Whitepaper: How ITIL Can Revolutionize Your Service Desk

Transcription

1 Whitepaper: How ITIL Can Revolutionize Your Service Desk Helping IT departments adapt to the growing demand for their services in strategic corporate initiatives

2 How ITIL Can Revolutionize Your Service Desk Table of Contents Table of Contents...ii Executive Summary...1 Challenges in IT...1 Emergence of ITIL Best Practices...2 Service Management in Action...3 Service Management Benefits...4 Service Management ROI...4 Service Management Solution from ietsolutions...5 Final Critical Ingredient...7 Conclusion...7 ii

3 Executive Summary Today s Information Technology (IT) organizations are challenged to improve service levels throughout the organization while reducing costs even as the demand for IT services intensifies. No longer can IT departments serve their purpose by simply responding to users requests for technical services. In today s short-staffed, cost-conscious organizations, IT departments are tasked with a growing range of services including even strategic corporate initiatives that enable competitive differentiation. To cope with the complexity of IT s expanded role, many organizations are establishing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and other best-practice service-management processes that formally manage IT s responsibilities and business users expectations for service levels associated with completing specific IT tasks. Such accountability-driven processes have helped many organizations realize significant improvements in the effectiveness, efficiency and strategic visibility of their IT groups. Challenges in IT IT has always played a crucial role in managing technology infrastructures that drive all data-driven decision making. Increasingly, though, IT departments are hard-pressed to satisfy business users relentless demand for an ever-expanding scope of IT technology. To complicate matters, most IT departments remain static in size, forcing overtime hours as IT groups do more with less. As a result, many organizations suffer from the following IT-based problems: Antiquated service solutions: Common reactive helpdesk systems are better at responding to isolated user requests than at optimizing multi-task processes Redundancy: Inability to diagnose the underlying cause of a recurring incident causes IT to repeatedly resolve incidents with a mere workaround Example: The periodic need to reboot a laptop computer could be caused by an inherent hard-drive flaw shared by a fleet of dozens of machines seeing the pattern would help Traditional Help Desks Reactive Prescribes workarounds if solution is not obvious Technically-oriented staff Isolated pockets of IT Struggles for resources Visibility: Difficulty in prioritizing IT projects in the context of corporate objectives causes decisions to be made hastily Modern Service Desks Proactive because of connection to problem and change management Feeds incidents into problem management Customer service-oriented staff Centrally managed IT with common corporate goal Justifies resources 1

4 Example #1: A routine 10:00 P.M. backup operation on a general-ledger system could unwittingly halt a CFO s last-minute efforts to close the books on the last day of a quarter Example #2: Pockets of IT groups understand their domain but may not be aware of the demand for integration among different domains such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Accountability: Friction between end users and IT groups results from poorly communicated expectations, responsibilities and priorities Morale: Poor IT staff morale and customer satisfaction result from the other issues In short, conventional systems for managing IT services do not properly align with business needs. In fact, according to a recent Gartner survey, the #1 management priority of CIOs nationwide is strategizing for IS/business linkage. 1 Emergence of ITIL Best Practices Given the circumstances, it s not surprising that a globally recognized standard has emerged to address the complicated needs of the modern IT infrastructure. In 1987, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) was devised by the United Kingdom's Office of Government and Commerce as a means to establish process standards for UK government agencies IT departments. Since then, the ITIL standard has helped IT executives and organizations throughout the world reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction by managing all IT activities efficiently from a business perspective. The market for service-management tools including ITIL-inspired ones is growing. According to IDC, a leading industry analyst firm, the worldwide revenue for problem management software in 2002 was about $935 million and will increase to $1.3 billion by 2007 at a 6.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). IDC defines problem management software as solutions that record, track, and manage problems associated with the internal IT help desk. 2 1 Per Gartner EXP Research, CIO Agenda 2002, as referenced in itsmf November 2002 presentation. 2 IDC market analysis, Worldwide Problem Management Software Forecast, , Frederick W. Broussard, March,

5 ITIL s goal is to align technology services with business needs, and to help IT departments ensure they can deliver IT services in a controlled and disciplined way. ITIL does not prescribe implementationspecific details, but rather offers guidelines for managing complex processes. When implemented properly, ITIL effectively converts a reactive trouble-ticket center to a proactive, efficient internal customer-service organization. Ideally, an ITIL-compliant service-management software solution should incorporate core ITIL processes out-of-the-box, coupled with built-in, intuitive tools that adapt that functionality to specific organizations needs. Without such adaptability, organizations risk compromising their own uniqueness by conforming to arbitrary, inflexible product functionality. Service Management in Action Following is a practical example of how a service-management system can help automate multiple steps required to complete an IT project in this case, the process by which a company could detect, diagnose and rectify an over-capacity transactional system. ITIL processes appear in bold. 1. Supply-chain management system exceeds capacity for transaction volumes as defined by system monitoring tool. System monitoring tool notifies service desk for corrective action. 2. Service desk automatically opens a ticket and, based on built-in workflow rules, and routes it to appropriate personnel. Such automated steps save valuable time while maintaining consistency. 3. Service desk also feeds incidents into problem management, whose purpose is to detect the underlying cause of a problem and prevent it from recurring. 4. Problem management reviews transactional system s configuration data in configuration item database, diagnoses root cause of incident, and accordingly issues a request for system changes to change management process. 5. Change management defines, prioritizes, plans, tests and implements new changes, with an eye on the impact the changes will have throughout the organization. 6. Configuration management updates CI-database (Configuration Item). 7. Change management notifies service desk of new changes made to transactional system s configuration to prevent further problems. Service desk in turn informs user community of the change and closes all associated tickets by closing the parent ticket. 3

6 Service Management Benefits Benefit Better alignment of IT capabilities with business needs Decrease in volume of trouble tickets Improved IT staff morale, reduced staff turnover Improved efficiency and effectiveness of IT service provision Ability to provide demonstrable performance indicators Ability to predict business performance Improved coordination of time-sensitive activities Anticipate and manage change successfully How the Benefit is Achieved IT prioritizes projects and their associated IT tasks based on their relative importance to corporate-wide priorities. Elimination of underlying causes of recurring problems Clearly defined IT accountability and user expectations Elimination of redundancy and insular silos of IT projects SLA compliance and other metrics are easily documented and shared Metrics on customer satisfaction, staff training, internal processes and service metrics provide better snapshot of company s health than revenue and market share do Careful prioritization of tasks is coupled with workflow-driven reminders Change management processes assess the resource requirements, impact and risk before implementing tasks Service Management ROI Many companies and government organizations have realized significant Return on Investment (ROI) resulting from the efficiencies gained from implementing an ITIL-inspired service-management system. Examples include: Proctor & Gamble saved about $500 million over a four-year period by implementing ITIL processes across multiple departments. "It all comes down to the fact that IT is an integral part of supporting the business," says Morton Cohen, manager of global service management at Proctor & Gamble. "When 4

7 IT processes are done by 5,000 people consistently across one company, service management can deliver tremendous savings." 3 The Mexican $1.6 billion Cemex company, one of the world s largest manufacturers of cement products, used ITIL to: o Slash its delivery window from three hours to 20 minutes 98 percent of the time o Save about $100 million a year in fuel, maintenance and payroll 4 A solution implemented by InterPromUSA, a consulting firm that specializes in implementing and training IT organizations in ITIL, reduced the causes of system downtime by 65 percent, resulting in increased annual productivity savings of $197,000 per 100 users and reduced revenue losses of $7 million per 100 users. 5 Another InterPromUSA customer saw its resolution times for service calls decrease by more than 50 percent In a third InterPromUSA example, a customer saw an increase of its call volume from 450 per week to 2,000 per week over a one-year period, without expanding its helpdesk staff of five employees Service Management Solution from ietsolutions iet ITSM is a web-enabled service management software solution that automates ITIL s service-support processes and extends them to additionally provide Account Management, Contact Management, and Action Management processes (see descriptions below). These extensions enrich the ITIL model with naturally synergistic processes borrowed from ietsolutions' rich CRM heritage. iet ITSM s core ITIL processes were built from scratch with ITIL in mind, using the same advanced, intuitive ietsolutions' configuration tools that our customers use to tailor the out-of-box solution to their needs. This translates to straightforward tailorability and low cost of ownership. 3 Reaping the Rewards of Best Practices, Network World Fusion, by Denise Dubie, Network World, September 30, 2002, 4 Justification of ITIL whitepaper, InterPromUSA, 5 Justification of ITIL whitepaper, InterPromUSA, 5

8 iet ITSM offers the following integrated processes: Configuration management: Inventory and management of hardware and software, along with the personnel authorized to use and maintain each unit. Service desk: Functions for logging, classifying, tracking and resolving all user inquiries, aided by dashboards, diagnostic tools, reports, charts and a search engine. Also sets in motion workflow for assignments, notifications and escalations. Problem management: Minimizes recurring support calls by detecting and resolving their underlying causes instead of just offering workarounds. Change management: Provides business users with simple tools for requesting and tracking IT projects, or changes, such as system upgrades. Requests are automatically forwarded to management for approval or rejection. iet ITSM provides a faithful representation of ITIL s IT service management best practices, and, drawing from ietsolutions strong CRM heritage, expands the ITIL model to provide relevant functions such as action management and account management. Service level management: Detailed definition and tracking of all SLAs that establish IT s responsibilities and business users expectations for the availability of every hardware and software product throughout an organization. Account management: Contains all account and account contact information. Action management: Unique to iet ITSM is the use of action plans that itemize and track all the tasks associated with resolving an inquiry, problem or change. Action plans ensure the efficient coordination of complex, time-sensitive issues by leaving nothing to chance. 6

9 Final Critical Ingredient As with any fundamental change to the way an organization operates, executive buy-in is key. Senior management must share the ITIL vision and dec lare it a corporate mandate for it to be successful. It also helps to partner with a software provider that practices an implementation methodology that properly manages cultural issues. Conclusion Today s fast-paced organizations have outgrown the traditional service and support solutions that served their IT needs for many years. In order to better align IT with users business requirements, many IT leaders are shifting from a technology focus to a centralized service-model approach that efficiently delivers a specified service level to business users. Organizations are well advised to choose an adaptable software solution that incorporates the best practices as defined by ITIL, the most widely accepted service-management standard. ietsolutions iet ITSM application provides out - of-box ITIL processes, along with flexible configuration tools, for people who value a low total cost of ownership. iet ITSM Differentiators ITIL-compliant service management design was built into iet ITSM solution from day one contrast this elegant approach to competitors strategy of retrofitting a legacy helpdesk solution Out-of-box solution, including pre-enabled workflow, is easily and quickly adapted to specific user needs Straightforward adaptability: Wizards and other graphical tools for configuring product are the same tools used to build iet ITSM in the first place Integration with our award-winning suite of CRM solutions that share iet ITSM s technology platform Out-of-box support for Web and Windows clients Quick implementations Award-winning technology Over 50 iet ITSM customers worldwide Proven implementation methodology ensures proper configuration and corporate-wide endorsement Global capabilities include time zones, currencies and follow-the sun SLAs 7