IT Service Management WhitePaper

7/28/2019 IT Service Management WhitePaper

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IT ServiceManagement

WhoAre your

TopSoftwareProviders

And

WhyYou

shouldconsider

them


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ABOUT US

In todays world, companies are facing pressure to adapt theirbusinesses for the mobile revolution, cloud computing, Social Mediamarketing, virtualization and much more. The companies that can use

these shifts in technology as an advantage stand to benefit greatlyagainst their competition and even grow to serve new industries. Inorder to be successful, a company must employ the proper balance

of strategy, process, tools and support and in most cases; they need

a partner to lead them in the right directions.

Advanced MarketPlace

employs proven methodologies and partners with world classorganizations to deliver value to our clients. We work with customersto plan, architect, implement, and manage solutions put them on the

path to success and help ensure they stay on that path.

Our company is headquartered in Tampa, FL with sales officesthroughout the US. Technical Consultants are located throughout the

US and can be deployed world-

wide.

With over 16 years in businessand hundreds of years of combined Consulting, Project Management,Training and Support experience, our reputation within the industry isimpeccable. We service all industry segments including commercial,

Federal government, state/local government and education.Adv


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What is ITSM ?

What is ITSM?

In todays highly competitive business climate, the role of technology in most enterprisesunderpins their success. An unexpected failure of a business critical server, or evenan employees laptop computer or mobile device, can significantly impact employee

productivity and bottom line revenue. Quickly responding to employee servicerequests and proactively managing the IT infrastructure has become an increasinglyimportant IT function, yet most organizations struggle with a limited IT ServiceManagement (ITSM) toolset.

A fundamental requirement for reducing cost and improving quality of your IT service

begins with controlling the number of incidents received and reducing the time it takesto successfully resolve these incidents. An increase in incidents can be attributed tocomplexity of the IT infrastructure.

Lack of infrastructure visibility and an increasing number of infrastructure changes arecreating IT havoc. The service desk must be able to easily ascertain what assets theyhave, where they are and how theyre used. Amazingly, few organizations can admit tohaving a firm grip on this simple requirement.

Asset registry systems dont deliver sufficient capability to capture the complexrelationships between infrastructure components, and attempting to build an in-houseConfiguration Management Database has proven to be an unsuccessful undertaking.And then theres the question of associating service incidents with a problem record,identifying known errors and root cause, ensuring that incidents and problems areresolved in a timely manner, scheduling and tracking necessary infrastructure changes,and validating that the IT infrastructure is updated to reflect these changes.

Every department these days is being forced to consider new areas of optimization, andIT is no exception. Not only will IT want to expand its ITSM toolset to introduce more

automation and optimization, but it will want to consider lower cost service deliverychannels such as Web and voice self service.

Finding the right tools to support the end-to-end service lifecycle described above canbe challenging and expensive. But with the right preparation, and armed with the bestinformation, you can successfully identify and implement the right solution for yourorganization.


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Why ITSM & Benefits ?

Why ITSM & Benefits?

Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) is gaining increasing importanceacross todays enterprise. Why? Because its primarily concerned with keeping thesatisfaction of the customer squarely in focus. The customer may be an employee witha technology challenge or an external customer with a customer service issue. ITSM is

process-oriented, from the beginning to the end of the organizations product or servicelifecycle.

And because ITSM is a process-focused solution designed to focus on the supportneeds of the customer, it has ties and common interests with key business process

improvement movements and best practices industry practices, such as Total QualityManagement (TQM), Six Sigma, and ITIL. When the needs of the customer takefirst priority, the primary focus of ITSM is to provide a proven, effective framework tostructure and align IT-related activities and the interactions of IT technical personnelwith business customers and users.

ITSM has been traditionally concerned with providing back office support foremployees regarding the hardware and software they rely on to perform their jobfunction. For example, the computer systems and related software and networkaccess required by the marketing staff must be accessible and functioning at a high

performance level in order for this team to get their job done. All industries these days,but especially government, education, healthcare, financial, manufacturing, retail, andtravel industries, have significant information technology systems which are mission or

business critical to the success of the company on a daily basis, 24x7. In this respect,ITSM can be seen as something like an end-to-end, enterprise resource planning(ERP) discipline for IT.

A good IT Service Management solution will help you automate routine processes,run IT like a business, establishing clear baselines for measuring performance and

determining whether youre meeting business goals and customer requirements. Acomprehensive ITSM methodology that includes assessing the overall maturity of yourITSM function, developing an ITSM strategy blueprint, and validating current processescan yield tremendous benefits to your organization.


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Why ITSM & Benefits?

Once its in place, ITSM helps align higher-quality, cost-effective IT services moreclosely with overall business needs. Failing to align IT services with business needsdecreases the productivity of IT staff and internal users, disrupts key revenue-generating applications such as transaction processing or e-commerce, and ultimatelydiminishes the customer experience. Businesses ignore the importance of a soundITSM strategy at their own peril!

What Should I Consider When Evaluating ITSM Software?

Before you take a look at a new tool, or identify where your current tool is limitingyour effectiveness, its crucial to really understand the various processes that yourorganization is adopting and pinpoint areas of weakness.

As an example, suppose the Finance department is generating an inordinate number ofincidents pertaining to the corporate ERP system. Upon further research you determinethat ad-hoc changes to the business intelligence application are happening too often,

and the majority of these changes are being rolled back due to poor planning andexecution. With constant demands for changes to critical business systems, its gettingmore and more critical that you put in some proper change management processes.On top of this, IT management is saying that the problem resolution reports dontinclude relevent metrics. Furthermore, the service desk team is complaining that theuser interface makes keying in data a cumbersome and time-consuming process. And,without any automation, performing tasks like incident routing and escalation are amanual process that just isnt working.

As you evaluate these challenges, its important to rank them in order of business

impact, attempting to quantify the annual cost and lost productivity or revenueassociated with each. In this hypothetical example, the IT team decides its first priority isto gain a handle on infrastructure changes. Since it doesnt have standardized Change

processes or a Change Management application, it begins a vendor search.


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The IT Director begins by calling a friend that works for a niche Change Managementvendor. Upon further analysis, the director realizes that although this solution meets his

base level requirements to better track and manage the change management processto his infrastructure, integration into his existing service desk solution will be costly.

Without an integrated solution, he would not be able to associate a change to the ITasset in his Inventory Management database. He wouldnt be able to easily determinehow many incidents and changes were associated to a particular asset class. Andhis service desk team would not be able to easily generate a Request for Change

from a Problem record. With this solution, he could not solve all of his other related ITproblems and would be looking for another module from another vendor down the road.

You need a complete ITSM solution . One that has a full set of ITIL modules to managethe full incident through resolution lifecycle without the high cost of integration betweenmulti-vendor solutions.

Furthermore, unless you have in-house ITIL expertise and resources assigned to develop your bespractices business processes, you should choose a vendor that will also become a business part-ner . helping you design and build in best-practices processes based on ITIL. When considering aITSM software, here are things to consider right at the outset:

Is the software scalable? Is the software user interface role-based and easily configured to support different

user group perspectives? Is the software extensible to integrate with other core rd party applications? Is the software customizable? Or must the vendors come in every time a small tweak

is required?

Does the software include business process automation that has drag and drop tools,wizards, debugging tools and reusable process libraries?

Does the vendor have a robust portfolio of ITIL-compliant modules and includeadditional solutions that extend beyond core help desk functions such as SoftwareAsset Management, Client Lifecycle Management, and Voice Self Service?


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Features of ITSM ?

Once youre committed to going down the path to identify and implement an ITSMsolution in your business, there are essential features to keep in mind. There are certaincore ITSM capabilities that will allow your organization to meet the growing demands oftodays IT-based business requirements. The main ones include:

Incident Management, including help desk best practices to easily categorize issuesand automate workflow. A real-time, customizable dashboard capability is often built-in to the product.

Problem Management, including processes for root-cause analysis that will help youminimize the impact of problems.

Change Management, to ensure that you have and can manage standards andprocedures for making changes and supporting your customers.

Release Management, allowing you to design and implement procedures to distributereleases and communicate changes with your IT staff and customers.

Availability Management, including a real-time dashboard to provide information onconfiguration and services availability.

Configuration Management, helps you identify configuration items and providesreports on requests for change (RFCs). Ideally, you should be able to view the statusof IT assets and their relationship to incidents in real-time.

Service Level Management, which allows you to maintain and improve IT servicesthrough agreements with your customers. You also should have the ability to defineand manage service catalogs.

Self Service Management, allows your customers to view the status of their issues

and submit new issues over the Web. This improves the overall operation of theservice management department and enhances customer service.

Knowledge Management, provides an important capability to your IT support staffand your customers. Support staff will be able to take advantage of solutions that areknown to solve issues without researching them each time. Your customers shouldalso be able to search for solutions over the web, which will reduce calls to the IT.


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What to look for when choosing ITSM ?

Today there is a whole new generation of software products that deliver the critical ITvalue that companies are looking for. Many have been purpose built to deliver thecapabilities required to operate as a service provider integrated into the enterprise ormission value chain. Some of the larger software companies have banded togetherto establish a configuration management database (CMDB) standard that will enablevarious point solutions to be integrated into this evolving ITSM software architecture.

But, are they right for YOU? Here are some time-tested, easy-to-follow steps whenselecting ITSM software solutions.

Analyze Your Needs

While this may seem obvious at first, experts say theyve lost count of the number of ITshops theyve worked with over the years that started with a product search as opposedto a clearly defined need. This normally goes hand-in-hand with doing ITIL withoutunderstanding their current capability or a desired end-state of the ITSM processes inmind. A needs analysis is fundamental, and addresses the definition of the goals andobjectives to be achieved as the result of acquiring new software. Its critical that anyneeds analysis should be conducted in parallel with an IT Service Management processmaturity assessment.

Specify Your Requirements

Specifying requirements means more than just writing down selected features fromthe vendors marketing material. Your requirements are your requirements and shouldreflect what the product must do to enable the process that you either have or wish tohave. Among the deliverables of your process design or redesign phase of a processimplementation program should be a requirements definition.

Identify Suppliers

Before you start looking for suppliers, your organization should determine its appetitefor risk. Factors to consider include your current vendor (if you have one), ability tointegrate products from several vendors vs. a single-vendor product suite. Its importantto remember: Some assembly is required. The scope of that assembly is where risksneed to be assessed.


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What to look for when choosing ITSM ?

The industry is moving away from integrating best of breed point solutions obtainedfrom a set of different vendors. In todays risk adverse environment, it is more cost

-

effective in the long term to select a vendor that has a breadth of offering to support your longterm roadmap. And, if you have an aggressive maturity path, you will wantto consider vendor size, longevity in the industry, and financial strength, which is anindicator of its ability to continue to build or buy new modules to stay ahead of your longterm requirements. Vendor consolidation in the technology sector is a current trend,and you will be better suited working with a vendor that is not going to go through achallenging acquisition which could derail their customer focus. If you want a one-size fits-all solution, then your risks are associated with product limitations (best practices

are defined by the vendors product limitations).

Do Your Own Research

The due diligence you put into reseach will directly impact the quality of your productdecision. There is no substitute for hands-on research. It is also valuable to understandeach vendors thought leadership expertise. So, do some research and understand theITSM vendor landscape so that you can make an informed decision.

Kick the Tires

If a test drive of an ITSM solution is possible, thats great. This is where you get intosome level of detail in the actual evaluation of the product. If you have a detailedrequirements list, you can drill down to the necessary level of detail to determine the

products actual capability to meet your requirements. You should be able to clearlyidentify what works the way you want it to work, and what can be configured to workthe way you want it to work.

Bottom line: Selecting the right ITSM solution for your business is up to you, not the

software companies, to do the work necessary to understand your needs, articulateyour requirements, understand your appetite for risk, qualify prospective vendors,validate the products capability to meet your requirements, and validate your selection/recommendation with others in the IT Service Management practitioner community.


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Who to consider when choosing ITSM ?

Top ITSM Vendors to consider

You have many options when choosing a ITSM solution. To make it a bit easier, wevefeatured some of the leading IT Service Management solutions in this paper. Reviewthese vendors, and youll be well on the way to finding the right ITSM software for your

business.

BMC Software

Computer Associates (CA) Dell (Kace) EMC (Infra) Front Range IBM

Landesk Sunview Software Tech Excel


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About BMC

Business Runs on IT. IT Runs on BMC Software

Business runs better when IT runs at its best. Thats why more than 2 ,000 ITorganizations from the Global 100 to the smallest businesses in over 120 countriesrely on BMC Software to manage their business services and applications acrossdistributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud environments. With the leading BusinessService Management platform, Cloud Management, and the industrys broadest choiceof IT management solutions, BMC helps customers cut costs, reduce risk, and achieve

business objectives. For the four fiscal quarters ended December 1, 2011, BMCrevenue was approximately $2.2 billion.

BMC remedy IT Service Management Suite

The BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite is a unified, ITIL-certified servicesupport suite that offers fully integrated mobility, service request, identity, andknowledge management applications to provide self-service capabilities that enableincreased operational efficiency and improved customer service quality.

Available as mobile applications, BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite removescomplexity and costs, while also providing visibility into the resources, activities, and

priorities required to deliver and support business services.

BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite includes the following industry-leadingapplications:

BMC Remedy Service Desk reduces the number of incidents handled, improvesresolution times, and prevents future incidents from occurring.

BMC Remedy Change and Release Management - delivers comprehensivepolicy, process management, and planning capabilities that help you increase the

speed and consistency with which you implement changes, while also minimizingbusiness risk and disruption.

BMC Remedy Asset Configuration Management - helps drive down IT costs, whilealso improving service quality and compliance, with a comprehensive approach to :


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About BMC

IT asset lifecycle management.

BMC Mobile IT Service Management Applications manages incidents, approveschange requests and updates asset information all from smartphones and tablets

BMC Remedy Knowledge Management - provides framework for creating,publishing, reviewing, and searching knowledge articles

BMC Remedy Service Request Management - allows IT and other serviceprovider organizations (like HR and facilities) to define services, publish them ina service catalog, and automate the request and fulfillment via a service request

portal.

BMC Footprints

BMC FootPrints is a flexible, comprehensive, integrated IT service and assetmanagement solution that is easy to install, use and extend to create business value.Supporting the convergence of IT service and asset management, this powerful

platform gives you the visibility and control you need to continuously improve servicedelivery and manage IT assets while driving efficiencies, controlling costs, maintaining

compliance and reducing IT vulnerability and financial risk.

With an emphatic focus on user experience, FootPrints improves customersatisfaction and IT productivity revealing the true value of IT service & support to the

business. BMC FootPrints modular design enables you to adopt IT service and assetmanagement capabilities at a pace that works for your business.

Leverage BMC FootPrints to:

Gain control of the wide variety of work that happens in a resource constrained IT

organization

Simplify and automate routine tasks that commonly consume human and financialresources


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About BMC

Reduce calls by enabling users to self-resolve common issues and defer non-urgent issues

Document, record and centralize work for future reference and to demonstratecompliance

Prevent future issues by controlling and managing change and configuration

Save time and money by understanding financial and business implications ofdecisions.

Gain visibility into the landscape of the IT asset environmentBMC remedyforce Service desk

BMC Remedyforce Service Deskis a cloud-based, next-generation service desksolution that represents a cost-effective, contemporary, and easy-to-use response tothe challenges of delivering high-quality service support with no capital investment, noinfrastructure upgrades, and no software maintenance required.

BMC Remedyforce Service Desk enables you to exceed expectations and deliverinteractive IT support services accessible anywhere, anytime. Remedyforce allowsthe IT organization to operate through built

-in best practices across key ITIL service

management processes for greater control and efficiency.

With BMC Remedyforce Service Desk, you will:

Deliver a comprehensive and modern self-service experience to users, while alsoincreasing efficiency amongst knowledge workers

Empower support teams with real-time social collaboration and knowledge

management

Monitor and enforce service level agreements between the business, IT, and thirdparties

Reduce training and accelerate productivity with a simple and intuitive userexperience


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About BMC

Keep pace with innovation and emerging best practices through seamless SaaSdelivery

Through a range of pre-built, best-practice workflows, you can:

Eliminate up to half of your inquiries and maximize agent productivity withcomprehensive end-user self service

Reduce the risk and cost of unplanned changes with advanced scheduling,including planned outages and automated approval process

Minimize the number of incidents generated by problems through effective rootcause analysis and knowledge creation

Provide decision support to your agents with access to configuration managementinformation and full visibility between processes and teams

BMC Track-It!

BMC Track-It! is the industry leading IT help desk and asset management solutionfor small to medium sized businesses. Providing a comprehensive view of your ITenvironment, out of the box, Track-It gives you the visibility and control you need toefficiently and securely manage your help desk and IT assets. With over 20 years ofexperience and 0,000 customers across the globe, Track-It empowers you to quicklyand cost-effectively streamline your help desk and IT asset management needs from asingle, intuitive console.

BMC Track-It! included core modules for Help Desk Management, Inventory and AssetManagement, Problem and Incident Management, Change Management, Purchasing,

Software License Management, Training, Library, Facilities Management, Self Service/Password Reset web portal for end users, Mobile and Web Help Desk interface fortechnicians, a data warehouse driven Dashboard for metrics and Reporting. Additionalmodules available for purchase include remote control, barcoding, migration and surveymanagement.


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About BMC

BMC Track-It!:

Dramatically reduces time spent on managing and scheduling repetitive tasks Increases users confidence when placing a request with your help desk staff

Knowledge base solutions, 24/7 self-service for request submission and onlinestatus checks available within the 100% web-based self-service portal

Ensures that requests will be addressed in a timely fashion with Service LevelAgreements

Improves change management control and efficiency by properly managingchange requests while encouraging teamwork and collaboration with Track-It!

For More information:

Jason Gluck

jgluck@[email protected]

813-655-7173

IT Service Management WhitePaper

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