Posted by Stephanie Nicoll
Mon, Sep 10, 2018
A special offer for customers and blog readers! Free ITIL Foundation Training is available this month. This class is for beginners and provides baseline knowledge for IT service management.
You should consider this 4 hour, online course if you:
Topics: ITIL, ITIL Process, ITIL training
Posted by Don Casson
Wed, Jul 26, 2017
Align from top to bottom, with customers first: the fifth key to getting it right
Successful Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM) begins with the customer. As with everything else involved in running a successful enterprise in a data-driven world, having the customer in mind is an important first step. And if you want customers to return, you must achieve efficiency and improve the effectiveness of your technology supporting them.
Topics: IT Asset Management, Configuration Management Database, Configuration Management, ITIL, ITIL Process, ITIL Consulting, ITIL Strategy, CMDB, CMDB Challenges, CMDB Consulting, SACM, Service Asset, Service Asset and Configuration Management
Posted by Don Casson
Mon, Jul 24, 2017
In my last post, I discussed two keys to help you get moving in the right direction for simplifying service asset and configuration management (SACM) – Key 1: Know why it hasn’t worked, and Key 2: Know why you are doing this. Now let’s move beyond the “why” and into the “what” to provide useful tips for the planning and implementation stages.
If you get the process of planning your service asset and configuration management (SACM) program right from the very start, you increase your chances of achieving a successful implementation. There will be roadblocks ahead, but also plenty of good opportunities for lessons learned along your journey. You will have policy, process and technology to design and build, so you should really think things through. And the process may be twice as hard and take twice as long as you may initially think, to get it right.
Therefore, be sure to start with something important, but manageable – this is the third key to simplified asset and configuration management. Limit the data by beginning with a manageable universe of data points that you can understand and manipulate, with manual intervention when necessary. For asset management, this might be one to three top software licenses, or a class of high value servers. And a focus on one to two high value, tier-1 type services (only ones that really matter) is the best way to structure your configuration management planning efforts.
Next, it’s on to the fourth key: pilot, learn and then apply.
Topics: IT Asset Management, Configuration Management Database, Configuration Management, ITIL, ITIL Process, ITIL Consulting, ITIL Strategy, CMDB, CMDB Challenges, CMDB Consulting, SACM, Service Asset, Service Asset and Configuration Management
A key purpose for keeping track of all asset and configuration information is to ensure and maintain delivery of services, which keeps your customers happy. This is the “why” behind your efforts to build an effective configuration and asset management program.
ITIL describes Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM) like this: “the process responsible for ensuring that the assets required to deliver services are properly controlled, and that accurate and reliable information about those assets is available when and where it is needed. This information includes details of how the assets have been configured and the relationships between assets.”
I place emphasis on “deliver services” above because this is the crux of the challenge in effectively and accurately managing your IT assets and configurations.
Topics: IT Asset Management, Configuration Management Database, Configuration Management, ITIL, ITIL Process, ITIL Consulting, ITIL Strategy, CMDB, CMDB Challenges, CMDB Consulting, Service Asset, Service Asset and Configuration Management
Posted by Don Casson
Mon, Jul 17, 2017
... and three questions to help you avoid getting lost in all the data!
What happens when you build an Asset and Configuration Management program based on ITIL-defined processes? You position yourself to achieve such benefits as cost reduction, improved management of risks and optimized operational efficiencies.
Here’s what happens next: you must figure out on your own how to succeed with these best practices.
In other words, ITIL is good in helping you lay the foundation for an effective configuration and asset management operation, but the part where you must successfully execute it is entirely up to you. Here is where asking the right questions can make a world of difference in the success of your asset and configuration management program.
Topics: IT Asset Management, Configuration Management Database, Configuration Management, ITIL, ITIL Process, ITIL Consulting, ITIL Strategy, CMDB, CMDB Challenges, CMDB Consulting
Posted by Don Casson
Fri, Sep 26, 2014
Today is a good time to start catching up. Take action now. Here are eight success keys that can help serve as guiding lights for your journey, plus ONE big, overarching truth – ONLY design from the customer experience in.
I hope you have enjoyed this series of posts – good luck on your journey.
Topics: Service Catalog, Service Portfolio, Data Center Automation, ITIL Consulting, IT Service Catalog, ITIL Process, IT as a Service, Big Lever - IT Transformation, IT Strategy, IT Transformation
Posted by Don Casson
Wed, Aug 20, 2014
I want to dive a little deeper into the context of it all, as essentially everything is changing significantly, all at the same time. There are competitive and business transformational impacts that the CEO must pay attention to as time to market and cost of experimentation fall amazingly.
Topics: Service Catalog, Service Portfolio, Data Center Automation, ITIL Consulting, IT Service Catalog, ITIL Process, IT as a Service
As I have met with clients over the past year, we have talked about all of the technology change IT is facing, but also how IT itself must fundamentally change. I thought it would be interesting to share thoughts on this via the blog – and break it up into a number of more bit-sized pieces. Here is Part 1 – the thirty-thousand-foot view.
(If you are interested in reading it all at once, you can follow this link now to the whole document, which I call "The Big Lever.")
Topics: Service Catalog, Service Portfolio, Data Center Automation, ITIL Consulting, IT Service Catalog, ITIL Process, IT as a Service, Big Lever - IT Transformation
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, we see not only the devastation that took place, but also images of heroes. The U.S. Coast Guard rescuing the crew of a ship, medical staff evacuating newborns and taking them to an alternate hospital, firefighters trying to save flooded homes in a neighborhood in flames…
Topics: Service Management, ITIL, ITSM, IT Management, ITIL Process, Process Improvement
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