WaveTwo provides an outstanding service designed to address ongoing IT management and support needs. The service provides regularly scheduled maintenance of systems and networks that, when proactively monitored and managed, will reduce the exposure to many common problems that plague IT environments.
Provisioning of Managed IT Services
Customer Services, Service Support, Operations Management and Supplier Management are WaveTwo's four means for provisioning Managed Services
Customer Services
Once the service requirements have been agreed, the relationship between the customers and the IT Services Organization is via the customer services function. This will have a fundamental impact on the way services are perceived by customers. Customer services functions for Clients include Help Desk and Customer Liaison activities. While the structure of these groups may vary, WaveTwo’s goal for Clients will be for the Client to have:
- Easy access to and simple channels of communication with the service provider
- A single point of contact with the service provider
The WaveTwo IT customer services personnel understand the above, and also the importance of supporting and developing good relationships with all Client personnel.
Service Support
Service support is concerned with effectively coordinating, monitoring and controlling the resources which deliver IT services. This includes control over changes required during system implementations as well as day-to-day running of the IT infrastructure.
Specific functions include:
- Problem management
- Change management
- Configuration management
- Software control and distribution
These functions are concerned less with managing elements of the IT infrastructure than with information about the overall service (such as incidents or problems, and changes required to the service). In contrast, operations management is concerned with specific elements (or domains) of the IT infrastructure.
Operations Management
Operations Management functions are directly concerned with planning, managing and operating the technical resources of the IT infrastructure, namely:
- Computer operations management
- Network services management
- Management of local systems
Operations management may encompass technical support of the infrastructure, whether it is provided by internal or external sources. For example, hardware technical support is likely to be provided by a hardware supplier. Installation of equipment also needs to be controlled and in some cases, such as procurement and installation of large computers, should be run as an independent project.
Supplier Management
As well as liaison with customers, there is a need for coordination and communication with various other interests outside the IT organization. These include:
- Liaison with people responsible for developing and maintaining applications software whether within, or external to, the IT group to ensure service management interests are addressed, particularly during testing.
- Management of relationships with suppliers of products and services to the IT group and its customers, such as suppliers of hardware, software, and/or third party maintenance groups.
- Coordination with others responsible for corporate issues, including quality, security, contingency, finance and human resources.
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