Digital ITSM and the Role of Service Integration and Management (SIAM)

Transcription

1 A Poit of View Digital ITSM ad the Role of Service Itegratio ad Maagemet (SIAM) Abstract IT service providers caot afford to focus o techology aloe. To stay relevat ad useful, the whole IT service maagemet experiece eeds to be user-outcome focused more persoal, ituitive, ad easy. A successful Iformatio Techology Service Maagemet (ITSM) orgaizatio requires a focus o the quality of the services it provides ad o its relatioship with customers ad users. With customers ad users icreasigly iteractig o digital platforms, it is imperative for 'future-state' ITSM departmets to explore the capabilities of social media, mobile, ad aalytics, all of which costitute the digital world. While the other elemets of digitizatio will provide may opportuities that ca be utilized by Service Maagemet, the cloud will be the backboe of this ecosystem. This paper explores how ITSM ca effectively make use of digitizatio. It also touches upo how Service Itegratio ad Maagemet (SIAM) will play a major role i perfectig the chief eablig ifrastructure of the digital revolutio the cloud. Social Media: the Eabler Orgaizatios are icreasigly egagig i ew ways with fuctioally 'silo-ed' employees for kowledge sharig, commuicatio dissemiatio, ad icidet reportig. Be it social media solutios (Facebook, Twitter, Istagram) or established collaboratio tools (istat messagig, blogs, discussio forums, ad wikis), there is a critical eed for a commo forum to receive ad share iformatio. Social media offers a eablig techology eeded for collaboratio ad commuicatio both iboud ad outboud critical i supportig comprehesive IT Service Maagemet operatios. Service Maagemet vedors who have leveraged this eabler have bee able to deliver o the primary service goals of icreasig customer satisfactio ad reducig dowtime. This is i additio to more effective egagemet with the ew geeratio of social media-savvy employees. They have also succeeded i drivig dow costs, maximizig user productivity, ad makig service maagemet more efficiet. Case i Poit Service Desk The Service Desk ow serves as the hub for Service Maagemet, itegratig with domais such as Service Catalog, Asset Maagemet, Cofiguratio Maagemet Systems (CMS), Chage Maagemet, Kowledge Maagemet, ad other ITIL domais. More idividuals are ivolved i the process, the pace is faster, ad the eed to commuicate ad collaborate is critical. Traditioal Service Desk approaches etail commuicatio via telephoe or s ad ca be cumbersome, leadig to high trasactio cost, call escalatio, ad user dissatisfactio. Usig a forum-like social eviromet ca result i a collaboratio platform where participats who have faced similar issues ca help resolve them. This is already happeig i techical forums aroud the world. The oly differece here would be that the forum is moderated by competet Service Desk staff. This will esure that oly valid resolutio suggestios remai, which ca be utilized by the forum's other users i the future. This kid of a set-up is represeted i Figure 1. Commuity Leads to Iteractio Leads to Collaboratio Leads to Resolutio Provides a commo platform for vedors, ed-users, ad the Service Desk to share problems, experieces, resolutios, ad feedback Moderated by Service Desk Staff Opes various real-time ad iteractive messagig chaels amog users, staff, vedors, ad other stakeholders Moderated by Service Desk Staff Brigs together the relevat parties for issue idetificatio ad aalysis of the issue Moderated by Service Desk Staff Eables resolutio of issues through sharig of past experieces by the collaboratig parties. Resolutios also remai cataloged i the forum Figure 1: Social Media as a Platform for Issue Resolutio

2 Sophisticated Service Desks are icreasigly buildig up their kowledge maagemet capabilities to search ad retrieve solutios to may problems. However with a globally distributed kowledge base, social media eables automated capturig of iformatio at ru-time, maitaiig the cotext of users' issues, makig use of formal ad iformal experts o the forum, ad egagig the relevat teams i the problem resolutio process. The key beefits of applyig social media to Service Desk capabilities are captured i Figure 2. Kowledge Maagemet Problem Maagemet Reputatio Maagemet Notificatios Eables capture ad future use of kowledge gaied durig issue resolutio Provides a opportuity to pro-actively resolve o-uique problems by applyig predictive aalytics o the data mied from social media chaels Gives a first-had report of user (dis)satisfactio over service quality Allows sedig of iteractive alerts to the user commuity via multiple commuicatio chaels for faster respose/mitigatio Figure 2 : Beefits of Leveragig Social Media for Service Desk Mobility: the Need of the Hour Traditioally, users have bee provided with legacy systems to report, maage, ad close system issues. I today's fast-paced world, it is ot just about how a issue gets resolved but how fast it ca be resolved. Mobility eables users across idustries to review real-time data ad act o it swiftly. For example, i a maufacturig firm, it ca ehace quality maagemet ad facilitate a lea maufacturig eviromet; i case of a fiacial services firm, it ca assist i prompt reportig of regulatory o-compliace ad takig corrective measures. A well-plaed Mobile IT Service Maagemet solutio will help firms cut costs by deflectig help desk calls through self-service, limitig busiess risk by esurig tighter cotrols, ad improvig customer satisfactio by icreasig staff productivity. Figure 3 shows what such a solutio would look like. Mobile IT Service Maagemet Solutio Idetity BYOD Security Compatibility INDUCT Proactive Orgaizatio data Remote wipeout Update apps Self Service Disposal Applicatio features Moitor & Report Operatig System Reactive CMDB Proactive MANAGE Reactive Applicatio / OS Mgmt. Figure 3: Mobile IT Service Maagemet Solutio 2

3 However, such a solutio eeds to have the features metioed i Table 1 to deliver these beefits. Multi-applicatio support Icidet maagemet Security Offlie coectivity Use self-service/help applicatios embedded i mobile devices Create, update, ad reassig icidets Esure adequate safeguard of cofidetial iformatio accessed through mobile devices Work i offlie mode with automatic trasmissio of data whe coected to the iteret Task maagemet Create, view, ad modify ad hoc icidet requests Alert maagemet Receive FYI ad FYA requests with detailed iformatio Workflow maagemet Reports Assig, moitor, ad escalate actio items as per resposibility matrix View customized reports o key performace idicators Table 1: Features of a Typical Mobile Service Maagemet Solutio The first four features i Table 1 are perhaps the most importat. I a world of cosumer-drive device evolutio, with so may differet OS optios, this solutio should help iterface with differet types of apps ruig o ay OS. It should have a robust Icidet Maagemet system built ito the fabric of the solutio itself without relyig o a similar legacy system. Needless to say, security will be paramout because critical orgaizatio data will reside o these devices which, thaks to their iheretly mobile ature, may get misplaced. Fially, the device ed of the solutio should be i the form of a rich cliet, a web applicatio with may of the features active locally, that allows much of the fuctioality i a offlie mode. Aalytics: Uleashig Big Data Orgaizatios have realized the importace of ucoverig hidde patters, ukow correlatios, ad other useful iformatio from the differet data types they possesses ad usig this to gai a competitive market advatage. Big Data aalytics, which is the process of examiig large amouts of data ad gleaig useful isights from the observed data patters ad treds, has become a high priority for every CXO. Accordig to a TCS survey coducted i December 2012, more tha 50 percet of the 1,200 compaies studied had udertake Big Data iitiatives to icrease RoI across sales, marketig, customer service, ad R&D ad ew product developmet.[1] Such aalytics will icreasigly be used for IT services such as Service Itegratio. Predictive aalytics based o the umerous icidets detected as well as issues raised i the past ca help iform ew service level agreemets (SLA) ad operatio level agreemets (OLA) desigs for efficiet IT operatios. Aalysis of the service history of icumbet IT vedors ca be used to desig ew cotracts ad service agreemets. Risk ad compliace metrics ad associated dashboards ca be built based o most likely failure poits detected by the aalytics egie for various 'what-if' scearios. Predictive Aalytics This area of aalysis deals with extractig iformatio from data ad usig it to predict future treds ad behavior patters. The accuracy ad usability of results will deped greatly o the quality of data gathered, the method of data aalysis, ad the ratioality of assumptios. It ofte requires a mix of 'Uivariate' ad 'Multivariate' aalysis to provide a robust predictive aalytic approach.i case of IT Service Maagemet, may busiess applicatios are composite i ature where critical resources are shared or iter-related. Most applicatios are multi-compoet, multi-layered, ad may cross multiple software platforms. With such a corelated IT ecosystem, kowledge of iter-relatioships ca help proactively idetify system aomalies at the slightest deviatio ad the take corrective actios. Of course, this would require the combied power of busiess kowledge, data gatherig, statistical aalysis, historical root-cause aalysis, ad real-time reportig. The steps for usig predictive aalytics for IT service maagemet are show i Figure 4. [1] The Emergig Big Returs o Big Data: A TCS 2013 Global Tred Study, 3 Uivariate aalysis: aalyzes the behavior of a sigle variable (system characteristic) Multivariate aalysis: simultaeously aalyzes the behavior ad co-relatio of multiple variables

4 Idetify the system variables/metrics that eed to be moitored Idetify iter-relatioships betwee these variables/metrics usig statistical tools Perform ui-variate aalysis to detect ay crossig of threshold values Aalyze performace data ad combie ui-variate with multivariate aalytics Detect system aomalies rapidly, as metrics deviate from ormal behavior idividually ad from the correlated group Use historical root cause aalysis of reported icidets to predict occurrece of system issues due to observed system aomalies Take appropriate corrective actio (alert/fix/igore) Figure 4: Steps for Usig Predictive Aalytics for IT Service Maagemet Case i Poit Icidet Reportig Traditioally, a patiet (user) comes to a doctor (Icidet Maagemet Desk) ad reports a ailmet (icidet). The doctor does the iitial diagosis ad recommeds a pathological test (system health-check) to idetify the root cause of the problem. The report from the laboratory idicates abormalities (issues or gaps), followig which the doctor prescribes the right medicie (icidet resolutio) to cure the ailmet. Now, if it was possible to obtai the lab report o a real-time basis ad if the doctor was aware of the patiet's health history, he could have predicted the occurrece of the ailmet eve before the patiet had approached him ad admiistered the right medicie eve before the occurrece of the disease. I the medical world this might be a distat dream, but i the world of Icidet Reportig ad Maagemet, it is fast becomig a reality. Today's computig etwork systems geerate millios of evet records that represet the health of the systems. Through optimal usage of Big Data predictive aalytics, these evets ca be correlated i real time with historical icidets (ad their root causes), thereby geeratig sigals of potetial reoccurrece, if ay. Based o the severity ad frequecy of critical evets, suitable pro-active mitigatio steps ca be take to avoid the icidets. Cloud: the Future Oe of biggest reasos why aalysts vouch for the cloud beig the backboe of IT Service Maagemet is because of its reach. The iheret multi-teacy of a cloud-based ecosystem esures multiple cliets or projects share the same hardware ad software ifrastructure. This results i better demad maagemet by studyig the fluctuatios across the same system. The cloud also simplifies pricig as charges deped o capacity actually utilized. Greater Busiess Exposure Sice cloud deploymets are quicker ad are upgraded more frequetly compared to o-premise deploymets, busiess ad IT fuctios are more coected. Service Catalog ad Service Desk are capabilities that the IT fuctio uses to reach out ad support busiess fuctios. With proper project maagemet techiques, the challeges of usig the cloud ca be tamed to fulfill busiess eeds i a scalable model. A cloud-eabled Service Desk ca the also support delivery processes across multiple chaels. Software Asset Maagemet O-premise solutios ofte have outdated versios due to legacy issues. I a cloud-based service eviromet, the solutio is automatically upgraded to the latest ad best feature set, ad at a higher frequecy tha o-premise solutios. This provides the Service Desk with up-todate feature sets ad also provides the busiess with a better service delivery process, aalysis, ad IT egagemet model. 4

5 The Role of Service Itegratio ad Maagemet Orgaizatios that have their IT solutios hosted i a cloud-based eviromet face a differet set of challeges, as show i Figure 5. For example, cloud-based eviromets provide easy access to service providers as their services exist i the virtual world, thereby improvig reach. But this also comes at a cost orgaizatios switchig betwee cloud vedors, ad recofigurig o-premise solutios to iteract with cloud solutios, lead to additioal overhead activities. Also, for busiess critical services, it is importat to uderstad the SLAs offered by the cloud provider with differet pricig models. Vedor Chur Vedor ecosystem cosistig a mix of cloud/ traditioal IT suppliers $ Hassles i switchig betwee vedors Re-cofiguratio of APIs Optimal choice of pricig slabw i Pricig Models case of PaaS, IaaS, or SaaS models Challeges Frequet OBoardig ad Off-Boardig Legal & Compliace Plaig for adequate access cotrol, back-ups, sychroizatio, ad esurig busiess cotiuity Cetral moitorig of iformatio security Maitaiig data security amidst shadow IT ad isolated cloud services Figure 5: Challeges of Cloud Based Service Itegratio This is where Service Itegratio ad Maagemet (SIAM) plays a major role. SIAM really comes to the fore durig the moderatio of services by makig the etire process efficiet. This is especially importat i a hybrid cloud eviromet where services have to be budled across multiple vedors across differet dimesios of the cloud ifrastructure. The combiatio of the power of predictive aalytics, to tur data ito actioable isights, ad SIAM, to draw a cost-effective actio pla based o these isights, is potetially trasformative. May such potetial overlappig beefits do exist, withi the cotext of Service Itegratio ad Maagemet. However the use of cloud-based predictive aalytical solutios to respod to the icreasig amout of relevat data available i the cloud ca be a game-chager. For example, SIAM specialists ca actually use the data to costruct more robust SLAs, OLAs, ad cotracts across a multi-vedor IT service ecosystem. Because of the iheret ature of SIAM, it is best suited to assess compliace metrics for service budles rather tha idividual service themselves. This ew data is essetial while creatig or updatig service agreemets. Above all, a framework eeds to be i place that will be able to gover all of these iitiatives. Such iitiatives will help SIAM gai maturity ad propel it to higher level IT orgaizatioal fuctios, as show i Figure 7. This will help SIAM evolve from its role of a operatio service prefect to that of a IT strategist. Operatio Level Service Itegratio as Trasformatio Eabler Value Added Service Itegratio Service Itegratio as IT Parter Figure 7: Maturity Flow of Service Itegratio ad Maagemet 5

6 Coclusio Digital techologies have itroduced a host of ew, iovative ways i which people ca iteract with each other as well as with the eviromet aroud them. These iovatios will cotiue as the iteret evolves ad ew aalytical techiques are discovered. Some of these cocepts seem impractical at first, but i time they will become accepted. By embracig these iovative ways of iteractig, we ca improve IT Service Maagemet tools ad processes to fit the eeds of all stakeholders. The cloud will be the uderlyig backboe of this digital chage, ad Service Itegratio ad Maagemet will play a big role i esurig a high degree of service delivery ad support. About the Authors Subhakar Chakraborty Subhakar Chakraborty is a seior busiess cosultat with the Global Cosultig Practice at Tata Cosultacy Services (TCS). He has a MBA from the Idia Istitute of Maagemet, Ahmedabad. He has more tha 15 years' experiece i busiess cosultig, program delivery, ad busiess developmet for Fortue 500 cliets i the USA, Europe, Australia, ad South-East Asia. His areas of expertise iclude Busiess Process Re-egieerig, Regulatory Compliace, Service Itegratio ad Maagemet, ad Digital Techologies. Sumit Misra Sumit is a MBA from the Xavier Istitute of Maagemet, Bhubaeswar ad has eight years' experiece, seve of them with TCS. As the GCP Research Lead for North America, he hadles research assigmets origiatig from this regio ad also publishes Market Itelligece reports for priority verticals i the geography. His focus areas iclude Digitizatio ad its impact o various sectors with special emphasis o Mobile Telecommuicatios ad Retail. As a Iformatio Techology Ifrastructure Library-certified (ITIL) professioal, he also hadles various Service Maagemet related research egagemets. 6

7 About TCS' Global Cosultig Practice TCS' Global Cosultig Practice (GCP) is a key compoet i how TCS delivers additioal value to cliets. Usig our collective idustry isight, techology expertise, ad cosultig kow-how, we parter with eterprises worldwide to deliver itegrated ed-to-ed IT eabled busiess trasformatio services. By tappig our worldwide pool of resources osite, offshore, ad ear-shore our high caliber cosultats leverage solutio accelerators ad practice capabilities, balaced with our kowledge of local market demads, to eable eterprises to effectively meet their busiess goals. GCP spearheads TCS' cosultig capacity with cosultats located i North America, UK, Europe, Asia Pacific, Idia, Ibero-America, ad Australia. Cotact For more iformatio about TCS' Global Cosultig Practice visit: [email protected] About Tata Cosultacy Services Ltd (TCS) Tata Cosultacy Services is a IT services, cosultig ad busiess solutios orgaizatio that delivers real results to global busiess, esurig a level of certaity o other firm ca match. TCS offers a cosultig-led, itegrated portfolio of IT ad IT-eabled ifrastructure, egieerig ad assurace services. This is delivered through its uique Global Network Delivery ModelTM, recogized as the bechmark of excellece i software developmet. A part of the Tata Group, Idia s largest idustrial coglomerate, TCS has a global footprit ad is listed o the Natioal Stock Exchage ad Bombay Stock Exchage i Idia. IT Services Busiess Solutios Cosultig All cotet / iformatio preset here is the exclusive property of Tata Cosultacy Services Limited (TCS). The cotet / iformatio cotaied here is correct at the time of publishig. No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, trasmitted, posted or distributed i ay form without prior writte permissio from TCS. Uauthorized use of the cotet / iformatio appearig here may violate copyright, trademark ad other applicable laws, ad could result i crimial or civil pealties. Copyright 2014 Tata Cosultacy Services Limited TCS Desig Services I M I 11 I 14 For more iformatio, visit us at