COTS Based Systems: The Necessity of a Service & Systems Management Strategy to Assure Service Levels
Abstract
COTS based systems create the need for system management strategy: In large military organisations, as in any traditional business organisation, the collection of the tasks to be performed by every employee results in the service the organisation provides. In order to perform his tasks at best, each employee needs a set of tools, which differs according to the task to be performed (e.g. phone, vehicle, etc.). In our particular subject, the employees rely on (a) computer(s) and on the applications and data accessed through or processed by his (several) computer(s). The kind of applications and data used by each employee will vary according to the role of the employee and the tasks he has to perform, from simple office tools to more advanced workflow or C3 applications, the trend being that the set of applications consists more and more out of COTS. In any case, the employees make use of a mix of critical and non-critical business applications. In an ideal situation certainly from an efficiency point of view ,employees should not care about computers, operating systems, underlying protocols or networks. What really matters to them and to the efficiency of the organisation, is the availability of the applications and data in order for them to perform their tasks efficiently at the appropriate time. Inability to perform, whatever the reason, can result in a chain effect as tasks are interrelated creating a negative impact on the performed service of the organisation: its operational capacity can then be impacted to various degrees.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADP010680
Entities
People
- Dirk Somerling
Organizations
- International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY)