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Featuring research from

The Road to Infrastructure and Operations Maturitythrough Service Management

Introduction: BalancingInnovation with Efficiencyand Cost Control: . . . . . . . .2

Introducing the Gartner ITInfrastructure and Operations(I&O) Maturity Model: . . . .3

Structure of an ITMaturity Model: . . . . . . . . .4

Gartner’s I&O Maturity Model: . . . . . . . . .5

Current Challenges toAttaining Higher Levels of Maturity: . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Introduction to IBM ServiceManagement: . . . . . . . . . .10

IBM Tivoli ProcessAutomation . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Getting Started with IBMService Management . . . .15

Introduction: Balancing Innovation withEfficiency and Cost Control

Consider any successful and well run enterprisetoday and you will find a focus on both innovation andcost control. Investments are made in projects thatwill provide an opportunity for the business to attractnew customers, enter new markets or improveefficiency with a goal towards revenue and profitgrowth. Information technology plays an increasinglyimportant function in how these businesses operateand a key role in these projects. Therefore, it shouldbe no surprise that cost cutting measures continue toput more pressure on the IT organization to improveefficiency and effectiveness. For many organizations,this creates a paradox that pits innovation and greaterIT agility against budget constraints and cost control.

Gartner research indicates that growth ortransformation that is expected but not reflected in theIT budget can indicate that the business has notplanned adequately or is looking to get IT supportfrom somewhere else, such as outsourcing, which will

not be managed by the IT organization. Situations like thisare symptomatic of IT organizations that are viewed ascost centers rather than strategic enablers and can alsohighlight competitive disadvantage . Gartner also statesthat organizations are constantly looking to reduce thecost of running the business, releasing more of the ITbudget to invest in grow and transform activities, whichare the areas the business sees IT really providing valueto the business2.

As a strategic facet of the business, IT must be flexibleand agile to support the rapid change and growth inbusiness models. The challenge is to increase agilityand responsiveness to business requirements whilereducing costs and improving efficiency – essentially to“do more with less”. To make growth and businessinnovation a priority, 78% of CEOs interviewed see theintegration of business and technology as the preferredpath to meeting these objectives. Independent,quantitative research supports this belief and finds that

61% 63% 64% 62%68% 67% 66%

21% 22% 22% 24%19% 20% 21%

18% 15% 14% 14% 13% 13% 13%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Run Grow Transform

Source: Gartner

two

Insert Figure 28. Historical IT Spending on Running, Growing andTransforming the Business, 2002-2008

three

industry leaders who are successful at thisconvergence beat their industry peers in everyfinancial metric, including an astounding 3X higherrevenue growth and 2X in profitability. The researchfound that successful organizations “conduct fullydata-driven decision-making enabled by consistent,coordinated, integrated use of automation.”3 But howdo they get there?

The right approach to service management can helporganizations achieve customer orientation andinnovation while driving greater efficiency. Throughintegrated visibility, control and automation,organizations can regain control across both businessand technology assets and overcome roadblocks toinnovation. Organizations that embrace an effectiveapproach to service management, which integratesand aligns people, process, technology and businessmanagement, can achieve optimal efficiency and atrue partnership between IT and the business.

In this publication featuring Gartner research, we bringyou perspectives on infrastructure and operationalmaturity and the evolution to effective servicemanagement. This special issue features Gartner’s ITInfrastructure and Operations Maturity Model andprovides insights into how IT can gain effectiveapproaches on aligning people, process, technology, andbusiness management. We offer insights from IBM onService Management to achieve greater visibility, controland automation across the infrastructure and tighterconvergence between IT and the business. By defining apath to infrastructure and operational maturity, we outlineeffective principles to service management for companiesof all sizes and industries to align people, process,technology, and business management for greaterefficiency and innovation.

Source: IBM

Introducing the Gartner IT Infrastructureand Operations Maturity ModelGartner’s IT Infrastructure and Operations (I&O)Maturity Model helps I&O leaders evaluate theirmaturity with respect to people, process, technologyand business management, and establish a roadmap for increasing levels of maturity to servicealignment and partnering with the business.

Key Findings• The I&O Maturity Model assesses four

dimensions of I&O: people, process, technologyand business management.

• Each level of increased maturity providessubstantially higher business value.

• Each maturity level transition is likely to takemultiple years.

Recommendations• Assess your I&O maturity with respect to people,

process, technology and business management.

• Develop a road map of increasing maturity levelsalong with return on investment (ROI) criteria forprogram justification – focus on the maturitydimension that needs the most improvement.

• Define maturity improvement initiatives that can beexecuted in four to six months.

ANALYSISGartner’s I&O Maturity Model assesses maturity in fourcritical dimensions – people, process, technology andbusiness management – and enables the creation of aroad map for improvement. This model can be used to

1Gartner IT Spending and Staffing Report, 2008”, dated 20 February 2008

2Gartner IT Spending and Staffing Report, 2008”, dated 20 February 2008

3BTM Institute, “Business Technology Convergence Index”, 2007.

four

track progress toward higher levels of maturity andbusiness value.

We often get calls from I&O leaders looking tobenchmark the maturity of their I&O environments,and looking for assistance in building a road map forimprovement. Gartner has developed a number ofmaturity models in response to these requests(including the IT management process maturitymodel, networking maturity model and infrastructurematurity model); however, they all assess a portion ofI&O, as opposed to the entire sphere of I&Oresponsibilities and functions. Although theseindividual maturity models are useful in terms ofgranularity in specific areas, we believe that it isnecessary for I&O maturity efforts to be cross-disciplined and coordinated.

The Structure of an IT Maturity ModelThe grandfather of maturity models is the CapabilityMaturity Model (CMM), developed in 1987. CMM wasbreakthrough work, stressing the concept thatprocess was central to capability maturity. Based onthe CMM concept, numerous maturity models havebeen spawned – primarily focused on assessing ITprocess maturity.

Greater I&O process maturity is essential if I&Oleaders are to improve IT services delivered tocustomers. However, we believe that, although afocus on process is necessary, it’s not sufficient for ITmaturity, especially in I&O. Process-centricity makessense when process alone drives maturity, and allother elements follow. However, in the IT industry, thetechnology is constantly evolving, and discontinuity isthe norm. Technological changes can requireresetting maturity in other areas; for example,operationalizing virtualization requires processchanges. Hence, technology is also affecting maturity.An IT maturity model must include technology. As ITbecomes more ingrained in business processes, ITorganization, culture and skills will also need toradically change. Culture, organization and personnelchanges will often be prerequisites for processimprovement and shifts in how technology isleveraged. Finally, people, process and technology

are driven and constrained by the ways in which they’remanaged, including the governance procedures. Hence,we see process, technology, people and businessmanagement as the four essential dimensions of I&Omaturity.

These four assessment dimensions should generallymove together and be aligned as I&O maturity increases.However, we recognize that, although they tend to movein the same direction, they don’t all move at the samerate, because the rate will depend on organization,business and investment priorities. As a result, weencourage our clients to pay attention to all fourdimensions; otherwise, if one lags consistently, it will holdyou back from gaining the overall benefits of the I&Omaturity level for which you’re striving.

Another important aspect of an IT maturity model is theneed for a rapid ROI. Because of the rate of technologychange, the change in business requirements andoperational processes, and the need for new skills andcollaboration methods, IT projects that require manyyears of implementation and expect a long-term ROIinevitably fail, as tools change or goals shift. An ITmaturity model must provide for smaller steps,implementable in no more than two or three years, thatgenerate measurable, rapid ROI.

Although it may take several years for organizations toprogress to the next level in the maturity model, theyshould define improvement initiatives that can beexecuted in four to six months. These smaller initiativesmake the changes easier to absorb and ensure thatincremental benefits are being realized while on thelonger maturity journey.

Figure 1 identifies the four-dimensions assessment areasof the I&O Maturity Model, using a stool analogy. Thepeople, process and technology assessments representthe legs of the stool, whereas the business managementfunctions tie the legs of the stool together. The businessvalue metrics of using the model are shown above thestool and include:

• Economics – Improvements in cost, efficiency,productivity

• Quality of service – Factors related to howrequired services are delivered to the business,

Introducing the Gartner IT Infrastructureand Operations Maturity Model

five

Source: Gartner (October 2007)

Figure 1. The Components of Gartner’s I&O Maturity Model

including availability/uptime, response times andtransaction rates

• Agility – The efficiency and speed with which ITresponds to business, technology and regulatorychange

• Customer satisfaction – Improvements incustomer satisfaction

• Business contribution – Improved I&O businessvalue (such as revenue, profits and speed tomarket)

Projects that move an I&O organization from onelevel to the next typically use these metrics to justifythe project’s ROI.

In Figure 1, the attributes being assessed for maturityare shown next to each of the four assessmentdimensions. For example, business managementmaturity is measured in terms of planning, financialmanagement, metrics, governance/standards, sourcingand project management.

Gartner’s I&O Maturity ModelWe have defined six overall levels of I&O maturity, withthe following objectives for each level:

• Level 0, Survival – Little to no focus on ITinfrastructure and operations.

• Level 1, Awareness – Realization thatinfrastructure and operations are critical to thebusiness; beginning to take actions (inpeople/organization, process and technologies) togain operational control and visibility.

• Level 2, Committed – Moving to a managedenvironment, for example, for day-to-day ITsupport processes and improved success inproject management to become more customer-centric and increase customer satisfaction.

• Level 3, Proactive – Gaining efficiencies andservice quality through standardization, policydevelopment, governance structures andimplementation of proactive, cross-departmental

processes, such as change and releasemanagement.

• Level 4, Service-Aligned – Managing IT like abusiness; customer-focused; proven,competitive and trusted IT service provider.

• Level 5, Business Partnership – Trustedpartner to the business for increasing the valueand competitiveness of business processes, aswell as the business as a whole.

Many large IT organizations will look to transformthemselves to achieve Level 4 (service-alignedstatus) to align IT with business priorities and deliverconsistent and competitive IT services. A few willmake it past that to become a business partner,focused on innovation and increasing the value of the

entire business (not just IT service delivery), with benefitmetrics focused at the business contribution level.Achieving I&O maturity is a multiyear transformation, andthe movement from one level to another is not evenlydistributed in time and effort. Each level transition is likelyto take multiple years, and each is likely to requiresustained commitment. Lapses (for example, due toorganizational changes or changes in priorities) can resultin significant delays achieving the next level, or cause itnot to be attained.

Figure 2 depicts the six levels of I&O maturity, with a high-level description of each of the four dimensions ofassessment: people, process, technology and businessmanagement.

No formal ITbusinessmanagementfunctions

Businesscontributionmetrics

IT service costmetrics,competitiveness

Financialmanagement,formal keyperformanceindicators

Projectmanagementoffice

Very littleoutside ofbudgeting

No formalstrategy orexecution ontechnologyinvestments

Proactivelypromoting newtechnologiesand impactto business;real-timeinfrastructure

Formal ITmanagementprocess/toolsarchitecture;sharedservices;aggregatedcapacitymanagement

Formalinfrastructurestandards andpolicies;process anddomain-centricmanagementtools;virtualizationfoundation inplace

IT support andproject-relatedmanagementtools; desktophardware/softwarestandardsdefined; begininfrastructurestandardization/rationalization

Basicmanagementtools; no formalinfrastructurehardware orsoftwarestandards

No formal ITprocesses forIT infrastructureand operations

Dynamicoptimizationof IT services,implementprocessesfosteringbusinessinnovation

Integrated,automated andextendedbeyond I&O;focus on allservice andbusinessmanagementprocesses

Repeatable andindividuallyautomated;focus on ITservicedelivery-relatedIT processes

Definedprocesses forIT servicesupport andprojectmanagement

Ad hoc, butaware thatprocesses arenecessary;dependent ontools toimplement defacto processes

Noorganizationalfocus on ITinfrastructureand operations

Businessoptimizationandentrepreneurialfocused culture

Customer- andbusiness-focused, ITservice anddelivery centricorganization,formalgovernance

Process-centricorganization,definedgovernancestructure

Technology-centricorganization;investment in ITservice deskfunction andstaff

Defined,technology-centricorganization forIT infrastructureand operations

People

Process

Technology

Business Management

Survival Awareness Committed ProactiveService-Aligned

BusinessPartnership

Level: 1 2 3 4 50Source: Gartner (October 2007)

Figure 2. The Levels of Gartner’s I&O Maturity Model

six

Introducing the Gartner IT Infrastructureand Operations Maturity Model

seven

T i m e l i n e

12/2007

12/2012

S u r v i va l

<2

<2

Awareness

45

30

Committed

30

35

Proactive

15

21

S e r v i c e -

Aligned

8

12

B u s i n e s s

Partnership

<1

<2

Table 1. I&O Maturity Level Estimates for 2007 and 2012Table 1.I&O Maturity Level Estimates for 2007 and 2012

Source: Gartner (October 2007)

7I&O maturity levels will differ across industries,enterprise size and business strategies. Table 1 is anestimate of I&O maturity at each level, with a predictionof progress by year-end 2012.

Associated planning assumptions include:

• By year-end 2012, only 35% of I&O organizationsin large enterprises will have achieved proactive orhigher levels of I&O maturity; this is up from fewerthan 25% in 2007.

• By year-end 2012, fewer than 14% of I&Oorganizations in large enterprises will haveachieved service-aligned or above; this is up fromfewer than 9% in 2007.

• By year-end 2012, fewer than 2% of largeenterprises will have achieved the businesspartnership level of maturity.

• By year-end 2012, the awareness level of I&Omaturity will drop by one-third.

Using the I&O Maturity ModelI&O leaders should use this model to assess each ofthe I&O maturity dimensions – people, process,technology and business management. I&O leaderscan then identify projects that would take them forwardto align the dimensions at a particular level or to moveforward to the next level of maturity.

Moreover, as they move up in maturity towardbecoming an internal IT service provider and the elusivebusiness partnership level (focused on businessinnovation), they also must manage the business of ITdifferently and more cohesively. This requires that theymanage all the business functions that are required oftheir business customer counterparts, including productmanagement, marketing, business development andcost accounting.

Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00147962, Donna Scott, Jay E. Pultz, Ed Holub, Thomas J. Bittman,

Paul McGuckin, 1 October 2007

eight

Organizational and environmental complexities areprobably the biggest inhibitors to achieving higher levelsof maturity. Many organizations lack a coordinatedapproach to seeing, managing and automating IT whichoften results in a wide range of disparate managementtools, hundreds of scripts and highly customized code.True success requires a cross-functional coordinationeffort – communication and collaboration across people,process, information and technology – coupled with aproven method of operating.

Effective service management helps organizationsmeet these challenges by enabling them to turn assetsinto value for the company. It reaches across an entireorganization including IT and various lines of business,and touches its people, processes and technologies toensure they are considered in an integrated fashion.However, there are some common obstacles to servicemanagement such as a lack of real-time visibility intobusiness services, caused by siloed processes andteams that force organizations to navigate blindly throughthe service landscape. A second, equally impairingobstacle is a lack of the control needed to managebusiness services across the entire service life cycle.And a third obstacle is IT organizations often suffer froma disconnect caused by a lack of established,repeatable process automation that can deliverconsistent, accurate data throughout the service life

cycle. The following sections explore the challengesthat organizations face in maturing across the fourdimensions of people, process, technology, andbusiness management:

People: Improving an organization’s people maturitylevel may be the most challenging of the fourdimensions – not because it is the most complex, butbecause it is the hardest to measure in terms of returnon investment. IT organizations are consistently underpressure to deliver new technology and innovationwhile reducing costs. This pressure makes efforts toimprove maturity around roles, skills and training seema luxury and often get pushed aside as more easilymeasurable areas get addressed. In addition, internalstaff may resent a structured, formalized organization ifregarded as a commoditization of their role. However,creating a well defined, cross-trained organization canfree senior staff to focus on key areas that require thegreatest skill. For management, the reality is that byimproving the maturity level in this dimension,organizations can reduce internal bottlenecks,inefficiencies, and risk.

Process: The challenge to improving process maturityis similar. It is often regarded as difficult in terms ofmeasuring its ROI. In addition, efforts to createprocesses have sometimes created barriers and require

Current Challenges to Attaining HigherLevels of Maturity

extensive manual support. As a result, the creation andadoption of processes sometimes can be met withresistance across many organizations. However,compliance and regulatory mandate have put greaterpressure on organizations to improve in the processdimension. Therefore the goal must be to focus oncreating repeatable, straight forward processes where itis clear to process participants why each step andcontrol must be in place.

Technology: An organization's technology maturitylevels are under continuing pressure. New technologiesconstantly emerge, while existing technologiessupporting critical production needs are difficult toupdate. Throw into this mix other issues such as lessflexible older technologies and incompatibilities across

vendor implementations of newer “standards”, and it iseasy to see the challenges facing organizations as theytry to improve their technology maturity level.

Business Management: Lines of business are underincreasing pressure to grow revenue. At the same time,operations are under pressure to develop IT solutionsthat properly align with business objectives, provideaccurate, timely and comprehensive information tousers, and support service level agreements (SLAs)across the business. Add to this the need to better tounderstand and track the cost of IT services and youcan see the need for greater visibility and meaningfuldata and KPIs that enable IT and the business to workin a more collaborative fashion.

Source: IBM

nine

Introduction to IBM ServiceManagement

To address these service management challenges, theIT vendor and analyst communities have been hard atwork with solutions and practical advice. One can followthese efforts along a continuum of technologies thatincludes help desks, business service managementtechnologies and strategies, ITIL and other processframeworks, configuration management databases,service catalogs and run books. And while each has itsmerits, a disconnected implementation can leaveperformance gaps between where IT managers wanttheir organizations to be – the upper levels of I&Omaturity (3 and 4) – versus where their organizationstypically are: the lower levels of I&O maturity (1 and 2).

IBM provides comprehensive Service Management tohelp organizations optimize their business andtechnology assets. Tivoli software offers a servicemanagement platform for organizations to deliverquality service by providing visibility, control andautomation across people, process, technology, andbusiness management. It provides visibility to see andunderstand the workings of their business; control toeffectively manage their business, minimize risk, andprotect their brand; and automation to optimize theirbusiness, reduce the cost of operations and deliver newservices more rapidly.

Source: IBM

ten

Unlike IT-centric service management, Tivoli provides acommon process automation foundation to manage,integrate and align across people, process andtechnology and business management for greaterinfrastructure and operational maturity.

Tivoli helps organizations advance in the area ofbusiness management with contextual service visibilitythat links infrastructure to the corresponding services,processes and customers. Business and operationsteams can gain actionable intelligence that includestransactional, compliance, revenue, service level andother success indicators required to effectively manageongoing delivery against objectives. Through targetedrole-based dashboards, lines-of-business andoperations executives, managers and staff gain the

visibility they need to gauge how the business isactually delivering against defined revenue, growth andoperational objectives.

The table below offers an analysis of processmethodologies and service management technologies,highlighting IBM’s solution and its unique capabilities.

For more than 30 years, IBM service managementconsultants and partners, engineers and architectshave been advising some of the world’s largestbusinesses in how to manage IT. IBM itself is a globalorganization of over 380,000 employees with aninfrastructure to support manufacturing, supply chains,sales channels and countless other internal andexternal applications and services in 100+ countries.

Solution Value Proposition Other Solutions IBM Offering Help Desk Consolidate IT/Customer

Interaction Overwhelmingly reactive; Difficult to customize

Simple customization with seamless upgradeability. Integrated Service Catalog delivers automated service request capability

Business Service Mgt Close visibility gap between IT infrastructure and business services it supports

Status only and lacks ability to coordinate response in a repeatable fashion

IT and Business Assets integrated, grouped, managed and viewed as services

Process Frameworks Prescribes what IT governance means

Unable to show how governance should be implemented

Best practices included in the offerings provide proven implementation guidelines

CMDB Provide a shared view of operational service assets and their relationships

Implemented without control processes, becomes just another repository of out of date information

Delivered with control processes of change and configuration management to maintain data currency and accuracy

Service Catalog Provides a catalog of IT Services to internal and external clients

Introduces another workflow technology that must be integrated with governance processes to achieve integrated automation

Unified with service desk and workflow to allow truly consolidated IT/Business interaction and process automation

Run Book Automation Provides a set of automated procedures designed to automate routine tasks

Introduces another disjointed set of workflows requiring integration with higher level governance processes

Unified workflow technology and user interfaces allow for seamless interoperation across the spectrum of processes

eleven

twelve

In 2004, IBM’s Services and Software organizationscame together to document the knowledge from theseimplementations in a comprehensive set of bestpractice documentation known as the ProcessReference Model for IT – PRMIT. PRMIT, and itscompanion piece, Tivoli Unified Process, contains theprocess workflows, including inputs and outputs, theorganizational roles and responsibilities, and thesupporting technology solutions, and how they shouldbe used to advance IT operations management tosupport the business.

IBM has led the industry with its vision and strategy indelivering integrated service management solutions toorganizations across all sizes and industries. AndTivoli’s unique integrated foundation for processautomation can help organizations make significantadvancements across the four dimensions ofoperational and infrastructure maturity, and driveinnovation by enabling tighter convergence betweenbusiness and IT organizations.

Source: IBM

Introduction to IBM ServiceManagement

thirteen

IBM Tivoli Process Automation

IBM Tivoli Process Automation delivers unique market-leading capabilities that are unmatched by any otherservice management offering. Unlike other solutions,Tivoli provides an integrated offering that includes assetmanagement, CI management, and all the processactivities of configuration management, changemanagement, release management, problemmanagement and incident management in a unifiedsolution that can be deployed in a stepwise manner.

Through Tivoli’s Process Automation organizationsbenefit from visibility with a single user interface tosimplify administration and usage, control with ashared configuration management system that offersholistic view of the enterprise, and automationleveraging a single workflow engine that facilitatesorganizational integration by integrating across thespectrum of operational processes. These technicalunderpinnings further differentiate the Tivoli servicemanagement solution in the following ways:

1. Combines all classes of asset management andservice management with a federatedconfiguration management database for dataintegration supported by integrated discovery andapplication mapping.

2. Leverages leading, standards-based technology,built on J2EE with advanced business processmanagement for business process integration.

3. Enables easy version to version upgrades withworkflow configuration and other UI changes with“what you see is what you get” tools.

4. Provides a single, role-based interface for allcritical assets including both IT and enterprisebusiness assets.

5. Offers full end-to-end management, views ofbusiness applications including those on themainframe, and third-party tool integration via webservices and XML.

Source: IBM

fourteen

Tivoli Process Automation initially will be leveragedwith four key products: the IBM Tivoli Change andConfiguration Management Database 7.1, IBM TivoliAsset Management for IT 7.1, IBM Tivoli ServiceRequest Manager 7.1, and IBM Maximo AssetManagement 7.1. Over time IBM will leverage theprocess automation foundation across a broader setof Tivoli products. Organizations can realize tangibleresults such as improved mean-time-to-repair,increased service quality and reduction of change-induced errors. In addition, organizations can fostergreater team collaboration and businessmanagement by gaining an integrated view of dataand metrics that can be shared across business,operational and IT departments.

As the connection point between people andtechnology, fully integrated and automated processesdrive organizational consistency and alignment.Through effective deployment, organizations canrealize both the efficiency and cost control today’sbusiness environment requires, while laying afoundation to meet aggressive time-to-market goalsand high service quality.

Source: IBM

Alan Ganek

Chief Technology Officer, Tivoli Software

IBM Tivoli Process Automation

fifteen

Getting Started with IBM ServiceManagement

The IBM approach to service delivery and processautomation was originated from the ground up with bestpractices and the business goals in mind. Our well-established methodology and framework that leveragesindustry best practices – including the IT InfrastructureLibrary® (ITIL®) approach and IBM’s Process ReferenceModel for IT (PRMIT) as discussed earlier – to plan,design, implement and run solutions that help clientsachieve greater integration across their managementenvironment. The IBM solution differentiates throughbreadth of capabilities coupled with best practices foraligning people, processes, and technology to moreeffectively deliver service management.

IBM IT Management Consulting Services can help youcollaboratively define your service managementstrategy, conduct detailed maturity assessments,identify an appropriate solution approach, and finallydocument the set of transition initiatives that will berequired to execute the strategy. By leveraging IBM’sglobal intellectual capital developed from 20 years ofexperience with service management best practices inour own commercial data centers, in our internaloperations and with our clients, IBM can providepractical and innovative thought leadership fromplanning to design and implementation.

Unlocking innovation while achieving cost control andefficiency requires effective processes, establishedmanagement controls and automation to reduce bothcosts and human error. Learn more about how IBM’s

unique approach to service management and processautomation can help your organization move acrossthe spectrum of infrastructure and operational maturity.

The IBM Service Management Entry Points addressthe top five customer pain points and minimize thetime to value with a series of documented projectsolutions that achieve significant business benefitsupon completion. There are five Entry Points:Discover, Monitor, Protect, Industrialize and Integrate.The five entry points cover understandinginfrastructure and business dependencies (Discover),tracking infrastructure health and compliance(Monitor), ensuring security and resilience againstthreats and disaster (Protect), streamlining workflowsand processes for repeatable, scalable and consistentresults (Industrialize) and aligning and integrating ITand business operations and objectives for optimalimpact (Integrate). To learn more about the IBMService Management Entry Points, visithttp://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/beat/05132008.html.

You can also start aligning your organization with bestpractices for service management with our free IBMTivoli Unified Process tool athttp://www306.ibm.com/software/tivoli/governance/servicemanagement/itup/tool.html.

Or visit http://www-306.ibm.com/software/tivoli/solutions/vca/to simply learn more about service managementsoftware and http://www.ibm.com/services to learnmore about service management strategy and planning.

Source: IBM

About Tivoli software from IBM Tivoli software offers a service management platform for organizations to deliver quality service by providing visi-bility, control and automation-visibility to see and understand the workings of their business; control to effectivelymanage their business, minimize risk, and protect their brand; and automation to optimize their business, reducethe cost of operations and deliver new services more rapidly. Unlike IT-centric service management, Tivoli softwaredelivers a common foundation for managing, integrating and aligning both business and technology requirements.Tivoli software is designed to quickly address an organization's most pressing service management needs andhelp proactively respond to changing business demands. The Tivoli portfolio is backed by world-class IBMServices, IBM Support and an active ecosystem of IBM Business Partners. Tivoli clients and Business Partnerscan also leverage each other's best practices by participating in independently run IBMTivoli User Groups around the world-visit www.tivoli-ug.org

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