Celebrating the Inaugural International Services Week: A Recap
Greg O’Sullivan is Vice President, Global Partner Alliances & Channel Sales at Certinia. His focus is to shape the partner alliances and channel sales businesses to generate incremental revenues, accelerate growth, and expand market share. Read his blog here recapping a successful International Services Week.
Last week marked the successful debut of International Services Week, a brand new global celebration of the essential role services organizations play in today’s economy.
With services now driving value creation and economic growth—growing from 60% product-driven revenue just over a decade ago to two-thirds of all revenue in 2023—the Services Era has officially arrived.
Services Week fulfilled its mission by uniting our community and sparking meaningful conversations about the state of the industry. Throughout the week, over 20 participating companies including Salesforce, PwC, TSIA, and more offered opportunities to connect, learn, and share insights through key events such as:
- AI in Service Delivery: Joe Thomas from Certinia joined TSIA’s John Ragsdale to explore how AI is transforming service delivery, creating opportunities for growth while reshaping customer experiences.
- Decoding Industry Metrics: Certinia Co-founder Deb Ashton, alongside leaders from Diabsolut, broke down key metrics from the Global Service Dynamics Report, discussing the shift toward profitability and the challenges of scaling efficiently.
- APAC Trends and Challenges: Certinia’s Seleen McKinnies and Cloudwerx’s Toby Wilcock highlighted trends shaping professional services in APAC, with a focus on AI, workload balancing, and efficiency.
Decoding Industry Metrics: Certinia Co-founder Deb Ashton, alongside leaders from Diabsolut, broke down key metrics from the Global Service Dynamics Report, discussing the shift toward profitability and the challenges of scaling efficiently.
APAC Trends and Challenges: Certinia’s Seleen McKinnies and Cloudwerx’s Toby Wilcock highlighted trends shaping professional services in APAC, with a focus on AI, workload balancing, and efficiency.
We hosted in-person networking events in Chicago with Nexum and OpMentors, Las Vegas at TSIA World Envision, and London, where experts from Salesforce, Sabio, and Certinia led a panel at Salesforce Tower sharing insights on industry challenges, emerging trends, key skills, and strategies to boost customer satisfaction.
We also heard from industry experts offering valuable insights on the state of the industry, business growth, and effective leadership, including:
- DJ Paoni, our CEO, who outlined eight principles for success in the Services Era in diginomica.
- Kris Kildahl, our Chief People Officer, who shared strategies for empowering teams and driving growth through trust, goal alignment, and continuous learning.
- Essam Nessim from Diabsolut who explored how Customer Success transforms professional services organizations by fostering deeper client relationships, aligning services with strategic goals, and driving long-term growth.
- Jessica Mead, Co-Founder of Cloud Journey Group, who reflected on her career journey and encouraged leaders to embrace mentorship, customer focus, and lifelong learning for personal and professional success.
I highly recommend checking out the complete list of contributions from Ladd Partners, Agilyx, Exceleris Consulting, Cross Cloud Partners, Valuize, Cloudteam Company, VFP Consulting — and yes, more! — in the News & Articles section of the Services Week website.
To cap things off, on Friday Certinians worldwide participated in local volunteer activities and charity events, including the Susan G. Komen More Than Pink Walk in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Certinia’s EmpowerHER team raised over $9,000 to support critical research and patient services.
International Services Week was a resounding success, celebrating both services organizations as well as the people behind them. The conversations sparked during the week will continue to shape the future of the Services Era for years to come, and I’d like to thank all those who participated, however big or small.
