Request for Post


Do you want a post about something in particular? Do you want a deeper development of one post, or a second part of it? Do you want me to analyze a product? If the answer to the above questions is yes, please add a comment ... Read the complete post

Estimating the required number of licenses


Sometimes when starting a new BMC Remedy implementation project, the customer, or your boss, demands an estimation cost of licenses and maintenance. If you have a reduced number of users, you can figure the number of required licenses. But if your case is more ... Read the complete post

What is new in BMC Remedy ITSM 8.0


WWRUG12 is just about closing the paper submission, and today has arrived a very big one: What's new in BMC Remedy ITSM 8.0. So Now it's completely official, the new version will be presented to public during the WWRUG12. In this post I will review the submitted ... Read the complete post

Adding custom permission groups to ITSM foundation


When starting to customize ITSM applications is easy to arrive at one point where it is important to differentiate between users, for privileges or different workflow behavior. Two main approaches appear: to use support groups or ARS permission groups. The first solution is easy ... Read the complete post

Understanding the Request Id field in BMC Remedy


ARS identifies fields by a number id. Some id's are retated to special functions. Maybe the most important of all is the field id '1', often called the Request Id or Entry Id. Understanding how this special field works is very important for any ... Read the complete post

Functions in BMC Remedy ARS


We all know that Remedy's developing paradigm is very different from traditional programming. We have no code, no loops, no functions nor any other classical element. But, classical programming has a long way and a lot of minds thinking about it. So there are ... Read the complete post

Operational Categorization for BMC Remedy


In a recent post I covered how the different categorizations for BMC Remedy Service Desk should be interpreted. The operational category is maybe the most important of all. In this post I will review the most important facts that an operational categorization must accomplish and ... Read the complete post

Naming convention for BMC Remedy Action Request System


Let's talk seriously, Remedy has one of the worsts code organization systems in the world. Also, BMC has not published any best practice guide for developing (apart of the best practice customization mode). So, any developing company must establish a set of best practices ... Read the complete post

BMC Remedy Incident Management Categories


One of the main best practices to focus when implementing the BMC Remedy Service Desk is the correct use of categorization tools. Each element can be categorized in order to obtain the next main advantages:In this line, the difference between a correct and wrong ... Read the complete post

Case Insensitive mid-tier login


In a previous post, I explained how to switch your complete ARS instance to case insensitive. But, is it really complete? No. Definitely not. There are some hidden functionalities that remain case sensitive, like the login system. To turn the Remedy login system to case insensitive is something impossible ... Read the complete post

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» ITIL

Profit Center Vs Cost Center, going beyond ITIL

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Jose Huerta in ITSM | Leave a comment

If you assisted the intermediate level ITIL classes needed to apply for a Service Expert certification, you’ve been told that the objective of an IT department is to be considered as a profit center and avoid the cost center philosophy. The main implication of this approach is that the IT organization will be considered as an external organization that sells the IT services to the company, resulting in an IT department that proves its value.

I know that ITIL is the most recognized best practices library, but sometimes I disagree with their recommendations. See why. … Read the complete post

What is a Change in BMC Remedy Suite?

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Jose Huerta in Best practices | Leave a comment

Image Property of Lease WebIf you are familiar with ITIL concepts, then probably you won’t hesitate when trying to answer this question. But if you have not read anything about ITIL, then it is not easy to answer. Another question is what are you doing with Remedy if you’re not familiar with ITIL?

Anyway, to be an ITIL service expert can be a handicap when defining the rules of using the Change Management application. The first approach to the change implementation is to be extremely ITILian and manage all changes with this application. Under my point of view this a big mistake and another methodology is needed. It is not about to be or not to be ITIL, but how the ITIL concepts fit on the ITSM suite to maximize productivity.

In this post I will discuss what must be handled with the Change Management application and how to manage the rest of ITIL changes. … Read the complete post

ITIL Masters of the Universe

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Jose Huerta in ITSM | Leave a comment

Since the revision of the ITIL documentation to the third version, a new certification scheme appeared. Before it, there were two main levels, the Foundation and the Service Manager levels. Now the Service Manager concept has been re-branded to Service Expert, and a new super level enters the scene: The ITIL Master (of the universe :) ).

In this post I will review the v3 certification scheme and make some considerations about those levels (including the master). … Read the complete post

ITIL or not ITIL, that’s the question

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Jose Huerta in Best practices | Leave a comment

When engineering processes sometimes you can arrive to one decision without a clear solution. In this cases it is normal to listen: “ITIL recommends …”. Depending on the audience, the answer can be to follow the recommendation or that some stakeholder says: “I don’t trust ITIL. It is very beautiful at the paper, but it isn’t the best solution when applied”.

In this post I will review the general mood about ITIL, and some recommendation about applying it. … Read the complete post

Defining Indicators in Remedy

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Jose Huerta in Best practices | 1 Comment

If you are ITIL Foundations v3 certified and you go beyond to the service manager or service expert courses, you know how important is to measure the performance of your processes. To define a set of KPI (Key Performance Indicators) is not as easy as it seems in theory. If you ask any ITIL expert which KPI are useful for your process he will quickly give you a list with a lot of them. But, they provide you a name, like “Number of escalated incidents”, “Mean Resolution Time” or “First call resolution ratio”, automating the computation of those indicators is not as easy as it seems at first sight.

If you are used to manage low category ticketing solutions, then these indicators can be easy to define. But when it comes to Remedy, the complexity arise. You have a lot of information, and this information creates a very big casuistic, that must be handled carefully. If you define a KPI, and don’t describe it at a very low detail you risk yourself, or your department heads, to misunderstand them, resulting in bad decisions.

In this post I will cover the complexity of defining KPI for BMC Remedy Service Desk: Incident Management and provide some advises. … Read the complete post

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