Symantec Releases New Altiris Workflow Solution

Symantec acquires IT process management technology to reduce IT costs through orchestrated task automation

Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the release of Altiris Workflow Solution to help businesses reduce costs through IT process orchestration and automation. Workflow Solution helps customers implement IT processes, automate routine tasks, reduce the cost of management, improve service levels and end user satisfaction and facilitate regulatory compliance.

IT organisations are challenged to break down technology, process and organisational silos to squeeze the most out of investments and resources. Workflow Solution is a heterogeneous IT process automation platform that crosses technological boundaries by integrating various web services, databases, and service and configuration management tools to decrease costly and tedious IT tasks. Workflow Solution gives even the most non-technical IT worker the ability to create and deploy processes through a graphical drag-and-drop workflow designer that coordinates IT tasks, processes, best practices and automation tools.

According to a November 2007 Forrester Research report titled, Tech Horizons: Sizing The Emerging Market For IT Process Automation Software, “IT process automation has the potential to develop as a solution for both small and medium enterprises that want to lower their IT operations costs and larger enterprises that are aiming at full process improvement implementations through ITIL or other methodologies…Because IT process automation offers the capability to tailor information and actions to the functions and roles of ITIL processes, it has the opportunity to bridge the gap between processes and tools. ‘Process in a box’ through IT process automation is the way of the future.”*

IT organisations can use Workflow Solution to create custom workflow processes or use Symantec-prebuilt workflow processes. Next-generation Symantec solutions are expected to provide out-of-the-box workflow processes for common IT service requests such as new employee provisioning, self-help service catalogs, hardware and software requests, password reset, etc.

Steve Morton, Symantec VP of product management and strategy, said, “IT organisations often have the right people, tools and best practices but lack the ability to integrate them in a way that provides business value. Workflow Solution can create confidence in IT operations by streamlining processes and helping the IT organisation focus on the most critical business needs. Symantec is bringing to life best practices that were formerlly relegated to books collecting dust in the server closet.”

Workflow Solution will further integrate Symantec endpoint security and management technologies to promote the automation of customer processes including best practice frameworks like ITIL. Workflow Solution can leverage business information provided through data repositories and configuration management databases, such as Altiris CMDB Solution. CMDB Solution data populates the workflow process while a task engine synchronises configuration management tools to deliver IT service with a minimum of human intervention.

Workflow Solution is based on technology acquired by Symantec earlier this year from Transparent Logic. Symantec had been developing Workflow Solution through an OEM agreement with Transparent Logic prior to the acquisition.