Companies with initiatives to adopt ITIL and ITSM best practices need to focus more on the inter-relationships between the processes and getting these to an acceptable level of operational adequacy rather than focusing on getting one or two processes to a high level of maturity.
This was the overriding theme of Foster-Melliar`s breakfast presentations that took place on Thursday, 29 September, at the Cape Town Grand West Casino and on Friday, 30 September, at the Johannesburg Park Hyatt Hotel.
Derrick Plank, Foster-Melliar`s ITIL guru and keynote speaker at the breakfasts, explained the concept further: "When one considers the financial investment into ITSM training and what actually happens on the ground afterwards, the two scenarios are worlds apart.
"IT organisations have a tendency to try and tackle one or two processes where there is perceived weakness and invest significant financial and time resources in getting them to a level of near-perfection. The end results are often unsatisfactory because the results on the bottom line are actually insignificant compared with the extensive effort required. After all this effort, you still have a series of processes left to tackle and the entire initiative often loses momentum and stagnates. The success of the initiative is further limited because only one or two elements are optimised while overall, related processes are lagging even further behind than before," explained Plank.
"Foster-Melliar`s approach is to keep all the elements of the IT service lifecycle in perspective so that `cause and effect` relationships come into play and start to sustain ongoing improvements. The concept is based on the fact that it is more effective to get all the processes up to an adequate level of performance so that as one process improves, it automatically forces an incremental improvement in the related processes. The bottom line is that every aspect of the IT environment is a collective set of processes - an improvement in one process must have a reciprocal improvement on the other processes."
Foster-Melliar, a wholly owned subsidiary of black-owned Xantium Technology Holdings, and leading local provider and pioneer of ITIL and IT Service Management in SA, sold out the two breakfast presentations within 24 hours of opening for bookings.
"There is a desperate need in the industry for insightful and practical advice on getting to grips with the correct approach to ITIL and implementation of ITSM strategies. The sky becomes the limit once you start thinking outside the box of ITIL in the context of ITSM and realise a much broader benefit derived from best practice frameworks. Clearly aligning IT strategy with that of the business becomes a given, making investments that much more effective. Service delivery extends far beyond the borders of service management and the hosting of breakfasts such as these is a prime opportunity for us to share with delegates exactly what`s involved and what we know works best," concluded Plank.
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Foster-Melliar, a wholly owned subsidiary of black owned Xantium Technology Holdings Limited, is the leading local provider and pioneer of ITIL and IT Service Management in SA since 1994. Driven towards optimising IT services within organisations, Foster-Melliar offers a host of solutions to assist companies to capitalise on their IT investments.
Foster-Melliar focuses on an end-to-end service management solution in the form of training and consulting services. FM Software, a division of Foster-Melliar, boasts a broad range of software products that assists organisations to manage and control their infrastructure and in doing so, dramatically improves the efficiencies and effectiveness of their IT services while proactively managing their costs.
For more information on Foster-Melliar, visit www.foster-melliar.co.za. For more information on Foster-Melliar or to register for our next breakfast event, visit www.foster-melliar.co.za.
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