TCM – A noticable and successful presence at the annual NonStop TBC 2023 Conference

Laying down a putting line attracting the adventurous to compete for the best putt total and providing a wee dram of Scotch to accompany such endeavors was a new twist on an old theme for TCM Solutions. It was  fun to stop by our booth in the partner pavilion and be greeted by TCM team members only too willing to discuss the services we provide. For the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference we participated as a Platinum Partner and as such, our vantage point separating other booths from the dining area proved its worth.

TCM has always been a supporter of the NonStop user community. When it comes to the major events such as this one in Denver, Colorado, and previously, in our home town of Edinburgh, Scotland, we find them a valuable extension to our sales and marketing programs. These events are always useful in terms of providing positive reinforcement of our support of the NonStop community even as they allow us an opportunity to converse with the Americas sales team. TCM continues to make inroads into the Americas marketplace, so the timing of this year NonStop TBC 2023 Conference couldn’t have been better – we met with a broader population of the NonStop sales and solutions architects than we had experienced previously.

“As a former HPE NonStop team member, actively engaged with the NonStop user community in EMEA, I found this year’s conference very useful for me personally. Re-establishing connections nurtured through the years as many of my former colleagues attended the conference is proving helpful to TCM.”

Andy Vasey
Services Business Consultant
TCM Solutions

Together with Colin Yates, Technical Director, TCM Solutions, Andy gave the NonStop community a further update on TCM InSight – a recently announced tool that provides snapshot assessments, quickly and accurately giving a better understanding for each NonStop users of their respective systems and setups. Long a valuable tool for the TCM consultants on site, it has now been productized and is being viewed positively by the NonStop user community with strong take-up across EMEA. It is a help to both the NonStop user and TCM to better understand how the NonStop system and its supported applications perform in the users’ business environment.

There have been many conversations on how best to create intellectual equity across the services we provide. When it comes to increasing equity, we are all familiar with “sweat equity” many of us put into our own homes. Those fortunate enough to choose motor vehicles wisely also know that a market presence can increase equity as well. Whether it is with our home or something else we all recognize that equity translates to value and with greater equity comes greater valuations. For those whose profession is IT, then intellectual equity is tied to experience and those who gain marketable experience improve the value of the service being offered.

“We have always adopted a cautious approach when it comes to investments. In our line of business there is a substantial cost associated with any activities that aren’t directly tied to a NonStop users’ assignment. However, when NonStop went virtual and we heard about NonStop users validating and eventually going live in production with virtual NonStop (vNS), TCM recognized that investing in virtualization would assure we maintained a leadership role.”

Daniel Craig
Managing Director
TCM Solutions

One of the best attended presentations of the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference was given by Shiva Subramanian, NonStop Solutions Architect, TCM Solutions – NonStop, Evolution Through Modernization. There would be few that would argue against virtualization, as it is a part of any business journey into modernization. However, when it comes to moving from the hardware to a virtual system, TCM has observed how many NonStop users have faced serious challenges as to how best to begin that journey, knowing full well that the underlying infrastructure of the NonStop applications may be best described as legacy. Understanding this reality, Shiva moved quickly to address the many open source and enterprise supported industry standard tools available today that are proving extremely helpful in the pursuit of modernization.

Whether a NonStop user chooses to deploy in a virtual machine and in so doing, pursue an overhaul of the underlying infrastructure, sorting through the many industry buzzwords that might deter them from tackling any project to upgrade their software stack calls for experience. Virtualization doesn’t mandate overhauls and upgrades and yet this technology journey has proven that pursuing both leads to cost savings that can be realized by any business. Experience, access to well earned intellectual equity and the realization that someone else is further along in their journey has contributed materially to the success of TCM this year.

While the venue for Shiva’s presentation might have been smaller that those used for the keynote presentation, the size helped create the buzz we have come accustomed to whenever significant advancements in technology are discussed. With standing room only and a seemingly constant stream of questions from the audience Shiva’s replies and interaction with the audience was well received. Shiva has become a well-respected member of the NonStop community and the investment TCM chose to make in virtualization and modernization is self-evident confirmation that such investments, when chosen wisely, produce benefits for all members of the NonStop community.

Following Shiva’s presentation, he was given an invite to present at the upcoming April 2024 GTUG event in Berlin. Together, the NonStop TBC 2023 Conference and the annual pan-European GTUG (or BITUG) events constitute the two major events of the year that TCM always looks forward to. At these events we not only have the opportunity to interact with the NonStop team but use the occasion to validate our overall strategy. Whey it comes to our priorities, it has been these events in 2023 that have helped reaffirm our 2023/2024 strategy is strongly aligned with the needs of the NonStop user community.

It is this reaffirmation of our strategy and with it, the support we have from the NonStop users that continues to sustain our interest in all NonStop conferences and events, whether their reach is regional or global. Consider each such gathering a litmus test for the longer-term future of NonStop and with what we have witnessed this year, it is clear to the management at TCM that our priorities are not just strongly aligned with those of the NonStop community but represent a valuable asset to the NonStop team.

Consider then this your invitation to join us next year at GTUG, but before that date comes around, from what we observed at this year’s NonStop TBC Conference, we know that there are likely to be many more conversations to follow about the individual journeys of NonStop users, whether focused on modernization or virtualization or simply coming to better understanding of their NonStop systems and settings, and TCM will be only too happy to join you on your journey wherever your path might take you.

nonstop@tcm.uk.com   www.tcm.uk.com