ITS is nearing the finish line for decommissioning Remedy. ITS groups expect to migrate the remaining Remedy applications by the end of January.
When ITS rolled out the ServiceNow platform to various University organizations in July 2019, ServiceNow replaced Remedy Request for Service, the most commonly used request tracking application in Remedy at UNC-Chapel Hill. ITS began using that system two decades ago.
ServiceNow is a more efficient, transparent and accessible platform for automating business and support processes. Most notably, it’s the primary ticketing software for the University. To better utilize the ServiceNow platform and get more value out of the cost of running it, moving the additional applications out of Remedy and into ServiceNow was always part of the plan.
Heeds strategic plan
This corresponds with the strategic opportunity aligning routine operations with suitable routine process and procedures in Carolina Next, the University’s strategic plan. Having fewer platforms to run means less time, money and energy spent on running and maintaining multiple platforms. This will enable the Service Management team members to focus on providing better value to their customers within ServiceNow, while also being better stewards of the money and time spent on IT resources at the University.
3 apps recently retired
Until a few months ago, ITS had four applications still in production in Remedy — all of which the department was preparing to decommission. The applications were internal to ITS except for the Ram Shop app used by Barnes & Noble for the Student Stores.
Since May, the Service Management team has been able to retire three applications in Remedy and move the functions over to ServiceNow in conjunction with other tools.
- On August 23, RASR (Rapid Admin Service Request) replaced Remedy RF-1, a decade-old application that nearly everyone within ITS used. Kudos to ITS Enterprise Applications’ Mechelle Clayton and her team for managing the transition off of RF-1 to RASR.
- In late July, ITS closed out the Computer Repair Center (CRC) app and PeopleSoft billing, which CRC and Managed Desktop Services (MDS) had used. CRC is now using Fixably, a third-party repair order application, in combination with ServiceNow to process computer hardware repair requests for Lenovo, Mac and Dell computers for UNC-Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County Schools. Departments that have a relationship with CRC now request a repair within ServiceNow, which triggers workflow to create a repair work order for CRC technicians, who work in Fixably. A shout out to Managed IT Services Director David Eckert, CRC Manager Peter Bolish and the entire ServiceNow team for all their hard work on this transition/integration.
- In early May, ITS transitioned Ram Shop Invoice/Administration in Remedy to a TechShop workspace in ServiceNow. Distinction goes out to Eckert and the ServiceNow team for the transition to the TechShop workspace.
Only one remains
The last Remedy application remaining in production is System Registration. The System Registration app is used to track assets in ITS data centers.
In early August, ITS kicked off the project for transitioning that application over to ServiceNow’s Request and Asset Management modules. The final transition of System Registration to SN Asset Management is a little more involved as the Service Management team configures Asset Management relationships for both Data Center and Laptop/Computer assets. The team aims to have the system registration data in ServiceNow by the end of January 2022.
The Remedy application infrastructure has been running on unsupported versions of BMC Remedy AR Server, Oracle DB, Java and Linux OS, which is a risk for ITS while also consuming resources to maintain, said David Smith, IT Service Management Platform Manager. Even though the cost for infrastructure support is minimal, the real cost to ITS is around resources and mitigating risk.
Once ITS finishes migrating these remaining applications, ITS will load Remedy data to the data warehouse for reporting. Then ITS staff members will shut down the Remedy Action Request System (ARS) Service, Smith said.