ITIL

Developed in the early 1990s by the British government, ITIL is comprised of seven core areas. ITIL offers a framework of structured, scalable, best practice processes that organizations can adopt and adapt to fit their own environments. It is little wonder that as companies look to achieve greater efficiencies in IT service management, they have chosen the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) which has become the worldwide de facto standard.

Implementing ITIL is not a quick fix nor will it be easy. It takes a lot of thought, commitment and hard work to successfully change the way the IT organization does business. There will be things that you do today that you will not do afterwards and vice-versa. Most people will continue to do what they do today but using more repeatable processes and in doing so they will improve service delivery and become more productive.

ITIL processes aid in aligning IT components into discrete services, as well as delivering and supporting those services. ITIL offers disciplines to ensure services, roles, and responsibilities are well-documented and understood by both IT and the business units. When done correctly, services can be provisioned internally or externally without any perceivable difference by the business.

Organizations implement ITIL best practices to improve service; however, they also enjoy the cost benefits from improved productivity as a result of streamlining work processes. When fully implemented, the processes ensure consistent, high quality service that meets business units’ needs. Services become more focused on the business than technology. Other benefits to embracing ITIL best practices include:

• Better managed IT costs  
• People are more productive because only authorized work is performed.
• Service quality improvements result in fewer services anomalies, eliminating staff distractions and permitting more work directly benefiting business to be performed.
• Trade-offs between costs and levels of IT service are better understood, permitting more informed business decisions, fostering a much closer partnership between business and IT.
• Built-in continuous improvement processes ensure that business applications operate efficiently. Through the use of the processes, performance improvement opportunities are identified and ITIL processes guide how corrective work is commissioned and implemented.

• Better understanding between IT and business  
• IT services and the resources needed to support them are better understood by the business, and IT better understands the day-to-day business processes IT supports.
• The IT organization is structured with an enterprise view so it is easier to see and maintain services from an end-to-end business perspective.
• Meaningful and measurable service metrics gauging IT service performance are in place and well-communicated.

• More efficient organization  
• IT has a well-defined structure with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, improving efficiency.
• Clearly defined processes and procedures simplify IT change management and provide a common point of reference for internal communications.
• All IT processes are standardized and integration points and hand-offs are well documented and understood.
• Duplication of effort by different departments is uncovered and eliminated.

How does TeamQuest software support ITIL implementations?

How do I sell this to senior IT management and the business?

• Improved quality of IT services through execution of consistent, repeatable processes
• Improved IT organizational efficiency through use of ITIL processes and well-defined roles and responsibilities
• Better partnership between IT and business as a result of improving communications and establishing common points of reference
• Lower unit costs by leveraging efficiencies to improve productivity of IT staff and infrastructure resources
• Meaningful and measurable metrics that gauge IT service performance in business terms

Common ITIL Questions and Concerns

ITIL can be an overwhelming and daunting proposition. Questions abound as we work to grasp what an ITIL implementation really means for our own organizations. We address some of the common questions here.

Why should we implement ITIL?  

Not everyone should. Like all projects, ITIL adoption requires a business case. Typically, ITIL is implemented to save money, gain competitive advantage, increase productivity or improve service quality.

Because of the well-defined processes, the business gains a better understanding of the complexity and costs of IT. The enterprise scope of the processes also minimizes duplication of efforts, dropped hand-offs and unapproved work. Additionally, individuals gain a better understanding of roles and responsibilities and how they each contribute to the success of IT and the business.

Some industries are adopting ITIL at a faster rate than others, which may be indicative of their business environments.

What will be the benefit and ROI of implementing ITIL?  

The answer to this depends on your situation, of course. Those who have successfully implemented ITIL cite these benefits:

• Increased process efficiencies
• Cost savings
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Improved IT/business alignment
• Improved service quality
• Increased productivity

How do I overcome organizational resistance and get people on-board?  

Overcoming organizational resistance has been cited as one of the key barriers to successful ITIL implementations. As with all change, fear, uncertainty and doubt can be factors among employees. Communication is your best defense. Provide a clear vision and explain why it is important and how you intend to get there. Show that planning has been a thoughtful process, set expectations for results, and provide milestones to gauge progress along the way.

Where should we start?  

You understand best the challenges your IT organization faces. If you have a particular problem area, you may be wise to start there. However, beware of starting with ITIL components that impact many parts of the organization – the broader the impact, the longer the time and greater the effort to implement. It can also be difficult to quantify the fiscal benefits of far-reaching ITIL processes, making it harder to convince management to stay the course on this long-running project.

There is no right or wrong answer regarding where to start with ITIL. In our experience, when organizations are looking for quick wins, Capacity Management is a good place to start. Starting with Capacity Management offers early wins that often generate enough cost savings to fund the remainder of your ITIL project. It affects a more stand-alone organization and is therefore an easier implementation. The money saved (often millions in our experience) in this area allows costs to be recovered early in the implementation, incentivizing senior management to stay the course and alleviating internal resistance for the project moving forward.

Can I be successful without having SLAs in place?  

You can be successful; however, lesser benefits will be enjoyed. Without Service Level Agreements (SLAs), performance is judged by perception, which can change hour-by-hour, day-by-day and month-by-month. To satisfy your customers in this situation, excess capacity needs to be in place to accommodate the changes in perception. Therefore the cost reductions realized by right-sizing capacity to measured business needs cannot be attained without SLAs, either formal or informal.

Are there ITIL-certified products to help me implement and support this project?  

Individuals can get ITIL-certified, but products and companies cannot. If you find a vendor claiming to be an "ITIL-certified company" or offering "ITIL-certified products," be wary.

To date, TeamQuest has certified roughly 30% of its entire workforce in ITIL best practices through formal training and testing. Our products directly support ITIL processes in a variety of areas. Use the right-side navigation to read how TeamQuest supports different components of ITIL.