Review: EasyVista for Integrations

This independent review is part of our Integrations 2013 Group Test.

Executive Summary

Elevator Pitch A concise interface with easy to understand interfaces shielding the detail behind the scenes, developed from their own deployment and integration experiences.
Strengths
  • Purpose built interfaces to import data and interact with third party integrations
  • Use of standard protocols to take away the need for programming capabilities for integration
  • Can integrate to third party search engines including those of third party vendors within the product
Weaknesses
  • Their constraints are really tempered by the maturity levels of their customers – but they get around this by offering email integration where perhaps inbound and outbound web service based integration is more advanced. This is maybe indicative of the upper-mid-market segment that they are comfortable in currently.
Primary Market Focus Based on the information provided, EasyVista are typically active in the upper mid-market but do look to move to larger enterprise customers.They are classified for this review as:Specialised Service Management Suite – Offering ITIL processes and proprietary discovery tooling and Data Integration Points

Commercial Summary

Vendor EasyVista
Product EasyVista
Version reviewed 2013
Date of version release April 2013
Year founded 1988
Customers 950
Pricing Structure Saas, Names and concurrent options
Competitive Differentiators
  1. EasyVista encompass their best practices in with their NEO platform which removes the need for delving into databases – everything is via easy to navigate interfaces
  2. They have a comprehensive list of both inbound and outbound web services to allow them to be the “glue” in the middle of maybe larger, more complex support environments, resulting in real-time data exchanges between systems.
  3. They do understand where their market pitch is, and allow for the fact that less mature environments may require more “traditional” email-style integrations for customers with perhaps older systems to integrate with

Independent Review

Easy VistaA compact, integrated ITSM solution, which is supported in deployment by EasyVista’s approach of applying best practices based on their own experiences. For example they have designed a simple interface to bring in the depth of information required with intuitive interfaces.

As such they are not averse to adding pre-defined templates to their out-of-the-box offering and it is good to see that vendors will adjust their offering if they learn a new thing or two along the way.

There is no doubting this is a vendor with ambition, and there is nothing wrong with that, but they have also tapped into an area where they realise that maybe smaller vendors can provide a niche glue in between more complex service organisations especially by offering incoming and outgoing web-services (all adhering to established processes).

They offer the ability to interact with, and have interactions from third party tools removing the need for separate development efforts and it offers a level of integration that can sometimes be made overly complicated in large projects.

They made Integration a module in its own right – with a specific interface and the level of thought behind their mapping is impressive. Also worth a mention is the age old bug-bear of different definitions for the same manufacturer (for example HP, Hewlett Packard, Hewlett P) with a Transcription function to have one standard definition in the system.

When the bulk loading function is carried out, the Integration Log not only informs you of how many records were in the operation (as you might expect) but how many errors and (more importantly) which records failed.

What stands out is their approach to simplify the process with a lot of the hard work taken out of the equation and with simple to follow GUIs and wizards to drive you through the process.

Integration and specific recognised criteria

EasyVista uses standard and open technology as much as possible. Integration protocols used by EasyVista are the following, both for inbound (Third party => EasyVista) and outbound (EasyVista => Third party) integrations.

Native integrations:

  • For directory integration, EasyVista also has a native integration with Microsoft Active Directory on top of the generic LDAP integration
  • For email integration, EasyVista also supports Microsoft MAPI on top of the generic SMTP/POP3/IMAP4 email integration.
  • SMS integration is done via integration with third party SMS gateways (for example http://www.fastsms.co.uk/ in the UK or http://cleversms.clever.fr/ in France)

EasyVista are able to offer a large range of inbound and outbound web-services.

Security Controls

Inbound (Third party => EasyVista)

The EasyVista security module (defining users, profiles and domains) is used for direct access to EasyVista, but also for the integration.

Also, EasyVista integration components support the most secure web components. For example, web service integration is done via https supporting web certificates and private keys.

Pre-Deployment Integration

EasyVista comes out of the box with a data source integration module to populate any data an organization would like to make available in EasyVista. It comes with 180 connectors describing the complete database scheme. A graphical interface is available for configuring integrations.

EasyVista also provides integration examples with 50 pre-defined integration models that can be applied instantly.  In addition, an Excel spread sheet with predefined columns for most frequently used fields is available for importing data.

They provide an interface to deal with transcription of manufacturer names (for example multiple definitions of the same manufacturer) so that the organisation can build one standard definition in the system

For these large bulk loads the integration log will then inform you how many records were in the file, how many errors there were in loading and what records were not uploaded.

Asset and Configuration Information

EasyVista includes integrated IT Asset Management discovery capability for collecting hardware and software information. They can also populate that database with data collected by other tools (LANDesk, Microsoft SCCM, etc.)

EasyVista also have an integrated Configuration Management module that manages infrastructure assets – the Asset Management module populates this automatically.

Support Services Integration

  • Remote Control

Parameters from an external tool (for example LogMeIn) are passed into a URL to initiate the session – for example the incident number. At the end of the session, the record is updated and then contains the chat history and any user operations that were carried out.

  • Support Chats/Social Media

EasyVista is built as a chat client, with its own chat engine within the tool and can reach any other chat client – including those on mobile devices.

In reality Chat is usually implemented as a collaborative tool for the IT function.

Additional Areas of Integration

  • Escalation to third parties

Their use of web services is a good example of where incidents can be written to a third party system (for example, where a service has been outsourced to an MSP).

  • Third party search engine integration

EasyVista offer an ability to integrate with third party search engines within the tool – so example MSDN, and vendor wiki pages. When you put that in the context of their extensive inbound and outbound web services capability, this is a handy additional integration point.

  • Email

A nice touch is the flexibility to allow customers with maybe multiple tools and/or complex relationships to have inbound and outbound web services sitting alongside equally complex scenarios achieved with email integration. Customers can utilise the solution that best works for them.

EasyVista Service Management Customers

From the EasyVista Brochure

  • EasyVista IT Service Management is simple, yet comprehensive; highly configurable, yet seamlessly automates upgrades.
  • Developed in alignment with the ITIL best practice framework, EasyVista offers an integrated and modular solution that is designed to support a global, multi-timezone and multi-lingual enterprise.
  • At the heart of EasyVista is EasyVista NEO™, allowing you to easily integrate at a process level with external applications and services, as well as graphically design supporting workflow.

In Their Own Words:

EasyVista Inc. has more than 20 years of experience as a pure player in the IT Management space.   We have been verified in the most recent and prominent PinkVerify program, hold a prominent position in the Gartner ITSSM magic quadrant. In addition, we have one of the world’s most comprehensive cloud infrastructures for ITSM and ITALM, with a Cloud Management Centre that conducts over 1.5 million platform tests each day. We offer multiple languages, currencies and time-zone management in a single implementation.

EasyVista specializes in helping organizations transition from traditional IT Operations Management that was designed for a very different time, to ‘New IT’ Operations Management designed for now and the future. We transform your customer experience, simplify the management of IT, provide visibility and intelligence and help extend workflow automation services beyond IT into other functions within your organization, such as HR, facilities and customer service.

‘New IT’ needs new thinking. We recognize that times have changed and IT is no longer driving user innovation. The services expected from IT are no longer standard and the supporting platforms are no longer exclusively in the IT basement; they are in the cloud, outsourced and mobile.  

With the delivery of many core IT services reliant on external suppliers, EasyVista recognizes that IT is evolving into the “Broker of Service and support.” EasyVista allows you to easily connect and integrate at a process level with external applications and services, as well as graphically design supporting workflow.

Screenshots

Further Information

This independent review is part of our Integrations 2013 Group Test.

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