SAManage IT Management Blog

This post is part of a series on using the SAManage help desk software. Other posts in the series include Introducing Your New Help Desk, Working with Tickets, Personalizing Your End-User Support Portal, and Customizing Your Help Desk.

Receive New Tickets Via Email

Your users can now submit support request and tickets via email. The SAManage solution comes pre-configured with a unique email address for your help desk. Any email sent to that address will appear as a new ticket in your help desk.

Collaboration on tickets between help desk technicians and end users can also easily take place via this unique email address.  For example, when a help desk technician reviews a new ticket, they can add comments requesting additional information from the user.  These comments will be automatically sent – in the form of a reply email - to the user who originated the request.  When the user receives this email, they can than respond by just replying to the email. All email replies and discussions will be fully tracked in the help desk system, added as additional comments on the original ticket.

Configure The Email-to-Ticket Option

Configuring your new help desk feature is fast and easy.  Simply navigate to the help desk setup section to view your help desk email address, which is a unique address specifically for your account. Next, you’ll need to setup an automatic redirect within your existing email system, so all support emails are automatically forwarded to your unique help desk email address.

For example, if you want support@acme.com to be the primary address for sending and receiving new support requests, you can configure a forwarding rule in your email system to route all mail sent to support@acme.com directly to your unique SAManage help desk email address. Once configured, any emails sent to support@acme.com will immediately appear as new tickets in your SAManage help desk system.

Receive help desk tickets via email

You can use the new email-to-ticket feature in conjunction with an external URL, to provide your users will multiple convenient options for submitting new help desk support requests.

Support Your Existing Business Processes

To further extend your new SAManage help desk solution across your company, and to ensure full support for your existing business processes, you can use the ticket-types capability with the new email-to-ticket feature.

For example, you can setup your new help desk system to send acquisition or software installation requests to unique email addresses.  This will ensure that these types of requests are automatically assigned to the right stakeholders within your company. As a result, you can streamline your help desk processes and completely integrate your new SAManage system with the way you currently do business.

This post is part of a series on using your new help desk software by SAManage. To learn more about the SAManage IT management service, visit our Web site and sign up for your own account today.

SaaS-based IT Management and Help Desk Software

Discover how on-demand IT Management and Help Desk software from SAManage can help you gain instant visibility into your assets and improve your service levels.

Sign up for a free trial of SAManage.

Gartner estimates that fewer than 25 percent of companies worldwide have implemented a formal IT asset management (ITAM) strategy.  If your company is one of those without a solid ITAM plan, or you feel that your legacy tool is not providing the value you expect, then this post – which will discuss why today’s new breed of hosted ITAM solutions are far superior to legacy ITAM systems – is quite important.

As we hear quite often from our customers, legacy ITAM tools are cumbersome, outdated, and expensive to maintain.  They require huge upfront investments, have long and complex deployment cycles, and are often built on antiquated technologies that are more than a decade old.  Many of the legacy ITAM tools in the market where developed a while ago and simply can not be agile and flexible enough to effectively support today’s business needs. This not only has the potential to drain financial and human resources, it can make positive return on investment (ROI) from your legacy ITAM system much, much harder to achieve.

And while these legacy ITAM solutions are still readily available, and frequently purchased by companies who simply don’t know that there are more viable options out there, it is the emerging crop of ITAM suites – particularly hosted inventory management, and hardware and software asset management solutions – that are proving to be the most innovative, and deliver the most value.

Today, a new generation of ITAM solutions exists, ones that are designed from scratch to deliver immediate advantage and substantial, measurable ROI. Delivered via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, also known as hosted ITAM, or on-demand ITAM, SaaS-based IT asset management solutions offer benefits that are far greater than those delivered by legacy ITAM systems.

Why is on-demand ITAM the better choice? SaaS ITAM minimizes deployment time and effort, allowing companies to begin reaping benefits almost immediately.  There is no hardware to purchase, making hosted ITAM far more economical and budget-friendly, so businesses can achieve faster, higher ROI than they would with legacy ITAM.  Additionally, because there are no software to be installed and maintained, SaaS based ITAM poses no burden on internal IT teams.

But, perhaps most importantly, due to the nature of the software-as-a-service delivery model and extensive use of agile product development methodologies, hosted inventory management software is extremely diligent when it comes to upgrades and enhancements.  This means that customers always have access to the latest and greatest cutting-edge ITAM features and capabilities and without having to go through lengthy and painful upgrade cycles – something that is lacking in most legacy ITAM solutions.

When it comes to hosted ITAM, there is no better provider than SAManage.  Our solutions leverage SaaS and cloud computing to provide the most efficient way to manage all your technology assets.  Feature-rich, fast to implement and roll out, easy to use, and far more cost-effective than legacy ITAM systems, on-demand ITAM from SAManage delivers high functionality, tremendous value, and maximum affordability.

SaaS IT Management Software

Discover how SaaS IT Management software can help you gain instant visibility into your assets and know exactly what you have.

Sign up for a free trial of SAManage IT Management service.

SAManage had a major outage early this morning: for about two hours starting at 2:30 AM PST. While many of our users in the US were asleep, many people in other regions could not access their account. Lots of users around the world who rely on SAManage were disrupted and we’re really sorry for that.

The issue was due to a rare technical failure with our hosting provider storage shelf and fail-over system. We were assured this was a rare incident and will continue to research the root cause of the error.

You can follow the service status page at http://www.samanage.com/status to learn more about service availability and up-time information.

Thanks for bearing with us. We apologize for any inconvenience.

SAManage Support Team | support at samanage dot com

Customer Success: Danfoss Turbocor Gets Smarter with SAManage

“SAManage offers me all the functionality I had with eSMART as well as additional capabilities such as risk management and an integrated helpdesk.” Clayton Tew, IT Manager

Danfoss Turbocor manufactures industrial grade air conditioning compressors designed for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration industry.  The Turbocor compressors offer the unique ability to run oil-free and utilize only about half the electricity of a standard air compressor.  With a growing demand for environmentally-friendly equipment, the Turbocor compressor have become a popular choice for leading retrofit contractors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide.

As the global IT Manager at Danfoss Turbocor, Clayton Tew is faced with a limited amount of time for a large array of tasks.  With continued growth and new users added in locations around the world, an efficient IT management tool has become imperative for Danfoss Turbocor to support the mounting IT workload.

While looking for a solution that would better support his requirements, Tew wanted to stay with Software-as-a-Service. “The main thing that attracts me to Software-as-a-Service is that upgrades are incorporated as part of the service. With conventional software, upgrades would require not only additional expense but also my time, which is even a greater concern.”

Read the complete report: how Danfoss Turbocor gets smarter with SAManage ….

Ready for next generation IT Management?

Discover how you can gain instant visibility into your assets, know exactly what you have and what risks exists in your network.

Get started today: Sign up for a free 30-days trial of SAManage IT Management service.

Technology vendors continue their race to innovate.  And businesses are increasingly willing to invest heavily in the latest solutions in order to achieve a competitive edge.  As a result, organizations of all sizes are retiring their IT assets at a faster pace than ever before.  That’s why IT asset disposition (ITAD) has become a core part of IT asset management (ITAM) initiatives.

IT asset management & disposal (commonly referred as ITAD) is the process of rendering an asset obsolete at the end of its lifecycle.  This can occur for a variety of reasons.  For example, perhaps the asset no longer operates properly and must be taken out of commission.  Maybe it is simply outdated and needs to be replaced by a newer, better solution.  Or, perhaps it is being refurbished and redeployed to another user, or sold to a third party.

In order to ensure the highest possible return on capital investments, ITAD must be handled as effectively as possible.  For example, assets must be decommissioned based on current market worth in order to maximize residual value.  Transition from old systems to new ones must be considered carefully, to prevent vital business data from being lost or compromised.  IT budgets must be structured in such a way that they will leave room for the acquisition of replacement assets, if needed, to ensure business continuity.  And, the disposal of certain technology assets must occur in adherence with federal privacy laws or environmental legislation.

It may sound like a harrowing task, but the truth is, implementing a comprehensive it asset management & disposal strategy and related processes may not be as challenging as it seems.  In fact, companies that have a plan and system in place for enterprise asset management already have the tools they need to enable effective ITAD.  Important information, such as asset profile and current configuration data, which is collected during the course of IT audits and other IT Asset Management activities, can also be extremely useful in various IT asset disposal processes, such as lifecycle profitability planning, virtual consignment, and compliance reporting.

IT Asset Management procedures can be easily extended to include IT Asset Disposal, giving companies the ability to proactively plan for asset retirement from both a technology and a financial perspective.  So, they can reach the full potential of each and every IT asset before it is taken out of service.

Visit our Web site to learn more about SaaS IT asset management systems, and how  – through our partnership with ServoTerra, a leading asset disposition solution provider – they can help your company successfully embark on an IT asset management & disposal strategy.

The Business Case for IT Asset Management

This paper outlines the steps needed to create a compelling business case for an IT Asset Management solution.

Download our building the business case for IT Asset Management white paper.

The SAManage inventory agent just completed a lab test and is confirmed to be working well with the new Windows  7 operating system.

As our customers are considering their migration path to the new Windows 7 operating system, it is important for us to provide the smoothest migration process and verify that SAManage is ready for Windows 7.

Please contact our support team with any questions. Good luck with your migration.

When implementing new solutions, there are many benefits to the software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployment model.  But, one of the key reasons why on-demand or SaaS systems are superior to their on-premise counterparts is their ability to improve collaboration and information sharing across an entire business.

The SaaS approach makes it easy for multiple users within a company to distribute and access data via the Web and easily enable online collaboration.  Any authorized user, in any location around the world, can instantly share data with any other authorized user, including:

• Colleagues in remote offices or business units
• External stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and business partners
• Mobile staff members, like field service technicians and sales reps
• Off-site team or department members and support personal

The type of unhindered data sharing that is facilitated by the SaaS model can increase organizational productivity in multiple ways.  It can accelerate core business activities by making the information needed to support processes and workflows more readily available.  It can also eliminate the time workers waste searching for and collecting the information they need to perform their jobs, or asking others to retrieve data for them and waiting for the results.  This allows them to focus on their core tasks, instead of data gathering and streamline their day to day tasks.

The ability to instantly share information with online collaboration is increasingly important when it comes to IT asset management.  SaaS IT asset management makes it easier to better track and maintain asset inventory, because it ensures that everyone involved in the processes of conducting IT audits and maintaining inventory logs, as well as those responsible for ensuring optimum asset utilization, have all the data they need, right at their fingertips.  All they need is a Web browser to access complete, timely asset details.

When all stakeholders across a business have complete visibility into what assets exist, where they are located, and how they are used, the tracking and management of technology investments is as accurate and efficient as possible.  Procurement professionals can ensure software license compliance by capturing and monitoring related software licenses and contracts.  Internal help desk teams can review  asset repair and service histories, and gather current asset configuration information, to more rapidly troubleshoot end user issues.  And, IT departments can instantly detect and proactively mitigate risks to the technology infrastructure while delegating users to generate their own reports and extract the exact information they need.

Visit our Web site to learn more about how SaaS IT asset management can enhance the sharing of vital asset information across your business, and dramatically increase the value you derive from your technology investments.

The latest addition to the SAManage IT Management suite is a better and faster search engine. The new search feature includes the ability to group search results by different asset types, as well as the ability to display related information for each asset directly in the search results page.  We have also made it easier to navigate into different areas of each asset within the search results.

Asset inventory search results

Detailed Search Results

The new search facility now returns more detailed information about each asset.  For example, any computer that appears in the search results will include links to its software or hardware configuration.  So, you are always just a click away from more information about that asset. Search results will also now display more information on each asset that meets search criteria, to make it easier to identify related hardware and software components.

Grouped by Asset Types

Search results are now grouped by tabs based on the type of asset.  These tabs will provide a quick count of the related items appearing in the results. For example, if a search for “server” returns matches for a computer, software, and tickets, you will see all the results on the main search result page.  But you can filter those results by clicking, for example, on the computer tab to view only computers with the word “server” in them.

You can search by computer, software, printers, other assets, contracts, vendors, tickets and solutions. All asset properties are now included in the index, so you can search for any type of properties or value.

Advanced Search Options

1. Operators - Searching for a phrase such as ”Server + Mike” will return any results  meeting that exact criteria, while typing in ”Server | Mike” will return results with either “server” or “mike”
2. By Property – Search by various asset properties.  For example, cpu:intel, or status:disposed – here are all available options:
   1. Computer – Name, tag, ip, username, cpu, operating_system, domain, asset_tag, site, department, category, status, manufacturer, serial, mac_address
   2. Software – Name, tag, category, manufacturer
   3. Printers – Name, driver and port, site, department
   4. Other Assets – Name, description, manufacturer, ip, model, serial, site, department, type, status
   5. Contracts - Name, manufacturer, note, item_name, version, tag, purchase_number
   6. Vendors - Name, note, vendor: <value>
   7. Tickets – Name, description, number, resolution_description, type, comments
3. Grouping – Typing in a phrase such as “(asset AND management) or ITAM” will return results containing either “asset management” or “ITAM”
4. Phrase - Complete phrases, such as “hello world” can be easily searched upon
5. Proximity - Searching for a phrase like “ruby rails”~10 will match results that have the words “ruby” and ”rails” within a 10 word span. So, matches similar to this one – “ruby is fun language and rails is capable framework” – will be returned
6. Quorum Matching – Using search phrases like “the world is a wonderful place”/3 will return results that have at least 3 out of the 6 specified words

SaaS-based IT Management Software

Discover how SaaS IT Management software can help you gain instant visibility into your assets and know exactly what you have.

Sign up for a free trial of SAManage IT Management service.

Once you’ve signed up for your SAManage account, the next step is to see how intuitive and easy-to-use it is by deploying our on-demand IT asset management system throughout your network environment.  In an effort to help you do so as quickly and easily as possible, this post will focus on IT best practices in deploying SAManage across your network.

How SAManage Works

There are several implementation approaches you can take.  The steps below outline what we consider to be the most efficient and effective deployment options, please review the online deployment guides for examples and scripts you can use, or download the quick start guide which includes step-by-step instructions on how to get started with SAManage.

Enterprise Networks

Where most computers are connected to a network (LAN/WAN):

Our recommended deployment best practice is to use our Remote Deployment Tool (RDT) in combination with an Active Directory GPO/Domain Logon Script. RDT allows you to instantly create your computer inventory and software inventory by using the network administrator credentials to remotely log in to all computers on your network (or in a range of IPs) and install SAManage remotely on any PC that is currently connected to the network.  However, RDT will only install the agent on connected PCs, so any PC that is not turned on and logged into the network at the time of execution is not going to have SAManage installed on it.

That’s where the Active Directory GPO/Domain Logon Script comes in.  It provides a more comprehensive, broad-reaching solution over the long term, filling in any inventory gaps by ensuring that the SAManage agent is immediately installed on any PC the moment it connects to your network (if it has not already been installed).  This will not only take care of those PCs that were disconnected at the time the RDT was run, it also guarantees that any new computers – purchased or re-provisioned after your IT asset management system is already in place – are added to your hardware inventory immediately the first time they log in to the network.  Since the agent is automatically installed, the burden on you is significantly eased and you won’t have to remember to do it manually each time a new PC is introduced into the environment.

Note: You can run RDT multiple times on different schedules, to install SAManage on additional PCs that were not connected during previous executions. Simply check the “skip host if agent is already installed” option, and re-run RDT as much as needed until all your computers get the agent installed.

Distributed Networks

Where no centralized network exists (many branches/remote offices):

The issue with these types of scenarios is that there are multiple remote users who do not log in to a centralized network, and therefore the RDT can not be used. The recommended best practices in it to setup SAManage on those PCs is to ask remote users to follow the manual installation procedures, and install the agent themselves. Step-by-step instructions for manual installation can be found in our deployment guides on the support website.

With these deployment techniques, installing SAManage across your network will be smooth and seamless.  Your initial inventory will be logged quickly and accurately, and you’ll be able to more easily support the day-to-day usage of the solution across your business.  For more deployment tips and best practices, see our online deployment guides.

Windows 7 will be available on October 22nd, and many companies want to immediately take advantage of the many enhancements and new features it will offer, such as more intuitive taskbars, improved device management, and a more powerful search facility for files.  With an IT asset management system in place, you can more effectively plan and execute your Windows 7 upgrade effort, to ensure the smoothest and most efficient transition possible.

With these simple steps, performing your Windows 7 upgrade will be fast and problem-free:

• Conduct a full hardware inventory, to determine which hardware components will be impacted by the upgrade, and to identify their current configuration and see what operating system they are currently running.
• Check the Windows 7 system requirements at the Microsoft website.
• Identify any gaps between what currently exists, and what you need, then correct them before the Windows 7 upgrade takes place.

How can hardware and software asset management tools help simplify and accelerate this process?  First, they provide faster – and more accurate – visibility into what you currently have.  Manually logging your inventory, then comparing it to your requirements, can take days, or even weeks, and may result in errors.

Second, they enable you to more proactively and precisely analyze your environment and determine what is missing.  In fact, without an IT asset management system in place, companies often discover that their hardware is inadequate too late in the game.  This can not only delay your Windows 7 upgrade project, it can drive up your costs.

But, most importantly, taking IT inventory with an IT asset management solution can help enable more effective management of your new Windows 7 operating system long after the upgrade has taken place.  Patches, bug fixes, and other updates can be tracked across the entire environment, to ensure that all hardware is kept current at all times.

Visit our Web site to learn more about SaaS IT asset management, and how it can help facilitate smarter planning and implementation of your Windows 7 upgrade.

Ready for next generation IT Management?

Discover how you can gain instant visibility into your assets, know exactly what you have and what risks exists in your network.

Get started today: Sign up for a free 30-days trial of SAManage IT Management service.