• Products & Solutions
  • Products
  • Numara Track-It!
  • Numara FootPrints
  • Solutions for...
  • Growing Businesses
  • Corporate Enterprise
  • Technology/Asset Management
  • All Products & Solutions
• Services
  • Numara Track-It! Services
  • Numara FootPrints Services
• Company
  • News
  • Events
• Resources
  • Visit the Numara Resource Centre
• Contact Us
  • Find your regional Numara office
  • Find your local Numara Reseller
  • Send a contact form
•  

0800 195 2373

Is ITIL right for your business?

One size does not fit all... With ITIL v3 firmly out of the gates, many IT departments are feeling increased pressure to implement this latest set of best practices. But is ITIL appropriate for all organisations? We take a look at the current state of ITIL and present the key issues to consider before taking the leap.

What is ITIL?
Since it's introduction some 20 years ago, ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) has taken centre stage as organisations continue to strive towards the adoption of IT best practices. Yet, despite all the buzz, there are still many IT professionals that are unaware of what ITIL actually is in practical terms.

ITIL is a set of guidelines to help organisations better manage their IT operations. It was originally developed by the UK's Central Computer and Telecommunication Agency (CCTA), now called the Office of Government Commerce (OCG), to streamline and improve their IT operations. Initially, ITIL's definitions and process guidelines were compiled in a set of 14 books. ITIL describes 'what' but it does not describe 'how'.

With the latest ITIL v3 'refresh', which became available in May 2007, the ITIL set has been refined to just an introduction volume plus 5 core volumes: Service Strategy; Service Design; Service Transition; Service Operation; and Continual Service Improvement. ITIL V3 incorporates much of v2 but it has been re-structured for a 'lifecycle' approach to IT service management.

In addition to the 5 volume set of books, ITIL v3 also introduces a new qualification scheme for individuals. Education is an important point when evaluating if ITIL is right for your organisation: keep in mind that ITIL deployment requires your staff to be ITIL-qualified if your organisation is to realise any of the benefits.

The biggest ITIL myth
Now we have a sense of what ITIL is, it's important to highlight what it is not: ITIL is not a standard - there is a widespread misconception that it is.

ITIL describes a set of best practices and, as such, software tools or solutions cannot claim to be 'ITIL compliant'. However, independent verification organisations can be used to demonstrate that IT Service Management solutions are compatible with the workflows and definitions contained in ITIL; our own Numara FootPrints service desk software for example, has been ITIL-verified by Pink Elephant, a UK ITIL training and consultancy organisation.

Who was ITIL developed for?
ITIL was developed to satisfy the needs of large organisations such as the UK Government, where it all started. As a result ITIL is more oriented towards, and embraced by, large organisations rather than by the SMEs.

It's popular with large enterprise companies who support thousands of users, because as IT groups grow in size, there’s a natural propensity for internal functions and disciplines to become segregated, and therefore create a need for more process control to coordinate information flow.

However, in a company with, say, hundreds of PCs there may only be an individual or, at most, a small team responsible for many IT disciplines: auditing software, maintaining upgrades and deploying new or updated software to the desktop. Such a team may only have time to manage incidents and little time, or little need, to focus on other ITIL processes.

Is ITIL right for your organisation?
Before we offer you some guidelines, it important to say that Numara Software has customers in both camps: those that require out-of-the-box best-practice help desk software that deploy Numara Track-It! and those that need ITIL service desk software that deploy Numara FootPrints - so we have no axe to grind!

So, is ITIL right for your organisation? Here are some considerations:

• Walk before you run. There is dependency between incident, problem and change Management so don't consider, say, ITIL change management if you do not understand or have not yet implemented effective incident and/or problem management.

• ITIL can be costly to implement. ITIL is not something that can mastered overnight. It is a long term endeavour that takes time and requires commitment and investment from all areas of the organisation. There are no shortcuts and ITIL processes and training can be costly to implement even if the software tools too support them are not.

• ITIL can be costly to maintain. ITIL does require an investment in resources where head count is required to define, implement, manage and constantly review ITIL to ensure it is being utilised effectively, not counter-productively. Too much process control can be as costly and as crippling to your business as not enough.

• Consider your organisation's dynamics. You should bear in mind your organisational dynamics, maturity and resources as part of your ITIL appraisal. This is important as SMEs tend to experience frequent business changes necessary to satisfy continual and, at times, explosive growth. It is at these times that rigid conformance to ITIL processes may make it difficult to react and adapt.

Interestingly, over 50% of our customers that have chosen Numara FootPrints decide not to deploy ITIL processes - even though FootPrints is ITIL-verified. Instead they opt for best-practice IT service management to provide the optimum balance of flexibility, agility and control for their organisation.

If you would like to discuss your own circumstances and whether ITIL is right for your organisation, call one of our specialists on 0800 195 2373 or email them: info@numarasoftware.co.uk