ITIL Service Management Helpdesk (ITSM)

IT Service Management Software Solutions

The Challenges for ITSM Software

Rather than look at IT service desk tools in isolation, a service-oriented approach should be taken when investigating potential software.

All activities undertaken by a Helpdesk Support team, whether it is IT Support/Infrastructure, Facilities, HR, or Legal, have a lifecycle. Information required and processes followed, during the IT service lifecycle, are managed in a number of disparate systems, some paper-based, others electronic.

The main areas tend to centre on:

Incident Management
Request Fulfilment
Problem Management
Change Management
Release/Deployment Management
Configuration management
Contract management
Asset Management
SLA Management

Currently these processes are very manual and operate independently of each other. It makes sense therefore to look at tools that integrate all of these processes and allow for full service lifecycle management in the software, together with the concept of Self-Service for end users. That is why AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 was brought to market.

AlfaPeople’s approach to IT Service Management (ITSM) is aimed at integrating IT strategy and delivery of IT services in line with the goals of your business and providing benefit to customers. The ITSM journey demands a shift in focus and culture, from managing IT within separate technology silos, to managing an end to end delivery of services using guidance from proven, best practice frameworks such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

Why ITIL?

ITIL provides the world’s most recognised best practices for the management of IT services. AlfaPeople's ITSM solution is designed to help organisations optimise their existing IT service management practices. As ITIL is the very best method for IT organisations to generate strategic business value and deliver quality IT services, AlfaPeople ensured our ITSM Solution followed ITIL best practice. We are delighted to state that Pink Elephant Inc has certified AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 in accordance with its PinkVERIFY™ 3.0 program: AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 meets or exceeds the ITIL V3 suitability requirements for the processes of ITIL.

Simply, these are the key reasons why enterprises need ITIL:

ITIL aligns IT with enterprise business requirements
ITIL focuses on customer’s perspective and continuous enhancements
ITIL transforms IT from technology culture to service culture

Indeed, Forrester estimates that, “…enterprises can expect to realise 20-30% operations cost savings as result of the efficiencies gained from ITIL adoption…” (Source: “Business Service Management Required for Successful ITIL Adoption; Independent Research Firm tightly links BSM and ITIL Best Practices during recent Webcast”, February 21, 2006, Forrester Research, Find Articles).

The Benefits of AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 Solution

The purchase and implementation of AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 software is the foundation for providing excellent customer service and provides benefits simply through the consolidation of a number of disparate systems into a single technology platform even before the benefits of adopting ITIL is taken into consideration.

The ITIL Processes that are integrated within this Service Management Helpdesk solution provide functionality that is efficient and professional in its’ approach to the management of IT services. By following its guidance users can benefit in the following ways:

Reduced costs
Improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes
Improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery
Standards and guidance
Improved productivity
Improved use of skills and experience

Here are those ITIL processes that AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 integrates to allow full service lifecycle management to enable organisations to realise the above benefits:

Incident Management - ITIL v.3 Certified
Request Fulfilment - ITIL v.3 Certified
Service Portfolio - ITIL v.3 Certified
Service Catalogue - ITIL v.3 Certified
Problem Management
Change Management - ITIL v.3 Certified
Release/Deployment Management
Confirguration management
Asset Management
SLA Management

For organizations that do not wish to adopt all of the 10 fully integrated disciplines immediately, they can simply be 'switched off' and 'switched on' again when the service desk is ready.

There are some unique features of our ITSM Solution that positions us apart from many of the other providers in the marketplace.

At the core, we put people at the heart of ITIL & making ITSM processes transparent, so helping to overcome the common barriers to successful adoption. This is simply done through the integration with Outlook and being able to work within this very widely used tool which enables quick and easy recognition of how to use the system.

Further highlighted benefits are:

AlfaPeople’s Integrated Platform offers a customer care framework which seamlessly integrates with systems such as mobile devices, telephone systems, legacy applications, ERP solutions, third party APIs and self-service portals.

Ticket Management allows you to manage incidents, problems and change more efficiently. The ITSM Suite captures each ticket with its required information, and then identifies the category and the applicable Service Level Agreements, assigning the ticket to the relevant agent and automatically creating a task.

Configuration Management provides more control over the lifecycle of a company’s computer systems and networks, including all hardware and software components.

SLA Management provides more control over Service Level Agreements internally and externally with clients enabling the structuring and monitoring of complex SLAs.

Skill and Availability Management will improve the productivity of your agents, by assigning tickets to the best available agents, based on their skills, availability and workload in real time.

Geo-location based incident reporting provides the ability to report incidents via Windows Phone 7 or iPhone devices based on actual location, as well as ability to capture an image of incidents and upload them instantly, reducing the need for additional data.

Use end-user customisable dashboard and reports, and scorecards to gauge and increase visibility into service KPIs. Analytical reports allow the identification of key situations such as the cause of errors/failures and expiring tickets.

AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 also integrates Intelligent SMS; automated workflow management into the framework enabling SMS based exchanges to be conducted between the IT organisation and the customer. AlfaPeople Intelligent SMS features the only Microsoft® recommended SMS solution in the market today with benefits to include:

It delivers; ROI savings by replacing physical calls
It’s simple; SMS works on all handsets, in approximately 140 languages

Fast and Easy to configure

AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 software is built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and can be configured to meet additional business processes not strictly defined by ITIL, providing ultimate flexibility. AlfaPeople's pre-packed service desk application templates provide a starting point that significantly reduces configuration effort.

Peace of Mind

The Technology Platform that your ITSM Solution is built on is a key consideration. Microsoft’s Annual Research & Development budget of $9Billion means that Dynamics CRM 2011 will continue to have the very best technical advancements made, which will directly benefit the customer and have complete confidence that the technology platform will be here and leading innovation for the future. Further more, AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 is the first UK Dynamics CRM 2011 ISV solution to receive the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics (CfMD) Accreditation which is the highest Certification award Microsoft can bestow on a Solution developed on Microsoft technologies.

Get more from your IT Investments

Did you know: with the purchase of AlfaPeople ITSM 2011, included in the price are Dynamics CRM 2011 licenses which can be re-used for any Sales and Marketing business requirements your organisation might need. This is a great way to leverage your IT investment and accelerate your return on investment. Alternatively, if you already have Dynamics CRM licenses, you can use those to run AlfaPeople ITSM 2011 and so reduce the cost of the solution and get more from your Dynamics CRM platform.