Last week I gave an interview to Serena Software Company for their OnTopix customer newletter. Below is the resulting article that will go out to their 15,000+ customers world-wide.

It’s About The Service, Not The Server

Why you need to know about the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has been in the news lately, making headlines as implementations at Proctor & Gamble, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Caterpillar deliver eye-catching returns and huge savings for IT departments. A framework of best practices that organizations of any size can adopt and adapt, ITIL helps organizations achieve quality IT service as they change and grow.

“The good news is, it’s not a rip-and-replace solution,” comments Charles Williams, managing partner of KEDAR Information Technologies, one of the nation's leading IT service management companies. “But it’s also not an easy, step-by-step solution. It requires a considerable shift in perspective and behavior change.”

The biggest change IT organizations have to make, according to Williams, is to start thinking of the IT department as a service provider organization. “ITIL delivers processes, concepts and terminology that help IT experts communicate the value of technology by explaining it as services,” says Williams. “While business leaders don’t immediately understand the value of servers, routers and network technology, they do understand the value of services such as messaging, applications, or data access. Even budget discussions benefit from this approach, focusing on funds required to maintain agreed service levels, rather than on details of equipment and personnel.”

Changing an organization’s behavior and attitude sounds abstract, but implementing ITIL isn’t: ITIL must be backed by rigorous controls, processes, and measurement mechanisms that will deliver improvements over time. “I tell our clients, ‘no tools before the rules,’” says Williams. “You first need to define your processes and your business rules, then select and implement supporting technologies.” Williams is a fan of Serena® TeamTrack®. “With TeamTrack, once we’ve defined and mapped processes and associated controls, we can quickly automate and enforce key control points. That’s when ITIL goes from being a framework to a competitive advantage for your business.”

READ MORE ABOUT IT

 ITIL Power

Why the IT Infrastructure Library is becoming the most popular process framework for running IT in America, and what it can do for you http://www.cio.com/archive/090105/itil_frameworks.html?page=1

If you read only one article on ITIL this quarter, make it this in-depth piece from the September issue of CIO.com. This article explains why ITIL is becoming the most popular process framework for IT in America, and what it can do for you. Both the U.S. and Canadian governments will soon require IT contractors to use ITIL, as will General Motors. And the potential benefits of ITIL—including improvements in customer satisfaction and operating efficiency—are so great that Forrester has concluded that ITIL will become the de facto standard for all IT shops.

 Implementing ITIL

The state of Michigan's gradual rollout of ITIL's best practices has eased growing pains

http://www.networkworld.com/careers/2004/100404man.html

Because ITIL focuses on best practices, it lends itself to an approach of small steps. This article describes the steps the state of Michigan took to rolling out ITIL, and stresses that adopting ITIL calls for realism and diplomacy.

What Is ITIL?

http://www.kedarites.com/what-is-itil.asp

This link to the KEDAR web site is a good first stop to understanding ITIL and some of its concepts, processes, and terminology. The web site provides links to training materials, courses, books, and other information about ITIL.

602.3 OnTopix ITIL

January 18, 2006

ACS

Charles @ 11:52