Service Matters! ITSM & IT Management

Posted by: Mitesh Desai

In recent times, there has been a lot of hype about green computing and the drive to lower the impact of IT on environment. Most of the focus to date has been on how to reduce power consumption in data center. Hardware vendors are coming up with energy efficient computing devices and architectures. On the other hand, software vendors are coming up with products for virtualization to improve hardware resource utilization and as a result save up on energy and reduce carbon footprint.

While there is no doubt on the quality of technology solutions provided by the vendors, how many times have the technology solution being able to solve the business problem and yet the return on investment was not realized? Was the technology not effective or was the organization not able to make optimum use of features provided by the technology? How will the organizations manage complex infrastructures created by technology solutions like virtualization, consolidation etc?

In order to address all such questions, organizations need to have well defined processes and procedures with “green” action points embedded in them as control points. They also need to have people who are trained and are willing to contribute to “green” efforts made by the organization. Hence, the organizations need to start looking at their “green” initiatives from all the 3 dimensions, viz. process, governance and technology. IT Service Management comes out as a perfect solution to this situation as it takes care of all 3 dimensions the organizations need to address.

Process: ITSM advocates provision of organized services by IT to its business customers and hence the philosophy of ITSM revolves mainly around processes. The probability of success of “green” initiatives of the organizations increases when the “green” action points are injected in IT operational processes like asset management, configuration management, change management etc. At the same time, it becomes easy for the business to visualize ROI on such initiatives by incorporating “green” agenda in IT strategy and preparing a strong business case for them. 

Governance: Success of “Green” initiatives also depends on presence of trained people and good governance structure. ITSM is also seen as a primary enabler for IT Governance.  Various frameworks like CoBIT, ITIL etc. provide guidance on establishing governance around IT. These frameworks can also be utilized as a base for setting up processes and governance for Green IT. 

Technology: Large numbers of software tools are available in the market for ITSM. The vendors of these tools have observed the rising adoption of technologies like virtualization and are preparing their ITSM solutions for managing services in virtual environments. For example, HP has come up with an approach for end-to-end service management in virtualized environment.

Hence, going green is not just about technology implementation; instead it requires a holistic approach and the IT organizations need to understand that ITSM is an important element in their endeavor to be sustainable.

Posted by Guest Author at 02:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Protecting the environment, more than a good gesture, has become a necessity. Professionals working in diverse areas have one common topic in their discussions – environment protection. Instances such as – Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, a documentary on global warming and Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio hosting “The 11^th Hour”, an environment protection TV feature on HBO – indicates the level of attention this topic has gained.

The UN estimates over 2% of total worldwide carbon emissions are generated just by IT and data centres are singled out for particular scrutiny with energy use projected to double by 2011. CIOs are starting to feel the pressure and industry is waking up. In addition, the increase in energy prices and availability constraints are increasingly pressuring the IT to go Green.

Mitesh, one of our consultants, has done extensive research on Green IT and has studied various dimensions surrounding the subject. He has also participated in Green IT assessments for end-user computing devices. Here are some interesting thoughts on IT sustainability and Green from Mitesh. Over to you Mitesh...

Posted by Gautam Nadkarni at 08:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Share your thoughts!

                                                                         - Posted by Ravindran A Varier 

Albert Einstein had said that if the future generation does not find any faults in his theories, then there has been some major mistake somewhere, or something like that! That was the conviction that he had that the future will question the theories of the past.

I draw inspiration from this statement from the great man. We all would have been told in our school days that we should not copy from our neighbor. But I draw inspiration from Albert Einstein and hence question this theory! This reasoning and the resulting thought process led me into the present day corporate best practice of Reuse! (I know you are surprised by the connection. In fact, Einstein would have stayed clear of his statement if only he knew it could be comprehended in this way too!

Well, jokes (and the reasoning) apart, let’s talk about reuse. In today’s world, it is really a big challenge to compare time and money. It is almost as tough as answering whether the egg came first or the chicken! Of course just like we know that egg can lead to a chicken and vice-versa, similarly we are also aware that in business, time saved is money. So businesses are laying extra stress on avoiding duplication. In jargonized language, it is termed as ‘reinventing the wheel’.

But these management jargons and business theories hold a lot of value when seen through an ITSM frame of reference. ITSM is like a huge fair – not just because it is easy to get lost. If you as a salesman want to set two shops in a large fair, the strategy you would follow would be to set up a shop in one corner, reason out its feasibility to generate profits and then open up a similar shop in another corner of the fair. This is where ITSM is similar to a fair.

Of course each of your shops will have different shopkeepers, but if you wait for each shopkeeper to individually set up a shop and then generate profits, all land next to your fair will be taken up by competing fairs and they would eat into your pie. Whereas if your shopkeepers decide that the helper they use is very efficient and he can teach helpers from other shops to perform efficiently, the entire fair will prosper.

Now just think that ITSM is your fair and all shops are your own. So you would have shops like – Service Catalog, Service Portfolio Management, Release Management, CMDB, Change Management, Availability Management, etc. Now you might get an idea of the huge potential that these shops contain to generate profits! Also imagine the amount of time that you can save by reusing IT Assets generated from each of these. In today’s world, first mover’s advantage is at times so important that first mover might become the only mover!

If shops are various ITSM concepts/solutions, shopkeepers would be various consultants and helpers could be an idea or a Toolkit or collateral that they used to develop and model their solution. This just emphasizes the need for Reuse of IT Assets and artifacts and sharing of ideas within ITSM for a successful business.

 

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Posted by: Ankur Jain 

For quite some time we have been researching and implementing best practices for Software License Management (Software LM) and how can it help organizations cut down their License costs in an effective way. It is very important in the context of the current economic shift in which every corporate level decision is aiming at cost reduction or optimization. So what is Software LM and why and where should organizations invest?

To answer this question, let’s look at some of the key concerns from an organizational perspective:
·          Do we know the number and type of software applications currently used in our company by user, business unit, and job function?
·          Do we have the proper controls in place for purchasing, deploying and managing software assets?
·          Based on our actual annual software spend, do we know the Return On Investment (ROI) by application & by user type?
·          Is there awareness in our organization on the legal ramifications, risk of being fined if caught “out-of-compliance”?
·          Is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of software assets correctly accounted for in the organization’s financial statements?
·          Are we able to track costs of the software applications deployed in the organization?
·          If an audit is conducted in our organization on software license compliance, what would the result be?
 

If the answer to all or even some of these questions poses a challenge, then it indicates the need to optimize Software LM in the organization.
To put it simply we can say that the Software LM domain refers to the management of software licenses that are used within organizations. Possibly, one of the first things that comes to mind when we think of Software LM is the process for license management and the referential positioning of this process within industry best practice.
 

Technically, the license management process can be placed under the Service Transition book of IT Infrastructure Library Version 3 (ITIL V3). Within this book there are guidelines for Service Asset & Configuration Management (SACM). However, there is not much specific guidance on Software LM best practices. Hence, it is imperative to highlight the current trends and industry wide best practices followed in license management, rather than referring to only a particular industry process framework.
 

Industry process standards like ISO/IEC 19770 talk about SAM (Software Asset Management) as well as some of the technical standards for Virtualization, Centralized License Management and Application Hardening that highlight the current trends in license management.
According to our research the most common types of Software licenses are Proprietary, Commercial Royalty free and Free software licenses. Also, categorizing the types of licenses based on pricing is important, the types of pricing models can include Feature-Based, Rental and Pay-per-use license.
Lifecycle stages of license management refer to the phases that a license would pass through right from the plan to buy licenses until the end where the organization would dispose them off. The stages of the license management lifecycle are:   Planning & Design, Procurement, Fulfillment, Tracking and Disposal.
 

Whilst analyzing the best practices in the field of License management, we came across various tools that help an organization in managing Software Licenses effectively. Some of the basic features that a tool in this category are expected to have can be managing product keys, license count, purchases, installation history, software categories etc.  Tools like SamLite, Centennial License Management, eSMART by Dell and Software Asset Management - Phoenix Software provide this feature.
 

All this discussion on license management would be incomplete without highlighting the business benefits that Software LM can realize. Listed below are some of the key benefits that an organization can expect by adopting Software LM:-
·          Reduced Software TCO - Accurately plan and budget for software requirements, license upgrades (or retirements) and particularly support requirements.
·          Economies of Scale – Knowing what software you have, why you have it and where it helps in making informed strategic, tactical and operational decisions. This information also helps to decide where to steer the business in the future.  It enhances corporate transparency and accountability regarding software assets, which results in vesting more power with the Finance/ Procurement teams to negotiate with vendors on the pricing models and therefore helping lower TCO.
·          Improved Efficiency of Support/ Help Desk – By standardizing software versions, file-sharing issues are reduced, communication is made easier & Users can work together seamlessly which leads to increased productivity. A SAM Software Use Policy will reduce unapproved software downloads and potential viruses that can infect the network.
·          Capability to build knowledge bases and best practices – To develop and sustain capabilities is essential  to gain competitive advantage for growth & sustainability of any org. Effective LM solutions enhance end user experience & encourages members to take initiatives to generate new knowledge and effectively translate requirements into research results.
 

If Software LM can achieve all these benefits, why not adopt it!!

Posted by Guest Author at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

As the popularity and adoption rate of ITIL grows, it widens the scope for new ways of managing the Assets of an organization. One of the key areas of interest in this domain is Software License Management. As we all know managing software licenses can become a tedious task. Forums like Business Software Alliance, www.bsa.org work hard to reduce software piracy. In most cases, illegal use of software is a result of lack of knowledge rather than malicious intent.

Ankur, one of our team members, has done extensive research on Software License Management. He has looked into some of the best practices that the organizations should follow in pursuit of a Software LM solution. He has also shown why an organization should adopt these even if the current economic situation has cost-cutting as a prime objective.

If you have questions like, why should we go for dedicated solution for Software LM? What business benefits can software LM can achieve? We have already bought licensed copies of the software we use, then why should we bother to manage those for optimum use? ; I would suggest you read though the post that Ankur has put up. Some, if not all your queries may be answered in some of Ankur's up and coming blog entries...

Posted by Bruno Calver at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)