"You need a good transition strategy for the changes that people have to experience ... or technology or process changes will be a constraint," says Anthony Orr.

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(20:43 minutes)

Are you skeptical about whether you can actually use out-of-the-box technology to achieve the most value from an IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL ® )perspective?  Have you ever selected technology that aligned with your goals but were surprised at what you found in the box? Are some of your staff ITIL trained or ITIL certified, but they still don't understand their roles in the ITIL process? Are you still trying to define your processes so you can start an ITIL initiative?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are not alone. Industry experts have raised these same questions about getting an ITIL solution using out-of-the-box technology.

Join us as we talk with an ITIL expert, Anthony Orr, and explore this question, Can you Really Get ITIL Out of the Box?

Bio

Anthony Orr is Global Best Practice Director for Educational Services, at BMC Software. He has more than 25 years of experience in managerial, consulting, marketing, and technical positions for IT Service Management strategies and implementations. He is certified in Project Management (PMP), ISO 20000, and ITIL V2 Service Manager and ITIL V3 Expert levels. He is a senior examiner of ITIL V3 for APMG, has an Oracle Masters Certificate in database administration and application development, and holds a B.A.A.S. degree in computer information science.

Questions

It's my understanding these days, many IT organizations are turning to the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) for guidance on how to meet demands that they to reduce the cost of managing IT and ensure that decisions are based on customer value, business value, and business priorities. But, some industry experts are skeptical about whether you can actually use out-of-the-box technology to achieve the most value from applying the ITIL perspective on things.

1. With an initiative as long-term as ITIL, how does a company know when it's on the right road to success?
2. Let's talk more about identifying quick wins. What do they look like? What are some examples of those?
3. ITIL is mainly process focused, so how do we marry the process with the technology?
4. The technology is sometimes more advanced than the process stuff. It may have features and functions that you're not ready for yet. That can be daunting. So you've got this thing, and there are some immediate payoffs for it. But how can a company match the features they want with the technology they are purchasing?
5. What do we need to consider in terms of the human factor when we are making a decision about the technology?
6. Given all of this,what are the four top things you want to with regards to ITIL out of the box that would be most useful to the listeners?

Resources

Can You Really Get ITIL Out of the Box? (pdf)

Workload automation is a complete orchestration of infrastructure, applications, and business objectives, says John McKenny

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Batch processing is not just for the mainframe any more. It's also available on linux, unix, and Windows environments and many other midrange systems.

Regardless of your platform, if you're looking for a reduction in downtime, faster problem tracking and resolution of exceptions, or if you're looking to your business without adding staff in the IT operations area, IT workload automation may take your business to the next level.

Listen in as we talk with John McKenny, BMC vice president of Worldwide Marketing for Mainframe Service Management (MSM) and find out how IT workload automation can help you improve the efficiency of your overall operations and help your business deliver new applications more quickly.

Bio

John McKenny, BMC vice president of Worldwide Marketing for Mainframe Service Management (MSM), leads global teams responsible for the product strategy, direction, and marketing activities for mainframe management solutions. He joined BMC in 1995 as a member of the DB2 research and development team, and served as a director in research and development and as senior director of marketing and product management. Prior to joining BMC, he spent 15 years in various IT roles.

Questions

1. When people think about scheduling, they mostly think about Mainframe based batch environments. What changed in the automation arena in the past 20 years?
2. Can you elaborate on that? What exactly is IT Workload Automation and why is it such a critical element of IT?
3. What's the catch? Why isn't everyone adopting it at this point?
4. Very interesting. So having implemented IT Workload Automation, what are some of the cost savings customers are seeing?
5. I want something specific. Can you give us an example of companies that actually accomplished such savings?
6. If someone is looking for an IT Workload Automation solution, where do they go to find information on products and vendors?

Resources

The CARFAX Video Success Story

"Automation is not just application of technology. It's application of technology to proven processes," says Glenn O'Donnell.

Part Two—Data Center Consolidation

Play Part Two of the three-part series 20:12 minutes      OR   Listen to the entire Podcast  35:50 minutes

(Right click to download files)

Data center consolidation can help reduce costs and make the organization more nimble in responding to customer needs. Are you getting the most out of your monitoring and management tools? Are you looking to save costs or help make your data center more effective and efficient? Then listen in as we talk with Glenn O'Donnell and Jim Grant about saving costs with data center consolidation.

Bios

(See Part 1 for Bios and Photos)

Questions

1. Having a consolidated service desk as a single point of contact is a core need for IT to move on to improving other business and IT processes. In the area of Data Center automation and consolidation, there is a lot companies can gain in operational efficiency. Glenn, to enable or prepare for data center consolidation, what strategies and technologies do you see companies putting in place to ensure their success?
2. So Jim, back to you. BMC is seen as a leader in the data center management space. What does BMC provide its customers that enables them to consolidate their data centers and reduce costs? And How have your customers embraced data center consolidation and what are some of the benefits that they have realized?

Resources

BMC Data Center Consolidation

"Customers are often using Cloud as a code word to refer to their next-generation data center efforts," says Herb VanHook

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(15:37 minutes)

Cloud computing is becoming more common, and a host of new technology is emerging out of public cloud providers. If you're thinking about cloud computing you may be asking yourself these quesitons:  What cloud computing model is right for your organization? What role does virtualization play in the cloud? How do BMC's management solutions fit in with cloud computing?  Join us as we talk with Herb VanHook for a lively discussion about cloud computing.

Bio

Herb VanHook, is Vice President of Business Planning, at BMC Software. Herb has held several key positions at META Group (most recently serving as Interim President and Chief Operating Officer), and has more than 30 years of experience in information technology, including senior positions at IBM, Computer Associates, and Legent Corporation.

Questions

1. What are the various models for cloud computing?
2. Is there anything really here, or is it mostly all marketing hype?
3. I recently heard the term public cloud, what exactly is that, what would be the advantages of something like that?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?
5. What are enterprise IT organizations doing about cloud computing, what benefits are the looking for out of this?
6. How are private clouds related to virtualization?
7. You talked about hybrid cloud a little earlier. Let's talk more about that?
8. Does BMC offer solutions for private cloud options?
9. What solutions do customers require for hybrid cloud success?
10. What can we expect from BMC in the future in this area?

"You want to reduce the risk of anything getting in the way of a commitment you've made to the business," says Alisa Nessler.

05:41

If you had the opportunity to put Premier Support into your budget, how would you describe the value to senior management? Are you preparing to deploy a new version, or looking at an "all hands on deck" scenario in the near future and wonder how best to support your applications during that time?

Join us as we talk with Alisa Nessler, vice president of BMC Enterprise Service Management Business Unit, Customer Support. learn about the differences between regular support and BMC Premier Support, and how to identify when Premier Support is a better value than regular support.

Bio

As vice president of BMC Enterprise Service Management Business Unit Customer Support, Alisa Nessler leads the worldwide customer support team for enterprise systems management products.

Questions

We’ve all heard of regular support, just what is Premier Support?

1. Given IT budgets are tight why would a company want to spend more on support? What kind of value does Premier Support bring to the customer?

2. If I were a client and I already had standard support, why would I want to upgrade to Premier support?
   

Resources

One Size Does Not Fit All (pd

"I think of it as an elegant architecture of interdependence, and this what I think gives ITIL its true strength," says Erin Casteel.

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Are you trying to solve problems by thinking within the framework in which they were created? Has your ITIL implementation gotten off track? Are you looking for new inspiration to move forward with ITIL in these tough economic times? Do you understand the true strength of ITIL?

Join us as we talk with IT Service Management Consultant Erin Casteel. Draw on Erin's wealth of experience as an ITIL consultant for tips on leading change in the organization. Learn when a sense of urgency is useful, how you can avoid reinventing the wheel, what it really means to sell ITIL in the organization, and why it pays to find opportunities in crises.

Bio

Erin Casteel is an IT Service Management Consultant in Sydney, Australia. Her prior experience includes work as a solutions architect for BMC Software. She has more than 18 years of experience in IT. She has worked on IT service management projects in multiple industry sectors. She has trained thousands of people in all levels of ITIL, and has also lectured at the University of Sydney. She is the representative from Australia on the international ISO/IEC 20000 Certification Committee.

Questions

1. You’ve been at this quite awhile and ITIL’s been out for quite awhile now. In fact it's moved on to ITIL Three.  If ITIL is all that great, why isn’t it happening more... or maybe it is happening? What's your perspective of the adoption of that now?
2. What really is the core message of ITIL?
3. So what I'm getting is that lot's of people have gotten on board with ITIL? Some have gotten into it out of survival. Others have taken a more formal path. But everyone gets off track at some level. From your perspective, what are the two or three ways that you see most companies getting off track with their ITIL implementations?What do you recommend based on where they’ve gotten off track?
4. People get excited about implementing ITIL, and often there's a great sense of urgency to get it done. So,what really works? Do you push that feeling of urgency through the whole project, or do you do it sometimes for specific phases of the project?
5. What do you mean when you say that people need to be able to sell ITIL within their organization?
6. What words of advice would you like to leave with our listeners?

Resources

Check back later to download Erin's new article about ITIL implementations in a down economy.

Recommended Reading

by John Kotter

• Leading Change
  Kotter examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors.
  

• A Sense of Urgency
  Kotter reveals a distinctive view of the kind of urgency needed in every organization.
  

Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

• The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy Into Action‎
  The Balanced Scorecard translates a company's vision and strategy into a coherent set of performance measures.
• Alignment: using the balanced scorecard to create corporate synergies‎
  In this book, the authors apply their revolutionary Balanced Scorecard management system to corporate-level strategy, revealing how highly successful
• Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage‎
  Building on their breakthrough works on strategy-focused organizations, the authors describe a multistage system that enables you to gain measurable benefits from your carefully formulated business strategy.
  

Peter Brooks

• Metrics for IT Service Management
  This book considers the design and implementation of metrics in service organizations using industry standard frameworks. It uses the ITIL process structure and many principles from the ITIL and ISO20000 (BS15000) as a basis.
  

Jan van Bon and Leo van Selm

• ISO/IEC 20000: An Introduction‎

This Introduction provides an easy to read document that explains the nature, content and aim of ISO 2

"While mainframe is considered a mature and well-managed platform in most organizations, we still find there are ample opportunities to improve and save companies real hard dollars," says Mike Moser

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Are you getting the most value out of your environment for the least possible cost? Are you getting the most bang for your capacity? Is there unrecognized risk in your environment? Do you wonder what the Service Optimization maturity model applies to your operation?

Listen in on our conversation with Mike Moser, Product Management Director at BMC Software, as we discuss Mainframes and Service Optimization. Find out how Service Optimization is relevant in the mainframe environment, hear examples of how large companies have increased productivity and reduced costs, and learn how the Service Optimization maturity model can help you identify the highest impact opportunities.

Bio

Mike Moser is a product management director and program executive in BMC Software's Mainframe Service Management business unit. Before coming to BMC, Mike was involved in IT strategic planning, technology planning, and application development. Mike has spent the last nine years with BMC as a product manager in both distributed and mainframe product lines, focusing on making BMC's extensive mainframe solutions portfolio a fully integrated member of their Business Service Management solutions.

Questions

1. Mike the subject of cutting costs is on the top of everyone's minds given the current turbulent world economy.  What are the effects on IT and the mainframe in particular?
2. Downward pressure on costs coupled with a need to perform at even higher levels, strikes me as a paradox. Would you elaborate a bit on this please?
3. Is the potential aspect you mentioned where Service Optimization comes in?
4. Tell me a bit more on what service optimization can do for the mainframe environment?
5. How does someone get started?
6. What exactly 'is' service optimization and why is it important to an IT organization, especially in today's volatile economic environment?
7. What are the three goals of Service Optimization?
8. Why is Service Optimization relevant to mainframe environments?
9. Will you describe the Service Optimization Maturity Model? Why would an IT executive be interested in moving to the next level of Maturity?
10. How does Service Optimization reduce risk for business?
11. Do you have some examples you can share that illustrate the value of Service Optimization to the enterprise?
12. How do you identity the areas where Service Optimization can make the biggest positive impact on the business?

Resources

Service Optimization:   How Mainframe Systems Management Can Deliver More Business Value at Less Cost

Intelligent automation allows you to see a problem as it unfolds. You can respond to problem at that point as opposed to waiting until the application goes completely down and then you’re in react mode, says Bill Arledge.

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IT organizations are being driven to reduce costs, yet service-delivery expectations remain very high.  We may be putting off CPU upgrades, but the business wants to deliver high levels of service.

Listen in as Bill Arledge, Consulting Product Manager, at BMC Software talks about Service Optimization and data management. Find out about combining intelligent automation with best practices, managing your environment to drive down costs and achieve the goal of improving service. Get tips for determining how Service Optimization can benefit your environment, and steps for implementation.

Bio

Bill Arledge is a Consulting Product Manager, at BMC Software. Bill is an IT veteran with 33 years experience across a variety of roles, including application development and database administration. Bill’s database experience began in the late 1970’s as an IMS DBA and developer. He began working with DB2 in 1984 as a database specialist at IBM. He worked with DB2 throughout the late eighties, consulting with numerous IBM customers on existing and planned DB2 implementations. Bill joined BMC in 1990 and is currently a technical product manager responsible for BMC’s DB2 data management products. In that capacity he consults extensively with BMC DB2 customers and works closely with BMC’s Research and Development organization to drive product direction.

Questions

We're really in a challenging environment for data management these days. IT organizations are being driven to reduce costs, but the service-delivery expectations remain very high. We live in  24 by 7,  on-demand world and customers expect no downtime and the competition is always pushing new features to woe customers.

1. Will you tell us a little about BMC’s service optimization strategy and how it can help accomplish these goals?
2. What's your experience now, in 2009? Surely larger companies and data centers have gotten on board with Service Optimization, or is this still a new concept--are they still struggling with it? Can you give me an example where automation has made a difference, especially when it's dealing with the way things have traditionally been done? 
3.   What are some questions IT managers should ask to determine the value Service Optimization would bring to their IT and business environment environment?
4.   What are the steps needed to implement Service Optimization?
5. Can you provide examples of IT data management disciplines that can be improved using service optimization?

Resources

Service Optimization: Delivering More Business Value at Less Cost From Mainframe Data Management