ITSAM I am Campus-wide Service and Asset

Management Processes

Tara Hillis, Lisa Tomalty & Dawn Keenan

https://uwaterloo.ca/it-service-asset-management

IT Service and Asset Management Program

• The IT Service and Asset Management Program (ITSAM) initiated in September 2012

• The program will provide improvements to IT asset tracking and service delivery

• The program will:o Provide comprehensive IT asset managemento Deliver integration between asset management and service

requestso Recommend a service tracking system and best practices for

providing IT service

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Campus-wide Projects

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Request Tracking Investigation Project

What are the request tracking needs of the uWaterloo community?

The Request Tracking project will answer this question and recommend one to three systems that could meet the needs of the uWaterloo community.

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Asset Management Project

• The IT Asset Management Project will:o Assess current asset management needs and

practices across the campus o Identify available asset management solutions oMake product recommendations and

implement the best system for uWaterloo

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IT Service Best Practices Project (Best Practices Project)• The Best Practices Project will review existing procedures

and best practices used across campus and also industry best practice models such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)

• The project will:o Identify which existing practices and industry standards

best fit the campus IT environment oPropose the implementation of a set of best practices oDeliver communication and training to support

implementation

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Project Coordination and Support

• A key role of the program is to manage project coordination, ensuring projects effectively manage intersecting tasks and objectives

• The program provides project management resources and assistance to the projects

• Where the projects impact or recommend a change to existing business processes, the program provides leadership managing the requirements

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Project Timeframes

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Campus Involvement

• The campus IT community has been very generous in lending their time and expertise to the projects

• Campus-wide involvement is central to the success of the projects

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Deep Dive into the Projects• Program website:

https://uwaterloo.ca/it-service-asset-management

• Lisa Tomalty is the lead on the RT Investigation Project• Dawn Keenan is the lead on the Asset Management

Project• Lisa and Dawn will be telling you more about their

projects• The Best Practices Project initiates in 2013 – information

about this project will be communicated in early 2013

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Request Tracking Investigation Project

Lisa Tomalty, ltomalty@uwaterloo.caInformation Systems and Technology

RT Investigation Project

• The Request Tracking Investigation Project started in June 2012, to examine the current IT request tracking needs of the University of Waterloo, and to recommend an IT request tracking system for the campus.

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Current RT System • Current system for tracking requests:

– Best Practical’s Request Tracker (RT) – Used by IST, some faculties and support areas,

and other areas (e.g. Federation of Students)– For the most part, it is working well, and has

been very stable and reliable.

• Interfaces:– http://rt.uwaterloo.ca (to view/edit/resolve)– http://rt.uwaterloo.ca/request (to submit)

Why Investigate Other Systems?

• System features had not been reviewed in some time

• Use of RT began in IST and has expanded within IST and to many other areas of campus

• Metrics/statistics are not currently available

• Forms for submission need improvement

• Some areas are using their own RT systems, which inhibits collaboration between IT units

• Recommendation 14 in the IT Task Force Report (May 2009) suggests a common request tracking system be used across campus

Key Project Deliverables

• The project will provide a recommendation of 1-3 request tracking systems for IT request tracking at Waterloo

• The project will provide an estimate of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the products it recommends

Project Approach• The project has collected requirements

information from many areas of campus via:– The project group– Focus groups– Survey– Email to current RT queue owners– Discussions (individuals and within project)

• In addition, the project will work with the Asset Management project to ensure integration with a future Asset Management system.

RT Investigation Project Team

• Project team is comprised of subject matter experts from most areas of campus

• Project Lead: Lisa Tomalty (IST / Arts)

RT Investigation Project Team • Project group from across campus:

– Terry Stewart (AHS)– Jeff Voskamp (IST)– Peggy Day (IST)– Cheryl Skingley (IST/Housing)– Mary Burden (Environment)– Stephen Markan (Science)– Robyn Landers (Math)– Dawn Keenan (Arts)– Mike Willson (Engineering)– Pascal Calarco (Library) …continued on next slide

RT Investigation Project Team • Project group from across campus:

– Daspina Fefekos (ITMS)– Tom Kelly (Registrar’s Office)– Bob Wallwork (IST)– Nigel Henriques (ODAA)– Trevor Bain (IST)– Daniel Allen (Computer Science, CSCF)– Bill Baer (IST/STAC) and Aamir Pasha (STAC rep)– Michael Tennant (CECA)– Mike Patterson (IST Security)– Jim Marshal (IST)

Research and Requirements• During the spring term

– The project group was formed– Queue owners and some key stakeholders

were contacted for feedback (including current and potential users of an RT system)

– Focus groups were planned– Initial requirements list was developed

Research and Requirements• During the fall term

– Focus groups and the survey were run– Additional key stakeholders were identified and most

have been contacted– Project members have consulted with other

universities in Canada and the US regarding what they use for request tracking

– Feature requirements were refined based on the various forms of feedback received

Focus Groups and Survey• During September and October, focus groups were

run (cross campus participation)– 7 focus groups were run– 54 people in various roles from across campus (clients,

issue solvers, system managers, IT managers) – Excellent information and discussions

• During the month of November, a survey was sent to 953 current RT users– Over 400 responses, 360 were staff

• User interface, search capability, functionality, training/documentation, processes

RFI

• RFI– Key requirements were included in the RFI– Intent for responses to be received by Dec 19– The RFI is open to all vendors

Looking forward: Dec-Jan• December

– Send RFI and begin to assess responses– Arrangements for test systems and testing

• January– Identify top three choices– Assess top three choices to produce an ordered

list

Looking forward: Feb-Mar• February/March

– Continue product analysis• Based on meeting key requirements• May include vendor demonstrations, local installs,

testing sandbox instances, etc.

– Assess product list in comparison to AM project product list

– Produce final project report with TCO estimate– Communicate project outcomes

Final Report

• Recommend 1-3 products• Justification for recommendation based on

requirements, testing, and feedback received in the research process• This includes feedback received from

referrals/organizations already using the product

• Include an estimate of total cost of ownership (TCO)

RT Implementation

• We hope to prepare recommendations for an RT Implementation plan as part of this project

• Communications, involvement and training will be key

Benefits of Using a Request Tracking System

• Issue tracking and working together within IT groups

• IT collaboration between IT groups

• Opportunities to define workflows, processes, etc.

• Knowledge Base, Time tracking, etc.

• Integration with asset management system to assist with IT support

Campus Involvement

• We are still interested in having discussions and hearing feedback

• Collaboration between IT support areas using a common request tracking system can benefit everyone including our students and clients

• Please contact me, ltomalty@uwaterloo.ca if you haven’t already, to provide input

IT Asset Management

Dawn Keenan

Arts Computing

IT Asset Management (AM)

• Why create a campus IT AM system?

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– Auditors want IT groups to track assets

– Improve response to IT support requests and security events

Uses and Benefits of AM• Track value, ownership, location, use of assets

• Multi-year planning for evergreen and IT budgets

• Cost of and compliance with licensing

• Warranty, maintenance information

• Review and renew service contracts on time

• Source of data for configuration information

• Authoritative information for automated systems

• Information sharing among campus IT staff

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What are IT Assets?• Physical devices on the network

• Licensed software

• Virtual devices

• Components of the above

• Anything managed by IT staff?– Research equipment, technology supported– Tools– Space (machine rooms, labs)

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Common Data about Assets• What is it?

• Where is it? – Physical, network, logical locations

• Who “owns” it?

• Who/what depends on it?

• What are significant events about it?

• How should a value be assigned to it?

• Where in its life cycle is it?

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Project Team• Dawn Keenan (ACO, project lead)• Daniel Allen (CSCF)• Debbie Brown (MFCF)• Daniel Delattre (Engineering Computing)• Jeff Mason (Science Computing)• Carl Nagel (Library)• Mike Patterson (IST Security)• Kevin Rampersad (Civil Engineering)• Bernie Rutter (MAD)• Mike Willson (Mech Engineering)• Shawn Winnington-Ball (IST CSS)• more to come?

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Current Project Status

• Kickoff meeting November 16, 2012

• Weekly discussion, review of work

• Gathering information for RFI– What do IT staff need?– What is currently being used/done?– Identify and rank needs– Determine what’s available in the marketplace

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Where do we go from here?

• Categorize and prioritize needs

• Research asset management marketplace

• Create and submit RFI

• Research IT AM systems in use at other organizations, IT staff experiences

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Other Assets on Campus

• Digital media• Buildings, rooms• Equipment• Vehicles• Supplies

Future systems may handle more assets or interact with each other: not our scope

Image shamelessly appropriated from http://www.curiositiesbydickens.com/one-ring-to-rule-them-all/

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For more information

• Program web site http://uwaterloo.ca/it-service-asset-management

• Program manager, project leads

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Questions, comments

?

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