After all, there are dozens (hundreds?) of commercially available tools that can handle asset inventory, software discovery, contract management etc. (including good old paper and pencil).
So it’s pretty simple to run your asset inventory. (note I didn’t say it’s EASY - I said it’s simple.)
In large IT organizations, that’s the root of the real problem - each department in IT has been running their own IT asset inventory, alone, for years. Some departments do ITAM with great efficiency and effectiveness, other times, not. But most are getting ITAM done - to the extent that the operations of that department require.
Key phrase being “that department” (also known as “silo”)
So the result is a patchwork of inconsistent data, tools, processes, capabilities, and EXECUTION toward the bigger business requirements.
And there’s the hang-up - the bigger business requirements.
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The discussion of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) is nothing new in the IT Industry. However, due to the emergence of web services you hear more organizations discussing how to transform to SOA. As I mentioned in my first blog, the challenges for IT organizations are becoming more complex. We must face issues like distributed software, varying protocols, the maturation of the Internet, etc. Corporations are looking for ways to better equip themselves for change. IT organizations need to respond quickly to new requirements of the business and constantly seek ways to reduces IT costs in the process. SOA, along with web services, provides a solution to these challenges.
SOA is an architecture assembled from reusable components that stress interoperability and location transparency. There are many technical and business values for transforming to SOA, notably a dramatic reduction in the cost of maintaining rapidly changing IT systems, accelerating deployment of new application functionality, through the reuse of services and enabling incremental deployment options, avoiding costly and risky ?big bang? implementations.
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Welcome back!
Let’s continue chatting about enquiries (requests) and then provide a brief example of an ITIL enquiry in action.
If you look at the ITIL diagrams that the ITSMF (http://www.itsmf.com) assembled, you’ll see 10 ITIL process boxes, a bunch of reports & stuff, plus a CMDB. However, in its current incarnation, ITIL doesn’t have a separate process for Request Management as it does, for instance, with Incident Management.
Perhaps the reason is that requests (or queries) really are implicit throughout the model. In a way, enquiries are the reason that most of the boxes exist in the first place - especially on the Service Delivery side of the model. After all, it should be obvious that IT can’t only be about fixing service outages - IT has to add value by handling customer requests for value-added services! It’s a supply-demand thing.
Here’s one small example from the real world.
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Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is the standard most auditors use to determine if internal controls are in place, active and documented for your IT systems and processes. But if COBIT standards are applied without a sufficient baseline and a modicum of common sense, many enterprises find that they have hundreds of discrepancies to address. Not only does that diminish that value of COBIT as an effective standard, it brings IT to a standstill while addressing the audit findings. If your firm’s auditor have used a contol standard other than COBIT to assess internal controls, what have they used? In addition to Financial Best Practices, was your standard also based upon IT Best Practices? How was that determined and by whom?
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As mentioned last week, I’d like to share our approach to framing challenges so we can deliver business value. Best of all, it is not too hard to do, gives a good rounded view of the issues, and gives you a way to checkpoint your value delivered.
What is the 5 x 5 approach? It is a method of looking at a need from 5 apertures, and looking at the returns projected from 5 bases of value. It reflects the fact that our clients are large, complex organizations, and the work we do crosses many parts of the organization. Here are the 5 apertures we use–
1) Strategic / Business Alignment - does this initiative align with the CEO’s and CIO’s top initiatives for the year ahead? If so how? if not how might it? How does it effectively support a system or effort that does align?
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When you’re talking about IT Asset Management, and especially when you talk about Software License Management, it won’t take long before the conversation turns to ‘tools.’
In fact - that’s one of the quickest ‘ITAM maturity checks’ for an organization - do they think of ITAM as being about an ‘asset discovery tool’ or suite? or do they understand that a tool is only part of the solution?
Reminds me of an old gag about IT and tools:
Q. Why do IT organizations evaluate alternative technologies?
A. Because they don’t know what else to do.
If that’s a little painful for you - you’re not alone.
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We know that frameworks like ITIL are just a guideline for how IT work should get done. It’s great that the British government and many others have finally codified what anyone who has worked in IT for a few years already knows.
Even so, it can be difficult to understand how ITIL should work in our daily IT life. Furthermore, ITIL doesn’t cover everything IT does - it’s got some important gaps, which can affect how we put ITIL into action.
Do you know what ITIL’s weaknesses are? Share your thoughts!
Anyway, now that we’ve kicked-off the discussion, let’s look at a recent example from daily life:
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You’ve heard of ITIL, COBiT and the other frameworks. You know that they’re hot topics and you probably know why. But is your IT organization acting on these valuable ideas? Do you know what your competition is doing with ITIL? Would you know where to begin or what to do next?
Join the blog where IT gets down to work! In this netspace, we’re battle-hardened ITers bloggin’ about the joys & sorrows of doing ITIL-based governance and process improvements in the real corporate world. While other blogs are talking about concepts and visions, we’ll be focusing on the practical, day-to-day aspects of putting ITIL into action.
So who is your moderator? My name is Scott, I’m ITIL certified and have 20-years of wide-ranging professional experience in IT. I also hold an M.S. degree in Computer Science and also a M.B.A. degree. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
So, don’t just be a lurker! Speak right up with your questions, comments, ‘war stories’ or successes. Let’s learn from each other as we do IT the ITIL way.
-Scott
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As ITIL has gained momentum more and more focus is being placed on IT service management as a business value add as opposed to a necessary evil (cost). Additionally, government regulations, such as CoBIT and Sarbanes Oxley, imposed in the wake of corporate financial scandals have made certain processes within the realm of IT Service Management mandatory. These changes have made the traditional helpdesk critical to the success of an organization.
Most organizations at this point have at least heard of ITIL and understand its premise. Many of these organizations are scrambling to get their staff trained on ITIL and ITIL implemented. ITIL is a framework and set guidelines for the implementation of IT Service Management processes. IT Service Management seeks to provide quality IT services at a reasonable cost. At the foundation of IT Service Management is a process for continuous improvement.
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Welcome!!! What is the Business Value of IT? Does it matter to us? Why? Is it impossible to effectively capture? Can strategic value be measured? While Evergreen focuses on improving IT operations in large complex organizations, these questions matter for any IT undertaking. These are the kinds of issues and discussions this Blog is all about.
IT projects need to produce business results. So how do we go about it?
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