Blog & Resources
SCSM Management Pack Naming Best Practice
If you have ever used or maintained System Center Service Manager (SCSM) or Operations Manager you will be aware of Management Packs that are used to store configuration of the System Center products. It can be quite tricky to understand the best ways of using these and it can have quite a larger impact on the support ability of the product over time. In this article,
Troubleshooting Remote Support
On-premise software has more than it’s a fair share of issues, due to all the varied types of hardware and software it is mixed with depending on the customer, this in comparison to cloud software that is always running in the same environment and on a small set of web browsers. With this in mind, you are bound to run
Log Resolution Actions With Remote Support Trackback Sessions for SCSM
When working with Service Manager, and specifically with the Cireson Service Manager Portal, it’s essential that you can access as much information as possible. When you are troubleshooting a customer ticket, there should always be a sense of urgency with remote support, because an employee or customer typically will not take the time to enter a ticket if it’s not
Dashboards 300: Building a high-density chart
Introduction: The dashboard challenge I love leveraging dashboards to track and monitor activities and measures. The Cireson Portal dashboard provides flexibility in layout, content, and datasources to show information in real-time within the Portal application. On my dashboard I have been working with two charts; Tickets Closed and Tickets Created. These charts share the same axis type but I’d really
SCSM and Cireson User Accounts and Groups Checklist Worksheet
User Accounts and Groups Checklist Worksheet When installing Microsoft System Center Service Manager, there are a lot of things to consider to make sure the install goes well and will be easy to modify in the weeks, months and years to come. In order to maintain a secure, stable and maintainable SCSM environment, it’s important that all required user accounts
Global Search Will Help You Find Your Way
Search is a very important aspect of any Service Portal, and as such is one of the most used functions. With this in mind, we wanted to improve the search, all without losing the things that made it valuable in the first place. This is where we came up with the idea for a global search, and it’s largely been
SCSM 2019 Install or Upgrade Checklist and Project Plan
Do you currently run System Center Service Manager (SCSM) and are you looking to upgrade your existing SCSM environment to the latest 2019 version? Or, are you looking at using SCSM 2019 as your ITSM platform because your organization is already paying for it as part of your Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA)? It can be a daunting task, as SCSM is a very
Adding RequestedByUser and CreatedByUser Fields on the same Portal Form
The Problem. I started looking into this issue once a few customers had reported it and wanted to see if there was a solution, so what was the problem? Well, adding these 2 fields to a custom portal form in the portal requires you to put the property name on the portal form. The property name is the target name
SCSM Service Requests, 3 Success Factors
As a consultant with Cireson, I am often engaged with customers regarding SCSM Service Requests. The first things we discuss during these engagements are the most important factors to be successful. In this article we will talk in depth about the following factors: Not knowing where to start Trying to do too much Service Catalog navigation Not Knowing Where to Start Where do we start when it comes
Are You Making These Common SCSM Change Management Mistakes?
The focus of this discussion is how to use Business Services (as they are called in SCSM) to greatly enhance and automate your SCSM Change Management implementation. If you haven’t had a chance to read our previous blog about creating an ITIL Change Management Checklist (which includes best practices to avoid common pitfalls), I highly suggest giving it a read, as it is a great starting point and
Why your SCSM Incident Management Program is missing the mark (and how you can fix it)
Chances are, your organization is doing some form of Incident Management. And by “chances,” I mean there is a 100% chance unless of course, you’ve stumbled into some sort of utopia where issues don’t occur (psst, let me know so I can join you!). So, is your SCSM Incident Management process working for you? Let’s see if any of these
Remote Support Simplified for the Desktop
We just announced Remote Support Desktop, an easy-to-install, limited desktop experience for Analysts to quickly and easily troubleshoot issues. Designed to pull some of the most desirable features out of Remote Support and put them onto a desktop, Remote Support Desktop gives Analysts quick access to support an individual customer on the fly. For a quick comparison of the features