ITIL Introductory Module:

ITIL is the IT Infrastructure Library and ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark and a Community
Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce. Developed in the late 1980's by the CCTA
(now the OGC), by the mid 1990's it had become the world-wide de facto standard in service
management. ITIL has become very popular as it is a public domain framework which is
scaleable. Very large organizations, very small organizations and everything in between have
implemented ITIL processes. ITIL focuses on best practice, and as such can be adapted and
adopted in different ways according to each individual organizations needs.

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a set of best practices standards for
Information Technology (IT) service management. The United Kingdom's Central Computer and
Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) created ITIL in response to the growing dependence on
Information Technology to meet business needs and goals. ITIL provides businesses with a
customizable framework of best practices to achieve quality service and overcome difficulties
associated with the growth of IT systems. ITIL is organized into sets of texts which are defined
by related functions: service support, service delivery, managerial, software support, computer
operations, security management, and environmental. In addition to texts, ITIL services and
products include training, qualifications, software tools, and user groups such as the IT Service
Management Forum (itSMF), all of which you can find details of on this website.

Let’s see the ITIL Benefits: ITIL offers a systematic, professional approach to the management of
IT service provision. Adopting its guidance can provide benefits such as:

• Increase Customer Satisfaction with IT services

• Reduce the risk of not meeting business requirements for IT services
• Reduce costs when developing procedures and practices within an organization
• Better communication and information flows between IT staff and customers
• Standards and guidance for IT staff
• Greater productivity and better use of skills and experience
• A quality approach to IT services

ITIL Benefits to IT service Customers, such as:

• Reassurance that IT services are provided in accordance with documented procedures
that can be audited
• The ability to depend upon IT services, enabling the customer to meet business objectives
The identification of contact points for enquiries or condition changes
• Provision of feedback from SLA monitoring

ITIL is from the concept no check list, as one has to develop the ideal-typical management of a IT
infrastructure. The advantage and ITIL Benefits are rather in the fact that one falls back with the
structure of an individual IT management to documented Best Practices and so that can jump over
expensive learning curves. In addition the advantages of the standardization represented by ITIL
are obvious: Modules and process goals of the IT management are defined and can be compared
and evaluated with one another.

Many organizations have embraced the ITIL concept because it offers a systematic and
professional approach to the management of IT service provision along with other ITIL Benefits.
There are many benefits to be reaped by adopting the guidance provided by ITIL. Such ITIL
Benefits include but are not limited to:
 • Improved customer satisfaction
• Reduced cost in developing practices and procedures
• Better communication flows between IT staff and customers
• Greater productivity and use of skills and experience

ITIL provides IT professionals with the knowledge and resources they need to run and maintain
an effective and efficient IT Infrastructure that meets the needs of their clients while keeping
costs at a minimum.

ITIL Benefits of using the ITIL framework:

• Increase customer satisfaction with IT services
• Reduce risks and costs
• Standards and guidance for IT staff
• A quality approach to IT services

Let’s see Why ITIL Can Help along with other ITIL Benefits: Many executives express
frustration as they attempt to reign in the chaos and expense associated with their IT investments
but find little in the way of substantive guidance. The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has
emerged as the worlds most widely accepted approach to the management and delivery of IT
Services.

Gartner measurements on ITIL Benefits show that the overall results of moving from no adoption
of IT Service Management to full adoption can reduce an organization’s Total Cost of Ownership
by as much as 48%. ITIL currently has over 100,000 certified (trained) professionals and
consultants, primarily in Europe, Australia and Canada, with only a small fraction of those
certified professionals residing or practicing in the U.S.

By adopting IT best practices, what type of ITIL Benefits can an organization expect?
Beyond the quantifiable ITIL Benefits, delivered from the implementation of ITIL, there are also
qualitative ITIL Benefits. Successful introduction of IT Service Management with ITIL should
deliver type of ITIL Benefits to organizations:

• Improved Customer Satisfaction

• Improved ROI of IT
• Improved Morale of Service delivery and recipient staff
• Reduced staff turnover
• Lower costs of training, especially as the ITIL standard become widely adopted
• Improved systems/apps availability
• Improved IT employee productivity
• Reduced cost/incident
• Reduced hidden costs that traditionally increases substantially the TCO
• Better asset utilization

The economic impact of an organization adopting ITIL along with other ITIL Benefits will be felt
in all of the areas listed above. The ITIL Benefits can also be viewed in terms of direct savings
and indirect, the later being derived as a result of the strategy but not directly related to the
actions being taken, such as minimizing the missed opportunity costs, the cost of not been able to
operate. These indirect ITIL Benefits as well as the direct benefits may vary greatly from one
organization to another.
 ITIL Awareness
Quite often IT Professionals, Managers and Consultants are hearing ITIL being bought up in
conversations but they either don’t understand the concept or they treat it as “dreaded devil” due
to lack of knowledge and exposure, but there is no need to feel that way now, because we have
state-of-the-art ITIL Awareness Course specifically designed for beginners.

This short ITIL Awareness Course provides the participant with an overview of just what ITIL is.
This e-Learning ITIL Awareness Course provides an excellent conceptual overview of the ITIL
Framework and what makes it such a commonsense methodology.

The Art of Service is accredited to provide IT Service Management training, with the Global
accreditation board (EXIN). All eLearning Prices for ITIL Awareness Course are in $ US - all incl
taxes. For more details about ITIL Awareness Course, please visit:
https://secure1.websitecomplete.com/itilsurvival/shop/showProd.asp?prod=220

Let’s have a glance over ITIL Awareness Course and Course Curriculum:

1. Introduction:
- Structure of the library
- ITIL’s and It Service Management's key concepts and objectives
- Certification program overview: Foundation, Practitioner and Service Manager levels
- Overview of relationships between the ITIL processes

2. Descriptions of the goals, objectives, activities, relationships in the Service Support

(operational) processes and the Service Desk function:
- Service Desk
- Incident Management
- Problem Management
- Configuration Management
- Change Management
- Release Management

3. Descriptions of the goals, objectives, activities, relationships in the Service Delivery (tactical)
processes:
- Service Level Management
- Financial Management for IT Services and IT accounting
- Availability Management
- Capacity Management
- IT Service Continuity Management
- Security Management

Similarly, in addition to ITIL Awareness Course, there are other courses which are discussed
below:

• ITIL online course “Foundations” – Relatively new course programs that are designed to
give the participant the flexibility that a attendance type course cannot
 • ITIL online course “Foundations”– what to expect: ITIL Online course should be
conducted in a virtual classroom, accessible through the Web. This removes the need to
schedule time off for critical members of your organization for training. This allows far
more flexibility as this type of course allows people to study at a time and place that is
convenient to them.

• ITIL online course “Foundations”– who should participate? Anyone dealing with any
delivery of IT Services, from Senior Managers to Help Desk personnel. The course
should explain in detail the 10 core processes and the Service Desk function of the ITIL
framework, 5 Service Support (Incident Management, Problem Management, Change
Management, Release Management and Configuration Management) and 5 Service
Delivery processes (Service Level Management, IT Financial Management, Capacity
Management, Availability Management, IT Service Continuity Management).

• ITIL online course “Foundations”– Let’s not forget Security! One point that concerns me
is the number of organizations offering these courses that have not included Security
Management. These courses must also cover Security Management as this is a
requirement of the accreditation agencies! It should explain the concept behind the
framework, relationships between processes and teach students how to communicate
using a common language that ultimately leads to a more efficient, cohesive environment.
This can be done through a number of individual methods such as streaming broadcast or
interactive modules.

ITIL is a seven book series, in the public domain, that guides business users through the planning,
delivery, and management of quality IT services. ITIL is a set of internationally accepted best
practices that assists organizations in aligning IT services with business requirements. ITIL
provides guidance on how to link specific business and service processes together across IT
departments to cross-functionally and holistically provide quality IT service support and service
delivery to the Customer community.

The ITIL Certification Program is based on a "core set" of ten processes and one function. There
are five processes targeted at service support and five processes focused on service delivery. The
VITA Customer Care Center (VCCC) Service Desk interfaces to all ten processes to provide a
single point of contact to IT from the Customer community.

The Service Support processes and goals:

• Configuration Management- To identify record and report on all IT components that are
under the control and scope of Configuration Management.

• Incident Management-To restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and

minimize the adverse impact on business operations.

• Change Management-To ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for
efficient and prompt handling of all changes to minimize the impact of change-related
incidents and improve day-to-day operations.

• Problem Management- To minimize the adverse impact of incidents and problems on the
business that are caused by errors in the IT infrastructure and to prevent reoccurrence of
 incidents related to these errors. Problem Management seeks to get to the root cause and
initiate action to remove the error.

• Release Management- Release Management takes a holistic view of a change to an IT

service and should ensure that all aspects of a release, both technical and non-technical,
are considered together.

The Service Delivery processes and goals:

• Service Level Management-To maintain and improve IT service quality through a

constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring, and reporting to meet the customers' business
objectives

• Availability Management-To optimize the capability of the IT infrastructure, services,

and supporting organization to deliver a cost effective and sustained level of availability
enabling the business to meet their objectives

• Capacity Management-To ensure that all the current and future capacity and performance
aspects of the business requirements are provided cost effectively

• IT Service Continuity Management-To ensure that the required IT technical and services
facilities can be recovered within required and agreed timescales. IT Service Continuity
Planning is a systematic approach to the creation of a plan and/or procedures (which are
regularly updated and tested) to prevent, cope with and recover from the loss of critical
services for extended periods

• Financial Management-To provide cost-effective stewardship of the IT assets and

resources used in providing IT services
 Help Desk ITIL
If you only have time to look into one business enhancement this year, make it the Help Desk
ITIL. In business you find yourself faced with options and decisions that have long-term affects.
You have to choose your direction wisely--the future depends on it.

The Help Desk ITIL is Unparalleled: In the world of service management systems there can only
be a few stand out offerings. For various reasons, each industry leader is a favorite of its
customers. When it comes to IT service management, you cannot be too particular. Make a
thorough comparison of all the appropriate applications to uncover the top contender. It is always
a bit costly to shift gears in operations. Paying for new software, training materials and equipment
updates is no small affair.

Dutch companies have long understood the benefits that a structured IT management framework
like ITIL can deliver to the bottom line. The Help Desk ITIL definition sought by Dutch CV
companies is a classic example of businesses that may have or need a Help Desk/Service Desk in
place that is pre-defined. The Service Desk function within the ITIL framework provides Dutch
CV businesses with clear guideline and thought provoking ideas regarding the structure of the
Help Desk.

The delivery of leading class service is now a differentiator used by Dutch CV’s looking for the
competitive edge. The provision of a high quality Help Desk ITIL (service desk) allows these
organizations to ensure it can respond to customers and business needs quickly and efficiently.

Look for software that is simple to use so that you can reduce training time at Help Desk ITIL to
a bare minimum. When something is designed right with the user in mind, a smooth transition is
made possible. The aura of excellence that surrounds Help Desk ITIL tools is undeniable. You
cannot build your business on anything but the surest foundation. When you put all the elements
in place for good things to happen you will be surprised to find that they do.

The Service/Help Desk plays an important part in the provision of IT Services. It is very often the
first contact the business users have in their use of IT Services when something does not work as
expected. The Service/Help Desk is a single point of contact for end users who need help.
Without this, an organization could certainly face losses due to inefficiencies.

The two main focuses of the Service Desk are Incident Control and Communication.
There are different types of Help Desk, the selection of which is dependant upon what the
business requires. Some Help Desks provide a simple call logging function, and escalate calls to
more experienced and trained staff. Others provide a high degree of business and technical
knowledge with the ability to solve most incidents at the time that the business user reports them.

Help Desk ITIL Software: As your customer base grows, so does the need to expand your
customer service department. Don't let your expanded revenue based get consumed by out of
control support costs. Help Desk ITIL software can keep costs down and improve trouble ticket
response times.
Streamline with Help Desk ITIL Software: Minimizing response times is important if you want
customers to feel good about the level of service they get. Arming your team with Help Desk
ITIL software is the best way to properly arm them for the task set before them. Set you and your
employees up for success and better customer response figures than ever before.

An individual business plan that explains how you should use service management software and
Help Desk ITIL software can serve as your personal roadmap. Unless you are willing to let
increased volume overwhelm your current system of inquiry handling, you need to make some
changes before it is too late. You need to dream big and help desk software is one way to plan for
an expansive future.

You can't afford to lose customers and potential accounts. Lax response times send a message that
you cannot effectively accept more business. Establish a good reputation for stellar service and
loyalty will build in the habits of your customer base. ITIL software or Help Desk ITIL software
may not seem apparently connected with customers, but it does heavily influence their experience
with you.

IT Help Desk Software: IT help desk software can take your business to the next level. You
cannot ignore the pressing need for automated services. Part of keeping your business on track
and in a growth mode is to modernize operations in a timely manner.

There are many excuses that pop up when you feel reluctant to make a change. Some people
assume that transitioning to new help desk tracking systems involves a lot of down time for
services and employees. The truth is that you can opt for in house training or train the trainer
sessions in order to minimize any confusion.

Another mental hurdle is in understanding that the initial investment in Help Desk ITIL
components saves money in the long run. Utilities that reduce the amount of time that employees
need to spend per inquiry help streamline the entire flow of the office. Help desk remedies do cost
money, but it is cash that you see in returns like higher process volume and satisfaction levels.

A third concern raised by skeptics’ concerns usability. They fear that employees are too reluctant
to give new software a chance. The good news it that the latest slew of IT help desk software
reflects a level of simplicity and user friendly processes that actually make using it simpler than
the system you currently employ. There are lots of reasons to put off updating your equipment,
but you have to acknowledge that you are choosing to stall your business' progress with
procrastination.
 IT Service Management ITIL
IT Service Management ITIL at a Glance: ITIL is the IT Infrastructure Library, the worldwide
standard today for IT Service Management. This set of recognized Best Practices was
standardized and documented for the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, and has become
recognized worldwide as the process framework for best practices in IT Service Management
ITIL. ITIL also provides guidance to develop Business and Management skills. ITIL/ITSM (IT
Infrastructure Library/IT Service Management) offers a systematic, professional approach to the
management of IT services. IT Service Management ITIL underscores the importance of
providing IT services that satisfy business needs in a cost-effective manner.

What are ITIL and ITSM? The IT Service Management (ITSM) standards of the ITIL are the "de
facto" best practice standards for IT service and support. These standards were created in
the1980s in the United Kingdom and have been prevalent in Europe for years with adoption in
North America increasing recently. It is anticipated ITSM will form the basis for an International
Standards Organization (ISO) standard for IT in the next three years.

The cornerstone of ITIL is the concept of aligning IT operations with business objectives. This
addresses the basic discourse that most organizations have difficulty assessing and managing the
quality and effectiveness of IT service and support. Most IT service organizations spend the bulk
of their time focusing on technology rather than the business objectives technology is attempting
to solve or support.

The IT Service Management ITIL standards of ITIL are broken down into ten processes and one
function under service delivery and service support:

• Service delivery - primarily focused on the strategic tasks of managing the delivery of
new services. It is comprised of service level management, capacity management,
availability management, IT service continuity management and financial management.
• Service support - focuses on supporting and improving the quality of existing services.
This is comprised of incident management, problem management, change management,
release management, configuration management and service desk.

The ITIL processes encourage an atmosphere where IT people understand the business objectives
on three levels: strategic (where decisions are made), tactical (where decisions are implemented),
and operational (ongoing support and maintenance of the decision). An example would be a
company that decides to implement a Web-based customer relationship management tool: the
firm would have varying expectations from each ITIL process at each level. The idea is to
articulate technology requirements and its effects on business objectives, resulting in a greater
understanding and appreciation of the costs by business stakeholders. Business people ultimately
want to understand business impacts - not technology requirements.

What is ITSM? IT Service Management ITIL is the world’s leading best practice approach to
managing IT in organizations across the world. IT Service Management ITIL is concerned with
delivering and supporting IT services that are appropriate to the business requirements of the
organization. ITIL provides a comprehensive, consistent and coherent set of best practices for IT
Service Management processes, promoting a quality approach to achieving business effectiveness
and efficiency in the use of information systems. ITIL processes are intended to be implemented
so that they underpin but do not dictate the business processes of an organization. IT service
providers are striving to improve the quality of the service, whilst at the same time they will be
trying to reduce the costs or, at a minimum, maintain costs at the current level.

In essence, IT Service Management ITIL guides organizations in the best practices associated
with delivering IT services to the business in accordance with service level agreements,
underpinned by a set of support services matched to the requirements of the business. Fuelled by
Y2k issues, embedded in broader initiatives like ISO9000 and COBIT, IT Service Management
ITIL has rapidly been adopted by leading IT vendors, (e.g. HP, Tivoli, Remedy and Microsoft),
outsourcing organizations (EDS and Perot Systems) and organizations with large in-house IT
departments (e.g. Telkom, Sabre Systems, US Internal Revenue Service, Vodacom).
 ITIL ISO 15000
ISO 15000 certification aims to federate ISO 9000-2000 certification and all ITIL
recommendations into a single standard.

ITIL BS15000 alignment is very interesting. BS 15000 is the first worldwide standard specifically
aimed at IT Service Management. It describes an integrated set of management processes for the
effective delivery of services to the business and its customers.

BS 15000 is aligned with and complementary to the process approach defined within the IT
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) from The Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

BS 15000 Consists of Two Parts: BS 15000-1 is the formal specification and defines the
requirements for an organization to deliver managed services of an acceptable quality for its
customers. The scope includes: Requirements for a management system; Planning and
implementing service management; Planning and implementing new or changed services; Service
delivery process; Relationship processes; Resolution processes; Control processes; and Release
processes.

BS 15000-2 is the Code of Practice and describes the best practices for Service Management
processes within the scope of BS 15000-1. The code of Practice is of particular use to
organizations preparing to be audited against BS 15000-1 or planning service improvements.

Business Drivers: Key business drivers of the standard are: To provide a formal and auditable
standard for the delivery of IT Services within an organization. To reinforce and provide
accreditation based on the best practice as defined by the BSI Code of Practice for IT Service
Management (PD0005) and the UK Governments Internationally adopted IT infrastructure
Library (ITIL) best practice guidance. To be the foundation of a future ISO international standard.

Reasons and History: The reasons and history behind the standard:

• To provide a business focused ‘road map’ for implementing and maintaining a successful
integrated Service Management strategy.
• To provide non-propriety and public domain guidance for the service industry.
• To define the processes required to identify and manage the level and quality of service
being provided to customers, along with the resources and cost needed to achieve it (not
re-inventing the wheel).

Where ITIL fits in: ITIL forms a layer between in house procedures and the code of practice, so
imagine the metaphor of a five tiered pyramid, the bottom layer of building blocks are the in
house procedures, the second layer of building blocks are ITIL Best practice. The next layer is the
code of practice which ITIL helps us achieve, then comes the standard (BS15000) and finally the
pinnacle is ISO. Now before all you cynics out there think “we are already certified” there is a
huge difference between certified for the sake of it and being certified to support the business
need!
 ITIL Best Practice
An increase in the dependency of business on their IT services in recent years has changed the
way and the extent that business must consider the delivery of those IT services. IT departments
are now viewed by business managers as 'service organizations' and are expected to deliver
clearly defined products to agreed service levels. Business organizations thus consider themselves
to be customers of their IT departments and expect to be treated accordingly, very differently
from the way IT departments traditionally treated their "users" some years ago.

Let’s see some ITIL Best Practice. The services must be matched to business needs and customer
requirements. They must be flexible enough to adapt rapidly to changes in organization structure,
demand, competition and technology. Users of IT services are required to obtain value for money.
There is continual pressure in many organizations to reduce costs while maintaining or improving
IT services. They must also make optimum use of expensive - and often scarce - IT skills. If
customers are not satisfied with internal IT services, they will (and should) consider outsourcing.

Most users have no interest in technology or IT components. Their responsibility is to maintain

and improve their own business processes and they are only interested in the IT infrastructure in
so far as it supports their work. As the nature and volume of the work changes, IT is expected to
stay ahead of service demand. This requires a policy of proactive IT service development. The
best way to deliver the services that the business needs is to identify and apply appropriate
industry ITIL Best Practice. This is effectively taking the lessons learned from others’ experience
and building upon them using the specific knowledge and skills within your organization.

ITIL Best Practice is the best identified approach to a situation based upon observation from
effective organizations in similar business circumstances.

The ITIL Best Practice approach is to:

• Seek out ideas and experience from those who have done similar things before
• Determine which of these ideas and practices would be relevant in your own
circumstances
• Try them out - monitor and review whether they work for you (and if they don’t work -
first check you are doing it right before seeking alternatives)
• Incorporate them into your documented practices

Applying ITIL Best Practice IT Service Management provides a thought-through, integrated

approach that can be adapted to any organization and any mix of IT resources. By providing a
template for service development, it allows the IT Department to spend its energies on
implementation, rather than ‘re-inventing the wheel’. Best Practice focuses IT resources on
service quality in fulfilling customer needs. It is a platform for moving away from yesterday’s
frustrating, technology-driven, ‘boffin’ culture of IT services.
Implementation of ITIL Best Practice requires an IT Management software solution that is
capable of integrating detailed information from all sources and providing access to accurate,
relevant management information on demand. Many vendors have developed software solutions
that have grown with the theory, adding bolt-on modules along the way. However, few have leapt
forward to delivering a ITIL Best Practice engine based on ITIL guidelines.

In the end, the best solution will be determined by your projections of future needs using ITIL
Best Practice. In considering the best overall solution, it may be worth considering bolt-on
modules or scrapping the current platform and trading up to an integrated suite. Whatever path is
chosen, the management information it delivers should be tested against the requirements of
fulfilling ITIL Best Practice. The ITIL Best Practice contains a self-assessment of the capacity
management discipline.
 ITIL Automation
Some areas of Service Management are too resource intensive to be performed effectively
without automation. Each tool for the automation of Service Management has advantages and
disadvantages but ITIL Automation is still recognized as vital.

It is necessary to ensure that the combination of technology, processes and people are integrated
and meet the needs of the Customers. Remember, ITIL Automation should be used to enhance
Service Management, not replace it.

The object of Service Level Management is to maintain and gradually improve business aligned
IT service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring, reporting and reviewing IT
service achievements and through instigating actions to eradicate unacceptable levels of service.
Ultimately this leads to ITIL Automation. Let’s see how?

Service Level Management is responsible for ensuring that the service targets are documented
and agreed in Service Level Management and monitors and reviews the actual service levels
achieved against their SLA targets. Service Level Management should also be trying to
proactively improve all service levels within the imposed cost constraints. Service Level
Management is the process that manages and improves agreed level of service between two
parties, the provider and the receiver of a service.

Service Level Management is responsible for negotiating and agreeing service requirements and
expected service characteristics with the Customer, measuring and reporting of Service Levels
actually being achieved against target, resources required, and cost of service provision. Service
Level Management is also responsible for continuously improving service levels in line with
business processes, with a SIP, coordinating other Service Management and support functions,
including third party suppliers, reviewing SLAs to meet changed business needs or resolving
major service issues and producing, reviewing and maintaining the Service Catalogue using ITIL
Automation tips and techniques.