DATA SHEET

Roles and Knowledge Management

Maximizing Your Investments in People and Improving Their Efficiency

Proactive service
based on customer
experience and
Microsoft IT
procedures.

Overview

Microsoft Services Roles and

Knowledge Management
(RKM) is designed to help
you:

RKM is designed to deliver sustainable improvements in IT operations, and the detailed

guidance needed to maintain a high quality of service of your Windows Server 2003,
Active Directory directory service, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server
2003, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Microsoft SQL Server 2005
environments.

Improve service availability by

increasing preventative
maintenance.
Drive accountability and assign
tasks effectively.
Improve the effectiveness of IT
staff through defined roles and
responsibilities.
Gain more value from IT
documentation.

Managing an IT operations environment is very complex, regardless of the skill level or

work experience of the service managers and administrators. Quite frequently, a high rate
of staff turnover exists, day-to-day work is very reactive in nature, and knowledge sharing
is very difficult with underused or nonexistent documentation.
As the business continues to rely increasingly upon IT operations to support critical
functions, the need for improved service availability also increases. Typically, IT looks to
increased capability provided by hardware and software solutions to support this need.
Not surprisingly, operations staff is more heavily relied upon to provide consistent levels of
service without the benefit of increasing headcount or improving skills to support these
new technologies. This drives a reactive atmosphere that, in turn, leads to frustration, to
important tasks not being completed, and to a higher staff turnover rate. Therefore,
Microsoft Services has developed the Microsoft Services Roles and Knowledge
Management (RKM) solution that encompasses many years of Microsoft IT experience in
maintaining mission-critical services.

RKM helps IT groups apply Microsoft Operations Framework and IT Infrastructure Library
(ITIL) best practices, processes, and documented procedures to ensure that services
achieve optimal availability levels.
Specifically, RKM helps IT groups:

Clearly understand roles and responsibilities of service managers, administrators, and

other operations staff.

Create an environment where proactive focus drives daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.
Increase accountability and assign tasks for effective execution.
Improve knowledge sharing to increase employee skill levels.
Develop and maintain consistent documentation.

Drive proactive focus

and increased
accountability within
your IT staff.

How the Offering Works

RKM combines the implementation of structured management processes and proactive
operational tasks presented through a portal based on Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Role and Responsibility Optimization

RKM delivers roles, responsibilities, and detailed proactive work instructions contained in
prepackaged content packs specific to a Microsoft technology. Roles are determined by
using a predefined set of role types to enable more efficient use of resources. In addition,
responsibilities are aligned with the tasks that individuals should perform to ensure the
reliability, maintainability, and availability of the specified IT service. Plus, proactive work
instructions include step-by-step procedures, customized for your environment, that
provide the basis for daily, weekly, monthly, and ad hoc tasks to perform.

Do You Need RKM?

Power and Benefits of Office SharePoint Server 2007 Technology

If you answer Yes to the

following questions, we
recommend you learn
more about Microsoft
Roles and Knowledge
Management solution
and about its benefits:

Operations Center is an Office SharePoint Server 2007 application with role-based views
of the organizations operational documentation and the work instructions performed. This
enables management to easily assign administrative staff only the work applicable to their
role. The task planning capabilities and integration with Microsoft Office Outlook calendar
and the ease of use of Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides IT organizations with a
useful and scalable technology to benefit all IT. In addition, RKM reporting allows
managers to track weekly status, to evaluate task completion, and to report about tasks
that take longer than expected. The new RKM Content Pack Builder provides the ability to
quickly build a custom content pack complete with tasks and supporting documentation
and upload it into Operations Center.

Do just a few people in

Operations have most of the
knowledge but no
mechanism or the time to
share it?
Are important tasks not
being completed? Or,
conversely, are certain tasks
being duplicated?
Is work usually performed in
firefighting mode?
Is the IT Operations staff
unaware of what proactive
work they should be
performing?
Is documentation nonexistent or difficult to locate
and maintain?

It Is About the Knowledge

Prepackaged content packs of recommended work instructions are the heart of the
offering. These work instructions contain best practice guidance from Microsoft Services,
Microsoft IT, and the Microsoft Center of Excellence. In addition, each content pack
contains dozens of work instructions for administrators to perform on a regular basis,
ranging from intermediate to complex, that are customized for your environment during
delivery. The content packs are designed to jump-start or augment your documentation
efforts and also greatly improve knowledge sharing.

Maximize the Value of Your IT Investments

The mission of Microsoft Services is to help you get the most out of your IT investments.
Whether you want to improve your bottom line, improve productivity, or use technology to
realize new business opportunities, Microsoft is ready to help. From business support to
strategic consulting, we offer a full range of Premier Support services for any stage in your
IT life cycle.

For more information

Please visit the Premier
Support Web site at
www.microsoft.com/
premier or contact your local
Microsoft Services
representative.

2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This data sheet is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Microsoft, Active Directory, Windows Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint are registered trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.