Monday, July 27th, 2009

Waterloo, ON – July 17, 2007: MKS Inc. (MKS) (TSX: MKX) announced today bold new extensions to its application lifecycle management (ALM) platform, MKS Integrity, becoming the first and only ALM vendor to offer:- Revolutionary support for requirements change management, reuse, persistence and baselining- Enforced process control SAP and Oracle/Peoplesoft change management,- Unified test management, and- IT service managementAll within MKS’s ALM 2.0 platform framework.“Since 2001, MKS has been progressively building out a next generation ALM platform that fulfils the ALM 2.0 vision set out by industry analyst such as Forrester and Gartner,” says Philip Deck, CEO, MKS. “This release takes innovation from MKS to an entirely new level, and delivers groundbreaking capabilities for reuse, packaged application change management and usability enhancements supporting a much broader deployment of ALM across IT disciplines. MKS’s ability to leap frog the competition on multiple fronts is due to our built-by-design, single platform and unique, unified data model enabling development (ALM) and operational (IT Service Management/ITIL) data to be joined within a single system. One day all ALM solutions will be compared against MKS’s unified model as the competition and their customers continue to struggle with the integration of various disparate point tools.”Announcing Next Generation Requirements ManagementBusiness strategies such as Software Product Lines and SOA and ...
Tags: Development Scenarios, Mkx, Single System
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Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

In just 20 years ITIL has come to guide the IT service management practices which underpin the performance of successful organisations worldwide. Not surprisingly those organisations which have not adopted ITIL are looking to do so - and those that have are looking to extend or enhance their ITIL processes. This article looks at what determines whether an ITIL project succeeds or fails.The experiences of more than 10 organisations were presented at the 2008 itSMF Conference in Birmingham. The projects ranged from application of specific ITIL tools such as Service Catalogue through to trans European ITIL adoption by a major financial institution with the goal of achieving ISO/IEC 20000.1. Start RightFirst and foremost understand where you are now and develop a vision of where you want to be. Use customer surveys and ITIL maturity assessments to objectively define gaps. Develop a vision which is meaningful for your organisation and which can be clearly articulated and communicated. Refer to the "Continual Service Improvement" element of ITIL; this is precisely where the alignment of IT Services and Business Needs should take place.2. Organisational ChangeRecognise that adopting ITIL is as much about organisational change as it is about processes and technology. This is not surprising; IT services are increasingly at the heart of how organisations ...
Tags: External Customers, New Processes, Organisations
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Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

There are opinions that it is very difficult to implement a Business Oriented IT. Supposedly, corporations just look at IT is a "spender of money". Here is a suggested process which will convert IT department into a respected business unit.It is in the human nature to deem everything as waste of money unless they can clearly see the benefits they get from it. For instance, the electrical windows in my car are a waste of money! No, wait, they let me focus on the driving and have both hands on the wheel instead of cranking the window up or down. Oh, so I have a benefit there. I better buy them.The very same goes for IT. In the current technology savvy world, everything in IT is observed as pure commodity, that just happens to work. IT is only a utility service, much like water and electricity.So IT needs to properly position itself and present what is actually needed for the companies utilities it provides:Document your services to Create a service portfolio - follow the ITIL v3 standard and document the services you plan, implement, and support like:PC maintenanceCRM Systems Email serviceRemote AccessHelpdeskDisaster recovery etc.Identify the assets and resources of each service - list all resources required to operate the service. This will ...
Tags: Commodity, Electricity, Pc Maintenance
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Friday, June 12th, 2009

e recurrent challenges facing small to very small MSPs, is what services to offer. Some services, e.g. providing on-site break/fix across 6 continents with a 1 hour turnaround to the Fortune 10, are obviously a stretch (although it can be done in an economical fashion with the use of subcontractors and/or partners). Other services such as providing MS Exchange email services, are obviously no brainer can dos. So, how do we know what to offer?One way, is to look through the IT department in our own company, to see what services we provide to the enterprise. Many MSPs start out in a different line of business, such as an ASP, or a CRM/ERP software vendor. Having the skills and resources needed to run these services internally, shrewd IT departments may decide to lower the internal cost structure of their operations by performing limited services for their existing clients, often at the behest of the client. Later, further motivation to continue to expand these service offerings is demonstrated by a strategy of transforming IT from a cost center into a profit center.As we look around, we notice common internal services that we may perform quite well, but actually are resource intensive. For instance:1. Service Desk. In an ITIL compliant environment (you are ITIL ...
Tags: Insurmountable Challenges, Internal Politics, Ms Exchange
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Thursday, May 21st, 2009

This article, the first of a series of three, gives some tips on designing and implementing a methodology based on a standard framework such as ITIL or PMBoK.OK. So you have decided that your organization has to improve the way in which it works. You have chosen to implement a methodology as the best way to achieve this goal. And now you ask yourself, where do I start? Whatever the discipline you are trying to model (from software development to supply chain management), it is highly probable that a standard framework exists, that can serve as the basis for your own methodology.WHAT IS A STANDARD FRAMEWORK?A standard framework is a set of best practices, normally expressed as a set of repeatable processes created by an organization (a professional association, university, public administration, etc...). These frameworks are sometimes referred to as bodies of knowledge, methodologies, etc...Standard frameworks cannot be applied out of the box. They are aimed at a wide spectrum of organizations and thus cannot be detailed to a level at which they are ready to use. In order to have an executable set of processes, a project has to be undertaken in order to fill the gap between the framework best practices and your methodology executable processes. This gap is filled ...
Tags: Knowledge, Repeatable Processes, Risk
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Friday, April 10th, 2009

The key to a successful outsourcing relationship is identifying a partner who can provide cost-effective solutions with the relevant resources and the ability to adjust services as business changes over time. Outsourcing decisions should be made by examining whether an organization is effective and efficient in providing a function that is strategic to the business. IT operations and support organizations are often viewed as an overhead that provides a commodity function that can be easily and safely outsourced. However, IT operations and support functions may be core capabilities because flexible, stable and reliable operations are the foundation for enterprise applications and business processes. IT operations outsourcing proposals are often evaluated and executed with inadequate information about services and costs. The result may be an agreement that does not define the full set of services required, does not result in expected cost savings, and requires retaining a significant number of internal staff to close service gaps and monitor the outsourcer. Good business decisions are based on understanding services and costs, the impact of change, and the risk associated with IT services that do not meet business requirements.What Should Be Outsourced?Data center outsourcing services are one of the most mature IT service categories available in the market. In a mature market, one should expect ...
Tags: Cost Effective Solutions, Service Gaps, Support Organizations
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Friday, February 6th, 2009

With virtualization and automation tools abound, what is truly the line in the sand between necessity and luxury? ITIL automation, data center automation and ITIL management can help achieve big results with a relatively small drain on resources. Like a well played game of chess, the least amount of moves can often times lead to the most effective and strategically successful end result. A well primed data center environment amped with automation tools, can not only automate provisioning and lifecycle management across both physical and virtual environments, but it can easily integrate with ticketing and monitoring systems.When it comes to researching resources, there are several aspects worth considering, to ensure that business and operational needs are met. From the basics of implementing a software solution to automate tasks such as provisioning, patching and software distribution, to a full blown multi-tier architecture, ITIL automation and data center automation are key.As a CIO, wouldn't you love if your organization's data center environment had the flexibility to allow your operations teams to have the freedom of automated repair and maintenance tasks? By implementing automated solutions into the data center, you can direct your resources to handle the more business critical applications and allocate the financial investment to areas of the business the that will more ...
Tags: Automation Tools, Center Automation, Operations Teams
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Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

It is easy to mismanage a network and even an IT team. Not only must IT managers be educated well before entering the field or obtaining such a position, but must continually keep up with the latest changes, both bad and good. As the world of network technology is constantly changing and evolving keeping up can be difficult, especially when you spend ten to twelve hours in the office managing your team. IT managers or those hoping to secure such a prestigious position should be realize early on that automating their networks in part or in whole will not only free up resources and allow their teams to be more productive but will also create some free time for themselves as well. Things like Runbook automation and good ITIL management and mechanization will also free an IT manager from performing some of the more daunting and tedious tasks that a network demands before it becomes automated. Once a network has automation in place, even in limited capacity, an IT manager will find that they now have time to perform duties which where previously placed at the bottom of a priority list. Things like simple team meetings, and even time for technological research will be moved up this list which in turn will help make ...
Tags: Software Maintenance, Technological Research, Tedious Tasks
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Sunday, January 11th, 2009

As the first point-of-contact for users of information technology services with problems the IT Help desk is service forms one of the crucial support system for a business enterprise. Multiplicity of business applications and their underlying technologies create significant strain on in-house IT support resources. In most cases it is difficult and expensive to manage and support applications demanding varying levels of technological sophisticationOur ITIL based processes and systems are offer a broad and user-centric approach, which seeks to provide a user with an informed single point of contact for all of their ICT requirements CSS IT help desk service seeks to facilitate the integration of business processes into the Service Management infrastructure. As the IT Response Center or IT Solutions CenterAvailability and prompt delivery of service are the key differentiators in a help desk service scenario. Round-the-clock services without any drop in SLA’s or quality through our global delivery platform provides flexibility to our clients, and ensures that they receive high quality service, cost efficiency, localization and reduced risk.The Multi-channel support services offered by CSS ensure "attention to detail" in several areas, starting right from the moment the support request is started till it is closed, which ultimately leads to rapid response and resolution of issues.Cybernet-SlashSupport is a leading provider of ...
Tags: Desk Services, Management Infrastructure, Users Of Information Technology
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