Sunday, April 25, 2010

Spring 2010 - Week 16: Getting IT Done - ITIL

ITIL - Internet Technology Infrastructure Library

ITIL image

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a set of recommendations for managing IT. While it's focus is on IT services it also covers IT development and operations.

The Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, a part of the UK Government, created ITIL back in the 1980s. (As such, ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are trademarks of the UK's Office of Coporate Governance, formerly the CCTA.) Originally a set of 40 manuals the ITIL has been updated twice: once into a set of 8 manuals for version 2.0 and again in 2007 with a set of five core manuals for version 3.0.

Each manual focuses on a particular aspect of IT which is then broken down into multiple sections. For example:

The Service Desk

With the prevalence of technology at home and in the work place many people have had to ask for help from a help desk or service desk before. ITIL recommends that the service desk handle requests using only one point of contact (at my place of employment we call it "one neck to choke"), one point of entry, and one point of exit.

It's easy to see how doing so accomplishes the next ITIL of making things easier for the customer: They only need to contact one person or department to get help. Instead of being told to contact a different department or to send the request in a different manner the person in contact with the customer is the one who routes it to the correct department. ITIL also recommends keeping the customer updated on progress instead of simply waiting until there is a resolution to communicate again with the customer.

There are also recommendations for data integrity and streamlining communications. Data integrity is necessary for databases. It's easier to maintain information if it is always referenced in the same way. At best time is simply wasted in multiple searches to get all of the relevant data but at worst the database end up completely unusable. Streamlining communications is important internally, to get requests moved and managed as easily as possible, and externally, in further aid of making things easier for the consumer.

As ITIL has become more and more popular as a standard for managing IT, more people have gone into the business of ITIL itself.

Consulting Firms

There are multiple consulting companies offering their expertise on the ITIL. One of these companies is The Drapeau Group, LLC.

The tagline on TDG’s site is, “Achieve ITIL Maturity, Avoid Broken Promises”. They claim that they stand apart from other firms by having consultants who are both IT process experts and technically adept, using a different charging model where they do not bill 8 hours a day, and only selling advice not hardware or software. They also focus on what they consider to be the most important parts of the Service Support and Service Delivery parts of the ITIL rather than trying to apply all of it as is.

TDG offers the following services:
  • ITIL Maturity Assesment
  • Service Support Implementation
  • Service Delivery Implementation
  • ITIL Training
  • ITIL workshops
  • ITSM for SME Business
  • ITIL Tools Review
  • Metrics Assessment

There are client testimonials on the site as well, the most well known likely being CheckFree(now Fiserv). If you’ve ever received or paid a bill online through your bank chances are good you were using their services. (You can run a search on just the state at the site in the link to see all the financial institutions that use Fiserv.) TDG worked with CheckFree to investigate ITIL and non-ITIL processes and, when CheckFree decided to use ITIL Service Management processes, helped them through the multi-phased deployment.

Software

ITIL Foundations maintains lists of programs related to ITIL in four different categories. In "Help Desk and Support Desk Software Tools" they recommend ServiceDesk Plus. ServiceDesk Plus is used to manage IT service requests from start to finish:
  1. An end user who has an IT problem creates a 'ticket' requesting help
    The ticket can be created multiple ways: e-mail, phone, API, web, even a Network Failure can create a ticket

  2. SDP then applies business rules to the ticket
    Rules can be added to have certain events or alerts occur based on the type of incident, SLA, etc.

  3. The SLA is verified
    The Service Level Agreement in this case refers to the amount of time for the incident to be resolved.

  4. The due date is set

  5. The ticket is then sent to the appropriate group

  6. A technician within that group works on the problem specified in the ticket

  7. The end user is notified of the solution of the problem
    SDP can be set up to give the end user notifications in the mean time.