There is a good deal of interest and discussion today about how to effectively build a business case for implementing ITIL. Without one, how can you convince executive management that ITIL-based initiatives are worth the investment? Questions we hear often include:

• What is the ROI for ITIL?
• Is there an ROI model, method or tool you can use to prove ITIL?s value?
• Where do you find hard-dollar savings in an ITIL implementation?
• What sort of business objectives should you set for an ITIL implementation?
• What sorts of savings are organizations realizing that can be directly attributed to ITIL?

All good questions that should be answered before moving forward with an ITIL program.

Taking this thinking a step further and starting to dissect where an ROI might be, you are then left struggling with things like: How do we define an ‘inefficient’ process and what is its cost? How do we translate expected work-hour savings into dollar savings? How do things like improving the quality of service or improving compliance translate into ROI?

But hold on – savings and gains are only part of the equation. You must also consider the costs of resources and enablement technologies to implement an ITIL program. Applying these costs to the ROI model is part of the business case and should be addressed.

Whether it?s costs, expected savings or gains organizations are realizing today, this blog is meant to explore these topics in further detail, solicit input and ideas from those that are actually building ITIL business cases and present findings, conclusions and hopefully some useful information that can benefit all of us.

In upcoming posts, we will approach these topics in three installments, the first addressing service support issues, the second discussing service delivery and the third presenting input from the first two and suggesting some finite business case development strategies for justifying ITIL Service Support and Service Delivery initiatives.

Stay tuned for more, and in the meantime, if you have an experience in this area you’d like to share — perhaps you’ve developed an ITIL ROI model that works or have been successful in selling this to your boss or executive team — share you thoughts and feedback with us. Who knows, you might just help someone who is struggling with this very issue.

Thanks

Joe

Click the link to check out our new White Paper on “Building the Business Case for ITIL”.

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