With todays reduced headcounts and increased costs it is not an easy task keeping your organisation's IT infrastructure running smoothly. BluePoint will act on your behalf to perform a variety of services, allowing you to focus on your core business.

Systems Management Consulting
BluePoint Provide extensive Systems Management services offerings including:

• Architecture and Design of Systems Management solutions.
• Project Management of multi vendor projects.
• Auditing of multi vendor System Management environments.
• Optimisation and stabilisation of existing systems.
• Customisation of existing systems.
• Capacity reporting and planning.
• Service Level Monitoring.

Technical Consulting
BluePoint provide highly skilled resources with experience in technologies from vendors such as:

BMC
Candle Corporation
Computer Associates
HP
Integrated Research
Legato
Novadigm (HP Radia)
Quest
Remedy
Tivoli
IBM
Veritas

Consulting Engagements
BluePoint provides a variety of high-level System Management consulting services. These are aimed at aligning existing ESM initiatives, optimising existing investments and establishing a vendor independent architecture specific to each customer’s environment and needs.

To simplify the almost endless options, we have created a series of tailorable ESM consulting packages each of varying scope, which can be utilised independently to address specific concerns or can be used in a phased approach to provide a totally complete blueprint for your ESM infrastructure.

Each of these offerings can be scaled. For example, an ESM-Audit can be undertaken to review your backup and recover environment, or the entire storage management area or alternatively the company’s entire Enterprise Systems Management infrastructure.

BluePoint Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) offerings include:

• ESM – Optimise
• ESM – Architect
• ESM – Integrate
• ESM – Service Desk
• ESM – ManagementReporter
• ESM – RFI/RFP/RFS
• ESM – Special Projects

Each offering is scaled and adapted in discussion with the client and the deliverable are documented, price fixed and signed off by both parties. The following section provides a high level outline of BluePoint’s main consulting offerings.

ESM - Optimise
ESM-Optimise provides an in depth audit of your existing ESM infrastructure, either in it’s entirety, or for a specific area. The audit consists of a variety of tasks and recommendations, which are summarised below. The main goal is to leverage the customer’s existing investment in ESM technologies and identify any areas where the product(s) are not being fully utilised or where information is not being optimally integrated into business processes. ESM-Optimise will ensure that every effort has been made to maximise the return on existing ESM investments.

• Process Audit - The use of the ESM technology and the data it generates are reviewed as well as the processes, which this data feeds and/or triggers within the business.
  
  
• Technology Audit - The physical implementation is examined in terms of versions and fix levels, stability, resource consumption, parameters and customisation, levels of management information being provided and so on.
  

• Integration Audit - Reviews both existing integration and potential areas where significant benefits can be realised by building integration with other ESM and/or business systems.

ESM-Architect

ESM-Architect is normally commissioned in conjunction with an ESM Optimise. ESM-Architect will provide a complete design for part or all of an ESM infrastructure at both a process and a technology level. The Architecture will be designed in conjunction with a key team of customer staff and will take cognisance of existing infrastructure, customer technology and vendor preferences, skill levels and budgetary constraints.

The deliverables from an ESM-Architect exercise are concise design documents, which can be used internally or by other IT Solution providers or as input to a Request for Solution (RFS) process.

ESM-Architect utilises the results of an ESM-Optimise audit of the relevant area(s) of your ESM infrastructure and builds upon it’s recommendations to provide a complete design for the desired ESM infrastructure, customers technology and vendor preferences are accommodated as far as possible when recommendations for new technologies are made, however, where possible we prefer to use best of breed rather than single manufacturer solutions. The deliverables from an ESM-Architect engagement are as follows:

• A complete technical architecture including details of pre-built and custom integration requirements.
• Statement of Work for the implementation of the technologies and processes specified by the architecture.
• Product recommendations and alternatives.
• Staffing recommendations.
• High level operating and data flow procedures.
• High level Project plans (detailed plans will be provided if the product set is fixed at this stage)
• Budgetary estimates

ESM-Integrate

ESM-Integrate provides a review of the data and command flows between the components of the ESM infrastructure and highlights integration possibilities within the customer’s ESM infrastructure, which would provide measurable benefits.

The exercise focuses on bringing technical ESM data into the daily process of managing the environment; hence a strong emphasis is placed on integration with the service desk/helpdesk and with MIS (Management Information Systems). Integration recommendations are made in the following key areas:

ESM-Service Desk

BluePoint see the Service Desk as being the pivotal point in the ESM infrastructure as this is the point at which problems are managed, it is obviously the point at which the ESM environment should focus.

An in-depth study of your Service Desk including the key disciplines of Problem, Change and Asset management. The study focuses on both the process and technical aspects of the Service Desk and includes key areas such as:

• Problem Management
  • Problem Logging.
  • First call resolution methods and knowledgebase use.
  • Problem transfer strategy.
  • Problem escalation.
  • Problem lifecycle management.
  • Problem closure and knowledge capture.
  • Problem reporting, analysis and trending.
  
  
• Change Management
• Scope of change management deployment.
• Complexity of data capture, model usage.
• Approval process.
• Workflow/Task scheduling.
• Approval and task management escalation process.
• Change completion and review process.


• Asset Management
• Extent of asset database, level of detail, currency of information.
• Review of data collection and validation process.
• Data exchange with other business systems.
• Integration with other ESM components.
• Contract management.
• Reporting and analysis.

ESM-RFI/RPF/RFS
Many customers prefer to use an independent consultant to assist them with the processes of identifying and selecting new technologies. BluePoint offer a variety of services in this area which vary from a single independent team member to act as a  ‘sounding board’ to a fully managed process which would include management of the following:

• Requirement gathering and analysis.
• Review of requirements against existing infrastructure.
• Validation of requirements and cost justification.
• Compilation and issue of Request for Information documents and review of responses.
• Short-listing of RFI responses.
• Compilation and Issue of Request for Proposal documents to selected vendors.
• Review of RFP responses.
• Coordination of vendor presentations, proof of concept exercises and evaluations.
• Management presentation of final shortlist and recommendation.