White PapersMany experts advise against swallowing ITIL in one big gulp, but instead adopting the best practices in stages, or bite-size pieces. That's good advice. But this staged approach will only work if you adopt the right bites for your organisation. The ITIL framework details 26 different processes. So how do you know which ones will help your unique organisation achieve its goals?
White PaperT aking the Right Bites out of ITIL Practical Steps for Adopting the Best ITIL Strategies for Your OrganizationElisabeth Cullivan Product Marketing ManagerNumara SoftwareApril 26, 2010 Untitled Document2Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.ukWhite PaperTaking the Right Bites out of ITIL Some experts say project implementation relies on people, process and technology I say it s people, people, people, process and technology. You can, in essence, buy the technology and the process flows in ITIL, but you cannot buy the hearts and minds of the people to run it.1 George SpaldingSenior Analyst, Pink Elephant Practical Steps for Adopting the Best ITIL Strategies for Your OrganizationExecutive Summary The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL ) is widely accepted as the de facto set of best practices for IT Service Management. Thousands of organizations around the world have adopted ITIL s philosophies and guidelines, in one way or another; and an entire ecosystem of ITIL tools, certifications and consultants have built-up around it.Over the past year, adoption of ITIL best practices continued to grow at a steady rate, but we also began to see a new skepticism, or backlash, towards ITIL. Spurred on by the economic downturn, many people grew weary of lengthy ITIL implementation projects and waiting for their long-term, often difficult to quantify benefits. Business leaders wanted to see action, and more importantly, ROI.Ironically even though IT is under pressure to deliver short-term, measurable results this may be the best time to make changes to IT processes and services, before the economy and business volume fully recovers. The key is to adopt best practices in a way that doesn t require huge, long-term investments and delivers quick results that address your business s biggest pain points.Many experts advise against swallowing ITIL in one big gulp, but instead adopting the best practices in stages, or bite-size pieces. That s good advice. But this staged approach will only work if you adopt the right bites for your organization. The ITIL framework details 26 different processes. So how do you know which ones will help your unique organization achieve its goals?In this white paper we ll outline some of the most common issues IT service organizations face today, what bites off the ITIL menu best address each, and how to implement them in a way that meets your organization s appetite for change, investment and results.What s Made ITIL a Four-letter Word?The ITIL framework was developed in the early 80s to help IT provide high-quality services that meet the needs of the business. The framework has expanded and evolved over time, but at its core, this remains ITIL s mission. Given the current focus on IT and business alignment, it stands to reason that more and more IT organizations would be jumping on the ITIL train, but instead many are retreating. Unfortunately, many organizations that have tried to leverage ITIL have not realized enough value to justify either the initial or ongoing investment. So while ITIL still provides a valuable framework and best practices for improving IT services, the complexity and cost of big, traditional ITIL implementations have tarnished its name.Every business is unique, but the reasons their ITIL initiatives fail or stall are all too common. When trying to change people, processes and technology the former is almost always the roadblock. Lack of management commitment and employees resistance to change are usually the top reasons ITIL programs never reach their full potential. The high costs of training and external consultants and long implementation times typically associated with ITIL initiatives don t help in garnering support from executives or users who need to embrace the new processes and technology. IT is expected to be agile and keep up with the rapid pace of today s business. Not surprisingly, the business gets frustrated with multi-year, high-cost IT projects that disrupt their work and don t seem to deliver quick and obvious ROI. The 2007 introduction of ITIL v3 has also confused or stalled many who were already in the process of implementing ITIL v2. While the intention of version three was to clarify the guidance and improve ITIL s relevance to the business, a lot of IT practitioners find it more complex and have struggled to apply it to real-world scenarios. They also can t afford the time and money to re-educate and re-certify staff on the revised books. Whether you re talking about version two or three, ITIL best practices can greatly improve IT services, but not every best practice is a fit for every organization. The key is to incrementally adopt the pieces of ITIL that will help to solve your particular pain points, and show near-term value to the business. " Improve quality 53%" Increase agility 21%" Decrease cost 13%" Compliance / Risk 9%" None of the above 4%Source: ITIL and IT Operations Optimization Webinar; June 17, 2009; Ed Holub, Research VP; Gartner What is Your Main Driver for Implementing ITIL?Untitled DocumentWhite Paper3Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.ukThe First Step to ITIL Success is Taking a Step BackAny organization that sets out to implement ITIL is destined to fail. The ITIL framework is simply a set of books that offers high-level process guidance for a wide range of businesses and industries. Its value lies in an organization s ability to leverage those best practices to address their unique issues. Never forget that process improvement isn t about designing a beautiful process, it s about better outcomes and experiences for your users or customers. The art of a successful ITIL program is to take a step back, understand the root cause of your business s biggest challenges, and apply the right best practices in the right way for your organization. First, you need to conduct a baseline maturity assessment to understand where your ITSM processes are today. Without this baseline, it s impossible for you to map out the optimal end state and the path to get there. But remember, your biggest trouble areas may not always be your least mature processes, so don t automatically start there. Begin with the processes that are the most troubling for your business users. Through this approach, the business will see their biggest pain points fixed first, getting them on board early and securing support for future ITIL projects. All in all, your entire ITIL program may span multiple years, but the individual projects, or project phases, should not. Pare your initiatives down into manageable chunks (four to six months) so you can regularly demonstrate value back to the business and maintain their support. If your return is high enough, you may even be able to self-fund the next phase or project.Rolling out ITIL in pieces is the key to overcoming the people roadblocks that have derailed so many in the past. Smaller, incremental investments and faster, measurable ROI will secure support from skeptical executives. Users won t be overwhelmed with an influx of changes all at once, lowering their instinct to resist. Plus, once users actually see the benefits of change especially around their principal pain points they will be more likely to accept and follow new processes moving forward.No matter where you start, metrics define success. With every ITIL project or phase, it s critical that from the outset you define measurable goals, clearly communicate them to the business and put the tools in place to track to those goals. By taking a practical, iterative and measurable approach to ITIL, you ll set yourself down the right path to success.1. No management commitment. This includes managers who offer only lip service to the importance of ITIL and those who withdraw commitment and/or resources when they become frustrated by a lack of clear results.2. Saying yes, but meaning no. People who promise to follow a new ITIL procedure of use of a new tool but do not.3. ITIL will never work here. A general resistance to ITIL and/or a lack of belief that ITIL will make a difference.4. No focus on continual improvement. ITIL is instead treated as a plan, do, stop project.5. ITIL itself, rather than what it will achieve, is the objective.6. IT thinks it doesn t need to understand the business to make a business case for ITIL.7. Preference to follow current procedures rather than adopting new ones.8. Not being able to demonstrate the value of ITIL to the business.9. Throwing ITIL solutions over the wall and hoping people will follow them.10. Everything has highest priority.Source: Survey of 250 ITIL practitioners by GamingWorks , which designs, develops and deploys professional business simulations aimed at supporting organizational learning and development.GamingWorks Top 10 Types of Resistance to ITIL Improvement Initiatives It should never be a group s objective to implement ITIL as it is not a silver bullet that will solve all of IT s woes; that simply does not exist.2 George SpaffordITSMWatch columnist Untitled DocumentWhite Paper4Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.ukOnce You Understand the Challenge&Then You Can Find a SolutionAfter you ve identified your business s biggest challenges, you can then determine what components of ITIL make the most sense for your situation. While no two organizations are alike, there are common challenges that run across companies of different sizes and industries. Many of these common problems are addressed by ITIL within its five books: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operations and Continual Service Improvement. Below we ve outlined a dozen of the most common problems, and the right ITIL bite to address each. Keep in mind that like any good recipe, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so you will realize exponential benefits as you integrate each ITIL ingredient. Service Operations encompasses best practices for achieving the delivery of agreed levels of services to end-users and to customers. Service Operations is the part of the lifecycle where services and value is delivered, as well as where problems are monitored and balance between service reliability and cost is considered.Many organizations begin with Service Operations processes, such as Incident and Problem Management, which are often considered foundational or level-one processes. This isn t surprising as unresolved incidents and recurring problems are often major points of frustration for the business. They re also easy to recognize by IT, often quick to fix, and improvements are fairly simple to measure, allowing IT to demonstrate fast and tangible results back to the business. CHALLENGE #1: We need to get a better handle on our IT incidents to improve resolution times and meet and report on service levels. Recommended ITIL Bite: Incident ManagementThe goal of the Incident Management process is to restore normal service as quickly as possible and to minimize impact on business operations; ensuring optimal levels of service quality and availability are maintained. Organizations facing this problem are often trying to manage incidents manually or with an automation tool that they ve outgrown. Most basic help desk and service desk tools will allow you to capture, track and report on incidents, but the complexity and flexibility of the workflow varies. Before applying a process or selecting a solution, determine:" The volume and types of incidents you receive. Your process and solution need to be robust enough to expand with your organization (or an influx of tickets), and handle different incident categories, priorities and workflows.Service Strategy and DesignService Portfolio ManagementService Catalog ManagementService Level ManagementService TransitionService Asset and Configuration Management Change Management Release Management Knowledge ManagementContinual Service Improvement Service ReportingService OperationsIncident Management Problem Management Request Fulfillment Event Management1. Strategize and Plan: Develop strategic, tactical and communication plans for your ITIL initiative. Establish resources, budget and governance systems. Integrate the initiative with strategic IT and business plans. Identify tools that will support your processes.2. Assess Competencies: Use feedback from key stakeholders and external sources of advice to develop best practices for the ITIL and process improvement initiative. Identify needed competencies.3. Implement: Staff and manage the implementation of the discipline. Roll out tools. Seek feedback from users. Monitor risks.4. Operate and Evolve: Track the operation and success of the initiative. Assess and adjust the approach based on operational results, ROI and changing business needs.Source: ITIL and Process Improvement Key Initiative Overview ; February 5, 2010; Kris Brittain and Ed Holub; Gartner Gartner Recommends that Infrastructure and Operations Leaders Follow Four Major Phases to Pursue their ITIL and Process Improvement Initiative: ITIL is enormously beneficial in making recommendations on how to accommodate best practices and processes. It is not a strict methodology or a check-off list you can follow to systematically solve problems. IT departments are going to use different elements of ITIL based on their business needs.3 Bill KeyworthEditor in Chief of BSM Review 80% of clients start on core processes such as change, incident and problem management.4 Ed HolubGartner Research VP Untitled DocumentWhite Paper5Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.uk" Who is submitting those incidents and what type of access they need. To reduce calls to the help or service desk, you ll want users to have the ability to resolve incidents themselves or submit tickets directly into your system. Web-based systems with user-friendly interfaces and self-service tools will encourage them to help themselves." What SLA s you need to measure. Incident Management SLA s, such as time to resolution, are fairly common and covered by most tools, but if your organization has unique goals or reporting requirements make sure they are supported by your process and solution of choice. Truly comprehensive workflow automation should give you the ability to create templates to quickly generate common incidents (including sub-tasks), define auto-routing of incidents and requests to agents or teams based on extensive criteria selection, create rules for escalation and notifications, create parent/child relationships and move assignments between workspaces.CHALLENGE #2: We need to stop fighting fires and get started fixing the root causes of all these incidents.Recommended ITIL Bite: Problem ManagementClosely related to Incident Management, Problem Management processes aim to resolve the unknown root causes of incidents, preventing their recurrence and minimizing the adverse impact on the business. There are two different sides to Problem Management: reactive and proactive. Reactive Problem Management identifies the root cause of past incidents and proposes improvements and resolutions, while proactive Problem Management prevents incidents from occurring, or reoccurring, by identifying weaknesses or errors in the infrastructure and proposing applicable resolutions. Many organizations are performing reactive Problem Management to some degree, but few are conducting proactive Problem Management by undertaking activities such as reviewing and analyzing the Incident Database, or reviewing all changes to new systems to prevent incidents. Make sure the solution you select allows you to:" Perform analysis on your Incident Database to identify trends that will reduce or eliminate the potential for incidents to recur." Review changes to your IT environment that failed or triggered new incidents." Analyze and track how much time and money is being saved by proactive Problem Management.CHALLENGE #3: We need to track the workload, costs and SLA s of new service requests apart from our incidents.Recommended ITIL Bite: Request FulfillmentRequest Fulfillment deals with service requests for new items, versus Incident Management, which covers things that are breaking or about to break. For example, if a user calls with a request to reset their password, this is a new request, and while it needs to be logged and correctly handled, it shouldn t be viewed and tracked as an incident. Doing so will make it difficult to understand how much time and effort is being spent on break/fixes versus how much is caused by new requests from the business. When considering an automation solution to support your request fulfillment process, be sure to take a broad view at the types of service requests within your organization. Your solution should be flexible enough to automate numerous request-based business processes for the service desk and throughout the organization, even outside of IT. These requests may range from an application feature addition to a laptop for a new employee. This will allow you to leverage a single, centralized system to track and automate multiple types of requests, streamlining the workload for the IT staff and maximizing ROI on your service management solution investment.CHALLENGE #4: We need a more comprehensive view of our network and potential issues coming down the pike.Recommended ITIL Bite: Event ManagementITIL defines an event as any detectable or discernable occurrence that has significance for the management of the IT infrastructure or the delivery of IT service and evaluation of the impact a deviation might cause to the services. A big part of managing these events is monitoring, but the Event Management process extends beyond that to interpreting the monitored data and taking an appropriate action. In order to effectively manage events, you must monitor activities, detect issues, filter those issues based on certain criteria, and then determine the significance of the event so you can take appropriate action. At that point the event can take three paths:" Informational: These are events that should be logged for potential future analysis including confirming if the service is operating as expected. " Warning: During service design, thresholds are identified that help gauge the status of a system. When the threshold is reached, pre-defined parties, or notification groups, are alerted that the threshold has been reached. " Exception: This branch is reserved for configuration items (hardware, software or service) that are operating abnormally or have failed. Abnormal behavior criteria should be defined during service design to better understand what types of scenarios trigger what types of exception handling.Untitled DocumentWhite Paper6Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.ukIt is nearly impossible to conduct comprehensive monitoring, issue detection and filtering manually, so automating your Event Management process is critical. Select a solution that enables real-time, centralized network monitoring, easily integrates into your infrastructure, and automatically create incidents for significant events in your Incident Management tool.Service Transition relates to the delivery of business services into live/operational use. It often encompasses the project side of IT rather than business as usual, like the Service Operations processes outlined above.CHALLENGE #5: I can t see how changes or issues with one part of my IT environment impacts another.Recommended ITIL Bite: Service Asset and Configuration Management The objective of Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM) is to maintain information about the configuration items (CI s) required to deliver an IT service, including their relationships. It ensures IT is in control of its assets, and that up-to-date and verified information on the status of the assets and IT infrastructure is available to other service management processes. It s important to note that Configuration Management and a Configuration Management Database, or CMDB, are not one in the same. But in order to gain visibility and control of all CI s including their attributes and relationships and ensure all information is accurate, up-to-date and accessible, organizations often choose to implement a CMDB. You will save yourself a lot of time by selecting a Configuration Management solution and CMDB that can automatically merge discovered data collected from auditing tools, including bar code databases, operational databases, or other file formats, such as CSV files and SQL database tables. The CMDB should also allow you to dynamically analyze and navigate CI relationships to maintain maximum availability of systems, applications and services. Finally, even if you don t need it today, make sure you have the flexibility to build and manage multiple CMDBs if needed for various uses or business units.CHALLENGE #6: Changes to our IT environment regularly triggers problems and incidents.Recommended ITIL Bite: Change ManagementChange is inevitable. Unfortunately, sixty to eighty percent of failures in the IT infrastructure come from changes introduced by IT many of which are not approved or authorized. These change related incidents and problems are typically the consequence of a lack of planning, testing or understanding of the impact that the change has on the service or organization as a whole. A Change Management process defines how your business manages all change requests, big or small. It aims to assess the cost, risk, training, remediation, deployment and communication plans for each change.Due to the complexity of change, it s important to have a centralized solution that can track, automate, manage, control and report on the process of change and approvals based on your business s unique set of rules. When selecting a tool, consider whether it:" Let s you customize the approval process to fit your organization, allowing anyone to be a change approver without special configuration. " Allows you to view, track and report on all change audit trails and activities through a single, centralized point. " Automates the approval notification process to keep all stakeholders, approvers and voting members up to date on a change request s progress. CHALLENGE #7: IT is spending too much time trying to manage system and software releases and updates, and not ready for prime time releases are making it into our live environment.Recommended ITIL Bite: Release and Deploy ManagementThe pace of change for technology and business requirements is continuing to accelerate, and it s becoming more difficult and expensive to keep software and systems up-to-date and configured correctly. The objective of the Release and Deploy Management process is to schedule and control the movement of the many releases to test and live environments, ensuring that the integrity of the live environment is protected and that the proper components are released.To reduce the time, costs and risks of manually managing and rolling out new systems and updates, most organizations automate the process with a deployment management tool. Your solution should give you the reliable and comprehensive control you need by allowing you to:" Plan releases from approved changes, and schedule and deploy software upgrades in heterogeneous and distributed environments." Use dynamic grouping to streamline deployments." Automate the distribution of the software with integrated packaging capabilities. " Automatically maintain software applications and configuration settings. The goal of a successful Change Management process implementation is to reduce the amount of unplanned work as a percentage of total work done.5 George SpaffordITSMWatch columnist Untitled DocumentWhite Paper7Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.uk" Manage network traffic flow with deployment scheduling, bandwidth throttling, and multi-cast deployment. " Execute automatic deployment reversal in the case of an error. " Leverage pre-defined policies to reduce configuration time." Update computers without site visits." Track the entire software deployment process and measure progress in real-time.CHALLENGE #8: We don t have a centralized place for IT staff and users to easily find the information and answers they need.Recommended ITIL Bite: Knowledge ManagementThe goal of Knowledge Management is pretty straightforward: to gather, analyze, store and share knowledge and information within an organization, so there isn t a need to rediscover knowledge. There are many technology options to build a centralized source of knowledge, but the key is to tightly integrate it with the other service processes, such as Incident, Problem and Request Fulfillment. This will allow service desk agents and users to quickly apply lessons learned from previous issues and speed up resolution times.In addition to integration, be sure your Knowledge Management solution allows agents to quickly create reusable information, such as solutions, questions, answers, patches and procedures; let s you categorize items so they re easier to find; and allows you to implement knowledge authoring approval policies.Service Strategy includes a framework for defining best practices for developing a long-term service strategy, while Service Design represents the design of IT Services conforming to those best practices. Sometimes considered future or mature ITIL phases, these processes often don t produce the same quick results or have the same immediate ROI as Service Operations or Service Transition processes. That can be discouraging, slowing momentum and stalling implementation, so look for ways to break implementation into phases where you can make some traction. For example, your initial service catalog may not initially include every single service for every single user. If you can get the ball rolling and show results with a sub-set, you ll easily get the support you need to implement your full vision. CHALLENGE #9: We need better control over IT service spend and to clearly demonstrate IT s value to the business.Recommended ITIL Bite: Service Catalog ManagementAt a basic level, a Service Catalog is a list of services that an IT organization provides for its employees or customers. Each service within the catalog typically includes:" A description of the service. " Timeframes or SLA for fulfilling the service. " Who is entitled to request/view the service. " Costs of the service. " How to fulfill the service.Service Catalogs are becoming more and more popular as IT tries to rein in spend and better demonstrate value back to the business. The Service Catalog is a great way to do this, and is often the first step in transforming an IT organization into a service-oriented model. You should start by identifying a list of baseline services, making sure each item is self-contained, and that you can measure its consumption. You ll need to work with the business to set SLA s for each service, and ensure measurement tools are in place to monitor and report performance. Once the catalog is published, it s important that you monitor and refine your services and SLA s based on customer feedback and usage patterns.Again, there are many technology options for building a Service Catalog, so it s important to select one that fits with your organization and easily integrates with the rest of your ITSM infrastructure. In particular, your Service Catalog should: " Be an easy-to-configure, one-stop shop for all of your services." Allow you to create, publish and offer customized menus of services to internal and external customers based on their role." Allow customers to select the right fit and flavor of service that meets their unique business needs and submit requests 24/7 through various channels." Automate workflows from the point of request or purchase through the approval process, and track activities and trends with comprehensive reporting." Gather business intelligence on which services are actually being requested and used." Provide transparency of service costs to your customers by integrating with your Financial Management system." Be flexible enough to handle non-IT service requests, such as human resources or marketing, so you can maximize ROI.By enabling your customers to easily view and understand IT services, you ll be able to more clearly set expectations with the business and reduce costs without reducing service quality.CHALLENGE #10: We re unable to set reasonable service expectations with the business and prove we are meeting those expectations.Recommended ITIL Bite: Service Level ManagementThe objective of the Service Level Management process is to manage, maintain and improve the quality of IT services delivered to customers. This can only be achieved through a systematic cycle of agreeing to, monitoring and reporting on service performance.Untitled DocumentWhite Paper8Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.ukAccording to ITIL, there are three types of agreements between IT and its customers: " Service Level Agreements (SLAs) agreements between the customer and the service desk on the level of service provision delivered to the customer. " Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) agreements made between internal IT departments of an organization (e.g., Network Management and IT Operations). " Underpinning Contracts (UCs) contracts between the Service Desk and an external supplier.The Service Level Management process provides the customer and IT with a clear, and equal, understanding of the expected level of services and their associated costs by documenting this information in formal agreements. An effective Service Level Management process and solution will enable you to manage those agreements, and enforce and report upon agreed upon SLAs, OLA, and UCs. CHALLENGE #11: We don t have a systematic approach to developing new, managing current and retiring old IT services.Recommended ITIL Bite: Service Portfolio ManagementService Level Management is the process responsible for managing the service portfolio. A service portfolio includes three categories of services:" The service pipeline services in the planning or development phase. " The service catalog services that are currently deployed or ready for deployment. " Retired services services that are no longer active.Your Service Portfolio Management processes and tools should enable you to design, approve and then manage service offerings through these three phases and tightly align with your Service Catalog and Service Level Management.Continual Service Improvement relates to aligning and realigning IT Services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to the IT Services that support the business processes. To manage improvement, Continual Service Improvement must clearly define what should be controlled and measured.CHALLENGE #12: We think we re doing a great job, but we can t prove it.Recommended ITIL Bite: Service ReportingThe Service Reporting process refers to producing service reports against identified needs and customer requirements. Monitoring and reporting on performance is a vital function for any service delivery organization. When delivering any of the processes discussed above, you need a powerful reporting tool that gives you the flexibility to easily create comprehensive reports tailored to your organization. With clear performance and trend reports, you can quickly evaluate the success of your services and take action to continuously improve your service delivery.Change is HardWe re currently living in an era of uncertainty, fueled by factors including the recession, climate change and globalization. This state of unpredictability is rapidly increasing the rate at which organizations need to adapt and change, and is piling on the pressure to decrease time-to-market and deliver fast ROI. ITIL is based on a framework that takes time to deliver time which most IT organizations don t have. Expectations are that IT projects must be delivered in three months and realize ROI in less than six. This is why it s imperative that IT find ways to break down their ITIL efforts into smaller projects, rolling out more immediate, yet effective, changes over time. No matter what ITIL bites are right for your organization, we can t stress enough that people are almost always opposed to change, even if they understand the changes will benefit them in the end. If you focus on solving pain points, you don t even need to call it ITIL potentially a smart move in some resistant organizations.To be successful you ll need to build both top-down and grass-roots support for your initiatives. Make sure you communicate with impacted parties frequently and consistently, clearly outlining the underlying goals and objectives and emphasizing what s in it for them. And celebrate even small victories. You can only gain momentum if people see the value in what you re doing.John Kotter, a world-renowned change expert, laid out an eight-step change process in his 1995 book, Leading Change7. " Step One: Create a Sense of Urgency. Point out the critical issues and problems that implementing ITIL will address. Or explain the potential risks of continuing to do business as usual. Again, by focusing on addressing the business s pain points versus just implementing ITIL, you ll be able to generate more support within the organization." Step Two: Develop a Guiding Coalition. Identify effective change leaders throughout the company that can help to build support for your ITIL initiative. There is no magic to cultural change. Get the people involved, listen to them, empower them, get some enthusiasm going, find some champions, kick it along with executive support, help people out, give them what they need, check all is going well, and pick up the ones who stumble. And have a party when it works.6 Rob EnglandThe IT SkepticTMUntitled DocumentWhite Paper9Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.uk" Step Three: Develop a Change Vision. Even though you are rolling out ITIL in bites or pieces, they should all tie back to an overall vision that people can easily grasp. If they understand the big picture, the changes you re asking them to implement will make more sense and be easier to swallow." Step Four: Communicate the Vision Buy-in. Once you ve outlined the overall vision, make sure you communicate it consistently and frequently to keep it fresh in everyone s minds. Remember actions speak louder than words, so make sure the change leaders demonstrate the kind of behavior and changes you expect from the rest of the organization." Step Five: Empower Broad-based Action. Identify and do your best to remove obstacles to change, espe-cially processes or systems that undermine the new vision. " Step Six: Generate Short-term Wins. As we ve mentioned, creating short-term targets and achieving near-term wins will allow people to see the benefits of ITIL and garner their support and enthusiasm for the overall vision. Nothing motivates more than success, so recognize and reward those who have helped make successful change happen. " Step Seven: Don t Let Up. While quick wins are important, they re only the beginning of what needs to be done to achieve long-term change. Use the earned credibility and momentum to continue to roll out ITIL bites that are a fit for your organization to reach the overall vision." Step Eight: Make Change Stick. Any process change will also require some level of behavioral and culture change. Make sure you articulate the connections between the new behaviors and organizational success and continue to build the support of your change leaders.When considering change, it s also important that your ITIL-based processes are flexible and agile enough to adapt to ongoing changes within your business. Development and testing teams that are competent in agile methods are now able to respond much quicker to the changes requested by the business, rolling out new technology updates in mere weeks. Your ITSM processes should be designed to organize and validate these changes without slowing down progress.Don t Get Caught with the Wrong Tools for the JobWhile ITIL isn t a tool itself, it s nearly impossible to implement its best practices without technology. In each of the sections above we ve attempted to outline the key factors you should consider when selecting a solution for that particular process. Because all of the processes are so interrelated in many cases it makes sense to implement a consolidated solution or solution suite to support your ITIL initiatives. ITIL compatibility is a key feature of many service management solutions, but flexibility, usability, time and cost to implement, and product support can vary greatly from vendor to vendor. So when determining the best solution to support your processes, make sure it s:" Flexible customizable to fit processes to your organization while still adhering to the ITIL guidelines." Practical includes ITIL templates to get you started and doesn t require expensive third-party consultants to customize." Modular allows you to buy what you need, when you need it, without integration headaches." Affordable let s you buy the pieces you need at an affordable price, and cost-effectively add-on and upgrade as you adopt additional ITIL processes. " User-friendly makes it easy for users to adopt new processes and tools because they make their life easier, not more complex." Accountable makes it easy to measure results and develop customized reports to demonstrate ROI back to the business." Requires too much change in culture 43%" Lack of organizational guidance 21%" Organization too focused on tools 15%" Can t justify ROI 12%" Too high-level to implement 5%" Lack of experienced consultants 4%Source: ITIL and IT Operations Optimization Webinar; June 17, 2009; Ed Holub, Research VP; GartnerWhat is Your Biggest Hurdle in Implementing ITIL?Untitled DocumentWhite Paper10Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.ukConclusionThis year is presenting IT managers with many challenges, but it s also opening doors to new opportunities. In addition, a recent report by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit found that three-quarters of global IT executives believe that the recession has brought greater acknowledgment from business unit managers and staff of how important the IT function s objectives are to the business. 8 If you re ready to get started with ITIL, don t forget to:" Clearly communicate the benefits of ITIL beyond just, adopting industry best practices. Demonstrate to your leadership team how ITIL can help reduce costs, create a common language around IT services, and foster a more transparent, communicative and positive culture." Identify your business s biggest pain points and attack those areas first with the right ITIL bites." Break initiatives into smaller projects that will generate quick wins and build momentum." Reach out to end-users to build support for and a positive response to resulting changes." Regularly communicate results and successes to continue momentum for future ITIL projects.It s no secret that in some circles ITIL has a bad rap, but it has proven to be an extremely valuable guide for improving IT services and delivering the results CEOs are expecting. The key is to know your business, their biggest pain points and their capacity for change. If you can address the right problems, with the right processes and tools, manage the amount of change, and frequently demonstrate real value back to the business, you ll be well on your way to becoming an exceptional IT Services Organization.About the AuthorElisabeth Cullivan, Product Marketing Manager, Numara Software Elisabeth has over a decade of IT systems management experience. She has assisted hundreds of IT organizations in assessing their needs and requirements when considering a single, service desk solution. Her involvement at Numara Software encompasses a wide range of responsibilities; customer research, market research, and product training, and she is instrumental in translating market needs into product requirements. Elisabeth holds a Master s degree in Information Management and industry certifications in Product Management, Help Desk Management, and ITIL.About Numara FootPrintsNumara FootPrints offers a web-based architecture, built-in templates and flexible workflow, all which contribute to reduced time and effort necessary to implement ITIL processes. It can be tailored to meet your business and IT needs quickly and easily and without programming. Lengthy consulting engagements or extensive technical skills are not required. To learn more visit: http://www.numarasoftware.com/FootPrints/service_desk_software.aspxhttp://www.numarasoftware.com/webinar_request.aspx?id=itil_service_deskUntitled DocumentWhite Paper11Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.ukbout Numara SoftwareWith more than 55,000 customer sites worldwide, Numara Software is a global leader in delivering practical, flexible solutions that allow IT organizations to improve service to their end-users. Our integrated IT service management and IT asset management software platforms enable organizations to efficiently automate a wide variety of IT related tasks and processes using interoperable solutions from a single, proven vendor. Widely known for our dedicated focus on ease of use and affordability for our customers, our IT solutions deliver fast time-to-value, increased control, and reduced risk for small businesses to large companies. For more information, visit:www.numarasoftware.com.100599-0410 2010 Numara Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Numara and the Numara logo are registered trademarks of Numara Software, Inc. FootPrints is a registered trademark of Numara Software, Inc. umara Software Global OfficesUK Support and Numara Track-It! SalesThe Innovation CentreLongbridge Technology Centre1 Devon WayBirminghamB31 2TS United KingdomTel Sales: 0800 195 2373 Tel Support: 0800 195 6339 Fax: 0800 195 2385 info@numarasoftware.co.uk www.numarasoftware.co.ukNumara Software2202 North West Shore Blvd. Suite 650 Tampa, FL 33607Tel: 813-227-4500Fax: 813-227-4501www.numarasoftware.com North AmericaEMEA Headquarters and UK Corporate SalesNumara SoftwareDavidson HouseForbury SquareReadingRG1 3EU United KingdomTel Sales: 0800 195 2373 info@numarasoftware.co.uk www.numarasoftware.co.ukUnited KingdomGermanyNumara Software GmbH Erzbergerstr. 19,68165 MannheimTel: +49 (0) 621 58679 660Fax: +49 (0) 621 58679 669Info@numarasoftwaregmbh.de www.numarasoftware.deCentral EuropeSpainNumara Software SpainAvda Juan Carlos I N 40 2 B 28400 Collado VillalbaMadridTel: (+34) 902 107 794Fax: (+34) 91 851 2265info@numarasoftware.es www.numarasoftware.esFranceNumara Software France16, rue de Solf rino92100 Boulogne BillancourtTel : +33(0) 1.46.10.93.80Fax : +33(0) 1.46.10.93.81info@numarasoftware.frwww.numarasoftware.fr Southern EuropeNordic Headquarters NorwayNumara Software NordicLuramyrveien 404313 SandnesTel: (+47) 4580 9000 Fax: (+47) 4525 6748 info@numarasoftware.no www.numarasoftware.noNorthern EuropeSwedenNumara Software Nordic ASDept. SwedenM ster Samuelsgatan 60, 8th oorSE-111 21 StockholmPhone: +46 (0) 8 522 30 200Fax: +46 (0) 8 522 30 209info@numarasoftware.seAustraliaNumara Software Darling Park, Tower 2 201 Sussex Street Level 20 Sydney NSW 2000 Australia Tel Sales: +61 (2) 9006 1607Fax: +61 (2) 9006 1010info@numarasoftware.com.auwww.numarasoftware.com.auAsia PacificJapanNumara Software G.K.Level16, Shiroyama Trust Tower 4-3-1Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-6016 JapanTel: +81(0)3-5403-4627Fax: +81(0)3-5403-4628www.numarasoftware.comSouth AfricaNumara Software South AfricaSuite A5 Waverley CourtKotzee RoadMowbray 7700Tel: +27 (0) 21 447 6106Fax: +27 (0) 21 447 6652sales@numarasoftware.co.zaAfricaUntitled DocumentWhite Paper12Tel Sales: 0800 195 2373 " Fax: 0800 195 2385 " NumaraSoftware.co.uk1 SearchCIO.com, Maturing an ITIL strategy beyond incident, problem, change management, Kristen Caretta; Oct. 1, 20092 ITSMWatch.com, Are you Getting Value from ITIL?, George Spafford; Feb. 16, 20103 TechRepublic, 10 questions on managing business technology: An interview with Bill Keyworth, Jeff Cerny; Mar. 8, 20104 Gartner, ITIL and IT Operations Optimization, Ed Holub; June 17, 20095 ITSMWatch.com, Change Management Do s and Dont s, Kevin Behr, Gene Kim and George Spafford; June 12, 20056 ITSMWatch.com, ITIL is Cultural Not Technical, Rob England; Dec. 12, 20087 Kotter International, The 8 Step Process, Dr. John Kotter8 Information Age, IT is key to post-recession growth, say CEOs, Pete Swabey; Dec. 14, 2009
