BMC ITIL ReferenceGuide Wp

BMC Software Solutions Integrate and

Automate ITIL Best Practices

S O L U T I O N R E F E R E N C E G U I D E

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Abstract: How this Reference Guide Can Help You 1

> The Value of ITIL 1

> How BMC Softwares Solutions Complement ITIL Best Practices 1

Introduction 3

> Implement ITIL Functions Together 3

- Integrate and Automate Best Practices 3

> Leverage a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) 3

Business Service Management Routes to Value 4

> Business Service Management 4

> BSM Routes to Value 4

Service Desk 5

Incident Management 6

Problem Management 7

Change Management 8

Configuration Management 9

Release Management 10

Service Level Management 11

Financial Management for IT Services 12

Capacity Management 13

Availability Management 14

Continuity Management 15

The Business Perspective 16

Information Communications Technology Infrastructure Management (ICTIM) 17

Software Asset Management 18

Conclusion 19

Abstract: How this Reference Guide Can Help You

T H E VA L U E O F I T I L

Many IT organizations are turning to industry best practices for guidance in implementing service management,rather than developing their own processes. The most widely adopted IT-related best practice framework forservice management is the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

ITIL establishes and leverages common terminology and integrated processes across IT organizationssynergythat is difficult to achieve with function-specific or regionally developed practices. In addition, ITIL provides a common language and set of standards to deliver quality IT service from a business perspective, not just asystems perspective.

H O W B M C S O F T W A R E S S O L U T I O N S C O M P L E M E N T I T I L B E S T P R A C T I C E S

BMC Software offers solutions that help integrate and automate ITIL best practices. These solutions are reviewedin this reference guide. Business Service Management (BSM) is BMC Softwares strategic approach for achievingIT and business alignmenta key focus of ITIL best practices. BSM is not merely a BMC Software version of ITIL,but rather is a commitment the company has made to deliver its entire solution portfolio as part of a singularand overarching strategy. In other words, BMC Softwares BSM strategy is a complement to ITIL, aligning with it,but not a replacement for it. BSM delivers adaptable, real-time solutions for closely linking business operationswith underlying IT components.

Use this document to learn about BSM Routes to ValueTM and alignment with ITIL. BMC Software designed BSMRoutes to Value to group ITIL disciplines into clear, incremental paths for BSM implementations. The variousRoutes to Value mirror how IT delivers value, and are designed to accelerate the adoption of ITIL best practices.These BMC Software solution groups implement ITIL best practices as identified in five of the eight ITIL books.BMC Software solutions have received ITIL verification by the Pink Elephant PinkVerifyTM program. The ITIL bestpractices discussed in this guide include:

> Service Support best practices- Service Desk - Incident Management- Problem Management- Change Management- Configuration Management- Release Management

> Service Delivery best practices- Service Level Management- Financial Management for IT Services- Capacity Management- Availability Management- IT Service Continuity Management

> Business Perspective> Information Communications Technology (ICT) Infrastructure Management> Software Asset Management

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A B S T R A C T: H O W T H I S R E F E R E N C E G U I D E C A N H E L P Y O U

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2This reference guide is divided into sections based on each of these ITIL disciplines. Information provided relatesto the ITIL definition, the solutions available, how to integrate and automate solutions by discipline and the bene-fits of these solutions. The information you need is based on the particular discipline you are trying to address.

Refer to the Table of Contents in this guide to identify the pages that focus on the particular discipline you planto integrate and automate.

These solutions directly improve service management capabilities and IT resource efficiency, providing proof ofadherence to governance standards, while reducing the cost of IT operations. The comprehensive solution familyintegrates and automates interconnected ITIL service support processes.

> The Introduction section of this guide identifies challenges that organizations face when using ITIL bestpractices. It reviews recommendations for implementing ITIL functions together, integrating and automatingbest practices and leveraging a configuration management database (CMDB). This introductory overviewprovides excellent background to help understand important issues and recommendations for integrating andautomating ITIL best practices.

> Be sure to review the Business Service Management Routes to Value overview in this guide, which explainshow BMC Softwares solutions map to the 14 ITIL disciplines.

To get the most value from this guide, first read the Introduction and the Business Service Management Routesto Value sections. Then refer to the Table of Contents and identify which disciplines apply to your organizationsand review the material related to those disciplines. After reviewing this guide, for further information, visitwww.bmc.com/itil.

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A B S T R A C T: H O W T H I S R E F E R E N C E G U I D E C A N H E L P Y O U

Introduction

IT organizations worldwide strive to align their priorities with

the needs of the business, and provide IT services in a stable,

flexible and cost-effective manner. As a result, many are lever-

aging industry best practices for guidance on meeting and

improving levels of service, while reducing costs. Developing

processes from scratch comes with a high costand those

processes may not deliver significantly better results than

existing, proven best practices.

ITIL drives synergy by leveraging common terminology and

integrated processes across the IT organizationsynergy

that is difficult to achieve with function-specific or regionally

developed practices.

However, there are several inhibitors to ITIL adoption that

organizations must address to completely achieve full ITIL

benefits. While ITIL does describe what best practices should

be pursued, it does not define how to implement detailed

processes and work-level procedures that enable those re-

commendations. ITIL provides high-level guidance on the

goals and objectives of what is recommended, but leaves

it up to each business area to adopt best practices to fit

unique requirements.

In order to implement ITIL best practices effectively,

organizations must:

> Implement ITIL functions together for streamlined

adoption

> Integrate and automate best practices using software-

based tools

> Leverage a configuration management database (CMDB)

to increase sharing and accuracy of information across

the IT organization

I M P L E M E N T I T I L F U N C T I O N S T O G E T H E R

To begin, IT organizations need to group ITIL functions in

a way that facilitates implementation and acceptance, and

accelerates the time it takes to realize benefits. Choosing to

group ITIL best practices that affect a particular organization

allows people with a common area of responsibility to imple-

ment changes together. For example, many organizations

start their ITIL transformation with the incident and problem

management disciplines in the support organization. Others

start with change, configuration, and release management

disciplines that most directly affect an infrastructure-related

organization. Grouping helps foster a common vision focused

on a targeted set of operational benefits. It accelerates adop-

tion of ITIL and speeds up the time to benefit. Success builds

on success, which then helps promote adoption in other

functional areas.

Integrate and Automate Best Practices

In theory, you could implement ITIL by requiring people to

manually adhere to processes; however, in practice it will

quickly become impossible to enforce and monitor. For many

organizations, the most effective implementation of ITIL will

include a combination of people, process and technology

solutions. The adoption of ITIL best practices is often best

driven and optimized by software applications and tools

designed for the job.

Applications used to integrate and automate ITIL processes

should be designed to leverage and institutionalize ITIL best

practices. For example, ITIL processes and practices should

be standard functions out-of-the-box. Leveraging ITIL-aligned

workflows and work procedures delivered by the vendor will

speed implementation and accelerate time to value. Tools

should also be easily adapted to the unique needs of each

organization.

L E V E R A G E A C O N F I G U R AT I O N

M A N A G E M E N T D ATA B A S E ( C M D B )

Implementation of individual ITIL best practices drives oper-

ational improvements. However, organizations must ensure

that they do not become silos of data and expertise. To inte-

grate and automate ITIL processesand expand ITIL adoption

beyond the first few ITIL disciplinesthe producers and

consumers of information should share access to a common

data store. The ideal approach to a CMDB features a central-

ized database linked to other data stores with a federated

data model, which carries information from one point to

another without the need for duplication.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

3

Business Service ManagementRoutes to Value

B U S I N E S S S E R V I C E M A N A G E M E N T

Business Service Management (BSM) is BMC Softwares stra-

tegy for achieving IT and business alignment. BSM delivers

adaptable, real-time solutions for closely linking business

operations with underlying IT components.

B S M R O U T E S T O VA L U E

Routes to Value group ITIL disciplines into clear, incremental

paths for BSM implementations. Routes to Value mirror how

IT delivers value, and are designed to accelerate the adoption

of ITIL best practices.

BMC Software provides software solutions that integrate and

automate key ITIL best practices outlined in the following

ITIL volumes:

> Service Support

> Service Delivery

> Business Perspective

> Information Communications Technology Infrastructure

Management (ICTIM)

> Software Asset Management

The remainder of this guide will review the areas impacted

by ITIL, the corresponding BMC Software solutions, the

integration and automation capabilities of those solutions,

and the benefits.

B U S I N E S S S E R V I C E M A N A G E M E N T R O U T E S T O VA L U E

4

Fig. 1: BMC Software Routes to Value methodologies map to ITIL processes

ServiceLevel

Management

AssetManagementand Discovery

Incident andProblem

Management

IdentityManagement

Infrastructure & ApplicationManagement

Service Impactand Event

Management

Change andConfigurationManagement

CapacityManagement& Provisioning

Service Support - Service Desk

BSM Routes to Value (RTV)

Service Support - Incident Management

Service Support - Problem Management

Service Support - Change Management

Service Support - Configuration Management

Service Support - Release Management

Service Delivery - Service Level Management

Service Delivery - Financial Management

Service Delivery - Capacity Management

Service Delivery - Availability Management

Service Delivery - Continuity Management

ICT Infrastructure Management

Software Asset Management

The Business Perspective

S E R V I C E D E S K

5

1http://encweb.bmc.com/ITIL/ServiceSupport/cd/frames.htm (Section 4.1.5)2Best Practice for Service Support, ITIL The Key to Managing IT Services, page 31. Published for Office of Government Commerce under license from the Controller ofHer Majestys Stationery Office. Crown copyright 2000.

ITIL Definition

In the ITIL Service Support volume, a service desk is defined as:

> The Service Desk provides a vital day-to-day contact point between customers, users, IT services and third-party supportorganizations. The Service Desk extends the range of services and offers a more global-focused approach, allowingbusiness processes to be integrated into the Service Management infrastructure. It not only handles incidents, problems and questions, but also provides an interface for other activities such as customer change requests, maintenance contracts,software licences, Service Level Management, Configuration Management, Availability Management, Financial Manage-ment for IT Services, and IT Service Continuity Management.1

Goal

> Provide a single point of contact for customers and users and to facilitate the restoration of normal service with minimal business impact2

BMC Software Solutions

> Incident and Problem Management Route to Value

- Industry-leading service desk that uses certified best practices and IT process alignment to consolidate, log, track, manage and escalate all types of incidents and problems from users, third-party organizations, and other IT applicationssuch as event management and security

- Supports both centralized and distributed service desks with a consolidated service-desk function for more efficientoperation

- Extremely flexible, user-friendly application designed to be the main application used by IT staff to manage all incomingservice and support requests

- Multichannel (Web, phone, email, desktop client) customer request interface for information, installs, moves, additions,changes, incidents and problems

- Provides a common tool to automate and integrate service delivery and service support processes and procedures and isdesigned to optimize communications regarding incoming requests, to ensure the efficient and expeditious handling ofcustomer interactions

Integrate and Automate Capabilities

BMC Software offers a variety of integrated and automated best practice capabilities that support ITIL service desk guidance.These capabilities deliver a single integrated solution for the management and resolution of all requests submitted to theservice desk.

> Integrates with the BMC AtriumTM CMDB for instant access to information relevant to each service request

> Provides single point of contact that maintains communication and status of each customer request

> Common solution for global, regional and location IT support organizations, which includes a classification system tomanage and track requests

> Provides published and open APIs for broad integration

> Offers more than 100 predefined reports and graphical displays for historic and real-time information

Benefits

> Provides a single point of contact for customers to interface with IT, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the ITstaff that manage IT service and support functions

> Reduces call duration

> Increases customer satisfaction

> Improves quality and faster response to user requests

> Improves teamwork and communication

> Reduces overall cost of service delivery and support

Service Desk

I N C I D E N T M A N A G E M E N T

6

3Ibid. 714Ibid. 71

ITIL Definition

The ITIL Service Support volume defines an incident as:

> Any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption to, or areduction in, the quality of service.3

Goal

> Restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and to minimize the adverse impact on business operations, thusensuring that the highest possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained.4



- Main support tool used by IT staff to manage incidents and restore service quickly and efficiently

- Optimizes prioritization and processing of incoming requests. Incoming service requests may be submitted by the customer,the service desk staff, or through automated system management or security tools. The solution enables the IT organiza-tion to track and solve the incident in a procedural manner, as specified by the ITIL incident management guidance.

- Support staff can quickly review key incident information, such as related configuration items (CIs) and overall incidenthistory. The solutions knowledge base works at the incident level to help solve incidents quickly and consistently. As aresult, duplicate incidents submitted by a single user or multiple users, as well as other incidents, can be associated andresolved together. When an incident goes beyond the capabilities of the assigned support staff or is determined to be aproblem, the problem management functions track and analyze the underlying problem to determine the root cause.

> Service Impact and Event Management Route to Value

- Leverages the BMC Atrium CMDB and is closely integrated with the BMC Service Desk solution to optimize incidentmanagement. The service impact model helps identify the business impact of incoming incidents, and identifies depen-dent IT infrastructure related to the configuration item impacted by the incident. System events are prioritized by rule and business impact and automatically create an incident ticket in the service desk.

> Service Level Management Route to Value

- Provides real-time information to alert when incident related service level agreements are about to be exceeded.


BMC Software offers a variety of integrated and automated best practice capabilities that support ITIL incident managementguidance. These capabilities enforce accountability and responsibility for resolution of all incidents.

> Offers built-in integration with the BMC Atrium CMDB to optimize process integration

> Provides a classification system for all incidents

> Provides an integrated, searchable knowledge base of common solutions and workarounds to known errors and problems

> Provides an escalation system that automatically prioritizes and routes incidents according to SLAs

> Offers more than 100 predefined and easily configured reports and graphical displays that show performance to SLAs

Benefits

> Increases effectiveness and efficiency of the IT staff managing the incident management process, resulting in minimizedimpact of incidents and improved service levels

> Improves incident resolution performance against SLAs

> Enables proactive communications and improved working relationships with customers

> Integrates and automates best practice processes to improve IT resource utilization and customer satisfaction

> Increases IT infrastructure availability and ensures a single source of the truth for all CI-related activities via the BMC Atrium CMDB

Incident Management

P R O B L E M M A N A G E M E N T

7

ITIL Definition

In the ITIL Service Support volume, a problem is defined as:

> An unknown underlying cause of one or more incidents.5

Goal

> Minimize adverse impact of incidents and problems caused by errors within the IT infrastructure and prevent recurringincidents related to these errors

- Reactive aspect of goal is to quickly solve problems in response to one or more incidents- Proactive aspect of goal is to reduce the overall number of incidents6



- Directly supports an ITIL-compatible problem management process

- Can be implemented to support the ITIL problem management process by identifying the root cause of problems and then managing actions to correct known errors

- Defines a problem as the unknown cause of an incident and performs prioritization, routing, tracking and resolution of problems


- Provides integration of incident management and problem management processes

- Allows IT support staff to identify a problem, as well as all other incidents related to that problem

- Quick identification and proper processes to diagnose and solve the underlying root cause helps resolve all incidents as quickly as possible

- Determining root cause of problems allows IT staff to be proactive and propose changes to reduce incidents

- The change process begins with a change request


BMC Software offers integrated, automated, best practice capabilities that support ITIL problem management guidance. The capabilities implemented with the ITIL framework provide a solution that allows problems to be systematically identifiedand resolved.

> Offers built-in integration with the BMC Atrium CMDB to optimize process integration

> Integrates tightly with incident management and change management, which avoids data duplication and enhances process flow

> Provides a classification system that creates problem records separate from incidents and tracks them according to ITIL

> Automates matching of incidents with problems and known errors using a three-tier system

> Tracks and monitors problems through defined stages with audit records for previous work

> Enables routing and escalation of problems by urgency and severity code, to the location, work group, or individual

> Offers more than 100 predefined, easily configured reports and graphical displays with historical and real-time information

Benefits

> Systematically identifies and resolves IT infrastructure problems

> Reduces number of support incidents, improving service levels and the return on IT infrastructure investments

> Reduces business impact of failing IT services and components

> Improves resolution of multi-incident problems

> Proactively reduces number of support incidents

> Improves productivity and reduced costs

> Ensures a single source of the truth for all CI-related activities from the BMC Atrium CMDB

Problem Management

5Ibid. 2686Ibid. 95

C H A N G E M A N A G E M E N T

8

ITIL Definition

In the ITIL Service Support volume, a change is defined as:

> The addition, modification or removal of approved, supported or baselined hardware, network, software, application,environment, system, desktop build or associated documentation.7

Goal

> Ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes in order tominimize the impact of change-related incidents upon service quality

- Although changes often arise because of unplanned problems, many also arise from planned requests for change from the business or IT organization8


> Change and Configuration Management Route to Value

> Todays infrastructures are both complex and critical, which means that the process of gathering, planning, implementing,monitoring, and evaluating requested changes has a direct impact on IT services. BMC Softwares Change and ConfigurationManagement Route to Value helps IT departments become more responsive to both IT and business-driven changes, whilealso stabilizing and protecting the IT environment.

- Directly supports an ITIL-compatible change management process with capabilities that expedite changes without the loss of service

- Tracks a change from the moment it is proposed, through the implementation in the live environment, to the evaluation of the end result

- Facilitates gathering changes from all identified stakeholders into a change management database (this includes planningchanges based on priority, impact or urgency)

- Considers business and technical impact, impact on other services, the effect of not implementing the change, as well as resources required

- Includes a back-out plan and a robust approval server to manage the request through a complex approval process, and as problems arise, automatic escalations and notifications are performed

- Repeated changes can be completed consistently with change templates

- Becomes an indispensable resource for the change board


BMC Software offers a variety of integrated, automated, best practice capabilities that support ITIL change managementguidance.

> Provides a classification system for accepting, logging, and storing change requests that track information, such as category of change, priority, reason, scope, and the nature of change request

> Integrates with the BMC Atrium CMDB, which provides a 360-degree view of change requests related to CIs

> Provides the ability to track change requests through stages of review, authorization, and implementation with routing and approval path determined by various criteria

> Offers support for back-out procedures if incidents arise as a result of the implemented change

> Relationship information in the change management database that identifies risks to the change requests

> Provides impact assessments and resource requirements and notification

> Priority, urgency, and impact fields as described by ITIL

Benefits

> Increases visibility and communication of changes to both business and service support staff

> Reduces impact of change (i.e., loss of service) from improved impact assessment and risk assessment

> Improves ability to assess the cost of proposed changes before they are incurred

Change Management

7Ibid. 2658Ibid. 165

C O N F I G U R AT I O N M A N A G E M E N T

9

ITIL Definition

In the ITIL Service Support volume, configuration item is defined as:

> Component of an infrastructureor an item, such as a Request for Change, associated with the infrastructurethat is underthe control of Configuration Management. CIs vary widely in complexity, size and type, from an entire system to a singlemodule or minor component.9

Goal

> Account for and verify the configuration records of all the components of the IT infrastructure

- Provide accurate information to support all other support processes, including incident management, problemmanagement, change management, and release management10


> Asset Management and Discovery Route to Value

- Discovery solutions implement the identification function in ITIL configuration management

- A suite of tools includes discovery assets, configurations and topology relationships and their relationships to business services

- The use of the BMC Atrium CMDB data reconciliation support status accounting functions in ITIL configurationmanagement with a common data model and 80 different CI relationship types

- The BMC Atrium CMDB with CI and relationship data to model the configuration and dependencies within the enterprise production environment

> Change and Configuration Management Route to Value

- Change management solutions implement the control function in ITIL configuration management, where all CI updates result from a change request

- The software release capabilities implement the verification function in ITIL configuration management

- CIs stored in the BMC Atrium CMDB can also be accessed from all of BMC Softwares BSM applications, enhancing the ability to diagnose and resolve a problem


BMC Software offers a variety of integrated and automated best practice capabilities that support ITIL configurationmanagement guidance.

> Discovers a broad range of configuration items

> Identifies the physical and logical relationships among configuration items

> Populates the CMDB with all baseline and deviation configurations to provide full asset lifecycle information

> Provides reconciliation capability to fulfill the ITIL verification phase and ensure a single common source of the truth

> Provides data integrity verification through authorization checks, name consistency, and mandatory fields

> Offers logging of historical changes available for audit purposes

> Provides standard and easily configured reports that allow analysis of standards compliance, security audits, assetconfigurations, warranty management, and financial cost and recovery

> CIs stored in the BMC Atrium CMDB can also be accessed from all of BMC Softwares BSM applications, enhancing theability to diagnose and resolve a problem

Benefits

> Supports both the service support and service delivery processes

> Ensures accurate information used with other ITIL support and delivery processes

> Improves security and adherence to legal obligations

> Facilitates impact and risk analysis for changes and problems

> Improves capability for availability and capacity-planning processes

> Provides a 360-degree view of the condition of a CI and its dependencies and influencers

Configuration Management

9 Ibid. 26610 Ibid. 121

R E L E A S E M A N A G E M E N T

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ITIL Definition

In the ITIL Service Support volume, a release is defined as: > The undertaking of planning, design, build, configuration and testing of hardware and software to create a set of release

components for a live environment. Activities also cover the planning, preparation and scheduling of a release to manycustomers and locations.11

Goal

> Protect the live environment and its services through formal procedures and checks- As with all the ITIL processes that rely on the CMDB and other processes to be successful, release management works

closely with the change management and configuration management processes to ensure that the shared CMDB is keptup-to-date following changes implemented by new releases12


> Change and Configuration Management Route to Value - Directly supports the ITIL release management process for patch management, OS migration, application management

and content management - Changes to the IT environment are now almost daily occurrences. With the frequency of changes and releases being

made, control must be put in place using governance and business-dependent rules. The solution defines release rulesand enables releases to be targeted based on roles, responsibilities and departmental structures.

- Enables changes for releases to be packaged up and automatically distributed based on predetermined rules, removingthe possibility of errors from manual processes. This automation conforms to ITIL processes by ensuring that an audit ismaintained, failures are raised as incidents for resolution, and dashboard reporting highlights the release status at anypoint in time.

- Interface to change management adheres to the ITIL standard that all modifications/additions are documented fromrequest to conclusion, providing an audit trail of all the activities and events pertaining to that change

- Reduces errors, disruptions and downtime, through automation> Capacity Management and Provisioning Route to Value

- Enables monitoring of currently installed applications and programs that will be fed into the BMC Atrium CMDB foranalysis to show utilization

- Facilitates possible reclamation and redistribution of underutilized applications and ensures that all license agreements are adhered to or in legal compliance


BMC Software offers a variety of integrated and automated best practice capabilities that support ITIL release management guidance.> Integrates with change management for continuous process handling throughout the lifecycle of the change to completion> Integrates with the BMC Atrium CMDB to ensure a 360-degree view of the affected CIs and the dependencies or

outstanding issues known, enabling risk review before release> Integrates with the help desk application to automate the raising of incidents > Provides the capability to define business, governance, and best practice process rules for a software release> Offers the ability to automatically back out or restore a failed release, ensuring that the user is unaffected> Includes escalation capabilities for adherence to SLAs and improved service> Enables systematic management of the risk and impact of proposed releases and ensures that they adhere to predefined

rules and are monitored and managed in an automated controlled manner

Benefits

> Improves automation of software and data releases, improving success rate and reducing downtime> Adheres to predetermined rules to ensure conformance to processes> Provides effective, cost-reducing method of releasing changes> Improves speed and accuracy of releasing changes

Release Management

11 http://encweb.bmc.com/ITIL/ServiceSupport/cd/frames.htm (Section 9.2) 12 Best Practice for Service Support, ITIL The Key to Managing IT Services, page 203. Published for Office of Government Commerce under license from the

Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office. Crown copyright 2000.

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S E R V I C E L E V E L M A N A G E M E N T

ITIL Definition

In the ITIL Service Delivery volume, a service level agreement is defined as:

> A written agreement between an IT service provider and the IT customer(s) defining the key service targets andresponsibilities of both parties.13

Goal

> Ensure that service level agreements are met and that any adverse impact on service quality is kept to a minimum14


> Service Level Management Route to Value

- Comprehensive service level management solution that encompasses IT operations and support services, helping to align operational technical metrics and service desk processes with the needs and priorities of the business

- Enables management of the entire lifecycle of SLA processesfrom defining agreements and monitoring compliance, to collecting and analyzing performance data, to refining the services offered to ensure that expectations are met orexceeded

- Directly supports a service level management process, as defined by ITIL. Managing both service delivery levels andcustomer expectations is key to running IT like a business. An IT service delivery best practice includes specifying terms of service delivery in a jointly developed agreement. The agreements between the service provider and the customer of those services can be specified in a written contract, usually referred to as a service level agreement (SLA).

- Makes it possible to register SLAs, correlate SLAs to the underlying technical infrastructure, and observe real-timecompliance with SLAs for all service support processes as defined by ITIL for delivering service at levels that meetcustomer expectations

- Provides a way to stipulate required availability and then gauge if service levels are being met. For example, when systemresponse times are exceeded, IT specialists can notify management and escalate the problem according to incidentmanagement or problem management processes. Through the integrated service desk, customers receive the status of their outstanding issues and a description of the level of service they are receiving.


BMC Software offers a variety of integrated, automated, best practice capabilities that support ITIL service level managementguidance. In total, these capabilities, implemented with the ITIL framework, provide a solution that delivers a tiered responsesystem, manages customer expectations and service delivery, and encourages the customers to view the IT organization as aservice business.

> Defines rules to implement the service agreements between IT, customers, and any external resource

> Maintains service level agreement records that contain information on the IT provider, customer, specific services, and specific service performance that can be created, changed, and deleted

> Tracks all service desk requests to contractual parameters

> Provides proactive alerts that can identify issues and trigger actions prior to service levels being violated

> Includes an integrated graphical interface that shows real-time status of a wide variety of SLAs

> Provides predefined reports that show performance of IT services compared to service level agreements

> Integrate with BMC Software applications

Benefits

> Prioritizes incident, problem, and change management activities to meet various SLAs

> Uses SLAs as a basis for charging for service and to help demonstrate customer value

> Provides visibility into the process, enabling management to identify and monitor key metrics to drive operational improvement

Service Level Management

13 Best Practice for Service Delivery, ITIL The Key to Managing IT Services, page 28. Published for Office of Government Commerce under license from the Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office. Crown copyright 2001.

14 Ibid. 11

12

F I N A N C I A L M A N A G E M E N T F O R I T S E R V I C E S

ITIL Definition

In the ITIL Service Delivery volume, financial management for IT services is defined as:

> Financial management is the sound stewardship of the monetary resources of the organization. It supports the organizationin planning and executing its business objectives and requires consistent application throughout the organization to achievemaximum efficiency and minimum conflict.15

Goal

> In-house operations

- Provide cost-effective stewardship of the IT assets and resources used in providing IT services

> Service providers

- Goals vary to account fully for the spending on IT services and to attribute these costs to the services delivered to theorganizations customers and to assist management in decisions on IT investments by providing detailed business cases for changes to IT services16


> Asset Management and Discovery Route to Value

- IT is often treated as a centrally funded resource; however, more and more organizations are charging their services backinto the business users to help justify costs, allocate expenses, and invest in the future. This solution identifies IT assetsand automates their lifecycle and contractual and financial controls to manage total cost of ownership, improve return on capital, and align IT asset investments with business needs.

- Connects to other required ITIL-related processes via the BMC Atrium CMDB. These processes include: service levelmanagement, capacity management and configuration management. Through this connection, organizations are able to hold the IT asset costs within the asset management application and then see how they are spent over the lifecycle of the CIs. This capability provides the useful extra benefit of obtaining the total cost of ownership of CIs.

- Enables budgeting and accounting elements to be handled and to interface with the corporate enterprise resourceplanning (ERP) system as necessary.


BMC Software offers capabilities that support ITIL financial management guidance, with the exception of charging. Thesolution integrates with the following key ITIL-related functions that aid the financial management processes.

> Captures the costs associated with delivering the service as required by the SLAs to support service level managementapplications and processes

> Ensures that planned, required, and forecasted capacity expenditures are reviewed against budgets to support capacitymanagement applications

> Ensures that all the pertinent information related to the IT service management functions, as defined by ITIL, is available for analysis in the BMC Atrium CMDB

Benefits

> Increases confidence in setting and managing budgets

> Ensures accurate total asset cost information as an input to support IT investment decisions

> Provides accurate cost information for determining cost of ownership for ongoing services

> Enables more efficient use of IT resources throughout the organization

> Integrates with all ITIL-related functions, specifically, the single source of the truth, BMC Atrium CMDB

Financial Management for IT Services

15 Ibid. 5916 Ibid. 61

13

C A PA C I T Y M A N A G E M E N T

ITIL Definition

The ITIL Service Delivery volume states that capacity management is: > responsible for ensuring that the capacity of the IT infrastructure matches the evolving demands of the business in

the most cost-effective and timely manner.17

Goal

> Ensure that cost-justifiable IT capacity always exists and that it is matched to the current and future identified needs of the business18

- The function of capacity management is to understand the business requirements (strategy), the organizations operation(operations) and the IT infrastructure (tactical), and to ensure that all the current and future capacity and performanceaspects of the business requirements are provided cost effectively19


> Capacity Management and Provisioning Route to Value - BMC Software supports capacity management processes and disciplines outlined within ITIL. This solution provides

measurable benefits and value as IT maturity develops. - Provides historical trending and usage reporting to enable high-availability resource optimization - Provides capacity planning to enable service-oriented capacity on demand- Ultimately evolves to provide prediction and automated provisioning capacity management solutions that cover all

aspects of the IT infrastructure> Service Impact and Event Management Route to Value

- BMC Softwares monitoring tools address the key ITIL capacity management deliverables. All feed into the ITIL-relatedprocesses of business capacity management, service capacity management, and resource capacity management.

- Enables realistic parameters for monitoring existing resources and for facilitating the review of collected data to determine future capacity requirements

- Service Impact Management takes these event alerts and highlights the possible affect on the business processes and,therefore, the business (this is now more critical than ever, as organizations depend more and more on IT for revenue)

> Service Level Management Route to Value - Provides real-time information to alert when current capacity is about to be exceeded and affect the business operation;

this capability helps organizations meet SLAs


BMC Software offers capabilities that support ITIL capacity management guidance. The solutions adhere to the ITIL guidance for capacity planning needs by: > Monitoring all the IT infrastructure components > Integrating with the service desk to raise incidents for formal resolution> Integrating with the BMC Atrium CMDB to understand the relationships and dependencies> Understanding the mapping of CIs to business processes and functions> Integrating with change and release applications, ensuring ITIL compliance for the main phases of monitoring, analysis,

tuning, and implementations> Ensuring that ITIL guidance is met

Benefits

> Monitors the key infrastructure CIs> Integrates with the BMC Atrium CMDB to improve the analysis function> Provides tuning capability that ensures that CIs are functioning optimally> Integrates with change management to ensure stability of service> Facilitates the implementation of new tools, data, software, and applications with BMC Software integrated release

management offering> Integrates with service level management applications to ensure capacity meets the business requirements and demands> Provides visibility into the capacity requirements with a business perspective, using service impact modeling

Capacity Management

17 Ibid. 11918 Ibid. 12219 Ibid. 121

14

AVA I L A B I L I T Y M A N A G E M E N T

ITIL Definition

The ITIL Service Delivery volume states that availability management is: > concerned with the design, implementation, measurement and management of IT infrastructure availability to ensure

the stated business requirements for availability are consistently met.20

Goal

> Optimize the capability of the IT infrastructure, services and supporting organization to deliver a cost-effective and sustained level of availability that enables the business to satisfy its business objectives21


> Infrastructure and Application Management Route to Value - The availability of IT infrastructure components that deliver IT services to the business and its users are influenced by the

complexity of the IT infrastructure and service design. The solution helps to discover, monitor and manage the infrastructurecomponents and their dependencies and populate the BMC Atrium CMDB for access by all the ITIL process functions.

- Provides special care for data to minimize the business and user impact from unplanned database downtime> Service Impact and Event Management Route to Value

- The reliability of the IT infrastructure components and environment needs to be checked with constant monitoring, readyto alert incident management of an impending unavailability of a component or service. These tools will both monitor thecomponents or CIs and reflect back to the business services using a service impact modeling facility.

- Monitors and reviews ITILs six main areas within availability management: availability of components, reliability, maintain-ability, security, serviceability and vital business functions. The solution focuses on these areas, with monitoring tools tocheck on the availability of the components, incidents, problems, and change records for the reliability elements. Themaintainability and serviceability elements are held within the asset management and the BMC Atrium CMDB to reviewthe components history and the maintainers of agreements and service achievements.

> Service Level Management Route to Value - Analyzes the monitored and collated data held within the BMC Atrium CMDB- Provides effective reporting on service and component availability based on agreed-upon SLAs- Enables forecasting and input into capacity management to protect the future availability needs and demands

> Capacity Management and Provisioning Route to Value - Uses a service impact modeling application that maps the business services to the components and CIs. This enables

a view of how the business processes and functions are affected by the availability or unavailability of the CIs.


BMC Software offers a variety of capabilities for monitoring, managing, analyzing, automating and predicting IT infrastructureavailability. These best practice capabilities support ITIL availability management guidance. Integration with other related ITILfunctions includes:> Improves service level management by providing performance and availability data through the BMC Atrium CMDB> Enhances capacity management and provisioning efforts by providing performance and availability data > Automates generation and tracking of trouble tickets to speed incident resolution, and updates problem ticket status

based on events received from monitoring tools > Facilitates the determination of the impact of changes using performance and availability data > Speeds determination of the impact of events on business operations through effective event management > Integration includes ICTIM and continuity management

Benefits

> Provides a single point of accountability for availability management processes> Integrates with the BMC Atrium CMDB and ITIL-related services to ensure all possible data is available to the service> Provides ability to feed into service level management applications for reporting and negotiating> Provides ability to feed into financial management applications to aid improved budgeting and expenditure controls> Offers a view of the business processes or services that may be affected

Availability Management

20 Ibid. 21321 Ibid. 212

15

C O N T I N U I T Y M A N A G E M E N T

ITIL Definition

In the ITIL Service Delivery volume, IT service continuity management is defined as: > Supporting the overall business continuity management process by ensuring that the required IT technical and services

facilities (including computer systems, networks, applications, telecommunications, technical support and service desk) can be recovered within required, and agreed, business timescales.22

Goal

> Focus on the IT services required to support the critical business processes - As organizations become more dependent upon technology, which is now a core component of most business processes,

continued availability of IT is critical to their survival. This availability is accomplished by introducing risk reductionmeasures, such as resilient systems and recovery options, including back-up facilities.

- Successful implementation of continuity management can only be achieved with visible senior management commitmentand the support of all members of the organization

- Ongoing maintenance of the recovery capability is essential if it is to remain effective.23 This is achieved through rigorousconfiguration management, change management and review processes.


> Infrastructure and Application Management Route to Value - Continuity management is all about risk assessment and planning. For all the data to be available, the necessary key ITIL

functions are configuration management, service desk and incident management, change management, availability andcapacity management, service level management and finally ICTIM. With all the information from these functions availablewithin the BMC Atrium CMDB, this analysis and review becomes much easier. When this information is linked to serviceimpact modeling, the result is a comprehensive solution that maps back into the business functions and processes.

- With this level of detail and integration of service, the function of continuity management becomes much easier, allowing for the appropriate level of investments to be made to ensure the continuity of the IT services to the business. However, it must be noted that this is part of business continuity management and only relates to the IT element, which in todaysenvironment is a critical component.

- Risk reduction measure includes backup and recovery strategies and better controls to detect service disruptions> Service Level Management Route to Value

- The service level management solution is needed to ensure that the agreed services are restored and available within thetimeframe laid down in the SLA operating level agreements (OLA) and the underpinning contracts. Some underpinningcontracts may have been set up to invoke the contingency plan, and that element of the service needs to be monitored to allow for a review and feed into a continuous improvement program.


BMC Software offers capabilities that support ITIL continuity management guidance. The key BMC areas that integrate and automate processes within continuity management are: > Help desk with incident management> Service level management> Change management> Availability management> Capacity management> Configuration management> ICTIM

Benefits

> Ensures adherence to regulatory requirements for business continuity (e.g., Basel II)> Facilitates business relationships, especially with service impact modeling capabilities> Drives competitive advantage through a stable IT infrastructure > Reduces the risk of loss of service and provides flexibility in recovery options> Restores services, based on the criticality of that service to the business as reflected in service impact modeling

Continuity Management

22 Ibid. 16323 Ibid. 164

16

T H E B U S I N E S S P E R S P E C T I V E

ITIL Definition

In the latest volume in the IT Infrastructure Library, Best Practice for Business Perspective: The IS View on Delivering Servicesto the Business, the mission of the business perspective approach is: > To continually support and improve effectiveness through the delivery of quality IS services aligned and responsive to

the business needs, while maximizing the business return on investment in IS.24

Goal

> Maintain alignment of IS services with business requirements25

> Maintain alignment of various internal and external groups or suppliers with each other

> Overall, ITIL emphasizes the business perspective approach to managing relationships and interfaces at all levels: between the business and the IS organization, between functions and groups within the IS organization, and with external service providers


In order to manage relationships and interfaces, organizations need technology designed to integrate and automate the ITIL business perspective best practices, but also to integrate the processes and functions within IT and link best practiceprocesses together.


- Solution automates the individual processes that help align IT with the business

- Maps dependencies between technology components and IT services delivered to the business

- Helps foster better communication between IT manager and business managers

- Maps IT components to their role in the business value chain, highlighting the business value and impact of IT on what is important to the business

> Additional Routes to Value solutions that support the Business Perspective

- Specifically, BMC Atrium CMDB addresses the ITIL requirement for a single, enterprise CMDB to ensure data consistencyand simplify integration between differing service management processes

- Leveraging a common CMDB helps integrate and optimize cross-functional service delivery and service supportprocesses and break down functional barriers in the organization


BMC Software offers capabilities that support ITIL business perspective guidance. The key BMC areas that integrate andautomate processes within continuity management are:

> Service impact model, which leverages dependency information in the CMDB to help correlate IT infrastructure and servicesback to business functions

> BMC Atrium CMDB, which integrates with a wide range of service delivery and service support functions to automate andoptimize IT internal functions

Benefits

> Align IT with the business for better support of strategic business initiatives

> Align IT internal functions for better utilization of IT resources and improved return on invested capital

The Business Perspective

24 Best Practice for Business Perspective: The IS View on Delivering Services to the Business, ITIL The Key to Managing IT Services, page 13. Published for Office of Government Commerce under license from the Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office. Crown copyright 2004.

25 Ibid. 13

17

I N F O R M AT I O N C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T E C H N O L O G Y I N F R A S T R U C T U R E M A N A G E M E N T ( I C T I M )

ITIL Definition

Information Communications Technology Infrastructure Management (ICTIM) is one of the most wide-ranging and complexvolumes in the IT Infrastructure Library, and by nature, it relates to all of IT. Knowledge and information are recognized as two of the most important strategic resources that any organization manages.

> The quality of information communications technology (ICT) systems is paramount to collecting, analyzing, and disseminatinginformation throughout the organization26

Goal

> Encompass the processes, organization and tools, and provide a stable IT and communication infrastructure

- ICTIM is the foundation for the ITIL service support and service delivery processes and should ensure that business needs are met in a sustainable manner at a cost that the business can afford


All of the BMC Software Routes to Value support ITILs recommendation for ICTIM; however, the Infrastructure and ApplicationManagement Route to Value solution is identified as the most important.

> Infrastructure and Application Management Route to Value

- ICTIM is more about adopting a discipline than it is about automating processes from tools. Planning, administration andcontrol are essential to ensure that suitable resources, with the right skills and competencies, are procured and retained to undertake the necessary roles in infrastructure design and planning, deployment, operations, and technical support.

- It is a discipline that relies on the service support and service delivery elements of ITIL for planning (change management,capacity management, availability management and financial management for IT services), deployment (change man-agement, and release management), operations (service desk, incident and problem management, change, release SLM,configuration, capacity, and availability management) and technical support (incident, problem and change management).

- BMC Software applications map business services to IT services, as well as the CIs underpinning those services, whichallows all IT decisions to be made based on impact to the business.


The BMC Atrium CMDB provides a fully integrated data model across all the IT service functions. This solution brings togetherthe IT functions from islands of disciplines to prove and deliver that value back into the business by mapping with the keybusiness functions and processes. No longer are IT projects engaged in from an IT perspectiveinstead, they are engagedfrom a business perspective.

Benefits

> Increases service availability and quality to users

> Improves match of capacity to users requirements

> Reduces adverse impact of changes on the quality of ICT, reducing the risk of failure

> Provides more efficient handling of problems

> Lower costs of ICT service provisioning

> Facilitates anticipation of problems and improves handling of these problems and related changes

> Improves data for all ICT and business planning

> Reduces risk and improves productivity

Information Communications Technology Infrastructure Management (ICTIM)

26 Best Practice for ICT Infrastructure Management, ITIL The Key to Managing IT Services, page 1. Published for Office of Government Commerce under license from the Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office. Crown copyright 2002.

18

S O F T W A R E A S S E T M A N A G E M E N T

ITIL Definition

ITIL defines software asset management (SAM) as:

> All of the infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective management, control and protection of the softwareassets within an organization, throughout all stages of their lifecycle.27

Goal

> Apply good corporate governance to an organizations software assets; typically, including much of an organizations assetbase, these are critical to its continued operations, and underlie some of an organizations main legal and contractualobligations28


> BMC Software Asset Management and Discovery Route to Value

- The basis for any good software asset management system is accurate and up-to-date information, along with the pro-cesses to control accuracy. The solution fits the ITIL framework by using CI data in the CMDB as the asset repository, thus leveraging the investment in tools and processes for CMDB population, while enabling IT asset management process synergy with change, incident and capacity management capabilities. The solution also provides workflows that naturally link with cost-driven and contract-driven activities.

- The focus is on obtaining, recording, managing, and making available all the information pertaining to software that is toeither be purchased and deployed, or removed from the operational environment. This solution provides that capabilityand also manages and reports on the total cost of ownership of these software CIs. It highlights the contractual detailsagainst what the discovery tools have found, allowing compliance to be reviewed.

- Audit discovery processes and tools enable the automatic discovery of all software deployed in the existing operationalenvironment. This needs to be ratified with manual audit results and other data collection tools utilized. The BMC AtriumCMDB reconciliation engine allows this action to take place in a manner consistent with rules-based processes. Once thesource of the truth is obtained and the management begins, the solution integrates with all the other ITIL-related functionsto provide information about the current state.


BMC Software offers a variety of integrated and automated best practice capabilities that fulfill the criteria for ITIL softwareasset management. Key areas include:

> Provides BMC Atrium CMDB and built-in reconciliation

> Integrates with BMC Softwares Asset Management and Discovery solution

> Enables use of open APIs to allow integration with third-party data collection tools to populate the CMDB

> Provides ability to interface with the service desk and incident and problem management

> Provides ability to interface with the capacity management and availability management applications that constantly monitor the state and use of the software CIs

Benefits

> Manages risks in terms of adherence to legal requirements for software purchase, deployment and usage

> Prevents or greatly reduces the possibility of relying on unsupported software

> Prevents software over-deployment

> Improves software purchasing agreements

> Reduces software problem resolutions times and costs

> Improves decision-making for changes and releases

Software Asset Management

27 Best Practice for Software Asset Management, ITIL, The Key to Managing IT Services, page 2. Published for Office of Government Commerce under license from the Controller of Her Majestys Stationery Office. Crown copyright 2003.

28 Ibid. 2

Conclusion

As more companies turn to ITIL for guidance on IT best prac-

tices, IT leaders look to solutions that integrate and automate

best practices. Automated tools help adherence to procedural-

level processes that are used for service delivery and support

and that enable incremental improvements.

Although ITIL provides guidance on a common set of best prac-

tices, each implementation of ITIL is different and can change

based on the changing needs of the organization. The flexibility

of the ITIL framework is one of the cornerstones driving the

growing success of ITIL. The BMC Software solutions are fully

integrated into the CMDB, modeling the principles of ITIL,

and also allow tasks to be entered and automated, improving

the operational services. Yet, the BMC Software solutions are

not locked-down. As a result, they can be modified and inte-

grated with other related services and tools. The flexible engine

underpinning the CMDB and many of the service support

functions ensures internal integration and acceptance.

The BMC Software Routes to Value directly support ITIL

guidance with best practice capabilities that fulfill the criteria

described in service desk, incident management, problem

management, change management, configuration manage-

ment, release management, service level management,

financial management for IT services, capacity management,

availability management, continuity management, the busi-

ness perspective, information communications technology

infrastructure management, and software asset management.

The ultimate value in using BMC Software is in the use of

the entire family of applications to integrate and automate

interconnected ITIL service support processes. This provides

organizations with a comprehensive, ITIL-aligned service

oriented solution.

Leveraging BMC Softwares flexible solutions for ITIL implemen-

tations directly improves service management capabilities and

IT resource efficiency, while reducing the cost of IT operations.

For more information on BMC Softwares ITIL solutions, visit

www.bmc.com/itil.

C O N C L U S I O N

19

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About BMC SoftwareBMC Softwareis a leading provider of enterprise manage-ment solutions that empower companies to manage theirIT infrastructure from a business perspective. DeliveringBusiness Service Management, BMC Software solutionsspan enterprise systems, applications, databases andservice management. Founded in 1980, BMC Softwarehas offices worldwide and fiscal 2004 revenues of morethan $1.4 billion. For more information about BMCSoftware, visit www.bmc.com.

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