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Many computer consultants struggle to come up with solid Information Technology business plans. The main reason for this is that many fail to understand the concept of “Virtual IT” and how using it as a business model can help them build profitable and stable companies.  

If you are like most consultants trying to devise Information Technology business plans, you probably are aware of the idea behind Virtual IT. However, you most likely are not using it to its full advantage as part of your philosophy of solving your clients’ biggest IT business problems.  

The following 4 tips can help you embrace the concept of Virtual IT and build strong Information Technology business plans that will best serve your interests and your clients’ interests.

1. Understand What Virtual IT Means. Virtual IT is really all about becoming your clients’ outsourced IT department. Instead of just selling your customers and clients PC’s, servers, routers, Wi-Fi, cabling and other physical products, you spend your time selecting and designing their networks, looking at business problems, figuring out how to apply the technology to big business problems and bringing all the resources together into one nice, seamless package. With Virtual IT, your firm acts as a client’s part-time IT manager or Virtual CIO. Virtual IT is a convenient, flexible and comprehensive technical services program that gives small businesses access to what they need, when they need it without the financial and logistical burden of a full-time, salaried IT person.

2. Know How Virtual IT Benefits Your Business. Most successful small business computer consultants position their companies as IT departments because of the many benefits this concept provides. Positioning your firm as a true Virtual IT department for your clients helps you retain high-paying, steady clients and build long-lasting relationships. And when you base Information Technology business plans on this important concept, you can provide comprehensive solutions to big IT business problems. . . which makes your firm indispensable to your clients.

3. Figure Out How You Can Provide Virtual IT to Your Clients. As you build your Information Technology business plans around Virtual IT, you need to incorporate Virtual IT into the services you provide to clients. For you to deliver Virtual IT successfully and profitably through strong Information Technology business plans, you need to know what the opportunities are and what typical Virtual IT solutions look like. For example, what are the traditional types of services that you can sell to your existing and future clients? Which other opportunities exist for you?

4. Remember That Virtual IT Grows Real Relationships. Be sure that you are always continuing to add value to both your existing customers and clients, and new customers and clients. This is what Virtual IT is all about. You don’t just sell the initial network installation, and cross your fingers and hope that everything works. You also can’t wait for your customers to call you. Be proactive and provide Virtual IT on an on-going basis so you and your clients can avoid major emergencies. By providing ongoing Virtual IT services, your business will be more profitable, and both you and your clients will experience fewer headaches. Plus, your clients will be relieved that they have a trusted re for long-term small business IT support.

In this short article, we discussed 4 tips to help you use the concept of Virtual IT to build strong Information Technology business plans. Learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying clients through well-designed Information Technology business plans now at http://www. MyInformationTechnologyBusiness. com    

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If you are trying to come up with a good Information Technology business plan, you may be wondering about what your focus should be. Usually the top priority is creating a plan that will help you get great clients, so you can effectively manage and grow your business.

Many Information Technology consultants make the mistake of thinking they can just get by on one-shot deals and fly-by-night customers. But in reality, this type of approach just leaves you frazzled and worried about where you will get your next big project or next paycheck. You need to build a stable business based on on-going relationships with long-term clients that will pay you each and every month, and bring you predictable service revenue.

The best plan for developing a strong Information Technology business plan is to insist that every one of your clients sign a support contract. The following 4 tips can help you understand how to build your business plan on the solid foundation of support contracts.

Support Contracts Are Key for the Busy Information Technology Consultant. If you are like most IT consultants, your time is incredibly valuable. When you choose to base your Information Technology business plan on support contracts, you help better manage your time, particularly when you have many clients that all need service at once. When you insist upon support contracts, you maximize your utilization rate while still having enough time to deal with client emergencies when they occur.
Better Manage Emergencies. When you base your business model on support contracts, you can prioritize your clients’ emergencies. When you have a bunch of clients all with emergencies at the same time, you can’t be everywhere at once. You need to narrow down the list of who gets your immediate attention and who will need to wait. Basically, those people that have committed to you long term get the royal treatment and those that do not have to accept that you will get to them when you have the time to spare.
Force Customers and Clients to Make a Decision. You need to base your Information Technology business plan on support contracts in order to force those you are serving to make an important decision – are they “in,” or are they “out”? A solid plan based on long-term relationships with clients weeds out those that are just testing the waters and are not serious about working with you long-term.
Manage Expectations. A solid Information Technology business plan based on support contracts also helps you manage your customers’ and clients’ expectations more effectively. Those that have a support contract know they are top priority … and those that don’t know you have clients with support contracts and that they are the ones that will be responded to first.

In this brief article, we discussed 4 tips to help you create a strong Information Technology business plan, so you don’t have to stress out about being everything to everyone. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients with an Information Technology business plan built around support contracts now at http://www. MyInformationTechnologyBusiness. com

Copyright (C), MyInformationTechnologyBusiness. com, All Rights Reserved

We all know the United States economy has been struggling and something must get done to boost it. In February 2009, President Barack Obama created a stimulus package to help combat it. A whopping $787 billion has been approved to give the economy a shot in the arm. Some of the biggest winners to gain from this historic stimulus are technology companies. Several billions of dollars are set aside for the tech industry to create more jobs and make technology upgrades to important industries. Today’s students may want to think about getting an IT education. It looks like there are plenty of opportunities for tech needs in the years to come.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was drafted to save and create jobs immediately. It sounds like a quick fix but it is also supposed to lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth. Where is the money going? $288 billion is allocated to Tax Relief. Another $144B goes to State and Local Fiscal Relief. $111B is for Infrastructure and Science, and $81B to go to Protecting the Vulnerable. The last $59B, $53B, $43B, and $8B are allocated to Health Care, Education and Training, Energy, and Other, respectively. With this kind of money there should be enough funding to get us out of this crisis and back to the powerful country we used to be. This is the hope, and with a fair chunk of the package dedicated to technology we certainly are paving the way for the long-term.

If you have ever thought about getting IT training now is the time. $30 billion is currently invested in technology upgrades, with more than $100B in tech projects spending estimated in the next five years. The big dogs expected to gain the most from the stimulus are IBM, GE, and Cisco. IBM has already developed a smart grid in Washington State to manage energy consumption that could apply on a larger scale to the entire country. GE is working on an energy-management system that uses wind power. Look into the School of Technology at Westwood College for the chance to help Cisco push for the contract to spend the $7. 2B allotted for broadband deployment. Get educated and Cisco certified, and you will be in a good position to take advantage of the IT revolution. Another big industry looking to upgrade their technology is health care.

With 7. 5% of the stimulus package dedicated to health care you might think it is not getting its fair share. That percentage equates to $59 billion, though. The headline-maker has been the $19. 5B devoted to digitizing medical records and who has been appointed to oversee the project. Harvard Medical School Professor Dr. David Blumenthal was named the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. As Director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston, he is a longtime advocate for making medical records electronic. Several professionals in the industry applaud the appointment with praise of his qualifications. With a good team around him we should feel confident he has the answers to make a strong impact on our country’s medical technology in the future.

There is much to look forward to in the coming years. The Obama Administration is investing heavily into rebuilding the weak and upgrading the old. Millions of jobs hope to be available in IT, Construction Management, Education, Health Care, and anything else “The American Dream” offers itself to. While this stimulus sounds like a cure-all fix, Americans must know it will still take time and a lot of hard work to get back to the level we desire. Technology will play a vital role in our advancement as a nation, hopefully setting an example for other countries as well. For those that are IT experts, this is your chance to change the world.

Are you trying to build your Information Technology service company?  Sometimes in order to provide complete, fully-integrated, end-to-end solutions to your valued clients, you have to rely on subcontracting and partnering.

Subcontracting and partnering can be an excellent way to grow business and improve your relationships with clients.   But many professionals in the technology business do not quite understand the difference between the two concepts or how to work them into their plans for working with small businesses.

The truth is, subcontracting and partnering can improve your ability to work with clients and help you efficiently run your business .   It also frees you up for your most important business-growth activities so you have enough time to focus on important administrative, sales and marketing activities that will keep your sales funnel full of viable prospects, customers and clients.

The following 3 tips can help you better understand how to use subcontracting and partnering as you build your Information Technology service business.

Understand the Difference between Subcontracting and Partnering. There are several key ways that subcontracting differs from partnering.   With subcontracting, your client has a single point of contact with your firm.   The subcontractor primarily communicates with your firm, with only minimal direct communication with your client.   Basically, the subcontractor functions as an extension of your firm, and the client does not necessarily even have to know that some of the larger project is being farmed out.   With a subcontractor, the client gets one proposal, one contract and one invoice from your firm.   Subcontractors also get paid by your firm, not the client.   If your Information Technology service company is talking about partnering, you are working with another non-competing technology provider that is retaining its own corporate identity and presenting its own credentials to a mutual client.   The client is aware there are two or more distinct technology providers involved in the project, and your partners communicate directly with the mutual client.   The client communicates with the main contact person at all partnering computer consulting firms and gets proposals, contracts and invoices from all of them. Clarify which Party Handles which Details. With partnering and subcontracting, you need to clarify which party is handling which details of each project.   In a master contractor/subcontractor relationship, the master contractor (your Information Technology service firm) will handle most, if not all administrative and management tasks.   Unlike a partnering arrangement, you won’t need to spend a lot of time with your subcontractors reaching a common ground on whose billing and administrative procedures you will adopt.   When you are a master contractor, you call the shots.   However, whether you are working with subcontractors or partners on a project, you will still want to create a planning document that helps you define the rules of engagement and spells out individual responsibilities so everyone is always on the same page. Take Stock of the Skills You Are Retaining. Most of the time when you seek out a potential partner or subcontractor, you’re looking specifically for a certain skill set.   After all, you’re trying to enhance your own offering so you can best serve your clients’ needs.   For example, if client of yours needs a relational database designed to track wedding bookings for their catering business and this is not a skill you have in house, you will probably be looking for a subcontractor with expertise in the appropriate database platform and front-end design.   Make sure as you engage with a new subcontractor or partner that you get an idea of his/her baseline level of knowledge on a variety of products and platforms beyond his/her specialty.   You can create a skills inventory worksheet that you use with all your subcontractors and partners to collect information efficiently and consistently.

In this article, we talked about some of the most important differences between subcontracting and partnering, and how you can use subcontracting and partnering to grow your Information Technology service business.   Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients to your Information Technology service firm now at http://www. InformationTechnologyServiceHQ. com

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE LIBRARY –

GUIDE TOWARDS PROGRESSIVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS

 

SUMMARY

 

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a set of concepts and policies for managing information technology (IT) infrastructure, development and operations. ITIL is the most widely accepted approach to IT Service Management in the world. It promotes a quality approach to achieving business effectiveness, economy and efficiency in the use of information systems. The ethos behind the development of ITIL is the recognition that organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on IT in order to satisfy their corporate aims and meet their business needs. ITIL is a cohesive best practice framework, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally. It describes the organisation of IT resources to deliver business value, and documents processes, functions and roles in ITSM. ITIL is to be adopted and built upon by an organisation as per its purposes and needs. ITIL is supported by a comprehensive qualifications scheme, accredited training organisations, and implementation and assessment tools. In today’s competitive market, being ITIL complaint is a definitive edge over the competitors.

 

The latest generation of the ITIL is titled “ITIL v3“. This version represents an important evolutionary step in ITIL’s life. ITIL has transformed the guidance from providing a great service to being the most innovative and best in class. In general, ITIL v3 makes the link between ITIL’s best practice and business benefits both clearer and stronger. The main development is that ITIL v3 guidance takes a lifecycle approach, as opposed to organising according to IT delivery sectors.

 

This article focuses on giving readers a brief understanding of the ITIL.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a series of books that are used to aid the implementation of a framework for IT Service Management (ITSM). Being a framework, it is completely customisable for application within any type of business or organisation that has a reliance on IT infrastructure. The ITIL originated as a collection of books each covering a specific practice within ITSM. ITIL books are developed by Office of Government Commerce, U. K. (OGC). It is the world’s de-facto standard best practice framework for ITSM. OGC also has qualification certification program for ITIL followers.

 

ITIL is cornerstone of good quality ITSM and a necessity for quality assurance. It provides a systematic, process-based approach, supported by procedures for key IT service management processes. ITIL is Technology independent. ITIL gives a detailed description of a number of important IT practices with comprehensive checklists, tasks and procedures that can be tailored to any IT organization.

 

The ITIL series consists of several books providing guidance on the planning, delivery and management of quality IT services to support business needs comprising issues pertaining to Service Support, Service Delivery, IT Infrastructure Management, Application Management, Business Perspective, Security Management. ITIL has clear definition of various terms used in ITSM in a concise yet comprehensive manner.

 

 

 

 

UTIILTY OF ITIL

 

ITIL provides a comprehensive set of guidance to link the technical implementation, operations guidelines and requirements with the strategic management, operations management and financial management of a modern business. Among the benefits associated with adopting the ITIL which have been identified by the users are improved customer satisfaction with IT services, better communications and information flows between IT staff and customers, better management control over ITSM and reduced costs in developing and implementing procedures and practices within an enterprise.  ITIL improves the performance of processes which are being followed in an organization leading to high quality output.

 

It goes into great detail regarding the process, implementation and the content of the key deliverable of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Service Level Requirements (SLRs).

 

ITIL contains tried and tested processes. It has a quick-start approach to help in making the best use of time and resources available and see quick results. It led to improved productivity of the organisation itself and also of delivery of third party services through the specification of ITIL. The well defined ITIL processes also minimizes duplication of efforts, dropped hand-offs and unapproved work. Additionally, individuals gain a better understanding of roles and responsibilities and how they each contribute to the success of IT and the business. It separates administrative tasks and technical tasks to help in assigning the most appropriate resources.

 

In short, ITIL improves efficiency, effectiveness and economy of the ITSM.

 

ITIL – ITSM

 

ITIL describes the management of IT Services in the context of the lifecycle of those services. The focus of ITIL today is integration of IT into the business, assuring the delivery of business value and the treatment of services as business assets. ITIL describes the life of a service from conception to retirement, within a Service Portfolio detailing aspects of planning and development as well as objects, specification, description and requirements of the services in use or being offered for use through means of the processes. Each process has a home in the lifecycle stage book where it is most active. The lifecycle approach gives an improved, holistic structure within which to describe all the functions, processes, roles and responsibilities that constitute ITSM Best Practice.

 

ITIL Reference Model

 

 

Planning to Implement Service Management

Service Management

Service

Support

Service

Delivery

T

H

E

 

B

US

I N

E

S

S

The
Business
Perspective

Applications Management

ICT
Infrastructure
Management

T

H

E

 

TECHNOLOGY

 Security Management

 

 

The two basic requirements of ITSM are:

 

(a)               Service Delivery: ITIL’s Service Delivery component includes tactical processes necessary for planning and delivering quality IT services, which is defined in SLA. Service Delivery best practices address Availability Management, Capacity Management, Service Level Management, Service Continuity Management (contingency planning) and Financial Management for IT Services.

 

(b)               Service Support: ITIL’s Service Support component focuses on the operational processes that enable companies to provide IT Support and maintenance activities on a day-to-day, around-the-clock basis. Service Support disciplines include Change Management, Configuration Management, Problem Management, Incident Management and Release Management (including software and hardware control and distribution). This includes service desk facility as single point of contact and disaster recovery mechanism. The objective is to minimize disruption to the business by proactive identification and analysis of the cause of service incidents and by managing problems to closure.

 

ITIL Structure

 

 

 

 

IT SERVICE
CONTINUITY
MANAGEMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

AVALABILITY

MANAGEMENT

 

 

 

 

CAPACITY
MANAGEMENT

 

 

 

 

INCIDENT

MANAGEMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROBLEM   

MANAGEMENT     

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHANGE                     

MANAGEMENT             

 

 

RELEASE

MANAGEMENT

FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT

 

 

 

 

      

SERVICE LEVEL         MANAGEMENT

 

 

 

CMDB

One of the primary elements of ITIL is Configuration Management Database (CMDB). CMDB is a database, which contains all relevant details of each Configuration Item (CI) and details of the important relationships between CI’s. CI is a part of an IT infrastructure or an item associated therewith which is under control of configuration management for ITIL implementation.

 

The ITIL goal of Configuration Management is to keep records of all IT data, IT processes and IT policies and to provide information to the other processes. Critical steps are the population of the CMDB and building the relationships between all the populated elements. The captured data can be used for decision support, for change impact analysis, release management verification identifying rogue changes and any number of other information processing and analysis purposes. CMDB helps in keeping track of all ITIL processes.

 

Deming Circle

 

For quality improvement W. Edwards Deming proposed the Deming Cycle (or Circle). The four key stages are Plan, Do, Check and Act after which a phase of consolidation prevents the ‘Circle’ from ‘rolling downs the hill’ as illustrated:-

 

 

 

 

ITIL is built around a process-model based view of controlling and managing operations often credited to Mr. Deming. ITIL helps in achieving the Deming Circle. ITIL is a process led approach. Quality management for IT Services is a systematic way of ensuring that all the activities necessary to design, develop and implement IT services which satisfy the requirements of the organization and of Users take place as planned.

 

Implementing the change

 

Besides having human resource having knowledge and experience of ITIL, business needs a Change Advisory Board (CAB) so that ITIL is implemented with commitment and efficiency. CAB approves and controls the required changes within the acceptable level of risk.

 

Change Manager

(Chair)

Finance

 Manager

Software Control

& Distribution Manager

Problem Manager

Senior Business

Representation

Others as required

Application

Manager

Service level

Manager

CAB

 

SLA

 

One of the important components of service delivery is the service level agreement. A SLA is fundamental to service provision, from the perspective of both the supplier and the recipient. It documents and defines the parameters of the relationship itself.   The quality of the SLA is therefore a critical matter.

 

SLA is a legal document which ensures that the proper elements, understanding, commitments and deliverables are in place to provide consistent service support and delivery as per SLR. SLR indicates the expected customer specifications, requirements and characteristics of the service delivery. The intent of SLA is to specify the detailed levels of services to avoid future differences on deliverables. Typical SLA sections include: Introduction, Scope of Work, Performance, Tracking and Reporting, Problem Management, Compensation, Customer Duties and Responsibilities, Warranties and Remedies, Security, Intellectual Property Rights and Confidential Information, Legal Compliance and Resolution of Disputes, Termination and Signatures.

 

ITSM warrants that SLAs are drafted, negotiated and contracted as per the underpinning contracts and management’s expectation of available IT resources and mapping resources to customer services. SLM ensures that management can deliver the required level of service before any agreement is signed. This is done in discussion with the internal IT departments and the external IT suppliers.

 

The primary task of SLM is to ensure continuous identification, monitoring and reviewing of the optimally agreed levels of IT service as required by the business, in close co-operation between IT services providers and customers. The goal of SLM is to maintain and improve IT Service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring and reporting upon IT Service achievements and instigation of actions to eradicate poor service in line with business or cost justification. During the course of business, SLM ensures building adequate capacity for meeting SLRs.

 

ITIL v3

 

Recently, OGC has introduced new version of ITIL called as ITIL v3. ITIL v3 is a part of a process to enhance and improve the ITIL best practices. This is the essence of “Current best practice” – defining the frontiers and industry practices, which continuously shift as organisations compete to meet the evolving demands of customers. ITIL v3 is written with a broader context and scope of thinking for best practices. The input for the books, reviews and changes comes from a collective global community of IT Service Management professionals and stakeholders during a three-year period. The new approach is termed the ‘lifecycle’ approach, much the same as an IT service in reality.

 

Significant portion of ITIL v2 (earlier version of ITIL) content has been refined and included in ITIL v3. Besides the overall new architecture of ITIL ITSM Practices, there are new topics covered in ITIL v3, that haven’t been a part of ITIL in past like strategic aspects, service design aspects, supplier management, outsourcing, service knowledge management system, application design and management, technology architecture design and management, service measurement, event management, request fulfilment, access management.

 

ITIL Books

 

ITIL v3 comprises five distinct volumes: ITIL Service Strategy; ITIL Service Design; ITIL Service Transition; ITIL Service Operation; and ITIL Continual Service Improvement. The contents of two most commonly used sets within the previous release, Service Delivery and Service Support, are broadly still present. These were as follows: Incident Management; Problem Management; Configuration Management; Change Management; Release Management; Service Desk; Service Level Management; IT Financial Management; Capacity Management; Availability Management; IT Service Continuity Management; IT Security Management.

 

A sound service strategy is essential in the creation of high quality IT services. It provides a base upon which to build a successful service management function and ensures that best value is delivered to business customers. Service Strategy is a major strength of the new ITIL library. It introduces the service lifecycle and encourages the development of a business perspective. Whether you are a service provider or a business customer, this book guides you through the choices that you need to make to achieve service excellence. It helps focus upon understanding, and upon translating business strategy into IT strategy, as well as selection of the best practices for the particular industry in question. It encompasses a framework to build best practice in developing a long term service strategy. It covers many topics including: general strategy, competition and market space, service provider types, service management as a strategic asset, organization design and development, key process activities, financial management, service portfolio management, demand management, and key roles and responsibilities of staff engaging in service strategy.

 

Well-designed services play a vital role in realizing a sound service strategy. Effective design contributes towards the delivery of quality services that meet or exceed customer expectations. Service Design shows how to create valuable IT service assets for your organisation, but within business constraints, such as time and money. It provides a framework for service design that considers customer requirements, both now and in the future, while keeping the business view firmly in sight. Service Design provides guidance on the creation and maintenance of IT policies and architectures for the design of IT service solutions. The design of IT services conforming to best practice, and including design of architecture, processes, policies, documentation, and allowing for future business requirements. This also encompasses topics such as Service Design Package, service service level management, designing for capacity management, IT service continuity, Information Security, supplier management, and key roles and responsibilities for staff engaging in service design. This also embraces outsourcing, insourcing and co-sourcing.

 

Successfully bringing a well-designed service into the live environment takes efficient planning. It is necessary to deliver new or changed services with the appropriate balance of speed, cost and safety while ensuring minimum disruption to operations. Service Transition provides and supports the ‘business as usual’ delivery of the organisation’s requirements from IT. Service Transition provides guidance on managing the many aspects of service changes, preventing undesired consequences while allowing for innovation. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to deliver IT change with the best possible benefit to the business. Service Transition volume covers the longer term change management and release practices. It provides guidance for the transition of IT services into the business environment. Fundamentally, it covers how to create a transition strategy from service design and transfer it to the production (business) environment.

 

Once services have been successfully delivered into the live environment they need to be managed effectively on a day-to-day basis. It is here, at the customer interface, that perceptions about your performance as a service provider are created, and your success will be judged. Service Operation introduces and explains delivery and control activities that support high quality service operation. Use of the guidance will help to ensure a balanced and flexible approach, setting you firmly on the road to achieving excellence as a service provider. Service Operation covers delivery and control processes with a view to ensuring service stability. Also the monitoring of problems and balance between service reliability and cost etc are considered. It embraces the familiar basics of how to manage services in the production environment, including day to day issues and fire fighting. Best practice for achieving the delivery of agreed levels of services both to end-users and the customers are provided herein. This book guides through balancing conflicting goals (e. g. reliability v. cost), event management, incident management, problem management, request fulfilment, asset management, service desk, technical and application management, as well as key roles and responsibilities for staff engaging in Service Operation.

 

Even with a successful service operation in place, there is still a need to consider improvements at every opportunity. This will help protect against losing your competitive edge and will ensure that the best possible outcomes are being achieved. Continual Service Improvement focuses on the process elements involved in identifying and introducing a cycle of service management improvements. It provides structure for your approach to assessing and measuring services and helps you to avoid short-terms fixes in favour of a continual improvement in quality that truly benefits your business customers. Continual Service Improvement covers the processes involved in improving service management within the business, in addition to the issues related to service closure or retirement. It basically describes how to improve a service after it is deployed. The goal of Continual Service Improvement is to align and realign IT Services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to the IT services that support the business processes.

 

Topics included in each book:

 

ITIL v3

 

The latest IT success formula!!!

Service Strategy

—    Strategy and value planning

—    Roles / responsibilities Planning and implementing service strategies

—    Business planning and IT strategy linkage

—    Challenges, risks and critical success factors

Service Design

—    The service lifecycle

—    Roles and responsibilities

—    Service design objectives and elements

—    Selecting the appropriate model

—    Cost model

—    Benefit and risk analysis

—    Implementation

—    Measurement / control

—    Critical Success Factors & risks

Service Transition

—    Managing change (organizational and cultural)

—    Knowledge management

—    Risk analysis

—    The principles of service transition

—    Lifecycle stages

—    Methods, practices and tools

—    Measurement and control

—    Other best practices

Service Operation

—    Principles and lifecycle stages

—    Process fundamentals

—    Application management

—    Infrastructure management

—    Operations management

—    Critical Success Factors and risks

—    Control processes and functions

Continual Service Improvement

—    The drivers for improvement

—    The principles of CSI

—    Roles and responsibilities

—    The benefits

—    Implementation

—    Methods, practices and tools

—    Other best practices

 

CONCLUSION

ITIL defines the organisational structure and skill requirements of an information technology organisation and a set of standard operational management procedures and practices to allow the organisation to manage an IT operation and associated infrastructure. The operational procedures and practices are supplier independent and apply to all aspects within the IT Infrastructure.

ITIL is ultimately concerned with aligning IT with the business through the whole planning to support lifecycle – that means that the business is ultimately the driver, not IT. ITIL is a quality process that is based on continual improvement based on Business needs.

Implementing ITIL is not a quick fix nor will it be easy to implement. It takes a lot of thought, commitment and hard work to successfully change the way the IT organization does business. There needs to be upfront planning, training and awareness, ongoing scheduling, roles created, ownership assigned, and activities identified in order to be successful. Implementation and credentialing the ITIL in ITSM requires knowledge and training. ITIL is intended to be non-prescriptive, expecting that organizations will have to engage ITIL processes with their existing overall process model.