NEW! Provance Data Management Pack for
Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2010
Your IT Service Management and IT Asset Management programs are only as good as the information supporting them. Comprehensive, accurate and up to date data properly maintained in a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is essential to support ITIL® (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and MOF (Microsoft® Operations Framework) best practice frameworks for IT Service Management.
The new Provance™ Data Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2010 greatly simplifies and speeds the process for getting data into and out of Service Manager while simultaneously improving the consistency and accuracy of your data. You can quickly and easily source the data you need to support effective Incident, Problem and Change Management, as well as IT Asset Life Cycle and Software Asset Management. Provance supplements the connectors provided with Service Manager to give you to access to data from other IT service desks, import and discovery tools, network systems management solutions, user management systems, Configuration Management Systems (CMSs), CMDBs, and ERP and CRM systems. You can use data from just about any source to add or update Configuration Items in your Service Manager CMDB, including custom classes and properties. An easy to use graphical interface makes it simple to create and save templates that let you import data from both files and databases without coding or extensive knowledge about the CMDB schema. Furthermore, reducing the need for external manipulation and data cleansing significantly improves the accuracy and consistency of the Configuration Items in your Service Manager CMDB.
The Provance Data Managment pack adds simple, fast and accurate data import to Microsoft System Center Service Manager to ensure your IT Service Management and IT Asset Management programs are optimally supported.
Import Data Directly from Microsoft SQL Server Databases
Provance supplements the Service Manager connectors for Active Directory®, Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, Opalis and CSV import with the ability to access data directly from Microsoft SQL Server. Whether you are making a one time data migration to Microsoft System Center Service Manager or require ongoing data synchronization with other applications, The Provance Data Management Pack lets you import file outputs from third party systems or access data directly from staged or transactional database repositories. A simple, wizard driven process lets you connect to a SQL Server database or browse and select a CSV file. The columns from your data source are then available for you to quickly and easily map to destinations in the Microsoft System Center Service Manager CMDB.
Eliminate XML Coding and Schema Guesswork
The Provance Data Management Pack eliminates the need to code XML format files to import your data from CSV files. You simply use forms and wizards to browse the Configuration Items classes and objects in the Service Manager CMDB and select the destinations for each column sourced from your import file or database. You no longer have to worry about identifying the right XML values for projection types, classes or property IDs, properly structuring your XML or making sure you order your XML tags in precisely the same sequence that the values appear in your file. Furthermore, you see every data element in your CMDB, including customizations you’ve made using the Service Manager Authoring Tool or extensions by third party management packs. The Provance Data Management Pack eliminates guesswork and the need for accurate reference documentation to fully understand the schema and structure of your CMDB.
A Clear View of Complex CI Relationships
Relationships between CIs in your Service Manger CMDBs can be extremely complex. The Provance Data Management Pack provides you with an intuitive, visual interface that allows you to readily understand the relationships between CIs in your CMDB and graphically illustrates the relationships you choose to include in your import. When you select more than one object, the Provance Data Management Pack shows you a complete list of all the relationships between the two objects, and lets you add a relationship to support the import. Even relationships and combinations of relationships that cannot be represented in XML format files by Projection Types are shown, making it possible for you to perform imports that cannot be accomplished otherwise.
Change Only the Data You Need To Change
The Provance Data Management Pack makes it possible for you to add only new data or make partial updates to existing data based on conditions you specify. For example, you can change the assignment of all Incidents from one analyst to another without changing any other information. The ability to import data in one pass while maintaining all relationships and avoiding data duplication eliminates the need to break up CSV files, import your files in the correct order and look up and insert Property IDs from the CMDB between imports.
Transform and Normalize Data While You Import
In addition to importing values sourced from file or database records, the Provance Data Management Pack also lets you populate fields with constant values, values from the lists in your Service Manager Library, and list values calculated dynamically at import based on conditions you specify. For example, you may want to specify a common location or the same date to all records imported from the same file or database table. You can simply specify a constant value that will apply to all the records instead of creating an additional column in your source data. You can also select values from the lists maintained in the Service Manager Library, including custom lists or values that you have added or modified. Furthermore, list values can be determined conditionally based on the values of any other fields you’re importing. The Provance Data Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Service Manager makes it possible for you to transform and normalize data during import and reduces the amount of external manipulation required to ensure data accuracy and consistency.
Save and Re-Use Import Definitions
The Provance Data Management Pack makes it easy to import data frequently for regular incremental updates or ongoing synchronization with other systems and applications. Once you have specified all the mappings, relationships, update conditions and values for your data import, you can save your configuration as a template for frequent use. You can even save your template to a file and use your import definition with another Service Manager deployment. This allows you to create data import templates in test environments that can be moved to production, that can be transferred between different locations, or even shared between separate companies.
Data Export
The Provance Data Management Pack also makes it easier to get data out of Microsoft System Center Service Manger. The Data Export task allows you to filter and select CIs (configuration items) in the Service Manager CMDB from a view in the Service Manager Console, specify columns representing the data classes and attributes you want to include, and export the data to a CSV file. The CSV file can then be used for viewing, manipulation and distribution using Microsoft Excel. If you like, you can use the Provance Data Management Pack to re-import the data you’ve manipulated in Excel to greatly simplify the task of making bulk changes to large quantities of data in the Service Manager CMDB.
