Beetil

General

• What is Beetil?

  Beetil is a Saas (Software as a Service) application that helps you manage your IT services. Beetil is based on the internationally recognised ITIL framework and covers incident, problem, change, release and configuration management. For those not familiar with ITIL and its concepts this means that Beetil covers the full spectrum of managing a service, from dealing with customer issues to implementing changes to a service, and mapping your assets and infrastructure.

  ^ top

• Who is Beetil for?

  Beetil is for anyone who is interested in putting more structure around their service management procedures or who wants to introduce ITIL into their organisation without frightening their staff or incurring huge implementation and training costs. Beetil can suit small to medium as well as large organisations. It has customers from around the world from many sectors including IT, retail, marketing, finance, construction and energy sectors. Read more about who's using Beetil.

  ^ top

• Is Beetil only for IT businesses?

  Beetil is based on ITIL best practices which is fundamentally geared towards Information Technology but at its heart it's just great common sense that can be applied to any industry that deals with customers, assets, or changes and upgrades to products, procedures or production environments.

  ^ top

• Why should I use Beetil?

  Beetil is easy to learn, easy to use, and easy on the pocket. Just sign up and start using it, you'll be creating incidents within 10 minutes with no need for a manual. Beetil is designed with the end user in mind, not with enforcing a process, so it'll be a breeze to introduce to your business. And by adopting Beetil you will be adopting a well recognised framework - putting more structure into your service management processes is good for your customers, staff and ultimately your business.

  ^ top

• How is Beetil different to other service management tools?

  Beetil has been designed with the end user in mind rather than supporting every last detail of a framework. At the end of the day it's all about the people who have to use it. In a comparison of Beetil with other ITSM and ITIL-based tools out there we believe Beetil wins hands down when it comes to ease of use. There are a lot of other very nice and easy to use tools out there that cover just incident management or issue/bug tracking - however with Beetil this is just a fraction of the equation. To really get the true benefit from implementing service management philosophies and processes you need an integrated tool that lets you see how your incidents, problems, changes, releases and assets relate to and affect one another.

  ^ top

• What's a service?

  A service is something that delivers value for your internal or external customers. Generally there are two types - business services and technical services.

  ^ top

• What is service management?

  Service management, or more specifically IT Service Management, is a discipline for managing systems with a focus on the customer/user's perspective. It is a discipline that applies to systems already in production, but many of its philosophies can be borrowed and used for systems in development and non-IT related businesses.

  Service management covers the management of customer incidents, recurring problems, changes to a system and the managed implementation of those changes, as well as the management of your assets and infrastructure.

  A reasonable definition of service management can be found on Wikipedia.

  ^ top

• How can I get Beetil?

  Sign up online for a 30 day free trial, no downloads required. All you'll need is an internet connection and a modern browser such as Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer v7+. Sign up here.

  If you have any questions before signing up please get in touch with us for a chat.

  ^ top

• Who's behind Beetil?

  Beetil is a product of YouDo Ltd, a group of smart cookies based in Wellington, New Zealand. We specialise in designing and building software that helps complex business tick.

  We are heavy users of Beetil so it's in our direct interest that it's as easy to use and handy as possible. We basically live in it so we're pretty passionate about ensuring it's quality.

  ^ top

Features

• Is Beetil an issue tracker?

  Beetil is so much more than an issue tracker! You can use the 'incidents' part of Beetil to log issues, reassign, resolve and close them, or you can use the the 'Change Testing' part of Beetil to log issues against features undergoing change or development.

  Beetil can be used for projects in development (and we certainly use it like this) but to get the most from it you need to look at the bigger picture of all your products and services in production and how you go about managing customers, known issues and change and release management - something that a simple issue tracker just can't do.

  Read our blog 'More than just an issue tracker'

  ^ top

• Is Beetil a help desk or service desk application?

  Beetil is a service desk with a whole lot more. It has you covered from end to end with incident, problem, change, release, and configuration management.

  ^ top

• What are Beetil's main features?

  Beetil covers the following main elements of ITIL, these are:

  • Incident management
  • Problem management
  • Change management
  • Release management
  • Configuration management

  Beetil also has:

  • A self service customer help desk (customer portal)
  • Messages
  • Time tracking
  • Customisable reporting

  ^ top

• Does Beetil have email integration?

  Yes! We've all been crying out for email integration and now we finally have it. Read our blog post 'Email Integration Is Here!'

  ^ top

• Does Beetil have API's

  They're coming soon and we can't wait!

  ^ top

• What about reports?

  For each of the incident, problem, change and release sections we have customisable reports that can be scheduled to run and be emailed to users daily, weekly or at whatever frequency you desire.

  For larger system wide or service reports we have a modest list that we intend on adding to. All business are different and have different requirements so we envisage this section to get fairly large and are open to your suggestions about what you'd like to see here.

  ^ top

• What's coming up?

  There's plenty! Things we are currently working on:

  • Basic API's
  • iPhone app
  • Fully customisable branding for the customer portal
  • Respond-by timeframes for incidents
  • A 'week view' for our timesheet
  • Knowledge management
  • Improved change and release approval process
  • Improved change and release testing

  We have a tonne of good ideas for both new features and ways to enhance existing features and we'd love to hear you ideas too - so please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about things you'd like to see that aren't offered, chances are they will be on our to-do list.

  ^ top

• How customisable is Beetil?

  You can customise:

  • Service level Agreements
  • Incident types, categories and priority descriptions per service
  • Default attributes for incidents
  • Default attributes for customer raised incidents
  • Customer portal branding
  • User rights to change approval, configuration management, time tracking and admin.

  We don't currently build for individual customised extensions to standard functionality.

  ^ top

Pricing and Plans

• How much does Beetil cost?

  US$25 per user license per month, and the more users licenses you have the lower the cost. No fixed term contracts, just pay as you go. You are free to leave at any time.

  ^ top

• Does the cost reduce as I add more users?

  It will depend on the number of user licenses you get. Users 1 through 5 are priced at US$25 per license per month. Users 6 through 25 are priced at US$20 per license per month. If you want more than 25 licenses get in touch with us and we'll customise a pricing plan for you.

  ^ top

• What are your plans?

  We don't have any plans, just pay on a per user license basis, but we can customise a pricing plan for you if you have more than 25 users. Get in touch if you want to discuss pricing plans with us.

  ^ top

• What's a user license?

  If you have 5 user licenses, that means you're allowed up to five users (users marked as inactive or deleted users don't count). Your customers can use the customer portal to log incidents for free.

  ^ top

• How do you calculate my monthly bill if I add / remove licenses?

  You pay for the month in advance so if you add or remove any licenses during that month your next bill will contain a discount or addition. Discounts and additional amounts are calculated on a pro-rata basis.

  ^ top

• How does the free trial work?

  Sign up for your free 30 day trial, add as many users as you like - it won't cost a cent. We'll contact you before your trial ends and you can choose how many user licenses you want to start paying for. You are not obliged to keep using Beetil once the trial period is up, however any data you had entered during the trial will still be there and usable for the next 6 months. Sign up for a free trial here.

  ^ top

• Will I have any obligations if I sign up?

  No - you have no obligations and and can choose to leave whenever you like.

  ^ top

ITIL

• What is ITIL?

  ITIL® stands for 'Information Technology Infrastructure Library' and is a registered trade mark of the Office of Government and Commerce in the UK. ITIL is essentially a set of standards, or good practices, for IT service management. These practices were developed in the UK and are internationally recognised and widely adopted.

  For more information go to www.itil-officialsite.com

  ^ top

• Who uses ITIL?

  IT departments are the predominant users of ITIL best practices, although any sector can benefit from the adoption of these practices to help manage their services.

  Many smaller businesses might be put off my the seeming complexity of ITIL - it's actually just great common sense and we believe anyone can and should benefit from it.

  ^ top

• Why adopt ITIL best practices?

  The beauty of ITIL is that it can structure and clearly define how your projects and services are working out for you. It enables your business to become more proactive as opposed to reactive and establishes a platform for continual improvement of your services. If you're looking for an effective way of managing deadlines, priorities and service level agreements then ITIL might be just the ticket.

  It's internationally recognised and widely adopted so chances are your competitors will already be using ITIL, a similar recognised framework, or looking into it.

  ^ top

• Does my organisation need to know ITIL to use Beetil?

  No they don't need to be ITIL experts or even know what ITIL is. ITIL is a method of documenting common sense for your IT department. We've made a point of trying to keep things as straightforward and jargon free as possible so there's no need for big investments in training or heavy manuals. In fact your staff may not even be aware that they are using ITIL principles at all - they might even enjoy it!

  ^ top

• Is Beetil ITIL certified?

  No tool can claim to be "ITIL certified". ITIL is a non-prescriptive framework from which you can pick and choose processes or parts of processes that best fit your business needs. If you're asking "does Beetil have PinkVERIFY™ certification or is it process compliant under OGC's new scheme?" the answer is no. Beetil supports key ITIL processes in an easy to use and practical way that is focused on adding value to our customers' business. Our focus on practicality and ease of use means sometimes we make deliberate design choices which may conflict with aspects of the certification schemes.

  Read our blog 'Usability versus Compliance'.

  ^ top

• What version of ITIL is Beetil based on?

  Beetil is currently based largely around ITIL v2 - however functionality to support some of the additional ITIL v3 processes will be incorporated in the near future.

  ^ top

• What ITIL processes does Beetil cater for?

  • Incident management
  • Problem management
  • Change management
  • Release management
  • Configuration management
  • Knowledge management (part of ITIL v3) will be coming soon!

  ^ top

• What is Incident Management?

  An incident is a single event, a disruptance or query that affects the quality of a service to a customer. It will have a timeframe within which it needs to be resolved by in order for customers to feel OK about it. Basically, incident management is about getting your customers up and running (and keeping them there) by whatever means necessary. An indepth description of incident management can be found on Wikipedia's ITIL page.

  Managing incidents means the right priority, an appropriate deadline, open communication with the right people, understanding the incident's context and what and who it affects. You should be able to accurately measure your Service Level Agreement compliancy and understand your incident hotspots and their wider affects.

  Read our blog 'Effective Incident Management'.

  ^ top

• What is Problem Management?

  A problem is a recurring issue that affects a service. It could be a technical glitch, something unclear about the UI, or the absence of a feature or certain information that customers keep requesting. A problem will indicate an underlying issue with a service that needs a short term and/or long term solution.

  Problems are not incidents - a customer might be affected by an incident which is then resolved i.e. the service for that customer has been restored to normal levels, but the problem might still be there just waiting to occur again and again. It should be logged, associated with any related incidents and investigated for short and long term fixes.

  Problem management is a proactive way of managing your services, and it's a bridge between keeping customers happy and keeping your business running smoothly and efficiently. An indepth description of problem management can be found on Wikipedia's ITIL page.

  Read our blog posts 'Effective Problem Management' and 'I'm sure I've come across this before!'.

  ^ top

• What is Change Management?

  The correct ITIL term for a Change is an RFC (Request for Change) - we simply refer to them as 'Changes' in Beetil for the sake of simplicity. Changes a pretty self explanatory - basically any change to a service or to something that will affect a service should be defined and logged as a Change.

  Change Management allows you to justify any change, have that change go through an approval process, plan the urgency and impact and allocate resources. You should also be able to tightly manage the plan, build and test phases of a change. An indepth description of change management can be found on Wikipedia's ITIL page.

  Read our blog 'Getting Started with Change Management'.

  ^ top

• What is Release Management?

  A Release is an implementation of a change to a service. Well planned releases allow for clear disruption points and ensures quality of the production environment by formal procedures and checks.

  An indepth description of release management can be found on Wikipedia's ITIL page.

  ^ top

• What is Configuration Management?

  Configuration management is all about identifying, defining and mapping all your assets and their relationships to one another. It's also about maintaining control over these assets (or 'Configuration Items') through effective incident, problem and release and change management. Understand what affects what, what's causing you the most trouble, where your hot spots are.

  Configuration is a complex subject, and one of the hardest ITIL processes to implement. An indepth description of configuration management can be found on Wikipedia's ITIL page.

  Read our blog 'Getting Started With Configuration Management'

  ^ top

• Can I get advice for implementing ITIL processes in my business?

  We are available to consult to your business and help you put ITIL processes in place, or we can put you in touch with the right people to do this depending on your needs.

  We also recommend your check out Rob England's 'The IT Skeptic' website for a practical and critical look at ITIL.

  ^ top

Set-up and Support

• What equipment do I need to use Beetil?

  You'll need an internet connection and a modern browser. We recommend Firefox, Safari, and also support IE7+. Your customers accessing the Beetil Customer Portal will need at least IE6.

  ^ top

• Can Beetil be deployed on site?

  No problems, get in touch with us and we'll arrange to deploy Beetil on site so you can keep your data close to home.

  ^ top

• Can I import all my historical data?

  If it's possible to extract data from your old system then we will do everything we can to help you do this so we can then import it into Beetil. Soon you'll be able to use the Beetil API to migrate data from your existing system into Beetil.

  ^ top

• What about upgrades?

  You won't need to worry about upgrades. Because Beetil is software as a service they will just happen at a suitable time. Don't worry - we'll keep you informed about new features.

  ^ top

• Where do I go for Beetil help and support?

  Pick up the phone, email, instant message, skype, whatever suits you, and be assured you'll be talking to a real person. Our full contact details can be found here.

  Our Online Help Centre will be coming soon!

  ^ top

• What hours of coverage does Beetil support provide?

  Beetil support is currently provided on a phone and email basis during New Zealand business hours only. Feel free to try us outside of these hours, as we live on the internet and love what we do. But no promises.

  For peace of mind, we continually monitor the application for uptime around the clock and have engineers on call to react should we experience major issues with the site. We take uptime very seriously.

  As Beetil grows we will be looking to increase our support coverage to a 24/7 basis but at this stage the economies of scale are simply not there for us to be able to offer Beetil with 24x7 support at a competitive price to our customers. For that we apologise, but we'll get there.

  ^ top

• Isn't Beetil a startup? Is it going to be around for a long time?

  We are a sustainable consulting business of which Beetil is just a small component (i.e. we're not a one trick pony!). This aside, at any time you will be able to download your data for whatever reason so nothing will be lost.

  ^ top

• When do you schedule your outages?

  Inevitably, we will have to schedule downtime on Beetil to release new goodies into the wild, and to keep it in tip top condition. We'll ensure we give you plenty of notice and try to schedule outages during low periods of activity. Hopefully, when you're all tucked up in bed.

  ^ top

• What happens to my data if I choose to leave?

  We'll keep your data online for 6 months after you leave so you can always come back. If you want a copy of it or want it removed just ask us.

  ^ top

Security and Privacy

• What security measures does Beetil have to protect my data?

  • We use 128 bit SSL encryption, this is the same level of encryption that banks use
  • Our servers are hosted at Amazon's data centres in the EU and US and secure data centres in New Zealand
  • Only a select few authorised personnel at Beetil have admin access to the Beetil servers
  • Our databases are continually replicated and backed up to secure locations every night
  • No one has access to your account unless you give them access to it

  ^ top

• Can Beetil or YouDo staff see my data?

  No, only people you add as users to your account can see your data.

  ^ top

• What is your privacy policy?

  Read our privacy policy here

  ^ top

• What are your terms and conditions?

  Read our terms and conditions here

  ^ top