Creating a successful and efficient IT service management (ITSM) model is key to any modern business.
ITSM began with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which provides best practice guidance and an extensive set of processes and policies for improving IT service delivery and customer satisfaction.
However, there have been many advances in ITSM since the emergence of ITIL. Ivanti is one of the leading ITSM solutions that has been popular not just in recent years, but for almost 3 decades. Bendata brought us HEAT (Helpdesk Expert Automation Tool) with it’s Call Logging application for DOS and then HEAT for Windows. Later on the company went through name changes from Bendata to HEAT Software, and finally Frontrange Solutions (FRS), plus there was a spin-off company, Cherwell, before finally both were acquired by Ivanti, bringing us Ivanti Neurons for ITSM (formerly Ivanti Service Manager).
Ivanti integrates multiple best-in-class tools into a single unified platform and allows organizations to customize the tools to meet their specific business needs. With Ivanti, organizations can reduce their total cost of ownership, simplify IT service management processes, and reduce manual effort. This platform also helps organizations better manage their IT assets and more efficiently manage their IT service delivery processes. Ivanti also provides a secure, compliant environment for storing sensitive data and provides built-in reporting tools to easily track IT performance goals.
In summary, Ivanti is an innovative ITSM solution that can help organizations to improve the quality of their IT services, reduce operational costs, and maximize operational efficiency. It is the perfect solution for organizations looking to optimized IT service delivery and ensure customer satisfaction.
Next time you’re considering an Ivanti Consultant or Developer, it’s helpful to remember the history as there are too many junior Ivanti Developers/Consultants/Project Managers that give themselves the title “senior” with only a few years experience and only a few implementations. Even 15+ year veterans are often junior. How do I know this? After 100+ Ivanti Implementations and consulting and developing for over 27+ years with Ivanti/Frontrange/HEAT around the world, I have encountered too many “senior” consultants/developers that just don’t measure up to what you’d expect. So if you’re serious about getting the most out of your Ivanti Implementations be sure to talk to me first.
Here are the highlights for the upcoming Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, aka Ivanti Service Manager (powered by HEAT) 2022.1 release scheduled for March/April.
See the Ivanti Maintenance Notifications for release dates, which vary based on your data centre location (Europe, Ireland, Australia, USA, Canada) for cloud, and check the Ivanti Support Site for On-Premise release dates.
2022.1 Release Highlights
Modern User Experience for Analysts Updates
Accessibility Enhancements for Analyst Interface
Security Updates & Enhancements
Service Catalog Load Time Improvement
Knowledge Search Fix for searches with double quotes
This is a very common question I get from Ivanti prospects. In fact I rebranded for this reason. It’s not that I like showing of many titles like “Ivanti HEAT Architect“, “Ivanti Developer“, “Ivanti Consultant“, “Ivanti Project Manager”, there is actually a very important distinction. Another reason is that I do it all!
Developers are coders and typically focus on software development, coding, and Ivanti HEAT configuration. Whereas Consultants may be functional, technical, or both, bringing years of industry experience to the table and using their knowledge & experience to advise management in areas such as but not limited to SOPs, standard industry practices, workflows, business processes.
Nowadays most “Consultants” are either A) “Developers” with a hefty daily “consulting” rate that far exceeds a developer’s typical rate. or B) “Consultants” with little hands-on development or Ivanti Implementation experience. By “little experience” I mean less than 10 years and less than 25 Implementations.
It really comes down to competence vs skill. Sure, Ivanti HEAT is “configurable” however the Ivanti ITSM tool has come a long way and does tend to require someone with Development AND Consulting experience to consultant with clients to make informed configuration, architectural, business, functional, and technical decisions.
Experience plays an important factor too, as does the the number of Ivanti HEAT ITSM Implementations. After all, there are many freelancers, and developers disguised as consultants with 5 or 10 years experience however more often than not it’s the same 1 year repeated 5 or 10 times, working on 1 Ivanti HEAT Implementation.
Last but not least you need to consider industry experience, customerrevenue & location. You want to find a developer/consultant/freelancer that has experience in many industries. Why many industries and not your industry exclusively? There’s a saying, “What’s as common as dirt in one industry, is an atomic bomb in another!”, that is, you want to leverage best practices & ideas from other industries. Customer Revenue (i.e. Fortune 500 or Global 500) play an important role as well, after all an Ivanti HEAT ITSM Implementation with thousands of employees and dozens of Service Desk staff has different sets of challenges and solutions than a service desk team of 5 supporting hundreds of employees. And this is where location plays an important role as well, multi-national, versus international, vs domestic operations. If you have offices in the UK, EU, Middle East, Africa, Australia, Canada, and the US for example then you likely have another set of challenges, reporting requirements, and solutions that apply to you versus someone based in a city/municipality for example.
Make no mistake about it, combined, experience, and number of implementations as well as solid Testimonials are key to when searching for a competent Ivanti HEAT ITSM “Developer” or “Consultant” or “Ivanti Freelancer”.
In early 2021 Ivanti started moving their Ivanti Cloud Customers for Ivanti Neurons, Ivanti Service Manager (HEAT ITSM), and Ivanti Asset Manager (ITAM) to Azure Data Centers. The new data centers are below:
All VPN customers, please check for communication from VPNORE@ivanti.com to discuss the necessary VPN related changes. For all other questions, please contact Ivanti Global Support.
The Ivanti Status Cloud Page is a great way of staying on top of notifications. Only snag is that there isn’t an easy way to see landscape specific updates for your Data Centre.
For example if your Ivanti Cloud tenant is in Frankfurt Landscape (FFZ), you still see all Landscape on the status page. Sure you could subscribe to email alerts for your landscape only, but lets face it, email isn’t a productivity tool, so I’ve gone ahead and created status pages that filter the rss feed, for Frankfurt, Australia APAC, London UK, Ireland, Toronto Canada, North Virginia USA East, and Washington USA West
Ivanti Cloud Status Updates consist of important Maintenance Notifications and Operational Status Updates for Ivanti Neurons, Ivanti Service Manager, and Ivanti Asset Manager Cloud Platforms.
The Ivanti Status Cloud Page is a great way of staying on top of notifications. Only snag is that there isn't an easy way to see landscape specific updates for your Data Centre.
For Ivanti Maintenance Notifications specific to your tenants be sure to visit status.a19consulting.com
Ivanti Cloud Maintenance Notifications for Ireland | IRL
Ivanti Cloud Maintenance Notifications for London UK | LDZ
Ivanti Cloud Maintenance Notifications for Frankfurt Germany | FFZ
Ivanti Cloud Maintenance Notifications for APAC | AUSTRALIA | NSZ
Ivanti Cloud Maintenance Notifications for Toronto Canada | TTZ
Ivanti Cloud Maintenance Notifications for North Virginia (America East) | NVZ
Ivanti Cloud Maintenance Notifications for Washington (America West) | WAZ
For Ivanti Maintenance Notifications specific to your tenants click and book mark the following:
On-Premise (Self hosted) and Cloud Ivanti Neurons, Ivanti Service Manager (ITSM), and Ivanti Asset Manager (ITAM) customers have 3 tenants (environments) that I like to call the “Holy Trinity”.
STG – Stage Environment for Development and System Testing by the Ivanti Consultant / Administrator only
UAT – User Acceptance Testing Environment for End User validation of business requirements by the UAT Test Team
PROD – Production Environment
Any configuration changes to Ivanti Neurons ITSM/ITAM should always follow the SDLC (System Development Life Cycle), that is development & system testing in Stage, then push to UAT for End User Acceptance Testing, and finally upon UAT Sign-Off push the changes to PRODUCTION.
ITSM/ITAM/ESM Blog 
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