HP (hp.com) has enhanced HP Open View management software and services that enable greater insight into and control over information technology (IT) that supports critical business services.

The latest offerings improve the speed, quality and value of IT service delivery through a tighter linkage between IT and the business services that touch customers and drive revenue.

Unveiled at HP's Software Universe in France, the software and services include:

* HP OpenView Dashboard 1.0 - easy-to-use software for rapidly building a personalized, real-time view into the health of critical business and IT services, such as mission-critical enterprise applications and e-mail;

* HP OpenView Business Process Insight 2.0 - monitors and reports on business process health and pre-defined business process metrics;

* Extended HP OpenView Service Desk integration - out-of-the-box integrations for closed-loop operations, reduced costs and automated IT response to business needs; and

* HP OpenView Short Engageaient Services - on-site consulting services centered on operational best practices to enable customers to evaluate and quickly implement HP OpenView solutions for improved operations.

"With these new solutions, HP is providing decision-makers with immediate insight into the health of critical IT services and a single point of control for streamlined change management and improved operational efficiency," said Todd DeLaughter, vice president and general manager of HP's OpenView Business Unit. "These new capabilities address some of the key challenges customers tell us they face today: a lack of visibility into the impact IT has on the business, the increasing complexity of IT and the fast rate of change."

HP Open View Dashboard 1.0 incorporates information from multiple data sources to provide users with a consolidated and immediate view of the business services that enterprises depend on, such as financial services or telecom applications.

The software provides tools for quickly building personalized and comprehensive dashboard views of business services through a point-and-click interface. The dashboard shows the real-time health of a service with information based on events, performance, anti-virus, outsourced components and security attacks.

HP OpenView Dashboard also links with HP OpenView Service Desk for an automated IT response to business information related to incidents, changes, viral and service loading. By providing increased visibility and insight into the health of critical business services, enterprises are able to take a more proactive approach to IT service management (ITSM) and deliver greater value to their customers.

HP OpenView Business Process Insight 2.0 software monitors and reports on the health and performance of the IT infrastructure in terms of key business performance indicators in real time. New functionality delivered with this version includes out-of-the-box, pre-defined business metrics, automatic creation of process health dashboards and the ability to define business service-level objectives.

The enhanced software allows service delivery managers to more quickly implement solutions for business process performance and health monitoring - enabling customers to realize a faster return on investment.

Providing the insight and automated control of the IT systems that comprise a business service, HP OpenView Service Desk 5.0 is an ITSM solution that helps to reduce total cost of ownership. Functional and architectural enhancements to the software include a new reporting tool and new "Webstart" tool for quick and simplified deployment.

Also new with HP Open View Service Desk 5.0 is a unified configuration management database that allows for seamless integration among all HP OpenView Service Desk modules, other HP OpenView solutions and third-party products. This level of integration helps to ensure that data is always synchronized and consistent for improved quality of service levels.

HP OpenView Service Desk also will offer out-of-the-box integration with the following HP OpenView products to provide closed-looped operations and a central point of control:

* HP OpenView Configuration Management: - to initiate and drive software reconfiguration functions with integrated reporting and administration. The integration also allows configuration changes to be automated while maintaining alignment with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) change management process.

* HP OpenView Service Desk Process Insight: - to monitor and report on the health and performance of an IT infrastructure based on ITIL and business processes.

The new HP OpenView Short Engagement Services are onsite consulting services that help customers evaluate and rapidly implement HP OpenView solutions and third-party products for improved operations.

The services, lasting one to two weeks, are based on ITIL best practices and have a defined scope and fixed price. The services are currently offered for implementation of OpenView solutions in areas such as business process, performance insight, configuration and web application management.