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A question of (high) standards

IT service management is no longer a negotiable. If you play in the outsourcing game, you're expected to have a firm grip on it.

Samantha Perry
By Samantha Perry
Johannesburg, 05 Oct 2009

Things in the local IT industry have often - let's be subtle here - been handled with a certain, shall we say, laissez-faire attitude. As the industry matures and South Africa takes its place in the global economy, however, requirements have changed too, and an entirely more professional approach is now mandatory.

“IT service management (ITSM) is based on a total service management methodology that allows customers to focus on their core operations,” says Webcom Group head Glen Miller. “ICT support and services are handed over to specialists that ensure the company's business-critical services and functions are delivered with no interruption. ITSM is driven by the client's business requirements, whereas in the past, ICT was more often the driver of how business processes and operations would be mapped and executed.”

This latter point is, in fact, one of the key benefits of implementing an ITSM methodology. As Blue Turtle Technologies' Marten van Heerden notes: “You don't see the whole silo effect in IT disciplines in terms of the way IT organisations support customers. You see a more co-ordinated effort and better information flow between IT and customers, as IT understands why things are done from a business perspective. In other words, they're not just supporting a server, but know there is reason why a box is there.”

“The problem,” reiterates Cornastone GM Craig Beckett, “is that historically, because IT was divorced from business, it has been reactive to the business' growth and drivers and business has been forced to spend substantially to remain competitive. Organisations started imposing penalties on services providers for some sort of protection. We've seen customers do a full circle where they have internal IT and then outsource and then bring it back in.

“If you look over the past 10 years or so, companies have started looking at processes and procedures and considering some type of ITSM strategy to provide that to business. We think that the adoption of a process culture has a better impact on reducing the bottom line on cash spent on IT. IT has to come to the party, and to do that it needs to adopt an ITSM strategy, something we're seeing a lot in the market today,” he notes.

Derek Wilcocks, services director at Dimension Data, Middle East and Africa, agrees: “In the outsourcing space, ITSM is very mature and it is at the heart of every outsourcing contract we're involved in. It is extremely well accepted; contracts are structured around a service management framework and that forms the basis of the contract. Most contracts actually specify the service management disciplines the outsource party is expected to fulfil and go into some detail in terms of the tasks and steps involved. This is a substantial change from where we were six or seven years ago.”

But is it working?

While ITSM is starting to make its mark, anecdotal evidence indicates it's not delivering anticipated results.

Says Beckett: “Although we see customers adopting strategies like ITIL, there is no real drive from top management down in implementing a successful ITSM strategy. And this is because guys buy 'off-the-shelf' ware that claim to support ITIL, but there is no real substance or life to those processes. So, although guys are adopting service management strategies and putting services in place, these are very immature in approach.”

Foster-Melliar MD Russell Steyn agrees: “When companies (IT service providers, to be exact) decide to 'adopt' ITSM for the first time, there is a flurry of activity. Budgets get unlocked - people are sent on training - tools are acquired, but a year later, things are quiet in the project office. Two years later, it becomes difficult to see what was actually done, let alone the benefits that were promised.”

“We think it's still immature in the market in that people are still trying the old style of ITSM,” says Miller. “There is a lot of training and a lot of focus around it, but implementation seems to be slow. There is a structure that needs to be followed. You can't just bolt it onto the side of the organisation. It takes some planning and implementation.”

Says Steyn: “We see ITSM being adopted, but for the wrong reasons. The main drivers for ITSM (predominantly ITIL and COBIT) currently are job progression or security (tied to KPIs for the year), ITSM tool vendors creating hype around state-of-the-art, cutting-edge products, audit findings (non-compliance) or ICT-managed service companies' contractual obligations (customers forcing ITSM on the outsourcer). I guess what we are wondering is, when will ITSM adoptions be driven by a genuine desire to improve service?” he comments.

When will ITSM adoptions be driven by a genuine desire to improve service?

Russell Steyn, MD, Foster-Melliar

“One of the biggest challenges in implementing ITSM is that it requires a substantial amount of effort from the business to work with the IT organisation and parties delivering services, eg, outsourcers, to define what the business outcomes are,” notes Wilcocks. “Business is not necessarily willing to take the time to do that work. There is a whole change management and educational process that needs to be undertaken.

“Some businesses decide that IT, for them, is about delivering basic services, underlying infrastructure and tools so ITSM will not be applicable,” Wilcocks continues. “For a lot of businesses, however, ITSM holds a lot of promise to get business and IT aligned, but it requires effort on both sides.”

This alignment is what will likely drive further adoption, as well as the drive by customers to force outsourcer compliance, and other compliance efforts. How soon this happens and how soon these implementations mature, however, remains to be seen.