See HP’s enterprise strength service desk in action Service Manager 9.20 Web Event Q&A
Q: What is the timeline/ plan to go live with SM 9.20? who is the project manager?
how is this going to be deployed? via a pilot? or full rollout?
A: SM 9.20 is already released (Generally Available/GA) and ready to implement.
Q: How long will it take to transition to using this system from the current service desk?
A: Usability should be intuitive so we feel that with some training users will be able to adapt to the new web interface easily.
Q: How will SM 9.20 be priced? by person? by tickets? What are the benefits of pricing with this service manager vs the previous hp service desk?
Pricing has not changed with the new release. It is still priced per user.
Q: What is the pricing model: concurrent or named licenses?
A: Either. We offer both concurrent and named licenses with our a-la-carte solution. There is also a SaaS offer and there are bundles (the SM Starter Suite or Enterprise Suites) based on named licenses.
Q: Would this not be considered a new install instead of an upgrade?
A: HP SM 9.20 is really just an extension of the SM 7.x family (and a very simple, straightforward upgrade). It was re-numbered from 7.20 to 9.20 to reflect how tightly it integrates with the new releases of HP Universal CMDB 9.0, Release Control Analysis 9.0, and other products in the HP BTO portfolio. The documentation is online - http://support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/manuals and an upgrade guide is coming very soon.
Q: Do we need to upgrade to SM 7 from SC 6.2 before upgrading to SM 9.20?
A: You can go straight to SM 9.20 without going to a SM 7.x platform
Q: Where can we get information about the upgrades and the available paths (i.e., 7.1 to 9.20)?
A: You can visit our support site. Also, you can engage your local HP software team. Yes, the 7.1 to 9.20 upgrade is available.
Q: Does the Windows Client look and act like the Web client? Is the Windows Client faster in response time?
A: With the new release of SM 9.20, we are doubling down on web interface. You will see improved web usability interface and we plan not to duplicate the look and feel of Web and Windows. We will focus on the web client going forward, and we put significant effort into enhancing performance for the SM 9.20 web.
Q: We use the Windows client. Will our old screens from 7.02 work in 9.2 or do we have to rebuild our screens because of the web?
A: If your screens are customized (not OOTB), then you will need to touch them. If you are using OOTB forms, then the SM 9.20 upgrade will take care of it. Keep in mind that we are doubling down on the web interface and recommending that customers start moving to the web interface.
Q: Being Web based, everything is rendered in the user's browser correct? Does that mean if the slower the user's machine, the slower the rendering in the browser?
A: We tested the SM web interface and put significant effort into the user performance experience. Any browser experience you can enhance from hardware point of view would also benefit the SM web interface.
Q: Will this new user interface also apply to HP Service Manager with a SaaS delivery method?
Yes. this will be the web interface available in any SM installation, including the SaaS platform.
Q: Is SM9 optimized for Firefox or IE? We are a Firefox shop on Linux and Windows.
A: Yes, we support both FireFox and IE.
Q: How does HP RC and SM work?
A: We have integrated look & feel between RC and SM on the latest release as it is fully embedded in SM now. You can view RC calendar as a section within SM forms.
Q: Is the visualization data provided by CIs in SM or directly from a query to uCMDB?
A: What was demoed here was a real time request made to the UCMDB.
Q: The "real" data in UCMDB is populated and maintained by which HP products (HPSM, HP BAC, HPDDM), etc.?
A: Pretty much yes to all. UCMDB provides a foundation for a federated Configuration Management System (CMS). DDM is a common source for maintaining discovery & dependency info.
Q: So why did the tool go from old tab based navigation to collapsible sections? What determined the change?
A: This was based on customer interviews, input from usability architect, and a general new Web 2.0 layout approach.
Q: Which forms have the new collapsible sections?
A: Interaction, Incident, problem, known error, and change. We will get to the CI form shortly.
Q: Why is BP4SM not part of the core product when BP4SM is focused on ITIL best practices?
A: BP4SM is currently a separate add-on solution provided by HP Software Services. However, we are looking to incorporate BP4SM and better align it with the SM product going forward.
Q: In the My To Do Queue, are the fields that come up customizable?
A: Yes, they can be customizable. We are also working on enhanced and easier ways to modify and sort fields.
Q: Will the Service Health Check functionality be released with the SM9 Upgrade or in a patch?
A: The Service Health Check functionality is assuming that the Service Manager customer has HP Operations Orchestration. The integration is achieved through Service Manager 9.20’s new component called the Integration Manager. Integration Manager refers to a plug-in based platform called Service Manager Integration Suite (SMIS), which can provide centralized management and configuration of all instances of integrations that are configurable in SMIS. Out-of-box, SMIS comes with a set of predefined templates for integrations that fall into two categories:
1. Schedule-based: A schedule-based integration runs as a schedule in the background. When a schedule-based integration instance is enabled, a corresponding scheduler is started in Service Manager.
2. UI-based: A UI-based integration can be invoked only in the UI.
SMIS is also a development platform that enables you to develop new integration templates of your own. You can then register these new integration templates in SMIS so that they are configurable in SMIS.
Q: How do we integrate Quality Center 9.2 / 10.0 with Service Manager 9.2?
A: We bridge the gap between the Application Development group and Operations group in IT, by creating a QC requirement or defect from a problem or change record in SM, and systematically tracking its progress. Also, the known issues list from a release in QC can be used as a source of knowledgebase in SM’s KM module.
Q: Can a change record be related to multiple CI's ?
A: Yes
Q: How can we define flexible classification of the service calls? (by application? by component? or both?)
A: The product can support your defined classifications.... It depends on how you defined services and detail CIs...
Q: Does the version of JAVA on the client's machine be the same as the Server running SM9, or can it be an older version?
A: These are independent components. Refer to the compatibility matrix for specifics on each.
Q: Handle time -- does this measure time that the ticket has been opened, or strictly the amount of time the ticket view is presented on a user's screen?
A: The time spent processing a request for service costs a provider money. A 10-minute phone conversation with the customer represents an expense that should be charged back to the customer. A large number of brief service desk interactions consume a significant amount of a provider’s resources. The time spent in service desk interactions is handle time. It is from the time the interaction screen comes up until the record is saved (actually until just before the save, when the request for save is made). So, essentially, it is the GUI time at the help desk.
Q: Can we turn that "related problem" screen off of the interaction screen?
A: Yes, this feature of relating a interaction to a existing problem through a wizard can be disabled.
Q: Service Manager v7.1.1 had the embedded best practice processes documented within the help server, what was the reason for removing these and only including a PDF?
A: There was considerable customer demand for a PDF copy of best practices that people could view without having to install a copy of the help server. So, the ITIL best practices information we had in the help server was converted to the best practices guide.
Since we did not have a tool to edit this information in both HTML and PDFs format at the time, we decided to make the Best Practices Guide a PDF-only delivery. That way we didn’t have to maintain the same information in two different source formats. (As well as taking more resources, maintaining the same information in two places always carries with it the risk of the information getting “out of sync.”)
There was no push at that time to add the best practices information back to the online help. However, we now have the ability to single-source our information. If there is now considerable customer demand for this information in the help, we could consider converting it to Flare. Then we would have the option to include it in the help as well as provide a PDF.
Q: Are the "required" indicators on the forms in 9.20 driven only by DVD or by requirements in format control?
A: It's in the format control.
Q: Can I integrate 3rd party catalog into HPSM? Is there an easy way to import that data?
A: This is not something we support out of the box. We have a big plan for catalog enhancements going forward.
Q: Can you open multiple tabs of the same process (ie., multiple incident/change/CI tabs)?
A: Yes, absolutely.