‘Agile’ is a methodology most likely to be employed in the strategy or higher level design phases during the lifecycle of a project. Although it is here that it is most highly visible and recognised in the industry with the associated project management exams, certifications, and professional bodies, it is also relevant further down from these strategic levels. It is important to recognise that ‘Agile’ techniques are not just reserved for use at a low level coding stage or as a project checkpoint method; as a methodology ‘Agile’ has grown well beyond its humble origins in the software development world. ‘Agile’ techniques and methods can and should be adopted at different levels of an IT operation, and at different stages of the service lifecycle to obtain maximum business benefit.

‘Agile’ Service Management

As already stated, many organisations are already using ‘Agile’ techniques and methods in day to day project management, and iCore’s  research indicates that ‘Agile’ is also being utilised in operations; however, this is not branded as ‘Agile’ per se. Indeed, the phrase ‘Agile’ Service Management is thought by many to be an oxymoron; however, if we think of real world examples, it becomes apparent they can co-exist. If your service managers, incident and problem teams meet up early every morning to discuss the previous day’s issues then they are conducting a ‘Stand-Up’ meeting in ‘Agile’ parlance.

If we take the key Service Management discipline of continual service improvement as an example, the benefits of the ‘Agile’ approach can be understood more clearly. Picture a service improvement or review meeting being held with ‘Agile’ in mind; the meetings will be short and regular, and business involvement is encouraged alongside the IT teams, which will of course ensure that any pain points will be brought to the table, and any limitations must be understood by both sides. The collaboration is regular and tends to be face to face; there is reduced need for ‘phone and email traffic exchanges and both sides are up to speed on the latest progress of service improvement activity. The improvements will be heavily prioritised according to business objectives, and accountability is assigned to action the improvement; little time is wasted on duplication of effort; and resource is not deployed on less business critical issues. Once a critical issue is identified and agreed, the next iteration or meeting will analyse the improvement options and identify the appropriate solutions. These can then be implemented and the overall time taken will be dramatically reduced compared to having less frequent, structured Service Reviews.

In a Major Incident Review meeting, much time can be used up discussing technical issues and focusing on who was to blame. ‘Agile’ methodology removes this burden and focuses solely on how the team can quickly respond to the business requirements around restoration of normal service. The establishment of the root cause of outages in the organisation will be improved by establishing small, business focused, fast acting working groups to target areas causing most pain to the business. ‘Agile’ techniques also lend themselves to several of the common root-cause analysis methods, such as the Pareto (80/20) principle and the analysis of pain value experienced within the business. These tie in well with the ‘Agile’ ethos of tackling the most important issues in the quickest manner to derive maximum benefits.

Business processing requirements change quickly and how IT responds is an on-going challenge. Rather than an ‘Agile’ approach clashing with Service Management and Governance principles of control and risk mitigation, ‘Agile’ can be used in the change management process to ensure fast, reliable and appropriate assessment of change and implementation, making the process more efficient: also, an inefficient change process will very quickly be revealed if you apply ‘Agile’.

Now let’s turn to the CMDB dilemma; a tough nut to crack! Using an Agile project approach to defining, building and establishing the CMDB and the subsequent processes for introducing, updating and disposing of CIs, will make the impossible seem possible. The ultimate objective is broken down into more manageable pieces and value is derived from the delivery of a useful section of the CMDB in a realistic timescale.

Are you ready to be ‘Agile’?

Indeed, iCore believes any process in place in an organisation could be subject to adopting and adapting ‘Agile’ techniques. It is not about recreating processes, rather about making them work more efficiently on an operational level by changing behaviours and working practices of the people involved. Service Management processes must be subject to continual improvement, and the ‘Agile’ approach to process development means that processes would be kept up to date and fit for purpose by those involved. It seems a logical and sensible approach that the relevant core processes are identified in order of importance to the business and implemented within timescales that make a positive difference to the business as quickly as possible.

‘Agile’ methods may not work well within every organisation, and the suggestion would be that the techniques should be applied only where they are most relevant, just like other Service Management frameworks. Daily face to face meetings for example might not fit in with geographical limitations, or the structure and culture may not lend itself to this collaborative approach. Indeed many individuals and teams may not be able to dedicate the resource required for this approach. Regular involvement with the business can often lead to a situation where no real end goal is achieved and those involved lose momentum. Service Management frameworks are often seen as cumbersome or bureaucratic obstacles, and perhaps the development of more ‘Agile’ Service Management is more in line with the current themes of running the organisation in a lean, efficient manner.

‘Agile’ principles applied to any Service Management process can add value as they have a shared objective; to consistently deliver valuable service to the business. This is fundamental to ITIL, CMMI, Six Sigma and all other Service Management frameworks. If this is kept in mind throughout the IT organisation, including senior management, day to day efficient operation and of course continual improvement of the service provided, then the resulting service will be much more closely aligned to the business and consistently deliver value.

Don’t ask ‘Why?’ ask ‘How?’

iCore take the principles of ‘Agile’ into all of our Service Management engagements, whether those are process design, interim management or service improvement.  We have also applied the principles to our standard ITIL v3 process models to indicate where ‘Agile’ methods will add value and demonstrate the benefits of a structured service management approach.

What would be the ‘holy grail’ for real change in the realm of Information Technology? It would be to enable management to harness the necessary information to proactively make the right business decisions – at any time, from anywhere – and thereby truly align IT with business objectives. Is there any hope of this? Are there any external factors today to give us optimism that real change, from an IT services and support context, is possible? Yes there are, but of course it won’t be easy.

Too often, IT ‘change’ is defined as spending money on new technology and hoping it will solve organisational problems. It won’t. Before any technology is considered, the people of the organisation must understand and be passionate about its underlying corporate mission, strategy, and specific objectives. To attain that vision, you’ll need to understand and implement appropriate processes. Note that you do not need to invent entirely new processes, any more than you need to invent a different type of hammer to build a new piece of furniture. Rather, you need to choose from the toolkit of tried and true business processes that already exist, selecting and customising them for your organisation. Only then should you look at technology that facilitates your vision and your processes – and does not just collect data for data’s sake.

The required elements to drive change involve;

People. As a first step it is necessary to change the culture; to remove people who are resigned to the status quo and replace them with people who have well defined roles, who are empowered to do their jobs and who are accountable for results. All effective change in any organisation starts with having the right people in place, both management and staff, who ‘buy-in’ to the mission.

The point here is not to suggest replacing all those who have not bought in to the company strategy. In fact, it is the job of management to inspire its team regarding its mission, to build an environment of trust and mutual respect and to establish a clear set of reasonable objectives. However, change must start with people who truly believe they can make a difference. The correct people with the requisite competencies and passion must be identified and trained. If there is not buy-in from the people regarding the mission and goals, the best processes and technology in the world will not help.

Processes. Utilise ‘outside eyes’ (internal or external) to evaluate every process in the organisation and provide an objective assessment as to what value any particular process brings to the stated end goals. Such an external assessment will generate recommendations for improvement without prejudice. Without an objective, unbiased evaluation of which processes and systems were broken, no one will tell the emperor that he has no clothes.

Since the arrival of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL^®), there is no longer an excuse for IT management not to embrace and implement a set of processes that represent industry good practices. ITIL today is the most widely recognised and accepted IT process management framework in the world. These processes promote a quality approach to achieving business effectiveness and efficiency in IT. ITIL also focuses on aligning IT services to business requirements; a goal that will gain the needed respect from the business units.

Technology. Once people and processes are evaluated, only then should technology be deployed to complete the virtuous circle. The identification and removal of business silos with improved systems integration is critical to preventing key tasks, activities and data from falling into the proverbial black hole.

Once you know what information needs to be tracked that is important to the overall business objectives, i.e. the key performance indicators, technology can make a difference and can enable real change. The next step is to make that information available to the right people at the right time.

With today’s technology, business unit managers can utilise smart phone or tablet technology to proactively receive, and then act upon, the right information; at any time, from anywhere. We are in the midst of a technological wireless and real time data revolution. This enables people with sound processes to make the right business decisions. Organisations must no longer collect data for data’s sake, nor even for information’s sake. In order to make right, or ‘RITE’ decisions, management must have data and information that is:

1. Relevant to the mission, strategies, and objectives of the organisation;
2. Integrated across all department ‘silos’ and geographic locations;
3. Timely, so that the issues can be addressed and resolved before they become crises; and
4. Efficient, so that with the mounds of data, organisations can manage by exception and the automated best business processes can be enforced.

Finally, data should be used to act, to analyse, and to continually improve. There should be relentless follow up and continual measurement. Measuring results based on clear goals and objectives, in real time, can be achieved with today’s technology. Once clear objectives are established, the right technology can make the difference between limping along and accomplishing key business goals.

The implementation of proper people, processes, and technology to make the RITE Decisions has always been important, but during the next decade it may be the mandatory holy grail of survival. Change comes from within, and all the technology in the world will not help a dysfunctional organisation. Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Getting started

There are now over 300 offerings on the ITSM tool market and you are certainly not going to look at all of them, so what do you do?  You could ask for personal recommendations, you could search on the internet, you could attend an annual trade event like ‘The Service Desk Show’, you could raise an Invitation to Tender (ITT), you could look at the Pink verify website or you could look at ads in popular Service Management magazines like VITAL.

Okay let’s look at the options:

Personal Recommendations, no two recommendations will be the same.  You are looking at personal choice typically based on experience of one or two tools, maybe clouded by personal experience of how well they were taught to use the system or a reflection of process issues. You could obviously ask a lot of people, but who’s judgement do you trust most and why?

Search on the internet, and you’ll find loads of vendors, that is if you can be bothered to look beyond the first page…..why not try http://list.ly/list/Cy-itil-tools for a more or less complete list based on popularity.

Attend Trade Shows, and you’ll find lots of vendors, all spending lots of money trying to attract you to their stand.  Do you look at all the offerings on all the stands or just the biggest or busiest or the ones that give away freebees?

Produce an invitation to tender (ITT), you may have to do this if you work in the public sector, but be prepared for a lengthy and expensive evaluation and selection process.  The likelihood is that you’ll receive at least 20 to 30 submissions.

Look at the Pink Verify website, if you value functionality, then this is the place to start.  It lists the tools in order of functionality, but not all tools are listed.

Looking in Magazines, this may be a good starting point, but at the end of the day and advert is an advert.

By now if you are really serious about replacing your existing ITSM tool you should have initiated a project and have an agreed budget with some timescales and some resourced pencilled in.

Differentiating between the tools

By following one of the methods above you probably now have a short list, or maybe even a long list of tools that you are interested in.  Now how do you differentiate between them?

You could hold a ‘Beauty contest’ and choose which looks the nicest, or you could actually look at what your business actually needs from an IT Service Management toolset. I’m not talking about just technical functionality; I’m talking about true business requirements, the ROI and TCO of the tool, long term supportability, scalability to grow as the business needs grow and is the vendor committed to improve their offering?

You could ask for a demonstration and a price quotation.  In which case how are you going to evaluate the various demonstrations?

You could ask to be allowed to play with it for a while or how about a free 28 day trial? In all honesty would a car dealer let you play with a Ferrari, when you’ve only just passed your driving test? Could you really get the best out of a Ferrari or just scare yourself half to death?

What level of functionality do you require? What is the scope now and in the future?  Is it just Incident, Service Requests and Change or do you need Financial and Resource Management to allow you to cross charge and manage resources using the tool.

Step 1) Perform a Requirements Analysis

Step 2) Design the processes

Step 3) Toolset evaluation

Step 4) Toolset selection

Requirements Analysis

If you are looking to procure a tool that is ‘fit for purpose’ and ‘fit for use’ you should at the very least categorise your functional, technical and business requirements using the MoSCoW method.  Categorise requirements into those you simply ‘Must’ have, those that it ‘Should’ have, those that it ‘Could’ have as long as it doesn’t preclude the Must have and Should haves, and don’t forget those which it ‘Won’t’ have now but you ‘Would’ like some time in the future.

Is a SaaS option on your shopping list?  If so you need to carefully consider the long term cost of ownership versus a perpetual licence option.

Typical advertised advantages of SaaS (from salesmen and marketing)

• Good if you cannot afford to buy install and maintain the software
• Don’t require specialised IT skills and capabilities
• Rapid elasticity, add more capacity easily
• Reduce Total Cost of Server Infrastructure ownership
• You can shift your spend from Capital expenditure to Operational expenditure

Some typical disadvantages of SaaS solutions (from techies and dissenters of SaaS solutions)

• Security/Privacy/Data issues especially if hosted abroad
• Regulatory compliance issues
• Off-line Connectivity issues
• Bandwidth issues
• Dependency on existing infrastructure
• Dependency of external consultants
• Vendor lock in
• Long term ownership costs
• Complex licensing can mean that TCO can be difficult to validate

Okay by now you have documented your ‘true’ requirements, now what are you going to do with this 100 page document?  Use it as part of you evaluation…

Design the processes

If you recognise that all an ITSM tool does is automate what could otherwise be a manual process then you will understand that good efficient processes are a must.  Don’t rush this part of the project otherwise you will cause no end of problems, and additional reworking costs for yourself.

Evaluation

By now you should have a short list of vendors to approach, hopefully no more than 5.  You should also have a list of requirements, and some half decent processes to evaluate the tool against.

How do you plan on carrying out an evaluation?  Most organisations approach the evaluation phase based on either a day long vendor presentation or by carrying out evaluation in a ‘sand pit’ area, or a combination of both.

With a thorough evaluation process you stand a good chance of making the right selection decision, but you can improve your chances by talking to existing customers of the tool vendor, maybe a reference site visit and asking them some pointed questions like:

• Why did you choose vendor X?
• What other tools did you consider?
• How easy was the implementation, and were there any issues?
• How easily did the vendor overcome implementation issues?
• How well do they support you after the initial implementation was completed?
• Do you think you are getting value for money?
• Would you buy from this vendor again?

Selection

As part of your final decision making selection phase you should also consider the following points:

• Can the vendor support your current and future Strategic, Tactical and Operational requirements
• How long will it take to implement and how quickly do you want results
• How many resources will it take to make the tool work
• How many tools and utilities do you want to integrate with or replace
• How much do you want to fight with technology integration challenges
• Do you want to fight with the tool to make it work, or deliver operational value to your company
• How far can you configure the tool until you end up customising and then find out you can’t upgrade without costly rework or consultancy fees

Ultimately the choice is yours, and hopefully you will end up with the right solution for you and your vendor.  After all you will both be looking for a win-win relationship.

So good luck with your selection.

Value added resellers and member service providers are increasingly turning to remote monitoring and management (RMM) technologies in a bid to improve managed service delivery and achieve differentiation. Yet recent research reveals that traditional on-premise RMM solutions are proving too time consuming and expensive to implement, as well as incurring significant ongoing costs and thus fundamentally constraining both the quality of service delivery and return on investment.

However, just as cloud computing is transforming the cost of ownership of software applications, VARs and MSPs adopting cloud-based RMM achieve rapid implementation with fixed cost and minimal training requirements. Leveraging this model, resellers can immediately offer customers a range of highly flexible service offerings based on proactive maintenance and in depth reporting.

Cloud-based RMM enables more effective use of resources, facilitates profitable cross- and up-selling and builds strong customer relationships. Critically, it enables clear differentiation with vastly reduced investment in resources or staff training, hence delivering a rapid return.

Service desire

RMM technologies deliver proven benefits in greater system up-time, reducing the cost of support and enabling organisations to evolve beyond the traditional break/fix model to a far more proactive managed service. For VARs and MSPs the technology is compelling, offering the chance to deliver far more effective service to customers while also reducing overheads and improving productivity.

According to recent research conducted by GFI, MSPs and VARs cite server monitoring, LAN and Windows monitoring, patch management and remote support as the most valued features of RMM. The top reasons for adopting remote monitoring are to offer faster fix response times and deliver preventative maintenance.

With full, real time visibility of customer systems, VARs and MSPs can also undertake valuable cross and up selling, leveraging in-depth performance reports to demonstrate to customers the need for additional storage and server requirements.

Yet while the technology is theoretically compelling, the results have been, to date, somewhat underwhelming. This research revealed that almost half of IT support companies and MSPs believe the initial investment in RMM software is too high and 42 percent say the return on investment never meets their expectations.

Complex model

The primary problem faced by organisations attempting to implement RMM technology is the complex nature of traditional on-premise solutions. For a VAR looking to offer added value services to customers, the implementation of on-premise RMM requires significant investment in server hardware and communications infrastructure, as well as staff training.

The survey revealed that almost half of respondents complain that it took one month or longer from initial purchase to be fully up and running. Indeed, for 20 percent of MSPs, it actually took six months or longer. These organisations are also struggling to manage the financial burden of staff training, with 41 percent stating that it takes longer than one month to fully train technicians on the RMM system; with 15 percent citing in excess of six months.

Of even greater concern is the fact that 56 percent of respondents admit that staff do not have time to learn the whole RMM system. And, of those who do try to learn the full system, 40 percent of IT support managers think technical teams get too buried in the detail of RMM tool deployment and lose focus on customers.

Given these figures, it is perhaps no surprise that over half of MSPs state it is difficult to show customers value from managed services contracts.

Flexible solution

In the current economy, VARs and MSPs keenly require an opportunity to both drive down operational costs and boost the competitive profile through the delivery of innovative, effective services to customers, which is why many have turned to RMM solutions. But, as these figures reveal, the investment in time, money and resources is simply too great to justify the traditional on-premise RMM model.

The alternative is to turn to cloud-based RMM technology. Just as growing numbers of organisations have embraced the pay as you go model for software applications, VARs and MSPs can now consider the benefits of a Software as a Service (SaaS) approach to RMM.

With all the core functionality of the RMM solution located in the cloud, the process of implementation is fundamentally simplified. VARs need only to load agents onto the customer’s hardware and communications equipment, a process which takes seconds, and then follow a simple installation routine, which includes default monitoring suggestions. As a result, VARs can be up and running with RMM within minutes: there is no time consuming configuration to undertake, no training necessary and, since the cloud-based system automatically updates itself, there is no need to schedule housekeeping tasks such as software patches and upgrades.

Clear pricing

The new generation of simple user interfaces requires minimal training, ensuring even a junior administrator can undertake the first level of troubleshooting, further reducing both upfront and ongoing costs. Furthermore, the cloud computing model also overcomes the complexity of traditional pricing which, according to the survey, is perceived as complex by 42 percent of respondents.

It also completely removes a problem cited by 53 percent of the survey respondents, of paying for areas of the system that are not used. Indeed, under the traditional on-premise RMM licensing, it is apparent that many actually have a significant investment in unused licenses. Furthermore, they are paying an additional 10 to 20 percent in support costs for on-premise RMM solutions. Following the pay-as-you–go cloud approach enables them to acquire only the licenses required on a month by month basis, at a fixed cost which includes support, enabling a flexible scale-up/scale-down model in line with business and customer requirements.

This flexible model allows users to offer a raft of different service options to customers, options which can be expanded and enhanced as required, enabling managed services contracts to reflect customer needs. VARs can also offer tailored, in-depth reporting solutions based on the in depth monitoring information to support customer organisations looking at how best to develop the IT infrastructure both during the recession and, critically, as markets begin to emerge back into growth.

Service value

VARs and MSPs have been attempting to leverage RMM solutions to attain a key differential in a challenging, competitive and price sensitive marketplace. Yet far too many have been deterred by the high cost of entry and extended time-frame to get up and running. A cloud-based approach to RMM now enables resellers to rapidly achieve a new level of service that delivers better uptime to customers, as well as lower cost of service and greater employee productivity.

For the reseller, cloud-based RMM is not only enabling far more efficient and effective use of resources, but is also delivering the in-depth information required to build a stronger customer relationship and support effective and relevant cross and up selling. Critically, this differential is being achieved without extensive upfront or ongoing investment in resources, training or staff, enabling the rapid ROI that is essential in the current market.

www.gfi.com

Established over 30 years ago, as an independent, global professional services organisation for IT managment, this year Pink Elephant celebrates 21 years in the ITIL experience business. It is the world’s number one supplier of ITIL and ITSM conferences, education, consulting and support services. According to the company, to date, close to 200,000 IT professionals have benefited from its expertise. It has championed the growth of ITIL worldwide since its inception in 1989 – longer than any other supplier – and was selected as an international expert to contribute to the ITIL v3 project – as authors of v3’s Continual Service Improvement book and through representation on the International Exam Panel.

In January this year Pink Elephant UK appointed Marcus Harris as its chief executive. As a former director at the BCS (British Computer Society) and prior to that, i2k – both organisations with a close relationship with Pink Elephant -  the company was aware of the range of skills and experience that Harris had to offer.

Defining a clear vision and strategy for the next five years, Harris is responsible for leading the organisation through its next level of growth. His appointment shows that despite the appalling market conditions in 2009, Pink Elephant is going from strength to strength.

Harris is an enthusiastic and passionate advocate for quality IT Services through the development of individuals and organisation. His experience in combining Continuous Professional Development with SFIA plus tool sets and professional accreditation means he has a fantastic understanding of the market Pink Elephant operates within. “Pink Elephant is a strong and enduring international brand, synonymous with quality and service delivery for over 20 years, and I am looking forward to the challenge of developing the business further,” he commented on his appointment.

A history in IT

“I set up i2K up a few years ago with a colleague after working for Wave Technologies, an early adopter in educational video apps training,” remembers Harris. “We offered a coached front end, managing a programme of development for the highest professional levels, in Microsoft as well as ITIL applications. We worked very closely with our partners offering professional coaching and managing back-end delivery with Pink Elephant as one of our partners.”

Indeed Marcus Harris first came into contact with the guys at Pink Elephant working with them as a partner. “Pink Elephant supplied all i2k customers with ITIL training while we supplied Pink Elephant with their internal induction programme. It was a highly successful and genuine partnership.”

The relationship was so close that when Pink Elephant moved into new premises i2k took the top floor so Pink Elephant was effectively their landlord. “Apart from our rowdiness, the arrangement worked very well.”

Ultimately i2k grew and blossomed into a desirable outfit delivering professionalism to the IT community. Seeing its potential, BCS acquired i2k in 2007 and merged it with its membership business and its SFIA Plus business.

“When I moved on from BCS, I got a call from Alan McCarthy, Pink Elephant’s director of EMEA who had kept tabs on my progress,” explains Harris. “He informed me that he had decided to take 60 percent retirement, and asked me to step into the role of CEO. Knowledge of Pink Elephant’s reputation, customers and team ensured that I found myself parking in their car park and picking up the reins. That’s how I how I ended up here.”

Outside of work, Marcus is also an established speaker, presenter and part-time actor. Indeed his acting credits go back to 1978 and readers of a certain age may remember his starring role as Julian in ITV’s adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Famous 5. His side interest in the dramatic arts has continued to this day with roles in adverts, dramas and documentaries.

A changing business

“My arrival at Pink Elephant coincided with the company taking a significant step forward with their business,” says Harris. With major upheaval in the market coming out of 2009; and companies such as Parity Training going into administration, Pink Elephant UK is in the right place to surge forward. “My task is to see the business double over the next four years and then achieve steady growth after that and on into the future,” says Harris.

Planning for this growth, Harris has so far doubled the size of sales force with the introduction of a telesales / telemarketing team. He has increased the number of consultants and moved operations to new premises in the middle of Reading where he says there is plenty of space for expansion. At the same time Pink Elephant is launching new training centres in various regional locations, and will be Platinum sponsors at this year’s itSMF Annual Conference & Exhibition.

“We have our northern launch taking place around September this year. It will consist of a new training centre in the region,” Harris explains, “and thereafter we will open another four regional training venues, one a quarter over the next year.”

Three stages of engagement

While Pink Elephant is a well known and trusted training partner for ITIL, it also has a very sophisticated consultancy business which it is Harris’s ambition to develop and push forward. “We have brought on board a number of key people to help in this area too. We’re also going back to our roots  – offering resource on either short- or long-term contract, putting people into businesses to help them achieve their full potential. This isn’t just providing ‘bodies’, Pink resources have the support of a global ITSM organisation and have access to all the tools we use in our consulting assignments. In total this gives us three stages of engagement: education; consultancy; and resourcing. We are here to help our clients do it for themselves. Of course we run the ITIL training which we are renowned for, but we offer a pure consultancy service where we go in and help the client move to another level, creating the environment for them to achieve this goal; and with our resourcing programme we bring people on site to help them do what they want to do.”

It is a very busy time for Marcus Harris and Pink Elephant. “We are putting together a full mirror of Parity’s schedule to fill the gap left when they went into receivership. And we are continuing the core business of Pink Elephant in rolling out best practice to the IT services industry.

“An awful lot of people know ITIL,” Harris adds, “they know its value and a lot of organisations have been through the training courses. They now talk about service desks rather than help desks, for example, but how many people live and breathe the ITIL approach and really engage with it on a daily basis? It provides real tangible business benefits for organisations. In principle it’s about helping IT to change business and deliver business value.”

Approach to the market

Pink Elephant has to be one of the best known brands in the ITSM sector. “The level of awareness of the Pink Elephant brand and the affection in which it is held in the market are a massive bonus,” says Harris. “I was recently talking to a client about a COBIT/ITIL crossover programme and he immediately made the connection, he knew people in the organisation. Key members of our staff are well known out in the industry and our branding is well known too. It all helps to perpetuate the Pink Elephant name. A key part of Alan McCarthy’s role since the re-launch of Pink Elephant in 2004, has been to get the name back out there after the tumult of the late 90s – early 00s, and we have certainly benefitted from this approach.

“We’re raising the level of our communication with the client too,” expands Harris, “and have recruited a new team of telemarketers – to call through and touch base with our clients on a regular basis. We are building, cementing and developing our client base all the time, PinkLink (our e-Newsletter) is a key part of this process.”

A dynamic environment

Clearly in the last six months the UK and indeed, the wider world has changed dramatically. “All I can say is that since arriving here at Pink Elephant in January, things have developed and changed, not just inside the company,” says Harris. “We have been in the ascendancy – we had success and growth in 2008, but 2009 was a bad year for us as it was for most people, but business is now revving back up. We’re currently on a trajectory that looks like 2009 didn’t happen, we’re back on the growth line of 2008.”

Despite the rockier conditions in 2009, Harris says the company was to an extent insulated against downturn, so it could emerge aggressively in 2010. “I believe the UK economy is on the up now and lots of housekeeping is being done and bad debt is being cleared, there is an emphasis on excess cost being cut away at UK plc,” he comments. “We should see significant growth next year. Having said that, it is still a difficult market, all the symptoms of last year’s recession are still around, but the business indicators are on the up – fingers crossed that the UK doesn’t have a double dip.”

Pink Elephant benefitted from the recession to an extent. “Because there was significant damage done to our competitors, and we have performed better, we are picking up business and recruiting good people. We are in very good shape compared to many in the industry.”

The IT services world seems to be pulling through as well. “I haven’t heard of any project not happening because the budget has been removed. To my knowledge we haven’t lost any business because the budget isn’t there,” says Harris. “If as an organisation you want to deliver effective and lasting business change you have to improve your technology; your systems and processes have to take up the slack of any headcount reduction. And if you have to invest in technology, it makes good sense to invest in supporting processes.

“There is an exciting programme of reinvestment in IT processes, companies have to get more out of their existing systems and maximise their use of licenses. Change has to be handled properly, with consistency and competency. We offer support to people reaching these business objectives,” says Harris. “We are currently seeing expenditure to achieve gains. I haven’t seen much evidence of any cut backs as yet. People are spending to save – to extend their reach and create better products and better service. I’m enthused by what I’m seeing.”

www.pinkelephant.com

Serving more than 2,000 US hospitals and 53,000-plus other healthcare sites, the Premier healthcare alliance and its members are transforming healthcare together in the USA. Nearly 200 hospitals and health systems created and entirely own Premier Alliance.

Background

The key objective for Premier’s CITS (Corporate Information Technology Services) Group was to implement a Help Desk solution that would provide application and technical support for its internal customers (employees). However, the vision of the CITS Group transcended the traditional ‘Break / Fix’ Help Desk as they wished to provide a centralised Service Desk that could streamline and automate business processes to benefit all its business units.

Premier identified several collaborative business processes and goals they wished to incorporate and improve in the context of the Service Desk:

• Process: Incident Management; Goal: Increase uptime by providing a transparent view of problems from submission to resolution.

• Process: Problem Management and Root Cause Analysis; Goal: Increase uptime by identifying problems, learning from mistakes, and continuously improving.

• Process: Change Management; Goal: Lower risk, track all changes and reduce system downtime.

• Process: Applications Support; Goal: Manage requests for technical support that come from Premier’s externally-facing Solutions Centers.

• Process: IT Procurement; Goal: Streamline and track requests, approvals, ordering, receipt, and installation

• Process: Technology Asset Management; Goal: Maximise use of equipment and lower costs by assisting with the operational management of assets over the asset lifecycle – from purchase to disposal.

• Process: Work Intake; Goal: Automate and streamline the extremely manual and time-consuming workforce on-boarding and exit processes which manage account activations and terminations.

Additionally Premier wished to exceed the timeliness and quality of service established by the outsourcing partner. Perhaps the greatest challenge was the tight timeline to implement a new Help Desk Solution. In three months the support contract with the existing vendor would expire.

Required components

• CRM. An application that included: an interface with a user database; a problem / case tracking resolution database; a knowledge repository; the ability to solicit customer satisfaction surveys; real-time problem monitoring by customers; the ability to prioritise issues based on severity; and the ability to create an escalation process.

• Workflow Management. An application that included a defined workflow management system with customisable business rules to streamline and automate processes.

• Metrics and Reports. Robust reporting was a must. Premier needed both corporate and individual reporting capabilities and the ability to perform analysis to effect continuous improvement.

• Asset Management. A central repository to manage all company assets throughout their lifecycle.

• Self-Service. An application that included the ability to submit, monitor and track requests for service through a web-based portal. Premier also wanted to promote self-service by empowering their customers to find their own solutions through ‘knowledge’ searches and access to Frequently Asked Questions. Additionally, it needed a vehicle to communicate outage information.

• Integration with existing third-party applications and tools.

The initiative

A selection team was formed in February 2007. Members of the team had familiarity with several major tools including Siebel, Remedy and Magic. The team selected three tools to investigate further and began the RFI (request for information) process. The three vendors were:

Siebel: Premier already owned other modules of the Siebel application and therefore had support knowledge with their existing staff. This solution rose to the top due to this existing vendor relationship.

Magic: A mid-level application in the Remedy family; some team members had familiarity with this tool.

TechExcel-ServiceWise: Premier found this application through an internet search. After an initial product demonstration, it was clear ServiceWise could meet the requirements.

The three software vendors were sent a requirements list from Premier. Each vendor conducted presentations of their products. It was during these demonstrations that the selection team began to see clear differences in the products and began working towards a final selection.

TechExcel demonstrated how even the most difficult of workflows could be easily mapped and improved using ServiceWise. With ServiceWise, team members could see that their vision for a company-wide Service Desk was attainable. The team members recommended TechExcel’s ServiceWise to their executive committee and received approval. TechExcel was awarded the business in late May.

Implementation

Premier had a hard ‘Go Live’ date of September 1st. With only three months to complete a full implementation, the team had doubts as to whether they could install, configure and test the newly selected tool on time.

The TechExcel professional services team began working with the Premier implementation team immediately. Even before arriving onsite TechExcel assisted with setting up Premier’s environment and installing the necessary software pre-requisites and the ServiceWise application.

The TechExcel professional services team also provided guidance on legacy data migration, defining team roles, and detailing workflow considerations. This preparation work gave a ‘running start’ when the TechExcel professional services team arrived onsite. Initially there were a few environmental challenges and integration issues; however, the team helped work through the issues quickly and seamlessly demonstrating their commitment to Premier’s success.

The scope of this project required the commitment of Premier’s Team as well. They reviewed all of the existing processes and procedures to validate and document them within the knowledge base component of ServiceWise. The team developed process documentation to be used by the Service Desk agents for potentially faster and easier resolutions. Premier also transitioned the knowledge data from the outgoing vendor into ServiceWise.

With the assistance of the TechExcel professional services team, Premier conducted a relatively easy migration and all deadlines for documentation in the new system were handily met.

The TechExcel team trained the Premier team on how to configure the ServiceWise application. Soon the Premier team became self-sufficient in developing and customising workflows with this agile application. In early July, with less than two months to go, the Premier team realised that their goal was within reach.

One of the most cumbersome and challenging workflows at Premier was the on-boarding process for new employees. With the existing process, the helpdesk agent manually generated up to 12 help desk tickets after the original ‘IMAC’ (Install, move, add change) was submitted. The team was able to configure ServiceWise to create these tickets automatically dramatically increasing the team’s overall efficiency and minimising human error.

Premier’s implementation of ServiceWise required a change to the company’s support paradigm which was previously limited to email and phone support. Email support was labour-intensive and it required manual intervention to copy and paste information from the email into a manually created ticket. Premier wished to automatically generate tickets upon receipt of email. Even more importantly Premier desperately needed to move employees towards a web portal solution that would facilitate accurate and detailed ticket submission, again saving significant support time and resources over phone or email submission. The team anticipated employee resistance as email support had long been ingrained within the members of the organisation. Configuring a self-service portal that would be easy to use and have a high user acceptance level was imperative. To drive user adoption, the team utilised TechExcel ‘Best Practices’ and began extensive user communications. This effort included quick reference guides provided by TechExcel.

The results

As the ‘Go-Live’ date approached, the support Premier received was extraordinary. Both teams provided a heroic effort to meet the deadline. On September 1, 2007 Premier successfully went live with TechExcel’s ServiceWise. It enabled Premier to implement and automate five business processes – all fully customised, configured, and tested – within just three months.

During the first month after implementation, 1,319 tickets were submitted via the Web portal. One year later that number has jumped to 2,728 tickets representing an over 100 percent increase in portal submission of tickets.

The ultimate judge of the results is the user community. Premier has learned through the customer satisfaction surveys, generated through ServiceWise, there has been tremendous customer acceptance to the new support model. The success can be seen in the Customer Satisfaction KPI, which ended the fiscal year at a 99 percent rate. One customer’s response to the survey can best sum it up: “They (IT Service Desk Department) provided excellent response; solved my problem; and rendered 100 percent customer satisfaction. The department should be called the employee salvation desk.”

www.techexcel.com

David Cameron’s recent stark message to government departments outlining the extent to which they will need to cut costs will not have been lost on the wider business community. In fact, in all probability, private sector organisations have no doubt become past masters at tightening their belts, and until we start to see tangible evidence that the new coalition’s plans are going to deliver the required results, the belt is likely to remain firmly buckled!

For IT Support departments the need to be seen as a team player when it comes to doing their bit on the cost cutting front presents them with a major dilemma. What impact will reducing their cost base have on their ability to maintain, let alone improve, the quality of service demanded by their customers? For today’s forward looking IT managers buzzwords like ROI and TCO are almost part of everyday vocabulary but in these difficult times how easy is it to ‘blind’ the budget holder with science as you try to justify your request for the latest time and money saving device?

Desktop management

Back in 1989 when NetSupport first started producing Desktop Management software the business case was simple. The relatively new concept of being able to ‘remote control’ a PC located in one part of the building, or worse, a totally different building, while sat at the comfort of your own workstation brought instant appeal to the new breed of increasingly overworked helpdesk analysts. Modernisation through the use of computers was great but with this came the distinct possibility that things would break. In those halcyon days it was easy to present a compelling case as to why, with a little upfront investment, you would see a rapid return on your investment.

Remote control software enabled you to diagnose and resolve the majority of PC- and system-related issues without the need for a physical visit to the user. The combined benefits being that you cut out a lot of the wasted travel time and the associated costs, while at the same time the support desk instantly became more productive.

In the intervening 21 years technology has moved on apace but the underlying issues remain the same. Support teams are still expected to work leaner and smarter, maybe even more so at the moment, but when push comes to shove, if you are finding that the bean counters are using the current economic climate as an excuse to be a little more blinkered to the benefits that can be realised from that bit of initial investment perhaps it’s an ideal time to give them a nudge in the right direction.

Fire up the Quattro!

Let’s fast forward to today’s internet and gadget driven world, where fuel and utility bills are rocketing and decision makers have to consider the environmental impact of their choices. The modern corporate IT landscape and working practices have certainly changed dramatically and support software has had to evolve with it.

Remote control products still aim to provide the same cost and productivity benefits that they did in the 80s but it is no longer simply about being able to view a DOS-based machine located down the corridor or ‘firing up the Quattro’ so you can dash out to one of your branch offices because someone has asked you what ‘Format C:’ means!

Products such as our own NetSupport Manager have needed to adapt in order to satisfy different demands, key among these being the ability to support the increasingly diverse range of devices, platforms and operating systems now in use across the modern enterprise and the move among cost conscious employers to offer home or mobile working as an alternative to using office resources.

The business case surely stacks up more today than it ever did. Corporate IT departments need their Remote Access tools to connect them securely to users located anywhere in the world, irrespective of the type of system they are using. While Windows desktops may still dominate; Mac, Linux and the raft of mobile related devices should also not present any barriers to the successful operation of your service desk.

Luxury or necessity?

It’s clear that using remote access software pays big dividends and quantifying the savings to be gained and improvements in productivity for both the service desk and end user isn’t difficult, and a few years ago that’s where the story would end. However, today’s IT departments have access to a plethora of complementary tools to aid network management tasks. But when times are tight are these solutions considered luxury goods, nice to haves?

Flick through your copy of VitAL or one of the many lesser titles and it quickly becomes clear that Service Management and IT Asset Management are hot topics right now, just how did Service Desks function before ITIL!

I’m probably preaching to the converted here but organisations where, and I’m afraid it’s acronym time again, TCO is high on the agenda will appreciate the relevance of solutions that can effectively help you manage your IT assets or enable helpdesks to react to incidents and problems in a timely fashion.

Ensuring IT assets are properly managed and maintained should be a high priority for any organisation but without the appropriate reporting mechanisms in place how easy is it to identify when a piece of kit is past its sell by date, which machines needs migrating to Windows 7 or if you are about to breach your software licensing agreements.

IT assets can cost far more than necessary through waste and redundancy (direct costs) and overly complex management and maintenance (indirect costs). An effective IT asset management program allows you to control and manage assets, eliminate waste and redundancy and comply with ever-tightening government compliance regulations.

The annual cost of supporting your IT infrastructure can often result in costs spiralling out of control, where the initial purchase price of IT assets pales into insignificance. Understanding leasing arrangements and undertaking proactive asset management ensures compliance with software license agreements and makes budget forecasting more accurate. Knowing how many of your users are using a specific application at any given time will allow for both effective trimming of software budgets and a realistic prediction of future software investment.

In your genes

NetSupport DNA is typical of the new genre of ITAM solutions that are helping organisations make informed decisions about upgrades and the rollout of new technology. Based on its powerful Hardware and Software Inventory component, DNA helps you uncover savings through process improvement, gain control of all inventory across the enterprise, increase accountability to ensure compliance and enhance the performance of assets and their life cycle management. And to help you meet your environmental responsibilities while also saving you a few quid, we even provide an Energy Monitoring component that will identify areas of potential energy wastage across your enterprise. (Although NetSupport solutions can of course be used to remotely power off systems just in case you can’t rely on your staff to do it themselves!)

For many IT service desks the tools are already in place to ensure you can do ‘more with less’ but for those who may be using the current economic climate as a reason not to dip a toe in the water, I hope I’ve presented a compelling case as to how deploying the right combination of Desktop and Asset Management solutions can give you that immediate ROI!

NetSupport solutions are available to trial free for 30 days.

www.netsupportsoftware.com

Accurate, timely and available data is the key to a successful organisation, without easy access to critical information how can any organisation know its current status and be in a position to make decisions about what actions it needs to make on a day to day basis.

Information technology is experiencing a ‘revolution’ with the development of web technologies and the increasing capabilities of smartphones – they are changing the rules of the game in the way we receive and respond to critical information. Access to real time information can help organisations react immediately to situations and events that impact their business, delivering real time course correction data and creating a business GPS system.

An IT revolution

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘revolution’ as “a dramatic and far reaching change”. In today’s IT world, when talking about web technologies and smartphones the word revolution is appropriate. We are on the verge of a radical change in the delivery of mission-critical information, and more importantly, the ability for people to make timely business decisions ‘on-the-fly’.

Recently our CEO was sitting in his Colorado office wondering, with some concern, how his eighteen-year old son was doing. The night before his son had departed to Ghana in Africa, and he knew (from one of the many iPhone apps) that his son’s plane had landed. Suddenly his iPhone beeped and there was a text message from his son, sent only seconds before, from the other side of the world. His son had merely hit the ‘reply’ button to a message that had been sent to him while he was travelling. The exploding worldwide network of mobile phone coverage recognised where he was in the world and immediately routed the text message back to our CEO’s cell phone in Colorado. The most amazing part of this story is how much we take for granted the instant access to such information.

The relief of knowing nearly instantaneously that his son was safe was wonderful, but it also caused him to reflect on the dramatic changes we are experiencing with web based technologies and mobile phone devices, and how they are radically changing our daily lives.

‘After the fact’ Information.

Not very long ago, IT data went into the proverbial ‘black hole’ and most information extracted from this dark repository was reviewed and acted upon too late, ‘after the fact’. Although many organisations were proud of their book of monthly reports, most of the information was never used nor acted upon in a timely manner. Information in printed reports, utilising historical data, is often too late to make course corrections. Admittedly, reporting is still important for trending and analysis. However, with the advent of this latest technology revolution, management and technicians alike are in a position to instantaneously receive and use data, no matter where they are, to make real-time decisions and instant course corrections.

How important is this? If you were taking a plane trip from London Heathrow to New York, but the flight was two-degrees off course, how far would you be from your destination on arrival? While it is true that being only two-degrees off would equate to success in most organisations, in this example, you would end up some 90 miles from your desired destination—an unacceptable result in air travel.

Accordingly, today’s planes and cars can be equipped with ‘revolutionary’ GPS devices that can proactively warn you the moment your journey has taken the wrong direction. Such information saves a lot of time and money by allowing us to make the right decisions and course corrections before it is too late to meet our timely objectives.

Real-time Information

With the new generation of web technologies and smartphones, real-time information in our IT business environments can be used to make course corrections along the way, anytime, anywhere. Equally important, because of how user-friendly these technologies have become, they are being used by people who were previously uncomfortable with the technology, or too busy to learn it.

During a visit to a major university our CEO had a meeting with the University president. He had been told that this brilliant PhD was not technically savvy and did not like to spend a lot of time on his computer. However, he noticed that the president did carry an iPhone. Before long, they were engaged in a passionate discussion about their iPhone applications, trying to convince each other which applications were the best. The president then was quite intrigued when our CEO told him that there are iPhone applications that could notify him of any change requests that required his approval, providing him all the details needed to make a decision. Change approvals are often a bottleneck in organisations, especially when some of the approvers are frequent travellers, making it difficult to stay online.

The inefficiencies and costs caused by delayed approvals are significant in organisations, especially for approvals at the C-level. Such change approvals at the C-level typically are to approve the most expensive acquisitions—those that presumably have the most positive impact to the organisation, and perhaps the most risk. Accordingly, such delays in the approval process can be the most critical, having a negative impact on business activities.

Change approval functionality is only the tip of the iceberg of possibilities. Imagine how a senior executive in an organisation could utilise drill-down dashboards on their smartphone that would show ‘real time’, all the key performance indicators impacting their business. They could be immediately notified if any of their key business metrics enter the ‘red zone’. This type of management efficiency has often been referred to as ‘management by exception’. In other words, managers do not want to be notified about information that is ‘normal’ or in the ‘green’ zone. Instead, they want to be immediately prompted when issues are in the ‘yellow’ or ‘red’ zones – when the business is ‘off course’.

The CEO or their core management team are not the only benefactors of this mobile revolution. The efficiencies gained by an organisation’s IT staff can be enormous. For example, when a technician now goes to an offsite location to deal with an incident or related task, they can open a browser or smartphone application and access all the incidents and tasks assigned to them. The technician can then close the incident or task, reassign it, or make notes for later follow-up — no matter where they are.

Twenty-five years ago, the idea that we would always carry a device in our pocket that could communicate instantaneously with anyone from anywhere at any time would be Star Trek fiction, “beam me up Scotty”. But it is a reality of the technology revolution. Today, the idea that management and technicians can access, from their pocket devices the necessary information to make vital course corrections — at anytime from anywhere — is truly revolutionary.

The benefits gained from the ability to make real-time change approvals and course corrections by management, together with the efficiencies gained by frontline technicians, represent radical change for our industry. It was once said “Revolutions never go backwards.” Revolutionary technology is available today and through the creation of a real time ‘Business GPS’ system, it will inevitably change the way an organisation manages data and management decisions are made.

www.cherwellsoftware.com

Andy’s goal is initially to reduce his personal best (PB) time in the 400 meters hurdles, in order to qualify for the GB Olympic team. So keeping track of timings is essential. But it goes beyond that. How much time he puts into different training tasks in his regime, how many calories he eats, how much sleep he gets – these are all factors in achieving his goal.

In managing IT, particularly the area of IT production (the day-to-day, business as usual, or “BAU” tasks), we sometimes forget to have meaningful management metrics.

It is a basic truism that you cannot manage what you cannot measure. As with all simplifications, this is not entirely correct, of course; the key soft skills that distinguish a good manager from a mediocre team leader are difficult to quantify. Nevertheless, it is correct to say that a significant proportion of our work as IT managers needs to be clearly quantified.

Metrics, in the sense of management information, can be used for two purposes: to run the department, and to broadcast the achievements. As far as running the department is concerned, it is essential that IT production managers have metrics in place to capture what infrastructure the department is responsible for, what they are achieving and what resources are being consumed in order to reach their goals.

Basic raw metrics, such as the numbers of servers in the data centre, their applications, uses and roles, are essential in order to understand where resources are being used. This information, properly presented, is also very valuable in demonstrating the ‘value add’ of IT to the business and sponsors. This can be extremely useful during the annual budget negotiations!

Equally valuable for an IT Production department is a basic timesheet system. This helps managers identify ‘problem applications’ which are consuming excessive resources. Such knowledge helps facilitate discussions with development teams or business managers to identify efficiencies or alternative solutions.

Just as Andy and his coach pay minute detail to every aspect of his hurdling (stride patterns etc), so as IT production managers we need to have information at our fingertips to help improve our departmental performance.

No athlete these days would consider taking part without the necessary equipment (running shoes, clothing etc), and the understanding of how to use them. Similarly, the necessary software tools are essential to managing IT production, and training and experienced knowledge are essential in gaining the potential benefit.

Unfortunately, software can be relegated to the role of ‘shelf ware’ if its use within the organisation is not applied appropriately. Just as an athlete has to carefully watch his progress and be able to anticipate situations that may lead to injury, so as IT managers we need to have monitoring in place for systems to identify potential issues (shortage of disk space etc) ahead of time.

Although the use of specialised running shoes and starting blocks was once considered a luxury, no athlete today would run without them. In the IT world, we are unable to run Production efficiently without our bread-and-butter operational software tools (backup management, patch release management, monitoring and alerting, remote console management, performance monitoring etc). And yet, we frequently deploy these tools in a relatively unsophisticated, uncontrolled way, without considering an overall operational tools strategy. As a result, we sometimes have tools that are using inconsistent naming conventions, reporting on common systems in different ways.

How many times have we struggled with understanding what is the ‘correct’ answer to the questions about what servers are used for what application? We need to have a clear ‘referential’ or ‘master’ source of data for each relevant piece of information, be it definitive name for every server or application, to naming conventions for SAN storage.

Use of the right equipment, in a structured, strategic way, is important in trying to reach our goals, be they 400 metres of hurdles, or 400 Linux servers.

Athletes train hard and work hard. And we all aspire to a working life that is ‘smarter, not harder’. This concept is often misunderstood, however. Working smarter means eliminating ‘re-do’. Good athletes develop a rhythm, where every movement contributes in a smooth way to the overall result. There is no wasted effort, no need to continually correct or change course.

In the IT world, we also need to deliver our services more efficiently, in a predictable, repeatable way. Hence, IT production managers rightly stress the importance of relevant and appropriate processes and procedures. But, like our athlete, we need to keep our end-goal in mind. Beautifully crafted processes are only valuable if they enable the organisation to deliver the correct service in the most appropriate way.

Other people have struggled with similar challenges to us. Process improvement methodologies from industry generally (such as six-sigma) can aid us to achieve the speed and efficiency that we all want to deliver.

Although I work with consultants who are frequently qualified in the ITIL approach to processes and procedures, we always stress with clients and colleagues that such processes must be implemented in a pragmatic way. Properly implemented, good practices, policies, processes and procedures are means to help us achieve our goals, rather than barriers to prevent us doing so.

Although Andy is already a very fast sprinter, he has chosen to focus his attention on hurdling at just one distance – 400 meters. By concentrating on his ‘core skills’ he is not distracted by other challenges.

In the world of IT production, however, we are continually faced with alternative challenges to our ‘core skills’. Most data centres these days are full of servers of all sorts of make, manufacture, operating system and configuration. A typical organisation today may have systems from IBM, Sun, HP / Compaq, Dell, not to mention the multitude of other manufacturers. Not only at the hardware level, but also in the choice of operating system, database, middleware and messaging system, the technology mix proliferates. All of this diverse heterogeneous technology has to be supported and managed. And the more diverse the mixture, the greater the support costs.

Unfortunately, the choice of new technologies can often be made without taking into account the ability of the IT production team to support the solution, once it is deployed. The solution is to encourage IT production teams to focus on ‘production supportable’ technologies. What technologies are they able to manage and support with their existing skill sets?

All of this needs to be part of an overall IT production strategy or roadmap, identifying the technologies which are supportable in production and those which are not (or where support would become unduly expensive to the business). As with athletics, we can be more successful managing IT production systems if we focus on our core skills, instead of losing our competitive edge by spreading our commitments too widely.

Andy will be the first person to admit that his success is not solely due to his own efforts. The achievements he has already had in the AAA championships, running for Harrow, Middlesex and England, are also down to his coach and the support teams who work with him.

Coaches can see the mistakes that are being made, often when you are not aware of them yourself, and help you improve your performance. In IT production management as well, an independent consultant can help clients identify the shortcomings in metrics, in operational tools, in processes and in technology standards, and advise them where their own performance can be improved.

Maybe that’s where I came in.

www.dennisadams.co.uk

Now in its 20th year, NetSupport is a leading player in the field of network management software and the latest update to its IT asset management offering, NetSupport DNA, builds on the product’s core Inventory technology to incorporate a new ‘Energy Monitoring’ component, more of which later. While this may be the headline grabbing feature of version 3, there’s plenty more to whet the appetite and draw you to the 30-day free trial available on the NetSupport website (see below).

For many organisations IT asset management has become a critical function in recent years. The simple premise being that if you don’t know how many desktops you have, where they are located and what hardware and software is installed, it stands to reason that they can’t possibly be managed and supported efficiently. For those who still doubt the relevance of this sort of technology, seeing it as an expensive luxury rather than a necessity, you are overlooking one important factor: TCO (total cost of ownership). Companies who focus solely on the initial purchase price of IT assets are ignoring the fact that this can pale into insignificance when compared to the ongoing support costs.

 Asset management software can pay big dividends, automating the data gathering process and easily identifying areas of wastage and overspend, so how does NetSupport feel DNA3 will give it the edge in this competitive market?

First off the company should be commended for not resting on its laurels. NetSupport’s established expertise in the remote PC support arena, thanks to products like NetSupport Manager, meant that when NetSupport DNA was introduced in 2003 it had a head start by being able to provide one of the most comprehensive and detailed hardware and software Inventory components available. But, coming back to the issue of this type of software being seen as an expensive luxury, NetSupport recognised that organisations have differing requirements so it made the product modular, enabling companies to buy only those features that were relevant.

With version 3 NetSupport has identified some key areas where the role of network management has evolved in recent years. Established components such as hardware/software inventory, system & PC alerting, software distribution and Internet and application metering & control still provide the product’s backbone but these have now been supplemented with some new and highly relevant additions.

The installation is neatly streamlined, even more so than in past releases, and the resource overheads are more modest than many competing products. So a network manager can run the NetSupport DNA ‘Console’ on their local Windows machine (including Vista) and still perform other tasks rather than setting aside a dedicated server!

The first clue to version 3’s new functionality comes part way through the installation when you choose the program features. In addition to the usual options, Console, Client (the handy Deploy tool is best used to push out the Client program to end-user machines) and the location of the DNA Server, NetSupport have introduced their Internet Gateway technology, a connectivity feature users of NetSupport Manager will be familiar with.

An IT Asset Management tool that only provides half the picture isn’t much use to anyone but with today’s dispersed networks it’s not always easy to gather the required data beyond the local environment. Realising the complexities of the modern enterprise, NetSupport’s communication Gateway enables you to manage any number of separate networks over the internet. By installing a dedicated Gateway Server, data can be communicated back to this central area from multiple locations. It’s certainly reassuring to know that decisions on upgrades and the roll-out of new technology are being made from a completely informed position!

The installation complete and we’re ready to start collecting the asset information from the remote client machines. The fact that the NetSupport DNA Client program supports the major Linux distributions in addition to Windows platforms makes the product a lot more versatile than some.

As soon as the remote clients have been loaded they start communicating with the server which in turn makes the information available at the DNA Console (which has also undergone a complete transformation). Network managers are presented with a totally fresh and more appealing UI. Beyond just the physical appearance and the way on-screen reports are displayed, it now includes the introduction of separate PC and User tree views, making it easier to distinguish between the physical asset and items associated with the user (such as Internet and application usage), as well as a completely new navigation bar and dynamic component “action panels”.

The initial, often time consuming, user management tasks such as grouping clients by department, have been simplified by the inclusion of active directory support. You can now configure the PCs and users within the DNA console to mirror their relative position within the AD container structure, with changes to that structure being immediately updated in DNA.

NetSupport’s newly beautified interface is still as intuitive as ever. Access to features simply involves clicking the appropriate component tab and you are immediately presented with the relevant information. On-screen graphs make it easy to interpret the data and by clicking on the different levels in the User tree view, you can drill-down by specific groups, departments or users. DNA also includes a great query-based reporting tool enabling you to produce your own customised reports.

The Inventory component has traditionally been the mainstay of DNA and comes as standard in each of the different modular packs. Mainstay it may be but it hasn’t been ignored in the latest raft of enhancements. The Software Inventory tool now includes an ‘installed programs’ option which mirrors the ‘add/remove programs’ structure of your client machines, making it easier to identify and manage license levels.

To finish, we return to the new and innovative Energy Monitor component mentioned at the start of this piece. The efficient use of energy delivers two key operational requirements: cost reductions and improved environmental responsibility, the two elements combined being considered “Green IT”.

There is much talk about reducing CO₂ emissions and in the current economic climate, reducing energy bills is an equally appealing target. Industry analysts show that IT energy costs are often one of the highest on the company’s IT budget and one that is most overlooked for efficiency management.

DNA’s Energy Monitor component enables you to identify potential areas of energy wastage, primarily because most of us are too lazy to power down our machines when we go home!

By specifying the operational hours of systems across the enterprise, an average and customisable power consumption figure is calculated by DNA which, when combined with the company’s own energy rates, allows DNA to work out the overall cost of the identified systems. By providing managers with this high level summary of energy usage you can easily track where ‘out of hours’ usage is at its highest and decide if this is a result of diligent staff working late or simply systems that have been left switched on overnight.

A lot of work has obviously gone into making DNA3 relevant for the modern enterprise and if you’re new to IT asset management or looking to upgrade, this is well worth a look.

A free 30-day 50-PC trial can be downloaded at:

www.netsupportdna.com