ITIL - itSMF International

servicetalk the journal of the it service management forum july 2008 

Is iTIL version 3 

connecting 

Green I.T. 

special: make 

the savings 

eToM TO 

JOIN THE 

ITIL PARTY 

SOFTWARE AS 

A SERVICE - 

pros and CONS

contents 

CHIEF EXECUTIVE 

OFFICER 

KEITH ALDIS 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT 

MANAGER 

BEN CLACY 

MARKETING MANAGER 

KIM MAY 

P.14 P.21 

Marketing ASSISTANT 

Lindsay Thomas 

EDITOR 

JAMES WEST 

DESIGNER 

CASSANDRA LEAR 

cassandralear.com 

All communications to: 

itSMF UK, 150 Wharfedale 

Road, Winnersh Triangle, 

Wokingham, RG41 5RB 

Tel: 0118 918 6500 

Email: servicetalkeditor@ 

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P.24 

july contents 

4 industry news 

• IT to feel the economic pinch 

• New name for Help Desk Institute 

• License tracking not automated 

6 itsmf News 

• Problem management SIG has new chair 

• Details of the next simulation event 

• ITIL Version 3 qualification update 

8 itsmf news 

• itSMF International states its intentions 

• The personal touch for itSMF UK members 

• itSMF UK Service Management 

Awards 2008 

11 Letters and opinions 

Letters and e-mails about the service 

management industry 

13 Comment 

Thoughts from the CEO 

14 ITIL Version 3 one year on 

One year on since ITIL V3 was unveiled, what 

is the feedback from the market This article 

draws opinions from a practitioner, a trainer, 

a consultant and a think tank to see how ITIL 

V3 is being digested 

21 Best practice maturity 

The perception that ITIL is far more 

developed in the UK compared to the US is 

challenged in this article 

P.29 

24 SaaS or on-site 

Software as a Service (SaaS) has become 

a genuine alternative to buying enterprise 

software, this article compares the new and 

old ways of software delivery, offering pros 

and cons for both concepts 

29 Green I.T. 

Going green may become a necessity 

rather than choice in IT. Here we look at how 

big the problem is and how virtualisation 

may hold the key to stopping the drain 

on power 

34 etom 

Much like ITIL, eTOM is a best practice 

framework, but focused on telecoms. itSMF 

is involved in a group which is aiming to 

bring the two frameworks into closer 

alignment; this article looks at the value and 

compatibility of eTOM alongside ITIL 

38 Communications 

Is there any value in e-mail or has its 

usefulness as a business tool been fatally 

undermined by spam We look at the 

challenge that IT faces to get its message 

through to the rest of the business 

41 Publications 

An update on the publications arm of the 

itSMF UK, including the first in a series of 

book reviews which will lift the lid on the real 

value of the publications available 

july 2008 SERVICETALK

news 

news in brief 

Licensing not 

formally monitored 

More than one-third of 

attendees polled at the Service 

Desk and IT Support Show do 

not have a computerised 

system for monitoring 

software licenses, and of 

those who do have such a 

system, almost 40 per cent of 

staff have no confidence that it 

is doing its job. 

Another alarming statistic 

unearthed by House on the 

Hill software at the event 

in London’s Olympia is that 

53 per cent of IT support 

professionals are unsure 

whether software licenses 

are tracked automatically, 

manually or even at all. 

Right to improve 

The Strasbourg-based 

European Court of Human 

Rights (ECHR) has thrown 

out its previous service desk 

software in a move which has 

led to improved efficiencies 

and user-satisfaction. 

ECHR 

John Hunter, head of 

the ECHR IT Department, 

commented on the impact of 

e-Service Desk from ICCM. 

“We have seen a dramatic 

change in the department, 

resulting in both quantitative 

and qualitative efficiency.” 

Support locked down 

The European arm of Chubb 

Insurance has upgraded its 

service management software 

as it aims for compatibility 

with ITIL thinking and meet 

the requirements of 

Sarbanes Oxley. 

Keith Brewer, IT support 

manager at Chubb says that 

Hornbill’s Supportworks 

ITSM product offered far 

greater transparency of the 

services on offer than was 

previously possible. 

The time to save 

IT urged to self-impose budget cuts before 

savings are forced upon the department 

IT departments will need to fight 

off budget cuts and will struggle 

to maintain any efforts to improve 

service delivery if the current 

recession continues, according to 

The Helpdesk Institute’s name 

change reflects the shift towards 

the full professionalisation of the 

IT support industry, according to 

the organisation’s founder, Howard 

Kendall. The new name, Service 

Desk Institute (SDI), embodies the 

now commonly accepted notion 

that the term helpdesk is outdated, 

because it historically suggests a 

lack of strategic connections 

to the business. 

Speaking to ServiceTALK the 

Journal, Howard said, “IT service 

management is a profession now 

and the function is finally being 

taken seriously. This has been 

helped by key elements such as 

ITIL and SOX (Sarbanes Oxley) 

three separate reports. 

Consultancy firm the Hackett 

Group urges that IT take the 

initiative and dramatically curb 

spending before it is forced to 

New name, new focus 

Service Desk Institute offers fresh thinking 

and focus on soft skills 

which have helped drive the issues 

we have been championing for 

years into the boardroom.” 

The service desk is focused 

on proactive service and trying to 

eliminate root causes of common 

problems. “The volume of calls 

to the service desk has increased 

exponentially, and we are seeing 

an increased use of self-service 

and techniques such as combining 

the first and second lines of 

support, particularly in cases 

where follow-the-sun support is 

required,” says Howard. 

The SDI reports continued 

success with its qualifications 

programme, having recently 

introduced its analyst and manager 

do so by the board. Back office 

departments within the leading 

multi-national firms could realise 

savings of as much as £200 million, 

representing a saving of almost 

half of the predicted fall in profits 

caused by the economic lull, by 

embarking on a programme of 

slashing outgoings. 

IT services are at greater risk 

of being outsourced than ever 

before, according to two documents 

produced by industry analyst 

Gartner. The first prediction will 

see offshoring of services to 

locations such as India increasing 

drastically, as businesses panic and 

forgo SIPs (Service Improvement 

Programmes) for the carrot of short 

term savings. If the recession 

continues towards 2009, Gartner 

says that all ‘discretionary IT 

spending will be cancelled’, putting 

massive pressure on bosses to 

offer bargain basement service. 

Gartner’s report into the growth 

of vendors offering IT services is 

also a strong indicator of falling 

confidence in internal operations, 

with 2007 seeing the sector grow 

by 11 per cent. IBM and Accenture 

were the big winners during this 

period, with the latter in particular 

winning new business to the tune 

of a 20 per cent year-on-year 

increase. 2008 could represent a 

far bigger windfall for the service 

management providers if the 

monetary dynamic refuses to 

deviate from its negative path. n 

Howard 

Kendall, 

SDI 

training to major new markets 

- India and the US. Howard says 

these qualifications are in no way 

designed to replace ITIL training, 

instead they focus on soft skills and 

the ‘practical side of the process’, 

and so should complement existing 

service management training. “Our 

aim is to bring the wording of best 

practice to life,” concludes Howard. n 

SERVICETALK july 2008

itSMF UK news 

Guiding hand for the SIG 

Group dedicated to discussing the finer points of problem management 

gets boost in the form of a experienced leader in the field 

Paul Offord, development director 

of troubleshooting company 

advance7, has been appointed 

chairman for the Problem 

Management Special Interest 

Group (SIG). 

Paul is keen to ensure that 

under his chairmanship the 

Problem Management SIG has a 

recognisable impact within the 

industry, and that it provides advice 

that delivers measurable benefits. 

“We have an impressive array of 

people in the SIG with a wealth of 

experience. I’m confident that we 

can and will make a difference,” 

said Paul. 

Megan Pendlebury, itSMF UK 

service management executive, 

commented on the appointment 

and the importance of quality 

guidance for the SIGs. “ Paul 

Offord has a wealth of expertise 

in problem management and we 

feel sure that his leadership will 

contribute greatly to the Problem 

Management SIG. 

“As organisations depend 

more and more on technology 

to promote and deliver their 

products to market, so the 

necessity of investing in IT 

service management becomes 

more apparent. Embracing best 

practice approaches and standards 

increases the chances of success. 

The Special Interest Groups hosted 

by the itSMF UK are designed to 

help members discuss, dissect and 

understand the key best practice 

industry issues.” 

According to Paul, the increased 

complexity of applications and 

the requirement for fast, stable 

systems throws a spotlight on the 

IT department’s ability to handle 

and solve problems. “Just as 

a new application can increase 

the productivity of a business, a 

chronic IT problem can reverse 

those gains. The IT team is coming 

under increasing pressure to fix 

problems quickly and permanently. 

IT best practice frameworks such 

as ITIL offer the potential benefits 

of consistent, predictable and faster 

problem resolution. The ultimate 

objective of the SIG is to help the IT 

team realise this potential.” n 

Hands-on expereince at itSMF 

simulation events 

Simulation event back 

by popular demand 

Birmingham is the location for the next itsmf 

simulation event in September 

Following the runaway success 

of recent simulation events at the 

Service Desk and IT Support Show, 

a new session is to be held on the 

16th September at Birmingham’s 

Hilton Metropole. 

The interactive simulation game 

demonstrates how learning tools 

and a role play approach can 

assist in the development and 

understanding of ITIL and best 

practice within any organisation. 

The sessions put attendees in the 

middle of real-life scenarios and 

teaches them how ITIL thinking can 

solve problems in a pressurised 

environment. The simulation is 

appropriate for all levels of service 

management experience. 

For more information or to 

book a place please visit 

www.itsmf.co.uk/events n 

Qualfications 

coming into focus 

titles of itil V3 qualification released 

The ITIL Qualification Board 

has issued an update regarding 

the titles of the ITIL Version 3 

qualifications. 

Service Lifecycle and Service 

Capability modules and Managing 

Across the Lifecycle will be 

known officially as ITIL 

Intermediate Certificates. 

A candidate who has achieved 

the minimum accumulation of 

22 credits across a selection of 

balanced V2 and V3 modules will be 

awarded the ITIL Expert Certificate. 

Candidates who satisfy the 

requirement of the currently titled 

‘Advanced’ level will be awarded 

the ITIL Master Certificate. 

The Qualification Board involved 

the ITSM community by surveying 

itSMF members and Accredited 

Training Organisations on their 

preference for the formal titles 

of ITIL Qualifications. The results 

of the survey were reviewed and 

endorsed by the Board. n 


itSMF UK news 

itSMF global plans 

International meetings to decide focus 

The itSMF International Executive 

Board has a raft of ‘innovative 

initiatives’ planned for 2008, 

including the introduction of 

virtual meetings for chapter 

representatives. 

Meeting in April, the Board also 

scheduled its meetings for the 

year, with the dates of 30th July in 

Tokyo and 11th September in San 

Francisco following the respective 

Japanese and American 

itSMF conferences. 

The first Chapter Leadership 

Conference (CLC) is scheduled to 

take place this November in the UK 

following the itSMF UK Conference 

and preceding the Annual General 

Meeting on 14th November. The 

CLC will provide support and 

resources for emerging, growing 

and established itSMF Chapters. 

There are several countries hoping 

to be approved as Chapters this 

year with many more individuals 

registering an interest within 

their country. 

itSMF International is planning 

to produce a monthly update of 

news, developments, initiatives 

and service portfolios, which will 

be sent to all Chapters. n 

Competition begins 

for the ultimate 

prize: itSMF Awards 

The expansion of the itSMF Awards last year 

has added more prestige for the winners 

The race is on to see who will 

win the coveted 2008 itSMF UK 

Awards. The most prestigious 

award programme in the industry 

was expanded successfully last 

year, with the addition of two new 

accolades - Trainer of the Year and 

Submission of the Year - which 

were won by John Griffiths and 

Julie MacMillan respectively. With 

the standard of entries improving 

year-on-year, the fight for these and 

the other awards will be tough. 

For more information on the Trainer 

and Submission Awards, as well as 

the Service Management Champion, 

Project of the Year and Innovation 

of the year, conntact: 

Kim.May@itSMF.co.uk 

One, two and three day delegate 

packages are now available with 

and without accommodation for 

the 17th Annual Conference at the 

Birmingham Hilton Metropole, 

which opens on 10th November 

2008. The final presentations 

have now been chosen for the six 

streams and the full Conference 

program is available online at 

www.itsmf.co.uk/conference as 

well as the price list and booking 

forms for delegates, stands and 

sponsorship. Members are 

reminded to book soon to take 

advantage of member’s discount 

and to ensure they don’t miss out 

on this year’s premier event for IT 

service management. n 

What can 

we interest 

you with 

itSMF gets personal with the membership 

The new online itSMF UK 

membership database offers 

users the chance to keep up to 

date on those areas of service 

management they most want to 

hear about. The service offers 

updates to itSMF members based 

on their interests in topics such 

as ISO/IEC 20000, outsourcing, 

and business continuity. 

Members can update their 

profile to ensure they don’t miss 

out on the latest news, by visiting 

www.itsmf.co.uk and logging on 

by using their e-mail address and 

password. Once logged on, users 

click on ‘Manage My Personal 

Details’ and select ‘Options’. This 

page lets members ensure that 

the information received from 

itSMF UK is personalised to 

their needs. n 


opinions 

V3 or not V3 

Currently, there is a lot of debate in 

the industry about ITIL V3, its real 

value to business and the approach 

to adoption that organisations 

should take. 

The fact is that in today’s 

web-centric environment, where 

IT plays a crucial role not only in 

the success of businesses, but 

also as an agent that facilitates 

business transformation, effective 

service management has become 

a strategic asset. Organisations 

must continually adopt innovative 

techniques to in turn adopt best 

practice in the most efficient, 

painless and cost effective way. 

Therefore, the issue is not 

about adopting Version 2 or 3 

of ITIL, it’s about adopting and 

adapting the components of this 

best practice framework in order 

for organisations to meet their 

individual business needs. For 

instance, ITIL V2 continues to 

offer customers a comprehensive 

approach to service management, 

but for those customers whose 

businesses require a system that 

supports the complete lifecycle, the 

process definitions held within ITIL 

V3 could prove invaluable. 

The key for organisations 

– irrespective of size and the 

technology they use – is that ITIL, 

if used strategically, can deliver 

business benefits in the form 

of reduced TCO (Total Cost of 

Ownership), increase the number 

of productive hours and help meet 

business objectives by aligning IT 

with business processes. 

James Gay, sales director, ICCM 

For more on the progress of ITIL V3, 

see our article on page 14 

UK leads the way 

with training 

With a growing demand for 

professionals in the service desk 

arena across the globe, it is 

imperative that individuals have 

access to training that will help 

them develop and perform. A lack 

of soft skills has been cited as 

one of the reasons for high stress, 

dissatisfaction and high attrition 

rate amongst the workforce in 

the IT industry. It is therefore 

important for organisations to 

invest in training and certifying their 

employees so that they are better 

equipped to handle the demanding 

nature of the work. Improved 

customer interaction skills, ability 

to work as a team and increased 

efficiency are essential to handle 

the demanding nature of these 

jobs. SDI’s recent entry into India, 

which has a huge untapped market 

for a global standard in training 

and certifications for soft skills, 

certainly signifies the beginning of a 

transformation within the industry. 

India is of utmost strategic 

importance for the service desk 

industry, with the majority of the 

world’s IT and business process 

outsourcing organisations located 

there. India has an amazing talent 

pool, and with the demand for 

skilled manpower increasing, 

the country really has 

acknowledged just how important 

it is to improve its skills to offer 

service delivery at a level that 

matches global standards. 

They are not alone. Other 

countries, like Malaysia, the 

Philippines and a number of East 

European and Middle Eastern 

countries are also investing in 

internationally recognised business 

and service orientated skills 

standards to ensure their ITSM 

offerings remain attractive on a 

global stage. Will our workforce, 

businesses and government realise 

we need to take the initiative 

here as well, before it’s too late 

to remain competitive Although 

there is lots of talk and quango-type 

organisations are starting to spring 

up, quite frankly, we are just not 

seeing a co-ordinated effort. 

Howard Kendall, founder 

The Service Desk Institute (SDI) 

Career in I.T. gets 

more attractive 

Not only is IT now routinely 

getting a place on the board, but 

also the service desk is seen as 

a great place to start a career in 

IT. That’s according to the latest 

survey commissioned by The 

Service Desk Institute (SDI) and 

Hornbill Systems. It appears that 

IT service departments are twice 

as involved in business planning 

with nearly double the number 

of IT departments now involved 

in the processes compared with 

five years ago. The increased 

dependence on technology in most 

organisations means that the 

status of IT has been raised with 

65 per cent of businesses having IT 

representation at board level. 

The research has also identified 

that the role of the service desk has 

grown to meet extended round the 

ServiceTalk the Journal is the voice of you, the itSMF 

UK members. We want you to join in the 

conversation and spark off the debate 

Are you ready to 

turn green 

It seems most bizarre 

that any company 

would still drag their 

feet on going green 

even when they realise 

that they actually 

stand to increase profit 

from observing green 

measures. Of course 

IT companies need 

to conserve energy. 

However, we are in 

danger of forgetting 

that IT professionals 

need to acquire the 

skills to help them 

understand that green 

IT does not only make 

environmental sense but 

it also makes compelling 

business sense. 

Green does not mean expensive – quite the opposite. Indeed with 

the right approach and effective process management, an 

environmental policy across all IT implementations can and will deliver 

significant bottom line value. 

No number of strategies could possibly compensate for an IT 

department that is ignorant in the way of green practices. If an 

organisation wishes to drive down on its IT energy usage, the whole 

IT department, and indeed all employees, must buy into and be fully 

educated in the green policies put in place, both in terms of process 

and underlying ethos. 

This way, they will be able to identify clear opportunities for driving 

down overheads. Highlighting and communicating costs to staff will 

surely increase awareness and actually reduce consumption as 

individuals start to proactively monitor their actions and collectively 

take responsibility for their company’s activity. 

Rick Firth, managing director, Parity Training 

For more on the green IT issue, see our article on page 29 

clock, dedicated support demands. 

50 per cent of companies are using 

psychometric testing to identify 

the potential in recruits for the 

service desk which is now viewed 

very much as the start of a career 

path. There is also more emphasis 

on personal skills when recruiting 

than qualifications, reflecting the 

importance of the ‘human’ side of 

the modern day IT service desk. 

In the last five years we have 

seen IT change from being an 

outside function to one that 

is core to the business. The 

delivery of business goals is often 

underpinned by the success of 

the IT infrastructure, and while 

technology has enabled many 

service desks to run successful 

support functions, there has 

also been recognition that the 

human touch – service desk 

personnel – is what delivers 

customer satisfaction. Good 

systems and working practices 

must support service personnel 

and empower a personalised 

service – but interpersonal skills 

are what counts. The successful 

career opportunities that have 

opened up reflect this change, 

and about time too. 

Patrick Bolger, chief marketing 

officer, Hornbill Systems 

encompassing the issues which really impact you 

and your business objectives. 

Whether you have comments about the itSMF UK, 

the journal and its content, or the industry in general, 

please send us an e-mail. 

James West. servicetalkeditor@itsmf.co.uk 

july 2008 SERVICETALK 11

comment 

What 

is your 

vision 

Well, summer is well and truly here 

and it’s that time of the year again 

to take stock of the last business 

year’s performance for the industry 

as a whole. You will of course 

know that it’s also a year since ITIL 

Version 3 was launched around the 

globe (see our article on page 14 

for a look at how it has impacted 

the market) and individuals have 

been waiting in eager anticipation 

for the training courses which 

followed the refresh so they could 

update their skills. I’m pleased 

to say that the delivery of training 

has now picked up a pace and 

APMG report a significant upturn in 

individuals undergoing the ITIL V2- 

V3 Foundation Bridge or the ITIL V3 

Foundation course itself. Hopefully 

a greater number of IT service 

managers are getting closer to the 

business as a result. 

Additionally, there has been 

much good and positive work 

undertaken with getting parity 

and mapping sorted out on ITIL’s 

linkages with other IT sourced 

systems being used in the service 

management world, including 

specifically eTOM and COBIT as well 

as ISO/IEC 20000. You will learn 

on page 34 about the work being 

carried out jointly by the itSMF and 

TeleManagement Forum (TMF) to 

help both customer bases of ITIL 

and eTOM respectively to get to 

grips with the differences (which 

lie mostly in technical language) 

between the two frameworks. 

I’m pleased and encouraged 

also to see that the word 

‘complementary’ is being used 

rather than ‘competitive’ when 

it comes to talking about these 

other systems and ITIL and the 

service management world will 

be better for it. While ITIL might 

be the frontrunner and possibly 

the most advanced of all support 

infrastructures, itSMF needs now 

to engage on all fronts, particularly 

as our membership broadens and 

the shape of IT service management 

changes. Individuals and 

organisations now have a greater 

level of ability and understanding 

of all things IT and their wants 

and needs are so much more 

sophisticated. We need to adapt 

to this and also adapt our existing 

practices to de-mystify for them 

what we do to support businesses. 

If we don’t, then how can businesses 

continue to understand the 

enormous benefits that IT service 

management brings to them 

I read an article recently by Sharon 

Taylor, the chief architect of the ITIL 

V3 refresh, which was titled: ‘Losing 

IT and gaining a place in the team’. 

She said that ours is a maturing 

industry and that IT today is not 

so much aligned to the business, 

but is the business itself. I’m not 

for one minute suggesting that 

getting the hell out of IT might be the 

catchphrase for the future, but getting 

a hell of a lot out of IT, might be. 

So, we are in a global market, 

and service management is a 

global concept which ought to 

break down all barriers. It’s shared 

across all types of businesses and 

at almost every level. Providing 

and managing these services for 

the betterment of business must be 

the ultimate aim of our people and I 

believe that itSMF is key to acting as 

a gatekeeper for everything service 

management related. n 

Keith Aldis 

Chief executive officer 


ITIL one year on FEATURE 

Has ITIL Version 3 

made the connection 

ITIL Version 3 is one year old, and to mark the occasion, ServiceTALK the Journal 

asked a range of industry experts their views on what progress has been made. A 

practitioner, a trainer, a consultant and an industry think-tank all offer their 

opinions to create a snap shot of how the best practice framework has settled in. 

The 

practitioner. 

Diane Finn, 

service strategy 

consultant, BT 

Operate 

Telecoms giant BT 

was one of the first 

organisations to 

pursue ITIL Version 3 

when it was launched in June 2007. Diane Finn 

summarises the draw of the new framework. 

“BT is looking to deliver world class service 

to its customers and is therefore determined 

to apply best practice to underpin that. ITIL 

V3 represented a more converged approach 

between IT and business, which was in tune 

with BT’s service agenda.” 

BT of course has the financial and staffing 

clout to mobilise a major project such as 

implementing ITIL V3, but as Diane explains, 

the effort was still significant, proving that ITIL 

V3 has far more value than merely a badge 

of honour. “Our key challenge was rolling out 

training to large numbers of people at both 

Foundation and Manager level. Stakeholder 

management across the organisation to develop 

understanding and benefits of embracing ITIL 

V3 was also vital.” 

As we have already touched on, BT knew ITIL 

V3 was a large investment, but it could see the 

benefits when assessing the move and is 

already reaping rewards. “The new version 

has provided the opportunity to audit various 

parts of our business and brought to the surface 

areas where we were weak under Version 2. 

This in turn has driven service improvement 

activities and increased the momentum 

for service improvement.” 

In fact, the changes to ITIL in V3 which extend 

it into the wider service change and away from 

focusing purely on IT service management, have 

helped drive up the profile of ITIL, helping to 

make it a senior management issue. Several BT 

divisions are now using ITIL, as Diane explains. 

“It has been used to drive our overall operating 

model which in turn has provided greater 

visibility and momentum.” 

It is clear that BT has enjoyed success in 

employing ITIL V3, but there is some way to 

go before the new version of ITIL sees mass 

adoption throughout the business world. Diane 

is convinced the key to driving acceptance comes 

as the framework starts showing its worth, 

stating that ‘delivery of measurable benefits in 

business terms and clear improvements 

to service levels to the customer base’ will 

help potential users of ITIL V3 overcome any 

fears they might have. 

The consultant. 

Mark O’Neill, 

senior principal 

consultant at 

QA-IQ 

“Like many others I 

decided to start on 

the first page, of the 

first book, Service 

Strategy. I soon 

settled into its prose, nodding sagely to myself 

in agreement with the latest view of a brave 

new world. 

Luckily, the Friday that my set of books arrived 

happened to coincide with the delivery of a case 

of mixed reds and whites from my Sunday paper 

wine club. As I perused my CD collection for 

the perfect listening companion to my drinking 

and reading companion, I began to question my 

actions. Surely this was one self-indulgent step 

too far It almost felt as if I was being filmed for 

a new reality TV programme to be called One 

Man and his Guilty Pleasures. 

However as I settled down and started to 

flick through the pages of Service Strategy, my 

decision to accompany my reading with a case 

of alcoholic beverage seemed like the most 

astute decision I had made that week. 

I had started off OK, a bit like a horse in the 

Grand National completing their first furlong at 

a comfortable canter, but as I got deeper into 

Strategy, my mood was starting to change and 

my concentration was starting to waiver, and 

it soon became apparent, this was not going 

to be the joyous evening I had planned. By the 

time I got to value composition and the agency 

principle, self doubt started to creep in and I 

started to get concerned that I was not going to 

complete my own personal Grand National. 

I told myself, this was a book that needed me 

to be on top of my game, my concentration and 

perception levels had to be 100 per cent. I closed 

the book, uncorked another bottle of red and left 

Service Strategy for another day. I had fallen at 

the first hurdle. 

It was not until the following Tuesday I 

plucked up the courage to have another go at 

Service Strategy; I was not going to let a bunch 

of academics from over the pond beat me, I 

was going to learn and understand this stuff. 

Accompanied that time with nothing stronger 

than a cup of tea, I bravely opened the book 

on page 31 to read about the principles of 

Service Strategy. Again I started off at a nice 

pace, agreeing with the book’s perception of 

perceptions and moving nicely onto market 

mindset and framing the value of services. In 

horse racing terms I was taking up a comfortable 

position on the rails. Unfortunately as with my 

first attempt I soon began to falter and was very 

quickly looking for something else to do, anything 

that would give me an excuse to put the book 

down again. All too quickly I gave up. 

Working for an organisation that employs 

service management consultants and lecturers, 

I decided I would canvass the views of my 

esteemed colleagues and ask them for their 

view of Service Strategy. I trawled the web, 

contacted other people who worked in the 

industry and it soon became apparent that 

we were all struggling to varying degrees to 

understand Strategy. More worryingly, seeing 

as I was working for a training and consultancy 

organisation, I had to know this stuff, as very 

quickly I would be teaching and implementing 

it for my customers. 

What followed was a series of sleepless 

nights, anxiety attacks and pure cold sweat 

panics. Then it hit me, as I was frantically 

thinking about how I was going to understand the 

complexities of ITIL V3 and Strategy in particular, 

I had a thought - don’t start at the beginning of 

the lifecycle, start at the end. It had finally come 

to me, do what I’ve been telling others to do 

for as long as I can remember, get a baseline 

understanding of where are we now. I made a 

strategic decision; the first book I was going to 

read was not Service Strategy but Operation. 

Once I’d made that decision I was then able 

to properly plan my approach. First off, I set 

myself a vision, what did I want to get out of the 

new version, what were the advantages I was 

looking for I then thought, what do I want to 

gain a detailed understand of and what would I 

be happy with just an overview understanding of 

I also asked myself where I wanted to specialise. 

I then put together a timetable of what I could 

realistically fit into my working and personal 

time. As with all plans, mine needed assessing 

and correcting along the way, and my decision 

patterns were constantly reviewed, and still 

are as I write. Without even knowing it I had 

employed the four Ps of Strategy; perspective, 

positions, plans and patterns. 

Over the course of the last twelve months I 

have grown to understand and appreciate ITIL 

V3 and my perception has changed with each 

passing month. I now have a much better 

understanding of the new version which has led 

to many of my initial concerns and protests being 

rendered illogical and unfounded. 

How did this turn around happen How did 

my initial disappointment turn into new found 

respect and appreciation Well quite simply 

I took a strategic approach to understanding 

the lifecycle. I realised my initial mistake was 

starting with something that was new and 

unfamiliar and I made the decision to start 

again by re-aligning myself with processes and 

functions that were as familiar to me as my old 

friends and family. Over the proceeding weeks, I 

followed a plan that enabled me to dip in and out 

of the books, move from one familiar aspect to 

a number of new and unfamiliar aspects, and I 

naturally fell into a cyclic approach of evaluation 

and re-evaluation. 

Twelve months on and I am embracing 

every element of ITIL V3 (including Strategy). 

As a lecturer and consultant I am still called 

on to deliver ITIL V2 training courses or 

implementation workshops, and I get more than 

a little frustrated that (certainly from a training 

perspective) I am limited to articulate only ten 

processes and the service desk. There is so 

much more to ITIL V3, that admittedly did exist in 

some form or another in previous versions, that 

we can now promote, implement and improve 

on. It’s just finding the time (and will-power) to 

read it, understand it and appreciate it as the 

only way forward.” 

The trainer. 

John griffiths 

Client manager 

at Fox IT and 

itSMF uk trainer 

of the year 2007 

“The ITIL refresh 

has generated a lot 

of differing views 

about the new look 

library. In the main, most people agree that it is 

an overall improvement and more accurately 

reflects the way businesses and IT work in the 

modern world. There is also a consensus that 

the ‘ideal world’ of ITIL has been repositioned 

closer to the ‘real world’ into which people have 

to implement what they have learned from the 

classroom. 

ITIL V3 has given managers and practitioners 

of service management a lot more to consider. In 

these relatively early days, it has helped to clarify 

some of the anomalies of previous versions 

whilst at the same time introduced more things ➤ 

14 SERVICETALK july 2008 


ITIL one year on FEATURE 

that need to be considered. This includes a 

fundamental attitude shift of how the library is 

approached. With previous versions you simply 

went to the relevant chapter of the topic you 

were interested in. Now that topic is likely to be 

liberally spread around the lifecycle stages which 

is logical but also frustrating for some people 

who find it challenging when they cannot pigeon 

hole a process or activity. This is not surprising 

as the Foundation level exams (both old and 

new) are essentially an exercise in putting 

everything in its rightful place: ‘Which process is 

responsible for the following task What is the 

correct order of the incident stages’ 

A common question from delegates attending 

both Foundation and Managers bridging courses 

is ‘Where does that (process/activity/task) live 

in the lifecycle’ It is important that people do 

not get too hung up about what lives where 

as the reality is that processes will feature 

throughout the lifecycle stages in several 

different manifestations. The application of 

a pragmatic and common sense approach to 

implementing the lifecycle will greatly assist in 

getting the right elements of each process 

into the appropriate places. 

Service Strategy contains virtually all new 

material and is the cause of much diverse 

debate. It has been variously described as a 

load of mumbo jumbo theory through to an 

insightful and useful tool for helping to integrate 

the business and IT. It also introduces for the 

first time in the classroom a lot of material that 

a large number of people have no perceived 

direct input to or personal association with. 

Many people sitting on a training course will 

have a view that they have no influence or 

control over the strategy of either the business 

or IT and therefore they will never really engage 

in the strategy either in the workplace or the 

classroom. Strategy does however take on 

more relevance for these individuals when they 

realise that the other stages of the lifecycle are 

all about the execution of that strategy. Another 

defining point is that Service Strategy asks the 

question ‘Why do we want to do something’ 

before considering the question ‘How do we do 

it’ A long and sorry trail of projects or process 

implementations have failed to meet their goals 

by the simple failure to follow the sequence of 

how those two questions are asked. The Service 

Strategy book is likely to be a ‘slow burn’ where 

the value and relevance of it will take a little 

while to embed itself into the ITIL fraternity. 

Although the theme of this piece is ITIL V3 

one year on, the vast majority of ITIL V3 training 

has still to be released into the market. When 

that happens we will get a clearer view of how 

organisations position themselves with regard 

to training their staff. There has been evidence 

of organisations who are currently in the early 

days of ITIL adoption, agonising over whether 

they should adopt Version 2 or 3. In reality 

it is virtually a non-issue. Any organisation 

taking on ITIL right now would begin with the 

fundamentals, all of which are incorporated in 

both versions. It should be viewed as a pick 

and mix selection of working with the next 

appropriate process irrespective of which version 

it originates from. A key point that seems to 

have been overlooked is that most of the ‘new’ 

processes of ITIL V3 were around previously, 

they simply were not in the ‘core set’ of Service 

Support and Service Delivery which many people 

view as the sum of ITIL, overlooking publications 

such as Application Management or ICT. 

A key element of implementation is training 

staff to be able to adapt to the new processes. 

It is in this area that organisations will be 

presented with an array of options compared 

to earlier training programmes. It is going to 

be interesting to see which routes individuals 

take on their journey to the ITIL expert level. 

No doubt different routes will be adopted by 

both individuals and organisations based on 

their specific plans and objectives. Once they 

have arrived at the base camp by successfully 

completing the Foundation course, the view up 

the mountain shows the summit to be somewhat 

higher than it used to be. There are also more 

paths which can be followed and the trick will 

be working out which path best fits to an 

individual’s aspirations and capabilities. For 

some people, one or two more steps into a 

Lifecycle or Capability course may be sufficient, 

while others will doggedly march on up to the 

summit, gaining credits along the way. Maybe 

in another year’s time we will start to see how 

those paths are both defined and used. When 

that happens we will get a better understanding 

of just how much thing really have changed.” 

The industry think-tank. 

The Service Futures Group 

In January 2008, the Service Futures Group, the 

joint venture between The Service Desk Institute 

and itSMF UK, published a report looking at ITIL 

V3 six months into its life. Although the story has 

moved on from that point, it is worth another look 

at the report because it highlights and ➤ 


FEATURE ITIL one year on 

pools much of the relevant praise and criticism 

that is commonly aired through the market. 

The key points of the research were this: 

- Small organisations are not ready for or are not 

interested at this time in the new material. 

- People still seem to have a fear of ITIL V3. 

- The adapt and adopt approach which was so 

well liked appears not to be so universally 

understood with the new version – but it 

absolutely still applies. 

- The concepts are new to IT service 

management best practices but have in the 

main been used successfully in other industries 

or other areas of the business for a long time. 

- People have reported that they are finding the 

ITIL V3 material more difficult to navigate than 

ITIL V2 – realistically this may be to do with 

familiarisation with the material but only 

time will tell. 

- People are deciding to stay with ITIL V2 at the 

current time (this is a generalisation but is 

true amongst the majority of respondents) 

and are waiting for others to try it first so 

they can learn from their experiences. 

- The understanding across the industry is still 

fairly low but this will change with time. 

- The qualifications are still in development – 

this point is key as before this area is bedded 

in and has been around for a while the other 

points raised above will continue to be true. 

It is interesting that many of these points 

are now being tackled, with our practitioner, 

consultant and trainer reporters all looking into 

the issues of proof of concept, absorbing the new 

information and qualifications respectively. Logic 

also dictates that all of these issues will be solved 

with time, as they all centre on fear, uncertainty 

and lack of familiarity with the source material 

(aside from the precise details surrounding 

qualifications, although yet again, this issue will 

be addressed and finalised in time). 

The report also highlighted the fact that many 

organisations had already developed much of 

what is in ITIL V3, which in the words of Megan 

Pendlebury, executive director of the Service 

Futures Group shows that: ‘ITIL V3 is indeed 

inline with where the industry was and is moving 

and is not the output of a group of people sitting 

in a room rather than looking at the real world.” 

There is criticism in the report however, 

particularly in the case of the Service Strategy 

book. There is a problem of perception with 

this title, with many IT practitioners considering 

that strategy is not part of their remit and the 

Service Futures Group suggests that the book be 

repositioned and further guidance should 

be offered. The report also aired concerns for 

the future of qualifications, with some 

Megan 

Pendlebury, Service 

Futures Group 

questioning the 

validity of an 

additional exam 

rather than gaining 

real-life experience 

with the new 

processes. 

Feedback for the 

other books and 

areas of ITIL V3 was 

on the whole very 

positive, which suggests that the slightly slow 

uptake of ITIL V3 may be less to do with any 

inherent weaknesses in the new version, and 

more to do with ITIL V2 being well understood 

and more comfortable for the businesses who 

have adopted it. Again, the passage of time 

will likely see a greater understanding of the 

benefits and compelling reasons to move to ITIL 

V3, which when combined with clarification and 

guidance from the parties involved in promoting 

and working with ITIL will see the new version 

meeting the high expectations that have been 

attached to it. 

ITIL Version 2 and 3 books and CDs are available 

online from www.itsmf.co.uk/shop 

Remember to login to receive your itSMF UK 

membership discount. n 

18 SERVICETALK july 2008

ITIL Maturity FEATURE 

Going around the 

world with ITIL 

A report by PA Consulting into the maturity of ITIL practices in the market 

place included a look at the differences between the US and UK in terms of 

ITIL Version 3 uptake. In this article, we look at the contents of the report, 

get the view from the US and learn that the perceived gap in terms of ITIL 

development across the atlantic may not be as great as some think. 


feature ITIL maturity 

ITIL maturity FEATURE 

The PA Consulting report, ‘Avoiding the 

banana skins – How to make sure that 

your Service Improvement Programme 

(SIP) doesn’t slip-up’, was complied by sampling 

around 50 companies at the 2007 itSMF UK 

Conference and Exhibition and for comparison, 

including results to a similar survey conducted 

in the US. The questions simply asked those 

surveyed to rank the maturity of ITIL processes 

within their organisation, with a score of 

0 indicating that the process was absent, up 

to 5 which indicates fully implemented and 

optimised processes. 

The two graphs to the right show the relative 

scores of the US and UK respondents to the 

survey. Before looking in detail at the differences 

between the US and UK markets, the report 

looks at the overall meaning of the figures. The 

three most mature ITIL Version 2 processes are 

financial management, incident management 

and change management. These findings mirror 

results from the previous UK survey in 2006 

and the results from the US survey in 2007. 

Incident and change management are usually 

the first processes to be addressed by an ITIL 

implementation programme and this would 

explain their higher scores. The relative maturity 

of financial management however, is most likely 

due to the rigorous corporate requirements for 

fiscal management that already exists in most 

businesses today, together with the additional 

focus brought to bear on this area by regulation 

such as Sarbanes-Oxley. 

The least mature process is availability 

management with well over 50 per cent of the 

companies surveyed scoring less than two. 

Worryingly, almost one in five companies do 

not measure availability at all, and a further 

third apply inconsistent measures to some of 

their applications or components. With little 

management focus or detailed availability data, it 

is very difficult to see how IT services will reliably 

be provided to the business in the future. 

The five new ITIL V3 processes covered in 

the survey are request fulfilment, supplier 

relationship, business relationship, service 

knowledge, and information security 

management. Results showed the most mature 

ITIL V3 process to be information security 

management. However, there were still over 

a third of respondents who don’t have defined 

processes to manage the confidentiality, integrity 

and availability of information. 

The least mature process is knowledge 

management, specifically the use of available 

data to support other processes such as incident 

management and problem management. It 

would appear that, even though most service 

management toolsets contain functionality to 

support this process, the approach for capturing 

the right information, keeping it up-to-date and 

utilising it as part of the IT organisation’s day-today 

processes, is proving difficult to implement. 

Perhaps surprisingly, the overall average 

maturity score for the ITIL V2 processes and the 

selected ITIL V3 processes was identical. So, 

although these processes have only recently been 

differentiated as part of the latest version of ITIL, it 

is clear that they have been part of the IT operation 

all along and are at a similar level of maturity. 

However, the new and updated ITIL V3 

processes and functions do now enable 

IT managers to better articulate the exact 

changes that will deliver business benefit 

as part of a focused service improvement 

programme. 

Figure 1: Distribution of scores across the maturity range 1-5 for the UK in 2007 

Incident management 

problem management 

Change management 

Release management 

Configuration management 

Service level management 

Availability management 

Capacity management 

Financial management 

IT service continuity management 

Request fulfillment management 

Supplier relationship management 

Business relationship management 

Service knowledge management 

Information security management 

business case for ITIL 

Stakeholder management 

Programme management of ITIL 

Figure 2: Distribution of scores across the maturity range 1-5 for the US in 2007 

Incident management 

problem management 

Change management 

Release management 

Configuration management 

Service level management 

Availability management 

Capacity management 

Financial management 

IT service continuity management 

Request fulfillment management 

Supplier relationship management 

Business relationship management 

Service knowledge management 

Information security management 

6% 10% 50% 21% 10% 4% 

15% 29% 33% 12% 10% 2% 

10% 13% 33% 33% 10% 4% 

12% 37% 21% 21% 10% 2% 

10% 33% 50% 2% 4% 2% 

17% 17% 29% 23% 6% 8% 

15% 35% 33% 10% 10% 2% 

13% 6% 60% 13% 4% 4% 

4% 4% 29% 40% 17% 6% 

23% 19% 27% 23% 2% 6% 

10% 25% 40% 17% 6% 2% 

19% 15% 27% 17% 12% 10% 

21% 8% 48% 15% 6% 2% 

33% 37% 19% 10% 2% 

8% 27% 12% 17% 10% 23% 

33% 17% 6% 12% 13% 19% 

17% 17% 19% 25% 12% 10% 

25% 15% 17% 13% 10% 19% 

0 - Absence 1 - Awareness 2 - Repeatable 3 - Controlled 4 - Integrated 5 - Optimised 

11% 11 % 50% 15 % 11 % 4 % 

31 % 27 % 35 % 4 % 4 % 

13 % 8 % 58 % 4 % 13 % 4 % 

35 % 12 % 50 % 4 % 

38 % 27 % 19 % 4 % 12 % 

27 % 35 % 31 % 8 % 

50 % 23 % 23 % 4 % 

46 % 15 % 15 % 12 % 12 % 

32 % 24 % 8 % 24 % 12 % 

28 % 16 % 36 % 16 % 4 % 

28 % 32 % 40% 

44 % 8 % 32 % 4 % 12% 

52 % 16 % 20 % 4 % 8 % 

52 % 26 % 15 % 7 % 

8% 42 % 13% 8 % 13 % 17 % 

0 - Absence 1 - Awareness 2 - Repeatable 3 - Controlled 4 - Integrated 5 - Optimised 

The UK scores versus the 

US scores 

On average, the US maturity scores were 

significantly lower that those measured in the 

UK (averages of 1.4 versus 2.0 across the ITIL 

V2 and selected ITIL V3 process). However, 

the patterns that emerged were very similar 

to those in the UK with incident management, 

change management and financial management 

being the most mature ITIL V2 processes, and 

availability being the least mature. 

Across the board, while some companies are 

at the top end of ITIL maturity (on average 15 

per cent of UK respondents rated themselves 

as a four or five for the ITIL V2 and V3 

processes), most still have some way to go 

to achieve their ambition (on average 35 per 

cent of UK respondents rated themselves a 

two or less). 

The final part of the UK company survey 

aimed to find out the maturity rating of the 

business case, stakeholder management and 

programme management processes. The 

analysis indicates that there remains a large 

proportion of companies which are embarking 

on SIPs (Service Improvement Programmes) 

without the necessary foundations for success 

being in place. For example, a third of 

organisations have no business case for ITIL 

implementation and 25 per cent of organisations 

have no SIP in place at all. 

There was a significant difference between the 

responses from the public and private sectors. 

The response from the US 

Robert Stroud is part of the itSMF USA board of directors and sits on the itSMF International 

executive board. Here he talks about how well ITIL is taking hold in the US. 

Do you see any areas 

where the US has an 

advantage over Europe in 

terms of ITIL adoption 

“Leveraging the 

implementation experience 

gained in Europe has allowed 

ITSM implementations 

to use the experience to 

implement faster. Attention 

in North America is typically 

on enterprise change 

management looking to 

deliver change with minimal 

impact to the business to 

assure service levels. In 

short, there is a strong 

focus on service levels, user 

experience and the supporting 

processes.” 

In the UK, ITIL awareness 

has taken many years 

to bed in, how quickly 

On average, the public sector respondents scored 

themselves 0.7 of a maturity point higher across 

these questions (2.8 versus 2.1). Experience 

would suggest that the reason for this lies 

is recognition of ITIL 

occurring in the US 

“If you say ITIL to most CIOs 

they are aware of it and more 

than likely will direct you to 

either the VP operations or the 

VP ITSM who is responsible 

for the journey. The itSMF, 

vendors and practitioners 

have all worked together 

to communicate the value 

and benefits of IT service 

management. ITIL and ITSM 

has been timely for many 

US organisations as they 

look to automate their IT 

infrastructure in order to 

allow precious IT human 

resources to be allocated to 

value adding innovation.” 

What benefits are US 

businesses seeing 

from using ITIL 

“US organisations are using 

ITIL to deliver solutions that 

are aligned to the business. 

This value is derived through 

real operational cost savings 

in terms in conjunction with 

better service levels, quality 

through automation, and 

predictability of outcomes 

with repeatable processes. 

Additional benefits have been 

delivered with publicly traded 

companies with processes 

that are documented allowing 

compliance with their 

organisation’s Sarbanes 

Oxley implementations. In 

many cases ITIL is being 

implemented with the IT 

Governance Framework 

COBIT (Control Objectives 

for Information and related 

Technology) to deliver input to 

a balanced scorecard.” 

in the public sector’s policy of using project 

management best practices such as PRINCE2, 

more consistently than companies operating in 

the private sector. n 


feature software subject as a service 

software as a service subject feature FEATURE 

Renting 

application 

software 

may seem to 

contradict 

the control 

demanded 

by IT service 

management, 

but as James 

West, editor 

of ServiceTalk 

the Journal, 

learns, by 

not buying 

software, 

service 

managers 

may be able 

to exert more 

influence 

than ever 

before. 

In the late nineties, a company called Siebel 

became one of the fastest growing software 

business in history, selling Customer 

Relationship Management (CRM) suites globally. 

For a time, the business was unstoppable, with 

the likes of Oracle, SAP and IBM all launching 

software to compete with Siebel in an attempt to 

cut into its market share. All of these IT giants 

failed and Siebel continued to roll onwards. 

The key for ending Siebel’s dominance, in a 

surprising twist in the story, was not necessarily 

building better software as might be expected; 

it was about changing the delivery method. A 

company by the name of salesforce.com arrived 

on the scene, offering software with the same 

functionality as Siebel, but the differentiator was 

that its software was web based. This meant that 

buyers no longer needed to install software on 

every machine. Web based software only needs 

a browser to work, and so is available on pretty 

much every computer on earth. The reduction in 

installation times, the simplification of support 

(the system can be altered/fixed remotely), and 

the reduced upfront costs were a big draw to 

buyers, and salesforce.com gradually eroded 

Siebel’s market share and in doing so had 

toppled a giant. 

Web based software is often available as 

Software as a Service (SaaS), meaning that 

users don’t even buy the software, they simply 

pay a subscription (generally per user) to access 

and use the system. The rise of the SaaS has 

been rapid, despite there still being many 

downsides to SaaS - the article below looks in 

detail at the pros and cons associated with SaaS. 

Yet despite fears over losing control and the 

reliance on a web connection, the use of SaaS 

continues to increase. Industry analyst Gartner 

says that SaaS deployments will grow 17 per 

cent through to 2011, double the rate of growth 

for purchasing of enterprise application software 

as a whole. 

From an IT service management point of 

view, is this shift a good thing The answer to 

this question is obviously highly dependant on 

the type of application and nature of the business, 

but here are some universal issues that must 

be considered: 

Do you really need to ‘own’ a 

1 piece of software 

Surely the pre-requisite for any software is that 

it offers your business the functionality needed 

There is of course, a fear factor associated with 

not having the software on-site, but anytime you 

buy a piece of third party code, you are to some 

extent beheld to that organisation and reliant 

to some degree on the support offered by the 

supplier. SaaS is a relatively mature market 

now, so as long as the supplier can prove 

reliability, uptime, robustness of support, there 

should be little difference from physically 

purchasing the software. 

Does SaaS fit with 

2 ITIL processes 

There is nothing in ITIL which specifically 

demands that software must be held on each 

machine on which it will be used. SaaS should 

do nothing to alter any controls you have in 

place to govern processes. As long as change, 

configuration and release procedures are 

followed as usual, there should be no 

major issues. 

Can you work with 

3 the supplier 

SaaS is no different to outsourcing, or bringing 

in a contractor; the staff may not be employed 

directly by your business, but it is possible for 

all parties to work in harmony for the good of the 

business. SaaS suppliers are no different and 

should be evaluated in the same way. 

Would you be able to operate 

4 without a web connection 

The simple answer to this question is that most 

of us would struggle to work for long without 

access to email and the internet, SaaS or not. In 

reality, web connections are not always perfect, 

and web-based systems are close to, but not 

yet totally equal to on-machine installs of 

software, in terms of speed and functionality. A 

comprehensive pilot would be needed to see if 

the trade-off is too large within your organisation. 

The reason why SaaS is enjoying such rapid 

growth is that all of the problems relating to 

its use are gradually being solved and many 

of the objections to the model are slowly 

being removed, as the mental and cultural 

shift needed to get people trusting SaaS 

gains momentum. 

As a final point, the removal of the need for 

traditional in-house support for applications 

could prove to be the biggest plus for IT service 

management. With the host supplier dealing 

with user issues remotely, internal service desks 

will be able to afford more staff resource to 

proactive activities, such as project management, 

change control etc. For this reason alone, SaaS 

warrants a much closer look. ➤ 

What service 

delivery choices 

will you make 

SaaS or on-site: the pros and cons 

Hosted software has many upsides, but there are negatives to 

consider. Russell Wiltshire, director at Vivantio, offers both 

sides of the argument. 

Continuing on the next page, we offer the case for on-site (where the customer buys the 

software, installs and supports it in the traditional manner) versus SaaS software deployment, 

with the intention of offering some guidance to those having to make this decision in the 

coming months and years. 



feature software as a service 

Software as a service FEATURE 

The case for on-site 

• One obvious reason for going for the 

on-site option is that you can’t find a SaaS 

service desk provider that has the application 

your business needs. It’s still an emerging 

market so there is more choice for those 

looking to buy software in the 

traditional way. 

• SaaS is still a relatively young method 

of delivering and supporting software and 

although it has gained massively in adoption 

in some software application areas such 

as CRM, it is still true to say that SaaS in 

service desk is not yet mature despite strong 

offerings being out there for some time. 

• There might be a specific element of the 

SaaS delivered service desk offering which 

doesn’t meet your servicing or after-care 

requirements. Perhaps the SaaS provider 

only offers support 9 to 5, Monday to Friday 

and your operation runs 24/7; or you 

specifically require SSL encryption but the 

SaaS provider doesn’t offer this yet. Make 

sure regardless of the delivery method, that 

the application itself meets the needs of your 

business in terms of both functionality and 

ease of use. 

• Data protection issues mean that some 

companies have specific legal requirements 

stipulating where they can store customer 

information or personal data. Perhaps this 

data must reside within a particular country 

but the SaaS provider might use offshore 

data centre operations. So questions along 

these lines need to be asked and satisfactory 

answers obtained. 

• Some organisations prefer to make 

upfront capital investment for financial 

reasons. The company may be geared to the 

purchase of IT assets such as servers and 

software licences. 

• If internet access is non-existent or highly 

restricted as is the case in some government 

departments including the Ministry of 

Defence and the police, then clearly SaaS 

isn’t easily deployed. 

The case for SaaS 

• A prime concern of some finance directors 

today is reducing capital expenditure (or 

capex), preferring to buy goods and services 

out of operational expenditure (or opex) 

budgets. Opex naturally favours SaaS 

deployment as you ‘pay as you go’, normally 

via monthly subscription instalments rather 

than paying up front, thereby creating 

uncertain costs of ownership. 

• In a situation involving mergers or 

acquisitions the software licences owned by 

the company being acquired may be nontransferable 

and rendered invalid. In most 

cases the software vendor will re-licence the 

software to the new company rather than 

lose a customer, but these license terms 

come into play if the purchasing company is a 

competitor for example. 

• The SaaS model means very little up front 

commitment (in contract term and financial 

outlay). SaaS providers are generally geared 

to very rapid customisation and automatic 

upgrading of their platforms. 

• In theory, IP-based standards help keep 

the entire organisation’s IT infrastructure 

working well together. With this back drop in 

place, managers can make decisions based 

purely on the quality and functionality of the 

services on offer, without getting tripped up 

by IT policies. 

• SaaS providers can also deliver 

significant economies of scale as server 

and infrastructure costs are reduced when 

serving one instance of an application to 

many customers. 

• Managers working within organisations 

with convoluted and time-consuming 

procurement processes can acquire 

new applications via relatively low cost 

subscriptions which affect revenue rather 

than capital budgets and come in ‘below the 

radar’. This means managers can introduce 

new systems at a departmental level 

without lengthy, multi-level, budgetary 

approval processes. 

Conclusion 

If you are looking seriously at SaaS in your business, there are some myths and cons that need 

examining. Some established on-site vendors have highlighted that integration with other on-site 

systems remains an issue. SaaS providers in many application areas have already proved beyond 

doubt that SaaS and on-site systems integration presents no genuine issues. 

The data centres and the server platforms that SaaS providers rely on are typically a great deal 

more secure and robust physically and technically, than any server sitting in an organisation’s own 

office. It is also clear that one of the largest threats to data security in any organisation is misuse by 

authorised personnel not unauthorised external attackers. Sensible security policies and an effective 

training programme are key. Recent high-profile stories in the press regarding lost CDs and laptops 

provide all the proof that is necessary. Although the misperception that SaaS means relinquishing 

control has reduced dramatically over the last three years, it remains an argument levelled against 

SaaS delivery. IT managers still worry about what will happen if the provider’s server goes down or 

there are problems with the internet connection. But on-site servers are probably more vulnerable 

to downtime in reality. The questions that really needs asking are ‘Is a typical IT department able to 

achieve the same levels of availability for the same price Is an organisation willing to fund constant 

upgrades to the hardware platform’ And by locking themselves in to a specific server platform on-site, 

an organisation has already placed a huge amount of control into the hands of the platform vendor 

- regularly having to deal with the headache of rolling out new versions of server operating systems, 

database engines and such like. n 



Green I.T special FEATURE 

Green I.T. special 

Approaching 

the green light 

If you think that energy shortages are years away, think again. I.T. is set to feel the 

initial brunt of the energy crisis and James West, editor of ServiceTalk the Journal, 

says the time has come to investigate alternatives before someone pulls the plug. 


feature subject 

Green I.T. special FEATURE 

Virtualisation: 

overcoming the problems 

The promise of better use of resources, lower costs and potential reduction to 

both power costs and real estate is providing a compelling reason to move towards 

virtualisation. But the virtual data centre raises some significant new issues in areas 

of performance, compliance and security says Dwayne Melancon, VP corporate and 

business development, Tripwire. 

While the physical infrastructure 

provides a clear view of individual 

component performance, virtualisation 

removes that transparency. Without visibility of 

the virtualisation engine organisations cannot 

identify potential security loopholes, ensure 

system changes do not affect performance or 

be confident in compliance to regulations such 

as Sarbanes Oxley. 

Today, perhaps only 15 or 20 percent of 

applications being run on virtual infrastructures 

are production systems; the majority of 

organisations are using the technology only for 

test environments. But analysts believe that the 

number of production applications will grow to 

between 45 and 60 per cent of total deployments 

over the next two years as cost pressures bite. 

In the headlong rush to gain cost benefits 

there is a very real risk that companies are 

moving into virtualisation far ahead of their 

ability to understand and manage the technology. 

The benefits are compelling. But at what cost to 

business risk and security 

Virtualisation adds huge complexity to the 

IT infrastructure stack, pulling together large 

numbers of applications and services into one 

consolidated data centre. Traditional, silobased 

management tools provide no insight 

into operational performance of virtual systems, 

leaving an organisation completely blind to the 

impact of change, both planned and unplanned, 

on the overall infrastructure. 

Without a view into this virtual environment, 

how can any organisation ensure machines are 

tested and configured correctly or impose the 

required level of rigour over system changes 

To many of us, an energy shortage, similar to 

global warning, seems to be something of a 

abstract concept at the moment - it is hard 

to conceive of a time when the UK will have to 

ration its energy consumption. At worse, we can 

console ourselves with the knowledge that such 

a situation is years from coming to a head. 

It seems however that the Inconvenient Truth 

as popularised by Al Gore’s film concerning 

power usage is making itself felt today. 

John Windebank, itSMF UK’s International 

representative comments. “If you’re a data 

centre in London, you can’t buy any more power 

because it’s not available. Power is becoming the 

biggest cost to IT, exacerbated by carbon taxes, 

and this is a problem that we must all face.” 

Whatever your politics, or whether you 

believe IT should take more responsibility for 

the environment, the facts will ensure that the 

green issue is a pertinent one for IT, becoming 

perhaps the biggest threat to the current use of 

IT we have ever faced. 

Part of the problem, according to John, is 

gross inefficiency, with data centres running 

at between 10 - 12 per cent of their potential. 

This leads to an obvious solution: if you can use 

this latent 90 per cent of processing power to 

run other tasks, you can reduce your energy 

consumption dramatically. This is how the 

concept of virtualisation was created and it is a 

hot topic, with industry analyst group Gartner 

calling it the biggest ‘impact trend’ for the IT 

infrastructure up to 2012. Virtualisation of 

servers - the main point of attack in terms of 

reducing energy consumption - is already having 

an effect, with Gartner stating that the market for 

selling new servers fell by four per cent in 2006. 

Moving on, Gartner also predicts that four million 

machines will be installed on servers by 2009, so 

the sale of new servers is sure to fall further still. 

“Virtualisation is hardly a new concept; 

storage has already been virtualised - albeit 

primarily within the scope of individual 

vendor architectures - and networking is also 

virtualised,” said Philip Dawson, vice president 

at Gartner. “However, as both server and PC 

virtualisation become more pervasive, traditional 

IT infrastructure orthodoxy is being challenged 

and is changing the way business works with IT.” 

As hinted by Philip, it is not just servers that 

are subject to the virtualisation push, with PCs 

increasingly becoming virtualised. In 2007, 

Gartner estimated five million virtualised PCs 

and predicts 660 million by 2011. This huge 

shift will see PCs becoming more like the dumb 

terminals of old, with business applications and 

even the operating system being offered to users 

over a virtual network. 

Thomas Bittman, lead analyst at Gartner, 

details what the shift could mean for the IT 

infrastructure. “Traditionally the operating 

system has been the centre of gravity for client 

and server computing, but new technologies, 

new modes of computing, and infrastructure 

virtualisation and automation are changing the 

architecture and role of the operating system. 

The days of the monolithic, general-purpose 

operating system will soon be over.” 

This is good news for IT service management 

because in theory at least, managing a virtual 

IT infrastructure eliminates many of the localised, 

user created IT support issues which plague 

the service desk, and make it much easier to 

manage change and upgrades etc. 

So, when you combine the expected benefits 

of a virtual infrastructure with the huge, and 

vital, cuts to energy usage, the time seems to 

be right for virtualisation. As always, such a 

push requires thorough research and planning 

and on the next page, we look at some of the 

issues that must be considered. 



The process becomes ever more complex 

when organisations accept the fact that virtual 

and physical worlds will co-exist for the 

foreseeable future. From the core infrastructure 

running the virtual middleware to legacy and 

in-house developed applications that are too 

complex to migrate to the virtual world, the 

physical infrastructure will continue to play a 

core role in any data centre. 

It is essential, therefore, that organisations 

put in place the policies, processes and 

monitoring tools required to support the entire 

physical and virtual IT infrastructure. Critically, 

organisations need to extend existing rigorous 

processes within the physical environment 

to also encompass a virtual implementation 

based on best practice implementation. This 

will ensure any business can immediately gain 

the cost benefits associated with a virtual world 

without undermining the reliability of the data 

centre or compromising regulatory compliance. 

Compliance pressure 

Indeed, the pros and cons of the virtual world 

are being taken very seriously by the regulatory 

bodies. The virtual environment, with its 

continual changes, poses huge new compliance 

challenges, especially in the area of audits. How 

can an organisation know if a virtual machine is 

compliant if it no longer exists How do you 

track change history for auditors in a virtual 

world Certainly these issues are now coming to 

the fore as increasing numbers of organisations 

look to virtualise critical production systems. 

The payment card industry, for example, has 

a number of development boards looking at the 

implications of virtualisation on its data security 

standard. The good news is that virtualisation 

adds some strong capabilities, especially for 

those organisations that have opted to run 

multiple services on a single system to minimise 

hardware costs, creating a high risk single 

point of entry. 

Running each of those services separately 

within the virtual machine will provide more 

security by creating disparate services. However, 

if the virtual middleware is compromised, 

these services are just as vulnerable; in effect 

the problem has simply been moved to the 

virtual machine. The PCI Standards Council is 

now beginning to define policies to include the 

virtualised infrastructure, and other regulatory 

bodies will undoubtedly follow suit. 

But the underlying principles remain unchanged: 

- Management taking responsibility for 

effective controls 

- Strong policies and process 

- Fact-based accountability supported by real 

time audit and control 

As in the physical environment, real time 

change monitoring is essential to ensure 

organisations remain compliant - or have 

early warning of incidents that may affect 

compliance status. 

Virtual confidence 

According to Gartner, 60 percent of production 

virtual machines will be less secure than 

their physical counterparts through 2009. 

And analysts fear that misconfigured and 

mismanaged virtual implementations will result 

in service interruptions and downtime that will 

undermine confidence in the technology and 

potentially stall wholesale adoption. 

Yet by continually monitoring the performance 

of the entire virtual and physical infrastructure 

organisations will not only reduce errors and 

drive up performance but also contribute to the 

incremental adoption of virtualisation across 

an organisation. Visibility ensures that all 

changes to the infrastructure, both physical and 

virtual, occur in full support of the business, in 

compliance with policies and procedures and 

that any exceptions are rapidly dealt with before 

they can cause business damage. n 


feature eTOM 

eTOM FEATURE 

The enhanced Telecoms Operations Map (eTOM) is a process-framework designed to 

manage the operations associated with telecoms. The owners of the framework 

are working with the itSMF to align its processes with ITIL. This article explores 

the meaning of eTOM, how it differs and complements ITIL and how the joint 

development is gathering pace. 

ITIL: opening 

more doors 

ITIL and eTOM have similar backgrounds and 

perform similar roles in their respective fields 

and it is because of this that there have been 

suggestions in the past that the frameworks can 

conflict if running within the same organisation. 

As we will see from this article, this conflict is 

not a major issue in reality and moves are afoot 

to develop ways for the frameworks to work 

alongside each other in the most synergistic way 

possible. 

Matthew Burrows is head of consulting for 

TuringSMI telecoms division and is working 

with itSMF and the TeleManagement Forum (TM 

Forum) as part of a joint working party to align 

eTOM and ITIL. 

Matthew takes up the story, explaining the 

background and structure of eTOM, before 

moving onto examine the history of ITIL 

and eTOM and how they are being brought 

closer together. 

eTOM is owned by the TM Forum, an industry 

association with over 650 global members. 

The aim of the TM Forum is to help members 

transform business processes, operations and 

systems for managing and monetising on-line 

information, communications and entertainment 

services. Part of this is delivered through the 

Next Generation Operational Support System 

(NGOSS) model, of which eTOM is a part. NGOSS 

is an initiative to improve efficiency and reduce 

the costs associated with operating telecom 

networks, allowing service providers to 

change the way they think about their 

business and operations. 

NGOSS is a comprehensive, integrated 

framework for developing, procuring and 

deploying operational and business support 

systems and software. It is available as a toolkit 

of industry-agreed specifications and guidelines 

that cover key business and technical areas. 

The enhanced Telecoms Operations 

Map provides a business centric view of a 

telecommunications company. Effectively, the 

eTOM model is a multi-level process model 

representing the complete set of business 

processes in use within a telecoms operator. The 

model starts at level 0, which consists of three 

sections; Strategy, Infrastructure and Product; 

Operations; and Enterprise Management, which 

underpin the full lifecycle of the products and 

services delivered to the customer (see Figure 1). 

The operations section is divided into four 

main lifecycle stages at level 1; looking at these 

sections in some detail helps understand what 

eTOM does and how it functions. 

Operations support and readiness: responsible 

for providing management, 

logistics and administrative support to the other 

process groupings, and for ensuring operational 

readiness in the fulfilment, assurance and 

billing areas. 

Fulfilment: operations for providing customers 

with their requested products and services in 

a timely and correct manner. It translates the 

customer’s business or personal need into 

a solution, which can be delivered using the 

specific products in the enterprise’s portfolio. 

This process informs the customers of the 

status of their purchase order and ensures 

completion on time. 

Assurance: includes all activities for the 

execution of proactive and reactive maintenance 

activities to ensure that services provided to 

customers are continuously available and 

working to service performance levels. It 

handles continuous resource status and 

performance monitoring to proactively detect 

possible failures. It collects performance data 

and analyses them to identify potential 

Figure 1. eTOM Levels 0, 1 and 2 

Strategy, infrastructure and product 

Strategy and 

comms 

Enterprise management 

Infrastructure 

lifecycle 

management 

Marketing and offer management 

Service development and management 

Product 

lifecycle 

management 

Resource development and management 

(Application computing and network) 

▲ 

Supply chain development and management 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

Strategic and 

enterprise planning 

▲ 

▲ 

Enterprise risk 

management 

Customer 

problems and resolve them without impact to 

the customer. This process manages the SLAs 

and reports service performance to the customer. 

It receives trouble reports from the customer, 

informs the customer of the trouble status, and 

ensures restoration and repair. 

Billing: involves everything necessary for 

the collection of appropriate usage records, 

production of timely and accurate bills, for 

providing pre-bill usage information, for 

processing their payments, and performing 

payment collections. In addition, it handles 

customer enquiries, provides billing enquiry 

status and is responsible for resolving problems 

to the customer’s satisfaction in a timely manner. 

This process grouping also supports 

prepayment for services. 

eTOM and ITIL 

eTOM is effectively a process framework 

designed to support the telecoms product/service 

lifecycle, which is almost identical to the service 

lifecycle principle used as the basis for ITIL 

Version 3. ITIL has traditionally focused ➤ 

Operations 

Operations 

support and 

rediness 

Fullfillment 

Customer relationship management 

Service management and operations 

Resource management and operations 

(Application computing and network) 

Reassurance Billing 

Supplier partner relationship management 

▲ 

Entersprise 

effectiveness 

management 

Knowledge 

and research 

management 

Financial and asset 

management 

Stakeholder and 

external relations 

Human resources 

management 

▲ management ▲ ▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 

▲ 




Working 

together 

As we have seen, the link 

between itSMF UK and the TMF 

has been formalised and here 

is a joint statement from the 

respective CEOs of the two 

organisations, Keith Aldis and 

Keith Willetts. 

Both the itSMF and the TM Forum recognise that 

both frameworks have strengths and weaknesses 

that, if combined, would have major benefits for 

all the industry sectors involved with delivering 

convergent services to market. So, we are 

actively co-operating to put ITIL and eTOM on 

a converging course; address any interworking 

issues and ensure that more integrated support 

is available to users. 

A good deal of work has already been done. The 

TM Forum is in the final stages of completing its 

own major review of eTOM to bring it into closer 

alignment with ITIL and the two organisations 

are undertaking a joint program to identify 

further opportunities for closer inter-working 

- initial fruits of this work are expected to begin 

to roll out by this summer. 

There is a good deal of momentum within the 

memberships of both organisations for this 

to happen, and for us to see a clear position 

on using ITIL and eTOM as supportive of the 

needs of businesses. This builds on the affinity 

between the two frameworks, and their real 

complementary strengths, so that each can 

benefit when they are brought together. 

on the activity of providing and managing IT 

infrastructure and systems to support the 

business processes. eTOM is the business 

process framework for telecoms, and ITIL 

could therefore be considered a subset of these 

processes, covering the ones that are owned and 

operated by the technology or IT function. 

There is overlap, but it is possible for eTOM 

and ITIL processes to coexist and support each 

other as part of a mature process framework 

for telecoms operators. Unfortunately, in many 

organisations there has been conflict between 

network operations, who tend to use eTOM, and 

IT operations who would usually be more ITIL 

aligned. The reasons for this conflict include 

inconsistent terminology between these two 

best practices, and a lack of knowledge and 

experience of both frameworks. For example, 

eTOM refers to ‘faults’ which are almost identical 

to an ‘incident’ in ITIL terminology. There are 

overlaps and synergies with the increasing 

convergence at a technology level, where 

telecoms products and services are dependent 

on telecoms network and IT capabilities, systems 

and infrastructure. When a service failure or 

degradation occurs, the operational teams 

often need to work together to restore service. 

Complex hand-offs, inconsistent terminology 

Matthew Burrows, TuringSMI 

and independent processes often result in the 

service taking longer than necessary to restore. 

Some organisations have addressed these 

issues by consolidating around a single set of 

processes and tools, usually opting to either go 

for eTOM or ITIL, or sometimes creating a 

hybrid model. n 

How do eTOM and 

ITIL compare 

Mike Kelly, who works on the 

eTOM and NGOSS compliance 

programme at TMF, offers a 

comparison of ITIL and eTOM. 

eTOM 

- Telco enterprise model 

- ITU (International Telecommunication 

Union) international standard 

- Prescriptive catalogue 

- Hierarchy of processes 

- Process framework 

- Blueprint for process direction for 

service providers 

- Common language of processes 

ITIL 

- IT/ICT service management 

- Non-prescriptive guidelines 

- Best practice framework 

- Methods to deliver controlled and 

optimised services 

- Standardised vocabulary 

Mike’s summary is this: eTOM and ITIL are 

not in conflict - eTOM can be used to build 

ITIL-compliant processes, using eTOM 

process elements. 


feature communications 

communications FEATURE 

In June 2006 the Financial Times ran an 

editorial discussing the effectiveness of 

communications within the enterprise. 

The article looked primarily at the digital 

communication channels available such as 

e-mail, intranets, Instant Messenger (IM), SMS, 

and the conclusion was stark: 

“In the attention economy the value of e-mail 

is rapidly approaching zero”. 

Goodbye e-mail 

E-mail is often the primary method that the I.T. department uses to 

communicate with business users. But abuse of the communication 

channel has impacted its effectiveness; is the damage irreparable 

asks Pat Geary, chief marketing officer for Skinkers 

What does this mean And if this is true, 

what does this mean to the effectiveness 

of organisations that rely on e-mail for 

communications What value do the other 

channels provide and how can they be managed 

How does the enterprise service desk offer 

the best possible service at low cost when 

important notifications cannot cut through this 

communication fog 

To understand these issues, we first have to 

understand how we came to rely on 

e-mail and understand what the limitations 

of this channel are. The reliance on e-mail, as 

the main communication mechanism within 

organisations, has steadily and stealthily been 

on the increase over many years. Until the 

computer era truly came of age, which has 

been relatively recently, businesses used to 

run to a very structured format: the minutes for 

meetings would be transcribed by secretaries, 

who would also manage diaries, write up notes, 

distribute memorandums and chase actions. 

Managers structured their day by dealing with 

correspondence at the start of the day, with 

every letter opened, read by the secretary and 

important ones given priority. 

When e-mail arrived it was firstly used by 

academics and early technology adopters; 

businesses viewed e-mail with suspicion and 

it is only recently that e-mail has become 

acknowledged, by law, as a permissible form 

of correspondent evidence. Very rapidly e-mail 

became the business communication tool of 

choice and the speed with which correspondence 

could be sent and received was almost 

instantaneous, compared to the multi-day 

turnaround that physical mail required, which 

lead to the coining of the term ‘snail mail’ to 

describe written and typed correspondence. 

The impact was dramatic; typing pools 

disappeared almost overnight, secretaries 

became personal assistants to only the very 

top level managers and middle management 

came to rely on e-mails with the volume of 

electronic communications growing at an 

ever-increasing rate. 

This all sounded encouraging; efficiencies 

were created within the enterprise through rapid 

communications; deals could be concluded in a 

much shorter timeframe; lengthy and protracted 

correspondence chains could be compressed 

into hours rather than days; and the flow of 

information within the enterprise continued to 

increase. So what happened to sour the picture 

In one word: spam. 

Not the processed ham beloved of Monty 

Python of course but the unsolicited e-mails 

spuriously filling the internet and offering 

all manner of life enhancing surgery and 

opportunities to improve our love lives. In 

October 2007 Postini, an e-mail filtering specialist 

claimed that 10 in 11 e-mails are spam - over 90 

per cent. The traditional definition of this type 

of spam referred to messages from outside of 

the enterprise. Today we also have to contend 

with ‘enterprise spam’ caused by people sending 

internal e-mails that are neither relevant nor 

important. During the days of memos if someone 

found some keys on the floor they would not 

get a memo sent round to all the employees 

in the company. 

We have become e-mail junkies which is 

one of the main reasons that enterprises are 

finding it increasingly difficult to get important 

information through to their employees 

through the white noise of e-mail. 

The ‘attention economy’ highlights the 

problem of information overload, we have 

become information-rich, but attention-poor; 

our days are filled with different types of 

information that may require action, some vital, 

some trivial and we are finding it increasing hard 

to sort the wheat from the chaff, to get to the 

actionable and important information. A Gartner 

report on effective electronic communications 

(August 2007), stated that an organisation of 

10,000 employees could be losing as much 

as £20 million per annum from ineffective 

communication within the enterprise. 

Enterprises today have tried many approaches 

to punch through the communication fog; 

satellite broadcast networks, newsletters, round 

table discussions, canteen briefings etc. and 

these do offer value. However, in today’s 

digital world, the direct to desktop 

communication is still through e-mail, or 

via elaborate intranets that provide valuable 

information but tend to become disorganised 

dumping grounds for information. Intranets 

today are akin to putting an important notice 

up in a cupboard, but you would only see the 

notice if you open the door, and know where the 

cupboard is in the first place. 

Perhaps the solution is a new approach to 

business to employee (B2E) communications that 

offers the best attributes of the existing digital 

channels, but in addition delivers new high 

impact direct ‘push’ channels that can punch 

through to employees’ desktops and/or handheld 

devices when really critical information needs to 

delivered. Skinkers, for example, has developed 

a live desktop alert system which sends vital 

information to the desktop, mobile phone or 

Blackberry. Skinkers has seen a reduction of 

calls through to the service desk of between 10 

and 20 per cent for clients using this system. 

This is one possible solution to the problem of 

information overload, but there is no doubt that 

IT departments must be much more selective in 

the information they deliver to users, otherwise it 

will be lost in the din of communications that all 

businesses currently contend with. n 



Publications FEATURE 

IT INFRASTRUCTURE LIBRARY (ITIL ® ) V3 

SERVICE MANAGEMENT 

MICROSOFT OPERATIONS FRAMEWORK (MOF) 

COMPLIANCE AND RISK 

ISO/IEC 20000 

PROJECT, PROGRAM & PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT 

G2G3.COM 

People are the driving force of business. 

With this in mind, G2G3 create Propulsion. Our world-renowned simulations 

and communication solutions are designed to create energy and forward 

motion, propelling your enterprise to faster results. We work closely with 

our clients and partners, using innovative experiential learning techniques 

to create positive cultural change. 

Over one million people who have participated in our simulations can’t be 

wrong. Be forward thinking. 

To learn more email INFO@G2G3.COM 

SPREADING 

THE WORD 

The ITIL pocket guides have done a superb job getting 

the word of best practice into the heart of the 

business world and Mark Lillycrop (pictured), manager, 

publications and translations, itSMF UK, looks at the 

creation of the Version 3 incarnations of the guides. 

They say that small is beautiful, and that 

sentiment certainly applies to books. You 

can load your bookcase with weighty 

reference works or surf Wikipedia for pages 

of dubious information on the latest hot topic. 

But nothing compares with the convenience of 

slipping a miniature volume into your pocket for 

perusal when you are sitting on a plane, waiting 

for a bus, or on your way to an exam. 

It’s generally agreed that the growth of itSMF 

has been built on the success of one pocket 

guide in particular. Tens of thousands of copies 

of the ‘Little ITIL’ (or ‘IT Service Management – a 

Companion to the IT Infrastructure Library’ to 

give it its full title) have been sold as a concise 

summary of the Service Support and Service 

Delivery books in ITIL V2, while the follow-on 

series of UK pocket guides now reaches into 

every corner of service management, from 

security management to business perspective. 

With ITIL V3 the focus has moved to The 

Stationary Office’s (TSO) Key Element Guides 

(KEGs), co-branded with itSMF International, a 

decidedly bijou companion set to the core books. 

The KEGs have had a great deal of input from 

itSMF UK through authorship and review, and are 

now selling extremely well. For those who need 

to capture the essence of the core books, the 

KEGs are definitely a good way to go. 

Continuing with the diminutive theme, 

there are plenty of pocket-sized publications 

on a broad range of topics available. Titles 

devoted to ISO/IEC 20000, IT governance 

based on COBIT, IT service Capability Maturity 

Model, Six Sigma and ITIL V3 are all available 

in the six-inch format, complemented by 

more detailed management guides and 

introductions for those seeking in-depth 

information. Visit www.itsmf.co.uk/shop for 

more information on our available publications. 

Don’t forget to log in to take advantage of 

your membership discount. ➤ 


feature publications 

Theory into practice 

There are one or two new titles on the horizon 

for all those trying to put service management 

theory into practice. An update of TSO’s popular 

‘ITIL Small-scale Implementation’ by Sharon 

Taylor and Ivor Macfarlane will shortly be 

available to bring the book into line with ITIL 

Version 3, while ‘Building an ITIL Based Service 

Management Department’ by Malcolm Fry 

(again from TSO) takes a refreshing look at the 

practicalities of creating a service management 

operation that adheres to ITIL processes and 

guidelines. Meanwhile, BCS has launched a 

new edition of David Miller’s ‘Business Focused 

IT and Service Excellence’, which examines the 

perception gap between IT and the business; 

and a new work entitled ‘Effective IT Service 

Management’ by Rob Addy, published by 

Springer, provides practical guidance on IT 

services by extending the ITIL approach to deliver 

proactive and pragmatic IT service management. 

The IT service management library is also 

going strong. Recent additions have included 

‘Implementing ISO/IEC 20000 Certification 

– the Roadmap’ for those aiming for corporate 

adoption of the standard, complemented by a 

more detailed ‘Introduction’ to the subject. Along 

with itSMF UK’s highly regarded ‘Planning and 

Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 Certification’, these 

books offer just about everything you need to 

know about getting started with the international 

service management standard. Over the 

coming weeks, the library will see the launch 

of ‘ITSM Global Best Practices’, a substantial 

compendium of more than 50 contributions 

from opinion formers across the industry, 

and also ‘Implementing Metrics for IT Service 

Management’, which provides an ITIL-oriented 

measurement framework based on a continuous 

improvement lifecycle. 

Moving forward, itSMF UK will be launching 

some new titles later this year, with two Special 

Interest Groups (SIGs) pooling their experience 

to provide practical guidance on service level 

management and change, configuration and 

release management respectively. These are 

just the first of a number of titles that will be 

published by the UK chapter in the months 

ahead, reflecting the commitment and expertise 

of the UK membership. Watch the website for 

further details. 

Publications news 

By now you should have received the first 

few issues of our informative new electronic 

newsletter, Publications News. This is the ideal 

way to find out about new titles, special offers 

and what’s coming next in between issues of 

ServiceTalk the Journal. If you haven’t seen 

it, and want to receive it please contact 

joanne.cooper@itsmf.co.uk 

Everyone’s a critic 

If you’ve ever fancied giving your views on new 

publications, now’s your chance to get your 

opinions into print. Starting on the right of this 

page, ServiceTalk the Journal will be publishing 

independent reviews of publications, to compare 

the best (and worst) features of the growing 

number of books that are emerging in the service 

management space. If this appeals to you, please 

get in touch with ServiceTalkEditor@itsmf.co.uk 

and we’ll give you the chance to have your say. n 

Book review 

Laura Jay offers her thoughts on ‘The Official 

Introduction to the ITIL Service Lifecycle’ book 

Did you find the Official Introduction 

interesting and insightful 

When ITIL Version 3 was delivered in 2007, 

I was looking forward to reading the new 

books with eager anticipation. However, 

having received the five core books last year 

(all approximately 250 pages each), I found 

them rather daunting and despite repeated 

attempts to read them from cover to cover, 

my enthusiasm for the new version started to 

wane. 

After several unsuccessful attempts to 

read through all five, I was therefore delighted 

when this ‘all-in-one’ book came out. I 

thought this edition might be a better 

approach – especially as the whole book 

was less than 250 pages and I was pleasantly 

surprised because it was. 

The facts are set out in an easy-to-read 

layout and written with a busy working 

person in mind; you don’t need a degree to 

understand the terminology either. 

What was new to you about the facts 

introduced in the book 

As an old hand at ITIL V2, it was difficult to 

understand in advance just what the new 

version was going to come up with. ITIL V3 

now has five stages: Service Strategy, 

Service Design, Service Transition, 

Service Operation and Continual Service 

Improvement and the key word is lifecycle. 

The stages show that ITIL has no beginning 

or end, just one continuous cycle of defining 

strategies, designing new/changed services, 

implementing them, improving them, 

re-defining them and so on. 

There are some other key changes, 

for example: 

- The importance of how IT services and 

business demands need to be aligned 

- The inclusion of new processes (some 

from ISO/IEC 20000 - previously outside 

the scope of ITIL V2) 

- Some long-overdue amendments such as 

incidents and requests now separated out 

into two different processes 

- More information on areas such as 

service catalogue management 

How has this book changed your 

opinion of ITIL V3 

Although excited about ITIL V3 I wasn’t sure 

just how practical it would be. This book 

helps explain the increased scope of ITIL from 

V2 to V3 and how the new existing processes 

all work together. 

How has the Official Introduction 

increased your interest in ITIL V3 

Using ITIL V3 both internally and with our 

customers is already a direction that Atos 

Origin are engaging in, and the condensed 

information in this book certainly makes ITIL 

V3 look appealing. 

I also firmly believe that for anyone coming 

straight to the new version of ITIL, this would 

be an excellent starting point for them. 

Did the Official Introduction fulfil 

your needs and expectations 

Yes and no. The problem is how do you 

introduce all of ITIL V3 in one book With 

great difficulty is the answer. This book does 

sum up everything you need to know to start, 

but then leaves you wanting more. Which is 

what it’s supposed to do I guess. 

How would you improve the book 

One thing that is difficult to understand in the 

book is just where the ITIL V2 ‘Ten processes 

and a function’ now fit into ITIL V3. There 

is a diagram in the book which shows this 

in a simplified form but further detailed 

explanation would definitely make life easier. 

Laura is currently the Central London itSMF 

UK regional chair and is working as part of 

the BSI standards committee reviewing 

ISO/IEC 20000. 

October’s issue will be comparing the 

different ITIL V3 complementary titles 

available such as the ‘Official Introduction to 

the ITIL Service Lifecycle’, ‘the Key Element 

Guide Suite’, ‘IT Service Management based 

on ITIL V3’ and ‘An Introductory Overview 

of ITIL V3’ available from: 

www.itsmf.co.uk/shop 

VENDOR DIRECTORY 

consulting 6 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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MANAGED SERVICES 6 RECRUITMENT 6 

PRODUCT 6 

PRODUCT CONTINUED 6 

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Capacity Management 

SOFTWARE TRAINING CONSULTANCY 

training providers 6 

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Looking for that 

® 

ITIL bit extra from your 

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We are looking for contributors.... 

if you would like to advertise or submit an article to ServiceTalk 

the Journal contact lindsay.thomas@itsmf.co.uk for more information 

In the next 

issue... 

• In-sourcing 

versus 

out-sourcing 

• Incident 

management 

processes 

• Service 

portfolio 

management 

• Book reviews 

• Conference 

Supplement 

due 14th 

october 

2008 

42 SERVICETALK july 2008 july 2008 SERVICETALK 43

conference & exhibition 

10th - 12th November 2008 

H I lT o N M E T R o P o l E , B I R M I N g H a M 

The premier 3 day IT Service Management Event that offers a packed 

conference full of seminars, workshops, interactive sessions and 

exhibition, plus *evening entertainment. 

This year’s theme is based on organisations “ real experiences” and not 

just based on the theory as so many conferences focus on. This will 

include the pitfalls that have been encountered along the way along with 

the successfully implemented stories. 

“Thoroughly enjoyed the whole 

conference - found the vendor stands 

very informative. itSMF folk could not 

have been more accommodating.” 

“A very enjoyable and enlightening 

experience. A lot was learned and some 

will be put into practice shortly” 

“An excellent Conference - many thanks 

to everyone involved in organising such 

a successful event!” 

The event is geared to satisfy all levels of IT Service Management needs. 

There is an extensive exhibition with experts from the service management 

world to talk you through the latest products and services that are available 

to make best practice and its processes easier to implement. 

Each year the itSMF hold the largest IT Service Management event with 

over 1000 delegates and 80+ exhibitors. We try and choose locations that 

are easily accessible for both the delegates and the exhibitors. 

Packages now on sale:- 

1 Day Delegate at Members Rate £260.00 

1 Day Delegate at Non-Member Rate £360.00 


2 Day Delegate at Non-Members Rate £715.00 


3 Day Delegate at Non-Members Rate £860.00 

2 Days/1 Night at Members Rate £750.00 

2 Days/1 Night at Non-Members Rate £960.00 

ALL PRICES ARE EXCLUSIVE OF VAT 

*evening entertainment is only available when overnight packages are booked 

To b o o k t o c o m e t o t h e e v e n t g o t o : 

www.itsmf.co.uk

ITIL - itSMF International

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