VitAL Magazine - September-October 2008

Inspiration for the modern business Volume 2 : Issue 1 : September / October 2008

Gaining a green advantage Power management policies to deliver bottom-line benefits

Collaboration

Driving green performance

Sustainability & quality With digital product design

Feature focus: Delivering ITSM successfully. Pages 26-30

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Service Management with The Human Touch Supportworks ITSM puts the customer at the heart of ITIL adoption, so people can implement processes to improve service quality in line with the way the business wants to work.

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leader

Happy first birthday vital LEADER the global economy going from boom to slump in what seemed like the blink of an eye as commodities speculation pushed oil prices to unprecedented highs

S

o VitAL magazine has been with us for a whole year (see the retrospective on p21), and what an eventful year it was. The IT service management industry getting to grips with ITIL v3 as it fully embeds and becomes the new standard; the global economy going from boom to slump in what seemed like the blink of an eye as commodities speculation pushed oil prices to unprecedented highs; and team GB having its most successful Olympics for a hundred years – perhaps the very ‘interesting times’ mentioned by the famous ancient Chinese blessing.

Just to add to this heady mix of highs and lows, it’s all change at VitAL magazine with ex-editor John Hancock off to pastures new and myself taking over as editor. I think a little bit of background is called for: I am an experienced business to business editor with over 13 years’ experience on a range of highly technical industrial and business titles, from aerospace to packaging, logistics to engineering I have written about them all. But more important than the basic editorial skills is the ability to get involved and become part of an industry. To this end I intend to get out and mix it up with as many companies and people as I can – it’s the only way you can really get under the skin of an industry in my experience. This is a promise, not a threat by the way.

Before getting the ‘calling’ to be an industrial journalist I worked as a marketing communications consultant for a major telecoms company, so I do have a little experience at the ‘coal face’ of a highly technological sector – although it shames me to compare marketing telephone exchanges to digging coal out of the ground as there really aren’t any comparisons to be made between the two.

So, on into the future... This month’s VitAL has a distinctly green tinge with features on reducing power consumption, discussion about home-working and collaboration driving green performance.

We also have thought leadership features on delivering IT service management successfully. Another packed and thought provoking issue. Here’s to the next twelve months!

Matt Bailey

1 If you have any thoughts, feedback, or suggestions on how we can improve VitAL Magazine, please feel free to email me matthew.bailey@31media.co.uk

September / October 2008 : VitAL

Safe Passage to

ITIL

®

Secure your long-term ITSM success with Axios Systems’ world-leading Training, Consulting and Software Solutions.

BUSINESS ALIGNED IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT

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contents

Contents Inspiration for the modern business

8 VitAL NEWS The VitAL COVER STORY

14 GAINING A GREEN ADVANTAGE

20 BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT — A PANACEA FOR LOGISTICS? JON PYKE

BEN GRIMES

How logistics companies are beating high fuel prices and other challenges with the help of Business Process Management.

Editor Matthew Bailey matthew.bailey@31media.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1293 934464 Advertising Sales Ian Trevett ian.trevett@31media.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)1293 934463 Production & Design Dean Cook dean.cook@31media.co.uk Editorial & Advertising Enquiries 31 Media, Crawley Business Centre, Stephenson Way, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1TN Tel: +44 (0) 870 863 6930 Fax: +44 (0) 870 085 8837 Email: info@31media.co.uk Web: www.vital-mag.net

21 A VitAL YEAR IN IT Power management and energy reduction can reduce a company’s carbon footprint — clearly a corporate goal for many companies — and also deliver cost savings.

VitAL SIGNS — life in a world with IT

17 IS WFH DEAD, BUT IT HASN’T NOTICED YET?

VitAL celebrates its first birthday with a bunch of glowing testimonials from the industry.

22 COMPLIANCE AND EMAIL ARCHIVAL TIM PICKARD

STEVE WHITE The development of work from home culture in the modern IT organisation.

Has it had its day?

19 IP’08 SHOW PREVIEW

Printed by Pensord, Tram Road, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood. NP12 2YA © 2008 31 Media Limited. All rights reserved.

VitAL Magazine is edited, designed, and published by 31 Media Limited. No part of VitAL Magazine may be reproduced, transmitted, stored electronically, distributed, or copied, in whole or part without the prior written consent of the publisher. A reprint service is available.

Opinions expressed in this journal do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or VitAL Magazine or its publisher, 31 Media Limited.

With each of us now receiving on average 18MB of data per day — a figure that’s set to increase to 28 MB of data by 2011 — an effective email data management system is vital for every business.

ISSN 1755-6465

Published by:

24 ESSENTIAL ITIL VitAL Magazine, Proud to be the UKCMG’s Official Publication ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered Community Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Preview of IP08 and VM08 at Earls Court, London, 1st and 2nd October 2008.

DAVID PERCY Process automation is the key to ITIL best practise according to Infra EMC’s David Percy.

Subscribing to VitAL Magazine VitAL Magazine is published six times per year for directors, department heads, and managers who are looking to improve the impact that IT implementation has on their customers and business.

Subscription Rates: UK £30.00 per year, Rest of the World £60.00 per year Please direct all subscription enquiries to: subscriptions@31media.co.uk

September / October 2008 : VitAL

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contents

Contents 26 MAKING A SUCCESS OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT BARCLAY RAE

34 CAPACITY, 38 FACING AN PERFORMANCE & OTHER INTEGRATED FUTURE CONFUSING TERMS MATT BAILEY MIKE LEY

VitAL editor Matt Bailey asks Danone CIO for the UK & Ireland dairy and water businesses, Pieter Coetzee how the CLIO project has helped the company improve its IT/IS performance.

41 COLLABORATION DRIVES GREEN PERFORMANCE

JOHAN OBERG Using teleconferencing to reduce carbon footprint, one way in which companies are using IT to go greener.

Understanding what an organisation has, where it wants to be and how guidelines like ITIL can help achieve the goal of effective IT service management.

45 DIGITAL MEANS DOABLE

AMINA WEST With developments in CAD software technology, new products can reach the market in a more sustainable, saving both money and precious raw materials in the process.

29 WHAT WE MEAN BY SUCCESSFUL SERVICE MANAGEMENT

JOHN J NOCTOR Exactly what do we mean when we talk about delivering successful service management, John J Noctor, senior consultant at service management specialist ICCM defines gives his vision.

32 STOP WASTING YOUR TIME DAVID MORGAN

48 DELIVERING THE FUTURE OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT MATT BAILEY

Mike Ley forges some solid definitions out of the vague source material of management jargon.

35 GAINING CONTROL

Fox IT says it has defined the future of the service management market with its suite of services and tools. VitAL editor Matt Bailey spoke to Fox IT CEO, Paul Speers, at the company’s headquarters in Woking.

50 PEOPLE, PROCESSES, PARTNERS & TECHNOLOGY

Searching for documents is costing SMEs a staggering £42.2million per day in lost revenue according to independent research. Document management systems can prevent the lost hours and save serious money.

Pan-European IT process alignment for diary foods and water giant Danone.

MICHAEL HUMPHERSON Most organisations have every confidence that process and technology are in hand and will be implemented with the utmost success and competence and that the chosen partners through robust contracts will deliver as required. But let’s be honest, when was the last time that you saw much attention beyond service management training being given to the people aspect?

September / October 2008 : VitAL

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contents

Contents 54 HOW MUCH IS YOUR DATA WORTH?

57 THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF VIRTUALISATION

With high profile data loss and data theft stories seemingly constantly in the news, it looks like it is a problem that is not going away in a hurry. Absolute Software’s William Pound explains how the deployment of simple yet effective data protection software can prevent your highly sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands.

The success of virtualisation is entirely dependent on the approach taken and the tools used says BDNA’s CEO Ray Homan and getting these wrong can prove costly. Plus BDNA highlights its top ten anomalies that can harm the IT environment.

WILLIAM POUND

Name: Title:

Company: Web:

Benjamin Grimes Vice President Corporate Strategy and CTO Avocent Corporation www.avocent.com

Name: Steve White Company: Kepner-Tregoe Inc Web: www.kepner-tregoe.com Name: Title: Company: Web: Name: Title: Company: Web:

64 itSMF KEEPING IT REAL

RAY HOMAN

With a look at the future of IT service management and the theme: ‘Driving Real Value’, the iTSMF announces its 17th Annual Conference and Exhibition.

Contributors

Name:

Barclay Rae

Name:

Johan Oberg

Title:

Head of Axios Global Services

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Marketing Manager EMEA

Company: Axios Systems

Company: Genesys Conferencing

Web:

www.axiossystems.com

Web:

www.genesysconferencing.co.uk

Name:

John J Noctor

Name:

Amina West

Title:

Senior consultant

Company: Autodesk

Company: ICCM

Web:

www.autodesk.co.uk

Name:

William Pound

Title:

Vice President,

International Corporate Development

Jon Pyke Managing director Cordys UK www.cordys.com

Web:

www.iccm.co.uk

Name:

David Morgan

Title:

CEO, Invu

Tim Pickard Global Marketing Director Mimecast www.mimecast.com

Company: Invu

Company: Absolute Software

Web:

www.invu.net

Web:

www.absolute.com/emea

Name:

Mike Ley

Name:

Ray Homan

Title:

UKCMG Secretary

Title:

CEO

Name: David Percy Company: Infra EMC Web: www.infra.co.uk

Company: UKCMG

Company: BDNA

Web:

Web:

www.ukcmg.org.uk

www.BDNAcorp.com

Your VitAL Magazine News • Views • Strategy Management Case studies and Opinion pieces To advertise in VitAL contact Ian Trevett on +44 (0) 870 863 6930

7

Inspiration for the modern business

vital-mag.net September / October 2008 : VitAL

news

ITIL is best for managing corporate governance Majority find value in ITIL-based tools, but few are able to use them to comply.

L

eading ITSM company, Axios Systems has revealed that 90 percent of IT professionals would find value in having a tool to support their corporate governance requirements and two thirds believe that an ITILbased solution would be the most suitable tool. The findings indicate that, while ITIL has traditionally helped IT departments to deliver higher service levels to the business, organisations are increasingly recognising its wider strategic importance. 250

attendees were surveyed at the Service Desk and IT Support Show on 22nd and 23rd April 2008.

According to the company, 80 percent of respondents believe that governance has become more important to their organisation in the past three years with the majority saying that they would find value in using ITIL to manage compliance.

Yet just seven percent are actually using their ITSM tools to comply and only fourteen percent use an IT corporate governance

framework. This is largely because service desks are under increasing pressure to manage multiple new IT responsibilities in addition to their existing IT service management initiatives.

“The findings suggest that IT directors have an opportunity to leverage existing ITSM and ITIL tools to manage not only service desks, but also corporate governance,” comments Tasos Symeonides, CEO and co-founder of Axios Systems. “Many of our customers are also extending their ITSM tools

across the organisation to other departments such as finance and HR. Axios strongly urges companies to utilise ITIL-based ITSM tools to manage compliance to maximise the value of their ITSM investment.

By doing so they are killing two birds with one stone. However, companies need to also look at how they can better support their IT practitioners before they look to roll-out out new technologies and ways of working if they want to get the most out of their service delivery programme.”

The high cost of eating lunch at your desk Surveys reveal the damage done by dropped foods and that senior staff are the biggest IT time wasters.

8

A quick cup of coffee and a sandwich eaten at your desk at lunchtime might sound innocent enough, but the IT support team might choose not to agree with you. Fifty six percent of support staff have spent time fixing problems caused by employees eating and drinking at their desks according to research carried out by leading independent IT service management solutions provider Sunrise. Sticky problems that have to be tackled include crisps lodged in the CD drive, and having to use surgical spirit to prise a computer from a desk. But by far the most frequent problems are caused by spilt drinks, coffee, tea, or even in certain cases red wine on keyboards.

Presumably Sunrise left it to others to calculate the cost of all this dropped and slopped food, but one can only imagine it is significant.

The company has also revealed statistics that is says reveal that senior management are the worst offenders when it comes to raising personal IT queries with IT managers at work According to the research 50 percent of IT managers spend at least 10 percent of their time on personal IT queries in the office, with the worst culprits being senior members of staff.

The research revealed that personal use of email, phones, storage space, as well as instant messenger, causes headaches for IT support.

Additionally, 10 percent of the IT managers questioned spend at least a quarter of their time answering ‘personal’ requests at work.

VitAL : September / October 2008

In addition, almost a quarter (21 percent) of IT managers say IM technology is increasingly used for non-professional purposes, including spreading office gossip and, in some cases, even impersonating other colleagues.

“Businesses seem to worry solely about Facebook – but they’re ignoring the bigger problems around instant messenger,” said Tom Weston, executive chairman at Sunrise.

“For starters, there’s usually no audit trail when it comes to IM, which, unlike email, makes it hard to track who said what to whom. That’s before you start on the problems it causes for IT.” According to the research, 50 percent

of those questioned said the majority of requests came from board members and senior management, with another 40 percent saying requests most frequently came from middle management.

“You might expect the most requests for shiny new IT hardware would come from new and impressionable graduates, but it would seem that more mature, senior members of staff are far worse and will happily abuse their position of power. IT managers struggle enough with time management and problem solving – they don’t need a raft of employees’ personal technology issues to cope with at the same time,” concludes Weston.

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news

itSMFI and APMG forge closer links to benefit service managers T

he ethics board of The APM Group (APMG), a global business providing accreditation and certification services, met the board of itSMF International recently to further knit relations between their organisations, which they say share the aim of establishing the highest possible standards among service management professionals.

Cementing their alliance Sharon Taylor, chair of itSMFI and Richard Pharro, CEO of APMG, signed a contract which seals the agreement whereby APMG will share revenue generated from the ITIL Foundation exams to help itSMFI expand and support chapters. In return, itSMFI is committed to promoting

ITIL globally and supporting the qualification scheme through its involvement in the ITIL Qualifications board.

Colin Rudd, itSMFI’s Qualification Board representative and ITIL author said, “I am pleased that a close working relationship has been established for the benefit of the service management community and for ITIL at large We were impressed with APMG’s corporate governance structure and have extended an offer to Richard Pharro to speak about the subject at itSMF conferences.”

Sharon Taylor and Richard Pharro sign a contract to forge Richard Pharro added, “Our closer links between itSMFI and APMG relationship with itSMFI and with grow. Our ethics board is certainly the community confidence that we the international community of a contributing factor in facilitating endeavour to act responsibly and service managers continues to this relationship because it gives with transparency.”

Into the gap

I

ntact Integrated Services, a leading Cisco Service Extension Partner (SEP), has launched a gap analysis service to help channel partners clearly identify the different process steps they need to take to achieve ISO certification. The new service is part of Intact’s portfolio of channel-friendly Service Improvement Programmes. This new service provides organisations with a rapid audit of their existing systems and processes and a gap analysis of how far their current business differs from specific ISO standards and recognised industry best practice.

Intact’s high level Gap Analysis services compares existing core business processes, practices and documentation with the requirements of the relevant individual or multiple ISO standards. Once an initial audit is completed, Intact provides channel organisations with recommendations on the resources and actions needed to fill any gaps, as well as an overview of the timelines necessary to achieve certification.

“Gap analysis is an important first step for channel partners in achieving certification to specific ISO standards, and provides a valuable stepping stone between initial certification discussions and actually getting ISO programmes underway,” comments Intact’s managing director, Bob Dalton. “At a time when channel organisations are increasingly focusing on higher value sales propositions, it’s essential that they are able to support these more complex activities with the appropriate levels of process management and standards adherence. Gap analysis and our additional service improvement programmes can play a key role in positioning channel partners to take advantage of higher value opportunities.”

Intact’s gap analysis service is based on interviews with key members of the partner organisation to initially establish their current position in relation to the required standard. Once this analysis is complete, Intact prepares a detailed analysis report and presents the results to the partners’ senior management team, along with a proposal with realistic costings and timescales to achieve the desired certification results. Gap analysis can also provide a platform for certification for additional standards at a later date, significantly streamlining the process.

Lack of planning could affect cost savings

A

survey conducted by NetIQ, has revealed that a high proportion of organisations have no processes in place to monitor the impact of moving to a virtualised environment on end user response time of critical applications.

The survey of 102 IT managers across Europe has revealed that 64 percent are not presently using any tools to proactively gauge end user response time before and after the migration to a virtualised environment. These findings come as IDC reported that the pace of adoption of virtualised servers is “incredibly rapid” in organisations that are using virtualisation, and that 35 percent of servers deployed in 2007 were virtual. IDC also reported that 52 percent of servers deployed in 2008 are expected to be virtual.

NetIQ’s survey reveals that, in the UK, alone, 71 percent of respondents have no measures in place to monitor end user performance before and after the migration to a virtual environment and just 15 percent of UK managers were actively considering a solution that would enable them to do this. Nearly a third of all UK respondents are only monitoring hardware performance and availability, rather than applications or OS, in the virtual infrastructure.

The survey also reveals that 90 percent of all UK respondents cited cost savings as the key driver for the move to a virtual environment, however, as Simon Ashford, technical specialist at NetIQ warns, more planning and monitoring is needed if these potential savings are to be realised. “Virtualisation is causing a big buzz and can offer huge benefits in terms of cost savings and enabling a more efficient use of resources,” he says. “However, these findings reveal that more needs to be done to monitor the impact of migration on end user application response time otherwise any potential costs savings could be negated.

The virtual environment should provide the same if not greater levels of performance, availability and security as the physical environment – yet stringent planning and careful phasing are essential to evaluating project success and avoiding any potential performance pitfalls.”

September / October 2008 : VitAL

11

news

New UK distributor for WiMAX solutions

F

WA Solutions has announced that it is to distribute Airspan Networks’ WiMAX Solutions as well as Airspan’s WiFi wireless systems in the UK. FWA Solutions is a specialist provider of wireless networks based on WiFi, WIMAX and high speed microwave systems and has considerable experience in the deployment of high performance, professional networks.

Backed by its own in-house engineering and design, support & maintenance service capability, FWA solutions is an ideal supplier of such systems to a wide range of markets.

Airspan technology utilises the latest Software Defined Radio technology — incorporated in its HiperMAX, MacroMAXe and MicroMAXe base station products with the PicoChip SDR array.

Thanks to this advanced technology, upgrading to new WIMAX standards can be achieved through software upgrades only. Airspan also has a range of high performing WiFi and point to point systems available.

“We chose FWA Solutions as our UK distributor of our products because it can offer a complete

range of services from pure distribution to full turnkey solutions,” comments Airspan business development director Tim Sagar.

FWA Solutions’ managing director, David Penny, adds, “WIMAX is a fast growing, new technology solution for delivery high speed data, voice and video services across the globe.

We were very impressed with the Airspan range of products, its future-proof technology and the high level of integration already available in their products. The technology is starting to make a big impact and with the UK market now gaining momentum, we felt that Airspan had the best WIMAX range on the market to deliver what our customers need, from a vendor with a proven install base behind them.”

WIMAX solutions can be used to deliver costeffective, high-speed connections in a range of scenarios. Applications include delivery of broadband services into urban or rural areas, backhaul of WiFi hotspot systems and providing private networks for businesses, local councils and schools.

Faster, more flexible ESSO deployments

12

Passlogix has launched the v-GO Sign-On Platform – On Demand Edition, the first client-side solution for enterprise single sign-on (ESSO) that does not require traditional software installation on end users’ computers. According to the company v-GO On Demand Edition can be accessed with a click from a corporate Web page, simplifying ESSO deployments as well as extending the technology to new users.

Passlogix claims v-GO’s new on-demand distribution option makes it possible to reduce ESSO implementation effort by eliminating the need to configure all destination computers to accept the installation, perform pre-deployment system integration tests, and rely on desktop refresh or scheduled push procedures for installation of the ESSO client.

It also allows the extension of single sign-on to remote, mobile and temporary users and all other partners in the extended enterprise, including home computers, physicians’ offices that require access to hospital networks, thirdparty partners or outsourcers, contractors, and other workstations outside those owned by the enterprise.

Software updates and rollbacks can also be applied automatically without conventional

VitAL : September / October 2008

distribution and installation strategies, and managed from a central location. “v-GO On Demand Edition creates a new model for ESSO deployments that not only speeds the distribution of client software but also allows more users to take advantage of enterprise single sign-on,” comments Passlogix vice president of strategy and product management Stephane Fymat. “v-GO can now be deployed and used on an anytime/anywhere basis. No other ESSO vendor has this capability.”

In addition to v-GO SSO (Single Sign-On), the v-GO On Demand Edition is available for add-on v-GO modules including v-GO AM (Authentication Manager), which extends strong authentication to any application for end users as well as system administrators; v-GO PM (Provisioning Manager), which enables user credentials to be automatically added to v-GO SSO from the leading identity management systems for zero-touch provisioning; and v-GO SAM (Shared Accounts Manager), which provides the industry-first ability to control shared password access to privileged accounts through an ESSO infrastructure.

The functionality of all v-GO On Demand Editions is identical to that of their installed

counterparts. In the case of v-GO SSO, for example, both versions eliminate the need for end users to create, remember, manage and update multiple application passwords by automating the process of password entry. The system automatically and securely signs the user into any number of Windows, mainframe or Web applications after a single network logon without requiring the user to submit additional identification or authentication, eliminating user frustration as well as the administrative and security complications of managing multiple passwords.

In the case of v-GO SAM, the On Demand Edition extends the benefits of shared account password management by allowing system administrators to securely access a privileged system account from any machine in any location to expedite troubleshooting.

Users can also download all four v-GO On Demand Editions as an integrated package simply by clicking a link, making it possible to check out a shared credential, provision it to his or her single sign-on account, sign on to the network device, and use strong authentication both to request access and sign on to the network resource – all without ever exposing a password in the clear, according to Passlogix.

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COVER STORY

any solution aiming to reduce power consumption and carbon emissions will need to be more sophisticated than a directive that everyone in the organisation turn off their computers or monitors at the end of the day.

A

Gaining a green advantage

14

Benjamin Grimes, vice president corporate strategy and CTO of Avocent Corporation says any solution aiming to reduce power consumption and carbon emissions will need to be more sophisticated than a simple directive that everyone in the organisation turn off their computers or monitors at the end of the day.

VitAL : September / October 2008

s the concept of corporate social responsibility moves further up the agenda and spiralling energy costs continue to cause concern in the boardroom, many organisations are addressing environmental issues with a greater degree of resolve.

Information technology, or IT, is a particular focal point for organisations, as ever-growing IT networks continue consuming more and more power. However, this so-called greening of IT can be a contentious issue, and there are many conflicting opinions on the best way to achieve it.

There is, however, one thing that we can be sure of: any solution aiming to reduce power consumption and carbon emissions will need to be more sophisticated than a directive that everyone in the organisation turn off their computers or monitors at the end of the day.

The so-called green organisation came into being as a realisation that good individual stewardship was just the starting point for helping the entire organisation address growing environmental issues.

Green IT as a concept is widely known and acknowledged, but not so well understood.

Information overload, much of it emanating from the reams of published material by wellmeaning vendors, can have just the opposite of the intended effect: it can cause organisations to hesitate, rather than act, while weighing their many energy-reduction alternatives.

COVER STORY

The role of IT configuration Consider power management, as it relates to the overriding goal of energy reduction.

Conflicting, and occasionally misleading, information makes it increasingly difficult for IT staff to decide when and where to apply power management technology to deliver what’s best both for the environment and their organisation. Even simple power management policies, when not guided by a policy, can backfire. We’ve all heard those anecdotal stories of production lines stopping, websites crashing and back-ups failing when “someone in IT” turns off a server.

More specifically, the problem often is one of poor configuration management. In other words, the IT department doesn’t fully understand exactly what each server, router, and switch is doing and what dependencies exist among them. In such an environment of uncertainty, IT decides to do nothing, choosing to shut nothing down for fear of causing some unforeseen issue. By implementing a more efficient configuration management policy, companies can not only attain a better understanding of their IT systems, but can also effectively manage their composite parts individually. This in turn allows IT staff to manage their IT infrastructure effectively.

To do this effectively, the IT department needs to adopt procedures that will allow the organisation to understand the

Temperature Trend Report

There is, however, one obstacle preventing more organisations from adopting telecommuting: inadequate IT support. IT departments need to ensure that, once workers embrace a home-based or remote work environment, they will not suffer downtime and the resulting stress caused by IT problems.

September / October 2008 : VitAL

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COVER STORY tracking can be important when viewed in the context of mandatory environmental regulations such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, which requires EU producers of new equipment to pay for the recycling and/or safe treatment and disposal of the products they market when those products are eventually replaced. When a new IT asset is installed, Avocent’s solutions provide the IT department with total control over the lifecycle of that asset, including everything from planned and unplanned changes, to who is using an asset and how, to whether or not the asset should be reconfigured to meet the changing needs of the organisation.

From reactive to proactive Comparitive Report Builder

Power Consumption

interdependencies of its IT estate. This is critical because it can help the company assess the risks and impacts of power management, drawing together information about IT assets into one consolidated view and enabling the ongoing tracking of assets throughout their

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lifecycles. One example: Avocent’s Touchpaper solution allows IT directors to keep track of an organisation’s computing assets through the entire lifecycle: from procurement, ongoing management and change of IT assets, to their eventual disposal. This kind of information

Forward-thinking organisations should already be looking at the best way to implement green policies into their structure, rather than waiting for the inevitable government legislation to tell them what to do. Those that take the right steps now will not only save money and power, but also will position themselves as leaders and forward thinkers in their industries.

VitAL : September / October 2008

Today, organisations continue to get their arms around the power consumption behemoth, both for their own sustainability and for the sustainability of the environment. That’s a great first step, even if it’s just a reactive response to the problem. Industry also needs to look at proactive management, notably around planning and modelling, as it relates to growth in the IT environment. It’s no longer sufficient to simply think about what type of server will solve a given business problem.

IT has to consider the power footprint of that server, and where best to place that server in order to maintain a balanced “power environment.” That means that an IT staff needs tools — both hardware and software — that understand the actual real-time power consumption in the environment and can model the best location for placing the equipment for the best use and balance of power consumption across the network.

Today’s tools are based, for the most part, on worst-case scenarios or face-plate projections.

On the horizon are tools that provide realtime consumption models and therefore give a truer picture of the environment. With these tools, IT will be able to deliver a better optimisation profile — essentially a map to indicate how power-hungry equipment can best be deployed to maximise results while minimising power draw.

And, yet, today technologies are available that allow for monitoring and subsequent automated recovery in case of power-based environmental problems. The ability to monitor the environment for situations that can cause a power problem can again move IT management into a more proactive mode of operation. Today, in a reactive management environment, IT waits until it encounters a problem from, let’s say, an overpower situation that has caused breakers to blow and bring entire sets of IT equipment offline. IT then tries to recover and to track the source of the

vitAL signs — life in the world with it failure. If it had monitoring tools in place, IT could proactively watch for increasing power consumption and, once certain thresholds were met, could begin to move workload and systems offline before an overload resulted in a system failure. Proactive management of power is where the real benefits of these tools and technologies pay big benefits.

Is WFH dead, but it hasn’t noticed yet?

While the internet has provided many tremendous advantages for the geographically untethered, allowing them to work from ‘anywhere’, Steve White wonders whether Work From Home is going to have to evolve to survive.

Supporting an increasingly mobile workforce Ever-increasing broadband speeds and the continuing evolution of sophisticated communications technology are also providing options for organisations that want to reduce their carbon footprint. These developments are increasing the viability of telecommuting from home or a remote office, in turn enabling companies to reduce the environmental impact of their daily operations.

By allowing staff to work remotely, organisations reduce the number of round trips made each day into the workplace. UK commuters are responsible for producing millions of tonnes of CO2 each year, and measures like these have the potential to reduce congestion while also making a positive impact on the environment.

There is, however, one obstacle preventing more organisations from adopting telecommuting: inadequate IT support.

IT departments need to ensure that, once workers embrace a home-based or remote work environment, they will not suffer downtime and the resulting stress caused

by IT problems. The key is to put systems in place that allow users (no matter where they’re located) to solve minor IT problems themselves, ensuring that such issues don’t cause work to grind to a halt.

In Summary Today, green IT solutions are available to help organisations implement and enforce power management policies that deliver substantial, bottom-line benefits, while simultaneously reducing energy use and carbon footprint.

In addition, the combination of configuration and power management techniques has been effective at communicating the impact of these measures, while guaranteeing that the conversion to green IT does not have a detrimental effect on other systems.

Forward-thinking organisations should already be looking at the best way to implement green policies into their structure, rather than waiting for the inevitable government legislation to tell them what to do. Those that take the right steps now will not only save money and power, but also will position themselves as leaders and forward thinkers in their industries.

Phases of new hire integration

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’ve visited two very large support organisations recently who are rethinking their WFH policies – now both insisting that staff attend a bricks-and-mortar building on the same days at least once a week, so that ‘everyone is in’. At first this may seem to be an effort to bring the Victorian work ethic of hours at work = work done back, but I think it’s deeper than that.

New starters rely heavily on colleagues to absorb the social norms, the day-today culture of the environment, the way customers are handled, the acronyms that save so much typing; they are effectively eased into the organisation by the office environment. They are mentored by the experienced ‘old hands’ – those employees who are the logical candidates to work from home. Working from home is perfect for an experienced employee saturated in the cultural norms and deeply familiar with company policies, procedures and products.

Is it a coincidence that the word ‘company’ means both the establishment of a business and the fraternity of colleagues?

There are phases to the integration of new staff into an organisation, and initially they start out comparing themselves to their colleagues – questioning their reference

points to help them understand their new company and the processes and cultural expectations within it. The first two phases are where having the experienced mixing with the new is most valuable: Encouragement & Feedback – the need to settle in the new company and find out how things work — which requires colleagues in regular and available contact.

Technical Support – that there is someone present to look over your shoulder and check that you’re doing the right things.

So while working from home is completely fine for experienced employees who are very much self sufficient, bringing a new team member into a virtual environment is much harder for the new team member – not impossible of course, but harder. ‘Harder’ in this case extends the time for new employees to become profitable for an employer. The employees who ‘reject’ the remote working system, who are hired, spend some time and then leave through their perceived lack of care or role models add to the hidden costs.

Perhaps we’ve traded the ‘easy to measure’ reduction in fixed overheads involved in running a building for the ‘harder to measure’ extended period where staff are not productive at the beginning of their careers?

September / October 2008 : VitAL

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Unbiased advice and bespoke IT Service Management solutions

ITIL v2-v3 Foundation and Managers Bridge ITIL v2 and v3 Foundation Certificate Public schedule and on-site options available.

Visit our website www.wardownconsulting.co.uk for details.

Tel: 01582 488242 Fax: 01582 488343 E-mail: training@wardownconsulting.co.uk Website: www.wardownconsulting.co.uk Wardown Consulting Limited.

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LU2 9PE VitAL : September / October 2008

IT Service Management Training & Consultancy

VITAL EVENTS

IP and Virtualisation take centre stage at Earls Court With IP08 co-located at Earls Court with VM08 on 1st and 2nd of October, the leading IP and virtualisation vendors will all be under one roof, making the event a must-see for IT professionals.

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n the 1st of October some of the leading IP and virtualisation vendors converge at Earls Court to showcase some of the latest products and solutions. However it is not just about procuring the latest products IT departments now need to keep one eye on the environmental issues as their departments become some of the most energy hungry within the enterprise as Laurence Harrison, director of consumer electronics at Intellect, says: “The unprecedented growth in IPbased products and services means that the corporate, social and environmental responsibilities of companies involved are greater than ever and will come under more public scrutiny. These responsibilities bring both challenges and opportunities. At IP08 we’re going to be discussing and debating how these challenges can be met while increasing competitiveness in tough market conditions.”

These issues coupled with the current economic climate serve to bring the role of the IT department into the fore. The flexibility of technology has now reached such a level of maturity it can facilitate effective remote working as well as some innovative organisational structures that can significantly reduce on-premises and operational costs.

A further IT trend that has hit the mainstream is virtualisation, “By allowing partitioning, emulation and aggregation at every layer of the software stack, virtualisation is transforming enterprise IT from the datacenter server farm to the desktop PC, thin client or remote laptop at the enterprise edge,” said John Abbott, chief analyst at the 451 Group. “Server virtualisation has seen explosive development and widespread adoption over recent years.

But desktop, application and datacenter fabric virtualisation could represent even bigger opportunities ahead.”

With this drive of ever increasing flexibility, virtualised IT systems and the ‘access anywhere’ philosophy to corporate systems for employees comes the need to deploy a flexible and secure architecture that will facilitate these aims and grow and adapt to business needs a certain degree of responsibility. To help companies make the right decisions Imago Communications have brought together an unparalleled range of speakers on the 1st and 2nd of October in a series of free to attend seminars aimed at answering these and other questions.

Full programme details can be found at www.ipexpo.co.uk and www.vmexpo.co.uk

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VITAL MANAGEMENT

Business Process Management — a panacea for logistics?

BPM offers logistics providers increased visibility and efficiency, reduced operational costs and regulatory compliance.

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nformation visibility, integration of existing IT systems and flexibility of business applications are all urgent areas that need addressing in the logistics and transportation sector according to research conducted by Cordys, a global leader in next generation Business Process Management (BPM).

With margins already tight in a market known for its annual contracts, fixed pricing models, compliance concerns and ever-rising fuel costs, logistics providers are looking to back office technologies to improve competitiveness. However, the research highlighted that while 66 percent of participants described their philosophy towards new technologies as ‘leading edge’, very few had implemented solutions such as BPM to improve visibility and efficiency throughout their logistics operations.

“At a time where fuel prices are exceeding 114 pence per litre for unleaded petrol and 126 pence per litre for diesel (Source: Experian Catalist), logistics and transportation providers need to be optimising the use of technology to improve their business margins and performance,” says Jon Pyke, managing director of Cordys UK. “Through research and the successful deployment of BPM, logistics providers can make substantial improvements in competitiveness by increasing their operational efficiency and responsiveness to the constantly changing market.”

According to the research, the three most

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commonly used technologies currently in place in the logistics and transportation sectors are satellite communications (44 percent), electronic tagging of cargo (eight percent) and GIS (eight percent). Surprisingly, BPM is only used by two percent of those surveyed to improve business operations, giving them real-time visibility and control of the entire technology network, ensuring informed decisions and increased operational efficiency.

The survey also highlighted the three most important areas that technology needed to address in organisations: information visibility (20 percent); integration (18 percent) and flexibility (17 percent), all issues that can be addressed by BPM. When asked about the most important attributes when selecting a BPM solution, most respondents are looking for rapid implementation (58 percent), a strong technology foundation (58 percent) and interoperability (57 percent) to enable integration with existing systems.

Pyke concludes, “Solutions such as the Cordys Business Operations Platform enable logistics and transportation providers to meet their process improvement requirements across a variety of operational areas, on a truly global scale. By integrating existing disparate systems into a unified graphical business process solution, they can automate business processes quickly and rapidly implement changes in response to market demands.”

With margins already tight in a market known for its annual contracts, fixed pricing models, compliance concerns and ever-rising fuel costs, logistics providers are looking to back office technologies to improve competitiveness Cordys is a leading vendor of BPM solutions that it says enable customers to design, execute, monitor and improve business processes more rapidly, with better performance and with greater adaptability than any other available solutions. According to the company, 2,000 companies worldwide have selected its Business Operations Platform to support business performance improvement because business executives can continually optimise IT systems in real-time within a code-free environment.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, Cordys is a global company with offices in the USA, the UK, Germany, China and India.

VITAL FIRST ANNIVERSARY

A VitAL year in IT VitAL celebrates its first birthday with a bunch of glowing testimonials from the industry. Here’s to the next twelve months...

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hen the first issue of VitAL magazine hit the streets a year ago, the then editor John Hancock promised a fresh, new approach for an IT service management readership that would not tell the readers how to do their jobs but bring them the kind of information that would be useful in their everyday work.

The feedback the magazine has received over the last twelve months has certainly indicated that we’re on the right track with this aim and it is a priority to maintain that head of steam and the high quality of the magazine going forward into the future.

The aim is to build on this solid beginning and make VitAL the key information source for any IT service management professional who wants to be in the loop with the latest technology, techniques and philosophies from what has become the real engine of every major economy in the world today, the IT industry.

Below are a few of the kind comments from key companies in the industry that have supported the magazine over the last year: “Where ITIL adoption is concerned, opinion and information sources are widespread but often lack the voice of experience. One year on, Vital magazine is clearly providing organisations that are

embracing IT service management with practical and inspirational advice on ITIL adoption and its benefits, a welcome source of information.”

Patrick Bolger, chief marketing officer, Hornbill Systems.

“VitAL magazine covers topics around how IT implementations impact on businesses and their customer services. The quality of the articles is excellent and this has a lot to do with the calibre of the magazine’s contributors, who are experts in IT service management and best practices.

EMC’s Resource Management Software Group is pleased to have contributed to the issues in the publication’s first year.”

Suhela Dighe, marketing director, EMEA. “VitAL is unique in its approach — it is one of the few publications that takes a holistic view of the importance of IT to the business. Not only does it recognise the evolving role of technology, but it gets under the skin of the topical issues which are driving IT forward. That’s the VitAL difference.

G2G3 believes that VitAL is innovatory in its representation of technology and the modern business, and looks forward to working together for many years to come.”

Linda King, head of marketing, G2G3.

“In its first year VitAL has proven to be a high quality publication, which delivers focus on current issues from a comprehensive perspective. We will continue to use the magazine as a vehicle through which we can effectively communicate with the market and our customers.”

Caroline Wyatt, services manager, Pink Elephant EMEA. “VitAL has proved to be an excellent match for NetSupport’s product range. Its service deskfocused content gives us great confidence that our advertising will reach the right audience and our account manager is always pro-active in looking for editorial options for us.”

Chris Lovesey, UK marketing manager, NetSupport Ltd. “Advertising with VitAL has become an integral part of the Wardown Consulting marketing strategy because of the audience it regularly reaches. Thought provoking editorial and relevant articles from industry leaders, along with a willingness to support our internal campaigns, make continued advertising one of our easier decisions.”

Rosemary Gurney, Wardown Consulting.

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VITAL MANAGEMENT

Compliance and email archival Tim Pickard, global marketing director of unified email management company Mimecast says the credit crunch should encourage companies to rethink their strategies for email management and adopt an effective email management system.

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-mail has become the mainstay of the business world not only as a communication tool but also as a means of delivering a high proportion of business correspondence. With each of us now receiving on average 18MB of data per day — a figure that’s set to increase to 28MB of data by 2011 — an effective email data management system is vital to every business.

Moreover, regulations which came into force late last year, now mean the financial organisations must maintain email records in a tamper proof and secure manner which can be easily accessed by authorised individuals should the need of arise. November 1st 2007 marked the deadline for the 1,200 firms

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operating in the financial services market in the UK to demonstrate compliance with the directives of the European Commission’s Financial Services Action Plan (MiFID). One of the most challenging concerns of the directive from a technology standpoint was compliance with Article 51, which required organisations to keep details of trades for five years.

Recent high profile cases that have hit the headlines have also demonstrated the critical requirement for enterprises to employ a centralised email data management tool.

Without such as solution, companies run the risk of losing control over their important business records, unable to retrieve valuable information and subject to hefty fines.

Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs & Co, Morgan Stanley and Solomon Smith Barney who were all fined $1.65 million each for failing to produce emails requested in the course of an investigation.

The responsibility of maintaining the availability of email data for multi year periods is creating new challenges for IT managers who are finding that creating a central repository of all email data can be both expensive and technically problematic. Attempting to meet these requirements with in-house systems requires significant capital and operating expenses from business and often results in a suboptimal solution. Additional costs are to be borne year over year as the business

VITAL MANAGEMENT

extends and patches what soon becomes a legacy data repository.

IT departments need a practical solution that is low risk, future proof, immediately affordable, easy to implement and manage, and critically, has a predictable cost profile over the many years of email data management that lie ahead.

Thankfully, there are now new ways of applying email management solutions that actually reduce the cost, complexity and therefore the administrative burden on the business. With the advent of Software as a Services (SaaS) email management solutions are now available as sophisticated, multi tenant, online email storage solutions which combine search performance, data security, 24/7 availability and resilience.

SaaS has become more and more popular as organisations find managed services too limiting and outsourcing too far removed from the control of the IT department. Instead, companies are now looking for a solution that still offers significant cost savings but gives them control. It has become the cheapest way for companies to access enterprise level technology but at pay-as-you-go pricing because there is no hardware or software to purchase so there is no capital expenditure.

In effect, companies will simply be renting space on the vendor’s infrastructure which

With each of us now receiving on average 18MB of data per day — a figure that’s set to increase to 28MB of data by 2011 — an effective email data management system is vital to every business.

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VITAL MANAGEMENT

Recent high profile cases that have hit the headlines have also demonstrated the critical requirement for enterprises to employ a centralised email data management tool. Without such as solution, companies run the risk of losing control over their important business records, unable to retrieve valuable information and subject to hefty fines. keeps costs to an absolute minimum while allowing the customer to maintain control.

SaaS is the most efficient way for organisations of all sizes to gain access to the facilities that they need, which can otherwise be out of their reach due to the cost, complexity and the hassle of implementing them in house.

E-mail will continue to dominate the business communications landscape for some time to come and determining the optimum way to maintain, manage and secure this vital information will be the key to the future business success of any organisation.

Mimecast is one example of a rapidly expanding SaaS company. It provides an online technology platform that it says improves the way companies manage their most important business communication and data. It offers a new way of doing things that it claims is

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cheaper, faster, more secure and simply put more intelligent. Every day the company takes care of millions of emails and documents for thousands of companies around the world.

Mimecast has introduced a groundbreaking approach to email security, continuity and archiving. It is called Unified Email Management and it takes care of the most sophisticated corporate requirements, online, with no hardware, software or capital expense. The company removes the need for the fragmented stack of email point solutions that plague nearly every corporate IT department including; inhouse email archiving systems and all of the technical complexity that ship with these, hygiene and content gateways which frequently introduce single points of failure, managed service email security providers whose ‘first generation’ architectures are now fatigued and underperforming, and the complex multisite

email disaster recovery configurations that only larger companies can afford.

Outside of IT circles, little is known or appreciated about the cost, risk and complexity involved in corporate email infrastructures.

These exist as a result of the piecemeal implementations of various separate point solutions that the steady growth in business email dependence over the past few years has encouraged. Most companies now have fragmented, complex and expensive email infrastructures. A simpler, more holistic strategy is desperately called for. Leveraging a purpose built multi-tenant software-as-aservice architecture with a number of marketleading technical innovations; Mimecast’s Unified Email Management services profoundly change both the economics and dynamics of the email security, continuity and archiving markets.

E-mail will continue to dominate the business communications landscape for some time to come and determining the optimum way to maintain, manage and secure this vital information will be the key to the future business success of any organisation.

VitAL : September / October 2008

VITAL MANAGEMENT

Feature sponsored by:

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Making a success of service management Barclay Rae, head of Global Services at Axios Systems offers thought leadership on achieving effective IT service management by understanding what an organisation has, where it wants to be and how guidelines like ITIL can help it get there.

VitAL : September / October 2008

VITAL MANAGEMENT

Essential ITIL

Process automation underpins ITIL best practice says EMC Infra’s David Percy.

With IT support operations increasingly expected to make a measurable contribution to the business, ITIL provides a tried and tested insight into how to organise for maximum efficiency while putting the customer centre stage. Indeed, for enterprises faced with bringing together disparate IT resources, introducing standards and leveraging existing IT investments, ITIL has become almost essential.

And, as more and more organisations are finding, technology, correctly applied, has a vital role to play underpinning the whole cultural shift to ITIL. Today’s web-based IT service management technology clearly makes it easier to implement best practice and enforce process compliance. Sophisticated workflows are available to assist with process design, and automate routine tasks. Connectors can harness disparate information about IT real estate for use within the configuration management database, enabling more effective availability, capacity and change management.

Reporting is also much slicker, enabling measurement of how both individuals and the overall IT Service Desk are performing. Monitoring performance versus agreed service levels is a powerful aid to communication with business stakeholders, as is being able to demonstrate why, for example, investment in a server upgrade may be required because of Incidents relating to slow network performance.

Ste Sharples, ICT business manager at St Helens Council has recently renewed his organisation’s service desk technology, and endorses the positive impact that using technology appropriately has in the quest to achieve best practice and closer alignment with business goals: “Using ITIL as the framework and new Service Desk technology from EMC Infra as the solution, we have transformed the way in which we deliver IT services.

Today we have visibility of the IT infrastructure, effective and auditable Service Management processes, and are fully geared to supporting Council operations across the board.

“St Helens is the first authority in the UK to be awarded certification against the ISO/IEC 20000 standard. That we were able to achieve compliance without difficulty — in fact we were 80% compliant already — is due to the team’s on-going commitment to best practice and the support provided by the EMC Infra Service Desk.”

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that the reason for doing ITIL or IT service management (ITSM) in the first place is to ensure that IT delivers an appropriate business service

e all regularly read about the development of ITIL and the associated market that supports it — training programmes, products, forums, consultancies etc. Yet one simple fact often gets missed: that the reason for doing ITIL or IT service management (ITSM) in the first place is to ensure that IT delivers an appropriate business service. Consequently any appreciation or measurement of the success of ITIL, must be done in business terms.

ITSM is defined as ‘a set of specialised organisational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services’ . In simpler terms, it is a means of managing IT services and helping them run more effectively and efficiently for the customer and the business as a whole. Considering ITSM is the ‘easy’ part, but delivering IT services successfully on a consistent and continuous basis is where it gets more challenging.

Organisations choosing to improve their ITSM should not only consider the theoretical material in the books but also look at what other companies have achieved before them.

This will help highlight what options are available, potential pitfalls and help them identify what their specific requirements are and how these can be satisfied.

ITIL is a good reference point for improvement as it provides a set of best practice guidelines that can be used to improve IT service provision. ITIL is a generic framework, by no means set in stone, which can be adopted and adapted to any organisation regardless of size, or industry. As such, the needs and requirements of each company need to be considered closely to ensure success. ITIL also provides the building blocks to achieving the industry standard for ITSM — ISO/IEC 20000.

Since the latest ITIL refresh (ITIL V3) was released in 2007, there has been much debate about whether to follow the previous version (V2) or the new V3. With each ITIL refresh new elements have been introduced to help organisations better follow ITSM best practices.

ITIL V2 focused on the basic processes required for ITSM, while V3 considers the value of providing efficient IT services to the entire business and looks at the lifecycle of

September / October 2008 : VitAL

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a service, from inception to retirement. The basic processes as defined in V2 remain mostly unchanged and implementation of V3 could be seen as a matter of choice and maturity depending on the needs and approach of the organisation. V3 has evolved from V2, so depending on their particular requirements, organisations can follow whatever approach best suits them.

There are several benefits from adopting ITIL, such as the increased alignment of IT services to current and future business needs, a proactive approach to IT service provision and better control of the IT systems infrastructure. IT services are also more effective and efficient and, with reduced downtime and improved first-line resolution, organisations can achieve superior customer care and higher satisfaction levels.

How can an organisation implement successful ITSM?

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This can be done by considering six questions: 1. Where should we start?

2. Where do we want to be?

3. Where are we now?

4. How do we get where we want to be?

5. How do we deliver service improvement?

6. How do we know we have arrived?

These are more fully investigated throughout this article. The Irish Life and Permanent (IL&P) group, the largest life assurance company and

VitAL : September / October 2008

mortgage lender in the Irish market is one company that has achieved a successful ITSM structure. IL&P followed some of the following steps and with each stage their success can clearly be seen.

Where do we start?

Initially, a high level review of the organisation’s processes, documentation and tools currently in use should be carried out. This helps identify the organisation’s current position and understand what it wants to achieve through future improvements. The findings can be summarised in an analysis report showing the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), based on stakeholder and management input.

This report can be used in two ways: • to develop a business case for project initiation • to help demonstrate to management what the IT department’s current position and future workload requirements are.

At this stage, IL&P decided to approach the Service Desk Institute (SDI) (formerly the Help Desk Institute, HDI), in 2002 for their advice before embarking on their project.

Where do we want to be?

The next stage is to determine the strategy for the Service Improvement Programme (SIP) and identify the crucial factors that should be considered. This helps prepare IT management for what is required and manage business

expectations. Considerations include: • The scope and ultimate vision of the project • Realistic expectations of what can be achieved • Who takes on what roles and the responsibilities which are associated with this • Timescales for each task/stage • What potential risks there are and how to manage these • The cost implications and potential success criteria from which the programme can be measured against

Where are we now?

Before you can start to improve, it is important to establish what the organisation’s current situation is. This can be done through a range of activities: Gap Analysis — looking at the current environment, processes, supporting documents and tools in order to ascertain where the gaps lie in IT services with regards to Best Practice alignment.

Maturity Assessments — on current IT processes, looking at both level of use and maturity of these. SDI helped IL&P in this area by guiding them through an ITIL assessment, to gauge how ITIL aligned the organisation was. This allowed them to determine their baseline, and thus let them see where they were in terms of maturity levels.

Service Identification — it is beneficial to

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The fact that the ITIL approach has been implemented in manageable stages has been particularly beneficial for IL&P. Each stage has seen improvements which have been appreciated across both the IT department and the business as a whole and have subsequently helped support funding requests for ongoing development initiatives. carry out an objective review of the services currently delivered including cost and resources involved, with a view to determining a definitive service catalogue.

Service Requirements — to consider the organisation’s current and future service needs, including infrastructure and services supported, the structure of service delivery and the processes and approach required to enable IT to proactively support the business in achieving its overall objectives.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Metrics — to determine the most appropriate metrics and ensure effective management information is collated. These can range from Service Desk metrics to trend analysis and SLA target performance. These should be discussed by all relevant departments in the

organisation to ensure all parties have the appropriate information they require.

How do we get there?

After reviewing the findings from above an SIP can be developed based on the initial vision agreed by all stakeholders. This exercise involves determining and prioritising the tasks to improve service, managing risks and identifying success factors, which will then be agreed with the organisation’s key stakeholders.

IL&P worked with SDI to create an initial SIP so that the company’s IT department could implement better incident and problem management procedures.

Through the initial improvements, IL&P delivered significant customer satisfaction

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improvements, particularly important to IL&P as they believe it important to “put the customer at the centre of everything they do”, as well as a reduction in incident resolution time. This helped support the aims of the project, and demonstrated a cultural change.

While IT initially thought of this project as purely focussed on the Service Desk/Operations section, it was subsequently accepted that the project required co-operation from all support areas, which helped overcome barriers between departments.

How do we deliver service improvement?

Following the creation of a SIP, an organisation needs to consider how they will deliver the agreed improvements. The required processes

What we mean by successful service management John J Noctor, senior consultant at service management specialist ICCM defines exactly what we mean when we talk about successful service management.

In industry, we are often asked how to deliver successful service management. Firstly, we need to examine the challenge, which is mainly around the word ‘successful’. What does this actually mean? Additionally, what metrics and benchmarks are going to allow us to judge the level of success? We need to identify the underlying goals of effective service management. Is it about getting the processes implemented; customer satisfaction; ROI; maturity; automation; or governance and conformance? Without asking ourselves these questions the roadmap on the project will become misdirected ultimately hindering the potential of the service management function.

If we go back to basics and remember that if a user is contacting the service desk in the first place, it means (in general) that something has gone wrong. To enable the service desk to respond successfully, relationships must be defined and maintained. We need to have a method of managing information; knowing who is calling, where they are, where they sit in the organisation and what parts of the IT infrastructure they use or have access to. Fundamentally, we need the right people, the right processes and the right technology. However, we all know it’s not that easy to align all three of these areas and you need to ensure your structure can adequately support the processes you design.

People — We need to take people with us, it’s not just about roles and responsibilities, it’s also about education and discipline. Let people know of the benefits of successful service management and also the impact to the organisation when business processes are not being followed. An old adage is to tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you have told them.

Processes — Most people start with incident management and a basic level of configuration but think of how more effective IM can become with the introduction and proper management of other processes such as capacity, availability, service portfolio, problem and change management.

Technology — An agent needs a technology mechanism with well-organised data management functionality allowing them to direct the diagnosis teams in the right direction. Furthermore any technology needs to have the ability to evolve with the needs of the company, whether that is service desk function or the implementation of additional business processes.

At the end of the day we need to meet the level that delivers actual business benefit, it is easy to get carried away with the project itself, always stop to take stock and ensure that each improvement you are making is justified in line with real business benefit.

September / October 2008 : VitAL

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VITAL MANAGEMENT

Feature sponsored by:

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The implementation of ITSM is different with every organisation and it is clear from IL&P’s deployment of service management and use of the ITIL guidelines that it is possible to deliver ITSM successfully for both the IT department and the business as a whole. should be developed and defined and the root cause for misalignment in current processes identified. In addition, action items and tasks to achieve these must be identified and allocated appropriately.

It can be useful to arrange a best practice consultation to gain independent insights from industry experts into any current and potential future failings within planned implementations and can also help internally to eliminate potential political and cultural issues that may be faced.

An ethos of continuous assessment must be adopted, to ensure that tasks allocated and action items delegated are completed within agreed timescales and best practice alignment is maintained during the service improvement implementation, The first stage of IL&P’s SIP was such a success that the IT department was given authorisation to start a strategic re-assessment of the whole operation. This looked at the way it worked, roles and functions, the management culture and service delivery in a bid to reduce the downtime of critical business systems and improve the quality and operational efficiencies across the department. This included the creation of a critical systems ‘League table’ which enabled the IT department to prioritise certain business systems over others. The ‘League table’ is under constant review from all IT areas and has helped staff focus their attention on what needs to be continually reviewed on a business-level rather than just IT. The correct ITSM tool needs to be selected to support the processes defined as part of the SIP. After evaluating major ITSM suppliers and tools, Axios Systems out-of-the-box solution, assyst, was chosen due to its proven ITIL and best practice alignment. It was also assyst’s change management and workflow features that attracted IL&P to use this solution, which enables flexibility when business needs change.

Colm O’Shea, IT customer services manager at IL&P comments, “We evaluated all the ITSM players and decided Axios was the best fit for our needs. We were very keen to ensure we

VitAL : September / October 2008

chose a provider which would not lock us into a rigid ITSM framework, but one which would adjust to our changing needs. The deployment of Axios’ software will significantly improve the management of our IT resources.”

How do we know we’ve arrived?

A post implementation review should be completed at the end of an SIP by working with stakeholders to identify the successes in achieving the vision that was agreed upon during the initial programme scoping.

Additional requirements should also be discussed and agreed.

Following the development and implementation of various service management and ITIL stages, IL&P have seen a significant cost saving from an improvement in the critical business systems.

“There have been a number of quality and operational improvements in service support which have been validated by data from regular customer surveys. In short, the IT operation is delivering a far better business service to the organisation, and the organisation has noticed,” says O’Shea.

This project started as an initial review of IL&Ps service and support areas but soon progressed onto a much bigger scale due to the demonstration of success quickly through improved turnaround times and improved customer service through incident

management.

The fact that the ITIL approach has been implemented in manageable stages has been particularly beneficial for IL&P. Each stage has seen improvements which have been appreciated across both the IT department and the business as a whole and have subsequently helped support funding requests for ongoing development initiatives.

Moving forward, O’Shea and his team’s ultimate goal is to move from being an ITfocussed department to being a business-led service department. The organisation aims to achieve further fine-tuning and benefits from best practice processes. As a result there is an acceptance within the organisation that this is not just a ‘one-off’ project, but a continuous process for service improvement.

Considering ISO/IEC 20000?

Once the above questions have been answered, organisations may then look to see if they can achieve formal recognition for this.

If a business wants to work towards ISO/IEC 20000 accreditation, an initial audit to assess readiness for this is advisable by looking at the existing documentation, environment and resources to determine the current position in-line with audit requirements.

Conclusion The implementation of ITSM is different with every organisation and it is clear from IL&P’s deployment of service management and use of the ITIL guidelines that it is possible to deliver ITSM successfully for both the IT department and the business as a whole.

Although text books give theoretical guidance on how best to deliver IT service management effectively, it is important to clearly establish what the particular organisation already has, where is wants to be and how industry guidelines, such as ITIL, can help them achieve this.

FOOTNOTE: ‘IT Service Management Based on ITIL® V3 — A Pocket Guide’, an itSMF International publication.

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VITAL PROCESSES

Stop wasting your time

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According to electronic document management software company Invu, UK SMEs waste more than ÂŁ42.2 million per day in revenues looking for documents; 92 percent of managers and directors surveyed waste time searching for paperwork each working day, with 80 percent losing up to an hour per day; fewer than one in four companies have a document management system in their company; A mere seven percent of SMEs have a predominantly paperless office; and 80 percent of managers and directors surveyed* waste up to an hour a day looking for documents.

VitAL : September / October 2008

S

earching for documents is costing SMEs a staggering ÂŁ42.2million per day in lost revenue, according to independent research. The survey, commissioned by Invu and conducted by YouGov, revealed that managers and directors are wasting valuable time trying to locate documents that may have been misfiled, moved to another location or simply lost, costing businesses dearly. Yet despite this, according to the managers/ directors questioned, less than one in four UK SMEs have replaced their paper filing with digital document management, making it no surprise that only seven percent of companies operate a predominantly paperless office.

Invu is a specialist company that develops, markets and sells software for the electronic management of all types of information and documents, such as forms, correspondence, literature, faxes, e-mail, technical drawings, electronic files and web pages.

VITAL PROCESSES

The survey, commissioned by Invu and conducted

by YouGov, revealed that managers and directors are wasting valuable time trying to locate documents that may have been misfiled, moved to another location or simply lost, costing businesses dearly With more than 4.5 million SMEs in the UK, and the survey finding that 80 percent of managers and directors waste up to one hour (worth £88 on average) of their time per day looking for documents, it is little wonder that this wasted time is costing businesses so much.

But this is really just the tip of the iceberg, if the number of director and managers in each company is considered; for example, for a company of 120 people with 10 directors and managers, the cost to that business could be up to £4,400 per week.

The root cause of this inefficiency is paper; just seven percent of SMEs have 91 percent or more of their documents saved electronically, even though paper documents can easily be lost or misfiled due to human error. With only six percent of survey respondents stating that their organisation doesn’t have a digital document management system because there’s no point in creating a paperless office, the question of why more companies have not yet taken the plunge and become paperless leaps to the fore, particularly considering the growing need to efficiently store and retrieve documents for compliance and audit purposes.

Spending time on business development was the top response (31 percent) to the question of what managers and directors would do if they had additional time during their working day. This was followed by completing admin tasks (26 percent) and going home on time (21 percent).

“It’s shocking to think that managers and

directors in SMEs are wasting valuable time that could be spent developing their business,” commented David Morgan, CEO of Invu. “Document management is now very accessible to even the smallest business. For as little as £1 per day per user this problem can be eradicated.”

George Derbyshire, chief executive of The National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA), comments, “This research is quite frightening and is an example of how everyday inefficiencies can have a very damaging effect on small businesses. It’s vital to prioritise on a daily basis, but it is also important to take time out from time to time and review your processes and systems to ensure that they are supporting you - not holding you back.”

On the plus side, 23 percent of respondents have already implemented a digital document management system, with nearly two thirds of SMEs (64 percent) agreeing that this solution

enabled them to look for or search through archive documents more quickly and easily.

Sixteen percent cited decreasing the amount of storage space paid for as a major benefit, with one in ten implementing a solution in order to meet regulations, such as the Data Protection Act. For those SMEs that don’t yet have a document management system, one third were apprehensive about high upfront expenditure; a worry that may be unfounded as it has been shown that ROI can be achieved within six months with this kind of system.

All figures unless otherwise stated are from YouGov plc. Total sample size was 858 managers and directors in UK SMEs. Fieldwork was undertaken between 16th-27th June 2008. The survey was carried out online. The figures are unweighed

September / October 2008 : VitAL

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VITAL PROCESSES

Capacity, performance and other confusing terms Mike Ley of the UKCMG Committee hacks his way through the dense jungle of management jargon and offers some useful analogies and definitions.

A

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few weeks ago I was phoned by a salesman who was trying to push a ‘performance measurement tool’. It wasn’t a good time and so I tried my usual brush-off / delaying tactics: “Now is not the right time, phone me back in a few months”. However this salesman was more persistent than most and he continued on about how the tool could manage the capacity of a system.

Thoroughly confused about what the tool was attempting to do I asked a simple question, “What is the difference between capacity and performance?” …and I got blubber. Words came across the phone lines, mainly a re-iteration of the latest management jargon, but no clear definition of the difference between the meanings of the terms ‘capacity’ and ‘performance’.

Later I thought, if this is what specialist companies in the area of capacity and performance are presenting to senior managers, no wonder they are confused about the role of capacity management and the tools that are required.

So to set the record straight let me propose the following definition of terms: Performance is about the time that an individual transaction or piece of work takes to be carried out.

Capacity is about the amount of work that

VitAL : September / October 2008

can be carried out over a period of time.

A simple analogy to remember these definitions relates to road use: Performance is the time it takes me to drive from my home back to Wales.

Capacity is the number of cars per hour the M4 can handle.

By extension, utilisation is the number cars per hour travelling on the M4, over the maximum number of cars per hour that the M4 can handle. And high utilisation of the M4 leads to delays because of queuing.

As a consequence of these definitions it can be seen that a capacity tool mainly collects utilisation data or technical data (eg bytes moved over the last five minutes), while a performance tool mainly collects response data. However, there is not always a clean divide between the two and several tools collect both capacity and performance data.

Of course, in my analogy, the measure of capacity does not have to be cars per hour it could equally be cars per day. This highlights the fact that is that it is not meaningful just to say that utilisation is 60 percent.

Utilisation is a measure over a period of time and this should always be specified. For example, CPU utilisation in the peak hour is 60 percent. Without this qualification the measure is meaningless as there is a significant

Words came across the phone lines, mainly a re-iteration of the latest management jargon, but no clear definition of the difference between the meanings of the terms ‘capacity’ and ‘performance’. difference between a system that has a peak hour utilisation of 60 percent and one that has a peak day utilisation of 60 percent, or even 60 percent utilisation over a week.

So I strongly recommend that you use, remember and apply (URA) these definitions, as they may well save you much money and / or pain. Apart from the saving in time dealing with some salesmen, you may avoid the fate of one company that bought a capacity tool and a performance tool only to find they had bought two tools that collected much the same data, with no discernable extra benefit.

VITAL PROFILE

Gaining control Danone’s IT support environment became increasingly difficult to manage, spread, as it was, across 110 sites, seven time zones, 17 languages, and 8,000 users.

The company turned to InfraVision to implement BMC Service Desk Express Suite to help it gain control of its IT processes through automation, integration, and ITIL best practices.

D

anone is responsible for many of the healthy foods brands we consume every day, including Evian, Volvic, Actimel, Activia, Cow & Gate and Aptamil. The company was challenged in its Northern Eastern and Central Europe business region by a de-centralised IT service support strategy across 110 sites, seven time zones, 17 languages, and 8,000 users. To solve this challenge, Danone chose InfraVision who recommended BMC Service Desk Express Suite to help it gain control of its IT processes through automation, integration, and ITIL best practices. The company also turned to BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express to help it launch the BMC Service Desk Express Suite in only six months — 66 percent faster than using conventional deployment methods.

A leading food producer Groupe Danone is one of the most successful healthy food companies in the world. The company operates 200 plants, employs 88,000 people, and has a presence in more than 120 countries across all five continents. In 2006, Groupe Danone recorded sales of €14 billion.

The company also recently acquired Numico, reinforcing its leading positions in food in four business lines: fresh dairy products (number one worldwide), beverages (number two in the packaged water market), baby food (number two worldwide), and clinical nutrition.

Danone has traditionally operated a relatively de-centralised technology support strategy, with most of the countries where it has a footprint typically managing their own IT processes. The result of this siloed approach

was that the support environment became increasingly difficult to manage. Spread across different countries, the support teams relied on a variety of tools — in some cases, even spreadsheets — to manage end users’ technology.

Michael Kollig is the CIO in Europe for the North, Central, and Eastern Europe regions, which span an area horizontally from Ireland to Russia and vertically from Finland to Turkey (but excludes France, Spain, Italy and Portugal). As a €3.5 billion region, comprising 21 countries and 30 operational units, it’s imperative for Kollig and his team to ensure IT support operates as efficiently and effectively as possible.

“We had as many as 17 IT organisations across the business,” he explains. “IT was organised by country business unit resulting sometimes in multiple IT teams in one country. Our aim was to harmonise those IT processes and roll them out across the entire region.”

Aligning people, processes and technology Among a raft of objectives, Danone was looking to align its people, processes, and technology to improve operational efficiency across the 110 sites, seven time zones, and 17 languages. The company also wanted to increase the accountability and visibility of IT service and support, and automate the help desk process to reduce costs and

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September / October 2008 : VitAL

VITAL PROFILE

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Danone was looking to align its people, processes, and technology to improve operational efficiency across the 110 sites, seven time zones, and 17 languages. The company also wanted to increase the accountability and visibility of IT service and support, and automate the help desk process to reduce costs and incident call volume.

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Danone Northern, Central and Eastern Europe Industry: Fast moving consumer goods

Business need: Danone needed to harmonise diverse IT processes (some of which were still managed in spreadsheets) and roll them out across the entire Northern Eastern and Central Europe business region — supporting 110 sites and up to 8,000 internal customers.

Solution: The company deployed BMC Service Desk Express Suite to support ITIL best-practice methodologies and enable the company to deliver increased service desk performance, manageability, and organizational alignment.

Results:

• Aligned processes, technology and 150 users to improve operational efficiency across 110 sites, seven time zones and 17 languages. Accelerated the deployment of BMC Service Desk Express Suite by 66 percent, while reducing risk and ensuring alignment using ITIL processes.

• Increased the accountability and visibility of IT service and support.

• Enable cross country collaboration and virtualization of service delivery.

• Implemented real, actionable, and proven ITIL-based processes quickly and easily

VITAL PROFILE

Part of the reason for this fast rollout was the fact that the training process was so easy. With BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express, users consulted the model when they needed to look up specific instructions — a far cry from having to wade through weighty process documentation.

Danone’s famous friendly bacteria are a key ingredient of many of its products.

incident call volume. The resultant goal was a project named CLIO, Common Language for IT Organisations.

As part of the project, the company, in consultation with InfraVision, chose BMC Service Desk Express Suite to help it meet its goals. This fully integrated service desk solution supports ITIL best practices and enables Danone to deliver increased service desk performance, manageability, and organisational alignment. “Coming with the pedigree of a company like BMC Software, we knew that BMC Service Desk Express Suite would be excellent. It offers all the functionality Danone needs in its dynamic, multi-language and multi-region environment. Analysts and other third parties rate the solution very highly, and our studies of some of the very large scale deployments at other customers gave us certainty that

the solution would adapt to or growing requirements,” said Kollig.

With the decision made on the service desk software solution, attention turned to deployment. Danone had been successfully rolling out its global SAP ERP solution for a while, and there was an urgent need for the service desk solution to be in place quickly to provide ITIL-based, best-practice process support for this environment. Danone’s implementation partner, InfraVision, suggested that the company consider the BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express solution. The BMC solution provides a notably different approach than the time consuming standard of describing every single process in every single detail. It includes practical, detailed instructions on how to deliver and support services. What’s more, by ensuring these processes were supported by BMC

Service Desk Express Suite, BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express helps bridge the gap between ITIL theory and the supporting service management application.

Proven ITIL processes “There was a real wow factor among my colleagues when we first saw the BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express solution,” enthuses Kollig. “You get real, actionable and proven ITIL-based processes that you can implement quickly. To an extent it’s also the politically correct way to deploy an IT service support solution. Some of our teams were rightly proud of the way they had historically executed service support, and were cautious about change. This model provided one set of standard, field-proven IT service support processes to follow and this helped remove any uncertainty.”

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VITAL PROFILE

“In the past, one of our minor help desks (supporting a relatively small region) would have struggled to provide support for our new SAP environment. Now, with the harmonisation of IT processes, those small units receive the same degree of responsive, detailed, and proactive support as our larger ones.

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Most importantly, BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express helped Danone accelerate its deployment of BMC Service Desk Express Suite — while also reducing risk and ensuring alignment using ITIL processes. The model used the six processes of ITIL Service Support to quickly establish a productive and effective foundation, followed by field-proven processes supported by the fully-configured service support application.

“Using the BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express solution, Danone was able to deploy BMC Service Desk Express Suite in only six months to six countries,” explains Kollig.

“Without it, we would have spent up to one year developing the IT service support concept and a further eight months rolling it out. The bottom line is Danone reduced the deployment time from 18 months to six months — a 66 percent time saving — and, at the same time, mitigated against risk.”

Part of the reason for this fast rollout was the fact that the training process was so easy.

With BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express, users consulted the model when they needed to look up specific instructions — a far cry from having to wade through weighty process documentation. Moreover, the instructions include detailed guidelines for using BMC Service Desk Express Suite.

“We calculated that the time required for training was reduced by 50 percent using the BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express solution.

Prior to ‘go-live’, we launched an alignability process model for pre-study; and after go-live, we provided detailed instructions to users of the alignability process model, such as screenshots and other simplified instructions,” says Kollig.

“When the training started and everybody saw that the system worked, we took away any possible opposition that you can expect when changes are carried through.”

VitAL : September / October 2008

Facing an integrated future VitAL editor Matt Bailey asks Danone CIO for the UK & Ireland dairy and water businesses, Pieter Coetzee how the CLIO project has helped the company improve its IT/IS performance.

D

anone’s Northern, Eastern and Central Europe region has been running a major initiative with Infravision for the last 18 months. The company looked at its IT service management in the region and found that although everybody was doing an OK job, there was no real customer service consistency and its processes varied quite considerably in some cases.

“There is always room for improvement,” explains Danone CIO for the UK & Ireland dairy and water business, Pieter Coetzee, “so we embarked on a project to align our processes and give a consistent and measureable service. Understanding the facts and figures and having the same processes across the region is crucial – when there is an issue or a requirement in Russia, it now gets treated exactly the same as in the UK or Ireland or Turkey and vice versa.”

According to Coetzee, in the current financial climate IT departments are really having to professionalise the way they work and revisit what they have to do to really add value to the business. The CLIO project was embarked upon to align IT processes and the organisation to use best practise from ITIL. “That is where Infravision really came in,” says Coetzee, “their guys had a pre-loaded customisation of BMC Service Desk Express which they call the APM Model. It really allows businesses to be able to deploy strong best practise processes in quite an easy way as long as the business is also willing to adapt to what those processes need. We really wanted something which we could deploy quickly, which we know is best practise, like ITIL - and the APM is built on ITIL – and that enabled us to deploy regionally at a very fast pace on the core processes.”

Most people have started seeing the benefits in their business units, because the project has made their processes much more robust, and there are fewer surprises for the people they deal with, they can deal with problems much more proactively and understand what they are doing better on a day to day basis because it is being tracked better.

“Having this in place means the people we serve and the people we are served by have the same processes and tools at their disposal,” explains Coetzee. “It has created quite a significant change in the dynamic in terms of how we deal with each other because now we are all looking at the same version of the truth. It’s very basic, you cut out all the time spent trying to work out the differences between what you’re looking at and what the other guys – your supplier, your customer - are looking at.”

Implementing a tool is the simple part however, “It’s just installing a piece of technology really,” says Coetzee, “it’s the process linked to it and the change that goes with it that is the trickiest part. It is a big change management process. It was quite a challenging project, but overall we have done really well. And we will continue to do better.”

It’s clear that the next few years will be very challenging from an economic point of view and having really efficient and effective IT service management is clearly going to need to be a core activity in all IT departments.” I’m very happy that we have something in place already,” comments Coetzee looking ahead, “because it’s going to become increasingly important to help us manage our internal processes more efficiently to a point where we can open up the IT ‘black box’ even further to the business to continue showing the value that we can add. The better we can show the business what we can do, the more we can work with them to add more value.”

But looking forward, the big challenge for Coetzee’s IT organization is to stay strategically aligned with all the businesses it is working with in an environment where the pace of change is increasing exponentially. “We will need to communicate and act faster – this is going to be a real key area - the better your communication, the better your competitive advantage. Of course IT can play a big role,” concludes Pieter Coetzee.

VITAL PROFILE

The BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express solution promised Danone an accelerated rollout of BMC Service Desk Express Suite in its Northern Eastern and Central Europe region. It achieved this in a fraction of the time of conventional deployment methods, allowing the company to capitalise on automated, ITIL-based, best-practice IT service support more quickly.

Reducing the cost Live for six months, BMC Service Desk Express Suite is already supporting incident management and configuration management, with problem, release, and change management due to go live soon.

By automating and integrating these service and system management processes, Danone is expecting to reduce the overall cost of managing and supporting the company’s IT systems (although the deployment is not yet sufficiently mature to determine exactly how much).

The BMC solution is also playing a vital role in optimising the company’s resource allocation.

Kollig explains why. “In the past, one of our minor help desks (supporting a relatively small region) would have struggled to provide

support for our new SAP environment. Now, with the harmonisation of IT processes, those small units receive the same degree of responsive, detailed, and proactive support as our larger ones. Moreover, this approach has stifled the need for additional investment in the smaller business units. There’s no doubt that with the support requirements linked to our global SAP system now in place, we would have had to invest more resources in the small regions to support it.”

Service quality has risen, too. Danone is now able to proactively manage and address business impact and IT infrastructure events, prevent future incidents and problems with root cause analysis, and reduce downtime with an automated change management process.

Kollig continues, “We can intelligently

interrogate the system to explore the changes we need to make to optimise the service desk environment. We can also undertake detailed performance monitoring, identify where IT issues are arising, and proactively tackle them.

Plus, we can provide detailed analysis to the business units, so they can see where their service desk costs are coming from, as well as the nature of those enquiries.”

The BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express solution promised Danone an accelerated rollout of BMC Service Desk Express Suite in its Northern Eastern and Central Europe region. It achieved this in a fraction of the time of conventional deployment methods, allowing the company to capitalise on automated, ITIL-based, best-practice IT service support more quickly.

ns latio rd u m a d si orw wne and f y with o n to -re sel rgy orld e ene rk clo niques s. w s e Our creat We wo tech sin on. f bu i . to o ing s l e be pu igned results l learn rc o o f r n’t a P s g a c i r e n e t i e ns ien riv e d eat ast latio 3 cr ons ar e to f exper he d u t G 2 e m i e s i s ar lut pri d, G ativ ple our min tion so r enter innov n i n Peo i g ated this unica g you usin ticip r With comm pellin rtners, ange. a o e p and ion, pr and pa tural ch hav o l t h mo clients tive cu le w i eop ing. p OM our te pos n G3.C illio rd think ea 2 r G m c ® V3 FO@ one rwa l IN IL ) i ver . Be fo T a I O ( em ng RY ore wro ENT m BRA M I n E L ear AG URE To l OF) MAN UCT

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VITAL PLANET

Collaboration drives green performance In today’s virtual commercial world, adopting and deploying the right communications technologies has become mission-critical for businesses both large and small says Johan Oberg, marketing manager EMEA, Genesys Conferencing.

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any sectors are characterised by major global manufacturers with sales teams and huge research and development resources, typically geographically dispersed across multiple time zones. Here the ability to know what is happening around the globe in real time and react appropriately — with customers, colleagues and partners — is critical, and delays are costly.

In response, companies have for some time deployed collaboration tools to some degree — in particular audio conferencing — though extending usage of more sophisticated web collaboration solutions to the desktop across the business has typically been rather slow.

This has been due in part to security concerns,

VitAL : September September // October October2008 2008

an issue now effectively addressed by the best of today’s solutions.

At the same time there is no doubt that, for UK manufacturing and service industries

in general, environmental issues are now significantly moving up the corporate agenda when considering expenditure on enhanced internal and third party communications.

‘going green for green’s sake’ is some way from establishing itself on the corporate agenda, as the survey found that cost efficiency (cited by 24 percent of respondents) and regulatory compliance (by 23 percent) remain the two principal pressures in adopting green policies.

VITAL planet

The survey found that, to-date, some way down the list was travel.

Yet here, virtual collaboration tools can deliver the multiple benefits of making more efficient use of staff time, dramatically cutting car, train and air transport costs and the associated impact on the environment.

Equally evident, though its contribution to reducing an organisation’s overall carbon emissions will almost certainly form part of any investment discussion, the ultimate decision to purchase a communications or other IT solution will rest on economic issues around cost savings and operational efficiency.

More talk, less action?

A recent independent survey undertaken

by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Genesys Conferencing found that most UK companies are failing to match fine words with positive action in putting in place green policies throughout the business, with fewer than one third of respondents believing that they are ‘moving strongly or very strongly to adopting green policies in their organisations’.

At the same time, momentum is set to increase across all sectors, as one in five businesses already have dedicated ‘green Czars’ in place to drive carbon reduction programmes throughout the business.

Reinforcing this, a further 20 percent confirmed that functional heads such as chief technical officer, chief operating officer or their equivalents have responsibility for spearheading such enterprise-wide change.

Having said that, ‘going green for green’s sake’ is some way from establishing itself on the corporate agenda, as the survey found that cost efficiency (cited by 24 percent of respondents) and regulatory compliance (by 23 percent) remain the two principal pressures in adopting green policies.

Yet critically, rising fast is pressure from shareholders and, in particular, customers which the survey showed to be the third strongest driver for change. At the same time, it is encouraging to note that there is a growing recognition that operational efficiency and reducing one’s corporate carbon footprint are not mutually exclusive, with 37 percent of respondents anticipating environmental initiatives to generate cost savings and only 25 percent expecting an adverse effect on costs.

Multi-media collaboration In looking at where the greatest and most immediate impact can be had in achieving such savings, at this relatively early stage the primary focus continues to be on such tangible and well-established areas as recycling and waste policies, reducing heat and light usage and IT consumption.

The survey found that, to-date, some way down the list was travel. Yet here, virtual collaboration tools can deliver the multiple benefits of making more efficient use of staff time, dramatically cutting car, train and air transport costs and the associated impact on the environment.

In addressing this issue, audio conferencing has of course been available for a decade and more. Yet in bringing together voice, video and the web, modern multimedia collaboration technologies provide the opportunity to communicate much more powerfully and effectively, by providing the facility to share documents and make presentations, for example, in real time and with simple point and click commands.

In so doing, such solutions are not designed to fully replace face-to-face meetings but, rather, to complement these by enabling banking staff to work more efficiently between physical meetings.

As such, it has become a key part of the

corporate toolkit in maintaining effective dialogue, both internally and between customers and other third party intermediaries and stakeholders.

Yet however sophisticated and attractive the underlying technology in achieving these desirable goals, in order to be fully effective in encouraging maximum use of virtual meetings across the business, collaboration tools must be easy both to deploy and use.

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September / October 2008 : VitAL

VITAL PLANET

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Another area of concern which has impacted on the speed of take-up of virtual collaboration tools in the banking sector in particular has been that of security.

In response, modern conferencing solutions provide a level of security which meets the highest demands of such data-sensitive sectors.

VitAL : September / October 2008

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery, for example, offers quick and easy deployment with no up-front investment. Further, as a business, you only pay for what you use, IT doesn’t have to manage capacity, performance or maintenance and it is easy to extend use to partners, suppliers, customers and other users outside the organisation’s firewall.

Historically, a major barrier to the broader adoption of collaboration services was the need for a Java Machine (JVA) or download onto each participant’s PC. By contrast, today’s latest solutions offer simple ‘click to join’ functionality, making it easy for participants to use, both within the organisation and with third parties via desktop VoIP or PSTN — and all without the need for additional software or plug-ins.

Another area of concern which has impacted on the speed of take-up of virtual collaboration tools in the banking sector in particular has been that of security. In response, modern conferencing solutions provide a level of security which meets the highest demands of such data-sensitive sectors.

In the case of Genesys Conferencing, for

example, which has developed and owns the complete communications platform, the solution can be designed and customised to meet the requirements of individual end-users, including SSL 128-bit encryption. And, any potential loss of speed of data transfer as a result is minimised by the strong broadband adoption and sophisticated back end development typical in today’s banking community.

Measurability The good news therefore is that in improving internal efficiencies, virtual collaboration can also make a significant contribution to the organisation’s green performance. And, equally importantly in today’s world of tight budgets in which return on investment is king, ‘carbon calculators’ can determine the precise savings in CO2 emissions in parallel with the cost savings achieved through a reduced level of travel.

As a result, at Genesys Conferencing alone, customers have reduced their UK carbon footprint by an annual 1.5 million tonnes.

In short, a measurable, and substantial, win/ win outcome.

VITAL planet

Simplifying communication at Eden Springs Eden Springs provides a typical example of how collaboration tools can provide the right solution once a need has been clearly identified.

The company has long been a pioneer in promoting healthy lifestyles and in making the benefits of pure, natural spring water available to consumers. Today, the company is located in 18 countries across Europe and services a base of 460,000 customers with more than 363 million litres of bottled water annually, making it the leading HOD (Home & Office Delivery) water brand in Europe.

With European headquarters based near Lausanne, Switzerland and a 2,000-strong workforce, Eden Springs has quickly embraced the concept of online meetings to help drive collaboration and exchange best practices.

A strong user of application sharing, Eden Springs first relied on a web conferencing application from one provider, complemented by an audio-only solution from another. The limits of using two separate solutions to manage one single session requiring both audio and web were soon identified.

“It rapidly became obvious that there had to be a better way to conduct virtual meetings,”

recalls Thomas Dario, infrastructure project leader for Eden Springs. “In encouraging people to conduct online meetings, asking them to manage the audio and web components of a meeting from two separate interfaces seemed counter-productive.”

Eden Springs turned to Genesys Conferencing to solve the issue and, as a result, Genesys Meeting Center — an integrated multimedia collaboration solution — was initially made available at its European headquarters.

“If you want people to work together remotely, it must be quick and simple for them to do so,” says Dario. “The great advantage of Genesys Meeting Center is that it integrates audio, web and video conferencing into a single interface.”

Genesys says Meeting Center is the world’s first fully-integrated multimedia communication and collaboration service.

Simple point-and-click commands allow moderators to deliver high-impact presentations, virtually share any document or application in real time, manage the audio portion of the meeting, conduct real-time surveys and polls for immediate feedback and record any meeting for playback later.

Another key benefit of Genesys Meeting Center resides in its multimedia minute pricing, by which Eden Springs pays a single flat rate per minute for any combination of audio, web and video. “Cost savings generated by switching to Genesys Meeting Center were a key decision factor for our company,” confirms Dario. “In addition, Genesys Conferencing offers participants dial-in numbers at local rates, irrespective of where they are calling from.”

In view of the quick adoption of Genesys Meeting Center across departments at Eden Springs HQ, the company is currently deploying the solution throughout its European subsidiaries, to further leverage the cost and productivity benefits of using Genesys’ multimedia collaboration service.

The SYSOP Quality Difference Your course will run as scheduled!

We guarantee that your course will run. We are not subject to the same financial pressures as those training organisations that rely on freelance trainers and expensive hotel conference facilities. Our full-time lecturing team and purpose built training centre means that we never have to cancel a course simply because numbers are low.

The Unique Sysop Pick-Up programme

Should you be one of the unfortunate few who trip at the examination hurdle, We will not abandon you! We will discuss with you the most appropriate way we can help you achieve your qualification goal. We provide a scheduled re-sit revision workshop, free of charge, for each of the training courses we offer — ITILv2 and ITILv3. This workshop will provide you with the opportunity to refresh and prepare yourself for the examination re-sit with confidence. For the more advanced courses (e.g. Practitioner & Manager’s) we will provide additional support, by working with you in advance of the workshop, working through further sets of exam-style questions, and encouraging you to answer and submit them to us for marking and comment. It is this after-course care that ensures that the Sysop overall success-rate is close to 100%.

We train & qualify our Consultant / Lecturers

All of our lecturers are industry qualified consultants in their own right who bring their experience of the real world into the classroom. To ensure that they are proficient in classroom teaching and learning skills, they all attend the Institute of IT Trainers programme and hold the IITT Trainer’s qualification. As well as holding the over-arching ITIL v3 Expert Certificate, our lecturers will also have taken, and passed, the examination for the specific subject they teach.

ITIL v3 is here!

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September / October20/8/08 200815:55:04 : VitAL

VITAL PROCESSES

Digital means doable New developments in CAD technology are raising the quality and sustainability of new products says Amina West of Autodesk.

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he cost of raw materials is rocketing — likewise energy bills. At the same time, consumers are becoming ever more capricious, businesses are understandably finicky about how they spend their money and output is slowing in response. No wonder UK manufacturers don’t quite know

There’s no getting away from the fact that the need to be more careful about using 44

resources and to develop products that are more sustainable, just won’t go off the boil.

VitAL : September / October 2008

where to turn next, despite being in a far better shape than they were a decade or so ago.

Against this backdrop it’s tempting to put the big green question on the back (energyefficient) burner. But nature and current regulations have other ideas. There’s no getting

away from the fact that the need to be more careful about using resources and to develop products that are more sustainable, just won’t go off the boil.

Thankfully, the more progressive product designers have found a solution. Namely, working digitally for as long as possible,

VITAL PROCESSES

Increasingly, sustainability is becoming not just a differentiator, but also an accepted part of doing business in the global economy. Smart manufacturers have already recognised that using less energy in the production process and using fewer materials lowers overhead and product costs. Now digital technology is enabling them to do this in a way that integrates neatly into their workflow.

Working on screen — not on paper

gradually eschewing paper drawings, sorting out design problems on screen, testing different design alternatives using digital models and so reaching the best design for the job which will be, by today’s new definitions, the most sustainable.

Increasingly, sustainability is becoming not just a differentiator, but also an

accepted part of doing business in the global economy. Smart manufacturers have already recognised that using less energy in the production process and using fewer materials lowers overhead and product costs.

Now digital technology is enabling them to do this in a way that integrates neatly into their workflow.

Instead of beginning a product design with a doodle on the back of an envelope, which is then developed into a 2D drawing, designers can now capture their ideas on screen from the very moment a concept comes into their head. Key to this is sophisticated parametric technology which means that when a change is made in one place, everything else in the design updates itself automatically in a ripple effect.

Consequently, designers now know that they can go through, literally, dozens of iterations just by pulling a line here or tweaking an outline there - in a fraction of the time it would have taken previously. Therefore, thoughts such as “I’ll just see what happens when…..” can be positively encouraged rather than pushed to the back of the mind because the clock is ticking.

As the model develops, it becomes a more accurate digital prototype of the product, reflecting material attributes such as weight, strength and recycled content — plus process attributes such as energy intensity and water consumption.

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September / October 2008 : VitAL

VITAL PROCESSES

A digital prototype can predict the performance of materials and whether there are suitable alternatives. It can also demonstrate the impact of any changes on the product’s characteristics and the energy consumed during its manufacture.

A digital prototype can predict the performance of materials and whether there are suitable alternatives. It can also demonstrate the impact of any changes on the product’s characteristics and the energy consumed during its manufacture. Armed with such data, design engineers can quickly and cost-effectively experiment with different material and process variables to reach the optimum combination.

If they are using the industry’s most popular 3D design product, Autodesk Inventor, they can download Autodesk’s Sustainable Materials Assistant from Autodesk Labs (http://labs. autodesk.com). This includes an expanded materials library with new property fields populated with information about the toxicity, recyclability, carbon footprint and regulatory compliance issues of any materials.

Also, a sustainability report function, accessible from Inventor’s Bill of Materials Editor, analyses and aggregates the properties based on the materials used in a given design option. As this report can be presented in HTML format, it can provide a discussion document enabling design teams to make informed and responsible product decisions.

Smart substitutions To be truly sustainable, a product needs to lend itself to easy maintenance, be designed for longevity and be easy to either to recycle or dispose of otherwise. Actual features will, of course vary according to the product itself and the market.

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VitAL : September / October 2008

However, a designer may, for example, decide to substitute recycled plastic for new wood in playground equipment; enable fast, cost-effective re-manufacture by using only standard interchangeable parts of a product or facilitate quick disassembly and recycling by using a single bolt to assemble the back to an office chair frame.

By using assembly design features in the software, users can examine the parts and the process needed to dismantle a product and repurpose its materials. This helps in the maintenance of a product and also simplifies recycling and lowers labour costs.

Using the digital model and stress analysis, designers can even predict where the product will eventually fail. A truly efficient operation could then use this information to estimate

the type and number of spare parts needed in the future.

As the digital model moves from concept through engineering and on to production, engineers can continue to modify, test and validate it without the need for physical prototypes. Multiple options can be saved at any stage, enabling the pursuit of more than one strategy in parallel where needed. If the market or regulatory environment changes, the product can quickly be optimised to meet the latest conditions, so keeping options open as long as needed.

Automated bills of materials help to eliminate over-ordering and subsequent waste — and when held in a efficient data management system for future use they can provide an audit or record of materials used for regulation or voluntary framework purposes. Effective data management also helps the re-use of design data, encouraging a policy of standard, modular components which can be saved and re-purposed ensuring greater longevity of the product.

Many industry commentators believe that the right software will become an increasingly important tool to help manufacturers become proactive about sustainable design, by allowing them to make better decisions in the early stages of product development — when they are the most effective.

It’s hoped that the increasing take up of best practices such as digital prototyping will add clarity to the sustainability question and ensure that more manufacturers consider the entire product lifecycle to the benefit, not just of the environment, but to their bottom line.

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VITAL PROFILE

Delivering the future of service management

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Over the last four months Fox IT says it has defined the future of the service management market with its suite of services and tools, the latest of which, foxFLOW will be launched at this year’s itSMF Conference which is held at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole on the 10th — 12th November. VitAL editor Matt Bailey spoke to Fox IT CEO, Paul Speers, at the company’s headquarters in Woking.

VitAL : September / October 2008

VITAL PROFILE

F

ox IT is an independent service management specialist with over 25 yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience in the market. The company has been defining the ITIL standards from its inception, authoring many of the original modules and has recently been involved in the ITIL v3 refresh and is contributing to its ongoing development. Fox IT has a growing team of consultants, all fully ITIL qualified to Expert level, with a collective experience of well over 200 man years in practical service management application. It has developed a range of implementation accelerators, foxPRISM, foxDEFINE and foxROI, that it says speeds-up and simplifies the implementation of service management giving faster implementations and quicker returns on investment. Fox IT delivers consultancy and training in over 40 countries and in 10 different languages and also works with 15 worldwide Fox IT franchise partners, to

deliver its products and services as part of the worldwide partner network.

All in all an impressive resume for such a compact and bijou company. Headquartered in Woking, Surrey the company is today headed

by Paul Speers, an IT entrepreneur with a long and distinguished career in developing companies within the IT service management and tools market.

VitAL: What are the origins of the company; how did it start and develop; how has it grown and how is it structured?

Paul Speers: Fox IT has undergone a few changes since its inception in 1999. It was originally formed in the merger of Ultracomp and System Management Partners (SMP).

Ultracomp was heavily involved in authoring the ITIL standards, training and consulting, its main inspirational and evangelical leader being Paul Rappaport. It also operated a very successful mid-range managed service business.

I was a co-founder of SMP. It was in the forefront of remote desktop, server and network management and at that time we were one of the leaders in the MSP space. The merger was put together by Lyceum Capital, our private equity partner, because the two businesses were an excellent strategic and operational marriage.

In 2004 the MSP division was sold to Digica which was subsequently sold to Computacenter. That year the company was decoupled and became pretty much what it is now, a leading brand in the ITIL and IT service management market, focused on consulting, public and private training and an ITSM Solutions division where we select cutting edge service management tools and create solutions with our clients that deliver innovation.

Lyceum Capital offered me an excellent opportunity in 2005 with a directive to refocus

September / October 2008 : VitAL

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VITAL PROFILE

the company on addressing the changes in our market. To be honest, the company had a strong academic approach and all I did was make the business more commercially focused. Success here led me to take on the CEO role which has enabled me to concentrate on our core strengths and continue to realign and innovate to bring value to our clients in the booming ITSM market. Currently we have over achieved our profit forecast and due to our strategic direction have attracted some top industry talent.

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VitAL: What is the company’s specialist area?

PS: We have three business lines: consulting; training; and the solutions business.

We undertake service management consulting, so it’s engaging with companies on full transformation programmes. We are also helping our clients with the challenges of multivendor service management. We have seen a huge pull towards ROI assessments rather then just pure assessment engagements.

Our clients want to understand the financial return on their service management journey to sell at CIO level. Globally we have seen a significant market shift to deliver ISO/IEC 20000 programmes, we expect this to continue throughout 2008.

Obviously, during that process people are going to want to be trained in the language of ITIL and service management. So our training programmes are specific around ITIL v2 and v3 and they are everything from a basic Foundation level which gives you the vernacular, all the way up to Practitioner which gives you a more expert, professional view of how to go about doing things.

Our consultants and trainers are generally the same people. They have the depth of knowledge, the war stories and experiences to augment the standard training programmes.

When we talk to people, they know who we are as we have a very strong brand in our market and in this regard we punch considerably above our weight. When I rejoined the company in 2005 I put the emphasis back on what had become something of a hidden nugget, foxPRISM. This content software system is basically ITIL in a box. By using foxPRISM clients are able to reduce time taken from point A to point B. This was aided by the advent of v3 and companies wanting to compare their own best practise against the new v3 standard. A lot of clients are now doing their own assessments and this tool is ideal for that purpose; it maps a company’s IT service management onto the best practise model and gives a complete audit.

VitAL : September / October 2008

VitAL: Is that specialisation to make the best use of skills in the company or because it fits the company’s world view or has it simply evolved?

PS: The market now has completely matured, we used to do assessments, but we are now consulting on return on investment before companies embark on a programme of transformational change. So we launched foxDEFINE and foxROI as a solution — people need to know what their ROI is going to be before they start on the programme. We are now more in tune with the client and the

market than we’ve ever been as is proven by our monthly new business wins.

Upon completion of a transformation programme the client has a comprehensive set of documentation with all the processes contained in foxPRISM. The service delivery managers and the process managers have a challenge when they then turn to the infrastructure systems, the underlying systems that run the service desk, the asset system, the CMDB, and wonder how to lay the processes on top of these critical data silos. Customers can’t integrate processes across them; plenty

People, process, partners & technology

By Michael Humpherson, Fox IT service management consultant .

People, process, partners and technology — the instantly recognisable model that is used to plan service management programmes, and it works very well. Most organisations have every confidence that process and technology are in hand and will be implemented with the utmost success and competence and that the chosen partners through robust contracts will deliver as required. But let’s be honest, when was the last time that you saw much attention beyond service management training being given to the people aspect?

We’ve all seen or heard it, a company has just finished implementing a full blown, high energy, service management transformation programme. The toolset which cost millions is in situ; the processes, engineered to within an inch of their lives are operational; the staff, sheep dipped through basic and functional training are poised, fingers and documentation at the ready; and the partners are all shiny and new, handing out service information cards to all staff; the board sits back and waits for the promised savings and service improvements to come washing into the balance sheet and customer satisfaction surveys.

But far too often, the savings never fully materialise, the accolades are less than stellar and the annual satisfaction survey shows a slight dip in appreciation of the IT service. So what has gone wrong?

Most have forgotten the most important ingredient of people: service culture. The tools may work, the processes may be perfect, but the IT team and respective partners are no more service aligned than they were before programme inception. They are still either technology - or IT-aligned, or even financially-aligned in some cases. And that will never deliver true service management successfully.

Let’s not forget that people extend into the partners as well. It is all very well and good for organisations to rely on contractual terms and meaningful SLAs, but without the integrated service culture that spans both internal and external people, the IT service will become fragmented and inefficient.

To develop a service culture for your organisation requires getting the whole IT team, both internal and through your partners, to see the business value of the various IT systems they support. It requires the whole IT team to pursue a programme of customer care and rewarding those staff that show good service values. It requires the whole IT team to distinguish between technical and soft skills and ensure they are given equal footing.

It requires the whole IT team to promote front line service to be as valuable as the back office functions. And above all else it requires individuals in the whole team to have a clear understanding of the value they offer within the service chain.

So remember next time you embark on a service management improvement programme — add a section that develops and promotes a service culture within your IT team… your tools, processes and partners will actually deliver results once you have people that recognise service.

1–2 October 2008

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have manual scripts with technologies as they are normally from the main suppliers HP, CA, BMC. To get the full benefit of efficiency gains and ROI on a complete ITIL engagement, you have to link the silos together and get across silo process orchestration.

We have worked with a number of our clients on this challenge and saw that it needed some clever technology which is completely ’Big Four’ independent. All our clients have silos from multiple manufacturers: Microsoft, BMC, CA, there’s none that have one vendor that does it all. So we set off on a quest about a year ago and found a great technology company from the US. We then worked with a number of key customers and foxFLOW was born. With this tool, you can orchestrate and integrate your existing management tools to automate processes across a heterogeneous environment — without programming or scripting or any techs. By automating the processes that people perform repeatedly every day, you can solve problems faster and ensure best practices are enforced, while achieving a higher quality of service. We can take our clients from the initial assessment of what you can automate to a full end-to-end system.

This end-to-end system gives our clients a unique ITIL process dashboard so you can see the health of all your processes across your IT department — something that doesn’t exist at the moment.

Nobody else in the market is offering a vendor independent services and product mix like foxFLOW; it’s something that our clients are crying out for.

VitAL: Who are the company’s main clients today and in future?

PS: We have engagements with many of the Times Top 100 and Fortune 500 companies.

They all come to us for specific areas that they are working on and they’re all at various stages of development. Some we just train, others we are advising at CIO level on their ITSM Strategy. We get involved with clients across many market sectors.

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VitAL : September / October 2008

VITAL PROFILE

VitAL: What is the company’s business model, i.e. does it select a market and then design solutions to meet the needs of that market or does it specialise in particular solutions and seek markets where those solutions are needed?

PS: foxPRISM has been very successful over the last two years especially as we have upgraded to v3 and ISO/IEC 20000, this was designed for our market so our customers can build their own repository of processes. Using the most recent addition to our portfolio, foxFLOW, as an example, I felt the market was crying out for a solution to the problem of integrating processes across service management silos from a range of different vendors. After our first engagement I knew we were well on the way to solving this challenge and offering our clients a unique and innovative ITSM solution.

VitAL: What is the company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, i.e. green issues?

PS: As a by-product of all our engagements, we bring efficiencies to the IT operations, so you could infer we make things greener by the very nature of what we do.

VitAL: How does the company communicate with vendors and clients?

PS: Our current website receives about 60,000 hits a month, so we are in the process of upgrading the look and feel to reflect our new services and solutions and make it an asthetically better customer experience.

Generally the vendors in our space have their own ITIL people and service management consultants to develop their own systems, although we help quite a number of MSPs. We are heavily involved with itSMF, we were short listed in a number of categories last year and John Griffiths, one of Fox IT’s principal consultants, won The Trainer of the Year award at last year’s itSMF.

VitAL: What is your view of the current state of IT service management and IT in business and the economy in general, the challenges and the opportunities?

PS: Our clients are asking us to improve and optimise what they have got at the moment.

They don’t want to buy any new systems, it’s all about optimisation and refining processes, controlling them and becoming more agile. It’s not about ‘rip and replace’ on the technology front, it’s about how you get more out of your ITIL info silos that you’ve put in place and drive efficiencies and value from them.

ITIL v3 has brought a real business perspective, linking IT to the business, which relates to how you drive business processes; frankly it’s about time the two were linked formally around the framework.

VitAL: Has the company grown organically or by acquisition and how much growth is expected in the future?

PS: Fox IT is a global business and we have around 15 franchises around the world. They are in effect mini-Foxes, we’ve sold them the IP and our products and we’ve trained their staff in Mexico, Sweden, Bulgaria, Spain and other

countries. This generates a multimillion pound business for us. People want to use our brand globally. Organic growth this year is excellent, we are 30 percent over our profit forecast year to date. We have started to look seriously at acquisitions, mainly to acquire talent and a customer base. The market is ripe to mirror what is happening in the training space. We have attracted a huge talent from Fujitsu: David Wright, our head of consulting, who has bought a new level of customer innovation and focus for us all.

VitAL: What are the future plans for the business?

PS: Our future, indeed the future of the service management market is providing an end-to-end ITIL process orchestration and ultimately automation. There are just so many possibilblies within ITIL with our clients to reduce operational costs and increase SLAs especially given the current economic conditions. We are still continuing to focus our core work in consulting and training. We plan to sign resellers in about ten other countries as our team, lead by Vernon Lloyd and Ken Ramsden continues to drive growth and profit in that area.

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VITAL SERVICES

How much is your data worth?

Don’t leave laptop security to chance, the deployment of simple yet effective data protection software can prevent your highly sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands explains William Pound, vice president, international corporate development, Absolute Software

A

s with any portable item, laptop computers can be easily mislaid. It is very easy to forget to take your laptop with you when travelling by train or taxi, or leave it unattended in a public place for a few

minutes only for it to be gone when you return. Today’s workplace has become increasingly mobile and this in part is responsible for the vulnerability of mobile devices. As a result, a certain amount of theft or loss is inevitable. Laptops are quick and lucrative targets for criminals and with the trend for remote working on the increase, the number of laptops that go missing will surely rise. However, as the recent high profile public sector data loss incidents prove, organisations need to take steps to secure the sensitive data held on a laptop is secure should it fall into the wrong hands.

We’re all too aware of the stories about missing

Government laptops but how many more high profile organisations lose laptops containing sensitive data that we are not aware of?

The value of data It is important to remember that it’s the data contained on a laptop that is valuable rather than the actual device itself. For example, according to a data loss survey by McAfee and Datamonitor, the average laptop holds content valued at £550,000, and some could store as much as £5 million in commercially sensitive data and intellectual property.

The public sector and Government has come under much criticism for data loss incidents but it’s not just this sector that needs to review its security provisions. Private companies are equally at risk from data loss through employee

We’re all too aware of the stories about missing Government laptops but how many more high profile organisations lose laptops containing sensitive data that we are not aware of?

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VitAL : September / October 2008

VITAL SERVICES

A recent study published by Absolute found that 48 percent (nearly half of those polled) said data was threatened by employee negligence, and 58 percent reported thefts over the last 12 months. And, while many recognise that there are clear vulnerabilities to loss, theft and mishandling of computers and the data they contain, there also appears to be a real lack of foresight regarding risk management. The “it will never happen to me” mindset makes it only a matter of time before potentially sensitive data is exposed again.

negligence or theft. It will come as no surprise to learn that the majority of security breaches, including thefts of laptops involve insiders – those who often have the necessary access, passwords and keys to bypass traditional theft prevention measures.

A recent study published by Absolute found that 48 percent (nearly half of those polled) said data was threatened by employee negligence, and 58 percent reported thefts over the last 12 months. And, while many recognise that there are clear vulnerabilities to loss, theft and mishandling of computers and the data they contain, there also appears to be a real lack of foresight regarding risk management. The “it will never happen to me” mindset makes it only a matter of time before potentially sensitive data is exposed again.

Prevention and cure Some very obvious and simple steps can be taken to secure both the data and laptops.

These range from the obvious, ie not leaving laptops unattended; the tactical, installing anti-virus software and firewalls; to the strategic, implementing asset tracking and recovery software to track and recover lost or stolen computers, and remotely delete sensitive data.

The implementation of asset tracking and recovery software is becoming more and more necessary for any organisation that holds highly sensitive information on their laptops.

Absolute Software provides computer theft recovery services, data protection and secure asset tracking solutions with a singular focus: providing a simple and persistent security

environment for the computers and the data they contain.

Absolute’s Computrace One is installed on the hard drive of a computer while support for the ComputraceOne agent is embedded in the BIOS or firmware. Major computer manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba have embedded the ComputraceOne Agent in the BIOS or Firmware of their computers, to prevent ComputraceOne from being removed by unauthorised users.

If a laptop is stolen and the thief tries to wipe the system, this application self heals and allows the tracking process to continue.

Absolute Software is also able to remotely delete any information contained on the laptop, to prevent sensitive information being used in an unscrupulous way.

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September / October 2008 : VitAL

VITAL SERVICES

If a laptop is stolen and the thief tries to wipe the system, this application self heals and allows the tracking process to continue. Absolute Software is also able to remotely delete any information contained on the laptop, to prevent sensitive information being used in an unscrupulous way.

56

When the thief logs on to the Internet to check the laptop is in full working order, the IP address of the thief’s location is captured and we work in conjunction with the police to track it down to its locations. The vast majority of data and laptop losses could have been prevented if ComputraceOne had been activated.

Absolute Software also provides an underlying service in the form of theft recovery officers who work directly with police around the world in order to track lost and stolen laptops and return them to their owners.

Only the police have the authority to recover stolen property. We have recovered laptops from many far flung destinations as our team is able to work in conjunction with local police throughout the world.

As experts in the prevention of data loss, Absolute recommends that all organisations adopt a layered approach to security, both in terms of processes and technology. The value an organisation places on its data, will determine the level of security that is necessary to prevent any data losses.

The first step in protection is to determine which files or systems need protecting.

Secondly, reasonable and enforceable protection policies and guidelines must be put in place and enforced: The most essential components of this should include: • Identification of highly confidential information that should not leave the premises and if it must, to ensure it is properly protected by technology, not people; • A company policy on software or hardware products that cannot be used on company equipment;

VitAL : September / October 2008

• Educating employees on company policies and security measures; • Enforcing the policy by highlighting common sense and taking advantage of readily available technology that can help prevent laptop theft.

No single security measure will provide adequate protection for sensitive company information and expensive hardware. It is therefore vital that organisations provide a robust, multi-layered security solution that addresses regulatory compliance, computer theft recovery and data deletion capabilities.

There are ten best practice measures that all organisations should deploy to ensure a multi-layered approach to security and avoid becoming the next headline: 1 Understand the risks. As organisations open up their networks to their mobile work force, to partners, customers and others, they expose themselves to greater security risks than they encountered when traffic was mostly internal.

2 Be proactive. If you cannot identify the weaknesses in your network’s security, someone or something will identify those vulnerabilities for you. Educate yourself on the tools and techniques used today by cyber criminals as well as other security risks. Data security is a moving target that requires ongoing attention.

3 Use cable locks on laptops as visual deterrents. Most cable locks can be ripped off the plastic exterior of a laptop. However, they are a visual deterrent and may deter some thieves.

4 Avoid leaving unsecured mobile devices unattended. Lock them in cupboards, or other secure facilities when not in use. If they must be left in a vehicle, they should be hidden in the boot.

5 Keep laptops inconspicuous. Laptops should be carried in inconspicuous carrying cases.

6 Install anti-virus software and firewalls.

Prevent unauthorised access and protect valuable information with data encryption software. Keep all software products updated to the latest versions or patches to help minimise security holes. Ensure web servers, operating systems and line of business applications are fully patched.

7 Back-up valuable data on a scheduled basis.

Data back-up needs to happen frequently to minimise the risk to the organisation in the event of a loss.

8 Create a contingency plan. Identify possible damage should a breach in security occur; also consider how customers, students or employees would be served in the event of catastrophe. Contingency plans for security should be integrated with the organisation’s overall disaster recovery plans.

9 Use asset tracking and recovery software.

Install an asset tracking and recovery tool to track and recover computers that are lost or stolen, and monitor any changes or disappearances in computer memory, hard drives or peripherals.

10 Invest in advanced data protection. Data protection software such as ComputraceOne should be used if you value the data held on your organisation’s mobile devices.

VITAL PROCESSES

The hidden dangers of virtualisation The trend for companies to move to virtualisation is growing.

Increased agility and reduced complexity can help to improve IT efficiency, while a reduction in space requirements and power usage through server consolidation can also help to cut a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s costs and its carbon footprint. However, as Ray Homan, CEO for BDNA reports, the success of virtualisation is entirely dependent on the approach taken and the tools used â&#x20AC;&#x201D; getting these wrong can prove costly.

B

efore implementing a virtualisation strategy, it is vital to establish accurate, up-to-date insight and analysis of the existing IT environment. This process does not simply mean checking boxes; it requires retrieving the latest data regarding hardware and software usage, coupled with detailed product specifications. This includes vendor information, software support dates and hardware warranty expiration data. Knowing exactly what you have already will allow for more effective optimisation of physical and virtual systems.

A potential pitfall of virtualisation arises when the virtual environment is not managed in the same way as the physical one. Businesses must take a holistic view of the IT network. Managing application software licenses effectively, maintaining hardware and software updates, protecting security and managing risk are crucial, regardless of whether

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September / October 2008 : VitAL

VITAL PROCESSES

A potential pitfall of virtualisation arises when the virtual environment is not managed in the same way as the physical one. Businesses must take a holistic view of the IT network. Managing application software licenses effectively, maintaining hardware and software updates, protecting security and managing risk are crucial, regardless of whether companies are running physical or virtual systems. companies are running physical or virtual systems.

Virtualisation is not a difficult initiative to deploy. Software applications, such as content management, can be run in a virtual format fairly easily. While this optimises the use of applications, it can hinder the centralised management of the lifecycle of licences. The applications installed on a virtual server are subject to the same licence requirements as they would be on a physical server. Good visibility is essential to avoid breaching licensing agreements or, conversely,

overpaying. Similarly, if an Oracle database is originally purchased for a single server but is then extended across a virtual network, the business is obliged to be transparent about changes in usage in order to comply with licensing agreements.

While virtualisation can offer companies agility and flexibility, an insight and analysis tool enables any changes, however minor, to be identified and monitored – meaning that knowledge of the network resides within the organisation, rather than with an individual.

Virtualisation can also improve disaster

recovery and help to mitigate risk. Again, having visibility on which applications are spread across which servers is crucial to achieve this. At any given time a company factors in ‘redundant resource’ – this spare capacity protects against technical faults and power failures. Applications that are spread effectively across the network rather than residing in clusters, means that losing power to one server, for example, does not lead to a complete system failure. Virtualisation enables enhanced capacity management which,

What you don’t know can hurt you

BDNA highlights the common anomalies that threaten a typical IT environment...

Picture the scenario: during the board meeting the CEO asks

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his CFO to present a profit and loss analysis for the previous quarter. The CFO sticks his finger in the air and guesses a figure.

It is impossible for him to be accurate as he has neither the time nor the inclination to gather all of the data necessary to provide an accurate response. It is unlikely that person would remain in their job for long. Similarly, the CMO who is unable to present an accurate reflection of the latest marketing campaign may well be heading for the door. Yet, remarkably a CIO is still not held fully accountable for the management of the IT assets within the organisation, nor is he or she expected to know every aspect of their domain.

Perhaps companies are not aware of the extent of visibility that is available to them, or maybe the problem lies with unenlightened CIOs who do not care to discover ‘what they don’t know’. Either way, in order to keep their seat at the boardroom table, today’s CIO needs to be able to report confidently about his entire infrastructure.

Through providing IT infrastructure insight and analysis to CIOs, BDNA has unlocked a wealth of unknown data for companies in both the US and Europe. From minor employee indiscretions to lapses that could put an entire organisation at risk, BDNA shares its ten most common discoveries, found lurking in the average IT network: 1 The bug catchers: On average, between 2 percent - 3 percent of machines within any given organisation do not have anti-virus software. This is a worrying statistic. It only takes one vulnerable machine to infect an entire network.

2 The space invaders: In one customer environment, over 2 percent of machines had peer-to-peer software (such as BitTorrent) installed. This was not only forbidden by internal IT policies but it also caused major network congestions 3 The songsters: Apple iTunes is currently found on an average of 3 percent of machines, and growing. This impacts daily backup due to an increasing number of songs being saved onto hard drives, totalling 2.4 terabytes for example, for a

VitAL : September / October 2008

company with 20,000 PCs. 4 The incompatibles: In a large financial institution, BDNA found 10 percent of servers running unsupported versions of Solaris and Linux. This has business and cost repercussions. From a financial perspective, the company could incur inflated support fees. There is also a significant disaster recovery risk if unsupported systems fail. Ultimately, particularly in financial services, systems that are not compliant will fall under the scrutiny of Sarbanes Oxley regulations.

5 The planet wreckers: A scan at one customer site revealed that over 50 percent of printers did not have duplex printing capabilities. For a company with 20,000 PCs, each printing an average of 75 pages per week, a duplex printer could save as much as £175,000 per annum, or more importantly 4,120 trees.

6 The squanderers: For a client who had outsourced the management of their desktop environment, we found that of the 70,000 machines for which the customer was billed £15 per PC per month, 3,500 machines were no longer on the network.

7 The old timers: In a government agency, we identified that 20 percent of its PCs were running out of warranty. This enabled the CIO to calculate an accurate budget for PC replacement.

8 The code breakers: One client was staggered to find password crackers and network sniffers sitting on several PCs. This obviously has huge privacy and HR implications.

9 The redundant: In a large telecommunications company, 28 percent of the user accounts for the corporate ERP system were never used, despite maintenance being charged.

10 The aliases: In one organisation, where data access is subject to government regulation, 47 percent of the system names were different to their DNS names (Domain Name System). This meant that while transferring files (through FTP), there was a considerable chance of sending files to the wrong machine - resulting in significant security and data protection ramifications

VITAL PROCESSES when managed effectively, reduces the risk of becoming dependent on individual servers.

One note of caution; if an application sits across a network of servers, the company is more vulnerable to viruses than if it was confined to one server â&#x20AC;&#x201D; knowing which applications sit where means that simple deterrents such as firewalls and anti-virus can always be kept up to date.

Virtualisation can provide flexibility, resilience, and optimised system performance.

Also in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tough economic climate and with spiralling energy prices, there are huge opportunities to reduce costs. However the opportunities available are accompanied by an equal number of hidden pitfalls. Only by deploying solutions that enable visibility and the effective management of the entire IT infrastructure can businesses realise the full potential of a virtualisation strategy.

BDNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Insight solution enables CIOs to navigate, analyse and manage their IT infrastructure. It is comprised of three key components: a patented, agentless discovery system that identifies all of a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s networked technology assets; a product catalogue that provides technical, financial and compliance data on a comprehensive list of

vendorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; products; and a reporting dashboard with flexible analytical capabilities. The solution allows CIOs to identify, enrich and analyse

high-value data related to their companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s IT assets via an interface that does not require any application implementation.

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directory

Address Management & Database Solutions capscan

Enterprise Software Configuration Management MKS Systems Ltd

Grand Union House, 20 Kentish Town Road, London NW1 9BB

T: +44 (0)20 7428 1255 F: +44 (0)20 7267 2745 W: www.capscan.com C: Kate Overton, CRM Manager E: enquiries@capscan.com Capscan is a leading supplier of international addressing software and data integrity services. The company’s award-winning solutions enable you to capture, verify and enhance name and address data. They help organisations to lower costs, reduce fraud and improve customer service.

Duke’s Court, Duke Street, Woking, Surrey, GU21 5BH T: 01483 733 900

F: 01483 733901 W: www.mks.com/uk C: Lara Sparkes, Marketing Manager E: lara.sparkes@mks.com Founded in 1984, MKS’s ALM solution and its single architecture, drives high levels of user productivity, facilitates rapid deployment, issue management and process standardisation while delivering a complete view of application development activity through real-time metrics, trends and reporting.

Customer Service & Call Centre Solutions Customer Service Network

Creative Industries Centre, Wolverhampton Science Park, Wolverhampton, WV10 9TG T: 01902 311641

F: 01902 311637 W: www.customernet.com C: Chris Walker E: chrisw@customernet.com Customer Service Network are experts in Customer and Employee perception measurement. We work with many of the UK’s leading names to help them better understand what their customers and people want. Contact us to find out how we can help.

Customer Service & Call Centre Solutions Customer Service Network

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Third Avenue, Globe Business Park Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 1EY T: +44 (0) 1628 898 888 F: +44 (0) 1628 898 777 W: www.kana.com C: Warren Holtman KANA helps the world’s best known brands master customer service experience. Our solutions help companies create consistent, knowledgeable conversations with customers across every channel; phone, email, chat, and web. KANA’s clients report significant increases in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

VitAL : May / June 2008

General Training UKCMG

HelpDesk Internal/External Richmond systems

West House, West Street, Haslemere, Surrey GU27 2AB T: +44 (0) 1428 641616 F: +44 (0) 1428 641717 W: www.richmondsupportdesk.com C: Simon Armstrong E: info@richmondsys.com Richmond Systems service management solution Richmond SupportDesk enables rapid implementation of enterprise wide support based on ITIL® best practices.

Richmond SupportDesk maximises the efficiency of your support operation and raises service levels for internal IT Service Management and Managed Service Provider environments.

Industry Body / Association BCS

Suite A1, Kebbell House, Carpenders Park, Watford. WD19 5BE

North Star House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, SN2 1FA

T: + 44 (0) 20 8421 5330 F: + 44 (0) 20 8421 5457 W: www.ukcmg.org.uk C: Laura Goss, UKCMG Secretariat E: ukcmg@ukcmg.org.uk UKCMG is an independent, non-profit, user group organisation targeted at improving members’ knowledge, skills and abilities in Capacity Management and related IT service management disciplines.

We achieve this through a combination of events including, a three-day Annual Conference and networking between endusers, consultants & suppliers

T: +44 (0) 1793 417596 W: www.bcs.org C: Suky Kaur Sunner E: suky.kaursunner@hq.bcs.org.uk

Helpdesk Internal/External ICCM Solutions

Unit 4 Charlton Business Park, Crudwell Road, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, SN16 9RU T: + 44 (0) 1666 828 600 F: + 44 (0) 1666 826103 W: www.iccm.co.uk C: Jessica Yeung E: info@iccm.co.uk ICCM supply Service software solutions & ITIL V2 & V3 training and consultancy to over 400 global clients in both the private and public sector. e-Service Desk is PinkVerify™ Service Support Enhanced, proving compatibility and pedigree for organisations seeking to align their business with industry best practice.

BCS is the leading professional body for those working in IT. We have over 65,000 members in more than 100 countries and are the qualifying body for Chartered IT Professionals (CITP). Please go to www.bcs.org to learn more.

IT Service Management Forum

150 Wharfedale Road, Winnersh Triangle, Wokingham, Berkshire. RG41 5RG T: 0118 918 6503 F: 0118 969 9749 W: www.itsmf.co.uk C: Ben Clacy E: ben.clacy@itsmf.co.uk The itSMF is the only internationally recognised and independent organisation whose sole focus is on the on-going development and promotion of IT Service Management ’best practice‘, standards and qualifications.

The forum has 14,000 UK members and official itSMF chapters in 44 countries.

directory

IT Asset Management BMc software

Assurance House, Vicarage Road, Egham, Surrey. TW20 9JY T: +44 (0) 1784 478 000 F: +44 (0) 1784 430 581 W: www.bmc.com/uk C: Michelle Sunnick E: michelle_sunnick@bmc.com BMC Software is a leading global provider of enterprise management solutions that empower companies to automate their IT and increase its business value. Delivering Business Service Management, BMC solutions span enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management.

IT Service Management Consultants iCore

60 Lombard Street, London. EC3V 9EA T: +44 (0) 207 464 8414 F: +44 (0) 207 464 8888 W: www.icore-ltd.com C: Jane Tweddle — iCore Sales & Marketing Director E: info@icore-ltd.com The UK’s largest independent service management consultancy, this year iCore celebrates ten years in operation. Our services include maturity assessment, process design and development, service improvement and more. iCore has consultants who are fully qualified in ITIL, COBIT, ISO20000 and PRINCE2.

FOX IT

Chester House, 76-86 Chertsey Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 5BJ T: +44 (0) 1483 221222 F: +44 (0) 1483 221500 W: www.foxit.net E: enquiries@foxit.net Fox IT is a global independent Service Management specialist having undertaken transformation engagements in over 50 countries.

Recognised as the premier supplier of Consultancy, Education, Solutions and Accelerators, Fox IT has the most extensive ITIL based ITSM and Governance practice in the world.

Pink Elephant

Atlantic House, Imperial Way, Reading. RG2 0TD T: + 44 (0) 118 903 6824 F: + 44 (0) 118 903 6282 W: www.pinkelephant.com C: Frances Fenn E: info.emea@pinkelephant.com Acknowledged worldwide as niche, independent, IT Service Management Education and Consulting providers.

Having trained more people than any other company in ITIL related subjects since 1987, we have contributed to all 3 versions of the ITIL books.

IT Service Management Consulting Training Kepner-tregoe

Quayside House, Thames Side, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1QN T: +44 (0) 1753 856716 F: +44 (0) 1753 854929 W: www.kepner-tregoe.com C: Steve White E: swhite@kepner-tregoe.com Kepner-Tregoe provides consulting and training services to organizations worldwide. We collaborate with clients to implement their strategies by embedding problem-solving, decision-making, and project execution methods through individual and team skill development and process improvement. Clients build competitive advantage by using our systematic processes to achieve rapid, targeted results and create lasting value.

IT Service Management Systems Wardown Consulting

AXIOS SYSTEMS

Prudence Place, Proctor Way, Luton, Bedfordshire. LU2 9PE

60 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7HF

T: 01582 488242 F: 01582 488343 W: www.wardownconsulting.co.uk C: Rosemary Gurney E: rosemary.gurney@wardownconsulting.co.uk

T: +44 (0) 131 220 4748 F: +44 (0) 131 220 4281 W: www.axiossystems.com C: Jenny Duncan E: jennifer.duncan@axiossystems.com

Wardown Consulting was established to help businesses capitalise from the substantial benefits that IT Service Management can deliver. Our consultants boast a wealth of industry experience and are accredited to deliver ITIL v2 and v3 training.

Axios Systems, a leading provider of IT Service Management solutions, uses a customer-centric approach to ensure customers can align their Service and Support with the overall business goals.

Axios is headquartered in the UK, with 12 offices across the world.

IT Service Management Consulting Training G2G3

House-on-the-Hill Software

Panama House, 14 The High Street, Lasswade, EH18 1ND T: + 44 (0) 131 461 3333 F: + 44 (0) 131 663 8934 W: www.g2g3.com C: David Arrowsmith E: info@g2g3.com G2G3 is the leading provider of communication tools, gaming solutions and simulations that propel enterprise IT and business alignment. Headquartered in the UK, G2G3 has a strong global network of partners supporting the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

127 Stockport Rd, Marple, Cheshire SK6 6AF T: +44 (0) 161 449 7057 F: +44 (0) 161 449 7122 W: www.houseonthehill.com C: Tim Roche E: info@houseonthehill.com Specialists in providing comprehensive solutions for any size business on time, in budget and uniquely tailored to your needs, House-on-the-Hill produces SupportDesk; the most flexible service management solution on the market. House-on-the-Hill provides comprehensive solutions for over 500 businesses worldwide.

May / June 2008 : VitAL

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directory

epicor

NetSupport Software

1 The Arena, Downshire Way, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG21 1PU T: 0800 3161155 F: 01344 468020 W: www.epicor.com C: Rachel Barber-Kebby E: Euromarketing@epicor.com With over 20 years experience and 15,000 customers, Epicor is a leading provider of ITSM Solutions.

Epicor ITSM provides a robust set of service management features that supports the key IT processes outlined by the ITIL.

Towngate East, Market Deeping, Peterborough, PE6 8NE

T: +44 (0) 1778 382270 F: +44 (0) 1778 382280 W: www.netsupportsoftware.co.uk C: Colette Reed E: colette@netsupportsoftware.co.uk

IT Service Management Systems InfraVision

Delegate House, 30A Hart Street, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, RG9 2AL T: +44 (0) 1491 635340 F: +44 (0) 1491 579835 W: www.infravision.com C: Nigel Todd E: n.todd@infravision.com InfraVision improves your service organisation, delivering value to your company’s core business. The unique combination of ITIL process knowledge and thorough knowledge of Service and System Management Software enables us to deliver successful implementation within the defined budget.

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NetSupport are developers of desktop management and remote control software packages. The product range comprises NetSupport Manager Remote Control, NetSupport DNA Helpdesk (providing a web-based ITIL-compliant helpdesk), NetSupport DNA Asset Management Suite and NetSupport Protect desktop security and recovery.

31 Media, Crawley Business Centre, Stephenson Way, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1TN T: +44 (0) 870 863 6930 F: +44 (0) 870 085 8837 W: www.31media.co.uk C: Grant Farrell E: grant.farrell@31media.co.uk Customer is a UK based magazine for senior professionals who are committed to ensuring their businesses are totally customer centric. With a pragmatic editorial approach Customer aims to bring clarity and vision to a sector that has become increasingly complex.

tesseract

TEST MAGAZINE

1 Newmans Row, Lincoln Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP12 3RE T: +44 (0) 1494 465066 F: +44 (0) 1494 464756 W: www.tesseract.co.uk C: Mark Montgomery E: websales@tesseract.co.uk With over 20 years experience, Tesseract’s Service Centre manages field service operations in over 350 companies worldwide. Service Centre is a leading browser based system and can be accessed entirely across the web.

Increasing flexibility enables Service Centre to be hosted, decreasing IT hardware and maintenance costs.

31 Media, Crawley Business Centre, Stephenson Way, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1TN T: +44 (0) 870 863 6930 F: +44 (0) 870 085 8837 W: www.31media.co.uk C: Grant Farrell E: grant.farrell@31media.co.uk The European Software Tester is a publication designed specifically for individuals and organisations aligned with software testing. With independent, practical, and insightful editorial T.E.S.T aims to inspire its readers and provide its advertisers with a clearly defined route to market.

IXIF

Touchpaper Software

Connect House, 21 Willow Lane, Mitcham, Surrey, CR4 4NA

Dukes Court, Duke Street, Woking, Surrey GU21 5RT T: +44 (0) 1483 744444 F: +44(0) 1483 744401 W: www.touchpaper.com C: Louisa Maguire E: intouch@touchpaper.com With over 20 years’ experience, Touchpaper is one of the most established international providers of IT Business Management (ITBM) solutions (covering IT Service Management, Customer Service Solutions and Network & Systems Management). Touchpaper serves 1,800 customers and 3 million users.

T: 020 8274 3359 F: 020 8274 3393 W: www.ixif.net C: Royston Adamson-Green E: rag@ixif.net IXIF’s MidGuard is a critical component within the ITIL framework Best Practice for Service Delivery and Service Level Agreement reporting.

IXIF is also a Jacarta Platinum Reseller for environmental monitoring products, essential for lowering your carbon footprint in the Datacentre.

VitAL : May / June 2008

Publications, Events, Conferences CUSTOMER MAGAZINE

Recruitment BALE IT SERVICES

Wincombe Business Centre, Shaftesbury, Dorset. SP7 9QJ T: 0845 680 2253 W: www.baleit.co.uk C: Wayne Bale E: wayne.bale@baleit.co.uk We specialise in your IT Service Management Permanent and Contract recruitment requirements. We have distinctive differentiators for both Candidates and Clients alike setting us apart from other agencies. Please contact us now to discuss your requirements.

Clear IT Service Management

Now that’s a Breath of Fresh Air...

Oxygen Enterprise is aimed at the Service Desk where speed of deployment, ease of use, low cost of ownership and rapid user adoption are paramount.

Deploying a helpdesk for IT, customer service or any other function can be a complex and costly exercise and sometimes this approach is not viable.

Oxygen Enterprise offers a low cost of ownership yet comprehensive service desk, whether you want ITIL “Out of the Box” or simply need to introduce clearer business processes.

Features include:  Incident & Problem Management  Change Management  SLA Management  Intergrated CMDB  Self Service Portal  Knowledge Base  Intergrated Email

 100% Web Based  License Management  Asset Management  Full Reporting  Quick Call Templates  On Site or Hosted  AD Intergration

All this can be deployed in as little as TWO DAYS from

only £295.00 on Site

or £39.99 Hosted.

On-line: www.e-warehouse.com/clear Email: oxygen@e-warehouse.com Phone: 0118 9298 322

VITAL EVENTS

itSMF keeping IT real With a look at the future of IT service management and the theme: ‘Driving Real Value’, the iTSMF announces its 17th Annual Conference and Exhibition.

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t’s clear that the future for IT service management needs to be considered in terms of the business. IT is a commodity and a business enabler; it can no longer be divorced from other areas of the organisation. The step forward has to be Business Service Management, where IT service managers are engaged with the business services and requirements, other departments such as HR and Finance may also be involved with this function, providing a complete end-to-end service.

Changes are already taking place and the IT profile is moving up the chain; the new ‘Lifecycle’ approach of ITIL Version 3 is now closer aligned to how the business is actually run, IT departments are becoming proactive rather than reactive and businesses are getting more involved with the IT decisions. Now it’s time for businesses to change the way they work with IT and acknowledge that their business success or failure is directly linked to the IT services provided.

So an exciting time to be working within service management, there is no right or wrong way to approach these changes it will depend entirely on how your business works and where you are starting from, but all areas will change for the better, this change just needs to be embraced.

The itSMF’s 17th Annual Conference and Exhibition aims to highlight the changes that organisations can achieve with minor modifications. ‘Driving Real Value’ is all about ‘real’ experiences, values and achievements. It comprises three days of packed presentations, seminars, workshops and interactive sessions, covering people’s real experiences that they have travelled through, the pitfalls, the challenges and sometimes the failures.

Plus a large exhibition area with over 80 exhibitors showcasing software, services or products all to ease you through the IT service

VitAL : September / October 2008

management maze.

The plenary sessions cover topical future thinking. Ian Salvage and Graham Whitney from IBM present ‘Is the future green?’ looking at how the green agenda is moving to the top of IT organisation’s priority lists. Ian and Graham will explore; the challenges we face, legislation which may affect our actions, what technology has got to offer, what the social implications are and how this will affect service management. Paul Wilkinson from Gaming Works, will look at how IT organisations have struggled to adopt best practice frameworks such at ITIL, showing how attitude, behaviour and culture (ABC) of ICT are what determines the success (or not) of your ITSM initiative including tips to help ensure that you are able to make ITSM best practices work and bring IT under control.

The conference takes place from 10th-12th November and is open to members and non-members, visit the website where a full timetable is available, plus details of delegate packages and sponsorship and exhibitor information. www.itsmf.co.uk The itSMF UK is the only truly independent and internationally-recognised forum for IT Service Management professionals worldwide. Established in 1991, itSMF UK is a not-for-profit organisation and a prominent player in the on-going development and promotion of IT Service Management best practice, standards and qualifications.

Globally, the itSMF now boasts over 6000 member companies, blue chip and public sector alike, covering in excess of 70,000 individuals spread over 50+ Chapters. Each year the itSMF hold the largest IT Service Management event with over 1000 delegates and 80+ exhibitors this year’s theme is ‘Driving Real Value’ and will be held in Birmingham visit www.itsmf.co.uk to book or for further information.

conference & exhibition 10th - 12th November 2008 H I LT O N M E T R O P O L E , B I R M I N G H A M

The premier 3 day IT Service Management Event that offers a packed conference full of seminars, workshops, interactive sessions and exhibition, plus *evening entertainment.

This year’s theme is based on organisations “ real experiences” and not just based on the theory as so many conferences focus on. This will include the pitfalls that have been encountered along the way along with the successfully implemented stories.

The event is geared to satisfy all levels of IT Service Management needs.

There is an extensive exhibition with experts from the service management world to talk you through the latest products and services that are available to make best practice and its processes easier to implement.

“ Thoroughly enjoyed the whole conference - found the vendor stands very informative. itSMF folk could not have been more accommodating.” “ A very enjoyable and enlightening experience. A lot was learned and some will be put into practice shortly” “ An excellent Conference - many thanks to everyone involved in organising such a successful event!”

Each year the itSMF hold the largest IT Service Management event with over 1000 delegates and 80+ exhibitors. We try and choose locations that are easily accessible for both the delegates and the exhibitors.

Packages now on sale:1 Day Delegate at Members Rate 1 Day Delegate at Non-Member Rate 2 Day Delegate at Members Rate 2 Day Delegate at Non-Members Rate 3 Day Delegate at Members Rate 3 Day Delegate at Non-Members Rate 2 Days/1 Night at Members Rate 2 Days/1 Night at Non-Members Rate

£260.00 £360.00 £515.00 £715.00 £640.00 £860.00 £750.00 £960.00

ALL PRICES ARE EXCLUSIVE OF VAT *evening entertainment is only available when overnight packages are booked

To b o o k t o c o m e t o t h e e v e n t g o t o :

www.itsmf.co.uk

Complete implementation of ITIL in 12 weeks?

Optimal service management with BMC Alignability Alignability is the newest innovation in service

for the employees. The Alignability model fills the

management systems, which may significantly reduce

gap between the ITIL framework and your service

the time needed for an ITIL implementation project from

management tool.

12-18 months to 12-14 weeks.

In the Alignability Process Model the experience gained

ITIL gives guidelines to organisations who want to

from over 150 companies in 30 countries, is distilled.

define their service management processes. However,

It is a practical instrument that has been developed

processes are not enough; they have to be completed

over the past 10 years. We can now safely say that

with the details of how to carry out those processes

when no changes are made to the processes they are

into work instructions to give a real practical advantage

guaranteed to work.

Interested? Contact InfraVision at: InfraVision Ltd Delegate House, 30A Hart Street, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, RG9 2AL

T: + 44 (0)1491 635340, F: + 44 (0)1491 579835, info@infravision.com, www.infravision.com