Many companies have a complex process for purchasing software that is required by IT projects, or better, by the business. Usually software is purchased by a centralized procurement function, and is either purchased on a project-by-project basis or as a large periodic software contract. Unfortunately purchasing software products does not automatically mean that these products are exploited throughout the organization providing the maximum possible value to the business units. Several issues call for a structured approach that gets the most business value out of software already purchased. The objectives of this approach are to: Create maximum awareness throughout the organization of the software purchased. Track software use in IT projects and act if products are not used at all, used improperly, or insufficiently used. Facilitate use of software products in projects, especially when software products are complex and require a lot of integration. We can summarize the overall objective of this approach as ensuring that the business units in an organization obtain the maximum possible value of software products purchased, which is also the scope of this IBM® Redbooks® publication.

SmartCloud Control Desk is a comprehensive IT Asset and Service Management solution that helps reduce cost and minimize service disruptions. It does so through automated service request handling, efficient change management, and optimized asset lifecycle management across IT and enterprise domains. SmartCloud Control Desk helps to reduce total cost of ownership by using one unified solution to license, install, and manage multiple ITIL processes under one price point. It can also help reduce business risk by using advanced impact analysis and defining automated change procedures that ensure integrity of existing infrastructure while supporting business agility. SmartCloud Control Desk improves efficiency and quality of service by unifying asset, change, and problem management. It lowers cost and mitigates license compliance risk by performing end to end software asset management. It also delivers an adaptive, role-based simplified UI that can be more intuitive for novice users, which reduces training costs, while allowing access from anywhere at anytime through mobile device support that includes BlackBerry, iOS, and Android. In addition, SmartCloud Control Desk supports both a profit center business model for internal IT organizations, and an external Service Provider model. It allows organizations to manage customers and customer agreements and bills for managed assets, usage, and work activities while improving utilization rates and reducing unnecessary purchases by managing the IT asset lifecycle. You can deploy SmartCloud Control Desk in a variety of ways; traditional on-premise, SaaS, VM image. This approach can make it more affordable to meet your current business needs, and seamlessly move between delivery models while keeping the same functionality. This IBM® Redbooks® publication covers IBM SmartCloud® Control Desk product configuration, customization, and implementation best practices.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides a broad view of how Tivoli® system management products work together in several common scenarios. You must achieve seamless integration for operations personnel to work with the solution. This integration is necessary to ensure that the product can be used easily by the users. Product integration contains multiple dimensions, such as security, navigation, data and task integrations. Within the context of the scenarios in this book, you see examples of these integrations. The scenarios implemented in this book are largely based on the input from the integration team, and several clients using IBM products. We based these scenarios on common real-life examples that IT operations often have to deal with. Of course, these scenarios are only a small subset of the possible integration scenarios that can be accomplished by the Tivoli products, but they were chosen to be representative of the integration possibilities using the Tivoli products. We discuss these implementations and benefits that are realized by these integrations, and also provide sample scenarios of how these integrations work. This book is a reference guide for IT architects and IT specialists working on integrating Tivoli products in real-life environments.

The IBM® Midmarket Software Buying and Selling Guide is tailored specifically to help the management and IT staff of small and midsized businesses evaluate how the IBM midmarket portfolio can provide simple and cost-effective solutions to common business problems. Along with a midmarket customer focus, this IBM RedpaperTM publication is designed to help IBM teams and Business Partners be more effective in serving small and midsized businesses. We illustrate how IBM software for the midmarket can help businesses use the Web to reduce expenses, improve customer service, and expand into new markets. We cover the IBM software offering for the midmarket, which includes what the software does, the platforms it runs on, where to find more information, and how it can help your business become more profitable: - IBM Business Partners often keep a printed copy of this guide in their briefcases for software references - Customers can view this guide online and look up software-value messages and IBM product family offering comparisons - IBM Sales Representatives can print parts of this guide as "leave-behinds" for customers, to give them extra collateral on midmarket software of interest To make sure that you have the latest version of this guide, download it from this web address: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp3975.html?Open

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes IBM PureApplicationTM System preferred practices that are based on IBM client and Business Partner experience. It explains how PureApplication System enables industries to consolidate workloads, increase efficiency, automate routine processes, reduce costs, and become more agile to respond to continually changing business needs. This book is particularly useful to solution specialists, system or software architects, and the IT teams who implement PureApplication System cloud services.

Dramatic forces of change continue to sweep the financial services industry. The age of the empowered customer is here and are changing the way financial products are delivered, sold, and serviced, which are making relationships more complex than ever. The explosion of data and intense competition, which is combined with slow or inconsistent economic conditions, makes it imperative for financial institutions to find new and cost effective ways to increase market share, renew customer trust, and drive profitable growth. In this new business environment, the transaction processing arm of the industry is facing increased pressure to reduce float, better manage liquidity, and provide regulators and clients with increased transparency. At the same time, the industry must effectively manage the risks that are associated with introducing customer-focused and regionalized products and services. Financial Transaction Manager enables the management, orchestration, and monitoring of financial transactions during their processing lifecycle. Financial Transaction Manager provides the capability to integrate and unify financial transactions in various industry formats (including ISO 20022, SWIFT, NACHA, EDIFACT, ANSI X12 and others). By using Financial Transaction Manager, financial institutions gain visibility into message processing, balance financial risk, and facilitate effective performance management. This IBM® Redbooks® publication outlines how Financial Transaction Manager is deployed to realize the benefits of transaction transparency, increase business agility, and allow for innovation that is built on a robust and high-performance environment.