Last November the 20th anniversary of ITIL was celebrated. For the uninitiated, ITIL or “Information Technology Infrastructure Library” is a Best Practice Framework for IT Service Management. It has evolved over the years from version 1 released in 1989, with a version 2 being released around the year 2001 and in 2007, a new version, V3 being introduced. When Version 3 or V3 was introduced, Version 2, or V2 was not withdrawn. This happened only recently in December 2009. This simultaneous existence of two versions between 2007 and 2009 created a huge churn over the respective merits of ITIL V2 and ITIL V3.
To many; V3’s emphasis on creating business value over simply improving execution of processes is its biggest achievement, while for others the core focus of ITIL should be on improving processes. In this churn of things I recollected my own experiences with Infrastructure Management, and this brought into focus why I believe that Business Value is enhanced by ITIL V3 and hence it merits greater attention.
About 20 years ago I was working in a company which pioneered Computer Education in the School Segment in India. At that time we had a presence in about 90 cities and towns spanning the length and breadth of the country with an installed base of upwards of 2000 systems. Towards the end of 1989, when the need for enhancing customer support was felt, I was given that task. The brief I had on being given the responsibility was very simple “We need to ensure that our clients are happy and that we can re-sign our contracts. To ensure re-signing, the computer systems must work”.
Though we already had a team doing maintenance work, there was a need to have a systematic approach in “Infrastructure Management”. Thus the existing department, the FE (Field Engineering) Department was greatly enhanced in size, scope and approach. However imagine India in the 80’s and 90’s, without its present communications link. There were no mobiles, the PCO system was not up, and calling a place like Kurseong, or Pathanamthitta or Dibrugarh, could take days. Telegrams were a way out, but they were difficult to convey messages. The internet was not even imagined. Thus slow mail was the only way out.
When we set out to expand the FE Dept. we had all these challenges and more. As I went along in the job, I learnt by experience the essence of creating business value over just improving existing processes. To many, the term Business Value may seem like an esoteric term as it talks of intangibles beyond monetary terms, like customer, societal, and supplier values. However if the Balanced Scorecard perspective of the Financial; Customer; Internal Business, and Innovation and Learning, were applied, the concept was not too difficult to understand.
I would try to relate those perspectives from my learning as I went about defining Services. The first factor relating to finance was the most easily understood! It was a given that by re-signing the contracts we would be adding to the top-line and bottom line.
The second factor was the customer. We needed to be near the customer and provide a better experience for him so that he would keep coming back to us. That helped to define the customer in our “Service Strategy”. Our Strategy was to work on a hub and spoke model, the Hubs being the major metros Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Gauwhati. The whole purpose of working on a Hub and Spoke model was based on the fact that the current infrastructure for communication and reach was a handicap and to be nearer the customer, we needed a decentralized process.
We then looked at our employees in the field as our internal customers, and approached our working from the aspect of “A Happy Employee creates a Happy Customer”. We knew that if we enabled our employees to have better infrastructure, there would be lesser complaints from customers giving our employees more peace at work.
The fourth important aspect, Learning and Innovation was something we really took to heart. From an ITIL V3 perspective I could compare this to the emphasis on “Continual Service Improvement” or CSI.
Since we could not plan out everything in advance we were constantly trying to incorporate new learning’s from the field. We created a Field Engineers Handbook to be distributed to all employees so that they could do first level repairs themselves, reporting formats were created and then modified and re-modified, the aim was to improve; always. We went by the adage, “Change is the only constant”. In that sense CSI is all about change and adaptability, incorporating all good things.
CSI is not just an important component in Infrastructure Management; it is an important component in management philosophy as a whole. Thus in the debate of the improvements of ITIL V3, the extra emphasis on Service Strategy and CSI, help businesses by enhancing Business Value.
To many; V3’s emphasis on creating business value over simply improving execution of processes is its biggest achievement, while for others the core focus of ITIL should be on improving processes. In this churn of things I recollected my own experiences with Infrastructure Management, and this brought into focus why I believe that Business Value is enhanced by ITIL V3 and hence it merits greater attention.
About 20 years ago I was working in a company which pioneered Computer Education in the School Segment in India. At that time we had a presence in about 90 cities and towns spanning the length and breadth of the country with an installed base of upwards of 2000 systems. Towards the end of 1989, when the need for enhancing customer support was felt, I was given that task. The brief I had on being given the responsibility was very simple “We need to ensure that our clients are happy and that we can re-sign our contracts. To ensure re-signing, the computer systems must work”.
Though we already had a team doing maintenance work, there was a need to have a systematic approach in “Infrastructure Management”. Thus the existing department, the FE (Field Engineering) Department was greatly enhanced in size, scope and approach. However imagine India in the 80’s and 90’s, without its present communications link. There were no mobiles, the PCO system was not up, and calling a place like Kurseong, or Pathanamthitta or Dibrugarh, could take days. Telegrams were a way out, but they were difficult to convey messages. The internet was not even imagined. Thus slow mail was the only way out.
When we set out to expand the FE Dept. we had all these challenges and more. As I went along in the job, I learnt by experience the essence of creating business value over just improving existing processes. To many, the term Business Value may seem like an esoteric term as it talks of intangibles beyond monetary terms, like customer, societal, and supplier values. However if the Balanced Scorecard perspective of the Financial; Customer; Internal Business, and Innovation and Learning, were applied, the concept was not too difficult to understand.
I would try to relate those perspectives from my learning as I went about defining Services. The first factor relating to finance was the most easily understood! It was a given that by re-signing the contracts we would be adding to the top-line and bottom line.
The second factor was the customer. We needed to be near the customer and provide a better experience for him so that he would keep coming back to us. That helped to define the customer in our “Service Strategy”. Our Strategy was to work on a hub and spoke model, the Hubs being the major metros Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Gauwhati. The whole purpose of working on a Hub and Spoke model was based on the fact that the current infrastructure for communication and reach was a handicap and to be nearer the customer, we needed a decentralized process.
We then looked at our employees in the field as our internal customers, and approached our working from the aspect of “A Happy Employee creates a Happy Customer”. We knew that if we enabled our employees to have better infrastructure, there would be lesser complaints from customers giving our employees more peace at work.
The fourth important aspect, Learning and Innovation was something we really took to heart. From an ITIL V3 perspective I could compare this to the emphasis on “Continual Service Improvement” or CSI.
Since we could not plan out everything in advance we were constantly trying to incorporate new learning’s from the field. We created a Field Engineers Handbook to be distributed to all employees so that they could do first level repairs themselves, reporting formats were created and then modified and re-modified, the aim was to improve; always. We went by the adage, “Change is the only constant”. In that sense CSI is all about change and adaptability, incorporating all good things.
CSI is not just an important component in Infrastructure Management; it is an important component in management philosophy as a whole. Thus in the debate of the improvements of ITIL V3, the extra emphasis on Service Strategy and CSI, help businesses by enhancing Business Value.
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