theartofservice

When is it the right time to implement ITIL?

I have heard this question so many times…. As new participants complete their ITIL Foundation program they ultimately engage you in the “when is it a good time “conversation.

Funnily enough the answer that I give is not necessarily the answer they are looking for.. the answer being “It all depends”…

“On what?” is their usual reply… on many things… such as : How supportive your company/CEO’s are; the size of the company; the people power, or consultant power to implement…. What value does your organization place on service management?

Even if the answers are all negative, it is still possible to implement some aspects of ITIL, just to make your working life easier…, which of course confuses them more….and so I go on…

Event Management, Supplier management, Request Fulfilment Management are just some of the processes where you could… and I say could… implement in isolation (in part, or full) and see benefits for you and your working environment.

When is the right time? When you want to make things better!

Till next time Cheers from the ITIL Australia Team at The Art of Service

Michael

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Ok –so it just might be the theme of the month (goodness knows why???) – but I gotta explore this Christmas theme just a little more…

So – if Santa provided a service, which was to deliver Christmas presents to all the boys and girls – how do the ITIL processes align to this service:

Service Portfolio (V3): - can you imagine exactly what santa would have in his portfolio – way bigger than his sack – because that would be his catalogue – and can you imagine him, Mrs Claus and all the elves sitting down for a strategic planning meeting to discuss the latest and greatest toys – what’s in – what’s out(retired services) and what is to come that even he hasn’t thought of yet! – no wonder he is grey/white…

Validation and testing - who would test all the toys – and what do they do with them once tested??? – you can hardly donate them to poor families or orphanages – that would not be politically correct…

Release and deployment – does Santa do a “dry run” on the night before the night before Christmas – just to make sure he can cover the world.. and if not have a back up plan???? – and does he have a spare set of reindeers in his DRS (no – not “H” – R for Reindeer) in case they crash….

Can keep going on this –  later…

Till next time Cheers from the ITIL Australia Team at The Art of Service

Michael

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I can’t help myself – it’s getting close to Christmas… so

‘Twas the night before a release, when all through the floors,

not a techy was sleeping, they were crawling around on all fours

An RFC was submitted, approved , built and tested

Thousands of dollars on this new service was invested

The business were nestled all snug in their beds

While visions of dollars danced in their heads

The CIO in her office attire, and I in my suit

Had just settled down for a strategic moot

When out on the floor there rose such a clatter

We sprang from our office to see what was the matter

Away to the server room I flew like a flash

Swiped my card on the door to see the great crash.

The server went down and I don’t mean dead

The rack was on the floor  - I saw red…

Is this a disaster, or do we roll back?

If only there was santa, with a spare rack in his sack.

Now Stevo, Brownie, Johnno and Smitty

On Frankie, on Thommo, on Wazza and Smithy

To the server room, to the DHS

Grab the rack, the spare and do your best…

Now dash away, dash away, dash away all

Fix this mess before the business call

Then in the twinkling I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of somebody’s hoof

As I drew in my hand, and was turning back,

Down the lift came St Nicholas with a shiny new rack

A bundle of servers he had flung on his back

And he looked like a techo just opening his pack..

We all know the truth to cut a long story short

Techys came to the rescue – not santa or his chort..

Till next time HO HO HO from the ITIL Australia Team at The Art of Service Michael

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Hats off……

I have spent the past week educating a private corporation on ITIL v3.  This mid sized company has been working toward an ITIL based Service Management Framework for the past 6 months.  They started with the usual Service Desk, Incident Mgt and also introduced Change Mgt.  They are currently working on implementing Service Level Mgt, along with Release and Deployment.

What makes this gratifying is the energy and enthusiasm they are displaying toward this journey.  Management has committed to this and demonstrating this by investing in training and certification for their staff.

As per usual, I engage in chats  with participants about “where they fit” in the ITIL framework.  One person saw his pathway…. He has passion for support, thrives on the challenge of finding root cause – and as he describes it… works best with computers, not people… PROBLEM MGT is his calling, he proclaimed….

A new champion is born… and hopefully a new process for this service oriented company….

Hats off to the company for valuing their staff enough to train them, and hats off to the staff for taking advantage of it!

Till next time

Cheers from The Art of Service

Michael

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Validation and testing…USERS!!! (as part of the Anti Service Management Framework)

Validation and testing is a new process to the ITIL framework  - and thank goodness for that.  It’s about time that there was some sort of “separating the sheep from the goats” strategy…  Meaning??? Allow me to explain…

If I had my way, validation and testing would be used to make sure that only intelligent users had access to the service that I designed, built, sweated over and rolled out!.  Ever notice that majority of the complaints come from users who don’t know how to use the service?  V&T would eliminate this: users would be tested on their ability to use the service. If they pass, they have access.  If they fail to read basic instructions, use F1or don’t understand key terms like “start/Run”…. Then– they fail… and can’t use service

Benefits to my way of thinking???? – less incidents due to user stupidity, less complaints, greater satisfaction from Service Desk and better metrics because only smart people use the service…. ( which if you really look at it – that would mean that the only ones who do use the service would be techies like me….) but why do I want to use a customer database?

Hmmm.. I think there’s something in that for all of us, don’t you?

Till next time

Cheers from The Art of Service

Michael

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Save time studying….

So- you’ve participated in an approved ITIL course  and are now preparing for your ITIL exam….

You have taken notes, highlighted and even asked the right questions… now all you have to do is study for that exam!

May I say – I have been there and done that… and I continue to share my wisdom of study and exams through a range of ITIL Exam Prep Guides that I am developing….

I talked previously about the Manager Exam Prep Guide.  Now we have the ITIL v2 Foundation, ITIL v3 Foundation and ITIL v3 Foundation Bridging Exam Prep Guides.

These self-study exam preparation guides for the ITIL certification exams contain everything you need to test yourself and pass the Exam, including all the processes.  Exam topics are covered and insider secrets, complete explanations of all ITIL  V2 or V3 subjects, test tricks and tips, numerous highly realistic sample questions, and exercises designed to strengthen understanding of ITIL concepts and prepare you for exam success on the first attempt are provided.

Save yourself TIME!

Want to know more? go to our website and search “exam prep guide”

Till next time

Cheers form The Art of Service

Michael

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Ma’am – you don’t have a problem you have an incident….

It’s always an interesting experience explaining to my students the difference between an incident and a problem.  I tend to start  with the concept that users can NEVER have a “Problem” – they can only ever have an “Incident”.  To prove this – I go straight to ITIL theory:

Incident: –“ any event which is not part of standard operation of a service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption to, or reduction in, the quality of that service”. This is exactly what a user “may” experience.

Problem: “Unknown underlying cause of one or more Incidents” (also only caused by errors in the IT infrastructure)

The user is neither concerned with the “unknown underlying cause” or experiences this unknown underlying cause – and therefore can never actually experience a problem…

Once they grasp this concept, I then throw them into another spin by the concept of a “known error”: “Known underlying cause. Successful diagnosis of the root cause of a Problem, and a workaround or permanent solution has been identified”.  They accept this until we get into the “absolute” that unless you have a workaround/permanent solution it cannot be a known error!  Strong heated discussion ensues and they argue that they know the cause – but  there is no solution….. WRONG! – by default – if you know the root cause – YOU MUST know the solution – either temporary, or permanent!  Even if the solution is to “write a whole new application” – it’s still a solution.

Some solutions may not be viable – and as such will not be “fixed”… but it still means that it is no longer a problem… it is now a Known error, but we “choose” not to fix it!

Till next time

Cheers from the team at The Art of Service

Michael

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I expect to pay more… so please charge me more… (as part of the Anti Service Management Framework)

I overheard a conversation the other day where an employer was leading the employee in a conversation regarding charging extra for using a credit card, even thought this was not policy.  The “unspoken” message was loud and clear – if you can get away with charging them more for using a credit card… DO IT!!! And the customer accepted this….

This got me thinking… again… The charging and IT Accounting models for a service is a complicated process.  However – a contributing factor is perception of value for a service in calculating cost.  So – if the customer sees the service as valuable – you tend to charge more for this service.  Normal practice as it balances out the more costly, but less “valued” services that you provide…

BUT…. What if you start to manage the pricing structure according to how much you can get away with?????  If you can “demonstrate” that this service is valuable, requires a lot of administration, support, and there is a lot of “administration costs” associated with it – then it is reasonable that the customer will pay more for this – because they are use to, and expect, extra charges to be added at end… WIN WIN right????

IT Department budget goes up… customers perception of value goes…….. hmm… hard to say whether it goes up or down… My opinion – if we do this – it might just .. GO… and so might you…

Hmmm… I think there is something in that for all of us, don’t you?????

Till next time

Cheers from the team at The Art of Service

Michael

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I must confess…

Previously, I talked about how I purchased an iphone – because I am a MAC addict!….. well – I must confess … IT ANGERED ME GREATLY THAT I WAS BEING CONTROLLED BY APPLE OVER WHAT I COULD AND COULD NOT PUT ON IT!

Ahh – now that I have that off my chest – let me share what I did!!!!!

I unlocked it.. jailbroke it… set it free….. emancipated it from the controlling eyes of APPLE and now I love my iphone even more than ever…. It was only after I took the leap of faith and unlocked it that I truly appreciated the true value of my iphone.(though i did have a sleepless night stressing if I made the right decision).

Since taking this leap, I can now make decisions about what I can and cannot put on my phone… for example….

• MMS -  I can now MMS (why cant we do it from the beginning?)
• Video – I can now take videos with my iphone and save to my computer…(soon be able to email) (and they said you couldn’t)
• Visual desktop calendar, email – I no longer have to go into my phone to see my calendar and emails – I now have calendar and new emails sitting on my locked screen for easy viewing and reading.  To me – a much more business interface (ok – maybe a little blackberry like..)
• And so much more…

And my point…. Where do Apple get off setting limits as to how I can use MY phone?  As I read articles etc – many of these decisions are based on reseller agreements with the TELCOS (USA ones in particular).  Since installing these new apps – I have not experienced any issues with my phone – so have trouble seeing why Apple would not approve these apps in the first place – except for the reason stated above….

Ok – today’s Blog is not about ITSM per say – but it is about SERVICE!

I am aware that I can now install an app that will allow me to use my phone as a modem…. BRING IT ON!!!!

Till next time cheers from The Art of Service

Michael

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You get what you pay for and no more….Availability Management (as part of the Anti Service Management Framework)

On more than one occasion, I have heard clients complain about availability targets – customer never happy – always wanting more, but not prepared to pay for it….  Normal issues faced by Availability Managers… It’s interesting that the goal of Availability Management is to “deliver a cost effective and sustained level of availability”.  This is where I have issues – I think the last part of that goal should state “based on what you are prepared to pay for”!  If this was part of the goal – it would change the way we see availability:

• Suddenly we “mark-up” cost of services so they can’t afford to pay for the best – and so settle for less… great for us, costly to them
• We start capping availability when it reaches a certain level – if you agree to 95% availability and its end of week – and you are still at 98%… bring it down!!!!! – the last thing you want is the business to get more than they paid for – pretty soon they will start expecting more… without paying for it!
• Or we start pricing based on unavailability…. (though not sure how you would do that… each % of unavailability costs $xx, with a depreciating price scale????)

I know it sounds absurd – but aren’t we the ones who introduced the concept of availability to our customer??? So then aren’t we the ones who has the ability to control how availability is managed?????

Hmmm- I think there is something in that for all of us, don’t you???

Till next time

Cheers from The Art of Service

Michael

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