The Journal of the it Service Management Forum— IT Physician Heal Thyself Neil McBride Looks At: Actor Network Theory Our Popular Chairman Bids Farewell PLUS… all the usual features

SERVICEtalkSERVICEtalkThe Journal of the it Service Management Forum

December 2003£3.00 Issue No. 64

IN THIS ISSUE�� Another Record-Breaking

Conference & ExhibitionInitial Reports Inside

�� Most Recent Members SurveyReinforces Optimism

in the Future

�� Our 3 Regular Series on:— Ask the Experts

— Infrastructure Technologies— IT Physician Heal Thyself

�� Neil McBride Looks At:Actor Network Theory

�� Our Popular ChairmanBids Farewell

�� PLUS… all the usual featurescovering itSMF and IoSM eventsand information, industry news,

and gossip

2 SERVICEtalk Issue No. 64 – December

SERVICEtalkis the Journal of the IT ServiceManagement Forum (itSMF)

What is the itSMF?The IT Service Management Forum Ltd.(itSMF) is the only internationallyrecognised and independent organisationdedicated to IT Service Management. It is anot-for-profit organisation, wholly ownedand principally operated by its membership.The itSMF is a major influence on, andcontributor to, Industry “Best Practice”and Standards worldwide, working inpartnership with the OGC (the UKGovernment advisory body), the BritishStandards Institution (BSI), the DistributedManagement Task Force (DMTF), theInformation Systems Examination Board(ISEB) and the Examination Institute of theNetherlands (EXIN).

The aims of the itSMF� To develop and promote industry best

practice in service management� To engender professionalism within

service management personnel� To provide a vehicle for helping

members improve service performance� To provide members with a relevant

forum in which to exchange informationand share experiences with their peerson both sides of the industry

What services do we offer?Among the services we offer are:� opportunity to participate in setting

best practice;� reduced entry to seminars/exhibitions;� discounts on book sales;� products/services catalogues;� consultancy;� regional discussion groups;� reference sites.

SERVICEtalkAll communications to:itSMF, Webbs Court, 8 Holmes Road, Earley,Reading RG6 7BHTel: 0118 926 0888 Fax: 0870 706 1531Email: [email protected]: Malcolm ButtonProduced & Printed by:Graham Burn ProductionsThe Atrium, 17 Selworthy,Furzton, Milton Keynes MK4 1HATel/Fax: 01908 526219Email: [email protected]: Direct Logistics LtdThe views expressed in SERVICEtalk do not necessarilyreflect those of the Editor or the itSMF.

© SERVICEtalk Material within this publication maynot be reproduced in whole or in part without theexpress permission of the itSMF.Subscription Rates:Members freeNon-Members £3.00 per issueAnnual (UK) £12 per yearAnnual (Overseas) £18 per yearAdvertising Rates:Full colour (disc supplied to our specification)

Members Non-MembersFull Page £425 £600Half Page £250 £400Quarter Page £130 £220Series discounts available

itSMF Officers and Staff: Chairman David Forster Vice Chairman Mark HallTreasurer Ivor Macfarlane Chief Executive Officer Aidan Lawes

Office Manager Maxine McMahon Membership Services Manager John McDermottMarketing Manager Kim May Membership Administrator Michelle Darby

Events Administrator Jenny Bogg Project Manager Chris LangBook Sales Sharon Carthy Book-keeper Sarah Nieto

ContentsUncertainty Reinforces Optimism for Recovery ................................................. 3IT Physician Heal Thyself (5) ................................................................................. 7International News .................................................................................................. 11Ask the Experts ....................................................................................................... 12Regional Round Up ................................................................................................. 182003 Conference, Exhibition & Awards Round Up ............................................... 19BS15000 Certification ............................................................................................. 27New itSMF Members .............................................................................................. 30Institute of IT Service Management Logo ............................................................ 30IoSM Latest Members List ..................................................................................... 32Is It Safe? (Seminar Report) ................................................................................... 32Getting Buy-In To ITIL: Ideas from Actor Network Theory ............................... 35Shifting the Boundaries of Service Support ........................................................ 38ITIL Business Benefits ............................................................................................ 40Service Catalogue Launches .................................................................................. 42People on the Move ................................................................................................. 42Press Releases .......................................................................................................... 42Diary.......................................................................................................................... 43A Final Few Words .................................................................................................. 44

Chief Executive Officer’s Remarks

And so another outstandingly successful UKconference is behind us. Record numbers ofdelegates and exhibitors combined with an

entertaining and informative set of speakers to make itarguably the best ever. From the stimulating opening byNigel Barlow through to the inspiring closure from SaharHashemi, speakers were consistently well received.

As always, much hard work went into making the eventa success – both from the volunteers on the committeeand the office staff in Webbs Court – and many delegates have written to offer theirthanks in recognition of this. Even as the final tidying up is happening – collating thefeedback, writing reviews, etc – work on next year’s event has started. A debriefwith the hotel was held before leaving Brighton and the first internal review washeld the following day!

With other chapters holding equally successful events throughout the year,almost all enjoying significant growth, and the expansion of the internationalcommunity, it is clear that not only is Service Management truly of globalimportance but also that itSMF fulfils a vital role in helping organisations implementsustainable solutions.

The continuing explosive growth puts a great deal of strain on both the UK andInternational organisations. It was therefore most heartening to receive a healthybatch of new volunteers to serve on the various UK committees and managementboard. The Council of Members meeting on 4 December will elect the newManagement Board, who will then work closely with the professional staff inReading to drive the organisation forward and provide increasing value to themembership.

Equally, a most productive International meeting decided upon a streamlinedmanagement structure and set many wheels in motion for the future direction ofthe global organisation.

Both locally and globally, itSMF is becoming recognised and acknowledged as a keyplayer and we are forming strategic partnerships and alliances with many otherorganisations. These will enable us to offer new and improved services to themembership, while also giving us the chance to influence and contribute to ongoingbest practice and standards development.

We can be rightly proud of all the achievements so far, but greater challenges andeven greater rewards lie ahead. If you think that you would like to contributesomehow, it’s not too late. Simply contact the office if you’d like to volunteer yourservices. As we say, ad nauseam, it’s YOUR organisation.

Aidan

3SERVICEtalk Issue No. 64 – December

DAVID BARKERQube Holdings LtdUncertainty Reinforces

Optimism for RecoveryOR Optimism versus Terrorism: Who’s Winning?

There’s an old adage, often quoted,that states, “an optimist is someonewho thinks that the future is

uncertain”. For itSMF members surveyedthis year that statement certainly seems tohold a good deal of truth. If you’ve beenfollowing the series of updated reportspublished in SERVICEtalk you’ll recallthat we conducted the first of four surveysamongst a random selection ofSERVICEtalk readers in February. Thiswas followed by additional surveys in April,June and August. In each case we talked to100 IT professionals embracing a cross-section of managers, technicians andsupport staff. In all 400 individuals tookpart representing some 374 companiesand organisations.

The leading question in all four surveysfocused on the situation in Iraq and thethreat posed by national and internationalterrorism in a post September 11 world.How had their organisation responded, weasked? How had world events affectedtheir plans for Service Managementinitiatives?

At the same time we were also keen tosee what were the most common reasonsfor implementing Service Managementchanges. And, on a broader note, howwould any changes affect their plannedactivity in the next 12 months.

Terrorism WithoutThe ‘Terror’

In February the debate was still ragingover whether we should or shouldn’tinvade Iraq in search of those illusiveweapons of mass destruction, so we mighthave expected a certain amount of panic(or at least concern) amongst those thatwe interviewed. Let’s face it, pre-war therewas a lot of scare mongering going on,international opinion was divided on theneed for a war, and the tabloids werelooking for fully paid-up members of al-Qa’eda lurking around every corner.

So, when the results of our first twosurveys showed that only 5% ofrespondents attributed new initiatives tothe threat of terrorism or concerns overIraq, were we surprised? Well, yes… andthen again… no. There was, of course, thepossibility of a low-level domestic terroristattack, and at least one Sunday paper waswarning that a war could lead to a centuryof unrest in the Middle East and a blood

bath unseen since the battle of theSomme. But most people didn’t seemunduly concerned.

The contrast in the press was reallyquite interesting, front page alarm bellswas being toned down on the insidepages by feature writers offering traveltips on how to ensure that our holidayplans weren’t disrupted by the goings-on in Iraq. Some finance sections wereeven advising investors how to catchthe bounce when it was all over.

What we concluded at the time, and Ithink quite correctly, is that change inthe business environment is recognisedas constant and inevitable. In many waysit doesn’t matter whether that changecomes from technology or from thepressure of world events it can be very,very hard to predict the impact it mighthave. In an ideal world the businesscommunity will always want thecomfort of a stable economic andpolitical environment in which to planand invest. However, as recentexperience suggests, the challenges thatcan, and do, appear are the ‘real world’of the marketplace and must simply beaccommodated as part of the greaterplan for growth and development. Thecompanies that see world events asspeed bumps, obstacles capable ofslowing but not halting progress, ratherthan roadblocks are the ones to watch.

Is ‘Customer Service’ Just AConvenient ‘Catch-All’?

If terrorism and Iraq weren’t drivingchange, what was? According toSERVICEtalk readers in the Februaryand May surveys, 60 % of all newdeployments were designed to increasecustomer service. Change Management,Service Desk, Incident Management,Problem Management, Disaster/Continuity, Service Level andConfiguration Management took thetop slots for new deployments.

There can be no argument that ‘toincrease customer service’ is a nobleand worthwhile objective. It’s right upthere with sharing, caring, recycling andhelping little old ladies to cross theroad. But it can also be a very handy‘catch-all’ phrase and, as such, needs tobe scrutinised carefully for any signsthat it’s not merely being trotted out as

a convenient piece of public relations.How is this ‘improved customer service’being measured? Customers may well likewhat’s being done in the name of ‘service’but how is that being demonstrated inbusiness terms?

So, when it came to our June survey, aswell as continuing to monitor thereactions to Iraq and terrorism, we wereparticularly keen to see how themeasurement of service improvementwas being carried out.

By June, a total of 300 professionalsfrom 281 companies had taken part inthe survey. The profile of those surveyedin June was broadly representative of thesurvey as a whole with 46% IT Managers,27% IT Technical personnel and 27% ITService personnel.

There was certainly no question thatimportant new investment was takingplace across all disciplines. The combinedtotal for the surveys conducted up toand including June showed 69% ofcompanies reporting significant newdeployments in the last 12 months. Themain driver? To improve customerservice. A total of 55% of respondentsquoted this factor as their main reasonfor new investment. The top areas fornew deployment were ChangeManagement, Service Desk Managementand Incident Management. However,Problem Management and ServiceContinuity/Disaster Recovery were alsostrongly represented.

The split between how funds wereapportioned between exploiting (toimprove performance) and protection (tominimise system failure) was alsosignificant. In February’s survey theexploiting/protection split for the lasttwelve months was estimated at 60%/40%, by May that had shifted to 56%/44%.By June only a couple of percentagepoints separated the two figures at 51%/49%.

Looking ahead to the next twelvemonths, the total projections reflected a53% /47% split of funds betweenexploiting and protection. So, on the basisof that information, it appears that theneed to protect systems from potentialbreakdown is commanding a healthyshare of resources. But the urgency tomeasure ‘improved customer service’seems less certain.

�



Measuring Success: Is ThereA Credibility Gap?

Of those companies who volunteeredinformation on the measurement criteriafor their proposed changes, 44%reported that they did not have clearlydefined and agreed measures in place.This, in itself, is perhaps not surprising,considering that many changes are beingrolled out according to a strategy thatseeks to maximise the cost/reward ratio:the more immediate the payback thegreater the enthusiasm for change. Butthe question remains, how are the resultsand benefits being evaluated?

Overall, 82% of companies reportedhaving some measurement criteria inplace, with 63% claiming that thesemeasures were clearly defined andagreed. That said, 32% reported that theirmeasures were ‘general and unspecific’.

There is, of course, perhaps a feelingthat a ‘one thing at a time’ approach is areasonable position to adopt whenfunding is either tight or undetermined.However, it’s hard to escape the fact thatmeasurements that are ‘general andunspecific’ are always going to be reactiverather that proactive in addressing themyriad of issues surrounding the questfor ‘improved customer service’.

For more enlightened companies itdoes seem, however, that the ITIL modeland the standards and ideals of ITIL/BestPractice are increasingly setting theagenda for change. In particular,companies are looking to the ITIL modeland comparing it with the standards andspecifications they are currently using. Inother words, ITIL is fast becoming thebenchmark (if it isn’t already) forevaluating performance and expectations.

Education is also playing a valuable rolein influencing change. Those who haveattended ITIL/Best Practice seminars andtraining courses have been quick toappreciate the advantages of robust andwidely recognised criteria for measuringstandards and service across the multi-disciplined IT industry. Their ‘enthusiasm’and ready acceptance of ITIL/BestPractice does, however, seem to berouted in the culture of the companiesand organisations for which they work.

In some organisations change is astimulating challenge, in others,particularly those in non-commercialareas, change is far more of a struggle. Itmight well be that for some organisationsthe degree to which they fall short oftheir customers’ expected service levelsis the measurement that drives themrather than the quest to establish newlevels that exceed their customers’expectations.

Who’s Planning For AnEconomic Upturn?

By the time of our August survey, it wasnot only the summer temperatures thatwere high but house prices, according tothe Halifax house prices were also wayup. In fact, during August it was reportedthat house prices were running at almostdouble their historic 20-year average.

The sun also shone on the FTSE 100index which closed around 4,200 for thefirst time since August last year. The indexhas now risen 7.6% since the start of theyear. Yet despite the optimism that thesefigures would indicate for the UKeconomy, could we really say thateverything was on the up? The IMF forone had taken a more cautious view andslashed its forecast of UK growth from2% to 1.8% this year, and from 2.5% to2.3% for 2004.

In the August survey, new deploymentsbecause of fears over terrorism andbreaches of security dropped to zero inall areas except Capacity Management(2.8%) and Release Management (2.4%). Itappears that any initial fears overterrorism have been satisfactorily dealtwith leaving resources free to focus onother areas of business development. Ifwe compare the August results with thetotal (of all four surveys) what’simmediately apparent is that there hasbeen an increase in new deployments inevery area, and that increase issignificantly above the average. Forexample, new Service Desk activitieswere reported by 63% of respondents inAugust against an average of 41.8%.Incident Management also showed amarked increase at 59% against areported average of 33.3%.

And so the pattern continues: ChangeManagement 58% in August against anaverage of 41%; ConfigurationManagement 44% in August against anaverage of 29.3%; Service LevelManagement 48% in August comparedwith 27.7% for the total. Whenrespondents were asked what theirreasons were for the increased activitiesthe overwhelming response was….you’ve guessed it – ‘improved customerservice’ and to ‘motivate, retain, andincrease the productivity of staff ’.

The logic of both these reasons is easyto appreciate, if the economic climate ison the up then the competition for newbusiness will certainly be lively andcompanies who are better positioned tooffer superior customer service, andretain and motivate the support staff todeliver it, are clearly going to be in poleposition.

To test that theory we only need to

look ahead and examine the newdeployments in the next twelve months:where is future investment focused?Given that 89% of those surveyed inAugust said that they would initiate newdeployments or continue to invest incurrent projects over the next twelvemonths it’s a fair assumption thatconfidence and optimism are beingfinancially supported. Where’s the moneygoing? Service Level, ConfigurationManagement and Change Managementare the top three activities with 73% ofrespondents in August giving this as theirprimary reason for new activity in theyear to come.

It’s not entirely clear from the surveywhere funds for new investment arecoming from, 70% of respondentsclaimed not to sure about the source.However, it seems reasonable that if we’dasked Financial Directors they’d havebeen quick to point out that withinterest rates at an historic low, funds fornew investment are readily to hand.Indeed, the latest financial reports in thepress seem to point strongly to a surgein business investment, particularly forequipment and software, which rose to8.2% in late August, its fastest rise inthree years.

Optimism: The BestInvestment for Growth

What our four surveys show is that theattitudes of IT Service Managementcompanies have moved from a position ofsome initial nervousness about Iraq andthe threat of terrorism to one ofaccepting that there is only so much theycan do. After checking the robustness oftheir systems and infrastructure, theirfocus must be on business development.Doing nothing is not an option.

New investment is strong and growing,and what’s driving that change is thequest for ‘improved customer services’.Measuring the quality of thatimprovement is mixed, but influencingthe model of change is ITIL and that’scertainly something that the itSMF cantake a lot of credit for promoting.

In the August press one businessjournalist was quoted as saying, “Therecovery is everywhere but in thestatistics.” But we’d all agree, I think, thateven though the graph of the FTSE indexhas more ups and downs than a sawblade the general trend is still everupward and the teeth are sharp.

While it may be prudent to be cautiousabout a false dawn for economicrecovery we should, on balance, be veryoptimistic in the short and mediumterm. �



IT Physician Heal Thyself (5)‘Building Bridges and Breaking Boundaries’This is the fifth in a series of seven articles that support the theme of this year’s UK itSMF conference on buildingbridges and breaking boundaries.

The UPF Support Dimension

Summary of the Previous ArticlesPrevious articles have introduced the idea of a UnifyingProcess Framework that aligns the domains and frameworksacross IT and into the business, joining the best practices fromthe individual frameworks so that processes are truly ‘end toend’ with the business.

They explained that UPF is made up of four dimensions.Previous articles have explained the two dimensions of thecore UPF processes that interact with one another: the‘Governance Framework and Domains’ and the ‘Value ChainFramework and Domains’.

Figure 1 provides an overall picture of the UPF.

The Purpose of this ArticleThe purpose of this, the fifth article, is to explain the SupportDimension of the Unified Process Framework .

The Support Dimension simplifies the Core Governanceand Value Chain dimensions, by removing common activitiesand putting them in one place, in the Support Dimension.

Health WarningAn advanced warning to all ITIL proponents: the following mayappear to propose that the core of ITIL IT ServiceManagement be removed from IT Service Management andmade generally applicable to the business, as UPF SupportProcesses.

This is indeed the case because IT Service Managementdoes not own the Support Processes. They are needed by thebusiness for use across the business as well as in IT.

ITIL has applied these processes to aspects of IT activity butthey are equally applicable to (and may already be in practicefor business processes that span the Governance Frameworkand the business and IT Value Chains.

All parts of the business have to manage:� Risks� Issues� Change� Objectives� Performance� Demand, Capacity and Availability� Business Configuration Management

UPF encourages a common way of managing these activitiesacross the Governance Framework and across all Value Chainsand puts them into the ‘Support Dimension’.

Common Problem and Issue ManagementLet’s explore the support dimension by starting with twoquestions:� Who has problems?� Where is best practice for dealing with problems applied

in a business /IT process framework?The answer to the first question is that problems are

experienced and dealt with in many places in the GovernanceFramework:� Strategic problems are dealt with in the process of

developing business and IT strategy in the Directionalpart of Governance.

� Tactical problems are experienced and dealt with inprogrammes and projects in the Development part ofGovernance.

� And of course, there are operational problems dealt within the Delivery part of Governance.

And then if we consider which Value Chains are impacted byproblems, we experience:� Customer problems, Market Competition problems,

Product problems, Service problems, Technology problems,People problems, Process problems, Supplier problems,and the bottom line – Financial problems.

One problem tends to have an effect higher up the valuechain and also affects the bottom line.

So the answer to who has problems is – everybody in allaspects and at all levels of work and management. andeverybody needs a process for resolving them.

So now the second question: Where is best practice fordealing with problems?

Clearly we could develop problem management processes‘everywhere’ and that is one of the challenges of a unifiedapproach to management.

The many frameworks used by different business and ITprofessionals, tend to have their own approaches to problemmanagement. The result is that everybody has different waysof handling problems.

These different ways involve different terms for the samething and the same terms with different meanings. Themeaning of ‘Problem’ in ITIL does not translate into a singlecorresponding term in PRINCE2.

So when people come together from different governanceor value chain disciplines they have a problem dealing withproblems!

Many companies train people in the skill of handlingproblems. Problem handling is part of most quality initiatives,including Six Sigma. People trained in both ITIL and Six Sigmado not know which way to turn when it comes to managingproblems!

So wouldn’t it be nice to have one generic method; oneprocess with one set of terms used by everybody in thebusiness and IT to manage problems?

And the challenge of process terminology diversity does not

JOHN GIBERTSouthcourt

�


just lie with Problems but with Opportunities, Risks, Issues,Errors, Incidents, Features, Off Specifications and Faults. InUPF we group them all together under the title ‘IssueManagement’.

So let’s step back and look at this broad area of process. Isthere any reason why we should have different approaches,processes, practices and terminology for doing the same kindof thing in different aspects of the business?

The answer is clearly no!Accordingly, UPF has simplified the governance and value

chain domains by extracting these common processes and putthem into the Support Dimension, so that they support theCore processes in a unified manner.

With UPF the intention is to have a complete and unifiedset of Issue Management processes, based upon the bestpractices from all the business and IT frameworks with acommon consistent language across IT and into the business.

Common Risk ManagementSo in the same way, once an enterprise has decided thatcorporate risk, market risk, project risk and operational riskare all looking for a best practical approach to managing risk,then a common risk management approach can be taken andelaborated upon.

The diagram at the top of this page reflects a compre-hensive list of risk management actions that can be taken tomanage the most complex to the simplest risk. There is nospace to explain the diagram, so please ponder it for a coupleof minutes.

Looking at the diagram on the next page (figure 3), oncethere is a common approach to risk management, then

management and ownership of the risks can be transferredleft and right across the governance framework and up anddown the value chain to the optimum area for managementconsideration and action.

There is not enough space in these articles to explore thedetail of the individual processes that make up the supportdomain – but the concept is hopefully clear – that is ofproviding a common management approach and a languageadopted by all, across business and IT when doing the samething.

Objectives and Performance Management deals withmanagement objectives and targets including SLAs, providing acommon approach across the Governance framework fromStrategic Objectives to Development and OperationalObjectives and the feedback performance loops.

Related objectives are set at all levels within the enterpriseand with an effective Governance Framework the objectivesare aligned.

The ‘Development Objectives’ are driven from the‘Directional Objectives’ as are the ‘Delivery Objectives’.

The best practice is to have a common approach toObjectives and Performance Management – be it based uponthe ‘Balanced Score Card’ or simply on ‘Management ByObjectives’.

At an operational level, ‘Delivery Objectives’ are typicallytransformed into SLAs for the service value chains and OLAsfor the capability value chains.

Demand and Supply Management involves the use ofcommon processes for capacity and availability that linkthe Value Chain Domains.

From the diagram overleaf (figure 4): �


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1. Demand for capacity and availability is defined top downand Supplied bottom up the Value Chain .

2. With Demand and Supply Management, capacity ismanaged via a common planning and control processacross the Governance framework so that Delivery isgiven the Plan and Forecasts from Direction and theActuals are fed back from Delivery to Direction.

From an IT viewpoint this ensures that InformationTechnology has the power and resilience to provide thecapacity and availability of IT services to support the requiredbusiness processing volumes up the value chain.

Change and Configuration Management is the finalsupport area that we will be looking at.

We all need to manage change. Change affects all aspects ofthe governance framework, change in business direction,changes in what is being developed in projects, changes indelivery. They all need managing and benefit from a commonapproach.

Change affects all the value chains andimpacts other value chains. A change inprocess needs similar attention to achange in technology: What’s the risk?What is impacted in the same anddependent value chains? What’s thejustification? When is it best to do it?How do you test it?, and so on.

So Change Management is not an ITdomain but a business domain andtypically IT change needs to be alignedwith business change – change inbusiness process being enabled bychange in technology together.

Finally Business ConfigurationManagement, when we changesomething, what is that thing that wechange?

In IT we use the term ConfigurationItem for the things we change that aresubject to IT Change Management.

If we look at ConfigurationManagement in business technology

functions like manufacturing, warehousing, distribution andbuildings, then we find that configuration management is acommon discipline used for managing the components inthose capabilities that like IT components are also used todeliver service.

Business Configuration Management is not just aboutmanaging technology components but it is also about

managing all the business componentsthat make up all the value chains. It isalso about managing the relationshipsbetween them across the value chains.

Business Configuration Managementis used to manage and link: Markets toCustomers; to Business Products toBusiness Services; to Business Processesinvolved in delivery; to IT Services andto IT Applications and IT Infrastructure.

Configuration Management then isabout ensuring that we manage ourvalue chain records of businesscomponents in a common manner.

So in summary, the UPF SupportProcesses are business wide, theysupport the Governance Frameworkand Value Chains and they should reflectthe overall best practice taken fromframeworks like ITIL, PRINCE and SixSigma.

The Way ForwardThe sixth article will cover the final UPF

dimension, the ‘Enabling Dimension’, explaining how the basicprocesses for Work Management, Resource Management andKnowledge Management enable the Core and Supportprocesses to be performed in a common manner.

The final article will show how IT can move forward frombeing individual domain/ framework driven and how IT canimprove, in a very pragmatic manner, the interfaces betweenits existing frameworks like ITIL and PRINCE2, to integratethem practically into one Business–IT aligned ‘Unified ProcessFramework’. �For more information on UPF, contact [email protected]


International NewsThere has been much activity on theInternational front over recent months.

ConferencesThe USA conference in St Louis saw asignificant increase in numbers from theprevious year (see photograph below). Asalways, user presentations demonstratingreal life deployments saw the highestattendances and best appraisals. One ofthe liveliest sessions was the certificatepanel session, where many views wereaired.

The Danish Chapter held their firstannual conference in Copenhagen on 27/28 October. Over 80 delegates attendedto hear a range of presentations fromlocal and overseas speakers.

The 7th Netherlands Congress washeld in Maastricht. Approximately 500delegates joined a full-house ofexhibitors for a very successful event. Asmost sessions were naturally delivered inDutch, SERVICTalk’s intrepid reporterwas unable to garner much detail on thecontent. But conversation with delegatesindicated a generally favourable receptionfor what seems to have been a tightlyfocused event.

The 12th UK Conference is coveredin detail on pages 19 to 26.

Some 250 delegates attended theCanadian Conference in Montreal. Astrong international representation waspresent, guaranteed by the holding of theInternational Board Meeting immediatelyprior to the event. The event was kickedoff by a lively if muted (due to laryngitis)motivational session from Rick Buttsand rounded off with a rousing andamusing knowledge management sessionfrom Nick Bontis. In between, thetypical conference mix of real-life storiesand future-gazing, provided much foodfor thought for the delegates. In addition,the hosts took advantage of the

international guests’ presence to stage a“birds of a feather” session exploring allthe various initiatives around the world.

Next on the circuit is the GermanConference in Munich on 9 & 10December.

New Chapters3 November saw the latest addition tothe growing community with the launchevent of the Romanian Chapter.Despite a truck drivers’ strike causingtraffic chaos and preventing some

delegates fromreaching the venue,over 80 attendeeswere present to hearsessions from AidanLawes, CEO, plusother local andoverseas speakers.Coverage from localTV stations and pressensured that thechapter launched witha suitable fanfare.

By the time thisgoes to press, thePortuguese

Chapter will have launched on 27November. Several UK speakers arejoining the local hosts for a seminar andpress interviews in Lisbon.

Meanwhile interest continues to grow,with significant activities (and the strongexpectation that all will have chapters upand running in the next 6 months or so)happening in the following countries:Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Hungary,Italy, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand,Singapore, Spain and Venezuela. Inaddition, inquiries have come in fromArgentina, Croatia, Greece, the GulfStates, the Lebanon, Luxembourg,Russia and Slovenia.

International Board MeetingAn intense but successful meeting inMontreal on 14-15 November sawsignificant progress in the formalising ofkey documents, processes and policies.Not least among these was the move toa more streamlined mode of operation atan international level, with the formationof an executive board that will meetmore frequently than the full board anddrive many of the strategic initiativesforward.

The new International chairman(and thus chairman of the executiveboard) is Denis Doyle from Canada. Theother executive board members are:

Jutta Blessin (Germany), DavidCannon (US), Brian Jennings(Australia), Ian Lawson (South Africa)and Ivor Macfarlane (UK). Theexecutive board will be supported byCEO, Aidan Lawes and COO, JohanScheepstra (CEO, Netherlands).

Among the first tasks the board willtackle is reviewing the current businessplan and particularly the ongoing fundingmodel for the organisation.

Further progress has been made onestablishing committees with a globalperspective including marketing,qualifications and publications.

The international board in relaxed mode

International PublicationsThe first real formal meeting of theInternational publications sub-committeewas held during the UK conference, withrepresentation from many chapters. Themeeting agreed their terms of referenceand many of the working practices thatthey will follow.

The hard work that has gone intogetting this committee up and runningshould bear considerable fruit for allchapters, with a consistent and coherentset of publications bearing the itSMFInternational branding, while still leavingroom for locally branded publicationsthat add to the understanding andimplementation of generic best practicein that market.

The committee will take onresponsibility for several projectscurrently being run independently bydifferent chapters and will become thefocal point for all future developments.

Having operated so far with atemporary chairman, one of the firstactions will be to hold formal electionsfor the chairmanship of the committee.This will be done electronically to allowall chapters to vote. Results will bepublished as soon as they are counted. �


Ask the ExpertsLeading industry figures respond to questions received in the itSMF office

Question 1Which ITIL discipline

do you think best coversDatabase Management and

Administration?

Answer 1-1Tony PricePinkRoccade LtdDatabase Management andAdministration are functions / roleswithin IT. ITIL disciplines arepredominantly process oriented. Hencepotentially all of the ITIL processes couldcome into play for this function. Forexample but by no means complete:Service Level Management Theactivities within the function could play apart in the delivery of an SLA or OLAFinancial Management As the functionis part of the cost of providing the ITservice, then this process is relevantCapacity Management Many of theadministration / house keeping activities

performed plus ensuring the appropriatelevel of service is provided in line withthe SLA’s are covered by CapacityManagementAvailability Management Ensuringthat the database is available whenrequired, as defined in SLAs, is clearlypart of the Availability processIT Service Continuity Ensuring thatdatabases can be recovered in the eventof a disasterIncident Management Responding toincidents related to databasesProblem Management Resolvingproblems associated with the databaseChange Management Making changesto databasesRelease Management Ensuring thedatabase software is control, licence, atthe appropriate release levelConfiguration Management Controlof configuration items for example thephysical databases

You may notice that I have not

specified the Service Desk. The reasonbeing that this is a function in its ownright. Hence information could beprovided to the service desk with regardto the databases, so one could imply thatthere is coverage here, however I havedeliberately tried to emphasis my answerfrom a process perspective.

I think questions like this arise becausethere is still much confusion aboutprocess / roles / functions and a lack ofawareness that ITIL can and does applyacross the majority of functions/ roleswithin IT. I also think it would beincorrect to say that one ITIL process ismore relevant that the other, as ananswer to this question, as everyoneadopts and adapts ITIL differently to fittheir own personal environments.

Answer 1-2Ivor EvansDIYmonde SolutionsIt seems to me that this is a little like


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saying ‘which ITIL discipline best covers‘operations’ or ‘application development’and of course the answer is that they alldo. Database Management is a functionwithin IT and, as such, is a contributor toand a recipient of the activities of everyIT Service Management process. Itcontributes to resolving service failuresand permanently removing root causes; itconsiders other people’s changes to thelive environment and proposes changesof its own; it may be party to discussionson service level quality and availabilityand will have an input into capacitycalculations. There is no function withinIT Service Management that is nottouched by the IT Service Managementprocesses and Database Management andAdministration is no exception.

Answer 1-3Richard StoneFox ITIf you consider the management andadministration of databases as a functionthat is carried out within IT, then all theITIL processes apply, don’t they? Forexample managing and administering adatabase requires capacity managementexpertise at the resource and servicelevel, and information will be requiredfrom those administering the databasethat feeds into the overall capacity plan.

There will be availability considerations:is the database available when it isrequired; are the confidentiality, integrityand availability requirements of theinformation within the database beenconsidered? Again, this should be carriedout in accordance with, and feedinformation into, the Availability Plan.

Database management andadministration may have to be carriedout according to an operational levelagreement, as the database itself may bepart of one or more services offered tocustomers, themselves subject to an SLA.

Changes to the database should becarried out according to theorganisation’s Change Managementprocess, and any problems identified withuse of the database and its owninfrastructure should be recordedaccording to Problem Management.

And so on and so forth.To sum up, Database Administration is

an infrastructure focussed IT functionthat, like all the other infrastructurefunctions, has a role to play in all ITService Management processes.

Question 2PSA (projected schedule

availability) is referred to in

Change Management. What,if any, is the link between

PSA and AvailabilityManagement and how should

PSA be described withrespect to ITIL?

Answer 2-1Richard GriffithsFox ITProduction of a Projected ServiceAvailability (PSA) is the responsibility ofChange Management with input fromService Level Management (SLM) andAvailability Management. A PSA should bereadily accessible and can range insophistication from an excel spreadsheetto a graphic display via an internet orintranet server.

There is a close link with the ForwardSchedule of Change (FSC) – a PSA willmap the predicted service impact offuture planned changes against eachservice.

For example, four hours of plannedmainframe maintenance between 02-00and 06-00 on Sunday in three weeks timewill appear on the FSC, the PSA willindicate the impact on each service inService Level Agreement (SLA) terms,ie Service A has a four hour outage,Service B is not impacted as it is notavailable at this time or Service C canwork offline for the period. SLM will beable to assess potential disruptionthrough analysis of the likely number ofusers impacted, negotiate as appropriateand with the Service Desk communicateto the customer / user community.

Availability Management will use PSAinformation as an important input andshould be involved in agreeing the futureperiods of unavailability. The skills,toolsets and methodologies of AvailabilityManagement will be utilised to maximisefuture availability and minimise serviceimpact. For example, AvailabilityManagement will work closely with SLMand third party suppliers to matchunavoidable unavailability with periods oflow user activity and with ChangeManagement to ensure outages areminimised and efficiently used, ie changesbundled and concurrent (subject to riskassessment).

The PSA will highlight future periodsand areas for Availability Management tofocus on. It is the role of AvailabilityManagement to balance the needfor planned maintenance (to preventfuture unscheduled unavailability) againstloss of service. Mirroring, for example,could allow for continuous service, but inits absence, the proactive management ofmaintenance is key if high levels of

availability are to be sustained.

Answer 2-2Ivor EvansDIYmonde SolutionsThe best description of ‘ProjectedService Availability’ (not ‘projectedschedule availability’) can be found in theDictionary of IT Service ManagementTerms, Acronyms and Abbreviations,which is available from the itSMFbookstore. It is ‘A document used inChange Management to outline the effect ofChanges on the levels of availability definedin the Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Thisdocument is linked to the Forward Scheduleof Change (FSC)’. In its turn, the ForwardSchedule of Change is described as ‘Aschedule that contains details of all theChanges approved for implementation andtheir proposed implementation dates. Itshould be agreed with Customers, ServiceLevel Management, the Service Desk andAvailability Management. Once agreed, theService Desk would communicate to theUsers any planned or additional downtimearising from implementing the Changes (cf.Projected Service Availability).’ ProjectedService Availability will be affected, amongother events, by any changes whichimpact on previously scheduled service(or service component) maintenanceactivities and there is therefore a stronglink between PSA, AvailabilityManagement, Change Management andService Level Management.

Answer 2-3Colin RudditEMS LtdI am assuming that the PSA you arereferring to is the Projected ServiceAvailability as detailed within the newITIL Service Support book. Within theService Support book the PSA is statedas containing: “details of Changes to agreedSLAs and service availability because of thecurrently planned FSC.”

A better definition would be: “a diary ofthe projected service downtime required tosupport the implementation of authorisedchanges, currently contained within theagreed FSC.”

The PSA was introduced in the rewriteto increase the “proactiveness” of theChange Management process and toincrease the integration with both thebusiness and other Service Managementprocesses, as illustrated in the diagramoverleaf.

The workflow surrounding the PSA asillustrated above, shows the CAB takesas inputs the list of Requests for Change(RFCs) for consideration, the currentForward Schedule of Change (FSC) and



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the current PSA. The CAB will conducttheir business and assess the urgency,impact, risk and resources required foreach of the RFCs on its list. Once thisreview has been completed for each RFC,each will be authorised, deferred orrejected. All authorised RFCs will beadded in turn to the FSC and an updatedFSC will be produced and circulated.Once the FSC has been finally revisedand agreed, the PSA can be produced byexamining all RFCs within the FSC thatneed service downtime, as part of theirimplementation. This is why it is soessential that anybody impacted bydowntime is included within the CABwhen the impact of the RFCs is assessedand they are scheduled forimplementation. This would principallyinvolve Customers and Users, togetherwith representatives from AvailabilityManagement, Service Level Management(SLM) and the Service Desk. The FSC willbe updated iteratively as each RFC onthe list is authorised. The updated versionof the FSC will then contain animplementation schedule and date forevery authorised RFC.

The updated PSA can then beproduced by looking at each RFCincurring downtime and produce a diaryof “scheduled downtime” for all services.Once the PSA has been produced andagreed, then proactive communicationcan take place from the Service Desk toeach Customer and User group impactedby service downtime. The PSA can thenbe used as input to the next CABmeeting to also ensure that RFCs arescheduled in such a way as tosynchronise their implementation, inorder to minimise service downtime,avoiding the “hole in the road” syndrome.

The responsibility for producing thePSA should be clearly agreed within theorganisation. In practice it doesn’t matterwho produces it as long as someone isgiven ownership and includes all areas.The PSA should be made readily availablefor anyone to access it and display itscontent. I have seen it produced indifferent organisations, by ChangeManagement, Availability Management orSLM.

The ideal location for the FSC and PSAis on an Intranet site accessible byeveryone. However, what is important isthat changes (RFCs) requiring servicedowntime should be scheduled forimplementation outside of agreed servicehours, wherever possible. This can onlybe done where the person responsiblehas access to the contents of all SLAs. Ifthis cannot be achieved for any reason,then RFCs should be scheduled forimplementation during agreed “changeslots” or “maintenance slots”. Failing thisthey should be scheduled during times ofminimal business impact, often duringunsociable hours.

Question 3We are in the process ofoptimising our Incident,

Problem and Changeprocesses and want to

conduct a customer surveyon the service culture

regarding these processes.What questions should I beasking and how can I map

the answers back to theprocesses?

Answer 3-1Dave WardIBMFor me, there are three phases to this, allreally driven by Service Levels,a) Questions about the steady state

service:� How good are we…?� How well does the service meet

your needs?b) Questions about failing service and

our ability to recover after anincident or problem� How well do we recover?� Do we keep you informed of

progress?� How often have you been

impacted…?� For how long were you impacted?� What was the cost to you of the

outage?c) Questions about the ability to change

i.e. introduce new requests orservices through Change Management� How well do we introduce your

new services?� Do we deliver new services when

we say we will?� Have we ever disrupted your

service subsequent to introducinga change?

Answer 3-2Dave EdwardsSolutionsI’m probably not the right person to beanswering this as I need a lot ofconvincing as to the value and validity ofsuch surveys but as usual I can’t resist!

One area to ask questions on would be‘How was it for you’. In other words howdid the process users find the use of theprocess:� Is it better than what they used

before?� Do they find the processes

bureaucratic?� Are the processes helpful?

A process should be like a child’s slide:for a small amount of effort (climbing thesteps or filling out an RFC), everythingthen happens automatically.

If this isn’t the case and people arebypassing the process then you need tofind out why the process isn’t workingfor them.

On the principle that it is always bestto involve people then ask them whatideas they have for improving theprocess.

As to mapping them back to theprocess then why not have a section inthe survey for each process.


Answer 3-3Shirley LacyConnectSphereWhen planning a customer survey it isimportant to consider:� Who will you survey?� How will you survey – hardcopy,

electronic, telephone based (this willaffect the number/type of questionsyou ask)

� What questions to ask and how toachieve a balance of questions?

� How will you analyse the results andtake action?

Many customers will base theirassessment of the Incident, Problem andChange Management processes on theirsubjective perception, often based onrecent experiences and job function. Atthe start of any survey, it is important toestablish basic information about therespondent and ask what services theperson uses. Depending on how thesample was selected, you may find thatthe respondent has never used one ormore of these processes. Any surveyshould be logical from the customer’sperspective – it can be confusing andfrustrating otherwise. It is a good idea todo a pilot on a number of customers.

It is useful in any survey to establishwhether the aspect has improved, stayedthe same or worse. This question can beasked for any of the questions and is agood indicator over time of the rate ofimprovement for a subjective response.

The results of customer surveys shouldbe discussed with the customer, an actionplan agreed and input to the serviceimprovement programme. If no action or

improvement is possible for a particularaspect it is usually better not to ask thequestion.TerminologyTerminology is an issue when asking forcustomer feedback. Often this willdepend on other terms used within theorganisation. Typical issues are:� The ITIL distinction between the

Incident and Problem managementprocesses and terms may not beunderstood by many users andcustomers.

� Users may not distinguish betweenservice requests and change requests.They often think of these as ‘big’ or‘little’ changes.

� When asking about ‘handling ofchanges’ users may have difficultydistinguishing between projectchanges and service/infrastructure/operational changes. Some users mayeven think of contract changes if theyare in the purchasing department.

Asking questions as part of anoverall customer satisfaction surveyGeneral questions for Incident, Problemand Change Management in telephonebased customer satisfaction surveys thatwe have successfully used are:� Call/incident handling (use call as well

as incident as many people do notunderstand incident – or use thecommon term in your organisation)

� Attitude of staff� Speed of problem solving� Quality of problem solving� Handling of changes

This often gives a general indication ofimprovements in the incident, problem

and change management processes.Specific customer survey forfeedback on optimisation ofIncident, Problem and ChangeManagementA customer survey on the serviceculture for the Incident, Problem andChange Management processes shouldcover various aspects. Achieving a balanceof questions is important e.g. askquestions on time/speed, quality, cost.There are also softer aspects such as theservice provider’s understanding of thecustomer/business need, ability to listen,attitude of staff, communication andfeedback.

The questions should measure aspectsthat are expected to improve from thecustomer’s perspective. Includingadditional control questions will help toensure there is no deterioration in otheraspects of the process. For example if thetime to resolve problems is quicker thenthe quality of problem, solving may beworse, resulting in an overall satisfactionthat is worse. Mapping the customer’sresponse back to the specific processesis difficult as we are dealing withperceptions. It very much depends on therespondent’s understanding of a phraseor term that will depend on the localcircumstances, recent experience of therespondent and their involvement in theprocess.

The mapping shown in the table belowprovides some insight into the mappingand difficulties. �

If you want to either to add your views to the above orto join out panel of Experts, then contact:John McDermott at the Reading office.

Process/question Mapping back to the process (or not as the case may be)

Service Desk/Incident Management � Speed of logging a call Time to complete incident logging� Speed of response Time to respond to the user � Ability to ‘fix first time’ If incidents are fixed at the first contact point the user will normally be happier. � Feedback on progress Frequency and quality of feedback for incidents that are not ‘fixed first time’� Attitude of staff May have improved if staff have been trained e.g. in customer service� Overall satisfaction This will usually provide feedback on the service desk and incident management

Problem Management � Speed of problem solving Usually perceived to be the time from logging to having a full resolution (of the incident and/

or problem)� Quality of problem solving Were there many attempts or visits to resolve the problem, When the problem was resolved

were other problems created?� Overall satisfaction with the process This will usually provide feedback on the overall perception of incident and problem

management, especially where users do not see a separation.

Change Management� Understanding of the business need for change If the requirements are not understood then the service provider may provide the wrong

solution – related to quality of change. Customers are often frustrated by a lack ofunderstanding and this may be a good control question.

� Feedback on change Does the process inform the originator at the right time with the right information e.g. onreceipt or approval/rejection of the change.

� Speed of making changes Perception of the time from logging to completion of the change. � Quality of changes made Is it what the customer wanted in the first place? If not, the service provider will have wasted

time, effort and money doing the wrong thing. � Cost of change Often an emotional subject that may be worth monitoring – it may affect perception of the

other aspects. � Overall satisfaction with the process This may provide feedback on the overall perception of any change management process in IT

e.g. project changes and service changes.



Regional Round UpLondon & South EastReport by John Byles, ServiceManager, XansaI had received a number of emails in thepast informing me of itSMF events butthe idea of attending an event had eitherbeen scuppered by work commitmentsor hadn’t really appealed to me. It had,which I now know was a totalmisconception, conjured up a picture ofwhat can be best described as, a group ofprocess orientated train spotters sittingin a room eschewing over flow diagrams.When in reality it was a broad selectionof IT professionals similar to me, nocorduroy trousers or anoraks in sight, allthere to openly discuss and share theirorganisations ITIL experiences.

MC for the day was Ken Goff, newlyappointed chair for the London andSouth East Region with the firstpresentation by Geoff Evans, Partnersin IT and Bob Lawley from Steria.Geoff walked us through an ITILimplementation delivered with apackaged solution in a matter of monthsfrom a supplier’s perspective. Bob thentook the stage and walked us throughthe process from a customer’s pers-pective, little did he know that when hesat down he would be the envy of mostof the audience – full ITIL in what was it3 months!!!, but as he fully admitted itwas a greenfield site.

Caffeine levels replenished it was timefor the next item on the agenda “UserForum Debate – How do we doConfiguration Management”. The debatebegan, people shifted uneasily in theirseats, the atmosphere was tense, youcould have cut it with a spreadsheet…OK, Ken introduced “ConfigurationManagement”. A large number of handsshot up at the chance to ask the firstquestion… “To what level do you defineconfigurable items?” the remaining handswere lowered, were they going to ask thesame question! This was immediatelyfollowed by “Why does the business see thisas just an asset register?” Ken composedthe baying crowd and opened up thefloor for audience responses. Theoverwhelming consensus was that theremust be agreement between the businessand IT on exactly what a configurationmanagement database (CMDB) was goingto provide.

The key message, taking all responsesinto account, could be summed up by

saying “Configuration Management needs tobe scoped, planned and agreed between allparties, Business, IT and where appropriateSuppliers, this includes the level to which CI’sare defined” and “Sponsorship for theimplementation of ConfigurationManagement must also receive backing fromby senior management.”

The theme of business awareness of ITfollowed us to the next discussion topic,“Availability Management.” John Efford ofnewly branded Abbey walked us throughtheir implementation of AM, in someways this showed us a reversal of theexperiences previously discussedregarding Configuration Management. ITalso needs to take into account businessneeds, and when dealing with a publiccompany this means the customer.Abbey’s case study was very informativeand as a result the implementation of AMincreased customer services.

It was quite apt at this point, havingsuccumbed to a cold, that I said my goodbyes before the last presentation “Are weprotected from Virus attacks” and feelingsomewhat guilty about leavingvolunteered to write this article. I willdefinitely attend further events andwould encourage others to do so, butleave your anorak at home.

Midlands & East AngliaReport by Lynn Jackson,LJ Training LtdJim Davies, Midlands & East Anglia itSMFRegional Chairman welcomed membersto the National Blood Service offices inBirmingham. John McDermott gave usan itSMF update mentioning the newcomplementary books in the ITIL stableand the addition of pocket guidestranslations in Korean, Spanish, Frenchand Portuguese. Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment with its relevance to theInstitute of Service Management was alsotouched upon.

The first half of the day was a progressreport for problem managementimplementation from the previous April’smeeting. Sati Bhogal of CoorsBrewers reviewed the goals of problemmanagement for his company and howfar away they still were from those goals.He revealed that they are still on targetto revise all support teams fault codes bythe end of year. On the question “does itwork?” Sati concluded “yes”, howeversome more work is required to underpin

the whole process from identification toresolution.

Linda Buckland of the InlandRevenue gave us a recap on theorganisational structure within IT andwhere problem management sits inrelation. Linda also pointed out thatalthough ITIL is not a perfect fit with theIR, they have realised that ITIL is flexible,and can help the IR to improve theirprocesses. Changes that have been madeso far include having one PM groupmanaging multiple systems as well ashaving standard impact levels andcontractual measure across systems.

Mike Jay from Hewlett-Packardpresented “Winning Hands – Themanagement of change”. Mike introducedus to a startling statistic discovered by hiscompany that 3 out of 4 large changeprojects do not produce the desiredresults. The reasons for this were variedbut pointed to one thing – the ‘People’part of the equation had not been fullyconsidered. People had not been involvedin the change process (‘done to’ not‘with’); they didn’t know why the changewas happening and feared the impact ofnew processes and technologies to theircurrent job.

Finally Steve Boronski of Stoke-on-Trent City Council explained thatchange needed to be enabled or progressstops. He walked through the SevenSteps of Stagnation (“we’ve never done itthat way before”…) and the top 8 errorsof change (“declaring Victory too soon”…),before showing us the consequences ofsuch actions. Steve presented an eight-stage process to enable change in a pro-active manner with such suggestions as“create a sense of urgency”, “develop andcommunicate the vision” and“consolidate and create MORE change”.

With the presentations over, JohnMcDermott of itSMF spoke about theconference in November and how tocreate and present white papers forinclusion on the itSMF website.

Jim concluded the meeting with arequest for presentations for the nextRegional Meeting entitled “ImplementingBest Practice” and thanked the NationalBlood Service for hosting today’s event.(Following an appeal, several delegatesdid donate the odd pint or two!).

The next Regional meeting will be heldat the Norwich Union offices in Norwichon 21 January, 2004. �


2003 Conference & Exhibition

Breaking BoundariesBuilding Bridges

A CritiqueNeil Reynolds

National Blood ServiceRecurring themes of many of this year’sconference presentations were“expectations” and “perceptions”, sohere are some of mine. The opinions arepurely personal, though I did of courseget a flavour of other people’s viewsduring chats between sessions, overlunch, dinner and in the bar. This was myfourth itSMF conference, so while I’m notquite at the veteran stage, I do haveexperience of three previous events tocompare with.

The Hilton influence is now moreobvious at the Metropole. I’ve previouslyfelt that it was a Hilton in name only, butthe hotel now seems firmly integratedinto the group and standards have risen.Staff are more attentive and courteousand some renovation has taken placesince last year. With such a big, oldbuilding that must be a never-ending taskand there’s plenty still to do, but it’scertainly moving in the right direction.

Initial impressions of the itSMFregistration procedure were good too.Well organised, quick and what amagnificent bag – the best ever, and fullof goodies as well. On to the formalopening and a superb keynote address byNigel Barlow – so good that I bought thebook! Not too sure about the overallconference theme though – it was as ifthe organising committee couldn’t decidebetween two proposals, “BreakingBoundaries, Building Bridges” and “Stabilityin a Changing World” and decided to keepthem both. Or maybe three, since thebackdrop was a picture of the world heldin a pair of cupped hands. This looksgreat on the cover of the ring-binder andthe CD. On the stage, however, thethumbs had to be moved back to makeroom for the screen, with the result thatit looked very unnatural – the handswouldn’t have been able to hold anythingin that position. Drop The World I Wantto Get Off perhaps? The World Is SlippingAway maybe? And who has thumbnailsthat square? The twinkling stars thoughwere wonderful, and enhanced theprofessionalism of the event.

As is usual, session speakers rangedfrom enthusiastic “amateurs” making

their public debut to polishedprofessionals, though all (or atleast all the ones I saw) hadsomething worthwhile to say andprovided a few nuggets to takeaway. One such person exposinghimself to such a large audiencefor the first time was a colleagueof mine from the National BloodService, Alan Daly, and “the boydone good” as they say. Hismessage about customersatisfaction was clear and so is thesubtext: if he can do it, so can you. Youdon’t have to be a professional speakerto make a presentation, and there’s a slotwaiting for you on next year’s conferenceprogramme. With five streams to selectfrom this year there was certainly plentyof choice; something for everyone in fact,perhaps too much for some. I made itsomewhat easier for myself by decidingto stick to hearing about the experiencesof fellow practitioners, so I gave the“Vendor Views” stream a miss.

I did though visit virtually all of theexhibition stands, which were well laidout and a lot of thought, planning andexpense had gone into them. Some wereparticularly eye catching and of course Icouldn’t resist having a go in the Formula1 race simulation. I can only say thatnever having sat insuch a car before, itwas my failure to liesufficiently flat andensure my feettouched the pedalsproperly that accounted for my abysmalshowing – so bad in fact that I feltcompelled to apologise to the guyrunning the simulation!

Whoever came up with the idea toprovide a selection of packed sandwiches,cakes and fruit for lunch should beheartily congratulated – it was amasterstroke. Last year there were hugequeues for lunch, with despite beingtaken in the exhibition area, left littletime to visit the stands. Eating “on thehoof” was a vast improvement, allowingtime to be maximised. Extending theexhibition to the third morning was goodfrom the delegates’ point of view too. I’dparticularly like to thank A1e for theprovision of the Internet Café which I

found most useful and it saved me a lotof time – by checking my emails duringbreaks, there were a lot less to comeback to.

Not all the new initiatives were quiteas successful. The floor direction symbolswere a great idea but got very tattyquickly as people trampled over them;perhaps they could be attached to thewalls next year?

As we’ve come to expect, the food andentertainment were very good indeedand Fox IT deserve a special mention forthe quiz, which was great fun. “We WuzRobbed” of course, and something pecul-iar must have happened to the marking!My wife enjoyed the Partner Programmetoo, though I do wonder what more isleft in the Brighton area that hasn’t beencovered in previous events.

The conference ended as it had begun,with an excellent keynote speech, thistime by Sahar Hashemi who foundedCoffee Republic. I drink very little coffeemyself but the talk certainly wasstimulating.

All in all, a very enjoyable conferencethat provided both business and pleasurein just the right mix. I understand theattendance was a new high, both at theconference and even more so at theitSMF AGM on the Monday evening. I’msure that the vast majority of delegatesgained from it and will be back next year.I am equally certain that their expect-ations will have risen as a result, and tohelp ensure they are met I have someideas for yet further improvement whichI’ll pass on to the committee, who I feelsure will give them serious consideration.My thanks and congratulations to every-one involved in the organisation, not leastthe itSMF secretariat at Reading, andhere’s to an even better one next year.


Feedback fromConference attendees…

Ken Goff, Prudential:What a great event… well done toeveryone.Barclay Rae, e2e CustomerServices:Just to say thanks to all from e2e for anenjoyable and useful conference as ever.

Heather Stebbings, i-Core:Just a quick thank you to you, the team,everyone really, who helped make my firstconference a memorable occasion!Nigel Mear, Cable & Wireless:This was my first time at the conference andI thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable threedays and an excellent conference.Nick Needham, Aseriti:I thought I should convey my thanks andcongratulations to you and the rest of theteam for the excellent coordination andplanning of this year’s conference.

Paulette McKillop, IBM SoftwareGroup Speakers Bureau:I just want to take a minute to thank you forinviting Sandy Carter to speak at your itSMFBrighton event. Sandy was very pleased withthe event and the opportunity.

Ian Scholes, Energis:May I pass on my thanks to you all for whatI think has been the most successful AnnualConference ever. My colleagues and I wereextremely impressed with the organisation,the array of events and presentations, andeven extra special touches such as the RoyalMarine band on the first day. I am sure youare looking back yourselves thinking what agood job you’ve done, and you deserve to patyourselves on the back. Excellent event,extremely productive and informative, and I’lldefinitely be back next year.

Phil Montanaro, EDS:Another fantastic conference: well done toyou all. I was yet again pleasantly surprisedwith the quality and variety of thepresentations.Carl Helling, Digitalfuel:I wanted to send a quick note to thank youall for a very enjoyable and memorable2003 conference.Steve Boronski, Stoke Council:Could you please pass my appreciation on toeveryone involved in the Conference, yourwhole team must have performed at theirpeak to achieve such a successful event.Many thanks for a great three days.Alan Daly, National Blood Service:Thanks for a great conference.

Tina Madden, IBM, Student of theYear:The itSMF Conference is a wonderfulopportunity to meet new like-minded peoplein the area of Service Management; and also

to get to know much better some peoplewhose names you might know already. Therewas a great community spirit – everyone wasfriendly and approachable across the wholescope of delegates, organisers, speakers,exhibitors and head honchos. Themotivational speakers were truly...motivating! Sessions covered a wealth oftopics and were invaluable for highlightingthe key features of new advances, vendorofferings and the fundamental buildingblocks of IT Service Management. Definitelya must for future years’ diaries.

Tina MaddenService ManagementCandidate of the Year

Elspeth Wales, BCSFor service management professionalTina Madden being awarded the accoladeof itSMF Student of the Year in thissummer’s ISEB Service Managementexaminations was a tremendouslyrewarding achievement reflecting thehard work she put into the process.

Her success culminated on 11November when she was presented withher award and £200 prize during the

Gala Dinner at the itSMF 12th AnnualConference and Exhibition at theMetropole Hotel, Brighton (seephotograph oon the centre pages – 22-23). This award is given each year to thecandidate who obtains the overall highestmark, for a single sitting, in the ISEBService Management qualification.

Tina’s road to success began at thestart of this year, when she decided tostudy for the Service Managementqualification because, having worked inthe field of processes and IT servicemanagement for several years, the last

five for IBM, she felt it was time toachieve a professional qualification asevidence of the knowledge andexperience she has acquired. IBMencouraged her endeavour since thecompany is in the throes of an initiativeto certify the skills of its key personnel,providing them with support and fundingto do so.

Tina is a Process ImplementationManager at IBM which involvesimplementing and improving processeswhich span the scope of service deliveryto clients in the Strategic Outsourcing


business of IBM Global Services.Through training provider PinkRoccade, selected

by IBM, Tina enrolled on the Service Managementqualification in early 2003 and went on to take theService Support course in March followed by theService Delivery course in May, the two papers thatmake up the certification. The exams took place in July.

“The courses were very intensive. Each day was amixture of factual learning, interactive group exercises andlearning in the evening ready for mock questions thefollowing morning and after the courses I kept up revisionon a regular basis until the exams” said Tina.

Prior to taking the Service Management qualificationTina had gained the prerequisite ISEB Foundationcourse in 2001. The structured training and revisionaids provided by Pink Roccade proved invaluable toTina and following the Service Support course inMarch she felt it would be in her best interests tokeep up the momentum of revision so that she did notforget what she had already learned.

“Between March and May I started revising for a coupleof hours once a week. After the second course in Mayobviously the amount of material doubled so I increasedrevision to at least twice a week. I felt like I was back atschool or university. There is a lot to learn, plus thinkingabout how this relates to your experience, or thinkinglaterally about how you would present it from a manager’sview takes time so I’m glad I kept it up but it took a lot ofwillpower,” said Tina.

Such was her commitment that she even revisedwhile holidaying in Spain, putting her time on a sunlounger to good use! “I was glad I did it because I thinkthere is so much information to try and learn in just ashort amount of time,” she added.

All too soon came the examinations. She recalledthat the exams were hard but she expected them tobe. The questions weren’t nasty but did stretch herability to think beyond the obvious, from a manager’sviewpoint and required candidates to pull togethermany different facts from a range of disciplines andcombine them into an answer from a managerialperspective, she said.

Exams over, Tina then had to endure an eight weekwait for her results. The results are usually releasedafter six weeks but Tina had to wait an extra two untilshe had returned from holiday. “The wait was agonising.While on holiday, I tried to forget about it but all the wayhome during an eight hour overnight flight I was imaginingthe worst.”

Her worries were unfounded. “I was amazed with themarks themselves I’d spent all those weeks praying I’d atleast passed and here I was with a distinction. When I wascalled to say I’d won the Student of the Year award I wasvery, very pleased. Then when I was told it was possibly thehighest mark ever I was speechless. I was amazed and wasso pleased because I had put so much effort into it and itwas a great reflection on my skills, it’s brilliant.”

At a practical level this qualification helps in her job“enormously” giving a benchmark of skills tocolleagues and clients. It has also given her a thoroughfoundation of best practices with which to optimisedelivery to clients in addition to learning a number ofmanagement level skills such as writing a goodmanagement report which she found to be extremelyvaluable.


Awards CeremoThe 2003 itSMF awards saw the biggest entry yet for the various categor

INNOVATIONExel plc for their Olympus programme – an innovative and

integrated approach linking experiental learning with a massiveculture change programme reaching to the very top of the

company and embedded as part of the company ethos.The award was presented by

Ivor Evans, Honorary President of itSMF.

STUDENT OAwarded to the candid

marks in the ISEB Serthe winner was Dr Tinwith one of the highesaward was presented b

of the ISEB Service

SERVICE MANAGEROF THE YEARJane Seeley of Exelplc. For her leadershipof the Olympusprogramme (seeInnovation Award). Thisis the first time 2 awardshave gone to the samecompany in one year.This award was alsosponsored by the MarvalGroup so Don Pageagain had the privilege ofpresenting it.


ony – Winnersries, providing the judges with a challenging task in selecting the winners.

PROJECT OF THE YEAROxford University Press. A comprehensive service

improvement programme with a novel and professional entryincluding a diary from the project manager’s viewpoint.This award was sponsored by the Marval Group and

presented by Don Page.

OF THE YEARdate gaining the highestrvice Manager’s exam,na Madden from IBM,st totals on record. Theby Maggie Kneller, chairManagement Board. THE PAUL RAPPAPORT AWARD FOR

CONTRIBUTIONS TO SERVICE MANAGEMENT

Paul’s widow, Joan,presented this award toColin Meaden of SouthStaffs Health Authority.Colin was cited for hiscontributions to the itSMFitself, the leading effort hemade in establishing theInstitute of ServiceManagement as well as hischampioning of ServiceManagement in his ownorganisation and thewider NHS.


Conference 2003 WorkshopResults / Conclusions

Peter Wheatcroft, Partners-in-ITThis article feeds backthe results from anenergetic workshop ofthe same name heldon 11 November atthe annual itSMFconference in Brightonas well as derivingsome conclusions. This

workshop was different in a couple ofways, one it covered a doublepresentation session and secondly it wassplit in to 3-areas all relating to the titletheme. As the workshop leader I wasasked to comment, so here it is…

The workshop was entitled “Buildingreal business cases for ServiceManagement”. It has long been anissue in the IT industry that SystemsDevelopment is seen as the functionwhich adds value to the business,whereas Service Delivery is the poorrelation. In many cases, Service Deliveryis not only ignored but is activelyreferred to as a ‘necessary evil’ and thenoutsourced. But why have we allowedthis to occur and what can be done toredress the situation?

BackgroundThere were 75 delegates at theconference workshop that addressed thetheme of building business cases to justifyexpenditure on IT service management.This workshop ran by defining theenvironment within which IT Servicesoperated and why this had changed inthe last few years, both technically andculturally. The impact of this change onthe new IT user – which is increasinglybecoming the man in the street – wasexplored and why adherence toconventional Service Level Agreementsand methodologies may no longer work.The service challenge is a simple one –how do customers react to IT servicequality today when compared to 5 yearsago – and why?

The responseProject development expenditure in theUK has largely flattened out and the eraof ‘big bang’ systems is now one of fondmemory rather than forward planning.Now taking the place of flagship coresystems is a series of smaller, shorterrunning projects that are designed torealise incremental ROI (Return onInvestment) and which, by their nature,cannot take development of thesupporting infrastructure into theirscope. And when this is compounded by

The solution – In Terms ofProcessesOut of the workshop session, another 30or so focused on the session whichlooked at how the Process side of ITneeds to support the very rapid andcomplex service environment created bymultiple systems initiatives. There was astrong feeling here that the core IT team– the technicians – actually enjoy firefighting and the hero culture, becausethey become the heroes and aretherefore regarded as indispensable. Theygive process a bad name and themselvesregard process as a dirty word, whichrelates back to the earlier point aboutaddressing the cultural aspect of aservices change programme beforegetting down to implementing somethinglike ITIL.

Another concern was to ensure that aplan to sell the service managementsolution to everyone concerned wascreated and this could take the form of a‘game’ involving staff taking on differentroles within a simulated organisation.These games can be sourced from anumber of suppliers and are designed tohighlight the issues which arise when a‘best practice’ service managementsolution is not at the heart of theorganisation.

Another offering on this subject wasthe recommendation to ‘pilot’ a processand demonstrate the benefits beforerolling the full 12 ITIL process set acrossthe organisation and to use ‘champions’to nurture adoption by all the relevantstakeholders. One concern raised waswhere KPI’s (Key PerformanceIndicators) might be used to relate payand personal development to theperformance of the organisation, a similarpoint raised in the cultural session aswell. However, a strong empathy towardsthe replacement of SLA’s with higherorder business metrics was felt and thisbalances out the concern about pay/performance linkage by relating what ITpeople are paid to the business resultsthey achieve.

High ‘first time fix’ rates being a falseindicator was another concernexpressed. Whilst ‘first time fix’ rates arean important focus for the service desk,this may be masking an ineffectiveproblem management capability whoshould be removing the root causes ofrecurring faults and thus avoid the needfor repetitive fault resolution by theservice analysts.

The solution – In Terms ofTechnologyThe remaining delegates were interested

the affordability offered by offshoredevelopment, many companies are seeinga dramatic increase in the number ofprojects now being brought into service.As none of these projects are themselvesfunding infrastructure growth orcapability but are of such size andduration that some companies can affordto deliver 40 projects a year instead of10, it can be seen that infrastructureinstability is an inevitable result. Thisneeds a response by the people bestplaced to own both the ‘new age’ ITcustomer interface and the solution torobust management of the serviceinfrastructure – the IT ServicesDepartment. Which means you!

The sections below describe thefindings from this workshop and amplifythe examples which showed how 30% –75% ROI can, and have, been achieved.

The solution – In Terms of CultureOut of the 75 delegates attending, over30 focused on the session which lookedat how the People side of IT needs tochange to support the ‘new age’customer interface and how thatcustomer proposition should be tackled.Interestingly, whilst the facts and figurespresented weren’t challenged in terms oftheir validity, it was very revealing to findout how many companies found thejustification and achievement of ‘firstchoice’ employer status hard to justify totheir management. There was somescepticism about staff reaction to ‘bestpractice’ mechanisms such as regularsatisfaction surveys; how it was possibleto maintain an adequate trainingallocation within a busy annual scheduleplus how to manage the interface withSystems Development. There was alsosome active debate around the means bywhich customer satisfaction wasachieved, both in terms of themechanisms used and the standards bywhich satisfaction should be measured –with topics such as MOT (Moments ofTruth) and training methodologies playingan increasingly important role.

There was some interesting debatearound the design of user facing systemsto comply, say, with the new DisabilityDiscrimination Act where disabled staffalready in an IT organisation could findthey have an enhanced role in ensuringcompliance. These aspects all serve toexplain why, of the three sessions, thecultural realignment of a servicesfunction – both internally and inmanaging the customer – is going to beharder to address than the issuessurrounding the more objective choice ofprocess and technologies.


in discussing how Technology could helpthem in solving the service conundrum.The debate in this session examined theissues of writing business cases for newapplications that affected shared servers,or for growth business cases that arepart of the infrastructure expansion andare therefore written by IT andreconciled with the business. This raisedthe age-old solution of single server,multiple systems that was the province ofthe mainframe era but which is now backin the limelight as a result of recentserver consolidation exercises – and theCapacity Planning process that is neededas a result. There was some interest inthe building of relationships between ITServices and the business based on whythis would be necessary – and is thesponsoring business likely to co-operate?Again, this was a fascinating insight intohow much work IT Services need toinvest in relationship building, to addressan area where Systems Developmenthave been operating for years. Ways ofgetting better Customer input on ITsatisfaction surveys so that the resultsare a true reflection on how otherdepartments feel about IT were exploredwith a true delineation between Servicesand Development competencies. This wasespecially so if the questions werecarefully phrased to make it obviouswhich aspect of the overall ITcompetency was being rated buy theanswers.

Another technology issue was aboutthe availability of end-to-endmanagement tools that could address allthe elements in a service delivery chain.There was limited understanding of what

these were and where they could besourced from and the users present werevery interested in this aspect and how itcould be used to improve overallinfrastructure uptime. This was especiallyso for the 52% of websites in the UK notcurrently proactively managed by the ITfunction.

ConclusionOverall, the workshop was very wellreceived and everyone who participatedthought it was a lively and interactiveevent. The format of breaking into threeseparate focus areas within one sessionwas a new one but based on thefeedback received, is one that could beused again – we hope to progress thiswith the itSMF Conference ESC including

ways to improve future sessions of thistype. Our thanks go to the facilitationand support teams who made sure wehad three projectors and screens in thesame room at the same time, and also toTerry Wingrave and Andy Richardsonfrom Partners in IT who helped me torun the session – to time and quality!

The bottom line is that makingimprovements to service deliverycapability is more about cultural changeand process alignment than it is abouttechnology, tools and products. Whilstthis was the belief at the outset, theworkshop participants eloquentlyamplified for us why this was so.

Editors note: If you attended this presentation andwould like to add to Peter’s conclusion orcomment further send us an email.

Winners of the Raffle Prizes:itSMF Memory Stick: Alan McCarthy, PinkRoccadeFox IT Hotel Package: Barry Mobbs, DEFRAe2e Customer Services Cuddly Ape:Diane Davies, DEFRAHilton Brighton Metropole Bed & Breakfast for 2:Lorraine StonelakePinkRoccade iPAC: Aidan Lawes, itSMFAxios Systems Ltd Healthcheck Voucher:Steve Scott, Cogent DSN LtdAxios Systems Ltd Polar Bear:Caroline Phillips Ball,Threadneedle Asset ManagementThe unclaimed prizes follow. These are being held at the itSMF office.Contact Maxine on 0118 926 0888 to claim your prize:Pink 76-80 BMC – Screwdriver setOrange 16-20 Karyfi Consulting – Bottle of Glenfiddich WhiskyPink 496-500 Remedy T-shirt, mousemat and phone holderPink 386-390 Axios Systems Ltd – Bottle of Single highland maltOrange 126-130 Centennial – Bottle of Laurent Perrier

A typical conference scene

The itSMF Stand at the Exhibition


The Partners ProgrammeBob Fishleigh & Pam Forster

Tuesday 11 November dawned grey andcold, but did not dampen the spirits ofthe Partners who had opted to go “outon the town”. The coach arrived at thehotel doorstep at 10.30, the passengers“clocked in” and we were off to our firstdestination just five minutes away.

The Brighton Royal PavilionA Brief HistoryWe were introduced to our excellentguide and ushered into a private lectureroom, where we were given a half-hourpresentation entitled ‘Farmhouse toPalace: the Development of the RoyalPavilion’. The presentation also coveredthe history of the town, which during thePavilion’s development became afashionable health spa. The wealthytravelled from London, by fast coach to“take the waters” which meant not onlybathing in the sea, but drinking arecommended “cure-all” made up of seawater, milk and dead wood lice!

During the presentation, and at theeleventh hour, we joined in the act ofremembrance and observed the 2-minutesilence.

Then a TourWe were then given a very interestingtour of the Pavilion and visited most ofthe ground floor rooms and some of theupstairs quarters. The Pavilion, wasdeveloped from a farm house which hadattracted the Prince Regent’s eye. Hepersonally supervised its transformationinto a spectacularly opulent palace oversome 35 years. Today it appears to be in apermanent state of restoration, but inspite of some internal scaffold workthere was a tremendous amount to see,almost too much to take in during onevisit. The tour lasted about an hour andtook in the magnificent Banqueting Hall,the kitchens, the reception areas,corridors and the fantastic Music Room.Sadly, after the death of George IV,Queen Victoria came to the throne, and,disliking the Pavilion intensely, orderedeverything to be stripped out and sent toBuckingham Palace! The Pavilion has afascinating history and we thought thefollowing snippets would whet thereader’s appetite!

In 1787 Henry Holland extended theoriginal farmhouse into a neo-classicalbuilding known as the Marine Pavilion.From 1815-1823 John Nash used thenew cast iron technology to transformthe Marine Pavilion into the Indian stylebuilding, with its domes and minarets,that exists today. The town purchased the

Palace from Victoria in 1850 andrestoration “commenced”. Serious workhowever began in 1982, lasting some tenyears and costing over £10 million. Theoriginal programme to reinstate theinterior decorative schemes approved byGeorge IV in the early 1820s stillcontinues.

The Banqueting Room remains one ofthe most magnificent interiors in thePavilion. Its imaginative and bold designwas the work of Robert Jones, a little-known but extremely talented artist whobegan work for the Prince Regent in1815.

One of George IV’s great passions wasmusic. Appropriately the secondextension in Nash’s scheme was theMusic Room. In this extraordinaryinterior, lit by nine lotus-shapedchandeliers, the King’s own bandentertained guests with selections fromHandel or Italian opera. Tragically thissplendid room was severely damaged byfire in 1975, although all but one of theoriginal wall paintings survived. After adecade of intensive work, restorationwas completed including a reproductionof the original hand-knotted and fittedAxminster carpet. Restoration was barelycompleted when the hurricane ofOctober 1987 dislodged a stone ball ontop of one of the minarets, which thenfell through the newly restored ceilingand embedded itself in the newly laidcarpet. After further works by thePavilion conservation team the room hasnow been restored to the originalscheme.

Followed by Refreshments (and theGift Shop!)Having had our fill of the magnificence ofall the rooms on the ground floor wewere ushered upstairs to partake of teaand biscuits in the Queen AdelaideTearoom – most welcome!. By now timewas pressing, but not pressing enough toovercome the temptation of the GiftShop – oh dear! Suffice it to say, we dideventually get all the troops back on thecoach, which, by the way, was parked ondouble yellow lines with the enginerunning!

Next Stop – The Wine CentreThe next phase of the day out was aboutto commence: our destination, theEnglish Wine Centre at Alfriston, abouthalf an hour’s drive out of Brighton.

On arrival we were met by a mostcharming host who ushered us intoWalton’s Old Barn where tables werelaid for our wine tasting and lunch. Wewere first, however, given a fascinating

introduction to the English Wine Centre,which was established in 1972 to providevisitors with the opportunity to taste arange of English wine from differentvineyards and winemakers. We thenembarked on what was billed as a lighthearted but informative tasting of a rangeof English Wines as well as organic drinks- about 10 wines and juices mainly fromaround this part of the South East.

For the tasting we were each issuedwith a glass and a ‘spittoon’ (a beer mugin the middle of the table). Such, however,was the wont of the participating tasters,that your writers have to report, thespittoon wasn’t used much (as far as wecan remember that is)! Of the winestasted there were English Whites, Rosésand Reds to sample. These were followedby a Kir, a Sparkling Lemon Refresher andLocal Apple Juice to finish.

We were then given the opportunityto explore the Centre while the staffprepared lunch. Naturally by now wewere in just the right frame of mind tovisit the shop! The shop was particularlyinteresting because, apart from selling thewines we had already tasted, there wasquite a wide range of other winesavailable – even the facility to design yourown Wine Label! Chateau Chez Nous,anybody?

Finally therefore, back to Walton’s Barn,laden with our purchases, to partake of atypical Sussex Ploughman’s Lunch ofRegional Cheeses, Homemade SodaBread, Local Sausages, Salad and HotNew Potatoes ending with tea or coffee.Everything was well prepared, wellpresented and we all had that ‘at home’feeling, not only at lunch, but also duringthe whole of the visit. Nothing to dowith the wine you understand.

Back to Base……and More Food and Drink!However, time marches on, and all toosoon we said farewell to downtownAlfriston, (st)rolled back to the coach forthe return journey to Brighton by theSea, the Conference Centre and, guesswhat: the Gala Dinner!

Was it too much for weary partners?Well we did consider asking if theprogramme next year could be extendedby a day to enable Partners to have a full2 days worth just like the delegates: buton reflection we decided that might betaking things a bit too far (only joking)!So we thought we would just restrict ourcomments to “Thank you itSMF for lookingafter us so well”.

P.S. We only lost one partner, but don’tworry Steve we didn’t let on that it wasyour idea. �


IAN WHYTEBS15000 CertificationThis is a synopsis of a presentation given at theitSMF 2003 Conference

BS150001 and ITIL2

What is the relationship betweenBS15000 and ITIL?

Well, one thing that’s been addressedis that there is no debate about how topronounce ‘BS15000’, unlike ITIL,variously pronounced ITT’L, Eye-TIL oreven I-T-I-L!

ITIL provides proven best practiceprocesses and guidelines which can beadapted to suit our particular business.However at the end of the day these arereally only recommendations and it isnot practical to make a pass/fail decisionagainst them – indeed that is the reasonBS15000 was developed.

BS15000 has close links with ITIL andspecifies a level of quality which can beaudited. It is aimed at service providerorganisations and each process has somemandatory requirements and anobjective which puts these in context.The service provider organisation mustcomply with the process requirements ata level that is appropriate for theorganisation. An example could be acapacity plan which would have a level ofdetail and complexity appropriate to thatservice provider’s organisation.

There is a concordat between BSI,itSMF and OGC which formalises therelationships and in part it states “…allparties agree that it is important thatindustry should not be confused by thepublication of two sets of documentationfrom two different but authoritative sourcesand that their publications should align andcross-refer. The intention is that both sets ofpublications form parts of the same logicalstructure. As a consequence the ITIL booksand the BSI publications on servicemanagement have been integrated…..”

In terms of certification it would beright to think of ITIL as being a route tocertify the competence of an individualand BS15000 as being aimed at certifyinga service provider’s processes.

BS15000 Certification means that anorganisation has proved that it isdeploying best practice processeseffectively, because an external evaluationagainst the whole formal standard hasbeen carried out by an itSMF registeredindependent audit organisation.

Why Should I ConsiderAdopting BS15000?

BS15000 is now the industry-accepted

quality standard for IT ServiceManagement. It is widely recognisedthroughout the world and becoming abusiness requirement in the same way asISO9000, for example in invitations totender BS15000 certification will beaccepted as evidence of an organisation’scommitment to best practice in their ITservices.

So, BS15000 certification provides hardevidence that quality of IT ServiceManagement is being taken seriously in anorganisation. Adopting ITIL is fine andgets you a long way down the road but itis not the whole answer.

For example, before we had BS15000an organisation we’re thinking aboutbuying services from could claim to beITIL compliant but we had no real way ofassessing that claim. We could talk tothem and we’ll find that their sales guysare using the right buzzwords, we caneven get a statement from them that acertain percentage of their staff have ITILqualifications, but what they won’t tell usis that they don’t actually do Release orCapacity management or whatever.

Without us actually going in there andvirtually doing our own audit we had noway of knowing the degree to which theywere ‘compliant’.

Now, of course, if they are able toproduce a Certificate of BS15000Compliance issued by an organisationthat is a Registered Certification Bodyunder the Certification Scheme managedby itSMF then we can have a much greaterdegree of confidence in their ability.

The principal benefit of BS15000Certification is that it demonstrates thatan organisation has established a highstandard of IT Service Managementprocesses and is therefore deliveringmanaged services in a systematic,controlled and cost-effective manner.Some of the other benefits which wouldaccrue are:� Effective managed services that meet

customer and business requirements� Market advantage through having

Certification associated with itSMF� Cost reduction through optimised

structures and processes� Clear and focused documentation� Staff with a good understanding of

their service managementresponsibilities

� Regular evaluation of the processes to

improve their effectiveness� Effective business continuity

management and meeting legalrequirements for risk management

For example in the Finance sector theintroduction in 2006 of the Basel IIagreement requires financialorganisations to put aside a proportionof their assets, the proportion dependingon their assessed risks. This will affectover 30,000 banks in 110 countries.BS15000 certification may be an acceptedfactor in demonstrating that risks arebeing properly managed and thereforeless has to be put on deposit. Even a 1%reduction in the requirement could meanmassive amounts of money to theseorganisations.

Another benefit would be that it sets asignificant milestone for an ITDepartment, as achieving certification issomething which could take quite a lot oftime and effort, and successful outcomeof the audit is sure to be a worthy causefor celebration.

Also staff morale will improve if theyare working in a high-qualityenvironment, and of course it helps toenforce process compliance generallybecause people will be operating underthe prospect of being audited and anyinstances of non-compliance are sure tobe highlighted and could lead to thecertification being withdrawn – at leastthat’s what we can say to the people whotry to circumvent the processes!Auditors have a great knack of homing inon the areas we would least like them tosee!

The Scope of CertificationCertification is aimed at organisationswhich provide a Service Managementoperation, whether that is to internalcustomers or external customers, or acombination of both.

Certification is the process of assessingan organisation against the requirementsof the standard. If the organisation issuccessful then they are issued with aCertificate of Compliance.

This will contain a scoping statementthat defines the scope of the audit andthe certificate. This may show that it isnot the whole service providerorganisation which is compliant but onlythe part for which service management

�



processes are directly relevant. Forexample only the outsourcing division ofa large company, or perhaps the servicemanagement processes at a particularlocation or indeed only the parts of anorganisation which are involved inservicing a particular customer.

It’s worth pointing out here thatcertification is not appropriate for aconsultancy organisation which gives bestpractice advice. A consultancyorganisation may have BS15000Certification for its own internal ITdepartment and although that would tellus something about the culture, it doesnot tell us anything about the abilities ofthe consultants as the certificationdoesn’t cover that area!

It is true that some certifying bodieshave a consultancy division but thesemust operate at arm’s length from theauditing division of the organisation. Thisis a basic requirement in law and of theitSMF Certification scheme. itSMF onlyaccept applications from organisationswhich are themselves accredited by theirnational standards body, which in the UKwould mean the organisation isaccredited by UKAS and their auditorindependence is guaranteed by thisaccreditation.

RegisteredCertification Bodies

Audit organisations seeking Registrationapply to itSMF, and provided they meetthe registration criteria, itSMF willregister them as Registered CertificationBodies (RCBs) and grant thempermission to use the itSMF’s BS15000scheme logo on the certificates theyaward following a successful audit, in turngiving the certified organisations the rightto use the logo on letterheads, etc.

The RCBs operate totallyindependently of any consultancyorganisation, and their auditors havebeen specifically trained in IT ServiceManagement. Under some circumstancesthe RCB may bring in a subject expert tosupplement the specialised knowledge.

It is the itSMF’s intention that RCBsshould add value to the organisationbeing audited. A BS 15000 audit underthe itSMF scheme is not just a routineformal audit but will also add valuebecause the audit is conducted by peoplecompetent in this area who will makeobservations and report on them. Thisalso helps to maintain the quality andcredibility of the certification.

And why should we use an itSMF RCB?An independent audit carried out underthe auspices of the Certification Scheme

gives us confidence that the audit iscarried out to the same consistently highstandard as all other BS15000 audits, andis genuinely aimed at establishing the trueposition without any considerations ofgenerating other business because it isbeing carried out by a whollyindependent organisation with no vestedinterest in the outcome.

At the time of the Conference we hadtwo RCBs on board and there wereseveral others in the pipeline. The firsttwo are Det Norske Veritas (DNV) andKPMG Audit plc, and their details, alongwith any others who become registered,can be found on the website atwww.bs15000certification.com.

BS15000 Is Not JustFor the UK

Although BS15000 is currently a Britishstandard, the certification process can beapplied anywhere in the world and a non-UK or multi-national service providerorganisation may be audited against thestandard. All the RCBs offer aninternational service and will be happy toaudit against the standard anywhere.

The itSMF certification committee areintending to offer worldwide auditortraining in 2004 as well as that alreadyoffered in the UK. To help facilitate theinternational dimension itSMF are activelyseeking the involvement of the localitSMF chapters across the world inmanaging the scheme in their local areasto help with this roll out and also inlobbying their respective nationalstandards bodies to adopt the standard.itSMF are hopeful that the standard willalso be adopted as an internationalstandard in 2 years.

Main StepsTo Certification

First you will need to appoint aCertification Body as your BS15000auditors, and will probably want toappoint an internal BS15000 co-ordinator.

It is advisable to carry out a pre-auditreview to get information on where anyareas for improvement may exist. Thisreview can be done internally (maybeusing the BS15000 Self Assessmentworkbook) or by an externalorganisation which offers a gap analysisservice. There are obvious benefits fromeach approach, such as an internalauditor will know his way around andquite probably also know the areas mostin need of an audit, but the experience ofan external organisation can add

significant value and a degree ofindependence. Ultimately, a mix isprobably the best answer.

Remember though that theorganisation giving consultancy advicecannot be the same organisation whichyou have appointed as your RCB, as toavoid conflicts of interest RCBs are notpermitted to provide consultancy advicein the area in which they would then goon to certify!

The Certification AuditNext we should confirm the scope of theaudit and the terms of reference.

Typically, the certification process willthen involve:� A plan – dates, timescales, locations

etc� Offsite analysis of the BS15000

process documentation.� On site audit usually a mixture of

formal interviews with staff andinformal ‘show-me’ checks.

� Analysis of the information gatheredand issue of the BS15000 audit report

� And of course if successful, a BS15000certificate!

If unsuccessful, details will be given ofthe areas of non-compliance whichrequire to be addressed to comply withthe standard.

It may be possible at this stage to agreea re-audit in one month, three monthsetc depending on the scale of the non-compliance. The re-audit will usually onlyfocus on the areas of non-compliance tomake sure they have been fixed and arenow compliant.

After CertificationAfter we’ve got our Certification andonce the hangovers have cleared fromthe celebration, our organisation issubject to surveillance audits for the nextthree years (at least once a year) with afull reassessment on the thirdanniversary.

So in summary, itSMF have investedheavily in getting the standard and theCertification Scheme in place, we nowhave the RCBs in place, thedocumentation is available from the itSMFbookshop or BSI – now it’s over to youto start getting certified! �Footnotes1 Although referred to in this article as BS15000for ease of reading, the standard actually consistsof two parts. These are BS 15000-1:2002 which isthe Specification for Service Management, and BS15000-2:2003, the Code of Practice. The standardis the copyright of the British Standards Institute(BSI).2 ITIL is a registered trademark of the Office ofGovernment Commerce (OGC).


New itSMF MembersIndividual

Donald Wilson (Fife Acute Hospitals)Debbie Bennett (MJS Consulting)

Andrew Walton (The Co-operative Group)Alvaro Santamaria (Visiontech Group)

Flachra Woodman (Loyalty Management)John Murphy (Trinity College)

Debbie Bennett (MJS Consulting)Andrew Walton (The Co-operative Group)

Alvaro Santamaria (Visiontech Group Andino)Paul Watson (Unisys)

Helen Houghton (Applied Biosystems)Julia Lambert (Imago QA)

Simon Saunders (Churchill Management Ltd)Lucy Coates (Hampshire Constabulary)

Steve Scott (Cogent-DSN Ltd)John Stephenson (Kingscroft Associates)

John Davies (Magnox Electronic)Fukuzui Moir (Nippon Sogo Systems)

Vaughan Andrews (Hanston Tech Partners)Richard White (DNV)

Ronnie Cole (Nuffield Hospitals)Alex Sefke (SITA)

Ian Cutler (Abbott Labortories)David Cowie (Koch Supply and Training)

Neil ScottingJo Pearman (Thames Valley Police)

Paul HartAndrew Parraco (Bank of Bermuda)

Elif Demirors (Bilgi Grubu Ltd)Nelson Garcinuno (DMR Consulting)Sandra Fagan (Adm Milling Limited)Kirsty McCallum (Wincanton PLC)

Matthew Watkins (Leeds Mental Health Trust)

Sole TraderJeremy Harrington (Wemsys Ltd)

Sergio Hrabinsk (Xelerre)William Smart (Clanard)

Clive Strawford(More and More Investments)

Mark Bryne (Bryne Executive Solutions)Roy Ohanlon (Serova it Services)

Paul Brownell (Brand-Rex)Jeremy Harrington (Wemsys)

Sergio Hrabinsk (Xelere)William Smart (Clanard)

James Gibson (Gibson IT Limited)John Groom (WGC)

John Stephenson (Kingscroft Associates)Debbie Bondi Jackson (Convergys Emea Ltd)

Geoff Wyeth(Service Management Consultants)

Ben Torriero (No.44 Limited)John Bakker (Lattitude30 Ltd)

Corporate 5Siemens DTIT

Dublin City CouncilCogitek SRL

Virgin Atlantic AirwaysAutodesk Sarl

Jarvis plcDefra

HalfordsSiemens DITT

Virgin Atlantic AirwaysAudit Commission

Corporate 5 (cont.)University of Leeds

Sussex PoliceDigidata

Data Systems and SolutionsErnst & Young

FGI LtdSCC PLC

The Big Food GroupFreeserve.com

Corporate 10Essex Police

Motakwa EnterpriseCheshire Datasystems Limited

SHL Group Ltd

Corporate 50Companies House

Vendor 5Interlink Software Services

Cogitek SRLVolvo Information Technology

Enable TechnologiesNorthgate Information Solutions

Westergaard CSMProkom Software S.A

Vendor 50Centrix Networking

Institute of IT ServiceManagement LogoFor a while now the Council of the

Institute of Service Management(the Institute) has been

considering a request by a number ofindividuals and organisations wishing touse the Institute’s Logo. In thesecircumstances individuals ororganisations would like to display theInstitute logo as part of their marketingand sales materials. The issues aresummarised in the following questionsand their answers:Do we wish the logo to be used byindividuals and companies?The Institute provides many benefits anduse of the logo could be seen as a benefitto anyone who holds a status of fellow,member, practitioner, student orassociate with the institute. This couldalso be classed as a benefit to anorganisation, in that the Institute wouldrecognise a level of commitment from anorganisation to a code of conduct andalso to the professional nature,continuous professional development and

the ethics of the Institute. The Institute iswilling to collaborate with organisationsthat employ members, who operate inthe IT Service Management field, andwho share similar motives. This can beachieved by applying good practice withintheir organisation and to help others dothe same by providing quality ServiceManagement solutions, services orproducts to their clients, and throughpromotion of further improvements.

As one element of such a collaboration,mutual respect and mutual support, theInstitute will consider applications bysuch parties who wish to use theInstitute logo in association with theirown name, brand, trademark or otherdistinctive device.How will this work?With individuals the use of the logo is

simple. The applicant wishing to use thelogo should hold a status within theInstitute but needs to apply for a licenceto use the logo. For companies therewould need to be a demonstration thateither they were sponsors of theiremployees in terms of application to theInstitute but also that they had a numberof employees who had applied to theInstitute and gained membership at thevarying levels. The organisation wouldneed to apply for a logo licence.Will there be any safeguards?Yes there will be safeguards. The Institutehas a policy document which sets out thecircumstances under which the logo canbe used. It also covers the conditionswithin which this will be granted and alsounder what circumstances the logopermissions would be revoked.Are there advantages for theInstitute?The Institute acknowledges thatapproved use of the Institute logo byothers creates an opportunity for the

CHRIS LITTLEWOODSenior Consultant

Xansa Education & TrainingCPD Council Member

Institute of IT Service Management

�



The Institute of Service ManagementLatest Members List

Name Organisation MembershipStatus

Michael Alves Bluewater Services UK PractitionerGraham Barnett Fujitsu Consulting MemberJayne Barrand Aserti MemberRonald Beales PinkRoccade Group UK FellowDavid Bingham Fujitsu Consulting FellowAdrian Brown PinkRoccade Group UK MemberMichael Brown GlaxoSmithKline MemberAndrew Busby Superdrug Stores Plc AssociateFinbar Callan Spring IT Training MemberPaul Cutress Royal Bank of Scotland MemberJames Davies Tradetown MemberGraham Dawson Fujitsu Consulting MemberMargaret Dingwall Scottish Power Group PractitionerPaul Eatwell Fujitsu Consulting MemberDavid Forster MOD DCSA MemberGerard Gough Fujitsu Consulting MemberMichael Holderness National Grid Transco PractitionerAlan Holmes Rural Payments Agency PractitionerStephen Jack IBM MemberLynn Jackson LJ Training PractitionerGary Ladds Exel MemberAidan Lawes itSMF FellowBrian Lee Fujitsu Consulting Member

Name Organisation MembershipStatus

Sean Lewis Sysop MemberChristopher

Littlewood Xansa MemberVernon Lloyd Fox IT FellowIvor MacFarlane IT Service Improvement FellowGeorge Martin Concorde Solutions PractitionerColin Meaden South Staffordshire

Healthcare NHS Trust FellowNigel Mear Cable & Wireless MemberPhilip Montanaro EDS FellowTrevor Morley English Heritage MemberGerry Mos NHS Information Auth. MemberNicholas Needham Aseriti MemberJonathan Peacock Evolution Consulting

Group Plc PractitionerAnthony Price PinkRoccade Group UK FellowColin Rudd IT Enterprise

Management Services FellowSimon Shelley-Price Schlumberger Sema PractitionerLawrence Spriggs World Class International PractitionerAlan Stevens Independent Consultant AssociateBridget Veitch Xansa MemberChristine Welsh Fujitsu Services Member

Institute to enhance its visibility in themarket place. Vendor organisations willbe expected to promote the Institutewhenever appropriate, and thus help theInstitute to increase its membership andgrow the member services and benefits.This, in turn, should benefit theemploying organisation.If an individual or an organisationwishes to apply what do they needto supply?The minimum information that isrequired in the application form orsupplied when applying for use of thelogo will be:

A paragraph of approximately 80-100 wordsdescribing your offering, detailing specificallywhy you wish to reference the Institute andthe intended use of the Institute logo. TheInstitute reserves the right to recommendeditorial change to your text, or to return itto you for editing, whether for length, clarity,positioning vis-a-vis the Institute, or otherreason. Details on the numbers of youremployees who are members of the Instituteand their grades. The application formrequires you to name a minimum number ofsuch employees specifically. A userorganisation should have at least oneInstitute member employed, and a training or

consultancy organisation should have at least25% of their employees who are ITSMtrainers or ITSM consultants (respectively)being Institute members.A file containing your product or companylogo or other chosen device(s) in GIF format,with a maximum size of 120 x 120 pixelsand no animation.A standard URL of where to link the Instituteweb site to your web site description. Forexample, <www.yourcompany.com/iosm>.Then apply to:The Institute of Service Management,Webbs Court, 8 Holmes Road, Earley,Reading, RG6 7BH

Is It Safe?IT Security ManagementSeminar

The Institute of Directors, Londonplayed host to the Is It Safe? ITSecurity Management

Seminar on a sunny yet blustery 7October. A small intrigued group ofdelegates spanning a wide diversity ofcompanies graced the presence of theseminar speakers, but we all had onething in mind, ‘Is It Safe? Are We Safe?Am I Safe?’.

The agenda of the day was tointroduce and raise awareness of ITSecurity Management, “Is It Safe?”. Tospread the itSMF and ITIL word, benefits

TOBY STEVENS, IBM& REBECCA HERITY, RS Components

and experiences alongside the promotionof the only recently published NEWitSMF IT Security Managementpocketbook a companion to the ITInfrastructure Library (ITIL). The day wasalso to act as a friendly forum tonetwork amongst others, take backquestions and perhaps solutions to ourrelevant companies to strive to improvewhat we have today.

John McDermott and Tony Broughintroduced the day and gave an update onnews from the itSMF, highlighting itsgrowth internationally, the new book“The Business Perspective” becomingavailable in April with the ability to have

any ITIL book translated into anylanguage if required, many are already outthere! A BS15000 overview withpromotion of self-accreditations and themembership scheme of the Institute ofService Management (ISM)www.iosm.com offered a well-bodiedintroduction and helped to ask thequestions, can you do the job but needto prove it? Show someone you can?www.bs15000certification.com what isstopping you, only yourself?

Barclay Rae – e2e Customer Servicesheaded the seminar with a presentation,“Getting to the Heart of Security Issues”.Barclay introduced IT security issues, IT


security with service management andfuture strategies from a businessviewpoint. Security should be thought ofas both physical and electronic and we’reonly as secure as our weakest point!Barclay stated that, for businesses toexpand, there must be an element of risktaking. With real systems and users doingbusiness, IT security issues must maintainthe integrity, confidentiality andavailability of the business. IT securitymust be balanced with convenience andavailability with any new policy orprocedures being communicatedeffectively to the business, organisationand staff to ensure success.

Did you know… “49% write downpasswords, an average user has 21passwords some have 70! 66% gave theirpassword away!” Sources SANS/FBI/NTA.Single sign on (SSO)! is this a user-friendly solution? Is it cost justified?Strong passwords – could it be physical,fingerprint, optical? What ever theoption/solution, to look towards thebigger picture it must be scalable and beable to be migrated to advance with thebusiness needs, strategy andrequirements.

Morning coffee enabled delegates toreflect and view the relevant promotionalstands and network amongst themselves.Bob Bartlett – Managing Director fromSIM/SQS followed with a presentationentitled, “WEB Application Security Testing –A NEW Testing Frontier”. Bob outlined howthe technologies used to design anddevelop web applications have creatednew types of application securityvulnerabilities that can be easily exploitedby internal and external hackers. “The factthat the application layer is situated behindfirewalls does not perhaps ensure that it isthe most secure environment.” A statementpresented set the scene. “Mike Harris,manager of Ernst & Young’s advancedsecurity centre in Dublin, said that hackershave shifted their attention to WebApplications after finding that other systemssuch as firewalls have become more secure.”

It was identified that the applicationlayer can be open and liable to potentialrisk. Bob highlighted 13 possible risks andexpanded on how each could be usedagainst us. The good news is: All of the 13mentioned security risks can be detectedwith testing, most is non-destructive butshould still be done carefully! A testingstrategy must be identified and enforced.Bob offered the analogy of an egg, toughon the outside, vulnerable on the inside!The job now is to strengthen securityprecautions inside to a level that stillenables the business to deliver andidentify risk areas – application securitytesting can be an efficient means. Aquestion to take away if nothing else is:“How would you identify your applicationsecurity risks? Employ the services of anethical hacker, acquire or develop your owntool set for the many potential areas of risk,

use an application security testing service toidentify areas of risk… or let your customersand business partners find the problem? Youdecide?“

John Alcock, Management Consultantfrom Fujitsu Services topped themorning’s talks with a presentation on“Security with Enterprise Management”. Itencompassed three main areas: securityobjectives; the basics being processes,procedures and controls; and to look atthe case for security with enterprisemanagement by evaluating the positives,negatives and the risks involved. It wasexplained how Enterprise Managementcan help and identified what needs to bedone to deploy it safely and that it can besafe provided you understand andmanage the risks.

John looked at the security objectivesin Information Systems that uphold theprincipals of Integrity, Confidentiality,Availability (the traditional three) andLegality. These principals are achieved byimplementing good processes, helpfulprocedures and affective technicalcontrols. The processes, procedures andcontrols work together to deter, prevent,detect, contain and recover. It isimportant to get the correct balance ofeach measure. He stated, the efforts andcosts involved in implementing securitycontrols must not outweigh the benefitsgained by preventing security relatedincidents! How does your business fair inthat arena?

After a hearty buffet lunch JohnGibert of Southcourt introduced theafternoon sessions with “Security Risk andDatacentre Consolidation”. John’spresentation utilised a case study of acompany whose plans were toconsolidate their datacentre. Ithighlighted how to manage residual riskand ask the questions: What is the valueof safety? Which or what is the mainsafety concern and how to invest in thissafety? John spoke of balancing the riskwith the cost of securing against that risk.Business is all about taking risks he said,managing that risk effectively and takinginto account any legality issues andreputation are all keys to success. Byeffectively managing and identifyingdifferent risks, a strategy can be born toprovide the correct solution. Asmentioned before, we must look towardsthe bigger picture; anything we do mustbe scalable and be able to be migrated toadvance with the business needs, strategyand requirements. Is your datacentrestrategy safe? Go on ask yourself!!

Martin Tate from IT Evaluation Ltdfollowed and presented “How to SelectYour New Security Management System”.You are considering a new securitymanagement system – such as firewall,access control or threat monitoring.However, you are unsure how to selectan off the shelf product. Drawing on 36ICT procurement projects, Martin

presented a proven, rigorous andeffective process to find a productsuitable for your organisation’s needs.

The presentation identified theimportance of understanding the IT risksand how they can affect the business.Also, to capture true requirements andexploit process links as well as exper-ience from all IT service management andITIL BS15000 disciplines to improve andensure best practise. It was highlightedthat in 38 iterations the method hasnever been found to be ineffective andidentified the better option was nearlyalways 90% cheaper than the previouschosen solution. The methodologyidentifies the best option for a businessto achieve their goals, based on thestated requirements. The process provesintegrity, shows you have done yourhomework and presents a winner. Martinstated, “I have never known a decisionmaker to go for the non-proven option justbecause they like the look of it! They’reinterested in the effect on the business andmarket share, not because it looks good!”

Afternoon tea led on to GrahamBarnett of Fujitsu Consulting whoconcluded the guest speakers bypromoting the new itSMF IT SecurityManagement pocketbook of whichGraham was the editor. He summarisedsome key messages and themes runningthroughout the subject, highlighted theimportance of process with the ITIL – ITSecurity Management process model andenforced the message that process isimportant for security management asagreed with by the ITIL SecurityManagement book, ISO17799/BS7799and BS15000.

All delegates were convinced the dayhad been successful and left moreknowledgeable. In essence… All sixspeakers spoke of IT SecurityManagement in various guises, differenttechniques, facts, examples and scenariosall of which enforced the need for goodIT security, the supporting technologyand the importance of managing thesetechnologies. The common threadthroughout was process, to help guideand to fundamentally aid the control ofIT security. You would never just leavethe house without locking the door?Would you? So why leave an unattendedworkstation alone without locking thescreen first or leaving your server roomopen!! And that is only the physical stuff!!

IT Security Management is the requiredprocess. The itSMF IT SecurityManagement pocketbook is widelyavailable and adds to the IT ServiceManagement collection, to support ITILIT Security Management and bestpractice – go on take a look.

IT Security Management – Is itSafe? Are you thinking about it?Make sure you take an interest inyour assets before someone elsedoes! �


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Parity Reference: ADV0022


NEIL McBRIDEIT Service Management

Research GroupDe Montfort University

Getting Buy-In to ITIL:Ideas from ActorNetwork Theory

One of the major problems withgetting ITIL adopted ispersuading people that it’s in

their interests to adopt ITIL. IT managershave to be persuaded of the importanceof ITIL. Executives have to be persuadedto invest in IT service managementimprovements. Staff have to be persuadedthat it’s worth attending courses andtaking exams.

The adoption of best practice such asITIL and BS15000 standards involves theredefining of organisational behaviour, thechanging of practices and the building ofdifferent attitudes and cultures. This is noeasy task and we need all the help we canget.

The problems in ITIL adoption are notthat different from the problems ofgetting new technology adopted. Whatcauses people to start using mobiletelephones, or e-mail, or booking theatretickets on the Internet. What caused VHSto become standard and not Betamax?Nor is the process that different fromthe one by which scientific theories orconcepts are adopted. How doesNewton’s Laws, Einstein’s Theory ofRelativity or the structure of DNAbecome accepted?

The answer to such questions lies asmuch in the social sphere as the technicalsphere. Whatever the quality of thetheory, the technology or the IT servicestandards, the acceptance of thosetheories and standards and theirembedding in the organisational fabric isa social phenomenon.

The process of embedding ITIL withinthe organisation is, therefore, one ofestablishing social acceptance, ofdeveloping social networks in whichpeople’s interests are similar and themessage of ITIL becomes part ofeverybody’s mindset. The socialperception of the ITIL, the prevalence ofmessages such as ‘everybody’s using it’,and the presence of a critical mass ofpractitioners will determine its success.As people take a positive view of ITILwithin IT service management, they beginto adopt the procedures as part of theirwork and everyday lives and theyrecommend its use to colleagues.

Such ideas have been developed in

Actor Network Theory (ANT). Thistheory arose from French sociologists’efforts to understand how scientifictheories spread within scientificcommunities, become embedded in thecommunity and are then taken forgranted as a basis for further scientificprogress.

Latour (1987)1 showed that scientifictheories are not simply rational, objectiveand external to the scientists who usethem, but are socially constructed, andbecome established through socialinteractions within networks of people.The social process is then just asimportant as the laboratory work inestablishing the legitimacy of a theory.The use of ANT quickly extended toproviding explanations of howtechnology is accepted withincommunities and organisations. Herewe’ll examine some of the concepts ofANT see how they might help us developnetworks of support for ITIL in ourorganisations and embed ITIL in theorganisational structures and processes.

NetworksANT considers the process of standardsacceptance as one of developing a socialnetwork of people, standards andsystems. These networks grow as newmembers, or actors are added whentheir interests are aligned to, or shownto be similar to the rest of the network.The actor network must grow to reach acritical mass and then reach a state ofstability. If the network remains unstable,it can disappear as quickly as it emerges,taking with it the IT service standardswhich then becomes obsolete and nottaken notice of. These socio-technicalnetworks are dynamic, growing andshrinking as new actors are added orremoved. Within the network there isthen a constant reinforcing of the ITILmessage.

ActorsANT focuses on the stakeholders, oractors, within the socio-technicalnetwork and how they are involved inshaping the form and the social spread of

the standards. Each actor will be anintermediary between other actors.Actors are not limited to humans, butmay include the texts which define ITIL,groupings within the organisation andexternal organisations such as itSMF. Bothhuman and non-human actors haveinterests and properties which need tobe aligned for the technology to besuccessfully adopted within a network.

Translation and InscriptionThe interests of the actors within ourITIL network may vary widely.Establishing technology requires thealigning of the interests of actors withinthe network. As the interests of actorswithin the network are aligned, thenetwork becomes stable and thetechnology is then firmly established.ANT suggests that the aligning of theinterests of actors in the networkinvolves the translation of those interestsinto a common interest in adopting andusing the standards. In other words, wehave to show why the adoption of ITIL isin the interests of stakeholders withinthe organisation and why their interestscan be met by the adoption of ITIL. Thistranslation is achieved in the networkthrough common definitions, meaningand inscriptions attached to the IT servicestandards. Inscription or definition of itsproperties, usefulness or desirability maybe used to support the translation ofinterests.

We answer the questions concerningwhat’s in it for them? Why is it in theirinterests to support ITIL? How are theirinterests met by the implementation ofITIL?

EnrolmentThe process of alignment of actors’interests with the actor network occursas actors enrol others into the network.As actors are enrolled, the networkbecomes larger, more established and theuse of the technology more common.The successful embedding of ITILrequires that a large actor networkemerges such that there are sufficientactors to justify its adoption. If people

�


ignore ITIL and start to do their ownthing or develop service practicesincompatible with ITIL then, if sufficientpeople reject ITIL, it will fail. Again it’s upto ITIL practitioners to show others thebenefits of the standards, how ITIL meetstheir needs and how its adoption is intheir interest. This is a social processinvolving talking, meetings, presentationsand social interaction outside the formalwork practices. ITIL adoption won’toccur if we just sit in our offices.

IrreversibilityIn order for stability to be established sothat ITIL becomes part of organisationalpractice, the notion of irreversibility mustbe established. At some point the use ofITIL processes becomes an essential andstandard part of IT service practice in theorganisation. A point must be reachedwhere the standards are so well used andembedded in the organisation that theeffort of undoing them and stoppingusing them is so great as to beimpossible.

The move to ITIL adoption has thenbecome irreversible. This is how technicalstandards become adopted. Once TCP/IPhas become embedded as the Internetstandard protocol, its use is irreversiblehowever difficult or awkward it is.Through a social process, the standardhas been adopted and established as anirreversible part of the social andtechnical fabric. In essence we reach apoint where we can’t imagineorganisational practice without ITIL.

Black BoxesOnce ITIL standards are adopted by theactor network they become difficult toreverse. Hence users become locked intothe actor network and its standards.

The IT service standards become ablack box. The standards are then treatedas part of everyday life, embedded inorganisational activity and taken-for-granted. Only input and output matters.The standards are then accepted withoutquestioning their rationale, orconsidering whether they represent thebest way to do things.

Applying Actor NetworkTheory to ITIL Adoption

By considering what these conceptsmight mean for ITIL adoption in ourorganisation we can generate some ideasfor how to get ITIL accepted andembedded in organisational practice,both by the IT service provides and the

customers. The following suggests someprescriptive steps you might undertaketo get that acceptance and to promoteITIL adoption.1. Identify Actors. Who do we need to

talk to about ITIL? What are theirroles? What are their interests inITIL? What power do they have todetermine the success or failure ofITIL adoption?

2. Investigate Actors. Look at theirinterests, attitudes, relationships, roles,power and influence and involvementin the IT in the organisation. Lookingat interests involves an examinationof the stakeholders’ rational,organisational and individual interests.Rational interests concern theirlogical interests and the objectiveview they take of ITIL. Organisationalinterests concern their political andsocial interests arising from their jobroles in the organisation. Individualinterests concern personal interests,for example, status, career progressand job security.

3. Identify Actor Interactions. Whatare the relationships betweenstakeholders in terms of extent ofcommunication, power, trust, resourcecontrol and influence? What are thelinks between actors? Who talks towhom?

4. Follow the Actors. What are theirperceptions of IT, IT services andITIL? What messages, emails, and textscurrently circulate amongst theactors? The complexity of the actornetwork can then be assessed. Thiswill have an influence on strategies foraligning the actor-network with thedesired outcomes.

5. Design Inscriptions. Inscriptionswhich will support the alignment ofactors’ interests in the network needto be developed, taking into accountnot only the interests of the actors,but also the organisational context.Previous exposure to ITIL, togetherwith the history, culture and politicsof IT in the organisation may have asignificant effect on the developmentof the network though the attitudesand values which have been laid downwithin the social groups. Inscriptionswill include both the messages andmarketing associated with the ITILand with and the services provided byIT.

6. Design Enrolment Strategies. Inaddition to understanding thestakeholders and designing themessages and services around the ITservice function, the establishing of astable actor network will require

good enrolment strategies. This mayinvolve challenging the stakeholders’current assumptions, and openingexisting black boxes in order topromote their replacement with newstandards and practice. Lock-in tocurrent technology and ways of doingthings will act as an inhibitor to theadoption of new technology andstandards. The right economic modelinvolving costs and benefits will berequired. Enrolment strategies mustaddress attitudes, power and politics.The aim is to promote lock-in, inwhich ITIL becomes sociallyacceptable within the organisation,has a positive social constructionplaced on it and becomes sociallyembedded as the default means of ITservice management among thestakeholders. Through enrolmentstrategies, both customer andprovider expectations will be defined.Where ITIL is successfully embeddedin the organisation expectations aredefined by ITIL procedures andactivities and hence easily agreedbetween the IT service providers andthe organisational customers.

ConclusionActor Network Theory suggests, quiterightly, that standards adoption is not ajust a technical process of writing theprocedures and getting people trained. Itis primarily a social process by whichgroups of people come to share interestsand adopt similar attitudes. If we’re to getITIL accepted in our organisations, it isthese social processes that must beaddressed first. This requires that wemove in all the organisation’s socialnetworks, connecting socially with seniormanagement, shop floor staff andtechnical staff. It requires that the sociallinks between IT services and the rest ofthe organisation are strong enough thatactor networks can be established andthe message of ITIL transmitted so thatpeople are enrolled into an ITIL network.Their interests must be shown to bealigned with the interests of the ITILnetwork. They must see that ITIL willhelp them achieve their objectives.Without this social connection allmanner of memos, manuals, trainingpackage and service catalogues will be oflimited value. In the end you might bebetter off down on the tennis courtsspending time with you user managerbefore you write the next SLA. �

Reference:1Latour,B. (1987) Science in Action Open UniversityPress.



SHIRALEERAWSTHORNE-HOUGHTON

& JON FORDSun Microsystems

Real Time InfrastructureTechnologies:Shifting the Boundariesof Service Support

Shifting BoundariesIn the previous articles, we looked at thearrival of Real Time Infrastructure (RTI)Technologies – systems that can self-configure, self-manage and self-optimise-such as those being provided by SunTM,HP, & IBM. We described how RTI willchange the rules of Service Management,by moving much of the burden ofmanaging systems from people to thetechnology, leading to a reduction incomplexity and cost: enabling theinfrastructure to become more dynamicand adaptable.

We described how some ServiceDelivery functions will change frommanual and reporting activities toencoded procedures; while otherfunctions will become more significantthan they are today.

In this article we explore the impacton what is traditionally the strongest ofITIL disciplines in most companies – theService Support functions.

Service DeskA Service Desk is typically the maincontact point within the IT departmentfor its customers, and will therefore be akey factor in how the IT department isperceived. It is typically a single pointthrough which to channel customercontact; there may be variants oradditions:� To handle special types of call, such as

requests for information in responseto a Major Incident

� Localised – possibly departmental –helpdesks that may take calls for aparticular user group or helpdesks thatmay take calls for a specialist locally-supported system.

Initially, it is not obvious that RTI wouldhave any impact on Service Deskprocesses. However, the number ofcustomer calls should be significantlyreduced as a result of the RTImanagement system taking automatedaction.

A failure or potential bottleneck insuch environments can often beanticipated in advance of any degradation

of service being notice by the end-user.This will prevent a call being initiated tothe service desk.

The controlling policies encoded in thetechnology allows the system dynamicallyto reconfigure itself in such situations,automatically. Therefore:1. Change tasks and manual intervention

are reduced.2. This in turn results in a reduction in

human error and risk.3. Thereby a reduction in calls to the

service desk.4. Hence a reduction in the volume of

calls and a reduction in severity ofthose calls received.

Incident ManagementRTI systems will have a major impact onIncident Management, because they willenable faster identification and resolutionof incidents, and lead to a reduction inhuman intervention. RTI systemscontinually monitor the health of system.They automatically re-configure theinfrastructure and provision services tomaintain service levels in response tosituations that may cause an outage or adegradation of service.

Loss of a service could be caused byany number of things (see table below).

If this is a typical list then incidentvolumes should be reduced significantly.

Problem ManagementProblem Management has both proactiveand reactive elements. Reactive ProblemManagement supports Incident Manage-ment while Proactive ProblemManagement is concerned withidentifying and solving problems and

known errors before they give rise tocustomer impacting incidents.

Although much of the incidentmanagement function will becomeautomated, the expectation is thatproblem management will shift its focusand become much more proactive.Failures will still occur and, although theirimpact will be reduced, the root causewill still need to be identified.

Problem Management will be changedby RTI because it can provide tools tomonitor the underlying infrastructureand to pin point root cause moreeffectively. This enables problemmanagement to become more proactive.It should also allow most problemmanagers to focus on application errorsand improvements in user training, bothof which can have significant impact onthe efficiency and effectiveness of yourbusiness.

Change ManagementChange Management ensures that allchanges to the production environment(whether they be hardware or software)are implemented in a controlled manner.The change management processfacilitates the movement of requestedchanges from inception toimplementation in a controlled manner.

RTI will automate allroutine changes insidethe abstracted resourcepool, thereby enablingchanges to be dealt within a faster and moreefficient manner. Thisshould also reduce thechange managementoverhead and thereby

�

Network problem � Automatically handled byRTI

Storage problem � Automatically handled byRTI

Desk top failure � Dependant on cause maystill result in an incident

Loss of CPU � Automatically handled byRTI

Causes of loss of a service



the total cost of ownership. Many of theactivities that are categorised today aschanges, would merely become scheduledsystem events; for example the additionof processing power on demand via apre-agreed, pre-tested policy.

Normal changes will be significantlyreduced as some of the day to daychanges are superseded by the RTIsystem. Initially, many of these automatedevents will be handled as normal changes:until such time as the IT department hasconfidence that the system canaccurately interpret the servicedefinitions.

Eventually, these events will becomeeither routine changes or scheduledsystem events.

Due to the inbuilt resilience andreliability of an abstracted resource poolemergency changes will also becomeexceedingly rare events. However, thechange process will have to be extremelyrobust when dealing with additions tothe virtual resource pool, and manycompanies will have to supplement theircurrent change testing and impactanalysis to cater for this.

Release ManagementCurrently, Release Management plans,prepares schedules, distributes andinstalls all the components of a release.RTI requires a level of maturity aroundRelease Management processes that willin return provide enormous businessbenefits. RTI provides facilities forautomating software provisioning.Inclusion into the resource pool requiresrigorous release management butthereafter reallocation is automated,enabling high utilisation of assets with theminimum of intervention.

As a consequence, the ReleaseManagement function in most companieswill be the first function to change. Thiswill ensure that as part of the handoverinto production, the new servicedefinitions are produced in conjunctionwith the business; and, in turn, that the

impact of these definitions areunderstood by all parties to theagreement. Testing must be undertakenand must be more comprehensive than iscurrently the norm.

Configuration ManagementIn Configuration Managementterminology, IT infrastructurecomponents are referred to as‘Configuration Items’. ConfigurationItems include hardware items, softwarecomponents, network items,documentation and any other part of theIT infrastructure, or items associatedwith it, that you wish to control.

Through virtualisation and abstraction,RTI allows us to change the entire way inwhich we view configuration items. Oncea configuration item has been introducedto the resource pool it will beautomatically allocated to differentservices, according to the predefinedservice description. RTI will automaticallytrack and record the configuration itemusage and assignment: thereby providingcompletely accurate identification andstatus accounting.

The new configuration managementfunction will still require a process tointroduce and decommission an asset;and these assets will still need to bephysically labelled.

However, all other functions will betotally automated. With RTI, fewerinfrastructure components requireexplicit management or configuration,thereby speeding up deployment ofservices.

RTI will eliminate the overhead ofConfiguration Management on thebusiness and the IT function, enablingaccurate tracking of configuration itemsin different data centres and evendifferent countries. RTI enables thestorage of service definition andconfiguration templates. These can thenbe used for recreating services both fortest or production, and for DisasterRecovery purposes. These infrastructure

templates are at the core of tomorrow’sservice management.

ConclusionIn conclusion, the advent of a completelyautomated RTI environment affectsService Support and Service Delivery at afundamental level; and, hence the IT andthe Business that it supports.

At the very least, we will need to shiftour current preconceptions about thecurrent ITIL disciplines:� Capacity Management, Availability

Management and ConfigurationManagement almost entirelydisappear.

� A drastic reduction in effort andresources for Incident Management,Service Desk, Change Management,Release Management and IT ServiceContinuity.

� Problem Management, Service LevelManagement and IT FinancialManagement become criticalpriorities to effective IT services.

But the opportunity is this: thetechnology, such as RTI, could help tosolve the Service Management headache,by enabling computing resources to selfmanage through policy automation. Thisin turn will extend the ServiceManagement focus beyond the traditionalprocess improvement and organisationalalignment, to enable lower costs, higheravailability and greater agility.

RTI will herald an increase in efficiencyand productivity and demand a newmaturity to IT processes, a maturity thatwill result in an unprecedented increasein the efficiency and the responsivenessof IT in delivering service to theBusiness.

Endnotes©SUN ™ THE NETWORK IS THE COMPUTER©2003 Sun Microsystems,Inc .All rights reserved.Sun, ,Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Suntone ,andthe SunTone logo are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Sun Microsystems,Inc.,in the UnitedStates and other countries .All other trademarksare trademarks of their respective owners.

ITIL Business BenefitsitSMF is sponsoring Market Research intothe cost and quality benefits of the ITILapproach. This will see itSMF lead theindustry by providing independentinformation on the cost benefits, qualitybenefits and Return on Investment (ROI),of ITIL implementations and projects.

‘We are responding to requests for itSMF-sanctioned statistics on the actual businessvalue of ITIL’ said Aidan Lawes, itSMF CEO,‘this should help to spread the benefitsmessage clearly at board level to

support buy-in to ITIL projects’.The research work will involve

independent research by an external MRcompany into up to 100 organisationswho have implemented an ITIL approachfor some or all of their ServiceManagement, looking in detail at theactual benefits achieved.

Most importantly the output from thiswill be presented and published in ‘non-operational or non-ITIL’ businesslanguage – and aimed at senior people to

clarify the messages on the real businessvalue achieved by their organisationfrom their ITIL project.

The work with the MR company willbe managed and reviewed by a smallitSMF team of industry experts, reportingto the itSMF board.

If you would like more information onthis or would like your organisation toparticipate, please contact:Barclay Rae via the itSMF office([email protected]). �



People on the MOVEExperienced Service Management consultants Paul Whitlock and Paul Gurr have joined Plan-Net to head their newly

launched Service Management arm. Gurr and Whitlock each have over 15 years real world Service Management experience inFTSE 100 companies; Whitlock joins Plan-Net after 6 years with Vodafone UK, whilst Gurr was previously working with 3 UK.

Since their appointment, Whitlock and Gurr have been instrumental in establishing PlanSMart – a suite of four ServiceManagement services that assist with reviewing, planning, improving and implementing effective Service Management processes

and systems.

Joining CEC Europe, the international Service Management company, are Andy Smith, Geoff Maginess and Nicola Reeves.Andy has many years experience and will divide his time between lecturing and consultancy. He leaves EDS to take up this newrole. Geoff Maginess has worked for many years in the role of Account Manager for FoxIT and Sanderson. Geoff will continuein this role concentrating in the North. Nicola Reeves has considerable experience in process re-engineering, training testing

and supplier management and will join the consultancy and training team.

Service CatalogueLaunchesAt this year’s 12th Conference and Exhibition the itSMF launched their ServiceCatalogue. The Service Catalogue is an informative brochure which updates ourmembers on the services and benefits that are on offer from the itSMF which hasbeen developed by our Service ESC. If you require a copy of the Service Cataloguethen please email [email protected].

Mary Fishleigh, Chair Services ESCin proud possession of the Service Catalogue

O2 Selects Digital Fuel ForContact Centre Performance

Management SolutionMobile network operator O2 (UK)Limited has selected Digital Fuel’sServiceFlow platform as the contactcentre performance managementplatform for its UK customer serviceoperations. The contract covers 4000seats in four O2 contact centres andrepresents the second major contractbetween the two companies.

ServiceFlow will provide O2 with atotal performance measurement systemto deliver consistent metrics and reports,spanning individual advisors for the entirecustomer contact operation. Role-baseddashboards will permit employees tomonitor their own performance againstobjectives while providing managementwith the information necessary tomeasure and manage employeeperformance and customer servicequality effectively.

“We are committed to delivering the bestpossible customer experience,” said RichardHolden, Head of Strategy and Business

�� Press Releases ��Members should send items of interest to other members to the itSMF office ([email protected])

which will pass them on to the Editor for consideration and possible inclusion in future issues

evelopment, O2. “Digital Fuel allows us toemploy an innovative balanced scorecardapproach that combines quantifiable andqualitative measures to drive both customersatisfaction and operational excellence.”

Digital Fuel ServiceFlow tracks,analyses, and presents comprehensiveperformance metrics from all employees,contact centre components and serviceapplications, delivering custom role-basedviews and management capabilitiesappropriate to each level in theorganisation. Industry studies find thatsuch performance management systemscan dramatically improve customersatisfaction by focusing the entireorganisation on key customer-centricperformance metrics. At the same time,clear and objective performancemeasures and reports greatly increaseemployee productivity and jobsatisfaction, and enable efficient andauditable management decisions.

“Improving contact centre performancehas immense client benefits and is a naturalfit with our focus on enterprise servicesmanagement,” noted Digital Fuel CEO,

Benny Lehmann. “We are proud to beselected for a second project by O2.ServiceFlow will now provide a standardplatform that manages the delivery of O2’sinnovative wireless services as well as theirexcellent customer service.”

Hornbill Continues Growthand Expansion

Basilica select Hornbill Solutionfor service delivery to

Regus worldwideHornbill Systems Limited, aninnovative provider of solutions thatautomate organisation’s support requestprocesses, has continued its impressivestart to 2003 by announcing the contractto supply Basilica with its IT servicemanagement solution, Supportworks.Hornbill’s solution is key to Basilica’sability to support Regus, the worldwideoperator of business centres.

Basilica Computing is a service-focusedsolutions provider who recently won thebid to support all 439 Regus locationsworldwide. Regus offer a global network


DIARYDate Meeting Venue Comments

December 4 French Conference La Défense – Paris

December 4 Management Board &Council of Members Reading office

December 9-10 German Conference Munchen Veränderung als Chance zurStabilität

December 11 Seminar The Marriott Hotel,Edinburgh

December 11 SW & Wales Regional Somerset CC, Taunton

December 12 Institute Council Reading

2004

January 6 Vendors ESC Reading

January 8 Publications ESC Reading

January 12 Services ESC Reading

January 20 BS 15000 ESC Reading

February 2-4 US Government Event JW Marriott, Washington Framework for AchievingOperational Excellence inGovernment IT

February 5 Seminar – Title to be confirmed Moat HouseStoke-on-Trent

March 11 SW & Wales regional tba

March 23 BS 15000 ESC Reading

March 24-25 Norwegian Conference Oslo

March 26 International Executive Board Meeting Oslo

May 18 BS 15000 ESC Reading

of fully equipped offices and meetingrooms which can be hired for an hour, aday, a month, a year or longer.

Regus deploy state-of-the-arttelecommunications with an ITinfrastructure powered by HP so“resident” workers can easily hook into anetwork for full office operability andmaintaining these services are a criticalpart of the Regus proposition and now acrucial element of the support contractwon by Basilica.

Basilica’s support centre is located attheir UK headquarters in Hertfordshireand the Regus contract win gave theService Delivery Team the opportunity tore-assess their IT service managementsystems, as Paul Briggs, the Company’stransition manager, explains: “Regus truly isa global organisation with locations on everycontinent and every major city so thecontract win provided us with an ideal timeto appraise our delivery in terms of ourprocesses and the technology we use. Weknew best practice methodologies, such asITIL, would provide immediate processimprovements and the ability to automatethose processes through a solution wouldsignificantly speed the delivery of ourservices. After careful review Supportworksprovided the capability we needed from an

IT service management perspective.”A key benefit for Basilica was the easy

way Supportworks differentiatedbetween incidents and problems.“Understanding the relationship of incidentsacross such a distributed environment will bekey to our ability to manage problems pro-actively and ensure the correct resources aredeployed to maintain our service levelagreements with Regus. The fact we havetransparency within the solution is atremendous benefit to those managingdelivery.” continues Briggs.

Pat Bolger, sales director at Hornbilladds. “As a vendor embracing ITIL we havean adaptive framework and commonlanguage that ensures processes relating toITIL services can be realised within thesolutions we provide to our customers. Fororganisations such as Basilica the process ofmanaging end-to-end services is importantnot just for demonstrating value to theircustomers but also to ensure value is derivedfrom third party service providers within theircontrol.”

Hornbill’s professional services teaminstalled the main server at Hertfordshireand provided 30 concurrent licenses onthe Regus Service Desk. Supportworksweb clients will be used by Basilica’sremote support groups to receive

incoming incident details and update thesystem with latest action and resolutionscodes. Basilica has initially launched theSupportworks web SelfServicecomponent to VIP customers, typicallythe MDs and Operations Directors atlarger Regus sites, for self-resolution ofissues, incident logging and requesttracking.

Briggs concludes. “Speed of delivery isimportant to us as it is part of Basilica’svalue as we build our services business andtarget other organisations, like Regus, whowish to outsource IT services. It wassignificant in building our relationship withHornbill that they too share the value ofdelivery. Not only did they deliver to our verytight project deadlines but the solution isperfectly aligned to our processes andcommitments to support Regus.”

Although the contract sum remainsundisclosed out of deference to Basilicaand their agreements with Regus,Hornbill are already discussing the nextphases that include using Assetworks tohelp manage standard desktop configur-ations and Supportworks designableworkflow for managing change requestsand its customer survey module to helpshape future service deliveryrequirements. �


A Final Few Words DAVID FORSTERChairman itSMF

Among the emails awaiting myattention, when I arrived homefrom the office one day shortly

after the end of our conference, waswhat might best be described as “an offerI could not refuse”. The MembershipServices Manager was inviting me to pensome words to the members, markingthe end of my term in office as yourChairman. My first reaction wasinadvertently to delete his mail, but myITIL training quickly overcame thattemptation. My second reaction was topretend I was on holiday and open itafter the deadline for SERVICEtalk hadpassed. Common sense quickly told methat would not work because I wouldneed to contact him about other mattersand he would know I was “home”. Mythird reaction was to plead pressure ofwork, but never have I been unable tomake time for itSMF, and I was not aboutto do so during my last month in theChair. So I gritted my teeth, put the dayjob to one side (again) and emailed himback, thanking him for his WAGI (“WhatA Good Idea”) and this is the result!

I have been a disciple of ITIL since itsinception, involved in ServiceManagement for almost as long andService Manager of a seriously largeMOD IT programme for the last sevenyears. I am confident that my ServiceManagement Centre is a model of ITILbest practice and I am equally sure thatwithout ITIL best practice to turn to,indeed to lean upon, the 500 systemsthat I have responsibility for worldwide,would have been an absolute nightmareto manage. In truth, I suspect they wouldhave been unmanageable. It was alsopatently obvious, in the early days of myinvolvement with IT Service Management,that ITIL provided the same commonsense and rational structure for ServiceManagement that PRINCE did for ProjectManagement. This led me, inevitably, toappreciate just what a vital role could beplayed by an organisation such as theemergent itIMF, as it was then known, inthe entirely independent monitoring ofITIL guidelines and the protection ofthose guidelines from disproportionateinfluence from vested and proprietaryinterests. Twelve years on, thatappreciation is as true as it was then.itSMF is recognised across the globe asthe de facto guardian of ITIL bestpractice and I am immensely proud ofwhat has been achieved.

In common with all volunteerorganisations, no matter how vibrant andsuccessful, itSMF is totally reliant upon its

members to stand up and offer theirservices to keep the wheels turning. True,we now have a superb full-time team atWebb’s Court, but they are the engineroom, the initiatives still have to comefrom the Management Board along withthe seven Executive sub-Committees andthe Regional Groups which support it. Ifirst filled in that simple form, offering tohelp, in 1994 and I have been involveddirectly with the Management Board eversince. My first job was as MembershipSecretary, I then spent a couple of yearson the Publications Executive Sub-Committee at the time when we weregrinding out the programme for the firstmajor review of the original 10 volumeset of Service Support and ServiceDelivery. Following that, I was asked if Iwould be willing to accept nomination asVice-Chairman – a singular honour – andI accepted without hesitation. Threeyears later, following an extended spell asVice-Chairman, you elected me as yourChairman. Now, two very short yearslater, my time is up and I must move on:as indeed must itSMF.

I was tempted to assemble a pot-pouriof milestones and achievements duringmy time as Chairman, but that wouldnecessarily be incomplete, because it’snearly always the less significant things,which are nevertheless always there inthe background, that enable success inthe bigger things. It would also be inex-cusably arrogant, for while I am enorm-ously proud of our progress during mytime in the Chair, I am entirely consciousof the simple fact that many, if not most,of the foundations were laid by mypredecessors and the products have beendelivered by anyone but me! I was alsominded to make mention of significantindividual contributions but I quicklyrealised that actually there are none.

I go nowhere without my fellowDirectors and the Management Board.The Management Board achieves nothingwithout the Executive sub-Committeesand Regional Groups and these lattertwo are entirely composed of you, themembers! Furthermore, I need hardlyremind you that without the support ofWebb’s Court, we all grind to a halt. So,“no names and no pack drill”: which is amost apposite quip as I have just watchedEngland win the Webb-Ellis trophy!

I have been asked what role I am goingto play next in the continuing advance ofitSMF and my answer has been “whateveritSMF wants me to do”: because it’sactually a very difficult question toanswer. The voices in my head deliver

conflicting messages: one says you oweyourself, and your better half, a break anda spell doing just one job: another says,that’s selfish, you have a wealth ofexperience which can benefit itSMF innumerous ways and a third says putyourself in the new Chairman’s shoes,would you want you hanging around yourneck like some albatross (or lingering likea bad smell!)? So I have taken the easyway out: I have filled in my Council ofMembers form but noted on it that “I amunable to join a committee but would like toparticipate in another capacity”. That ofcourse salves my conscience! It alsoenables the Management Board to pickme up, or put me down as it thinks fit –something which it has probably beenitching to do at various times during thelast two years, but been unable toachieve!

As I hand over the Chair to mysuccessor, my message to you is verysimple. ITIL best practice provides uswith guidelines that must remainresponsive to changes in ourenvironment and therefore dynamic. We,the itSMF members, can rarely influencethe changes, but we must continue toprovide the dynamism that enableseffective and efficient response to change.If we fail to deliver on this, someone else,or worse a lot of “someone else’s” will –and what of best practice then? Onething more: the themes of our last twoConferences have both delivered verypowerful messages. Let me remind youwhat they were. In 2002: “Creating Stabilityin a Changing World” and in 2003:”Breaking Boundaries, Building Bridges”. Ifthose themes have not already struck achord with you, then think about themagain in the light of this message.

Thank you for your support, thank youfor your encouragement and thank youfor your individual and collectivecontributions to everything we haveachieved. Our organisation is a bit like amilking stool: supported at three pointsby ITIL, itSMF and the membership.Remove any one of these and it will fallover. �

Documents

The Journal of the it Service Management Forum— IT Physician Heal Thyself Neil McBride Looks At: Actor Network Theory Our Popular Chairman Bids Farewell PLUS… all the usual features