Guide to help build Services, Operational & Product category for Remedy ITSM implementation.

1. Service
&
Operations-Product Tiers
For any ITSMimplementationone of the mainthingswhileimplementingthe BMCRemedy ITSMis
the correct use of Servicesandits categorization.Asdiscussedonmultipleinstancesmain
advantagesof categorisationsare:
 Reportingimprovement.
 Probleminvestigation(inthe incidentreview task) basedonIncidentdensityperservice,
productor operational category.
 Easy searchof issuespertainingtoa service,productoroperational category.
 Look forsolutionsof previoussimilarcases.
BMC donot provide andextensive guideline fordesigningacorrect libraryof categories.The main
intentionismore like touse free interpretation/adaptationof the categoriestothe user/project
needs.Here we tryto provide aguide to Service Managertohelpsetrightset of Categories.
ITSMIncidentChange & ProblemManagemententriescontainthe nextmainfourcategoriesforthe
Serviceswhichare configuredonthe system:
 Operational Category
 ProductCategory
 ResolutionCategory(IncidentManagement)
 ResolutionProductCategory(IncidentManagement)
Thisimplieshavingafourdimensional categorizationforeachincident.The mosteasywayto
understandthe fourcategoriesistothinkof fouranswersto fourdifferentquestions.Usingthis
concept,the Operational Categoryquestioncanbe “Whatis the operationdemandedbythe user?”,
beingthe answertothisquestionthe categoryyoumustchoose foreach incident.
The questionsrelatedtothe fourcategoriesare:
 Operational Category:Whatkindof operationisdemandedbythe user?
 ProductCategory:Whichis the productrelatedwiththe problem/request?
 ResolutionCategory:Whatkindof operationhadto be done bythe resolvingagency/staff?
 ResolutionProductCategory:Whatisthe actual product relatedwiththe operationdoneby
the resolvingagency/staff?

2. Operational & Product Tier
The Operational Categoryandthe ResolutionCategoryare bothverysimilarandare available for
Incidentonly(Problem&Change doesnthave ResolutionCategory).Bothare relatedwithan
operation.The differencebetweenbothisthatthe operational categoryisrelatedwiththe user
pointof view,andthe resolutioncategoryisrelatedwiththe operationperformedbythe Resolving
Agency/staff.Forinstance,Let’simagineafaultyrouter.The usercan’tconnect to the Internet,so
he callsthe FrontOffice,creatinganincident.The Operational Categoryof thisincidentwill be
somethinglike“Failure/Connectivity/Repair”.
But whenthe SMstaff investigatesthe incident,theydetermine thatthe cardmust be replacedand
not the router,so the ResolutionCategorywouldbe “Hardware/Component/Replace”
The difference betweenProductCategoryandResolutionProductCategoryisverysimilartothe
previousone. The ProductCategorydeterminesthe productthe useristalkingabout.Inthe
previousexample,Itwouldbe “Network/Internet”.The ResolutionProductCategoryisthe product
actuallyrelatedwiththe resolutioncategory.
Presentingthe fourcategoriesasanswerstothe statedquestionswillmake easiertoyourSM staff
to understanditsmeaning,andprovide acorrectcategorization.Itcanalsoanswerquestionslike
“What is the mostcommonincidentforusers?”.Theydon’tcare about the root cause.For themitis
the same if the networkcardis faultyorthe routerisdownor the VLAN isnot properlyconfigured.
The incidentisthe same:“I can’t connectto the Internet”.Butalsoyoucan answerquestionsfor
probleminvestigation.Sothisdual pointof view canbe of great value.
An easywayto rememberorexplaineachcategorydimensionistodivide the categorizationform
like the figure atthe start of thischapter.Horizontally,the formisdividedintwoblocks,beingthe
leftside the userpointof viewandthe rightside the Resolvingstaff pointof view.Vertically,the
formis alsodividedintwoblocks,beingthe upperside “Whataction”,andthe lowerside “where to
action”,or “whichproduct”.
The Product category’scan be linkedto services.

3. (ITIL) Services– Servicesare a meansof deliveringvalue tocustomersbyfacilitatingoutcomes
customersneedtoachieve withoutowningspecificcostandrisk.
In the BMC RemedyITService Management(BMCRemedyITSM)Service iscapturedasa
configurationItemandcanbe maintainedbasedonthe service offeredtothe customer.A tickets
(Incident,Problem, Change) canbe raisedagainstaservice onthe ITSM system.
Form ITSMperspective -
Service managementis a setof specializedorganizational capabilitiesforprovidingvalue to
customersinthe form of services.”ITservicesare alignedto,andsupport,businessneeds.The
projectService Managerwill have avisiontoimprove service.We needtolistdownthese services
whichare managedbyService Managerproject.
An IT service is“a service providedbyanorganisation’sITdepartment.AnITservice ismade upof a
combinationof informationtechnology,people andprocesses.A customer-facingITservice directly
supportsthe businessprocessesof one ormore customersandits service level targetsshouldbe
definedinaservice level agreement.OtherITservices,calledsupportingservices,are notdirectly
usedbythe businessbutare requiredbythe service providertodelivercustomer-facingservices.”
To summariesaService shouldinclude ITinfrastructure service,applicationsinformation,andthe
resource whichformthese services.Ingeneral all componentsinvolvedforanorganisationtodeliver
a qualityservice willformaproduct tierand will be linkedtothe service whichismanagingthem.
Attachedisa sample setof servicesfora usual telcoofferingVoice,DataandContentServices.
Service_TT.xlsx