ITIL: What it is and why you should care

If you are a CIO or IT director or manager, your peers or employer have probably asked you in the last year or two about your plans for your IT Infrastructure Library.

ITIL awareness has crossed the pond much like the British Invasion of the 60's. Ok - that may be an exaggeration - certainly ITIL is not as popular as the Beatles. But it is becoming more of a trend these days due to pressures on IT to perform like other business units – to show a better return for the investment.

A survey reported by Network World (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/022908-itil-adoption.html) indicates that nearly 60 percent of 100 U.S. CIOs confirmed that they are working with ITIL. A Global Information Security Survey conducted in 2007 indicated that 43 percent of the organizations in North America were using ITIL.

So if more and more organizations are using ITIL - what is it and why should you consider it for your organization?

Information Technology Infrastructure Library, more than 20 years old, is not new to the IT landscape. An outgrowth of the British Central Computer and Telecommunication Agency, it has gone through several revisions over the years, with version 3 released in May 2007.

ITIL is not software, but a framework of several processes that prescribe management of IT - particularly IT Service Support and IT Service Delivery. As these two areas have the greatest impact on the rest of the business, it makes sense that most ITIL process focus on these.

An organization that adopts the ITIL framework can expect the following benefits:

• Common industry-recognized best-practices for IT service delivery.
• Common language for IT terminology.
• Better alignment of IT services to the business.
• Improved service to the business, and an improved IT reputation.
• Enhanced financial management of IT.
  

Still, while these benefits can be compelling, they come at a cost that many impatient IT organizations are not willing to invest.

So IT managers hoping to make the move to ITIL might do well to keep these factors in mind when trying to obtain ITIL:

Top level adoption: ITIL cannot be a grassroots initiative to be successful. ITIL initiatives must have CIO-level buy-in and approval, and be a top strategic project of the organization with all of the commensurate clout that carries, because its framework and processes usually require crossing the lines of normal IT responsibility silos.

Commitment to training: ITIL implementation requires a minimum of three certifications at various levels in the organization: Foundation, Practitioner and Manager. Ideally, all IT staff should undergo some training to bring the entire organization up to a minimum level of competence.

Commitment to change: ITIL can only be effective if the organization is willing to adopt new processes and abandon deficient practices.

Expect to be asked where you stand in the ITIL implementation process. Consider adding one or more ITIL certifications to your resume, if you are working for or plan to work for a medium-to-large organization.

And remember, ITIL is about changing business processes, which is difficult and can take time. Take the long term view, and then reap the rewards in improved IT service delivery.