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How does an IT company monitor and manage its own IT systems? It brings in the experts!

Announcement posted by Kinetica 04 Sep 2001

Kineticas EMS provides Source Integrated Networks with the tools to deliver and support its managed IT services
It may seem ironic that a company like Source Integrated Networks, which itself provides end-to-end managed IT services for some 160 diverse businesses, would need to look to another company to provide any of its own IT services. In engaging specialist integrator Kinetica to provide implementation and commission services for an in-house Enterprise Management System (EMS), Optus-owned Source is in fact practising what it preaches to its own customers, by outsourcing an area of non-core competency to an external expert in that field.

We are somewhat different from Kineticas usual customers, in that we have 160 networks to monitor and manage, instead of just one, said Garry Woods, Marketing Manager, Source Integrated Networks. Kinetica provides us with the tools to deliver and support the managed services we offer our clients, and in addition will enable us to provide our customers with direct access to enhanced reporting, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Source Integrated Networks designs, supplies, implements, maintains and centrally manages data, voice, video and Internet networks. Managing more than 900 sites including international customers, Sources clients come from various sectors including retail, manufacturing, distribution, communications, transport and services. This year, the companys turnover is expected to be between $20 and $30 million.

The EMS infrastructure from Kinetica represents a $500,000 investment for Source. The system integrates Aprisma Spectrum and Opticom iView products and allows Source to constantly monitor and maintain all of its customers links as well as providing customised base reports. Clients are able to directly access some of these reports themselves, instead of relying on Sources word that an agreed level of continuous service is being maintained.

Aprismas Spectrum EMS provides us with a higher level of proactive and reactive alerting that gives the operations team a greater insight into the service provided to our customers, Mr Woods said. The sales team in turn are able to better recognise opportunities for network management.

One of our customers recently confided to me that the only time he ever knows there is a problem with his site is when we ring to tell him that weve already fixed it this illustrates the level of reliability and stability that we seek to maintain for our clients and the EMS assists us to do this by giving us those early warnings of potential capacity failures and other facets of the networks, he said.

At heart, what Source does is guarantee an overall service level for the outsourced network over which an enterprise conducts its business. The EMS that Kinetica has implemented provides the company with base service level reports, monitoring specific statistics and generating at-a-glance status and utilisation reports. These reports are updated every 10 minutes and Sources clients can themselves access them, any hour of the day or night, to check the links status or capacity utilisations.

Because we put in an order for a new software product before it was available to test, the full benefits of the EMS customer reporting package have yet to be realised, said Mr Woods. But the expected return on investment is two-fold: being able to report, manage and monitor our service levels to our clients; and to provide additional reporting to our end users as well as our own IT staff.

To effectively operate the business, Source needed to be able to proactively manage clients networks with minimum resources, he said.

On a product basis, we made the decision to go with Kinetica against the other main competitor because the Aprisma Spectrum and Opticom iView products provided out-of-box functionality, reporting quality and flexibility, as well as the ability to integrate disparate devices for overall monitoring, said Mr Woods. It was Kineticas people who made the biggest difference as they were more proactive during the evaluation stage and we therefore anticipated that this would be reflected in greater support from them during installation and commissioning.

Now we have received the iView reporting software that fully supports our operating environment, we can resume our implementation and roll-out plans, he said. During this period, Kinetica has gone the extra mile in terms of providing ongoing support and assisting us to sort through the issues as they arose.

About Kinetica:

Kinetica, formerly known as Full Spectrum, is the market leader in designing, implementing and maintaining Enterprise Management Systems which empower businesses to reap the benefits of their IT infrastructure.
The company delivers management systems that are focused on supporting business processes and delivering complete control and visibility of the diverse and disparate elements of clients' IT infrastructures. Kinetica delivers the full spectrum of EMS solutions from industry leading vendors to tailor a professional, complete and reliable solution, using products that expertly match business needs. Visit the Kinetica web site at: www.kinetica.com.au for more details.