Technology is no longer a nice to have, or a tool for the few. With many organizations now being completely dependent on their IT systems, the need for the IT department to be seen to be responding to the organization's requirements is of critical importance. Business Service Management, or BSM, can help in providing underpinnings to the IT function. This paper looks at how the changing processes and market conditions within an organization can be augmented through the use of a Business Service Management (BSM) approach, creating a flexible and responsive technology infrastructure aimed at supporting a rapidly changing commercial landscape and enabling greater competitiveness in the markets.
QUOCIRCA INSIGHT REPORT June 2008 BSM, IT and Business Facilitation Contacts: How BSM can bring IT firmly into the business Clive Longbottom decision making process Quocirca Ltd Tel +44 118 948 3360 Technology is no longer a nice to have, or a tool for the few.. With many organisations Clive.Longbottom@quocirca.com now being completely dependent on their IT systems, the need for the IT department to be seen to be responding to the organisation's requirements is of critical importance. Sarah Pocock BMC Business Service Management, or BSM, can help in providing underpinnings to the IT Tel: +44 178 447 8326 function. Sarah_Pocock@bmc.com Competitive pressures are coming from many new quarters While merger and acquisition activity continues, new external pressures, such as smaller, fast moving internet-based competitors are driving the need for greater flexibility at the business level. For larger organisations, dealing with different technology environments during and after merger or acquisition activity may well stress the capabilities of the IT department to service the business Compliance comes in many different forms - and should not just be regarded as a cost Putting in place a means of monitoring events and actions and reporting on them will automatically create a means of demonstrating compliance. However, it also helps to uncover poor existing business processes and enables more effective approaches to be applied. Even internally, the need for governance and the management of processes around such simple areas as expense claims, vacation booking and add/change/deletions of employees will drive the need for more effective automation Automation is key; manual processes tend to be slow and error prone Wherever possible, low-level processes should be automated and human intervention minimised. Processes that are seen as being differentiated from similar ones in competitive organisations should also be automated wherever possible, and the human and cost resources freed up should be applied to ensuring that the highly differentiated or unique processes are made as effective as possible. Through these means, investment can be targeted where it makes the most impact - at areas such as innovation and flexibility REPORT NOTE: "Best Practice" processes are available This article has been written The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a set of best practice independently by Quocirca processes for automating standard processes within the IT environment. These should be Ltd to provide an overview of the issues facing adopted, and the advances within ITIL v3 should be examined to see how these can further organisations in managing help the business. the forces of change at the Bridging the gap between the business and IT is a necessity business and technical levels. Linking business service management (BSM) and IT services management (ITSM) creates a The report draws on means of automating the matching of technical capabilities to business needs. Current Quocirca's extensive approaches, where there is a gap between what the business states it needs and how the IT knowledge of the technology department believes it can help, are no longer effective. Knowing what technical capabilities and business arenas, and provides advice on the are available, being able to provision these rapidly and effectively as the business defines its approach that organisations needs and automating the various steps will create opportunities enabling a business to excel should take to create a more within its market. effective and efficient IT has to become a flexible platform to support the business environment for future Moving from an application focus to a business process focus will create greater complexities growth. in the IT infrastructure, but will be required to ensure that IT is no longer a constraining factor on the business. Newer architectures, such as SOA and utility computing, will provide the basic platforms going forwards. The tools to effectively manage these platforms in a manner that supports the business are then a necessity. Conclusions IT can no longer act as a constraint on the business, yet creating greater flexibility will inevitably lead to greater complexity at the technical level. Implementing ... [download for more]
