Assists the CIO in successfully implementing ITIL

Today, enterprises are making larger and larger investments in increasingly complex IT infrastructure and application services. Data shows that the average IT spending of Fortune 500 has reached 0.3 billion million USD.

To clearly understand the value of IT investment, enterprises should consider improving the maturity of service management processes. This is of great significance to the management and control of the IT infrastructure. After the service and support processes are improved, their operation efficiency will also be significantly improved.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a widely used industrial framework. It develops a process-driven IT service support and service provision process.

A sustainable ITIL-based process can bring the following benefits to enterprises:

IT service availability, reliability, and security are improved.
Improve IT project efficiency.
Reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for IT infrastructure assets and applications ).
Improve resource usage, including reducing the return rate and eliminating redundant activities.
Provides services that meet business, customer, and user needs, and verifiable service quality costs.
More efficient and stable third-party relationships and contracts.

Since the ITIL framework only provides guidance on the process architecture, many CIOs have not seen the expected improvements despite their investment in ITIL. When deploying ITIL, it should combine it with commercial or it change plans, and avoid building cars behind closed doors.

Any plans for it changes will be centered on operational, process, and technical elements. Based on past experience, the following 10 suggestions will help CIOs achieve efficient ITIL implementation.

1. Implement ITIL as part of an IT strategy and use it to guide other strategic activities.

ITIL process implementation has a significant impact on it. It is not an isolated activity. To avoid resource and change restrictions, ITIL implementation must be combined with other plans, IT activities, and resources.

To get the overall return of an enterprise, it should adopt a combination of management methods to understand the relevance and priority of all activities.

2. Take into account the ITIL organization after implementation before completing the process design.

New Functional and role requirements will be generated during the deployment of ITI (e8.itsm) L-based processes, which will have a certain impact on the existing service management architecture of the enterprise. Before completing the process design, understand the roles and functions that need to support the process, and take into account the internal resources and suppliers.

In this process, it must carefully plan the required governance architecture to guide and support new IT organizations, and develop a conversion plan to ensure the security of those ITIL-related architectures.

3. Maintain effective and continuous communication among all departments.

The implementation of ITIL will affect the personnel of all departments in the enterprise. For this reason, it should understand the impact and value of ITIL on each department of the enterprise.

Participation, communication and training are the key to ITIL implementation success. From the very beginning, the participation of key personnel to the ITIL training at the manager level is very important.

4. Set up realistic return expectations and set benchmarks for monitoring and improvement.

Any internal change in an enterprise takes time to accept, and so does the implementation of itil. In the implementation of ITIL, it should focus on improving customer services. With the maturity of the process, the return on investment will be gradually recognized.

To determine the final result, it should focus on the strategy and communication of service quality improvement, and establish the benchmark of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as soon as possible to monitor and improve. The selected KPI and return benchmark should be made clear from the commercial perspective to avoid time waste on measurement and interpretation of data.

5. involve existing suppliers as soon as possible.

The implementation of ITIL will also affect existing suppliers and other subsequent SLA. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly define how to deal with the strategy of third-party participation and establish an effective communication plan.

Early involvement of the sourcing and regulatory authorities in the implementation of the new process will help it support and address the ripple effect on existing contracts and SLAs. In addition, the operation of the new process also requires the support of a SLA from the terminal to the terminal.

6. Identify and provide small projects.

Identify and provide small projects to ensure that enterprises can reach implementation goals as soon as possible. This approach takes time for the implementation of the process and provides support for participants throughout the enterprise.

Based on past experience, if it fails in this step, it will multiply the resistance of relevant personnel to change and reduce support.

7. The greatest return can be obtained only after you understand the impact of each process on other processes.

The ITIL framework consists of 10 service management processes and one service management function. Each ITIL process supports, interacts, and integrates with at least the other process.

For effective development and deployment, the relationships, influences, and independence in the ITIL framework must be clearly defined. The close integration and mastery of the process will ensure that it can continuously provide timely, important, and accurate information, so that managers can thoroughly explore and identify the target areas for service improvement.

8. Select a priority process based on the existing maturity. Do not rush in.

The implementation of ITIL should be viewed globally as it is needed, but it does not mean that all processes must be implemented at one time to achieve operational improvement and return on investment.

Implementing a single process or a targeted merge process can provide enterprises with the required operational improvements. It should select a process based on the enterprise's expected return and business value.

9. lay a solid foundation for future improvement.

ITIL implementation is a strategic investment. It generally takes several months to complete the implementation. In this process, all aspects of the IT department need to be changed.

In such an environment, you need to implement a set of plans for continuous improvement (for example, a plan-perform-check-improve the repetition cycle ). First, this ensures that the improvement results meet expectations. Second, it can also help it build in-depth improvements to avoid the risk of returning to the original position.

10. merge processes and tool activities from the very beginning as part of a single solution.

Implementing service management tools will support process simplification, task automation, and management of allocation information. Knowledge management (such as information integration and reuse) is a key service management tool component.

The integration of data control processes and tools will ensure that information can continuously provide value for service management processes.

The implementation of ITIL is not only to evaluate or modify the process, but to make changes. It has changed the way people work, the technology platform, and the behavior of the entire enterprise. (IT expert network)