Matrix42AGforIncidentManagement

Analyst – Vawns Murphy

Irish mum of 3. ITIL V2 Manager (red badge)

and ITIL V3 Expert (purple badge). SDI

Managers certificate. Further qualifications in

COBIT, ISO 20000, SAM, PRINCE2 and

Microsoft. Author of itSMF UK collateral on

Service Transition, Software Asset

Management, Problem Management & the

“How to do CCRM” book. Reviewer for the

Service Transition ITIL 3 2011 publication.

When not being pelted with brightly coloured

balls in the name of ITIL, I am a senior analyst

for Enterprise Opinions.

Executive Summary – Matrix42 Service Management

Overview • Solid Incident Management functionality • Available as SaaS and On-Premise • Integration with 3rd party products supported via data

gateways • Pink Verified for:

o Incident Management

o Problem Management

o Change Management

o Service Level Management

o Service Asset & Configuration Management

o Service Catalogue Management

o Service Portfolio Management

o Request Fulfilment

Strengths • Comprehensive Incident Management offering • Can be used for other functions for example HR, Marketing

or Fleet Management • Integration with 3rd party software supported e.g. Oracle,

Silverback & Microsoft System Center

Weaknesses • No out of the box Major Incident Management (but these are planned)

• No Availability, Capacity or Release Management modules (but these are planned)

• Management console only accessible via Internet Explorer (will be fixed in 2016 Release)

Primary Market Focus

• Large and mid-size customer accounts

Independent Review Matrix42 is already well established in the EU market. The Incident Management module provides an effective set of Incident Management, Knowledge Base and remote desktop options. The initial landing screen is very similar to your standard Microsoft offerings - a great idea - as most users will find the familiarity of the dashboard makes it easier to navigate. The Service Desk icon looks like an Outlook shortcut, a nice touch with means the Service Desk area of the tool is clearly visible and easy to get to. Users have a choice when logging Incidents, they can either use templates based on keyword look ups or use the “quick call” model which is a short form which simply asks the customer to enter their contact details and the nature of their issue. This takes all of two seconds to fill in so it’s no wonder it’s a huge hit with Matrix42 customers. The Service Desk Analyst screen is clear and easy to customise. You can also expand things to show more detail or collapse queues to a summary review depending on personal preference. Analysts can sort Incidents by queue or assignee and there’s also a view of Knowledge Base articles and Service alerts. One of the coolest features of the product is that you can see a list of recent Changes on the affected service a great idea given that both Gartner and Forrester reckon about 65% of Incidents are down to some sort of Change.

The text in Incident form can be formatted e.g. italics, bold or underlined a useful feature for Service Desk analysts to add visibility to a ticket. I can imagine lots of “ user is NOT a happy bunny” or variants thereof. The tool can be configured to integrate with CTI systems so with the click of your mouse you can start a phone call and have it added to the audit diary. Automation plays an impressive part in the tool, tasks can be set so for example, you can use workflows to reboot a server at 2 o’clock in the morning, check it has come up properly and then resolve the Incident. Another cool feature is that you can remote desktop onto a PC using the inbuilt functionality or by using similar industry tools such as TeamViewer, PC Anywhere or any other tool. Concurrence management is in place so if more than one person is updating the Incident at the same time, the data is merged and nothing is lost. The Knowledge Base module is accessible from any part of the Incident form or Self Service page. Nearly 20 different languages are supported with Irish being planned for 2016 (tiocfaidh ár ITSM toolset!) The vendor primarily works with medium and large enterprises and is a good option for medium and large sized organisations with tech focused Service Desk models. The out of the box functionality gives you a great starting point for Incident Management and Technical Management and as soon as I mentioned having workflows for Major Incident management, they added it to their to do list - so they really are a company that listens. I can’t wait to see what comes next from this vendor - so watch this space! Technical Summary

Incident logging, categorization & automation options

Incidents can be logged directly from the tool or by email, text, tweet, alarm & can be auto-populated via an ACD system. A prompt to alert the user if an Incident has already been raised against their service is planned for a 2016 release alongside chat functionality.

System access options (web, fat client, mobile, etc.)

Solution is available as SaaS and On-Premise. Matrix42 can integrate with 3rd party software using data gateways or ODBC connects. Multiple access is available via Web, iOS App and Android App.

Incident tracking and lifecycle

There is a “bounce count” and the Incident Manager is automatically notified if the Incident breaches SLA. The tool can be configured to alert the end user every time the status changes.

Prioritizing and escalating incidents

Priority is based on impact and urgency.

Major incidents

There is no out of the box dedicated Major Incident functionality. Most customers tend to highlight Major Incidents either by priority or by using a checkbox in the Incident form.

Applying industry models and frameworks

The tool was certified by Pink Elephant in 2015

Incident closure

Two stage closure process. Users can rate their experience by using an Amazon style star rating plus a free text field.

Reporting and analytics Fully configurable dashboard that offers graphical visualization of your service desk data in the form of charts (widgets).

Interaction/workflow with Problem Management

Incidents can be directly linked to Problem records.

Incident Mgt beyond the service desk

The tool can be used beyond ITSM transforming into a true Enterprise Management solution.

Strengths • Comprehensive Incident Management offering • Can be used for other functions for example HR • Integration with 3rd party software supported e.g. Oracle, Silverback &

Microsoft System Center and the possibility to create your own connector without any development efforts

• Complimentary Enterprise Mobility product manages BYOD • Concurrency management in place to ensure no data is lost if multiple people

update the Incident record at the same time Weaknesses

• At the time of the review (Dec 2015) there is no dedicated Major Incident Management workflow. A user experience and Major Incident upgrade is planned for 2016.

• No Availability, Capacity or Release Management modules (but these are planned)

• The Management console is only accessible via Internet Explorer (I loathe Internet Explorer with a fiery burning passion) but this will be fixed in the 2016 release.

Customers

• BMW • Carl Zeiss • NTT Com Security • Oxford Brookes University • Infineon

In their own words “Matrix42 Service Management solves all your (IT)SM challenges with a comprehensive single solution. It fully integrates with all your physical, virtual, mobile, and cloud-based workspace environments, and covers all devices and services, regardless of ownership.” Further Information Product Brochure: https://www.matrix42.com/en/company/locations/ Technical Brochures: https://www.matrix42.com/en/products/matrix42-it-service-management/ This independent review is part of our Incident Management group test 2016, read the full report at http://www.theitsmreview.com/2016/02/incident-mngt-2016/. Also participating; Alemba Ltd, Atlassian, Cherwell SoftwareTM, HPE, InvGate Inc., ManageEngine, Marval Software Limited, Nexthink, SUMMIT Software Inc.

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Management

CommercialSummaryVendorMatrix42AGProductMatrix42ServiceManagementVersionReviewed2015Update2DateofVersionReleaseOctober2015YearFounded1992Customers3000+PricingStructureBasedontotalusers