Search: |
 |
Contact Us |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
Nimsoft Press ReleaseMSP Alliance interviews Converse Software CEOMSPAlliance: First of all, can you give us a little background on Converse Software? Gary Read: Yes. I founded Converse Software last year leveraging my 18 years background in the service level management industry. I realized that there is a critical hole in the market – at one end there are the CA, HP, BMC and Tivolis of the world, which provide comprehensive solutions but they are very expensive and still very complex. At the other end there are a number of open source solutions that are either free or low cost – but they are often very limited by their functionality and by the vendor support. What was missing was a functionally rich solution, coupled with an ease of use and a price point that brought it into reach of all businesses. MSPAlliance: For those who may not know what are service level agreements (SLAs) and what are they used for? Gary Read: In essence, a SLA is simply an agreement between 2 parties as to what level of service will be delivered, for what price and what will happen in the event that the provider defaults on that commitment. In IT terms, this is best measured in terms of the ability of the end-user (or customer) to perform a job. This could be the availability of an application; the response time for commonly used transactions; or simply the fact that a web site is up and running. The complexity arises when we consider what groups of users should have determined levels of service, during time of day and day of week does the service need to be committed, how to accurately measure the service, and over what period it is measured. MSPAlliance: What type of entity would find a SLA useful? Gary Read: Just about anyone that is delivering an IT service. In particular though, managed service providers can use service levels as a way to ensure that the expectations are correctly set and accurately monitor the service that is delivered. MSPAlliance: How does your software help companies manage their SLAs? Gary Read: We provide a straightforward and complete approach. Our software enables customers to follow a simple 3-step approach: MSPAlliance: What are the reasons that a service provider would want to utilize a SLA with your software? Gary Read: For instance, imagine remotely managing a customer’s web server – traditional agreements may state something like 99.9% availability. But, that equates to nearly an hour of downtime every month or thousands of dollars in lost business. And, what about if the server is up and running, but the response time to its users is 10 seconds? How should that be measured? SLAs can also be used as an excellent sales tool for service providers. While competing for a new customer’s business, sales people could demonstrate to customers a portal that details your historical service level achievements? Not just server up/down stats, but in-depth reports and trends. Reports that will highlight when the customer needs to consider upgrading their IT infrastructure. Reports that provide early warning of pending problems. MSPAlliance: How does utilization of your software enhance the customer’s value and does it have any cost savings benefits? Gary Read: There are significant cost savings and quality improvements for both the service provider and for the customer – in fact, nobody buys our solution without being able to see cost benefits. We save costs by automating manual processes, by automatically responding to problem situations and by automatically generating trending reports enabling customers to decide when to upgrade their environment. Service is improved by detecting potential problems faster and by pinpointing where those problems reside – thus speeding resolution. MSPAlliance: What types of environments does your software monitor (i.e. web servers, applications, routers, etc.)? Gary Read: We monitor all layers of the enterprise. From networks, servers (UNIX, Linux, Windows, Netware, AS400), databases (Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, DB2) to common applications such as Exchange, Notes and home grown applications MSPAlliance: Can your software be used with other types of monitoring software platforms? Gary Read: Yes, we can integrate with existing platforms such as OpenView, Unicenter, Patrol, Tivoli as well as help desk tools such as Remedy and Heat.
About Nimsoft With offices worldwide, the company's principals have accumulated many years of expertise in leading development, sales and marketing organizations at vendors such as BMC Software, Micromuse, Boole & Babbage, Candle Corporation and others. For more information, visit www.nimsoft.com US Contact: European Contact:
|
"Nimsoft has helped us shift from being a reactive environment, where someone notifies us of a problem, to a proactive service, where we are notified of issues that may arise before they happen. Prior to NimBUS we didn't have a solution, and our networks were not very stable. We had several outages a month and our applications were considered "sluggish."
"Now we are monitoring our network status, and more importantly, our throughput speeds or internal application performance, which allow us to place a value on how our systems and networks are really doing. Overall, we are very pleased with the simplicity of Nimsoft's setup, the extreme ease of use and their great breadth of features." Jeff Letasse, Conceptus' Senior Director, IT
|
|
