The IT service industry operates on the premise of aligning the IT function to conform and grow with the needs of the business. As one of the leaders in the field of ITIL and ITSM training in South Africa, Foster-Melliar, a wholly owned subsidiary of Simeka Business Group, recently took a leaf from its own book by taking all its Business Service Management (BSM) capabilities and re-inventing the 'wheel', so to speak.
“Foster-Melliar has divided its base of operation into two philosophies - 'educate' and 'optimise'. Everything that Foster-Melliar is capable of is defined within these two frames of operation. The biggest hurdle facing the industry at present is the fact that staff members are sent for training and then expected to use the information accumulated to change the organisation. The problem with this theory is that most people have no idea where to start and change is never an easy task to tackle, and certainly never in isolation. And consulting is often viewed as a pure body-shopping exercise within a defined period of time that benefits the organisation in no way,” explains Foster-Melliar's Simon Turner.
Foster-Melliar's new 'educate and optimise' approach will educate delegates in whatever discipline is needed, and then work on how the organisation should optimise and apply the acquired learning into the organisation. It effectively repositions Foster-Melliar from being a training organisation to a service management solutions provider.
“Training across all industries, including the IT industry, has had to evolve and align with what business needs. In the past, a company's choice of education and training was limited to a training provider's schedule and offerings. Today this model has been turned on its head as business dictates what training offerings it needs and wants, and providers are being seriously challenged to keep abreast with new methodologies and trends demanded by the business sector,” says Simon Turner, Foster-Melliar.
“Of significant concern is the fact that so-called ITIL courses have become big business and are bought and sold as if commodities - a look at the price wars within the industry is proof of this. To a large extent, very little of what these courses have delivered to the market had anything to do with the delivery of relevant quality training and ongoing professional development within the IT sector,” says Simon. “We have turned our entire offering around to be solutions-driven and relevant to the market conditions that businesses find themselves in currently, and also to take into account the resources at their disposal to reach their future short and long-term growth objectives,” explains Simon. “Professional consultation forms a critical component of all our offerings to ensure that client is getting the right solution, at the right time and for the right results.”
Optimise
Foster-Melliar's new optimise approach can be broken down into four categories:
* Build IT
The situation is defined by a client, who is embarking on a strategy where service management and project management are required. The individuals involved with the project are given the correct training in terms of the required implementation process, which Foster-Melliar's team assist with on a turnkey basis. It is not charged on an hourly basis, but rather adopts a cost per project approach, quite literally providing a fully-fledged team to 'build it'. This step in the process is the start of growing and achieving the various levels of maturity and requires a defined roadmap to make a success of the project.
* Run IT
This process allows Foster-Melliar to run a component of an organisation's service management or project management on their behalf by utilising Foster-Melliar's proprietary service offerings. These components can take the form of IT service management (ITIL), project management (PRINCE2), corporate governance (COBIT) and growth (ISO20000) on a basic level. It can even be an aspect relating to service level agreements (SLAs) or underpinning contracts between the client and an outsourced company, where Foster-Melliar will consolidate and review the SLAs as well as run the SLA review meetings to ascertain that everyone is on track.
* Fix IT
In this situation, a client may have processes in place that are not functioning optimally. A Foster-Melliar team is enlisted to assess and correct the various process levels in order for the organisation to derive the proper benefit from it. Once the processes are running as they should be, the responsibility and control of the process is handed back to the client's team to manage.
* Boost IT
The typical scenario for Boost IT consists of an organisation that has existing processes and functionalities in place run by a competent team. The processes are working perfectly and the organisation is now ready to take it to the next level. Boost IT provides high-level strategic counsel to help the business reach greater levels of maturity and efficiency within their service management applications.
Educate
Foster-Melliar will continue to offer training courses as well as e-learning options, but will take a more focused approach in line with global trends in professional development:
* CIO programmes
Great leaders are created at the very inception of work experience, and with this philosophy in mind, Foster-Melliar has created a focused and specialised career-pathing model for delivering the CIOs of the future.
This in-depth programme is run over a two to three-year period and is focused on a person who currently holds a low to medium IT resource management position. “Most individuals make the mistake of waiting until they get to middle or higher management before they start acting on their ambitions to become a CIO, with the result that most CIOs are extremely technically minded and capable, but lack the actual business experience and even softer but critical skills. Foster-Melliar's CIO programme takes candidates through the gambit of the total business experience needed en-route to becoming a CIO. The package is tailor-made around the specific skills needed by the individual, and hence focused on very specific outcomes that are unique to each person's current and desired skills sets.
* Master classes
Master classes are short and powerful one-hour events scheduled around very specific ITIL topics. A core requirement of a master class is the provision of real-world, real-time practical case studies and examples that demonstrate in no uncertain terms how a process was designed, implemented, measured or improved upon. The master classes are designed to deliver 'how to' pockets of knowledge in succinct and achievable modules by leading professionals who have practical knowledge.
* Practical workshop
The practical workshop is a highly personalised and tailor-made programme for an individual or team who require specific focus on an issue or problem that they require assistance with. A high-level consultant will spend time with the candidate to assess and assist with problem resolution and get the process or project back on track as smoothly and quickly as possible.
For more information about Foster-Melliar, please visit http://www.Foster-Melliar.co.za or contact 0860 22 55 36.
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