Innovation Abounds!
In keeping with the flexibility characteristic of Microsoft System Center Service Manager (SCSM), Cireson is planning a series of products and services that help you do more with the technology you own, while receiving support and supplemental expertise according to your needs.
These developments were outlined recently by Cireson Product Manager Adam Dzyacky and Senior Customer Experience Manager Steve Wright in Cireson’s Q1 2022 Webinar on February 15, 2022. The biggest takeaway? Customer feedback, insights and contributions are part of every aspect of Cireson developments. We value—and welcome—your input!
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Your Feedback is Driving Cireson Innovation and Product Development
In fact, customer suggestions are driving many ideas that the product team is quarterbacking. Included on the product roadmap are these new features:
IIS Configuration
We’re exploring ways to reduce the time you spend managing IIS settings and fine-tuning performance after upgrades. One of the features we’re introducing will make sure that IIS settings are respected, so that regardless of your Service Manager portal environment size, you will be able to deploy, upgrade and install faster.
Activity Management
What if you want to add an activity to a parallel activity that is in progress? You can do this now in the console, but you will soon have that functionality in the portal.
Global Search Enhancements
We aren’t done making improvements to global search, but it will be exiting beta status. You will be able to control the maximum number of results you receive from a search, whether you are using the portal or making an API call using Microsoft PowerShell.
Two New Console Apps
Two new console apps are coming your way in Q1 and Q2: notification activity and quick actions in custom work item grids.
1. Notification Activity
Simplify the way that you notify anyone on a work item, whether it be the affected, assigned or related user, or a user from the previous, next or current activity. This is the simplest way to send notifications without requiring PowerShell activity, Orchestrator or runbook automations.
2. Quick Actions in Custom Work Item Grids
On the heels of the custom grid functionality introduced last year, we are now introducing quick actions that can be applied to grids. With a click, you can make assignments or add a configuration item or file attachment and perform various other actions without having to dive into a dedicated work item page.
Templates for Knowledge Base
Templates will make it easier for you to stamp out knowledge articles quickly and consistently, even if you have specific branding or formatting.
Microsoft Teams – New Work Item
We’ve received productive feedback from customers who are using our Teams enhancements, including the ability to:
- Search globally in Teams
- Leave comments on work items in Teams
- Receive notifications in Teams
But now you will be able to create new work in Teams, for example, generating a new work item from a chat. We’re exploring the ability to turn a message into a request offering or a new work item.
Power Platform
Also in the works is another Service Manager modernizer: cloud integration with Microsoft Dataverse. The goal would be to make Service Manager a cloud native data set, opening up the door to functionality like this: searching and retrieving information directly inside of Teams and SharePoint.
You will be able to choose when an activity completes with this feature, including a specific date and time. This will come in handy for tasks like a server restart that needs to kick off at 11 p.m., for example, scheduled maintenance or provisioning a user account—anything that requires a delay. The cool thing is that you’ll be able to remove the delay outside of your automation platform and persist through reboots.
Cloud Activity
Picture the ability to choose PowerShell, webhooks or any other connectors, all from a single activity. This is one concept that is a little further in the future, but we’re looking at a way to have a dedicated activity that invokes numerous services, and it would allow you to pivot between automation platforms without heavy remapping of requests. Your ideas on what that would look like are welcome!
Analytics and Auditing
This update is a doozy. You’ll be able to find any work item from anytime and anywhere with history, file attachments and relationships—regardless of how old it is. And you can do this while lowering your Service Manager data retention settings. With analytics and auditing, you will be able to keep all of your data for as long as you would like, find it in portal easily while improving Service Manager performance.
Professional Services: Lean on Our Levels of Support and Expertise
We pride ourselves in providing ITSM solutions and being a trusted advisor in the System Center space. But we are also thinking beyond this space with ways to incorporate more of the Microsoft ecosystem, including 365, Azure, Power Apps and Power BI in particular. We are looking forward to growing in this space, giving you more insight into areas like problem resolution management and risk assessment.
As always, Cireson is here to support you at any level. You may need broader SCSM coverage via Cireson Plus Program, or dedicated expertise to augment the skill set in your organization via Managed Services. Either way, we aim to fix problems before they arise.
Stay tuned for news on all that was discussed in this quarter’s webinar. We’re listening in the Cireson Community, if you have insights to share. And don’t be shy about reaching out to Steve Wright, steve.wright@cireson.com, and Adam Dzyacky, adam.dzyacky@cireson.com, with feedback.
