Figuring out what effect a network outage had on order volumes should soon become a less arduous process for Canadian enterprises, a management software maker says.
Managed Objects, an U.S.-based enterprise software manufacturer,
has announced its expansion into the Canadian market. The company is hoping Canada proves receptive to Formula, its business services management platform, says managing director Lisa Rundle.
The Formula software aims to aid large enterprises, governments or systems integrators to manage the various technology components of their IT infrastructure. The software approaches IT management by looking how things like customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning or e-commerce Web-sites’ performance affects the organization’s business processes and their ability to deliver services.
Formula works in tandem with any existing management or business intelligence software, allowing for a real-time, top-down view of the entire IT structure, says marketing vice-president Helen Donnelly. She describes the software as the next incarnation of network infrastructure management.
“”Business Intelligence tools have really done a very good job of focusing on the business analysis of what the business is producing,”” she says. “”Likewise, management tools such as networking, storage and security management tools, have done a really good job of telling you here’s how the infrastructure is doing. What we do is we say: what is the relationship with between the two?””
Seeking a clear vision of that relationship is nothing new, Rundle says. There has been talk of aligning IT with business processes for as long as IT has been around. But as economic times get tougher and outsourcing and consolidation becomes a more appealing option, a clear view of separate processes and how they affect each other rises to the top of the priority list.
It also becomes more important for companies to become more proactive when it comes to performance problems, she says.
“”Waiting for the customer to call and say I’ve got a problem is not acceptable anymore,”” Rundle says. Because of Formula’s real time view of network performance, it can be a tool used by service providers to address performance issues right as they arise.
The company was formed in 1997 and has since spread operations to Europe and Latin America. Donnelly says that Formula has so far proven to be a tool particularly useful for financial and government organizations. The Canadian business community’s focus on outsourcing and increased attention paid to economic performance made Managed Objects feel the time was right to head North.
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