Service / Support Delivery management (as Project Management) and support communication are becoming more complex as multi-location support execution is coming into the picture. The challenge multiplies if it involves working with vendors and external contractors (at customer locations). Additionally, having vendors globally can make it even more complex. A robust communication model should be in place to handle communication for inhouse support services or geographically dispersed in-house support services or vendor executed support services. The goal of the communication model should be:

• To provide precise and concise project communication
• To involve all necessary stakeholders and maintain regular contact to keep transparency in all transactions
• To have clear communication channels with well-defined roles and responsibilities
• To facilitate review and feedback of the project deliveries and project performance internally and externally
• To clarify doubts, overcome challenges and avert risks that affect the project
• To built the trust and relationship between the parties
• To train, motivate and mentor the project teams

The purpose of this writeup is to seek inputs on how/what the service delivery managers should figure into their collaborative communication models beyond a mere reporting of the service statuses. Some of the challenges delivery manager’s faces today are:

• Multi-location support services involving people stationed (in-house, nearshore, offshore)
• Variety of processes (in-house, vendor specific etc)
• Short listing and proper usage of common tool

In order to facilitate this:

1. We need a system that enables online collaboration.
2. We also need consolidate our practices and come up with a standard Service Delivery Method/Process

How to have a Collaborative form of communication?

Often in my 11+ years of Managed services operationalization, I have felt that, not withstanding islands of success, the general take-up of collaborative communications has been lagging. Few online tools and portalized service may be too narrow a focus and the failure to share information internally across teams and externally (with customers, contractors and vendors) made promises of transparent service look a bit feeble.

Typical MS project communication flow is as following:

 Click Here to open the MS project communication flow

Historically, the use of emails, or isolated management solutions, made information (1) hard to find; (2) accessible only by a single person at a time, thus hindering collaboration; (3) not suitable for auditing and prioritization of tasks; and (4) not visible and transparent to all stakeholders. These are all inhibitors that prevent the delivery of service excellence.

The advent of SR Management systems helps in minimizing the above problems with email based systems. As the focus shifts toward service-centric SR’s, triggered by a variety of events, there will be greater demand for collaborative interfaces, business process management, and content management (see Figure below). Hence the need for ‘Collaborative Communications Management Framework’ is becoming more apparent rather then just using a simple SR handling framework. The building blocks of this ‘Collaborative Communications Management Framework’ in Figure below represent the information infrastructure that will be essential to streamline overall communication through collaboration, accurate resource planning, performance monitoring, compliance auditing, and visibility to all stakeholders; visibility will, in fact, pervade all components of collaborative management to ensure consultants and managers can monitor all workflows and speed them up while offering a window through which external stakeholders (customers / vendors) monitor transparency of processes.

Collaborative interfaces will provide workspaces to foster exchange of information among various teams working on the engagement, assessing, evaluating, and approving requests. Enterprise search capabilities will greatly strengthen the ability to find data across deliverables. Dashboards will ensure managers have continuous visibility into the status of each case and can audit anytime. Portals and email tools will greatly enhance accessibility, transparency, and accountability toward end users (announcing downtimes, system blackouts etc)

Process management will streamline workflows by automatically scheduling tasks to be assigned to team members who participate in the delivery of a service. Task assignment will entail time required for each operation and rules to follow for maximum efficiency and templates to be used and queue management. When changes in the process occur, process management will enable real-time adapting of the document workflow, the type of content that needs to be searched to complete the operation, and the levels of responsibility (thus authorization to access information) of the various members of the support / service team. Automation of workflows will also enable managers to complement reporting.

Content management functionalities will grant that data can be retrieved, added to the workflow, and examined in various formats, for comprehensive decision support, while maintaining control of versions and access. Archiving functionalities will be particularly important for rapid response by ensuring quick content retrieval. Managing rights and permissions to create, edit, post, or delete materials, and protecting intellectual property, we can ensure compliance with privacy, transparency, and other needs of the customers/vendors.

Figure: Collaborative Communications Management Framework

 Click here for the Collaborative Communications Management Framework

Collaborative Communication Framework implementation

There are many tools available for the required collaboration

-          Agile, PLM

-          IBM PDIF (Product development Integration Framework)

Taking Agile, PLM framework and creating a global delivery framework can give comprehensive support / services platform and it can also take into account the collaborative communication framework presented above.

This collaborative framework should provide a unified platform to collaborate and manage work/communication more effectively by enhancing:

Document Management

Code Management

    Change / Release Management

    Deployment Management

Confiuration Management

Automated Workflows

Project Tracking and Work Plan Management

Support / Project Metrics

Communication

Complete History and Archiving facilties 

Operationalizing the communication framework for Managed Service engagements

The framework operationalization can happen in the following way:

Conclusion

Collaborative communication can be a key differentiator in Managed services and also becomes extremely critical sucess factor in a multi-vendor managed services scenario. The on-going communication enables transparency across all parties and therefore acts as a key enabler for building trust and relationship.

Implementation of the above framework will involve a change in the tools and some education to Outsourcing vendor’s internal people and also customer team members.

The sucess of this will depend on the following:

• Framework familiarization and correct adoption both Internally (within the Outsourcing Vendors Organizations) and externally (Customers / Other Vendors)
• Correct usage of tools
• Having a collaborative mindset

Yes, it is predictions time. Let me start by saying that no market change happens in a single year. Therefore, what is important is to look at the nuance of a market or a technology change in the context of its evolution. So, it is in this spirit that I will make a few predictions. I’ve decided to just list my top six predictions (I don’t like odd numbers). Next week I will add another five or six predictions.

1. Cloud computing will move out of the fear, uncertainty and doubt phase to the reality phase for many customers. This means that large corporations will begin to move segments of their infrastructure and applications to the cloud. It will be a slow but steady movement. The biggest impact on the market is that customers will begin putting pressure on vendors to guarantee predictability and reliability and portability.
2. Service Management will become mainstream. Over the past five years the focus of service management has been around ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) processes and certification. There is a subtle change happening as corporations are starting to take a more holistic view of how they can effectively manage how everything that has a sensor, an actuator, or a computer interface is managed. Cloud computing will have a major impact on the growing importance of service management.
3. Cloud service providers will begin to drop their prices dramatically as competition intensifies. This will be one of the primary drivers of growth of the use of cloud services. It will put a lot of pressure on smaller niche cloud providers as the larger companies try to gain control of this emerging market.
4. It is not a stretch to state that the pace of technology acquisitions will accelerate in 2010.  I expect that HP, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and CA will be extremely active. While it would be foolhardy to pick a single area, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that security, data center management, service management, and information management will be the focus of many of the acquisitions.
5. Social Networking will become much more mainstream than it was in 2009. Marketers will finally realize that blatant sales pitches on Twitter or Facebook just won’t cut it.  We will begin to see markets learn how to integrate social networking into the fabric of marketing programs. As this happens there will be hundreds of new start ups focused on analyzing the effectiveness of these marketing efforts.
6. Information management is at the cusp of a major change. While the individual database remains important, the issue for customers is focus on the need to manage information holistically so that they can anticipate change. As markets grow increasingly complex and competitive, the hottest products in 2010 will those that help companies anticipate what will happen next.  So expect that anything with the term predictive analytics to be hot, hot, hot.

Service: A Service is a means of delivering value to the customers by facilitating outcomes which customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks.

• Business outcomes are possible from the performance of the business tasks and are limited by the presence of constraints.
• Business outcomes and performance of customer assets are the basis for the value created by services.
• A well-designed service provides performance and deliver an appropriate level of utility for the customer.

• Within IT Service Management,the term Service is also used as a synonym for IT service.
• An IT service is based on the use of IT and supports the customer’s business processes.
• An IT service is made up from a combination of people, processes and technology.

IT Service Management: Service Management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to the customers in the form of the services.

• The capabilities take the form of the functions and processes for managing services over a life cycle, with the specializations in strategy, design, transition, operation and continual improvement.
• The capabilities represent a service organization’s capacity, competency, and confidence for the action.
• The art of transforming resources into valuable services is at the core of service management.

Service Management is a professional practice supported by an extensive body of knowledge, experience, and skills. A global community of individuals and organizations in the public and private sectors fosters its growth and maturity. Formal schemes exist for the education, training, and certification of practicing organizations and individuals influence its quality. Industry best practices, academic research, and formal standards contribute to its intellectual capital and draw from it.

• Service management is also used as a synonym for IT service management.
• By IT service management, we mean that implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the needs of the business.

Service Composition

Service composition describes the various components of a service.

Business Process: to define the functional needs of the service being provided e.g. Telesales, invoicing, orders, credit check.

Service: the service itself that is being delivered to the customers and business by the service provider e.g. email, billing.

Service Level Agreements (SLA)/Service level requirements (SLR): the documents agreed with the customers that specify the level, scope and quality of the service to be provided.

Infrastructure: all of the IT equipments necessary to deliver the service to the customers and users, including servers, network circuits, switches, PCs, Telephones.

Environment: the environment required to secure and operate the infrastructure e.g. data centres, power, air-conditioning etc

Data: the data necessary to support the service and provide the information required by the business processes e.g. customer records, account ledger.

Applications: all of the software applications required to maintain the data and provide the functional requirements of the business process e.g. ERP, financial, CRM

Support Services: Any service that is necessary to support the operation of the delivered service e.g. a shared service, a managed network service.

Operational level Agreements (OLAs) and Contracts: any underpinning agreements necessary to deliver the quality of the services agreed within the SLA

Support teams: any internal support teams providing second and third line support for any of the components required to provide the service e.g. UNIX, mainframe, networks

Suppliers: any external third parties necessary to provide third line and fourth line support for any of the components required to provide the service.

Process

A process is a structured set of activities designed to accomplish a specific objective.

A process:

• Takes one or more inputs and turns them into defined outputs.
• Includes all types of the roles, responsibilities, tools and management controls required to reliably deliver the output.
• May define or revise policies, standards, guidelines, activities, processes, procedures, and work instructions if they are needed.

• Business outcomes are produced by business processes governed by objectives, policies, and constraints.
• The processes are supported by resources including people, knowledge, applications, and infrastructure.
• Work flow coordinates the execution of the tasks and flow of the control between resources, and intervening actions to ensure adequate performance and desired outcomes.

Business processes are particularly important from a service management perspective, they apply the organization’s cumulative knowledge and experience to the achievement of a particular outcome. They are strategic assets when they creative competitive advantage and market differentiation.

Closed Loop Systems

Process definitions describe actions, dependencies and sequence. By defining what the organization’s activities are , which inputs are necessary and which outputs will result from the process, it is possible to work in a more efficient and effective manner. Measuring and steering the activities increases its effectiveness. Finally by adding, norms to the process, it is possible to add quality measures to the output. Processes are examples of closed loop systems because they provide change and transformation towards a goal, and use feedback for self reinforcing and self corrective actions. It is important to consider the entire process or how one process fits into the other.

Process characteristics

Processes have the following characteristics:

Measurable: Ability to measure the process in a relevant manner. It is performance driven. Managers want to measure cost, quality and other variables while practitioners are concerned with duration and productivity.

Delivers specific result: the reason a specific process exits is to deliver a specific result. This result must be individually identifiable and countable.

Results are delivered to the stakeholders and the customers: every process delivers its primary results to a customer or stakeholder. They may be internal or external to the organization but the process must meet their expectations.

Responds to a specific event: While a process may be ongoing or iterative, it should be traceable to a specific trigger.

Functions

Functions are units of organization specialized to perform certain type of work and responsible for specific outcomes.

• They are self contained with capabilities and resources necessary for their performance and outcomes.
• Capabilities include work methods internal to the functions.
• Functions have their own body of knowledge which accumulates from the experience.

In smaller organizations, one person or a group can perform multiple functions – e.g. a technical management department could also incorporate the service Desk function.

• Functions are meant to structure organizations to implement the specialization principles.
• Functions typically define roles and associated authority and responsibility for a specific performance and outcomes.
• Coordination between functions through shared processes is a common pattern in organization design.
• Poor coordination between functions combines with an inward focus leads to functional silos that hinder alignment and feedback critical to the success of the organization as a whole.
• Process models help avoid this problem with functional hierarchies by improving cross-functional coordination and control.

Roles

A role refers to a set of connected behaviours or actions that are performed by a person, team or a group in a specific context.

For example, a technical management department can perform the role of problem management when diagnosing the root cause of the incidents. This same department could also be expected to play several other roles at different times, e.g. they may assess the impact of changes (Change Management role), manage the performance of devices under their control (Capacity management role) etc.

The RACI Matrix

Processes and their constituent activities run through an entire organization. Since process can be very complicated and possibly involve several roles with varying responsibilities, it is beneficial for the sake of clarity that the individual activities should be mapped to the roles defined.

• The roles and activities are coordinated by process managers.
• Once detailed procedures and work instructions have been developed, an organization must map the defined roles and the activities of the process to its existing staff.

The RACI model is useful in enabling decisions to be made with confidence.

• It clarifies to all roles involved which activities they are expected to fulfil and identifies any gaps in process delivery and responsibilities.
• To assist with this task, a RACI authority matrix is often used within organizations indicating roles and responsibilities in relation to processes and activities.

RACI is an acronym for the main roles of:

Responsible The person or people responsible for getting the job done.

Accountable Only one person can be accountable for each task

Consulted The people who are consulted and whose opinions are sought.

Informed The people that are kept up-to-date on progress.

An expanded version of RACI is sometimes used called RACI – VS with two further roles

Verifies Person or group that checks the acceptance criteria has been met.

Signs off Approves the verification decision and authorizes the product hand off. This could be the Accountable person.

The RACI chart shows the structure and power of RACI modeling with the activities down the left hand side including the actions that need to be taken and decisions that must be made. Across the to, the chart lists the functional roles responsible for carrying out the initiative or playing a part in decision making.

Our whitepaper provides you with a step by step guide to mapping processes and changing/re-engineering them!  The guide consists of a four step process which is easy to follow and can be used in simple or complex situations.  Use the technique to deliver measurable benefits to your own processes or to help your client. Remember the importance of engagement and consultation.

Process Mapping – Change Management Tools

Assignment Overview

Do you depend on a key supplier?  Can you say yes to all these questions?

Understand your supplier

· How much do you really know about your suppliers?

· What evidence do you have to support your appraisal of their financial / legal / technical status?

· When was the last time you verified or validated the evidence?

· Are they operationally stable?

· What is their position in their own market niche, segment or sector?

· What do their competitors think of them?

· How resilient is their own downstream supply chain and how do you know?

· How will you know if the position changes?

Understand your dependence on your supplier

· What role do they play in your business?

· How dependent are you on them?

· What will it cost you if they fail?

· Do you have a contingency plan?

· What are the alternatives and how would you make a change?

Let your supplier know about you

· How strong is your relationship with your suppliers?

· How much do your suppliers know about you?

· Have you shared your business plan with your suppliers?

· Would they know enough about your business to recommend new services and products that could add value?

Have good information

· Do you have a strategy for managing supplier information?

· Is the information your suppliers provide reliable and how do you know?

· What evidence do you ask for in support of the information supplied?

· Is it up to date and can you access it readily?

· How often do you review it?

· Do you have an early warning system?

Think risk

· How often do you scan the landscape in which you operate?

· What do you do with the data, information and knowledge acquired?

· How have you assessed the operating risk to your business?

· How resilient is your supply chain and when did you last check?

· What are the sources of risk to your supply chain, e.g. downstream demand, upstream supply, environment, etc?

· What are the risks to your supply chain and do you understand how they could impact your business?

· How effective are you at identifying, assessing and controlling risk?

· When were your business continuity / disaster recovery plans last tested and did they include your supply chain?

If you had a problem answering these questions  or you would like a review of the risk and resilience of your supply chain by consultants who have provided these services in both the public and private sectors please  contact us

Um dos desafios com que me deparo no dia a dia na gestão de serviços de TI é a sustentabilidade dos mesmos. E quando falamos das TI de uma associação sem fins lucrativos como a Solidariedade Imigrante, a palavra sustentabilidade é chave.

Se tivermos em conta o caracter não lucrativo da associação, é fácil entender que todas as iniciativas que são desenvolvidas, devem ter em conta o valor que vão trazer para os associados e o custo das mesmas.

Colaboro com esta associação desde 2001 e tenho representado o papel de gestor da infra-estrutura e serviços de TI. Os objectivos para as TI são, disponibilizar:

• Internet para associados e colaboradores da associação;
• Acesso a office, internet e impressoras aos colaboradores;
• Políticas de segurança que garantam o acesso e integridade dos dados;
• Recursos para formações de introdução à informática: office e internet;
• Bases de dados;
• Ferramentas de design gráfico.

Infelizmente não tem sido fácil atingir estes objectivos, ou pelo menos com a qualidade que seria desejável! E manter estes serviços disponíveis, sem incidentes, 2 meses consecutivos, é uma vitoria da qual não nos podemos orgulhar, mas faz parte do quotidiano.

Mas questões operacionais à parte e tendo claros os objectivos das TI, surge a questão financeira e aquele que aparenta ser o maior desafio, fornecer estes serviços a custo mínimo para a associação. E para este custo devemos contemplar:

• Hardware: pcs, routers, switchs, impressoras, fotocopiadoras
• Software: Sistema Operativo, Office, Base de Dados, Antivirus, Photoshop
• Comunicações: Serviço de voz, dados, sms
• Recursos: Manutenção de infra-estrutura, instalações, upgrades, etc.

Embora não seja contabilizado como um custo actualmente e uma vez que tirando a iluminação, os equipamentos informáticos são os únicos consumidores de energia da associação, talvez seja importante incluir o custo com a electricidade para estas contas, mas descartando esta questão para outro fórum:

Se para hardware, comunicações, recursos e também para a electricidade estamos dependentes de fornecedores e da sua boa vontade para reduzir o custo, quando chegamos ao software temos à nossa disposição um vasto leque de opções disponibilizadas a custo zero.

Nestes termos, podemos ser levados a olhar para o freeware como uma solução sustentável uma vez que facilmente encontramos software free, com qualidade semelhante ou superior à dos fornecedores tradicionais.

Mas não é só o custo que temos que ter em conta na nossa equação rumo à sustentabilidade, e por exemplo, quando falamos em sistemas operativos e ferramentas de produtividade – área onde o freeware tem muitas cartas para dar – convém ter em conta que para a iniciação à informática é importante dar aos associados ferramentas semelhantes às que vão encontrar no mercado de  trabalho, nomeadamente, Windows e MS Office e consequentemente pensar duas vezes antes de adoptar OpenOffice ou Linux.

Por outro lado, quando falamos de editores de imagem é difícil convencer alguém a optar pelo GIMP quando existe o Photoshop. E antivírus? Alguém realmente confia num software gratuito para garantir a segurança da infra-estrutura?

Correndo o risco de não estar a ter em conta todas aplicações gratuitas de antivírus que existem no mercado, as que tive oportunidade de analisar sugeriam-me uma manutenção manual, que comprometeria a segurança dos dados, levando-nos mais uma vez para o mercado tradicional e com custos associados.

Pelo menos até surgirem soluções como o MS Security Essentials que embora não possa ser encarado como uma solução free, estritamente falando, sai a custo zero para todos os que cumprem o requisito “Your PC must run genuine Windows to install Microsoft Security Essentials.”.

Tendo em conta que fomos agraciados com um generoso apoio da Microsoft, que disponibilizou licenciamento no valor de USD $19,043.00 para sistemas operativos e ferramentas de produtividade, ao abrigo do programa NGO Connection, podemos adoptar esta solução e reduzir nas contas o custo anual de subscrição de actualizações do antivírus.

Com este artigo não pretendo desvalorizar a importância do freeware e software aberto, que muito valor têm trazido para muitas organizações permitindo simultaneamente reduzir os custos, mas sim mostrar a importância de orientar os nossos serviços às necessidades das organizações e de encontrarmos formas de os disponibilizar ao menor custo possível, o que no caso descrito, passa por adoptar uma solução que á partida implicaria custos elevados.

Se não soubermos que custos temos, que valor trazem, e como nos vão ajudar a cumprir os nossos objectivos, não estamos a fazer a melhor gestão dos nossos recursos nem a garantir a sustentabilidade dos nossos serviços.

Well, it has been certainly a long time since I had the time to write something here, mostly due to lack of time, but also due to no exciting things to share in this space. Now I do have some good news, namely that I got a new position and with that a new challenge, and that is building the Service Portfolio Management practice.
As a first step, I went to the source: ITILv3, which is the latest version and it has a book about Service Strategy, so I´m starting to read that. I also had a chat with Gartner on this topic and I got several research papers to read now.

They recomended the following list:

• Designing Customer-Focused Service Portfolios
• Know the Difference Between Service Portfolios and Service Catalogs
• Toolkit: Best Practices in Developing an Infrastructure Service Portfolio
• Know Your Services; Know Your Customers
• Document the IT Service Portfolio Before Creating the IT Service Catalog
• Mature Your IT Service Portfolio
• Toolkit Decision Framework: Top 10 Evaluation Criteria for IT Service Portfolio Management Products and Vendors

If you know how Gartner works, then you know that I can´t share these papers with you.

So, there is plenty of stuff to read and hopefully I can share some of my findings with you.

When I first started as an industry analyst in the 1980s IBM software was in dire straits. It was the era where IBM was making the transition from the mainframe to a new generation of distributed computing. It didn’t go really well. Even with thousands of smart developers working their hearts out the first three foresees into a new generation of software were an abysmal failure. IBM’s new architectural framework called SAA(Systems Application Architecture) didn’t work; neither did the first application built on top of that called OfficeVision. It’s first development framework called Application Development  Cycle (AD/Cycle) also ended up on the cutting room floor.  Now fast forward 20 years and a lot has changed for IBM and its software strategy.  While it is easy to sit back and laugh at these failures, it was also a signal to the market that things were changing faster than anyone could have expected. In the 1980s, the world looked very different — programming was procedural, architectures were rigid, and there were no standards except in basic networking.

My perspective on business is that embracing failure and learning from them is the only way to really have success for the future. Plenty of companies that I have worked with over my decades in the industry have made incredible mistakes in trying to lead the world. Most of them make those mistakes and keep making them until they crawl into a hole and die quietly.  The companies I admire of the ones that make the mistakes, learn from them and keep pushing. I’d put both IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle in that space.

But I promised that this piece would be about IBM. I won’t bore you with more IBM history. Let’s just say that over the next 20 years IBM did not give up on distributed computing. So, where is IBM Software today? Since it isn’t time to write the book yet, I will tease you with the five most important observations that I have on where IBM is in its software journey:

1. Common components. If you look under the covers of the technology that is embedded in everything from Tivoli to Information Management and software development you will see common software components. There is one database engine; there is a single development framework, and a single analytics backbone.  There are common interfaces between elements across a very big software portfolio. So, any management capabilities needed to manage an analytics engine will use Tivoli components, etc.

2. Analytics rules. No matter what you are doing, being able to analyze the information inside a management environment or a packaged application can make the difference between success and failure.  IBM has pushed information management to the top of stack across its software portfolio. Since we are seeing increasing levels of automation in everything from cars to factory floors to healthcare equipment, collecting and analyzing this data is becoming the norm. This is where Information Management and Service Management come together.

3. Solutions don’t have to be packaged software. More than 10 years ago IBM made the decision that it would not be in the packaged software business. Even as SAP and Oracle continued to build their empires, IBM took a different path. IBM (like HP) is building solution frameworks that over time incorporate more and more best practices and software patterns. These frameworks are intended to work in partnership with packaged software. What’s the difference? Treat the packages like ERP as the underlying commodity engine and focus on the business value add.

4. Going cloud. Over the past few years, IBM has been making a major investment in cloud computing and has begun to release some public cloud offerings for software testing and development as a starting point. IBM is investing a lot in security and overall cloud management.  It’s Cloud Burst appliance and packaged offerings are intended to be the opening salvo.   In addition, and probably even more important are the private clouds that IBM is building for its largest customers. Ironically, the growing importance of the cloud may actually be the salvation of the Lotus brand.

5. The appliance lives. Even as we look towards the cloud to wean us off of hardware, IBM is putting big bets on hardware appliances. It is actually a good strategy. Packaging all the piece parts onto an appliance that can be remotely upgraded and managed is a good sales strategy for companies cutting back on staff but still requiring capabilities.

There is a lot more that is important about this stage in IBM’s evolution as a company. If I had to sum up what I took away from this annual analyst software event is that IBM is focused at winning the hearts, minds, and dollars of the business leader looking for ways to innovate. That’s what Smarter Planet is about. Will IBM be able to juggle its place as a software leader with its push into business leadership? It is a complicated task that will take years to accomplish and even longer to assess its success.

Your field service business definitely depends on your staff members. But without proper management, your staff members may just cause your business to go down.

So what to do to keep your field service workers well-managed? Here are some valuable tips that can get the ball rolling:

1. Hire the Right Field Technicians

You will only be letting your business profit go down the drain if you select poorly-skilled staff members. Do not skimp on salary and manpower. You need your service business be manned by the best of the best.

2. Provide Quality Training

If you keep on thinking that training will only hurt your budget, think again. With the best training, you are hitting two birds in one stone, they will not only provide the top service to your customers but they will also be not spending too much time on jobs that should have been done easily if they only know how to!

3. Get Them to Use Field Service Software

Your field technicians can become more efficient with the help of a field service management software programs. A wide variety of field service applications are now being used by electrical staff, engineers and other field workers. Selecting one that suits their needs best is the way to help ensure that time is only utilized in important matters instead of doing clumsy processes and papwerwork.

image from sxc.hu

Just when it looked clear where the markets were lining up around data center automation and cloud computing, things change. I guess that is what makes this industry so very interesting.  The proposed acquisition by HP of 3Com is a direct challenge to Cisco’s network management franchise. However, the implications of this move go further than what meets the eye.  It also pits HP in a direct path against EMC with its Cisco partnership. And to make things even more interesting, it also puts these two companies in a competitive three way race against IBM and its cloud/data center automation strategy. And of course, it doesn’t stop there. A myriad of emerging companies like Google and Amazon want a larger share of the enterprise market for cloud services. Companies like Unisys and CSC that has focused on the outsourced secure data centers are getting into the act.

I don’t think that we will see a single winner — no matter what any one of these companies will tell you.  The winners in this market shift will be those companies can build a compelling platform and a compelling value proposition for a partner ecosystem.  The truth about the cloud is that it is not simply a network or a data center. It is a new way of providing services of all sorts that can support changing customer workloads in a secure and predictable manner.

In light of this, what does this say for HP’s plans to acquire 3Com? If we assume that the network infrastructure is a key component of an emerging cloud and data center strategy, HP is making a calculated risk in acquiring more assets in this market.  The company that has found that its ProCurve networking division has begun gaining traction. HP ProCurve Networking is the networking division of HP.  The division includes network switches, wireless access points, WAN routers, and Access Control servers and software.   ProCurve competes directly with Cisco in the networking switch market. When HP had a tight partnership with Cisco, the company de-emphasized the networking. However, once Cisco started to move into the server market, the handcuffs came off. The 3Com acquisition takes the competitive play to a new level. 3Com has a variety of good pieces of technology that HP could leverage within ProCurve. Even more significantly, it picks up a strong security product called TippingPoint, a 3Com acquisition. TippingPoint fills a critical hole in HP’s security offering. TippingPoint, offers network security offerings including intrusion prevention and a product that inspects network packets.  The former 3Com subsidiary has also established a database of security threats based a network of external researchers.

But I think that one of the most important reasons that HP bought 3Com is its strong relationships in the Chinese market. In fiscal year 2008 half of 3Com’s revenue came from its H3C joint venture with Chinese vendor, Huawei Technology. Therefore, it is not surprising that HP would have paid a premium to gain a foothold in this lucrative market. If HP is smart, it will do a good job leveraging the many software assets to build out both its networking assets as well as beefing up its software organization. In reality, HP is much more comfortable in the hardware market. Therefore, adding networking as a core competency makes sense. It will also bolster its position as a player in the high end data center market and in the private cloud space.

Cisco, on the other hand, is coming from the network and moving agressively into the cloud and the data center market.  The company has purchased a position with VMWare and has established a tight partnership with EMC as a go to market strategy.  For Cisco, it gives the company credibility and access to customers outside of its traditional markets. For EMC, the Cisco relationship strengthens its networking play.  But an even bigger value for the relationship is to present a bigger footprint to customers as they move to take on HP, IBM, and the assortment of other players who all want to win.  The Cisco/EMC/VMware play is to focus on the private cloud.  In their view a private cloud is very similar to a private, preconfigured data center.  It can be a compelling value proposition to a customer that needs a data center fast without having to deal with a lot of moving parts.  The real question from a cloud computing perspective is the key question: is this really a cloud?

It was inevitable that this quiet market dominated by Google and Amazon would heat up as the cloud becomes a real market force.  But I don’t expect that HP or Cisco/EMC will have a free run. They are being joined by IBM and Microsoft — among others. The impact could be better options for customers and prices that invariably will fall. The key to success for all of these players will be how well they manage what will be an increasingly heterogeneous, federated, and highly distributed hardware and software world. Management comes in many flavors: management of these highly distributed services and management of the workloads.

Service Management & Job Cost Software

The Service Manager from Shining Brow Software can improve technician and asset utilization, customer retention, and first-call repair resolution. The Service Manager will reduce paperwork and phone calls, as well as improve technician productivity and inventory visibility. The software can also boost sales by allowing technicians to open work orders, perform preventive maintenance, and take advantage of up selling or cross-selling opportunities on-site. 

Businesses in a wide variety of industries provide customers with field services as a primary business or as part of long-term customer service and support. Unfortunately, managing field operations accurately and efficiently can be a challenge. Manual processes and uninformed decisions are the rule, not the exception. Inconsistent work practices, lack of, inadequate, or untimely visibility into field activities, and volumes of paperwork hinder efficiency and drag down both customer service and profits.

Despite these challenges, field service operations are often the last part of an organization to capitalize on new software technologies. You need an end-to-end Service Management Solution solution that can efficiently integrate customer, business, and operational information, making that information accessible to both office and field staff as needed for maximum efficiency in work scheduling, assignment, completion, parts inventory management, equipment management, reporting, and billing. To learn more visit Shining Brow’s Service Manager Software

It’s been a very busy past few months here at Bocada. Time flies when you are getting a next generation product ready to roll, finalizing new branding and messaging, building out a new channel program and launching a major PR campaign to make sure everyone knows just how exciting our DPSM model and product are…and unfortunately the blog doesn’t get updated as much as I would like.

So today, I thought I would just reiterate what DPSM is all about and why there is so much excitement about where Bocada is headed. I will quote one of the analysts I met with at Storage Networking World a few weeks back when talking about our strategy.  

George Crump from the firm Storage Switzerland stated in his blog : “Bocada is shining a new light on something as routine as data protection management…. Bocada’s focus is to bring an IT Service Management (ITSM) like model to data protection, something that is severely lacking….What appeals to this solution is that this is a rare case of someone applying intelligence to the data protection problem as opposed to hiding those challenges by throwing more hardware at the problem”.

Thank you George- I couldn’t have said it better myself. I heard similar comments from most of the analysts I spoke with- what really resonates for everyone is that the DPSM model we developed was based on real customer use case scenarios and best practices implemented while using our Bocada Enterprise solution. The DPSM process is a blueprint outlining the steps and best practices for getting control of your data protection environment in order to ensure recoverability, more effectively deliver against SLAs, reduce risk, better communicate with customers and lower overall CAPEX/OPEX costs.

At Bocada our goal is to use the DPSM model in conjunction with our solutions to help customers transform the way they approach data protection within their organization and as a result achieve better IT business alignment, improve customer satisfaction, reduce risk and lower overall costs.

We believe Bocada is in a unique position to drive this process with customers based on our long history of working with large scale enterprise organizations that are focused on customer satisfaction, and with major service providers whose business model is wholly focused on delivering data protection services to their customer base while minimizing costs.

We have been using the DPSM model to help customers understand how they can address many data protection issues, and our customers are successful in using Bocada Enterprise to support those efforts. However, we felt it was important to have our product drive process workflow, where the product automatically took users through each phase and sub phase of the process automatically. Our next generation solution will help move customers along the path to data protection operational excellence.

Organizations need to transform the way they think about data protection, and recognize it is a critical IT service that has business, financial and operational impacts, all of which can be significantly improved if the process is managed correctly and finely tuned. We are excited to be helping organizations meet data protection service delivery challenges- stay tuned for more info on how we will help meet those needs with our next generation DPSM solution.