thoughts on business, service and technology operations and management

• BSM Lite: 100% Cotton
  The FireScope team agrees that BSM should be “simpler and less expensive”. This promise will be delivered, soon there will be an alternative to the big 4 and the company who claims they are BSM

  ** Firescope B.E. : Will You BE There? **

  (tags: Firescope firescopeBE bsm business-service-management bsm4smb bsmlite)
• Dashboard Zone » Free Dashboards, Examples, Screenshots, Tutorials, KPIs and Downloads
  Free Dashboards, Examples, Screenshots, Tutorials, KPIs and Downloads
  (tags: dashboards bi visualization kpi)
• BMC boasts all-time high revenue; bolsters confidence with BSM adoption | NetworkWorld.com Community
  BMC logged $88 million in BSM (business service management) bookings, which the company and industry watchers say indicates customer adoption of BMC’s strategic take on management software as well as potential future revenue growth for BSM offerings.
  (tags: bmc bsm financials business-service-management)
• generationE Launches New Line of On-Demand Services
  Examples of Tivoli administration activities include performance monitoring, scheduled maintenance activities, adaptive maintenance, light development, and access to Tivoli-certified professionals.
  (tags: generationE services IBM Tivoli Netcool support)
• BYU Strengthens ITIL Adoption with Managed Objects BSM
  BYU tapped Managed Objects to integrate, correlate and model data from multiple IT management tools in order to understand the relationships and dependencies among the IT components from a comprehensive service perspective.
  (tags: managedobjects bsm business-service-management customers)
• Nimsoft Launches Into 2008 With Record Q1 Results
  New Bookings Soar 71 Percent Over Prior Year, Driven by 83 Percent Increase in Recurring Revenue and 27 Brand New Name Customers
  (tags: Nimsoft financials)
• serviceson-demand.com
  generationE’s services on demand offering

  ** Does linking/redirecting a domain right to a PDF violate some fundamental web design practce? **

  (tags: generationE services Tivoli IBM support msp)
• Technology Snapshots: The New Track for BSM - Bring Forth the SMB
  I just think why buy Network Management and other types of management products when starting next week you can have BSM next week for the same price?

  ** Where will you BE next Tuesday? **

  (tags: firescope firescopebe bsm4smb bsm business-service-management)

Here.

Addressing APARs:

IZ13211 RADSHELL CAN’T USE HTTPS

When TBSM is configured to connect to Security manager via ssl, the rad_radshell script doesn’t work.

IZ15295 CUSTOMER IS NOT ABLE TO VIEW SLA CHARTS PAGE

When displaying the SLA Charts page from the drop down tool, an error occurs and no chart information is displayed.

IZ15514 HITTING THE TAB WHERE THERE IS NO INSTANCE DEFINED

When viewing the custom canvas, the edit tab displays NoInstanceDefined if no instance was tied to the custom canvas. However, users can still click the tab and see previously displayed data.

IZ19449 TEMPLATE RULE THRESHOLDS ARE INCORRECTLY DISPLAYED

Template rule thresholds are incorrectly displayed after the first rule is viewed. Customer views a template rule with marginal and bad thresholds set, and any other template rule that is viewed after this that has marginal and bad thresholds, displays the values that were seen with the first rule. The marginal and bad threshold values are not updated based on the new rules that are viewed.

• The World Needs “BSM Lite”
  BSM is the holy grail of good IT management, and achieving it using the current crop of tools from the “big four” vendors is about as hard as finding the real holy grail. The world needs a simpler, less expensive, more responsive way of achieving BSM.
  (tags: bsm business-service-management bsm2.0 bsmvalue bsmlite)
• Data Center Automation | Database Automation | Server Provisioning by Stratavia
  Stratavia Corporation delivers IT Data Center Automation for the Fortune 1000. We provide our clients with a powerful IT Automation platform, Data Palette, which dramatically increases operational efficiency, while lowering the administrative costs
  (tags: Stratavia dca datacenterautomation automation)
• The CMDB System, the CMS, the ‘CCS,’ and the NOC - Network World
  The other responded with a classic - “Don’t they have their own tools for this?” - meaning, not the CMDB.

  ** This is basically what I was told our strategy was **

  (tags: cmdb, noc, operations, itil, itsm)

I will be at Pulse all next week and eager to meet many of you that may follow my blog. I’d be very interested in talking shop with you and hearing about your own individual journey towards Business Service Management.

If you’re interested in doing a podcast, I’ll have a new gadget with me to try and capture as many different definitions for what folks think Business Service Management is. I’m calling it the “BSM Defined Mashup” podcast project. Seek me out and tell me your thoughts! I’ll keep it anonymous if you’d like.

I’ve been designated as a “Guru” so you’re supposed to also be able to meet with me at the “Guru Galaxy” and reserve one-on-one time with me if you desire. The “Guru Galaxy” event should have adult beverages which should make for some lively conversations.

My session is on Wednesday afternoon if you’re up for some practical advice for planning on implementing our TBSM products in the near future. Stop on by and let me know you read the blog!

If you’re using Twitter I’m “dmcclure” if you’d like to send me message. I will be following #ibmpulse. You can also GTalk me at “dmcclure”.

My friends over at NetForecast have been chatting me up about endeavors to make BSM simpler and more successful. There are many barriers to entry and the realities have been well documented that BSM just isn’t something that can be taken on by unprepared organizations.

I’ll credit Peter for coining the term “BSM Lite” which closely aligns to many of my ideas and thoughts for “BSM 2.0″ or “BSM Next Generation”. From Peter’s post today:

“The world needs what we’ll call BSM Lite–a simpler, less expensive, more responsive way of achieving BSM. Remember that Doug McClure says BSM should be achieved at least as much through people and how they are organized and motivated as through technology. Enterprises can achieve BSM with a combination of modest tool investments and smart, properly tuned organizations. Although BSM Lite will not come easily or quickly, it should carry a smaller price tag. It will start to show business/IT linkage using targeted views that grow into the big picture over time. “

I think the folks at FireScope may well be on their way to this (what’s up with B.E.?). Nimsoft may have something similar planned as they venture towards redefining Business Service Management.

How would you define “BSM Lite”? How would you approach implementing “BSM Lite” with as little new investments as possible? How would you change the status quo in your environment? Could you? Is “BSM Lite” a tactical approach that needs a strategic solution in the long run? Please share your top ten list of what “BSM Lite” may be!

• Network management takes interface tips from gaming industry, Google
  While the Big Four — BMC, CA, HP and IBM — have been slow to respond with improvements in their management lines, a number of smaller players have been quick to fill the void, and network administrators are thankful for it.
  (tags: monitoring user-experience GUI networkmanagement)

• IBM - ITM v6.2 - Event Integration with TEC/Omnibus
  After a brief overview on ITM v6.x integration with TEC and Omnibus, we will specifically cover the new features introduced in v6.2 (Event Forwarding enhancements, Common Event Console).
  (tags: IBM Tivoli ITM TEC Netcool OMNIbus eventmanagement event integration)

• Leading Independent Research Firm Assesses ASG’s Business Service Management Platform
  ASG’s practical BSM approach combined with its offer of risk-free technical validations, attractive, enterprise-level pricing and a highly flexible financing program makes ASG a focused and fierce competitor.
  (tags: bsm business-service-management ASG analyst forrester)
• Ten things I learned about CA | Judith Hurwitz
  CA is focusing a lot of attention on the area of business service management.
  (tags: CA bsm business-service-management analyst)