HP announces HP Propel-- a cloud-based service solution for organisations wanting to offer self-service capabilities to end users, available in a trio of free or paid-for software-as-a-service (SaaS) options. 

The SaaS applications in question consist of an IT self-service portal, service catalogues and an Open Service Exchange available as desktop and mobile platforms. 

The free version includes a standard service catalogue, a Knowledge Management collaboration product and IT news feed delivery via RSS. 

Meanwhile the paid-for version includes an enhanced catalogue, advanced authentication (including single sign-on) and an extended version of Knowledge Management. It also allows customers to integrate on-premise service management solutions via HP-hosted Propel Service Exchange.

According to the company Propel promises "simplicity and ease of use for end users," as well as an HP Services Manager back-end handling established service management processes, hosting infrastructure, multi-supplier integration and management reference architecture. 

HP says it already found at least one early adopter for the service-- multinational energy company E.ON.

Propel will be available in European territories from January 2014. 

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