For a growing business, it’s increasingly difficult to integrate technological solutions and services to improve service management. So various frameworks have been created to help today’s IT professionals optimize their use of technology in managing IT processes. The third version of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides the latest set of process best practices for any service management improvement effort.
IBM Global Technology Services
September 2007
IT service management:
is it now too important to leave
to the IT department alone?
How and why the IT function needs to change its relationship with the businessIBM Global Technology Services Page 2
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3 Focus on management4 Pressure on services5 Need to evolve6 Break down barriers7 Unclear responsibilities8 Challenges of interdependence9 Understand the architecture10 New strategic approaches 11 Pricing IT services 12 Value of the infrastructure13 On-the-ground excellence14 Significant benefits to be unlocked15 Time is right for the next phase IBM Global Technology Services Page 3
The rising importance of IT in virtually every aspect of business Highlights has engendered a matching rise in the cost and complexity of the IT infrastructure. This has both made IT an easy target for cost-IT service management must cutting exercises and put pressure on times-to-market for new become more focused on business services delivered to the business. needs if it is to facilitate the necessary combination of speed-to- The business function expects IT to tighten its belt and to streamline IT market, flexibility, control and service provision, for improved responsiveness to changing business improved efficiency required for requirements. Simultaneously, the expectation is for higher resilience, enterprises to compete effectively in control, availability and quality of service. The challenge for the IT the marketplace. organisation is to balance these potentially conflicting demands: high speed-to-market and flexibility versus auditable control and low costs.
As the business looks to build new composite services at high speed - in particular through the service-oriented architecture (SOA) model - the IT organisation must align itself more closely with business goals and change the way it manages IT service provision.
Now that IT plays such an important role in the overall success or failure of any organisation, the business rightly expects the IT department to broaden its focus and to take a more mature and holistic attitude to IT service provision. Fundamentally, the IT function needs to step out of the shadows and start taking responsibility for understanding and meeting the business requirements. IBM Global Technology Services Page 4
The first phase of IT service management as a discipline was based on Highlights the core IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes, and focused largely on tactical service support processes such as incident management and Growing pressure for higher quality change management. ITIL Version 3 has introduced new processes and IT services requires the IT concepts to broaden the scope of IT service management, enabling it to organisation to radically change its cover business processes, organisation, governance, technology and data. outlook. In combination with the Val IT and COBIT best practices from the IT Governance Institute, ITIL Version 3 provides a powerful set of tools for extending the service management capabilities.
While these tools certainly provide a solid grounding for the next phase of IT service management, there is also a need for deeper strategic thinking about how the whole IT organisation should function and evolve. In particular, the IT function will need a far greater awareness of how IT service provision relates to the overall goals of the business.
Businesses of all kinds are under increasing pressure to build smarter, more reliable, more responsive infrastructures. Customer expectations for "always-on" service are growing, as is the complexity of the regulatory framework. Commoditisation and globalisation in the market are eroding margins, and innovation in products and services is key to maintaining competitive advantage. All of these factors drive the need for an IT organisation and infrastructure that can respond rapidly, flexibly and at low cost to new requirements from the business.
The challenge that faces the typical IT organisation is how to gain speed-to-market across an infrastructure that is fragmented, opaque, inflexible and hard to manage. The infrastructure will most likely have grown in a relatively unplanned and unstructured manner, with numerous tactical implementations to meet pressing new business and regulatory requirements. Corporate acquisitions will contribute to the f... [download for more]
