ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Essentials E-Book

Ankush Agarwal

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 102

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

IT service management (ITSM) refers to the implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the needs of your business. ServiceDesk Plus is an integrated web-based helpdesk tool that assists you in planning, setting up, and achieving the timely execution of IT services efficiently.

ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Essentials is a practical, hands-on guide that walks you through the features of ServiceDesk Plus 8.x to help you set up and manage day-to-day IT services. The book also helps you to understand and practice the ITIL methodologies while using the tool for daily operations.

ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Essentials conceptualizes the ITIL framework and takes you through the core processes and their implementation in ServiceDesk Plus 8.x in an easy and practical manner.

The book will also help you to learn the process flows and manage incidents, problems, assets, and configurations while understanding the scope and responsibilities of the helpdesk. It also takes you through controlling changes and releases and highlights the features of the tools. If you need a concise handbook for a complete understanding of the metrics, challenges and risks of ITSM, then you have found the right book.

With ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Essentials, you will learn everything you need to know to administer and manage IT services using ServiceDesk Plus, while making ITIL concepts practical and fun.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Essential

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewer

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Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Conceptualizing IT Service Management

Understanding IT Service Management (ITSM)

Differentiating between process and function

Differentiating between Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Operational Level Agreement (OLA)

Differentiating between Service Portfolio and Service Catalog

Deleting a Service Category

Summary

2. Managing Incidents and Problems

Understanding the purpose, objective, and scope of Incident and Problem Management

Understanding Incident Management

Understanding Problem Management

Stipulating the requirements for Incident and Problem Management

Understanding the IPM process flow

Implementing the Incident Management process flow

Step 1 – identifying and logging incidents

Step 2 – categorizing incidents

Step 3 – prioritizing incidents

Step 4 – diagnosing incidents

Step 5 – escalating incidents

Step 6 – resolving and recovering from the incident

Step 7 – closing the incident

Implementing the Problem Management process flow

Step 1 – detecting the problem

Step 2 – logging the problem

Step 3 – categorizing the problem

Step 4 – prioritizing the problem

Step 5 – investigating and diagnosing the problem

Step 6 – resolving and closing the problem

Establishing the roles and responsibilities of ServiceDesk Plus

Assessing risks and identifying metrics

Summary

3. Managing Assets and Configuration

Understanding the purpose, objective, and scope of IT Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM)

Managing assets via Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

Step 1 – deciding and configuring CI Types

Step 2 – populating CIs

Method 1 – using a CSV file

Method 2 – adding new CIs manually

Method 3 – Windows Domain Scan

Method 4 – Network Scan

Method 5 – importing from the Active Directory

Step 3 – creating the Information Model

Managing Software Assets

Tracking software and licenses

Managing purchase orders

Managing contracts

Summary

4. Controlling Changes and Releases

Understanding the purpose, objective, and scope of Change and Release Management

Understanding the process flow

Implementing the Change Management process flow

Step 1 – creating and recording the RFC

Step 2 – reviewing the RFC

Step 3 – assessing and evaluating the change

Step 4 – authorizing changes

Step 5 – coordinating implementation

Step 6 – performing a post-implementation review

Step 7 – closing the Change Record

Implementing the Release Management process flow

Step 1 – planning the release

Step 2 – preparing for build, test, and deployment

Step 3 – building and testing

Step 4 – testing service and pilots

Step 5 – preparing for deployment

Step 6 – performing deployment

Step 7 – verifying

Step 8 – offering early-life support

Step 9 – reviewing and closing the record

Establishing the roles and responsibilities of the service desk

Assessing risks and identifying metrics

Summary

5. Service Desk – Where the Value Is Realized

Service desk – the visible face of the business

Establishing the critical roles and responsibilities

Managing events

Raising event notifications

Comparing event correlations

Managing incidents

Managing problems

Fulfilling service requests

Managing access

Other processes

Understanding the value-adding responsibilities

Understanding Knowledge Management

Generating reports

Using predefined ServiceDesk Plus reports

Using custom reports

Using query reports

Using flash reports

Using scheduled reports

Managing the administrative and housekeeping tasks

Understanding the challenges, critical success factors, and risks

Understanding the challenges

Understanding the critical success factors

Assessing risks

Summary

6. Making Life Easier – Handy Features

Revisiting the knowledge base

Using the remote control

Controlling with e-mail commands

Archiving data for housekeeping

Conducting user surveys

Summary

Index

ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Essentials

ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Essential

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: August 2013

Production Reference: 1200813

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

5 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84969-664-7

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Abhishek Pandey (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Author

Ankush Agarwal

Reviewer

James Gander

Acquisition Editor

Vinay Argekar

Commissioning Editor

Manasi Pandire

Technical Editor

Akashdeep Kundu

Project Coordinator

Amigya Khurana

Proofreader

Judith Bill

Indexers

Monica Ajmera Mehta

Tejal Soni

Graphics

Disha Haria

Production Coordinator

Pooja Chiplunkar

Cover Work

Pooja Chiplunkar

About the Author

Ankush Agarwal has been working in the IT Service Management domain, as well as conducting internal organization training, for more than eight years. He likes writing about service technologies and processes and has also won blogging awards in this space. He has been involved in setting up and managing various service desk teams and is currently associated with a top-tier Investment Bank.

I wish to personally thank my teams, seniors, and managers throughout my career who always trusted me with critical responsibilities during both tough and not-so-tough times. Their belief and support has helped me learn the fine details of the otherwise complicated process flows and service architectures. The on-the-job experience has also helped me relate with practical challenges and contributed in making this book more realistic and closer to the people on the ground.



I would also like to thank my wife and two-year-old son, who had to cope with my diverted attention and sacrificed late nights and weekends. I am keeping this short, to make it up to them.

About the Reviewer

James Gander, the Director of Gander Service Management Ltd, is an ITIL accredited Service Manager with over 10 years experience in managing, mentoring, and leading IT support teams in the UK, India, and New Zealand, across Outsource, Utilities, Media and Broadcast, Public Health, and Tertiary Education environments. He consults and advises Service Desks and IT Operations support teams, enabling continuous improvement whilst also delivering a stable operational environment.

James is also an accomplished people manager, varying from small local teams to large multinational teams and is experienced in strategic thinking to drive improvements and change.

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Preface

ManageEngine's ServiceDesk Plus is a web-based help desk and Asset Management software program used to manage, monitor, and maintain IT assets and services in an organization. The software uses ITIL terminologies and framework and focuses majorly on Asset Management and IT request tracking.

ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Essentials is a mini handbook for Admins, Managers, and staffs involved in providing IT services to users/customers. The objective of the book is to help readers to set up and use these IT services effectively within the ITSM context. The concepts are explained using the trusted ITIL® framework, to also assist in a better understanding of ITIL methodology, while using the ServiceDesk Plus software.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Conceptualizing IT Service Management,serves as a platform to provide a common understanding of the basic ITSM concepts and clarify the fine differences between frequently misinterpreted terms.

Chapter 2, Managing Incidents and Problems,introduces the purpose, objective, and scope of Incident and Problem Management (IPM) and will help the reader in setting up the process activities and interfaces for having a standard IPM process in their team/division/organization.

Chapter 3, Managing Assets and Configuration,explains the objective and scope of IT assets and Configuration Management and will help the reader in discovering and managing IT assets, as well as managing the software and hardware inventory and handling purchase and contractual agreements.

Chapter 4, Controlling Changes and Releases,explains the purpose, objective, and scope of Change Management and Release Management and will establish their connection with the IPM Process, and also cites the different types of changes and the framework used to effectively manage each of them.

Chapter 5, Service Desk – Where the Value Is Realized, explains why the Help Desk lies at the core of Service Management and how this function can be used to control critical processes.

Chapter 6, Making Life Easier – Handy Features,covers the miscellaneous features in the tool to aid in the day-to-day tasks.

What you need for this book

ServiceDesk Plus 8.x Enterprise EditionA compatible browser (Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 3.6, or Google Chrome being the minimum versions)

Who this book is for

This book is for all:

IT Help Desk Managers looking forward to optimize and streamline IT Support OperationsIT Help Desk Administrators responsible for managing service levels by efficiently managing requests and IT Support StaffIT Support Staff looking to use ServiceDesk Plus features while gaining a better understanding of the ITIL framework

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "In case of failures, FailedCIList.csv file could be used from the Imported Result page to correct the errors and resubmit, in order to avoid duplicates."

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "The incident could also be logged from the Quick Actions dropdown and selecting Create new | Incident."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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Errata