It’s All about Value Creation

Many organizations have implemented IT Service Management best practices and have enthusiastically invested in the adoption (i.e. training, process implementation, tools, etc.) of frameworks such as ITIL. A common mistake is, however, that many times these efforts are undertaken as the ultimate goal—some companies are managing processes, instead of managing services through those processes. Best practices for IT Service Management processes are meant to be used for managing the service, which is the means of delivering value to the customer.

The Current Gap in ITSM Best Practices Adoption

Despite the huge number of IT organizations that have adopted ITSM best practices, it is impressive how many of them are still using their processes for the sake of IT, rather than for the sake of the business. With some exceptions, IT is generally a reactive department that is very well equipped to solve problems, and reactively supporting the business with technological capabilities based on what the customer asks for; and only a few relatively mature IT organizations really know well the business side, and the customer processes they serve.

IT best practice frameworks were created with the intention of providing IT organizations not only reactive capabilities, but also proactive ones that turn IT into a strategic ally for the business, enabling the correct alignment of the IT strategy with business goals. Unfortunately, this has been overlooked to some extent by many organizations, but the digital business disruption that is occurring now in all industries is forcing IT executives to take one step further, beyond being reactive!

Are Current ITSM Practices Ready for the Future of IT?

The new Agile approaches and frameworks that are emerging (i.e. SCRUM, DevOps, etc.) are making people in IT aware of the need of becoming more proactive in preparation for the digital age, where business processes are more dependent on IT every day. Business units are automating their flows, leaning more towards self-service capabilities and procedures that depend more on the user—all enabled by IT.

The higher the level of self-service the organization aims for, the higher level of maturity ITSM processes must have. What does process maturity mean? The maturity of a process is the extent to which an ITSM process is proactively and continually aligned with business needs.

IT Is Not Only About ITSM

The implementation of established and repeatable ITSM processes was not the end of the road; it’s just the beginning of it. Once processes are in place, IT organizations have to define a Governance System that enforces the adopted practices, and they need to strive for improving process maturity in order to maintain and increase business value through IT. New IT best practices such as DevOps have to be embedded into the current capabilities, and business users have to be made aware of their role’s responsibility—especially on the security side—should self-service and automated business processes succeed.

How Global Lynx is Making IT Better

Last Thursday June 2nd, jointly with our strategic partner ServiceNow, Global Lynx hosted a full-day maturity assessment workshop in its Columbus, Ohio facilities; where three leading companies—OhioHealth, The Huntington Bank, and Cardinal Health—were invited to collaborate and assess the degree of compliance of their ITSM processes to best practices; and not only that, but also assess the maturity of those processes. In other words as explained above, the degree in which their IT processes are proactively supporting the business.

Global Lynx has been a pioneer in the implementation of ITSM best practices, and now we are one of the first companies offering DevOps accredited training and guidance on its implementation. We are also the only IT consulting company that offers benefit quantification analysis for any IT initiative that your organization wants to undertake.

If you are interested in learning more about Global Lynx’s portfolio, or if you would be interested in participating in a maturity assessment as the one hosted last week, we invite you to subscribe to this blog and we will get in contact with you.