Change Management Software

Available as a powerful stand alone solution, or as part of the Novo Service Desk Suite, the Novo Change Manager facilitates the use of  Best Practices for efficient and prompt handling of all changes to your controlled IT infrastructure.  

Changes in your IT infrastructure, such as server updates and application changes, can cause unnecessary interruptions to crucial services throughout your organization if these changes are not managed appropriately.  In order to minimize the number and impact of service outages, you need to ensure that standardized analysis, review & approval processes are followed. 

Effective change management ensures that approved methods are utilized and appropriate processes and procedures are used to track all changes.  The Novo Change Management Software will facilitate efficient and timely handling of all changes, and maintain the proper balance between the need for change and the potential detrimental impact of changes.

Best Practices:
Change Management Processes

• Capture Key Data related to the specific nature of the change being requested. (Novo User Defined Fields allow you to easily create custom fields such as date/time, text, memo, numeric, Boolean (Y/N) or select lists).
• Use Fully Customizable Form Templates to submit the initial Change Request (RFC).

• Select Category or Sub-Category to reflect the type of change being considered. Category lists (and sub-lists) are fully definable and can be added to at any time.  This type of categorization allows for more detailed metrics which are useful when generating reports from the Novo Change Management software system.

• Associate any Appropriate Asset Records (Configuration Items) which could be impacted or may be potentially at risk for service disruption by the specific change being requested.  (Requires the addition of the Novo Asset Manager Module).
• Associate other RFC’s (or other types of requests) to this request for easy access by reviewers or others involved in the workflow process.
• Assess and Minimize the Risk a change could have on the continuation of business services and functions.
  

• Funnel Request for Changes (RFCs) to appropriate team members (such as the Change Advisory Board) through flexible multi-level work flows. Changes can be reviewed for approval at various levels up and/or across your organization to ensure the change is warranted, that sufficient risk assessment has been conducted, and that the change is in line with the business priorities of the organization.
• Define Automated Custom Workflows which can assign “tasks” to specific individuals in advance or "on the fly" in order to track a Request for Change all the way through to post implementation review.

• Provide Data for Review Meetings - As an alternative to managing approvals through a work flow, some organizations review and approve or reject changes through a formal Change Advisory Board.  A change request report can be used as a meeting agenda.  The report can be displayed on a projector and the full Change Request details can be reviewed and updated live within the tool, eliminating the need for paper notes.  Once Change Requests are approved, the next step in the workflow can be automatically triggered.
  
  

• Update Request for Change to reflect the current status of the request. Users with appropriate roles / permissions can set priorities, add notes or update key fields within the request form throughout the approval workflow process.
• Carry out the Change - Typically completed changes are flagged as “Implemented – Pending Review” which would then trigger a notification to the person responsible for Post Implementation Review. The Novo change management software system will capture the status change as it automatically adds notes to the change request throughout the life of the request.

• Analyze Change Requests with detailed custom-built reports using the Novo Custom Report Builder Wizard. This powerful reporting tool allows you to create all kinds of reports and charts. The charts created within the report builder can then be displayed in the dashboard, empowering management to have complete control over the change management process.
• Create Detailed Documentation based on post change assessments (requires the Novo Knowledge Base component of the software). Valuable information and 'lessons learned' can be captured into articles  in the fully searchable database and can be used to help determine the best course of action for similar future changes.

*  Note. The Novo Change Manager software box is graphical and doesn't represent actual packaging. The Novo Solutions change management software is downloadable with licensure.