20 years after the historical event, the breakdown of the Berlin wall dividing East and West , I sit in the lounge of a hotel writing this blog.
Now you may ask what does this have to do with System Center Service Manager (SCSM)?
To answer the question I will give links to the System Center Suite of products where you get detailed information. I will then cover the divide between the products (our Berlin wall) and finally tell you a little bit about SCSM.
The suite is at the time of writing made up of the following
System Center Configuration Manager Product Information
System Center Operations Manager Product Information
System Center Data Protection Manager Product Information
System Center virtual Machine Manager Product Information
The products in the suite individually serve a number of business challenges and help to drive the integration of IT with the business. The overall goal is to turn the suite into a strategic IT asset, drive down business costs, compliment and, enable business IT maturity.
A challenge for implementers and the business who have invested in the suite is the question of integration. The products are loosely technically integrated, fully integrated by brand name and, by a number of licensing models.
Full technical and business process integration requires customization either by in-house expertise or outsourced expertise (products/people).
SCSM addresses the integration challenge of the suite and I believe would be a key enabler to businesses driving to make IT a strategic asset/business differentiator.
SCSM overview:
SCSM is a platform not a product, it provides the integration point for the rest of the suite, enables extensions from partners and drives the automation of business processes.
This is the link to the SCSM site for an extensive overview and resourceshttp://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/service-manager.aspx.
Below are example of integrations and business value derived from the SCSM platform.
Example 1: Configuration Manager and Active Directory
Example 2: Configuration Manager, Operations Manager and Active Directory
The Future
At the beginning of this article I talked about history in order to share the vision of the future. I spent 2 great days at the TAP customer event in Berlin and saw firsthand the direction and commitment by the product team to deliver a future best in breed product to meet a very real and relevant business need. I believe SCSM will shift the paradigm of the traditional service desk tools/products in the market now and shape the future of how we view our service desk.
SCSM beta 2 is available to the public now and is scheduled to go RTM in the first half of 2010.
Try SCSM and look out for more blog articles on implementation tips and best practises from myself and Jannes Alink SCCM MVP (a great friend and colleague)
