Issue 3 of The Service Leader Newsletter

 
Welcome to the 3rd issue of The Service Leader Newsletter  In this issue we've got an update on infra Version 8 training options by Barry, highly recommended to check out.  Also a piece of news content on ITIL podcasts, from some researching by Graeme.  And for those of you using Service Advantage modules an update on the Version8 status of these.

Contents:  

Service Advantage Programme
by Dave Hayes
 
Another very busy period has passed with activity from each quadrant contributing to the strategic direction of both our clients and Delta Software. Highlights follows:

Process Enablement

We have expanded and improved our objective to create a shared vision for an IT service improvement plan that delivers business outcomes.  One of the most recent examples of this is working with key IT managers from Christchurch City Council establishing an IT vision of "Service delivery with no surprises".  We are working to develop a case study with Christchurch City Council so others can learn from their experiences so watch this space.
 
 Polestar ITSM continues to be a main focus with some novel ways of using the simulation being mooted (including staff inductions, recruitment and awareness sessions).  We are also starting to investigate the new project management version called Polestar PM.
 
 Implementation

If one word could sum up the work being done here it is "upgrade"!  It is certainly looking like 2007 will be the year of upgrades and we are looking forward to have all of our clients up to infraEnterprise v800 by the end of the year.  During this work we often discuss enhancements.

Significant install and upgrade process work has been done(including comprehensive project task lists) to ensure all the required configuration and changes have been checked off.

A number of infraEnterprise v800 training courses have been updated and new courses added particularly around reporting.

Operations Extensions

Updates to the Forward Schedule of Change and Audit Wizard modules have been completed for infraEnterprise v800 and these will be rolled out where appropriate as upgrades and new installs are completed.

A significant milestone has been the signing of a terms of reference to scope an extension to integrate Activate user identity management with infraEnterprise.

Outcomes

Recent changes for the outcomes has been the appointment of Bruce Monk as the quadrant leader.  Bruce brings a great deal of business experience to this quadrant will be able to promote a client focus for this and the other Service Advantage quadrants.

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Service Advantage Operations Quadrant Update
by Paul Van Cingel  

FSC

The forward schedule of change calendar works with version 8 without modification. The Oracle version has now been updated to have the same features as the SQL version.

AuditWizard Integration

There are now versions of the Audit Wizard discovery tool integration for versions 6 and 7 of Audit Wizard, and versions 7.0.3 and 8 of infraEnterprise. Contact your Delta Software representative if you are thinking of upgrading either infraEnterprise or Audit Wizard.

Reports

Most of the Service Advantage reports that we created for infraEnterprise 7.0.3 have been incorporated into the standard product by infra Corporation. We have created a new report; SA IPKS Breakdown by Month.

If you do have a reporting requirement that is not covered by the standard reports and will be useful to the community then give us a call and we may write this to add to the Service Advantage reports set.

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The Federated CMDB
 by Paul Van Cingel

The Federated CMDB allows organizations to use their existing network discovery tools and asset management databases in conjunction with infraEnterprise. Users of Federated CMDB are able to:   
- link external CMDB items (resources) to infraEnterprise CMDB items
- import newly discovered resources as CMDB items   
- search for CMDB items from an external resource repository from within infraEnterprise

Infra Corporation has developed a generic interface that enables a range of third party technologies to be integrated with the infraEnterprise system by using an intermediary connector. Each third party application requires a specific connector. This is because of the way in which data is stored and exposed is different for each application. The connectors therefore also vary for each application and each connector uses a different technology.

Initially the third-party connectors that were developed to use this interface were:

Microsoft SMS
HP OpenView Network Node Manager
HP Systems Insight Manager
Managesoft
InControl

Since the release of Version 8 at the end of last year more connectors have been developed. These are:

AD/LDAP
Altiris
Cendura Cohesion
Centennial Discovery
CSV File
Empirum
LANDesk Manager
ManageSoft
ZENworks

Not all versions of these tools are supported; talk to us to confirm that your version of the tool is.

A generic database connector allows any other SQL or Oracle database to be connected but only with some significant configuration and set-up.

If you have a tool not listed here that you would like to see a connector for then Infra Corp are keen to hear from you and will develop a connector when enough interest has been received. Tools currently being considered are Alcatel 5620 SAM, CiscoWorks, Relicore and Tivoli.

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From the Training Room
by Barry Humphreys

InfraEnterprise Version 8 is now well and truly with us. Delta has a range of half day courses to support clients who are upgrading, designed for both staff familiar to infraEnterprise and needing to learn the differences in the new version, plus 1 day courses for new staff.

We have put a schedule together for March and April with upgrade classes for those of you who are upgrading or if you are planning to upgrade why not attend one of these courses to get a peak at Version 8 and chance to experience some of the new features first hand. Visit http://www.delta.co.nz/training/schedule_form.cfm?search=all to view the schedule and to register a place on a course.

The current schedule has 3 courses being held in Auckland and Wellington, these can also be scheduled for Christchurch if required.

- The Service Desk Operator Upgrade course is a half day designed to introduce the new features in the infraEnterprise Version 8 interface such as the changes in the call window, the new service window, the enhanced call history display and IPK rules and changes to search capabilities.

- The Reporting Overview is a half day and is an upgrade to our highly successful Reporting Overview developed for Version 7.0.3. During the session you will learn techniques to maximize the information returned by Searching as a complement to reporting, the reporting module is covered and methods to utilize the many reports provided by infraEnterprise are discussed. The use of Monitors and Dashboards is also covered and finally a brief introduction to the Report Designer of infraEnterprise 8.

- The Reporting Workshop is a 1 day course for those who wish to learn more about the Report Designer of Version 8, topics discussed include how to create and edit reports, techniques for report sorting and grouping, report layouts and how complex reports can be achieved using sub reports. Charting is also covered. Optional consulting time may also be included after this course to enable our Consultants and Instructors to work with you on you specific reporting requirements, please contact you Account Manager for further details.

Full course outlines for each of the above and all of our courses may be downloaded from http://www.delta.co.nz/training/courses_outlines.cfm

All of these courses have may be held onsite, please contact us if you wish to discuss this option.

As part of your upgrade to Version 8, there will be things to consider regarding the configuration and Administration of your system, our Consultants will run the appropriate classes for these aspects as part of your upgrade project.

Lastly on training for this Newsletter, we developed a set of Tutorials for Version 7.0.3 covering such topics as Call Logging, Forwarding Calls, Running Reports etc. work is underway to upgrade these to Version 8 and also to develop additional tutorial modules – watch this space!

Until next time – we look forward to welcoming you to a training course very soon.

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Current Project Update
 by Graeme Partridge
    
As we said in our last newsletter, our first version 8 upgrade went live last month.  By the time you read this our first new install on version 8 will be also be live.  We currently have two other new projects underway and 5 or 6 existing customers that have started on the upgrade path to version 8.

There are many more clients that have expressed an interest in upgrading soon as well.  We are finding more and more clients starting to look at the upgrade as part of an overall service improvement plan.  This involves looking in detail at how your service processes work and comparing them to or implementing a best practice process like ITIL. A version upgrade as an opportunity to review your process improvements and make them visible is a sound idea and gives the upgrade project itself a bigger purpose, perhaps also easier to justify.

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ITIL Podcast - no ipod required
by Graeme Partridge

Ok, time to come out of the closet, I have been looking for work related podcasts for my iPod.  Sad but true.  In case you've been in a closet for the last 12 months, a podcast is a MP3 audio file that you can subscribe to using software like apples iTunes.  You can use this free software even if you don't have an iPod, by listening to them on your PC.

There are a couple of really useful podcasts on itil and itsm that provide good summaries of everything from Change and Release management to First Call resolution.  Some of the presenters are a bit on the dry side but the information is all very interesting.

The Art of Service ITIL, ITSM & ISO 20k Daily Podcast
 http://www.theartofservice.com/podcast/

The PinkCast from Pink Elephant
 http://www.pinkelephant.com/en-AU/   - on the left hand side of the page.

ITIL Training
http://www.itiltraining.com/podcasts.html

You can find all of these by searching the podcast directory in apples iTunes for ITIL or ITSM, where all of the back issues can be downloaded as well.

We're looking posting these podcasts and other IT service improvement material on our Service Advantage site www.serviceadvantage.co.nz in a links section specifically focused on articles relevant to use of IT service management.

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itSMF Conference and Community Sponsorship News
by David Gandar

We have been busy on planning our marketing and IT service community events for 2007. From our recent stop press news you'll know Delta Software has been selected as the Platinum sponsor for the next itSMFnz national conference on 8-9 May.  This is a major IT service community event and we're proud to be the major sponsor.

We noted then one of the factors in selection is our active involvement in the IT service improvement community that itSMF fosters, and involvement of our customers.

We're delighted to inform you that Peter Borich of VUW has agreed to be the conference keynote speaker. Peter has experience implementing IT service improvement programmes across company-wide IT for two organisations, and is an early adapter of ITIL to give tangible results to the business.   His approach to ensuring that the business does get a result is fascinating and informative.

Reminder from itSMFnz: The Call for Papers for our 3rd National Conference and Exhibition in Auckland closes next Wednesday 28 February 2007.

If you would like to present at the conference, please download a Proposal Form from www.itsmf.org.nz (click on Conference 2007 - Call for Presentations on the left hand side) and submit it to events@itsmf.org.nz by 28 Feb 07.

We're keen to have more involvement from our customer community in this event. We encourage any of you interested - go to the conference and see Peter!  Go to www.itsmf.org.nz and register now.  Have a think about presenting!  Real and practical  insights into how you've achieved a result are the backbone of conference content.   We'll be happy to help.  If presenting is not an option, we'll be happy to work with you on a case study of your project success.

Please note - we're planning to hold an IT service simulation workshop at the conference.  Those of you yet to get the sense of IT service vision the workshops generate - keep an eye out for news from us and the itSMF web site on the workshop.

We're working on several other sponsor and marketing activities. We think of this as community activity simply because while it might be called marketing, these really are good opportunities to share successes, stories, project experiences and fly the banner for how ITIL can be used for a visible business outcome.

Also coming up:

A re-work of our Service Advantage web site
A case studies programme to promote your success stories
NZSO sponsor concerts, continuing the programme for 2007
Annual CIO conference in Sept.

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 infra User Groups

We had intended to be running our first 2007 user group sessions this quarter. Now with our appointment as itSMFnz conference Platinum sponsor we need to review this, to ensure we focus on the conference as a priority, for the 8-9 May dates. We encourage all of you to look at www.itsmf.org.nz and check the conference section.  It is a vital networking and community event plus an opportunity to share experiences and insights with each other.

We will be scheduling alternative user group dates that ensure we maintain the networking amongst all our customer community, after May to give the breathing space to do full justice to the conference.

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