Business challenge

The researchers, administrative staff, faculty and over 30,000 students at Wayne State University (WSU) depend on the Computing and Information Technology (C&IT) Division to keep the university functioning. "C&IT is more or less the nerve center that makes the university work," stated Jim Johnson, WSU Vice President for C&IT. "If our systems failed in the past, it wasn't disastrous, but if they fail today, the president of the university on down the chain of command will call and ask me 'why can't I get my email?'"

"Ultimately, our goal is to use technology to improve research and education," stated Johnson, "but if our systems don't work, we have no time to focus on that. Our customers rely so heavily on our computer systems that we have to run rock solid. Most of our operations also have to run 24 hours a day. That's a new requirement for us."

Two of the main factors that prevented WSU's C&IT Division from maintaining high standards of performance and availability were their inability to locate problems and the need to manage their resources more effectively. In regard to problem identification and location, Johnson stated, "I'll go to every group and ask if there is a problem and they'll all say 'no,' yet for some reason our system as a whole does not perform like it should."

Johnson also conveyed a need for capacity planning. "People come in and say we need to buy more of this or that, so we do, but our system performance doesn't get better," said Johnson. To improve their resource and performance management, Johnson researched capacity planning solutions. Through his research, however, Johnson learned that if he wanted his personnel to focus on improving research and education, they would need more than just capacity planning. Wayne State needed an enterprise-wide management strategy.

Customer's perspective…
"I have two pet peeves. The first is having my customers inform me about a problem that I didn't know existed. The second is not being able to find the problem even after we check every component in our systems environment. I think if we're doing our job right, people shouldn't know that our group exists,"said Johnson.

Business solution

Johnson selected the Service Assurance Center (SA Center™) by BMC Software for complete enterprise system management. The SA Center is a custom-built center that enables WSU to manage their entire environment and address their specific needs from one location.

"The SA Center has helped us better understand our business," stated Johnson. "I can look at a problem from the end user's perspective and see how an application is performing end-to-end. It also saves us time. Through automation, we can solve a problem once, as opposed to solving the same problem repeatedly."

Johnson was also able to use the SA Center to solve C&IT's resource issues. "The products within the SA Center let me know how the systems are performing, so I know when they're slowing down before someone calls me to ask 'why are your systems so slow?' We've also learned where we needed additional equipment and where there were bottlenecks," stated Johnson. "We now know what size systems are better for our activities. With these products, we now have a strategic and systematic approach to capacity planning."

WSU used Sure Start by BMC Software Professional Services to implement the SA Center and the products within the SA Center. "We are very pleased with how fast the implementation has occurred," said Johnson. "If we didn't have Sure Start, it would have taken us years to get where we are in a matter of months."

"I have certain ideas that I attribute to BMC Software," explained Johnson. "One is prevention - the ability to identify a problem before it happens and correct it. The other is the concept of dealing with problems proactively."

To demonstrate their leadership and success with BMC Software, WSU joined the PATROL User Group (PUG) in their region. The PUG helps them better use their products and learn about other users' experiences.

Customer's perspective…
"With BMC Software, I can worry about using our technology in a strategic way to improve research and education, instead of worrying about whether or not our systems are working."

Business results

• Saved administrator time
• Maximized resource use
• Improved performance

  Customer's final words …
  "Before you only had a few companies that really had to be highly available. Now everyone has to be," stated Johnson. "So the need for your product extends to everywhere, because everyone has to be highly available, including our university."