 It service management - advanced approach to IT management.
Added: 02/06/2006 |
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The concept of IT service management appeared as the result of essential change in today's IT elements role. Business processes are so much correlated with applications, technical resources, and operations of IT department staff, so that the efficiency of IT department proves to be one of the most important factors of company effectiveness as a whole. Informational technologies, company every day operations are based on, are becoming more complicated, corporate infrastructe is growing, thus demanding essential efforts to be continuously
maintained . Business departments need IT mechanisms work uninterruptedly and provide quality services on terms of optimum expenditure.
The Basic idea of ITSM introduction is to change the role of IT department in company business management. With ITSM IT department is no more auxiliary element of core business, it becomes a kind of supplier of certain services for business-subdivisions, thus taking full responsibility for final work results. Business-subdivision ,or department, formulates its requirements to necessary services and to quality of these services, the managers of Company estimate financial needs to realize these requirements, and IT departments maintain and develop informational infrastructure of Company to provide required services of required quality.
Hewlett-Packard company worked out a standard model of it service management, the so called ITSM Reference Model. This model describes in details business operations and correlations IT department is to provide to obtain quality guaranteed services.
Key it-service elements are - it processes (operations), staff, technologies. The main success factor of it service management introduction is the first element if ITSM - e.t. production IT-department processes, determining the sequence of personnel operations in certain situations, coordinating work of the whole staff. IT departments regularly apply new technologies, making Informational Structure of Company more complicated. But more effective systems alone cannot provide the business with necessary quality services in case the process of such systems application is not defined.
A typical example of IT process - is installation of new personal equipment, network problems prevention, etc. Careless attitude to business process will inevitably becomes the reason of unplanned and uncontrolled changes in IT infrastructure. This will lead to numerous alterations and corrections in business work, regular idle times and, finally, to irrational usage of resources, need in additional time for process reconstruction after collapse, and users' discontent. Consequences of all these problems may prove to be disastrous for Company. This happened, for example, to the biggest interactive auction eBay, when serious software problems caused halt in working process during the whole working day. Within a short period of time eBay shares lost 5 mln dollars in value. Company's problems played into competitors' hands. They managed to take advantage of the situation and made money on it.
HP standard model is based on the best international experience in the sphere of IT, which is summered up in Infrustracture Library. Information technology Infrustracture Library (ITIL) is a unique collection of books in various spheres of IT functions, including resources planning, problems and incidents management, new service application, cost reduction, users management, etc. This informatiom was collected and systematized by the Committee in Telecomunications in Great Britain. Now it is maintained, published and renewed by the independent orgnization EXIN.
In HP standard model all processes are devided into 5 groups. Each group reveals certain aspects of IT service life cycle: starting with analysis of IT department business task, determination of service specifications and confirmation of Service Level Agreement, up to fulfilment and maintainance of services.
First process group: Service Rendering Guarantee. Processes of this group are core in ITSM structure. They make IT sphere stable and influence correlation between other processes.
Second group: IT correlation with business operations. This process enables IT department to work "as business", not just "for business". Potential service market and possible competence is analyzed (business assessment is carried out), IT strategy is developed.
Third group: Service level management. This process is involved into evaluation of change management impact degree on service rendering. Service level management provides information about service availability and computer infrustracture security, as well as possibilities for cost reduction. These data will constitute terms of Service Level Agreement.
Fourth group: "Build and test". The process of fulfilment and test is aimed at working out and approval of a functional version of informational infrustracture item, function and service as a whole.
Fifth group: Operations, Incidents and Problems Management. This process group provides proper functioning of services.
It service management introduction can be started with any of the described group of processes. This is the advantage of HP standard model. HP company began applying ITSM in its own IT department on the basis of standard model, in accordance with the it service management concept.
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