What Is ITIL and Why Is It Important for Your Organization?
by Philip Yusson
ITIL® stands for Information
Technology Infrastructure Library.
Initiated in the 1980's by the
Office of Government Commerce (OGC) of the
UK
government
It is a framework for IT service
management and aims to provide effective and efficient service
to the organization.
It is a publication of industry
best-practices. Organizations can use these publications and
determine how they can make their IT organization more effective
and efficient.
Why ITIL?
Traditional IT management is focused
on resources and technology.
Since technology changes rapidly, IT
is continuously reorganizing to fit the organization to the
technology.
IT service management focuses on
process.
Processes are less likely to change
despite improvements in technology. Processes also tend to be
more results focused.
ITIL re-focuses the IT organization
to going back to serve the organization.
It provides a common language that
the customer and IT understands. This translates to less
confusion and more effective communication.
Back to the Basics
ITIL aims for total quality
management (TQM) within the IT organization.
This is the process of constant
improvement so that the company can leverage IT services to meet
its business objectives.
Business units define their
requirements to IT.
These requirements are then
translated into agreed levels of service that IT will provide to
each business unit.
This alone helps prioritize
different requirements within the organization.
With this agreement, IT can
prioritize business requirements and will be able to respond
properly.
Benefits of ITIL
Business units are treated as
customers and the IT organization is the provider.
Expected service levels are defined
so IT can prove its value to the organization.
Cost effective
Increased productivity due to lesser
incidents .
Business units become aware of the
cost of the services they use and will be more careful in
requesting new changes or services.
Organizations can learn from these
best practices without making costly mistakes. This saves the
organization time, effort and money.
ITIL aims to provide a structure on
monitoring assets to ensure that these assets are used properly.
It also ensures that expenses are properly justified. Waste due
to impulse purchases is minimized.
For organizations with outsourced
services, ITIL also provides a framework to ensure that the
organization gets a fair return of the money paid to the
outsourced provider.
The concept of defining service
levels ensures that expectations meet the needs of the
organization. These expectations are also defined clearly so
there is no chance of confusion in expectations.
This concept of defining service
levels is also applicable to internal IT units. It allows
management to measure the value of IT to the organization.
Each processes is inter-related to
other processes.
This inter-relation ensures that
critical issues are addressed.
The processes are described and each
organization can determine how these processes are to be
implemented.
This philosophy ensures that there
is a constant cycle of quality improvement, making the
organization more competitive.
Key Success Factors
For ITIL to succeed upper management support is essential.
This requires changes in the way the
organization perceives the IT organization and services.
It also requires change in the way
the IT organization sees its role within the organization.
ITIL also requires investment in
tools for the different processes. These initial investment will
be worth it because of the benefits that implementing ITIL can
bring.
Challenges
ITIL implementation is a constant
improvement process.
It should evolve because every
organization evolves.
It requires changes in the
organization which is why management commitment is a must.
Without management commitment, ITIL will not succeed.
Conclusion
As each organization changes to respond
to changing market needs, IT should also move with the change. For
an organization to be more competitive, it must be able to leverage
IT services. Most organizations that do this become more successful
and competitive in the marketplace.
©2007 - Philip Yuson - All Rights Reserved
