As modern enterprises grow, so do the demands, complexity and scope of their IT systems, reports ICCM Solutions. Many organizations it says have responded to managing their IT by outsourcing to managed services providers (MSPs): but with their multi-million IT investments in the hands of third parties, what checks and balances are in place? And how can they ensure they are at the centers of their MSPs’ world? The firm says business leaders take a huge leap of faith in selecting MSPs, so it is vital that they ensure their IT infrastructures are in the most capable hands possible.

Hearing these concerns, Adapt, one of Europe’s leading MSPs, has pioneered a flexible approach, based on its ITIL e-Service Desk solution from ICCM Solutions (News - Alert), that puts all of its clients’ technical, contractual and asset inventory information within easy reach for complete transparency in managed services delivery. Chosen in 2009, ITIL Service Management is now a core component of Adapt’s undertaking to provide 24/7 service desk operations to all of its 1,200 enterprise clients. In this fashion its clients can trust and have faith in the work that Adapt performs for them.

The cornerstone of the services Adapt offers is a web-based portal view of each client’s IT infrastructure. From this portal, business and IT managers can analyze reports of their individual Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

e-Service Desk from ICCM Solutions allows Adapt to provide multi-layer SLAs ranging from corporate response rates down to granular mission-critical asset types. It supplies Adapt’s clients with a comprehensive view and reporting capability of their managed IT properties. Business and IT managers can via the solution continually demonstrate productivity and return on investment (ROI) of their MSPs, while ensuring their resources are concentrated on core business activities.

“We were looking for a highly functional, flexible and best-of-breed ITIL Service Desk solution,” explains Lee O’Neill, Operations Director at Adapt. “It was clear after a review of ICCM’s technology that it could add significant value to our service.”

ICCM’s technology is built on business process management architecture (BPM) which assists in realising business function improvements, IT strategy and their joint execution. This has enabled Adapt to offer a range of value added services to its managed service clients.

“We’re able to configure each of our clients’ SLA’s to match their exacting needs,” says O’Neill. “We’re even able to offer a granular level of support to individual asset classes to support business critical IT. All of our clients are unique and have different response requirements to suit their operational activities; with our offering we can now support them via our distinctive SLA approach. We can only do that because we used ICCM’s BPM service desk technology.

“In addition, if an unexpected event occurs we can now set automated and predetermined triggers with a specific output. These directly correlate to our unique SLA approach. For example, if there is a failure in a mission-critical asset classification class outside of normal office hours, but the SLA requires a four hour fix, the ticket can effectively be raised and an automatic trigger will ensure it is redirected overseas to ensure a resolution within the agreed SLA.”

With ICCM’s e-Service Desk, Adapt has built a range of services centred on reduction of cost ownership, negation of risk and avoidance of managing complex IT systems. This flexible approach is only achievable due to the Metastorm (News - Alert) BPM software that underpins the ICCM ITIL compliant e-Service Desk.

Adapt’s services are also available via a self-service portal, which also increases the value offering to Adapt’s Managed Service clients.

“Via the portal we can report back a 360 degree view of the service we supply, from our SLA adherence and consolidation of Service Desk activity through to a repository of all historical documentation between the two organisations,” explains O’Neill. “That means if one of my team is onsite they can upload literature through the portal to which all stakeholders have instant access.

“Though a methodology called Software Network Monitoring Process and a combination of the ICCM BPM approach, we can take an automated and proactive stance in monitoring the IT estate. We’ve even been able to build and offer a service health check capability that links directly into the ICCM e-Service Desk. When one of these scans occurs on the IT estate and an issue is identified, we can raise an automatic notice into the ICCM e-Service Desk, which in turn conforms to the customer-specific SLA.”

The portal services include:

--Key performance indicators/information management 
--Support queries
--SLA monitoring
--Hardware asset management
--Software patch release strategy
--Bandwidth usage
--Financial controls
--Incident management and trend analysis
--Topology
--Historical issue and issue resolution
--Track and review tickets

The ICCM e-Service Desk has paid off for Adapt. With its aid the MSP has seen increased sales of 58 percent on average per year from 2006 to 2009. The end user efficiencies which have been demonstrated in the MSP market by Adapt, says ICCM Solutions have only been achievable by the recognition of the flexibility of the ICCM solution and the approach Adapt has taken.

“Adapt has successfully identified the importance of looking at the long term investment opportunity of our technology,” says James Gay, CEO, ICCM Solutions. “It has clearly understood the risk/rewards of BPM and has been able to shape and successfully implement new revenue models in one of its core business services. 

“Adapt looked at the ITIL Service Desk as a strategic investment rather than just a purely technology venture. This resulted in Adapt considering the external impact ICCM technology would have on its client base. What it saw and has now developed are flexible new business models linked directly to our e-Service Desk. Innovation, flexibility and foresight have empowered Adapt to add value to its Managed Services offering and, more importantly, increase revenue and customer retention.”

Utilizing the benefits of ITIL requires thorough training. The RCCSP Professional Education Alliance provides just that with a comprehensive array of ITIL classes. Please visit these sites or call (708) 246-0320 for more information.