A great success once again!!! Service Desk and IT Support Show 2012

May 1st, 2012

The 2012 Service Desk and IT Support Show was once again a major success for RMS. The was a flood of interest in the new SaaS Metering and Monitoring solutions and RMS made a lasting impression with its new stand courtesy of RMS marketing team which brought in many compliments from visitors and  co-exhibitionists alike.

RMS exhibited both the new version of RMS Vision Business Intelligence and the newly released RMS Ultra Metering and Monitoring, which is an addition to the RMS Ultra SaaS range. Both products were received with great interest. RMS would also like to thank its moral-boosting customers who came to the stand to say hello, when the feet start hurting its is always welcome to see a friendly face!

RMS Managing Director David Williams commented “This was one of the most productive Service Desk shows at which we have exhibited and I was pleased at how well received the new version of RMS Vision and the RMS Ultra Metering and Monitoring were.”

Posted in Business Intelligence, ITIL, Service Desk Show, Service Management, Uncategorized

But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…

April 27th, 2012
Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

The reporting capabilities of RMS’s products are pretty good. And before you stop reading, this blog isn’t about how good they are; it’s about the things these reports can’t tell you. Yes that’s right, someone being honest about their own products’ shortcomings.

I can get a nice set of graphs showing free disc space on my servers. A breakdown of the computer systems by Operating System, with a pretty pie chart, presents no problem. And a report of Incidents for all our Customers, highlighting any that are close to breaching targets – very easy.

All of these are very useful, but illustrate a fundamental failing of all the traditional reports – you have to know what you’re looking for. In all cases you need to know what you need to know. In the words of Donald Rumsfeld, at the time United States Secretary of Defense:

“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don’t know.”

It is these “unknown unknowns” that are so difficult to find. For example, a graph of Incidents by Operating System over time might reveal a sudden rise for one particular Operating System a few weeks ago. This would prompt you to investigate, and discover that a new Service Pack was rolled out at the time of the increase in Incidents. Now you know you have a Problem, and you can start fixing it.

But why would you look at such a graph?

Modern Business Intelligence (BI) systems allow you to search for this type of information using freeform English – so called Google-like searching. A search for Weekly Incident Counts could suggest (amongst others) the graph above, and point you to an unknown unknown.

So do you use BI or are you like Bono? Cue music

“I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you . . .”

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Posted in @AJatRMS, Blog, Business Intelligence, ITIL, Service Management

Goldilocks Dashboards

January 17th, 2012
Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

On the dashboard of my car is a gauge that exercises me a lot. It’s the water temperature gauge, and normally these don’t bother me; in fact I’ve never really noticed them on any previous car. But this one caught my eye and now I notice it all the time.

It has five lines on it – three of the lines are marked 40, 80 and 120 and the other two (intermediate) lines are unmarked. The first problem is that the lines aren’t evenly spaced, so while I assume the unmarked lines represent 60 and 100, I can’t be sure.

A rather fundamental failing is that there are no units. Do these numbers indicate °C, °F or % of normal temperature? I’m pretty sure that it’s the first of these, but I can’t be sure.

Lastly, the precision of the gauge is such that I can only guess at the temperature; I know it’s a bit above 80, but it could be anything between 81 and 89, or so. Thus I know my car’s water temperature is 80-something of some unit or other, presumed °C.

However, I only noticed these three problems because of one thing, which you might be able to guess from the previous paragraph. The needle is always just above the 80 line. I’ve had the car long enough to know that this is normal, but at first this concerned me; it didn’t look right. So I kept looking at the gauge, and the other issues became apparent. [Yes, I do drive quite a few motorway miles ]

For some things, speed for example, I do need to know accurately and precisely the actual value, but water temperature – all I need to know is that it’s OK. Three bands would do, Cold, Normal and Hot, perhaps colour coded, and I’d be a happy bunny. Instead of wondering why it’s just over 80, I would see it was green and normal.

The point is that this applies to monitoring computer equipment. Of course, just like my car’s speed there are some values you need to know exactly. But for the majority, all most people need to know is that it’s OK. If you can look at your enterprise management dashboard and see everything is just right (the Goldilocks zone) you can stop worrying.

Posted in @AJatRMS, Availability Management, ITIL, RMS Vision, Service Management

Be a Mystery Shopper

December 22nd, 2011
Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Until a couple of years ago I used to run the Youth Section of my local Rugby Club. Unknown to them I used to check how the club responded to enquiries. I’d set up an e-mail account online and contacted the club on a monthly basis in different guises – as a parent, a student.  Every time I checked the response was very good – prompt, informative and welcoming.

So what has this got to do with your Service Desk? Well, do you know how your customers are handled, and what quality of experience they have? And I mean really know what it’s like, not what you think it’s like.

Try phoning the Service Desk at different times of the day. Are you held in a queue? Do you get progress messages? What happens out of hours?

If you have a self-service portal, put a request for information on it and see how long it is before you get a response. And check how helpful that information is, and whether there’s a follow-up call to make sure everything’s OK.

In fact, don’t stop at the Service Desk, investigate your company’s web site. Find out how easy it is to log a product enquiry. Fill in the Contact Us page and see if anyone does get back to you.

Set up a recurring task to remind you, so that every month you validate something in your organisation. Look at it with a critical eye, and imagine how your company’s responses impact on prospective and existing customers. If, like me and my rugby club, you’re happy then congratulations; if not, you know what you have to improve.

Posted in @AJatRMS, ITIL, Service Management, Service Providers

Have you considered BI for IT Service Management

November 29th, 2011

Looks like RMS Vision – our unique Business Intelligence tool has been kicking up a storm in the ITSM world. Follow the link below to find out more.

ComputerWorldUK – Have you Considered BI for IT Service Management

Posted in Blog, ITIL, RMS News, RMS Vision, Service Management, Uncategorized

The Score Sheet Cometh – Six Things To Consider When Choosing a Service Desk

November 25th, 2011

@alimcox

Follow Alistair Cox on Twitter: @alimcox


Fit for purpose?

What do you actually need a Service Desk to deliver?  It may seem an obvious answer to an obvious question, however the conflicts of interest generated can be frankly unbelievable.  Is a solution completely overkill?…..

Scaleable?

OK so you have a team of five now, but what of the future?  By selecting a Service Desk you are making a commitment to manage and continually improve the services you currently offer customers.  Ergo the end result will be more customers right?….

Return on Investment?

Remember you will be making an investment, whether financial, resource based or both, but when will you get it back…or will you ever?  How long will it take team members to become productive?….

Quick Wins?

So you have a grand plan for how you are going to change the World!  Or at the very least improve the service your customers receive, but what can you very quickly achieve?….

Continual Service Improvement…

We’ve done that, what now?  Whatever ends up getting implemented will be a huge project in itself, but many people forget what should come next….

Celebrate Success!

It is a very common misconception (even more common than you would think) that a Service Desk solution is something to beat people over the head with….

The whole article is available here

Posted in ITIL, RMS Vision, Service Management, Service Providers, Uncategorized

BYOD Part 2

October 25th, 2011
Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Amongst the discussions around Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) – users bringing their own devices to work – there is a lot of coverage of the security and licensing issues. One area getting little attention is the support of a wide range of devices.

If an organisation purchases and issues IT equipment it has control over the hardware manufacturer used, the operating system type and version, the installed software, and so on. Once it opens the door to BYOD this control has disappeared.

Support teams trained and experienced in the “standard” equipment will now be exposed to new, and potentially unknown, technology. A wall-to-wall Windows house will get pockets of Linux users and enclaves of Apples. Not to mention to vast range of smart-phones and tablets that seen to be announced on a daily basis, and are often withdrawn just as quickly.

As an aside I have experience of this. For 20 years my employer has given me a Windows laptop to use. So when I get a call from my mother about a problem with her ancient Apple Mac I can offer little help. It’s not that I’ve got anything against Apple’s products; it’s just that I don’t get to use them!

So how do you support this “Tower of Babel”? Well there is some good news – an employee using his or her own equipment is doing so through choice, and they’ve chosen that equipment because they like it. That preference will be based on use and experience of that equipment, so you can assume that they know something about it.

An essential tool to support BYOD is a knowledge base. In this way your disparate communities of users can share tips and solutions on their own equipment. And this information will be available to your support staff as well.

Self service and a good knowledge base are excellent aids to productivity in their own rights; BYOD will make them indispensible.

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Please click on the article to leave any comments.

Posted in @AJatRMS, Blog, Uncategorized

Ten Top Tips for the successful implementation of ITSM Change Management

September 29th, 2011

Follow Andy on twitter: @AndyB_at_RMS

An effective ITSM Change Management Process enables beneficial changes to be made with the minimum of disruption to IT Services. Better-executed changes mean less downtime for the end-users and less fall-out for the IT Organisation to deal with in the form of related incidents and re-work.

Implementing the process, together with the supporting tools, is a significant undertaking, and you should ensure that you clearly  define your KPI’s and related targets when you start.

Here are our top 10 tips to for success…

  • Get Senior Management support . Without commitment, participation and sponsorship from the top, the change function will not get the level of respect it requires and the process will get side-stepped and never work effectively
  • Explain why you are doing it. Tell all the stakeholders why it is needed and the benefits it will deliver
  • Keep it simple. Keep the process as simple as possible to begin with and start-out using it for an agreed subset of changes
  • Explain the new process to everyone: Repeatedly – more times than you think is really necessary ….and make sure the process is documented
  • Establish and document clear roles & responsibilities: For example for your Change Manager, Change Advisory Board (CAB) members and Change Process Owner
  • Put the right people in the right place. If not enough people are engaged in the process you will end up with bottlenecks for assessment and authorization, whilst having too many people involved simply wastes everyone’s time
  • Develop Change Models. Where possible, pre-define ‘Change Models’ for those changes that will usually follow the same steps – and configure these info your Change tool
  • Identify Standard Changes i.e. low-risk, frequently-occurring changes for which Change Models can be established and which can be pre-authorized (saving time for the CAB members)
  • Scope appropriately. Consider handling very simple adds, moves and changes via a separate Request Fulfillment process (e.g. perhaps utilizing the call management / incident management / request fulfillment functionality of your supporting ITSM tool)
  • Track progress and highlight accomplishments. Measure and report regularly against the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you have defined.  Showcase your early success-stories and recognise work well done to help keep the momentum going

Please click on the article to leave any comments.

Posted in Uncategorized

Backdoor BYOD

September 22nd, 2011
Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

There is a lot of discussion about Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD if you like acronyms – users bringing their own devices to work. This centres mainly on potential benefits, and whether these benefits are to the employer or the employees. There is also considerable debate on the licensing implications of BYOD, and the liability for any breaches.

I would like to raise a matter that is perhaps more pressing: is your organisation already implementing BYOD, albeit unwittingly?

It’s hard to find a computing device that doesn’t support wireless communication, and most organisations have a wireless LAN. Of course your organisation will have secured the wireless LAN with encryption, perhaps even hiding the SSID, to prevent unauthorised access; however employees will often have access to this information, and can copy it to their own devices.

Even if you prevent access to the encryption keys, many organisations provide a guest network for the use of visitors. The keys for this are often widely known and will provide means of access for employees and their own devices.

You might already have phones, tablets and even PCs that belong to employees attached to your network.

Firstly, you need to find out what’s on your network, and for this I would recommend a discovery and audit tool. This will tell you what devices are connected, and the software installed. This provides a baseline to reconcile what should, and what shouldn’t, be there.

Secondly, I believe BYOD will happen, and it’s better for organisations to be prepared and have a policy, rather than have it happen through the backdoor and have to unravel a mess after the event.

Follow Alan Jones on Twitter: @AJatRMS

Please click on the article to leave any comments.

Posted in @AJatRMS, Blog, Uncategorized

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Make Better Business Decisions Faster with RMS Vision

August 30th, 2011

In an age of agile organisations and rapidly changing business environments, companies need to move fast to keep up.

Accessing vast amounts of data and turning it into something intelligible is a lengthy and time-consuming process, often requiring multiple re-runs to ensure you are capturing the data that answers your questions in a clear format.

With the launch of RMS Vision we’ve catapulted ourselves into the business intelligence arena, providing businesses with powerful and intuitive analytics. combining a unique free-form search engine with comprehensive graphical reporting, delivering business intelligence and analytics on terabytes of data. Collaborate,share, publish and report in real-time without the need for training

Data and decisions now happen at all levels of the business and are made by people with all levels of technical expertise. Unlike other analysis tools of this type, the RMS Vision interface has been designed intuitively, with interactive visuals that makes accessing silos of data less of a chore and more of an experience, RMS Vision compliments existing BI investment providing access to all underlying data sources for greater ROI.

Posted in Asset Management, ITIL, Insignia, RMS News, RMS Vision, Service Management, Service Providers, Uncategorized

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