Empowering IT with a Flexible Integration Service Desk Platform Ready Today and for Tomorrow's ChangeOn an average day, a service desk manager not only handles incidents, problems and questions but also provides an interface for other activities such as change requests, maintenance contracts, software licenses, service-level management, secure configuration management, availability management, financial management and IT services continuity management. It’s a lot. But that’s just yesterday’s list. In today’s extended enterprise, the increasing diversity of computing platforms and employee-owned devices with a multitude of operating systems and disparate applications, some of which may be IT-sanctioned and some of which may not, is creating ever greater complexity. Managing information security while allowing information availability to mobile workers compounds the workload and may confound an ITIL strategy.

Safeguarding Your enterprise Assets with Cloud-Based IT Service Desk Solutions

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Plan, Do, Check, Act or Just Get IT Done!Because organizations and their information systems constantly change, the activities within the security management process must be revised continuously, in order to stay up-to-date and effective. An ITIL or ITSM model may be desired or even mandated but the reality of the daily Plan, Do, Check Act, process may be relegated to fixing mission critical issues and 24/7 damage control tactics rather than adherence to a better security configuration management strategy for example.

Most IT managers understand the ramifications of the security issues with devices and wireless transformations coming. But until now, asset management solutions, such as the traditional software and premise based heavyweights were expensive, hard to implement and required extensive training, resource and were often left abandoned as shelfware. With so many mission-critical network issues requiring every tactical effort 24/7, why would anyone want to risk change, especially on networks patched with years of make dos, much less seriously consider a “proactive” strategy?

IT service desk tools that purportedly “helped” to simplify daily IT task and system management have been widely available since the early 1990s. Today's solutions have evolved features, functionality, integration capabilities and process alignment during the past two decades. However the on-premises model (in which customers buy the software, purchase fixed/named or concurrent licenses, install it on their own servers or pay someone to host the servers, and then pay a yearly support and maintenance fee) has remained a constant. For many IT departments the traditional heavyweight solutions available via the premise-based model has been disappointing and not useable, much less reportable as ROI.

David Coyle, Gartner Research Analyst reports, “Traditional service desk tools have an unfortunate history of long and costly product upgrade paths, largely due to the large number of customizations that vendors required. Although in recent years, most IT service desk vendors provide straightforward and relatively inexpensive product upgrade road maps, many customers have experienced (or are still experiencing) lengthy, resource-intensive product upgrades. Service desk customers have not been diligent in upgrading to the latest version of the software, because the customization they did to the tool made upgrades difficult and because keeping up with the latest version was not deemed strategic. Therefore, these customers have found themselves on older versions of the tool and now realize that an upgrade to the latest version has become a timely and costly endeavor. IT organizations that have lived through painful service desk upgrades (or have heard horror stories from colleagues) have told Gartner that the idea of regular and modest-effort upgrades done by the SaaS provider is attractive.”

Ready for SaaS and What’s Up with the Cloud for the IT Service Desk MarketThe IT service desk market is well-positioned to use the SaaS licensing and delivery model. Increased speed to implementation including fast integration APIs at a lower cost offers the greatest advantage of the best of breed emerging SaaS solutions, compared with traditional on-premises licensing models. And traditional providers, while seeking to jump into the SaaS market, don’t have the evolutionary know how and track record to simply switch delivery models. It takes experience and evolution to deliver IT Service Desk SaaS that is secure, fast and reliable.

“IT organizations that have lived through painful service desk upgrades (or have heard horror stories from colleagues) have told Gartner that the idea of regular and modest-effort upgrades done by the SaaS provider is attractive.”David Coyle Gartner Research Analyst

The SaaS model for IT service desk is becoming a more feasible and credible alternative to the traditional on-premises model. In the SaaS model for IT service desks, the customer pays a concurrent or fixed/named license fee on a periodic subscription basis. From an infrastructure perspective, the IT service desk vendor hosts the SaaS tool for the customer and performs the bug fixes, patches and major upgrades. This also offers greater opportunity to align with the desired ITIL approach.

Cost advantagesAccording to Gartner, premise-based IT service desk solutions can be expensive, and even a midsize organization with 150 IT employees can easily find itself spending $250,000 and beyond. With such a price tag, especially in the current economic environment, even IT organizations with old and poorly implemented service desk tools may find it difficult to justify a new tool purchase to the business. Because SaaS IT service desk tools are often purchased through the operating budget on a month-to-month basis, IT management is often able to buy the tool without the rigor involved with a capital purchase.

Ease of upgradesSaaS solutions also hold the promise of periodic feature and functionality upgrades that require little involvement.

Product Access/DeliverySaaS/Cloud based remote support products are often considered as offering greater security than traditional premise-based software. Michael Blaisdell, service desk analyst for remote support technology makes the following recommendation: “Since the on-demand approach means that all users of the technology are using the same version of the software at all times, there is no need to worry about the installation of upgrades or worry about inconsistencies between revision levels with the continual automatic updates available via the SaaS delivery model. With SaaS, there is nothing to install on the user’s computer until the resource is needed, and nothing to be maintained afterwards.”

Fewer potential risksIT service desk tools purchased through the SaaS model also present fewer financial and implementation risks for IT organizations. Failed or inadequate IT service desk implementations are rarely technology issues, but have more to do people, processes, revolving IT management and changing business conditions. However, whatever the reason for a failed implementation, many IT organizations find it difficult to justify ripping out their current service desk tools in favor of starting over or getting a new tool. But the try before you buy model of SaaS lowers the barrier to entry and speed measureable results upon deployment in days if not sooner.

Fewer security concernsData security continues to be a major reason IT organizations hesitate to adopt SaaS solutions. Security must be a key criterion in any decision to use external SaaS providers, when critical customer and business information is involved. Choosing the right SaaS provider can, however, lead to consistent and automated updates, thus enhancing security management.

“SaaS IT service desk tools are often purchased through the operating budget on a month-to-month basis, IT management is often able to buy the tool without the rigor involved with a capital purchase.”David Coyle Gartner Research Analyst

Security Permeates Application Authentication and Authorization ControlsSaaS is fast becoming the platform of choice for IT organizations that demand security, reliability and availability. SaaS for the IT Service Desk helps managers take secure control of their IT assets and deliver end-user technical support anywhere, anytime, – even when they are outside their local network. The new capabilities to integrate these tools allow the service desk manager to gain a 360 degree view while automating tasks and managing systems that promote a strategy to Plan Do, Check, Act from anywhere with secure processes in place.

Industry analyst Phil Wainewright states: “By bringing the infrastructure into the cloud with the help of NTR Service Desk, enterprise IT positions itself to integrate well not only with conventional on-premise IT service management tools but with SaaS customer service and helpdesk providers such as Salesforce.com, ConnectWise, N-able and others. Adopting a cloud-ready game plan thus both modernizes the support infrastructure to meet the expectations of today’s users and positions it to interoperate well with future iterations of cloud computing.”

About NTRglobalMore than 300,000 IT managers and 15,000 enterprises rely on NTRglobal to deliver enterprise-grade security and powerful integration with on-demand IT automation, system management and remote access and remote support for Windows, Mac and Linux. For more information, please visit www.ntrglobal.com

“By bringing the infrastructure into the cloud with the help of NTR Service Desk, enterprise IT positions itself to integrate well not only with conventional on-premise IT service management tools but with SaaS customer service and helpdesk providers such as Salesforce.com, ConnectWise, N-able and others.”Phil Wainewright, industry analyst

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12.2010