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System Center "Service Desk"
Ben Srour presented the System Center Airlift session about their product codenamed "Service Desk". One of the key features are the Solution Packs, which work much like Operations Manager' Management Packs. Importing a Solution Pack will add extra functionality. At RTM there will be an Incident Management SP, Asset Management SP, Change Management SP and more. Along with the full console called Analyst Console, there will be a self-service portal fully built on Office Sharepoint Server 2007 which enables the end-user to get information about their current ticket and check a knowledgebase. Another key feature is the workflow, where you - for instance - can define that a change must be emailed to a Change Manager which uses the Outlook voting buttons to decided and where afterwards a SMS package can be run.Microsoft-IT will deploy the Incident Management SP and Change Management SP in their production environment to convince future customers that the product is ready for enterprise use. "Service Desk" v1 will have deep integration with Configuration Manager 2007 (for discovery and inventory), Operations Manager 2007 (for incident and problem management), Office 2007 (for collaboration and authoring), Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (self-service portal) and VS Team Services (for increased operational awareness). Their new ITL and MOF based product will have easy ways of customization for MS Partners, who can provide a familiar tool and customize forms and workflows.
Ben disclosed that the v1 version of the new product will not contain a GUI based drag-and-drop editor for the workflow but is on the roadmap for v2. He commented on the release schedule, noting that TAP customers have gotten the Beta 1 milestone several weeks ago with a Technical Release a few weeks ago. He also said that Beta 2 will be publicly available right after the Microsoft Management Summit in April. Release candidate will follow in the second half of 2007 and RTM is slated for H1 2008 (won't make it this year, anymore). More information on System Center "Service Desk " can be found in these articles, earlier on Techlog: