PRODUCT SHEET
CA SOLVE:Central Service Desk for z/OS
CA SOLVE:Central™
Service Desk for z/OS
CA SOLVE:Central™ Service Desk for z/OS (CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS)
is a comprehensive service management solution for managing
problem, change, configuration and asset processes.
Overview
CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS provides integrated management for the disciplines of service desk
and incident, problem, change, configuration and asset management. The comprehensive
information provided by CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS enables organizations to understand the links
among IT processes, people, technology, equipment and services. Integrated analysis, control
and reporting features provide cost-effective management for the IT services and resources on
which organizations depend.
Benefits
CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS provides a complete business process model for IT service
management, enabling organizations to improve the availability of services, reduce the cost of
problem resolution, help eliminate unnecessary spending and increase the efficiency of daily
operations.
CA SOLVE:Central Service Desk for z/OS
Today’s service desk is a business
Today, the typical IT organization is becoming more and more like a business. The IT
department has customers and competes to provide computing services to win their business.
With increasing frequency, the IT organization charges real dollars for its products and services.
As IT becomes more and more like a business, it must become more business-like. One of the
overwhelming barriers to achieving this goal is the lack of effective tools that allow IT managers
to run their business in a business-like way.
Most IT organizations try to manage their service desk with limited point solutions for individual
tasks in discrete environments. These vertical information flows offer limited business benefit to
the IT manager who must support a broad-based service delivery methodology utilizing crossfunctional information from many IT departments.
Addressing business demands
CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS enables the IT organization to answer today’s challenges by offering a
unique, business-centric view of an enterprise’s service delivery processes. CA SOLVE:Central for
z/OS allows the service desk to understand the links among the processes, people, technology,
equipment and services that make up the enterprise. Integrated analysis, control and reporting
features help ensure cost-effective management of IT services and resources.
The CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS complete business process model enables the service desk to
improve the availability of services, reduce the cost of problem resolution, help eliminate
unnecessary spending and increase the efficiency of daily operations.
Features
Mainframe 2.0
CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS has adopted a key Mainframe 2.0 feature that is designed to simplify
your use of CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS and enable your staff to install, configure and maintain it
more effectively and quickly.
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Electronic Software Delivery (ESD). The Mainframe 2.0 ESD enables you to install
CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS using standard utilities—without requiring you to reconstitute a
tape cartridge. This new procedure helps speed installation and facilitates a consistent
install process across CA Technologies mainframe products, shortening the learning curve
for mainframe staff.
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CA SOLVE:Central Service Desk for z/OS
Other key features
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Addressing business demands: CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS offers a unique, business-centric
view of an enterprise’s service delivery processes. CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS allows the
service desk to understand the links among the processes, people, technology, equipment
and services that make up the enterprise. Integrated analysis, control and reporting features
help ensure cost-effective management of IT services and resources.
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Flexible operations: CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS offers the flexibility to map to the
requirements of the business. Related processes can be combined seamlessly to maximize
its effectiveness and enhance overall user experience.
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Seamless inter-processing: All processes within CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS relate to each
other to provide extensive cross-functional management from the centralized database. The
same look and feel for all classes of data within the problem, change, configuration and
asset disciplines make the product extensible to all areas of the organization with minimal
retraining.
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Web browser interface: The web browser offers an easy and secure way to access
CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS (See Figure A). From anywhere in the world users can log on
and take advantage of an intuitive browser interface that contains hypertext links to all
available functions.
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FIGURE A.
Web browser interface
All user functions can be accessed
using the intuitive web browser
interface.
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CA SOLVE:Central Service Desk for z/OS
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Client/server configuration: CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS was developed according to the
three-tiered model for application design. Its robust architecture allows CA SOLVE:Central
for z/OS to be configured with multiple client regions utilizing a single server region.
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IT Service Management and ITIL®: CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS implements a common
methodology for managing IT services that is sensitive to specific customer standards as
well as industry standards such as ITIL. Organizations that have chosen to implement the
ITIL processes for service management can support these processes through the web
browser interface.
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Simplified administration: CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS provides convenient and intuitive
administrative functions that help minimize the effort involved in maintaining a service
desk solution and lower the cost of ownership.
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Centralized administration: All administration for CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS is
conducted on the mainframe server rather than across distributed platforms. Panelbased methods enable code-free customization of CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS to help
ensure an exact fit with an organization’s process requirements. In addition, all
changes are dynamically reflected in the web browser without requiring additional
software or web technology skills.
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24 x 7 operations: Database journaling allows CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS to remain
operational at all times while maintaining database integrity.
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Service availability reporting: Availability of services in the IT organization can be
accurately measured by the impact of problems that cause outages, degradation of service
or both. CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS presents a comprehensive report of service availability
over a day, week, month or specified term, taking into account the interrelationships among
services.
Additionally, service levels can be referenced during change planning to minimize the
potential impact to services.
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Open API policy: CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS offers a consistent API for the entire product,
providing access to any class of data using Assembler, C, REXX, SAS, APPC, TCP/IP sockets
and internal structured programming interfaces. CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS integrates with
the CA NetMaster® Network Management products and CA Endevor® Software Change
Manager, and supports SMPT-based email.
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CA SOLVE:Central Service Desk for z/OS
Delivery approach
CA Services provides a portfolio of mainframe services delivered through CA Technologies
internal staff and a network of established partners chosen to help you achieve a successful
deployment and get the desired business results as quickly as possible. Our standard service
offerings are designed to help speed deployment and accelerate the learning curve for your staff.
CA Technologies field-proven mainframe best practices and training can lower risk, improve
use/adoption and ultimately align the product configuration to your business requirements.
The CA Technologies advantage
CA Technologies has 30 years of recognized expertise in robust, reliable, scalable, and secure
enterprise-class IT management software. CA SOLVE:Central for z/OS is a key component of the
Mainframe 2.0 initiative from CA Technologies to change the way the mainframe is managed
forever by helping you maximize the value of CA Technologies mainframe products and by
providing a simplified experience and innovative solutions that deliver value quickly and flexibly.
Copyright ©2010 CA. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to
their respective companies. ITIL ® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered Community Trade Mark of the Office of
Government Commerce, and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. z/OS is a trademark of International
Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. This document is for your informational
purposes only. CA assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information. To the extent permitted by
applicable law, CA provides this document “as is” without warranty of any kind, including, without limitation, any implied
warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. In no event will CA be liable for any loss
or damage, direct or indirect, from the use of this document, including, without limitation, lost profits, business interruption,
goodwill or lost data, even if CA is expressly
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