6.6 Integration points Today, various CMDBs are available with ITIL-compatible, preconfigured tools that integrate with supporting applications. This capability lowers the cost to deploy services and increases their effectiveness. For example, the Service Desk captures events from a variety of different sources. Events are filtered, standardized, and prioritized based on severity, scope of problem, or business impact. This action provides the functionality to open a trouble ticket that the support staff can prioritize, based on the goals and priorities of the ITIL processes used to filter events. The process is automated and much more repeatable, and eliminates the manual burden typically associated with prioritizing and filtering. Today, many organizations consider the ability to manage Configuration Items (CIs) to be the primary step for getting started with configuration management. Using a CMDB for asset management can significantly reduce costs. Without a CMDB, organizations run the risk of over-provisioning because they cannot track which assets are used for which purposes, or which availability and service problems relate to certain types of assets. Table 6-3 lists how the CMDB data is used by various IT Service Management functions.