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IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) 1

SUCCESS KIT

Table of Contents

Chapter I: Evaluating IT Solutions for ITIL® Enablement 2

Why ITIL®? 2

The ITIL® Value Proposition 2

ITIL® According to Gartner 2

ITIL® Certified 2

Evolutionary Improvement Path 3

Incident and Problem Management 3

Change Management 5

Configuration Management and the Configuration Management Database 7

Release Management 9

Service Level Management 11

Availability Management 12

Technical Considerations 13

Establishing Priorities 15

FrontRange ITSM Solution Match Up 16

Chapter II: Learning New Lessons, ITIL® V3 18

ITIL® Introduction 18

ITI 18

ITIL® Goals 18

Demystifying ITIL® V3 18

Service Strategy 19

Service Design 19

Service Transition 20

Service Operations 20

Service improvement 21

About FrontRange Solutions 22

2 IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®)

SUCCESS KIT

Chapter I: Evaluating IT Solutions for ITIL® Enablement

Why ITIL®?

The ITIL® (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a globally recognized collection of best practices for infor-

mation technology (IT) service management The United Kingdom’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency

(CCTA) created the ITIL® in response to growing dependence on information technology for meeting business needs and

goals ITIL® is all about which processes need to be realized within the organization for management and operation of the

IT infrastructure to promote optimal service provision to the customer of the services - at justifiable costs In a nutshell,

ITIL® provides businesses with a customizable framework of best practices to achieve quality service and overcome difficul-

ties associated with the growth of IT systems

The ITIL®® Value Proposition

ITIL® is a common sense approach to service management, doing what works What works? A common set of practices

that unite all areas of IT towards a common goal – delivering value to the business Core capabilities are developed when

you build key service delivery goals from your corporate objectives The ITIL® value proposition is achieved when ITIL®

is followed as a guide to build and manage reliable IT services and delivery functions ITIL® can introduce the following

value propositions:

• ITIL® provides a public, non-proprietary set of recognized industry IT guidelines for evaluating ITSM solutions

• Definesaholistic,repeatable,integratedandscalableprocessthatflowsacrosstheITorganization

• EstablishesbestpracticesforreducingITcosts

• FollowingITIL® processes improves interfaces between IT and its customers and suppliers

• CompaniesthatinvestinITIL®-based processes and technology improve user productivity and service levels

• TheITIL® framework provides a structure to achieve IT service and business alignment

• ITIL® helps companies achieve critical governance and compliance objectives

• Servesasabaselineforserviceimprovementinitiatives

ITIL® According to Gartner

Service Support and Service Delivery are considered to be at the heart of the ITIL® framework for IT Service Management

According to Gartner (Research publication ID Number G00126320), the traditional entry point for ITIL® is focused on

resolution management - incident management and problem management Secondarily companies add control processes

- change management and configuration management, with an emphasis on the configuration management database

(CMDB) as a critical foundation to support the other management disciplines From there, release processes are addressed

with release management As an organization matures, they will focus on service delivery processes and service improve-

ment, with the addition of service level management and availability management

ITIL® Certified

When evaluating a Service Management solution to determine how well they support ITIL®, start by determining which of

the vendor’s modules and corresponding ITIL® support processes are certified by Pink Elephant Pink Elephant is commit-

ted to the ITIL® best practice framework and is recognized globally for its ITIL® expertise PinkVerify™ is the only indepen-

dent certification program worldwide that recognizes software that supports specific IT management processes Also, find

out what percentage of the vendor’s employees have formal ITIL® certification These are two important indicators of a

software company’s commitment and focus on ITIL®


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Evolutionary Improvement Path

As Gartner notes, adoption of ITIL® is typically performed as an evolutionary process Initially, processes are chaotic and

likely few processes are defined, documented or standardized As you mature, you will begin establishing basic repeatable

processes and develop a level of discipline to ensure adherence to these processes From here you will develop all critical

business processes, ensuring they are documented, standardized and integrated effectively across multiple support orga-

nizations The next natural progression is to establish documented service levels to measure the quality of the processes

Finally, you will instill continual process improvement to reach a higher level of ITIL® maturity over time

Each of the above recommended ITIL® processes will be discussed in detail below Use this Evaluation Guide to analyze

how well the service management applications and modules you are considering address ITIL® Keep in mind that ITIL® is

just one way of evaluating and selecting a software solution that will deliver premium value against your critical business

requirements Implementing an ITIL® compliant service desk does not by itself translate into service quality improvement

You must evaluate the software platform technical capabilities and evolve your business process maturity to work hand-

in-hand with the technology tools and enablers The ITIL® framework is simply a guide to drive practical application by

combining people, process and technology to achieve desired results

Incident and Problem Management

The primary goal for ITIL® Incident Management is to restore normal service operations as quickly as possible and minimize

the adverse impact on business operations The primary goal for ITIL® Problem Management is to minimize the impact of

incidents and problems on the business and prevent their recurrence Problem Management seeks to get to the root cause

of incidents and then initiate actions to improve or correct the situation

Successful incident management begins with the ability to track issues and assign clear resolution ownership as well as

develop and maintain standard prioritization criteria Successful problem management begins with the ability to track

problems separate from incidents and diagnose known errors

These goals can be readily mapped to the Service Desk A service desk provides a single point of contact to provide advice,

guidance, and the rapid restoration of normal services to its customers and users A service center is typically measured on

its ability to:

• Providecontinuitybyrestoringservicesassoonaspossiblefollowingadeviationfromagreed-toservicelevels

• Beaccessibleforquestions,complaintsandcommentsregardingtheITinfrastructure

• GainacceptancebycustomersoftheaddedvalueoftheHelpDeskforthebusinessprocesses

Evaluation Criteria

LookforthefollowingkeyHelpDeskandServiceDeskfeaturesandfunctionalityrelatedtoincidentmanagement:


SUCCESS KIT

FEaTUrE FUnCTIonaLITy

Incident

Problem

Lifecycle

•Creationofincidentandproblemrecordswithextensiveout-of-the-boxdescriptionfields and multi-level ticket classification options

•Abilitytosetupstandardizedincidentandproblemdescriptions

•Abilitytodesignateuniquestatustypesforincidentsvs.problemrecords

•Detailedcaller/submitterinformationviewablefromticketingscreen

•Autoassignmentofdate/timestamp,uniqueid,ticketcreator

•Assigntargetresolutiontimesbasedonpriority

•Measure“restorationofservice”withresolutiontimetracking.

•Trackingofmultipletasksthroughticketclosure

•Abilitytorecordappliedworkarounds,rootcauseoftheserviceinterruptionandap-plied resolution (solution)

•Misroutesandreturnedactivity/actioncanbeaddedintheticket

•StandardizedIncidentsolutionscanbesetup

•Automatedcaller/submitterconfirmationemailatticketclosure

•Problemclosurecancloselinkedincidentstoensureproperstepsaretakentoresolverelated incidents

aSSIgnownErShIP

&PrIorITIzaTIon

•Abilitytocreateticketassignmenttoagentsbasedonagentavailability,nextinlinesolution groups, skills-based routing

•Supportsbulkticketassignment

•Abilitytorecordthepriorityofaticketbasedonurgencyanddegreeofseverity

•Auto-approvalnotifications

•Businessprocessautomationandautomatedtriggersforincidentassignment,routingand rerouting and hierarchical escalations

SPEEdTo

rESoLUTIon

•Customizableandpre-configuredauto-tasking

•Automationofworkordercreationandprocessingassociatedwiththeticket

•Automatedentryforcommonproblems

•Easytouseworkfloweditorstoautomatesimpleorcomplexbusinessprocesses

•Templatesforrecurringincidentandproblemtypes

•Sendnotificationsandescalationsviaemail

MInIMIzEBUSInESSIMPaCT

•Definecustomerservicelevelbycustomercontact

•Usecallgroupstomanageprioritybusinessesandcustomers

•Integrationtoinventoryandconfigurationmanagementtoolstomapandtracktickets to impacted assets

•Abilitytocapturecustomersatisfactionsurveyresponsesuponresolution

•Mass broadcasting and integration to standard email systems to keep users notified in advance of scheduled changes and system-wide outages


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rooTCaUSE

anaLySIS



•Detailedresolutionjournalingtotrackrootcauseanalysisandresolutionstepsastheyoccur

•Abilitytoinitiatechangedirectlyfromproblemscreen

•Aknowledgebasethatcanbeupdatedwithdetailsfromaproblemrecord

•Abilitytosearchtheknowledgebasedirectlyfromtheincidentmanagementapplica-tion by known solution, workaround and known errors

•Theabilitytocontrolandapprovedcorrectiveactionfromtheincidentmanagementsystem

InTEgraTEdProCESSES

•Emailintegrationfordynamicallycreatingemailsfromincidentrecord

•Linkingrelatedincidentsandproblemsandgroupprocessing

•Linkingandopeningproblemticketsandchangeticketsfromincidentrecord

•ManageandprioritizeincidentsandproblemsbasedonassociatedSLAs

•SeamlessIntegrationtoadd-onmodulesoradvancedapplicationsforsuchareasasKnowledge Management, Voice enablement (VOIP), advanced IT Service Manage-ment, configuration discovery tools, PC Lifecycle tools, service catalog and service request

•Linkingincidentandproblemtorelatedconfigurationitems

•Achoiceofknowledgemanagementtoolstocaptureandshareagentexpertiseacross your service team

•Integrationwithotherfulfillmentsystems

•IntegrationwithHRandCustomerRelationshipManagementsystemsforintegratedaccess to caller data

ManagEMEnTFEaTUrES

•Easy-to-useUserInterfaceforagentqueueviewingandqueuemanagement

•Awidebreadthofout-of-the-boxindustrybestpracticesreports,includingstatisticalevaluations, complete incident management lifecycle history logs and trends

•Quickanswerreportingataglance

•Quicklinkstocommonqueries

•Expansivetrendingtoolsthatprovidenumerousavenuestoreport,measureandanalyze service performance and trends

•Managerviewsorconsolewithpredefineddashboardanalytics

•Dashboardswithgraphicalinteractivedrill-downstoaccessdetailedrecords.

Change Management

Change Management seeks to ensure corrective action is approved and performed in a controlled manner so that change-

related problems are prevented Successful change management requires a formal process and system to support Requests

for Change from initial recording through the approval, planning, testing, implementation and reporting stages

Evaluation Criteria

Look for the following key Change Management features and functionality related to service management:


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ChangE LIFECyCLE

•Creationofchangerecordswithextensiveout-of-the-boxdescriptionfieldsandmulti-level ticket classification options

•Autoassignmentofdate/timestamp,uniqueid,ticketcreator

•Abilitytosetupstandardizedchangedescriptions,closurecodesandchangeur-gency

•Automatedworkflowandchangetemplatesforchangecreationcanbesetup

•Changerecordsincludefieldsforchangeactivities/tasks,taskscheduling,recordingof back-out procedures and support attachments

•Supportsauto-closureofallassociatedrecordswhenthechangerecordisclosed.

•Tracksestimatedandactualworkeffort(viatimer)andstatusbytask

•Assignchangeprioritybasedonurgencyandimpact

•Measure“restorationofservice”withresolutiontimetracking.

•Trackingofmultipletasksthroughticketclosure

•Abilitytorecordappliedworkarounds,rootcauseoftheserviceinterruptionandapplied resolution (solution)

•Misroutesandreturnedactivity/actioncanbeaddedintheticket

•StandardizedIncidentsolutionscanbesetup

•Automatedinitiatorconfirmationemailatticketclosure

•Abilitytotrackandviewchangeschedules–animportantaidinidentifyingin-progress changes that may provide a solution to an outstanding incident

•Abilitytotrackriskandprobabilitycalculations

aPProvaLS•Businessprocessautomationandautomatedtriggersforapprovalroutingand

rerouting and hierarchical approvals

•Controlledsecurityaccesstoensureonlyauthorizedusershaveaccesstoreadorupdate detailed Change Management information

•SecurityrightscanbeusedtocontrolthecreationandupdateofRFCsbasedontherole of each Change Management group or staff (builder, tester, etc )

•Supportsresourceassignmenttomultipleresourcesandvisualizationofapproverflow

•SupportsapprovalsbytheChangeAdvisoryBoard.

•Auto-approvalemailnotifications


CorrECTIvEaCTIon


•Supportschangecalendar

•Changeprocessingcanbebuiltandstandardizedusingautomatedtaskandbusinessprocessing rules

•Emailnotificationsandemailmonitoringcanensurecorrectiveactionsreceiveproper change control and approvals,

•Automationofworkordercreationandprocessingassociatedwiththeticket


•Easytouseworkfloweditorstoautomatesimpleorcomplexbusinessprocesses


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MInIMIzE BUSInESS IMPaCT

•Supportsupdatingtheconfigurationitemasaresultofthechange

•Integrationtoinventoryandconfigurationmanagementtoolstomapandtracktickets to impacted assets

•Abilitytocapturecustomersatisfactionsurveyresponsesuponresolution

•Massbroadcastingandintegrationtostandardemailsystemstokeepusersnotifiedin advance of scheduled changes and system-wide outages

InTEgraTEd ProCESSES

•Emailintegrationfordynamicallycreatingemailsfromincidentrecord

•Integrationtoadd-onapplicationsincludingadvancedITServiceManagementmodules and PC Lifecycle to provide advanced corrective action and change management tools

•Linkingchangerecordtorelatedchangerecords

•Hierarchicalchangegroupingandgroupprocessing

•Linkchangetorelatedincidentsandproblems

•ManageandprioritizechangesandexecuteescalationsbasedonassociatedSLAs

•SeamlessIntegrationtoadd-onmodulesoradvancedapplicationsforsuchareasasKnowledge Management, Voice enablement (VOIP), advanced IT Service Manage-ment, configuration discovery tools, PC Lifecycle tools, service catalog and service request

•Visualizationofimpactedusers,incidents,problemsandconfigurationitems

•Integrationwithotherfulfillmentsystems

ManagEMEnT FEaTUrES

•Awidebreadthofout-of-the-boxindustrybestpracticesreports,includingstatisti-cal evaluations, complete change management lifecycle history logs and trends



•Expansivegovernancetoolsthatprovidenumerouscompliancereports



Configuration Management and the Configuration Management Database

The ITIL® Configuration Management goal is to provide a logical model of the service support infrastructure At minimum,

this requires identifying and storing configuration items (CIs) in an asset repository As organizations mature, they will

want to also maintain multiple relationships between CIs and logical CIs such as business services represented in a service

infrastructure hierarchy

Evaluation Criteria

Look for a configuration management tool that provides a range of infrastructure and asset management tools Basic

tools are appropriate when you have a simple infrastructure, or limited internal administration resources or infrastructure

modeling expertise Overly complex configuration management tools and CMDBs will be difficult if not impossible to


SUCCESS KIT

implement and deliver value if you don’t require the level of sophistication built into the solution Sophistication typically

translates to complexity Complex CMDBs are very difficult to implement, maintain and administer if you are not trained

and staffed to manage the sophistication of the tools and data model Look for a vendor that has different CMDB solu-

tionsbasedonyourcomplexityandsophisticationrequirements.OverlysimpleoroverlycomplexCMDBsarenota“one

sizefitsall”proposition.

Look for the following key Change Management features and functionality related to service management:


ConFIgUraTIonITEM (CI)

InForMaTIon

•CreationofCIinformationwithextensiveout-of-the-boxattributefieldsthatvaryby CI Type

•Adatamodelthatsupportsmanydifferentinfrastructuretypesincludingsoftware,hardware, network devices, databases and data storage devices, mobile devices, etc

•Abilitytoassociatetheincident,problemandchangerecordtotherelatedCI

•Autoassignmentofdate/timestamp,uniqueid,creator

•AbilitytosetupstandardizedCIrelationshiptypes


•Changerecordsincludefieldsforchangeactivities/tasks,taskscheduling,recordingof back-out procedures

•Abilitytosupportattachmentsattachedtothechangerecord

•Providesa“singlemasterofrecord”representationofyourinfrastructure

advanCEd FEaTUrES For

CoMPLEx

or

ChangIng InFraSTrUCTUrE

•NativecentralizedCMDBthatissharedacrossallITSMprocesses

•Multi-levelclassificationoptions(atleast3levels)

•Bi-directionallinkingofCIs

•Auto-discoverytoolsthatsupportsyourenvironment

•Abilitytoviewandreconcileactualconfigurationagainstbaseline

•DiscoverytoolsthatpopulatedirectlytotheCMDB

•Abilitytotrackconfigurationhistoryandstatechangethroughtheuseofstatusfields

•VisualrepresentationofCIandrelationships

•SupportsstatushistoryandhistoryofCImodificationsovertime

•Supportslogicalconfigurationitems

•Abilitytocreatemany-to-manyrelationshipsbetweenCIs

•AbilitytorelateCIstotheemployeestheyrelatetoforbusinessimpactbypersonand team

InTEgraTEdProCESSES

•PClifecyclemanagementtoolsforautomatedprovisioningofoperatingsystemsand patches

•Integrationwithsystemsmonitoringsolutionsforrealtimeavailability

•Policy-basedmanagementofactualconfigurationsagainstthebaseline

•Remotedesktopsupportfunctionalitylikepasswordresets

•Realtimedevicemonitoring

•Centralizedsystemhealthcheckconsole

•Integrationtocontractmanagementformaintenancecontractsandserviceproviders


SUCCESS KIT


ManagEMEnTFEaTUrES

•Awidebreadthofout-of-the-boxindustrybestpracticesreports,includingstatisticalevaluations, complete change management lifecycle history logs and trends





•Configurationitemarchiving

Release Management

The ITIL® Release Management goal is to control the release of new software and related IT infrastructure the availability

of licensed, tested and version-certified hardware and software This requires planned software and hardware rollouts

and migrations which are dependent on controlling and tracking the distribution processes with lifecycle management

tools Once a change management process and solution are in place, a natural progression is to automate the change pro-

cess with integrated lifecycle management tools, since it is often the release of a change that fails rather than the change

itself

Evaluation Criteria

Look for a release management tool that provides tools to support the full distribution lifecycle, and that cover the full

technology spectrum based on your infrastructure environment

Look for a lifecycle management tool with the following key features and functionality related to release management:


rELEaSE rECordInForMaTIon

•Creationofreleaserecordswithextensiveout-of-the-boxandcustomizableclassifi-cation fields that vary by release type

•Assignreleaseprioritybasedonurgencyandimpact


•Abilitytosetupstandardizedreleasedescriptionsandreleaseclosuretypes

•Abilitytocreateasetofactivitiesassociatedwitharelease


•Releaserecordsincludefieldsforreleaseactivities/tasks,taskscheduling,etc.

•AbilitytolinkreleasetotherelatedCI,incident,problemandchangemanagementrecord


SUCCESS KIT


dISTrIBUTIon LIFECyCLE

•Abilitytosetupandcustomizeworkflowforreleasecreation

•Createstandardizedreleasetemplatesforcommonreleaseprocesses

•CreatelinktoConfigurationItemsfortargetedinfrastructureassociatedwiththerelease

•Schedulingcalendarfortherelease,presentingprogressinformationontherollout

•Tracksoverallreleasestatusandstatusbyactivityorsub-task

•Capturesestimatedandactualworkeffort(viatimer)andstatusbyreleaseactivity

•Releaseclosuretriggersemailconfirmationtoinitiator

aSSIgn ownErShIP and PrIorITIzaTIon

•Abilitytocreatereleaseassignmenttoagentsbasedonagentavailability,nextinline solution groups, skills-based routing

•Supportsbulkreleaseassignment

•Abilitytorecordthepriorityofareleasebasedonurgencyanddegreeofseverity

•Auto-approvalnotifications

aPProvaLS•Businessprocessautomationandautomatedtriggersforapprovalroutingand

rerouting and hierarchical approvals

•Controlledsecurityaccesstoensureonlyauthorizedusershaveaccesstoreadorupdate detailed Release Management information

•Securityrightscanbeusedtocontrolthecreationandupdateofreleasesbasedonthe role of each Release Management group or staff (builder, tester, etc )


InTEgraTEd

ProCESSES

•Changemanagementtoolsforrelatingreleaseplantothechangerecord

•IntegrationwithServiceLevelAgreementstomonitoractualreleasedeliveryagainststandard targets

•IntegrationwithrealtimedevicemonitoringandtheCMDBforclosedloopchangemanagement

•Abilitytointegratethereleasebuildtotheworkordersystemtotracktheavailabil-ity of release components purchased from outside vendors

•Accesstoadefinitivesoftwarelibrary(DSL)tomaintainsecureversionsofmastercopies of all software

ManagEMEnT FEaTUrES

•Awidebreadthofout-of-the-boxindustrybestpracticesreports,includingstatisticalevaluations, complete release management lifecycle history logs and trends






SUCCESS KIT

Service Level Management

A natural complement to incident management is the introduction of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to define and docu-

ment normal service operation Per ITIL®, the primary goal for Service Level Management is to maintain and improve IT

service quality by agreeing, monitoring and reporting on service levels and achievements

Evaluation Criteria

Look for a service level management tool that provides the following features and functionality:


SErvICE LEvELdEFInITIon

•Abilityforuserstodefinetheir“normalserviceoperations”bycreatingmulti-tierservice level agreements in the system

•PreconfiguredandcustomizableserviceclassificationschemesandextensiveSLAattributes

•Dynamicattributelistbasedonservicetype

•Extensiveout-of-the-boxsampleSLAsandOperatingLevelAgreementsandstandardtemplates to easily create your own customized SLAs

•AbilitytodistinguishbetweenSLAtargetandguarantee


•AbilitytolinkSLAstootherrelatedSLAsorcreateaparent/childhierarchyofSLAs

•AbilitytolinkSLAtotherelatedCI,incident,problemandchangemanagementrecord

•AbilitytocreateahistoryofchangestotheSLAovertime


•Releaserecordsincludefieldsforreleaseactivities/tasks,taskscheduling,etc.

aPProvaLS•Businessprocessautomationandautomatedtriggersforapprovalroutingandre-

routing and hierarchical approvals

•ControlledsecurityaccesstoensureonlyauthorizedusershaveaccesstoupdateSLAinformation


SLM ProCESSES•Abilitytosetthresholdsonavarietyofservicemetrics

•AbilitytosetupSLAstoinitiateautomaticescalationprocessandreprioritizationof incident, problem and change records when an SLA breach is approach or has occurred

•Abilitytoauto-triggerserviceagentand/ormanageralertswhenSLAthresholdsarebreached

•AbilitytoassociateaservicecatalogandServiceRequestManagementSystemtotheSLA

•AbilitytosetupandcustomizeservicecatalogfulfillmentworkflowfortheSLA

•Abilitytosupportclockstopdefinitionsandservicecalendarsthattakeintoaccountdifferent support levels 24x7, 14x5, etc (excluding weekend, nights, holidays, etc )


SUCCESS KIT


ManagEMEnT FEaTUrES

•Awidebreadthofout-of-the-boxindustrybestpracticesreports,servicemonitoringand achievement reports, SLA vs actual performance comparison trends




•DashboardswithgraphicalinteractiveSLAperformancevisualization

•Packagedanalyticsandabilitytocreatecustomreportstoaidintheevaluationofservice challenges to determine service improvement initiatives

Availability Management

Service Level Management and Availability Management are two of the five ITIL® Service Delivery functions The goal of

Availability Management is to ensure that application systems are working and available for use according to conditions of

the SLAs This requires that the availability management team have monitoring systems in place that monitor for defined

service degradation conditions to identify service interruptions or performance problems Real-time automated moni-

toring is important for mission critical or business critical applications, especially during primary usage windows Using

defined thresholds to capture service degradation situations provides a higher level of availability management capability

When a monitoring agent performs a test on the hardware, software, network or end-to-end transaction, as defined by

the monitoring process and identifies a threshold breach, an alert can be set up to notify the appropriate service support

personnel so immediate action can be initiated An alert provides an early warning system of potential service failure so

an incident can be opened with the service desk and proactive service restoration activities will be started immediately

With this type of proactive service, the impact to the user community is minimized In many cases, the threshold breach is

addressed and resolved before an SLA is impacted and before the users notice service degradation Availability Manage-

ment also entails impact analysis and service outage analysis initiatives, determining cause, analyzing trends and taking

appropriate actions to ensure service availability meets SLAs

Evaluation Criteria

Look for the following availability management features and functionality as you evaluate service delivery solutions:


SUCCESS KIT


SErvICE MonITorIng

•Abilitytodefineavailabilityrequirementsbybusinessservice

•Supportsconfigurationitemtobusinessservicemapping

•Abilitytodeploymonitoringagentstoworkwithavarietyofhardware,application,transaction and network types according to your critical business service systems and infrastructure

•Preconfiguredandcustomizablethresholdevaluationcriteria

•ProvidesrepositoryforrecordingdatapertainingtoITcomponentdowntime

•Abilitytosetupthemonitoringfrequencyatselectedintervalspermonitoringevent,based on a service availability calendar

•Extensiveout-of-the-boxsampleSLAsandOperatingLevelAgreementsandstandardtemplates to easily create your own customized SLAs

•SupportsthecreationofaServiceCatalog

•Abilitytolinkservicelevelagreements,servicelevelobjectivesandunderpinningservice contracts to business services

•Viewcapabilityoftheservicemodel,relatedconfigurationitemsandlinkedserviceimpacting events from a variety of event monitoring technologies

SErvICE rESToraTIon ProCEdUrES

•BusinessprocessautomationandautomatedtriggersforSLAmonitoring

•Monitoringeventsandalertsintegratedtotheservicedesktogenerateticketswhenevents occur


•UsingProblemManagement,performrootcauseanalysisandrelatedincidents,prob-lems, changes and configuration items to perform root cause analysis

InTEgraTEd ProCESSES

•IntegrationofITSMapplications,ServiceLevelManagementandeventmonitoringsystems

•Integrationcapability(XML,email,filelistenerscombinedwiththeBusinessProcessEngine)

ManagEMEnT FEaTUrES

•Awidebreadthofout-of-the-boxindustrybestpracticesreports,serviceavailabilitycalculations and trending, SLA vs actual performance comparison reports




•DashboardswithgraphicalinteractiveSLAperformancevisualization

•Packagedanalyticsandabilitytocreatecustomreportstoaidinthemeasurementand evaluation necessary for optimizing service availability

Technical Considerations

Your software evaluation should also be focused on an in-depth technical architecture analysis ITIL® business process

alignment is key, but if the technology falls short of your minimum technical requirements, you will not be successful in

implementing a solution that works As you evaluate alternatives, the breadth of ITIL® functionality and the technical plat-

form strength need to be considered together to find a solution that fits


SUCCESS KIT

Evaluation Criteria

Look for the following technical features and functionality as you evaluate IT Service Management solutions:


oPEn arChITECTUrE

•ServiceOrientedArchitecture

•Modulararchitectureandfederatedapplications

•CompletelyintegratedITServiceManagementmodulesbuiltonasharedplatform

•Workflowprocessingthatcanmanagetransactionsacrossmultipleapplicationsandmodules

•Businessprocessautomationtool

•IntegrationEnginehubforeventmonitoring,otherITSMticketingsystems,PClife-cycle systems

•Native,openCMDB

•Sophisticatedticketintegrationwithstandardemailsystems

•Multi-tenancyandrowlevelsecurity

•Flexible,intuitiveuserinterface

•Packagedwithstate-of-the-artapplicationdevelopmentplatformtosupportcustomi-zation and extensibility

•Userandrole-basedsecurity

•Supportswebservices

•Nativeand3rd party integration tools for PC lifecycle, VOIP, web and self service inter-face, remote control, CRM, and other 3rd party ERP applications

•Advancedcommunicationprotocols

•Supportsadvancedarchitecturedeployment:VMWare,Citrix,multipleinstancesonthe same server, distributed server

•Supportsmultiplelicensingmodels:readonlyusers,fixedandconcurrentusers,enterprise-wide license, MSP

•Separate,easytouseAdministrator’sconsole

•Rolebasedapplicationviewsforcasualandpowerusers,submitters,managers,etc.

•Easytoadministerwithminimalresources

•Hierarchicalparent/childandmulti-leveltablestructures

•Supportsattachments,allowingmultipleattachmentsperrecordandmultipleattach-ment types

PLaTForM SUPPorT

•Canbedeployedonvariousserverconfigurationsfromoneservertoseparateweb/application/databaseservers

•EfficientCPUmemoryanddiskspaceutilization

•Highavailabilityconfigurations

•Supportsallmajoroperatingsystems,hardwareserversanddatabasemanagementsystems

•Supportslatestversioninfrastructure

•Compatiblewithleadingreportingandbusinessintelligencetools

•HTMLandRTFFunctionalitywithintheTool


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BUndLEd TEChnoLogy

•Supportsout-of-the-boxaccesstotheapplicationandyourendusersviamultiplechannels: web, email, VOIP, self service, hand-held devices, remote desktop access

•Integrationcapability(XML,email,chat,filelistenerscombinedwiththeBusinessProcess Engine)

•Automatedinfrastructurediscovery(agentsandAgentless)

•CustomizedreportingsoftwaresuchasCrystalReportsandCrystalReportsdevelopersoftware

•LDAPintegrationtools

•Knowledgebaseandknowledgemanagement

•Searchenginetechnology

•Graphical,interactivedashboards

•Graphicalvisualizationmodels

oUT-oF-ThE-Box FUnCTIonaLITy

& PaCKagEd

BEST PraCTICES

•Auto-installersforinstallingmultipleapplicationmodulestogether

•Preconfiguredtobeupandrunningoutofthebox

•Industrybestpracticesprepackageddatamodules

•Extensivepackageofsampletemplatesforcommontransactiontypes

•Quickstartprofessionalservicesbundles

•Easyupgradeandmigrationtools

•Onlinedocumentation

•ContextsensitiveHelp

•Intuitiveerrorandwarningmessages

•Simplifiedquickentryscreenoptions

CUSToMIzaTIon FEaTUrES

•Easilycustomizablequickanswerreportsandhyperlinks

•Extensivereportcustomization

•MyViews”forpersonalization

•Easytousedevelopmentplatformforflexiblecustomizationoptions

•Customizableforms,fields,values,classificationschemes,workflowwithoutupdatingcode

•Anydataitemcanbetriggeredviaconfigurablerulesandworkflow

Establishing Priorities

Many ITSM vendors provide adequate coverage against most of these criteria As you evaluate alternatives, consider both

breadth of ITIL® functionality and technical platform strength Identify your top priorities and select a vendor that is best

aligned around your biggest pain points With limited resources, you will likely have to narrow your focus to one or two

key ITIL® business processes Biting off more than your team can handle will make it difficult to achieve critical success in

key focus areas Selecting a tool that requires extensive training, customization, or significant systems implementation

planning and resources will delay your return on investment Focus on a solution that can meet your critical business ob-

jectives with as much out of the box functionality as possible Look for a market leader that has longevity in the industry

and financial strength Consider a solution provider that has options for growth and expansion as your needs dictate


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FrontRange ITSM Solution Match Up

Built from the ground up with ITIL® and IT in mind, the FrontRange ITSM solution suite provides extensive and complete

ITIL® feature and function coverage The table below highlights ITIL® focus areas where FrontRange has unique strengths

that hit the mark for IT enablement Extensive customization options and an open platform make the FrontRange solu-

tion suite uniquely positioned to meet and exceed your specific ITIL® requirements The FrontRange corporate DNA is

all about continued investment in ITIL® alignment and keeping pace with new ITIL® versions Please contact FrontRange

to schedule a product demonstration with a FrontRange representative We will walk you through key ITIL® focus areas,

feature-by-feature

ThE FronTrangE STrEngTh FUTUrE FoCUS

InCIdEnT and ProBLEM

ManagEMEnT

Incident and problem management are the foundation of the FrontRange ITSM solution With over 15 years in the help desk business, FrontRange’s strength is in the delivery of a full-featured incident and problem management solution This solution suite is uniquely positioned with abest-of-breedU/I.FrontRangeistheonly ITSM provider that has an integrated enterprise-caliber Voice Enablement solu-tion Together with a complete suite of ITIL® process enablement modules and enhanced Self Service, FrontRange delivers an industry-leading proactive service desk

•BuiltonMicrosoft.Net,thenewITSMversion release is designed to take advantage of next generation capabili-ties of NET 3 0, Microsoft ClickOnce, Office 2007, Outlook 2007, etc Expect further enhancements as FrontRange leverages future Net technology advancement for an even better cus-tomer experience

•SelfServiceversion3,releasedinearly2008, has service request management and service catalog capabilities, and click-to-call with VoIP Expect more focus on leveraging the service catalog and voice integration to meet the needs of the advanced call center in future releases

ChangE ManagEMEnT

As companies move from fragmented, departmental help desks to a controlled and centralized service desk, FrontRange is uniquely positioned as the ITSM mid-market leader Documenting and tracking the change lifecycle from RFC through the change and release and change auditing are key benefits of FrontRange’s extensive ITIL® features Easy-to-use process automa-tion allows business users to build sophis-ticatedworkflow.Easeofuseandeaseof implementation and customization are core value propositions of the FrontRange solution

•FrontRangeisdedicatedtodeliver-ing leading solutions that support critical governance and compliance imperitives Expect new features and functionality to evolve the FrontRange suite to address new requirements mandated by Sarbanes-Oxley and others


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ThE FronTrangE STrEngTh FUTUrE FoCUS

ConFIgUraTIon ManagEMEnT and ThE CMdB

All ITSM modules are built around a cen-tralized CMDB - populated by a range of FrontRange auto discovery technologies Linking configuration items to the business service and related SLAs, service contracts, incidents, problems, changes and release records enables root cause, service impact analysis, and configuration auditing - core strengths of the FrontRange ITSM suite Advanced reporting, quick queries, message boards and graphical dashboard analytics deliver tremendous value to both agents and management

•Configurationauditingisenhancedwith drift from baseline identification and reconciliation provided in ITSM 6

•Releasedinearly2008,v6includesanew service model visualization mod-ule for sophisticated graphical service impact/modeling.Futureenhance-ments will focus on advanced service impact analysis

•TheCMDBispartofFrontRange’sopenarchitecture platform, recognized as one of the key solution differentiators that sets FrontRange apart from the competition Expect continued ad-vancement of the CMDB and platform value prop

rELEaSE ManagEMEnT

FrontRange enhances release planning and deployment with calendaring and schedul-ing functions, along with release automa-tion when integrated to FrontRange’s PC lifecycle solution FrontRange is unique in providing automated work order genera-tion and tracking features Easy to use, yet sophisticated automated approval routing, including CAB approval support, make FrontRange a very robust ITIL® solution

•FrontRangeisoneofonlyahandfulofITSM vendors with separate Change and Release Management modules, staying true to these ITIL® disciplines

•Expectfuturefocusonthecombina-tion of ITSM and Enteo, FrontRange’s integrated PC lifecycle solution, as FrontRange continues to enhance integration features

SErvICE LEvEL ManagEMEnT

FrontRange is unique in its ability to support service catalogs, SLAs, OLAs, and underpinning contracts SLA variance re-porting and dashboards are enabled with configurable timers to capture elapsed time against SLAs for incidents, problems, changes and releases Real time monitor-ing, reporting and review date notifica-tions provide higher level value

•FrontRange’sSLAfunctionalityandITIL® features are extensive Expect future focus on advancing self service and service catalog capability

avaILaBILITy ManagEMEnT

Extending FrontRange’s service manage-ment competency to include ITIL® service delivery capability with Availability Man-agement, FrontRange has an extensive solution breadth

FrontRange delivers the most compre-hensive out-of-the-box ITIL® compliant solution for the mid and distributed en-terprise No other ITSM solution gives you the breadth of functionality with the ease of configuration

•FrontRangedeliversextensiveavail-ability measurement tools and report-ing Expect additional enhancement of proactive monitoring and further integration with third party system monitoring tools

•FrontRangecontinuestoinvestinhigh-caliber ITIL® certified Professional Services consultants Expect future focus on ITIL® workshops to play a vital role in partnering with our customers for success


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Chapter II: Learning new Lessons, ITIL® v3

ITIL® Introduction

Since the IT Infrastructure Library’s (ITIL®) update in 2000, the business environment has changed significantly, requiring

a less IT centric and more holistic approach to the business of service management The newest version of ITIL® (ITIL® V3),

takes the form of processes and functions that are managed throughout the lifecycle of the service

Chapter IV describes the underlying principles of the library and how FrontRange Solutions IT Service Management (ITSM)

supports those principles

ITIL®

ITIL® is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services

ITIL® Goals

• Matchcustomerexpectationswithserviceprovidercapabilities

• Improvequality

• Reducethelongtermcosts

• Delivercoreprocesses

• Leveragebestpractices

Demystifying ITIL® V3

The central feature of the new version is an enhanced business relevance of IT Operations There is emphasis on cultural

and organizational issues as well delivering service management from a service life cycle perspective

To support this change in emphasis, several business concepts are now considered core best practice:

• Servicestrategies:IntegrationofbusinessstrategieswithITstrategies

• ROIofabusinesscase:Expectedreturnofinvestmentsinimprovedservice

• Servicedesign:Establishmentofinnovativeserviceplanningtosupportsustainableday-to-dayoperations

• Knowledgedatabase:Bestpracticesandexpertiseinserviceimplementation

ITIL® V3 focuses on:

• Businessusage

• Servicelifecycle

• Processes

• Compliancerequirements(SOX,HPPA,etc.)

• Qualitymanagement

• Valuenetworkinnovation

• Dynamicserviceportfolios

• ISO/IEC20000

These points are among those described in greater detail throughout the life cycle perspective The five volumes that

describe the life cycle are:

1 Service Strategy

2 Service Design

3 Service Transition

4 Service Operations

5 Continual Service Improvement


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Service Strategy

A key theme of Service Strategy is the integration and alignment of business goals and objectives with IT, reducing silos

and improving communication across the organization IT is considered a service provider to the business and concentrates

on the delivery of core business benefits This includes strategic planning with an emphasis on value to the business By

creating bi-directional links between business and IT, the strategies help to define the definition of roles and responsibili-

ties Challenges, risks and desired business outcomes are all identified This strategic emphasis also serves to justify invest-

mentstosupportcompliancetostandardssuchasISO/IEC20000.

How can FrontRange Solutions help you?

FrontRangeSolutionsiscommittedtodeliveringpowerfulyetflexiblesolutionsdesignedspecificallytohelpovercomethe

business challenges faced by your enterprise FrontRange products can enable you to achieve the customer focus, produc-

tivity and optimization that support extraordinary business relationships

Because FrontRange delivers business solutions – with a holistic approach - based on industry best practices, organizations

will benefit from proven solutions that can be deployed quickly to produce real return on investment Armed with solu-

tionsthatareflexibleenoughtoconfiguretomatchbusinessneedswillaidinachievingsuccessagainstdesiredobjectives

and metrics FrontRange services are designed to support you early in planning the business strategies as well as defining

risks, roles, and responsibilities for the project

Service Design

Service Design describes design elements of the IT infrastructure, including underlying policies, architecture design as well

as documentation strategy for the consistent delivery of service solutions and processes As the second stage in the service

life cycle, it defines service objectives and elements, market models and policies Roles and responsibilities are defined and

necessary tools are identified Cost models, risk-benefit analysis, and controlling procedures round out the best practices

identified in this volume


The FrontRange technology vision is straightforward, providing powerful, ready-to-deploy solutions that can be extended

to meet exact business needs The FrontRange Foundation architecture supports the vision by providing a platform that is:

• BuiltonacommonarchitecturesupportingallFrontRangeapplications

• Builttocreategenericserviceprocesses,policies,serviceobjectivesandprocessmodeling

• Flexibleenoughtobeconfiguredandsupportedbynon-technicalexpertsyetpowerfulenoughtosatisfythemost

demanding enterprises

• Designedtointegratewiththird-partyapplicationsandlegacydatasources

• Builtonindustrystandards

• Designedtobesecure,scalableandextendable

ITIL® Service Design Core Processes supported by FrontRange ITSM:

Availability Management

Availability Management is the process that measures the availability of a component or service to perform its specific

function over time Real-time dashboard reporting provides accurate representation of components and services

Availability reports provide information on configuration and service availability Incident reports provide feedback

on mean time between failures (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR) This process is tightly integrated with Service

Level Management

Service Level Management

This process maintains and improves IT service quality through an ongoing cycle of agreement, monitoring and report-


SUCCESS KIT

ing on IT service achievements, as well as taking action to eradicate poor service Service catalogs, service level and

operational level agreements, and underlying contracts are defined and managed

Service Transition

Service Transition focuses on core change and configuration management processes to ease ongoing service operations

This includes risk and delivery options for smooth and continual business operations This is the stage of the lifecycle where

IT service transitions to support the business requirements Managing organizational and cultural change are key issues for

a smooth service transition Also important is the implementation of a knowledge database, methods, tools and practices,

and risk analysis


Change and configuration management are the key Service Transition capabilities delivered by the FrontRange IT Service

Management solution to ensure smooth transition of services The solution increases the likelihood of a successful transi-

tion by including considerations for business risks at all levels

ITIL® Service Transition Core Processes supported by FrontRange ITSM:

Change Management

Change Management ensures that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling

of all changes This minimizes the impact of change-related incidents on IT services and improves the day-to-day

operation of your organization Complete life-cycle management capabilities are included Automated approval and

assignment processes result in efficient change management

Release Management

With this process, you are able to plan and oversee the successful rollout of software and hardware to system users

You can also design and implement efficient procedures to distribute and implement changes to the system, and ef-

fectively communicate and manage customer expectations during release planning and rollout

Configuration Management

Configuration management is the process of identifying configuration items in a system, recording and reporting the

status of configurations and requests for change, and verifying the completeness and correctness of configuration

items (CIs) FrontRange IT Service Management supports best practices that provide dynamic object models to easily

relate assets to owners and view their relationships Current and historical views of real-time status of assets and their

relationships to incidents, problems and changes are available, as is a native, centralized configuration management

database (CMDB), providing a single repository for all CIs

Service Operations

Service Operations describes the activities required to keep the day-to-day operations up and running The primary pur-

pose of this phase is the delivery and support of services through the management of the infrastructure and operational

activities Service improvements are identified by monitoring performance, assessing metrics and the systematic gathering

of data


ITIL® Service Operations Core Processes supported by FrontRange ITSM:

Incident Management

This process restores normal service operations as quickly as possible and seeks to minimize any adverse impacts on

business operations Included are best practices that easily categorize incidents Functions include automation and

workflowcapabilities,assignmentmanagementandreal-timedashboardreports.


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Problem Management

This process focuses on the identifying the root cause of errors in the IT infrastructure in order to minimize their

adverse impact It then allows the initiation of actions to improve or correct the situation Problems can be related to

incidents and changes, and quickly associated with their resolution

Service improvement

The importance of service improvement is one of the most critical and value-driven aspects of the ITIL® V3 The assurance

of consistent delivery of service and its continual improvement is key to service quality Identification and introduction of

process elements for a better service completes the loop Key elements contain core business and technology drivers for

improvements, justification of achieved service quality, business benefits, as well as implementation of service improve-

ments


The message to IT has been delivered – collaborate and communicate across all departments to deliver seamless, transpar-

ent services to benefit the business and achieve its objectives Ensuring that the organization has consistent processes that

align with the business, ITIL® provides a set of consistent IT best practices to improve processes for IT and deliver service

improvements that are aligned with business needs

Business has never been more reliant on IT than it is today From acquisition to order processing to customer care, IT is in-

volved in every element of every business Nevertheless, IT organizations are struggling with the requirements of the busi-

ness and are looking toward best practices for answers to the challenges they face Best practice is simple, common sense

that leverages other organizations’ successes and failures The core business driver within IT senior management continues

to be the reduction of complexity to drive cost reduction This objective drives alignment between IT and the business

With FrontRange IT Service Management, IT best practices are incorporated into organizational activity to provide better,

personalized customer and user services and increased productivity while lowering total cost of ownership Because Fron-

tRange IT Service Management shares a common architectural platform with the full suite of FrontRange business solu-

tions, organizations have access to a range of service lifecycle capabilities that extend well beyond core IT Service Manage-

ment functions

FrontRange IT Service Management (ITSM) provides solutions based on the ITIL® best practice framework for service

management and is ideal for distributed and mid-to-enterprise organizations that have embraced IT best practices ITSM

delivers a fully navigable Configuration Management Database, streamlining IT services and delivering them in a language

that the business user understands FrontRange ITSM enables the service desk in these organizations to be more effective

in following their processes by automating and aligning with established ITIL® modules The tools scale well both techno-

logically and with process maturation

FrontRange provides services through it’s global Professional Services Organization and through a network of Certified

Consulting Partners The FrontRange Deployment Methodology focuses on rapid, economic and predictable implementa-

tions FrontRange can help organizations adopt best practices, build them into their ITSM solution and gain the cultural

and process change necessary to get the most from the ITSM solution FrontRange takes a partnership approach both in

the initial planning and implementation phases and throughout the entire life cycle Rather than having a group of gen-

eralists, FrontRange has taken an approach similar to that of a neurosurgical team - specific roles and responsibilities allow

a specialists’ knowledge to be focused to a deeper level in a particular subject matter The result is a team whose members

are the best of the best at what they do FrontRange practice teams work directly with customers as well as with their out-

side deployment specialists - a true partnership approach to assist customers to achieve success against their IT goals


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about Frontrange Solutions

FrontRange Solutions develops software and services that growing mid-size firms and distributed enterprises rely on

every day to build great customer relationships and deliver high-quality customer service The company applies a unique

combination of innovation and automation with a standards-based approach to simplify core business processes, includ-

ing: IT service management; customer relationship and sales force management; and PC lifecycle management More than

150,000 of the world’s best-known brands use FrontRange offerings to quickly improve their interactions with external and

internal clients and achieve better business results For more information, call 800 776 7889 or visit www frontrange com

North America

United States 800 776 7889

EMEA

United Kingdom +44 118 951 8000

France +33 13 926 5555

Germany +49 89 31 8830

Italy +39 03 654 48253

Poland +49 89 31 8830

Russia +7 495 710 9930

Spain +34 91 550 1646

South Africa +27 11 325 5600

APAC

Melbourne +61 3 9823 6292

Sydney +61 2 8080 3300

China +86 10 6581 4196

India +91 22 3088 1119

New Zealand +64 9 359 7402

Singapore +65 6829 2147

Copyright © 2008 FrontRange Solutions USA Inc All Rights Reserved

GoldMine,HEAT,Enteo,CentennialDiscovery,DeviceWallandotherFrontRangeSolutionsproducts,brandsandtrademarksarepropertyofFrontRangeSolutionsUSAInc.and/oritsaffiliatesintheUnitedStatesand/orothercountries.Otherproducts,brandsandtrademarksarepropertyoftheirrespectiveowners/companies.

USEOFTHESOFTWAREDESCRIBEDINTHISPAPERANDITSRELATEDUSERDOCUMENTATIONISSUBJECTTOTHETERMSANDCON-DITIONSOFTHEAPPLICABLEEND-USERLICENSEAGREEMENT(EULA).

Theinformationcontainedinthisdocumentisprovided“asis”withoutwarrantyofanykind.Tothemaximumextentpermittedbyapplicable law, FrontRange disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including warranties for quality, accuracy, merchant ability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement; and in no event shall FrontRange or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of profits or data or special damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages

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