The latest version of Opalis Software Inc.’s flagship IT process automation server software was released a couple weeks ago. Among the enhanced features of the Opalis Integration Server 5.5 is a customizable executive dashboard designed to give high-level IT and other managers the ability to drill into graphs and get at the service data behind them. “The idea is to add value at all levels of IT from administrators, operators and up to senior managers,” said Charles Crouchman, the chief technology officer at Opalis. The executive dashboard, he added, is designed to provide senior IT managers who are responsible for managing the effectiveness of service delivery with relevant data.

Executive dashboards for IT process automation? Sounds a lot like business intelligence for the IT operations set.

Actually, executive dashboards aren’t that new to IT process automation in particular and systems management in general, according to Rich Ptak, an analyst with Ptak, Noel & Associates. “Most infrastructure management solutions have some sort of dashboard — executive or otherwise — that ships with the product,” he said. “What is important is the engine underneath the dashboard.” In the case of Opalis, things like powerful supporting analytics, strong report-generation capabilities, and the ability to correlate and compare data make its executive dashboard stand out.

As Ptak sees it, the emphasis that Opalis places on executive dashboards is beneficial to IT managers, who have often been reluctant to proactively build tools that demonstrate what they do and how it affects the business. “For too long, the game was to collect as much data as possible and throw that data and analytic tools at the end user,” he said. “Today the vendors are taking more responsibility for helping IT and their customers to get real information in understandable formats.”