In the previous post, Automated and Unified IT: The Swiss Army Knife of the IT World?, I introduced you to the jack of all trades for IT professionals: a unified and automated service and endpoint management solution. And of that solution, there are multiple value areas that are worth investigating, namely operational efficiencies (which we will address today), reducing IT costs, and improving service quality and compliance.

Most technical operations are considered a thorn in the side of the beast that is IT—a thorn whose negative effects are evident to both IT pros and end users alike. Time spent on routine tasks is far above what it should be, the number of service requests is astronomically high, call details are manually and painstakingly collected, etc.

With the Ivanti Service Manager solution, the coup de grace of IT Service and Endpoint Management solutions, such processes can be improved. Let’s see what an automated solution can really do:

1. Reduce time spent on routine tasks.

Service issues can often gobble up time to resolve and often require a good deal of time spent on routine tasks, such as updating end users on ticket status when the process is not fully automated. Incident Management provides the ability to diagnose problems quickly, determine workarounds, and restore service with: best-practices workflow, escalations, and notification to automate routine tasks; easily accessible knowledge base; drill-through analytics; intelligent ticketing; ITIL best practices workflows; and SLA traffic lights.

The sample organization we tested reduced time spent on routine tasks, such as updating end users on ticket status, by 95%. And was impacted by $232,900 in annual productivity improvements.

2. Reduce the number of service requests into the IT group.

A significant number of calls that come into the service desk are for services that could be standardized fairly easily, but which today take up significant IT time, both in answering calls and in setting up services for other departments. Service Catalog makes it easy to define, publish, and manage services with a drag-and-drop workflow designer and engine, significantly reducing or eliminating IT time needed. In addition, many standard requests can also be completed directly by the user by choosing an option from the service catalog.

The sample organization was able to reduce the number of service requests and the time-per-service request by 10%, with an impact of $296,200.

3. Reduce time spent collecting call details.

Time spent collecting all of the details for any given service call can be extensive. In addition, calls back out to the user might be required if key data is missing and needd before the incident can be addressed, slowing resolution time. Voice Automation speeds resolution time. The service desk technician can answer calls with a pre-populated intelligent ticket that provides immediate access to the customer’s contact information, PC inventory, and compliance information for easy routing to the correct area for resolution. The automated attendant may also be used as the primary interface to provide extended after-hours support.

The sample organization reduced the time spent collecting call details by 40 percent, with an impact of $108,000 in annual productivity improvements.

4. Reduce time spent creating software packages.

Whether it’s provisioning new employees or managing a mass migration, package configuration is one of the most time-consuming software management tasks. Ivanti Endpoint Management solutions allow packages to be created quickly and easily, as well as making it easy to find the right drivers. In addition to time saved, these tools allow the work to be done by a broader group of people since the level of technical expertise required is reduced.

The sample organization was able to reduce the time needed to build packages by 85 percent per package, with a $120,000 impact in annual productivity improvements.

5. Reduce time spent on application deployments.

The ever-increasing complexity in client computing— including new devices (laptops, notepads, smart phones); new delivery methods (cloud computing, hosted virtual desktops); new users, and new platforms—make application deployment difficult and time consuming. Ivanti Endpoint Management solutions automate application management tasks with a single-console interface for packaging, testing, deploying, and configuring software applications. Software sets can be created quickly and easily, and then applications can be deployed automatically to users based on criteria such as job description, location, department, or individual user profile.

The sample organization reduced the time spent on application deployments by 95 percent per machine, with $465,800 in annual productivity improvements.

The persistent difficulties that plague IT ops—and eventually affect an end users’ experience—can be a thing of the past with an automated and unified solution. That thorn in the flesh is no more! One deployment officer claimed an automated solution “reduced the time needed to build each software package from as much as a day down to about one hour.”

To see how IT costs can be reduced, one of the three value props associated with an automated and unified IT solution, click through to the next blog in the series: 3 Ways of Reducing IT Costs With Ivanti’s Unified IT Approach.

And to see how the Ivanti Service Manager solution could help your organization, download the full whitepaper here.

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