Adoption of Micro Focus’ Service Management Automation X Product Increasing Along With Deployment Options
Micro Focus announced that its Service Management Automation X (SMAX) product – which Micro Focus calls the world’s first and only enterprise service management (ESM) solution built on machine learning and analytics – has grown its customer count by 133% over the past year and can now be deployed as Software as a Service (SaaS) in addition to cloud or on-premises solutions.
With this latest release (2019.11), SMAX is now available as a service in the United States and Canada. Its deployment options are expanding to include SaaS directly from Micro Focus; cloud deployment through Amazon, Microsoft, or Google; and on-premises deployment, with the ability to switch between delivery methods. Micro Focus will also continue to update the SaaS offering in quarterly releases.
SMAX is a relatively new product offering from Micro Focus, supporting ESM, IT service management (ITSM), and IT asset management (ITAM), with an embedded configuration management database (CMDB) and discovery. The product’s strengths include codeless configuration, machine learning to automate ticket routing, an enterprise service portal, intelligent search, ChatOps and analytics, and a 24/7 smart virtual agent.
The release also added software asset management compliance functionality to the asset management module. This provides out-of-the-box compliance data for Microsoft and Oracle, while other vendors and license rules can be added with a development kit.
Our Take
Micro Focus’ Service Management Automation (SMA) suite ranks as a leader according to SoftwareReviews, with 76% of ITSM customers and 80% of asset management customers likely to recommend it.
Source: Micro Focus SMA at SoftwareReviews. Report published July 2019
Source: Micro Focus Asset Manager at SoftwareReviews. Report published May 2019
The SMAX product offering, built on a machine learning and analytics platform, is a more innovative solution that is targeted more toward organizations looking for an ESM tool with a single service portal and built-in smart features.
SMAX would be best suited for medium and large enterprises who need an all-in-one ITSM solution to extend to other business units and to perform asset management. The self-service portal is designed to support all business users as the single place to go for help. The smart virtual agent supports a shift-left automation strategy, which frees up time for the service desk to perform more complex tasks. The addition of SaaS as a deployment option may also appeal to organizations who don’t see value in managing infrastructure components. Of course, the advantages of ESM and automation won’t be of value without standardized and scalable ITSM processes in place first.
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