Hornbill Systems, a leading supplier of Service Management software has extended its ITIL solution to include support for business to business service provision. Adoption of ITIL standards brings widely recognised benefits but is often primarily focused on the improvement of IT service provision for internal customers (ie. staff). Supportworks ITSM 2.3 takes into account the specific requirements of managed service providers that deliver services to multiple external customers.

Supporting external B2B customers requires recognition of the different entities & relationships i.e. the external organisation, its contacts and the multiple service contracts which may apply. The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) within Supportworks ITSM V2.3 stores organisational and contact information, enabling the service provider to easily identify all services they provide to that organisation, which equipment is supported and any contract or Service Level Agreement (SLA) that is in place. Understanding a customer's environment and the contracts in place with them enables a more informed and effective approach to service provision.

Paul Morris, VP Operations at Attenda Ltd, commented; "Proactive organisations really can improve the service they offer their business customers through adoption of the ITIL principles, but the supporting software has to accommodate the B2B customer relationship. Many IT Service Management tools assume that customers are internal to the organisation and attempts to customise the service desk tool to represent external customer support can be fraught with problems and seriously restrict future upgrades. Designing a tool specifically to support external service delivery is a big step forward which can only bring efficiency & benefit to the wider business environment."

Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems commented; "Customer service is often more important to B2B organisations where customer satisfaction determines loyalty and recurring revenues. ITIL enables the adoption of best practice processes which enable excellent, proactive customer support and Supportworks ITSM has taken this a step further by its application to any kind of business."

Hornbill Systems is currently supporting National Customer Service Week, 6-12th October 2008, an initiative from the Institute of Customer Service and adopted by many national organisations to promote excellence in customer service and reward staff for outstanding customer care.

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NOTES TO EDITORS
Institute of Customer Service
The Institute of Customer Service is the professional body for customer service. Its main purpose is to lead customer service performance and professionalism. It has more than 365 organisational members - from across the private, public and third sectors - and nearly 7,000 individual members.

About Attenda
Attenda, the Always On Managed Services company, manages those vital applications that every business relies upon today to function effectively allowing our clients to selectively outsource their IT operations and re-focus on using IT to add strategic value to their business.
Through a commitment to operational excellence, we manage, secure and optimise the performance of their applications, irrespective of the physical location of the infrastructure.
With over 8 years' investment into Attenda M.O., Attenda's operations platform, we provide the people, process and technology to deliver exceptionally high service levels, but at a cost that is amortised across Attenda's entire client base - currently 134 of the UK's leading companies.
The company enjoys substantial financial backing, the industry's leading accreditations and an unrivalled portfolio of clients including bmi, Christian Aid, easyCar, Microsoft, NHS, Princes, St. James’s Place and Travelodge.
Attenda is ISO9001, ISO2001 and ISO27001 accredited, an HP SP Signature Partner, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, a SAP Adaptive IT Hosting Provider, a SunTone accredited managed service provider and an Accredited Catalist Supplier. Attenda is one of only seven companies to have been ranked in the UK's Sunday Times ARM Tech Track 100 for three consecutive years. It was voted Best Managed Services Provider by Data Centre Europe Awards for both 2007 and 2008 and VMware’s EMEA Hosting Partner of the Year 2007.
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