ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) is the most widely accepted framework in the world for managing IT services. Based on best-practice processes, ITIL`s integrated, guiding principles are the only comprehensive, non-proprietary, publicly accessible parameters for IT service management.
Inana Nkanza, MD of iLayo Software Solutions, discusses the pivotal nature of ITIL and reinforces the roles it can play in helping their customers to deliver quality IT services. ITIL has been around for nearly 15 years, and in that time it has evolved from handbooks for the UK government to be the accepted de facto standard for IT service management. Broadly speaking, it enables business units to agree on common terminology, metrics and processes for service management.
It provides a cohesive set of best practices, drawn from public and private sectors internationally, and is supported by a comprehensive qualifications scheme, accredited training organisations, and implementation and assessment tools. The best practice processes promoted in ITIL both support and are supported by the British Standards Institution`s Standard for IT Service Management (BS15000).
The real strength of ITIL is in the quality of its implementation and adaptation to circumstances - it was never a method but always intended as guidance for an informed professional. It can be adopted in and adapted to a range of environments. Never a dogmatic set of instructions, much of the value of ITIL rests in the skill of its interpretation in an organisation`s IT service management practices. Supporting the adaptation with the right tools properly used, including integrated service management support tools, is more important now than ever.
How the guidance is implemented varies according to the requirements of an organisation, but also according to its preferences, constraints and technology. And the technologies that support ITIL practices have evolved along with the use of the guidance and the guidance itself. Indeed, the technology seems to have evolved, and to still be evolving, more than any other element of the ITIL world.
ITIL is publicly available, and the framework may be used by any organisation seeking to standardise and improve IT processes. The ITIL framework provides practitioners with a set of guidelines for service management processes including goals, general activities, inputs and outputs. These guidelines recognise that the implementation of the framework will vary according to the needs of the user.
According to the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) book Best Practice for Service Support: "ITIL does not cast in stone every action you should do on a day-to-day basis, because that is something which will differ from organisation to organisation. Instead ITIL focuses on best practice that can be utilised in different ways according to need."
Given that ITIL lays out a common approach to IT best practices, organisations making the decision to implement the framework must determine the approach and process details that are appropriate to their business.
One of the greatest strengths of ITIL is in the relationships described between processes. ITIL provides process integration that can be used to break down operational silos and fosters cooperation between IT functions. The interdependencies of information and workflow for the service support processes are a significant component of ITIL.
These processes include service desk, incident management, problem management, configuration management, change management and release management.
The integration of these operational activities drives the business planning processes defined in the service delivery set:
* Capacity management
* Financial management for IT services
* Availability management
* Service level management
* IT service continuity management
* Customer relationship management
Although positioned as two sets, the processes interact strongly, both across the areas, as well as within each set of processes. For example, configuration management data supports availability, continuity, finance and capacity; availability interfaces strongly with both incident and problem management.
In summary, ITIL provides guidelines for IT process best practices that can be tailored to meet the unique needs of IT organisations (ITO), both large and small.
IT practitioners tasked with improving organisational efficiency, cost controls and communication will benefit from an understanding of ITIL and from implementing the framework in a manner that will meet their business requirements. For ITOs formalising their processes, ITIL helps relieve current business pains and creates a roadmap for future opportunities that will further improve operations. For large distributed organisations, ITIL provides a foundation for common terminology and metrics across multiple regions and operational centres.
Lastly, ITIL is increasingly becoming the foundation for official standards, including the British Standards for Service Management.
Business benefits of ITIL
In addition to the process benefits associated with ITIL, the framework does establish the foundation for a business approach to service delivery, an increasingly important topic in the field and the focus of many IT initiatives such as "on demand" and "business service management". ITOs are facing increasing pressure to behave like outsource service providers.
They effectively have to "bid" for their client, providing services, costs and measurements similar to external service providers. By standardising service delivery processes across the organisation ITIL provides a framework within which to initiate a comparison and measurement process.
Businesses that choose to outsource will also benefit from the structured process and benchmarking of the ITIL framework. The processes that are best understood, defined and controlled have the greatest chance of successful management by a third-party. Handing over a chaotic environment often leads to a confrontational relationship with the outsource service provider in regard to service levels and cost of services. ITIL can establish a due diligence environment and common vocabulary for customer and service provider.
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