Why Service Management Matters

Published: March 3, 2008   IT service management is vital to the success of an organization because it aligns people, processes, and infrastructure to deliver and support IT-based services that enable business functions and activities. The need for service management will continue to grow as businesses increase their dependence on IT services while at the same time demanding the efficient and cost-effective introduction of new and changed services. Simply put, this cannot happen without the aligning force of service management practices. A December 2006 forecast by the Gartner Group cites the growing importance of business and IT alignment: “Businesses that connect the design of information and business process with technology will exceed average sector performance by at least 15 percent until at least 2011. By 2012, business processes, information and relationships will be more than half the value focus of most former IT organizations in large enterprises.” In short, business and IT pros who do not see IT service management as important now will see it as important soon. Those who do will prosper, and those who don’t, won’t, according to Gartner. Aidan Lawes, former CEO of itSMF International, agrees. “Establishing the necessary Service Management solution can be challenging,” Lawes warns. “It takes time, effort, money, and commitment to implement service improvement programs. Adopting ‘good practice,’ as described in ITIL Service Management Practices, can help enterprises on this journey—but it is not the entire solution and it is certainly not an end in itself. Enterprises seeking to be truly world-class in service management need to harness other frameworks and approaches—such as MOF, COBIT, Balanced Scorecards, Six Sigma, ISO 20000, etc.—to develop, measure, and manage their solutions.” “There is absolutely no doubt that enterprises that do achieve world-class service management practices reap the benefits—nimbler, leaner, more focused and responsive to business needs, faster to market, and delivering real return on investment,” Lawes concludes.

This accelerator is part of a larger series of tools and guidance from Solution Accelerators. Download Get How Microsoft Moves ITIL V3 from Concept to Practice Solution Accelerators Notifications Sign up to learn about updates and new releases Feedback Send us your comments or suggestions