Unit 1

Systems Management: Definition, Building a

Business Case for Systems Management, Organizing
for Systems Management, Factors to Consider in
Designing IT Organizations and Infrastructure.
Staffing for Systems Management, IT as Service, and
IT Service Management
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 System Management

System management is the activity of identifying & integrating various

products & processes in order to provide a stable & responsive IT
environment.

The overall objective of system management :-

• To bring stability
• Responsiveness to an IT infrastructure

Q:- What do you mean by system management? what are its objectives?
Explain each of them in brief.Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 Why Executive support is especially critical today?

• More critical functions of systems management are necessary

to run contemporary data centers effectively, requiring more
key resources and more management support to acquire
them.
• The infrastructure support groups of computer centers from
two or three decades ago focused primarily on technical
issues.
Q:- Why executive support is especially critical today as far as
system management is concerned?
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
Explain.
 Building a Business Case for System Management
Costs occasionally overlooked when implementing a systems
management function, these expenses are :-
• Recruiting

• Training
• Office space
• Software enhancements
• Software maintenance

• Hardware upgrades
• Hardware maintenance
• Scheduled outages
Q:-Define system management. What are the costs overlooked when
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
implementing system management functions?
 Building a Business Case for System Management
Benefits occasionally overlooked when implementing a systems
management function, these benefits are :-
• Being able to predict capacity shortages before they occur
• Avoiding lost labor time of users by reducing both the frequency and
duration of outages
• Increasing productivity by improving response times

• Ensuring business continuity during disaster recovery

• Avoiding the cost of rebuilding databases and reissuing transactions

Q:-What do you understand by business case? List out its overall goods
and benefits.
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 Building a Business Case for System Management

The basic steps used to develop an effective business case for any
number of system management functions are :-
• Understand which IT business goals are most critical to a company’s
business goals.
• Determine which systems management functions are most critical to
meeting the IT business goals that are aligned to those of the
company.
• Meet and confer with IT senior management to confirm and prioritize
the systems management functions to be acquired.

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Building a Business Case for System Management

• Accurately estimate all costs associated with the implementation and

maintenance of a particular function.
• Itemize all benefits associated with the function.
• Convert benefits to dollar savings to the extent possible.
• Solicit customer references for the product being proposed.

Q:-What is business case? List out the basic steps used to develop an
effective business case and explain each step in brief.

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Organizing for Systems Management
Factors to consider in Designing IT Organizations
• Departmental responsibilities
• Planning orientation
Chief
• Infrastructure processes Information
Officer

Applications
Development & Infrastructure
Maintenance

Fig:- Basic IT Organization

Q:- List and explain various factors that are considered in Designing IT
organization Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 Organizing for Systems Management

Chief
Information
Officer

Applications
Development & Infrastructure Administration
Maintenance

Fig:- Basic IT Organization with Administration

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Organizing for Systems Management

Chief
Information
Officer

Infrastructure Administration &

Applications Planning

Technical &
Computer
Development Maintenance Network
Operations
Services

Fig:- IT Organization with Dual Management Levels

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 Organizing for Systems Management
CIO

Applications Infrastructure Administration &

Planning
Planning

Development Technical Project

Business
Services Management
Requirement
Office

Maintenance Network
Budget &
Services IT Technical
Finance
Architecture

Methods &
Computer
Metrics
Operations Human
Resource &
Training

Customer
Service

Fig:- IT OrganizationProf.
with Trupti Three
G. GhongadeManagement Levels
 CIO

Applications Administration & Planning

Infrastructure
Planning

Business Unit #1
Project
Technical Business
Management
Services Requirement
Office
Development Maintenance

Business Unit #2 Network Budget & IT Technical

Services Finance Architecture

Development Maintenance Human

Computer Resource &
Operations Training
Business Unit #3

Customer
Development Maintenance Service

Methods &
Metrics
Fig:- IT Organization - Three
Prof.Management Levels with Business Units
Trupti G. Ghongade
 Factors to consider in Designing IT Organizations

Q:- Explain IT organization with three management levels and business

units.
Q:- What do you mean by system management? List out the key factors
on which the decision of restructuring of IT organization is based
and also draw the structures of IT organization with three
management level.

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Factors to consider in Designing IT Infrastructures

Locating Departments in the Infrastructure

• Alternative Locations for the Help Desk
• Alternative Locations for Database Administration
• Alternative Locations for Network Operations

• Alternative Locations for System Management

Q:- What are the various factors that are considered in Designing IT
infrastructure?
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 Alternative locations for the Help Desk
What users prefer most in an IT Help Desk?
• Answer incoming calls within two rings.
• Whenever possible, have a help desk agent answer the call rather
than giving them menu to select from.
• If you must use menus, design them to be as simple to understand &
use as possible.
• Sequence most commonly used menu item first.

• Allow for the bypass of some or all menu items.

• Calculate & report to callers average hold times in real time.

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Alternative locations for the Help Desk
What users prefer most in an IT Help Desk?
• Practice good telephone etiquette by being polite, patient, courteous
& helpful to callers.
• When handling a call off to level 2 support, give the caller a reliable
time estimate for follow-up & resolution.
• Follow up with level 2 support to ensure the problem is being worked
on.
• Follow up with callers to ensure problems are being resolved to their
satisfaction.
Q:- List out & explain factors that influence a user’s perception of the
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
effectiveness of a service desk.
Factors to consider in Designing IT Infrastructures

Infrastructure

Technical Network Computer Customer

Services Services Operations Services

Desktop
Help Desk
Support

Fig:- IT Organization Highlighting Help Desk

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
Factors to consider in Designing IT Infrastructures

Infrastructure

Technical Computer Customer

Network Services
Services Operations Services

Systems
Administration

Database
Administration

Fig:- IT Organization Highlighting Database Administration

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
Factors to consider in Designing IT Infrastructures

Infrastructure

Technical Computer Customer

Network Services
Services Operations Services

Network
Operations

Fig:- IT Organization Highlighting Network Operations

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
Factors to consider in Designing IT Infrastructures

Infrastructure

Technical Network Computer Customer Systems

Services Services Operations Services Management

Fig:- IT Organization Highlighting Systems Management

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Factors to consider in Designing IT Infrastructures
Recommended Attributes of Process Owners
Implementing any of the following systems management
processes while selecting the person for a process owner are the
most critical success factor.

1. Availability Management 2. Performance/ Tuning

3. Production Acceptance 4. Change Management
5. Problem Management 6. Storage Management

7. Network Management 8. Configuration Management

9. Capacity Planning 10. Strategic Security

11. Disaster Recovery 12. Facilities Management

Q:- Define system management. Explain system management process owner's
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
attributes, with High, Medium and low degree.
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 Staffing for Systems Management
• Skill Set – technical familiarity with a particular software product,
architecture or platform.

• Skill level – the length of experience & depth of technical expertise an

individual has acquired & can apply to a given technology.

Q:- Explain the following term.

i) Skill set ii) Skill level

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Staffing for Systems Management
Table:- Skill Assessment Attributes & Characteristics
Attribute Characteristics
Attitude • Empathy, patience, team player, active listener
• Polite, friendly, courteous, professional
• Helpful, resourceful, preserving
• Eagerness to learn new skills
• Willingness to follow new procedures
Aptitude • ability to learn new skills
• ability to retain new skills
• ability to integrate new skills with appropriate old ones
Applicability • ability to apply knowledge & skills to appropriate use
• ability to share knowledge & skills with others
• ability to foresee new areas where skills may apply
Experience • Number of years of experience in a given skill
• how recent the experience has been
• degree of variety of the experience

Q:- Explain the key characteristics used to assess an individual's skill potential in
transitioning from one infrastructure to another.
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 Using Consultants & Contractors

• Consultant refers to someone hired to do an analytical tasks such

as a capacity study, a security audit or a re-engineering assignment.

• Contractor generally refers to someone hired to perform a more

specific task such as coding an interface or developing a software
enhancement.

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Using Consultants & Contractors

Benefits of using Consultants & Contractors

• Immediate availability
• Ability to accelerate schedules
• Pay only for effort expended

• Can supply rare or unique technical expertise

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade

 Using Consultants & Contractors

Drawbacks of using Consultants & Contractors

• High costs
• Occasional inefficiencies
• Potential source of morale problems

• Hidden expenses

Q:- Explain consultants and contractors with their benefits and

drawbacks.
Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade
 IT Service Management

Following are the four key elements that are providing good
customer service:
• Identifying your key customers
• Identifying key services of key customers
• Identifying key processes that support key services.
• Identifying key suppliers that support key processes.

Q:- What is meant by IT Service Management?

Prof. Trupti G. Ghongade