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My #1 IT Service Management
Resolution for 2008
By Molly Holladay, Lontra
Director of ITSM Solutions & 2006 winner of
ITIL Practitioner of the Year
There was a
great article in
CIO Magazine this month entitled "How to Make IT
Allocations Work" in which the author explains why
it's not enough for businesses to simply allocate
a certain amount of money to IT each year and
expect that they will get everything they need,
and it naturally leads to contention between IT
and their customers.
For both sides
to be satisfied with the relationship, IT needs to
present the services they provide along with
accurate costs, and the LOB needs to choose and
pay for the services that they need. Sounds
great - so how do you get there?
The author
offers this piece of advice, which I think is a
key takeaway of the article: "Take a step at a
time, but first, get the direction
straight."
If you can make one resolution
for 2008 in your IT organization, in my opinion,
it should be this - take the time to talk about
the big picture first, and develop a roadmap for
how to get there.
To be able to
present costs for
services, you first need to define all of the
services you provide. This leads to valuable
conversations and collaboration internally and
drives standardization in the organization.
After your services are defined, you are then able
to calculate what it costs to provide them.
But it doesn't stop there - once you have
this information, you can use it to forecast
demand for the services in the future, anticipate
and create new services, strategically plan your
service delivery, and more.
So,
think big and start small. Picture your IT
organization in 2009 presenting a full Service
Catalog with accurate rates to your customers, and
then start by creating your roadmap for how to get
there.
Webinar: Five Characteristics
of Successful Service Catalog
Implementations
Wednesday, January
16th - 8:30 AM PST, 11:30 AM
EST
Join Lontra's Senior Consultants as they share
examples, real-world experiences and advice gained
from implementing best-practice Service
Portfolios, with actionable Service Catalogs, for
organizations, big and small, over the years.
Hear the top 5 characteristics of good Service
Catalog projects, and see real world examples of
how these characteristics helped the organizations
involved meet their IT Service Management and IT
Financial Management goals.
Lontra CEO Interviews
Alliance Data CIO in the January Issue of itSMF's
"The Forum"
Join Lontra's CEO,
Boris Pevzner, as he interviews Alliance Data's
CIO, Barry Carter, in the January issue of itSMF's
newsletter "The Forum". This month's focus
is IT Service Continuity Management and IT
Financial Management.
Barry tells Boris
about his experience developing a Service
Portfolio for Alliance Data, and applying IT
Financial Management and IT Service Demand
Management best practices to achieve his customer
satisfaction, cost transparency, and IT and
business alignment goals.
Barry's
application of the best practices in ITIL v3 is in
line with the growing number of organizations
using the Service Portfolio as a strategic
business management tool for IT, and the Service
Catalog as a way to communicate not only available
services but pricing and SLA information to their
customers.
For more information on this
topic, view an instant replay of Barry's webinar,
"Shaping IT Service Demand Through the Service
Portfolio". For the full issue of itSMF's
Forum Newsletter, visit their website.
January & February 2008
Featured Events
January 15 - January
17 Washington, D.C. ITIL v3 Foundations
Course Register here
January 16 - 8:30 AM
PST Free Educational Webinar "Five
Characteristics of Successful Service Portfolio
Implementations" Register
here
January 18 Washington, D.C. ITIL v2 to v3 Bridge
Course Register
here
January
22 - January 24 Chicago, IL ITIL
v3 Foundations Course Register
here
February 12 - February
14 New York, NY ITIL v3 Foundations with
Polestar Simulation Register
here
February 15 Phoenix,
AZ ITIL v2 to v3
Bridge Course Register
here
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