Enterprise ITSM software
About vfire vfire is an Enterprise level IT Service Management Software tool developed by Alemba. As the successor to VMware s Service Manager product (formerly infraenterprise), Alemba s vfire has inherited over 20 years of industry knowledge and offers a truly innovative user interface that puts customer experience front and center. The philosophy behind vfire is to embrace modern styling and design techniques, such as touch technology, Gamification and providing joy to users while being highly functional and promoting the implementation and delivery of ITIL best practices. vfire provides out-of-the-box ITIL functionality for ITIL processes, including: Incident, Request Fulfilment, Problem, Service Level, Knowledge, Change, Release & Deployment, Service Configuration & Asset, Service Catalog and Availability Management. With vfire, you can: build the system to your own requirements with flexible configuration options and a powerful screen designer. easily deploy an integrated, actionable Service Catalog that aligns IT activities to business services. publicize service expectations and reduce the impact of service outages on business operations. effortlessly identify and map interdependencies between infrastructure components, applications, and business services, across both physical and virtual environments through Federated CMDB connectors. monitor and report performance against Service Level Agreements and Service Availability targets to demonstrate the value IT provides to the business leveraging third party event management tools. easily model and automate your organization s business processes in a powerful workflow builder which can be used to automate any IT or non-it processes. O F F I C E R P O R T A L ensure processes are carried out in a consistent, best practice manner that adhere to audit and compliance requirements. guarantee that ITIL processes implemented are tailored to meet your site specific needs. O F F I C E R M O B I L E P O R T A L M O B I L E 2
About Alemba Alemba is the creative IT Service Management software company behind vfire, trusted by a number of global enterprises to deliver truly beneficial IT Service Management Solutions. Our cutting-edge approach to software design combined with a commitment to customer service has fuelled a dramatic expansion, and Alemba now has offices in the UK, USA, France and Australia. Alemba provides a range of Professional and Support Services around the vfire product suite. With specialist consultants to cover each stage of the implementation lifecycle, Alemba is ideally positioned to deliver a successful, end-to-end ITSM project within your organization. I was very impressed with Alemba, whose vfire solution has been developed with a focus on the whole user interface. The solution s clean and intuitive UI should help promote a positive user experience. Adam Holtby Research Analyst, Ovum Our services include: ITIL Process Design and Business Process Consulting Business Analysis Project Management Highly experienced Product Consultants for implementation and software configuration support Training Services Product Development for bespoke functionality Tailored Service Desk Support Contracts 3
Contents About vfire 2 About Alemba 3 Contents 4 Incident Management 5 Problem Management 6 Service Level Management 7 Knowledge Management 8 Self-service Customer Portal 9 Service Lifecycle Management 10 Configuration Management 11 Federated CMDB 12 Event Management 12 Change & Release Management 13 Availability Management 14 Asset Management 15
Incident Management Disruptions to day-to-day business procedures can be costly and time-consuming. vfire offers effective, easy-to-use Incident Management to ensure that normal services are restored as quickly as possible with minimum disruption. simple, intuitive Incident and Major Incident logging. Reduced impact of Incidents on business operations Efficient cost and resource management Improved customer satisfaction An efficient and customer-focused Service Desk a powerful screen designer and automated rules assignment and notifications. the ability to link related items. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Management, including SLA timers and a traffic light system designed to monitor SLA compliance. interaction with the Knowledge Bank to promote information sharing, leading to quicker resolution. the ability to log and track the progress of Incidents via the Customer Portal. From logging to tracking in seconds Using vfire Officer, users can log an Incident quickly and immediately see traffic light feedback as the issue is tracked. 5
Problem Management Problem Management proactively identifies the root cause of Incidents and takes action to resolve the situation. This significantly reduces both the number of recurring issues reported to the Service Desk and the associated impact on your business. The Problem and Known Error areas of the ITIL Incident Lifecycle form part of the Problem Management process. Fewer Incidents logged over time Lower impact of Incidents on business operations An efficient and cost-effective Service Desk INCIDENT LIFECYCLE Incident Problem Known Error Incident Management Problem Management real-time trend analysis of Incident data for proactive Problem Management. tracking, by linking and cloning Incidents, Problems and Known Errors. automatic priority recalculation for Problems with linked Incidents. cascading closure of linked Known Errors, Problems or Incidents following resolution. integration with Known Error and Change Management Processes. proactive Problem Management, solving Problems before Incidents occur. the ability to automatically log Calls and Requests based on events in your IPK and workflow activity. Proactively solve Problems before Incidents occur Users can set up rules to automatically log Calls and Requests using Proactive Problem Management. 6
Service Level Management The objective of the SLM process is to manage and maintain the quality of IT Services delivered to customers. This process also seeks to improve on the quality of service by reviewing the level of performance achieved by the Service Desk. The SLM engine within vfire Core is one of the most powerful on the market and allows IT providers to fully automate the calculation of downtime and the tracking of performance against Service Level Agreements. full support of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) and Underpinning Contracts (UCs). Formal agreements which provide the customer and the IT services provider with a clear understanding of the expected level of delivered services and their associated costs for the organization A basis for charging for services, and demonstrating to customers the value they are receiving from the Service Desk Enhanced relationship between the Service Desk and external suppliers enabling negotiation of improved services and reduced costs the ability to manage multiple working hours in different time zones. SLA selection priority rules and overrides. multiple escalation levels to give advance warning prior to actual breach. fully integrated email for all notifications. comprehensive suite of out of the box SLM reports. Enhance your Service Desk s performance with efficient SLM Track performance against SLAs, OLAs and UCs using an easy-to-understand graphical progress indicator. 7
Knowledge Management Knowledge Management refers to the capture, storage and re-use of the wealth of experience gained by IT teams over time. Effective Knowledge Management enables staff members to share in the pool of skills and experience of the entire organization. By providing this knowledge to your IT Staff, the result is faster resolution by your Service Desk. By enabling your customers to access Knowledge directly on the Self-service Portal they can pre-diagnose issues that are logged to your Service Desk and even prevent tickets from being logged entirely. Quicker resolution for Incidents Higher percentage of Incidents resolved at first line Improved service to customers A repository of corporate knowledge Fewer Incidents being logged Reduced costs Alerts to proactively prompt officers about related Knowledge seamless integration with other Service Management processes. automatic alerts to relevant articles to assist with call resolution. self-service search via the Customer Portal and customer alerts in Incident logging process. keyword and related word searching. Integrated Knowledge Bank Search the Knowledge Bank for reported issues that could help solve your current Incident. 8
Self-service Customer Portal At Alemba we understand that effective communication between the IT Department and its end users is essential to the success of any organization. Designed with user engagement in mind, vfire Customer Portal offers a modern, attractive interface that is highly intuitive. self-service logging for your customers. Effective communication between Service Desk and customer base Efficient cost and resource management Improved customer satisfaction Fewer calls, improving the efficiency of the Service Desk Fewer logged Incidents by promotion of Knowledge Bank articles. a Knowledge Bank, making it easier to find solutions to known issues a recognizable and intuitive Shopping Cart function Service Desk performance statistics with customer friendly dashboards review of Major Incidents affecting the customer organization up-to-date, relevant News Bulletins. the ability to personalize vfire Portal to reflect corporate branding. Your IT world at a glance vfire Portal s intuitive interface is attractive and easy to navigate, allowing customers to interact with the Service Desk quickly and easily. 9
Service Lifecycle Management The delivery of ITSM starts with a clear definition of the portfolio of services that IT manages; both customer-facing business services and technical services that IT uses to drive the business. Each of these services goes through a lifecycle, with most going through many iterations of continuous improvement as the business evolves and IT matures. a hierarchical Service Request Catalog that users can browse or search to locate services of interest, and order them using a familiar shopping cart function. service bundles (e.g. New Employee) that may initiate multiple Requests in parallel. configurable forms to enable the collection of relevant information for each type of Request. The Service Catalog provides a means for IT to communicate the value to the business of IT Services. It contains understandable information for the business on the nature of the services provided and what they can expect from them. This includes, but is not limited to: Service Level Agreements, Support Arrangements and Availability, Costing and Provisioning Details. Organization-wide understanding of services delivered Publicized information on the scope, availability and dependencies of services Reduction in Service Desk workload through self-service modeling of services across the entire service lifecycle (i.e. Pipeline, Live and Retired Services). relationship and dependency mappings with other Services and Configuration Items to monitor dependencies. clear visibility of the details and cost of each service. Shopping for IT services has never been easier As part of your Service Lifecycle Management, publish your services in a catalog which can be accessed by users. 10
Configuration Management All ITSM processes touch against Configuration Management. Understanding and documenting your technical resources and their inter-relationships is crucial to providing stable IT services. When following Change or Release Management Processes you need to have a clear understanding of the potential impacts that changes can have before they are made. vfire maintains information about each Configuration Item (CI) and its relationship with other CIs and services within the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). a graphical representation of relationships and dependencies between IT services and assets within an enterprise. the ability to specify who can view and update CMDB items and change periods when updates are allowed. version control of a CI throughout its lifecycle and the ability to roll-back to a prior version if necessary. Easier financial planning through clear identification of all hardware and software Improved release management due to the visibility of software changes Guaranteed compliance with legal and contractual obligations quick identification of the potential cause of issues through automated root cause analysis. the ability to simulate outage scenarios to identify single points of failure as well as the assets and stakeholders that will be impacted by an outage. control of CMDB updates through the Change and Release Management processes. CMDB linking diagram vfire Officer allows users to view a graphical representation of relationships between CIs within the CMDB. 11
Federated CMDB Event Management Federated Configuration Management Database (CMDB) populates your CMDB through automated discovery from third party tools. The information held in existing third party asset discovery and management tools is consolidated to provide a comprehensive view of all infrastructure components (including applications, servers, networks, and storage), and the dependencies between them. snap-in connector architecture with out-ofthe-box connectors for both VMware and third party technologies. federation of resources and linkages from existing data stores, without the need to replicate all data. reconciliation of resources (i.e. matching and removal of duplicates) discovered from multiple sources. automated and regulated application of updates. Event Management allows organizations to consolidate their third party monitoring tools into vfire. Through the configuration of business and technical rules, third party alerts can be recorded as a meaningful action for your IT staff. automatic creation of Incidents or Problems in response to operational events. event filtering based on any available attributes. map attributes. automatic creation of outages on impacted Configuration Items and Services. Reduced manual processing Proactive notification of IT Staff of potential Problems Reduced Service Desk load Informed first call response Reduced resolution time Improved financial planning through clear identification of all assets Enhanced Release Management due to visibility of software changes Guaranteed compliance with legal and contractual obligations Powerful integration platform Extract data from multiple data sources and apply rules for how that data gets mapped back into vfire. 12
Change & Release Management The aim of Change and Release management is to minimize disruption to your business. The processes ensure that standard steps are used for the planning, approval, execution and control of modifications to an operating environment and facilitate the introduction of software and hardware releases into managed IT environments. advanced automated workflow capabilities for clear definition of complex processes. visual representation of the various tasks required to complete a Request. flexibility to map any ITIL process with advanced workflow features. the ability to schedule regular, recurring Requests. visibility of a Forward Schedule of Change via the Customer Portal. timely Changes and Releases. Operational Level Agreements and Underpinning Contracts can be applied to tasks and approvals. full integration between Change, Release, Configuration and Problem Management processes. automated integration from workflow processes to keep your CMDB up to date. Managed risk to stabilize and protect the business from outages Improved reliability and responsiveness of IT services and processes Fewer and better Changes and Releases leading to a reduction of re-work and duplicated effort Improved productivity and service quality specialized approval tasks that can be actioned by a customer via the Customer Portal. automatic notifications of progress updates to the interested parties. Sophisticated workflow engine Map your business processes within vfire using the workflow engine and a diverse palette of task items. 13
Availability Management Increasingly IT departments and service providers are being measured not just on the responsiveness of their Service Desks, but by the amount of time that key business services are available to its users. vfire Core allows you to accurately track availability in a very powerful, yet easy-to-use way. Increased customer satisfaction by meeting service commitments using powerful Availability SLAs Enhanced reputation of the IT department within the business Optimized resources enabling IT to provide services when required planned and unplanned outages support. simulated outages to risk assess changes. a Cause Finder to find common infrastructure between affected services. support during contracted and un-contracted hours. sophisticated Availability SLAs and targets. highly visual Availability indicators throughout the application. the ability to automatically create outages through the vfire workflow builder. full outage tracking and Availability reporting. View outages within your CMDB Simulate outages to risk assess changes and pinpoint the root cause of multiple outages within your infrastructure. 14
Asset Management The purpose of Asset Management is to help identify, control, record, audit, verify and report assets across their lifecycle, from the point of acquisition through to their disposal. It maintains accurate information on the historical, current and planned state of assets and protects integrity by ensuring only authorised assets are used. Supporting Processes Cost control by highlighting the possibility of bulk purchases, implementing asset transfer and better adherence to compliance obligations Informed decision making, increasing the efficiency of vendor management, strategic planning and business continuity Effective Asset Management is critical to supporting processes. It supports many of the ITIL processes by providing accurate information to help the decisionmaking process, e.g. planning change, approving release, resolving Incidents and Problems. holistic views of the asset inventory through federated, consolidated CMDB. linking of assets to cost centers, contracts and owners. self-service Request logging. automated inventory control through workflow. automated order initiation for stock thresholds. automated notification of contract expiry. integration with monitoring suites. reports on asset efficiency and cost. Asset Management Keep track of license consumption within your organization. 15
Alemba Ltd (UK) Second Floor, 1 Tannery House Tannery Lane, Send, Woking, Surrey GU23 7EF United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)203 479 7900 E-mail: info@alemba.com Alemba Inc (USA) The Minnesota Center, 7760 France Avenue South, Suite 1100, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55435 USA Telephone: +1 (952) 886 7107 E-mail: info@alemba.com Alemba Pty Ltd (ANZ) Level 36, Governor Phillip Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia Telephone: +61 (0)2 8880 9500 E-mail: info@alemba.com Copyright Alemba Limited (or its licensors, including 2010-2013 VMware, Inc). All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at: http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. VMware Service Manager is also trademark of VMware, Inc. Alemba, vfire and vfirecore are trademarks of Alemba Limited (vfirecore is developed by Alemba Limited from VMware, Inc s product VMware Service Manager, under licence from VMware, Inc). All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.