EVALUATION GUIDE

BMC Remedyforce Evaluation Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1: THE ALIGNABILITY PROCESS MODEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 PART 2: EVALUATING BMC REMEDYFORCE REPORTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 PART 3: EVALUATING THE BMC REMEDYFORCE SELF-SERVICE PORTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 PART 4: EVALUATING THE BMC REMEDYFORCE SERVICE DESK AGENT DASHBOARDS . . . . . . . 21 PART 5: EVALUATING BMC REMEDYFORCE INCIDENT MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 PART 6: EVALUATING BMC REMEDYFORCE PROBLEM MANAGEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 PART 7: EVALUATING BMC REMEDYFORCE CHANGE MANAGEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 PART 8: EVALUATING BMC REMEDYFORCE CHATTER INTEGRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Evaluating the BMC Remedyforce Alignability Process Model

INTRODUCING THE ALIGNABILITY PROCESS MODEL

Your end users are more demanding than ever. They want immediate attention and immediate results or in IT terms fast response times and instant problem resolution. They also demand consistently high levels of service, and of course, they expect constant communication on the status of their requests. How do you meet such demands when your own IT resources may be under significant strain? Many organizations around the world have turned to the best practices recommended by ITIL as a way to cut costs, align resources, improve service levels, and deliver consistent levels of service to the business.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

As you evaluate IT help desk software, make sure that the application will enable you to take advantage of the best practices recommended by ITIL without requiring too much additional configuration from you. Its also a good idea to check that the best practices are documented and that the documentation is easily accessible by users. BMC Remedyforce includes ITIL best-practice workflows built right into the software. Plus, it comes with extensive online documentation of the process models. With the help of embedded best practices, you can achieve faster cost savings and improvements in service quality that can benefit your entire organization.

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

WHAT YOULL SEE IN THE REMEDYFORCE TRIAL

Although you can explore the Remedyforce trial on your own, we recommend that you follow the steps outlined in each scenario. This guided tour can help you make the most of the software, including the specific features related to ITIL best practices. In this scenario you will:

Access Remedyforce from the perspective of a service desk agent. Learn about the embedded ITIL best practices for incident, problem, and change
management Review the process flow documentation for each of the best practices.

To see the scenario in action, watch the video here.

LETS GET STARTED.

First, locate the Welcome email you received after registering for the BMC Remedyforce trial. This email includes a link for launching the trial. If you have not yet registered for the trial, register here and the email will be sent to you.

1. Use the link in your Welcome email to launch the Remedyforce trial. Note the user name and password for IT staff; then, click Login as IT staff.

2. You should now see the BMC Remedyforce home page. Note the Workspaces panel on the lefthand side of the screen this is where we will begin exploring the ITIL best practices for incident, problem, and change management.

3. Review the Incident Management process.

Click on the Workspaces panel on the left hand side of the screen Then under Incident Management, click on Incident Management Alignability Process Model.

Youre now looking at a visual representation of the Incident Management process one of the Alignability Process Models in BMC Remedyforce.

 Interact with the process model to get more information about each step. For example, click on 1. Support
Request Registration.

(Tip: To see more information, you can also mouse-over the flowchart and the description.)

You should now see the Support Request Registration procedure for a service desk analyst.

Note that you can refer to the Incident Management process model at any time to review the ITIL guidelines for any incident management task.

4. Review the Problem Management process.

In the Workspaces panel, under Problem Management, click
on Problem Management Alignability Process Model.

Click on 1. Support Request Review. You should now see the Support Request Review process for a problem coordinator.

Notice how easy it is to switch between process models? Weve designed the BMC Remedyforce interface to be simple to use in a busy Service Desk environment.

5. Review the Change Management process.

Under Change Management, click on Change Management
Alignability Process Model.

Click on 1. Change Registration. You should now see the Change Registration process for a change coordinator.

 Feel free to review the rest of the process model on your own. When finished, click the X to close the
Alignability Process Model tab. This concludes this part of the evaluation.

THE METRICS THAT MATTER

There are literally hundreds of metrics and key performance indicators referenced by ITIL and similar best practice frameworks some may be very relevant in your organization, while others may be less useful. However, the following metrics can really tell you whether ITIL best practices are paying off for your organization.

MEAN TIME TO RESOLUTION (MTTR) MTTR is a critical metric that records the total time taken from the reporting of an issue, through its final resolution. Its important because it reflects the robustness and efficiency of the processes and systems you have in place for supporting your users. Adopting ITIL best practices for incident and problem management, in particular, can have a dramatic effect on MTTR.

What you should aim for: 20% lower MTTR.

STAFF PRODUCTIVITY The productivity of your service support teams should improve as a direct result of aligning your processes to ITIL best practices. Greater consistency in how problems are investigated and resolved can result in significant time savings across the organization. In addition, ongoing discipline in change management can improve the overall stability of your IT infrastructure.

What you should aim for: 30% higher staff productivity.

SERVICE DESK COSTS In addition to the time savings and gains in productivity, many organizations can reduce the cost of their service desk operations by aligning with ITIL best practices. Improved communication, effective self-service capabilities, and reduced incident volumes are all outcomes of ITIL best practices, and they can directly contribute to lower operating costs for the IT service desk.

What you should aim for: 25% lower IT help desk costs.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY:

increase resource availability and customer sat Cloud-based Remedyforceatwilltime whenITcutting costs without sacrificing quality is isfaction at lower cost a a top priority.
Eduardo Don Jr. CEO Lumen21

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Learn more about the benefits of ITIL best practices. Read our Solutions page.

Get the details on ITIL processes. Check out our reference library.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
NEED TO GET IN TOUCH?

Call us at 1-855-834-7487 or email us.

READY TO BUY?

Purchase BMC Remedyforce now.

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Reporting

INTRODUCING BMC REMEDYFORCE REPORTING

Effective reporting capabilities are an essential component of any IT service management application. Well-designed reports can provide real insight into the effectiveness of your support teams, your IT infrastructure, and the processes you have in place. Help desk organizations that are disciplined in the collection and analysis of reports consistently offer better service and tend to enjoy greater systems stability as a result of acting upon the performance trends identified in the data. As you evaluate IT help desk systems, make sure that the software has more than just a wide range of reports consider the relevance of those reports for your organization and how easily they can be adapted to meet your needs. Every IT help desk environment is different, so flexibility is essential. Ideally, the software should also allow you to create and configure custom reports. BMC Remedyforce offers a number of pre-defined reports, which have evolved from recognized best practices and the feedback of our customers. Each report can also be extensively customized to meet your needs and saved for future use. BMC Remedyforce exploits the considerable reporting power of the underlying Force.com SaaS platform. This means you can create and adapt brand-new custom reports to meet almost any requirement imaginable.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

WHAT YOULL SEE IN THE REMEDYFORCE TRIAL

This part of the Remedyforce trial shows you how easy it is to use and adapt one of the many pre-defined reports that come with the software. Youll also get to walk through the process of exporting data to an external file.

To see the scenario in action, watch the video here.

LETS GET STARTED.

First, locate the Welcome email you received after registering for the BMC Remedyforce trial. This email includes a link for launching the trial. If you have not yet registered for the trial, register here and the email will be sent to you.

1. Use the link in your Welcome email to launch the Remedyforce trial. Then, enter your name and password to log into the site.

2. You should now see the BMC Remedyforce home page.

3. Run an Incident Management report.

Click on the Setup link on the upper righthand corner of the BMC Remedyforce home page.
In the dialog box asking if you want to leave BMC Remedyforce, click Yes. This will take you into the reporting and configuration portal of the force.com platform.

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 Click on the Reports link in the menu bar.

In the Reports Folders section, click on the Folder dropdown

menu and select BMC Remedyforce. Then, click Go.

You can view and configure outof-the-box reports or you can create custom reports to meet your organizations exact needs. Remedyforce includes a number of pre-configured reports that support ITIL best practices, standard compliance goals, and the most common needs of our customers.

Click on the Categories link at the top of the list. Youll see a
chart, and above that, some options.

In the Report Options section, click on the Summarize

information by dropdown menu and select Category. (Note: It may already appear at the top of the list.)

Next, click on the Show dropdown menu, select All Incidents

and click Run Report.

You should now see a chart that summarizes the incident volumes by category, followed by a detailed list of
the incidents included in the report.

Notice that you can save this report, as well as customize, print, or export it to a number of different formats. Exporting a report is what well explore next.

(Tip: Scroll down to see more of the report content.)

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4. Export a report.

In the Report Options section of the Categories page, click on the Export Details button. In the Export Report section, choose your file encoding and format preferences. Then, click Export. In the dialog box that appears, click to save and open the file. Review the exported file. When finished, click the Done button to return to the Categories page.

5. Customize a report.

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 In the Report Options section of the Categories page, click on the Customize button. Click on the Jump to Step menu. Without changing anything for now, click on each option in the Jump to Step menu and simply review all the
ways that you can customize the standard reports.

Ok, lets try a simple customization. From the Jump to Step menu, select Select Columns and click on client
email (and anything else youd like to see) in the left column of checkboxes.

Click on the Run Report button at the bottom left of the options table to view your custom report. When
finished, click the BMC Remedyforce Home link to close the reporting portal and return to the application. This concludes Part 2 of the Remedyforce evaluation.

THE METRICS THAT MATTER

Effective reporting capabilities can positively impact the performance and efficiency of your help desk organization in many different ways particularly when the actionable data is rolled into your ongoing improvement initiatives. The following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can help you assess the effectiveness of your reporting strategies.

CHANGE SUCCESS RATE A change management process that is flawed and is causing unnecessary service disruption often shows up in reporting long before a specific weakness in the process is identified by other means. In our experience, a team that is actively reviewing reports especially the reports of incident volumes resulting from changes will quickly spot areas for investigation and improvement. This often has an immediate and beneficial impact on the success rate of the changes undertaken.

What you should aim for: 90% or greater first-time change success rates.

RECURRENT INCIDENT VOLUME Help desk reports are a highly effective means of analyzing patterns in the flow and types of IT incidents that are occurring in your organization. Regular analysis of incident category reports, for example, can reveal specific and frequently recurrent areas of difficulty in the infrastructure and support processes (and sometimes, individuals). Organizations that are disciplined in this analysis, and take action accordingly, tend to have fewer recurrent problems and see a more even spread of root causes.

What you should aim for: Where possible* 10% or less of your incidents should relate to any one specific
category. *In some environments there will always be a bias to specific problem areas.

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COMPLIANCE COST For those help desk organizations subject to regulatory or corporate compliance reporting, the time and effort taken to respond to a specific audit request is a very reliable health indicator of your reporting model. If you have correctly identified and configured the set of reports you need to meet compliance requirements, the process of providing the necessary data in an acceptable format should be rapid and uncomplicated.

What you should aim for: Less than 24-hour responses to an audit request.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY:

we didnt that enabled us best job possible. In the past, issues fellhave toolsthe cracks, whichto do thethat our users were not Sometimes through meant always completely happy with our service. With BMC Remedyforce, IT staff members have a solution that lets them deliver high-quality service and support. As a result, our users are happier with what IT is doing for them.

We can determine ifathe same problem occurred before or if were having multiple problems with particular asset or asset type.
Can Ersoz, Manager of Information Systems at Yakult

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Learn more about ITIL continual service improvement. Read the e-book.

Get expert advice on supporting compliance goals. Sign up for the e-book.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
NEED TO GET IN TOUCH?

Call us at 1-855-834-7487 or email us.

READY TO BUY?

Purchase BMC Remedyforce now.

14

Evaluating the BMC Remedyforce Self-Service Portal

INTRODUCING THE SELF-SERVICE PORTAL

Why do effective IT organizations offer self-service features for their users? Its simple, really a self-service portal can deliver measurable gains in efficiency and productivity. If users can easily get updates about ongoing issues, find solutions to their problems, and request service in a simple but structured way, they are less likely to consume precious help desk resources. As you evaluate your choice of an IT help desk vendor, self-service should be an important area of consideration. Some key questions include: Are the self-service options accessible from a variety of devices? Are they easy to use? How effective is the presentation and organization of self-service information? The easier the system is to use, the greater the chance the resources will be used throughout your organization. BMC Remedyforce provides a simple and well-organized self-service portal users can review current issues affecting the organization, see the most common problems their colleagues are facing, and check out the associated solutions. Users can also request help from the help desk using out-of-the-box templates, which can help save time and ensure greater consistency in how requests are submitted.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

WHAT YOULL SEE IN THE REMEDYFORCE TRIAL

The Remedyforce trial environment is perfect for evaluating the self-service portal on your own. However, this specific scenario can also help you:

Explore the self-service portal interface. Search and rate knowledge entries. Request multiple services from the help desk.

To see the scenario in action, watch the video here.

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LETS GET STARTED.

First, locate the Welcome email you received after registering for the BMC Remedyforce trial. This email includes a link for launching the trial. If you have not yet registered for the trial, register here and the email will be sent to you.

1. Use the link in your Welcome email to launch the Remedyforce trial. Note the user name and password for the end user; then, click Login as end user.

2. You should now see the BMC Remedyforce log-in page. Enter the user name and password for the end user, as shown above. Then, click Login.

3. The Self-Service Portal should appear. We will explore this interface in the next several steps.

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4. Review the Self-Service home page.

Take a look at the areas highlighted on the portal page below.

(Tip: To see the full text without opening an item, you can mouse-over the different components.) Search for solutions to problems. View the frequently asked questions and responses from the Knowledge Base. Check for important updates in the scrolling bar and the Broadcasts section. This can save you the time of creating tickets about known issues.

Any service requests you create will appear here.

The most popular service requests are listed here. A great deal of time can be saved by using these templates.

5. Access and rate a Knowledge Base entry.

In the Frequently Asked Questions section of the portal, click on the entry How do I reset my Blackberry?

The entry will open in the Knowledge Base screen. Notice that there are a number of actions you can take from here. You can:

Read and then rate the Knowledge Base entry this impacts its relevance in future searches and improves
the accuracy of the Knowledge Base.

Search externally online using the same search terms. View other related Knowledge Base entries by navigating the knowledge tree. Create a Service Request if you need assistance from the help desk. Click on Self Service Home to continue with the evaluation.

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6. Create Service Requests.

Lets assume that youve been locked out of your user account, due to multiple log-in failures.

In the Top Service Requests section of the portal, click on the Password Reset entry. In the Describe What You Need dialog box, enter Sally Smith for the account name and Ssmi for the
account ID. Then, click Submit.

Click on Self Service Home to continue with the evaluation.

Next, lets imagine that your external hard drive fails too.

In the What Do You Need Help With? section, type in the Search field: My hard disk has crashed. Then,
click on the Find Solution button.

It looks like theres nothing in the Knowledge Base for this particular problem. Lets get some help.

Click on the Submit a New Service Request link. In the Category dropdown menu, select Hardware. In the Describe What You Need field, type: My hard disk crashed. I need a replacement and to have any data
transferred. Then, click Submit.

To help the support teams, you can find the online warranty link and add it to the service request.

Open the service request you just created. In the Documentation section of the service request, click the Add button. Next, click the URL radio button. Type the URL: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/policy/en/policy?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~secti
on=010

Click OK. Then, click Submit. On the navigation bar, click on Self Service Home. This concludes Part 3 of the Remedyforce evaluation.

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THE METRICS THAT MATTER

How do you assess the relative effectiveness of your self-service strategy? There are many parameters that can be analyzed. However, by focusing on key performance indicators that capture the uptake, cost, and impact of self-service, you can be sure that you have a well-balanced appraisal that will facilitate corrective action or prompt further investigation. The following three metrics can be particularly revealing.

PHONE CALL DEFLECTION RATE Organizations that have implemented self-service often report a significant drop in the number of calls to the service desk. Phone-based interactions represent some of the highest costs per incident, and anything that can free up an agent from the phone yields great returns. When help desk services are provided promptly and appropriately via self-service, its adoption tends to build significantly over time.

What you should aim for: 50% of incidents and service requests processed through self-service.

COST PER INCIDENT Self-service help desk interactions cost organizations a fraction of those initiated via the phone or in person. The savings largely results from the removal of a first-line agent from the earlier phases of incident reporting and classification which, in turn, reduces the amount of time that agent spends investigating and resolving an incident.

What you should aim for: A 25% reduction in the cost of providing help desk services.

MEAN TIME TO RESOLUTION (MTTR) When users can quickly and easily categorize and record the challenge theyre having, or in many cases, take self-initiated corrective action, you can dramatically reduce the time needed to resolve issues. The secret to having a measurable impact on MTTR is to develop an effective Knowledge Base thats delivered via your selfservice portal. In addition, you need to make sure that its easy to create service requests in a structured way that maximizes consistency and minimizes error.

What you should aim for: A 20% reduction in MTTR.

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WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY:

will save us approximately BMC Remedyforcehalf in years two and three. 25 percent the first year, and will cut our costs nearly in
Can Ersoz, Manager of Information Systems at Yakult

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Learn more about empowering users with self-service. Get the white paper.

Get the ITIL perspective on providing self-service. Read the e-book.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
NEED TO GET IN TOUCH?

Call us at 1-855-834-7487 or email us.

READY TO BUY?

Purchase BMC Remedyforce now.

20

Evaluating the BMC Remedyforce Service Desk Agent Dashboards

INTRODUCING THE SERVICE DESK AGENT DASHBOARDS

Information design and accessibility is a critical discipline in the optimization of an IT help desk application. Apart from the obvious benefits of an interface thats easy to use, ready access to critical information about support activity and associated trends has a direct and material impact on the effectiveness of your help desk. With a properly configured interface, agents spend less time and effort detecting patterns of failure, investigating problems, and communicating the actionable results of their work. In your efforts to compare IT help desk systems, be sure to consider how information is presented in the principal interface for agents. It wont be absolutely perfect for your organization, by default, so focus on how easy it will be to customize the interface over time. Make sure that the solution doesnt just facilitate the clear display of critical data investigate whether its equally straightforward to broadcast critical updates. You should also be able to correlate summary information to the underlying incidents, problems, and changes. BMC Remedyforce is designed to clearly and effectively display information within a highly configurable agent dashboard. Information can be conveyed in a variety of formats, and dashboards can be customized for the tasks at hand. Its very easy to publish and monitor broadcasts and at any time you can access the underlying details for the information displayed in the dashboard.

YOU WILL NEED: 15 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

WHAT YOULL SEE IN THE REMEDYFORCE TRIAL

Feel free to explore the Remedyforce dashboards on your own in the trial environment this scenario only scratches the surface of whats possible. In this scenario you will:

Review the basic components of the Remedyforce dashboard. Learn about the power and flexibility of the broadcast system. Find out how to customize the content and layout of the dashboard.

To see the scenario in action, watch the video here.

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LETS GET STARTED.

First, locate the Welcome email you received after registering for the BMC Remedyforce trial. This email includes a link for launching the trial. If you have not yet registered for the trial, register here and the email will be sent to you.

1. Use the link in your Welcome email to launch the Remedyforce trial. Note the user name and password for IT staff; then, click Login as IT staff.

2. You should now see the BMC Remedyforce log-in page. Enter the user name and password for IT staff, as shown above. Then, click Login.

3. The agent portal should appear. We will explore this interface in the next several steps.

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4. Review the agent portal.

Take a look at the areas highlighted on the portal page below

(Tip: To see the full text without opening an item, you can mouse-over the different components.)

In the Workspaces panel, you can review the best-practice process documentation and flowcharts

As a service desk administrator, you can both view and edit broadcast entries. The broadcasts can be seen both as a scrolling banner and in the Broadcasts section. This can help prevent tickets from being created about known issues.

Here you can see all current incidents ordered by priority.

Everything on this My Dashboard panel can be configured and re-arranged to suit your needs.

This section can display all incidents currently assigned to you.

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5. Review a broadcast entry.

Mouse-over the Broadcasts section on the righthand side of the agent portal. Double-click on www.calbro.net is DOWN.

Note that broadcasts are highly configurable. You can adjust the timing, ownership, and display preferences
and even select which groups can see the broadcast. In addition, you can add more detail and a resolution, when one exists. This means users and other help desk agents can take corrective action and reduce the net impact of a given problem.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Show Supporting Information. In the lefthand column, click on Incidents.

Note that any incidents related to this broadcast can be reviewed and accessed here; this capability is a great
boost to agent productivity and can aid in problem investigation.

Click on the X to close the Broadcasts panel.

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6. Personalize the dashboard.

From the agent portal, click on the My Dashboard tab. Find the Incidents by Category section, and click on the X to remove the section. Click on the Catalog panel on the lefthand side of the screen.

Click and hold down the mouse on My Tasks. Then, drag and drop it onto the dashboard area of the portal.
Now you can see the specific tasks assigned to you.

This concludes Part 4 of the Remedyforce evaluation.

THE METRICS THAT MATTER

The presentation and configuration of information in an agents dashboard can have a direct impact on his/ her productivity and effectiveness. Agents who can readily access and communicate information about current incidents, problems, and changes will spend less time in the initial phases of investigation and often, they will avoid creating new incidents altogether. The information they broadcast can also stop end users from reporting a known problem further boosting the efficiency of the entire help desk team. To assess the effectiveness of your agents help desk interface, as well as the information contained within it, consider the following key performance metrics. As always, metrics can be affected by isolated incidents, but measuring the overall trends particularly after customizing the agent interface can be revealing.

AVERAGE FIRST-CALL RESOLUTION RATE The rate at which agents can resolve incidents on the first call can be directly impacted by the effective presentation of information. In particular, easy access to current ongoing support activities, such as recent problems and changes, can lead an agent to a satisfactory resolution without further investigation.

What you should aim for: A 25% increase in first-call resolution over time, along with upticks in average agent
performance.

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MEAN TIME TO RESOLUTION (MTTR) The time it takes to resolve an issue can also be affected by the availability and format of information. Often, an issue thats under investigation will be affecting other users and show up in other incidents reported to the help desk team. Agents who can see the pattern of incidents currently under management as well as monitor broadcasts are able to resolve incidents with greater speed.

What you should aim for: An optimized agent interface could yield a 20% reduction in MTTR.

STAFF PRODUCTIVITY The net effect of a lower MTTR and higher first-call resolution rate is an overall increase in the productivity of your help desk agents. With their primary interface to the help desk system fully optimized and aligned with their responsibilities, help desk agents can resolve and manage a higher volume of activity.

What you should aim for: Again, an optimized interface can result in a net increase of 20% in staff productivity.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Learn more about best practices for IT dashboards. Read the white paper.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
NEED TO GET IN TOUCH?

Call us at 1-855-834-7487 or email us.

READY TO BUY?

Purchase BMC Remedyforce now.

26

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Incident Management

INTRODUCING INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

Incident management is perhaps the most important function performed by any IT help desk in fact, the perceived value of an IT organization can be shaped by how well it manages and responds to incidents. Effective incident management can also benefit the business in terms of faster resolution times, minimized disruptions, and improved productivity. As you begin to evaluate IT help desk software, be sure to consider the relative effectiveness of the incident management capabilities. Your agents will spend a great deal of time managing and responding to incidents, so it makes sense to arm them with the best tools possible. In addition to aligning with ITIL best practices, does the IT help desk software include the right features for maximizing agent productivity? Are the incident management features easy to use? How well do they integrate with other IT service management functions? These questions can help you assess the usefulness of the interface and whether your agents can do what they need to do such as, viewing and creating related tasks, changes, and configuration items. BMC Remedyforce delivers incident management features that are based on our more than 20 years of experience in the IT help desk industry. The interface is designed to meet the everyday needs of help desk agents. Incidents can be created and managed with built-in templates all from within a clear and easy-to-use dashboard. Theres also seamless integration with other essential IT service management features, including problem, change, and configuration management.

YOU WILL NEED: 15 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

WHAT YOULL SEE IN THE REMEDYFORCE TRIAL

This scenario provides only a starting point for exploring the Remedyforce incident management capabilities be sure to see what else you can do on your own. In this scenario you will:

Create an incident by using the built-in templates Review the key capabilities within the Incident Management interface Learn how to assign incidents and use other time-saving features See how incidents are integrated with other IT service management functions

To see the scenario in action, watch the video here.

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LETS GET STARTED.

First, locate the Welcome email you received after registering for the BMC Remedyforce trial. This email includes a link for launching the trial. If you have not yet registered for the trial, register here and the email will be sent to you.

1. Use the link in your Welcome email to launch the Remedyforce trial. Note the user name and password for IT staff; then, click Login as IT staff.

2. After logging into the trial, the agent portal should appear.

3. Use an Incident template.

Lets assume we get a call to the help desk on that old favorite the forgotten password. Well use a built-in template to make the logging and resolution of this issue a rapid and consistent process.

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 On the righthand side of the agent dashboard, find the Top Requests section and click on Password Reset.
This will create a new incident.

(Tip: If you cant find the Top Requests section, it may just be hidden from view. Click the small arrow buttons in the top righthand corner to cycle through the open sections. If you still cant find it, simply add it using the + button next to the arrows.)

Note that the new incident includes a default category for the password reset, and some required information
to be filled out in the Description field.

In the Last Name field, type Smi to begin looking up the end-users name. Then, click on Smith, Sally. Click on the Save icon.

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4. Review an Incident record.

Lets take some time to explore the Incident record you just created. Check here to see a quick visual status of the incident.

The impact level is defined by the help desk agent thats creating the ticket. Urgency can either be driven by the end users (how important it feels to them) or the category.

The impact and urgency levels are used to calculate the priority, and the priority drives the due date.

Explore each of these options to see how an incident is integrated with the other components of BMC Remedyforce and how easy it is to navigate to important supporting information.

5. Assign an incident to someone and take a follow-up call.

Click on the Assignment (people) icon at the top of the incident you just created.

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 In the Assignment dropdown menu, select Myself but notice all the options available. You can manually
assign an incident, or where rules have been configured, the system will make a suggestion based on the skills of available IT staff and the category of incident.

Next, lets imagine a call comes in relating to this incident, and we need to quickly make some notes about the conversation.

Add some notes in the Note field, click Add and then click on the Actions (cog) icon at the top of the
incident.

In the Actions dropdown menu, select Increment Call Counter. Take a few moments to check out the other
actions that are available in the menu.

The call counter will now show up in the incident history, and your note will be part of the audit trail all displayed within the Supporting Information area at the bottom of the incident.

6. Review the supporting information.

Click on the Show Supporting Information link at the bottom of the incident (if it isnt already open), and start
exploring the options.

The History tab See a summary of the note you just added, along with some auditing information. This is
where you can review all of the notes for each incident.

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 The Tasks tab Review and open any of the tasks associated with the resolution of this incident, create new
tasks, or re-assign a task to someone else.

The Change Requests tab Determine if any change requests are already linked to this incident, link an
existing change request, or create a new one that relates to this incident. This shows the integration between IT service management functions in Remedyforce.

The Documentation tab Review any documents or files that have been associated with this incident or add
a new attachment.

The Auditing tab Examine the history of all the major changes made to the incident, along with the details
of who made the change and when.

THE METRICS THAT MATTER

Incident management is a notoriously difficult area to measure effectively; there are countless data-points on which you can focus and some of them need to be considered together to make sense of what is really happening. For example, call handling time is an interesting measurement, but you need to also track customer satisfaction to make sure that you are delivering an effective service and not just a rapid one. However, there are three key points of measurement that can deliver real insight into the quality of your incident management services. These metrics can also be used to prompt further investigation, as needed.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Customer satisfaction continues to be the single, most important measurement for any help desk organization. A long-term trend in high customer satisfaction can reflect the efforts youve put in place to improve incident management. Fast responses, effective and lasting resolutions, and timely communications can all contribute to a positive perception of the help desk by the end user.

What you should aim for: To achieve and maintain better than 90% satisfaction

SLA ADHERENCE This is a compound measurement of several metrics, and it is a very good starting point for tracking the performance of your incident management processes and systems. In essence, you are measuring how well your organization has delivered upon its SLAs with the business. Organizations often focus on an aggregate of the SLAs relating to response time and resolution rates. When you can combine good SLA scores with a high customer satisfaction rating, you can be sure that youre providing optimal levels of incident management.

What you should aim for: 95% or higher SLA adherence

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HELP DESK AGENT SATISFACTION Help desk agent satisfaction is often overlooked, but it can actually be a deeply revealing measurement of your incident management services in fact, theres more and more interest in this critical metric. Help desk agents, particularly those in first-line positions, spend a great deal of their time processing incidents in accordance with the processes you have in place and using the software you selected. With that in mind, you can be sure that opportunities for optimization are going to reliably show up in the feedback you get from your agents and probably earlier than anywhere else.

What you should aim for: Greater than 80% overall agent satisfaction

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Read about the ITIL best practices for incident management. Get the e-book.

Learn how to maximize the value of your IT help desk. Read the white paper.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
NEED TO GET IN TOUCH?

Call us at 1-855-834-7487 or email us.

READY TO BUY?

Purchase BMC Remedyforce now.

33

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Problem Management

INTRODUCING PROBLEM MANAGEMENT:

Problem management is often overlooked and not considered to be a critical process in many IT service management organizations. However, IT organizations that have a solid problem management workflow tend to deliver higher quality services. Thanks to the timely investigation and correction of underlying root causes, the entire business can reap the benefits of fewer service outages overall and a faster time to resolution when problems do occur. Effective problem investigation is tied to your ability to link problems with related incidents, changes and configuration items. This way, you can determine how a problem impacts other services, understand which devices are involved, and record details of any changes that caused or will correct the underlying root cause. As you evaluate IT help desk tools, be sure to look for seamless integration between processes and features that enable you to link all relevant information with your problem records. BMC Remedyforce aligns with ITIL best practices for problem management. With comprehensive integration of IT service management functions, your agents can easily review all of the pertinent information when investigating problems. They can also create detailed and auditable records of their investigation, so theres a clear history of everything that took place throughout the problem management process.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

WHAT YOULL SEE IN THE REMEDYFORCE TRIAL

The following scenario shows you how to use Remedyforce to create a new problem record and link it with related incidents. Youll learn about the supporting details that can be included with each problem, and explore the integration with other IT service management functions. . To see the scenario in action, watch the video here.

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LETS GET STARTED.

First, locate the Welcome email you received after registering for the BMC Remedyforce trial. This email includes a link for launching the trial. If you have not yet registered for the trial, register here and the email will be sent to you.

1. Use the link in your Welcome email to launch the Remedyforce trial. Note the user name and password for IT staff; then, click Login as IT staff.

2. After logging into the trial, the agent portal should appear.

3. Create a problem and relate an incident.

On the Workspaces panel, under Problem Management, click on Problems. On the Problems tab, click on the New icon to open a new problem record.

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In Problem Source dropdown menu, select Incident.

In the Category field, click on the dropdown arrow. The Select From Categories dialog box will appear.

In the Select From Categories dialog box, scroll down and double-click on Telecommunication. The
problem record will appear again with the category filled in.

In the Description field of the problem record, type: BlackBerry server is not sending emails. Click on the Save icon.

In the Details section of the problem record, click on the Impact dropdown arrow. In the Select From Impacts dialog box that appears, double-click on High. Repeat the process with the Urgency dropdown menu and select Medium.

Open the Supporting Information tab by clicking on the Show Supporting Information link at the bottom of
the problem record.

Click on the Incidents tab.

36

 Note that since this is a new problem, there may not be any incidents related to it. You may have to link one
manually.

Click on the Actions (cog) icon dropdown menu and select Link Incident. Double-click on any of the
incidents. The problem record will appear again now showing the incident you just linked.

4. Review a problem record and its related information.

On the Workspaces panel, under Problem Management, click on Problems. Double-click on problem number 00000000.

Review the basic information about the problem source, description, resolution, details, and any related
broadcasts. The Note field is designed for agents to record the steps they took to resolve the problem.

Next, click on the Show Supporting Information link at the bottom of the problem record.

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 Note that the problem management process is tightly integrated with other IT service management
processes within Remedyforce.

From the Supporting Information tab, you can see the related:

History for the problem Incidents resulting from the underlying root cause Changes that may have caused or helped resolve the problem Configuration items that are part of the root cause or impacted by the problem Tasks associated with resolving the problem Associated documentation A full audit trail for accountability and measurement

THE METRICS THAT MATTER

Effective problem management is all about the speed and efficiency of root cause investigation and resolution. The goal is to minimize the impact to the organization and to prevent the likelihood of further recurrence of the problem. The following metrics support these objectives. .

MEAN TIME TO RESOLUTION (MTTR) MTTR is an important measurement in many best-practice processes but in problem investigation, it is an absolutely critical key performance indicator (KPI). Your problem management process and supporting tools should support your teams in investigating and resolving problems and their underlying root causes in as short a time as possible.

What you should aim for: A 25% reduction in MTTR over time

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INCIDENT VOLUME Organizations that become accomplished in problem management tend to reduce their overall incident volume over time largely as a function of fewer recurrent problems. Its important, however, to distinguish incidents linked to underlying problems from other types of incidents. This way, you can more accurately measure the impact of your problem management approach.

What you should aim for: A 20% reduction in Incidents resulting from infrastructure problems over time

MEAN TIME BETWEEN FAILURE (MTBF) If your problem management strategy is working well, you can expect that the investigation and elimination of root causes will result in greater service stability. This can result in fewer outages over time, and therefore, a longer interval between them (MTBF).

What you should aim for: A 50% increase in MTBF in your critical business services

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Read about the ITIL best practices for incident management. Get the e-book.

Learn how to maximize the value of your IT help desk. Read the white paper.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
NEED TO GET IN TOUCH?

Call us at 1-855-834-7487 or email us.

READY TO BUY?

Purchase BMC Remedyforce now.

39

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Change Management

INTRODUCING CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Change management is one of the most critical processes for any IT organization the disastrous results of poorly planned and uncoordinated changes are all too familiar. Unplanned outages of critical business processes can be highly expensive, damage the business reputation, and result in the loss of customers. The good news is that a great deal can be done to improve your organizations effectiveness throughout the change lifecycle. As you evaluate potential IT help desk solutions, focus on the full range of their change management capabilities and how well the processes are integrated with other IT service management functions. Make sure that the workflow extends beyond a simple record of change its important that best practices are enforced in terms of planning, assessment, and approval. The ability to understand and visualize the dependencies across different configuration items is of real value in planning changes. Similarly, the degree to which correlations and relationships can be made between changes and other process records will have a material impact on the quality of your change management process. BMC Remedyforce supports a comprehensive and well-integrated change management process. The application aligns with recognized best practices the workflow is documented and visible to users at all time. You can plan, coordinate, and execute changes within an easy-to-use interface, which includes configuration management details and visual tools. Plus, theres an intuitive assessment and approval process.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

WHAT YOULL SEE IN THE REMEDYFORCE TRIAL

The following scenario shows you how to use Remedyforce to review a change request and all of its supporting information. Youll also get to explore the workflows around change requests, including change assessments, change approvals, and configuration management.

To see the scenario in action, watch the video here.

40

LETS GET STARTED.

First, locate the Welcome email you received after registering for the BMC Remedyforce trial. This email includes a link for launching the trial. If you have not yet registered for the trial, register here and the email will be sent to you.

1. Use the link in your Welcome email to launch the Remedyforce trial. Note the user name and password for IT staff; then, click Login as IT staff.

2. After logging into the trial, the agent portal should appear.

3. Review a change request.

On the Workspaces panel, under Change Management, click on Change Requests.

41

 Note that in addition to change requests, you can manage change assessments, approvals, scheduling,
and projected service outages. In fact, Remedyforce provides everything you need to support a highly sophisticated and integrated change management process.

On the Change Requests tab, double-click on CR00000003. Take some time to review the information on
the change request.

4. Explore the supporting information.

Click on the Show Supporting Information link at the bottom of the change request. Under Supporting Information, click on the Change Assessments tab. Then, double-click on the item in the
list.

42

 Note that requested changes can be sent to key individuals for assessment, which is a critical part of the
change planning and approval process. The reviewer can see the details of the change, assess the technical, financial, and business risks, and provide comments.

Close the change assessment. In the Supporting Information section of the change request, click on the Configuration Items tab. Note that
this request links to Cisco 3620-houston01.

Scroll to the top of the change request, and click on the Launch CI Explorer (monitors) icon.

The CI Explorer should appear. At the center of screen, note the location of the configuration item and its
related dependencies. This helps you more accurately assess the risks of makinig the change and the potential impact.

Note that on the lefthand side of the CI Explorer, you can also see how this configuration item relates to change
requests, incidents, problems, and tasks. This is a very powerful tool in the assessment and management of change, and clearly demonstrates the depth of integration between processes and capabilities in Remedyforce.

Next, lets review a change approval record. Close the CI Explorer. In the Supporting Information section of the change request, click on the Change Approvals tab. Then,
double-click on any of the entries in the list.

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 The approval record should appear.

Review the change request information thats sent to each approver. Note that you can also launch the CI
Explorer from here, so you can make an integrated risk assessment.

THE METRICS THAT MATTER

Carefully coordinated changes can have a positive impact on a huge range of key performance criteria. If you can understand the impact and risks involved with changes before they are made, you can avoid major service disruptions and eliminate costly repercussions for the business. However, the following metrics can help you ensure that your change management processes, teams, and supporting systems are well aligned and delivering maximum benefits. Its critical that you measure how your change management approach affects your service availability and how well your organization actually executes changes.

UNPLANNED OUTAGES DUE TO CHANGES Its very important to correlate change activity to any unplanned outages that occur. A high volume of unplanned outages that result from a change is often a sign of a weakness in the process it can point to gaps in due diligence in the risk assessment.

What you should aim for: A 50% reduction in the volume of unplanned outages resulting from changes over
time.

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INCIDENTS RESULTING FROM CHANGES Its also key to track the incident volume that result from changes this is a related, but separate measurement from the unplanned outage metric described above. Changes can cause incidents that are related to slowdowns in performance, or critical services can be impaired in other ways. A high volume of incidents resulting from a change can reflect weakness throughout the entire change management process although, often, the weakness is in the planning stages.

What you should aim for: A 50% reduction in the volume of incidents resulting from changes

FAILED CHANGES Its very important to understand how often you have to back out or re-work changes. This metric will help you assess the effectiveness of your change execution processes, and it often highlights deficiencies in the communication and coordination between teams. With a unified change management approach, you can reduce the number of problems that occur and improve productivity across the organization.

What you should aim for: A 25% reduction in the number of failed changes

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Explore the best practices for change management. Read this white paper.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
NEED TO GET IN TOUCH?

Call us at 1-855-834-7487 or email us.

READY TO BUY?

Purchase BMC Remedyforce now.

45

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Chatter Integration

INTRODUCING CHATTER INTEGRATION

The ability for help desk agents and other IT teams to collaborate in real-time has been a long-term goal for many IT service management organizations. Email integration and knowledge management have undoubtedly helped but they havent gone far enough to support the immediacy and interactivity required for resolving incidents, problems, and changes. The recent inclusion of collaboration platforms, similar in function to popular social media sites such as Facebook, has been a real step forward in the ability of a help desk team to leverage the collective capabilities of its employees and provide an even greater quality of service. As you evaluate IT help desk applications, carefully consider how well they support collaboration. Do they include an integrated social media platform? Does the integration go beyond supporting communication between interested parties and instead, enable agents to also reference the key IT service management processes and their associated records? BMC Remedyforce uses Salesforce.coms Chatter platform a sophisticated collaboration platform that has gained real credibility with support teams worldwide. The Chatter integration permits communication between help desk agents and other IT teams, and it links into the critical IT service management processes themselves. Incidents, problems, changes, configuration items, broadcasts, and people all have dedicated feeds that can be subscribed to with updates provided in real-time.

YOU WILL NEED: 5 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

WHAT YOULL SEE IN THE REMEDYFORCE TRIAL

In the following scenario you will get to explore the main Chatter feed in the Remedyforce trial environment. You will get to:

Review interactions in the Chatter feed Learn how Chatter supports change management Create and share your own Chatter update

To see the scenario in action, watch the video here.

46

LETS GET STARTED.

First, locate the Welcome email you received after registering for the BMC Remedyforce trial. This email includes a link for launching the trial. If you have not yet registered for the trial, register here and the email will be sent to you.

1. Use the link in your Welcome email to launch the Remedyforce trial. Note the user name and password for IT staff; then, click Login as IT staff.

2. After logging into the trial, the agent portal should appear.

3. Open the Chatter feed.

On the Workspaces panel, under Chatter, click on Chatter Feed.

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 The Chatter Feed tab should appear.

Note that you can subscribe to updates from other users, as well as incidents, problems, configuration items,
changes, FAQs, and broadcasts. This way, you can see any updates as soon as they are made.

4. Use Chatter within a change request.

On the Chatter Feed tab, click on an entry relating to a change request. The Change Request should appear. On the righthand side of the change request, click on Change Request Chatter Feed. The Chatter feed for this
change request should now appear.

48

 In the Change Request Chatter Feed section, enter a status update, and click Share. Your post will now be visible to all members of this group and automatically update anyone whos following
this change. This can significantly improve communication, collaboration, and resolution times. In fact, incidents, problems, changes, broadcasts, and FAQs all have record-specific Chatter feeds for quick access and collaboration around a specific record.

THE METRICS THAT MATTER

Social media collaboration platforms like Chatter are helping to improve the productivity of IT help desk agents worldwide and they are also starting to have a measurable impact on quality of service. Salesforce.com, which developed and hosts the Chatter platform, has analyzed the effectiveness of support teams that use Chatter. This section includes some of their findings.

TIME TAKEN TO FIND RESOLVING INFORMATION As shown in the trial scenario, one of the most effective uses of Chatter integration is to consult with other colleagues on what to do next or to share a successful resolution. These responses are often very rapid, and they typically provide information thats not available in the Knowledge Base or readily accessible through other means. This can significantly reduce the average time taken to find information which, in turn, may drive other key performance indicators (KPIs), such as mean time to repair (MTTR).

What you should aim for: A 50% or more reduction in time taken

EMAIL VOLUME Using Chatter for collaboration between help desk agents and other IT teams tends to cut down greatly on the use of email relating to specific incidents, changes, and so on. Agents report this reduction in email traffic to be highly beneficial, and they find that using Chatter in place of email allows them to focus more on the tasks at hand.

What you should aim for: A 30% reduction in support-related email volume

INTER-AGENT AND INTER-TEAM COLLABORATION Many IT support teams suffer from a lack of collaboration between agents and teams. Incidents can be resolved more quickly and changes coordinated more carefully when theres an easy way to share information across the organization. The Salesforce.com research showed a significant increase in the amount of collaboration happening in organizations that use Chatter. This increase clearly drives a number of other metrics relating to resolution times, quality of service, and even staff satisfaction.

What you should aim for: A 30% or higher increase in collaboration

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WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Get all the details about the Chatter platform. Visit the Salesforce.com microsite.

WHAT TO DO NEXT
NEED TO GET IN TOUCH?

Call us at 1-855-834-7487 or email us.

READY TO BUY?

Purchase BMC Remedyforce now.

BUSINESS RUNS ON IT. IT RUNS ON BMC SOFTWARE. Business thrives when IT runs smarter, faster and stronger. Thats why the most demanding IT organizations in the world rely on BMC Software across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud environments. Recognized as the leader in Business Service Management, BMC offers a comprehensive approach and unified platform that helps IT organizations cut cost, reduce risk and drive business profit. For the four fiscal quarters ended June 30, 2011, BMC revenue was approximately $2.1 billion.

BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC Software logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. AIX and IBM are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Solaris is a trademark or registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 2011 BMC Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

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