IT Service Management, as a concept, is at least two decades old; books and
materials on this concept came in 1990. But it is becoming a talking point right
now, partly because of IT Service Management Forum's (itSMF) activities and,
equally important, due to the realisation that adoption of 'Best Practices'
can increase productivity, customer satisfaction, reduce costs and minimize
risks. Simply put, Best Practice is a lot of commonsense-it is a set of things
an organization should be doing to manage technology effectively. The guidance
can be found in IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) publications that define the
right processes like problem, change, service level and configuration management
among others.
When the world moved away from the mainframe to the distributed environment,
it brought about distribution of the technology, as well as budgets and
purchasing power. Different parts of an organization began buying their own
solutions and there were little thought to make them work together. ITSM became
the binding adhesive. "Service Management is about having a coherent
approach-a holistic view of what we are trying to do in the world of IT.
"It's not buying toys for the techies to play with. It's about how you
are going to manage your investments in technology," explains Aidan Lawes,
CEO of itSMF.
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ITIL principles were easy to understand but implementing them was the
problem, itSMF later discovered. Adoption rate varies across the globe, with a
very high take up in Britain and the Netherlands. It is catching up in other
European and North American countries with major vendors like Microsoft, IBM,
HP, CA and Sun having invested huge sums to make their tools ITIL-supportive.
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India is also a natural home for Best Practices, itSMF feels. But a lot
remains to be done. R Srinivasan, head of Europe Service Delivery and Global
Command Centre with Wipro, was the seventh Indian to clear ITIL Masters-an
individual-level certification-last year. "In the UK, the seventh person
cleared the same level seven years back. That shows the gap. We have a lot of
catching up to do," Lawes says. There are 100,000-plus ITIL certified
professionals across the globe now.
Creatures of habit
Adoption is difficult due to a variety of reasons, including cultural ones.
People are being asked to change their behaviour, so there is resistance. IT is
still considered a cost centre by its business counterparts in more than 80% of
the Indian companies. IT executives need to change this perception, feels
Rajendra P Dhavale, consulting director with CA: "CIOs must address
infrastructure issues and market the IT organization to raise the enterprise's
recognition of IT as a business partner. Hence, the key to the adoption of ITIL
principles in India will be the necessity to improve the mindset of both IT and
business towards each other, that will help in addressing and resolving
questions like: How can IT stop mistrust and develop credibility? How can IT
change the mindset from 'IT is for IT's sake' into a 'customer-centric
culture'? How can IT get its business partners to communicate IT's value to
the enterprise? How can IT become more cost-efficient? What are the minimum
processes required to build the ideal IT organization? How can IT maintain
centralized control for standards, processes and architectures?"
Though the interest in ITSM in India started with software houses and BPOs,
it is quickly spreading even to BFSI, Telecom and Manufacturing-basically, to
that segment where businesses heavily depend on IT. However, since ITIL
principles are applicable to everybody, the IT divisions in companies providing
services to internal customers should also be interested. It is increasingly
being recognized that IT is a strategic and critical enabler of business
success. Hence, any company that is able to extract the maximum value out of its
IT resources will have an automatic edge over its competitors. "In that
sense, ITSM spans all sectors (even the Government!). So every industry that
requires high-quality and cost-effective IT Services delivery, can benefit from
the ITSM Best Practice framework," says Dhiraj Lal, vice-president, QAI
India.
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Finding tutors
So, how do you adopt ITSM? A good starting point is the ITIL publication. An
organization can buy the Best Practice material and understand what it is about.
It is available from a variety of sources; itSMF sells them too and if you are
its member, they offer a discount. The second step would be to educate and train
people in the organization. There are various levels of training available,
which was traditionally provided by HP, in India. QAI has now entered the space.
A self-assessment questionnaire at itSMF website can help judge the
capability-maturity for all processes. Most of the consultancies also facilitate
the assessment process. As part of the BS15000 set of publications, there is a
self-assessment workbook that could help internal auditors value the solution.
Finally, once confident enough, the organization can get an external auditor (Bsi,
BVQi, DNV, DQS, KPMC, LRDA, TUV) to do the BS15000 certification audit.
Though it is possible to drive a service improvement programme internally,
sometimes you need that external catalyst, partly to help with the evolution of
the programme and partly, "due to that hate figure from outside who is
causing all the pain," says Lawes. "And a lot of service management is
about understanding the real principles beyond the processes defined in the
books," he adds.
The ITIL certifications are available not at an organization level, but at an
individual level. There are three levels of training:
- ITIL Foundation Certification
- ITIL Practitioner Certification
- ITIL Service Manager Certification
"To get an exposure of the basics of ITIL framework, the
foundation certificate is a must," says R Srinivasan of Wipro. The course
is usually a three-day one and costs around Rs 30,000 per person. If you go for
bulk booking, probably a better rate can be negotiated. The ITIL Service Manager
certification course is a 10-day one and can cost up to Rs 1, 70,000.
To effectively support the implementation of ITIL Best
Practices throughout the organization, it would be critical for the senior
management to be at least ITIL-aware, if not ITIL-certified themselves. The
level of training required for individuals to effectively implement ITIL is
dependent on their job responsibilities. "Operational and hands-on managers
would need more training than supervisors or company seniors. Also, persons who
are into the delivery of IT services would require ITIL training more than those
in other areas," says Dhiraj. "Those in Finance and Operations must
also be either ITIL-aware or go through the three-day Foundation course because
only then will they be able to speak the same language and work in partnership
with their colleagues in the IT department, to ensure that IT supports the
requirements of the business in the best possible manner."
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However, Lawes warns that at times training companies
oversell their training: "People go on taking up courses-they don't get
involved in doing anything with that knowledge back on the site and so the
knowledge decays very rapidly. It is really a question of what you are trying to
achieve."
The BS15000 hunt
Just as the ITIL certifications are available only at an individual level,
organizations that desire independent assurance about their ITIL Practices can
obtain the BS15000 certification, the first formal standard for IT Service
Management. A typical BS15000 roadmap involves a gap analysis vs the BS15000
requirements, and then a focused exercise to close the gaps and a
"pre-certification" for the company to feel confident that they are in
a good position to pass the BS15000 audit, informs Dhiraj. In case of need, the
company can engage the services of a consultant to help them effectively
implement the ITIL Best Practices Framework, as well as provide them with an
independent opinion regarding their state of readiness to obtain the BS15000
Certification.
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John Groom, who is a certified BS15000 consultant and key
contributor to the development of the standard as well, says the standard is a
set of minimum requirements against which an organization can be independently
audited for effective ITSM processes. Having the certificate would mean that in
a competitive market, "one can wave a flag and de clare that one is
certified," he says. The certification scheme is owned and managed by itSMF
and it accredits companies as Registered Certification Bodies (RCBs) to do the
audits. "The standard is concerned with the existence, use and continuous
improvement of an integrated process approach to the effective delivery of
Information Systems services that support the organization's business
requirements," adds Groom. "As such, it has been developed to
complement ISO9000: 2000, providing a specific ITSM focus and is fully aligned
with ITIL." It could take anywhere between six to 18 months to get the
audit done and the certification is valid for three years.
The cost? "It would be a function of the number of
interventions/engagement days required by the BS15000 consultant, roughly
proportional to the complexity and scale of the assignment," says Dhiraj.
"And it is often directly a function of the actual state of readiness of
the company." RCBs charge on per-day basis and this is unlikely to vary
much across the RCBs.
Best benefits
Apart from ensuring better service delivery, adoption of ITIL practices
offers other tangible and intangible benefits. Cost savings in one of them. Most
organisations, without good service management policies, waste a lot of money.
Take software asset management, for instance. Most organisations actually pay
far more in licence fees than they require because someone buys a piece of
software and then everyone forgets it. The bill for the licence goes to the
finance department and they keep on paying it year after year. "If you have
good software asset management in place, you protect yourself legally. And, you
don't end up paying licence fees for all kinds of software you don't
need," says Lawes. "We know from different surveys that ITSM effects
40-50% reduction in
development cycles because everything is being assessed. Organisations have also
reported huge return on investments."
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But R Srinivasan of Wipro advises against approaching ITIL
only for cost savings: "ITIL should be adopted for getting the processes
right, and ensuring a robust service delivery model-no longer can IT services
be delivered by chance, it will be by choice." The other advantage is that
ITIL doesn't dictate: "You are allowed to customise according to your
requirements and use tools that suit you best," he adds. Now, why should
you hold back?
Goutam Das
in Bangalore