Scripps Networks acquired the Travel Channel in 2009, which meant that Scripps' IT team acquired another data network to manage. Bringing two sets of IT resources together is rarely easy, but in this case many headaches were avoided because Scripps was using business service management software (BSM) in its own operations.

BSM allowed Scripps to change policies, automatically provision new systems and detect misconfigurations and failures, reports Robert Lemos at CIO. The software helps standardize and automate IT management, making it possible for small IT teams to do more. Server problems are discovered before they cause network interruptions, meaning that they can often be fixed before users call the help desk.

BSM tools were touted early on by BMC Software, Lemos reports, but major vendors, including IBM (NYSE: IBM), CA, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and EMC, have gotten into the market. 

Industry researcher Dennis Drogseth recently examined the products offered by 15 BSM vendors. He focused on the service impact (SI) aspect of BSM, which he considers the heart of the technology. What he found is that BMS SI projects offer the most value and benefits when they are deployed for the purpose of creating consistency and cohesion throughout various environments. The technology can produce value by translating existing IT investments into "a more relevant, service impact context," he writes in a column at CIOUpdate.

For more:
- see Robert Lemos' article at CIO
- see Dennis Drogseth's post at CIOUpdate

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