Adopting aspects of ITIL as a framework for running our Services & Support business

I have a member looking to speak with other memebrs that have adopted ITIL for support. Anyone have any advice?

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Permalink Reply by Vernon Palango on June 26, 2009 at 10:51am: Nicole,

I am the Principle Consultant for ITIL at InteQ Corporation. What type of advise are you looking for, how to start with ITIL? What the ITIL Program needs to look like for your organization?

I'll be happy to guide you on your first steps. Feel free to drop by our website, www.inteqnet.com as well, and look at the training pages for more information as well.

- V. Palango; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David Kay on July 24, 2009 at 8:02pm: Nicole -

Allow me to be a bit of a contrarian on this topic. ITIL has some valuable structure for IT organizations, including IT service desks. Within customer-facing organizations, Network Operations Centers or other real-time application delivery functions can learn something from ITIL's careful approach to managing change and availability. So, if you're a SaaS vendor, there may be things to learn from ITIL.

But for most SSPA members, ITIL is a complete bust.

Remember, this is a framework created in the 70s for running IT organizations. Sure, it's been updated, but it was created to solve a different set of problem than most SSPA members care about. Value-added services? No dice. Knowledge management? We're working on that. Self-service? Sure, I can tell you what volume it would fit into. Customer-generated content, Web 2.0, forums, real-time collaboration? ITIL has nothing for you.

ITIL apologists can explain how, as a framework, it covers all this and more. Fine. It is a *very* general framework, and we all can play the game to show where something fits inside ITIL. Or superstring theory. Or whatever.

But like superstring theory, ITIL doesn't give our fellow members much practical guidance they can sit down and apply. Unless they're responsible for a NOC, customer-facing support executives should look elsewhere. The emperor has no clothes.

OK, let me know what you think. I'll be starting my car with a broom handle for the forseeable future.

Best,
David; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jay Moorman on July 29, 2009 at 8:24am: Nicole, we have a hosted and SaaS operation that is managed with ITIL. We have some consideration in progress in how that framework fits in our normal Support operation. I'd be happy to connect you although it sounds like we are in the same stage.; ▶ Reply to This