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 management
o Deliver integration between asset management and service
requests
o Recommend a service tracking system and best practices for
providing IT service
#watitis2012
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.
#watitis2012
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
o Make product recommendations and
implement the best system for uWaterloo
#watitis2012
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
o Propose the implementation of a set of best practices
o Deliver 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
#watitis2012
Request Tracking
Investigation Project
Lisa Tomalty, ltomalty@uwaterloo.ca
Information 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.
#watitis2012
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:
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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:
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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?
– Auditors want IT groups
to track assets
– Improve response to IT
support requests and
security events
#watitis2012
Uses and Benefits of AM
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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?
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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
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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
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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?
#watitis2012
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
#watitis2012
Where do we go from here?
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Categorize and prioritize needs
Research asset management marketplace
Create and submit RFI
Research IT AM systems in use at other
organizations, IT staff experiences
#watitis2012
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/itservice-asset-management
• Program manager, project leads
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Questions, comments
?
#watitis2012