Does ITIL® really prove IT’s value to the business?

This is a copy of blog on SourceWire Sept 09, 2009

Hornbill’s latest survey “ITIL: State of the Nation” reveals that 70% of organisations now have IT on the board but 35% of executives still struggle with resources and only 51% can measure performance IT Service Management software provider Hornbill has announced the results of the company’s latest survey, revealing some interesting insights into the role of the CIO and the relationship between IT and the business today. Over 500 executives and senior managers from both commercial and government organisations took part in the survey, entitled “ITIL: State of the Nation”, which looked into international adoption rates of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) best practice framework version 3 since its launch in June 2007. Key highlights of the survey include:• 70% of respondents confirmed that IT now has representation on the board.• 50% claimed that the IT department holds regular planning meetings with the rest of the business (every day, week or month) with the remaining half meeting only quarterly or even annually.• The major positive outcomes from these meetings are helping IT to ‘properly understand business goals’ (78%), and to ‘plan resources to meet demand’ (65%), followed in third place by the opportunity to ‘establish clear metrics to measure achievements’ (51%).• More than one third (35%) of respondents struggle with planning resources to meet the demands of their organisation.• Over 54% of respondents do not charge the business for the delivery of IT and of those who do, 31% allocate a cost per use for each service, or divide the costs evenly across all employees and departments (24%).• 51% do not track the cost of providing IT services to the business, mirroring the number of respondents who said they do not have concise metrics in place to measure the services and therefore the costs per service provided.IT’s growing representation on the board (70%) is validation that the function is now considered essential to the business to help drive strategy forward and provide senior level sponsorship and support for service improvement initiatives such as adopting ITIL. Despite this trend, many IT departments do not interact with the rest of the business regularly enough, sometimes only on an ad-hoc basis, putting them at grave risk of either being out of tune with the business needs and drivers, or delivering irrelevant services at the wrong time, making IT a likely victim of outsourcing. The findings of the survey reveal that the UK is only marginally ahead of the US across most phases of ITIL. This is perhaps not surprising given that the UK market was exposed to ITIL much earlier than the US. Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems, commented: “One notable aspect of ITIL v3 is its orientation towards business services, moving IT away from a pure technology play. What is now becoming apparent is the need to focus on people, for they are the process deliverers and receivers of service. Whichever version of the ITIL best practice framework organisations are looking to adopt, the drivers are the same: improving service quality and increasing customer satisfaction. Process can only take you so far. It is people that make the difference between poor and excellent service. The service desk is IT’s shop window and by ensuring that it is run by the right staff, with the right attitude and the right tools, IT can tackle service quality and customer satisfaction head on, instead of expecting processes alone to make a difference. The challenge for IT remains to demonstrate some quick wins to secure business attention, then forge ahead with the more strategic aspects of ITIL v3, complete the service lifecycle and demonstrate the true benefits of ITIL.”One final point is clear: the view of the business with regard to IT is changing and becoming more favourable with only 3% of business executives considering IT a ‘law unto itself’ and 32% firmly of the opinion that IT is a ‘competent business partner’, ensuring critical services are available to the organisation when needed.Hornbill collaborated with Ken Turbitt of the Service Management Consultancy (SMCG) Ltd to prepare the survey with input from the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), and it was promoted via the Service Desk Institute (SDI), Pink Elephant and ITP Report online. Mauricio Marrone of the University of Göttingen contributed to the statistical data analysis and findings.To download a copy of Hornbill’s survey and white paper, please go to: http://www.hornbill.com/itilstate