Imagine being in the midst of delivering exceptional IT service to your organization when suddenly an advertisement for cut rate vacations to Cuba pops up on your screen. That’d be quite distracting, wouldn’t you agree? That’s exactly what was happening to one of our clients, a large nationwide industry association. They had been using a third party SaaS tool for IT service management and were struggling with the invasive nature of ads, poor presentation and outdated features. The system did little to increase their IT team’s efficiencies which prompted them to begin looking for a new IT service management solution.

They started their search with Microsoft System Center. System Center offers an integrated suite of IT service support management tools (ITSSM) that go beyond the capabilities of a simple IT service desk. It provides businesses with a comprehensive IT service management solution that covers much more than ticketing and reporting. Microsoft System Center seemed to offer everything they needed and more. However, the hefty price tag attached to this suite of technologies and the resources required to implement and maintain the on-premises solution raised a few concerns.

Understanding the added value and assurance that comes with a solution built on the Microsoft platform, our client came to us trusting we would be able to create a cost effective solution that would help them manage their IT services and offer an alternative to the onsite implementation. Our team quickly realized what this client really needed to better manage their IT services was the Service Manager component of the System Center Suite, however this didn’t exist as a standalone product at the time. Service Manager allows you to automate any operational process, better streamline your workflows and integrate with other enterprise systems, all on a familiar platform.

Embracing the challenge, our team set out to separate Service Manager from System Center. We now offer Service Manager OnCloud broadly as a hosted solution. It is an affordable, feature-rich alternative which offers businesses a roadmap to the full System Center suite implementation, should that be in their plans.

System Center OnCloud offers:

• Microsoft Service Manager as a SaaS solution hosted either in Navantis OnCloud Canadian Data Center or on Microsoft Azure.
• The turnkey hybrid IT service management solution eliminates the need for hardware and software acquisition saving customers time and money.
• Combined with Manage360 OnCloud, our unique management tool layered on top of Windows Azure Pack, offers a simplified portal for an integrated, focused view of tasks and efficiency improvements.
• Predictable, budget friendly monthly pricing offered on a per seat basis.
• Web based and mobile front ends, extends Service Manager to take action on the go.
• A future-proofed decision that allows for upgrades to full System Center Adoption High scalability and 99.99% availability
• Leveraging of Microsoft Azure and Active Directory to deliver user authentication

Since the implementation of Service Manager OnCloud our client reported significant savings and improved employee productivity based on the elimination of distracting pop-up ads. The reported savings came from leveraging our unique, custom reporting and dashboards tool. To extend their investment the client wanted to find a way to broadly tap into the information however providing more users access to the Service Manager OnCloud console would require a significant investment in training. With our custom reporting all employees have the ability to tap into real-time data quickly, allowing more responsive and pro-active IT management. With dynamic reports highlighting specific IT services, they can identify trends and opportunities within their business and detect incidents before they affect users. Leveraging this data our client has been able to save time and money by improving the efficiency of the IT services they deliver to the business.

As the very first customer of Service Manager OnCloud, one of the early concerns for our client was service availability. They simply couldn’t afford for their business to be down. At a consistent 99.99% availability, they have been thrilled with the results and completely confident in our ability to deliver.

Our hosted IT service management solution gives you end-to-end visibility into process and infrastructure, at a predictable, per seat cost per month. Service Manager OnCloud will allow you to automate operational processes and mundane tasks increasing efficiency, lowering costs and saving you time so you can focus on innovating the way your business operates.

Cost-effective, affordable and with more features than many of its competitors, with Service Manager OnCloud, our clients are not only able to run a much more efficient operation (Gartner predicts 41% more effective), but they are investing in their future.

To see how Service Manager OnCloud measures up to its competitors, like ServiceNow, check out my post on choosing the right IT Service Desk Tool. In that blog post you’ll see System Center Service Manager offers all of the same support and product features as ServiceNow and many of its other competitors, with the added value and assurance that comes with building on the Microsoft platform.

Service Manager and our full suite of Managed Services offerings give more customers access to the benefits of mature IT management processes at a price point they can afford. For pricing and for more information on Service Manager OnCloud visit our website or contact sales@navantis.com to schedule a demo today!

This post was written by Terry Wiley
Terry, an IT Leader and visionary, brings more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry to the Navantis team. In his role as the Director of Cloud and Infrastructure Solutions at Navantis, Terry works closely with his team to develop innovative solutions to help clients navigate the complex cloud driven environment.