Numara Software Shares Six Strategies for Managing Change

Strategic Change Process Tips Include Ways to Avoid Pitfalls, Methods for Establishing Gatekeepers, Creating Audit Trails and Controlling Unplanned Change Costs

Tampa, Fla., September 9, 2009 - Numara® Software, Inc., a leader in service desk management solutions for IT professionals with over 55,000 customer sites worldwide, today released a list of six strategies organizations should keep in mind when implementing new change management processes. These strategies take into account key change drivers and pain points for IT organizations today - such as reduced budgets, limited staff, unplanned changes and stringent compliance standards - in order to achieve better control, cost management, and alignment with the business.

"After speaking with many of our customers, it's clear that effectively managing ongoing change is nearly as important as the changes themselves. The failure to do so means money may be wasted on undesired or unplanned changes - slowing down productivity and creating unforeseen costs when budgets are already stretched to the limit," said Debbie Ingram, senior manager for market strategy at Numara Software. "We've found that many companies are looking for solutions that can help improve overall planning and control, mitigate the risks associated with planned and unplanned change and implement proven best practices, like ITIL®, to establish consistent terminology, processes, approvals and communication throughout their organization."

Numara Software recognizes that many companies are rolling out major changes to deal with the down economy and requiring approvals from more and higher-level people in the organization to implement any change. In response to customer challenges today, the company developed a list of effective measures to help organizations streamline processes and establish industry best practices to maximize the ROI of any change.

Here are several examples of the strategic tips on managing change that Numara Software developed in response to recent customer discussions:

• Implement clear, consistent change processes: Organizations should begin by reviewing their current processes and using a tracking tool to determine what types of unplanned changes are causing the most problems, so they can be prevented down the line. They will also need to assess where they have gaps or errors occurring in their change processes and the impact on their business, before they begin implementing new standards. With a clear, consistent, company-wide process in place for reporting, approving and tracking changes, businesses can ensure that the necessary parties are in the loop and aware of what changes have been or will be made.

• Make it easy: Companies need to keep change management simple by implementing a solution that automates the workflow. If the new procedure isn't easy, fast and as effective as or better than what's being used today, employees will be resistant to adopting it. Organizations should choose a change management solution with built-in, customizable templates that can easily be adjusted by all users, not just IT technicians, allowing more departments to take advantage of the investment and speeding up the process.

Read the full list of Six Strategies for Managing Change.

Contact:
Liz Boal
Greenough Communications
617.275.6522
lboal@greenoughcom.com

About Numara Software
With more than 55,000 customer sites worldwide, Numara Software is a global leader in delivering practical, flexible solutions that allow IT organizations to improve service to their end-users. Our integrated IT service management and IT asset management software platforms enable organizations to efficiently automate a wide variety of IT related tasks and processes using interoperable solutions from a single, proven vendor. Widely known for our dedicated focus on ease of use and affordability for our customers, our IT solutions deliver fast time-to-value, increased control, and reduced risk for small businesses to large companies. For more information, visit: www.numarasoftware.com.