Today, Business Services are increasingly delivered or
enabled using Information Technology. Business
and IT management need guidance and support on how to manage the IT
infrastructure in order to improve functionality and quality in an cost
effective manner. The concept of IT Service Management (ITSM) is at the heart of
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL provides the
much-needed guidance on how to manage IT infrastructure so as to streamline IT
services in line with business expectations. ITIL is a best practices framework,
it presents the consolidated learning’s and experience of organisations
worldwide on how to best manage IT services to meet business expectations.
The concept of IT services compels the IT managers to
take a holistic view of the IT infrastructure. Traditionally, IT managers are
used to managing individual IT components i.e. server, database, application,
network etc.
The “IT Service” concept views IT from an end user
perspective i.e. IT service is what the customer or consumer receives. The IT
service itself can be made up of hardware, software and communication
facilities, but is perceived by the customer/consumer as a self contained,
coherent entity. The table below illustrates the point further.
|
Sno
|
Supplier
|
IT
Service
|
Customer/Consumer
|
|
1
|
External
Network provider
|
Network
Services like WAN and VPN
|
IT department
of the organization.
|
|
2
|
External data
center
|
Server
Hosting, Internet Connectivity
|
IT department
of the organization
|
|
3
|
IT department
of the organization
|
Email
services, ERP services, Intranet, Internet, storage
|
Organization
employees
|
As shown above the IT department of an organization can be both a customer
and a supplier. The IT service in turn is made up of various components. For
example email service provided by the IT department is made up of IT components
like Email server, email server application, email client application, LAN/WAN
and the Desktop computer. Deterioration
in any of the IT components will affect the end-user IT service i.e. email
service.
IT service management is being cognizant of what is an
“IT service” and managing the IT infrastructure components so as to provide
quality IT service in the most effective and efficient manner. In other words IT
service providers adopting ITSM should provide high quality IT services that
meets the customer expectations within the imposed cost constraints.
ITSM involves embracing set of well-defined best
practices like ITIL that facilitate delivery of cost effective, quality IT
services. The best practices should be adapted within an organisations
environment by addressing a combination of people, process and technology
issues.
IT Service Management is a structured approach to IT
service delivery and support. IT Service Management (ITSM) concept can be
realized by adopting the ITIL best practices framework. At the core of ITIL
framework are the two Service Management modules called “Service Delivery”
and “Service Support”. ITIL framework takes a comprehensive view of ITSM and
hence also includes other areas like application management, infrastructure
management and security management. In all ITIL today has 7 modules that impact
IT service management. All the ITIL areas are elaborated ahead.
The table below illustrates where ITIL fits within an
organization
|
Sno
|
Organization
need
|
Solution
|
|
1
|
Certification
based on third party assessment that the IT organization is compliant to
international standard on IT Service Management.
|
ISO 20000
|
|
2
|
How to
introduce ITSM in the IT organization? What are the industry best
practices on ITSM?
|
ITIL
|
|
3
|
What is to be
done in my IT organization to adopt ITSM?
|
My
organization Policy, Processes and Procedures
|
 
|
