1. Optimize Systems Management to Improve IT Resilience and Proactivity
Streamline processes, use tools with purpose, and continually look for opportunities to improve.
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2. Introduction
Maximize the value of your systems management efforts by re-aligning efforts, refining your toolkit, and updating your processes and skill sets.
This Research Is Designed For:
This Research Will Help You:
Infrastructure or systems managers who are:
Not realizing the expected return on investment after implementing a systems management initiative.
Bombarded by data from monitoring tools and are unsure how to act on the results.
Facing a growing or changing organization, and are unsure that they have the right tools or processes in place to keep up.
Identify critical systems management deficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
Reduce the time spent performing management tasks.
Streamline your management toolkit.
Refine standard operating procedures for improved service delivery.
Improve system resilience and IT proactivity.

3. Executive Summary
Good systems management goes beyond collecting data. It requires synergy between multiple processes, supported by skilled people and robust tools.
Many organizations have implemented systems management but are failing to realize expected benefits.
This is typically because organizations frequently underestimate the following factors:
Importance of clearly documented processes and procedures
Value of staff development and training
Criticality of cross-functional communication and collaboration
Complexity of tool selection and configuration
Further, organizations typically over-rely on technology.
To get the most out of your systems management implementation, Info-Tech recommends the following five-step approach:
Assess current systems management capabilities.
Align systems management practices with organizational priorities.
Refine systems management processes with visual SOPs.
Refine your systems management software toolkit.
Build a plan to implement your optimization initiative.

4. Scope your systems management project: implement vs. optimize
Info-Tech has developed two individual projects tailored to specific sets of systems management challenges.
Implement
Optimize
Low systems management maturity
No unified technology solution (potential solution might be deployed for limited use, but it has not been identified as a unified solution)
No documented processes
No dedicated role
Mid-high systems management maturity
Unified technology solution is in place (not necessarily used for all functions)
Some processes are documented
Role exists (not necessarily FTE)
Select and deploy the right tool
Leverage and optimize a tool in use
Establish unified metrics and KPIs
Consolidate unified metrics and KPIs
Focus on monitoring processes
Focus on resolution and tuning processes
Not ready for automation or predictive analytics
Require and ready for automation and predictive analytics
If implementation is more appropriate for your maturity level, see Info-Tech’s blueprint, Implement Systems Management to Improve Availability and Visibility.

5. Insight map: Optimize systems management to improve IT resilience and proactivity
Nature of Topic
Many organizations perform systems management, but most have had a haphazard approach, putting together a jumble of open-source or vendor-provided tools.
The emphasis is typically on acquiring tools, but tools can cause more problems than they solve if not selected and used with intention and supported by adequate training.
Schools of Thought
Systems-oriented focus (focus on system uptime, but leads to reactive response) vs. service-oriented focus (more proactive, considers business needs).
Erroneous tendency to equate tool consolidation with maturity. Info-Tech’s view: there is room for point solutions and consolidation, depending on need. Let need drive technology, not vice versa.
Data Collection
Build project KPIs based on uptime, mean time to repair, and mean time to failure.
Collect system value data by calculating cost of downtime.
Create list of desired features and prioritize.
Collect and streamline processes.
Drivers
Trends
Change
Systems are becoming increasingly complex (virtualization, IaaS, SaaS) and without concrete plans and processes in place, IT will begin to lag behind.
Vendors continue to push consolidated suites as the apex of management maturity, but specialized solutions continue to offer more depth and insight into specific systems.
Value Creation
Recover costs from eliminating redundant software capabilities.
Improve system uptime and resilience, and reduce costs incurred by downtime.
Help IT become more proactive and responsible to business needs.
Reduce unplanned upgrades and number of daily alarms.
Recover technician time from firefighting to reallocate to strategic efforts.

6. How to use this blueprint
There are multiple ways you can use this Info-Tech Best-Practice Blueprint in your organization. Choose the option that best fits your needs:
Do-It-Yourself Best-Practice Toolkit
Onsite
Workshops
Free Guided
Implementation
Do-It-Yourself Implementation
Use this Best-Practice Blueprint to help you complete your project. The slides in this Blueprint will walk you step-by-step through every phase of your project with supporting tools and templates ready for you to use.
Project Accelerator Workshop
You can also use this Best-Practice Blueprint to facilitate your own project accelerator workshop within your organization using the workshop slides and facilitation instructions provided in the Appendix.
We recommend that you supplement the Best-Practice Blueprint with a Guided Implementation.
For most Info-Tech members, these Guided Implementations are included in your membership plan.* Our expert analysts will provide telephone assistance to you and your team at key project milestones to review your materials, answer your questions, and explain our methodology.
Info-Tech Research Group’s expert analysts will come onsite to help you work through our project methodology in a 2-5 day project accelerator workshop. We take you through every phase of the project and ensure that you have a road map in place to complete your project successfully. In some cases, we can even complete the project while we are onsite.
Book your workshop now by ing:
*Gold and Silver level subscribers only
Or calling:
Ext. 3001

7. Book a free guided implementation today!
Info-Tech is just a phone call away and can assist you with your project. Our expert Analysts can guide you to successful project completion. For most members, this service is available at no additional cost.* Here’s how it works:
Enroll in a Guided Implementation for your project Send an to Or call and ask for the Guided Implementation Coordinator.
Book your analyst meetings Once you are enrolled in a Guided Implementation, our analysts will reach out to book a series of milestone-related telephone meetings with you and your team.
Get advice from a subject matter expert At each Guided Implementation point, our Consulting Analyst will review your completed deliverables with you, answer any of your questions, and work with you to plan out your next phase.
This symbol signifies when you’ve reached a Guided Implementation point in your project.
*Gold and Silver level subscribers only

8. Guided Implementation points in the Systems Management Optimization project
Book a Guided Implementation Today: Info-Tech is just a phone call away and can assist you with your project. Our expert Analysts can guide you to successful project completion.
Here are the suggested Guided Implementation points in the Systems Management Optimization project:
Section 1: Interpret and act on your capability assessment results
This guided implementation will help you assess your current capabilities and identify those areas where capabilities are most limited. Discuss realistic outcomes for your optimization initiative and set meaningful, concrete goals for the project.
Section 2: Align systems management practices with organizational goals
In this guided implementation, our analysts will help you identify quick wins and critical areas where your project will have the most immediate impact.
Section 3: Refine systems management SOPs
In this guided implementation, our analysts will help you review existing management processes and identify inefficiencies as well as opportunities for automation. You will receive advice on streamlining your approach to ensure clear interaction between processes and improved service delivery.
Section 4: Refine your systems management toolkit
Our analysts will help review your present toolkit and identify redundant capabilities, and provide advice on the best-fit technology for your systems management requirements.
This symbol signifies when you’ve reached a Guided Implementation point in your project.
To enroll, send an to or call and ask for the Guided Implementation Coordinator.

9. Also Available: Info-Tech’s Free Pilot Workshops
Book a workshop today!
An Info-Tech project accelerator workshop will help you to engage your stakeholders, gather important data, make key decisions, and generate a customized project road map Here’s how it works:
Enroll in a 2-5 day workshop for your project Send an to or call Ext Your account manager will contact you and quote you the cost of the workshop.
Book your workshop A Workshop Coordinator will contact you to book a workshop planning call with one of our Facilitators and arrange dates for your workshop. We can hold the workshop in Info-Tech’s world-class facility in Toronto or at your location.
Plan your workshop A Workshop Facilitator will contact you to go over the workshop outline and choose the contents that are appropriate to your situation.
Participate in your workshop Our experienced Workshop Facilitators will take your project team through your tailored slides and exercises and will summarize all the workshop outputs into a final report.
Also Available: Info-Tech’s Free Pilot Workshops
Some of our workshops are available at no charge. We offer newly introduced blueprints as free pilot workshops to our clients during a short testing period. Each workshop is:
Offered for free one time only.
Available to all clients after testing, for a very reasonable price.
For a current list of free pilot workshops, please contact or see the Upcoming Research page on our website.

10. Make the Case for Optimizing Systems Management
Define systems management
Scope your management project
Calculate the value of systems management
Avoid common pitfalls
Build your business case for optimizing systems management
Make the Case for Optimization
Assess Current Capabilities
Align Management with Organizational Priorities
Refine Management Processes
Refine Your Software Toolkit
Build a Plan to Implement Your Optimization Initiative

11. Case Study: Systems management is about more than checking if the lights are on
Systems management is extremely complex. It’s more than just monitoring. It’s about knowing how and when to act to keep your business going.
The IT team sets to work trying to identify the problem, but without an end-to-end strategy, the root cause analysis will take hours, potentially costing the company millions.
The Seattle branch of XYZ Bank notifies IT that its systems are down completely, and it is unable to perform any business functions.
Seattle contacts the main IT team in New York. New York reports back that their monitoring tool is not finding any errors—from their vantage point, Seattle is operational.
What went wrong?
The organization never moved past monitoring systems, leaving IT in a reactive footing.
The IT team had multiple tools in place, none of which interacted with the others. They never had true end-to-end visibility into their systems. Moreover, team members understood some tools but lacked expertise in others, and missed critical information.
IT did not have adequate processes in place that would have escalated an earlier error and notified the problem management team.
One single top-down set of lights isn’t enough. Your system management solution needs to incorporate an overall business view of individual services and how they interact with other services, as well as the systems that support them.
Info-Tech Insight

12. Info-Tech Research Group Helps IT Professionals To:
Quickly get up to speed with new technologies
Make the right technology purchasing decisions – fast
Deliver critical IT projects, on time and within budget
Manage business expectations
Justify IT spending and prove the value of IT
Train IT staff and effectively manage an IT department
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