4.1. Overview

The Managed Services Provider (MSP) market is forecast to reach $329.1 Billion dollars by 2025 – Ref.

Targeted at this MSP market, CIOCTO is a multi-tenant cloud-based Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) platform and control plane, that is fully compliant with the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, that delivers tools and business intelligence to manage complex IT & Communications environments..

XSTRA operates as an MSP and currently uses Version 3 of the CIOCTO platform as its Professional Services Automation (PSA) system under the moniker of XCRM.

Key Features of CIOCTO include:

• Web-Based User Interface
• Worlds Best Practice workflows incorporating:
  • ISO 9001.2015
  • ISO 27001.2013
  • ITIL – incident, request, problem, change, release, service level, knowledge and configuration management
• Data Lake for Reporting and Billing Data incorporating:
  • Postgres Database
  • Data Lake API
  • CIOCTO Universal Agent – sends data to the Data Lake API
    • Windows Service
    • Unique Agent ID is set during installation, calls home, and gets “Adopted”
    • Logs all errors it encounters in undertaking tasks set for it
    • Tasks for Agents are set in XCRM
    • Agent performs many regular tasks. Example: Active Directory management
    • As far as data collection, it just grabs the requested data and passes it to the Data Lake via an API that is set to accept “Data Parcels”
    • The Agent is not hampered by data structures or schema’s at the Data Lake end
    • The Agent only passes “Data Parcels”
    • The Agent also acts as a proxy for PoweShell, Telnet, SSH
    • Facilitates Active Directory integration
  • Stream Register & Validator – continuously checks data in the data lake
    • AWAREIM Front End + C# Back-end Service + Postgres Database
    • STREAM REGISTER will contain:
      • Stream Name
      • Contact Email Addresses for alerts and notifications
      • Schema
      • Conditions of checking
      • Schedule of checking
  • Reporting – using Telerik Reports
• Vendor Bill Transformation services
  • Functionality similar to MagicOrange
  • Clients own Account Codes can be uploaded and used to assign costs when anchoring products to entities
• Plugins for Brave browser and Chrome browser for among other things – Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Two-Way Directory Sync for:
  • Microsoft ActiveDirectory
  • Microsoft AzureAD
• Vendor API integrations for multiple vendors including:
  • IngramMicro
  • Microsoft AzureAD
  • Microsoft Office 365 (MS Graph API)
    • Each Entity Category Type of “Client” gets their own Office 365 Tenant if the total number of entity objects exceeds 100 (Must have 1 User with an Office 365 E3 license – $29 AUD per month as at 20210616)
      • A separate SharePoint Site is created for each Entity object type – Company, Site, User (Up to 250,000 entity objects per Client)
    • For Clients (with less than 100 entity objects), Suspect, Prospect, & Other Entity Category Types share a single Office 365 Tenant
  • DNSMadeEasy
• Client Portals
• Client Dashboards and Business Intelligence
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Restful API for:
  • Clients
  • Vendors
  • 3rd Party Integrations
• Full Product Life-Cycle Management
• Seamless Integration with Device42 for:
  • DCIM – Data Center Infrastructure Management
  • CMDB – Change Management Database
• XERO Accounting Integration
• QUICKBOOKS Accounting Integration
• Multi-Currency
• Full Multi-Level CRM system incorporating
  • Many API implementations including:
    • Company Number Lookup
    • Logo Implementation
    • Email Validation
    • Phone Number Validation and Normalization
    • Physical & Postal Address Validation and Normalization
  • Business Card Photo Mobile App – allowing quick snaps of business cards to be associated with the correct User entity in XCRM
  • Entity Key Words for search improvement
  • GICS codes for entity identification
  • Operator and Global entity Groups – allowing quick access to custom groups of entities
• Ticket Client Survey Response System including dynamic Net Promoter Score (NPS) metrics at all CRM entity levels
  • Ability to separate NPS scores from 3rd parties at fault
• Help and Service Desk Ticket Routing
• BPMN – Process Implementation with PMBOK methodology using Smart Tickets including:
  • Incorporating PIMS (Project Information Management Systems)
  • Participants
    • Pools
    • Lanes
  • Activities
    • Tasks
    • Sub-Processes
    • Call Activities
    • Event Sub-Processes
    • Adhoc
  • Gateways
  • Events
  • Definitions
  • PMBOK Methodology
• Complex Task Definitions =
  • Control Sheets +
  • Procedures +
  • Checklists
• Ticket functional automation using Smart Tabs
• Microsoft Teams integration using Azure Logic Apps
  • Eg: When a new email comes in against a ticket object, a chat notification in Teams is created
• Microsoft Planner integration using Azure Logic Apps – tasks are turned into tickets in XCRM and the task in Planner is set to 100% – this allows all Planner Tasks to be turned into XCRM tickets – if a user is assigned to a task they will become the “Assigned Rep” on the ticket in XCRM and you will be the “Client” on the ticket in XCRM
• IoS and Android App incorporating:
  • XCRM login Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Reporting
  • Ticket Management
  • User information management
  • Smart Ticket responses
• Xpression – is a C# module that overlooks the SQL database and automatically provides logic, workflow and external system interactions
  • SMS
  • Smart Ticket scheduling
• Azure Logic Apps – handles lowly used processes that interface with the Microsoft sphere
  • Office 365 Email processing (eg: inbound support@xstragroup.com email loads, outbound email still needs a local SMTP server to send email)
  • Team messaging
  • Planner integration – which is a temporary function until we have an XCRM mobile app to create tickets with
• Knowledge Base
  • A unique approach where common content is able to be anchored outward against Client entities and separated for custom modifications to suit each Clients unique requirements, but, still trackable from the source content after separation and a side-by-side comparison against the source KB article can highlight changes
• Products
  • Product Catalog
    • Multiple Catalogs
    • Category Tree Per Catalog
    • Serial Number Tracking
  • Common Product Specification Templates
  • Warehouse Management
• Communication Templating using Telerik Editor
• Custom Modules and Module Manager incorporating information exchange with 3rd parties using the following technologies:
  • API
  • Screen Scrape
  • Offshore Human Data Processing and Entry services
• Gamification for users and clients and other entities
  • Application controls can have rewards associated with different control states in the application
  • Users of the system are instantly rewarded for doing the right thing at the right time
  • Users enjoyment in using the system is heightened and stake-holder “buy-in” increased across the board at all levels

XSTRA has adopted many of the CIOCTO methodologies as shown HERE