Service Delivery - Delivery Foundations

All of the Advanced 365 managed services offerings are underpinned by our Service Delivery Management Foundations, a collection of industry leading practices, processes and accreditations. This approach ensures that the technology deployed by our customers is viewed as an investment, and not a liability.

Security

We are one of the few companies operating in its marketplace to hold the ISO27001 (previously BS7799), Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification for the provision of managed IT services.  This is the most widely recognised security standard accreditation in the world and guarantees that optimum security is embedded within all Advanced 365 managed service offerings.

ISO27001 comprises 10 detailed control disciplines: information security policy, security organisation, asset classification controls, personnel security, physical security, communication management, access controls, system deployment, continuity planning and compliance. These disciplines demonstrate our commitment to delivering the highest quality managed services to customers.

Incident Management

If IT is to be an asset to your business, it’s essential that it’s underpinned by strong processes and procedures, clear and focussed reporting and unambiguous traceability.

The key to achieving this is a well managed service desk.  Operated effectively, a service desk can:

• Reduce costs
• Increase productivity
• Increase effectiveness

Our ITIL compliant managed service desk can be structured as a simple call-logging facility, a technical second tier escalation facility or any combination in between (as with all our offerings, you choose the combination that suits). Our support centre actively manages all work generated by our customers and technical staff alike.

The managed service desk can be purchased on a standalone basis but it also comes as part of the package with all other Advanced 365 managed service offerings.

Online Service Portal

From an information consolidation perspective we provide all clients access to our customer portal extranet, which contains all service related documentation, as well as minutes from meetings and any other joint information published throughout the lifecycle of the Advanced 365 - client engagement. This information can be accessed by all approved resources, with secure access. Throughout the various phases of the process, (pre-sales, discovery, transition and operation) we envisage consistency within our account and technical teams.

The portal can also be used by clients for call logging and tracking, change management requests, and service reporting.

Problem Management

Problem Management is managed using the same ITIL based approach as Incident Management. Where Problems are identified, initial workarounds will be implemented and then full Root Cause Analysis undertaken under the stewardship of the Head of Managed Services Operations. On identification of the root cause of the problem, suggested changes will be identified and tested prior to be submitted to the Change Control Process.

Change Management

Our change management process is ITIL compliant and used for all changes within the managed services environment. The processes have been created in order to:

• Ensure all changes are documented and obtain formal approval
• Ensure all changes go through a thorough risk assessment, and that we have associated documentation to cover change description, impact, risk mitigation, test plans (before and after change execution), and back-out plans
• Approve change at the most appropriate levels based on risk

Configuration Management

We operate a structured Configuration Management Database (CMDB) system within the BMC Service Desk Express (Magic) service desk system. A dedicated CMDB Administrator is employed to ensure that this environment is an accurate reflection of client environments. The Change Management process triggers any necessary updates to the CMDB which is accessible by all members of the Advanced 365 Managed Services Operations Team.

Release Management

Our Release Management process is fully ITIL Compliant and is an extension of the Change Management Process covered above. All releases, once completed, are recorded within the Advanced 365 CMDB that is stored within the Advanced 365 BMC Service Desk Express (Magic) system.

ITIL

ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) is a widely accepted, government approved approach to IT Service Management.  ITIL provides a cohesive set of best practice guidelines and is supported by a comprehensive qualification scheme as well as implementation and assessment tools.  Our processes are all ITIL compliant and, where necessary, employees are ITIL accredited.  This ensures that clients are guaranteed full compliance with industry best practice, negating the need to train staff, employ new systems or adopt new processes.

Accreditations and Quality Control

All client projects are managed via rigorous quality standards and we have several industry leading ISO accreditations for quality control, risk management and security. These certifications and accreditations form the framework for all work undertaken by Advanced 365 and full details are available here