MarvalSoftwareLtd.forIncidentManagement

Analyst – Vawns Murphy

Irish mum of 3. ITIL V2 Manager (red badge)

and ITIL V3 Expert (purple badge). SDI

Managers certificate. Further qualifications in

COBIT, ISO 20000, SAM, PRINCE2 and

Microsoft. Author of itSMF UK collateral on

Service Transition, Software Asset

Management, Problem Management & the

“How to do CCRM” book. Reviewer for the

Service Transition ITIL 3 2011 publication.

When not being pelted with brightly coloured

balls in the name of ITIL, I am a senior analyst

for Enterprise Opinions.

Executive Summary – Marval Service Management (MSM)

Overview • Outstanding Incident Management functionality • Experienced practical and pragmatic supplier • 100% secure web enabled solution • Concentrates exclusively on an integrated ITSM process

driven solution which is service and customer centric underpinned by a service portfolio

• Pink VERIFY – 15 ITIL Processes • AXELOS – ITIL process compliant gold level • SDI SDC reports certified • ISO/IEC 20000 compliant

Strengths • Comprehensive incident management offering • Excellent Incident Management offering • Extensive SLM, security, access controls, roles and views • Staff workload and resource management functionality • Can be used for other service and support functions, e.g.

HR. estates • Detailed support for end users including knowledge

management, special instructions and service portfolio allocation

• Built in CMDB remote control and use of NFC technology • Automation and support for Major Incidents • Mail merge technology and use of template ensure a

professional look and feel • User defined quick closure templates ensure a professional

look and feel • Intelligent knowledge management • Standard and user configurable Management dashboards &

reporting

Weaknesses • There is so much ITSM functionality in MSM that it could be easy to get lost in the detail unless you have a clear service vision and buy in from your people

• Some previous feedback on the automated rules engine being complex and inflexible - this has been addressed in recent versions

Primary Market Focus

• Small, Medium to large customer accounts. With a strong focus on Customer Service, compliance and governance. Can be of benefit to any organisation requiring customer service and support delivered by a passionate and professional supplier.

Independent Review I’m just going to say it, Marval have the best company name ever - I can’t help but think of the Avengers every time I use their software (seriously - how cool was Age Of Ultron?). They have a global partner network and are passionate about their subject matter. They’ve contributed material to ITIL, ISO 20000, the Service Desk Institute standards and the world’s first MSc in Service Management from Northampton University.

I reviewed Marval just before Christmas and my reputation had clearly preceded me as when I dialled in to our group test, not only were all the Marval chaps wearing festive reindeer antlers, the screens had been configured to my favourite colour, pink. As a prospective end user, the initial (pink!) dashboard gave a very clear view of the day ahead. Graphical representations were used to display Incidents by category and priority. When first logging an Incident the look up feature pulls up loads of pertinent information about the user or (asset, CI, or Service). As well as previously logged incidents, contact details and services used the system also provides their location details via Google maps. As an ex techie I can’t tell you what a nightmare it can be tracking down some users so anything that avoids the “help me I’m lost” phone call rocks. The user information also contains the person’s most recent customer satisfaction rating (so you know if you need to not do the Service Desk equivalent of poking an angry bear with a sharp stick) and the person’s job title, neatly avoiding any “don’t you know who I am?” awkwardness. One of the coolest thing about the customer information screen is the Special Instructions field. It can be customised to suit the user, some examples I saw were profile pictures, statuses or preferred contact options. God only knows what my special instructions would be - probably something along the lines of “if you contact me before 5 o'clock in the morning (1) the world had better be ending or (2) you’ve come bearing Starbucks. When categorising an Incident, clever use is made of automation, Keyword lookups provide suggested Incident models and templates as well as relevant Knowledge Base articles, known errors and work around’s. But here’s where it gets interesting (adopts Dervla Kirwan's tone in the M&S ads - you know the ones) this isn’t ordinary Knowledge Management, this is Marval Knowledge Management. Each Knowledge entry has a set of work instructions, useful links, tools and diagnostic scripts. The idea behind this according to Marval is that this information can be pre-populated by second and third line techies. A fab idea for the following reasons:

1. It up-skills and empowers the Service Desk analysts (and believe me - nothing is more soul destroying than being asked where the start button is on Windows 7 for the millionth time that day)

2. It means that second and third line are freed up to focus on more technical issues aka “the serious stuff” without being overrun.

3. Importantly, new analysts can be productive from day one, saving you both time, money with excellent customer service from the outset.

The Incident form has a minimum data set that can be customised to fit your requirements. The lookup functionality will tell you if there are any pre-existing Incidents, Problems, Changes or knowledge items raised against the service affected and the automated user defined customer satisfaction is done via a mail merge so has a very polished look and feel along with an Amazon style star rating. The Incident Management functionality will identify any dependent services and will include them in the Incident record and remote desktop tools are built in to the Incident screen. One of the most geektastic features of the product is the use of Near Field Communication or NFC. Smart tags with little asset labels can be added to any hardware in your estate and an end user can simply use the mobile app to log an Incident simply by scanning the tag. It means that if you happen to walk by a jammed printer, you can let the Service Desk know simply by zapping the label - how cool is that? Easy to configure personalised Incident report screens are clear and easy to filter by a wide range of criteria (e.g. priority, status, customer, location, service and SLA target). A useful feature whilst carrying out Incident investigation is the “More” button, this option automatically sends the Incident back to the previous person who worked on it with instructions to add more detail - if you’ve ever been a support techie - it’s a nightmare if you’re under pressure scrolling through the audit diary trying to find the last person who updated the ticket – using ”More” does it in about 2 seconds flat.

Major Incidents are easy to handle in this product. You can simply promote an Incident to a Major Incident by using a check box or by predefined criteria. In the same way a major incident can be demoted (e.g. once the initial panic is over). Once a Major Incident has been logged, automation ensures that the Major Incident process is triggered, resulting in Incident assignments, prioritisation and classification, a communications plan and automatic service reminders to ensure that nothing is missed with the business receiving regular updates. As customers call the Service Desk, incidents can be logged and related to the Major incident in seconds, and the customer kept informed of its progress. When the major incident is solved all related incidents are also solved and each caller informed. If Disaster recovery (DR) needs to be invoked, Marval business rules will identify the Incident as being an IT Service Continuity issue and will automatically inform nominated business users and apply the ITSCM SLAs. Incident closure can comprise of user defined intelligent closure statuses. For example:

1. Fixed (if 3rd party/engineer involved, incident placed in Fixed state) 2. Solved (incident placed in solved state and automatically re-assigned to

tracker/service desk 3. Closed (incident placed in closed state once customer sign off is complete)

Incident closure contains CSI requirements ensuring quality is inherent in the incident process. CSI items could include a security or process review, which will automatically create a task for the appropriate team. This ties in with the Marval prime directive, which is to enable people to be as productive as possible as quickly as possible. Once a call is complete you can optionally record staff resource and activity usage and if required, a user configured customer survey sent to the customer. This is great to provide justification for increased headcount if your team is under resourced. The vendor works with small and medium to large enterprises and is a fantastic option if you need your Incident Management process to be customer and service centric, bulletproof and mature. Marval is an excellent choice if quality standards and the adoption of good practice is important. When you use Marval, it really does feel like they’ve spent years sat beside Service Desk analysts and support techies watching them work, seeing the pressures they’re under and figuring out ways in which the tool can make life easier. It’s slick, user friendly and enterprise focused and a fantastic option if you want to take your Service Desk, support teams and Incident Management to the next level. Technical Summary Incident logging, categorization & automation options

Incidents can be logged directly from the tool through web self-service, by email, text, web services, SNMP or chat. A prompt automatically alerts the user if an Incident has already been raised against their service. Automation includes; Skills/SFIA based routing. ‘Quick call’ template closure, Service reminders & special instructions, business rules engine, impact analysis.

System access options (web, fat client, mobile, etc.)

Solution is available as SaaS, On-Premise, mobile, command line interfaces, API integration and web services. MSM’s graphical reporting and dashboard tool. From a cyber resilience perspective; the tool has been penetration tested and is fully audited and secure.

Technical Summary Continued

Incident tracking and lifecycle

MSM supports full life-cycle management of Incidents and related processes. Super-fast Google-like search capabilities. User defined workflows & classifications. There is a “bounce count” and the Incident Manager is automatically notified if the Incident is at risk of breaching its SLA. The tool can automatically notify the end user every time a request is updated.

Prioritizing and escalating incidents

Nothing is lost forgotten or ignored using MSM business rules and intelligent classifications. These can be based on priority, user or service critically. Escalation is based on defined SLA, OLA and UC agreements as well as the affected Services, CIs and critical business periods (e.g. Month end) and % breach time values (e.g. 80% of fix time). All escalation is colour coded and time bound.

Major Incidents

MSM has a separate work flow for Major Incidents. Incidents can be generated from an existing major incident and automatically related. Any incidents automatically receive notification updates. When a Major Incident is closed, ALL related incidents are also updated, closed either automatically or manually. When Incident Management is used in conjunction with the CMDB and system automation, the affected services related to a customer or organisation will automatically record related Incidents.

Applying industry models and frameworks

MSM has been designed to support industry good practices and standards. Marval’s own Global Service Desk use MSM to service its global customer and collect audit evidence that supports their own ISO/IEC 20000 accreditation (now in its 10th year). Customers also use Marval MSM to combine and support security standards such as ISO 27001 + ITIL + ISO/IEC 20000 and governance compliance frameworks such as ISO9001, SOX, COBIT and Basel II.

Incident closure

MSM Incident closure can comprise three statuses and users can rate their experience by using an Amazon style star rating plus a free text field. As part of the closure process, suggested service improvement classifications are used to support a continual service improvement plan. User defined satisfaction surveys may be scheduled on incident closure.

Interaction/workflow with Problem Management

Incidents can be integrated and directly linked to Problem records. Problems can be created directly from incidents – automatically transferring data across and relating the two together.

Technical Summary Continued

Reporting and analytics

Reports available in text, graphical and CSV formats. Several standard dashboards and reports are supplied and you can easily create your own using the Marval drag and drop reporting tool. Reports can be scheduled and output in Word, PDF and HTML formats. Standard reports and dashboards include:-

• Management overview • Incidents by Service • Incidents by priority/impact/urgency • Incidents missing SLAs • SLA breach reasons • TOP10 by user defined values (e.g. category, date etc.) • Incidents by support group • Incidents by age • Staff and teams resource usage • SDI Service desk Certification evidential requirements

No knowledge of SQL or DBA skills are required to build custom reports.

Incident management beyond the service desk

The tool is extensible beyond ITSM requirements and some real life examples include HR, Facilities, Telecoms, Estates, Finance, CRM and Housing.

Strengths

• Excellent Incident Management offering • Can be used for other functions (for example HR, Estates) • Extensive security, access controls, roles and views • Flawless support for end users going above and beyond the norm, special

instructions, exact locations, business rules, built in remote control, communication and use of NFC technology

• Polished handling of Incidents ensuring nothing is lost, forgotten or ignored. • Mail merge tech and use of templates ensures all forms and notifications have

a professional look and feel • Integrated CMDB

Weaknesses

• There is so much functionality that it could be easy to get lost in the detail unless you have a clear service vision and solid buy in from your people

• Some previous feedback from users that the automated rules engine was seen as complex, inflexible and “kinda clunky”, lots of work has been carried out in the most recent versions of MSM to make them easier to customise and use.

Customers include:

• University of the Arts London • Bertram Books • Lakeland • Home Group • Symantec Cloud • The European Central Bank • NHS - South East Commissioning Support Unit • Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust • HM Treasury • DNV-GL • The Government of Malta (MITA) • Vaultex • Avios • Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies • Irish Electricity Supply Board (ESB) • London Fire Brigade

EnterpriseOpinionsisaglobalresearchandadvisoryorganisationspecializinginITAssetandService

Management

CommercialSummaryVendorMarvalSoftwareLtd.ProductMarvalServiceManagement(MSM)VersionReviewed14DateofVersionReleaseQ12016YearFounded1989Customers500+OrganisationsWorldwidePricingStructureMSMoffersafullyinclusivelicenceforbothperpetualandsubscriptionbasedlicences,whicharepricedbasedoneitherconcurrent,namedormixedlicenceusage.

Customers continued: • University of South Australia • Net Entertainment • BAE Systems Land Systems • City of Ottawa • City of Sydney • Malmo City • Jazz Air • North West Ambulance Service • University of Northampton • Oxford University Press • Cambridge University Press • Prorail (Dutch Railways) • Lithuanian Railways • Renault • South Australia Health • Uk Land Registry • University of Stockholm • Karolinska University Hospital • Lithuania Ministry of The Interior

In their own words “The primary objective of Marval Software is to provide its customers with the knowledge, tools and technology to deliver world class support and services to their customers. We recognise that IT departments are under increasing pressures to drive efficiencies, productivity and service improvements. The Marval solution empowers IT service delivery teams too easily and quickly design, deliver and support enhanced services to their users. The heart of Marval Service Management is the Service Portfolio, where the services to be delivered, support definitions and criteria are configured and designed. These services are then delivered to the business via the Service Catalogue, which are then underpinned by the ITIL management processes such as Incident, Problem, Change, Service Requests, SLM, and Request Fulfilment. Whilst also leveraging complementary technologies including self-service portals, mobile devices, integration APIs, etc.

The Marval offering is a 100% web enabled solution and can be deployed on premises or via SaaS, supported by an innovative optimised licensing model that delivers exceptional value and choice from a purchase and deployment perspective. With no clients to install or manage, using ‘codeless’ technology, no coding or bespoke programming is required, meaning system management overheads are reduced to a minimum and software upgrades are quick and easy to implement. This empowers IT service delivery teams to deliver agile, flexible, innovative, cost effective services to their organisations.

With its history and experience rooted in Service Management, for more than 26 years and having implemented ITSM solutions for customers around the globe, Marval has unrivalled knowledge and experience which it uses to develop and deliver world class service management solutions to its customers.”

Further Information Product Brochure: http://www.marval.co.uk Technical Brochures: http://www.marval.co.uk/downloads/special-downloads/special-downloads/2012/marval-msm-brochure.aspx This independent review is part of our Incident Management group test 2016, read the full report at http://www.theitsmreview.com/2016/02/incident-mngt-2016/. Also participating; Alemba Ltd, Atlassian, Cherwell SoftwareTM, HPE, InvGate Inc., ManageEngine, Matrix42 AG, Nexthink, SUMMIT Software Inc.