Aldon Ventures Into Professional Services with ACE

Published: February 23, 2010

by Alex Woodie

IT organizations that could use a little help in setting up their change management environments may be interested in hearing about the new ACE professional services program launched last week by Aldon. Named after its application change expert (ACE) methodology, the new program offers three levels of service to get development shops on the straight and narrow when it comes to following best practices for change management.

Aldon has been a successful developer of application lifecycle management (ALM) and change management tools for the System i server and other platforms for more than 25 years. The company, which was acquired by Marlin Equity Partners in 2007, jumped on and rode the regulatory compliance wave that started building with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act nearly 10 years ago.

While the regulations governing IT processes and IT departments are only getting tighter, the delivery mechanisms and customer expectations for software of all types continues to evolve. Organizations that, in the past, may have had the time to buy a change management product and institute ALM practices on their own, are finding themselves squeezed for time and resources by an ever-increasing workload and increasing application complexity. This set the stage for Aldon's move into services with its new ACE program.

Aldon's new ACE program provides an end-to-end solution for streamlined ALM implementation. Under the ACE program, Aldon change management experts will come to a customer's site, evaluate the customer's existing workflows, sculpt a new automated ALM solution based on the customer's needs, install and configure the required Aldon software products to achieve those needs, and train the customer in its ongoing use and maintenance.

Three tiers of service are available under its ACE program. Under tier one, an Aldon expert will help an organization take inventory of applications, review the customers release and deployment methodology, and implement basic change management functionality for a single application, via an included license for Aldon Lifecycle Manager (either IBM i edition or Enterprise edition for Windows, Linux, and Unix environments).

Tier two brings additional customer applications into the Aldon Lifecycle Manager fold, and analyzes the customer's ALM workflow processes--everything from the change request to approval to enhancement delivery. Tier two also comes with a license and installation for Aldon Community Manager help desk software.

Tier three takes the ALM process up a notch by getting Aldon experts involved with helping the customer to prepare for a site audit and getting the sign-off on regulatory compliance. This level involves more in-depth configuration and training in the Aldon toolset.

Customers will benefit in several ways as a result of ACE, according to Aldon, including: faster ALM product implementation; the capability to develop higher quality code in a shorter amount of time; reduced business interruptions; and regulatory compliance.

The ACE program will help IT departments adapt to the fast pace of change while meeting compliance requirements, according to Aldon president and CEO Matt Scholl.

"Complex infrastructures, ever-changing applications, and a string of new development methods may be trademarks of an active IT department, but they don't do your IT processes any favors," Scholl says in a press release. "Aldon ACE professional services help IT groups better address the daily and long-term challenges they face, bringing process-driven services and software change management best practices to customers so they can best adapt to continuous change, and do it in a compliant manner."

More information on Aldon's new ACE professional services organization can be found at www.aldon.com.

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