In a recent survey conducted by Evergreen Strategies on ITIL Maturity Benchmarks, an impressive 77% point to service quality as the top business driver of ITIL efforts. However, 72% reported that the biggest barrier to ITIL adoption is organizational resistance. So what do these findings mean?

Service quality is the primary driver behind ITIL initiatives, yet there is still overwhelming organizational resistance to the change required to implement ITIL on an enterprise level. In order to overcome this resistance, powerful justifications must be developed to secure funding and senior IT management support for long term ITIL investments. The drivers of those justifications surfaced in the same ITIL Maturity Benchmark study:

93% of those surveyed have a mandate to drive down cost (staff) of operations (70-80% of the budget) and increase funding / time for increasing strategic projects (25% of the budget) but don’t have a plan to do so.

Improving service quality is a CIO level strategic goal.

Compliance needs are being met, but the effort to do so is very high and primarily reactive.

IT Operations staff is lean and demand is still rising. There is genuine concern around losing top IT staff to burnout.

If demand and complexity continue to rise, so will workload. If IT Operations is lean now, working harder is not an answer. If nothing else changes, customer service quality will fall, and good staff will leave.

Simple logic dictates, IT must either increase spending, reduce quality, or improve efficiency.

Unless you have a better strategy to reduce IT operations expense by 20-40% while also improving service quality, then ITIL best practices should be investigated thoroughly.

A roadmap for mining this value in your organization and building these justifications is laid out in one of our whitepapers:
“Developing the Business Case for ITIL”.

I welcome your thoughts!

Don Casson

Technorati Tags: itil foundation itil

—–

Hi Guys- -

We recently completed tabulating the results of our Q2 survey on Change Management maturity, and as I went through the findings, I was struck by one thought- the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The survey was designed to gauge the degree of commitment large companies are making to Change Management, assess their current operational maturity levels and identify primary challenge areas, as well as opportunities. One hundred IT managers from 77 companies weighed in from Healthcare, Financial Services, Technology and Insurance firms at several regional itSMF conferences.

Although growing numbers rate service quality with accompanying reduced costs and increased efficiencies as the strongest business driver of Change Management, these findings were at odds with the numbers of companies that still have no formal Change Assessment board governance processes. And the continuing number of short-term, emergency changes also point to the fact that there is still much work to be done by many companies in the area of formalizing their Change Management governance system.

The survey highlighted some important areas of progress:

• 49% are using a Change Management application as an IT workflow tool.
• 72% have 30% or more of their IT staff using a Change Management application daily.
• Almost half are using Change Management to plan and execute Release Management activities.
• 39% integrate Change Management into their portfolio of project management tools.
• 59% employ Change Management as a single, enterprise-wide IT Change Management policy and system.

On the other hand, some findings point to a continued ?reactive? approach to Change Management:

• Only 28% have a single Change Assessment Board review all planned changes prior to design.
• Still 40% report that more than 26% of their changes are emergency, short-notice changes.
• 44% are still using Change Management in an undisciplined fashion, as evidenced by having an informal risk assessment process.

So what are the numbers telling us? Even though service quality, cost reduction and enhanced efficiencies are our highest goals, and even though Change Management is being used increasingly as a tool to achieve these goals, we have still not properly engineered the Change Management governance process in a way that will slow the hemorrhage of short-term, emergency changes? Is that it, the more things change, the more they stay the same?

Also, Don’t forget to register for Evergreen’s change management webinar: Take Change Management from Firefighting to Fire Prevention

Don

Technorati Tags: assessment itsmf itil itsmf it infrastructure library it governance itil

—–

As we start to dive into building a business case for ITIL, it is helpful to understand a bit about the market?s current state. Specifically, why are organizations today even looking at ITIL? Studies show it isn?t just to reduce cost, but?..ROI is certainly a significant part of securing executive support (funding) and can prove critical in overcoming organizational resistance. It is probably important to note at this point (before getting too far into this) that the viewpoint, assumptions and discussion presented in this blog are focused primarily on those organizations living in the commercial world, where corporate profitability and cost containment are critical to organizational success. We will address the government and not-for-profit sectors in a later blog as their business drivers and measurement of success can be, obviously, quite different. With that said, my hope is that there is benefit for all in this blog and that the points we discuss will not only help you in your role, but will initiate some lively discussion that will benefit us all.

Now? back to the blog??

In a recent survey conducted by Evergreen Systems on ITIL Maturity Benchmarks, 54% of respondents reported they had secured budgeted approval of ITIL projects at some level (that sounds good). And, a surprising 77% point to service quality as the top business driver of ITIL efforts (a noble cause indeed). However, 72% reported that the biggest barrier to ITIL adoption is organizational resistance ? resistance bolstered by lack of provable ROI and a believable cost savings model (ahhh.. the rub). So what do these findings mean, and what can you do?

Our interpretation is that while service quality may be perceived as the primary driver behind ITIL initiatives, it alone is not enough to overcome organizational resistance and executive scrutiny. While most of us would like to improve customer service and see it as a specific benefit, the truth is, in today?s competitive market, it is rarely a primary driver of IT initiatives. In fact, many of the IT managers we currently work with feel they are probably over-delivering IT services. Their view is that the pendulum has swung perhaps too far towards customer service the past few years and pulling back a bit may yield significant cost savings with minimal impact on service. Not necessarily good news if you are trying to start an ITIL project based on improving customer service.

Bottom line and the real point here is - while improving service quality may be a top business driver for those of us in IT, it might not be for those who fund IT. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to build a business case that is comprehensive in nature and that includes not only the goal of improving customer service, but also looks at other key areas such as expense savings, risk mitigation, business alignment and improved agility? with a particular focus on reducing costs any way you can. This idea is supported by some additional findings in our survey. Respondents were asked about business drivers within their organization other than improving customer service, and what we found were:

• Of those surveyed, 93% have a mandate to drive down cost (staff) of operations (70-80% of the budget) and increase funding/time for increasing strategic projects (25% of the budget). The majority of these respondents had no strategy or plan to achieve these goals.
• 58% responded that business alignment was a primary driver for ITIL-based projects.
• Improving efficiency was selected by 43% of respondents as another key business driver.
• Compliance needs are being met, but the effort to do so is very costly and primarily reactive.

Build a business case that focuses on several of these areas, and you have a much better chance of getting the support and funding you need to move forward.

Now, some will argue (as we have seen in this very blog) that businesses will eventually implement ITIL or ITIL-like processes because ‘it is the right thing to do’. After all, businesses buy PCs for every employee, give them tools and supplies to work with, spend money on HR, Facilities, etc. all without an ROI. ITIL should be viewed in the same way. Unfortunately, ITIL is not seen (yet) by most organizations as key to day-to-day business operations (like having a PC is). After all, IT organizations are functioning adequately today and are, in fact, performing many of the processes and functions found in the ITIL framework. The key here is how efficiently and effectively are they performing these operations and are there real opportunities for improvement? If you are serious about an ITIL initiative, the hard truth is there is no way around developing a real, believable business case built primarily on driving costs out of IT operations or somehow positively impacting the bottom line.

So, if you agree with me so far (and some of you probably don’t), your next step is to figure out what do you do and how to do it. One good place to start is by looking at one of the basic ITIL process areas: Incident Management. And this, my much appreciated reader, is where we will pick up the next blog entry… so stay tuned and let me know what you think so far - agree with what I have said, disagree, want to add your two cents… let me hear from you.

Joe

Also, check out our new White Paper on “Building the Business Case for ITIL”.

Technorati Tags: itil it infrastructure library information technology infrastructure library itsm itsm consulting cmdb

—–

This is a question we get more often then not from our clients. My first comment is always the same: organization is less important than the process ownership. Every process must have an owner even if the process crosses multiple groups or departments, and that owner must be empowered to meet the objectives of the process. A colleague of mine once said that organizing around process is like making Jell-o without the bowl.

That being said, I think that one can organize Service Management around four major segments:

1. Service Alignment and Design (AKA The Business Perspective on steroids) ? Includes business to IT Relationship Management, IT strategy, IT Architecture, Service Development and Business Process Management
2. Service Delivery ? Includes Service Level Management, Availability Management, Capacity Management, Service Continuity and Financial management
3. Service Governance and Control (supports both compliance management and supply chain management) ? Includes Demand Management, Project Management, Change Management, Release Management, Security Management and Configuration Management
4. Service Support ? Includes Service Desk, Incident Management, Problem Management, Asset Management and Infrastructure Management

With all due respect to ITIL, I have taken some liberties with the naming of these organization groups. No doubt each organization might come up with a different naming convention as well. Where I have placed the processes is probably more important then what the groups are called. In addition, I want the new organization to really focus the planning, designing, developing and managing on a service and not simply an application or a set of technologies. Each one of the named process areas will have owners reporting up to the executive of the group.

The organizational leads for each of these four groups must have a seat at the CIO?s table. Please note that I have put a specific emphasis on two areas that I think in the long term will be the most critical: Service Design and Service Control. I also think that ITIL does not give these two areas the significance they deserve.

Service Alignment and Design puts the emphasis on the customer. The customer relationship and customer requirements are the most critical to the success of service management. Much has been written in recent years as to the importance of the customer and understanding customer needs yet many IT organizations are still struggling to align with the business. A high priority must be placed on this early in the Service Management lifecycle. At first, tying together Relationship Management, IT Strategy and Architecture and then incorporating Service Development at the same time as Service Delivery once Service Support and Control are in place.

I have segregated Service Control as a separate organization because of the significance of these processes in the overall service management scheme. Why? Two reasons: (1) so many clients relegate change management to the support side of the business and to the technical infrastructure and not to the service; and (2) The majority of the processes mentioned under service control provides the overall balance between IT Supply and IT Demand. When these processes are executed correctly together, IT can deliver on its commitments in a cost effective and customer-focused manner. Service Control is the supply chain engine of IT.

With apologies to those individuals responsible for Application Management, Infrastructure Management and Security Management, I felt it necessary to place these process areas in the most logical groups knowing that the processes nested in each will touch all four groups. Not only are these major areas and critical processes, it is critical for these groups to work cross organizationally. This will be accomplished through service governance and control: at the project level for service design and development; at the change and release level for Service Control; and at the service support level through service level agreements, operating level agreements and incidents and problems.

Whether you’re a cherry (my favorite), orange or lime Jell-O fan, it is still difficult to make Jell-O without a bowl no matter how it might be shaped!

Check out our new White Paper on “ITIL Awareness Training”.

Technorati Tags: itil infrastructure

—–