Ajilon Solves it All with IncidentMonitor™ Service Desk Software

When Ajilon Consulting chose to invest in an incident management solution to help manage its growing infrastructure a few years ago, it rounded up all the usual suspects, says Christian Desjardins, Manager of GSC Infrastructure at the Montreal-based IT Solutions provider. “Basically, it was between Remedy, Heat and IncidentMonitor™.”

Ajilon’s data centre in Montreal had undergone tremendous development, and at the time his team didn’t have a ticketing system, so they were seeking “a proper incident management tool that would grow with us,” Desjardins says. “The main thing we were looking for was a tool that would accommodate all of our needs and that would be scalable for the needs and the growth we were anticipating.” Those needs included a cost-effective solution that was ITIL®-compatible, had all the features built in without hidden fees, was scalable and was backed by a solid support network.

This quest ultimately led Ajilon to choose Monitor 24-7’s award-winning IncidentMonitor™ solution. The ITIL® component was a key selling feature, Desjardins explains, because Ajilon planned not only to use this product internally to support its own users, but as an outsourcing services provider, it had client requirements that were vital considerations. For that reason, Ajilon’s implementation of IncidentMonitor™ was unique in that it required a product dependable enough to support not only its internal operations, but also its core outsourcing business.

With some competing solutions, ITIL® compatibility can be customized, but often at great expense and complexity. However, ITIL® functionality is built directly into IncidentMonitor™, and that was one of the main reasons Ajilon opted to implement this solution. Of course, for a growing organization, scalability was a huge consideration, Desjardins says. “For example,” he says, “at one point, we were actually running IncidentMonitor™ on a desktop computer. Now it’s running on a Blade Center server. So definitely the fact that it was scalable was a big selling feature.”

IncidentMonitor™ is the One-Stop Shop

Desjardins says that Ajilon had, and continues to have, big plans for its incident management solution, so finding one which offered all the features it was looking for built into the server license cost was a priority. And that’s an area that IncidentMonitor™ proved to be just what the doctor ordered, he says.

“When you purchase the software, you have access to all of the different modules at no additional cost,” Desjardins says. “It was definitely one of the main reasons that (we went in this direction). It’s kind of like a one-stop shop and you don’t have to worry about a lot of hidden costs, unlike the other solutions reviewed as part of our initial assessment.”

Ajilon primarily employs IncidentMonitor™ for tracking incidents, with different teams, including an internal helpdesk, using the platform to track all the issues that come in, while maintaining a historical reference. But the asset management component has also been
a big benefit to the company, Desjardins says. Merely having that built into the tool itself has been a major advantage, he says. It’s difficult to quantify, “but having the asset information integrated within the incident management solution has been a great time saver.”

Ajilon plans to build on the asset management module by developing a bar code reader interface. They’ve already tagged all their assets with bar codes and the plan is to create a customized web page within the IncidentMonitor™ site where they can get updates and pull asset information directly from IncidentMonitor™. When this is complete, users with a wireless bar code reader will be able to interact directly with the IncidentMonitor™ server “so that on the spot, our asset records can be updated directly from the floor, further reducing time spent on asset management activities,” Desjardins says.

Finally, Ajilon has spent the past year focusing on the change management module, customizing the platform for rollout shortly, something Desjardins expects will be
very beneficial. “What that platform enables us to do is to track all of the changes that we perform in our environment, as well as approvals, which is key in ensuring compliance with our Change Management process,” he says.Choosing the Right Service Desk Software Solution

Major Overhead Savings with IncidentMonitor™

Desjardins says just based on the initial testing, this module will be hugely beneficial. “I expect that it will reduce the process overhead by approximately 30 percent. In the past, everything as far as our changes was being done manually, so for example, e-mail
approvals and Change Management Plan task completion times needed to be entered in manually.” Automating this “results in a significant reduction in overhead involved in this business critical process.” Ajilon has actually taken that one step further - it’s recording the results of internal audits it performs directly into IncidentMonitor™. Additionally, all the documentation for the data centres will soon be tracked within IncidentMonitor™ “so that an approval paper trail exists for all process documentation.”

This is hugely important because of the nature of Ajilon’s clientele, Desjardins says. It deals with several pharmaceutical companies, as well as a large U.S. retailer in the U.S., and security is a major concern for these clients, so it gets audited fairly often. “So it’s definitely
something that’s going to help our business substantially.”

Ajilon is also working on building a network monitoring platform and has been looking to take advantage of network management integration features that are built into IncidentMonitor™.

“That’s another good example of a feature that we hadn’t been using in the past but that we can leverage now that there’s a need for it,” Desjardins says. The fact that there have been so many similar situations, whereby a need arises and we are able to address it using a feature built into IncidentMonitor™, has been very helpful to us over the years.”

As Ajilon has grown more comfortable with IncidentMonitor™, Desjardins has found that creating new projects has become painless. “Implementing new projects in IncidentMonitor™
is a very simple process, as opposed to other solutions I have worked with in the past,” he says.

Seamless Customization with IncidentMonitor™

And when Ajilon has wanted to build on the IncidentMonitor™ platform, customization has also been a seamless process. “Implementing new projects in IncidentMonitor™ is a very simple process, as opposed to other solutions I have worked with in the past,” he says.

Given the fact that Ajilon has to deal with many different clients, and in some cases needs to tailor the software to match its clients’ needs, this has been a huge advantage. “We’re very comfortable with the platform, and we’re looking forward to using the new version that was
recently released That would be IncidentMonitor™ v8.0, which, among other features, includes a new user interface, memorized responses (which allows one-click ticket update) and OneStep (a feature that allows users to create a ticket from a Service Catalog item or Whiteboard with a single click).

While IncidentMonitor™ has exceeded Ajilon’s expectations, Desjardins says that it’s the people behind the solution that have been the icing on the cake. He likes the fact that they are supported by a team of senior engineers instead of - as is the case with some vendors - dealing with first level support before you talk to someone who can actually help you. Eliminating this level of complexity, and the frustration that invariably comes along with it, is another big bonus, he says. “Working with the folks at IncidentMonitor™ is always very enjoyable,” he says. “It’s nice with the support organization there that you’re always talking to a familiar person, very personalized service and another great selling point.”

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