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  • 8/4/2019 AST-0038962 Strategies for Choosing a SaaS

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    t rg AppacChoosing a SaaS delivery model for IT service man-

    agement can provide your IT organization with manybenets. Leaving the IT service management infra-

    structure to a SaaS vendor avoids the upfront costs

    of purchasing and implementing the soware, the

    capital expense of buying hardware, and the costs

    associated with compliance and security best practices.

    However, even aer having chosen to adopt a SaaS

    model, you still need to decide how much IT service

    management you need. Do you need a tactically

    focused, slimmed-down help desk application

    focused on basic workow for incident management

    and asset stores? Or do you need a more full-featured

    system that provides detailed information about the

    IT infrastructure and best-practice IT workows?

    Choosing the right IT service management approach

    is critical because it will help determine not only your

    IT costs, but also your business agility for years to

    come. Here are the criteria that have helped IT orga-

    nizations like yours choose the right level of a SaaS-

    based IT service management platform.

    Ky CaThe size of your user base, along with your sta size

    and associated skill levels, can provide importantclues about the range and complexity of you

    environment. Weve found that IT organizations

    generally employ one help desk professional fo

    every 100 users, and that those organizations with a

    maximum of 35 help desk professionals are gener

    ally candidates for a smaller, slimmed-down oering

    Firms with more than 35 help desk professionals

    on the other hand, tend to have more demanding

    requirements that call for higher-end IT service

    management systems, as well as a skilled sta to

    implement them eectively.

    Other considerations might be more important than

    size, however. One is the current and future complexityof your application environment and the IT infra

    structure that supports it. If your applications

    as well as the servers, storage, and networks tha

    support them are reasonably simple and static

    you could consider a more basic solution to hold down

    cost and complexity. The greater the complexity, the

    more you should consider a comprehensive solution

    Te cice w best t csme swe wete -pemises t Swe

    s Seice (SS) me is bse y specic eqiemets t ieet pits i y

    bsiess izti iecyces. Ec me pesets beets tt tke it csieti

    te IT skis witi y izti y bet cpit ess peti expeses.

    We y k t ec me, its s imptt t csie te pteti wt i y

    IT istcte te ee cstmizti iteti eqie.1

    STraTEgIES for ChooSIng

    a SSBaSEd I.T. SErvICE

    ManagEMEnT SoluTIonConsider a more complete solution if you need integration,automation, and change/release management.

    By Bob Johnson, Vice President and General Manager, SaaS Business for BMC Soware,

    and Christopher Williams, Lead Service Support Solutions Manager, BMC Soware

    b m c i N D U S T R Y i n S i G h t S

  • 8/4/2019 AST-0038962 Strategies for Choosing a SaaS

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    One useful indicator of complexity is the number

    of changes executed per month, as well as the eect

    each change has on a service and its related components .

    The more potential for downtime or security risks each

    change poses throughout your infrastructure, the more

    robust a change release system you should consider.

    You should also take into consideration what percentage

    of changes are normal or standard changes, rather than

    emergency modications. Thats because emergencies

    give you less time to simulate the eect of the change

    on other components in your environment. The more

    eort it takes to make changes and to anticipate and

    mitigate the eects of those changes the more you

    should consider a comprehensive IT service manage-

    ment solution. It provides the deeper insights into your

    environment that could save signicant eort, money,

    and risk in the future.

    Another factor to consider is how the solution will help

    you deliver IT services more quickly and at lower cost.If you have a very complex environment, the automa-

    tion and management provided by a comprehensive

    solution might actually reduce the cost and time

    required to provide such services, even though the

    solution may appear to be more expensive than a more

    basic alternative. If your environment is less complex,

    a basic solution may be a better way to get that agility

    and savings.

    You should also ask yourself whether the managers

    of your business are moving from a view of IT as a

    tactical cost of doing business to seeing IT as a critical

    business enabler. The more this shi in perspective

    takes place, the more you should consider a fuller solu-

    tion that takes a service-centric rather than a trouble

    ticket or reactive view. A comprehensive IT serv ice

    management solution provides more information and

    enables more processes.

    The current and future complexity of your business

    processes is also important. The more variety in the

    types of users you have, and the more information they

    need from more sources, the harder it is to track t he

    underlying IT assets and assure ser vice levels. If you

    anticipate a lot of complexity in the future, consider a

    more full-service solution for the wealth of information

    and best-process workows it can deliver. If you dont

    anticipate greater complexity, then a basic solution

    could be more cost-eective.

    As business managers demand better measurement ofthe services you provide, it becomes more important to

    consider a more complete IT service management

    platform. The measurement and reporting capabilities

    found in more extensive platforms will help you report

    on business metrics (such as whether you are deliver-

    ing services on time and within budget) as opposed to

    IT-centric measurements (such as the cost per asset

    delivered via a service request).

    If managing what you do is becoming as important, or

    more important, than what you have, you should also

    consider a comprehensive IT service management

    platform. Basic systems usually provide only an asset

    inventory application, rather than an asset managementsystem that uses a conguration management database

    (CMDB) to catalog information about your IT asset s.

    The CMDB found in comprehensive systems not only

    stores asset data, but also normalizes and shares it

    with an entire range of IT service management tools

    An enterprise-scale CMDB improves the speed and ac-

    curacy of help desk services, while also supporting more

    mature, enterprise-wide change and release processes

    In addition, an enterprise-level CMDB eases asset and

    soware license management activities, ranging from

    providing soware to users to retiring unneeded soware

    igaThe ability to integrate other systems such as infra

    structure discovery, event management, or business

    applications into your IT service management

    platform is usually found only in more comprehensive

    solutions. While most basic systems ship with integra-

    tion to authentication mechanisms, such as LDAP, you

    should consider a broader solution if you need integra-

    tion with infrastructure discovery, event management

    or such business applications as ERP or CRM systems.

    With broad integration needs comes the requirement

    for infrastructure discovery tools that enable tracking

    of IT components, such as ser vers, network switches

    and storage arrays, through their service lifecycles. By

    tracking the IT service components that provide critical

    business services, you are better able to make the

    decisions required to resolve service slowdowns or

    interruptions, or to meet industry, corporate, or legally

    mandated compliance and governance standards.

    Youre more likely to need integration with event

    management systems to the extent that:

    Users or customers oen discover service slowdowns

    or interruptions before IT Users complain about the time or cost involved in

    solving problems

    Choosing the right IT service

    management approach is

    critical because it will help

    determine not only your ITcosts, but also your business

    agility for years to come.

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    You have trouble maintaining uninterrupted opera-tions across an increasingly large and demanding

    environment Youre having trouble siing through false alarms or

    multiple warnings about the same issue

    The integration capabilities found in more completesolutions might be a requirement if, for example, your

    service desk needs to be notied about, or make changes

    through, such devices as smartphones, or to share in-

    formation with industry-specic provisioning systems,

    such as those used in the telecommunication industry.

    Those integration capabilities may also be required if

    your IT service management system needs to share

    information with diagnostic tools, such as remote access,

    or soware that allows a service to repeat the sequence

    of events that caused an error. Finally, consider whether

    the integration provided by a more complete tool would

    speed problem resolution and aid service monitoring

    by allowing service desk employees to share informa-tion about system uptime and performance with widely

    used enterprise applications, such as ERP or CRM.

    Cag Maagm a SvcLvl MaagmComprehensive IT service management solutions tend

    to provide higher levels of support, as well as more

    mature processes around change management and

    service level management.

    You should give greater consideration to change

    management the more you are experiencing serious

    problems implementing changes or security updates

    within your normal maintenance windows. You shouldalso make it a very high priority if you have experienced

    slowdowns or crashes because of changes made in

    error or in the wrong order, or if the problems are caused

    by collisions among multiple releases.

    Change management might also help if you are experi-

    encing delays in identifying which IT components provide

    specic business services, t hus hindering your stas

    ability to troubleshoot or resolve problems. A sk your-

    self how benecial it would be to be able to simulate the

    impact of changes before making them. Would it reduce

    application downtime or performance issues? Would

    it reduce your risk of not complying with cor porate,

    industry, or government regulations?

    Moving to a broader IT ser vice management solution

    with mature change management processes might

    also help you reduce costs and errors by grouping

    conguration changes or by changing the order in

    which they are done. Whats more, change management

    is worth considering if the business wants to signi-

    cantly improve compliance with industry-standard best

    practices, such as the IT Infrastruc ture Library (ITIL),

    and if your current c hange or release management

    processes make it dicult to assure compliance with

    corporate, industry, or government regulations.

    Service level management capabilities found in com-

    prehensive IT service management solutions may be

    worthwhile if your business requires interactions

    among multiple applications and IT infrastructure

    components, or if you need to provide dierent levels

    of service to various classes of users. Other consider-

    ations include whether you must meet specic SLAs

    for users in dierent business units or divisions, and

    whether the business measures IT on its ability to

    provide business services (such as decision support

    for a manufacturing system or policy underwriting)

    rather than just applications and network uptime.

    You should also consider a comprehensive solution if

    you need to improve in a consistent and measurable

    way the eciency, eectiveness, or accurac y of such

    disciplines as change management, service level man-

    agement, or release management. A more complete

    solution is also worth consider ing if a holistic (vs. siloed)view of how your IT infrastructure and core business

    aect each other would help reduce costs and/or provide

    better service to users, business partners, or customers.

    Finally, consider an extensive service level manage-

    ment option if you are under pressure to better align IT

    with the business or to make IT a business enabler

    rather than just a support function.

    Youre less likely to need as many serv ice level manage-

    ment capabilities (and thus should consider a slimmed

    down IT serv ice management solution) if you only need

    a help desk to solve specic problems and per form

    individual tasks, such as upgrading a users machine.

    Consider a less sophisticated system if business man-agers mostly view IT as a cost of doing business a nd

    necessary to maintaining daily operations, as opposed

    to helping the business grow and enter new markets.

    rlas Maagm a daaC AmaThe more you need mature release management capa-

    bilities and data center automation, the more you

    should consider a comprehensive IT service manage-

    ment solution.

    You should give more consideration to release manage-

    ment to the extent that you have experienced problems

    b m c i N D U S T R Y i n S i G h t S

    As you weigh these criteria,

    consider your current andfuture needs.

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    BMC, BMC Soware, and the BMC Soware logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Soware, Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Oce, and may be

    registered or pending registration in other countries. ITIL is a registered trademark, and a registered community trademark of the Oce of Government Commerce, and

    is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Oce, and is used here by BMC Soware, Inc., under license from and with the per mission of OGC. All other BMC trade-

    marks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the

    property of their respective owners. 2011 BMC Soware, Inc. All rights reserved. *202548*

    About the AuthorS

    Bob Johnson, vice president

    and general manager of

    BMCs Soware-as-a-Service

    business, joined BMC in

    December 2009. Johnson has

    over 20 years of experience

    in SaaS/Managed Services

    marketing, product manage-ment, application development/integration, and

    broadband networking. At Cisco, he was respon-

    sible for leading the development of Cisco Managed

    Services oerings for advanced technology appli-

    cations. He also held executive positions at SAIC-

    Telecordia Technologies and the S aaS Division of

    Breakaway Solutions. Earlier in his career, Johnson

    held a variety of sales, marketing, and product

    management leadership roles with Ernst & Young

    Teleport Communications Group, and AT&T. He is

    also a former Captain in the United States Marine

    Corps. Johnson holds a masters degree in telecom-

    munications from Stevens Institute of Technology,

    a master of business administration and manage-

    ment degree from Webster University, and an

    undergraduate degree from Boston College.

    Chris Williams, lead service

    support solutions manager,

    is responsible for the product

    marketing of the BMC Service

    Support discipline. He man-

    ages a team that focuses on

    solution-level strategies that

    leverage the comprehensive

    capabilities of integrated IT processes and prac-

    tices that are advanced through the use of the BMC

    oerings. He has more than 28 years of IT experi-

    ence, including 15 years managing data centers,

    operations, and technical support organizations

    for nancial, government, retail, and manufacturingorganizations. He also owned and managed an

    ITIL consulting rm specializing in technical and

    business process analysis.

    buSineSS runS on i.t.

    i.t. runS on bMC SoftwAreBusiness thrives when IT runs smarter, faster and

    stronger. Thats why the most demanding IT

    organizations in the world rely on BMC Soware

    across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud

    environments. Recognized as the leader in

    Business Service Management, BMC offers a

    comprehensive approach and unified platform

    that helps IT organizations cut cost, reduce risk and

    drive business prot. For the four scal quarters

    ended December 31, 2010, BMC revenue was

    approximately $2 billion. Visit .mc.cm for

    more information.

    b m c i N D U S T R Y i n S i G h t S

    implementing new application releases within your normal maintenance windows or have

    experienced application outages or slowdowns due to soware that was released in error or

    released in the wrong order. The streamlined release management provided by a robust IT service

    management tool can help free your IT sta from routine work to develop new mission-critical

    applications or services.

    Data center automation may be a requirement if your internal IT group is having trouble matching

    the prices that cloud service providers are quoting for IT services. It may also be a requirement if

    your IT sta is being pulled away from strategic, business-critical projec ts to keep the lights on or

    deal with operational emergencies. Finally, this may also be a requirement if management is

    considering outsourcing par t or all of your IT operation to save money.

    t o-Pmss opWhile there are many benets to deploying IT service management through a SaaS model, there

    are other cases where on-premises deployment may be the best option. On-premises deployment

    is required, of course, if your organization must comply with government, industry, or corporate

    guidelines that forbid corporate data or systems being hosted outside the enterprise rewall. It

    may also be the best option when senior business or IT management are, for whatever reason,

    fundamentally opposed to moving critical systems to the cloud.

    On-premises deployment may be a better t the more you need to customize the code (as opposed

    to just reconguring the system settings) or integrate it with locally hosted applications. You should

    give more consideration to on-premises deployment if you have signicant concerns about the

    reliability or speed of the Internet access available to your enterprise.

    f nsAs you weigh these criteria, consider your current and future needs. For example, is the size or

    complexity of your organization growing? Is IT emerging from its current tactical role to become a

    more strategic enabler of business services? Will higher maturity levels in such areas as congu-

    ration and release management hold down costs or boost customer satisfaction as you move to

    serve new markets and new customers?

    While you want to ensure a healthy return from your investment, consider whether comprehensive

    IT service management capabilities might not only save money in the long-run, but also position

    your enterprise to out-perform the competition.

    Whichever route is right for you basic or comprehensive, SaaS or on-premises BMC has theright solution for you.

    For those choosing the SaaS delivery option,BMC Remedyforce Service Desk, an ITIL-based

    help desk, meets the needs of organizations with smaller or less complex requirements. Visit

    www.bmc.com/force to sign up for a free trial. BMC Remedy OnDemand provides a SaaS-based IT service management solution for organiza-

    tions that need more extensive capabilities in such areas as incident, problem, and change

    management, as well as integration with other applications. For those choosing an on-premises deployment, BMC Service Desk Express Suite provides

    essential service desk capabilities, while BMC Remedy IT Service Management Suite provides a

    full-featured IT service management solution.

    If your needs ever change, BMC provides the exibility to move your deployment between the cloud

    and on-premises as needed . This allows you to protect your investment, while also providing theexibility to adapt as your business requirements change.

    end noteS

    1 Paul Avenant, Top Considerations for Moving to a SaaS Delivery Model for IT Service

    Management, BMC Soware, 2010.

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