Unleash the potential of Microsoft® System Center Service Manager with PowerWF Studio and PowerShell

PowerWF provides complete authoring and testing of Service Manager Workflows. Based on Windows Workflow and fueled by PowerShell, PowerWF brings Service Manager to new levels.

IT organizations face constant pressure to simultaneously improve uptime and decrease overhead costs. An obvious first step is automating common Service Desk Workflows to shorten the time to resolution and ensure that the same procedure is used each time a problem is encountered.

The Microsoft System Center suite includes Service Manager as a platform for IT service management. Service Manager provides an enterprise-ready platform to automate IT based on industry best practices for problem resolution, change control, and asset management.

As such, System Center Service Manager is a great way to automate common Service Desk Workflows. Although Service Manager includes a workflow based authoring tool for creating these Workflows, adding PowerWF to the solution adds significant flexibility and functionality.

Extending the Solution

PowerWF is a unique authoring tool that turns every PowerShell Snapin, CMDLET, and Module into tool box items that can easily be used to create powerful workflows. Even homegrown and third party PowerShell Modules and CMDLETs are treated as first-class citizens in PowerWF.

PowerWF includes a PowerShell interpreter that can convert existing PowerShell scripts into workflows which can then be extended using both PowerShell and non-PowerShell activities. Workflows can be tested directly from PowerWF using a full suite of debugging tools, including Break-Points and Tracking. Workflows can even be executed one step at a time.

Deploying to System Center

Once a workflow has been created, it can be deployed to System Center using the Management Pack Creation Wizard. The wizard allows you to specify Service Manager triggers to automatically execute the workflow. PowerWF even supports Service Manager bind parameters.

PowerWF workflows can be deployed to Service Manager and executed by triggers

It is even possible to deploy workflows as a Toolbox item that can be used in PowerWF or within Service Manager’s authoring tool. This means that PowerWF can be used to extend the functionality of both Service Manager and PowerWF.

PowerWF workflows can be directly used within the Service Manager Authoring Tool