EANS-News: USU Valuemation 4.1 for Knowledge-Based Service Management Now Available

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New Products

Möglingen (euro adhoc) - User-friendliness and individualized
provision of information, process automation and transparency as well
as proven best practices packages to get you up and running "live"
fast - optimizing these core factors are at the heart of the new
ergonomic software generation Valuemation 4. The new release 4.1
continues USU´s consistent focus on these issues. Furthermore, with
the integration of license management technology from our subsidiary
Aspera as well as USU KnowledgeCenter 5, the new release features
important functional enhancements. In addition, Valuemation 4.1
offers comprehensive support for the business models of service
providers: from the definition of the service model itself to
monitoring service level agreements (SLAs) on to cost allocation for
IT services.

Valuemation is a modular, ITIL®-compliant software suite for
knowledge-based service management. It flexibly supports users in
their complex and knowledge-intensive workflows - whether it involves
technical support or IT operations or whether it concerns an IT
service provider or internal IT service department. Companies will
enjoy benefits including the following: lower process costs, such as
through continuous, seamless, automated workflows, and increased
service quality, such as through significant increases in first-call
resolution rates at service desks, not to mention minimized risks
achieved such as through authorized change processes and verified
compliance with the terms of software licenses.

The new release, Valuemation 4.1, is now immediately available.
Detailed information is available at: www.valuemation.de. The German
trade union "ver.di" ("United Services Union") in Berlin is the first
new customer to experience these enhanced functionalities. "We
decided to go with Valuemation 4.1 primarily because of the
well-integrated overall concept and the features added to the new
version such as a portal-like, role-based and user-based user
interface," said Stefan Degreif, the project manager at ver.di.

User-Friendly and Individualized Provision of Information The new
Valuemation software generation offers a brand-new, individually
customizable web-style graphical user interface. A role-based Welcome
Page immediately provides users with the important information and
applications that they need for their own specific workflows. For
example, at a glance service center agents can see all the tickets
and service requests assigned to them. This allows them to proceed
immediately with activities such as assigning user rights, delivering
a notebook, etc. For his part, the service desk manager can
immediately detect any service level agreements that have been
violated, see how many tickets remain open and how the amount of
problems compares to the amount of incidents. Whether it´s actions,
reports, tables, catalog data or charts - a helpful selection menu
allows relevant information objects to be easily grouped together and
placed as needed. URL objects allow integration of all kinds of
applications or required web elements. The integration of ARIS
MashZone provides information by means of helpful, concise
dashboards. The flexible graphical preparation of detailed KPIs
pulled from any data sources allows actions such as immediate
root-cause analyses, enabling very fast responses to operational
faults and malfunctions ("incidents"). What´s more, a new rich-text
editor allows both texts and graphics to be easily saved. That´s an
important support tool - especially at a service desk.

Process Automation and Transparency Continuous, seamless, automated
processes are the backbone of optimized, comprehensive provision of
business services. To achieve this, USU has developed a new
intelligent process management system and integrated it into
Valuemation. With it, all process workflows can be modeled and
analyzed as needed, such as when procuring IT assets, managing
rollouts, processing tickets and implementing changes. This
graphically supported modeling is standardized within Valuemation in
accordance with Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and also
allows automated handling of very complex process chains including
such steps as escalations. In addition, the tool permits
comprehensive monitoring of processes. To aid this monitoring, there
is also a progress bar that displays each process step individually
and guides users step-by-step through their specific tasks. This
means that users always know the exact status of their current tasks.
The system supports users in processes such as relocating IT
equipment as well as with IT procurement, ticket creation and
contract creation. With the process control and monitoring tools in
Valuemation, it´s always also possible to flexibly depict business
workflows, such as sales and facility management processes. These
functions are also supported by the new Enterprise Integration
Manager, which seamlessly integrates processes outside of Valuemation
itself.

Best Practices Packages During the software implementation process,
expert consulting is a cornerstone of USU´s services. Over the past
20 years, we´ve accumulated vast experience gathered from hundreds of
projects. Based on all this expertise, USU has developed new best
practices packages for the following management areas: incident,
problem, change, asset, configuration and service request. Our best
practices packages link the lessons learned from providing expert
consulting with the product itself. They are aimed at meeting the
increasing need for more and better expert consulting in IT service
management. By applying them, enterprises can use tested and proven
structures and workflows right from the start. In project work, this
minimizes initial objections to the effort required to deploy a
system. Introducing each of the ITIL® disciplines, including related
training courses, can thus be achieved within minimal time.

Integrating New Technologies In the new Valuemation 4.1, new
technologies now enrich critical core areas. For instance, the
market-leading SmartTrack system from the USU subsidiary Aspera has
now replaced the previous Valuemation License Manager module.
SmartTrack accesses the information from the Asset Management and
Contract Management modules within Valuemation and then compares the
technical and the business data to create a comprehensive licensing
report. In addition, integration with the USU KnowledgeCenter 5
knowledge base enables users working in incident management to search
easily and conveniently for appropriate solutions. The search starts
right from within the application and offers different methods and
paths, such as decision trees for complex problems or a direct search
in a known-error database for more common ones. The inclusion of the
successful solution also supports ticket documentation.

A Solution for the Entire Service Lifecycle The new solution for
Service Economics in Valuemation 4.1 has enhanced the IT controlling
components in the suite with strategic IT service management. The
core element of this new approach is using the service model as the
basis for shaping the business of a(n) (IT) service provider. The new
Valuemation modules Service Portfolio Manager and Service Level
Manager support the definition of appropriate standard services and
service levels and offer numerous functions for applying them in
business operations. The designing and shaping of the service model
is done based on the included best practices methods for
specification, classification and decomposition of services. The
resulting service model can then be used as a basis for directly
deriving cost planning models for IT controlling. The new Valuemation
modules Service Portfolio Manager and Service Level Manager support
the definition of service blueprints, appropriate standard services
and service levels as well as their operational application through
close integration with other Valuemation modules.

USU AG - The Knowledge Business Company. Founded in 1977, USU offers
strategies, consulting, software solutions and services for achieving
comprehensive integration of knowledge and experience into business
workflows and applications within organizations. Market leaders from
every sector of the international economy create transparency with
USU applications, while also becoming more competitive, cutting costs
and reducing their risks. With its three business areas, USU is
Europe´s largest provider of IT and knowledge management solutions.

With its Valuemation® product line, USU offers a high-quality
portfolio for supporting IT Management and Service Management, one
whose merits have been recognized by leading market analysts around
the world. The intelligent USU KnowledgeCenter knowledge base allows
customers to activate and leverage all the knowledge resources within
their organization, especially in call and service centers. Designing
customized individual solutions, achieving process and system
integration and implementing knowledge portals and employee portals
are some of USU´s other well-established and proven core
competencies.

USU AG is a subsidiary of USU Software AG (ISIN DE 000A0BVU28), which
is listed in the Prime Segment of the German Stock Exchange (DAX) in
Frankfurt. For further information, please go to: www.usu.de

end of announcement euro adhoc
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ots Originaltext: USU Software AG
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Further inquiry note:

Gerick Thomas

Branche: Software
ISIN: DE000A0BVU28
WKN: A0BVU2
Index: CDAX, Prime All Share, Technology All Share
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