Need for Optimizing Integrated Operations Management

Need for Optimizing Integrated Operations Management

Integrated Operations Management integrates application support into the run side of business and
achieves effectiveness and efficiency in running application support by creating application knowledge
clusters and cross training to ensure that operations knowledge is institutionalized and is independent of
people supporting it.
Need for Integration
Integrations is necessary as it leverages integrated operations management framework to grow its
application revenue service. It makes sense to consolidate all infrastructure and application operations at
one time. Some of the benefits of integrated operations management are:

Cost Optimization
Various activities at the application layer, both technical and administrative, are very similar to the ones
carried out at the infrastructure layer, like Release to Production, Security and User Administration, Patch
Administration, Output Device Management, etc. Moreover the ease to clone all these activities at the
database layer provides a sound opportunity to integrate both Infrastructure and Application support
activities into one robust support function. For resource optimization and cost savings, it is best to have a
common team for this unified function.


Operational Excellence
All the monitoring activities are carried out in order to ensure healthy, hassle-free business transactions. If
any critical business transaction is facing an issue, then it makes sense to drill down further into the
relevant layer (application or infrastructure). This helps in focusing on the real issue rather than
monitoring each and every event irrespective of any impact on business transactions. An integrated layer
of application and infrastructure allows you to measure response time SLAs for your business
applications by focusing on the core activities.


Quick Resolution
Creating a common enterprise help desk, command center and an admin team, both for Application and
Infrastructure layers, ensures that a large number of incidents are triaged to relevant teams resulting in
significant improvements in First Call Resolution.

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As there is a growing need to revisit the existing norms that are prevalent in the IT industry, IT operations
need to be viewed as specialized services that are different from application development. In Integrated
Operation Management, application management services and support are closely linked with the
Infrastructure Support services rather than the application development function. IT Service Providers use
ITIL processes and information security services to ensure that the best breed of processes is followed
24x7. Typically, Application Support and Maintenance has been aligned to Application Development,
especially in the case of bespoke applications to retain knowledge and provide instantaneous reactive
support in case of problems. Application Support is based on a good understanding of the domain and is
a project driven activity whereas IT Infrastructure support requires SLA driven regular maintenance and
user support.

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