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ITIL Consulting Services
ITIL Implementation
Services
Since its inception in the U.K. nearly two decades ago,
ITIL has slowly come into its own here in the U.S. In America, ITIL
is driven largely
by software firms. As a result, the U.S. market is beginning
to operate under the misconception that ITIL is about implementing some
processes around a piece of software. In reality, ITIL is an
organizational change project aligning people, processes and technology, in that
order, with some of the processes supported by software tooling. MAG has
tailored an unbiased, trusted third party approach to ITIL implementation
services, that can help companies with common questions such as:
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What is ITIL and why
should we implement it?
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Where do we begin?
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Where do the benefits
lie, and what is our ROI?
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Is our organization
ready to begin implementing ITIL?
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How do we structure the project and budget?
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Which software tools best fit our
organization into the future?\
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What do best practice processes of
other firms look like?
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What analytical tools should we use to determine
our processes?
For more information about ITIL
or our ITIL services, please select from the links below:
General
ITIL Information and Statistics
ITIL, or the IT Infrastructure Library, is the preferred Best-In-Class IT process methodology for many of the Fortune
Global 1000, and has been taking America by storm for the past few years. ITIL's
best-practice process framework aligns IT and business operations and brings
efficiencies to both. ITIL has been implemented by nearly 10,000 companies,
including Shell
Oil, Boeing, Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, Cadbury Schweppes, even the IRS
and U.S. Army! This best practice
process framework for delivering and
supporting IT services to the benefit of the business is a proven must-have in
today's ever more complex environments. Driven largely by American
software firms, the U.S. market is beginning to operate
under the misconception that ITIL is about implementing some processes around a
software package. For this reason MAG has
tailored its ITIL implementation services as a trusted third party, so that you
don't have to worry about being sold something you don't need, or that isn't the best
fit for your organization.
Consider the following
observations from The Gartner Group and Forrester Research:
- 13% Of billion dollar companies had adopted ITIL by
2004,
this is now on track to become 40% by 2006 and 80% by 2008.
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80% Of all IT service outages are a result of
processes and people, not hardware and software failures
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ITIL process implementations have been
connected with TCO reductions as high as 48%
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"ITIL is something that companies of almost
any size must adopt if they are not to be left behind by the rest of the
world"
Consider also the benefits that have been derived by
companies that have embraced ITIL as the foundation of their IT management
operations:
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Procter & Gamble attributes $125 million in
annual savings to ITIL, has achieved a reduction of 8%-10% in operational
costs, and has been able to reduce staffing levels by 10%-20%
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Shell Oil can now roll out an application update
to 80,000 desktops globally within 72 hours, and estimates that it now saves
6,000 man hours, or about $5 million per year on just that single activity
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Our Unique ITIL Services
Delivery Model
If you have been doing your homework to locate centers
of knowledge for an ITIL implementation for your company, you've probably
noticed that nearly all of the finest ITIL consultants are European. This
is because ITIL originated in Britain and evolved over time in European
environments. MAG has studied the differences between how U.S. companies
approach ITIL, and how their European counterparts approach such projects, and
has formulated a delivery model specifically geared for American firms that
incorporates the best of both worlds.
Our delivery model combines the process focus most often utilized by European
and Asian firms, with the shorter term application-related quick-wins sought by
most American firms. With a strong 100-day project approach that is highly
appreciated by U.S. businesses, we focus on identification of project risks and
deliverables, current and future state process analysis and mapping, communications
planning, tool and vendor
selection, implementation and training that gets your organization's project
moving in the right direction quickly, in
a practical hands-on environment. Since ITIL implementation projects
achieve greater success when they are taken ownership of internally, we seek to
teach your organization "how to fish" by leading through example and
achieving deliverables jointly with your firm, rather than "giving you a
fish" and delivering processes and knowledge out of a vacuum that are then
not repeatable nor able to be continually developed internally over time.
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Our ITIL Experience
Many of MAG's founders, including its American
principal, came from one of Europe's
largest IT consulting firms that helped to author ITIL over the past 20 years (PinkRoccade,
or Pink Elephant in North American). Each ITIL Practice Partner personally
has 4-8 years of experience crafting and implementing ITIL service
support and delivery processes within some of the world's largest
companies. To put this in perspective, Gartner Research estimated that in
2004, there were roughly 200+ certified consultants world wide with more than
three years actually implementing ITIL. MAG partners
and professionals have been part of best practice process
implementations of ITIL, MDTC, and ITIL-based support service provisioning
at companies such as:
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Process
Maturity and Organizational Assessments
An
assessment engagement will benefit a firm in many ways, among them will be a
detailed analysis, by an external party, of an organization’s IT Service
Management processes (including maturity and adequacy), change readiness, and
drawn conclusions regarding the most appropriate Service Improvement
implementation strategy based on organizational culture and related underpinning
factors for success and failure.
The assessment will help establish baseline data and KPIs that will
support the basis of recommendations for improvement.
It will also assist with the creation of critical communication and
training plans, and can include in-house presentations and question and answer
sessions, all of which will help to bring the organization through the states of
awareness and understanding.
The report
produced provides an overview of the existing situation. The maturity rating for
each process is graphically
represented to provide one clear overall picture. Conclusions are drawn
from the findings of the interviews and appropriate recommendations are made.
This report will be issued in a draft format for review by the client. The
report will then be amended to encompass any feedback, and a final version will
be issued. The report will include:
- Executive
Summary
- Maturity
Ratings Per Process
- Narrative
Discussion of Findings and Recommendations
- Baseline
Communication Plan
- Baseline
Training Plan
- Current State
Process Mapping
- Compendium of
Baseline Operating Statistics and Recommendations
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Application
and Vendor Selection
Many software applications are available to support certain ITIL processes,
but they vary in important ways
that are not always apparent until after a purchase is made and a firm begins
deploying the package. Finding
good, unbiased ITIL professionals can be difficult when the best of the best are
primarily located overseas. MAG has built its ITIL practice to focus on ITIL
process implementation and unbiased tool selection, not reselling software.
We have worked with
many of the major software vendors such as Remedy, HP and Perigrine, and since we know ITIL and your business, we
are able to provide
invaluable services at prices that make sense. We ensure that you receive what
you need for a successful project outcome with full value added benefits
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Some
ITIL Tips:
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Beware software resellers
disguised as "black belt" ITIL gurus
First of all, there is
no such thing as a "Black Belt" certification in ITIL, and second, you want your
provider to have a vested interest in helping you select and implement software
that it is a good fit for your organization. ITIL compliant
software varies in some very important ways, and you don't want to purchase
the wrong one due to a hard sell by your ITIL "consulting"
VAR
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Avoid ITIL consultants
with only a "help desk"
background
There is far more to ITIL than Incident and problem management focused on
help desk functions. You want an ITIL consultant with a depth of
experience across the full spectrum of IT service support and delivery,
including operational
improvement, so that the benefit from your project is maximized and includes
all areas of importance
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Don't accept ITIL
consultants who believe that its "all about the tool" ITIL
is about organizational IT operations processes, not network monitoring or help desk
software, nor notification systems or any other type of application or
group-ware. Without best-practice processes, the best software in the
world isn't worth a dime
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Be careful when
considering whether your company is ready to tackle an ITIL implementation
project. Implementing ITIL properly takes
dedicated resources and lots of management participation and
communication. If your organization is shell shocked from recent
reorganization, or overburdened by multiple conflicting enterprise projects
with no clear priorities among them, you should strongly consider the timing
and length of your ITIL project.
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If an ITIL provider charges
thousands of dollars/day - walk away! There is no reason
to pay $180 to $250 an hour for an ITIL engagement. Although good ITIL resources are scarce, they are out
there. As long as you are flexible in your project start date,
reasonable in your project scope and acceptance of project approaches, you
can achieve fantastic results
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