itSMF Australia 2005 Conference: Summary of ITIL Adoption Survey Responses

[Abstract]: This report provides a summary of responses from a survey of ITIL adoption and benefits conducted at the itSMF National Conference in Brisbane. Many public sector organisations and private sector firms have adopted ITIL and are making substantial progress in implementing the framework. Although all the ITIL core functions and processes are being implemented by most of the respondents, priority has been given to implementing the service desk function and incident management process. Factors identified as most critical to successful ITIL implementation are senior management commitment and an effective ITIL champion. Important issues relate to the ability of IT staff to adapt to change, the quality of IT staff, and training for IT staff

itSMF Australia 2009 Conference: summary report of ITSM standards and frameworks survey

[Abstract]: This report provides a summary of responses from surveys related to adoption of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) frameworks. The surveys were conducted at the itSMF National Conference in Sydney in 2009. Two surveys were conducted: the Corporate survey for organisations and the other for Consultants and Trainers. For the Corporate survey 65 responses were received but only eight for the Consultant and Trainers survey. The responses for the Corporate survey came mainly from large organisations representing both the public and private sectors. The vast majority of organisations whose staff responded to the survey have adopted the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and are making substantial progress in implementing this framework. Priority has been given to implementing the service desk function, change management and incident management processes. Some of the processes in v3 which were not in v2 show low levels of awareness and adoption. Many organisations are also advanced in their implementation of Prince 2, Balanced Scorecard, ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security), Government standards and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). The strongest motivating factor to implement IT Service Management is to improve the focus on IT service. The maturity level of ITSM processes is generally rated higher than in previous years with many reporting as repeatable (level 2) and defined (level 3). Most of the respondents have completed ITIL foundation training and many have also achieved intermediate and advanced qualifications. Commitment from senior management is identified as the most critical factor for successful ITSM implementation. Almost one half believe ITSM has met or exceeded their expectations although many stated it is too early to tell if ITSM has delivered benefits. There is strong consensus that the major benefit of ITSM is improved customer satisfaction. Many further benefits have been realised including improved response and resolution, clarification of roles and responsibilities, and improved IT service continuity. Unfortunately, most of the consultants and trainers who attended the conference as delegates or exhibitors did not complete the questionnaire, therefore the analysis of the eight responses may not be representative and care should be exercised in interpreting the results. Generally, the views expressed by the Consultants echoed those of the Corporate respondents and confirmed the strong move towards ITIL V3, as well as growing interest in ISO/IEC 20000 certification. The success factors favoured by the Consultants varied compared to those of the Corporate respondents. Compared to the responses to the Corporate survey, the Consultants and Trainers gave a higher ranking to the importance of sufficient funding for ITSM initiatives and documentation and integration of processes. Another difference was in the Consultants’ perceptions of the effectiveness of ITSM wherein the Corporate respondents gave a more positive view that ITSM met or exceeded expectations. As for the benefits from ITSM, only two of the top benefits reported by the Consultants were in the top five in the Corporate survey

Implementing centralised IT service management: drawing lessons from the public sector

[Abstract]: The IT service management model represents a paradigm shift for IT organisations as it deemphasizes the management of IT assets and focuses on the provision of quality end-to-end IT services. This paper presents part of an in-depth study that examines the experience of a government agency, Queensland Health, in the implementation of a centralised IT service management model based on the ITIL framework. The paper sheds light on the challenges and breakthroughs, distils a set of critical success factors and offers a learning opportunity for other organisations. Outsourcing some activities and tool requirements to vendors was seen as one contributor to success although ensuring effective technology transfer to in-house staff was also necessary. Another success factor was centralisation of IT services. Commitment of senior management was also crucial as was a recognition of the need for effective change management to transform the organisational culture to a service-oriented focus

IT service management: towards a contingency theory of performance measurement

Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) focuses on IT service creation, design, delivery and maintenance. Measurement is one of the basic underlying elements of service science and this paper contributes to service science by focussing on the selection of performance metrics for ITSM. Contingency theory is used to provide a theoretical foundation for the study. Content analysis of interviews of ITSM managers at six organisations revealed that selection of metrics is influenced by a discrete set of factors. Three categories of factors were identified: external environment, parent organisationand IS organisation. For individual cases, selection of metrics was contingent on factors such as organisation culture, management philosophy and perspectives, legislation, industry sector, and customers, although a common set of four factors influenced selection of metrics across all organisations. A strong link was identified between the use of a corporate performance framework and clearly articulated ITSM metrics

Implementing Centralised IT Service Management: Drawing Lessons from the Public Sector

The IT service management model represents a paradigm shift for IT organisations as it deemphasizes the management of IT assets and focuses on the provision of quality end-to-end IT services. This paper presents part of an in-depth study that examines the experience of a government agency, Queensland Health, in the implementation of a centralised IT service management model based on the ITIL framework. The paper sheds light on the challenges and breakthroughs, distils a set of critical success factors and offers a learning opportunity for other organisations. Outsourcing some activities and tool requirements to vendors was seen as one contributor to success although ensuring effective technology transfer to in-house staff was also necessary. Another success factor was centralisation of IT services. Commitment of senior management was also crucial as was a recognition of the need for effective change management to transform the organisational culture to a service-oriented focus

Implementation of IT infrastructure library (ITIL) in Australia: progress and success factors

[Abstract]: Despite the phenomenal popularity of ITIL as reported in IT practitioner magazines, there has been little academic research published to date about issues related to ITIL adoption and implementation. After reviewing current literature, this research provides preliminary findings from a survey conducted at the recent Australian itSMF conference. All 110 respondents have adopted ITIL, and ITIL implementation progress is associated with the staff size of the organisation and also the number of IT staff. Surprisingly, private sector firms are more advanced than public sector organisations in ITIL implementation. Less than one third of respondents are also implementing CobiT, and for these organisations, ITIL progress is further advanced than CobiT implementation. More than half the respondents are of the opinion that ITIL has met or exceeded their expectations

The role of IT service management in green IT

Societies and governments are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of the expanding use of IT equipment on the environment, especially in terms of energy efficiency, emission reduction and toxic waste. The objective of this article is to explore the relationship between IT Service Management (ITSM) and Green IT. To achieve this objective, the leading best practice framework for ITSM is evaluated to explore the depth and breadth of Green IT guidance provided in the ITIL resources. The analysis of the ITIL books clearly demonstrates that ITIL provides limited guidance to support Green IT programs and confirms the view that Green IT and ITSM share common goals, such as operational efficiencies and metrics-based improvements. In the second phase of the research, results of a recent survey of IT Service Managers in Australia were analysed to gauge the extent of Green IT awareness and implementation. The extent to which Green IT policies and procedures have been implemented varied substantially across the 65 organisations surveyed. The survey results indicate that most of the IT Service Managers have implemented a Green IT Policy and are aware of the importance of controlling IT waste disposal and improving energy efficiency. Based on the discussion, recommendations are made to CIOs, IT Service Managers and ITIL authors to continue to raise awareness of Green IT and to recognise that best practice in Green IT is evolving and needs to be distilled and articulated in ITIL publications

itSMF Australia 2008 Conference: summary of ITSM standards and frameworks survey responses

[Abstract]: This report provides a summary of responses from surveys related to adoption of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) frameworks. The surveys were conducted at the itSMF National Conference in Canberra in 2008. Two surveys were conducted: the Corporate survey for organisations and the other for Consultants and Trainers. For the Corporate survey 80 responses were received and 28 for the Consultant and Trainers survey. The responses for the Corporate survey came mainly from large organisations representing both the public and private sectors. The vast majority of organisations who responded to the survey have adopted the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and are making substantial progress in implementing this framework. Priority has been given to implementing the service desk function, incident management and change management processes. Many organisations are also implementing Prince 2, government standards and ISO 9000. The strongest motivating factor to implement IT Service Management is to improve IT/business process integration. The maturity level of ITSM processes was generally rated higher than in previous years with many reporting as repeatable (level 2) and defined (level 3). Most of the respondents had completed ITIL foundation training and many have also achieved intermediate and advanced qualifications. Many organisations have made significant progress in upgrading their ITIL version from V2 to V3. Commitment from senior management is identified as the most critical factor for successful ITSM implementation. Although many stated it is too early to tell if ITSM has delivered benefits, more than one third believes it has met or exceeded their expectations. There was strong consensus that the major benefit of ITSM is improved customer satisfaction. Many further benefits have been realised including improved response and resolution, clarification of roles and responsibilities, and coordinated IT service. The Consultants and Trainers survey was completed by representatives of large and small organisations who were focussed primarily on the Government, Administration and Defence sector, or multiple sectors. Generally, the views expressed by the consultants echoed those of the Corporate respondents and confirmed the strong move towards ITIL V3, as well as growing interest in ISO/IEC 20000 certification. In regards motivation to adopt ITSM, the responses were markedly different. The Consultants believed improving the IT Service focus was the driver for clients, and gave little support for the top factor selected by the Corporate respondents, i.e. improving IT/Business integration. The success factors favoured by the Consultants were similar to those ranked highly by the Corporate respondents except that the Consultants ranked highly the importance of a champion to advocate and promote the ITSM framework. The Consultants saw this as much more important (ranked #3) compared to the Corporate respondents (ranked #7). Another difference was in the client’s perceptions of the effectiveness of ITSM wherein the Consultants gave a much more positive view that ITSM met or exceeded expectations. As far as the benefits from ITSM, there was consensus except for better staff morale and satisfaction ranked #5 by Consultants but #11 by the Corporate respondents

Using institutionalism as a lens to examine ITIL adoption and diffusion

This study uses institutional theory as a lens to examine the increasing global diffusion of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the motivation of individual organisations to adopt the framework. The history of ITIL is provided to illustrate how the framework has travelled through time and space. The register of organisations certified to the international standard for IT service management is analysed. Case studies reveal factors influencing the decision by managers to adopt ITIL and provide evidence to illustrate that coercive, normative and mimetic pressures have influenced the isomorphic adoption and diffusion of ITIL