All businesses want to save money, especially in this economic climate. Most businesses now are heavily dependent on IT and the IT services they use. Some are completely reliant on their IT departments, but typically those at the top of the business have minimal understanding of this vital element of the organisation. IT is often seen as a 'money pit' and the benefits that are provided are difficult to quantify. But the simple fact is that like all good business departments, the key to a successful IT department is all about the effective use of processes and procedures to maintain effectiveness and efficiency. All the fantastic technology in the world will not be worth the cost, if it not used effectively and efficiently to help achieve the business goals.
ITIL is a process framework, based on the practice of IT Service Management. IT Service Management is based on the concept that IT should be delivered to the business as a service. Business customers want to be able to carry out their business, and the technology that supports that should be seamless and work first time, every time. ITIL is not a magic bullet, but by adopting 5 simple stages, it is possible to improve the delivery of services to the business and make real and measurable savings in the overall IT budget.
Step 1 - it is vital to remember that IT is part of the business. Often we hear about IT and business alignment, as if they were separate from each other - they are not. They should work together to further the overall aim of the organisation. This is the first step - understand and vocalise the goals of the organisation. What are the strategy, the mission statement, the goals and objectives of the business?
Clarify what it is that your organisation is trying to achieve. Often this can be stated in the simplest terms - make a profit. But this is not enough for the organisation to develop a strategy. It is necessary to understand how that goal is to be reached. What are the key services or products that the business produces? What are the key business drivers? Is the organisation based on the delivery of excellent customer service, or a high specification product, or both? Once this has been established and articulated throughout the organisation, it is possible to match these goals and drivers to the IT services that support them. For example, online business models are very reliant on their IT provision, downtime will mean a potential loss of existing customers, reputation and future business. So the availability of the online system is a key driver and IT must understand that requirement and be resourced to provide it.
This is where the start of an IT strategy, complementary to the overall business strategy should begin to be developed.
How will this save you money?
No more wasted budget on IT systems and services that do not support the needs of the organisation. By implementing the concepts of IT Service Strategy, your IT department will begin to support and promote the strategy of your organisation.
The Service Strategy publication in the ITIL framework provides advice and guidance on financial management, demand management, IT service portfolio management and the application of strategic assessments to ensure that the demands of the organisation are fully supported. By understanding the true cost of IT services, and the demand for those services within the business, is a key factor in ensuring that money is not being wasted on services that do not support the key drivers in your organisation. Review of the overall portfolio of services that you are asking your IT department to deliver, may provide insight into savings on unnecessary or redundant services. The application of a strategic assessment of business needs supported by IT, will ensure that business and IT are working together to deliver the organisational goal.
More details about how the ITIL Service Strategy guidance can help your business will be available in future articles, or you might choose to attend a training course to understand more about the ITIL framework. The best place to start is with an ITIL Foundation course.
Choosing to begin to adopt the ITIL framework, beginning with the consideration of your IT strategy, is the first step to saving money in your organisation.
In Step 2 I will be reviewing the next important money saving stage in the ITIL framework - Service Design.
Source: ezinearticles.com