IT Service Management Best Practices Using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

IT Service Management Best Practices Using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

by Bo Batty, Jason Brown, Axel Buecker, Alex Chung, Samuel Hokama, Aurelien Jarry, Leonardo Matos, Daniel Wiegand
Released December 2013
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

SmartCloud Control Desk is a comprehensive IT Asset and Service Management solution that helps reduce cost and minimize service disruptions. It does so through automated service request handling, efficient change management, and optimized asset lifecycle management across IT and enterprise domains.

SmartCloud Control Desk helps to reduce total cost of ownership by using one unified solution to license, install, and manage multiple ITIL processes under one price point. It can also help reduce business risk by using advanced impact analysis and defining automated change procedures that ensure integrity of existing infrastructure while supporting business agility.

SmartCloud Control Desk improves efficiency and quality of service by unifying asset, change, and problem management. It lowers cost and mitigates license compliance risk by performing end to end software asset management.

It also delivers an adaptive, role-based simplified UI that can be more intuitive for novice users, which reduces training costs, while allowing access from anywhere at anytime through mobile device support that includes BlackBerry, iOS, and Android.

In addition, SmartCloud Control Desk supports both a profit center business model for internal IT organizations, and an external Service Provider model. It allows organizations to manage customers and customer agreements and bills for managed assets, usage, and work activities while improving utilization rates and reducing unnecessary purchases by managing the IT asset lifecycle.

You can deploy SmartCloud Control Desk in a variety of ways; traditional on-premise, SaaS, VM image. This approach can make it more affordable to meet your current business needs, and seamlessly move between delivery models while keeping the same functionality.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication covers IBM SmartCloud® Control Desk product configuration, customization, and implementation best practices.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Part 1 Business context and solution overview
    1. Chapter 1. Business context
      1. 1.1 Business drivers for IT service management
      2. 1.2 Challenges: Aligning IT with the business
        1. 1.2.1 Recommendations for a service catalog
        2. 1.2.2 Service asset and configuration management using relationships and attributes
        3. 1.2.3 Setting service level expectations
        4. 1.2.4 Request fulfillment
        5. 1.2.5 Identification and resolution of incidents
        6. 1.2.6 Rising to problem management
        7. 1.2.7 Handling change management: Identifying impact and increasing availability
        8. 1.2.8 General guidelines for a support organization
        9. 1.2.9 Extra challenges that you might face
        10. 1.2.10 Service Provider Edition
        11. 1.2.11 The unique IBM value proposition
      3. 1.3 Conclusion
    2. Chapter 2. Solution overview and deployment strategy
      1. 2.1 Meeting customer needs
        1. 2.1.1 Cloud or no cloud
        2. 2.1.2 The benefits of IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
      2. 2.2 Solution components
        1. 2.2.1 Main features and enhancements
        2. 2.2.2 Common services
        3. 2.2.3 IT asset management
        4. 2.2.4 IT change, configuration, and release management
        5. 2.2.5 IT service request, incident, and problem management
      3. 2.3 Deployment models
        1. 2.3.1 Editions
        2. 2.3.2 Deployment options
      4. 2.4 Deployment strategies
        1. 2.4.1 Initial assessments
        2. 2.4.2 System architecture
        3. 2.4.3 Determining suitable system hardware and software
      5. 2.5 Deployment planning
        1. 2.5.1 Deployment topologies
        2. 2.5.2 Deployment security planning, serviceability planning, and language support
        3. 2.5.3 Installation options
        4. 2.5.4 Middleware
        5. 2.5.5 Installing SmartCloud Control Desk
      6. 2.6 Conclusion
  5. Part 2 Implementing processes in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
    1. Chapter 3. IT foundations configuration
      1. 3.1 General configuration for SmartCloud Control Desk
      2. 3.2 IT foundations for SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 3.2.1 Organization
        2. 3.2.2 Work types
        3. 3.2.3 Financial configuration
        4. 3.2.4 Classifications
        5. 3.2.5 Security groups and users
        6. 3.2.6 Profile information
        7. 3.2.7 Import content packages
        8. 3.2.8 Changes in the navigation bar location, tabs, and fields
        9. 3.2.9 Modifying an object
        10. 3.2.10 Customizing the options available on application menus
        11. 3.2.11 Changing applications on the navigation bar
        12. 3.2.12 Reports
        13. 3.2.13 Data loading using quick configuration
        14. 3.2.14 Importing and exporting data from applications
        15. 3.2.15 Searching with Lucene
        16. 3.2.16 Field validation
        17. 3.2.17 Query management and advanced search
        18. 3.2.18 Domains
        19. 3.2.19 Customer configuration
        20. 3.2.20 Extra configuration
      3. 3.3 Conclusion
    2. Chapter 4. IT asset management
      1. 4.1 IT asset management process overview
        1. 4.1.1 IT resources representation
        2. 4.1.2 IT asset lifecycle
        3. 4.1.3 Relation to other processes
        4. 4.1.4 IT asset management roles
        5. 4.1.5 Product capabilities
      2. 4.2 IT asset management using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 4.2.1 IT asset management applications
        2. 4.2.2 Managing the software catalog
        3. 4.2.3 Software license management use cases
        4. 4.2.4 Hardware assets management use cases
        5. 4.2.5 Assets and configuration items linkage use cases
      3. 4.3 Integrations
        1. 4.3.1 IBM discovery tools for IT assets
        2. 4.3.2 IBM Tivoli Integration Composer
      4. 4.4 Reports and KPIs
        1. 4.4.1 KPIs
      5. 4.5 IT asset management for service providers
        1. 4.5.1 Customers and assets
        2. 4.5.2 Asset classifications
        3. 4.5.3 Customer synchronization
        4. 4.5.4 Customers, locations, and service addresses
        5. 4.5.5 Service addresses
        6. 4.5.6 Charge-back costs
      6. 4.6 Conclusion
    3. Chapter 5. Configuration management
      1. 5.1 Configuration management overview
      2. 5.2 Using SmartCloud Control Desk with configuration management
        1. 5.2.1 Actual and authorized CIs
        2. 5.2.2 Starting with actual CIs
        3. 5.2.3 Starting with authorized CIs
        4. 5.2.4 CI lifecycles and status
        5. 5.2.5 Reconciliation (audit) best practices
        6. 5.2.6 Impact analysis
        7. 5.2.7 Baselines
        8. 5.2.8 Data cleansing and reconciliation
      3. 5.3 Configuration management for service providers
        1. 5.3.1 Assigning customers to actual CIs
        2. 5.3.2 Service Provider considerations for promotion
        3. 5.3.3 Service Provider considerations for reconciliation
        4. 5.3.4 Service Provider considerations for baselines
    4. Chapter 6. Service catalog management
      1. 6.1 Service catalog management overview
        1. 6.1.1 Capabilities
        2. 6.1.2 Roles
      2. 6.2 Service catalog management using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 6.2.1 Applications
      3. 6.3 Offering design
        1. 6.3.1 Offering types
        2. 6.3.2 Approvals
        3. 6.3.3 Fulfillment
        4. 6.3.4 Scripting
        5. 6.3.5 Presentation and specification attributes
        6. 6.3.6 Custom MBOs
        7. 6.3.7 Price and cost
        8. 6.3.8 Ratings and user comments
        9. 6.3.9 Adding Offerings to a Catalog
      4. 6.4 Catalog design
      5. 6.5 Enterprise App Store scenario
      6. 6.6 Restricting access to Catalogs and Offerings
      7. 6.7 Approving a request
      8. 6.8 Conclusion
    5. Chapter 7. Service level management
      1. 7.1 Service level management process overview
        1. 7.1.1 Benefits
        2. 7.1.2 Definitions
        3. 7.1.3 Product capabilities
      2. 7.2 Service level management using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 7.2.1 Organization SLA options
        2. 7.2.2 Create a service level agreement
        3. 7.2.3 Applying a service level agreement
        4. 7.2.4 Service level agreement calendars
        5. 7.2.5 Service level agreement hold
      3. 7.3 Conclusion
    6. Chapter 8. Service Operations
      1. 8.1 Service operation overview
        1. 8.1.1 Service desk
        2. 8.1.2 Request Fulfillment
        3. 8.1.3 Incident management
        4. 8.1.4 Automatic incident assignment
        5. 8.1.5 Problem Management
        6. 8.1.6 IBM SmartCloud Control Desk capabilities
      2. 8.2 Service Operation using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 8.2.1 Logging a service request example
        2. 8.2.2 Quickly determining important details of a service request, incident, and problem
        3. 8.2.3 Fulfilling and routing the service request
        4. 8.2.4 Investigating and diagnosing an incident
        5. 8.2.5 Resolving and closing the incident, and logging a problem
        6. 8.2.6 Managing a problem
        7. 8.2.7 Resolving tickets with solutions
        8. 8.2.8 Quickly resolving service requests and incidents by using service bulletins
        9. 8.2.9 Using configuration information for diagnosis
        10. 8.2.10 KPIs and reporting
      3. 8.3 Configuring IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 8.3.1 Setting Indicated Priority from the Configuration Item
        2. 8.3.2 Configuring ticket templates
        3. 8.3.3 Configuring live chat
        4. 8.3.4 Modifying and disabling the new service request, and new incident and new change dialogs
        5. 8.3.5 Creating a workflow go button
        6. 8.3.6 Setting color alerts
        7. 8.3.7 Changing available Automation workflows for incident resolution
        8. 8.3.8 Using automations scripts for field validations
      4. 8.4 Performing remote diagnostics using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
      5. 8.5 Conclusion
    7. Chapter 9. Self-service
      1. 9.1 Self-service overview
        1. 9.1.1 Benefits
        2. 9.1.2 IBM SmartCloud Control Desk capabilities
      2. 9.2 Self-service using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 9.2.1 Introduction to the Self Service Center
        2. 9.2.2 Browsing solutions
        3. 9.2.3 Requesting Services from the Service Catalog
        4. 9.2.4 Managing and using cart templates
        5. 9.2.5 Reporting issues
        6. 9.2.6 Frequent requests
        7. 9.2.7 Tracking requests
        8. 9.2.8 Chatting with an agent
        9. 9.2.9 Working with assets
        10. 9.2.10 My News
      3. 9.3 Administering the Self Service Center
        1. 9.3.1 Setting the Self Service Center as a user’s default application
        2. 9.3.2 Authorizing users for the Self Service Center
        3. 9.3.3 Adding and modifying solutions
        4. 9.3.4 Adding and modifying ticket templates and service offerings
        5. 9.3.5 Adding bulletin board messages to My News
      4. 9.4 Configuring the Self Service Center
        1. 9.4.1 Self Service Center configuration files
        2. 9.4.2 Modifying the navigator
        3. 9.4.3 Modifying the pods
        4. 9.4.4 Changing the number of search results
        5. 9.4.5 Adding a background image to Self Service Center
        6. 9.4.6 Extra configuration
      5. 9.5 Conclusion
    8. Chapter 10. Survey management
      1. 10.1 Survey management overview
        1. 10.1.1 Survey management process
        2. 10.1.2 Survey management roles
        3. 10.1.3 Survey management capabilities
      2. 10.2 Survey management using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 10.2.1 Creating a Survey Template
        2. 10.2.2 Creating Questions
        3. 10.2.3 Creating a Survey
        4. 10.2.4 Defining escalations for survey
        5. 10.2.5 Activating the survey and sending it to users
        6. 10.2.6 Checking the survey results
        7. 10.2.7 Modifying user access for survey management applications
      3. 10.3 Conclusion
    9. Chapter 11. Change management
      1. 11.1 Change management overview
        1. 11.1.1 Change management roles
        2. 11.1.2 Change management process flow
      2. 11.2 Change management using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 11.2.1 Request for change, change acceptance, and categorization
        2. 11.2.2 Providing change assessments and implementation tasks
        3. 11.2.3 Scheduling the change
        4. 11.2.4 Change authorization
        5. 11.2.5 Change implementation
        6. 11.2.6 Bringing the change to closure
        7. 11.2.7 Standard and emergency changes
        8. 11.2.8 Automated changes
      3. 11.3 Supporting change applications
        1. 11.3.1 Blackout change periods
        2. 11.3.2 Change schedule
        3. 11.3.3 Change window calendars
        4. 11.3.4 Impact analysis configuration
      4. 11.4 Conclusion
    10. Chapter 12. Release management
      1. 12.1 Release management overview
        1. 12.1.1 Release management process overview
        2. 12.1.2 Product capabilities
      2. 12.2 Release management using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 12.2.1 Pre-implementation tasks
        2. 12.2.2 Release management end to end use case
      3. 12.3 Integrations
        1. 12.3.1 Integration modules for Operational Management Product
        2. 12.3.2 Deploying using an Operational Management Product
      4. 12.4 Conclusion
    11. Chapter 13. Service Provider
      1. 13.1 Service provider overview
      2. 13.2 Service provider capabilities in SmartCloud Control Desk
        1. 13.2.1 Applications
        2. 13.2.2 Use cases and scenarios
        3. 13.2.3 Customer management
        4. 13.2.4 Customer agreements
        5. 13.2.5 Customer billing
      3. 13.3 Conclusion
  6. Part 3 Appendixes
    1. Appendix A. Troubleshooting
      1. What to look for
      2. What support must help you with
      3. Miscellaneous issues
    2. Appendix B. SmartCloud Control Desk Reports
    3. Appendix C. Examining the Actual CI adapter
      1. Supported properties within the ccmdb.properties file
      2. How Tivoli Integration Composer determines which CIs to process
      3. How Tivoli Integration Composer creates and then deletes the Actual CI relationships
      4. How Tivoli Integration Composer marks Actual CIs for deletion
      5. How Tivoli Integration Composer supports a partial execution
  7. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  8. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IT Service Management Best Practices Using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
  • Author(s): Bo Batty, Jason Brown, Axel Buecker, Alex Chung, Samuel Hokama, Aurelien Jarry, Leonardo Matos, Daniel Wiegand
  • Release date: December 2013
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None