Hi. I am Shan and I am Development Manager for ServiceDesk Plus. Most of the time I am the guy who is blamed for the delays in shipping even if there are a lot of scope creeps. I found that the main problem was that you (as users) are unaware of what is going on with the development team and what we do.

Here is my journal as we progress

Performance, Performance and Performance:

Our main focus for 7.5 is performance, quality and stability and it is not a overnite job. Creating such an environment and reproducing problem scenarios are getting to be a challenge. Our QA team is working in parallel to make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes we did in some of our servicepacks. Now-a-days QA team is reluctant to compromise on anything, siting that “for any problem, customers are not blaming development, but blaming only us”..

You, our customers are important

In the earlier 7.0 release we could not give the upgrade pack to the existing customers on the same day the release was made and we learnt a good lesson from it. We could understand your frustration and do not want to make that mistake again. We are working on the upgrade pack in parallel and this time will make sure we release both on the same day.

The site based implementation is back breaking

Initially we thought 7.5 should be an easier one with focussed team working on Asset features. The other key features include site based segmentation, request form customization, solutions enhancements, technician availability calendar. With Purchase module enhancements brought in a hotfix itself, we expected a smoother release as planned.

Not surprisingly we underestimated the time for some of the features which is now causing the delay. The multi site support is the main culprit for the time delay. When we took up the functionality, we thought that it could be completed in around 2 months. Myself and the developer were optimistic over the completion of the feature within the time !! We were proved wrong as it had a lot complications during the implementation phase which need to be addressed.

Phew, AssetExplorer is in…finally

The another key thing which kept us waiting is the completion of Asset Explorer 5.0 release which has support for remote desktop, multi site support for Assets and other enhancements. These have to be integrated into SDP 7.5. Now we are almost finished with the release of AE 5.0 and started on integrating with SDP. It could take us a couple of weeks to integrate it into SDP 7.5.

Integrating ServicePack’s

We are also currently integrating all issue fixes from service packs 7001 to 7019 to the 7.5 release. With a hotfix getting released every month, the amount of merge and testing gets higher. Release delay costs us here too !!!

Now we are into integration phase.

We are determined to give a good quality, reliable and a stable 7.5 release.

Further moving ahead, unlike 7.5, we look to go for shorter release cycles (3 - 4 months). Will plan that delay of one feature should not affect the release cycle and the worst case should be, that feature moved out of the release. This release model requires features to be build separately and integrated once completed. This could involve more integration effort, but lesser impact on release. This model was recommended by my higher ups for long time, but… may be time to look into that model.

I will look to update whenever a task (say Asset explorer integration, issues integration,..) on 7.5 got completed.

Have you tried reading an ITIL book, it’s perfect cure of insomnia. Yes, most ITIL books have all the information but [with all due respect] they are boring!.  I sat through a couple of boring classes and delivered even boring presentations. Then it occurred to me, why not try to make it interesting.  I tried writing an ITIL Handbook with a few cartoons.  A few readers got back to me saying it is interesting.Try it , you will like it!

Bem-vindo para India. WEG - one of the Brazil’s largest companies is coming to India.

WEG Announces New Plant In India

[Thanks Jaime for sharing the news]

WEG’s runs ServiceDesk Plus, with 1000 technicians working on it. I have to thank them for helping us perfect ServiceDesk Plus with robust performance and scalability. The biggest challenge in the getting the meeting right was the language. Everyone knew only Brazilian Portuguese and we knew only English. Luckily we had one friend who knew both. [Thanks Claudio, for saving the meeting]

WEG is in Jaragua Do Sul, Brazil - well actually Jaragua Do Sul is in WEG. The company has such a big plant that a town is built around it. I am sure we’ll win WEG over again, in our home ground.

Interesting Point: WEG had an interesting way to solve the speeding problems and accidents in its campus. Almost 90% of mini-vans and cars plying within the campus had women drivers. To be specific, it was moms who had their kids photos in the dashboard and they were never speeding… anytime!

An Incident, according to ITIL, is any event that disrupts the work of the user. Incident Management is about managing those incidents i.e. bring back normalcy to the user, using workarounds or solutions. But the idea is not let any incident affect business.

So what is a Service Request? First, it is not a disruption of any service. It is generally (but, not necessarily) a request for something new like information or access. So is password reset an incident or a service request? According to my definition of incident, the user’s work is disrupted and it should be classified as an incident. ITIL V2 does classify password reset as an incident. But in ITIL V3, it is classified as a service request. The idea is that the service, as such, is not disrupted or there is nothing wrong with the service. The user only needs to contact the service desk to get access to the service.

When classifying your requests in ServiceDesk Plus, there are three options available:

• Incident
• Service Request
• Request for Information

Let’s understand them using examples. If a user calls into the help desk and reports he can’t access his email, that is an incident. If the user wants to know how to access the Intranet when he is travelling, that is a Request for Information. If a user asks for memory upgrade on his laptop, that is a Service Request.

ITIL V3 looks at Service Requests in a whole new way and calls it a new name too - Request Fulfillment. But that is something we will tackle later.

Tech support is not responsive, what happened to you guys?

This question came to me over 5 times last week. Here’s the whole picture and what we are doing about it.

Situation - Back Stage

Our incoming requests ran over the roof, we had 3 times the regular volume and our support team was simply stretched thin. We staffed up the team but support expertise does not come in a day [or a week]. I know it is not fair for me to give excuses, walk you through our growth problems and expect your sympathy.

Now,We have formed two teams to focus on customers and prospects.

Pre-sales Team: For Prospects

If you are evaluating ServiceDesk Plus and need a demo, comparison sheet and evaluation support. Please direct your questions to “eval at manageengine dot com” . You can also contact the pre-sales team if you are planning to purchase more ManageEngine products. You can also reach the Pre-sales team by phone.

Toll Free for USA : +1 888 720 9500

International +1 925 924 9500

Support Team: For Existing Customers

With all the new requests being handled by our Pre-sales team, our support team will clearly focus on customer problems. You can continue to get back to - ” support at servicedeskplus dot com”

Direct your queries to the right team, you will get responses much faster.

Bumpy patch on the road

This is a small bumpy patch on the road, please hang in there for a while. We’ll get past this soon. I would also like to thank users who posted in the forums and mailed me personally to give us a strong doze of what you are going through :-).

We are back in action.

• Check out the new features in ServiceDesk Plus.
• Check out the different products under ManageEngine.
• Meet the team

See you there!

• Multiple tools for different purposes. There are still a lot of organizations out there who depend on basic email as their help desk system. Otherwise, they have a separate tool for help desk, another tool for asset management, another tool for knowledge base and so on.
• Dissatisfaction with current tool. Lot many times, the sales hype gets the customer inside but without understanding his requirement, which ends up in a lot of unhappiness.

So am I claiming that ServiceDesk Plus solves everyone’s problems? Of course not. I am sure there is a long way for us to go too. But at least, we believe the customer should get a chance to try the product - see for himself, if the tool is going to work for him. Some questions you should ask when looking for a tool are:

• What do I need? Is it a ticketing system? Do I need a knowledge base? What about asset management? Do I need ITIL? Make a list of features you need in a help desk product.
• What do you have to offer? Check out the different features offered in a product.
• How much do I pay? The cost-value matrix should work right for you. What are the runtime costs? Do you have to pay extra for support? What about future upgrades/updates and product customizations?

Don’t fall in for the marketing talk..not even ours. Check us out for yourself and see if you like ServiceDesk Plus. We even provide free support during evaluation. You have the right to choose and make your own decision.

“So what does your product have?” is the general question. And I start, “Well it has got a helpdesk management system that is ITIL ready. That means, it has got Incident management, Problem Management, Change Management and an integrated CMDB. It also packs Contracts Management and Purchase Management. Includes canned and customizable reports.” And then I show them the online demo. Somewhere in the middle of that demo, they ask, “are you serious?”.

Some of the other comments we heard -

• “It is unbelievable that you have everything I need in a single place. This is amazing.”
• “Excellent UI. It is so refreshing to see compared to what we use.”
• “Really! You have that too!”

If you would like to meet us tomorrow, please be sure to drop in at Booth 510, 512 at Hotel Bellagio.

Here’s some pictures from day 1 of the show:

(It is not the best of cameras. We have got better cameras for tomorrow. So hopefully, you will see some better pictures tomorrow.)

Eduardo, President of Inspirit, ManageEngine’s distributor in Brazil with the Vice President of ManageEngine .