VitAL ITSM Supplement 2013

V ITAL INSPIRATION FOR THE MODERN BUSINESS

ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

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Foreword

Are you ready for the decade of hybrid IT? As we move out of the decade of the cloud, we enter the decade of hybrid.

Throughout the 1990s, we witnessed the growth of on-premise service desk solutions takeover the market. Then, in the early 2000s, we were taken up into the clouds with the promise of simplicity. Now, we are being torn and forced to choose one way or the other.

Often businesses are forced into a deployment model that doesn’t fit with their needs or will work for the future of their organisation. They deserve the right to choose where and how they see fit – whether in the cloud or on-premise – because it is their business’ success at stake.

But first, to decide what is right for you, you need to ask yourself a few questions: • Where are your users located?

If you are centralised in one location, on-premise is best as you have more control over the configurations. But, if you have a distributed enterprise, cloud will offer users global access into the database.

• Is your organisation planning any acquisitions?

It may be best to start with the cloud as your focus will be on the change in infrastructure.

After a few years when infrastructure is realigned, you can make the choice to migrate to an on-premise solution that aligns with your available resources and configuration needs.

• Would you consider your available resources as limited, average, or advanced?

With a good, local infrastructure, you can handle the demands of an on-premise solution, but if you are looking to cut the cost of IT or outsource, a cloud deployment would offer you flexibility.

• How reliable is your Internet bandwidth?

This is a no-brainer. If you cannot consistently rely on your Internet then we recommend that you don’t invest in the cloud.

• Are your service management requirements standard or unique?

The more need you have for greater configurations, the more control you will want to have making on-premise your choice. But, if you have standard requirements and just want to get the solution up and running quickly, then cloud deployment is for you.

As the IT industry matures, hybrid is a response to the growing need for value and flexibility.

We explore hybrid IT and the concept of choice in more detail on page 8-11, including analyst findings and details of how beverage manufacturer “Beam Inc.” was able to leverage the flexibility of the cloud with FrontRange’s hybrid IT. Steve Gardner Sales director for UK and Ireland, FrontRange

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

Clouds, common sense and service on a platter Ros Satar provides advice to those considering moving to the cloud. Is it right for your business?...

I remember when clouds were just fluffy things that floated in the air.

Shortly before leaving one company, I went to a conference where one of our corporate mavericks presented on how this “cloudy” stuff would be difficult (but not impossible) to implement within our service structure.

Working with one of the foremost ITSM solutions, I was firmly housed in the fluffy stuff shortly thereafter, and I was amazed, but still sometimes unconvinced that this was the be-all and end-all.

• If you are making a decision to move from on-premise to cloud, what measurements are you putting in place to determine the financial benefits of that decision?

• Planned outages, capacity trends, disaster recovery not only needs to be very clear, but needs to perpetuate down into the provision of service to the end user.

• Security, especially regulatory requirements, which forbid data being in certain countries, is a major factor.

What has changed?

I think my viewpoint came from the perspective of almost From my experiences of deploying a data-centre based falling between two stools – on the one hand, I was an ITSM hosted managed service, versus deploying a cloudarchitect, with a good broad knowledge of making this house based managed service, in reality is more down to poor of cards stand up effectively, versus always management and poor communications. This is trying to focus on the process and the not something specific to cloud implementations bigger picture, and not just the tool.

– it is something that can affect any project, at The cloud is not any time. some magic bullet – Most of the vendors I review and work with now run Software as a Service – the My advice is to take a look at the original it is an economical infrastructure is out of the paws of the requirements for your ITSM solution and start deployment choice but consumer, although there are varying levels there. What needs is that solution trying to meet, it will not solve any of depth of consumer-specific configurations. and does the solution itself allow an organisation pre-existing issues That is about as much science as I want to to meet those requirements? Then start building delve into here, but let’s look at ITSM itself the foundations – from your overall business with processes in the context of the cloud. strategy to manage your services more effectively to help meet business goals, to ensuring that new Is there anything different after all? services are validated and changes are planned both up and downstream.

The cloud is not some magic bullet – it is an economical deployment choice but it will not solve any pre-existing Look at things from the end-user perspective and work from issues with processes. In fact, if I look at my own experiences, there – identify what risks there might be to their experience, more often than not, ITSM solutions were being brought and establish strong support channels for your own teams. in to replace an incumbent provider, and at the same time, The support teams need knowledge management too – processes were being overhauled all over the place. It often ensure that how-to’s exist for IT to use the ITSM solution, as made for a sticky transition – regardless of whether the tool much as it exists for the business to use. was on the ground, in a data centre basement or up in the sky!

Above all – understand where the buck stops, document So I always took the approach to go back to the the areas and contacts of responsibility and underpin it requirements, and to understand the reasons why we were with realistic, but effective SLAs – you are benefiting from a implementing this in the first place. provided service every bit as much as providing one yourself.

Start with your strategy and design This is all good ITIL book stuff, but at its heart is good old common sense. The decision to base your IT service management should play a part in that strategy. Let’s break it down a little further: • Just as the business will take a view of its requirements in terms of demand, portfolio and financial management, these factors should drive the choice of your SAAS provider.

• It is vital to understand who has responsibility for what between the provision of the service to you, and what risks that may pose to managing your own service to your end-users.

• How does the vendor provide its services to you, how do they manage their changes?

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And as trite as it sounds – especially as the world of ITSM and ITIL stand on the verge of new directions – none of this is new, none of this is rocket science. Take a step back, simplify and apply some good old-fashioned common sense, add a dash of business realism, leave to stand on a sideboard for a couple of hours before baking in a deployment oven, and provide on a platter as a service.

About the author Ros’ journey in ITIL/ITSM began in 2005 when she jumped into the deep end of configuration management as an ITSM Solution Architect for IBM, before striking out on her as an independent consultant, journalist and analyst.

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

ITSM in the cloud is not that simple Kalyan Kumar looks at whether fears over service management in the cloud have been unfounded…

Ask somebody in the street what their views are of ITSM in the cloud, and you’re likely to be greeted with a blank expression at best, and, at worst, a look of profound confusion.

When you consider that the world of service management has expanded exponentially with the advent of the cloud, this is perhaps hardly a surprising statement. Indeed, there are many so-called service management “experts” who have been left scratching their heads when they aim to come to terms with the complexity that cloud can add to this equation.

So, with this in mind, has ITSM in the cloud been a success? In order to understand this question better, it’s very important to examine different types of cloud and the impact they can have. For example, in a private cloud model, the amount of change required does not typically represent a significant challenge. However, in a hybrid cloud model, the impact on service management can be considerable, with underlying SLA relationships affected significantly.

Traditionally, the common belief in ITSM has been that technology management is deemed to be service management. This is a trend that also continues in a cloud environment, where the deployment of tools to manage the technology is deemed a part of the process implementation.

Technology management This flaw is further exacerbated as more and more tools become available with which to manage clouds services, thus adding to the complexity. With this in mind, it’s worth remembering that technology management is a part of service management and a core part of producing the service.

However, it is not the entire service management element.

It’s important to remember that service management is a layer above technology management, and the service management processes are technology agnostic. These service management processes interact with “technology management processes”.

The cloud has brought the radical changes in the technology management processes, and this has impacted the upper layer of service management processes.

Biggest fears Put simply, ITSM needs to be changed for the cloud if it is to be successful. The biggest fear for many with regard to ITSM in cloud has been that complexity has increased as a direct result of an increase in the number of IT service portfolios, vendors and service delivery elements. Some of these elements are hidden and, at times, difficult to bind them to any processes, due to nature of cloud services being consumed and arrangements between cloud providers in place.

Today, we’re beginning to see more organisations that understand this complexity, and who are taking a rationalised approach to ITSM adoption in cloud environments. These organisations are identifying services, workloads and processes that are currently existing and trying to re-engineer them to

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It’s worth remembering that technology management is a part of service management and a core part of producing the service. However, it is not the entire service management element fit with the cloud ecosystem. There are multiple aspects that need to be addressed on the ITSM front when moving to cloud. One of the important aspects is around SLAs, due to appreciable change in the service management equation.

Time to adapt previous conceptions Perhaps the important thing to remember is that if ITSM in the cloud is to work, organisations must find a way to reduce the layers of complexity and adapt their previous conceptions of service management accordingly.

Service management can be a moveable feast, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to everything. Depending on what cloud infrastructure you are using; the size of your business; and a number of other elements, you may find that you need to adapt your ITSM cloud project so that it reduces complexity and achieves your specific aims.

About the author Kalyan Kumar is the Vice President and chief technology architecture at HCL Technologies ISD

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

Has ITSM in the cloud worked?

Presenting analyst findings and details of how beverage manufacturer “Beam Inc.” was able to leverage the flexibility of the cloud with hybrid IT, FrontRange explores hybrid IT….

Organisations must ask whether the cloud is the right fit for their business. Are the right levels of security, connectivity and complexity required to make the cloud cost effective over a long period of time in place?

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

This year, 2013, was predicted to have a major trend toward hybrid IT. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2014, 30% of companies currently using cloud-based ITSM tools will go back to a premise-based solution.1 For most businesses, the appeal of the cloud is obvious. The number of things you have to focus on is narrowed; upfront capital investment is reduced; and the cloud is no longer a new concept. But organisations must ask whether the cloud is the right fit for their business. Are the right levels of security, connectivity and complexity required to make the cloud cost effective over a long period of time in place?

Changing the state of play As innovation in technology continues to change, IT departments are seeing the entire enterprise evolve. The traditional perception of IT simply reacting to requirements set out by the business can no longer be perpetuated if an organisation wants to thrive and survive in the modern world.

At the same time, on-going responsibilities remain. CIOs still need to keep the IT environment running, keep costs down, and mitigate risks. The historical role of service improvement must be balanced with the introduction of new technology, setting strategy and solving business problems while putting the foundations in place to enable the commercial agility needed for the organisation to succeed.

When it comes to service management, customers have historically found that choice is limited, purchasing solutions that are not fit-for-purpose later on. For example, some vendors will sell on-premise or cloud solutions based on how big the company is only to find that the customer’s business model changes and those solutions are no longer able to support the business cost effectively. On the other hand, if you are a smaller company, you may be sold solutions that have limited capabilities even if your service management needs are advanced.

As a proactive and fundamental part of the business, the CIO’s responsibility for the service desk is no longer limited to selecting a tool and implementing it. The decision is based on strategic business-aligned influences. If, as Gartner says, IT organisations will be replacing their service desk solutions every three years by 2016 (Gartner, May 2012) rather than the current five, the impact on costs from disruption could be damaging.

Achieving commercial agility and cost efficiencies Delivering on employee experience is the primary objective for many IT departments and having the right IT model is imperative to that. Organisations want the flexibility to deploy ITSM solutions via cloud or on-premise as needs dictate, and when and where it makes the most sense for the everchanging organisation.

Too often, it is an either/or proposition. Companies are forced to choose a cloud tool that does not do everything they require it to, or a premise-based solution that may not be able to cover the entire organisation. Instead, what is needed is a single solution that works in either a cloud-based or onpremise model and shares a common centralised console that gives the same look and feel.

Such a model protects the company against unforeseen changes in their business. If the organisation acquires another company for instance, maybe one with lots of far-flung branch offices, it can quickly bring them on board using the cloud model. But, over time, if the company opts to consolidate offices, it may find it is better served with an on-premise based ITSM solution. In short, a hybrid model supports shortand long-term objectives much more effectively than the “one-size-fits-all” approach.

Using a hybrid model, organisations are able to develop a basic help desk into an end-to-end enterprise-class service management solution with a flexible deployment model, including smart features such as voice automation and client management capabilities on-premise and in the cloud.

Through this, service desks will deliver outstanding service while maximising operational efficiencies with reduced cost and complexity.

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

Case study Beam Inc. has a 218-year history of making spirits, with premium brands such as Jim Beam Black and Maker’s Mark bourbon, Laphroaig scotch and Sauza tequila.

As par t of its efficiency and best practices strategy, Beam created the Global Business Services (GBS) group to provide human resources and financial transactional activities from a central hub in Louisville, KY. The GBS is the primary point of contact for benefits, compensation, accounts payable, accounts receivable and other core business processes for Beam employees, customers and suppliers in Nor th America, and the company plans to open additional GBS locations in Spain and Asia Pacific.

With shared services, Beam can drive process efficiencies, ensure standardisation and maximise service quality across its global operation. It needed a shared service platform to use throughout the organisation and across business functions.

Business value in the cloud Beam has used FrontRange’s on-premise HEAT Help Desk since 2003, and more than 12 depar tments use the solution. So when the Global Business Services group began looking for a solution to support service management, it took a close look at FrontRange HEAT Service Management in the cloud.

Susan Klein, senior director of the project management office, Beam, said, “I really liked the usability we have experienced with FrontRange’s Help Desk solution. Great usability on a highly scalable, cloud-based platform swayed me to stay with FrontRange and migrate to HEAT cloud.”

The flexibility and adaptability of the HEAT Platform in the cloud was a natural fit with Beam’s application standardisation and globalisation objectives, and Beam migrated from the on-premise HEAT Help Desk to the cloud–based HEAT Service Management in late 2012.

HEAT Service Management in the cloud is a highly extensible and configurable solution with an integrated workflow-based application platform that provides a single, consolidated view of information that is relevant to Beam’s different locations, depar tments and users.

Beam leverages the same workflow platform for human resources and financial transactions – incorporating other shared service workflows as the business demands.

Workflows can be straightforward or highly customised to Beam’s processes, increasing the agility of the business to achieve shared services and achieving greater efficiency.

In addition to usability and flexibility of the cloud-based HEAT solution, Beam no longer needs to worry about upgrading, maintaining and suppor ting on-premise software.

The cloud has enabled Beam to realise both capital and operational expense savings by eliminating the need for multiple servers.

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Smooth move to the cloud Beam has seen a rapid time-to-benefit with HEAT. The GBS processes an average of 4,472 tickets per month. The move to the cloud was smooth, and integration between HEAT and Beam’s enterprise applications, including SAP software was straightforward.

Beam uses SAP as a master data source to store all of its vendor and customer information, which is then integrated and accessible within the HEAT Service Management solution. When a staff member in accounts payable, for instance, needs to set up a new vendor or issue a purchase order, he or she simply submits a ticket via HEAT Service Management, and the request is automatically routed and tracked. Accounts receivable workflows are also managed through HEAT Service Management, so staff can more easily track activities around credit and collections.

Integration with Microsoft Active Directory ensures that employee information is always up-to-date. Annual healthcare enrolment is handled through HEAT Service Management, as are reimbursements, such as when an employee purchases Beam’s products at a store or restaurant.

Positive user experience More than 50 employees in the Louisville Global Business Services use HEAT Service Management in the cloud and reaction has been positive.

HEAT Service Management in the cloud comes with numerous out-of-the-box dashboards and repor ts making the learning curve for employees simple. Beam has also configured its own dashboards with an easy-to-use design module, making it easy for employees to become dependent on repor ting and tracking activity.

The company tracks metrics such as the time it takes to bring on a new hire or process a purchase order through HEAT Service Management, and utilises key performance indicator repor ts to help drive steering committee decisions every month.

Next steps With the smooth transition of moving finance and human resources to HEAT Service Management in the cloud complete, Beam is already planning its next steps. First up is tighter integration with SAP. Julie Commons, IT manager, suppor t services at Beam, said, “Some of our business processes are more detailed, so we’ll leverage HEAT’s quick actions and workflow designer to extend our integration with SAP, so that we can provide notifications to employees based on cer tain actions.”

As with many companies, mobile devices are playing a bigger role in the workflow at Beam, and with mobile suppor t in HEAT, employees will be able to submit tickets and check the status of their requests from Apple iPad and iPhone mobile devices.

ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

A survey of 95 IT executives by IDG’s CXO Media CIO Peer2Peer Research Panel found that 55% prefer a hybrid ITSM model, 33%prefer a premises-based solution, and only 13 per cent opt for a pure cloud offering The right solution for the job “With over 24 years in the service management industry, we have been able to see and grow with technology and current trends. In every case, the same principles apply; customers want a cost-effective, reliable IT infrastructure that offers them flexibility,” said Steve Gardner, sales director for UK and Ireland at FrontRange. More and more organisations, such as Beam, are looking at new ways to apply the process efficiencies in ITSM to a wider range of non-IT service desks such as HR and finance.”

Given the fact most enterprises sit somewhere in the middle, a hybrid IT strategy – combining cloud and on-premise offerings – offers a clear advantage. Gartner is not alone in recognising this trend. A survey of 95 IT executives by IDG’s CXO Media CIO Peer2Peer Research Panel found that 55% prefer a hybrid ITSM model, 33% prefer a premises-based solution, and only 13% opt for a pure cloud offering.

The common denominator underlying these insights is customer demand for flexibility, which is why the future is shaping up to be focused on hybrid IT. Enterprises must have the ability to deploy cloud-based ITSM tools where it makes the most sense; and premise-based solutions where the cloud model is not optimal. By having a single solution, organisations

will be the beneficiaries of a unified and centralised management console that is critical when considering the sheer volume of incidents, configuration changes, change and problem management requests that must be handled on a daily, monthly and annual basis.

Going forward, customisation in the cloud is another major issue to consider when deploying ITSM solutions.

Each organisation is unique in how it handles incidents, configuration management, change management and release management, not to mention problem management and the business rules that drive the performance of service desks.

Shared applications in the cloud that are largely standardised make configuration changes more complex which introduces an element of risk.

Organisations don’t want – nor must they – be forced into an either/or model. So when looking at the question, “Has ITSM in the cloud worked?” It appears that the answer is not yet.

Delivering on employee experience is the primary objective for many IT departments and having the right IT model is imperative to that. Organisations want the flexibility to deploy ITSM solutions via cloud or on-premise as needs dictate, and when and where it makes the most sense for the ever changing organisation. Hybrid IT is the only real viable choice.

References 1. How to Decide Whether SaaS ITSM Tools Make Sense for Your Organisation

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

Should you move all ITSM components to the cloud?

The cloud offers more options for companies that either don’t want to own their IT infrastructure, or want to reduce their costs. However, does it make sense to move everything to the cloud when it comes to ITSM? Stuart Facey doesn’t think so…

The cloud offers another dimension for companies that either don’t want to operate their own IT infrastructure, introduce new applications or change the way they finance their IT solutions.

However, does it make sense to move all components of ITSM into the cloud?

In order to make the right decision around how and when to use cloud computing, the first step is to break down your ITSM procedures and processes and look at what each step entails.The standard definition of ITIL encompasses both the overall service strategy and service operation, as well as the transition sections.

With respect to IT support, this involves looking at the process that a user goes through when they contact the service desk for assistance on a problem or issue. The process involves gathering information and profiling the request, managing each request through to resolution, and then reporting on overall service levels.

Working through these steps typically involves products from a variety of technology vendors in the ITSM space. Many of them now offer both on-premise and software-as-a-service versions of their solutions.

Presenting the case for the cloud For standard service desk tasks, like managing tickets or tracking service desk requests, using cloud-based systems can provide an opportunity for shorter implementations, improved user experience, and access to more appropriate functionality. Make sure you do a long-term cost analysis as cloud often doesn’t equal cheaper in the long run.

Security conscious organisations that work with sensitive data may be able to use a cloud-based service desk solution if there is a clear separation between the data collected from the systems and the help desk staff working on a particular issue. For example, NHS clinical staff have patient data security and confidentiality to think about, but managing service tickets for those environments can be done in the cloud as sensitive patient data is typically not included as part of processing tickets or requests.

Remote access There are, however, other functions where using onpremises systems makes sense, even if ticketing and service management process do move into the cloud. Remote access and remote support solutions fall into this category and these types of solutions are often used in conjunction with service desk tools as part of incident and problem resolution. Being able to see, diagnose and, if required, take control of a remote user’s asset makes it easier to resolve the issue and eliminates the need for IT to potentially dispatch a support technician to the employee’s location.

However, while the service desk tool mainly stores information about the assets and incidents, the remote support tool connects to those assets directly, and potentially can be used to access everything that’s stored on those assets. Being able to access a remote device and all that it encompasses creates a very different situation from a security perspective. In the case of a remote support session, the technical representative may view or have access to sensitive data, even inadvertently.

“Best of breed” approach If you’re using an SaaS solution for remote support then everything that occurs during a session is being passed through that vendor’s systems, which could be anywhere in the world and extend your circle of liability. This means you’re reliant on the remote support vendor’s security standards as much as your own, and in many European territories this becomes a significant legal issue.

For those organisations dealing with sensitive data, operating internationally or wishing to operate within their respective compliance standards, an on-premise platform for remote support is generally the best solution from a technical and security perspective.

Even if you’re using separate vendors and deployment approaches for different ITSM tools, it should still be possible for you to integrate all of the solutions to create a seamless support experience for both the technician and the enduser. This “best of breed” approach will allow you to take advantage of cloud-based solutions where appropriate as well as ensure that certain components of the overall solution remain within your control.

Great opportunities The cloud does offer some great opportunities to deliver new technology and to improve user experience and efficiency. However, it is not as simple as going “all in” on cloud or “all in” with on-premises technology. Whichever approach you decide to take should be based on the best fit for your processes, people, and security policies. Ultimately, it is all about creating the best possible user experience without compromising your business.

About the author Stuart Facey is VP EMEA for Bomgar. He is responsible for the company’s international market development and customer relations, as well as supporting the expansion of interest in secure remote access across Europe.

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

Does IT belong here? What and when to outsource “IT departments must be sure that they have control and visibility of any services they outsource to the cloud,” says Pat Bolger…

The cloud has so far caused huge upheaval in the IT world and it’s easy to see why.

Who doesn’t like the idea of a flexible IT infrastructure, services on demand and a reduction in costs? Perhaps most compellingly the cloud makes it even easier to outsource IT services, gaining access to capabilities that would be difficult to implement in-house, secure in the knowledge that a trusted party has the complex management under control.

Of course, this isn’t always the case; any failure of a cloudbased service can have huge repercussions for the IT department. Whilst rare, these occurrences can have profound effects. For example, the chaos caused by the April 2011’s Amazon Cloud outage; or the recent failure of Microsoft Azure. While the fault may lie with a service provider, users direct their frustrations at only one place – the IT department.

The golden rule Why does IT bear the brunt of user frustrations? Because you can outsource almost anything except “responsibility”. IT departments must be sure that they have control and visibility of any services they outsource to the cloud.They must see exactly what is being delivered, where and to whom, and what weaknesses might exist in the supply chain; they must also be able to cope in the event of a loss of service.This means that IT is not removing its management burden by outsourcing; but shifting it from managing in-house IT assets to managing suppliers.

Making a virtuous circle If a service is managed with difficulty in-house, how can an outsourcer guarantee good service when it doesn’t know what to look for to ensure it is delivered? IT should only outsource services it is already fully in control of. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it means the department can ensure it receives the service needed and is prepared to deal with any outages or incidents.

In the meantime, managing the outsourced service will still require less time than managing it in-house, so IT can concentrate on improving its ability to manage those services it is less sure of or even develop new ones. This results in a virtuous circle: more services can be outsourced, freeing more time to improve others, thus allowing them to be subsequently outsourced if desired.

A better driver, not just a better car 100

There is a great analogy for ITSM in the cloud; it’s a lot like buying a car. You could buy the most expensive car with the

There is a great analogy for ITSM in the cloud; it’s a lot like buying a car best add-ons, but it won’t make you a better driver. All that investing in a SaaS solution does is give a company the choice of how to deploy and how to pay for it.

The speed and versatility of technology does lend itself to a more flexible solution; the infrastructure is cheap and scalable, vendors optimise their own products to match and there are no costly maintenance cycles. Global configurations also require a regulatory perspective to be considered, i.e. what data is where, and in which country. And when it comes to configurations – it pays to be sure that any customisation that you carry out on your hosted service translates with centrally controlled updates. Yet another reason for really understanding what it is you need to be a better driver, instead of focussing on the faster, cheaper car.

Supporting evolution Outsourcing to the cloud is a step on the evolutionary process of providing IT services, rather than a missing link that allows other steps to be skipped. As such, there are a number of relatively simple checks the IT department can perform to ensure it has control over its IT. First, are the services well defined and managed effectively by internal IT; is there a best practice framework like ITIL, or a standard such as ISO 20000 in place? Second, can it predict or explain all events and outages in the service? Third, how well are changes to the service supported? Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, are user expectations managed?

Whether the service is in the cloud or not, your end-users need to know what to expect from their services; how to access them; and who to contact if things go wrong. And the IT department must be aware that regardless of how it provides its services, it will remain the primary point of contact and focus of attention in the minds of users.

As a result, it needs to be 100% confident that it can address any issues as the buck very definitely stops with them. Ultimately, IT departments need to remember the golden rule; technology and services may reside pretty much anywhere, but ownership, responsibility and management can only ever be in one place.

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About the author 25

Pat Bolger is the chief evangelist at Hornbill.

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

Stepping up to social support Christian Thorsrud discusses the importance of the cloud and social media for customer service and service management…

The way in which people communicate is changing and social media platforms will soon be among the most important communication channels for contact centres.

The majority of customers are already using social media therefore the ability to communicate via their channel of choice is essential to maintain a competitive advantage and meet customer service expectations.

Customers are infinitely more knowledgeable even before they make contact, often only contacting a manufacturer, retailer or support organisation if they cannot find answers online. This means that when contact is made there is a desire for quick, concise and straightforward answers. This is particularly true in B2C (business to consumer) consumerfocused contact centres.

Working with social media Most organisations face the same challenges when it comes to social media – there is no central control or social media strategy which allows the collection of data to create a single view of the customer. Marketing might be tasked with sending out messages via social media; human resources could be responsible for monitoring accounts; logins and passwords, but which department is responsible for responding to social media enquiries?

By empowering contact centre agents with the tools to respond to requests through every channel, organisations will enter the conversation sooner to resolve customer queries before they become complaints as well as engage with customers faster. “Call Me” or chat buttons on web pages can lead to voice conversations to deal with more complex unresolved queries in the most direct way – via the telephone.

Open for social business Organisations stepping up to social support and social media which are building a new contact centre or planning to update their current infrastructure should start by thinking cloud.

A cloud-based contact centre infrastructure, which fits the organisation’s business model, combines the benefits of a traditional on-premise solution with the flexibility, scalability, cost efficiency and multichannel capability provided by a cloud solution.

A cloud-based contact centre infrastructure, which fits the organisation’s business model, combines the benefits of a traditional on-premise solution with the flexibility, scalability, cost efficiency and multichannel capability provided by a cloud solution It is all about flexibility. Cloud-based contact centres are location independent which means that agents and administrators have the freedom to log-in from any location.

All that is required is a phone line (PSTN, SIP or Mobile) and an Internet connection. This helps with handling fluctuating volumes. Flexibility also enables satellite offices to manage and control their own locations while sharing the technology platform across the organisation as a whole and providing additional resource as demand dictates.

Plan for the future Remember to build for now but plan for the future. Every modern contact centre needs to scale and seamlessly grow to cost effectively react to customer and market changes. The ability to add agents across centralised or distributed locations can make the difference between success and failure when responding to customer demand.

Cloud-based contact centre technology gives the ability to scale up or down without the need for capital investment or additional hardware and software. The secret to stepping up to social support and responding to social media lies with the contact centre, and in this case the cloud most definitely works.

Create a single view of the customer in the cloud Taking advantage of cloud-based contact centre technology allows an organisation to utilise skills-based routing in queues regardless of which channel a customer is using. It can be the telephone, email, Facebook, Twitter or numerous alternative channels. To the cloud, it is irrelevant and the query comes into the same place.

About the author hristian Thorsrud is product manager at Intelecom Group AS and has spent several years in the customer service industry.

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ITSM in the cloud: Has it worked?

The East vs The West Has ITSM in the cloud worked in Eastern Europe and Russia? Vladimir Ivanov shares his thoughts…

In my opinion, ITSM in the cloud has worked. There are many cloud services and products in Eastern Europe’s and Russia’s markets, and, undoubtedly, there is growing demand for more, although, the biggest drivers for demand were mainly branches of the big international corporations striving to follow cloud strategies from the headquarters.

These strategies often are made with too little analysis of the local market specifics and significant local alternatives are left out from the consideration, basing a business case purely on economy of scale.

For many local businesses in Eastern Europe and Russia, technology in general, and cloud solutions in particular, are still more of a fashion trend – and they are following a trend without sound economical reasoning. On the other hand, there is also more marketing then the implementation activity as reports suggest that the Eastern market lags behind the market on the West by three to five years. In my opinion, this is positive news because such markets can copy-with-pride what already works on the West, but one needs to take into account a lot of local specifics. For example, capital expenditures in IT are often on a high level (up to 90%) from the total IT budget so such investments need to be carefully considered.

Security of data in the cloud became an “extremely hot potato” in the light of the recent PRISM news and gave strong argument against cloud adoption. In my opinion, security considerations have grown worldwide since then and will negatively affect not only US cloud firms. Although the recent research is mainly concerned by the fact that US cloud computing providers might lose up to $35 billion by 2016, which equates to approximately 20% of the non-US market.

But, market specifics are sometimes so broad that famous Gartner’s magic quadrants are irrelevant for Russia and Eastern Europe.

Some years ago, there was a strong buzz around the cloud and there was a tendency to add the word “cloud” to any new service or product, when in reality there is just an online host used to provision it. Another popular myth was that cloud is anything that is behind of your corporate firewall, no matter if it’s yours or outsourced.

Nowadays things have changed and even Wikipedia’s Cloud Computing definition gives a viable basis for making your mind and drafting a list of characteristics in addition to typical price performance duo, such as scalability and elasticity, reliability and multitenancy, security and maintainability etc. For more scientific and unambiguous definition, it is still better to turn to current NIST standard and its more recent synopsis and recommendations.

Eastern market lags behind the market on the West by three to five years. In my opinion, this is positive news because such markets can copy-with-pride what already works on the West, but one needs to take into account a lot of local specifics. For example, capital expenditures in IT are often on a high level (up to 90%) from the total IT budget so such investments need to be carefully considered My advice is to always trial products and build your own “magic quadrants” based on your measures of performance and other characteristics instead of blindly following corporate strategies sent to you from the headquarters.

Products function ideally only at the conference presentations of the experts, so, for a better understanding, it may be worthwhile asking companies what the challenges were.

References available on request

About the author Vladimir Ivanov is consultant and trainer in project management and IT Service Management, IPMA-B and ITIL Expert certified. He has worked for large telecoms and as CIO for global retail chain.Vladimir is the owner of ITSM LLC.

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