SapphireIMS is a suite of products for managing IT Operations and Digital Back-office functions. The IT Management suite consists of Service Desk, IT Asset Management, IT Automation and Monitoring. The Digital Back-office suite includes Enterprise Service Management (ESM), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Service Lifecycle Management. SapphireIMS is a web based application which runs on Windows Servers.
The modules are described below.
Serial # |
Solution |
Description |
1 |
IT Service Desk |
IT Service Desk which is used to manage the IT services to end users. It comes with ITIL compliant in-built processes for Incident, Problem, Change and Service Requests. The processes can be customized based on the organization's process. Service Level Agreements (SLA) can be defined and monitored. There is a facility for sending notifications via e-mail and SMS. SLA violations can be monitored and escalations. There is a facility to include approval mechanisms as part of the work flow, including multi-level approvals, Reports and Dashboards are available and can be customized. SapphireIMS supports Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for automating activities in the workflow. |
2 |
IT Asset Management (ITAM) |
IT Asset Management enables the organization to manage all its IT assets. A Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB) is used to model the assets. The complete life cycle of the asset can then be managed from acquisition to disposal. In the case of IT assets, they can be discovered if they are connected to the network and the inventory can be periodically collected. Both Hardware and Software Assets can be automatically discovered and managed. In the case of Hardware Assets, compliance to IT policies can be monitored. In the case of Software Assets, the License Compliance, and Software Usage can be monitored. SapphireIMS supports management of Windows, Linux and Mac systems. |
3 |
IT Automation |
IT Automation is used to carry out automatic patch management, software deployment, OS deployment. In addition, any task in the form of a script etc., can be deployed and executed across all system in the organization in an automated manner. IT Automation also supports blacklisting of software, disabling ports etc. to enhance the security of the assets in the network. |
4 |
IT Business Service Monitoring (BSM) |
IT Monitoring enables monitoring of Hardware and Software performance. SapphireIMS can be configured to monitor various resources on systems and network devices. Alarms are generated as part of Fault monitoring, if thresholds are breached. Performance Monitoring can capture trends over a period of time and used for capacity planning. SapphireIMS supports Netflow for monitoring traffic. |
5 |
Enterprise Service Management (ESM) |
SapphireIMS can be used for automating the business functions in the back office including functions like HR, Admin, Finance, Travel, Facilities and Admin. Workflows can be customized based on the organization's processes, |
6 |
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) |
Enterprise Asset Management solution enables organizations to manage the asset from procurement to retirement. Various functions including purchase, payment etc. can be automated. Integrations to 3rd party ERP systems are supported. Depreciation scheduling, physical audit verification using of assets using Bar code or QR codes are part of EAM. |
7 |
Service Life Cycle Management |
SapphireIMS can be used to manage the service life cycle. This includes the ability for the customer to raise incidents or requests using self service portals, service catalogs, managing warranty and contract entitlements, provide break-fix support, carry out preventive maintenance activities, support field service operations, carry out spare parts management and provide Quality Governance. |
For collecting inventory information, performance monitoring or carrying out automation tasks, SapphireIMS supports both Agent based or Agentless Approach of operation. In the case of Agent based Approach, a light weight application called an Agent is deployed on all the systems. The deployment and roll-out to end systems is done centrally using either SapphireIMS or using Active Directory. These agents communicate with the central SapphireIMS server. They periodically collect the data from the end systems and pass them on to the server. They also download any automation tasks, patches etc. from the server and carry out the tasks or update the patches on the end systems.
In the Agentless Approach, there are no agents and the server interact with the end systems. However Agentless Approach is limited in terms of functionality it can support compared to Agent mode.
SapphireIMS supports both Agent and Agentless approach for inventory data collection on Windows, Linux, Mac or Embedded OS Thin clients.
Below are salient points on use of Agent versus Agentless Approaches.
Supports Discovery and Inventory Data collection of any IP Device with Windows, Linux, Mac, UNIX, Solaris and AIX Operating System and/or which supports WMI, SSH, SNMP or WBEM Protocol.
High usage of network as compared to Agentless Mode.
Cannot discover IP Devices over the Internet which is behind a firewall.
Does not support Incremental Inventory Data Collection.
Does not support features like Antivirus Inventory Data Collection, USB Mass Storage Device Blocking, USB Mass Storage Device Whitelisting, Software Blacklisting, etc.
Recommended for Servers and Network Devices management.
Software metering (software usage) is based on a regular process snapshot and not on real time basis.
Policy analyzer and database component discovery for MSSQL and Oracle not supported.
Agents are supported on Windows, Linux and Mac OS Systems only.
Low usage of Network.
Can be used to discover and manage IP Devices over the Internet.
Supports Incremental Inventory Data Collection.
Supports features like Antivirus Inventory Data Collection, USB Mass Storage Device Blocking, USB Mass Storage Device Whitelisting, Software Blacklisting, etc.
Recommended for Desktops and Laptops.
Can perform real time software metering (software usage).
Policy analyzer and database component discovery for MSSQL and Oracle.