Numara Software, the service desk management company, has announced the launch of a new edition of FootPrints, its flagship product.

Numara FootPrints 8 includes increased workflow automation, new customisation options, automation capabilities to streamline processes and ITIL enablement tools.

Andy White, head of Numara for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said the aim is to allow customers to tailor a service management application not only in its installation but also throughout its lifestyle. Often the processes required by organisations are crafted by consultants to align with business need and are relatively hard coded and difficult to change, White said.

Process alignment is “Only half of the jigsaw puzzle", according to White, who added, what is really required is for organisations to have the ability to change processes and manage workflow".

Numara has built two layers into its platform; a service management template to allow customers to get up and running ahead of their competitors, and a portfolio of wizards that will let departments tailor their ongoing management and easily change aspects of the application, such as the workflow or automation tools.

White said businesses will no longer need consultants to re-align business processes when an organisation needs to change. Instead, the new “ITIL Wizard” allows an IT department to create a complete IT service management framework.

Eric Neville, IT director at RyanAir, which has adopted Footprints 8, said “for a small but highly experienced IT team, within one of the largest and fastest growing airlines in Europe, the need for minimal system resourcing and management was of the utmost importance.”

The new footprints architecture has evolved to be 100 percent web-based. Although the majority of Numara customers still deploy the solution as an installation on a server in their building, it can now be provided as a managed service.

The benefits of web architecture is that it makes the cost of ownership cheaper because it takes away the need for administering client servers or applications on each of all of the PCs, said White

Numara worked with both Gartner and Forrester to design Footprints 8.