Best Practice

ITIL

ITIL:A Best Practice Framework

In order to achieve operational excellence, companies are turning to industry-recognized IT process frameworks to drive incremental improvements. The IT Infrastructure Library, also known as ITIL®, is becoming the de facto industry guide for IT service delivery and support processes.

ITIL was developed in the late 1980s by a branch of the British Government(OGC) in response to the growing dependence on Information Technology. ITIL is now a public body of knowledge that provides a framework of Service Management best practices to help organisations improve service levels and reduce the cost of IT operations.

The value of ITIL as a best practice framework is provided by broad service delivery and support recommendations, as well as by common definitions and terminology. ITIL guidance allows companies to standardize and leverage recognized best practices across the IT organisation, thereby helping to align IT with business objectives and drive IT operational improvements.

However, while ITIL does describe what best practices should be pursued, it does not define how to implement detailed processes and work-level procedures that enable those recommendations.

Ultimately, then, successful implementations of the ITIL framework require software-based tools to effectively deploy procedure-level processes for use by IT staff tasked with ongoing service delivery and support activities

 The IT Infrastructure Library, widely known as ITIL, has developed into the most powerful and widely accepted set of guidelines for achieving Best Practice in IT Service Management. These Best Practices for the delivery and support of IT Services can help a company document IT processes as required for Sarbanes-Oxley.

 Comprised of a framework of successful approaches for achieving business success, ITIL helps organisations improve service delivery and reduce the cost of IT operations.

 However while a robust system to manage your IT assets and services is an excellent start on your journey toward a true service delivery model, it’s not enough. You must also understand the impact such a model has on your labour, materials, assets, and ongoing service costs.   

Moving toward a service oriented IT model, while daunting, is far from impossible especially given the best-in-breed service management software tools that are available and specifically designed to facilitate ITIL processes. However, most ITIL related offerings fall short in two important areas: Resource Management and Service Costs.

ITIL: Delivers Strategic Advantage

In many industries, an organisation’s IT infrastructure has become a key enabler for business strategy, as well as a source of competitive advantage. As a result, the technology infrastructure that supports business has grown rapidly in scope and breadth, becoming more complex than ever before.

Further complicating the situation is the pressure IT executives are under to reduce the risks involved with new technology investments and the costs associated with the ongoing support of existing IT solutions. At the same time, IT is being asked to directly align itself with business objectives.

To achieve these goals, IT organisations have begun to focus on improving service levels while reducing service delivery and service support costs as a key driver for delivering value.