ITop: service management and infrastructure

ITop is a great solution when we want to manage our services and infrastructure. It is an ITIL-oriented tool that enables us to work with reduced costs and greater customer satisfaction.

 

What is ITop?

IT Operational Portal is an open-source web application that provides a unified and customizable web solution for IT service centres. This portal is a collaborative tool that offers the ability to respond better and faster. It adapts to the needs of digital companies, such as infrastructure or application service providers, software and telecommunications. It also manages multiple clients, contracts and Service Level Agreements (SLA).

ITop is the hub for building unique solutions for multiple clients while protecting the confidentiality essential for each organization.

Experienced IT service professionals designed this application with the thought of managing the complexity of shared infrastructures. They considered the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a set of good practices that aims to improve the management and supply of IT services. However, iTop is flexible enough to adapt to the digital processes and needs of each company.

 

ITop functioning 

ITop makes the complexity of shared infrastructures easy. In addition, it can analyze the impact of an incident or a change on the various services and contracts that must be fulfilled.
It includes a Configuration Management Database (CMDB). In addition, it has modules such as change management and incident management functions, among other functionalities.

The CMDB data model is at the core of iTop. It is a repository that can be changed and expanded to record all the technical, functional and organizational components, as well as all the relationships within its information system.
CMDB was the first part to be created of the iTop. After that, the ticket control system and all the derived processes were developed. 

At iTop, it is believed that the CMDB should be an operational tool, and the only way for it to be accurate and up-to-date is for IT teams to use it daily. Also, the more it integrates with other IT tools (monitoring systems, automated inventory, reporting tools, etc.), the better.

 

Characteristics

Many qualities characterize iTop. The most important are:

• It is organized: It allows ordering and documenting the IT infrastructure and all its parts.
• Itop is flexible: It adapts according to the needs and objectives of each company.
• Itop is compatible. It does not depend on any software and can run on any operating system because it is a web application.
• It is open-source. Any developer can add and correct the code to add or change functionalities.

 

Who can use iTop?

Itop can be used by: 

• Help Desk Agents
• Support Engineers
• Service managers
• IT managers
• End users

 

ITop functionalities

These are some things we can do with the platform.

• Document your IT infrastructure and all the relationships between the parts of that infrastructure, for example, servers, applications, network devices, virtual machines, contacts, locations, etc.
• Manage incidents, user requests, and planned interruptions.
• Document IT services and contracts with external providers.
• Export all the information.
• Import or synchronize any information from external systems.

 

ITop benefits:

The major benefits of this tool are:

• Easy access to information.
• Reduction of administrative costs
• Hardware and software inventory control
• Control of licenses and contracts with the company staff and suppliers
• Provision of information to people involved in changes and incidents.

 

ITop modules

 

Configuration management

It offers a CMDB to administer the TIC environment. Technical, organizational and human components. This information of the CMDB is the core of iTop and it is used to make the other modules functional.

 

Service management

It manages the services and subcategories that external and internal clients can offer. It also manages the clients and suppliers contracts. 

 

Service desk

It offers a system of petitions called Tickets that are classified and assigned to a service, agent o group of agents and a solution. The tickets life cycle can adapt to each organization.

 

Service desk analyst portal

This portal works to show information. Each member of the team can configure the board with relevant information.

 

Users Portal

It provides the users with the possibility of seeing requests and status of made petitions, interacting with the support service and loading attachments to tickets.

 

Changes management

It allows you to track all changes and automatically define their impact. Three types of change are supported: emergency, routine, and normal.

 

Problem management

Problems are collected in problem tickets and are dealt with throughout a workflow.

 

Management of incidents and requirements

It processes the requests that come in through the service desk, which can be assigned to specific members or groups.

 

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