Just a quick note to pass on that APMG has formally announced that the Information Communications Technology Infrastructure Management (ICTIM) qualification has been granted “Complementary Qualification” status within the ITIL v3 qualification scheme. Clients who have already taken or will take the ICTIM qualification will gain 3.5 credits towards their ITIL Expert certification.

Read more at ITSM Watch here: http://www.itsmwatch.com/news/article.php/3831896

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The Change Management Toolkit

Provide Your Organization With a Structured Approach to Change

Change Management is often considered to be the process that most actively links all the ITIL processes together. This process aims to improve and maintain IT Service quality providing a structured approach to managing and implementing changes in the IT Infrastructure. The actions to achieve this include the requirement to conduct repetitive actions that include scheduling, reporting and monitoring of IT Changes. The process must review achievements based on customer expectations and take steps to improve or modify Changes and the process accordingly. The Change Management Process Kit provides a wide variety of resources to boost your understanding and ability to implement Change Management in your organization.

Buy with confidence

All contents of this collection are 100% guaranteed. See below for details.

Here’s What You Will Receive in This Time-Saving Document Collection

The updated toolkit provides information on the Change Management process and provides guidance that is scalable for:

• Different kinds and sizes of organization
• Small and large changes required at each lifecycle stage
• Changes with major and minor impact
• Changes in a required timeframe
• Different levels of budget or funding available to deliver change.

Mike Hawk: Solid path through a political minefield “Changing IT is akin to herding cats because as a whole there is a legacy mindset at one end of the spectrum, and lack of discipline at the other. This Toolkit provides a workable approach to changing the culture and effecting real change.

As in their other Toolkits the authors take a project and process-oriented approach to the goals and objectives. Where other books and Toolkits that attempt to address this subject are focused on solely human factors and considerations, this one does that, but gives a structured approach as well. The set milestones and wealth of associated checklists are what set this Toolkit apart from others, and are the means of systematically changing IT in an effective manner.

To be sure, human factors are taken into consideration - the authors show a keen understanding of, and give advice for dealing with, organizational dynamics, politics and resistance to change. This is an essential set of knowledge and skill factors without which change cannot be accomplished.

The keys to the approach given in this Toolkit, though, are in the files dealing with defining your goals and developing an overall strategy, then selecting the approach that is most suitable for your organization. The project-oriented aspects are covered in chapters dealing with characterizing “as-is” tasks, planning, and working towards the long-term objectives. The approach also includes a viable measurement strategy with which to ascertain results, and advice on how to build enthusiasm and support - instead of resistance - as the change initiative is being implemented. A key chapter is “Prevent Reversion and Fallback”, which all too frequently happens in the real world. By recognizing this particular risk in change and addressing how to prevent it the authors provide sound advice to avoid a major pitfall.

Overall this is an excellent Toolkit by The Art of Service who I hold in high regard. I recommend getting it because it contains information that will help you select and develop an optimum overall strategy for an IT organization that is customer-focused and efficiently run.”

The new toolkit provides a concise introduction to Change Management from an ITIL version 3 perspective, beginning with ITIL’s definition of a Change and how to manage the process.

The PowerPoint presentations go into more detail covering aspects such as:

• Goal of the process
• Scope
• Terminology and process concepts, including all the changes from Version 2 e.g. removal of the term Forward Schedule of Change and Emergency Change Committee and descriptions of the additional Change Types that have evolved in Version 3.
• The PowerPoint presentation is much more detailed than the previous toolkit.  The focus is on Change Management, from implementation to management and maintenance.

There is up to date information on:

• Change process models and workflows
• Defining and using Standard Changes
• Remediation Planning
• Creating and Recording RFC’s

And there are competent and user friendly supporting documents to aid knowledge and understanding.

The activities of Change Management are discussed in more detail, including the:

• 7 R’s of Change Management - and new but essential concept in ITIL Version 3
• Risk Categorization
• Authorizing and coordinating Changes.

There is more information on the Value that Change Management provides to the organization and this is supported by an updated Business Justification document.

Other new Supporting documents include:

• Example Contents of Change Documentation
• Example Request for Change Workflow
• Types of Change Request
• Roles and Responsibilities

This toolkit also includes relevant Bonus Materials, to add to your organizations knowledge base.  This includes:

• An updated PowerPoint Presentation on the MOF Framework
• COBIT Factsheet
• Six Sigma Factsheet

Contents include Change Management Objectives and Goal templates, Change Key Performance Indicators, Critical Success Factors and a checklist to help understand just how well Change Management is performed in your environment.

It is tailor-fit for IT managers who need to move towards a services-oriented organization, but they don'’t have the time or resources at hand to develop the required templates and structure for implementation. Here is a list of the specific documents included:

• Change review and assessment worksheet
• Business justification document
• PowerPoint presentation explaining the process of Change management
• Project and implementation plan template
• Communication plan to describe Change management to your organization.
• Policies, objectives and scope overview template
• Specific objectives and goals template
• Change process manager role(s) definition
• Forward schedule of changes document
• Change catagory definitions document
• Request for change (RFC) template
• Key Performance Indicators and Other Metrics definition template
• Change requirements template

The documents listed above correspond directly with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes. Clear instructions explaining the application of each template are provided within the corresponding documents.

The Change Management Process Kit is Yours Risk Free Today!

The instant you purchase the collection, the fact sheets, presentations and tools listed above will be available to you through a simple download. You may use the documents for up to 30 days. If anytime during that period you decide it does not meet the needs of your company, just let us know and we will refund the purchase.

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Cloud Computing has become increasingly popular in the last few years.  From the use of email to online storage, cloud computing can be integrated into the everyday running of small and large businesses alike. The Art of Service provides a cloud computing accreditation program for those wanting certification in this exciting new area of the IT industry.

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A survey was released last month to consult the community on the market needs relating to current and earlier versions of ITIL® qualifications. When the full ITIL® Version 3 qualification scheme was complete there was always the expectation that the status of the Version 2 scheme would be reviewed.

The results of the survey, a joint initiative by OGC and itSMF, will assist in determining the timetable for the eventual phased retirement of the Version 2 scheme.

If you need a refresher on the difference between Versions 2 and 3, visit our website.

By answering the questions in the survey you will have the opportunity to shape the future of the industry. This is a great opportunity to have your say, and let OGC and itSMF know how this phase-out will affect you and your business.

The survey is only available until this Friday, 24^th July (UK time).

Take the survey!

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Cloud Computing Virtualization Specialist Complete Certification Kit - Study Guide Book and Online Course

The opportunities provided by Cloud Computing solutions allowed for significant growth within an industry that continues to mature and develop at a rapid pace.

The primary goal of this book and course is to provide the quality education and support materials needed to enable the understanding and application of Cloud Computing in a wide-range of contexts.

This comprehensive book is designed to complement the in-depth eLearn Virtualization Specialist program. The interactive eLearn course uses a combination of narrated PowerPoint presentations and multiple choice assessments which will ultimately prepare you for the Virtualization Specialist certification exam.

IT professionals need to know a whole lot more about the various ways of delivering services to the customers and end-users. It is no longer sufficient just to know the differences between Windows based or Linux based architecture. These days, most services will utilize some form of Cloud Computing, be it virtualization or SaaS offerings.

So with the change in computing and IT Service delivery comes a whole new series of qualifications and certification. The Cloud Computing Certification Scheme has been created to support the IT Professional who needs to be a ‘niche generalist’, especially in a rapidly changing area like Virtualization.

First, you need to create the foundation – The Virtualization Specialist Program focuses on the fundamentals, general knowledge, terminology and BASIC concepts used in Virtualization. This program earns you 3 points toward your Cloud Computing Expert Certificate.

This kit prepares you for the certification exam by offering valuable information on Virtualization application and Cloud Computing Certification.

This Kit contains the book and online course access that provides everything you need to prepare for the Virtualization Specialist Certification Exam, including in-depth coverage of all exam objectives, scenarios to easily demonstrate the processes in action, and practice exam questions for that last minute test preparation.

This Study Guide and Online Course access provides complete, in-depth coverage of all exam objectives for theVirtualization Specialist exam in a systematic approach, so you can be confident you’re getting the instruction you need.

• Real-world scenarios put what you’ve learned in the context of service solutions.
• Thought provoking questions to challenge your thinking and understanding.
• Exam Essentials in each chapter helps you zero in on what you need to know.
• Includes practice exam questions
• A Real World Guide to Virtualization Skills.
• Key information and real world examples organized around the actual day-to-day tasks and challenges you’ll face in the field of IT Management.
• Practice what you’ve learned with challenging Virtualization Specialist exam style questions.

Based on specific exam objectives - use this as a lab manual for certification preparation.

Contents

FOREWORD 1

1INTRODUCTION  8

1.1 WHAT IS VIRTUALIZATION? 8

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF VIRTUALIZATION 9

1.3 HISTORY OF VIRTUALIZATION 11

1.4 BENEFITS OF VIRTUALIZED TECHNOLOGY 12

1.5 THE VIRTUAL SERVICE DESK 15

1.6 WHAT CAN BE VIRTUALIZED? 15

1.7 RELATED FORMS OF COMPUTING 17

1.7.1 CLOUD COMPUTING 17

1.7.2 SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE - SAAS 18

1.7.3 GRID COMPUTING 18

1.7.4 UTILITY COMPUTING 19

1.8 VIRTUALIZATION PROCESSES 19

1.9 INTRODUCTION REVIEW QUESTIONS 20

2 COMMON TERMINOLOGY 21

3 VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES 26

3.1 UBUNTU (SERVER EDITION) 26

3.2 ALTIRIS 27

3.3 WINDOWS SERVER 28

3.4 SOFTWARE VIRTUALIZATION 29

3.5 VMWARE 30

3.6 INTEL VIRTUALIZATION 31

3.7 RED HAT VIRTUALIZATION 32

3.8 SOFTGRID APPLICATION 33

3.9 LINUX VIRTUALIZATION 35

3.10 DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION 37

3.11 HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION 38

3.12 RESOURCE VIRTUALIZATION 39

3.13 PROCESSOR VIRTUALIZATION 40

3.14 APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION 41

3.15 STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION 42

3.16 VIRTUALIZATION DENSITY 43

3.17 PARA-VIRTUALIZATION 44

3.18 OS VIRTUALIZATION 44

3.19 VIRTUALIZATION SOFTWARE 46

3.20 DATA STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION 58

3.21 INTEL VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGY 60

3.22 THINSTALL VIRTUALIZATION SUITE 62

3.23 NET FRAMEWORK VIRTUALIZATION 64

3.24 WINDOWS VIRTUALIZATION ON FEDORA 66

3.25 STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES 67

3.26 VIRTUALIZATION LEVEL 69

3.27 SECURITY MONITORING AND VIRTUALIZATION 70

3.28 ORACLE VIRTUALIZATION 74

3.29 VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES REVIEW QUESTIONS 75

4 ACCOMPLISHING VIRTUALIZATION 76

4.1 MIGRATING TO A VIRTUALIZED ENVIRONMENT 76

4.1.1 THINGS TO DO AND CONSIDER BEFORE MIGRATION 76

4.2 THINGS TO DO AFTER MIGRATION 79

4.2.1 A SIMPLE HOW-TO GUIDE 80

4.2.2 FURTHER MIGRATION CONSIDERATIONS 83

4.2.3 RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH VIRTUALIZATION 90

4.2.4 PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH VIRTUALIZATION 95

5 MANAGING A VIRTUALIZED ENVIRONMENT 97

5.1 SUPPORT ISSUES 97

5.2 MEASURING CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCE 99

5.3 CONTRACTS AND AGREEMENTS SUCH AS LICENSING 101

5.4 ORGANIZATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS 103

SERVICE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES 105

IT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 105

5.4.1 IT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND VIRTUALIZATION 106

INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT 107

5.4.2 INFORMATION SECURITY MANAGEMENT AND VIRTUALIZATION 107

5.5 RELEASE & DEPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT 107

5.5.1 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 108

5.5.2 SCOPE 108

5.5.3 BENEFITS 108

5.5.4 TERMINOLOGY 109

5.5.5 TRIGGERS AND INTERFACES 112

5.5.6 RELEASE DESIGN OPTIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS 113

5.5.7 RELEASE POLICY 115

5.5.8 RELEASE AND DEPLOYMENT ACTIVITIES 115

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 125

5.5.9 POLICIES AND PRINCIPLES OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 126

5.5.10 THE SERVICE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (SKMS) 127

INCIDENT MANAGEMENT 128

5.5.11 INCIDENT MANAGEMENT AND VIRTUALIZATION 128

5.6 CHANGE MANAGEMENT 129

5.6.1 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 130

5.6.2 SCOPE 130

5.6.3 DESIGNING AND PLANNING 131

5.6.4 CHANGE MANAGEMENT POLICIES 132

5.6.5 CHANGE MODELS 132

5.6.6 TRIGGERS AND INTERFACES 134

5.6.7 CHANGE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES 136

5.6.8 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES WITHIN CHANGE MANAGEMENT 141

5.6.9 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIS) OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT 142

5.6.10 CHALLENGES AFFECTING CHANGE MANAGEMENT 143

5.6.11 RELATIONSHIP WITH PROJECT MANAGEMENT 144

5.6.12 TYPICAL CONTENTS OF CHANGE DOCUMENTATION 145

5.7 SERVICE DESK 149

5.7.1 GOAL AND OBJECTIVES 149

5.7.2 BENEFITS 150

5.7.3 SERVICE DESK ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES 150

5.7.4 SERVICE DESK TYPES (SKILL LEVELS) 155

5.7.5 SERVICE DESK STAFFING 155

5.7.6 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIS) FOR THE SERVICE DESK 157

5.7.7 OUTSOURCING THE SERVICE DESK 157

6 VIRTUALIZATION AND STORAGE MANAGEMENT 158

6.1 THE HEART OF CLOUD COMPUTING: VIRTUALIZATION 158

6.2 DEFINING VIRTUALIZATION 159

6.3 WHY VIRTUALIZE? 159

6.4 WHAT CAN BE VIRTUALIZED? 160

6.5 WHERE DOES VIRTUALIZATION HAPPEN? 161

6.6 HOW DOES VIRTUALIZATION HAPPEN? 162

6.7 ON THE ROAD TO STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION 163

6.8 IMPROVING AVAILABILITY USING VIRTUALIZATION 164

6.9 IMPROVING PERFORMANCE THROUGH VIRTUALIZATION 164

6.10 IMPROVING CAPACITY THROUGH VIRTUALIZATION 165

6.11 BUSINESS VALUE FOR VIRTUALIZATION 166

7 APPLYING CLOUD COMPUTING TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT 167

7.1 BENEFITING FROM CLOUD COMPUTING 167

7.2 THE EASE OF LINKING (HYPERLINKS) 168

7.3 SUBSCRIBING TO SUCCESS (BLOGGING) 169

7.3.1 EVERYONE IS A PROJECT MANAGER (OPEN SOURCE) 171

7.4 TREATING THE PROJECT AS PARTS, NOT THE WHOLE (REUSE) 173

7.5 TESTING THE LIMITS (PORTABILITY) 174

7.6 PROCESS REVIEW QUESTIONS 175

ANSWERS 177

7.6 PROCESS REVIEW 177

CERTIFICATION 177

7.7 CLOUD COMPUTING CERTIFICATION PATHWAYS 177

7.8 ITIL® CERTIFICATION PATHWAYS 180

7.9 ISO/IEC 20000 CERTIFICATION PATHWAYS 181

8 VIRTUALIZATION SPECIALIST EXAM TIPS 182

9 REFERENCES 183

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At some point, your company will have to look at their energy consumption. Maybe they already have and have already started some initiatives. If you’re in position to influence the direction, you may want to look at some different approaches to future energy management. One thing that will influence any corporate strategy is the global energy outlook. Recently, the Global Business Network (GBN) and the EPA worked with several companies to identify how this outlook may impact their business. Out of this venture came four plausible “roads.”

For IT companies, planning for all four roads may become necessary to understand current and future needs in energy management. Each has challenges, short term and long term benefits and costs. By understanding and planning for these four roads, a company can have a comprehensive outlook on the decisions they have to make in the context of becoming sustainable now and in the future.

“The Same Road” - Within this outlook, no significant change is made in the current direction of the world or the company with regards to energy or environmental concerns. Some changes may be made, but for the most part, the future will be plagues with higher energy bills and reduced natural resources with nothing in place to truly protect the company.

“The Long Road” - A significant change in the economic, geopolitical and energy landscape occurs. Some experts may state that companies our on this road with the current economic climate and the challenges of the this road are readily apparent. It speaks to the fact that changes to the global landscape may have an adverse impact on the efforts of companies real or imagined, making the path to becoming sustainable more difficult. Some concerns are government regulation, depletion of natural resources, Budget restrictions and the like. Strategically, this direction considers all the potential risks to initiate a green effort.

“The Broken Road” - The worst case scenario, this road proposes what may happen if a significant global event takes place. Maybe the event impact your company directly or one of your customers or a supplier. In any case, the company is in the midst of an immediate and significant change to normal operations in the form of a loss of energy or a need for increased energy. Consider this an event, attack, or threat that causes a service disruption as small as a brownout or as large as a complete disaster event to recover from.

“The Fast Road” - This approach focuses on making reasonable decisions with the necessary investment resources to implement improvements to energy consumption and environmentally conscious initiatives that are made early to make a difference today. Consider this the best scenario possible? How much would it take to implement all of these projects now with the intent to have a greater ROI than if implementation waited.

All outlooks above imply that a need for energy management is required because of declining resources and rising costs. The difference in the approaches apply to a company’s access to those resources. For strategic steps suggested by the GBN and EPA, read Part two of this article.

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Contact Center Complete Handbook - How to Analyze, Assess, Manage and Deliver Customer Business Needs and Exceed Customer Expectations With Help Desk, Call Center, Support Center and Service Desk

The traditional call center—rows of agents in headsets answering calls—is becoming obsolete. In a consumer-driven, Internet-enabled world, your customers aren’t just calling you. They want to reach you via email, IM, text, and more. And simply “taking” calls isn’t enough to keep customers loyal—you need to proactively reach out to build relationships, upsell, and solve problems before they become deal-breakers.

In short, you need a contact center. You need to reach your customers using the communications channels they want. You need to balance inbound and outbound communications so that no one is left waiting. And you have to do all of this while cutting costs, improving agent efficiency, and maximizing the value of every customer.

This book helps. From internal operations to customer relationship management, it offers solutions to help make your entire contact center more effective.

This Contact Center book focuses on strategies for effective customer care and problem resolution, as well as the fundamentals for help desk, Contact Center, and customer support processes and tools, and an introduction to ITIL® processes.

“Covers every detail, including some missed in other books - This thorough book provides a clear roadmap to designing, implementing and operating contact centers. The author leaves no key process out and completely covers everything from initial concept to measuring support effectiveness and process improvement.” This book delivers everything for to develop a knowledge and understanding of Contact Center operations:

• How to assess customer business needs and exceed customer expectations
• Critical processes and procedures to resolve incidents quickly and consistently
• Numerous Contact Center Blueprints, templates and checklists
• Processes and procedures for Incident, Problem and Service Level Management
• Ways to create win-win interactions with customers, management, and team members
• An awareness of ITIL® processes

Besides the holistic view of the contact center technologies, you will find the sections on Building a Customer Contact Technology Strategies and Service Level Management to be valuable every day, every project. Great diagrams and charts add tremendous value to the clear and concise writing. This is also a book that will stand the test of time; the principles surrounding business drivers and the realistic expectations regarding CRM will provide value to contact center strategists for many years.

Covering Strategy and Operations Both, this book is able to effectively cover both the strategic and operational issues in a comprehensive, easy-to-understand manner. Every chapter of the book is well written with lots of valuable information.

Excellent advice based on reality, from the moment you open this book, you can tell the people who wrote it had worked in call centers. The advice is comprehensive and throughout the book they offer resources for additional information. If you have to give feedback to call center employees, get this book! If you are a new or seasoned call center manager, get this book. If you need to motivate call center employees, get this book! It is worth the money. This book will turn out to be the most useful.
Great for entrants - as well as those with experience in the industry, the book is well laid out and explains Contact Centers in detail. It gets right to the point of which data is important to gather and how to best illustrate that data. It helps to better organize KPI’s and focus on just a few important pieces of data instead of having to sift through piles of numbers. This book also helps to become better at workforce management strategies and forecasting. This book will certainly bring you up to speed quickly. Even after reading and applying everything in the book, you will find yourself continue to reference it all the time.

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When going green, how do you know that you are getting the greatest benefits? This is a good opportunity to evaluate your initiatives for a sustainable company. Earlier this year, InformationWeek suggested five areas to look at in their report by Michael Healey, The Eco-Enterprise and the Reality of Green IT.

Power Saving ROI – what is the real power savings delivered by an initiative. There are two classes of solutions for initiatives to take: reduce the total consumption or rely more on sustainable power sources. The first class can be better understood by checking the power ratings of IT equipment within the environment. Focus on purchasing equipment that uses less power. Most computer systems have power save features built into them. Create companies policies to take advantage of these features, shutting down or hibernating equipment that is not in use.

The second class have a variety of solutions present. The design of a building can provide can reduce power consumption for lighting and heat. Innovative ideas have been implemented in this area for years, from solar panels intermixed with windows to a power producing waterfall within a company’s atrium.

Productivity ROI – Though energy is the most visible “green” concern, it’s not the only one. Time savings is another concern. The less time required to perform a task, the less power used. The less human resources involved as well. Virtualization provides opportunities to save power and time. But not all initiatives increase productivity. Shutting down computers at night requires a few minutes of non-productive time the next morning waiting for the computer to start up.

Environment Impact – A hard concept to measure, but fairly easier to monitor, the best suggestion is to ensure that to reduce the negative impact to the environment. One possible option is to earmark the cost savings of the initiative over time to another worthwhile “green” initiative within the company or externally. The financial ROI may take longer to reach but will show the company’s commitment to the environment which may draw more customers to the company.

Upfront Cost – Always a concern. The best approach is to start with educating the workforce and make small changes with very little change in upfront costs. Keep in mind some some of these costs are slight, such as spending a few more dollars for a power efficient computer rather than just trying to meet the minimum technical specifications.

User Receptiveness – As mentioned, education is the best start. The workforce needs to embrace the need for any environmentally conscious initiative. Any one initiative isn’t going to provide the Holy Grail solution for saving the environment and bringing outstanding ROIs without the support of the workforce. Make sure they understand and implement.

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ITIL V2 to V3 Service Managers Bridge Online Training Course: Get ITIL V3 Managers Certified Now.

What is this course about? This course provides a fast track to achieve your ITIL v3 Service Manager certification. In this course, you identify new ITIL v3 content and examine the Service Lifecycle, which forms the core of ITIL v3. You also gain the knowledge necessary to take the ITIL v3 Service Manager Bridge Certification exam, offered at the end of this course. Who will benefit from this course? This course is geared toward those who hold the ITIL Service Manager Certificate (v1 or v2) and would like to obtain the ITIL v3 Service Manager Certification. This includes CIOs, senior IT managers and supervisors, IT professionals and IT operation practitioners. I don’t have my ITIL v1 or v2 Managers Certificate, what do I do? Sign up for your final ITIL v2 Managers FASTTRACK Certification Course - it’s your last chance before this shorttrack to V3 Managers will be shelved by APMG. Contact Juliet Meehan at +61732522055, or reply email. This IS the last time the FAST TRACK is offered EXIN Accredited ITIL Service Manager Fast -track Program The Art of Service understands that busy IT Professionals may not be able to afford the time required to complete the standard 12 day ITIL Service Manager Program, so we have developed the “Fast Track” option. The structure of this program allows you to gain your ITIL Service Manager certification in a shorter time frame, with days running from approximately 8.30am - 8.30pm. Don’t miss this opportunity What background do I need? You must hold the v1 or v2 Service Manager Certificate to take this course. You should also have read the ITIL v3 Service Lifecycle Practices core guidance, which includes: Service Strategy Service Design Service Transition Service Operation Continual Service Improvement Introduction to the Service Lifecycle (optional, but recommended) You can also take this course if you have enough credits from the v1-v2 Foundation and Practitioner certifications. Does this course count toward the ITIL Expert certifications? Yes. If you already hold the v1 or v2 Service Manager Certificate, you will have obtained the ITIL Expert qualification upon achieving the ITIL v3 Service Manager Bridge Certificate. The APMG has released the ITIL Credit Profiler: http://www.itil-officialsite.com/itilmapping/v2/map.asp. This online tool allows you to map your current v2 and v3 qualifications against the v3 scheme. The Credit Profiler helps you determine how many credits you currently hold within the scheme, and to assess and decide on the best route for v3 certification. This tool also provides recommendations, and you are free to choose a selection of modules based on your own educational and certification requirements. I have 12 credits from v1-v2 Practitioner-level certifications. Am I eligible to take the Service Manager Bridge certification exam? Yes. With 12 credits from v1-v2 Foundation and Practitioner certifications, you are eligible to take this course and the exam (3.5 credits are awarded for a clustered Practitioner certificate, 2 credits for a single-process Practitioner certificate and 1.5 credits for a v2 Foundation certificate). However, in order to obtain the ITIL Expert qualification, you must first achieve the v3 Managing Across the Lifecycle certificate. What topics does the exam cover? The Service Manager Bridge exam focuses mainly on the new content of ITIL v3. The exam also covers those items that were well known in v2 but have some significant changes in v3. How is the exam structured? The v3 Service Manager Bridge exam is a 20-question, scenario-based, complex multiple-choice examination. You have 90 minute to complete the exam and must answer 16 of the 20 questions correctly (80 percent) to pass. How are the ITIL materials covered in the eLearning environment? Learning and practical assignments provide knowledge of Service Lifecycle processes that are new or significantly changed in ITIL v3 from previous versions. The online Learning environment offer you multiple opportunities to apply recently learned concepts and include practical exercises and practice exam questions. Is this course accredited? Yes! EXIN has accredited this course and the instructors who teach it as providing high-quality training in IT Service Management.

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Let’s face it: solutions that are designed to be environmentally minded are typically more expensive and have longer ROIs than general solutions that are available. This alone has many businesses pass over most “Green IT” initiatives. The current economic downturn isn’t helping the situation.

If the “growing green” movement is going to persevere, the long term economics of the environmentally safe IT has to be taken into account. The EPA has reported that nearly half of the national greenhouse gas emissions come from commercial and industrial buildings in the United States. This has spurred even more call for government regulation on the environment and business. This could result in government requiring businesses to use environmentally safe products and utilized environmentally compatible processes with hefty fines if the requirement is not met.

The cost for energy is also rising – an average 11% a year since 2004. In six more years, the energy bill for a company will have doubled without any expansion or change. The primary reason for this rise in costs is the diminishing supply of resources.

Another factor is that more green minded consumers are looking for companies with a strong record of environmentally safe practices and products. Eventually, it won’t matter how good a product is, if its manufacturing process is unsafe.

Solutions for sustainable equipment, processes, and products are more likely to rise in cost because of the remand. Especially if government control is initiated. Which brings us to the reality of the situation: implementing green initiatives within the economic situation may prove to be more beneficial than waiting, especially to the wallet.

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