For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

A Sample IT Infrastructure And Operations Balanced Scorecard  (41 KB XLS)

by Rachel A. Dines, Evelyn Hubbert, October 1, 2009

The Balanced Scorecard is built around four dimensions that have been adjusted for use in information technology: the value perspective, the user orientation perspective, the operational excellence perspective, and the future orientation perspective. . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Building The IT Infrastructure And Operations Balanced Scorecard

The Eight Essential Metrics That Infrastructure And Operations Should Be Measuring

by Rachel A. Dines, Evelyn Hubbert, October 1, 2009

"You can't manage what you can't measure" is the stated adage, but when it comes to infrastructure and operations (I&O), what to measure is the first challenge. Many firms don't know which metrics to use, or how to collect the information they need . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Inquiry Insight: IT Management Software

Sustained Activity In Spite Of The Economic Downturn

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, May 13, 2009

Forrester analyzed the IT management software (ITMS) inquiries received from vendors and end users in 2007 and 2008. Inquiries are a good indicator of the tactical issues faced by Forrester's clients and of the activity surrounding a given subject matter. . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Network Monitoring And Management, Q1 2009

by Glenn O'Donnell, April 28, 2009

Despite being one of the most mature domains of IT management, the landscape for network monitoring and management remains an area of constant discussion. Forrester answered the inquiries of numerous end users between February 2008 and December 2008 on . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Service Manager — Job Profile And Description  (28 KB XLS)

by Galen Schreck, April 1, 2009

Position overview: The service manager provides IT's face to the business, ensuring that customers receive value from IT.

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Topic Overview: Help Desk/Service Desk

by Chip Gliedman, April 7, 2008

Technology has become an integral underpinning of virtually all business interactions. However, just as a smoothly running infrastructure can enable business users to succeed, flaws in this technology or training can impede business progress. To support . . .

For Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals

The SLM/BSM Software Market

Which Services Must Be Managed: Those Of IT Or Those Of The Business?

by Peter O'Neill, September 7, 2007

The service management software market is a growth segment within the IT management software market, thanks to interest in converting IT operations into a services-centric organization and resulting investments in process automation and service catalog . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Topic Overview: IT Service Management

by Peter O'Neill, Daniel Krauss, October 20, 2006

IT service management (ITSM) combines process management and industry best practices into a standard approach that enables organizations to deliver quality IT services to meet business needs and adhere to service-level agreements. ITSM addresses operational . . .

For CIOs

Topic Overview: Help Desk/Service Desk

by Chip Gliedman, September 5, 2006

Technology has become an integral underpinning of virtually all business interactions. However, just as a smoothly running infrastructure can enable business users to succeed, flaws in this technology or training can impede business progress. To support . . .

Implementing BSM

Keep The Big Picture In Mind If You Want To Reap The Full Benefits

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., Peter O'Neill, April 18, 2006

More and more IT organizations are beginning to develop true business service management (BSM) systems by doing two things: Understanding the metrics their business users employ to decide if IT is providing value, and linking these metrics and their associated . . .

BSM Is Coming Of Age: Time To Define What It Is

Business Service Management Is Leaving The Buzzword Stage

by Peter O'Neill, February 1, 2006

As more and more IT organizations improve their service delivery, they are turning their focus to presenting their business value more positively. These organizations are beginning to develop true business service management (BSM) systems by doing two . . .

The Management Process Alphabet Soup

ITIL, COBIT, And ISO: Overlap Or Complement?

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, September 1, 2005

Pressures to decrease cost, increase reliability, and comply with local regulations conspire to make it harder than ever for IT to deliver business services efficiently. We are fast approaching the stage of IT's evolution at which innovation must translate . . .

In-Flight Transaction Optimization Arrives

OpTier's CoreFirst Represents The First Of A New Class Of Management Tools

by Richard Fichera, Jean-Pierre Garbani, August 22, 2005

The first generation of tools to identify end-to-end components and dependencies of complex services that span multiple systems and network elements became available this year. In addition to identifying all the components of a multi-tier transaction . . .

IT Service Modeling Is Heating Up

Managed Objects Enters An OEM Agreement With nLayers

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, January 7, 2005

Automated discovery and mapping of application dependencies on infrastructure components has become a "must have" for business service management and service-level management vendors. First, CA announced its homegrown Sonar. Next, Mercury Interactive . . .

Best Practices For Service-Level Management

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, December 1, 2004

Aligning IT with business objectives and showing the value of IT to the business is often seen as the Holy Grail by many CIOs. Among the potential ways of demonstrating IT value, reporting and constantly improving the quality of IT services is an effective . . .

Market Update: SLM/BSM Technologies

Different Client Needs Widen The Gap Between The Two Ends Of The Market

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., November 9, 2004

Service-level management/business service management (SLM/BSM) technologies represent one of the two fastest-growing submarkets of the infrastructure management technologies market in 2004 — and will continue to do so through 2006. Adoption of these types . . .

Data Center Service-Level Management

Measurement Practices Can Render Service-Level Objectives Meaningless

by Colin Rankine, June 24, 2004

Although dozens, if not hundreds, of operational statistics are tracked relative to the quality of service delivered by an IT service provider, overall performance against service-level objectives is usually distilled down to two basic elements — application . . .

IT Trends 2004: Service Level Management and Business Services Management Technologies

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., November 24, 2003

In 2004, the market for service-level management and business services management technologies is expected to experience healthy growth.

Best Practices for Business Service Management

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, September 15, 2003

An effective BSM solution is not a silver bullet. It is a tool that yields maximum value only if an infrastructure management strategy is in place, management processes are defined, and roles and responsibilities are understood and accepted.

Market Overview 2003: Service Level Management and Business Services Management Technologies

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., September 11, 2003

The market will consolidate during the next 18 to 24 months, resulting in no more than seven vendors covering all phases of the SLM/BSM life cycle and another five to 10 vendors addressing niche requirements with point products.

Service-Level Agreements Are Also an IT Management Tool

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, November 11, 2002

SLAs are often seen solely as a contract between the business and IT side of the house, but they must also be considered management objectives for IT operations on the way to continuously improve operational processes.

Obstacles to Service Assurance Product Suites

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, August 21, 2002

The key to a service assurance product is the ability to identify the root cause of a problem, in real time, and to propose a corrective action. The perceived obstacle to the market penetration of such products has been, for some time, scalability.

Best Practices in Implementing Infrastructure Service-Level Management

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, August 19, 2002

Clients should be aware that, along with service-level agreement (SLA) negotiation, monitoring and reporting, service-level management (SLM) must include problem identification and remediation.

Configuration Administration May Hold Key to Service-Level Management

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, May 3, 2002

Those implementing service-level management, performance management and capacity planning processes in a distributed environment could benefit greatly from the progress made in configuration administration.

The Role of Six Sigma in Service-Level Management

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, September 25, 2001

The benefit for IT organizations using Six Sigma is simply in the evaluation of the quality of the organization providing service, based on the assumption that a mature organization will correct most defects over time and have more consistent service.