IT Infrastructure Library® (ITIL®) best practices promote a well-functioning, collaborative IT environment that can enable the business and your IT organization to cope with the effects of economic stress.
b m c i N D U S T R Y I N S I G H T s
seven ways itil can help you
in an economic downturnBy Anthony Orr, Global Best Practice Director, Educational Services, BMC Software, and Erin Casteel, Director of Consulting Services, Solisma
A balanced diet, exercise, and adequate sleep all contribute to physical health. When these habits are in place, your body can successfully cope - and even perform well - during periods of stress. If you don't follow healthy habits, then stressful events are more likely to slow you down physically and sometimes can negatively affect your long-term well being.
Similarly, the best practices outlined in the IT Infrastructure Library® (ITIL®) promote a well-functioning, collaborative IT environment, enabling the business and the capabilities and resources of the IT organization to cope with the effects of economic stress. In addition, ITIL can help you to deliver higher-performing technology services. This helps business to be both more competitive today and better poised for growth when the economy begins to rebound.
It is not necessary to do everything ITIL covers, and it Seven Ways ITIL Can Help is acceptable - and often preferable - for improve- Your Organizationments to be made incrementally, based on business ITIL is already helping IT organizations perform well priorities. Too many organizations can become over- under stressful economic conditions. The most sig-whelmed by everything that needs to be "fixed," and nificant results are being seen in the following areas:this can lead to inertia. Counteracting inertia requires a first step. IT is a strategic asset of the business and 1. Improved Visibility and Controlis simply too business critical and complex to man- If you want greater visibility and control of your IT age in an ad-hoc way. Try to focus on the benefits of a environment and how it supports business ser-"healthy," high-performing IT organization and imple- vices, you need a clear understanding of what you ment projects that can provide quick wins and value are doing, the dependencies in your IT landscape to the organization and its customers. (including skill sets and competencies), and any b m c i N D U S T R Y I N S I G H T s
areas of weakness or constraints. An ITIL process of accurate information upon which all other processes maturity assessment is a key starting point - rely. This visibility helps IT organizations by giving them a baseline "health check." Ongoing measurement of IT information to make more effective business decisions. service management processes can then help you gain visibility into how to prioritize improvements based on 2. Greater Integration with Business Objectivesbusiness objectives and your customers' needs. Clearly Improvements to IT will make the business more ef-defined IT service management metrics also make it ficient and effective by increasing customer satisfaction, possible to address some of the greatest challenges reducing downtime, automating tasks, and achieving CIOs face today, such as defining the impact of service required compliance. The IT service provider mentioned delivery and support on business services and quantify- earlier saved $1.9 million in about 15 months because ing the cost of service improvement. the company was more integrated with the needs of the business. The company also realized a 370 percent return on project costs over the 2.5-year project lifecycle. The IT organiza-You can improve operational tion cut the time needed to plan, schedule, and deploy changes from efficiency by following ITIL three weeks to just one week. They guidance related to examining also reduced system outages by 25 percent. They reduced service your processes and objectives level agreement (SLA) incident and identifying targeted areas resolution penalties by $8,800 per for improvement. month. Overall, the company de-creased business risk, reduced the total cost of ownership, and was responsive to business require-ments. The savings that were real-Achieving end-to-end visibility and control of your IT ized now can be used to reinvest in business growth and environment also requires the ability to see every aspect innovation strategies for future business continuity.of your IT environment from the business and service levels down to the component level - including all the 3. Increase... [download for more]
