The more pessimistic of us would say that the development of ITIL V3 must have been rushed to have missed some of its more beneficial "Best Practice" rules in the transition. After 4 years the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) are updating it to ‘resolve errors and inconsistencies in the text and diagrams and review processes to make training and understanding easier'. It is not out of order to ask ourselves a few questions such as: did they not peer review or audit the publications before going to print, then? Has it really taken them that long to read it all?
In any case, since t...
Most organisations nowadays have heard about the benefits of implementing an IT Service Management Best Practice framework, such as Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (CobiT) or the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). More than half have implemented some of the core processes, mainly Incident, Service Desk and Change Management. A good number of them believe the discipline has brought them some benefits, but many are also disappointed that they haven't achieved the results they were aiming for.
There are two main reasons for this. First of all, as a...
The principles behind ITSM Best Practice have a very clear purpose: they allow organisations to follow the most efficient route to effectively solve an IT-related incident, without wasting unnecessary time, effort and financial resources. Incidents are normally prioritised based on specific criteria, and clear processes are set out and must be followed both by end users who experience an incident and Service Desk analysts who deal with it.
If this is the theory of Best Practice, in reality things are a bit different. Prioritisation based on incident features, in fact, often struggles to ov...
Since the news came out that the Office of Government Commerce stated in a report by the Office of Public Sector Information they had ‘no policy remit' to produce and develop the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) methodology, various articles and blogs have been written declaring the ‘death of ITIL', or at least of the discipline as we know it.
This has been interpreted by some as an intention to drop official support due to lack of interest, since ITIL is admittedly not one of the OGC's core responsibilities. Critics believe the move will make ITIL an even m...
Picture the scene: your organisation has decided to improve its IT department through the introduction of ITIL Best Practice. Some external consultants from an IT service provider came in to do a review and mapped out the project. They then implemented the agreed Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes while delivering awareness sessions to various members of staff. Perhaps you even got a few of your people v3 qualified. At last, your Best Practice project has been delivered and has finally gone live. But what now?
The Service Management experts are long gone and you...
Organisations across all sectors have more than realised that the unstable economic climate has brought along an increased need for flexible solutions, not only in the case of downsizing but in upsizing the business as well. While some companies are still struggling with budget cuts, others are looking at growth or re-expansion in the near future; regardless, both have reason to consider an improvement of their IT Service Desk with the help of the right service management solutions, in order to obtain a number of efficiencies.
An efficient service desk can reduce IT-related costs, improve ...
ITIL v2 and v3 have been peacefully coexisting since the release of the new version in 2007, but with the forthcoming phasing out of v2 starting this year, many organisations are starting to plan their transition towards v3. It is always hard to switch from the comfort of a widely-practiced and familiar method to a new version of it, and although most organisations seem to understand the tangible benefits of the enhanced discipline, the question remains: where do you start?
The problem, in fact, is often not why but how to carry out the transition - moving your organisation from oper...
During the boom years, there was a dangerous precedent for implementing best practice disciplines such as ITIL without stopping to consider why. Conversely, perhaps the only positive our industry can take from the current economic climate is that most have now been forced to recognise how crucial it is to demonstrate return on investment from every IT venture.
Looking back, it is perhaps understandable that so many were caught up in the furore surrounding ITIL. It has made its name as the industry standard for best practice for good reason and there are many benefits that can be had from a...
So the first in our series of seminars on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is nearly upon us and working through some of the demonstrations with the Infrastructure team has thrown up some interesting topics for discussion. Here at Plan-Net we have the benefit of seeing the ways in which VDI is revolutionising the delivery of IT Support first hand and some of the developments we are witnessing will have a resounding effect across the full spectrum of service delivery.
A perfect example of this is the newfound ability to re-image a desktop that VDI brings. For those Service Desk per...
ITIL is currently undergoing something of a renaissance in popularity. Renewed interest in the framework is almost certainly being spurred by the buzz surrounding the launch of ITIL in its third iteration. And whilst v.3 is still an unknown quantity and will inevitably be prone to some initial teething problems, I firmly believe that the refreshed best practice framework will be at least as successful as its predecessor. This success is likely to be predicated upon the increased focus placed upon ROI and justifying the value of the service desk and investment in the service desk to the boar...
