the spirting of giving

Is it Christmas already?! With Covid and the lockdowns, it either felt like it took forever to get here, or it went by so quickly. One thing is for sure, Christmas is never forgotten. There is another holiday though that’s in the shadows, at least its origin is. It’s far too commercialized now… IMHO

Did you know that boxing day, a statutory holiday in many parts of the world, was established the day after Christmas to “box” up old clothes and items for donations that were replaced by Christmas gifts?

Christmas really is a time to be giving rather than receiving. With that in mind, I have donated to various charities, not just today, but over the last year. See pictures below.

You might ask, what does this have to do with Ivanti, HEAT, and ITSM? What is your Ivanti Service Manager spin?

Over the last couple decades implementing HEAT, Ivanti Service Manager, and now Ivanti Neurons for ITSM/ITAM, the most successful projects were those with collaboration & sharing information, that’s right, giving is the key to a successful partnership and implementation.

Does it feel like you’re giving more than you’re getting? Sometimes internal politics or past bad experiences with a vendor, partner, or consultant, can lead to mistrust and reservation. Sometimes it is just a lack of knowledge, expertise, or skill that makes people freeze up. Other times, it is not having the right people (SMEs, Decision Maker) part of meetings, or perhaps a Project Manager reluctant to listen to subject matter experts (SMEs). I have always said that:

“Ivanti HEAT Neurons ITSM Implementations are simple. People make things difficult.”

Gregor Anton
ivanti HEAT Best Practices
Consultant since 1996
Project Management, Architecture, Design, Development
25+ years, 100+ implementations

Sometimes you have to share a lot to get back a little. Whether that’s free ESM advice. Implementation Templates. A show & tell of frequently requested functionality. A Lunch & Learn. Admin Tips & Tricks. Ivanti Best Practices. Relevant business examples of what has, and has not worked for other Ivanti clients. Or perhaps the Ivanti HEAT Neurons Blog you are reading now or my Ivanti HEAT Neurons Podcast.

Other times you just need to take a break and regroup. Holidays are great for recharging your batteries and getting back into things, refreshed and perhaps with a new perspective, re-evaluating how you got to where you are today, what hurdles you overcame, and all the great things you have accomplished.

With that said, I wish you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

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The SLA’s red headed step child

When it comes to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) there is one important configuration that’s overlooked or forgotten.

SLAs red headed step child – Independent ITSM Podcast covering Ivanti Service Manager ISM HEAT Latest Solutions & Best Practices

When it comes to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) there is one important configuration that's overlooked or forgotten. Holidays and Exceptions You've likely seen me post Holiday message on Instagram for the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Europe, Singapore, etc.  Make no mistake about it, Holidays are important.   Your SLA clock is likely ticking away when Incident, Service Request, and Task SLAs should be paused! It's somewhat of a straight forward process to configure SLA Holidays & Exceptions. There are two types of "Exception" configurations for your Hours of Operation (HOP) Calendar, aka Business Hours: Recurrent Manual Dates Continue reading at blog.a19consulting.com

Holidays and Exceptions

You’ve likely seen me post Holiday message on Instagram for the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Europe, Singapore, etc.. Make no mistake about it, Holidays are important. Your SLA clock is likely ticking away when Incident, Service Request, and Task SLAs should be paused!

It’s somewhat of a straight forward process to configure SLA Holidays & Exceptions.

There are two types of “Exception” configurations for your Hours of Operation (HOP) Calendar, aka Business Hours:

• Recurrent
• Manual Dates

Recurrent are pretty straight forward, for example every New Year’s Day, which is the 1st non-working day of January. That’s right, not the 1st of January, because that could fall on a weekend and then get pushed forward to Monday.

Manual Dates can be further grouped into two categories.

Recurrent Exceptions

For example, Fourth of July in America, Canada Day on July 1st, and all sorts of other country/state holidays have a set date that we can set up as recurring BUT there are exceptions for when these holidays either a) fall on a weekend or b) your company observes additional / substitute days.

Yearly Set Exceptions

Then there exceptions that occur yearly that do not have a set schedule or date. For example Easter Friday, Easter Monday, and in Australia the Queens Birthday is even observed in different months and days per region all together.

Manual Dates you will want to set for the next 5 or 10 years and then create a reminder or task to update these again!

Clear as mud right? Well wait, there is more. Some states/provinces/territories or even countries may observe holidays of their own. In which case you have to either come up with a “blended” calendar, use your company’s official HR calendar, or create custom hours of operation calendars for the states/provinces/territories or countries and use the customer’s location to drive the HOP used for SLAs. But that’s a topic for another day!