7 criteria when selecting an itsm tool
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The document outlines 7 criteria for selecting an ITSM tool: 1. Flexibility to adjust the tool via configuration without external consultants. 2. The tool's extensibility to integrate related IT processes. 3. A thorough calculation of the total cost of ownership over 5 years. 4. Reviewing the stability and alignment of the supplier company. 5. Evaluating the tool's out-of-the-box functionality and certifications. 6. Considering different delivery models like SaaS versus on-premises. 7. Ensuring the user interface is intuitive and customizable.
7 criteria when selecting an itsm tool
- 1. How to select the right ITIL tool? 7 criteria when selecting an ITSM tool 20.03.2012 -1- © OMNINET
- 2. Introduction When selecting an ITSM tool, 7 criteria are mostly used. The order and weight of these criteria change per company, depending on things like size, complexity, budget and company specific issues. Of course, every situation is different and we might have missed criteria that are important for your specific situation. And no, we are not independent, we are a tool vendor ourselves and yes, these are the criteria we score on very well. We would like to get your feedback on this list! Mail me (Justus Beek) at: jbe@omninet.biz 20.03.2012 -2- © OMNINET
- 3. Tool compliance – myth and reality Before we start: compliance is important, but you need to see it in perspective: - Standard ITIL software doesn‘t automatically make you compliant to ITIL and/or ISO/IEC 20000. If you take three „ITIL compliant“ Change Management tools you will receive three different ways how software could support this discipline. - A tool will never be responsible for providing compliance to standards but persons are. Auditors are going to ask you questions, not the vendor who has sold you the software. - Forget about the sales myth dealing with automatic compliance if you stick to standard tool functions. It‘s a „red hering“, trying to hide weak tool flexibility and sell it as a benefit. - Out-of-the-box functionality is important, you should consider it as a „building block“, but you will always get a little „off track“ if you want a tool that doesn‘t fit just by 60%. 20.03.2012 -3- © OMNINET
- 4. 1. Flexibility to Adjust ITIL is a set of best practices not a strict guideline. Every company has its own specifics and therefore you need a tool that can cope with that. - You need at least to be able to freely change forms, fields, workflows, escalations, authorization structures and reports. - Making changes should be possible via relatively simple configuration, so you do not require an external consultant for each change. This way you can use external consultants to really add value and help improve your organization, instead of helping you to overcome software problems. - Making changes to the tool should not affect future tool updates or integrations with 3rd party solutions (or other product modules). If it does you will be faced with unexpected costs in the near future. The vendor should put this in writing. 20.03.2012 -4- © OMNINET
- 5. 2. Extensibility in related areas ITIL is not an isolated process, it has many related processes, like project management, activity management, contract management, defect management or requirement management. Being able to integrate these will help you increase efficiency and reduce cost. - A tool should have a powerful and flexible API - Preferably the same tool should be able to include as many related processes as possible, allowing to have a natural integration, instead of a having to develop a link via an API - Several big vendors offer a wide range of processes, mostly under the same brand name. But: these are often actually separate tools, acquired by the vendor and developed using different technologies, so there is no real benefit over using any other tool. - Make sure the vendor commits to keeping the tools compatible when providing new releases, even after making adjustments to them. If not, be prepared for a lot of hidden cost in the coming years. 20.03.2012 -5- © OMNINET
- 6. 3. TCO Costs are important for everybody, make sure you calculate them right. - The tool you select should be there for many years, so calculate the TCO over a period of at least 5 years for a true comparison. - Distinct between ‘named users’ and ‘concurrent users’. You will need much more named users. - Your installation will develop over the years, calculate with a budget for changes to it. - Will your supplier charge extra license costs for adding new modules? Will these new modules lead to extra software installed and therefore to higher operational costs? - What are the operational costs? Include things like hardware requirements, frequency of upgrades and their cost, hosting, regular maintenance tasks. - Include costs for additional requirements, like training, a second instance for testing, etc. 20.03.2012 -6- © OMNINET
- 7. 4. Review the supplier The tool you select will come with a vendor. You’ll want to check them out as well. - How long have they been in business and how are they doing financially? Will they be there in 5 years from now? - How big is the company? Is the tool a strategic one for them, or just a side product to benefit from cross selling opportunities? - How have they grown, by acquisitions or more gradually? Their acquisitions will force you into migrations and increase your cost. - What is their history concerning forcing customers into upgrades and migrations that require extra effort? - Are there external shareholders who dictate the company’s strategy, what is their agenda? - Can you influence the product’s roadmap? - How easy is it to talk to the right people inside the company? - Check out their references 20.03.2012 -7- © OMNINET
- 8. 5. Out of the box functionality Making changes in an easy way is important, but just as important is to have a very rich basis to start with. Beware: this is a tricky one to select a tool upon as many vendors cover the basics and none covers the exact processes in your organization. - What processes are supported and to what extend? - Have they been certified by an independent organization? - Are all modules part of the same license fee, or will you be charged extra for adding processes in the coming years? - Are all processes implemented in the same tool or will you have to install additional software when adding them? - What clients do they support: Windows, Web, Mobile? - What out-of-the-box integrations do they support? 20.03.2012 -8- © OMNINET
- 9. 6. Delivery model ‘SaaS’ or ‘On-Premises’, this discussion has got a lot of attention the past few years. We think a pragmatic view on this is required. - SaaS won‘t automatically solve any compliance issues that might exist in your organisation. - If you want to go SaaS: list the reasons why you would like to do so and take these into your requirements instead of just ‘SaaS’. SaaS itself is not a requirement: ease of maintenance, upgrades, availability, support cost or TCO are. - There are many different ways to implement SaaS, for example pure webbased only SaaS or outsourced on-premises software. - SaaS looks often less expensive, but calculate the 5 or 7 year TCO and you will see for medium sized and large implementations it actually rarely is. - Where would you like your data to be stored? - Outsourcing follows waves, are you ready to get locked-in with a vendor? 20.03.2012 -9- © OMNINET
- 10. 7. Friendly user Interface Several people will need to work in this tool a lot, so you’ll want them to be comfortable when doing so. - What client types are supported (window, web, mobile) - How easy is it to make changes to the forms? - Is it possible to personalize the tool for users? Create your own shortcuts, filters, views, etc.? - How intuitive is the out-of-the-box user interface? - Is there an easy to use End User Portal included? Is this configurable? 20.03.2012 - 10 - © OMNINET
- 11. Provide us your feedback! Let us know according to you which criteria we missed or should not have added! Please connect to us on LinkedIn or Facebook www.omninet.biz http://www.lin kedin.com/co mpany/omnin et-gmbh 20.03.2012 - 11 - © OMNINET