back to article Serving up IT on a silver platter, also known as ITSM

In the 1950s, we imagined a world where everything was automated. Robots would clean for us, and small boxes would instantly produce hot food. Now, we have the Roomba and the microwave, and shortly, cars that drive themselves. Even Zuck is preparing his electronic butler. To top it all, there’s not a dodgy-looking Jetsons …

  1. Caff

    resourcing

    I work in a large multinational and use Remedy ITSM, however they have not put any resources into the product and use it basically straight out of the box. It is quite painful as you end up working around the system and attaching endless emails and spreadsheet forms to each ticket/request/change

    Larger orgainisations can be very conservative to change and commiting to spending on products such as these.

    1. Hans 1
      Facepalm

      Re: resourcing

      Consider agile methodology, you could even rise up the ranks if you start small, in your team.

      Besides, please, could you elaborate, why do you use a spreadsheet designed for number crunching for ticket/request/change management ????????????? <--- this is why I put the icon, it beggars belief!

      1. Caff

        Re: resourcing

        I'd like to know why I am required to file spreadsheets for changes too but one does not questions the lords and masters of "change management" where everything must pass through and get rejected 3 times before ending up with the implementation team.

    2. DonatelloNobatti

      Re: resourcing

      Remedy gives ITSM a bad name. How user unfriendly can a "self service" tool get? Remedy pushes the limit. Imagine using Amazon with a Remedy interface?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DISCLAIMER: What follows is my personal view, not that of my company.

    I work for an automation company, famous for RoboClose, Cronacle, CPS, RunMyJobs, or BPA (in no specific order).

    The main problem I see with our customers is that they ask for automating "x" and we provide that, when I (note I am a techy, not sales) tell them that they could also automate "y" and "z" along with "a", "b", "c", etc they tell me they do not have the time to implement and no money to pay for somebody else (us) to do it.

    We as a company would, I think, prefer the customer to use our software wisely ... when the ops guy does something repeatably, he automates it. We train our customers to use our software, often, they want to get trained ONLY on what was implemented, they do not get the point, try to tell them, and they think I want to squeeze more cash out of them ... which I do, in a sense, but they are usually way under-utilizing what they already paid for. I would much prefer them to saturate what they currently have, and buy more ... the time and moneys saved by automating more LARGELY compensate whatever extra licenses they would purchase from us. The "ease-of-use" of our software really speeds up implementation (OK, probably take that with a pinch of salt ;-).

    Time is money. I automate a lot, it's my job, everything I can automate in my job, I simply automate ... it always pays back big time, in no time!

    Now, you might think this is all fine and dandy, but think of Henry Ford, he won because he automated everything he could. It is the same today in the information age, I see people doing stuff every day that could easily be automated .... we even do financial reconciliation, SAP system copy, virtualization ... you name it.

  3. Mark 110

    ITSM?

    Why does this article seem to think that ITSM and 'automated provisioning / delivery' equate to the same thing. It reads like the start of one of those 'whitepapers' promoing the latest auto provisioning knick knack. Copy & paste?

    Anyway, Request Fulfillment makes up about 3% of the ITIL ITSM library and the proposition that its good to automate it makes up about one paragraph in that. Automation is a recurrent theme as a 'nice to have' in lots of the ITSM lifecycle.

    I really can't find anything in the article that couldn't have been explained with the words 'Its often good to automate things'. Slow news day?

  4. TRT Silver badge

    I remember Silver Platter!

    That was a CD-ROM based references service wasn't it? Circa 1995. SPIRS. Silver Platter Information Retrieval Service.

  5. nijam Silver badge

    And when everything's been incorrectly automated...

    ... and no-one can get anything at all done, or find out who can fix it, or is authorised to?

    I ask from bitter experience with an organisation who thinks glossy marketing brochures for such products are enough to base the purchasing decision on.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And when everything's been incorrectly automated...

      That's why you absolutely need to define owners for every process and service BEFORE it gets implemented in whatever toolset you're using, and possibly more importantly ensure that you have a regular governance and review process of them to ensure they are maintained, up to date and still fit for purpose.

      I've been implementing ITSM solutions now for nearly 20 years and I see these sorts of issues everywhere I go to. It always, always comes down to piss poor planning and lack of governance.

    2. Hans 1
      Boffin

      Re: And when everything's been incorrectly automated...

      You have to take the time to assess your needs properly. I agree, the marketing teams are useless buzzword repeaters.

      You need to implement a system where your IT/Ops work in collaboration, you cannot automate everything just like that, contrary what the C-types think. Careful planning is key to this. YOU CANNOT CONTINUE WITHOUT AUTOMATION, the competition is already automating as many processes as possible! Once you automate properly, anything like monitoring processes is a thing of the past, the system monitors them according to YOUR specifications, if something goes amiss, the system notifies you, if you don't reply in a timely manner, the notification system escalates the problem, again, according to your specifications.

      Imagine how many days are lost when you perform your quarter-close and Sarah the GL accountant is on sick leave ? You must have somebody in-house who can step in for her, right ? Probably not, but when most of Sarah's work is automated, and she only has to check the end results for her area, you can have another GL take a look and verify it for poor Sarah. Sarah will have more time, when she is not off sick, to provide financial controllers and C-types with even better, more recent data on short notice. Less noise in financial reports eases the work of the top brass ... these are just a few examples ...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: And when everything's been incorrectly automated...

        Real accountants don't take sick leave during close

  6. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Change

    a few words and this article could have been written ten years ago. Change a few more, twenty years. And so on. Dialing back some thirty years: "Where's the beef?" (Oh, right, I keep forgetting, the 'tennies' are all vegan...)

    1. Ken 16 Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      It was written a year ago and has had a few words changed

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/29/it_service_management_as_an_enterprise_wide_service/

  7. Tom 13

    When I started reading this entire article

    that old refrain "to err is human, to really foul it up takes a computer" rang through my brain. By the time I got to the end of the I was thinking "This fouling it up squared."

    I also concur with Mark 110, this article reads like it was cut and pasted from other stuff by someone who know little about either automation or ITSM. Especially that bit about delivering solutions in seconds instead of days. Given our current virty desktop experience, I'll take the slow checks and sending a person. It's faster and doesn't break as often. That leads to the boss blowing fewer gaskets when crap isn't working.

  8. Wings2i

    IT & ITSM

    Great article.. throws light on the importance of IT & the ITSM effects...

    Wings2i

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like