Following my previous article introducing ITIL, I was asked how it fitted into Public Sector organisations and the impact of budget cuts.
How does this fit in with the public sector agenda?
Given that ITIL was born from the CCTA, a UK government agency, and is owned by the OGC (Office of Government Commerce) there are strong links with the public sector. The drive in public sector IT at the moment is to reduce costs at the same time as improving the quality of service being delivered. This fits in perfectly with the aims of ITIL. While there may be an element of increased costs during the set-up phases implementing ITIL, the payback from improved service management and elimination of wasteful processes and activity is quickly delivered.
Do you foresee any problems as budgets are cut over the coming year?
The main issue for ITIL implementation that cuts bring is the reduction in staffing budgets. Although there are many products in the market that claim that they are ITIL certified or ITIL tools, ITIL itself doesn’t proscribe the use of any specific tool or technology. The every ITIL process can be successfully implemented with nothing more complex than a spreadsheet or two. The key to achieving this is the quality of the staff that are involved with implementing and running the ITIL functions.
So, fundamentally, if you do exactly what the books say, the job does itself?
Not at all. That is, if anything, the fundamental error that some senior client staff and ITIL “zealots” make. ITIL should be considered to be a guideline on the “journey” towards best practice service management, rather than the “destination” itself. Since every organisation is different the implementation of processes to support their service management will also be different. ITIL implementation is most definitely not a “box ticking” exercise.