Knowledge15: ITOM for Everyone?

[cjmod]

As the ServiceNow Specialist at LabTech Software, I'm extremely excited to attend our first Knowledge conference in 2015. I've worked with LabTech Software for over 3 years, helping IT organizations across the globe achieve increased agility and efficiency, and can't wait to speak with, and learn from, other ServiceNow partners and customers.

After reading Steve Emerson's Guest Blog, Planning ahead for Knowledge15: Customer Guest Blog, I browsed through the schedule for Knowledge 15 and saw tons of labs, breakouts, and sessions that promise to deliver huge value to our company and customers. Personally, our team is looking forward to the IT Operations Manager Journey and CreatorCon. But for any IT professionals out there unsure of what ITOM is and the value it presents, let's try to clarify.

What is IT Operations Management (ITOM)?

How would you describe ITOM to someone not already familiar with the concept? Put simply, ITOM is the result of blending your organization's Service Desk and IT management solutions. Think ServiceNow + Active Directory. Or ServiceNow + VMware. Or ServiceNow + you get the drift.

In other words, ITOM is the promised land of agility and efficiency for organizations adopting a modern IT vision. However, that path has been riddled with gaps and extra costs.

To give credit where credit's due, ServiceNow has done an excellent job with their ITOM products (like Discovery and Orchestration). But not everyone has an enterprise budget to work with. Your business is already shouldering the cost of ServiceNow (which is a must) and, in many cases, multiple different management solutions — like Microsoft SCCM, Symantec Altiris, Solarwinds, LabTech, Puppet, etc. And with each new product you purchase, the promised land of ITOM only seems to get further away and more costly.

Should You Pay to Integrate Products?

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. It really depends on your specific needs and budget. If the integration was created by a 3rd party integration shop, then it completely makes sense to support the business, so they can offer you the best support possible.

However, if the integration was created by a direct product vendor, then paying for integration seems redundant. You've already paid for the product, likely in part because it integrates to another product you pay for. If Microsoft created an SCCM integration to ServiceNow, you'd expect that integration to be offered at no additional cost. At least, that's LabTech Software's stance. When you pay for a product that offers integration, that integration should be supported by the funds you've already paid.

ITOM for Everyone

[aka. Shameless Plug]

LabTech Software is coming to Knowledge 15 to unleash ITOM for everyone. With years of experience and expertise, we've perfected the art of integrating IT Management and Service Desk solutions using the DATA Model - delivering complete control between both solutions.

Discovery: Automated scheduled discovery and inventory of assets and configurations for each department and location throughout your entire organization.

Actions: Take action on requests with lightning-fast remote control and chat. Respond to incidents with automated scripts and remote commands.

Ticketing: Achieve operational consistency while efficiently throttling the auto-generation, categorization, and routing of any monitored failure.

Automation: Automate redundant tasks with a service catalog that delivers based on your approval process to achieve Self Service Delivery.

Come visit LabTech Software at Booth 238 during the Knowledge15 ExpoNow hours to learn how you can unleash ITOM for everyone and transform your IT organization! We'll save a beer for you.

Question

What are you using for IT Operations Management? Are you using ServiceNow Discovery, Orchestration, ServiceWatch, etc.? Why or why not? What do you like most about these products and what would you love to see them add? We look forward to hearing your thoughts!

[pathat]

Hello.

Question about ITOM, which as you say is a separate and sometimes costly component:

I understand Orchestration is part of the ITOM component. How can I tell if ITOM or Orchestration is installed in my SN instance?I check the plugin lsit in my instance, and I do not see anything called ITOM or Orchestration.

I am currently using workflows to integrate with an external service (via REST API calls) and was wondering this is made possible by the ITOM/Orchestration component.