Microsoft have made available as public beta 2 Microsoft System Center Service Manager ready for download. Firstly let’s expand on what Service Manager actually is. I’m going to take this directly from the Microsoft site:
Microsoft System Center Service Manager is an integrated platform for automating and adapting your organisation’s IT service management best practices, such as those found in Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It provides built-in processes for incident and problem resolution, change control, and asset lifecycle management. Through its configuration management database (CMDB) and process integration, Service Manager automatically connects knowledge and information from System Center Operations Manager, System Center Configuration Manager and Active Directory. Service Manager delivers integration, efficiency, and business alignment of the datacenter IT services by:
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Optimising processes and ensuring their use through templates that effectively guide IT analysts through best practices for change and incident management.
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Reducing resolution times by cutting across organisational silos, ensuring that the right information from incident, problem, change, or asset records is accessible through a single pane.
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Extending the value of the Microsoft platform through automated generation of incidents from alerts and the coordination of activities among System Center products.
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Enabling informed and cost-effective decision making through its data warehouse, which integrates knowledge from disparate IT management systems, delivering out-of-the-box reporting and flexible data analysis through SQL reporting services.