ARCAD Software, leading vendor in software solutions for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) on IBM Power, announced the release of Version 9.5 of their IT Service Management product ARCAD-Customer: an Eclipse-based and platform-independent solution for managing relations with end-users and/or customers.

Designed to ITIL specifications, ARCAD-Customer formalizes, manages and traces all communication between end-users, customers and the support desk – such as handling of incidents, service requests, problems and events. The solution is used 24/7 within ARCAD Software itself for managing customers worldwide. A built-in knowledge base enables technical support teams across different continents to cooperate in sequence on case resolution.

Easy to install and configure, ARCAD-Customer offers a highly scalable solution for IT Service Management across all business sectors including ISVs.

Marc Dallas, R&D Director at ARCAD Software comments:

"There is a gap in the market for a pragmatic and easy-to-use IT Service Management solution that will allow selective adoption of ITIL in large and small shops alike. Our goal is not to impose a methodology but allow our customers to select the best process for their organization. ARCAD-Customer has the advantage of offering a complete "service supply chain", from incident right through delivery. With Version 9.5, we give the end-user total transparency over the progress of incidents and a richer notification loop".

ARCAD-Customer 9.5 introduces a fully customizable Service Level Agreement (SLA) feature, to be defined globally and then personalized for specific clients, and for specific applications. This gives maximum flexibility in the definition of response times and notifications according to contract.

Again for ease-of-use, the solution comes with an intuitive rich Web interface. An auto-closure feature is provided for incidents and requests, subject to validation by the creator. This prevents a proliferation of old, unused or invalid cases from overloading the system.

In response to regulations in incident and change reporting, ARCAD-Customer 9.5 includes a new Report Designer based on the Eclipse-based BIRT reporting system. Delivered with standard ITIL reports out-of-the-box, the tool makes the definition and customization of compelling audit reports a quick and easy process.

Specifically for the software vendor community, the new Download Server module simplifies the delivery of new software releases and patches. Sharing the same knowledge base and search facilities of the core product, customers can initiate the download of a new software version at their convenience, and are notified when their incident is resolved and a patch is available.

This enhancement of ARCAD-Customer and emphasis on quality of service coincide with the ongoing globalization of ARCAD Software, following on its latest Unicode-compliant general software release and expansion into Asian markets.