Service Manager & Cireson App Store Additions

I've recently had some interesting conversations with the guys from Cireson.

Cireson are a System Center consultancy firm in the USA who have developed from the needs of their customers a range of extensions to Service Manager which help fill some of the perceived gaps in the solution.

They have a range of solutions/extensions covering many different needs:

• SCSM Web Console
• SCSM Asset Management
• SCSM My Work Items
• SCSM Group Assign
• SCSM Preview Pane
• SCSM Tier Watcher
• SCCM Power Manager
• SCSM Auto Close
• SCSM Notify Analyst
• SCSM Customizations
• SCSM Calendar Sync
• SCSM Risk Calculator
• SCSM Change Calendar
• SCSM Asset Import
• SCSM Affected User

One of the main areas I was interested in was the Asset Management solution, since that's where I began my Service Manager journey back in 2010.

Cireson have extended the console to provide you with a rich asset management solution, contained within the Configuration section of the console.

From here you can manage Contracts, Costs, Warranties, Organisational information as well as your various assets.

 

One area I specifically really do like is the Software Asset Management extensions, giving you the easy ability to start monitoring license counts and simplifying/rationalising the data pulled in from ConfigMgr in terms of versions and product names.

You can find more information about Cierson's selection of extensions for Service Manager here in their handy "App Store":
http://www.cireson.com/app-store/

I'll be posting some more around these great tools shortly so keep your eyes open for the posts!

Windows Phone 8 Company Portal 2.0

The Company Portal app for Windows Phone 8 has been updated to version 2.0 due to the problems found when using it with certain other languages.

The new v2.0 download can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36060

According to MS Support the easiest way to get this out to devices will be:

If you are using this inside of System Center 2012 Configuration Manager you will need to turn off the Windows Phone Setting in the Windows Intune Connector, delete your existing SSP Package, Sign the XAP, Create a new SSP Package and redeploy, then add the setting for Windows Phone in the Windows Intune Connector. 

 

If you are using this inside of Windows Intune then you will need to sign the XAP, Upload the Package to Windows Intune, and then delete the old package as you cannot delete the old SSP until the new one is uploaded currently.

Windows 8 Skype App to the Rescue!

Sweet... That about sums up my thoughts for the new Skype App.
Not that I've used it in anger or that I'm a long time Skype user, no.

In fact, before today, I've never used Skype.  Of course I had heard of it and was aware what it did, just that I've never had a need for it.

Until today.  Just hours after it being released I found myself on a conference call where the only available audio option was via dialling the states.
Say what?!?!?  Hang on, I'm on a mobile here in the UK, this is going to get expensive really quickly.

So knowing that Skype had just hit the store I quickly installed it (I love one click installs!) it used my Microsoft ID to single sign on (SSO) straight in, allowed me to dial a US Toll Free number as if I was in the states and then docked nicely to the side while I watched the presentation.

 

Skype App to the rescue!!  Now I'm hoping that it works nicely on my Surface RT (fingers crossed it does come tomorrow and not 2nd Nov...)

SCOM Monitoring with Windows Phone 7

Microsoft have released a case study about a custom solution they developed to provide access to their Operations Manager infrastructure from a Windows Phone 7 app.

Microsoft IT designed some SQL APIs to expose the data in SCOM and a data synchronisation service that used the APIs to push the data into an Azure hosted service.

They then developed an Azure cloud-based middle tier service that receives the data and pushes it out to a Windows Phone 7 app.

Microsoft IT then developed a new Windows Phone app called ECIT Monitor that receives the Operations Manager system status information in near real time from the middle tier over a secure network connection, including the use of live tiles to display counts of alerts etc.

There is also mention in the case study of further enhancements for future revisions including graphically displaying incident management metrics and trends, and new drill-down screens that will provide more detailed information about a selected platform or application.

Does this mean maybe we'll see Service Manager integration?

I can only hope that this doesn't remain an internal project.  Making this service an additional Software Assurance benefit like System Center Advisor would make this a really compelling argument for SA on either Windows or System Center 2012!

Case study can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28944