Chapter 1: Service Management Basics

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	Excerpt from System Center Service Manager 2010 Unleashed.
By Kerrie Meyler, Alexandre Verkinderen, Anders Bengtsson, Patrik Sundqvist, David Pultorak Published by Sams ISBN-10: 0-672-33436-4 ISBN-13: 978-0-672-33436-8

In This Chapter

• Ten Reasons to Use Service Manager

• The Problem with Today’s Systems

• Service Management Defined

• Evolution of the CMDB

• Strategies for Service Management

• Overview of Microsoft System Center

• The Value Proposition of Service Manager 2010

System Center Service Manager 2010, a new addition to the Microsoft System Center suite, is an integrated platform for automating and adapting Information Technology service management (ITSM) best practices, such as those found in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF), to your organization’s requirements. Service Manager provides built-in processes for incident resolution, problem resolution, change control, and configuration management.

Service Manager is a help desk and change management tool. By using its configuration management database (CMDB) and process integration, Service Manager automatically connects knowledge and information from System Center Operations Manager (OpsMgr), System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr), and Active Directory (AD) Domain Services. Service Manager provides the following capabilities to deliver integration, efficiency, and business alignment for your Information Technology (IT) services:

• Integrating process and knowledge across the System Center suite: Through its integration capabilities with Operations Manager and Configuration Manager, Service Manager provides an integrated service management platform. This helps to reduce downtime and improve the quality of services in the data center.

• Providing an accurate and relevant knowledge base: Knowledge base information resides in the CMDB and contains the product and user knowledge to enable IT analysts to quickly identify and resolve incidents. Users can use the Self-Service portal (SSP) to search the knowledge base for information to help find solutions to issues. An organization can create and manage its own knowledge base articles and make this information accessible to both IT analysts and end users.

• Lowering costs and improving responsiveness: Service Manager’s capabilities can improve user productivity and satisfaction, while reducing support costs using the SSP and increasing confidence in meeting compliance requirements with the IT GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) Process management pack.

• Improving business alignment: Service Manager helps your organization align to its business goals and adapt to new requirements through its configuration management, compliance, risk management, reporting, and analysis capabilities.

• Delivering immediate value with built-in process management packs: Included with Service Manager are core process management packs for incident and problem resolution, change control, and configuration and knowledge management.

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