News

October 2011 

Alignability for Service Desk Express 10.1.00 Released

BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express 10.1 provides a fantastic new user interface design and improved usability for staff users, based on Service Desk Express 10.1. The result is an increase in process and people productivity, and ultimately a better overall customer experience.

Key enhancements include:
• New user interface for improved ease of use.
• New ITIL V3 service lifecycle front end.
• Service Catalog updated to support ITIL v3.
• Incident management renamed to Request Management.
• Role based permissions.
• Performance improvements over WAN.
• Filter for tree view for Category and Service.
• On demand loading of details section.
• Support for integration with new Bomgar versions.

August 2010 

BMC Service Desk Express listed as ITIL-endorsed by OGC

Service Desk Express is now listed on the official ITIL website at the bronze level for Incident and Problem Management. Visit the official site for details. www.itil-officialsite.com ®.

July 2010 

Version 10.0.01 Released

BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express 10.0.01 provides organizations
with an easy way to implement ITIL processes to reduce IT costs, improve quality of service, provide transparency and manage risk. with several new capabilities as well as enhancements to existing functionality, this release gives IT the tools they need to align the business needs and prioritize their activities.

Key release themes include:
-Compatibility with BMC Service Desk Express version 10
-Visualization and Configuration Item relationships and associated services helps to easily understand changes against CIs using the CI explorer
-Simplified QuickViews and Dashboards improve user experience, performance and productivity
-Change schedule calendar view with blackout periods provides an easy way to see changes across the organization and help with planning
-Client Services updates include automatic navigator bar and popup assignments on client creation, templates for Support Request, approval Work Orders, and Support Request form enhancements.
-General updates such as auto-closure of forms, color coding for QuickViews, KPI reports, the ability to link Service Instances to a Service, and multi-linking records further enhance ease of use and productivity. ® Process Model. In addition, a small feature was added in version 5.2.01 to help problem coordinators identify problems more efficiently.

April 2009 

Version 5.2.01 Released

Alignability® version 5.2.01 provides a fully configured
environment for BMC Service Desk Express version 9.8.

This new version comes with a set of six KPI reports that
allows organizations to track the health of their Incident Management process. This represents a major step towards achieving the vision of providing an out-of-the-box report for each KPI defined within the Alignability® Process Model. In addition, a small feature was added in version 5.2.01 to help problem coordinators identify problems more efficiently.

Apart from these enhancements, all BMC Service Desk Express forms have been re-created to make them easier to customize and all business rules have been re-written to allow for easier translation.

August 2008 

Version 5.2 Released

After being stuck in the test phase for an exceptionally long time, Alignability® version 5.2 is finally released.

Version 5.2 is fully aligned with ITIL® v3 and comes with the configuration files for BMC Service Desk Express 9.6. As usual this new version also includes a long list of small perfections.

June 2008 

Release of Version 5.2 Delayed

Due to some issues with the configuration of BMC Service Desk Express version 9.6, the release of Alignability® version 5.2 has been delayed until the end of July 2008. This should provide sufficient time to get these issues resolved and ensure that customers will not experience these issues during their implementations.

May 2008 

ITIL® v3

Version 3 of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) was released at the end of June 2007. In this new version, ITIL® has adopted an integrated service lifecycle approach to IT service management.

Because Alignability® was built on the principles of TQM, continuous improvement has always been intrinsic to Alignability®. The impact of ITIL® v3 on Alignability® customers is, therefore, minimal. Still, there are numerous subtle differences between ITIL® v2 and v3. The next release of Alignability® is currently being developed to take these differences into account and to ensure that Alignability® continues to comply with ITIL®.

The next release of Alignability® is expected towards the end of June 2008. This release will be called version 5.2 and it will include the configuration files for BMC Service Desk Express version 9.6.

December 2007 

Alignability® for Service Desk Express 9.2

Alignability® 5.1.01 has been released. This version includes the configuration files for BMC Service Desk Express version 9.2, along with several minor corrections.

October 2007 

Now Available:
BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express

As planned, BMC Alignability for Service Desk Express was
released on October 09, 2007. This product allows existing BMC
customers to upgrade their BMC Service Desk Express environment to version 9, while at the same time dramatically improving the maturity and scope of their service management processes.

HP OpenView Service Desk customers will find this product very exciting as it provides them with an upgrade path to an affordable and easy-to-maintain service management application, while continuing to benefit from the field-proven processes of the Alignability® Process Model.

And naturally, this Alignability® product will appeal to mid-sized organizations in search of a solution capable of meeting the most stringent service management requirements in an efficient and risk-free manner.

July 2007 

Coming Soon:
Alignability® for Service Desk Express

With so many successful implementations of the Alignability® Process Model behind us, we are now going to leverage its field proven processes to accelerate the implementation of BMC Service Desk Express while reducing the associated risks. Initial results with a few of our customers have been successful and we look forward to make it generally available very soon. Please revisit this page for further update.

About BMC Service Desk Express
BMC Service Desk Express, developed by the market leader in IT Service Management for the demands of the mid-size business, helps you gain control of your IT processes, handle changing business needs and stay within budget, allowing you to focus on more strategic initiatives. For more details about the BMC Service Desk Express product suite, please visit its product page at the www.bmc.com web site.

April 2007 

BMC Software Acquires SMP

On April 02, BMC Software, Inc. acquired
Service Management Partners, Inc., the
organization that developed, maintains and
distributes Alignability®.

About BMC Software
BMC Software is a leading global provider of enterprise management solutions that empower companies to automate their IT and increase its business value. Delivering Business Service Management, BMC solutions span enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management. For the four fiscal quarters ended June 30, 2007, BMC revenue was approximately $1.6 billion. Visit www.bmc.com for more information.

February 2007 

Alignability® for ServiceCenter 6.2 Released

The Alignability® settings for HP OpenView ServiceCenter version 6.2 have been released. These settings contain a number of bug fixes, but also some small improvements. That is why they have been shipped as part of minor release version 5.1, rather than Service Pack 1 for version 5.0.

December 2006 

Alignability® for ServiceCenter 6.2

The HP OpenView ServiceCenter 6.2 settings for Alignability® 5.0 are currently being prepared. These settings will include fixes for the few bugs that have been identified during implementations of the ServiceCenter 6.1 settings since they were released in September, as well as a few small enhancements.

The ServiceCenter 6.2 settings will be available in January 2007 and will
be released as Service Pack 1 for Alignability® 5.0.

October 2006 

Alignability® 5.0 now also for Service Desk

The latest version of the Alignability® Process Model, which includes the Financial Management process, is now also available for HP OpenView Service Desk. This means that Alignability® version 5.0 can be obtained with settings for the complete configuration of the following service management applications:

So, regardless of tool preference, organizations can benefit from all the latest Alignability® improvements.

September 2006 

Alignability® for ServiceCenter has been Released

It has taken a bit longer than initially anticipated, but the Alignability® for ServiceCenter product is finally a reality.

This product combines the field-proven Alignability® processes with a completely pre-configured ServiceCenter environment for optimum support
of these processes. Because of the underlying ServiceCenter technology customers get the best of both worlds, a 100% out-of-the-box solution without any customization limitations.

June 2006 

University of Northampton Incorporates
Alignability® in Curriculum

The Northampton Business School of the University of Northampton was the first in the world to offer a postgraduate course in IT Service Management. The course already covered ITIL® and will now be using Alignability® to provide students a complete working example of the ITIL® processes.

"The Alignability® Process Model will form the bridge from theory to practice, especially for the Implementing Service Management and
Quality and IT Service Provision modules of the course" said Roy Taylor, MPhil MBCS CITP, Senior Lecturer, Business Computing and IT Service Management at Northampton Business School.

For more information about the IT Service Management MSc course of Northampton Business School, please send an email to: study@northampton.ac.uk.

March 2006

Alignability® for ServiceCenter

In rapid response to the December 19, 2005 acquisition of Peregrine Systems by Hewlett-Packard, Service Management Partners (SMP) has launched a project to develop an Alignability® Process Model for ServiceCenter 6.1.

The new product will provide organizations using an older version of ServiceCenter the ability to upgrade to the current version of ServiceCenter, while at the same time improving the maturity of their service management processes. It is important that both objectives can be met as many organizations still rely on a relatively old version of ServiceCenter and have waited to invest in the improvement of their processes due to the uncertainty surrounding Peregrine’s direction after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002.

Alignability® for ServiceCenter also offers a great opportunity for organizations that used the Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM) approach of IBM and Peregrine to implement ServiceCenter. Their experience will make it easy to recognize the benefits of the improved control and the reduction in manual administration that has made Alignability® so popular around the world.

The development of Alignability® for ServiceCenter is a joint effort. The ServiceCenter configuration is being prepared by Silver Storm Solutions, the process model will be adapted for the ServiceCenter settings by SMP, and Q-Pex will perform testing of the combined product. These three organizations have agreed to work together in this manner to minimize duplication of effort and to maximize the use of their combined experience.

The general release of Alignability® for ServiceCenter will be available in July 2006. This new edition of Alignability® will provide the same practical ITIL-based processes and ability to control IT spending as Alignability® for HP OpenView Service Desk.

February 2006

Alignability® for Service Desk 5.0

After Hewlett-Packard released the long-awaited HP OpenView Service Desk 5.0 in December, the configuration of this application's functionality for the support of the Alignability® processes started right away. This effort continued through the holiday season to ensure that organizations that wanted to start the deployment of Service Desk 5.0 could start as quickly as possible. Now, almost two months later, version 4.2 of Alignability® has been released with the settings (as well as the awareness and training material) for Service Desk 5.0.

Even though Alignability® 4.2 makes use of the new features that are available in Service Desk 5.0, the processes of this version are essentially the same as the Alignability® 4.1 processes.

January 2006

Control IT Spending

Version 4.1 of the Alignability® Process Model has been released. This new version essentially doubles the value that Alignability® delivers to its customers. Historically, Alignability® has always been focused on the continuous alignment of IT services and service levels with the ever-changing requirements of the business. From now on, though, Alignability® also provides out-of-the-box control over IT spending.