Best practice for SAM - bcs.org · Best practice for ISO 20000 service management is IT infrastructure ... Verification and compliance Relationship and contract Service ... check

Best practice for SAM

Ian Preskett MIET C.Eng. MBCS CITP

Best practice

What is best practice?

Best practice – what is it?

• Is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means and that is used as a benchmark.

• Can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered

• Used to maintain quality as an alternative to mandatory legislated standards

• May have pre-made 'templates' to standardize business process documentation.

• Is the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can use

• May not be applicable for all organization's, so balance unique qualities of an organization with common practices.

Wikipedia definition of Best Practice.

Do we do this for SAM?

What is best practice for SAM?

ISO 19770-1 is a standard and currently our only SAM guidance

• It is a Standard and must remain relevant despite the industry evolving

• It shows processes but not workflow

• It avoids talking about technology

• It does not consider efficiency

• It does not evolve

Best Practice• Makes use of proven latest techniques.

• Adapts over time

• May support a standard

Best practice for ISO 20000 service management is IT infrastructure library

(ITIL)

Consider KNOWN ERROR DATABASE

All IT departments made lists of Known errors, but ITIL took the best practice and defined:

• What to record

• Verification and release of data

• RACI

• Access data

• Actions to take

Have we done this for SAM?Do we need to do this for SAM?

Exercise

• List possible best practices.

Best Practice for SAM

If Best practice supports a standard we need to look at the ISO 19770-1 standard

ISO 19770 - 1 processesOrganisational processes -Planning & Implementation

Lifecycle - Lifecycle process interfaces

In-use

Problem

IncidentRetire

Change

Core SAM processes -Operations management

Core SAM processes - Inventory management

Core SAM processes - Verification and compliance

Relationship and contract

Service level

Security

Financial

License compliance

Compliance verification

Conformance verification

SW asset inventory

SW asset control

Planning

Implementation

Monitor and Review

Continual improvement

Organisational processes –Control environment

Asset record verification

Roles and responsibilities

Competence

Processes and policies

HW HWSW SW

Development

Acquisition Release Deploy

Asset identification (catalogue/asset classes)

Corporate Governance

SWBought BoughtEnt. Disc Disc.

ISO 19770 - 1 Core and Lifecycle processes

In-use

Problem

IncidentRetire

Change

Financial

License compliance


SW asset inventory

SW asset control


HW HWSW SW

Acquisition Release Deploy


SWBought BoughtEnt. Disc Disc.Relationship and

contract

Lifecycle = Day to day

Core processes = scheduled tasks

Where is the strategy?

ISO 19770 - 1 processes

In-use

Problem

IncidentRetire

Change

Financial(contracts)

License compliance


SW asset inventory

SW asset control


HW HWSW SW

Release Deploy



STRATEGY

Update catalogue

Acquisition

Request Authenticate

Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin

Approval

Procure



What is strategy

• Sets the rules for each SKU

• Product strategy

• Defines the owner

• Manages the product introduction and lifecycle• Start of life , EOL, • Profiling, • Sets in-life status – B/S/H

• Manages product introduction • Requested, being evaluated, rejected, approved.

• Monitors lifecycle • Contract trigger point

• Resolves issues

• Manages Audits

• Defines maintenance schemes

• Makes harvesting/procurement decisions

Possible Best practices Rules based engines -connectors

Catalogue - SKU

Process efficiency Y Y

Data accuracy (correct at input) Y Y

Data available to all Y

Simplicity Y Y

Use skills efficiently Y Y

Redeployment of staff Y Y

Use technology efficiently (automation) Y Y

OWNERSHIP (RACI) Y

Remove bottlenecks Y

Contract based licensing /True up Y

Do job once only Y

SKU = Stock Keeping Unit• unique to a product, and the way it was supplied

Considerations / restrictions Rules based engines

Catalogue SKU

Multiple departments

Who owns procurement

Centralised or unique processes

Budgets

Legacy processes and people

Resistance to change


Best practice for the CORE SAM processes

In-use

Problem

IncidentRetire

Change


License compliance


SW asset inventory

SW asset control


HW HWSW SW

Release Deploy



STRATEGY

Update catalogue

Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin

Approval

Procure


Consider the ISO 19770-1 Core processes

• SAM rules based technology (recognition engines)• Contains

• Recognition tables

• Schema’s for vendor licenses

• Catalogues

• Uses connectors and rules• Manages data input and manipulation

• Purchases into entitlements

• Applies Upgrades

• Normalises discovered data

Is best practice your driver for new technology:

The CMS model (and SACM)

How ‘connectors’ work for data input

PC number

User Asset number

Mfgr

1234 Fred 34765 MS inc.

579a Jane 2479a C.A.

Machine number

owner Mfgr Asset

1234 Fred MS corp

34765

579a Jane CA 2479a

Source data Normalised data

Must be possible to specify and teach the Connector

PC number = machine numberAlpha numeric, up to 10 digits, check for duplicates, cannot be emptyMatch Duplicates and correct or flag

User = user check against HR DBFlag errors

Asset Number = Asset5 numeric digits, check for duplicates Match duplicates

Mfgr = MfgrCorrect MS inc. to MS corpCorrect errors

So are connectors a best practice way of getting data accurately?

The CMS

Procured

hardware Procured SW

Rules

engine data

Sw Contract

db

SW

catalogue

SKU list Recognition

table

downgrade

Compliance

reports

License

pools

Data

an

d

info

rma

tio

n

Info

rma

tio

n

inte

gra

tio

nK

now

led

ge

pro

ce

ssin

gPresenation

SW usage

management

Integrated CMDB

SW

discovered

HW

discovered

Integration and

verification processes

Normalised

HW discovered

`

Normalised

SW discovered

(with SKU)

Apply rules and upgrades

SW entitlements

(with SKU)

Discovery tool

HW

discovered

HW

discovered

Is best practice techniques to manage skills and resource?

Achieved so Far:

• Addresses the ISO 19770-1 CORE processes• SW asset control• SW asset identification • Verification and Compliance

• Reduces and redeployed skill

• Data is verified at input not output

• Accuracy of data is limited only by data supplied (but even poor data is improved).

• All data is identified by SKU for accurate matching

• Compliance reports immediately available.

Now lets consider Life cycle processes

Best Practice for lifecycle (and strategy) processes

In-use

Problem

IncidentRetire

Change


License compliance


SW asset inventory

SW asset control


HW HWSW SW

Release Deploy



STARTEGY

Update catalogue

Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin

Approval

Procure



Bottlenecks - Approvals – is it this easy?

IT service IT technical Business owner

reject

Bottlenecks - Approvals – it needs control?

Service desk

User CI update

IT service approval required

IT technical approval req

Business owner approval required

IT service IT technical Business owner

approved

Approved approved Approved

yes

no

Update user CI

yes

no

yes

no

reject reject reject

Bottlenecks - Approvals – Too Many bottlenecksApprovals

IT S

erv

ice

S

AM

or

oth

er

IT t

ech

nic

al

Bu

sin

ess O

wn

er

approved

Approved?

Approved?

Approved?

no

yes

rejectSend email

Receive email and approve

yes



Send email Send email

no

no

yes

IT service

approval

required

IT technical

approval req

Business owner

approval

required

yes

no

yes

no no

yes

To remove bottlenecks

Result

• Less work for each individual

• therefor faster throughput

Workflow, Catalogues and SKU

• SKU (stock keeping unit)

• Is the means of identifying the appropriate rules for a product

• Industry standard

• Catalogue

• stores the rules for each product (SKU)

Workflow• Workflow uses the rules to manage the movement between

processes

• Can be manual or automated

• Can Reduce dependences on individuals and skills by eliminating or reassigning processes

The catalogue, rules and workflow:

In-use

Problem

IncidentRetireRelease Deploy

Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin

rules rules rules rules rules rules

• Controls the activity within a process • Defines the next process required• Pre-defined decisions• Requires less skill• Automated or manual• Rules may be held in a catalogue and

selected by the SKU• Resource is required to manage the

rules.• May be rolled out to departments

when suitable

Approval

Procure

rules

STARTEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules


rules

rules


The catalogue – Request and authenticate

In-use

Problem


Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin


Approval

Procure

rules

STRATEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules SKU

Reseller part no.

Software name

Description

Vendor

reseller

Price

Quantity available

Profiling – people/countries

Software status B/S/H

Embedded software

Manager software

Provides data for self-service on-line ordering process or manual authentication


rules

rules


The catalogue – Stock check

In-use

Problem


Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin


Approval

Procure

rules

STRATEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules

SKU

Stock levels

Re order levels

Unavailable assigned stock

Lists functions parameters which decide if sufficient stock is available or whether software can installed before it is licensed.


rules

rules


The catalogue - Procurement

In-use

Problem


Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin


Approval

Procure

rules

STRATEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules

SKU

Reseller

Last purchase price

Contract number(s)

Lists functions which need to approve the installation (not the Procurement)


rules

rules


The catalogue – Goods in

In-use

Problem


Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin


Approval

Procure

rules

STRATEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules

SKU

Location of license media

Location of media/SW

Location of binary code

Location of purchase records

Lists functions which need to approve the installation (not the Procurement)


rules

rules


The catalogue - Release

In-use

Problem


Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin


Approval

Procure

rules

STRATEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules

SKU

Roll out date

Dependencies

Lists functions which need to decide when to release


rules

rules


The catalogue - Packaging

In-use

Problem


Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin


Approval

Procure

rules

STRATEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules

SKU

Is it packaged?

Package number

Imbedded software/licenses

Lists functions which need to decide when to release and how to deploy


rules

rules


The catalogue – Financial and contracts

In-use

Problem


Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin


Approval

Procure

rules

STRATEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules

SKU

Contracts

Tipping points



rules

rules


The catalogue - Strategy

In-use

Problem


Acquisition


Stockcheck

Pay

Goodsin


Approval

Procure

rules

STRATEGY

Update catalogue

From compliance

rules

SKU

Business value

Strategic value

Status – evaluated/approved/rejected

End-of-life date

OWNER - budget

OWNER – business need



rules

rules


Achievements from Cataloguing and SKU

• Improvements in the lifecycle processes (not owned by SAM)

• Central management of current fragmented data

• Avoids errors

• Reduces delays

• Improves user satisfaction.

• Reduces duplication

• Data is managed at source

• Tactical and strategic processes are clarified

• Integrate with service support and business processes.

• Redistributed resource.

Summary

• It could be applied to all ISO 19770-1 processes

• It may be possible to apply to other activities.

We already have some templates, but is that enough.

Q and A

Documents

Best practice for SAM - bcs.org · Best practice for ISO 20000 service management is IT infrastructure ... Verification and compliance Relationship and contract Service ... check