mind the gap-leveraging the service desk and it operations for improved business service...

8/14/2019 Mind the Gap-Leveraging the Service Desk and IT Operations for Improved Business Service Delivery.pdf

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Mind the Gap Leveraging the Service Desk and ITOperations for Improved usiness Service Delivery


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ontentslntroduction ..................................................................................................................... 1Why Has Progress Been So Slow? ............................................................................... 1

Real time Operations Focus .................................................................................... 2Service Desk Focus .................................................................................................. 2Poor Integration Doesn t Help ................................................................................. 3

Finding a Solution .......................................................................................................... 3Bridging the Gap with Tools .................................................................................... 4Bridging the Gap with People .................................................................................. 5

Calculating the Benefits of a Closed Gap System ...................................................... 5Effective IT Operations ............................................................................................. 6Coordinated Service Management .......................................................................... 6Increased Service Availability ................................................................................. 7

What Next? ...................................................................................................................... 7Evolving to Business Service Management.. ........................................................ 7Define Service Goals ................................................................................................ 9Establish A Service Management Process ............................................................. 9Link Infrastructure Management ........................................................................... 10Measure Performance And Analyze Events ......................................................... 2


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IntroductionMature IT operations and service desk professionals have long understood the need tointegrate their change management processes in with their incident management and problem management processes to achieve maximum effectiveness. For example, if a customercalls an airline to change a ticket, their itinerary, flight status, and current flight operationsdata is all available to the ticket agent. f an IT technician queries the service desk about anoutage, the event message, trouble ticket number and other event facts are available, sowhy not maintenance schedules, device locations, IP addresses, related applications anddatabases, or upgrade tasks? Why aren t CI Os dealing with the complexity ofl management data in the same way that airlines deal with the complexity of flight data?For over a decade, IT organizations have been making attempts to integrate their real-timeIT operations and the service management teams. The results have provided limited control through the logging and integrating of real-time event data with user-driven servicedesk data. This at least provides a single point of reference for IT management to understand the issues across both the technology and user base, but the gap between IT operations and service management still remains large. Only a few innovations beyond troubleticket integration have emerged to bridge this divide.This document explores this challenge in-depth, provides examples of how successfulintegration between the real-time operations and service management can reap excellentIT service management rewards, and presents BMC Software solutions that can tool yourenvironment to overcome this challenge.

Why Has Progress Been So SlowThe biggest hurdle preventing synergy between real-time operations and service management s the organizational gap that is created by companies with disparate IT operationsand service management teams. This gap s derived of superficial barriers that preventthese disciplines from working closely together to forge a common set of workflow processes and a well-defined integrated management tool infrastructure.The need to integrate both environments s understood. The effort, focus and actual capability to achieve this goal s not. f a company continues to foster an organizational gapbetween the two teams there will be no or limited growth in understanding how the twogroups can work together to deliver successful business services.

1.Also known as availability management and event management.2.Also known as service desk help desk and problem management.

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Without a level playing field where people can address process workflows between thetwo venues, the ability to implement and benefit from software that integrates the twotechnology groups is unlikely to be successful and provide measurable returns. In caseswhere companies have integrated operations and service management products but nottheir people or their processes, they have inadvertently created additional issues and a degradation of service to the end-user.Additional reasons for the lack of synergistic progress between real-time operations andservice management include: Poor understanding of what data needs to flow between the event management and ser

vice management environments and products Limited out-of-the-box integration between event management and service manage

ment products Lack of an IT management focus to make and drive the decision to integrate both the

real-time operations and service management teams Lack of understanding and appreciation between real-time operations and service man

agement personnel of each other's functional areas Software vendors in both the IT management and service management market creating

confusion by claiming they, alone, can provide business alignment and service levelmanagement from their products without needed information from other products

Real time Operations Focuso date, operations personnel have focused their time providing reactive support to the IT

infrastructure using event managers. Increasingly, however, IT organizations are accountable to their businesses. Companies are no longer satisfied with IT being a reactive costcenter and are demanding IT becomes a proactive profit center. The business wants tounderstand how IT is impacting them by IT providing them with object-based statistics.With the market now demanding business-focused IT management, some event management vendors are moving to the next level of management business service management.This next level focuses on the real-time impact that individual IT events have on businessservices, service level management and reporting, and end-user quality of service.

Service Desk Focus

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Service management products focus on service desk management, service level management, and asset information and change management. Up to 90 of all calls loggedthrough a service desk are still taken over the phone. Service Management products primarily report and act on information driven directly from end-users; although, some servicemanagement product vendors have been able to harness the ability to manage event information automatically fed from real-time event management products. Business managers


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are demanding to know IT details about the nature o problems, how long until service isrestored, and why an outage has occurred in the first place. With the onslaught o servicelevel agreements, service desk personnel now need to know more in depth knowledgeabout the IT assets during an outage than ever before.

Poor Integration Doesn t HelpThe idea o getting real-time processed event messages into the service desk is not newbut the failure to harness this powerful combination o management tools continues. Onereason is poor product integration. When the passing o information from an event manager to the service desk is via e-mail or a command script, the communication may be sentin line with a company's event escalation and outage processes, but this basic send-andforget method can be unreliable, is itself difficult to manage and track, and provides nomeans o guaranteeing further action.

Additional issues wrought by poor integration between event management and servicedesk tools include: The real-time event management product looses the ability to track how events are man

aged once the event is sent to the service desk The service desk product can become overloaded during an event storm The service desk product may not be able to update the real-time event management

product i a trouble ticket is managed or closed. Passing events without further communication can cause duplication o effort Passing events without further communication can result in no effort with both teams

assuming the other is handling the problem

Finding a olutionThe IT operations team uses real-time event management products that are designed to actas the focal point o IT availability control for the business. The service desk uses servicemanagement products that are designed to act as the focal point o IT services control forthe business. The tools that groups use are targeted to deliver a focal point o IT management control for the business. This is a big reason why the operations and the service deskneed to align not just their own workflows, tools, people and processes to the business, butwhy they also need to align their workflows, tools, people and processes to each otherOther reasons to integrate both real-time operations with service management include Combining user-reported problems with IT component and quality o service (QoS)

events to provide a truly consolidated IT management picture The need to smooth the workflow between service desk management o user problems

and IT operations management o asset outagesPage


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Addressing business demands to deliver a complete service level report, which includesnot just IT asset and QoS availability events and performance metrics, but also howmany end users were impacted, how much end user productivity or service delivery waslost, and what was the cost of all those human resources waiting around for the businessservice to be restored

IT operations and service desks need to seek out software technologies that can adapt tomeet a their company s business needs without assuming or dictating a rigid method ofevent or service management. With greater tool flexibility, operations and service deskpeople are not crammed into rigid unforgiving processes. Richer functionality betweentools drives less stringent processes because of greater process options and aides betterunderstanding between people all of this can shrink the gap.

ridging the Gap with Tools

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To pass information between the real-time operations environment and the service deskrequires processes and guidelines for the following: Event prioritization Event ownership Event escalation and outageToo many events will reduce the effectiveness of the service desk and may overwhelm itFor quality events to get to the service desk requires that the underlying real-time eventmanagement infrastructure supports Escalation/de-escalation and correlation to reduce event volume to the service desk and

to provide priority and focus Dynamic field update and events linkage to the service desk software to manage events

from either IT operations or the service desk and keep information synchronized Abstraction, blackout and enrichment to add intelligence to events and trouble ticketsMeanwhile, the event management product must be able to accept and manage events created by the service management solution and when appropriate, match any manuallyreported event with real-time events currently open. IT operations and the service deskshould be able to choose either product to manage event processes and service problemswithout the risk of duplicate effort or total neglect.The following table illustrates the ideal role of the IT operations and service desk solutions, as well as the end user position when a correctly tools environment supports business service management in a company.


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IT Operations Service Desk End UserEvents are detected Events are logged I know what s going onIssues are fixed Events are escalated and man- I am receiving the agreed ser-

aged viceReal-time availability is moni- Service levels are managed I know where to go if there is ato red problemT objects are managed Customer satisfaction is moni- I can del iver a service to cus-tored tomers

ridging the Gap with PeopleIT Operations groups believe they are best suited to manage the complexities o a company s IT business. They do, after all, monitor and fix the IT asset issues.Service desk personnel believe they are best suited to manage the company s IT businessneeds. They do, after all, talk daily to the users (therefore the business), manage servicelevels and provide the escalation and outage for IT problem management.Service desk personnel are not as bound by an IT object based focus as IT operations staff,while IT operations staff are not as driven by the needs o the end-user as service desk personnel. Each group needs to learn about, understand, and respect the others role to dissipate the gap and focus on building a better business service management organization.This type o culture change must be driven by management and supported by the tools.Recently new players have emerged in the IT infrastructure supporting the needs o thebusiness and spanning both real-time operations and service management functionsthrough service level agreements. These new players have many names including customer support managers, service managers, IT business managers and business unit managers. Without a meeting o the minds between IT operations and the service desk, it willbe difficult to break down the barriers that stand in the way o fully aligning the entire ITorganization with the real service levels needs o the business.

Calculating the enefits of a Closed Gap SystemThe high-end benefits o providing a solution that enables management o event information from discovery to recovery aligned to service levels are enormous creating an environment that is totally in tune, measurable and aligned with the needs o the business.These benefits include: Reduce downtime (Mean Time o Repair [MTTR])

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Find problems before they impact the business Reduce time to detect) Find the root o the problem Reduce time to diagnose) Repair problems faster Reduce time to fix Reduce failure frequencies increase Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF]) Know about problems before the customer Increase problem awareness)Business Service Delivery MTBF/ MTBF+MTTR)

Customers

Service Desk ustomer callsProblem bwareness Closed

T OperationsDetection Diagnosis Fixing

Fault Recoveryhe Fault Downtime Recovery Process for T Operations and the Service Desk

Effective IT Operations Finding problems before they impact the business Finding the root o the problem Increased operational efficiency Repairing problems faster Prioritizing repair efforts Increased availability o IT services Time to keep up with the constantly changing business Understanding scope o business impact

oordinated Service Management Knowing about problems before the customer Better coordination with IT Operations Input into diagnosis process Can be early detector source Support and enhance agreed-upon service levels

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Understanding the status of business-critical services

Increased Service Availability Proactive management of business and IT services Increased service levels to customers Reduces loss of productivity Reduces loss of revenue Improves return on all IT investments Coordinated event management from discovery to recovery

hat NextThe next step is Business Service Management BSM) by BMC Software. o manage levels of service requires the integration of both service management technology and eventmanagement process that addresses both the reactive event environment and the customer/user driven service management environment. o achieve this, you must promote The dissolution of gap barriers that allow IT operations and service desk professional to

formulate the best practices that are needed to deliver on the promise of becoming abusiness aligned profit center

Investment in flexible, open event management and service management tools that willavoid process rigidity and foster understanding and communication

With BSM, your business and IT groups unite in the common goal of supporting criticalbusiness services. The IT organization can then align its resources-people processes andtechnology-with key business objectives. This means you can track application, networkand database events, and prioritize your responses based on the needs of the business.The result of this process is a closed-loop system, which ensures that resolution time iskept to a minimum, customer satisfaction is maximized and the impact on the business isreduced. In addition, a complete set of historical information is available for future planning and financial management. Thus, you can evolve the environment to deliver betterservice at a lower cost

Evolving to Business Service ManagementWith BMC Software as your strategic partner, you can make a smooth transition to BSM.Building on your existing investments, our Service Impact Management solutions linkyour diverse technologies to the key goals of your business. Within this architecture: Business and IT leaders identify critical business services and define service level

agreements The service model enables you to map technology to the business services

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Enterprise management solutions deliver robust monitoring and management of infra-structure components

IT service management solutions help you to manage the workflow around service levelagreements and optimize application performance

r : - r i o r m ~ i n o : ~ ntJ iysi iPrediction

Performancee t r l ~

Business Servi :es Service Impact Moinagement l Servlca and Applications M magement T Op1mitlons and Infrastructure M


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Define Service GoalsBSM empowers business and IT leaders to engage in a dialogue about business services.They translate business objectives into IT priorities by working together to define serviceagreements for critical business functions. To do this, they often can leverage work thathas been done for past IT planning processes, such as disaster recovery planning. Thesewill include the business requirements for availability and performance.It s also vital to identify the applications that support key business services. For example,customer service representatives may rely on central support services, e-mail and knowledge management applications. Sales may depend on catalog and inventory applications.Service goals are defined in service level agreements. Underlying infrastructure and service dependencies are defined in the service model the essential component for enablingthe IT organization to relate diverse technologies to critical business services.

T

rerformance AnalysisPred ctior PerformonceMetrics

efine Service Goals

Related BMC Software products include: BMC Service Impact Manager PATROL Remedy IT Service Management Suite

Establish Service Management Process

erviceModel

For more effective support of key business services, you can integrate the service modelwith other IT service support processes. For example, the Asset Management system feedsservice information for all the infrastructure components into the service model. o as ITevents occur, the IT s taff can understand their business relevance and respond accordingly.

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In addition IT professionals can proactively manage perfonnance on business termsusing Help Desk systems to effectively communicate with end users and resolve problems.Incident response times can be kept up to date in the SLA Management tool. And with aChange Management system in place the service model can automatically adapt to thechanges you make in your infrastructure.

erviceMedel

BusinessR o l o v ~ n c i i

verrt and f erforM


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yproactively managing the infrastructure the IT organization can prevent problemsfrom happening altogether. Automated utilities can monitor thresholds analyze problemsand perform corrective actions to avoid downtime and service level degradation. Businessperformance can be improved with tuning of the infrastructure.

etwork

Link nfrastructure Management

Related BMC Software products and solutions: PATROL MAINVIEW Enterprise Network Management CONTROL-M SmartDBA Enterprise Applications Management CONTROL-SA Enterprise Performance Assurance

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Measure Performance nd nalyze Eventso ensure optimal performance in the environment, performance metrics are continually

collected to a central data store for analysis. This enables the company to understandtrends, analyze the capacity requirements o the current environment and plan futureinvestments based on business needs.Predictive tools help IT to identify performance requirements before response time prob-lems occur. These requirements are also reflected in the service model. As a result, thecompany can prevent problems before they occur and measure IT performance in deliver-ing business services according to defined service goals.

Measure Performance nd nalyze Events

Related products include: Enterprise Performance Assurance PATROL Visualis Remedy IT Service Management Suite BMC Service Impact Manager BMC SIM)

Helping you maintain advantage

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BMC Software Professional Services helps your company maintain its competitive advan-tage through a comprehensive suite o services that includes service level managementconsulting, installation, implementation, configuration, and customization. Our profes-sional services and education offerings are designed to ensure the ongoing availability ocritical business applications, maximize product potential, reduce project risk, deliver ITvalue to your business, and improve your operations. For more information about BMCSoftware Professional Services, visit http://www bmc com/profserv


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bout BMC SoftwareBMC Software, Inc. [NYSE: BMC], s a leading provider o enterprise management solu-tions that empower companies to manage their IT infrastructure from a business perspec-tive. Delivering Business Service Management, BMC Software solutions span enterprisesystems, applications, databases and service management. Founded in 1980, BMC Soft-ware has offices worldwide and fiscal 2003 revenues o more than 1.3 billion. For moreinformation about BMC Software, visit http://www bmc com

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