Concord Communications, Inc, a global provider of business service management (BSM) software solutions, today announced that IBM Global Services in Switzerland is using Concord`s eHealth Suite to monitor the performance of its hosted applications and accelerate identification of errors and resolution of performance issues before they impact customers.
The comprehensive analysis and reporting capabilities were the principal reason for IBM`s decision to select Concord. One of the customers whose applications are hosted by IBM Switzerland and monitored by Concord is ABB Switzerland. ABB, a global leader in energy and automation solutions, values in particular the constant high level of availability of its applications and its ability to monitor the status of services purchased from IBM.
Concord`s eHealth Suite monitors several of ABB`s business services including SAP, Lotus Notes, Web applications like the corporate intranet, login procedures and access to the company directory in Notes. The Concord solution uses its intelligent agent technology to measure service performance from the point of view of the end-user. Ordinarily, before users even notice a deterioration in the service they are using, Concord automatically warns IBM specialists that the level of service is approaching its lower threshold limit, enabling them to re-route user requests to other servers. In addition, Concord supplies detailed reports that offer targeted advice on how to contain the origin of the error, so it can be quickly addressed.
"Concord`s eHealth Suite is really a comprehensive management solution. We not only use it for ad hoc problem-solving, but also for the long-term planning of our customers` application needs," said Dr Oliver Boxler, Project Manager, IBM Global Services Switzerland.
"The deep level of detail in Concord`s reports enables us to optimise our own work and make it transparent for our customers. This engenders trust - the number one condition for success in our core business - managed IT services."
IBM, together with its project partner Amasol, implemented Concord`s eHealth Suite in only three weeks in mid-2004. The short implementation time was decisive for the project as IBM wanted to start the application management service at the same time as it was finishing the migration of ABB`s applications to its own servers.
"We`re not only interested in the availability of individual systems, but also in a high availability of business-critical systems throughout the enterprise and from the user`s perspective," noted Dr Olaf Stern, Manager of IT Infrastructure and Services at ABB Switzerland. "This is why we played an active part in the evaluation of Concord`s eHealth Suite. Our experience up to now has convinced us that it was the right choice."
Concord provides view to end-user experience
Concord`s eHealth Suite is an integrated solution for managing networks, systems and applications from the end-user`s perspective. Comprehensive information with different levels of detail, superlative reporting capabilities and intelligent algorithms issue a warning when service levels start to slip, and help to avoid downtime before it impacts business. Trend analyses safeguard the long-term availability of business services and enable the whole IT infrastructure to be optimised. Concord`s eHealth Suite is an ideal basis for several ITIL processes, including incident management, capacity management and service level management.
For business and IT management, Concord`s eHealth Suite offers a business service console that provides an executive view of the real-time status of services from the end-user`s perspective with traffic-light indications in red, yellow and green. In addition, a Web-based "ticker" runs along the bottom of the screen, giving an overview of the status of selected processes at any time. If the availability or performance of a business service deviates from its normal status, warning lights indicate a risk to service. A simple mouse-click provides further details about the issue, including how long it has existed, and who is working on it.
"Concord`s ability to provide unparalleled support to IBM Switzerland and ABB proves once again that our business service management solution is critical to the business success of IT service providers offering managed services," said Dayton Semerjian, Executive Vice-President of Marketing and Strategic Alliances at Concord. "A key factor to their success is our ability to help them measure application performance from the end-user`s perspective - the point of view that really matters."
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IBM Global Services is the world`s largest information technology services and consulting provider. Some 180 000 professionals in more than 160 countries help clients integrate information technology with business value - from the business transformation and industry expertise of IBM Business Consulting Services to hosting, infrastructure, technology design and training services.
Leveraging IBM`s unequalled scope and scale, IBM Global Services delivers integrated, flexible and resilient processes - across companies and through business partners - that enable clients to save money and transform their businesses to be more competitive. For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/services/.
Concord Communications, Inc
Concord Communications, Inc (NASDAQ: CCRD) provides an integrated solution that enables companies to map their IT services to business needs, measure their actual end-user experience, and manage their applications, systems and networks. More than 3 000 companies worldwide, including 23 of the world`s 24 largest service providers, rely on Concord to optimise IT services to drive business success. Based in Marlboro, Massachusetts, USA, Concord maintains offices around the globe, and can be found on the Web at www.concord.com.
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