HP has announced the latest version on its Service Manager software in an attempt to drive out a large portion of help desk cost, 85 percent of which is estimated to be spent on personnel. Version 9.30 introduces several innovations aimed at ease of use for the help desk staff, the end users, and the administrators who maintain the system.

According to Chuck Darst, HP's ITSM Product Manager, three key features underlie the updated version: a mobile client, enhanced service catalog, and enhanced knowledge management (KM). [Disclosure: HP is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Aimed at service desk personnel involved in the incident management and change approvals processes, the new mobile client (included at no additional cost) has been built for a smart phone form-factor and is supported on a wide range of devices, including the Apple iPhone and iPad, Google Android devices, HP WebOS devices and RIM Blackberry. Prior to this, users who wanted smart phone functionality had to rely on third-party plug-ins.

The service catalog portal provides an interface to cloud environments, providing options, sources, and methods for provisioning requests. Also, with a customizable mySM dashboard, IT can directly access information when they need it. The new dashboard can tailor data from HP Service Manager or other external sources, without the need of an administrator.

The service catalog portal provides an interface to cloud environments, providing options, sources, and methods for provisioning requests.

The new KM offering provides searches using updated search engine technology and new search forms designed to increase the amount of first-call resolutions and to reduce the number of calls that need to be escalated.

Other features include:

• Graphical “Process Designer,” which allows IT organizations to speed implementations with a new GUI-based workflow designer and rules editor that simplify the editing and configuring of workflows, conditions and rules.
  
• New survey capability, so IT can tune services to better serve its customers with a new survey instrument from MarketTools that captures end-user feedback.
  
• End-user self-services, which organizations allows users to access self support help or place a new support request.
  
• A new migration tool and an assessment tool for migration planning.

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