ITIL - itSMF International
ITIL - itSMF International
ITIL - itSMF International
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servicetalk the journal of the it service management forum july 2008<br />
Is iTIL version 3<br />
connecting<br />
Green I.T.<br />
special: make<br />
the savings<br />
eToM TO<br />
JOIN THE<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> PARTY<br />
SOFTWARE AS<br />
A SERVICE -<br />
pros and CONS
contents<br />
CHIEF EXECUTIVE<br />
OFFICER<br />
KEITH ALDIS<br />
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT<br />
MANAGER<br />
BEN CLACY<br />
MARKETING MANAGER<br />
KIM MAY<br />
P.14 P.21<br />
Marketing ASSISTANT<br />
Lindsay Thomas<br />
EDITOR<br />
JAMES WEST<br />
DESIGNER<br />
CASSANDRA LEAR<br />
cassandralear.com<br />
All communications to:<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> UK, 150 Wharfedale<br />
Road, Winnersh Triangle,<br />
Wokingham, RG41 5RB<br />
Tel: 0118 918 6500<br />
Email: servicetalkeditor@<br />
itsmf.co.uk<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> is the registered<br />
trademark of the Office of<br />
Government Commerce (OGC).<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> is a registered word<br />
mark of the IT Service<br />
Management Forum Ltd<br />
Disclaimer<br />
Articles published reflect the<br />
opinions of the authors and<br />
not necessarily those of the<br />
publisher or his employees.<br />
While every reasonable effort<br />
is made to ensure that the<br />
contents of articles, editorial<br />
and advertising are accurate<br />
no responsibility can be<br />
accepted by the publisher for<br />
errors, misrepresentations<br />
and any resulting effects.<br />
ServiceTalk the Journal<br />
material within this<br />
publication may not be<br />
reproduced in whole or in part<br />
without the express<br />
permission of the <strong>itSMF</strong> UK.<br />
Printed by:<br />
AGI Thamesdown Limited<br />
Unit 1-2 Birch,<br />
Kembrey Park, Swindon,<br />
Wiltshire, SN2 8UU<br />
To subscribe please contact<br />
lindsay.thomas@itsmf.co.uk<br />
P.24<br />
july contents<br />
4 industry news<br />
• IT to feel the economic pinch<br />
• New name for Help Desk Institute<br />
• License tracking not automated<br />
6 itsmf News<br />
• Problem management SIG has new chair<br />
• Details of the next simulation event<br />
• <strong>ITIL</strong> Version 3 qualification update<br />
8 itsmf news<br />
• <strong>itSMF</strong> <strong>International</strong> states its intentions<br />
• The personal touch for <strong>itSMF</strong> UK members<br />
• <strong>itSMF</strong> UK Service Management<br />
Awards 2008<br />
11 Letters and opinions<br />
Letters and e-mails about the service<br />
management industry<br />
13 Comment<br />
Thoughts from the CEO<br />
14 <strong>ITIL</strong> Version 3 one year on<br />
One year on since <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 was unveiled, what<br />
is the feedback from the market This article<br />
draws opinions from a practitioner, a trainer,<br />
a consultant and a think tank to see how <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 is being digested<br />
21 Best practice maturity<br />
The perception that <strong>ITIL</strong> is far more<br />
developed in the UK compared to the US is<br />
challenged in this article<br />
P.29<br />
24 SaaS or on-site<br />
Software as a Service (SaaS) has become<br />
a genuine alternative to buying enterprise<br />
software, this article compares the new and<br />
old ways of software delivery, offering pros<br />
and cons for both concepts<br />
29 Green I.T.<br />
Going green may become a necessity<br />
rather than choice in IT. Here we look at how<br />
big the problem is and how virtualisation<br />
may hold the key to stopping the drain<br />
on power<br />
34 etom<br />
Much like <strong>ITIL</strong>, eTOM is a best practice<br />
framework, but focused on telecoms. <strong>itSMF</strong><br />
is involved in a group which is aiming to<br />
bring the two frameworks into closer<br />
alignment; this article looks at the value and<br />
compatibility of eTOM alongside <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
38 Communications<br />
Is there any value in e-mail or has its<br />
usefulness as a business tool been fatally<br />
undermined by spam We look at the<br />
challenge that IT faces to get its message<br />
through to the rest of the business<br />
41 Publications<br />
An update on the publications arm of the<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> UK, including the first in a series of<br />
book reviews which will lift the lid on the real<br />
value of the publications available<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK
news<br />
news in brief<br />
Licensing not<br />
formally monitored<br />
More than one-third of<br />
attendees polled at the Service<br />
Desk and IT Support Show do<br />
not have a computerised<br />
system for monitoring<br />
software licenses, and of<br />
those who do have such a<br />
system, almost 40 per cent of<br />
staff have no confidence that it<br />
is doing its job.<br />
Another alarming statistic<br />
unearthed by House on the<br />
Hill software at the event<br />
in London’s Olympia is that<br />
53 per cent of IT support<br />
professionals are unsure<br />
whether software licenses<br />
are tracked automatically,<br />
manually or even at all.<br />
Right to improve<br />
The Strasbourg-based<br />
European Court of Human<br />
Rights (ECHR) has thrown<br />
out its previous service desk<br />
software in a move which has<br />
led to improved efficiencies<br />
and user-satisfaction.<br />
ECHR<br />
John Hunter, head of<br />
the ECHR IT Department,<br />
commented on the impact of<br />
e-Service Desk from ICCM.<br />
“We have seen a dramatic<br />
change in the department,<br />
resulting in both quantitative<br />
and qualitative efficiency.”<br />
Support locked down<br />
The European arm of Chubb<br />
Insurance has upgraded its<br />
service management software<br />
as it aims for compatibility<br />
with <strong>ITIL</strong> thinking and meet<br />
the requirements of<br />
Sarbanes Oxley.<br />
Keith Brewer, IT support<br />
manager at Chubb says that<br />
Hornbill’s Supportworks<br />
ITSM product offered far<br />
greater transparency of the<br />
services on offer than was<br />
previously possible.<br />
The time to save<br />
IT urged to self-impose budget cuts before<br />
savings are forced upon the department<br />
IT departments will need to fight<br />
off budget cuts and will struggle<br />
to maintain any efforts to improve<br />
service delivery if the current<br />
recession continues, according to<br />
The Helpdesk Institute’s name<br />
change reflects the shift towards<br />
the full professionalisation of the<br />
IT support industry, according to<br />
the organisation’s founder, Howard<br />
Kendall. The new name, Service<br />
Desk Institute (SDI), embodies the<br />
now commonly accepted notion<br />
that the term helpdesk is outdated,<br />
because it historically suggests a<br />
lack of strategic connections<br />
to the business.<br />
Speaking to ServiceTALK the<br />
Journal, Howard said, “IT service<br />
management is a profession now<br />
and the function is finally being<br />
taken seriously. This has been<br />
helped by key elements such as<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> and SOX (Sarbanes Oxley)<br />
three separate reports.<br />
Consultancy firm the Hackett<br />
Group urges that IT take the<br />
initiative and dramatically curb<br />
spending before it is forced to<br />
New name, new focus<br />
Service Desk Institute offers fresh thinking<br />
and focus on soft skills<br />
which have helped drive the issues<br />
we have been championing for<br />
years into the boardroom.”<br />
The service desk is focused<br />
on proactive service and trying to<br />
eliminate root causes of common<br />
problems. “The volume of calls<br />
to the service desk has increased<br />
exponentially, and we are seeing<br />
an increased use of self-service<br />
and techniques such as combining<br />
the first and second lines of<br />
support, particularly in cases<br />
where follow-the-sun support is<br />
required,” says Howard.<br />
The SDI reports continued<br />
success with its qualifications<br />
programme, having recently<br />
introduced its analyst and manager<br />
do so by the board. Back office<br />
departments within the leading<br />
multi-national firms could realise<br />
savings of as much as £200 million,<br />
representing a saving of almost<br />
half of the predicted fall in profits<br />
caused by the economic lull, by<br />
embarking on a programme of<br />
slashing outgoings.<br />
IT services are at greater risk<br />
of being outsourced than ever<br />
before, according to two documents<br />
produced by industry analyst<br />
Gartner. The first prediction will<br />
see offshoring of services to<br />
locations such as India increasing<br />
drastically, as businesses panic and<br />
forgo SIPs (Service Improvement<br />
Programmes) for the carrot of short<br />
term savings. If the recession<br />
continues towards 2009, Gartner<br />
says that all ‘discretionary IT<br />
spending will be cancelled’, putting<br />
massive pressure on bosses to<br />
offer bargain basement service.<br />
Gartner’s report into the growth<br />
of vendors offering IT services is<br />
also a strong indicator of falling<br />
confidence in internal operations,<br />
with 2007 seeing the sector grow<br />
by 11 per cent. IBM and Accenture<br />
were the big winners during this<br />
period, with the latter in particular<br />
winning new business to the tune<br />
of a 20 per cent year-on-year<br />
increase. 2008 could represent a<br />
far bigger windfall for the service<br />
management providers if the<br />
monetary dynamic refuses to<br />
deviate from its negative path. n<br />
Howard<br />
Kendall,<br />
SDI<br />
training to major new markets<br />
- India and the US. Howard says<br />
these qualifications are in no way<br />
designed to replace <strong>ITIL</strong> training,<br />
instead they focus on soft skills and<br />
the ‘practical side of the process’,<br />
and so should complement existing<br />
service management training. “Our<br />
aim is to bring the wording of best<br />
practice to life,” concludes Howard. n<br />
SERVICETALK july 2008
<strong>itSMF</strong> UK news<br />
Guiding hand for the SIG<br />
Group dedicated to discussing the finer points of problem management<br />
gets boost in the form of a experienced leader in the field<br />
Paul Offord, development director<br />
of troubleshooting company<br />
advance7, has been appointed<br />
chairman for the Problem<br />
Management Special Interest<br />
Group (SIG).<br />
Paul is keen to ensure that<br />
under his chairmanship the<br />
Problem Management SIG has a<br />
recognisable impact within the<br />
industry, and that it provides advice<br />
that delivers measurable benefits.<br />
“We have an impressive array of<br />
people in the SIG with a wealth of<br />
experience. I’m confident that we<br />
can and will make a difference,”<br />
said Paul.<br />
Megan Pendlebury, <strong>itSMF</strong> UK<br />
service management executive,<br />
commented on the appointment<br />
and the importance of quality<br />
guidance for the SIGs. “ Paul<br />
Offord has a wealth of expertise<br />
in problem management and we<br />
feel sure that his leadership will<br />
contribute greatly to the Problem<br />
Management SIG.<br />
“As organisations depend<br />
more and more on technology<br />
to promote and deliver their<br />
products to market, so the<br />
necessity of investing in IT<br />
service management becomes<br />
more apparent. Embracing best<br />
practice approaches and standards<br />
increases the chances of success.<br />
The Special Interest Groups hosted<br />
by the <strong>itSMF</strong> UK are designed to<br />
help members discuss, dissect and<br />
understand the key best practice<br />
industry issues.”<br />
According to Paul, the increased<br />
complexity of applications and<br />
the requirement for fast, stable<br />
systems throws a spotlight on the<br />
IT department’s ability to handle<br />
and solve problems. “Just as<br />
a new application can increase<br />
the productivity of a business, a<br />
chronic IT problem can reverse<br />
those gains. The IT team is coming<br />
under increasing pressure to fix<br />
problems quickly and permanently.<br />
IT best practice frameworks such<br />
as <strong>ITIL</strong> offer the potential benefits<br />
of consistent, predictable and faster<br />
problem resolution. The ultimate<br />
objective of the SIG is to help the IT<br />
team realise this potential.” n<br />
Hands-on expereince at <strong>itSMF</strong><br />
simulation events<br />
Simulation event back<br />
by popular demand<br />
Birmingham is the location for the next itsmf<br />
simulation event in September<br />
Following the runaway success<br />
of recent simulation events at the<br />
Service Desk and IT Support Show,<br />
a new session is to be held on the<br />
16th September at Birmingham’s<br />
Hilton Metropole.<br />
The interactive simulation game<br />
demonstrates how learning tools<br />
and a role play approach can<br />
assist in the development and<br />
understanding of <strong>ITIL</strong> and best<br />
practice within any organisation.<br />
The sessions put attendees in the<br />
middle of real-life scenarios and<br />
teaches them how <strong>ITIL</strong> thinking can<br />
solve problems in a pressurised<br />
environment. The simulation is<br />
appropriate for all levels of service<br />
management experience.<br />
For more information or to<br />
book a place please visit<br />
www.itsmf.co.uk/events n<br />
Qualfications<br />
coming into focus<br />
titles of itil V3 qualification released<br />
The <strong>ITIL</strong> Qualification Board<br />
has issued an update regarding<br />
the titles of the <strong>ITIL</strong> Version 3<br />
qualifications.<br />
Service Lifecycle and Service<br />
Capability modules and Managing<br />
Across the Lifecycle will be<br />
known officially as <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
Intermediate Certificates.<br />
A candidate who has achieved<br />
the minimum accumulation of<br />
22 credits across a selection of<br />
balanced V2 and V3 modules will be<br />
awarded the <strong>ITIL</strong> Expert Certificate.<br />
Candidates who satisfy the<br />
requirement of the currently titled<br />
‘Advanced’ level will be awarded<br />
the <strong>ITIL</strong> Master Certificate.<br />
The Qualification Board involved<br />
the ITSM community by surveying<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> members and Accredited<br />
Training Organisations on their<br />
preference for the formal titles<br />
of <strong>ITIL</strong> Qualifications. The results<br />
of the survey were reviewed and<br />
endorsed by the Board. n<br />
SERVICETALK july 2008
<strong>itSMF</strong> UK news<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> global plans<br />
<strong>International</strong> meetings to decide focus<br />
The <strong>itSMF</strong> <strong>International</strong> Executive<br />
Board has a raft of ‘innovative<br />
initiatives’ planned for 2008,<br />
including the introduction of<br />
virtual meetings for chapter<br />
representatives.<br />
Meeting in April, the Board also<br />
scheduled its meetings for the<br />
year, with the dates of 30th July in<br />
Tokyo and 11th September in San<br />
Francisco following the respective<br />
Japanese and American<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> conferences.<br />
The first Chapter Leadership<br />
Conference (CLC) is scheduled to<br />
take place this November in the UK<br />
following the <strong>itSMF</strong> UK Conference<br />
and preceding the Annual General<br />
Meeting on 14th November. The<br />
CLC will provide support and<br />
resources for emerging, growing<br />
and established <strong>itSMF</strong> Chapters.<br />
There are several countries hoping<br />
to be approved as Chapters this<br />
year with many more individuals<br />
registering an interest within<br />
their country.<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> <strong>International</strong> is planning<br />
to produce a monthly update of<br />
news, developments, initiatives<br />
and service portfolios, which will<br />
be sent to all Chapters. n<br />
Competition begins<br />
for the ultimate<br />
prize: <strong>itSMF</strong> Awards<br />
The expansion of the <strong>itSMF</strong> Awards last year<br />
has added more prestige for the winners<br />
The race is on to see who will<br />
win the coveted 2008 <strong>itSMF</strong> UK<br />
Awards. The most prestigious<br />
award programme in the industry<br />
was expanded successfully last<br />
year, with the addition of two new<br />
accolades - Trainer of the Year and<br />
Submission of the Year - which<br />
were won by John Griffiths and<br />
Julie MacMillan respectively. With<br />
the standard of entries improving<br />
year-on-year, the fight for these and<br />
the other awards will be tough.<br />
For more information on the Trainer<br />
and Submission Awards, as well as<br />
the Service Management Champion,<br />
Project of the Year and Innovation<br />
of the year, conntact:<br />
Kim.May@<strong>itSMF</strong>.co.uk<br />
One, two and three day delegate<br />
packages are now available with<br />
and without accommodation for<br />
the 17th Annual Conference at the<br />
Birmingham Hilton Metropole,<br />
which opens on 10th November<br />
2008. The final presentations<br />
have now been chosen for the six<br />
streams and the full Conference<br />
program is available online at<br />
www.itsmf.co.uk/conference as<br />
well as the price list and booking<br />
forms for delegates, stands and<br />
sponsorship. Members are<br />
reminded to book soon to take<br />
advantage of member’s discount<br />
and to ensure they don’t miss out<br />
on this year’s premier event for IT<br />
service management. n<br />
What can<br />
we interest<br />
you with<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> gets personal with the membership<br />
The new online <strong>itSMF</strong> UK<br />
membership database offers<br />
users the chance to keep up to<br />
date on those areas of service<br />
management they most want to<br />
hear about. The service offers<br />
updates to <strong>itSMF</strong> members based<br />
on their interests in topics such<br />
as ISO/IEC 20000, outsourcing,<br />
and business continuity.<br />
Members can update their<br />
profile to ensure they don’t miss<br />
out on the latest news, by visiting<br />
www.itsmf.co.uk and logging on<br />
by using their e-mail address and<br />
password. Once logged on, users<br />
click on ‘Manage My Personal<br />
Details’ and select ‘Options’. This<br />
page lets members ensure that<br />
the information received from<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> UK is personalised to<br />
their needs. n<br />
SERVICETALK july 2008
opinions<br />
V3 or not V3<br />
Currently, there is a lot of debate in<br />
the industry about <strong>ITIL</strong> V3, its real<br />
value to business and the approach<br />
to adoption that organisations<br />
should take.<br />
The fact is that in today’s<br />
web-centric environment, where<br />
IT plays a crucial role not only in<br />
the success of businesses, but<br />
also as an agent that facilitates<br />
business transformation, effective<br />
service management has become<br />
a strategic asset. Organisations<br />
must continually adopt innovative<br />
techniques to in turn adopt best<br />
practice in the most efficient,<br />
painless and cost effective way.<br />
Therefore, the issue is not<br />
about adopting Version 2 or 3<br />
of <strong>ITIL</strong>, it’s about adopting and<br />
adapting the components of this<br />
best practice framework in order<br />
for organisations to meet their<br />
individual business needs. For<br />
instance, <strong>ITIL</strong> V2 continues to<br />
offer customers a comprehensive<br />
approach to service management,<br />
but for those customers whose<br />
businesses require a system that<br />
supports the complete lifecycle, the<br />
process definitions held within <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 could prove invaluable.<br />
The key for organisations<br />
– irrespective of size and the<br />
technology they use – is that <strong>ITIL</strong>,<br />
if used strategically, can deliver<br />
business benefits in the form<br />
of reduced TCO (Total Cost of<br />
Ownership), increase the number<br />
of productive hours and help meet<br />
business objectives by aligning IT<br />
with business processes.<br />
James Gay, sales director, ICCM<br />
For more on the progress of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3,<br />
see our article on page 14<br />
UK leads the way<br />
with training<br />
With a growing demand for<br />
professionals in the service desk<br />
arena across the globe, it is<br />
imperative that individuals have<br />
access to training that will help<br />
them develop and perform. A lack<br />
of soft skills has been cited as<br />
one of the reasons for high stress,<br />
dissatisfaction and high attrition<br />
rate amongst the workforce in<br />
the IT industry. It is therefore<br />
important for organisations to<br />
invest in training and certifying their<br />
employees so that they are better<br />
equipped to handle the demanding<br />
nature of the work. Improved<br />
customer interaction skills, ability<br />
to work as a team and increased<br />
efficiency are essential to handle<br />
the demanding nature of these<br />
jobs. SDI’s recent entry into India,<br />
which has a huge untapped market<br />
for a global standard in training<br />
and certifications for soft skills,<br />
certainly signifies the beginning of a<br />
transformation within the industry.<br />
India is of utmost strategic<br />
importance for the service desk<br />
industry, with the majority of the<br />
world’s IT and business process<br />
outsourcing organisations located<br />
there. India has an amazing talent<br />
pool, and with the demand for<br />
skilled manpower increasing,<br />
the country really has<br />
acknowledged just how important<br />
it is to improve its skills to offer<br />
service delivery at a level that<br />
matches global standards.<br />
They are not alone. Other<br />
countries, like Malaysia, the<br />
Philippines and a number of East<br />
European and Middle Eastern<br />
countries are also investing in<br />
internationally recognised business<br />
and service orientated skills<br />
standards to ensure their ITSM<br />
offerings remain attractive on a<br />
global stage. Will our workforce,<br />
businesses and government realise<br />
we need to take the initiative<br />
here as well, before it’s too late<br />
to remain competitive Although<br />
there is lots of talk and quango-type<br />
organisations are starting to spring<br />
up, quite frankly, we are just not<br />
seeing a co-ordinated effort.<br />
Howard Kendall, founder<br />
The Service Desk Institute (SDI)<br />
Career in I.T. gets<br />
more attractive<br />
Not only is IT now routinely<br />
getting a place on the board, but<br />
also the service desk is seen as<br />
a great place to start a career in<br />
IT. That’s according to the latest<br />
survey commissioned by The<br />
Service Desk Institute (SDI) and<br />
Hornbill Systems. It appears that<br />
IT service departments are twice<br />
as involved in business planning<br />
with nearly double the number<br />
of IT departments now involved<br />
in the processes compared with<br />
five years ago. The increased<br />
dependence on technology in most<br />
organisations means that the<br />
status of IT has been raised with<br />
65 per cent of businesses having IT<br />
representation at board level.<br />
The research has also identified<br />
that the role of the service desk has<br />
grown to meet extended round the<br />
ServiceTalk the Journal is the voice of you, the <strong>itSMF</strong><br />
UK members. We want you to join in the<br />
conversation and spark off the debate<br />
Are you ready to<br />
turn green<br />
It seems most bizarre<br />
that any company<br />
would still drag their<br />
feet on going green<br />
even when they realise<br />
that they actually<br />
stand to increase profit<br />
from observing green<br />
measures. Of course<br />
IT companies need<br />
to conserve energy.<br />
However, we are in<br />
danger of forgetting<br />
that IT professionals<br />
need to acquire the<br />
skills to help them<br />
understand that green<br />
IT does not only make<br />
environmental sense but<br />
it also makes compelling<br />
business sense.<br />
Green does not mean expensive – quite the opposite. Indeed with<br />
the right approach and effective process management, an<br />
environmental policy across all IT implementations can and will deliver<br />
significant bottom line value.<br />
No number of strategies could possibly compensate for an IT<br />
department that is ignorant in the way of green practices. If an<br />
organisation wishes to drive down on its IT energy usage, the whole<br />
IT department, and indeed all employees, must buy into and be fully<br />
educated in the green policies put in place, both in terms of process<br />
and underlying ethos.<br />
This way, they will be able to identify clear opportunities for driving<br />
down overheads. Highlighting and communicating costs to staff will<br />
surely increase awareness and actually reduce consumption as<br />
individuals start to proactively monitor their actions and collectively<br />
take responsibility for their company’s activity.<br />
Rick Firth, managing director, Parity Training<br />
For more on the green IT issue, see our article on page 29<br />
clock, dedicated support demands.<br />
50 per cent of companies are using<br />
psychometric testing to identify<br />
the potential in recruits for the<br />
service desk which is now viewed<br />
very much as the start of a career<br />
path. There is also more emphasis<br />
on personal skills when recruiting<br />
than qualifications, reflecting the<br />
importance of the ‘human’ side of<br />
the modern day IT service desk.<br />
In the last five years we have<br />
seen IT change from being an<br />
outside function to one that<br />
is core to the business. The<br />
delivery of business goals is often<br />
underpinned by the success of<br />
the IT infrastructure, and while<br />
technology has enabled many<br />
service desks to run successful<br />
support functions, there has<br />
also been recognition that the<br />
human touch – service desk<br />
personnel – is what delivers<br />
customer satisfaction. Good<br />
systems and working practices<br />
must support service personnel<br />
and empower a personalised<br />
service – but interpersonal skills<br />
are what counts. The successful<br />
career opportunities that have<br />
opened up reflect this change,<br />
and about time too.<br />
Patrick Bolger, chief marketing<br />
officer, Hornbill Systems<br />
encompassing the issues which really impact you<br />
and your business objectives.<br />
Whether you have comments about the <strong>itSMF</strong> UK,<br />
the journal and its content, or the industry in general,<br />
please send us an e-mail.<br />
James West. servicetalkeditor@itsmf.co.uk<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 11
comment<br />
What<br />
is your<br />
vision<br />
Well, summer is well and truly here<br />
and it’s that time of the year again<br />
to take stock of the last business<br />
year’s performance for the industry<br />
as a whole. You will of course<br />
know that it’s also a year since <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
Version 3 was launched around the<br />
globe (see our article on page 14<br />
for a look at how it has impacted<br />
the market) and individuals have<br />
been waiting in eager anticipation<br />
for the training courses which<br />
followed the refresh so they could<br />
update their skills. I’m pleased<br />
to say that the delivery of training<br />
has now picked up a pace and<br />
APMG report a significant upturn in<br />
individuals undergoing the <strong>ITIL</strong> V2-<br />
V3 Foundation Bridge or the <strong>ITIL</strong> V3<br />
Foundation course itself. Hopefully<br />
a greater number of IT service<br />
managers are getting closer to the<br />
business as a result.<br />
Additionally, there has been<br />
much good and positive work<br />
undertaken with getting parity<br />
and mapping sorted out on <strong>ITIL</strong>’s<br />
linkages with other IT sourced<br />
systems being used in the service<br />
management world, including<br />
specifically eTOM and COBIT as well<br />
as ISO/IEC 20000. You will learn<br />
on page 34 about the work being<br />
carried out jointly by the <strong>itSMF</strong> and<br />
TeleManagement Forum (TMF) to<br />
help both customer bases of <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
and eTOM respectively to get to<br />
grips with the differences (which<br />
lie mostly in technical language)<br />
between the two frameworks.<br />
I’m pleased and encouraged<br />
also to see that the word<br />
‘complementary’ is being used<br />
rather than ‘competitive’ when<br />
it comes to talking about these<br />
other systems and <strong>ITIL</strong> and the<br />
service management world will<br />
be better for it. While <strong>ITIL</strong> might<br />
be the frontrunner and possibly<br />
the most advanced of all support<br />
infrastructures, <strong>itSMF</strong> needs now<br />
to engage on all fronts, particularly<br />
as our membership broadens and<br />
the shape of IT service management<br />
changes. Individuals and<br />
organisations now have a greater<br />
level of ability and understanding<br />
of all things IT and their wants<br />
and needs are so much more<br />
sophisticated. We need to adapt<br />
to this and also adapt our existing<br />
practices to de-mystify for them<br />
what we do to support businesses.<br />
If we don’t, then how can businesses<br />
continue to understand the<br />
enormous benefits that IT service<br />
management brings to them<br />
I read an article recently by Sharon<br />
Taylor, the chief architect of the <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 refresh, which was titled: ‘Losing<br />
IT and gaining a place in the team’.<br />
She said that ours is a maturing<br />
industry and that IT today is not<br />
so much aligned to the business,<br />
but is the business itself. I’m not<br />
for one minute suggesting that<br />
getting the hell out of IT might be the<br />
catchphrase for the future, but getting<br />
a hell of a lot out of IT, might be.<br />
So, we are in a global market,<br />
and service management is a<br />
global concept which ought to<br />
break down all barriers. It’s shared<br />
across all types of businesses and<br />
at almost every level. Providing<br />
and managing these services for<br />
the betterment of business must be<br />
the ultimate aim of our people and I<br />
believe that <strong>itSMF</strong> is key to acting as<br />
a gatekeeper for everything service<br />
management related. n<br />
Keith Aldis<br />
Chief executive officer<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 13
<strong>ITIL</strong> one year on FEATURE<br />
Has <strong>ITIL</strong> Version 3<br />
made the connection<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> Version 3 is one year old, and to mark the occasion, ServiceTALK the Journal<br />
asked a range of industry experts their views on what progress has been made. A<br />
practitioner, a trainer, a consultant and an industry think-tank all offer their<br />
opinions to create a snap shot of how the best practice framework has settled in.<br />
The<br />
practitioner.<br />
Diane Finn,<br />
service strategy<br />
consultant, BT<br />
Operate<br />
Telecoms giant BT<br />
was one of the first<br />
organisations to<br />
pursue <strong>ITIL</strong> Version 3<br />
when it was launched in June 2007. Diane Finn<br />
summarises the draw of the new framework.<br />
“BT is looking to deliver world class service<br />
to its customers and is therefore determined<br />
to apply best practice to underpin that. <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 represented a more converged approach<br />
between IT and business, which was in tune<br />
with BT’s service agenda.”<br />
BT of course has the financial and staffing<br />
clout to mobilise a major project such as<br />
implementing <strong>ITIL</strong> V3, but as Diane explains,<br />
the effort was still significant, proving that <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 has far more value than merely a badge<br />
of honour. “Our key challenge was rolling out<br />
training to large numbers of people at both<br />
Foundation and Manager level. Stakeholder<br />
management across the organisation to develop<br />
understanding and benefits of embracing <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 was also vital.”<br />
As we have already touched on, BT knew <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 was a large investment, but it could see the<br />
benefits when assessing the move and is<br />
already reaping rewards. “The new version<br />
has provided the opportunity to audit various<br />
parts of our business and brought to the surface<br />
areas where we were weak under Version 2.<br />
This in turn has driven service improvement<br />
activities and increased the momentum<br />
for service improvement.”<br />
In fact, the changes to <strong>ITIL</strong> in V3 which extend<br />
it into the wider service change and away from<br />
focusing purely on IT service management, have<br />
helped drive up the profile of <strong>ITIL</strong>, helping to<br />
make it a senior management issue. Several BT<br />
divisions are now using <strong>ITIL</strong>, as Diane explains.<br />
“It has been used to drive our overall operating<br />
model which in turn has provided greater<br />
visibility and momentum.”<br />
It is clear that BT has enjoyed success in<br />
employing <strong>ITIL</strong> V3, but there is some way to<br />
go before the new version of <strong>ITIL</strong> sees mass<br />
adoption throughout the business world. Diane<br />
is convinced the key to driving acceptance comes<br />
as the framework starts showing its worth,<br />
stating that ‘delivery of measurable benefits in<br />
business terms and clear improvements<br />
to service levels to the customer base’ will<br />
help potential users of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 overcome any<br />
fears they might have.<br />
The consultant.<br />
Mark O’Neill,<br />
senior principal<br />
consultant at<br />
QA-IQ<br />
“Like many others I<br />
decided to start on<br />
the first page, of the<br />
first book, Service<br />
Strategy. I soon<br />
settled into its prose, nodding sagely to myself<br />
in agreement with the latest view of a brave<br />
new world.<br />
Luckily, the Friday that my set of books arrived<br />
happened to coincide with the delivery of a case<br />
of mixed reds and whites from my Sunday paper<br />
wine club. As I perused my CD collection for<br />
the perfect listening companion to my drinking<br />
and reading companion, I began to question my<br />
actions. Surely this was one self-indulgent step<br />
too far It almost felt as if I was being filmed for<br />
a new reality TV programme to be called One<br />
Man and his Guilty Pleasures.<br />
However as I settled down and started to<br />
flick through the pages of Service Strategy, my<br />
decision to accompany my reading with a case<br />
of alcoholic beverage seemed like the most<br />
astute decision I had made that week.<br />
I had started off OK, a bit like a horse in the<br />
Grand National completing their first furlong at<br />
a comfortable canter, but as I got deeper into<br />
Strategy, my mood was starting to change and<br />
my concentration was starting to waiver, and<br />
it soon became apparent, this was not going<br />
to be the joyous evening I had planned. By the<br />
time I got to value composition and the agency<br />
principle, self doubt started to creep in and I<br />
started to get concerned that I was not going to<br />
complete my own personal Grand National.<br />
I told myself, this was a book that needed me<br />
to be on top of my game, my concentration and<br />
perception levels had to be 100 per cent. I closed<br />
the book, uncorked another bottle of red and left<br />
Service Strategy for another day. I had fallen at<br />
the first hurdle.<br />
It was not until the following Tuesday I<br />
plucked up the courage to have another go at<br />
Service Strategy; I was not going to let a bunch<br />
of academics from over the pond beat me, I<br />
was going to learn and understand this stuff.<br />
Accompanied that time with nothing stronger<br />
than a cup of tea, I bravely opened the book<br />
on page 31 to read about the principles of<br />
Service Strategy. Again I started off at a nice<br />
pace, agreeing with the book’s perception of<br />
perceptions and moving nicely onto market<br />
mindset and framing the value of services. In<br />
horse racing terms I was taking up a comfortable<br />
position on the rails. Unfortunately as with my<br />
first attempt I soon began to falter and was very<br />
quickly looking for something else to do, anything<br />
that would give me an excuse to put the book<br />
down again. All too quickly I gave up.<br />
Working for an organisation that employs<br />
service management consultants and lecturers,<br />
I decided I would canvass the views of my<br />
esteemed colleagues and ask them for their<br />
view of Service Strategy. I trawled the web,<br />
contacted other people who worked in the<br />
industry and it soon became apparent that<br />
we were all struggling to varying degrees to<br />
understand Strategy. More worryingly, seeing<br />
as I was working for a training and consultancy<br />
organisation, I had to know this stuff, as very<br />
quickly I would be teaching and implementing<br />
it for my customers.<br />
What followed was a series of sleepless<br />
nights, anxiety attacks and pure cold sweat<br />
panics. Then it hit me, as I was frantically<br />
thinking about how I was going to understand the<br />
complexities of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 and Strategy in particular,<br />
I had a thought - don’t start at the beginning of<br />
the lifecycle, start at the end. It had finally come<br />
to me, do what I’ve been telling others to do<br />
for as long as I can remember, get a baseline<br />
understanding of where are we now. I made a<br />
strategic decision; the first book I was going to<br />
read was not Service Strategy but Operation.<br />
Once I’d made that decision I was then able<br />
to properly plan my approach. First off, I set<br />
myself a vision, what did I want to get out of the<br />
new version, what were the advantages I was<br />
looking for I then thought, what do I want to<br />
gain a detailed understand of and what would I<br />
be happy with just an overview understanding of<br />
I also asked myself where I wanted to specialise.<br />
I then put together a timetable of what I could<br />
realistically fit into my working and personal<br />
time. As with all plans, mine needed assessing<br />
and correcting along the way, and my decision<br />
patterns were constantly reviewed, and still<br />
are as I write. Without even knowing it I had<br />
employed the four Ps of Strategy; perspective,<br />
positions, plans and patterns.<br />
Over the course of the last twelve months I<br />
have grown to understand and appreciate <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 and my perception has changed with each<br />
passing month. I now have a much better<br />
understanding of the new version which has led<br />
to many of my initial concerns and protests being<br />
rendered illogical and unfounded.<br />
How did this turn around happen How did<br />
my initial disappointment turn into new found<br />
respect and appreciation Well quite simply<br />
I took a strategic approach to understanding<br />
the lifecycle. I realised my initial mistake was<br />
starting with something that was new and<br />
unfamiliar and I made the decision to start<br />
again by re-aligning myself with processes and<br />
functions that were as familiar to me as my old<br />
friends and family. Over the proceeding weeks, I<br />
followed a plan that enabled me to dip in and out<br />
of the books, move from one familiar aspect to<br />
a number of new and unfamiliar aspects, and I<br />
naturally fell into a cyclic approach of evaluation<br />
and re-evaluation.<br />
Twelve months on and I am embracing<br />
every element of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 (including Strategy).<br />
As a lecturer and consultant I am still called<br />
on to deliver <strong>ITIL</strong> V2 training courses or<br />
implementation workshops, and I get more than<br />
a little frustrated that (certainly from a training<br />
perspective) I am limited to articulate only ten<br />
processes and the service desk. There is so<br />
much more to <strong>ITIL</strong> V3, that admittedly did exist in<br />
some form or another in previous versions, that<br />
we can now promote, implement and improve<br />
on. It’s just finding the time (and will-power) to<br />
read it, understand it and appreciate it as the<br />
only way forward.”<br />
The trainer.<br />
John griffiths<br />
Client manager<br />
at Fox IT and<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> uk trainer<br />
of the year 2007<br />
“The <strong>ITIL</strong> refresh<br />
has generated a lot<br />
of differing views<br />
about the new look<br />
library. In the main, most people agree that it is<br />
an overall improvement and more accurately<br />
reflects the way businesses and IT work in the<br />
modern world. There is also a consensus that<br />
the ‘ideal world’ of <strong>ITIL</strong> has been repositioned<br />
closer to the ‘real world’ into which people have<br />
to implement what they have learned from the<br />
classroom.<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> V3 has given managers and practitioners<br />
of service management a lot more to consider. In<br />
these relatively early days, it has helped to clarify<br />
some of the anomalies of previous versions<br />
whilst at the same time introduced more things ➤<br />
14 SERVICETALK july 2008<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 15
<strong>ITIL</strong> one year on FEATURE<br />
that need to be considered. This includes a<br />
fundamental attitude shift of how the library is<br />
approached. With previous versions you simply<br />
went to the relevant chapter of the topic you<br />
were interested in. Now that topic is likely to be<br />
liberally spread around the lifecycle stages which<br />
is logical but also frustrating for some people<br />
who find it challenging when they cannot pigeon<br />
hole a process or activity. This is not surprising<br />
as the Foundation level exams (both old and<br />
new) are essentially an exercise in putting<br />
everything in its rightful place: ‘Which process is<br />
responsible for the following task What is the<br />
correct order of the incident stages’<br />
A common question from delegates attending<br />
both Foundation and Managers bridging courses<br />
is ‘Where does that (process/activity/task) live<br />
in the lifecycle’ It is important that people do<br />
not get too hung up about what lives where<br />
as the reality is that processes will feature<br />
throughout the lifecycle stages in several<br />
different manifestations. The application of<br />
a pragmatic and common sense approach to<br />
implementing the lifecycle will greatly assist in<br />
getting the right elements of each process<br />
into the appropriate places.<br />
Service Strategy contains virtually all new<br />
material and is the cause of much diverse<br />
debate. It has been variously described as a<br />
load of mumbo jumbo theory through to an<br />
insightful and useful tool for helping to integrate<br />
the business and IT. It also introduces for the<br />
first time in the classroom a lot of material that<br />
a large number of people have no perceived<br />
direct input to or personal association with.<br />
Many people sitting on a training course will<br />
have a view that they have no influence or<br />
control over the strategy of either the business<br />
or IT and therefore they will never really engage<br />
in the strategy either in the workplace or the<br />
classroom. Strategy does however take on<br />
more relevance for these individuals when they<br />
realise that the other stages of the lifecycle are<br />
all about the execution of that strategy. Another<br />
defining point is that Service Strategy asks the<br />
question ‘Why do we want to do something’<br />
before considering the question ‘How do we do<br />
it’ A long and sorry trail of projects or process<br />
implementations have failed to meet their goals<br />
by the simple failure to follow the sequence of<br />
how those two questions are asked. The Service<br />
Strategy book is likely to be a ‘slow burn’ where<br />
the value and relevance of it will take a little<br />
while to embed itself into the <strong>ITIL</strong> fraternity.<br />
Although the theme of this piece is <strong>ITIL</strong> V3<br />
one year on, the vast majority of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 training<br />
has still to be released into the market. When<br />
that happens we will get a clearer view of how<br />
organisations position themselves with regard<br />
to training their staff. There has been evidence<br />
of organisations who are currently in the early<br />
days of <strong>ITIL</strong> adoption, agonising over whether<br />
they should adopt Version 2 or 3. In reality<br />
it is virtually a non-issue. Any organisation<br />
taking on <strong>ITIL</strong> right now would begin with the<br />
fundamentals, all of which are incorporated in<br />
both versions. It should be viewed as a pick<br />
and mix selection of working with the next<br />
appropriate process irrespective of which version<br />
it originates from. A key point that seems to<br />
have been overlooked is that most of the ‘new’<br />
processes of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 were around previously,<br />
they simply were not in the ‘core set’ of Service<br />
Support and Service Delivery which many people<br />
view as the sum of <strong>ITIL</strong>, overlooking publications<br />
such as Application Management or ICT.<br />
A key element of implementation is training<br />
staff to be able to adapt to the new processes.<br />
It is in this area that organisations will be<br />
presented with an array of options compared<br />
to earlier training programmes. It is going to<br />
be interesting to see which routes individuals<br />
take on their journey to the <strong>ITIL</strong> expert level.<br />
No doubt different routes will be adopted by<br />
both individuals and organisations based on<br />
their specific plans and objectives. Once they<br />
have arrived at the base camp by successfully<br />
completing the Foundation course, the view up<br />
the mountain shows the summit to be somewhat<br />
higher than it used to be. There are also more<br />
paths which can be followed and the trick will<br />
be working out which path best fits to an<br />
individual’s aspirations and capabilities. For<br />
some people, one or two more steps into a<br />
Lifecycle or Capability course may be sufficient,<br />
while others will doggedly march on up to the<br />
summit, gaining credits along the way. Maybe<br />
in another year’s time we will start to see how<br />
those paths are both defined and used. When<br />
that happens we will get a better understanding<br />
of just how much thing really have changed.”<br />
The industry think-tank.<br />
The Service Futures Group<br />
In January 2008, the Service Futures Group, the<br />
joint venture between The Service Desk Institute<br />
and <strong>itSMF</strong> UK, published a report looking at <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 six months into its life. Although the story has<br />
moved on from that point, it is worth another look<br />
at the report because it highlights and ➤<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 17
FEATURE <strong>ITIL</strong> one year on<br />
pools much of the relevant praise and criticism<br />
that is commonly aired through the market.<br />
The key points of the research were this:<br />
- Small organisations are not ready for or are not<br />
interested at this time in the new material.<br />
- People still seem to have a fear of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3.<br />
- The adapt and adopt approach which was so<br />
well liked appears not to be so universally<br />
understood with the new version – but it<br />
absolutely still applies.<br />
- The concepts are new to IT service<br />
management best practices but have in the<br />
main been used successfully in other industries<br />
or other areas of the business for a long time.<br />
- People have reported that they are finding the<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> V3 material more difficult to navigate than<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> V2 – realistically this may be to do with<br />
familiarisation with the material but only<br />
time will tell.<br />
- People are deciding to stay with <strong>ITIL</strong> V2 at the<br />
current time (this is a generalisation but is<br />
true amongst the majority of respondents)<br />
and are waiting for others to try it first so<br />
they can learn from their experiences.<br />
- The understanding across the industry is still<br />
fairly low but this will change with time.<br />
- The qualifications are still in development –<br />
this point is key as before this area is bedded<br />
in and has been around for a while the other<br />
points raised above will continue to be true.<br />
It is interesting that many of these points<br />
are now being tackled, with our practitioner,<br />
consultant and trainer reporters all looking into<br />
the issues of proof of concept, absorbing the new<br />
information and qualifications respectively. Logic<br />
also dictates that all of these issues will be solved<br />
with time, as they all centre on fear, uncertainty<br />
and lack of familiarity with the source material<br />
(aside from the precise details surrounding<br />
qualifications, although yet again, this issue will<br />
be addressed and finalised in time).<br />
The report also highlighted the fact that many<br />
organisations had already developed much of<br />
what is in <strong>ITIL</strong> V3, which in the words of Megan<br />
Pendlebury, executive director of the Service<br />
Futures Group shows that: ‘<strong>ITIL</strong> V3 is indeed<br />
inline with where the industry was and is moving<br />
and is not the output of a group of people sitting<br />
in a room rather than looking at the real world.”<br />
There is criticism in the report however,<br />
particularly in the case of the Service Strategy<br />
book. There is a problem of perception with<br />
this title, with many IT practitioners considering<br />
that strategy is not part of their remit and the<br />
Service Futures Group suggests that the book be<br />
repositioned and further guidance should<br />
be offered. The report also aired concerns for<br />
the future of qualifications, with some<br />
Megan<br />
Pendlebury, Service<br />
Futures Group<br />
questioning the<br />
validity of an<br />
additional exam<br />
rather than gaining<br />
real-life experience<br />
with the new<br />
processes.<br />
Feedback for the<br />
other books and<br />
areas of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 was<br />
on the whole very<br />
positive, which suggests that the slightly slow<br />
uptake of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 may be less to do with any<br />
inherent weaknesses in the new version, and<br />
more to do with <strong>ITIL</strong> V2 being well understood<br />
and more comfortable for the businesses who<br />
have adopted it. Again, the passage of time<br />
will likely see a greater understanding of the<br />
benefits and compelling reasons to move to <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3, which when combined with clarification and<br />
guidance from the parties involved in promoting<br />
and working with <strong>ITIL</strong> will see the new version<br />
meeting the high expectations that have been<br />
attached to it.<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> Version 2 and 3 books and CDs are available<br />
online from www.itsmf.co.uk/shop<br />
Remember to login to receive your <strong>itSMF</strong> UK<br />
membership discount. n<br />
18 SERVICETALK july 2008
<strong>ITIL</strong> Maturity FEATURE<br />
Going around the<br />
world with <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
A report by PA Consulting into the maturity of <strong>ITIL</strong> practices in the market<br />
place included a look at the differences between the US and UK in terms of<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> Version 3 uptake. In this article, we look at the contents of the report,<br />
get the view from the US and learn that the perceived gap in terms of <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
development across the atlantic may not be as great as some think.<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 21
feature <strong>ITIL</strong> maturity<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> maturity FEATURE<br />
The PA Consulting report, ‘Avoiding the<br />
banana skins – How to make sure that<br />
your Service Improvement Programme<br />
(SIP) doesn’t slip-up’, was complied by sampling<br />
around 50 companies at the 2007 <strong>itSMF</strong> UK<br />
Conference and Exhibition and for comparison,<br />
including results to a similar survey conducted<br />
in the US. The questions simply asked those<br />
surveyed to rank the maturity of <strong>ITIL</strong> processes<br />
within their organisation, with a score of<br />
0 indicating that the process was absent, up<br />
to 5 which indicates fully implemented and<br />
optimised processes.<br />
The two graphs to the right show the relative<br />
scores of the US and UK respondents to the<br />
survey. Before looking in detail at the differences<br />
between the US and UK markets, the report<br />
looks at the overall meaning of the figures. The<br />
three most mature <strong>ITIL</strong> Version 2 processes are<br />
financial management, incident management<br />
and change management. These findings mirror<br />
results from the previous UK survey in 2006<br />
and the results from the US survey in 2007.<br />
Incident and change management are usually<br />
the first processes to be addressed by an <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
implementation programme and this would<br />
explain their higher scores. The relative maturity<br />
of financial management however, is most likely<br />
due to the rigorous corporate requirements for<br />
fiscal management that already exists in most<br />
businesses today, together with the additional<br />
focus brought to bear on this area by regulation<br />
such as Sarbanes-Oxley.<br />
The least mature process is availability<br />
management with well over 50 per cent of the<br />
companies surveyed scoring less than two.<br />
Worryingly, almost one in five companies do<br />
not measure availability at all, and a further<br />
third apply inconsistent measures to some of<br />
their applications or components. With little<br />
management focus or detailed availability data, it<br />
is very difficult to see how IT services will reliably<br />
be provided to the business in the future.<br />
The five new <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 processes covered in<br />
the survey are request fulfilment, supplier<br />
relationship, business relationship, service<br />
knowledge, and information security<br />
management. Results showed the most mature<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> V3 process to be information security<br />
management. However, there were still over<br />
a third of respondents who don’t have defined<br />
processes to manage the confidentiality, integrity<br />
and availability of information.<br />
The least mature process is knowledge<br />
management, specifically the use of available<br />
data to support other processes such as incident<br />
management and problem management. It<br />
would appear that, even though most service<br />
management toolsets contain functionality to<br />
support this process, the approach for capturing<br />
the right information, keeping it up-to-date and<br />
utilising it as part of the IT organisation’s day-today<br />
processes, is proving difficult to implement.<br />
Perhaps surprisingly, the overall average<br />
maturity score for the <strong>ITIL</strong> V2 processes and the<br />
selected <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 processes was identical. So,<br />
although these processes have only recently been<br />
differentiated as part of the latest version of <strong>ITIL</strong>, it<br />
is clear that they have been part of the IT operation<br />
all along and are at a similar level of maturity.<br />
However, the new and updated <strong>ITIL</strong> V3<br />
processes and functions do now enable<br />
IT managers to better articulate the exact<br />
changes that will deliver business benefit<br />
as part of a focused service improvement<br />
programme.<br />
Figure 1: Distribution of scores across the maturity range 1-5 for the UK in 2007<br />
Incident management<br />
problem management<br />
Change management<br />
Release management<br />
Configuration management<br />
Service level management<br />
Availability management<br />
Capacity management<br />
Financial management<br />
IT service continuity management<br />
Request fulfillment management<br />
Supplier relationship management<br />
Business relationship management<br />
Service knowledge management<br />
Information security management<br />
business case for <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
Stakeholder management<br />
Programme management of <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
Figure 2: Distribution of scores across the maturity range 1-5 for the US in 2007<br />
Incident management<br />
problem management<br />
Change management<br />
Release management<br />
Configuration management<br />
Service level management<br />
Availability management<br />
Capacity management<br />
Financial management<br />
IT service continuity management<br />
Request fulfillment management<br />
Supplier relationship management<br />
Business relationship management<br />
Service knowledge management<br />
Information security management<br />
6% 10% 50% 21% 10% 4%<br />
15% 29% 33% 12% 10% 2%<br />
10% 13% 33% 33% 10% 4%<br />
12% 37% 21% 21% 10% 2%<br />
10% 33% 50% 2% 4% 2%<br />
17% 17% 29% 23% 6% 8%<br />
15% 35% 33% 10% 10% 2%<br />
13% 6% 60% 13% 4% 4%<br />
4% 4% 29% 40% 17% 6%<br />
23% 19% 27% 23% 2% 6%<br />
10% 25% 40% 17% 6% 2%<br />
19% 15% 27% 17% 12% 10%<br />
21% 8% 48% 15% 6% 2%<br />
33% 37% 19% 10% 2%<br />
8% 27% 12% 17% 10% 23%<br />
33% 17% 6% 12% 13% 19%<br />
17% 17% 19% 25% 12% 10%<br />
25% 15% 17% 13% 10% 19%<br />
0 - Absence 1 - Awareness 2 - Repeatable 3 - Controlled 4 - Integrated 5 - Optimised<br />
11% 11 % 50% 15 % 11 % 4 %<br />
31 % 27 % 35 % 4 % 4 %<br />
13 % 8 % 58 % 4 % 13 % 4 %<br />
35 % 12 % 50 % 4 %<br />
38 % 27 % 19 % 4 % 12 %<br />
27 % 35 % 31 % 8 %<br />
50 % 23 % 23 % 4 %<br />
46 % 15 % 15 % 12 % 12 %<br />
32 % 24 % 8 % 24 % 12 %<br />
28 % 16 % 36 % 16 % 4 %<br />
28 % 32 % 40%<br />
44 % 8 % 32 % 4 % 12%<br />
52 % 16 % 20 % 4 % 8 %<br />
52 % 26 % 15 % 7 %<br />
8% 42 % 13% 8 % 13 % 17 %<br />
0 - Absence 1 - Awareness 2 - Repeatable 3 - Controlled 4 - Integrated 5 - Optimised<br />
The UK scores versus the<br />
US scores<br />
On average, the US maturity scores were<br />
significantly lower that those measured in the<br />
UK (averages of 1.4 versus 2.0 across the <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V2 and selected <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 process). However,<br />
the patterns that emerged were very similar<br />
to those in the UK with incident management,<br />
change management and financial management<br />
being the most mature <strong>ITIL</strong> V2 processes, and<br />
availability being the least mature.<br />
Across the board, while some companies are<br />
at the top end of <strong>ITIL</strong> maturity (on average 15<br />
per cent of UK respondents rated themselves<br />
as a four or five for the <strong>ITIL</strong> V2 and V3<br />
processes), most still have some way to go<br />
to achieve their ambition (on average 35 per<br />
cent of UK respondents rated themselves a<br />
two or less).<br />
The final part of the UK company survey<br />
aimed to find out the maturity rating of the<br />
business case, stakeholder management and<br />
programme management processes. The<br />
analysis indicates that there remains a large<br />
proportion of companies which are embarking<br />
on SIPs (Service Improvement Programmes)<br />
without the necessary foundations for success<br />
being in place. For example, a third of<br />
organisations have no business case for <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
implementation and 25 per cent of organisations<br />
have no SIP in place at all.<br />
There was a significant difference between the<br />
responses from the public and private sectors.<br />
The response from the US<br />
Robert Stroud is part of the <strong>itSMF</strong> USA board of directors and sits on the <strong>itSMF</strong> <strong>International</strong><br />
executive board. Here he talks about how well <strong>ITIL</strong> is taking hold in the US.<br />
Do you see any areas<br />
where the US has an<br />
advantage over Europe in<br />
terms of <strong>ITIL</strong> adoption<br />
“Leveraging the<br />
implementation experience<br />
gained in Europe has allowed<br />
ITSM implementations<br />
to use the experience to<br />
implement faster. Attention<br />
in North America is typically<br />
on enterprise change<br />
management looking to<br />
deliver change with minimal<br />
impact to the business to<br />
assure service levels. In<br />
short, there is a strong<br />
focus on service levels, user<br />
experience and the supporting<br />
processes.”<br />
In the UK, <strong>ITIL</strong> awareness<br />
has taken many years<br />
to bed in, how quickly<br />
On average, the public sector respondents scored<br />
themselves 0.7 of a maturity point higher across<br />
these questions (2.8 versus 2.1). Experience<br />
would suggest that the reason for this lies<br />
is recognition of <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
occurring in the US<br />
“If you say <strong>ITIL</strong> to most CIOs<br />
they are aware of it and more<br />
than likely will direct you to<br />
either the VP operations or the<br />
VP ITSM who is responsible<br />
for the journey. The <strong>itSMF</strong>,<br />
vendors and practitioners<br />
have all worked together<br />
to communicate the value<br />
and benefits of IT service<br />
management. <strong>ITIL</strong> and ITSM<br />
has been timely for many<br />
US organisations as they<br />
look to automate their IT<br />
infrastructure in order to<br />
allow precious IT human<br />
resources to be allocated to<br />
value adding innovation.”<br />
What benefits are US<br />
businesses seeing<br />
from using <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
“US organisations are using<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> to deliver solutions that<br />
are aligned to the business.<br />
This value is derived through<br />
real operational cost savings<br />
in terms in conjunction with<br />
better service levels, quality<br />
through automation, and<br />
predictability of outcomes<br />
with repeatable processes.<br />
Additional benefits have been<br />
delivered with publicly traded<br />
companies with processes<br />
that are documented allowing<br />
compliance with their<br />
organisation’s Sarbanes<br />
Oxley implementations. In<br />
many cases <strong>ITIL</strong> is being<br />
implemented with the IT<br />
Governance Framework<br />
COBIT (Control Objectives<br />
for Information and related<br />
Technology) to deliver input to<br />
a balanced scorecard.”<br />
in the public sector’s policy of using project<br />
management best practices such as PRINCE2,<br />
more consistently than companies operating in<br />
the private sector. n<br />
22 SERVICETALK july 2008
feature software subject as a service<br />
software as a service subject feature FEATURE<br />
Renting<br />
application<br />
software<br />
may seem to<br />
contradict<br />
the control<br />
demanded<br />
by IT service<br />
management,<br />
but as James<br />
West, editor<br />
of ServiceTalk<br />
the Journal,<br />
learns, by<br />
not buying<br />
software,<br />
service<br />
managers<br />
may be able<br />
to exert more<br />
influence<br />
than ever<br />
before.<br />
In the late nineties, a company called Siebel<br />
became one of the fastest growing software<br />
business in history, selling Customer<br />
Relationship Management (CRM) suites globally.<br />
For a time, the business was unstoppable, with<br />
the likes of Oracle, SAP and IBM all launching<br />
software to compete with Siebel in an attempt to<br />
cut into its market share. All of these IT giants<br />
failed and Siebel continued to roll onwards.<br />
The key for ending Siebel’s dominance, in a<br />
surprising twist in the story, was not necessarily<br />
building better software as might be expected;<br />
it was about changing the delivery method. A<br />
company by the name of salesforce.com arrived<br />
on the scene, offering software with the same<br />
functionality as Siebel, but the differentiator was<br />
that its software was web based. This meant that<br />
buyers no longer needed to install software on<br />
every machine. Web based software only needs<br />
a browser to work, and so is available on pretty<br />
much every computer on earth. The reduction in<br />
installation times, the simplification of support<br />
(the system can be altered/fixed remotely), and<br />
the reduced upfront costs were a big draw to<br />
buyers, and salesforce.com gradually eroded<br />
Siebel’s market share and in doing so had<br />
toppled a giant.<br />
Web based software is often available as<br />
Software as a Service (SaaS), meaning that<br />
users don’t even buy the software, they simply<br />
pay a subscription (generally per user) to access<br />
and use the system. The rise of the SaaS has<br />
been rapid, despite there still being many<br />
downsides to SaaS - the article below looks in<br />
detail at the pros and cons associated with SaaS.<br />
Yet despite fears over losing control and the<br />
reliance on a web connection, the use of SaaS<br />
continues to increase. Industry analyst Gartner<br />
says that SaaS deployments will grow 17 per<br />
cent through to 2011, double the rate of growth<br />
for purchasing of enterprise application software<br />
as a whole.<br />
From an IT service management point of<br />
view, is this shift a good thing The answer to<br />
this question is obviously highly dependant on<br />
the type of application and nature of the business,<br />
but here are some universal issues that must<br />
be considered:<br />
Do you really need to ‘own’ a<br />
1 piece of software<br />
Surely the pre-requisite for any software is that<br />
it offers your business the functionality needed<br />
There is of course, a fear factor associated with<br />
not having the software on-site, but anytime you<br />
buy a piece of third party code, you are to some<br />
extent beheld to that organisation and reliant<br />
to some degree on the support offered by the<br />
supplier. SaaS is a relatively mature market<br />
now, so as long as the supplier can prove<br />
reliability, uptime, robustness of support, there<br />
should be little difference from physically<br />
purchasing the software.<br />
Does SaaS fit with<br />
2 <strong>ITIL</strong> processes<br />
There is nothing in <strong>ITIL</strong> which specifically<br />
demands that software must be held on each<br />
machine on which it will be used. SaaS should<br />
do nothing to alter any controls you have in<br />
place to govern processes. As long as change,<br />
configuration and release procedures are<br />
followed as usual, there should be no<br />
major issues.<br />
Can you work with<br />
3 the supplier<br />
SaaS is no different to outsourcing, or bringing<br />
in a contractor; the staff may not be employed<br />
directly by your business, but it is possible for<br />
all parties to work in harmony for the good of the<br />
business. SaaS suppliers are no different and<br />
should be evaluated in the same way.<br />
Would you be able to operate<br />
4 without a web connection<br />
The simple answer to this question is that most<br />
of us would struggle to work for long without<br />
access to email and the internet, SaaS or not. In<br />
reality, web connections are not always perfect,<br />
and web-based systems are close to, but not<br />
yet totally equal to on-machine installs of<br />
software, in terms of speed and functionality. A<br />
comprehensive pilot would be needed to see if<br />
the trade-off is too large within your organisation.<br />
The reason why SaaS is enjoying such rapid<br />
growth is that all of the problems relating to<br />
its use are gradually being solved and many<br />
of the objections to the model are slowly<br />
being removed, as the mental and cultural<br />
shift needed to get people trusting SaaS<br />
gains momentum.<br />
As a final point, the removal of the need for<br />
traditional in-house support for applications<br />
could prove to be the biggest plus for IT service<br />
management. With the host supplier dealing<br />
with user issues remotely, internal service desks<br />
will be able to afford more staff resource to<br />
proactive activities, such as project management,<br />
change control etc. For this reason alone, SaaS<br />
warrants a much closer look. ➤<br />
What service<br />
delivery choices<br />
will you make<br />
SaaS or on-site: the pros and cons<br />
Hosted software has many upsides, but there are negatives to<br />
consider. Russell Wiltshire, director at Vivantio, offers both<br />
sides of the argument.<br />
Continuing on the next page, we offer the case for on-site (where the customer buys the<br />
software, installs and supports it in the traditional manner) versus SaaS software deployment,<br />
with the intention of offering some guidance to those having to make this decision in the<br />
coming months and years.<br />
24 SERVICETALK july 2008<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 25
feature software as a service<br />
Software as a service FEATURE<br />
The case for on-site<br />
• One obvious reason for going for the<br />
on-site option is that you can’t find a SaaS<br />
service desk provider that has the application<br />
your business needs. It’s still an emerging<br />
market so there is more choice for those<br />
looking to buy software in the<br />
traditional way.<br />
• SaaS is still a relatively young method<br />
of delivering and supporting software and<br />
although it has gained massively in adoption<br />
in some software application areas such<br />
as CRM, it is still true to say that SaaS in<br />
service desk is not yet mature despite strong<br />
offerings being out there for some time.<br />
• There might be a specific element of the<br />
SaaS delivered service desk offering which<br />
doesn’t meet your servicing or after-care<br />
requirements. Perhaps the SaaS provider<br />
only offers support 9 to 5, Monday to Friday<br />
and your operation runs 24/7; or you<br />
specifically require SSL encryption but the<br />
SaaS provider doesn’t offer this yet. Make<br />
sure regardless of the delivery method, that<br />
the application itself meets the needs of your<br />
business in terms of both functionality and<br />
ease of use.<br />
• Data protection issues mean that some<br />
companies have specific legal requirements<br />
stipulating where they can store customer<br />
information or personal data. Perhaps this<br />
data must reside within a particular country<br />
but the SaaS provider might use offshore<br />
data centre operations. So questions along<br />
these lines need to be asked and satisfactory<br />
answers obtained.<br />
• Some organisations prefer to make<br />
upfront capital investment for financial<br />
reasons. The company may be geared to the<br />
purchase of IT assets such as servers and<br />
software licences.<br />
• If internet access is non-existent or highly<br />
restricted as is the case in some government<br />
departments including the Ministry of<br />
Defence and the police, then clearly SaaS<br />
isn’t easily deployed.<br />
The case for SaaS<br />
• A prime concern of some finance directors<br />
today is reducing capital expenditure (or<br />
capex), preferring to buy goods and services<br />
out of operational expenditure (or opex)<br />
budgets. Opex naturally favours SaaS<br />
deployment as you ‘pay as you go’, normally<br />
via monthly subscription instalments rather<br />
than paying up front, thereby creating<br />
uncertain costs of ownership.<br />
• In a situation involving mergers or<br />
acquisitions the software licences owned by<br />
the company being acquired may be nontransferable<br />
and rendered invalid. In most<br />
cases the software vendor will re-licence the<br />
software to the new company rather than<br />
lose a customer, but these license terms<br />
come into play if the purchasing company is a<br />
competitor for example.<br />
• The SaaS model means very little up front<br />
commitment (in contract term and financial<br />
outlay). SaaS providers are generally geared<br />
to very rapid customisation and automatic<br />
upgrading of their platforms.<br />
• In theory, IP-based standards help keep<br />
the entire organisation’s IT infrastructure<br />
working well together. With this back drop in<br />
place, managers can make decisions based<br />
purely on the quality and functionality of the<br />
services on offer, without getting tripped up<br />
by IT policies.<br />
• SaaS providers can also deliver<br />
significant economies of scale as server<br />
and infrastructure costs are reduced when<br />
serving one instance of an application to<br />
many customers.<br />
• Managers working within organisations<br />
with convoluted and time-consuming<br />
procurement processes can acquire<br />
new applications via relatively low cost<br />
subscriptions which affect revenue rather<br />
than capital budgets and come in ‘below the<br />
radar’. This means managers can introduce<br />
new systems at a departmental level<br />
without lengthy, multi-level, budgetary<br />
approval processes.<br />
Conclusion<br />
If you are looking seriously at SaaS in your business, there are some myths and cons that need<br />
examining. Some established on-site vendors have highlighted that integration with other on-site<br />
systems remains an issue. SaaS providers in many application areas have already proved beyond<br />
doubt that SaaS and on-site systems integration presents no genuine issues.<br />
The data centres and the server platforms that SaaS providers rely on are typically a great deal<br />
more secure and robust physically and technically, than any server sitting in an organisation’s own<br />
office. It is also clear that one of the largest threats to data security in any organisation is misuse by<br />
authorised personnel not unauthorised external attackers. Sensible security policies and an effective<br />
training programme are key. Recent high-profile stories in the press regarding lost CDs and laptops<br />
provide all the proof that is necessary. Although the misperception that SaaS means relinquishing<br />
control has reduced dramatically over the last three years, it remains an argument levelled against<br />
SaaS delivery. IT managers still worry about what will happen if the provider’s server goes down or<br />
there are problems with the internet connection. But on-site servers are probably more vulnerable<br />
to downtime in reality. The questions that really needs asking are ‘Is a typical IT department able to<br />
achieve the same levels of availability for the same price Is an organisation willing to fund constant<br />
upgrades to the hardware platform’ And by locking themselves in to a specific server platform on-site,<br />
an organisation has already placed a huge amount of control into the hands of the platform vendor<br />
- regularly having to deal with the headache of rolling out new versions of server operating systems,<br />
database engines and such like. n<br />
26 SERVICETALK july 2008<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 27
Green I.T special FEATURE<br />
Green I.T. special<br />
Approaching<br />
the green light<br />
If you think that energy shortages are years away, think again. I.T. is set to feel the<br />
initial brunt of the energy crisis and James West, editor of ServiceTalk the Journal,<br />
says the time has come to investigate alternatives before someone pulls the plug.<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 29
feature subject<br />
Green I.T. special FEATURE<br />
Virtualisation:<br />
overcoming the problems<br />
The promise of better use of resources, lower costs and potential reduction to<br />
both power costs and real estate is providing a compelling reason to move towards<br />
virtualisation. But the virtual data centre raises some significant new issues in areas<br />
of performance, compliance and security says Dwayne Melancon, VP corporate and<br />
business development, Tripwire.<br />
While the physical infrastructure<br />
provides a clear view of individual<br />
component performance, virtualisation<br />
removes that transparency. Without visibility of<br />
the virtualisation engine organisations cannot<br />
identify potential security loopholes, ensure<br />
system changes do not affect performance or<br />
be confident in compliance to regulations such<br />
as Sarbanes Oxley.<br />
Today, perhaps only 15 or 20 percent of<br />
applications being run on virtual infrastructures<br />
are production systems; the majority of<br />
organisations are using the technology only for<br />
test environments. But analysts believe that the<br />
number of production applications will grow to<br />
between 45 and 60 per cent of total deployments<br />
over the next two years as cost pressures bite.<br />
In the headlong rush to gain cost benefits<br />
there is a very real risk that companies are<br />
moving into virtualisation far ahead of their<br />
ability to understand and manage the technology.<br />
The benefits are compelling. But at what cost to<br />
business risk and security<br />
Virtualisation adds huge complexity to the<br />
IT infrastructure stack, pulling together large<br />
numbers of applications and services into one<br />
consolidated data centre. Traditional, silobased<br />
management tools provide no insight<br />
into operational performance of virtual systems,<br />
leaving an organisation completely blind to the<br />
impact of change, both planned and unplanned,<br />
on the overall infrastructure.<br />
Without a view into this virtual environment,<br />
how can any organisation ensure machines are<br />
tested and configured correctly or impose the<br />
required level of rigour over system changes<br />
To many of us, an energy shortage, similar to<br />
global warning, seems to be something of a<br />
abstract concept at the moment - it is hard<br />
to conceive of a time when the UK will have to<br />
ration its energy consumption. At worse, we can<br />
console ourselves with the knowledge that such<br />
a situation is years from coming to a head.<br />
It seems however that the Inconvenient Truth<br />
as popularised by Al Gore’s film concerning<br />
power usage is making itself felt today.<br />
John Windebank, <strong>itSMF</strong> UK’s <strong>International</strong><br />
representative comments. “If you’re a data<br />
centre in London, you can’t buy any more power<br />
because it’s not available. Power is becoming the<br />
biggest cost to IT, exacerbated by carbon taxes,<br />
and this is a problem that we must all face.”<br />
Whatever your politics, or whether you<br />
believe IT should take more responsibility for<br />
the environment, the facts will ensure that the<br />
green issue is a pertinent one for IT, becoming<br />
perhaps the biggest threat to the current use of<br />
IT we have ever faced.<br />
Part of the problem, according to John, is<br />
gross inefficiency, with data centres running<br />
at between 10 - 12 per cent of their potential.<br />
This leads to an obvious solution: if you can use<br />
this latent 90 per cent of processing power to<br />
run other tasks, you can reduce your energy<br />
consumption dramatically. This is how the<br />
concept of virtualisation was created and it is a<br />
hot topic, with industry analyst group Gartner<br />
calling it the biggest ‘impact trend’ for the IT<br />
infrastructure up to 2012. Virtualisation of<br />
servers - the main point of attack in terms of<br />
reducing energy consumption - is already having<br />
an effect, with Gartner stating that the market for<br />
selling new servers fell by four per cent in 2006.<br />
Moving on, Gartner also predicts that four million<br />
machines will be installed on servers by 2009, so<br />
the sale of new servers is sure to fall further still.<br />
“Virtualisation is hardly a new concept;<br />
storage has already been virtualised - albeit<br />
primarily within the scope of individual<br />
vendor architectures - and networking is also<br />
virtualised,” said Philip Dawson, vice president<br />
at Gartner. “However, as both server and PC<br />
virtualisation become more pervasive, traditional<br />
IT infrastructure orthodoxy is being challenged<br />
and is changing the way business works with IT.”<br />
As hinted by Philip, it is not just servers that<br />
are subject to the virtualisation push, with PCs<br />
increasingly becoming virtualised. In 2007,<br />
Gartner estimated five million virtualised PCs<br />
and predicts 660 million by 2011. This huge<br />
shift will see PCs becoming more like the dumb<br />
terminals of old, with business applications and<br />
even the operating system being offered to users<br />
over a virtual network.<br />
Thomas Bittman, lead analyst at Gartner,<br />
details what the shift could mean for the IT<br />
infrastructure. “Traditionally the operating<br />
system has been the centre of gravity for client<br />
and server computing, but new technologies,<br />
new modes of computing, and infrastructure<br />
virtualisation and automation are changing the<br />
architecture and role of the operating system.<br />
The days of the monolithic, general-purpose<br />
operating system will soon be over.”<br />
This is good news for IT service management<br />
because in theory at least, managing a virtual<br />
IT infrastructure eliminates many of the localised,<br />
user created IT support issues which plague<br />
the service desk, and make it much easier to<br />
manage change and upgrades etc.<br />
So, when you combine the expected benefits<br />
of a virtual infrastructure with the huge, and<br />
vital, cuts to energy usage, the time seems to<br />
be right for virtualisation. As always, such a<br />
push requires thorough research and planning<br />
and on the next page, we look at some of the<br />
issues that must be considered.<br />
30 SERVICETALK july 2008
feature subject<br />
The process becomes ever more complex<br />
when organisations accept the fact that virtual<br />
and physical worlds will co-exist for the<br />
foreseeable future. From the core infrastructure<br />
running the virtual middleware to legacy and<br />
in-house developed applications that are too<br />
complex to migrate to the virtual world, the<br />
physical infrastructure will continue to play a<br />
core role in any data centre.<br />
It is essential, therefore, that organisations<br />
put in place the policies, processes and<br />
monitoring tools required to support the entire<br />
physical and virtual IT infrastructure. Critically,<br />
organisations need to extend existing rigorous<br />
processes within the physical environment<br />
to also encompass a virtual implementation<br />
based on best practice implementation. This<br />
will ensure any business can immediately gain<br />
the cost benefits associated with a virtual world<br />
without undermining the reliability of the data<br />
centre or compromising regulatory compliance.<br />
Compliance pressure<br />
Indeed, the pros and cons of the virtual world<br />
are being taken very seriously by the regulatory<br />
bodies. The virtual environment, with its<br />
continual changes, poses huge new compliance<br />
challenges, especially in the area of audits. How<br />
can an organisation know if a virtual machine is<br />
compliant if it no longer exists How do you<br />
track change history for auditors in a virtual<br />
world Certainly these issues are now coming to<br />
the fore as increasing numbers of organisations<br />
look to virtualise critical production systems.<br />
The payment card industry, for example, has<br />
a number of development boards looking at the<br />
implications of virtualisation on its data security<br />
standard. The good news is that virtualisation<br />
adds some strong capabilities, especially for<br />
those organisations that have opted to run<br />
multiple services on a single system to minimise<br />
hardware costs, creating a high risk single<br />
point of entry.<br />
Running each of those services separately<br />
within the virtual machine will provide more<br />
security by creating disparate services. However,<br />
if the virtual middleware is compromised,<br />
these services are just as vulnerable; in effect<br />
the problem has simply been moved to the<br />
virtual machine. The PCI Standards Council is<br />
now beginning to define policies to include the<br />
virtualised infrastructure, and other regulatory<br />
bodies will undoubtedly follow suit.<br />
But the underlying principles remain unchanged:<br />
- Management taking responsibility for<br />
effective controls<br />
- Strong policies and process<br />
- Fact-based accountability supported by real<br />
time audit and control<br />
As in the physical environment, real time<br />
change monitoring is essential to ensure<br />
organisations remain compliant - or have<br />
early warning of incidents that may affect<br />
compliance status.<br />
Virtual confidence<br />
According to Gartner, 60 percent of production<br />
virtual machines will be less secure than<br />
their physical counterparts through 2009.<br />
And analysts fear that misconfigured and<br />
mismanaged virtual implementations will result<br />
in service interruptions and downtime that will<br />
undermine confidence in the technology and<br />
potentially stall wholesale adoption.<br />
Yet by continually monitoring the performance<br />
of the entire virtual and physical infrastructure<br />
organisations will not only reduce errors and<br />
drive up performance but also contribute to the<br />
incremental adoption of virtualisation across<br />
an organisation. Visibility ensures that all<br />
changes to the infrastructure, both physical and<br />
virtual, occur in full support of the business, in<br />
compliance with policies and procedures and<br />
that any exceptions are rapidly dealt with before<br />
they can cause business damage. n<br />
32 SERVICETALK july 2008
feature eTOM<br />
eTOM FEATURE<br />
The enhanced Telecoms Operations Map (eTOM) is a process-framework designed to<br />
manage the operations associated with telecoms. The owners of the framework<br />
are working with the <strong>itSMF</strong> to align its processes with <strong>ITIL</strong>. This article explores<br />
the meaning of eTOM, how it differs and complements <strong>ITIL</strong> and how the joint<br />
development is gathering pace.<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong>: opening<br />
more doors<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> and eTOM have similar backgrounds and<br />
perform similar roles in their respective fields<br />
and it is because of this that there have been<br />
suggestions in the past that the frameworks can<br />
conflict if running within the same organisation.<br />
As we will see from this article, this conflict is<br />
not a major issue in reality and moves are afoot<br />
to develop ways for the frameworks to work<br />
alongside each other in the most synergistic way<br />
possible.<br />
Matthew Burrows is head of consulting for<br />
TuringSMI telecoms division and is working<br />
with <strong>itSMF</strong> and the TeleManagement Forum (TM<br />
Forum) as part of a joint working party to align<br />
eTOM and <strong>ITIL</strong>.<br />
Matthew takes up the story, explaining the<br />
background and structure of eTOM, before<br />
moving onto examine the history of <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
and eTOM and how they are being brought<br />
closer together.<br />
eTOM is owned by the TM Forum, an industry<br />
association with over 650 global members.<br />
The aim of the TM Forum is to help members<br />
transform business processes, operations and<br />
systems for managing and monetising on-line<br />
information, communications and entertainment<br />
services. Part of this is delivered through the<br />
Next Generation Operational Support System<br />
(NGOSS) model, of which eTOM is a part. NGOSS<br />
is an initiative to improve efficiency and reduce<br />
the costs associated with operating telecom<br />
networks, allowing service providers to<br />
change the way they think about their<br />
business and operations.<br />
NGOSS is a comprehensive, integrated<br />
framework for developing, procuring and<br />
deploying operational and business support<br />
systems and software. It is available as a toolkit<br />
of industry-agreed specifications and guidelines<br />
that cover key business and technical areas.<br />
The enhanced Telecoms Operations<br />
Map provides a business centric view of a<br />
telecommunications company. Effectively, the<br />
eTOM model is a multi-level process model<br />
representing the complete set of business<br />
processes in use within a telecoms operator. The<br />
model starts at level 0, which consists of three<br />
sections; Strategy, Infrastructure and Product;<br />
Operations; and Enterprise Management, which<br />
underpin the full lifecycle of the products and<br />
services delivered to the customer (see Figure 1).<br />
The operations section is divided into four<br />
main lifecycle stages at level 1; looking at these<br />
sections in some detail helps understand what<br />
eTOM does and how it functions.<br />
Operations support and readiness: responsible<br />
for providing management,<br />
logistics and administrative support to the other<br />
process groupings, and for ensuring operational<br />
readiness in the fulfilment, assurance and<br />
billing areas.<br />
Fulfilment: operations for providing customers<br />
with their requested products and services in<br />
a timely and correct manner. It translates the<br />
customer’s business or personal need into<br />
a solution, which can be delivered using the<br />
specific products in the enterprise’s portfolio.<br />
This process informs the customers of the<br />
status of their purchase order and ensures<br />
completion on time.<br />
Assurance: includes all activities for the<br />
execution of proactive and reactive maintenance<br />
activities to ensure that services provided to<br />
customers are continuously available and<br />
working to service performance levels. It<br />
handles continuous resource status and<br />
performance monitoring to proactively detect<br />
possible failures. It collects performance data<br />
and analyses them to identify potential<br />
Figure 1. eTOM Levels 0, 1 and 2<br />
Strategy, infrastructure and product<br />
Strategy and<br />
comms<br />
Enterprise management<br />
Infrastructure<br />
lifecycle<br />
management<br />
Marketing and offer management<br />
Service development and management<br />
Product<br />
lifecycle<br />
management<br />
Resource development and management<br />
(Application computing and network)<br />
▲<br />
Supply chain development and management<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
Strategic and<br />
enterprise planning<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
Enterprise risk<br />
management<br />
Customer<br />
problems and resolve them without impact to<br />
the customer. This process manages the SLAs<br />
and reports service performance to the customer.<br />
It receives trouble reports from the customer,<br />
informs the customer of the trouble status, and<br />
ensures restoration and repair.<br />
Billing: involves everything necessary for<br />
the collection of appropriate usage records,<br />
production of timely and accurate bills, for<br />
providing pre-bill usage information, for<br />
processing their payments, and performing<br />
payment collections. In addition, it handles<br />
customer enquiries, provides billing enquiry<br />
status and is responsible for resolving problems<br />
to the customer’s satisfaction in a timely manner.<br />
This process grouping also supports<br />
prepayment for services.<br />
eTOM and <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
eTOM is effectively a process framework<br />
designed to support the telecoms product/service<br />
lifecycle, which is almost identical to the service<br />
lifecycle principle used as the basis for <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
Version 3. <strong>ITIL</strong> has traditionally focused ➤<br />
Operations<br />
Operations<br />
support and<br />
rediness<br />
Fullfillment<br />
Customer relationship management<br />
Service management and operations<br />
Resource management and operations<br />
(Application computing and network)<br />
Reassurance Billing<br />
Supplier partner relationship management<br />
▲<br />
Entersprise<br />
effectiveness<br />
management<br />
Knowledge<br />
and research<br />
management<br />
Financial and asset<br />
management<br />
Stakeholder and<br />
external relations<br />
Human resources<br />
management<br />
▲ management ▲ ▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
▲<br />
34 SERVICETALK july 2008<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 35
feature subject<br />
Working<br />
together<br />
As we have seen, the link<br />
between <strong>itSMF</strong> UK and the TMF<br />
has been formalised and here<br />
is a joint statement from the<br />
respective CEOs of the two<br />
organisations, Keith Aldis and<br />
Keith Willetts.<br />
Both the <strong>itSMF</strong> and the TM Forum recognise that<br />
both frameworks have strengths and weaknesses<br />
that, if combined, would have major benefits for<br />
all the industry sectors involved with delivering<br />
convergent services to market. So, we are<br />
actively co-operating to put <strong>ITIL</strong> and eTOM on<br />
a converging course; address any interworking<br />
issues and ensure that more integrated support<br />
is available to users.<br />
A good deal of work has already been done. The<br />
TM Forum is in the final stages of completing its<br />
own major review of eTOM to bring it into closer<br />
alignment with <strong>ITIL</strong> and the two organisations<br />
are undertaking a joint program to identify<br />
further opportunities for closer inter-working<br />
- initial fruits of this work are expected to begin<br />
to roll out by this summer.<br />
There is a good deal of momentum within the<br />
memberships of both organisations for this<br />
to happen, and for us to see a clear position<br />
on using <strong>ITIL</strong> and eTOM as supportive of the<br />
needs of businesses. This builds on the affinity<br />
between the two frameworks, and their real<br />
complementary strengths, so that each can<br />
benefit when they are brought together.<br />
on the activity of providing and managing IT<br />
infrastructure and systems to support the<br />
business processes. eTOM is the business<br />
process framework for telecoms, and <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
could therefore be considered a subset of these<br />
processes, covering the ones that are owned and<br />
operated by the technology or IT function.<br />
There is overlap, but it is possible for eTOM<br />
and <strong>ITIL</strong> processes to coexist and support each<br />
other as part of a mature process framework<br />
for telecoms operators. Unfortunately, in many<br />
organisations there has been conflict between<br />
network operations, who tend to use eTOM, and<br />
IT operations who would usually be more <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
aligned. The reasons for this conflict include<br />
inconsistent terminology between these two<br />
best practices, and a lack of knowledge and<br />
experience of both frameworks. For example,<br />
eTOM refers to ‘faults’ which are almost identical<br />
to an ‘incident’ in <strong>ITIL</strong> terminology. There are<br />
overlaps and synergies with the increasing<br />
convergence at a technology level, where<br />
telecoms products and services are dependent<br />
on telecoms network and IT capabilities, systems<br />
and infrastructure. When a service failure or<br />
degradation occurs, the operational teams<br />
often need to work together to restore service.<br />
Complex hand-offs, inconsistent terminology<br />
Matthew Burrows, TuringSMI<br />
and independent processes often result in the<br />
service taking longer than necessary to restore.<br />
Some organisations have addressed these<br />
issues by consolidating around a single set of<br />
processes and tools, usually opting to either go<br />
for eTOM or <strong>ITIL</strong>, or sometimes creating a<br />
hybrid model. n<br />
How do eTOM and<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong> compare<br />
Mike Kelly, who works on the<br />
eTOM and NGOSS compliance<br />
programme at TMF, offers a<br />
comparison of <strong>ITIL</strong> and eTOM.<br />
eTOM<br />
- Telco enterprise model<br />
- ITU (<strong>International</strong> Telecommunication<br />
Union) international standard<br />
- Prescriptive catalogue<br />
- Hierarchy of processes<br />
- Process framework<br />
- Blueprint for process direction for<br />
service providers<br />
- Common language of processes<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong><br />
- IT/ICT service management<br />
- Non-prescriptive guidelines<br />
- Best practice framework<br />
- Methods to deliver controlled and<br />
optimised services<br />
- Standardised vocabulary<br />
Mike’s summary is this: eTOM and <strong>ITIL</strong> are<br />
not in conflict - eTOM can be used to build<br />
<strong>ITIL</strong>-compliant processes, using eTOM<br />
process elements.<br />
36 SERVICETALK july 2008
feature communications<br />
communications FEATURE<br />
In June 2006 the Financial Times ran an<br />
editorial discussing the effectiveness of<br />
communications within the enterprise.<br />
The article looked primarily at the digital<br />
communication channels available such as<br />
e-mail, intranets, Instant Messenger (IM), SMS,<br />
and the conclusion was stark:<br />
“In the attention economy the value of e-mail<br />
is rapidly approaching zero”.<br />
Goodbye e-mail<br />
E-mail is often the primary method that the I.T. department uses to<br />
communicate with business users. But abuse of the communication<br />
channel has impacted its effectiveness; is the damage irreparable<br />
asks Pat Geary, chief marketing officer for Skinkers<br />
What does this mean And if this is true,<br />
what does this mean to the effectiveness<br />
of organisations that rely on e-mail for<br />
communications What value do the other<br />
channels provide and how can they be managed<br />
How does the enterprise service desk offer<br />
the best possible service at low cost when<br />
important notifications cannot cut through this<br />
communication fog<br />
To understand these issues, we first have to<br />
understand how we came to rely on<br />
e-mail and understand what the limitations<br />
of this channel are. The reliance on e-mail, as<br />
the main communication mechanism within<br />
organisations, has steadily and stealthily been<br />
on the increase over many years. Until the<br />
computer era truly came of age, which has<br />
been relatively recently, businesses used to<br />
run to a very structured format: the minutes for<br />
meetings would be transcribed by secretaries,<br />
who would also manage diaries, write up notes,<br />
distribute memorandums and chase actions.<br />
Managers structured their day by dealing with<br />
correspondence at the start of the day, with<br />
every letter opened, read by the secretary and<br />
important ones given priority.<br />
When e-mail arrived it was firstly used by<br />
academics and early technology adopters;<br />
businesses viewed e-mail with suspicion and<br />
it is only recently that e-mail has become<br />
acknowledged, by law, as a permissible form<br />
of correspondent evidence. Very rapidly e-mail<br />
became the business communication tool of<br />
choice and the speed with which correspondence<br />
could be sent and received was almost<br />
instantaneous, compared to the multi-day<br />
turnaround that physical mail required, which<br />
lead to the coining of the term ‘snail mail’ to<br />
describe written and typed correspondence.<br />
The impact was dramatic; typing pools<br />
disappeared almost overnight, secretaries<br />
became personal assistants to only the very<br />
top level managers and middle management<br />
came to rely on e-mails with the volume of<br />
electronic communications growing at an<br />
ever-increasing rate.<br />
This all sounded encouraging; efficiencies<br />
were created within the enterprise through rapid<br />
communications; deals could be concluded in a<br />
much shorter timeframe; lengthy and protracted<br />
correspondence chains could be compressed<br />
into hours rather than days; and the flow of<br />
information within the enterprise continued to<br />
increase. So what happened to sour the picture<br />
In one word: spam.<br />
Not the processed ham beloved of Monty<br />
Python of course but the unsolicited e-mails<br />
spuriously filling the internet and offering<br />
all manner of life enhancing surgery and<br />
opportunities to improve our love lives. In<br />
October 2007 Postini, an e-mail filtering specialist<br />
claimed that 10 in 11 e-mails are spam - over 90<br />
per cent. The traditional definition of this type<br />
of spam referred to messages from outside of<br />
the enterprise. Today we also have to contend<br />
with ‘enterprise spam’ caused by people sending<br />
internal e-mails that are neither relevant nor<br />
important. During the days of memos if someone<br />
found some keys on the floor they would not<br />
get a memo sent round to all the employees<br />
in the company.<br />
We have become e-mail junkies which is<br />
one of the main reasons that enterprises are<br />
finding it increasingly difficult to get important<br />
information through to their employees<br />
through the white noise of e-mail.<br />
The ‘attention economy’ highlights the<br />
problem of information overload, we have<br />
become information-rich, but attention-poor;<br />
our days are filled with different types of<br />
information that may require action, some vital,<br />
some trivial and we are finding it increasing hard<br />
to sort the wheat from the chaff, to get to the<br />
actionable and important information. A Gartner<br />
report on effective electronic communications<br />
(August 2007), stated that an organisation of<br />
10,000 employees could be losing as much<br />
as £20 million per annum from ineffective<br />
communication within the enterprise.<br />
Enterprises today have tried many approaches<br />
to punch through the communication fog;<br />
satellite broadcast networks, newsletters, round<br />
table discussions, canteen briefings etc. and<br />
these do offer value. However, in today’s<br />
digital world, the direct to desktop<br />
communication is still through e-mail, or<br />
via elaborate intranets that provide valuable<br />
information but tend to become disorganised<br />
dumping grounds for information. Intranets<br />
today are akin to putting an important notice<br />
up in a cupboard, but you would only see the<br />
notice if you open the door, and know where the<br />
cupboard is in the first place.<br />
Perhaps the solution is a new approach to<br />
business to employee (B2E) communications that<br />
offers the best attributes of the existing digital<br />
channels, but in addition delivers new high<br />
impact direct ‘push’ channels that can punch<br />
through to employees’ desktops and/or handheld<br />
devices when really critical information needs to<br />
delivered. Skinkers, for example, has developed<br />
a live desktop alert system which sends vital<br />
information to the desktop, mobile phone or<br />
Blackberry. Skinkers has seen a reduction of<br />
calls through to the service desk of between 10<br />
and 20 per cent for clients using this system.<br />
This is one possible solution to the problem of<br />
information overload, but there is no doubt that<br />
IT departments must be much more selective in<br />
the information they deliver to users, otherwise it<br />
will be lost in the din of communications that all<br />
businesses currently contend with. n<br />
38 SERVICETALK july 2008<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 39
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SPREADING<br />
THE WORD<br />
The <strong>ITIL</strong> pocket guides have done a superb job getting<br />
the word of best practice into the heart of the<br />
business world and Mark Lillycrop (pictured), manager,<br />
publications and translations, <strong>itSMF</strong> UK, looks at the<br />
creation of the Version 3 incarnations of the guides.<br />
They say that small is beautiful, and that<br />
sentiment certainly applies to books. You<br />
can load your bookcase with weighty<br />
reference works or surf Wikipedia for pages<br />
of dubious information on the latest hot topic.<br />
But nothing compares with the convenience of<br />
slipping a miniature volume into your pocket for<br />
perusal when you are sitting on a plane, waiting<br />
for a bus, or on your way to an exam.<br />
It’s generally agreed that the growth of <strong>itSMF</strong><br />
has been built on the success of one pocket<br />
guide in particular. Tens of thousands of copies<br />
of the ‘Little <strong>ITIL</strong>’ (or ‘IT Service Management – a<br />
Companion to the IT Infrastructure Library’ to<br />
give it its full title) have been sold as a concise<br />
summary of the Service Support and Service<br />
Delivery books in <strong>ITIL</strong> V2, while the follow-on<br />
series of UK pocket guides now reaches into<br />
every corner of service management, from<br />
security management to business perspective.<br />
With <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 the focus has moved to The<br />
Stationary Office’s (TSO) Key Element Guides<br />
(KEGs), co-branded with <strong>itSMF</strong> <strong>International</strong>, a<br />
decidedly bijou companion set to the core books.<br />
The KEGs have had a great deal of input from<br />
<strong>itSMF</strong> UK through authorship and review, and are<br />
now selling extremely well. For those who need<br />
to capture the essence of the core books, the<br />
KEGs are definitely a good way to go.<br />
Continuing with the diminutive theme,<br />
there are plenty of pocket-sized publications<br />
on a broad range of topics available. Titles<br />
devoted to ISO/IEC 20000, IT governance<br />
based on COBIT, IT service Capability Maturity<br />
Model, Six Sigma and <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 are all available<br />
in the six-inch format, complemented by<br />
more detailed management guides and<br />
introductions for those seeking in-depth<br />
information. Visit www.itsmf.co.uk/shop for<br />
more information on our available publications.<br />
Don’t forget to log in to take advantage of<br />
your membership discount. ➤<br />
july 2008 SERVICETALK 41
feature publications<br />
Theory into practice<br />
There are one or two new titles on the horizon<br />
for all those trying to put service management<br />
theory into practice. An update of TSO’s popular<br />
‘<strong>ITIL</strong> Small-scale Implementation’ by Sharon<br />
Taylor and Ivor Macfarlane will shortly be<br />
available to bring the book into line with <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
Version 3, while ‘Building an <strong>ITIL</strong> Based Service<br />
Management Department’ by Malcolm Fry<br />
(again from TSO) takes a refreshing look at the<br />
practicalities of creating a service management<br />
operation that adheres to <strong>ITIL</strong> processes and<br />
guidelines. Meanwhile, BCS has launched a<br />
new edition of David Miller’s ‘Business Focused<br />
IT and Service Excellence’, which examines the<br />
perception gap between IT and the business;<br />
and a new work entitled ‘Effective IT Service<br />
Management’ by Rob Addy, published by<br />
Springer, provides practical guidance on IT<br />
services by extending the <strong>ITIL</strong> approach to deliver<br />
proactive and pragmatic IT service management.<br />
The IT service management library is also<br />
going strong. Recent additions have included<br />
‘Implementing ISO/IEC 20000 Certification<br />
– the Roadmap’ for those aiming for corporate<br />
adoption of the standard, complemented by a<br />
more detailed ‘Introduction’ to the subject. Along<br />
with <strong>itSMF</strong> UK’s highly regarded ‘Planning and<br />
Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 Certification’, these<br />
books offer just about everything you need to<br />
know about getting started with the international<br />
service management standard. Over the<br />
coming weeks, the library will see the launch<br />
of ‘ITSM Global Best Practices’, a substantial<br />
compendium of more than 50 contributions<br />
from opinion formers across the industry,<br />
and also ‘Implementing Metrics for IT Service<br />
Management’, which provides an <strong>ITIL</strong>-oriented<br />
measurement framework based on a continuous<br />
improvement lifecycle.<br />
Moving forward, <strong>itSMF</strong> UK will be launching<br />
some new titles later this year, with two Special<br />
Interest Groups (SIGs) pooling their experience<br />
to provide practical guidance on service level<br />
management and change, configuration and<br />
release management respectively. These are<br />
just the first of a number of titles that will be<br />
published by the UK chapter in the months<br />
ahead, reflecting the commitment and expertise<br />
of the UK membership. Watch the website for<br />
further details.<br />
Publications news<br />
By now you should have received the first<br />
few issues of our informative new electronic<br />
newsletter, Publications News. This is the ideal<br />
way to find out about new titles, special offers<br />
and what’s coming next in between issues of<br />
ServiceTalk the Journal. If you haven’t seen<br />
it, and want to receive it please contact<br />
joanne.cooper@itsmf.co.uk<br />
Everyone’s a critic<br />
If you’ve ever fancied giving your views on new<br />
publications, now’s your chance to get your<br />
opinions into print. Starting on the right of this<br />
page, ServiceTalk the Journal will be publishing<br />
independent reviews of publications, to compare<br />
the best (and worst) features of the growing<br />
number of books that are emerging in the service<br />
management space. If this appeals to you, please<br />
get in touch with ServiceTalkEditor@itsmf.co.uk<br />
and we’ll give you the chance to have your say. n<br />
Book review<br />
Laura Jay offers her thoughts on ‘The Official<br />
Introduction to the <strong>ITIL</strong> Service Lifecycle’ book<br />
Did you find the Official Introduction<br />
interesting and insightful<br />
When <strong>ITIL</strong> Version 3 was delivered in 2007,<br />
I was looking forward to reading the new<br />
books with eager anticipation. However,<br />
having received the five core books last year<br />
(all approximately 250 pages each), I found<br />
them rather daunting and despite repeated<br />
attempts to read them from cover to cover,<br />
my enthusiasm for the new version started to<br />
wane.<br />
After several unsuccessful attempts to<br />
read through all five, I was therefore delighted<br />
when this ‘all-in-one’ book came out. I<br />
thought this edition might be a better<br />
approach – especially as the whole book<br />
was less than 250 pages and I was pleasantly<br />
surprised because it was.<br />
The facts are set out in an easy-to-read<br />
layout and written with a busy working<br />
person in mind; you don’t need a degree to<br />
understand the terminology either.<br />
What was new to you about the facts<br />
introduced in the book<br />
As an old hand at <strong>ITIL</strong> V2, it was difficult to<br />
understand in advance just what the new<br />
version was going to come up with. <strong>ITIL</strong> V3<br />
now has five stages: Service Strategy,<br />
Service Design, Service Transition,<br />
Service Operation and Continual Service<br />
Improvement and the key word is lifecycle.<br />
The stages show that <strong>ITIL</strong> has no beginning<br />
or end, just one continuous cycle of defining<br />
strategies, designing new/changed services,<br />
implementing them, improving them,<br />
re-defining them and so on.<br />
There are some other key changes,<br />
for example:<br />
- The importance of how IT services and<br />
business demands need to be aligned<br />
- The inclusion of new processes (some<br />
from ISO/IEC 20000 - previously outside<br />
the scope of <strong>ITIL</strong> V2)<br />
- Some long-overdue amendments such as<br />
incidents and requests now separated out<br />
into two different processes<br />
- More information on areas such as<br />
service catalogue management<br />
How has this book changed your<br />
opinion of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3<br />
Although excited about <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 I wasn’t sure<br />
just how practical it would be. This book<br />
helps explain the increased scope of <strong>ITIL</strong> from<br />
V2 to V3 and how the new existing processes<br />
all work together.<br />
How has the Official Introduction<br />
increased your interest in <strong>ITIL</strong> V3<br />
Using <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 both internally and with our<br />
customers is already a direction that Atos<br />
Origin are engaging in, and the condensed<br />
information in this book certainly makes <strong>ITIL</strong><br />
V3 look appealing.<br />
I also firmly believe that for anyone coming<br />
straight to the new version of <strong>ITIL</strong>, this would<br />
be an excellent starting point for them.<br />
Did the Official Introduction fulfil<br />
your needs and expectations<br />
Yes and no. The problem is how do you<br />
introduce all of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 in one book With<br />
great difficulty is the answer. This book does<br />
sum up everything you need to know to start,<br />
but then leaves you wanting more. Which is<br />
what it’s supposed to do I guess.<br />
How would you improve the book<br />
One thing that is difficult to understand in the<br />
book is just where the <strong>ITIL</strong> V2 ‘Ten processes<br />
and a function’ now fit into <strong>ITIL</strong> V3. There<br />
is a diagram in the book which shows this<br />
in a simplified form but further detailed<br />
explanation would definitely make life easier.<br />
Laura is currently the Central London <strong>itSMF</strong><br />
UK regional chair and is working as part of<br />
the BSI standards committee reviewing<br />
ISO/IEC 20000.<br />
October’s issue will be comparing the<br />
different <strong>ITIL</strong> V3 complementary titles<br />
available such as the ‘Official Introduction to<br />
the <strong>ITIL</strong> Service Lifecycle’, ‘the Key Element<br />
Guide Suite’, ‘IT Service Management based<br />
on <strong>ITIL</strong> V3’ and ‘An Introductory Overview<br />
of <strong>ITIL</strong> V3’ available from:<br />
www.itsmf.co.uk/shop<br />
VENDOR DIRECTORY<br />
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We are looking for contributors....<br />
if you would like to advertise or submit an article to ServiceTalk<br />
the Journal contact lindsay.thomas@itsmf.co.uk for more information<br />
In the next<br />
issue...<br />
• In-sourcing<br />
versus<br />
out-sourcing<br />
• Incident<br />
management<br />
processes<br />
• Service<br />
portfolio<br />
management<br />
• Book reviews<br />
• Conference<br />
Supplement<br />
due 14th<br />
october<br />
2008<br />
42 SERVICETALK july 2008 july 2008 SERVICETALK 43
conference & exhibition<br />
10th - 12th November 2008<br />
H I lT o N M E T R o P o l E , B I R M I N g H a M<br />
The premier 3 day IT Service Management Event that offers a packed<br />
conference full of seminars, workshops, interactive sessions and<br />
exhibition, plus *evening entertainment.<br />
This year’s theme is based on organisations “ real experiences” and not<br />
just based on the theory as so many conferences focus on. This will<br />
include the pitfalls that have been encountered along the way along with<br />
the successfully implemented stories.<br />
“Thoroughly enjoyed the whole<br />
conference - found the vendor stands<br />
very informative. <strong>itSMF</strong> folk could not<br />
have been more accommodating.”<br />
“A very enjoyable and enlightening<br />
experience. A lot was learned and some<br />
will be put into practice shortly”<br />
“An excellent Conference - many thanks<br />
to everyone involved in organising such<br />
a successful event!”<br />
The event is geared to satisfy all levels of IT Service Management needs.<br />
There is an extensive exhibition with experts from the service management<br />
world to talk you through the latest products and services that are available<br />
to make best practice and its processes easier to implement.<br />
Each year the <strong>itSMF</strong> hold the largest IT Service Management event with<br />
over 1000 delegates and 80+ exhibitors. We try and choose locations that<br />
are easily accessible for both the delegates and the exhibitors.<br />
Packages now on sale:-<br />
1 Day Delegate at Members Rate £260.00<br />
1 Day Delegate at Non-Member Rate £360.00<br />
2 Day Delegate at Members Rate £515.00<br />
2 Day Delegate at Non-Members Rate £715.00<br />
3 Day Delegate at Members Rate £640.00<br />
3 Day Delegate at Non-Members Rate £860.00<br />
2 Days/1 Night at Members Rate £750.00<br />
2 Days/1 Night at Non-Members Rate £960.00<br />
ALL PRICES ARE EXCLUSIVE OF VAT<br />
*evening entertainment is only available when overnight packages are booked<br />
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 :<br />
www.itsmf.co.uk