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

1

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.

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. It’s 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.

WHAT YOU’LL 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.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Evaluating the BMC Remedyforce Alignability Process Model

2

LET’S 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.

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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.”

You’re 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.

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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.

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.

Notice how easy it is to switch

between process models?

We’ve designed the BMC

Remedyforce interface to be

simple to use in a busy Service

Desk environment.

» 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. It’s 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 PRODUCTIVITYThe 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.

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SERVICE DESK COSTSIn 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:

“Cloud-based Remedyforce will increase IT resource availability and customer sat-isfaction at lower cost — at a time when cutting costs without sacrificing quality is 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.

8

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.

WHAT YOU’LL 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. You’ll also get to walk through the

process of exporting data to an external file.

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

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Reporting

9

LET’S 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.

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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.”

» Click on the “Categories” link at the top of the list. You’ll 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.

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

You can view and configure out-

of-the-box reports or you can

create custom reports to meet

your organization’s 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.

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 we’ll

explore next.

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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, let’s try a simple customization. From the “Jump to Step” menu, select “Select Columns” and click on “client

email” (and anything else you’d 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 RATEA 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 VOLUMEHelp 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 COSTFor 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:

““In the past, we didn’t have tools that enabled us to do the best job possible. Sometimes issues fell through the cracks, which meant that our users were not always completely happy with our service. With BMC Remedyforce, IT staff mem-bers 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 if the same problem occurred before or if we’re having mul-tiple problems with a 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.

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INTRODUCING THE SELF-SERVICE PORTAL

Why do effective IT organizations offer self-service features for their users? It’s 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.

WHAT YOU’LL 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.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Evaluating the BMC Remedyforce Self-Service Portal

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LET’S 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 pass-word 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.)

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.

The most popular service requests are

listed here. A great deal of time can be

saved by using these templates.

Check for important updates in the scrolling bar

and the “Broadcasts” section. This can save you

the time of creating tickets about known issues.

Search for solutions

to problems.

Any service requests you

create will appear here.

View the frequently asked

questions and responses

from the Knowledge Base.

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6. Create Service Requests.

Let’s assume that you’ve 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, let’s 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 there’s nothing in the Knowledge Base for this particular problem. Let’s 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 RATEOrganizations 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 INCIDENTSelf-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 they’re 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 that’s delivered via your self-

service portal. In addition, you need to make sure that it’s 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:

““BMC Remedyforce will save us approximately 25 percent the first year, and will cut our costs nearly in half in years two and three.”

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.

2 1

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 that’s 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 won’t 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 doesn’t just facilitate the clear display of critical data —

investigate whether it’s 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. It’s very easy to publish and monitor

broadcasts — and at any time — you can access the underlying details for the information

displayed in the dashboard.

WHAT YOU’LL 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 what’s 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.

YOU WILL NEED: 15 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Evaluating the BMC Remedyforce Service Desk Agent Dashboards

2 2

LET’S 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 pass-word 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.

2 3

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.)

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.

In the “Workspaces” panel, you

can review the best-practice

process documentation and

flowcharts

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 MATTERThe presentation and configuration of information in an agent’s 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 RATEThe 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 that’s 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 PRODUCTIVITYThe 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.

2 7

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. There’s also seamless

integration with other essential IT service management features, including problem,

change, and configuration management.

WHAT YOU’LL 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.

YOU WILL NEED: 15 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Incident Management

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LET’S 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.

Let’s assume we get a call to the help desk on that old favorite — the forgotten password. We’ll use a built-in

template to make the logging and resolution of this issue a rapid and consistent process.

2 9

» 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 can’t 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 can’t 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-user’s name. Then, click on “Smith, Sally.”

» Click on the “Save” icon.

3 0

4. Review an Incident record.

Let’s take some time to explore the Incident record you just created.

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.

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.

Check here to see a quick

visual status of the incident.

The impact level is defined by the help

desk agent that’s creating the ticket.

Urgency can either be driven by the end

users (how important it feels to them)

or the category.

3 1

» 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, let’s 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 isn’t 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.

3 2

» 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 SATISFACTIONCustomer 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 you’ve 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 ADHERENCEThis 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 you’re providing optimal levels of incident management.

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

3 3

HELP DESK AGENT SATISFACTIONHelp desk agent satisfaction is often overlooked, but it can actually be a deeply revealing measurement of

your incident management services — in fact, there’s 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.

3 4

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 there’s a clear history of everything

that took place throughout the problem management process.

WHAT YOU’LL 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. You’ll 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.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Problem Management

3 5

LET’S 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.

3 6

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.

3 7

» 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.

3 8

» 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 VOLUMEOrganizations that become accomplished in problem management tend to reduce their overall incident volume

over time — largely as a function of fewer recurrent problems. It’s 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.

4 0

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 organization’s 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 — it’s 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, there’s an intuitive assessment and approval process.

WHAT YOU’LL 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. You’ll 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.

YOU WILL NEED: 10 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Change Management

4 1

LET’S 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.”

4 2

» 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.

4 3

» 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, let’s 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.

4 4

» The approval record should appear.

» Review the change request information that’s 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. It’s 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 CHANGESIt’s 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.

4 5

INCIDENTS RESULTING FROM CHANGESIt’s 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 CHANGESIt’s 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.

4 6

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 haven’t 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.com’s 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.

WHAT YOU’LL 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.

YOU WILL NEED: 5 MINUTES

WATCH THE VIDEO NOW

Evaluating BMC Remedyforce Chatter Integration

4 7

LET’S 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.”

4 8

» 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.

4 9

» 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 who’s 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 that’s 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 VOLUMEUsing 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 COLLABORATIONMany 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 there’s 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

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.

*212717*

BUSINESS RUNS ON IT. IT RUNS ON BMC SOFTWARE.Business thrives when IT runs smarter, faster and stronger. That’s 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.

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.