Atlanta, GA October 15, 2002 Software company Entuition today unveiled a new application intended to help companies better manage their information technology and telecommunications infrastructure and reduce this side of their spend.
Entuition said its new OPGISTICS product suite is designed to manage the logistics that support corporate IT and operational infrastructure, and also to help enterprises align IT and telecom infrastructure with the overall business goals that apply to all other aspects of the company.
"In most enterprises there are islands of automation," said Greg Lenox, president and CEO of Entuition. "With current systems, these islands can't communicate efficiently, resulting in a very dysfunctional system."
The problem, Lenox said, is that functions are not linked together within the enterprise, there are few underlying processes, the goals of each "island of automation" are different and multiple people are making decisions that impact the whole. "The end result is a massive amount of inefficiency, which negatively impacts the bottom line," Lenox concluded.
Entuition said the solution to these challenges lies in what it calls "infrastructure logistics." "It's the management and control of all the essential IT services to the enterprise through the activities of people, organizations and technology," explained Rick Loose, executive vice president at the solution provider.
The solution provider said its new suite facilitates the management of key back office functions and automates operations required to deliver IT and telecom services. Separate application modules address distinct processes, including technology and service requests, acquisition, receipt, inventory management, design-build, resource dispatch/management and work order management.
The Acquire module, for example, provides users with an online shopping cart and catalogs of technology, services and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) items; automates fulfillment and purchasing; and can include its own purchase order system.
OPGISTICS Build manages details of projects, including the inventory, technical and business information and associated transactions, while Telecom provides enterprises with a tool to manage internal telecommunications operations.
The Work Order module automates the service request process, from incoming service order to service dispatch on through to work order completion; Mobility provides mobile field service technicians with task lists that take them from part pick-up to RMA drop-off; and Inventory controls how assets throughout their lifecycle.
By giving enterprises greater control over their IT and telecoms infrastructure, Entuition says it is allowing companies and their chief information officers to better align their technology operations and infrastructure with business goals. "IT, through CIOs, understand better than they ever have that they need to align themselves with the delivery of infrastructure and services so that business can go out and capture market share," Lenox said. "So alignment is paramount."
The modules, which are integrated with one another and can share information, are available as a suite or separately, starting at $75,000 per module and $8,000 per five users.
The OPGISTICS suite is based on the Action Request System from solution provider enterprise Remedy not surprising considering that Entuition has been a Remedy reseller since its founding almost four years ago. In fact, privately held Entuition financed the development of its new product line by reselling, and providing implementation services in support of, Remedy's solution.
