ITIL Implementation

[bnetra]

My company is a 500 people service industry company with thousands of customers doing 24X7 business operations. There is already a Service Desk with automated tool from BMC. This tool has capability for Incident Management, Problem Management, Asset Management, and SLM. Of this only Incident Management is implemented. Other IT functions of the IT service organisation are well structured and manned by competent people having basic ITIL knowledge. Management has decided to implement ITIL. Management buy-in is strong and equally other IT key staff also realise the benefits of ITIL. Over the last four months Gaps Analysis has been completed by mapping existing processes with ITIL processes, and gaps have been identified. Next we plan to engage an external consultant to review the gaps and suggest implementation methodology.

Before that as internal ITIL champion (about myself: read ITIL core books, understood fully, no ITIL training and not certified) I am required to develop an ITIL implementation plan and present same to management. Everything depends on this. I am struck here. My queries are:

1) How to prepare the implementation plan - what activities, approx. time and costs involved, etc. I would like to have few initial quick wins so that management can appreciate the outputs/benefits.
2) I am going to strongly suggest a third-party CMDB (may be BMC, it has one which integrates with our existing Service Desk tool). At what stage in the implementation is completed CMDB required? How to estimate the time and efforts involved for setting up CMDB? Currently asset list exists, but no relationships are defined.
3) For a company of our size which ITIL processes should be initiated first? Should we start with Configuration Management? Any suggestions.

Request senior ITIL implementers/managers to reply my above queries.

Thanks.

bnetra

[WendyB]

IMHO, start with Service Level Management. You need to know what services you support in order to support them in a robust manner.

After that, look at the Service Desk, Incident Management - you have processes in place that may be leveragble.

Config gives a lot of good information for the other processes, but it's not very visible; no real quick wins to help win hearts and minds.

Also, you need to get training for yourself, and those involved. ITIL implementation requires a culture shift, and education is a prime part of it.

Additionally, before you even start with SLM, you need to thinjk about your communication plan - who, what, when, where, how, why

Good luck!

FYI - I'm actually in an implementation right now, so I do feel your pain.

[peppermint]

Bnetra,

I do agree with Wendy with a slight modification, I wouldn't do a full scale implementation of Service Level Management, until you actually have something to build your SLA 'promises' on to your customer. BUT I would definitely do a Service Catalogue to know what services you IT is providing, let them external or internal services, obviously based on your company profile.
The rest I agree, Service Desk and Incident is a fairly safe choice, as it's already being done, Config could be second, but do not expect that it's going to do marvels in its infancy. Then you could choose whether to go with Change or Problem. Change requires a solid or intensely improving Config, for Problem it's essential to have a well-developed Incident Mgmt. and very discipled people to separate time spent on Incidents and Problems.
All in all, my first focus would be the Service Support area.
Other things to do:
- you should go to training, preferably aiming at the Managers one, which you cannot do without the Foundations
- try to do an 'Awareness/Benefits' session for the Managers, again preferably from external source, try to let others convince about the benefits
- decide whether you want to aim for ISO20000 certification later on, you have to discuss this with your managers (altogether a whole new discussion)
- from your way of expressing that you're the champion, I'd presume that Six Sigma is present in your organisation, if yes, try to find the areas where you could link Six Sigma and ITIL to the company's benefit

And last, but not the least, I don't think you should exlude anyone answering you, since not everyone might be ranked 'Senior Itiler' here who have participated/managed ITIL implementation, like myself. You can pick the best answers you like, but anyone can add an interesing post, not just senior mgrs.

Hope this helped,

pep

PS: a consultant company can actually do all what you say you'll have to do.

[Fabien]

As mentioned above, the Service Catalog is often one of the first critical step to get started, because it will force a number of people to start thinking services.

However, starting with SLM can only be done in ideal situations, when you have full commitment from Senior Management and that practical results can wait, which is almost never the case.

My key is to work on 3 levels:

(1) Identify the process that will make the most difference in the mid-term, understand the scope of the benefits, constraints and readiness of the organization. I will also want to understand the dependencies that I need to plan for. I will want to put about 25% of my resources on this topic. This could be SLM in your case, but understand that SLM is a big cultural item.

(2) Identify the process where I can bring the most visible improvements. Usually: Incident/Problem/communication. That's 50% of my resources.

(3) Educate, Change culture, ongoing communication, public relations, etc.

By the time you are done, with #2, you should be riding the wave. Everybody will be excited thanks to the communication program. Management will be pleased thanks to results. At that point, it is time to spend some image capital and offer to introduce a more difficult piece: SLM/Finan or Change mgt. While you work on that one, introduce a second wave of education programs, more specialized, to man the new roles you are creating. Continue to get people excited.

... and so on.

I consult in ITIL and I can help you put that together if you want...
_________________
BR,
Fabien Papleux

Accenture
Technology Consulting | Service Excellence
Red Badge Certified

Twitter @itilgeek

[toutencarton]

I was just given the charge of moving my department to ITIL practices. The process were already defined but not applied. So I will have to write the procedures specific to us and educate people.
I was given a 3 month delay to perform this work and my only knowledge in quality is ITIL. So I was pleased to find here some help to implement it.
The organization is about 100 people. The last step of the job will be to propose some improvements in the organization.
Do experimented Itilers here have som good advice ?

[m_croon]

[peppermint]

Hi toutencarton,

you need to look into those process documents, whether they fit your organization as there might be many reasons why they haven't been implemented, they might be too unwieldy for your department.
Then you need to decide what's the sequence of your implementation, e.g. Incident first, then comes Config, etc. 3 months might seem short and you're tempted to do it in a 'big bang' way but it might not pay off to try to introduce an organizational change in that way.

Hope this helped,

pep

[peppermint]

One more point I omitted to mention: you need to know why you are doing this, what's the objective of this implementation, i.e. general improvement, regulatory requirements, ISO20k certification, etc. There can be many drivers, and you better identify them fairly early on in the project.

pep

[toutencarton]

Thank you everybody for your help. Thanks to your advices an many information that I could read in other places, I am currently writing a work plan :

phase 1 :
- meetings with managers (free then conducted)
- meetings with team members
- extract the points that are to improve (from meetings)
- decide the goals

phase 2
- on each process that is to improve :
- find the existing practices and documents
- compare them to the goals
- re-design them
- communicate, educate

[raroa]

I have no affiliation or connection with Pink Elephant. I strongly commend their training seminar Roadmap for Implementing ITSM. it's the best couple of days anyone can spend in your position: facing an ITIL project and wondering where to start and how to approach it. I refer back to the notes more often than any other training I've been on.

You should also buy Planning to Implement Service Managment, part of the ITIL suite - an excellent investment.

Give serious thought to getting some professional advice early on. Not all consultants are voracious (though many are ). Just because you've read a book on surgery doesn't mean you should cut anybody open.

Sorry all my advice involves spending money, but most avoidance of cost with ITIL usually turns out to be expensive, especially at the start