- New app enables easier mobilisation and remote management of critical incidents

Potsdam, Germany, 29 September 2011: Derdack (www.derdack.com), provider of advanced enterprise notification software today announced the launch of a Blackberry application (app) which enhances the management of critical IT alerts and supports push notifications. The app complements the functionality of IT management products such as Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), Service Manager (SCSM), HP Operations Center, IBM Tivoli Monitoring, BMC Remedy and others.  It empowers IT staff to remotely acknowledge, respond to and resolve incidents faster and more easily.

The new Enterprise Alert app for Blackberry provides full replication of the monitoring system event console via a standardised user interface which puts mobile incident management at the fingertips of IT staff.  It provides remote access to each monitoring system directly from the app and allows users to acknowledge, manage and respond to critical incident tickets without the need to physically access the monitoring system via a console.

The app requires a server running Derdack’s Enterprise Alert software as a centralised hub consolidating events from multiple monitoring systems, using common Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to connect to these systems.  When an event is detected by the monitoring or helpdesk system it is sent to Enterprise Alert which intelligently filters, and prioritises them and decides which notification workflow to initiate.  Only the most important and urgent alerts are communicated to the relevant, responsible member of staff.

Enterprise Alert sends a smartphone push notification to the app running on the Blackberry.   The user is alerted to the receipt of this notification and with a single tap on the touchscreen, can retrieve detailed information regarding a critical incident. This is also a more discrete method of communicating urgent notifications compared to a voice call for example.  Additionally, the larger screen on the Blackberry offers several advantages over receiving alerts by SMS text as more contextual information can be included in the notification and the user can holistically browse all incidents rather than view them sequentially.

Staff can rapidly acknowledge an alert and initiate action from the IT monitoring system without leaving the app.  Additional information such as pictures, text and diagrams can be appended to the alert.  As part of the closed-loop notification cycle, this information is sent back to Enterprise Alert so that full tracking can take place and alerts escalated in the event of non-response.

Matthes Derdack, CEO of Derdack said, “It is likely that in five years the majority of IT support engineers will be relying on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets for remote IT management.  The Blackberry app allows users to more conveniently respond to critical incidents ‘on the go’.  It extends the mobilisation of IT management systems by enabling users to remotely receive and efficiently acknowledge incidents via a smartphone, thus accelerating the speed and accuracy of response.”

The Blackberry app is part of the latest Enterprise Alert installation package.  Customers can deploy the app through the Blackberry Enterprise Server, directly from the Enterprise Alert portal, or via the Blackberry Desktop Manager.