So finally one of the Big 4 – BMC Software has taken their service desk offering to the cloud. BMC Software announced this strategic alliance at Dreamforce 2009, Salesforce.com’s premier cloud-computing event. This new alliance will help BMC put its IT management solutions on the Force.com platform.

Not Remedy
BMC is planning to put the Service Desk Express application on Force.com and will deliver cloud-enabled service desk, self-service and inventory management capabilities.

BMC mentioned that it is currently scheduled to be available in the second quarter of calendar year 2010. This is interesting because Microsoft is also planning to release their version of the service desk technology sometime in 2010.

New Beginnings
This announcement among others at Dreamforce 2009 is a new beginning for both Salesforce.com and BMC Software. Salesforce.com has been trying to tell its client base that it is not a CRM company and with vendors like BMC and CA, it is able to provide a set of enterprise apps on the cloud. This will help BMC Software move away from its traditional software delivery method to the cloud.

Pricing for the new service has not been revealed yet.

Interesting Times Ahead
It will be interesting to see how this new service from one of the Big4 fares with established service-desk-on-demand players like Service-now.com and Zendesk. HP and CA have on-demand versions of the service desk technology too. What do you think?

Survey responses collected from ITSM professionals visiting the InteQ booth at the itSMF Fusion 2009 Conference indicate ‘ease of adoption’ as their most important factor when choosing a service desk solutions provider

BEDFORD, MA, November 17, 2009 – InteQ, a leading provider of SaaS and On Demand IT Service Management solutions, has released the survey results of a study conducted at the itSMF Fusion Conference in Dallas last month which polled visitors to their booth on the most important factor when considering a service desk application. Nearly 82% of ITSM professionals surveyed indicated ‘ease of adoption’ as being the most important factor in their consideration process.

IT organizations continue to struggle with the challenges of managing and maintaining enterprise service desk applications due to the impact across the enterprise. The results of this survey indicate that professionals have recognized the disruption brought on by a forced upgrade resulting in a re-implementation or application change and value a solution that is easily adopted. InteQ recognizes adoption as the ability to fully implement the application in conjunction with the pace at which the staff is trained and end users are actively utilizing it. InteQ clients have typically rolled out the SaaS service desk application within 30-90 days across the enterprise.

The second highest factor according to survey results was the ability to automate ITIL best practices. As IT organizations continue to take on more projects that have a direct effect on the business, automation becomes an essential consideration due to the ability to conserve and reallocate time and resources previously devoted to manually ensuring processes were adhered to. InteQ customers have experienced the application ensuring 100% accuracy due to its unique data-driven and action-based application architecture.

“The service desk may be the only IT resource guaranteed to touch everyone within an organization and an application change effects everyone, not just the IT support team. It was no surprise to us that ease of adoption was valued as the most important factor when considering a change and we take pride in our ability to promise this to our clients,” Yash Shah, President and CTO, InteQ. “Our service desk application, InfraDesk, is simple to deploy and simple to use. Client have adopted and fully implemented this solution in weeks and through its SaaS delivery model, upgrades to the application are seamless and non-disruptive; both important factors to consider when choosing a service desk application.”

In addition to ease of adoption and automation of ITIL best practices, the total cost of ownership (TCO) and time to production ranked considerably high. The following were the results based on feedback provided by a sample of the over 1500 ITSM professionals surveyed by InteQ at the 2009 itSMF Fusion conference:

Gartner indicates “IT organizations are looking to IT service desk tools to help reduce service and support costs, increase end-user productivity, align themselves closer to the business, provide high-end user satisfaction, and be the hub for a larger IT service management (ITSM) suite of tools…. Clients want quicker implementations due to limited budgets and a need to prove quicker return on investment (ROI), but also because they want to follow industry (ITIL) best practices and don’t want to customize.” *

The company’s ITIL SaaS Service Desk solution was designed and developed based on the company’s historical knowledge both implementing and actively using service desk tools. The result was a solution that is easily adopted and implemented due to pre-configured workflows based on ITIL best practices and built-in auto-routing functionality. InfraDesk clients are up and running within weeks (days in some cases) and have noted a significant increase in end-user adoption through the self-service portal; a clear validation of the ease and value of the application.

InfraDesk – ITIL SaaS Service Desk

InfraDesk is an ITIL SaaS Service Desk application delivered as a service over the web based on InteQ’s unique ITIL process automation approach and experience. The simple and robust enterprise service desk solution provides the foundation for IT organizations Service Delivery and Operations to ultimately support overall Service Strategy. Through its Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model, InfraDesk enables large organizations to eliminate costly maintenance upgrades and lengthy implementation cycles commonly associated with traditional on-premise software while providing the affordability to small and medium-sized organizations without sacrificing functionality or flexibility. Since its introduction to the service desk market, InfraDesk has been implemented in organizations globally accelerating value and savings for clients. InfraDesk was also the recipient of the Network Product Guide ‘Best in SaaS’ and the American Business Awards ‘Best New SaaS Product’.

About InteQ

Founded in 1995, InteQ is a leader in on demand IT Service Management (ITSM), providing a comprehensive suite of managed services (IT Monitoring-as-a-service and IT Management-as-a-service), an ITIL SaaS service desk solution, and award-winning training and consulting in ITIL – the IT Infrastructure Library. InteQ’s on demand solutions have been successfully implemented in over 90 countries through its global service delivery model with operations in the United States and India. For more information, visit www.inteqnet.com or contact 888.4IT.MGMT.

###

InteQ Corporation, InteQ, the InteQ logo and InfraDesk are registered trademarks of InteQ Corporation. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be property of their respective owners.

*Gartner Magic Quadrant for the IT Service Desk, published October 16, 2009

Combination of Modern SaaS and PinkVERIFY Designation Provides Customers With Unrivaled ITSM Tool Purchasing Confidence

SAN DIEGO, CA–(Marketwire – July 16, 2009) – Service-now.com, the pioneer of modern SaaS for IT service automation, today announced the achievement of PinkVERIFY status for support of eleven IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes. The designation is only applied to IT service management (ITSM) tools objectively assessed by Pink Elephant as meeting the functional requirements for ITIL compatibility.

“Service-now.com has shown a commitment to IT best practice with the PinkVERIFY certification,” said David Ratcliffe, President of Pink Elephant. “ITIL is recognized today as the most credible framework from which companies can align their processes and procedures. With this certification, Service-now.com now offers customers and prospects an extra level of assurance that their SaaS application for IT service management meets the industry ’stamp of approval’ for ITIL compatibility.”

Service-now.com is the first enterprise IT service management application to be delivered via modern software-as-a-service (SaaS). Service-now.com invites people to try a live instance of the application at http://demo.service-now.com. No registration is required.

IT organizations considering Service-now.com can now look to PinkVERIFY, the live Service-now.com demo instance, and more than 280 existing customers to validate Service-now.com support for ITIL best practices.

According to the PinkVERIFY assessment, Service-now.com effectively supports ITIL activities and IT best practices for:

--  Incident management
--  Problem management
--  Knowledge management
--  Request fulfillment
--  Change management
--  Release and deployment
--  Service asset and configuration
--  Service level management
--  Service catalog management
--  Service portfolio management
--  Financial management

“Service-now.com has almost 300 happy customers today because they were able to test drive the car before buying it. Now, with the addition of PinkVERIFY, prospective Service-now.com customers have the equivalent of a Carfax report. Service-now.com is dedicated to transparency and simplicity in the IT service management tool-buying process. With Service-now.com, there are only pleasant surprises,” said Fred Luddy, Service-now.com CEO.

Pink Elephant is celebrating 20 years of ITIL experience — more than any other supplier. Operating through many offices across the globe, the company is the world’s number one supplier of ITIL and ITSM conferences, education and consulting services. For more information, please visit http://www.pinkelephant.com.

About Service-now.com

Service-now.com enterprise IT service automation software combines ITIL v3 process support, software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery, and Web 2.0 functionality to provide a flexible, intuitive and self-managing application. Service-now.com was founded by Fred Luddy, former CTO of Peregrine Systems and Remedy. The company is based in Solana Beach, Calif. and has more than 280 enterprise customers worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.service-now.com/.

InfraDesk, InteQ’s On Demand Service Desk, was recognized with ‘Best New Product – Software-as-a-Service’ Stevie Award from the 2009 American Business Awards for its innovative approach to deliver IT Service Management through a SaaS model

We are honored to earn this recognition for InfraDesk which we developed to enable IT organizations to adopt a full-featured service desk application without the high costs and complexity associated with on-premise enterprise applications

Bedford, MA (PRWEB) July 7, 2009 — InteQ, a leading provider of On Demand IT Service Management solutions, announced today that their On Demand Service Desk , InfraDesk, has won the Stevie Award for “Best New Product” in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) category from the 2009 American Business Awards . Since 2002, the Stevie Awards has created an opportunity for solution providers to be publicly recognized for their achievements and positive contributions to organizations. Thousands of entries are received each year and only a handful are selected as Finalists.

“We are honored to earn this recognition for InfraDesk which we developed to enable IT organizations to adopt a full-featured service desk application without the high costs and complexity associated with on-premise enterprise applications,” stated Santhana Krishnan, Chairman & CEO InteQ. “Over a decade of consulting and implementing solutions such as BMC Remedy and HP Service Desk allowed us to experience the unmet needs our clients faced; a cost effective solution based on ITIL with full functionality they require to support their business. Our experience with IT service management has enabled us to develop a greater solution for our clients and prospective clients and that is validated by the awards we receive, such as the Stevie, and by the 50,000+ users who access InfraDesk daily to solve problems globally.”

Recognizing the pain felt throughout the market due to legacy architectures and administrative costs associated with on-premise help desk and service desk software solutions, InteQ developed InfraDesk to enable IT organizations to easily adopt a fully featured, ITIL-based application via a SaaS delivery model. Software-as-a-service is consistently recognized as a cost effective alternative to traditional enterprise software due to the elimination of in-house infrastructure, costly upgrades and annual maintenance and administration costs. Upon provisioning, InfraDesk is delivered with out-of-the-box ITIL-based modules and processes which customers take less than 30 days to roll-out with a base cost of less than $1000 per month.

The awards were presented during ceremonies at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. The ceremonies were hosted by Cheryl Casone of Fox Business Network and broadcast nationwide on radio by the Business TalkRadio Network. More than 200 executives across the country participated in the judging process to determine the Finalists and Stevie Award winners. To view a complete list of the honorees, visit http://www.stevieawards.com/aba/ .

InfraDesk is also the recipient of 2009 Network Product Guide’s Best in SaaS award. The solution is actively used to support internal external users in organizations such as Timberland , Eastern Mountain Sports and Sierra Atlantic. For more information please visit www.inteqnet.com/web-based-help-desk .

InfraDesk – an On Demand Service Desk Solution

InfraDesk is an On Demand Service Desk application delivered as a service over the web based on InteQ’s unique ITIL process automation approach based on over 15 years of delivering IT service management solutions to enterprises. The simple and robust enterprise service desk solution provides the foundation for IT organizations Service Delivery and Operations to ultimately support overall Service Strategy. Through its Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model, InfraDesk enables large organizations to eliminate costly maintenance upgrades, complex customizations and lengthy implementation cycles commonly associated with traditional software while providing the affordability to small and medium-sized organizations to adopt ITIL based solution without sacrificing functionality or flexibility.

About InteQ

Founded in 1995, InteQ is a leader in on demand IT Service Management (ITSM), providing a comprehensive suite of managed services , an on-demand service desk solution, and award-winning training and consulting in ITIL – the IT Infrastructure Library. InteQ’s on demand solutions have been successfully implemented in over 90 countries through its global service delivery model with operations in the United States and India. For more information, visit www.inteqnet.com or contact 888.4IT.MGMT.

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

InteQ Corporation, InteQ and the InteQ logo are registered trademarks of InteQ Corporation. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be property of their respective owners.

When talking about the advantages of the SaaS Service Desk, vendors often (appropriately) focus on Return on Investment, through the elimination of the infrastructure and maintenance costs associated with the service desk.  However, this neglects one of the most powerful selling points of the SaaS approach when applied to the Service Desk; specifically that it supports our mobile, distributed workforce much more effectively than the traditional approach.

First, let’s understand when we’re talking about the Mobile Workforce, we’re really talking about two different communities:

• Supporting the Telecommuting/Mobile End-User
• Supporting mobile Service Desk personnel

The SaaS model provides a huge benefit for the service desk supporting a mobile end-user base.  By putting the end-user or Self Service interface to the service desk on the web, SaaS puts the ability for end-users to enter, track, and correspond with tickets on any computer with a browser that they can access.   It’s outside the corporate firewall, so no complicated VPN software, or security set up is required for end-users gain access to the service desk.  Think through the scenario… A travelling sales person needs to get a laptop repair scheduled.  His/her laptop isn’t working, but they can still get all the information to the Service Desk to schedule the call via the publicly available computer located in their hotel’s business center.

A similar benefit is given to mobile service-desk personnel, however this time it extends to the ability to “work tickets” at any computer connected to the internet.   How many times has the person needing to update information on a ticket, or even get contact information for a user calling in found him/herself at a family member’s house on the weekend, without their company laptop.  But with SaaS, they can again get at the information they need to at least perform initial response to the call via whatever computer they can access, improving customer response times, even when support personnel are caught away outside business hours.

These benefits are in contrast to the traditional implementation, which usually involves setting up additional web server(s) in the corporate DMZ.  Handling all the security issues of poking holes through the corporate firewall to make the service desk visible to the web are also a concern in these instances.  Meanwhile, the SaaS model gives all of this functionality, accessible through a simple internet connection, “out of the box”.

So why should you be worried about this?  We’re living in a recession after all, right?  In the 2009 US Hiring Forecast by CareerBuilder.com, seven major hiring trends were identified.   Two are of great interest…

31% of US Employers say they plan to provide more flexible work arrangements in 2009.  40% of which include telecommuting.

13% of employers are also indicating that they are planning on adding “Green Jobs”.  Telecommuting is one of the most efficient ways to make a job “Green” by eliminating the carbon footprint associated with commuting.

So is your Service Desk organization ready to support a more mobile workforce?  As you consider your service desk software options is this part of your thinking?  Maybe it should be…

Vernon Palango is the Principle Consultant for InteQ Corporation’s On Demand ITSM & ITIL Solutions organization. www.inteqnet.com

CLARK, N.J.–RightAnswers, Inc., the recognized leader in providing self-service and IT knowledge management solutions, today announced a technology partnership with Service-now.com – the pioneer of IT service management via SaaS. RightAnswers offers full integration with Service-now.com products, allowing numerous joint customers a seamless transition and the combined benefits of two industry leading products.

“Our company quickly integrated the RightAnswers Unified Knowledge Suite into our Service Management application, which was migrated from a legacy Incident Management application to Service-now.com,” explained Jacque Rowden, User Services Manager at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. “The integration was seamless and provided an easy transition.”

Service-now.com customers can now add the RightAnswers Unified Knowledge Suite™ to their IT service desk application. More than 225 organizations and 3.5 million end users currently rely on RightAnswers for all of their knowledge needs. The RightAnswers suite helps IT support organizations manage and share knowledge more efficiently, making support analysts more effective and empowering end users to find solutions on their own. By adding the Suite to a Service-now.com instance, organizations can recognize a 20% reduction in costs, 20% drop in incidents, dramatically improved first call resolution rates, and improved user satisfaction.

“We are excited about the opportunity of working more closely with Service-now.com, as our visions and technologies are very complimentary and align quite well,” said Jeff Weinstein, President and CEO at RightAnswers. “Together we bring a ‘best-of-breed’ offering in our respective spaces, providing customers with a cost effective way to support their users, while deploying cutting-edge technology.”

RightAnswers differentiates itself from other solutions by treating knowledge management as a process, not just a product. RightAnswers Unified Knowledge Suite includes ongoing proactive knowledge management services that ensure content is effective and remains current on an ongoing basis. Combining such an advanced knowledge solution with Service-now.com improves incident and problem management by making information available at several points during each process within the Service-now.com application.

“Web services and open APIs used by modern applications simplify enterprise IT integrations,” explained Gadi Yedwab, Service-now.com VP of product development. “We believe it is our responsibility to ensure our application works in our customer’s IT environment. That said, we have delivered more than three dozen integrations with more added all the time. Many Service-now.com customers currently experience more efficient IT service through our integration with the RightAnswers Unified Knowledge Suite.”

Service-now.com enterprise IT service management software integrates ITIL v3 processes, software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery, and Web-native functionality to provide a flexible, intuitive and self-managing application. For more information about Service-now.com integration, please visit http://wiki.service-now.com index.php?title=Integrations.

About RightAnswers, Inc.

RightAnswers delivers the high-impact content, technology solutions and value-added services to enable internal Help Desk organizations to improve the end-user support experience, increase support capacity and reduce support costs. The RightAnswers Unified Knowledge Suite provides the tools needed to facilitate rapid problem resolution for both self-service end-users and support analysts. RightAnswers solutions are used by more than 3.5 million licensed end users across hundreds of companies including commercial enterprises, higher education institutions and government agencies. For more information, visit www.rightanswers.com.

Innovative Help Desk Software Delivers SMS Tickets and Service Requests to Apple iPhone, Google Android; Serves Growing Base of 1,000+ Customers Including Twitter, MSNBC

LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwire – March 31, 2009) – CTIA Wireless Conference — As text messaging continues to expand beyond peer-to-peer and into to tens of thousands of business, community and government applications — from social networking, banking, travel and transportation, education, call centers, and more — Clickatell and Zendesk announced their work to mobilize IT help desks and customer support centers around the world. Instead of physically racing back to the cubicle to check the status queue or culling endless voicemails to sort requests and changes, IT and customer support staff can depend on anytime, anywhere Clickatell SMS Service Alerts™ to instantly notify and update IT help desk professionals with customer support status for technical problems, provide real-time service delivery schedule information and coordination and instill greater productivity throughout organizations.

Available for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android and countless other mobile devices, Zendesk lists notable customers such as Twitter, MSNBC, The Rackspace Cloud, Definiens, and more than 1,000 other small, medium and large enterprises. Zendesk notifies help desk agents with new ticket assignments and outstanding requests delivered to their mobile phone via SMS, which is immediate, reliable and cost-effective even when voice calls and emails may not be. IT help desk professionals need instant information to tend to mission critical support issues and to prevent them from wasting time and energy tracking down technical difficulties that have already been fixed. SMS Service Alerts offer freedom and independence to IT help desk and customer service professionals to operate more like the mobile emergency experts they really are.

“Despite being run ragged every day with inadequate service tracking and scheduling tools, IT and customer support workers everywhere are the real un-sung heroes of the enterprise,” says Pieter de Villiers, Clickatell’s CEO. “They are responsible for solving the problems that if gone unchecked halt productivity and impact employees and customers which ultimately affects the bottom line. Given today’s economic situation, Clickatell SMS Service Alerts are just the answer that these hardworking professionals are looking for to maximize their already vital role within the enterprise. SMS is the most immediate, reliable and broadly available communication means ever invented because there is no need to download anything, no requirement to access software — just simply read the text message when it arrives on the phone.”

Definiens Customers Benefit from SMS Customer Service

As the number one Enterprise Image Intelligence® company, Definiens chose Zendesk Mobile Help Desk and Clickatell SMS to deliver state-of-the-art customer service and support. Definiens provides image analysis software that is at heart of critical business processes in drug discovery, medical imaging and remote sensing. The company wanted to globally provide user friendly and real-time customer support and chose to implement mobile customer service using Zendesk and Clickatell.

Definiens’ software analyzes and interprets digital images on every scale, from microscopic cell structures to satellite pictures. Using the unique Definiens Cognition Network Technology® it emulates the powerful human cognitive processes to automatically extract intelligence from images.

“Our customers and support staff are located across the globe. It is imperative that our distributed teams are kept a breast of the latest information about new and active support incidents, wherever they happen to be and at anytime. Using the combination of Zendesk and mobile notifications enables us to offer our customers the highest levels of service,” explains Dr. Wolfgang Rencken, Definiens COO. “With Zendesk and Clickatell, mobile help desk implementation was easy, operation is simple and the results are impeccable. We have implemented a truly mobile, global help desk to serve our customers — anytime and anywhere.”

“Our software is even more valuable when customers can implement mobility to their IT Service operations so they can count on it no matter the time or location,” comments Mikkel Svane, Zendesk CEO. “Able to be implemented in less than a day, Clickatell is the only mobile messaging provider who offers an easy to deploy and use Software-as-a-Service messaging service and they are truly global.”

About Clickatell

Clickatell enables businesses, governments and communities to leverage the ubiquity of mobile messaging to inform, alert, notify, transact, interact and share information. Delivering mobile messaging solutions since 2000, Clickatell is a global leader in mobile communications specializing in SaaS messaging services and Bulk SMS gateway connectivity to small, medium and large enterprises in a variety of vertical markets. Clickatell’s multi-modal capability and worldwide coverage gives organizations the power to deliver any message to any device anywhere in the world. Reaching 775 networks in more than 200 countries, Clickatell serves 8,300 customers including BBC, Continental Airlines, CNN, First National Bank, Metropolitan Life, Oracle, Shell, and other industry leaders. Clickatell products and services increase customer acquisition, improve loyalty and build trusted brands through direct, personal, easy, and immediate communications. A Sequoia-backed company, Clickatell is headquartered in Redwood City, CA, and has offices in South Africa. For more information, please visit http://www.clickatell.com/central/campaigns/redir.php?cid=96149

About Zendesk

Zendesk is an enterprise cloud computing company delivering an on-demand helpdesk solution for businesses and corporate IT organizations based on the latest Web 2.0 technologies and design philosophies that unifies the traditional internal helpdesk with a company’s online presence to deliver seamless, superior customer support. Delivered 100% on-demand over the Web, Zendesk goes beyond the standard database-driven ticket tracking, business rule automation, views and reporting of traditional helpdesk systems to provide native Web 2.0 capabilities throughout, including seamless email-ticket integration, customizable views and associated RSS feeds, tag-based categorization, system-wide search, unlimited forums, mash-up widget-based extension, plus a comprehensive REST/JSON/XML API for data exchange or application integration, mash-ups and widget development.
Press contacts:

Kelly Brieger
Clickatell USA
+1-650-704-1748

On-demand software is becoming more popular these days with the growth of broadband and faster computing. Services like Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Flickr and Facebook have become part of our every day lives. People don’t write diaries anymore, they blog. They don’t create albums anymore, they post pictures online.

That has happened in the corporate space too, where native applications have moved to the cloud. This solves a lot of problems for the organization or business.

• They don’t have to install/maintain hardware for serving those applications.
• They don’t have to spend on power to maintain that hardware.
• They don’t have to have the workforce to take care of that setup.

On the cloud means someone else has your server, application, support personnel. The only thing you need to do is sign up for the service. And they will help you get up and running.

In the help desk software space, there are a number of vendors who provide help desk on-demand. Service-now.com, Parature and Zendesk.com are some prime examples. Cherwell Software made an announcement on Thursday that they have come up with an on-demand version of their help desk. ManageEngine announced their on-demand network monitoring solution last month. Along with that annoucement, they mentioned that they will bringing out their service desk application on the cloud too.

So many vendors going on the cloud. They should see some trend. But are they getting customers? Of course they do. But are they getting any big customers. Are businesses really cutting down their IT workforce? The question really is – do they trust a third-party vendor to take care of their infrastructure. What about stability? Will these vendors be able to provide stable apps 24×7. We have heard of downtimes from even the giants – Google and Yahoo!

But I am still optimistic. I think on-demand is the next logical step. It makes a lot of sense to me. Any business can go the cloud and avoid expenses on infrastructure and personnel. It is easier to get started and you are up and running faster than you would with on-premise software.

I would love to hear what you think. Post your comments.