A leading school district in Georgia, U.S., was using a helpdesk system with no automation, and no authorized process to track IT assets spread across more than 100 sites. Frequent changes to infrastructure caused unanticipated outages, and lack of a well-defined process to resolve such incidents resulted in frequent SLA breaches. The client partnered with Trianz to map applications, as well as organize and consolidate information to enable effective service management.
Trianz installed and configured the IBM Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager (TADDM) solution to discover a complex infrastructure with multiple firewalls, air gaps and hardened security. We also implemented ITSM operational and process management tools, including endpoint management, configuration and change management, in addition to integrating TADDM and BigFix solution to populate Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Additionally, Trianz developed a process to automate impact analysis and view Request for Change (RFC) details from the TADDM application. Rolling out Endpoint Manager (BigFix) was critical to ensuring all hardware and software assets and their usage across sites were tracked in a centralized repository.
The Business Challenge
A reliable source of data was needed to accurately track IT assets and a dearth of well-defined processes to analyze and resolve critical outages.
Technology Components
- IBM Tivoli Application Dependency and Discovery Manager
- IBM Control Desk
- Endpoint Manager (BigFix)
The Approach
- Rolled out a service management and application affinity solution in a phased approach. Initial focus was to build an authorized asset repository for an end-to-end integrated service management solution. Implementation was completed within 9 months of kick off.
- Performed a steady state run and maintenance for another 2 years before transitioning the engagement to client personnel.
- The solution has been deployed across more than 100 sites within the state of GA, and is the primary help desk and asset management solution for the school district. Trianz ensured sufficient training to IT and non-IT users within the first few weeks of solution go-live.
Transformational Effects
- Automated analysis and inputs prior to infrastructure change
- Minimized downtime from elimination of trial and error
- Enhanced visibility to software-hardware allocations and capacity monitoring
- Facilitated usage-based allocations to revenue/cost centers directly into general ledger
- Streamlined new hire onboarding process using a single self-service offering and auto routing of those requests, reducing manual effort
