Survey zeros in on service management

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: LISA ERICKSON-HARRIS ON
NETWORK/SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
09/19/05
Today's focus: Survey zeros in on service management

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Results of survey on BSM and SLM

* Links related to Network/Systems Management
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Survey zeros in on service management

By Lisa Erickson-Harris

This past spring, Enterprise Management Associates solicited
your participation in a research initiative called "BSM and SLM:
Concepts in Transition" to explore the two most commonly used
service management acronyms: service-level management (SLM) and
business services management (BSM).

The level of hype in the market has certainly been staggering,
with much of the discussion coming out of best-practice
initiatives, regulatory requirements, and economic pressures to
reduce costs and maximize value from IT purchases. It is not so
often that we get to hear the perspective of IT professionals
trying to accomplish long-term goals while also holding down the
fort.

The study itself took a bit longer than expected, as we spent
time identifying the right individuals to participate. As
participants were screened out, they were asked why they would
not be using service management. The most common reason was that
more information was needed (61%), followed by IT support is
good enough (52%), and there is no organizational push to do so
(50%). These are interesting responses that largely reflect
further need to educate those that have yet to take the plunge -
not only within IT, but also among executives.

Among survey respondents familiar with service management and at
some stage in implementing a strategy, the participants were
mostly large enterprises, as you might expect. We asked them
about their perceptions of the similarities and dissimilarities
of SLM and BSM. Most IT professionals (45%) who participated in
this research felt there is significant overlap between the two.
Another 26% viewed SLM as a component of BSM, and 15% felt that
they are very different. This left a small group (12%) that did
not know.

Many additional questions were asked of participants to try to
understand how specific service management functions are viewed
by IT. With a few exceptions, the results supported the overall
view that there is significant overlap between SLM and BSM.

Service management depends upon processes in the organization
and within IT. With the growth of investment in the IT
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) over the past couple of years in
North America, EMA wanted to further understand how ITIL
processes and other process models are being adopted. ITIL
remains a strong contender (47%), though ISO 9000 or 9001 were
rated just a bit higher (55%). We attribute this to the fact
that there were a large number of manufacturing organizations
that responded to the survey. Many enterprises are still
researching ITIL, and one-fifth of the participants did not
recognize the acronym - reflecting a continued need to educate
the market about ITIL's recommendations and how they related to
SLM and BSM.

Market growth in the end depends on real customer purchases.
Continued growth in this segment will require budgets to be
established, products to be evaluated, and money to be spent.
This research revealed that there are budget allocations being
made to some extent, but that there are also a lot of other
priorities. As we all know, there have been serious cutbacks
over the past few years, and now that budgets are opening up, IT
executives need to make a concerted effort to educate their
respective organizations.

EMA has a couple of activities we would like to share with you.
First of all, you are invited to join us to further discuss the
development of service-level agreements and learn some tips on
how to make sure your commitments will be manageable and
effective. This webinar
<http://www.emausa.com/ema_lead.php?ls=sladosnww0905> , entitled
"Do's and Don'ts of Service Level Agreements," will be presented
Sept. 22.

On another topic, EMA is conducting a Web survey exploring
agentless versus agent-based monitoring in systems management.
If you can take a few minutes to complete this survey
<http://www.emausa.com/surveys/ema_msurvey.htm> you will be
provided with the final paper when complete. This survey should
take no more than 5 minutes of your time.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm6907>

2. Volunteers rebuild Gulf Coast communications with wireless
nets <http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm7197>

3. Cell phone tossing contests catching attention abroad
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm7198>

4. Supermarket chain freezes Internet access
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm6555>

5. The rise of the IT architect
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm7020>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Lisa Erickson-Harris

Lisa Erickson-Harris is a research director with Enterprise
Management Associates <http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/> in
Boulder, Colo., a leading analyst and market research firm
focusing exclusively on enterprise infrastructure management.
Lisa has more than 18 years of experience working in all aspects
of IT, including network administration, software development,
product management, and strategic partnership development. Her
current focus at EMA is service-level management, partnership
strategies, and management systems for the SMB/SME environment.

She can be reached via e-mail at
<mailto:erickson-harris@enterprisemanagement.com>
Download a free copy of the new SLM Buyer's Guide at
<http://www.slm-info.org/>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Nortel

Introducing the Nortel Applications Center. An open, multimedia
applications suite created to streamline your applications
environment and transform your business communications.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=110620
_______________________________________________________________
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE

IS IT THE NETWORK OR THE STORAGE THAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Midsize and larger businesses often find their IT topology has
become a complex mix of servers, networks and storage systems.
Many of these companies also route long-haul traffic over
fiber-based networks - metropolitan-area networks, WANs and
private optical networks. Who's responsible when a
storage-related problem occurs on a fiber network? For more,
click here:

<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnsm7021>
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