IT departments and management teams are often left in the dark as to whose court the ball is being played in when it comes to conformance and governance. Foster-Melliar hosted a breakfast presentation in Johannesburg on Friday, 15 September 2006 focussing on the subtle balance and inter-dependencies of these two topics.
"The vast array of standards available in the Information Technology sphere of business leaves anyone spoilt for choice with frameworks such as CobIT (control objectives in IT), CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration), ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) and the new kid on the block ISO/IEC 20000," says Madeleine Townsend, experienced Foster-Melliar consultant and one of the first ISO/IEC20000 certified consultants in the country.
"ISO/IEC 20000 is a set of controls against which an organisation can be assessed for effective IT Service Management Processes," says Madeleine. "It is not just another standard to measure the existence of processes and procedures and although it says nothing about the quality of a service or product, it certifies that you have a management system with effective processes to manage your IT Services" explains Madeleine.
The processes involved in the new ISO/IEC 20000 standard include:
1. Management System: Management Responsibilities, documentation, competencies, awareness and training
2. Planning and implementation IT Service Management: Plan, implement, monitor and improve
3. Planning new IT services: Planning and implementation of new or changed services
4. Service delivery process: Capacity, Continuity and availability management, Service Level Management, service reporting, security, budgeting and accounting.
5. Relationship processes: Business and supplier relationship Management
6. Resolution processes: Incident and problem management
7. Release process: Release Management
8. Control processes: Change Management & Configuration Management
"Good governance and compliance is the name of the game in terms of an organisation's people, product(s), partners and processes," says Madeleine. "Governance provides the rules and the boundaries of the game, and the service delivered will be the defining factor in an increasingly competitive market. Yes the ball may get dropped every now and then but it's about picking the ball up and running with it and ISO/IEC 20000 is a way of measuring exactly how serious you are about service delivery," concludes Madeleine.
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Since 1994, Foster-Melliar, a wholly owned subsidiary of black-owned Simeka BSG Limited, has been the leading local provider and pioneer of ITIL(r), IT Service Management in South Africa. Foster-Melliar has taken a market-leading position to introduce and profile Business Service Management (BSM), ISO/IEC 20000 and ICT Infrastructure Management to South Africa as an essential part of successful IT service provision allowing for the alignment of IT services to business needs. Driven towards optimising IT services within organisations, Foster-Melliar offers a host of solutions to assist companies capitalise on their IT investments. Foster-Melliar focuses on an end-to-end BSM solution in the form of consulting services, training and integrated Enterprise Management Systems. Partnering with some of the leading global vendors, and incorporating some of the latest and proprietary best practice methodologies, Foster-Melliar's solution has the breadth and insight to accommodate all corporate environments.
For more information on Foster-Melliar visit www.foster-melliar.co.za
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