End-User Service Assurance: The New IT Mandate

End-User Service Assurance:
The New IT Mandate
An ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES® (EMAT) White Paper Prepared for ASG Software SolutionsMay 2010
IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTINGIT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
Table of Contents
Executive Summary..............................................................................................................................................1
An Alignment Issue..............................................................................................................................................1
The Service Management Challenge.................................................................................................................2
The Service Management Opportunity............................................................................................................3
Options for Network Management Alignment...............................................................................................4
Benefits of Successful Alignment......................................................................................................................6
ASG's Network and Service Alignment Solution...........................................................................................6
EMA Perspective...................................................................................................................................................9
About ASG.............................................................................................................................................................9
End-User Service Assurance: The New IT Mandate©2010 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.comIT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
Executive SummaryManaging the network has always been an important part of IT operations, and in most cases is a stable and mature practice within the broader IT organization. But IT organizations are transforming, adopting service-centric processes and objectives, along with service management tools and tech-nologies. This transformation rarely springs from the network organization - it usually begins in the call center or applications support team. The network team often is late to the party, and yet must be embraced as part of any long-term integrated service management strategy. This report examines the challenges of and strategies for reconciling network management and operations with broader service management initiatives.
An Alignment IssueWhen most organizations consider the objectives of network management, few think about busi-ness service management, or BSM, as a starting point. The vast majority of network management tools and the network management teams who buy them have been primarily concerned with keeping their own domain clean and efficient. But that approach is increasingly at odds with the transforma-tion IT is undergoing, embracing the inexorable shift towards end-user quality of experience as a primary measure of IT success - a shift which requires a collaborative and integrated view of all of the interconnected and interdependent domains which make up the IT service delivery infrastructure. ®ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES (EMAT) analysts have been tracking this shift, and most recently documented it as a major initiative within mid-level and upper level management in early 2009 .
How can the historic strength of the network team be fashioned into a pillar supporting service management?
A central theme of the shift towards BSM is the rising importance of the end user, and in particular the experiences of end users whether they are internal knowledge workers or external partners and customers. The end goal of IT service management is to reliably meet the needs and expectations of those who will consume IT services. Meeting this goal presents many challenges to the IT organiza-tion, not the least of which is maintaining visibility into all of the interconnected elements which come together to deliver IT services. If the IT infrastructure was a static entity, there would be a determinis-tic process for establishing sufficient visibility and correlating measurements and metrics to assess and assure user experience. Bu... [download for more]