Value of ITIL Process Framework

to IT Service Management
WHITE PAPER

Author: Viswanathan. S

This white paper analyzes the value ITIL process framework adds to IT service management.
In IT service management parlance the value of a service can be measured in four param-
eters: alignment of IT service to business, cost, quality of service and timeliness of service.
Implementation of ITIL processes will improve all these four parameters.

Wipro Technologies
Innovative Solutions, Quality Leadership
WHITE PAPER Value of ITIL Process Framework to IT Service Management

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 3

DEFINITION OF VALUE PERTAINING TO IT SERVICES ................................... 4

HOW ITIL DOES ADDS VALUE TO IT SERVICES ............................................. 4

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 7

REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 7

GLOSSARY ................................................................................................... 8

ABOUT THE AUTHOR .....................................................................................8

ABOUT WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES................................................................... 8

WIPRO IN TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES.................................9

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Pageof: Contents
WHITE PAPER Value of ITIL Process Framework to IT Service Management

Introduction
Leading companies shift from purely a cost- oriented focus to a value-oriented focus. It has
been found that the most forward-thinking, best practice companies have begun a shift away
from purely operational metrics and measurements towards tracking the business value
delivered by their IT initiatives. CIOs have traditionally delivered the requested technologies
to the business at the lower cost through a combination of specialty service providers and
internal services. The Best CIOs recognize the flaws associated with this approach; this
forces the discussions about the value of IT to be based strictly on cost. The more savy CIOs
are moving toward a role that has them focusing on cost effectively maximizing the business
value enabled by IT. (Source: IT Trends 2003: IT Services; from Giga Information Group).

As the IT organization’s role moves beyond efficiency to Business effectiveness,

implementing an ITO value management process is crucial to optimizing an organization’s
return on the IT investment.

In this new scenario the words like “ best practices”, “process optimization”, “quality of
service” and “alignment of IT services to business” etc. do not remain mere buzzword; rather
they have turned out to be the lifeline of all ITOs. It is essential that ITOs and service providers
adopt world-class processes and best practices so that they don’t learn and grow through
the path of trials, errors and tribulations.

© Wipro Technologies Page : 03 of 09

WHITE PAPER Value of ITIL Process Framework to IT Service Management

Definition of Value Pertaining to IT Service

Management
In IT Service management parlance the value of a Service can be measured in four parameters:
alignment of IT service to business, cost, quality of service and timeliness of service.

Alignment of Service to Business: The degree to which IT service is aligned with the current
and future need of the business and its customers

Cost: Rs/$/UKP/Euro/ /

Quality of Service: QoS (Quality of Service) is a measurement of how well a service or

solution complies with internal or external service-level agreements (SLAs). These metrics
include, but are not limited to – availability, reliability, security, up-time percentages,
serviceability, response times, storage, dsaster recovery etc.

Timeliness: This is defined as responsiveness of the service provider to reactive support

and planned change reflecting business priorities.

How ITIL Does Add Value to IT Services

The degree to which IT Service is aligned with the business can be rated by the Metrics
generated by the service providers. Most of the ITO/service providers generate reports full of
IT performance metrics and very few produce business focused metrics.

Within the service level management of ITIL there is a focus on translating IT strategy of the
business into IT services, managing the service level for those services, and putting in place
continuous service improvement processes for those services. It defines, negotiates,
monitors, reports, and controls customer specific service levels within predefined standard
service parameters. It also generates customer-specific services if the SLA requires it.

Where “defines” means translating customer-specific service delivery requirements into

selected values for standard service level parameters and incorporating these into the form
of Service Level Agreements (SLAs). SLAs bring the right balance between the demand of IT
services and supply of IT services by knowing the requirement of the business and clearly
communicating the capabilities of IT. Thus the right expectation of what is possible at what
price is set. It also provides advance warning to business plans & forecasts.

Thus services are aligned with business requirements and business strategy.

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WHITE PAPER Value of ITIL Process Framework to IT Service Management

ITIL Ensures Quality of Service

It should be noted IT organizations do not trip over the mountains….but over the pebbles.
Disruptive changes, high “peer support costs”, poor service level agreements, unidentified
components, unknown service costs, unable to justify investment, no measure or proof of
improvement, inconsistency in delivery of service and changes, unsatisfactory response
time; More than 50 % of effort of IT staff is spent in firefighting; the share of repeat incidents
is more than 40 % of all tickets – these are just some of the many complaints often heard in
the corridors of IT organizations.

Implementation of ITIL processes can ensure significant improvement in professionalism,

proactive support, speed & accuracy of resolution of the incident/request/query, increased
availability, stability of business-critical systems, effective change management and overall
customer satisfaction.

Change
Management & Less adverse impact Problem
of changes on Elimination of
Release Mgmt management
services, reduced repeat incidents.
process
no. of failed Ensures higher
changes availability

Capacity
Improved Known
planning process Increases Qu li y f Error
Uptime DB
Service
Speed and
Improves accuracy of
Availability resolution
Configuration
increases
Availability Management
management Process
process

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WHITE PAPER Value of ITIL Process Framework to IT Service Management

ITIL Ensures Timeliness of Service?

It is possible to achieve significant improvement in accuracy of scheduling of major
changes, % of deployment, which are right first time, responsiveness on small or
corrective changes, and business/IT coordination in change planning and capability to
operate proactively more than reactively.

Configuration
Change Management
Management process
process

Change control Board, Impact

analysis, better scheduling of CMDB
changes

Decreases
Rollbacks, Incidents
caused by incorrect
cha es
Problem
Management process

Incident volume Elimination

and Firefighting of repetitive
decreased incidents
I

Known
Error
DB
Accurate
Rollouts

Effective software
control, consistent
Distribution process,
standardized desktops

Release
Management
process

ITIL Ensures Cost Reduction

Recently, some companies have made public the benefits they realized by implementing
ITIL best practices for IT service Management:

Procter & Gamble- After the implementation of ITIL processes has seen a six to eight percent
cut in operating costs. Another ITIL project has reduced help desk calls by 10 %.
Ontario Justice Enterprises- Created a virtual help/ service desk that cut support costs
by 40 %

Caterpillar- After applying ITIL principles, the rate of reaching the target response time for
incident management on Web-related services jumped from 60 % to more than 90 %.
A typical scenario where cost of service is reduced without improved Quality is depicted
below:

© Wipro Technologies Page : 06 of 09

WHITE PAPER Value of ITIL Process Framework to IT Service Management

Configuration
Change Management
Management process
process

No. of calls caused by

changes reduces CMDB

Better scripts and

Incident Knowledge Base
will increase the Average cos
Management call Decreas

s
process incidents resolved
At L1 (Service Desk)

In me
and Firefighting
decreased

Problem Elimination Known

Management of repetitive Error
process incidents DB

Conclusion
As outlined in this document, the benefits of adopting and implementing ITIL are many.
Organizations have cut costs, improved their efficiency effectiveness significantly. The
enterprises should adopt ITIL as a discipline. All improvement efforts in IT service
management should be done with ITIL as a frame of reference.

References
1. ‘Effects of the British Standard on IT service Management’, Gartner Research note.
2. ‘IT Trends 2003: Offshore outsourcing’, Giga Information group
3. ‘Best Practice for Service support, and Best Practice for Service Delivery, ITIL the
key to Managing IT services.
4. Melissa Shaw, Network World Management Strategies Newsletter

© Wipro Technologies Page : 07 of 09

WHITE PAPER Value of ITIL Process Framework to IT Service Management

Glossary
ITO - IT Organization
ITIL – Information Technology Information Library
QoS – Quality of Service
SLA – Service Level Agreement
CMDB - Configuration Management Database

About the Author

Viswanathan is the Manager (Mission Quality) and Six sigma Black belt for Technology
Infrastructure Services division of Wipro Technologies.

About Wipro Technologies

Wipro is the first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMMi Level 5 certified IT services company globally.
Wipro provides comprehensive IT solutions and services (including systems integration, IS
outsourcing, package implementation, software application development and maintenance)
and Research & Development services (hardware and software design, development and
implementation) to corporations globally.

Wipro’s unique value proposition is further delivered through our pioneering Offshore
Outsourcing Model and stringent Quality Processes of SEI and Six Sigma.

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WHITE PAPER

Wipro in Technology Infrastructure Services

Wipro is the pioneer of infrastructure support service delivery model in India. Wipro runs
large Offshore Development Centers for its global client base, servicing both their
software development needs and IT infrastructure needs. Wipro has over 50 such
offshore centers running for its global clients, which is the largest for any Indian software
services provider. The Government of India awarded Wipro with the Business Model
Innovation Award for its efforts in this space. Wipro has over 2500 person years of
experience in IT infrastructure management delivering services to many global customers
such as Seagate, Putnam Investments, J. P. Morgan, CSC Ltd., Nike, Data Channel,
KPMG, Scottish Parliament, Orbit, etc. We have built a rich repository of best practices,
which we share with our customers for delivering exemplary service.

http://www.wipro.com/tis

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