| ITIL Help Desk - Product Features Compliance Summary | |||
|
Site Help Desk Home |
|||
|
Product descriptions:
Configurations
|
sitehelpdesk-IT and sitewebdesk have been designed to cover the main record keeping requirements of the BS7799 / ISO 17799 and BS 15000 Information Security and IT Service Management standards. We also provide the essential mechanisms for tracking, collating, reporting and auditing the processes to provide security and control features recommended in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). BEWARE of Marketing Hype: There is no ITIL compliance anywhere as it is not a 'standard' but a set of guidelines. We have designed a practical working solution using a continual development program fed by our customers real world issues with a view to ITIL recommendations whilst keeping the product uncluttered and simple to use to remain effective in the support process. The British Standard 7799 for Information Security Management and the later ISO 17799 are comprehensive documents for formulating policies and procedures covering all security and business continuity related issues. Organisations may obtain certification of compliance to these standards. British Standard 15000 for IT Service Management provides a code of practice for the provision of a reliable and consistent IT support service and are core to the ITIL recommendations. Conforming to ITIL and the standards provides a framework for companies to achieve a set of procedures and working practices for the provision of quality IT services. No helpdesk software solution can cover all aspects of these standards. To conform to BS 7799 / ISO 17799 / BS 15000 and ITIL, a certain amount of internal organisation, policy documentation and procedures need to be established outside of any computer software system. BS 7799 / ISO 17799 Here is a brief summary of the sections of the BS7799 / ISO 17799 and an indication of where sitehelpdesk-IT provides the necessary records and processes to meet the requirements. BS7799 Part 1 - Code of Practice for Information Security Management This section covers the main documentation security awareness and policy making requirements. There are certain legislative requirements of an organisation such as intellectual property rights, safeguarding company records, data protection and privacy of personal information. These are best dealt with in conjunction with the Legal department. From an Information Technology view point, the necessary controls for Information Security that are considered best practice are a) Information
security policy document A) Information Security Policy This is the main foundation of all other policies and documentation and needs to be clearly communicated to staff. Employees pose one of the main risks either through ignorance or malicious intent. Mistakes can be made but unless staff are made aware of the seriousness that your business places on security then they cannot help you achieve it. We have provided a sample security policy based on the recommended Department of Trade and Industry format. Contact the dti directly via http://www.dti.gov.uk/ to obtain a copy of their Guide to Information Security.
B) Allocation of Information Security Responsibilities These key Internal contacts for business continuity and other security related matters may be held in sitehelpdesk-IT. The Internal contacts are held distinct from other 'User' information under the Business Continuity menu option that requires specific privileges to access. Personal / home telephone numbers may be recorded along with their role in the event of a disaster or security breach. Disasters rarely occur during normal business hours so these are printed on the Disaster Recovery Report which should be printed off regularly and carried and held off site. The keeping of these records in the application allows them to be incorporated with other security related records and helps ensure that they are always kept up to date. C) Information Security Education and Training Adequate education and training of staff in security related issues is essential and should form part of their induction when joining the company. A specific 'Template' set of tasks may be set up in sitehelpdesk-IT to include this important activity. Templates may be for an individual repetitive action or a number of auto generated calls pre assigned to support staff and automatically launched from a 'Master template. They could for example, cover any aspect such a 'new starter' procedure. e.g. Order PC, create user account, Security Training etc. Staff should also sign a security policy to ensure enforceable compliance. D) Reporting Security Incidents Our products are all about user interaction and participation. A Call type called 'Security Issue' or similar, should be set up so that staff may report any concerns, requests for information, clarification of policies etc. BS 7799 Part 2 - Specification for information security management This part details the requirements for establishing, implementing and documenting information security management systems (ISMSs). Each section will be more or less relevant depending on your business but section 11 covering Business Continuity Management will always apply. Business Continuity Management sitehelpdesk-IT contains a comprehensive set of registers of all the IT infrastructure components and server recovery procedures. In addition to this there are Back up and Restore registers and off site media archive registers. One of the main areas of risk is getting a service back on line quickly after a disaster has struck. System outages may be the result such things as floods and thefts where equipment is no longer physically available. Adequate records of the equipment type, it's role, the configuration, who is responsible for rebuilding and restoring data onto it and the priority that things need to be done are all essential but will waste value time if considered after the disaster. sitehelpdesk-IT holds all this and more in the DR report to help you restore services to normal in a timely and efficient manner. Asset classification and control is managed by sitehelpdesk-IT. There is no type of information asset that cannot be held in sitehelpdesk-IT, either in the Asset register, Loans, Stock, Library or Software Register. The person responsible is assigned and additional relevant information held. Call history and configuration changes are visible from the hardware records. Many aspects of BS 7799 / ISO 17799 relate to physical security but some records are required of these, such as warranty and maintenance schedules and full asset registration and history. All of these are maintained in sitehelpdesk-IT. BS 15000 BS 15000 provides a fairly concise over view of the major elements for IT Management and establishes guidelines and initiatives to ensure good working practices. This is supported by PD 0005 - issued by the Department of Trade and Industry as a Code of Practice for IT Service Management which specifically identifies elements of best practice required to meet BS 15000. sitehelpdesk-IT compliments this standard with full audit trails maintained of asset changes via User request call logs and changes of the allocation, location and direct changes to the configuration. This is achieved by the system even without other formal documentation controls. These controls still need to be implemented for compliance to ITIL but sitehelpdesk-IT audits the change even if the full written procedures are by passed, which can often happen in a busy IT department and technical staff are not renowned for the adherence to written procedures. System driven audit logs are maintained of changes to the records held identifying who, what and when changes were made. This is complimented with integration to network management tools including HSImonitor, Microsoft System Management Server (SMS) and Visual audit Pro for capacity management enquiry and reporting Service Level management and reporting. Service Levels are essential for measuring performance of the service being provided and sets the bench mark for expectations of your customers be they internal or external. sitehelpdesk-IT provides flexible allocation of service levels of requests for IT services. These may be notified and escalated via email and flexible reporting shows the number of call in and outside the SLA plus the percentages achieved. The call log process combined with SLA provides a mechanism for Incident management and reporting. The features of sitehelpdesk-IT user incident logging ensures that more comprehensive records are maintained. Few technicians have mastered the discipline of recording incidents after the event as this is seen as unnecessary added bureaucracy. Common incidents may be entered after the event in a matter of seconds a via the sitehelpdesk-IT Templates of call types. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) This is a comprehensive set of documents advising on best management practices for the provision of quality IT services. sitehelpdesk-IT and sitewebdesk provide the record keeping and reporting tools to help you to comply with the ITIL process. Many of the requirements are met by virtue of addressing the standards detailed above but others are more specific to the actual working practices and their monitoring and review. Continual Improvement may be monitored via reporting of incident volumes, problem type trends, Operator performance etc alongside automated SLA calculations and flexible reports expressed in percentages so that improvements may be measured over time. sitehelpdesk-IT is a fully automated service for users of your IT resources and gives them instant access to their call history records, hardware and loan allocations, so that they can share in the responsibility for security, accountability, problem management and control. Incident Management process provides the tools and mechanisms for a quick recovery of service issues to the agreed service level (response and fix times). The service levels are defined within a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and assigned to calls when first logged. Incident recording and resolution and tracking of SLA's with email notifications and escalations are central to all our systems. FAQ's and document links along with definable scripting provides users with self help for prompt resolution of problems. The aim of Problem Management is to decrease of the number of incidents by pre-empting and resolving the errors, identifying trends and reporting on these. Association of change requests/ trouble tickets and hardware records identify the trends which are graphically summarised and available directly from the call management pages. Underlying trends of continuing problems and identifying the reduction based on change initiatives are easily monitored. Historic calls related to hardware and the user/customer further helps to identify trends and recurring issues. Change ManagementChange Management process provides a mechanism to control and manage the initiation, implementation and review of all proposed changes to the operational IT infrastructure, in order to minimise the impact of change related incidents upon service delivery. sitehelpdesk-IT and sitewebdesk have integrated change request and release management which is highly configurable to match your circumstances. Change Requests may be associated to many calls and/or inventory items (and one call ticket/inventory item may be associated to many change requests) . Tracking though to Approval and Release. HSImonitor takes this a stage further with full audit tracking of all physical software and hardware installations and configuration changes and maintains a complete history which is available from a link in the Call management. There is also the facility to receive email notification of these changes or they may be viewed remotely from a browser. Templates may be set up to automatically create and assign responsibilities for the process to ensure it is completed on schedule and in a consistent manner. Configuration ManagementThe ITIL Configuration Management process covers the identification, control, status accounting and verification of the components of the IT infrastructure (configuration items, assets) and their relations. The main goal of this process is to provide information about these components that is used in other service management processes. The hardware records are fully integrated in sitehelpdesk-IT with views of associated HW from calls or calls from the HW records and audit logs of maintenance, and warranty returns. HSImonitor can be used to audit the inventory across the network and keep track of all configuration changes made, with full history. Release Management (Software Control)Release Management is the planning, design, build, configuration and testing of hardware and software for controlled release into the live environment. Release Management works closely with the Change Management and Configuration Management processes. sitehelpdesk-IT and sitewebdesk Change and Release management processes allow the controlled management of change requests through all stages to release. There are other applications available that enhance this function and provide secure checking in and out of compiled code and version release management. One such tools is Microsoft Visual SourceSafe. There is the facility to record the location of such compiled code and software version release with in the helpdesk Release Management module. Service Level ManagementThe ITIL Service Level Management process covers the negotiation, definition, contract, monitoring and the reviewing of the levels of customer service. This is achieved in sitehelpdesk-IT through SLA Categorising and cost tracking and reporting. The basic products provide simplified SLA tracking and notification with traffic lights flags on calls exceeding their response times and date/time records are held against each ticket for call initiation, response, events and fix times. An additional SLA module may also be installed alongside sitehelpdesk-IT to enhance the monitoring and to provide email notification for escalation and audit logging. Calls may have their SLA clock stopped out of working hours, during holidays and when passed to third parties for resolution. Customer satisfaction surveys are available though the scripting function. Cost ManagementCost Management aim is to identify, track and report on the costing and charging of IT services. Our applications allow the allocation of time and related expenses to call activities which have predefined charge out rates. Billing and time sheet reports are available for recharging. Availability ManagementAvailability Management optimises the availability of the IT infrastructure. This is provided by HSImonitor which may be configured to notify Operators of such changes. Capacity ManagementCapacity management deals with the monitoring and tuning of existing services to ensure that performance and throughput levels are optimised. The sitehelpdesk-IT central data repository and linking of calls to items of hardware ensures full reporting of related issues for ongoing improvements to service. Links into HSImonitor or MS SMS provide specific capacity reports available from the sitehelpdesk-IT menu. Contingency PlanningContingency Planning provides planning for recovering IT services in a disaster situation and is a key feature of sitehelpdesk-IT with Insurance and Dr pack reporting that will be kept up to date by virtue of the other features of the helpdesk. Summing Up The overriding benefit of sitehelpdesk-IT, especially when coupled with HSImonitor, is that it holds all these records in one central database. This provides the relationships of the record and associations. The web based interface is ideal for drill downs and pop up windows of related information. The central repository of CMDB and Helpdesk also provides a focus for entering, managing changes and enquiry/reporting, ensuring that records are comprehensive and up to data. You will no longer need to rely on disparate information held in multiple formats located in often inaccessible locations across the network. The outstanding feature of our systems is the ease and simplicity in use. Technicians do not want to be burdened with a cumbersome and complex application that requires a lot of data entry and maintenance. If this happens then the system is not fully utilised and statistics and processes suffer. Download sitehelpdesk now and request an upgrade to sitehelpdesk-IT or sitewebdesk for your external customer support and product control. click here for product review of
|
||
|
Return to Main Page
Terms of Use | Online privacy policy © 2004 sitehelpdesk.com, all rights reserved
sitehelpdesk logo design, sitewebdesk, HSImonitor and SLAmonitor are registered trade marks of sitehelpdesk.com |
|||
