Despite this, however, IT is typically viewed as a black hole down which money disappears and value is seldom realised. Ultimately, investment in IT should drive the three pillars of competitive advantage, by enabling organisations to do things better, faster and cheaper. The challenge is to manage IT effectively to ensure that value can be delivered from this often significant investment.
Having a stable and well-managed IT infrastructure is critical to the success of any business. Just a few seconds of downtime can end up costing organisations a lot of money, and more than that can result in unsatisfied customers and reputational damage.
Major incidents like downtime affect revenue. In addition, if the service delivered by IT is slow, inconsistent, unstable or otherwise poor, it impacts on a business’ ability and can also interfere with an organisation’s ability to grow and mature.
Business changes with market demand, so it stands to reason that IT should change too - it must become and remain aligned to the strategic objectives and initiatives of the business. In addition, investment in IT must be supported by evidence to prove that this investment has resulted in benefits such as happier customers, improved value and more productive staff.
The reality is that a stable, well-managed IT infrastructure does not just happen by itself. It requires hard work, planning, team effort, as well as effective IT service management (ITSM). This is only achieved by blending the right people, process, products and partners. These four P’s are one of the foundations of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which in itself offers a pragmatic, flexible set of best practice guidelines for the delivery of ITSM.
ITIL effectively is a documented set of proven processes and guidance that helps organisations manage their IT more effectively for consistent, proactive and accountable services. The key is not only to deliver value, but to demonstrate this value to the business.
The value of service management is evident in the outcomes achieved by business such as improved customer service, increased performance and greater availability at reduced cost, to mention a few.
