Analyst Reports, Industry Articles

People

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

People are you most valuable and most variable resources.  You will need to build a team of people that will design and develop the process and technology to make your Service Management project a success.

Engaged Executive Sponsor

We have found that an executive sponsor that is fully engaged and behind this project has been a cornerstone to a successful implementation.  The executive sponsor will set clear goals for the project, remove roadblocks and keep everyone focused on results.

Support From The Business is Critical

In ITIL® v3, one of the key concepts is integrating IT with the business.  It is critical for you to go out to your business customers and explain why this project will be good (or even great) for them.  It is important to communicate what is going on, what is coming, how things are going to change and, most importantly, why they should care and fund this project.

Internal (IT) Marketing

Marketing is an essential component that is often missed by organizations.

Internally, it is important for you to explain to your IT staff why this change is good for them and how their role will change in the future.  There will be a fear of change within your organization and early, open and honest communication will be a key factor in alleviating that fear.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Process

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Best practices around process

Many customers believe they are special, unique and different than any other organization.  The reality is that most customers are solving the same types of problems for Service Management the same way as most of their peers.

Take a long and hard look at your environment, your customers and most importantly, peers that have put together processes that work.  There are known best practices out there with organization, various vendors and now with ITIL® v3 best practices articles.

Are you really a “special snowflake”?

It will be challenging for some people to change the process from what they do today to good/best practices.  In most cases, the various vendors are looking at good/best practices and building their solutions based on these recommendations.  The further you deviate from these practices, the more configuration and customization you will need to do to the system.

Realistically ask yourself whether you are a “special snowflake,” different from all the rest out there or whether you are more like your peers inside and outside your industry than you previously thought.  Many of our customers are moving towards using vendor products “out of the box” and configuring their own data elements into the solution.  They are adding customizations only when the customization can be justified by a solid business reason for the change.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Technology

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Technology is not enough!

It is very tempting to believe that technology can solve all of the problems in your organization and get you to great Service Management.  It is a false and very misleading belief.

All three pieces (people, process and technology) need to work together to make the overall solution work.  Keeping a balance and harmony between the different components is the key to success.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should

It is also tempting to look at technology and see all of the interesting ways it can be used in your environment.  New solutions allow you to configure and customize the technology.  When you update a vendor solution or make changes to your own home grown solutions, ask yourself:

• How will this update be used in 3-12 months?
• How many people will benefit from the change?
• What is the cost (time, labor, training, etc…) for this change?
• Is this a natural extension of the technology/process or more of a rip/replace?
• How will we support/maintain this change moving forward?

Ultimately, the decision comes down to determining the business value for this change and whether the benefits outweigh the costs.  We have seen many implementations minimize changes during the first three to six months of the deployment.  The customers ultimately realize that the solutions accomplish the business goals without major customizations.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Closing thoughts – it’s a marathon or series of marathons

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This race is a marathon – not a sprint.  In fact, there will be multiple marathons that you will need to run to get further on the journey.

• Pace yourself so that you have the right amount of time and energy to devote to each part of the race.
• Get a great coach and owner – they will lead the pack and inspire the other runners to fall into line and come together as a team.
• You are not the first person out there that has taken this journey.  Many other people and organizations have done this before and you can learn lessons from their successes and failures.
• Create and find other people to run with you as part of the pack.  You can not make this journey alone and having people run side by side with you will give you strength and encouragement to make it to the finish line.
• You will hit “the wall” – a point in the project where you question if this was such a good idea.  Typically you will feel fatigue, pressure and maybe even the desire to just stop everything and quit.  It is at that point where you have to dig deep and use your coaches and peers to pull yourself through to the end.
• Have a goal in mind for each part of the race – know where you are starting, where the checkpoints are in the race and where the end goal is for this marathon.  Hang in there, work hard and I know you will be successful.   

I hope that this introductory guide helps you understand the upcoming journey you are about to take with Service Management.  I welcome feedback, success stories and any updates from you.

About the Author

Michael Rizzo has been in the Service Management space for the past 11 years.  He has held many different positions including professional services, support, training and now sales management.  He is located in Southern California but travels throughout the country evangelizing the ITIL® and Service Management message.  He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles LIG of the itSMF USA. His email address is:

Mike.rizzo@raptek.com.