8 myths about the management of services, which are just myths: On the introduction, high cost and relevance
In today's IT environment, one of the key points are customer needs and business process efficiency. The concept of service management (Service Management), or, as it is called in relation to IT-processes, ITSM, acts in this case as a kind of link between developers and the client. This concept has existed for a long time and managed to acquire speculations and errors. Below we will examine the nature of the main myths and debunk them.
/ Flickr / Creative Sustainability / CC
The most important thing to know about service management, Service Management, is a set of measures. Junji Obuchi, senior service strategy specialist at Tokyo-based KVH, compares the service approach with the Peter Drucker management concept: "Business must start with the values, needs, expectations, realities, conditions and actions of the client."
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Guided by this, KVH employees viewed ITSM as an integrated approach, in which ITIL sets the principles for problem-solving and decision-making by top management.
KVH's structured strategy is an example of a deliberate approach to the implementation of service management in an enterprise. Although many processes are focused on the technical part, maximum efficiency in the approach is provided only by the full inclusion of the organization in the process. Jarod Greene, vice president of product marketing for Cherwell Software, is sure of that.
“Shortly after the ink on the license agreement dries, you can think for a moment that your ITSM project is complete. Nothing like this is just the beginning. Over the next three to six months, this work begins on the formation of principles, since you are laying the groundwork for improved service management, ”Green says.
A multi-step implementation plan, he said, should include collecting feedback from users, providing all the tools for the service center, improving the problem management process, uniting the team around ITSM.
If the mere installation of the necessary software fails, then you will have to deal with a painfully long and tedious process? This is not true, but it is not difficult to guess where this myth originates from. The fact is that ITIL can hardly be called easy reading. The five volumes described 26 processes, each of which is divided into many elements. For successful implementation, of course, you should familiarize yourself with each of them and bring all the processes in accordance with ITIL.
Erika Flora, chief consultant for Beyond20 courses, recalls that the ITIL practical guide advises scaling or limiting implementation to only critical processes. Many organizations are trying to implement all 26 processes instead of a phased, easy approach with the improvement of only those things that need correction. In that case, yes, the implementation of Service Management really turns into a tiring routine.
As in the case of the complexity of the implementation process, the accuracy of this myth depends on the approach. Under certain circumstances, managing services may require a serious investment. But it should be borne in mind that costs depend on the size of the organization: the more complex the processes and technologies used by the enterprise, the higher the cost of implementation.
Branimir Valentic from the University of Zagreb divides the costs of pre-implementation (training and literature), associated with implementation (staff costs and attracted specialists), total (tool for ITSM, project manager costs) and following implementation (human resource and tool maintenance). It is noteworthy that almost at every stage there is a place for the efficient use of resources through the involvement of an experienced party.
In addition, one should not overlook the savings due to the management of services. Doug Tire from the University of Miami, referring to Gartner, mentions that customers who seriously approached the use of ITIL reduced their unplanned work by 50–75% for two to three years and improved their productivity by 10–25%. In the end, this was reflected in cost savings. Doug also cites a report by Plexent, which saved $ 120.5 thousand by introducing incident management systems.
Significantly reduce costs and allows the use of SaaS-tools for the deployment of ITSM. Cloud platforms provide businesses with tools to track requests, visualize IT work, combine disparate tools, and automate service management processes.
For example, ServiceNow cloud platform allows achieving consistency in the contents of IT processes for solving the tasks of providing the required level of service and automating the detection of services rendered and assets used to estimate their value. You can learn about all the features and capabilities of the platform in our competence center.
Automation of IT and business processes allows enterprises to increase the level of service, reduce costs while improving the efficiency of inter-organizational activities and ensure business continuity. However, a number of managers sometimes begin to doubt the need for change. As for the management of services, it often seems that the interaction between the client side and the development has been established and does not require improvements. Most often there is a dangerous fallacy.
Most of the described ITIL processes, if not directed directly to solving communication problems, imply a feedback system and always take into account business requirements.
A study conducted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) showed that ineffective communication negatively affects the successful completion of tasks. It turned out that, without knowing it, large companies risk losing $ 135 million from every billion invested in the project. Half of this amount comes from inefficient communications, which indicates the critical need of organizations to fill gaps in this area.
/ Flickr / Startup Stock Photos / CC
This myth originates from another false statement: supposedly ITIL forms a rigid, inflexible service management structure. In reality, ITIL is a deliberately flexible and adaptable library. As mentioned above, the approach to management and its guidelines do not contradict other philosophies, but complement them.
It should be understood that ITIL has been the guiding principle for managing services for more than a quarter of a century. Of course, during this time new approaches and concepts have come to light, but the fundamental principle of the library has always remained to adopt and adapt - “adopt and adapt”.
On closer inspection, ITIL and SCRUM do not contradict each other. As for DevOps, thanks to the additional automation and tools created as a result of the transition, IT organizations can use the collaborative, lightweight approach of ITIL, for which the structure was originally developed.
"Practice shows that Agile, Lean, DevOps has much more in common with ITIL than previously thought," says Kaimar Karu, head of ITSM at AXELOS, which owns the ITIL trademark. In his opinion, the combination of these concepts pushes IT organizations to improve the management of IT services and makes them think outside IT.
According to Richard Stobart (Richard Stobart) from Unboxed Consulting, Agile is a catalyst for change, and ITIL helps organizations cope with them. Thus, the service management methodology is presented as an album into which additional sheets can be inserted in order to make it more holistic and efficient for specific tasks.
This myth is so common that AXELOS even had to write an article debunking him. It focuses on the core concept of ITIL - adopt and adapt. The flexibility of the library allows you to adopt only the most necessary for managing services in a particular enterprise.
Maintenance and support of basic systems is only part of IT management, but errors at this level can be critical for small and medium businesses. The introduction of ITIL ensures that an organization of any size makes optimum use of its IT infrastructure, increasing work efficiency and reducing costs.
According to the HDI and itSMF USA study, the following trend is observed: among the surveyed large and medium-sized organizations there is approximately the same proportion of applying the principles of service management (78% and 70%, respectively). More than half of small businesses also use ITSM in their operations. Moreover, among the latter, the largest percentage of companies are in the process of implementation or planning to implement in the near future (30%). Based on this, the authors of the study conclude that the gap between large corporations and medium and small businesses in the issue of adopting ITSM is narrowing.
Service management is usually associated with IT. However, as a way of organizing work, it finds application in other areas. According to the results of the HDI and itSMF USA study, more than half of the respondents from 1,200 companies surveyed of various sizes and orientations use or plan to apply the principles of service management in non-IT areas. Moreover, among other structures and methodologies, ITIL was the leader, with a large margin in the organizations surveyed, containing guidelines for implementing service management. Outside IT, ITIL preferred 64% of respondents.
51% of organizations that have introduced or planned to implement the management of services outside of IT-activity, were guided by the new opportunities. Access to an abundance of data collected by ITSM tools provides both new competitive advantages and a point of focus for innovation. The survey found that most often service management is adapted for the work of customer service and support departments, technical management, recruitment and training, and financial department.
As Michael Keeling, Operations Analyst and ITSM Specialist, noted, AXELOS is taking active steps to spread its service management practices beyond IT. He notes that the phrase “infrastructure” has disappeared from the generally accepted name of the library, and, most likely, the concept of ITSM will take a course on the organization of common work. To support partners in 2015, AXELOS even launched an initiative aimed at applying ITIL beyond traditional IT infrastructure.
When in 2009, Ivor Macfarlane (Ivor Macfarlane) from IBM wondered if ITSM was an ultimatum best practice, ITIL was almost 20 years old, or, as Ivor wrote, more than 3 thousand years, if we consider technology as the use of tools and information for transmission and development knowledge.
8 years have passed, and service management has not lost relevance. First, because of its flexibility and adaptability. Secondly, according to ITIL expert Richard LaRocque, no IT organization can afford to manage its services haphazardly, without proper control and with a very limited understanding of cause and effect. ITSM does not provide answers to all questions, but creates a solid, organized foundation on which to rely.
ITIL, as a guideline, adopts new approaches to processes from other concepts, and ITSM operations become automated. According to the IBM Cloud, ITSM adapts to new realities and really gets rid of IT in the abbreviation. Within organizations, an ecosystem of service providers is starting to take shape, and companies are learning to look at their internal processes and services from a customer perspective. The ITSM concepts are successfully combined with all the new trends and find their application both in the IoT world and far beyond IT.
PS What else do we write about in our blog? Here are some materials on the topic:
/ Flickr / Creative Sustainability / CCMyth # 1: Installing software is all that is required to implement service management.
The most important thing to know about service management, Service Management, is a set of measures. Junji Obuchi, senior service strategy specialist at Tokyo-based KVH, compares the service approach with the Peter Drucker management concept: "Business must start with the values, needs, expectations, realities, conditions and actions of the client."
')
Guided by this, KVH employees viewed ITSM as an integrated approach, in which ITIL sets the principles for problem-solving and decision-making by top management.
KVH's structured strategy is an example of a deliberate approach to the implementation of service management in an enterprise. Although many processes are focused on the technical part, maximum efficiency in the approach is provided only by the full inclusion of the organization in the process. Jarod Greene, vice president of product marketing for Cherwell Software, is sure of that.
“Shortly after the ink on the license agreement dries, you can think for a moment that your ITSM project is complete. Nothing like this is just the beginning. Over the next three to six months, this work begins on the formation of principles, since you are laying the groundwork for improved service management, ”Green says.
A multi-step implementation plan, he said, should include collecting feedback from users, providing all the tools for the service center, improving the problem management process, uniting the team around ITSM.
Myth # 2: Implementing service management is a time consuming and tedious process.
If the mere installation of the necessary software fails, then you will have to deal with a painfully long and tedious process? This is not true, but it is not difficult to guess where this myth originates from. The fact is that ITIL can hardly be called easy reading. The five volumes described 26 processes, each of which is divided into many elements. For successful implementation, of course, you should familiarize yourself with each of them and bring all the processes in accordance with ITIL.
Erika Flora, chief consultant for Beyond20 courses, recalls that the ITIL practical guide advises scaling or limiting implementation to only critical processes. Many organizations are trying to implement all 26 processes instead of a phased, easy approach with the improvement of only those things that need correction. In that case, yes, the implementation of Service Management really turns into a tiring routine.
Myth number 3: Service management is too expensive for my company.
As in the case of the complexity of the implementation process, the accuracy of this myth depends on the approach. Under certain circumstances, managing services may require a serious investment. But it should be borne in mind that costs depend on the size of the organization: the more complex the processes and technologies used by the enterprise, the higher the cost of implementation.
Branimir Valentic from the University of Zagreb divides the costs of pre-implementation (training and literature), associated with implementation (staff costs and attracted specialists), total (tool for ITSM, project manager costs) and following implementation (human resource and tool maintenance). It is noteworthy that almost at every stage there is a place for the efficient use of resources through the involvement of an experienced party.
In addition, one should not overlook the savings due to the management of services. Doug Tire from the University of Miami, referring to Gartner, mentions that customers who seriously approached the use of ITIL reduced their unplanned work by 50–75% for two to three years and improved their productivity by 10–25%. In the end, this was reflected in cost savings. Doug also cites a report by Plexent, which saved $ 120.5 thousand by introducing incident management systems.
Significantly reduce costs and allows the use of SaaS-tools for the deployment of ITSM. Cloud platforms provide businesses with tools to track requests, visualize IT work, combine disparate tools, and automate service management processes.
For example, ServiceNow cloud platform allows achieving consistency in the contents of IT processes for solving the tasks of providing the required level of service and automating the detection of services rendered and assets used to estimate their value. You can learn about all the features and capabilities of the platform in our competence center.
Myth number 4: "Why do we need ITSM, departments, and so good communication"
Automation of IT and business processes allows enterprises to increase the level of service, reduce costs while improving the efficiency of inter-organizational activities and ensure business continuity. However, a number of managers sometimes begin to doubt the need for change. As for the management of services, it often seems that the interaction between the client side and the development has been established and does not require improvements. Most often there is a dangerous fallacy.
Most of the described ITIL processes, if not directed directly to solving communication problems, imply a feedback system and always take into account business requirements.
A study conducted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) showed that ineffective communication negatively affects the successful completion of tasks. It turned out that, without knowing it, large companies risk losing $ 135 million from every billion invested in the project. Half of this amount comes from inefficient communications, which indicates the critical need of organizations to fill gaps in this area.
/ Flickr / Startup Stock Photos / CCMyth number 5: "Service management is contrary to our approach"
This myth originates from another false statement: supposedly ITIL forms a rigid, inflexible service management structure. In reality, ITIL is a deliberately flexible and adaptable library. As mentioned above, the approach to management and its guidelines do not contradict other philosophies, but complement them.
It should be understood that ITIL has been the guiding principle for managing services for more than a quarter of a century. Of course, during this time new approaches and concepts have come to light, but the fundamental principle of the library has always remained to adopt and adapt - “adopt and adapt”.
On closer inspection, ITIL and SCRUM do not contradict each other. As for DevOps, thanks to the additional automation and tools created as a result of the transition, IT organizations can use the collaborative, lightweight approach of ITIL, for which the structure was originally developed.
"Practice shows that Agile, Lean, DevOps has much more in common with ITIL than previously thought," says Kaimar Karu, head of ITSM at AXELOS, which owns the ITIL trademark. In his opinion, the combination of these concepts pushes IT organizations to improve the management of IT services and makes them think outside IT.
According to Richard Stobart (Richard Stobart) from Unboxed Consulting, Agile is a catalyst for change, and ITIL helps organizations cope with them. Thus, the service management methodology is presented as an album into which additional sheets can be inserted in order to make it more holistic and efficient for specific tasks.
Myth number 6: Service management is only suitable for large companies.
This myth is so common that AXELOS even had to write an article debunking him. It focuses on the core concept of ITIL - adopt and adapt. The flexibility of the library allows you to adopt only the most necessary for managing services in a particular enterprise.
Maintenance and support of basic systems is only part of IT management, but errors at this level can be critical for small and medium businesses. The introduction of ITIL ensures that an organization of any size makes optimum use of its IT infrastructure, increasing work efficiency and reducing costs.
According to the HDI and itSMF USA study, the following trend is observed: among the surveyed large and medium-sized organizations there is approximately the same proportion of applying the principles of service management (78% and 70%, respectively). More than half of small businesses also use ITSM in their operations. Moreover, among the latter, the largest percentage of companies are in the process of implementation or planning to implement in the near future (30%). Based on this, the authors of the study conclude that the gap between large corporations and medium and small businesses in the issue of adopting ITSM is narrowing.
Myth number 7: Service management is only suitable for IT departments
Service management is usually associated with IT. However, as a way of organizing work, it finds application in other areas. According to the results of the HDI and itSMF USA study, more than half of the respondents from 1,200 companies surveyed of various sizes and orientations use or plan to apply the principles of service management in non-IT areas. Moreover, among other structures and methodologies, ITIL was the leader, with a large margin in the organizations surveyed, containing guidelines for implementing service management. Outside IT, ITIL preferred 64% of respondents.
51% of organizations that have introduced or planned to implement the management of services outside of IT-activity, were guided by the new opportunities. Access to an abundance of data collected by ITSM tools provides both new competitive advantages and a point of focus for innovation. The survey found that most often service management is adapted for the work of customer service and support departments, technical management, recruitment and training, and financial department.
As Michael Keeling, Operations Analyst and ITSM Specialist, noted, AXELOS is taking active steps to spread its service management practices beyond IT. He notes that the phrase “infrastructure” has disappeared from the generally accepted name of the library, and, most likely, the concept of ITSM will take a course on the organization of common work. To support partners in 2015, AXELOS even launched an initiative aimed at applying ITIL beyond traditional IT infrastructure.
Myth number 8: Service Management is a fashion trend and will become irrelevant in the near future.
When in 2009, Ivor Macfarlane (Ivor Macfarlane) from IBM wondered if ITSM was an ultimatum best practice, ITIL was almost 20 years old, or, as Ivor wrote, more than 3 thousand years, if we consider technology as the use of tools and information for transmission and development knowledge.
8 years have passed, and service management has not lost relevance. First, because of its flexibility and adaptability. Secondly, according to ITIL expert Richard LaRocque, no IT organization can afford to manage its services haphazardly, without proper control and with a very limited understanding of cause and effect. ITSM does not provide answers to all questions, but creates a solid, organized foundation on which to rely.
ITIL, as a guideline, adopts new approaches to processes from other concepts, and ITSM operations become automated. According to the IBM Cloud, ITSM adapts to new realities and really gets rid of IT in the abbreviation. Within organizations, an ecosystem of service providers is starting to take shape, and companies are learning to look at their internal processes and services from a customer perspective. The ITSM concepts are successfully combined with all the new trends and find their application both in the IoT world and far beyond IT.
PS What else do we write about in our blog? Here are some materials on the topic:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/331384/
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