IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT
The standards defined in the discipline of IT Service Management (ITSM) have become an increasingly popular route for companies seeking to establish a
best-practice approach to managing IT. ITSM principles emphasize measurement, proactive management and service level agreements as the keys to success.
The Internet-driven extension of the enterprise is bringing customers into
direct contact with what were historically internal systems, thereby making system performance critically important. Companies are also challenged by the increasing cost of IT and IT departments are being asked to prove their value in ROI
terms. Unfortunately, IT in general has a poor record of delivering reliable performance in a predictable way.
On the plus side, the typical IT environment delivers IP to the desktop, allowing convenient access to web-based tools,
procedures and resources and enabling automated IT process support.
INSYS CAPABILITIES
InSys can provide resources with real-world knowledge of the software development
process, metrics and auditing, as well as specialized resources with knowledge of ITSM.
We've had experience in the deployment of ITSM standards, the use of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standard documents and
the various toolkits used to manage the transition.
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INSYS AT WORK: ITSM PROJECT SNAPSHOT
SPAM & VIRUS CONTROL
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The Mission
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The client, a global publishing firm, needed to reinstall and reconfigure its corporate anti-spam software, which had been shut down after a bug caused it to block all incoming mail. The
vendor had been notified, a fix had been developed and that fix was now ready for deployment.
To keep the mail moving, the spam engine had been taken off line, and because of the product's configuration, the corporate virus screen had also been disabled. This was only one part of
the client's anti-virus technology, but one that needed a quick repair.
This was a case, though, where the perceived need and the actual requirement were not entirely in synch.
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The Approach
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An InSys consultant was assigned to handle the reinstallation, chosen because of his experience in project management, vendor negotiation and contract management, as well as mainframe
networking , mail server management, LAN/WAN configuration and remote software deployment.
After an initial review, our consultant determined that service levels were below par and that the client did not
have the internal resources to monitor and maintain the filters. He suggested it would be worth the time to explore other options, and the client's management agreed.
After some additional research to
document the players, products and feature sets, Our consultant worked with the client's end-users to develop an RFI document, incorporating input from various departments, from technical security teams, and
from industry analysts such as Gartner Group. Working with the same input, he also developed a scoring system that would provide a fair and objective way to evaluate the responses
The RFI was distributed
to the five solutions providers whose offerings most closely matched the client's requirements and a vendor was chosen.
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The Results
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The client now has a robust spam and virus solution, maintained by external specialists without the need for daily intervention by its own technical staff. The users are free from the intrusion of spam, and the
environment is protected from the threat of PC viruses.
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