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Services Must Adapt to Society’s Changing Landscape

By on January 19, 2012 in CA Services

Social business technologies have abolished traditional means of conducting business. Organizations must adapt to a collaborative, perpetual workforce to overcome inertia and deliver results that increase customer loyalty and satisfaction. The connected, converged world utilizes common components like presence, location and unified communications.

The mobile world has morphed into the mobile device world and we are quickly becoming a “bring-your-own-technology” (BYOT) world. This increases the dependence on IT to support business-critical processes, manage to more demanding service levels and minimize service downtime. The IT group must accomplish all this while still reducing costs.

According to a Gartner study on the 2012 top 10 Tech Trends and implications, by 2015 media tablet shipments will reach about 50% of laptop shipments. The likely result will mean a smaller market share for Microsoft client platforms.

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Overlooking the office

Behind the Curtain

By on November 29, 2011 in CA Services

Behind the curtain is where most of the activity happens. In front of the curtain is where most of the talking occurs. These past few months I have explained the value of using a professional services organization to implement or optimize your service assurance solution. The buzzwords are all there: peace of mind, lower risk, on time delivery and under budget, save time, save costs, and the experience to get it done right the first time.

It’s the same reason we call a plumber to fix the leaking toilet or an electrician to handle the light dimming issue, or why we pay extra to get a grill assembled versus doing it ourselves. Just because the professionals make it look easy, doesn’t mean it is easy.

IT organizations face increasing expectations to improve service levels while driving down costs. Budget limitations should command the need to implement solutions even more effectively, not an excuse for mediocre project execution. Even the most seasoned IT staff needs a jumpstart to build its own momentum when faced with budget challenges. Any IT staff can benefit from expert guidance to avoid the pitfalls that often befall service assurance solution engagements.

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Closing Visibility Gaps in Heterogeneous Networks

By on October 18, 2011 in CA Services

Service Assurance solutions traditionally focus on addressing the challenges in the IP/MPLS core network. As wireless technology gained popularity as a business communication network, the need to extend visibility into the transmission of the wireless provider infrastructure space also grew. Providers continue to expand services through cellular backhaul and networks like 3G/4G/LTE. This creates a need to access vendor-specific element management systems and devices outside simple network management protocol (SNMP).
Most vendor systems use SNMP to obtain information pertinent to fault and performance management. However, the evolution of hardware and services coupled with recent changes in standards has led vendors to choose differing data and communication mechanisms.
Visibility into the health of these elements across the different technical domains is paramount in assuring end-to-end service delivery. Providers need a flexible solution that unifies performance management of multi-vendor, multi-technology networks with proactive, real-time analysis. Providers also need to centralize performance data from disparate sources across all technology silos into clear, predictive and actionable metric and KPI (key performance indicator) information.
CA Mediation Manager provides access to these critical network components and gives you the capability to access these devices through various methods. The scalable and flexible solution sends the fault and performance data to CA eHealth and CA Spectrum respectively to fill visibility gaps to those devices previously invisible to the Service Assurance solution.

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The Basics of Services

By on September 20, 2011 in CA Services

Standing before the court, the attorney turns to face the jury searching for the words to convince them of his case. What seems like a simple, common sense explanation is somehow lost in the frenzied pace a global economy has created.
“What we have here is a failure to communicate,” he begins channeling his best Eddie Albert impersonation from the movie Cool Hand Luke.
“It’s really quite simple. Why do it yourself when professionals can do it for you?”
An experienced litigator, he can tell right away he has lost a few of jurors who dismiss the notion they need help from others. Realizing he needs to re-group he decides he must explain why he believes what he says.
I sometimes get the feeling this is how a salesperson who sells IT management software and solutions feels when they raise the topic of professional services. It’s like when a man tells his wife fixing the clogged toilet will only take an hour only to still be there eight hours later while dialing the plumber in frustration.
Marketing professional services is no easy task. Frankly, the biggest value a customer receives by using a professional services provider is getting their Service Assurance solution implemented on time, on budget and done right the first time. Services providers deploy these solutions every day versus your staff facing it for the first or second time. There is something to be said for experience.
The funny thing is most organizations do not fully understand the value of services experts until after they experienced a stressful implementation with missed deadlines, budget overruns and many unhappy bosses. Implementation services deliver the people, processes and technology to ensure a successful implementation of your mission-critical solution.

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Health is Everything

By on September 15, 2011 in CA Services

In 1948, The World Health Organization stated, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Virgil said, “The greatest wealth is health.”

Most IT environments are constantly changing, and managing that change is difficult. The initial Service Assurance implementation may have met service objectives at the time, but shifting business objectives, technology advances and personnel movement wreak havoc on your IT environment.

Just like you should go for an annual physical, it’s a good idea to routinely check the health of your IT systems, infrastructure and applications. Typically called health checks, this type of optimization service offering assesses the current state of your IT environment to improve performance and effectiveness.

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Managing Service Assurance Services

By on August 10, 2011 in CA Services

With the economy taking another nosedive and some economists predicting a depression on its way, budgets will start tightening. With tightening budgets comes the inevitable “do more with less” mentality.

Your boss, however, still expects the IT projects and Service Assurance implementation be delivered on time, without hiccups or downtime. Having a virtual extension of your IT staff to deliver administration and management of your IT projects could be a solution to your mounting challenges.

You may want to consider a managed services offering to help alleviate concerns and assist in achieving deliverable goals. Managed services give you access to a team of highly skilled and experienced professionals with a depth of expertise in Service Assurance solutions. It allows you to meet operational challenges and get the most value from your Service Assurance solutions without the large upfront outlay or addition of IT staff.

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Service Assurance for SaaS

By on July 26, 2011 in CA Services

Challenging economic times in a global economy drive companies to cut costs and tighten IT budgets. Many CIOs cite the potential cost advantages of a Software as a Service (SaaS) model as a way to manage costs versus in-house operations. The refrain against a SaaS model includes a loss of infrastructure or application control and degradation of efficient operations.

The refrain will soon change. Which CIO will ever choose a large one-time outlay versus a manageable monthly expense when trying to squeeze pennies from a budget? Service Assurance for a SaaS model eliminates the infrastructure or application worries.

In addition to finding a Service Assurance solution that provides action-based workflows built on ITIL standards and years of best-practice knowledge, CIOs need a services provider that can deliver a flexible, quality-blended implementation and offer delivery options. Just because the infrastructure and applications will be in the cloud doesn’t mean the CIO’s head has to be there with them.

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Iceberg

What Does Services Mean?

By on July 7, 2011 in CA Services

I once worked with a marketing professional who said if you can’t bumper sticker the value to an offer, there is probably no value. I understand the point, but uncovering intrinsic needs in a complex environment is difficult to capture on a bumper sticker.

When talking about professional services to implement a Service Assurance solution, the complexities lie beneath the service much like the majority of an iceberg. And much like an ill-fated ship heading towards an iceberg doesn’t see the enormity of the ice mass until it’s upon the ship, an IT department doesn’t see the pitfalls of an implementation until it’s too late. I am not talking about the X’s and O’s of implementing software.

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Managing the ____________

By on June 23, 2011 in CA Services

Ever notice you always find the missing item in the last place you look? Ever realize once you find the item, where you found it automatically becomes the last place you looked?

Fortunately, IT managers have the luxury of Service Assurance products that help them not to be frustrated by the search or eventual hiding place of faults in the network, infrastructure or applications. Unfortunately, IT managers do get frustrated trying to meet operational challenges and serving their IT customers and the business when faced with limited resource and time constraints. Adding to their frustration is the occasional lack of specific expertise on their staff.

A good way for IT managers to mitigate their frustrations, reduce costs and free up their IT staff to focus on more high value tasks is to consider investing in Managed Services for Service Assurance products. This type of services offering is more than just a technology solution.

Managed Services for Service Assurance solutions provide enterprise-class capabilities without the large capital outlay. That gives you a predictable monthly cost structure. To give you that extra degree of confidence, you want to make sure the service provider offers a service-level agreement (SLA).

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The Cloud Rolls In

By on May 31, 2011 in CA Services

At first, the cloud gently rolled into the IT world, as organizations eager to lower costs understood the promises of monetary and efficiency benefits with the cloud services model. However, businesses were hesitant to move applications to the cloud because of the lack of service assurance for those very applications.

Service Assurance products improve the end-user experience by identifying and correcting issues within the underlying systems and infrastructure before the end user ever notices anything is amiss. Having the products implemented by a services organization with deft knowledge and experience ensures the product will be operational sooner rather than later.

The nirvana for organizations is to find a service provider able to deliver service assurance within the cloud. The thing to look for is a provider that can help the organization advance through the physical-to-virtual-to-cloud journey by employing a pragmatic and proven approach that incorporates people, process, technology and architecture.

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Well-Rounded Approach

By on May 4, 2011 in CA Services

Getting the band back together was the driving force behind the 1980 movie “The Blues Brothers.” Jake and Elwood Blues felt assembling their former band mates was all they needed to achieving success.

Well, we don’t have a powerful blues score to rock to but CA Services is getting its old band back together by once again joining forces with CA Support and CA Education. Together, the three groups help deliver and manage a deployment strategy designed to produce tangible value from your technology acquisition with clear delivery objectives that drive results.

Deploying a service assurance solution comes with the uncertainty of not knowing what lies beneath the surface. That is, until it emerges and it usually appears during the implementation. Tapping the Services, Support and Education experts who have broad experience in advising organizations on service assurance solutions can minimize your risk and exposure.

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Implementing CA Technology solutions

Deployment Delivery Options

By on March 28, 2011 in CA Services

Implementing your CA Technology solution and protecting it requires expertise and time that your in-house IT professionals may not have. That leads you to employ a services vendor that has the requisite experience and methodology approach to ensure a quality installation. But just when you thought it was safe to go into your IT Department another decision looms on the horizon.

What is the best approach to implement the technology? There are currently three ways most services vendors pitch.

Implementing CA Technology solutions

  • On-site – services consultants are physically at the customer’s location to deploy the solution
  • SAAS – software as a service is a model where the service provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand
  • Cloud Networking – is the interconnection of components to meet the networking requirements of customers by tapping a vast network of computers that can be accessed from long distance for information or data
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