Left to right: Colin Fries (Secretary), Mark Herbert (Vice President), Richard Bishop (President) and Christopher J. Scharer (Treasurer)

A new Vivit Worldwide executive Board was recently announced during HP Discover and looks to continue building the organization that has helped build career expertise and personal connections with thousands of fellow HP Software users.

These long-time members have used HP Software in roles including banking, healthcare, and specialist software testing, and all continue to build their knowledge through the Vivit Worldwide knowledge base:

Vivit President, Richard Bishop leads the UK Local User Group and has previously held responsibility for nominations, European development, social media, and education. His specialties include Microsoft server operating systems, performance engineering, and the HP ALM suite.

Vivit Vice President, Mark Herbert leads the Arizona Local User Group and is a Co-Leader of the HP Software Education Special Interest Group. He has previously held the education and nominations Board positions. His specialties include HP Application Lifecycle Management, Quality Center, QuickTest Professional, Unified Functional Testing, and Business Process Testing.

Vivit Treasurer, Christopher J. Scharer co-leads the Iowa Local User Group, Nebraska Local User Group, and Testing, Quality, Application Lifecycle Management Special Interest Group. He has previously held the vice president, treasurer, nominations, social media, education and membership Board positions. His specialties include HP Application Lifecycle Management, Quality Center, Unified Functional Testing, Quick Test Pro, and Business Process Testing.

Vivit Secretary, Colin Fries until recently co-led the St. Louis Local User Group. His focus is on test automation architecture and has used multiple tool sets, including HP's Unified Functional Testing (UFT).

Richard said that during the last seven years when he has been involved with Vivit, he has been able to increase his knowledge of HP Software as well as raise his professional profile within HP. His membership has allowed him to build relationships with other members on similar career paths who have helped him understand and develop best practices.

Vivit has over 30,000 members worldwide and some of the IT industry’s top thought-leaders as members and volunteers. These individuals volunteer their time to lead Local User Groups (LUG) and worldwide virtual Special Interest Groups (SIG).

Mark attested that Vivit’s SIGs have improved his understanding of HP Software’s many solutions. His leadership roles in Vivit have allowed him to act as an advocate for HP Software customers around the world. "It helps you get to know the HP executives you might not usually run across,” he said.

Chris also has maintained close interactions with HP executives and has long been drawn toward companies that have used HP products. "HP products seem like they're a lot easier to use than other proprietary software. HP products almost seem intuitive and are very easy to integrate with other products and solutions,” Chris stated.

Richard, as well as Mark and Chris, all transitioned to Vivit from the Mercury User Group after HP acquired Mercury in 2006.

Colin told us he joined Vivit without much prior knowledge of HP Software and needed to learn as much as possible to help build his career. He eventually became the St. Louis LUG leader and sought a position on Vivit’s executive Board to get an even deeper experience. "Without Vivit, it would have been difficult to learn some of these tools and their processes on my own. The network of peers that I have assembled has been invaluable in that it allowed me to easily resolve questions and validate ideas,” Colin said.

To join Vivit, click here. 

For more information on HP Software, go to http://www8.hp.com/us/en/software/enterprise-software.html