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
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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
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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. 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
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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. 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
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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. 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.
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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.
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» 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.
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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.
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» 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.
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» 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
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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.
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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.
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» 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.
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» 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.
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» 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.
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» 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.
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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.
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» 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.
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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.