HCLT Whitepaper : Business Service Management via Remote Infrastructure Management: Gateway to Business Service Availability

White Paper |
Business Service Management via
Remote Infrastructure Management:
Gateway to Business Service Availability

January 2008

MarketPOWER
™

Business Service Management via Remote Infrastructure
Management: Gateway to Business Service Availability

Table of Contents

SECTION PAGE

The Problem 3

Path to a Solution: Business Service Management 4

BSM Benefits 5

The Road to BSM 5

BSM + RIM = BSA 6

BSA in Action: Customer Case Briefs 8

page 2 of 10 ©2008 MarketPOWER, LLC. All rights reserved. MarketPOWER
™


core competency, leave it to us.” However…let’s
The Problem have a look, together, at the way IT for the most
Today's IT environments are a complex part has been running itself: with manual, labor-
landscape, nearly always encompassing multiple intensive processes. Siloed operations, definitely
technologies and providers. The key to effective between telecom and LAN/systems groups but
IT management is to see beyond individual also, between regions, buildings and even
devices and connections to get a true picture of departments.
how each resource affects the applications and MarketPOWER’s research indicates that only
business processes it supports. 40% of software buyers are using
management tools to manage outsourcing.
When resources go out of service and downtime The reasons why the other 60% are not using
occurs, IT departments find themselves deviating such tools or are having negative experiences
from established processes as they race to restore with those they are attempting to deploy range
networks, performing ad hoc fixes and expending from staffing shortages and lack of technical
time, energy and resources on problems that expertise among the staff they do have to
workaday issues such as project backlogs,
could probably wait while leaving more pressing
which prevent or delay their adoption of new
[read: business-impacting] issues unattended. toolsets; and the fact that these deployment
exercises are driving support costs through
Yet even beyond the realm of problems and fixes, the roof. However, fully 40% of those surveyed
on any given day you’ll increasingly find top cited the fact that these tools are simply not
executives demanding that their IT leaders prove aligned with their businesses.
the value of IT to the business, “support, not
disrupt” the business and explain it all in Wakeup call: it’s time to run IT like a business.
business, not technology terms. Worse, top
management is increasingly accusing IT leaders It is IT’s new business imperative: you must align
of aligning with their own technology agendas or IT to your organization’s business. If you run IT
the latest buzzwords, not aligning with the like a technology shop, it’s a cost center, and
business. especially these days that is no way to be. On the
other hand, if you run IT like a business, you can
To those of us charged with leading, align it to your business.
implementing and managing our companies’ IT
environments, it sounds pretty tough and a bit The market offers clues and some pretty clear
unfair, right? precedent for this in the form of next-generation
asset management (NGAM), which, to put it in its
Not so fast. There’s a reason why IT seems to simplest form, is the intersection of traditional
find itself in the crosshairs today: the cobbler’s asset management with IT service management
children have no shoes. (ITSM). In this brave new NGAM world, assets
are no longer simply devices and other resources
“Huh?” tucked away in static databases; they are living,
dynamic entities in the business environment.
I’ll make it clearer: IT practitioner, heal thyself. Like NGAM and the assets it manages, IT is not a
cost to be minimized but an asset to be optimized.
“I still don’t understand.” IT as cost center is being replaced by a new
equation: IT = business/revenue/retention driver.
OK: for a long time now IT has been the business
of automating everyone else’s processes in OK, so we know where we’re headed. Yet if
whatever organization(s) it happens to serve. we’re not careful, our journey may be delayed or
While we’re at it we tell them, “IT is not your even derailed by some time-honored fallacies still
on the loose in the corporate IT world, chief

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among them: “Outsource and forget it.”
Outsourcing will do magical wonders for the Path to a Solution: Business
organization and we no longer have to give it Service Management
another thought.
Business service management (BSM) takes into
Time again to separate fact from fiction. True, we account people, processes and tools, mapping
can outsource functions, tasks and processes, but business processes to the IT Infrastructure Library
we cannot “outsource thinking;” Like it or not, I (ITIL) and, as you have probably guessed,
as the customer cannot (or should not) wash my trending away from device-oriented views toward
hands of my IT and let my outsourcer do all the business- and service-oriented views.
thinking for me from this point forward. What we
need is not “outsourcing” in the old-line, hand- BSM tools are aimed at helping network
off-network-to-outsourcer, turn-off-brain sense; executives prioritize IT projects and develop
it’s a new approach we term collaborative solutions based on policies that align IT with
sourcing. Creating an IT automation platform (IT business goals, processes and services. With
ERP framework) for IT management tools and IT existing network management systems already
processes, where the IT automation platform collecting volumes of data on network, system
serves as an engine for running IT like a business: and application health and performance, the next
an actionable IT service management framework. step is to correlate IT data and processes with
business performance.
Now let’s take a moment and make sure we are
clear about the three key actors in the IT drama: BSM empowers IT to focus its software and
systems on the IT applications, services and
• Functional processes, such as the IT asset processes that are the most important to the
lifecycle process, portfolio management, business, so IT can ensure the health of those
change management business processes regardless of where they are in
• Domain and people: everything from the IT landscape. In the event of network outages,
human resources to networks and servers. BSM can help IT rapidly restore the most critical
• Tools, which are what the framework we systems first, and if performance degradations
want is built around; here we define tools as may impact crucial business systems, BSM can
reusable components including software, not only alert IT to the problem but shape its
processes, best practices and policy recommendations based on business goals.
templates…light-years beyond simply
“software.” In one sense, BSM may simply be a long-awaited
manifestation in the realm of corporate enterprise
We will implement this framework in three steps: computing of a battle that has been long since
first get a handle on day-to-day operations. Next fought and in many cases won in the telecom
get far more granular and specific in order to market: moving up the stack from mere physical
optimize those operations. Finally, transform our device management and reporting to logical
IT operations such that we have fully aligned management of networks and systems based on
them with the business. The realization of that the hierarchy of “the greater (or higher-revenue)
transformation is best described as the practice of good.” In this way it is reminiscent of how the
business service management (BSM). enterprise market, in conjunction with its
recognition of “living, breathing” assets in
NGAM, is now on a headlong love affair with the
concept of the configuration management
database (CMDB)…which to some of us looks a
lot like the centralized, automated inventory
management systems we were beginning to

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provide to service providers around the turn of the not just the latest problem that crops up.
century. Revenue-generating activities such as order
processing are prioritized in the event of an
Yet while the concepts behind BSM may not be outage ahead of internally-focused systems such
earth-shaking in all adjacent industries, they do as HR. Correlation capabilities inherent in BSM
provide a pathway to crystal-clear understanding compare IT metrics such as network latency,
of how technology impacts our business, server utilization and application availability
regardless of which industry that business is in. against business metrics like orders taken during
BSM directly ties everything we do in the course certain measured time periods.
of managing networks, systems and applications
to the business we are supporting. It changes the The Road to BSM
data we seek, the way we present that data and to Implementing BSM in your operations starts with
whom it is presented. what is still a quantum leap to many of us: linking
BSM Benefits IT components to IT/communications services.
You then follow that great first step by in turn
Achieving BSM means managing IT from the linking those IT and communications services to
perspective of the business and sharing the same business processes and services. Taking this all
goals (and concerns) as the business: growing the way is crucial. In IT, we need to know how
revenue, lowering cost and reducing risk. With components are connected and configured to
BSM you can link customer experiences and deliver the service, e.g., the servers and content
business processes to the underlying components, delivery systems that ensure the flow of corporate
provide end-to-end management of business e-mail. You need to integrate performance
transactions, manage complexity and rapidly monitoring, analysis, configuration and process
resolve performance issues. tools into a working whole. What the business
needs is simple: “I turned to IT and IT delivered
BSM enables IT to align its daily activities, me an e-mail service.”
prioritize the distribution of IT resources and
guide future investments according to business- BSM software typically resides on a dedicated
impact metrics. BSM can also reduce service server which is used to identify business
disruptions by improving your visibility into the processes, model services and set policies based
performance of your networks, systems, and on business needs. All business services (or
related components. It is as if rather than simply sometimes just the most crucial ones) are
“watching everything to manage the network”— modeled in software, and from there the model
although any good IT manager will do that, too— helps to specify the network, server, storage,
with BSM you will be watching with more of a database and application elements that combine to
focused purpose: to try to assure that nothing deliver the service. BSM systems may collect
threatens your company’s crucial services and data from managed devices via agents embedded
applications, and reacting appropriately if it does. in the network or simply by polling (pinging)
devices using SNMP GET commands to monitor
While BSM can help IT do better, it can also help network health and availability. The BSM system
IT do a better job letting others know how it is will send fault or performance events to IT when,
doing. It can help you understand, and for example, a slow server threatens to affect a
demonstrate to top management, how what IT is business service or a link is cut that causes a
doing is delivering measurable improvements in service outage.
key business processes.
BSM tools must include advanced correlation and
BSM helps you prioritize your IT systems around analysis capabilities scalable to handle high
processes that carry the highest business values, volumes of events across multiple domains and

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have built-in intelligence (or at least policies) that associated with that older model. Unlike
recommend ready solutions; the best tools take traditional outsourcing arrangements, RIM does
this a step further by also providing automated not entail the transfer of an enterprise's assets or
event resolution. personnel to the solution provider or data center.
Instead, a solution provider continuously
BSM is not a single, standalone tool; it is an monitors the customer’s networks and systems
approach, methodology or best practice that can (and often its applications/services), identify
be achieved through a total solution incorporating potential problems and resolve problems from a
software, hardware, improved processes and other remote location.
human factors. You cannot (at least truthfully)
cobble together a tool or two and say, “I’m Delivering true BSM via the RIM delivery
delivering BSM.” mechanism would create an ideal solution for
most business today, and we believe those best
It may seem obvious, but BSM is not business equipped to provide these solutions to the market
impact management, where systems would react are managed service providers (MSPs). In our
to network faults/outages or degrading ideal scenario the MSP owns the software license
performance conditions by merely isolating the and offers the customer several delivery options,
affected applications and users/customers. BSM the most important of which is software as a
is proactive; if you have deployed a true BSM service (SaaS); the customer does not have to buy
solution it will alert IT to things like congested a single software license unless it insists (as some
links and overloaded servers before a slowdown companies do in the interest of maintaining
renders your key business apps useless. internal software asset control).

BSM + RIM = BSA MarketPOWER research indicates that companies
BSM can deliver game-changing benefits to your of all types—even in the operations/business
business, but it is not for the faint of heart. It support systems (OSS/BSS) market, where
involves a massive amount of data collection multimillion-dollar, multi-year custom software
across network and business systems, as well as development and integration contracts have been
the ability to maintain, manage and make sense of as predictable as the sun coming up in the
it as measured against business processes. morning—are increasingly telling us, “I do not
want one more company to sell me another piece
Many customers do not know “BSM” by name of software.” Instead they want to buy software
but want the results it can deliver. Some vendors via SaaS or as part of a long-term managed
“sell BSM” but do not truly deliver it. Most are in services contract.
a hurry to “develop something” (and reap
millions through multi-year contracts before the So an MSP’s engagement model gives it an
customer ever sees a penny of benefit). advantage over many competitors, particularly the
“develop first, ask questions later” crowd.
As BSM is on the rise, another trend is
MarketPOWER is projecting that applications
developing around IT service management
delivered via the SaaS model will command
delivery mechanisms. As CIOs become 30% of the software market by 2010.
comfortable with remote management of
infrastructure planning, administration, Some of the leading providers of SaaS are
monitoring and problem-solving, a new model— currently doubling their year-over-year revenues,
remote infrastructure management outsourcing, or mostly because they are delivering not just SaaS
RIM—is emerging to help buyers gain the hoped- but customer cost savings verging on 80-90%
for benefits of asset ownership transfer without over previous deployed solutions. More
the sometimes nightmarish costs and risks importantly in the long run, those customers are

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enjoying a 50% higher deployment success rate a. End-user computing
than companies deploying operations and b. Platform operations and data center
management systems via the traditional route c. Network services
(upfront software purchase, installation and d. IT security services
integration). e. Application operations
f. Technology consulting/IT transformation
An MSP with a good working knowledge of
delivering BSM over RIM leverages a customer’s Figure BSA-1: Four-layer business process
embedded technologies and platforms to deliver model
solutions, and the software it does develop can
take the form of dashboards and analytics that lay
the foundation for what we term “co-sourcing”
collaboration with the customer and
partnership/coopetition with software and IT
infrastructure companies.

So as we continue our journey, most of you will
have grasped the concept that this new disruptive
trend toward outsourcing RIM transcends all
previous simplistic notions of “managing SLAs.”
In fact, MarketPOWER asserts that in so doing,
the industry is creating an entirely new category
that we term business service availability (BSA).

A typical BSA customer engagement in would
consist of these components:

1. Functional consulting using a Process
Reference Model built on Industry
Standards such as ITILv3, CoBIT,
ISO2000 and ISO27001.
2. An automation framework is a must, as are
solution accelerators, which means fast As reflected in Figure BSA-1, provided by HCL,
deployment of a solution that from day one a leading MSP, infrastructure practices drive
provides a rapidly-reconfigurable solution service automation and solution accelerators via
so businesses can make changes “on the functional consulting to drive true lifecycle
fly” as business conditions change. management that delivers a business process;
3. IT event automation, where all monitoring components of that process include business
tools are sourced and assimilated. launch, operations, performance optimization,
4. IT process automation, which is where all strategy & planning. The BSA solution would be
“human workflows” reside. provided through one of three management center
5. IT task automation, which encompasses all models:
management, task and administrative
processes and activities. • Dedicated resources: the MSP provides
6. IT business automation, which encapsulates management center, tools and resources
business-facing reporting and workflows. dedicated to the customer
7. IT technology domain practices and • Dedicated people, shared tools: MSP
consulting to make sure BSM practices are provides a dedicated team of people to the
flowed through: customer but tools (primarily management

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software applications) are provided on a A global leader in the semiconductor industry has
shared basis, usually through a hosted SaaS deployed event, process and task automation to
or application service provider (ASP) reap benefits including:
arrangement
• Shared resources: MSP provides both tools • Shorter mean time to repair (MTTR)
and people on a shared basis • 1,000:1 reduction in “false positives” in its
network testing and reconciliation
BSA customer engagements are occurring today processes
in three phases: • Integration of its infrastructure and
application operations, which paved the
1. Phase one, assessment, leverages co- way for its achievement of certification in
sourcing assessment methodology (CSAM) ISO 20000
to perform a detailed assessment of the • Massive reductions in the time it takes to
client’s current IT environment as the provision applications, services and
foundation for a detailed roadmap for network devices
potential transition of services. Each
service’s transition characteristics are MarketPOWER note: ISO 20000 is the world's
assessed against parameters such as ease of first standard for IT service management,
transition, risk and savings available from formerly known as BS 15000; the standard
offshore delivery. specifies a set of interrelated management
processes and is based on ITIL.
2. Phase two, transition, focuses on speed of
transition for service support, stability and
A Fortune 200 financial services company has
continuity of service delivery, minimizing
implemented a combination of event and business
risk and establishing service delivery SLAs
automation strategies and as a result:
with a process documentation foundation.
3. Phase three, transformation, is designed to
• It is benefiting from business service
maximize the benefits of RIM and upgrade
impact measurement and analysis that have
service capability in areas such as support,
given the organization at long last a
often via more efficient processes, better
business process view of IT
documentation and/or event correlation to
• Its IT team has slashed network and
improve problem identification.
application problem resolution times across
BSA in Action: the enterprise
Customer Case Briefs This document has extensively described the
The ROI/ROA benefits of BSA will vary from benefits of running IT as a business,
customer to customer, but here are two real-world implementing BSM and taking BSM a step
examples of business results currently being further by deploying it via BSMoR to arrive at
achieved by customers who have followed this BSA. Industry theory is beginning to be replaced
strategy to align their IT operations with their by enterprises, service providers and government
businesses. entities with the vision and commitment to
implement these beneficial models to serve their
organizations. If your organization is not yet
among them, the time is right and the time is now.
For more information contact MarketPOWER,
LLC at +1 760 643 0921 or
action@marketpowerLLC.com .

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About the Authors

Jeffrey Paul Cotrupe is CEO of MarketPOWER, LLC http://marketpowerLLC.com which he
founded in 2003. Cotrupe is a former practice leader at Gartner and director at ADC
Telecommunications (Nasdaq: ADCT) who helped relaunch a research practice at RHK
(now Ovum); alumni of that RHK service are the founding partners of research firm OSS
Observer. Cotrupe has provided analyst services to Yankee Group and strategic consulting
services from the Silicon Valley to a spinoff of Telecom Italia; relaunched companies and
helped others win tens of millions in Series A-B-C venture capital funding; and conceived,
designed, named and launched products/features/companies including Stratecast (a
division of Frost & Sullivan). Cotrupe earned his B.A. at Auburn University and a
Radiotelephone license with Broadcast certification from the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC).

Kalyan Kumar is Practice Head, IT Service Assurance for HCL http://www.hclisd.com with
more than 11 years of IT experience in IT infrastructure and carrier network technologies
across professional services, architecture and product management specializing in
systems engineering, platform architecture, network management, BSM and ITIL. Kumar
leads HCL’s practice for IT Service Assurance managing key initiatives in its Infrastructure
Management and Transformation Services business and is responsible for product
management, business development, strategy and P&L for its IT Service Assurance
Practice (IT management tools and ITSM process consulting), Shared Services (managed
services for IT infrastructure) and Partnerships/Alliances.

About HCL
HCL’s Infrastructure Services Division (ISD) is India's leading IT services provider and one of the world’s leading
managed service providers (MSPs) delivering remote infrastructure management (RIM) services. A focused player in
the IT services arena, HCL ISD seeks to provide simplified infrastructure solutions through delivering high-
performance management services for complex, distributed infrastructure environments encompassing the Internet,
client and legacy based infrastructures. HCL addresses the growing demand for the cost-effective management of
technology infrastructure across geographically dispersed locations. With a mission to develop innovative solutions
for enterprises worldwide, the company has developed and pioneered a unique model for RIM that enables customer
organizations to achieve superior infrastructure performance and significantly reduced costs. HCL provides
infrastructure management services to more than 145 clients worldwide, including more than 60 Global 1000 (G1000)
companies. Founded in 1993, HCL ISD today has a highly experienced and established leadership and delivery team
across key geographies with 27 offices in 17 countries. HCL has nine global delivery centers in India with one each in
Poland, Malaysia, China, Ireland, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, and has alliances with more than 30 prominent
technology providers, institutes and consulting firms. HCL ISD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HCL Technologies, the
$1.7B international unit of HCL Group (the latter a technology giant in India with annual revenues of US$4.3 billion).

HCL leverages its “offshore + near shore” outsourcing model to provide extremely competitive pricing, but while low
cost is undoubtedly a factor in its customer wins, we believe its aggressive stance to build itself into the world’s
premier MSP delivering RIM services—and the fact that it is one of the few major technology players that can say “we
deliver BSM solutions” with a straight face—are greater contributors to its success than price alone. The flexible
ownership and engagement terms it offers its customers are a decided advantage in a market where competitors
often tout their wide-ranging product and service lineups but in actual practice tend to place the same arrow in their
quiver every time. The company refers to its services model as “co-sourcing,” reflecting a true partnership in which
the customer can outsource discrete activities in stages that meet its business requirements while HCL manages
day-to-day IT operations and adds value by applying technology and process expertise and best practices. Under the
hood, HCL has also developed a global reputation as a company that is willing to undertake remote management of a
customer’s IT infrastructure regardless of where the infrastructure is located. The main reason is that the company
has done the heavy lifting to establish a jaw-dropping nine delivery centers in India alone and another half-dozen
across EMEA and APAC, including a center in Poland that opened in 2007.

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About MarketPOWER™, LLC
MarketPOWER™, LLC has been helping clients win market share, boost customer retention and build thought
leadership since 2003, unlocking areas of innovation and synergy to help companies achieve their financial
objectives. MarketPOWER provides expert insight in these areas and more: Managed service providers (MSPs) and
remote infrastructure management (RIM) | Operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) | Wireless
services/infrastructure/management | Virtual and mobile virtual network operators (VNOs/MVNOs) | Enterprise
management including SMB, mid-tier and large enterprises | Next-generation asset management (NGAM).

NOTICES
This document may not be duplicated, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or retransmitted, in whole or in part,
without prior written permission of MarketPOWER, LLC. All opinions, estimates and related content herein constitute
MarketPOWER’s judgement as of this date and are subject to change without notice. MarketPOWER name and logo
are trademarks of MarketPOWER, LLC. Other trademarks property of their respective owners. ©2007
MarketPOWER, LLC. All rights reserved.

MarketPOWER, LLC | http://marketpowerLLC.com | +1 760 643 0921 | action@marketpowerLLC.com

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HCLT Whitepaper : Business Service Management via Remote Infrastructure Management: Gateway to Business Service Availability

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