Unisys has announced a new solution intended to offer IT organizations a lower-cost alternative to coordinate delivery of IT services and support to their users. The new Unisys IT Service Management Software as a Service (ITSM SaaS) solution is hosted in Unisys client services centers. It gives clients' service personnel web-based access to a common set of IT service management tools based on standardized service-delivery processes, so they can provide services to end users in a uniform way.
The Unisys ITSM SaaS solution aims to address a common challenge in enterprises: coordinating the activities of dispersed service desks staffed in-house, externally or both and using different service management processes and tools. According to Unisys, independent research and consulting firms have estimated that, compared to on-premises solutions, a software-as-a-service ITSM offering can be implemented with cost and time savings approaching 25%.
"One of the things we have found within our customer base is that most of our customers have a decentralized IT organization and a decentralized set of tools that they use to deliver IT services, and there is a demand for re-integrating the IT service management workflows onto a single platform," Brad Arnold, global product manager for converged remote infrastructure management, Unisys, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "By opening up our tools infrastructure and allowing a company to reintegrate all the data and the workflow onto a single platform we are giving them a fast time to value for getting things put into a single pane of glass."
The solution implements industry-standard ITSM best practices for client-centered, integrated delivery of services driven by express end-user requirements and preferences about the way IT must support their business activities. ITSM practices are based on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v.3 framework for services management.
The Unisys solution can be deployed either as a multi-tenant service, where IT infrastructure and applications are shared with other clients, or as a service dedicated to a single client's use. The service subscription fees cover all application support, administration and management functions. The solution's standard capabilities include a customer portal, which gives administrators web access to manage their service; analytics and standard reports for all selected service modules; and service level management. The analytical reports show administrators how all modules are performing against contracted service delivery requirements.
The new solution will help organizations provide a higher consistency of delivery, and improve the quality of IT service delivery, notes Arnold. Additionally, by putting standards in place, it offers them the ability to automate the execution of certain workflows, "pulling costs out and quality up," he adds.
Optional service modules that support key capabilities can be obtained as necessary, including: Virtual Service Desk, which provides portal-based self-help for end users; Service Desk, which provides a console for service agents to handle incident and problem management; Integration Services, which allows service data to be shared among multiple systems; and Knowledge Management, which captures and integrates information about service events to make resolution faster and easier.
Additional optional modules include Service Request and Catalog Management, Change and Release Management, Configuration Management, Asset Tracking and Event Management. For more information, go here.