Cherwell Software announced a strategic technical alliance with Dell to deliver an expanded set of IT management features to their respective customers.

As part of this agreement, Cherwell’s IT service management (ITSM) capabilities will be an available integration from within the Dell KACE product for customers who wish to access Cherwell’s ITIL-compliant solution. Dell KACE’s endpoint management functionality will be integrated into Cherwell Service Management. The partnership signals Cherwell’s and Dell’s shared mission of helping enterprise customers manage and optimize their IT infrastructures — whether they are approaching it from a services or asset-centric perspective.

An initial integration between the products exists today, and the companies will work closely to build deeper and more comprehensive integrations through shared APIs.

“As organizations undergo a digital transformation to the 3rd Platform, IT will consist of increasingly heterogeneous and hybrid technologies that add significant complexity to IT service and support within the enterprise. More than ever, IT professionals need the ability to deliver services and support to business users that are leveraging disparate hardware and software platforms often across dispersed geographies,” said Robert Young, Research Director, ITSM and Client Virtualization software, IDC. “The Cherwell Software and Dell KACE technical alliance indicates both companies’ strong commitment in enabling IT organizations to optimize the delivery of services and support across increasingly complex and dynamic landscapes.”

For users of the Dell KACE K1000 Systems Management Appliance, Cherwell will provide the option of a powerful and complete ITSM solution with out-of-the-box support and workflow automation for 11 ITIL-processes. With Cherwell, Dell KACE customers can also take advantage of the industry’s most flexible ITSM licensing and deployment options, an infinitely customizable and extensible service management platform and a “customer-first” philosophy not offered by legacy and mega-ITSM vendors.

As a result of the integration, Cherwell users will be able to access data, automate processes and fulfill service requests relating to software distribution, patch management and IT asset inventory through a single pane of glass. In addition, Dell KACE’s detailed hardware and software inventory information for Microsoft Windows, Mac, and Linux systems can populate Cherwell’s Configuration Management Database (CMDB), providing service management staff with critical visibility into their IT infrastructures, and increasing both the speed and quality of IT service delivery.

“Our strategic relationship with Dell means our mutual customers can establish that critical, yet elusive link between their IT infrastructures and the services they deliver to business users,” said Vance Brown, CEO and Co-founder of Cherwell. “Without this link, IT teams can’t possibly keep up with the demands of their own internal customers, much less innovate in ways that create genuine business value. Our shared vision is to make it ridiculously easy for IT to automate routine processes, so they can tackle opportunities that truly move the business forward.”

“We are thrilled to be leveraging Cherwell’s technology to provide a complete, ITIL-compliant ITSM option to our enterprise customers,” said David Kloba, Vice President and General Manager of Endpoint Systems Management for Dell. “The ability to tie our systems management capabilities to the human processes that support them represents a huge leap forward in our customers’ abilities to reduce costs, focus on higher-value activities and, ultimately, accelerate favorable business outcomes.”