Can I afford to invest in ITIL?

In one of Simply Red’s greatest hits, Mick Hucknall sang “money’s too tight to mention, you’re better off investing in ITIL than your pension” ... or at least, that’s the way we heard it. In today’s economic climate, can organisations afford to invest in the ITIL way of working? Perhaps we should be asking if they can afford not to!

Do we know when the recession will be over?

Do we know whether it will get any worse before it gets better?

Do we know what position each company will be in when it’s over?

The answer to these questions and to many more is ... no, we don’t. But surely the important factor for each and every one of our companies, is to maximise the chances of our survival, and indeed, to be in a stronger position when it is over. Productivity and profitability tend to fall in the early stages of a recession, but then rise again as weaker organisations fail and close.

Let’s not forget that a recession has psychological and confidence aspects. For example, upon entering a period of economic fragility, an organisation may be tempted to reduce employment levels, suspend improvement initiatives, remove enhancement budgets, and such like. This can create a self-perpetuating and self-reinforcing downward spiral that simply worsens the economic position of the company, and negatively affects the confidence and morale levels within the business.

When times are good and there is no mention of an economic recession, businesses strive to “be the best” and improve their capability and productivity. They invest in new initiatives (especially training) to help achieve this. So why shouldn’t they have the same aspirations during a recession?

For many years now (although there are some sceptics) the industry leaders have been eulogising about adopting ITIL to help you become “the best”, so why ignore it at a time when you are most vulnerable to not being the best ? During times like this, the most common war-cry from businesses is “drive down costs... do more with less... improve quality... and give us value for money”. Well how can all this be achieved? Is ITIL the panacea? Certainly not, but it does have these business requirements encapsulated into its core objectives.

Economic recessions, such as the one we are currently experiencing, put many pressures on organisations of all shapes and sizes. Making often very tough decisions about where and how to spend your existing finances is a tough ask. But, what are the essentials, and what constitutes a luxury for businesses that are striving to emerge from the recession in a fighting fit condition?

essential ... vital, indispensable, crucial, fundamental - those items that the business simply must invest in if it wishes to continue in operation

luxury ... lavishness, opulence, extravagance, indulgence - things that are not at all necessary, but pander to whims and fancy

With this in mind, we need to consider whether adopting a successful operating approach to your core activities (i.e. ITIL) is a “must have” or a “fanciful treat”?

So what does ITIL give us?

The core activity of an IT service provider (be it an internal function, or an independently operating business entity) is quite simply to deliver the IT services, that are needed by the customer, in a timely, effective and efficient manner, thus allowing the completion of the business processing capability.

The successful delivery of IT services is entirely dependent upon a quality approach to the control and management of those services. The ITIL framework is now acknowledged as the worldwide, de-facto standard approach to IT Service Management.

Successful IT service provision is dependent upon the right people having the right skills, knowledge and capabilities, enabled by the right tools, to perform the right sequence of tasks and activities, thus enabling the delivery of the right levels of performance.

In today’s business world, the need to perform an exceedingly high standard of IT service provision (and therefore be excellent at service management) is more important than ever, due to;

increased business reliance and dependence on IT services

increased complexity of modern-day IT solutions

increased pressure to realise return on investment.

Adopting the ITIL framework gives the IT service provider the ability to rise to the challenge of these demands, and thereby provide total value generation to its customer.

The benefits of ITIL

It is often stated that calculating the exact benefits gained by businesses from the adoption of ITIL is extremely difficult, and in some cases, nigh on impossible. However, it is possible to generalise about the benefits that adopting ITIL will deliver to an organisation, and we must consider both the tangible and the intangible items when measuring success.

tangible ... actual, real, physical, material - quantifiable measures, such as explicit monetary gains and/or statements of increased productivity

intangible ... vague, indefinable, subtle, ethereal - unquantifiable measures, such as happier staff and/or more challenging workload.

The key benefits of ITIL primarily focus on;

a closely aligned and integrated business and IT community

increased business productivity/profitability

increased business resource utilisation

increased IT staff resource utilisation

reduced operating costs of service provision

increased stability of service provision

greater organisational learning

You may need a helping hand

Training and consultancy ... are they essential or a luxury? In an ever changing and fast developing business world, an organisation that stands still is in fact going backwards ... when competitors around you are adopting and adapting to improve their position, organisations that do nothing, must be losing ground.

All recessions, but especially economic ones, force us to make careful choices. It is a fact that following a lean period, such as a recession, organisations can find themselves in one of several positions;

a) out of business

b) in operation, but with a reduced market share

c) in operation, with the same level of market share

d) in operation, and with an increased level of market share

Organisations that invest in training and consultancy, generally find themselves in category d), whilst those that cancel the training budget usually find themselves in categories a) or b). By investing in training/consultancy, you are able to deliver improvements to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Can we really afford to do it?

This question must be considered alongside another equally as important one ... can you afford not to do it?

One thing is for sure, it will incur financial costs to introduce ITIL into your organisation. However, the costs do not have to be an onerous burden. Many organisations use an internally managed, and sourced, Service Improvement programme that helps the organisation to evolve over an extended period of time (you should never think of introducing ITIL as a quick project anyway). However, by only focussing on the financial outlay of introducing ITIL concepts, we are fundamentally avoiding the issue of how it will impact us if we stay the way we are.

Summary

Some firms view recessions as opportunities to strengthen their businesses, invest aggressively and establish their advantage over their weaker competitors, whereas others cut back, waiting for the recession to pass. A long-term positive strategy, or company seen to be taking measures to enhance future activity, will enhance confidence from customers and investors alike.

Take the opportunity to differentiate yourself from competition ... a well-structured, motivated and re-energised company will have bought to the surface problems that previously restricted growth and development, and introduce the birth of a new era.

Having read this, we would like to leave you with one vital question ... when money’s too tight to mention, can you afford NOT to consider ITIL?

Some ITIL courses which may benefit your business: