6 th International Scientific Conference May 13 14, 2010, Vilnius, Lithuania BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT 2010 Selected papers.

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1 6 th International Scientific Conference May 13 14, 2010, Vilnius, Lithuania BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT 2010 Selected papers. Vilnius, 2010 ISSN print / ISSN X CD doi: /bm Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 2010 IT INCIDENTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN THE PRACTICE OF E. BUSINESS PROCESSES Artūras Mažeika 1, Vilma Misiūnaitė 2, Kristina Miliūtė 3, Rimantas Petrauskas 4 Mykolas Romeris University, Ateities str. 20, LT Vilnius, Lithuania 1 arturasm@mruni.lt; 2 vilmamis@gmail.com; 3 kristina.miliute@gmail.com; 4 rpetraus@mruni.eu Abstract. Nowadays the issues of incidents management systems of information technologies are becoming more and more significant as information technologies are being used in the process of business organizations increasingly. The information about activities of every process and the effectiveness of those activities assures successful business process, from which the incidents of information technologies and their management are inseperable. Seeking to optimize e. business effectiveness it is necessary to integrate incidents management system (IMS) into integrated business processes system. Risk management, feedback s opportunities and timeliness of this process become essenatial criteria for effective IMS as the significant mean for economical use of every organization. Keywords: IT incidents, incidents management systems, e. business, optimization. 1. Introduction The issues of information technology incident management systems are becoming increasingly acute since the modern business organizations use various information technology tools more and more in their processes. Information about each process activity and its effectiveness, which are influenced by the incidents related to information technology, ensure successful business processes. Optimization of information technology incident management is becoming a major factor affecting business economical activity. The aim of this article is to identify key factors of incidents management system (Service Desk) (hereinafter IMS) and evaluate their impact on the effectiveness of organization and its activities. To this scientific literature was analized, conclusions were offered. It was also accomplished the analysis of theoretical sources and empirical quantitative research of organization using IMS. 2. Theoretical background Nowadays the most popular form of business is small and medium-sized enterprises (hereinafter SME). SME s organization methods analysed authors Egan (1992), Egett (1992), Cullen (1992), Novošinskienė (2000), Rothstein (2000), Hood (2000), Sūdžius (2001), Gronskas (2001), Stačiokas (2004; 2005), Mažeika (2004), Šerinienė (2004), Rupšys (2005), Merkys (2006), Vaitkevičius (2006), Savanevičienė (2006), Garuckas (2007), Jatuliavičienė (2007), Daud (2008), Yusuf (2008), Genete (2008), Tugui (2008), Bartkus (2009), Mickaitis (2009), Gatautis (2009), Mažeika (2009), Buginskis (2009), Petrauskas (2009), Satkauskas (2009), Sadok (2009), Lesca (2009). They noticed that the conducive environment help to use the advantage of SME and to eliminate its weakness positively. Substantial contributors to perspective SME implementation is the interaction between human resources and information technologies (hereinafter IT). Authors Bharadway (2000), Burinskienė (2000), Mackay (2000), Sweeting (2000), Jones (2003), Karsten (2003), Ndubisi (2005), Kahraman (2005), Wood (2006), Mackevičius (2007), Oh (2007), Pinsonneault (2007), Raulinaitienė (2007), Nachila (2009), Guzavičius (2009), Halttunen (2009) explored enterprises performance dependence on human and IT resources. Authors try to take practical steps towards understanding and implementing the right methods to organize decision processesand activities by using different information system. These authors also concluded that IS must be subordinated to the management. Their studies find that IT is crucial for effectiveness in enterprises. It became even more crucial then business was moved to the virtual space. Features, issues and perspectives of e-business and e-commerce were analyzed by authors Gineitienė (2003), Korsakaitė (2003), Kučinskienė (2003), Sakalas (2003), Savanevičienė (2003), Elskytė (2006; 2007), Chaffey (2007), Paliulis (2007), Gatautis (2007), Kiškis (2007), Petrauskas (2007). They also analyses how the presence of IS affects the solvency of arisen issues and even crisis. Authors Egan, (1992), Hood (1999), Mackay (2000), Sweeting (2000), Rupšys (2008), Mažeika (2009), Buginskis (2009), Petrauskas (2009), 869

2 A. Mažeika, V. Misiūnaitė, K. Miliūtė, R. Petrauskas Satkauskas (2009), and others studied the role of risk management in business processes, the various elements for business management processes, and other problematic aspects related with the risk management in European countries and other market economies countries. The situation when incident management system is not installed was analyzed in various aspects by the authors Bharadwaj, (2000), Jones, (2003), Naqvi, (2004), Ndubisi, (2005), Kahraman (2005), Oh (2007), Pinsonneault (2007), Melnikas (2007), Paliulis (2007), Burinskienė (2007), Elskytė (2006), Miliūtė (2009), Chong (2009), Wong (2009), though this issue is known for the efficiency and performance provided to the business organization by the incident management system. Organziations, competing in global markets, have to manage their knowledge effectively too. It is the reason why information and knowledge became so urgent in our modern life. Knowledge handling, its optimization and the factors that influence it were the main aims of analysis in the studies of authors Naqvi (2004), Girdauskienė (2007), Savanevičienė (2007), Melnikas (2007), Rudzkienė (2007), Burinskienė (2007), Yusuf (2008), Chong (2009), Wong (2009), Osanna (2009), Durakleasa (2009), Bauer (2009). They explored how knowledge representation and search, which have their origin in the roots of Knowledge Management (KM), can help to improve arisen issues IMS systems Complex IT management methodology was developed in in US and was based on the methodologies of configuration management processes. In 1980 this methodology also incorporated non-technical business management techniques seeking to guarantee the service evaluation and business continuity, and to give guarantees to customers. Modern IT IMS is a set of processes, procedures, people, actions and others that are responsible for communication with customer, operational providing customer with the right information, the registration of incidents and the like. IMS acts as an interface between customers (outside world) and other processes (internal world of the company). IMS is closely related to the risk of incidents and incident management processes. The emergence and development of IMS was affected by the business management theory that is focused on the optimization of working and quality assurance in enterprises that use IT. Modern IMS are the most popular management methodology in information technology businesses processes, which combine simplicity, extensive business commitments and information technology business optimization. According to the researches, which were made by authors, all IT activities in the business processes were stratified by the significance into the three parts that is showed in Table 1. Table 1. The significance of IT activities for business processes (Empirical research performed by authors of this article) The factors of IT activities The importance in the processes (pro cent) Technologies 20 Human resources 40 Processes 40 Structure Technology, programs and others Qualification, responsibility and others Procedures, instructions, registration of incidents and others Links between processes Technologies and programs make processes quiker and more effective. They create possibilities to budge information quiker and to use it easier. Qualification degree and experience affect the implementation and management of incidents faster. Procedures and instructions standardize the registration of incidents, their risks management, and decrease the probability of the human errors. Most businesses enterprises that use IT in their processes focus on the technology (updates of hardware, software, etc.) and pay less attention to the human resources (their selection and training), while the processes remain poorly formalized. These factors have the greatest impact on small and medium-sized business entities which employs or more employees. Carious interaction of processes leaves them without an opportunity to improve their business processes simple by optimizing and organizing them with IMS support. In today's organization modern incident management system improves service quality, customers satisfaction, and determines a standardized method of customer service, etc. Various reports, facilitating analysis of data on various aspects (section), are made using modern IMS. It allows modern enterprises to improve their system and the quality of services successfully, to monitor the efficiency of the entire organization, and to make it competitive and superior IMS structure, activities principles and basic processes IMS is based on some theoretical generalization of ideas: to describe the possible processes, to create a specific terminology for the description of the processes. Many of the concepts used at IMS do 870

3 IT INCIDENTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN THE PRACTICE OF E. BUSINESS PROCESSES not fit exactly to the ordinary meaning of words, e. g., in the terminology of IMS incident refers to any service interruptions regardless of its origin, and the problem is not imposed on the customers service disruption but only the cause of the incident. Such terminology ensures accurate and unambiguous description of processes but to some extent it hampers the rapid uptake of IMS theory. Applying IMS theory in different languages, IMS glossary is translated first. IMS service processes are focused on improving customer s service: they help to ensure that the client will receive what he / she ordered, the company manages to meet its commitments, and the money, spent to provide IMS service, will focus primarily on improving the quality rather than on the prudent funding use. The hire of external resources help the company focus on its core activities. Dividend internal resources can be used to improve organization s efficiency, concentrating only on firm s specialization and the realization of key objectives. Initial IMS processes include: identification the identification, description and inclusion economic component of all information technology to IMS; control the management of each IT component and the determination of people who could change them; the determination of status the recording and management of each IT component; checks surveillance and audits to ensure the correctness of IMS. IT incidents are the problems of any service delivery regardless of the cause or perpetrators of disorder. It has to be solved as soon as possible to provide service again. If service is provided, the incident is considered to be corrected. Each message about incident in IT IMS has to be registered, and its cause is removed according to the probelms management process. Incidents are registered when information is got from a client directly: by telephone call, , the Internet, monitoring systems, etc. Usually clients register incidents by the phone since it is one of the easiest and the fastest means to give information you want to IMS service. The fact that the communications media can be the subject of incident bacomes an advantage over other earlier listed incidents ( , Internet access). The incident management process is linked with service management and commitment levels of management processes, and the assessement of incident data using in the service and commitments. Support services assure the activities to improve the production (or service) quality, to remove causes faster and more efficient, and so on. It is composed of 6 areas related with service-quality (configurating, administrating, dealing with incidents, and others): customer service, removing incidents (service disorders), the solution of long-term problems or the analysis of the causes of incidents, the management of common processes and change management, the assurance of documentation rightness, the creation of new services or the management of existing services. In addition, despite the many benefits the external resources to hire also have some disadvantages. They are the possibility of the leakage of information that may be led by the transfering some important functions to enterprises, the emergence of new competitors, who may benefit from the experience and information of the services giving resources to hire. Seeking to reduce the risk, you can buy or rent the services from several companies but it will increas the company's costs. Another problem is to find honest partners, who are well known in the market, and to provide a favorable contract. However, it is necessary to evaluate the fact that IT IMS resources to hire may affect the organization's integrity negatively by creating a variety of problems, ranging from decision-making and ending with their implementation, whereas the rent of resources and the installation of it disintegrate operational functions. The contracts of hiring resources for long-term restrict the flexibility of the company that is necessary to adapt to market dynamics, changing legal system but short-term contract will always lead to the higher supplier's cost of services. Fig. 1. The action model of IMS (Empirical research performed by authors of this article) 2. Methodology In the third quarter of 2009 the empirical quantitative research was carried out seeking to isolate and identify the key factors of IMS processes and problems arising between the service providers and service recipients. IMS service users with not less than one year of experience were chosen to be respondents. The data from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2009 from 337 firms (IMS service users) were chosen in order to get representa- 871

4 A. Mažeika, V. Misiūnaitė, K. Miliūtė, R. Petrauskas tive results by doing cross-cutting analysis. The data of enterprises providing IMS services over 10 years in Lithuania was used. Qualitative analysis is based on theoretical knowledge about information collected, individual experience of the researcher, the ability to look through collected information flow large enough, findings what is significant and essential, and the interpretation it properly. 3. Results and discussion of findings The study found out that high information technology IMS for modern business entities gives a competitive advantage to increase their productivity. The analysis of fundamental information technological advantages is presented in Table 2. Analysing the basic IMS services processes and problems, it appears that the dynamic of IMS providers quality depends on many factors: a) the lack of IT hardware; b) human resources; c) communication networks; d) the lack of human resources competence; e) the satisfaction of social needs (private or public); e) communication; f) technical communication ( , Internet access, telephone calls); g) create the base of incidents; i) risk management training; j) sending non-informative messages to client. IMS processes management factors, which influence time decision-making directly, are: the lack of competence, human resources, IT hardware, and IT software. The analysis of factors is presented in Table 3. IT competency of IMS recipient affects by the lack of information about the failure of the submission of the incorrect classification. The problems of incidents in the the registration process are often triggered by other procedural factors that affect the incident handling time. The factor that influences poor quality of communication is identified as very significant both in the IMS providers and IMS users. This factor affects all data about the loss of incident directly. The disorders of or other communications interfaces can eliminate the opportunity to get information about incidents in time and the feedback informing the client about the registration of an incident and its statement by automatic messages. Table 2. The analysis of IMS advantages (Empirical research performed by authors of this article) Advantage Description For service providers For customers Labor productivity IMS increases labor productivity by facilitating the monitoring of the recurrent incidents and their causation Automation of recording incidents gives the opportunity to follow the repeated incidents and eliminate their causes. their causes. The acceleration of decision time Effektive use of resources Improvement of service provoding Optimize the time of the right decision admission. The possibility to monitor developer's workload, hours of operation, and to register incidents in different methods. The possibility to have best experience in the database. Operational response to the classification of incidents and setting developers by their competencies and workload. Using best experience to solve repeated incidents. Automation of recording incidents gives the opportunity to follow the repeating incidents. There is a possibility to monitor developer s workload to manage it, and to assess developer s working time in IMS. "Best practices" of risk management and decision making is collected and kept in the database. Table 3. The analysis of factors and decision time (Empirical research performed by authors) Factors competence human resources hardware software 872 Automation of recording incidents gives the opportunity to follow the repeated incidents and eliminate There is one contact in IMS, where incident is registered, classified and assigned to the developer according his / her expertise and workload promptly. It is possible to record incidents in IMS in customer-friendly way: call, , Internet access. Responsible person in the company can track the whole execution of the incidents. The work results are improved. The. work with the third parties is not disturbed when enterprises activities are restored promptly. Result Enterprises, providing IMS services Enterprises, getting IMS services In the search of excellence outside of the resource the Decision time of incidents is rising, and the loss of the cost of serving the company is increasing. There is no business disruption is possible. possibility of providing a broader service to the client. There in no possibility to carry out responsibilities: to Decision time of incidents is rising. adopt, classify, assign a developer, and find a solution for incidents quickly. Company servicing cost is a growing. Decision time is Decision time of incidents is rising, and productivity getting longer because of the search of alternative and quality of work is becoming worse after restored engine. work. It is difficult to carry out the tasks of clients, and the Decision time of incidents is rising. time of commitments is rising.

5 IT INCIDENTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN THE PRACTICE OF E. BUSINESS PROCESSES 3.1. The models of optimized IMS service delivery Analysing the management processes in small and medium-sized e. business entities and evaluating the factor of information technology incident management system for the management processes of small and medium-sized e. business, optimized IT IMS model is suggested to search and find improved solutions in this issue. On the basis of this empirical study it was established IT IMS model, whose principles are based on the optimization of the main factors. In order to remove the communication factor, as a result of defective broadband Internet, which leads to further information about the incident by other means (e. g. phone), it is proposed to standardize the qualitative IT IMS. Fig. 2. Optimized IMS service delivery models (Empirical research performed by authors of this article) The significance of information conflict factor, caused by the human resources available knowledge, skills and competence, is proposed to be reduced by the introduction of a specialized questionnaire that allows adjust failure, describe the contacts by giving capacity to determine the error s code, pictures, etc. and running the whole life type specialized training services for the staffs of service provider and service user at all levels (user, advanced user, expert). Best practices database of incidents origin, the classification of incidents, the creation of decisions taken to remove IT incidents and its use in IMS processes would be equally effective means for the communication affecting the neutrality of IMS. This recommendation to optimize IT IMS (Fig. 2) reduces the previously mentioned risks to a minimum as well as enhances and affects all IT management processes. 4. Conclusions It was evaluated and found out that in the modern business entities processes (factors) penetration, the importance and influence of IMS is growing though some time ago it was not contolled, and these factors are considered to be interconnected and significant. IT process management tool IMS can be applied successfully (effectively) to solve information technology problems. This article presents the theoretical knowledge as well as the data showing the management of IT processes with IMS. It is possible to save hiring IT IMS services from those providers whose cost is less. After the transfer of certain management functions, external service provider establishes stricter discipline and processes standardization that lead to the costdecreasing. The article presents theoretical IT processes management, and the processes of risk management as one of the IT process management. Advancing process control tool can not exist without a feedback mechanism, which is designed to evaluate and measure the enterprise s functions and processes. If the impact of IMS on time for decision-making process and its quality is not measured, they also can not be managed. IT processes are required not only for large amounts of data reception, processing, storage, and disposal, but also reducing the impact of human resources as well as labor productivity and efficiency. The management of providing information, its understanding, and fair presentation of process is a constant and significant process IMS both in providing and using IMS. The management of these processes affects the organization of economic activity through cost reduction and risk management processes. Further detailed studies on the relevance of topics is necessary in order to ascertain and identify all incident management system factors that influence the modern organization's performance, the interdependence of business roles and the contribution to the progressive development of information society creation. In order to promote business entities to participate actively in the optimization processes of IT IMS, it is recommended to highlight the economic and noneconomic benefits of IT IMS. References Bartkus, E., V.; Mickaitis A Išorinių išteklių nuomos smulkiajame versle neigimo empirinis tyrimas [Empirical Research Abnegation of Outsourcing in Small Business], Economics and Management 14: Bharadwaj, A. S A Resource-Based Perspective on Information Technology Capability And Firm 873

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