to find answers and get value from the hub without lots and lots of searching. What’s more there are several new features due to be introduced in March focused on personalisation, engagement and intuitive tools.

But can AI do what an MVP does?

Not yet! There are plenty of occasions where the problem has complex nuanced challenges and this is where experience gained from hundreds of Ivanti projects, still makes a difference.

But that’s not really the goal. I see AI as something that can augment and enhance the community and its members, not replace them. But it will be fascinating to see how AI will evolve alongside the community. Something to keep an eye on for sure. Ultimately, being an MVP has always been about helping more people get the most out of Ivanti. If AI helps people get to value faster, that can only be a good thing.

Some advice

If I were talking to someone new to Ivanti, or a younger version of myself, my advice would be fairly simple:

• Get involved in the community
• Answer what you can
• Learn from what you can’t

I am a big believer in the principle that if you don’t know the answer, go and find it, ask someone in your organisation or try to figure it out. Even if someone else answers first, you’ve still learned something. Over time, that knowledge will build up and before you know it, you’re the one helping others.

A bit like the Oscars, I’d like to take a moment to thank my mentor and friend David Keen of CTMS. He has encouraged me throughout my time at CTMS to believe in my own potential. And I’d like to thank the Ivanti community leaders for believing and trusting in their MVP team.

After eight years I’m proud that I have been able to help many members of the Ivanti community. More than that, I’m proud I’m still learning, still curious about playing with and getting the most out of tech and still enjoying the journey.

Alasdair Robertson is the CTO of CTMS, you can connect with him on LinkedIn here.