An IT Service Management Success Story

by Tim Eryou and Roger Paris

I.T. management is all about the effective and efficient use of people, processes and technology. Organizations are adopting IT service management (ITSM) to help reduce overall management and support costs while implementing new models that enhance the quality and effectiveness of services they deliver. ITSM provides a framework to develop and implement formal business and IT processes that are specific to the organization, standard procedures for all to follow, and metrics to provide the organization with the ability to measure results and proactively manage their service delivery model. IT managers and employees who can innovate and quickly adapt their information and services can address the rapidly changing needs of the organization and its clients.

THE PROJECT
In the late 1990s, senior management in the Corporate Information Systems Directorate (CISD) of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) championed a new initiative to tailor ITSM for adoption across the entire department. Following an extensive effort to define, document and implement a number of ITSM processes – incident management, problem management, change management, configuration management and release management – INAC identified a need for an enterprise technology solution. This solution was required to “operationalize” and integrate the processes, and capture the corporate IT information necessary to serve their client community.

In 2003, INAC contracted with Sierra Systems Group (SSG), a consulting firm, to assist in the implementation of an enterprise ITSM solution. The project began with formal workshops with representation from all responsible areas within INAC to:
• Provide overviews of the ITSM solution and get buy-in
• Perform a gap analysis between INAC’s processes and the ITSM tool’s inherent processes (e.g., incident management, problem management, change management, configuration management, service level management, service desk function, etc.)
• Identify and implement INAC’s base data (organization, location, people, and product and service catalogues) to personalize the solution to their environment
• Define the integration requirements between and among all processes (i.e., how will the processes work together?)
• Define integration requirements (including events) between existing technology and the ITSM tool such as:
·     Performance monitoring tools
·     Network and system management tools
·     Capacity and availability tools
·     Discovery tools
·     Enterprise messaging
• Define process templates and macros to automate the creation of records and reduce the data entry effort
• Define and build a knowledge and known-error database.

The outputs of these workshops were the inputs to the personalization and configuration of the ITSM solution, and the massaging of the data for the migration phase.

In February 2004, the solution was implemented on time and on budget and, within one month of operation, both the client community and CISD began reaping the benefits of the ITSM solution. More specifically, INAC has met or is in the process of realizing the following objectives:
• Structured service management environment throughout CISD
• Standard processes and technology used by all
• Proactive management of the service offerings as a result of formal measurements
• Better positioning for the implementation of future service offerings
• Better alignment of its IT services with the business
• Accountability throughout the service delivery model (culture)
• Common practices and languages throughout CISD
• Integration of infrastructure management tools
• Increased client satisfaction
• Database of configuration items that accurately reflects INAC’s technical environment
• Standard suite of products used by all throughout INAC.

LESSONS LEARNED
Implementing an ITSM solution is more than just implementing a tool. It also includes the implementation of formal processes and the adherence to standards, behavioural changes throughout an IT organization, removal of functional silos, and getting buy-in from all levels. Organizations must appreciate that to improve upon the services they deliver, they need to instil a value for performance measurements, which provide quantitative empirical data to identify strengths and weakness of the organization as well as opportunities for improvement. These should be addressed as part of a continuous service improvement program (CSIP). Without a CSIP, ITSM becomes a project with an end date. With it, success is measured over time as behavioural changes become the foundation for a proactive, client-centric service delivery culture.

The lessons we learned are:
1. Management involvement
Executive management must be involved before, during and after the project. They need to promote ITSM and its benefits, be visibly engaged and commit resources. It is imperative they are active on the steering committee and provide leadership in the CSIP. It is not simply software and process that is being implemented, but an entirely new culture.

2. Resource involvement
Implementing an ITSM solution is resource intensive and senior management must ensure proper representation from all areas of IT. The initial planning and definition phases are the most time consuming activities of the project. A common mistake is to assign one or two resources to defining all base data (the organizational data required to personalize the ITSM tool). It cannot be defined in isolation. All parties who will use the data must participate in its definition. Many organizations assume data in the Help Desk application can be re-used but potentially only a fraction of that can or will be used; you will need to revisit and probably redefine your data structures.

3. ITSM processes
Walk before you run. Do not attempt to define and document the complete set of ITSM processes all at once. Define your critical processes first. Perform a gap analysis between your processes and the ITSM tool, and then assess and prioritize your gaps.

4. Communicate
Communication is one of the most neglected activities in an IT organization. To get buy-in and promote excitement at all levels, ensure you have a formal communication plan in place. Focus your communiqués on the audience you are addressing (executives, middle management, IT, and the client community) with information relevant to their roles and positions.

5. Technology
If possible, acquire an ITSM-ready tool. These out-of-the-box solutions require little to no customization (code change). Once you start changing code, the vendor may not be able to support the tool and upgrades will become more difficult to implement.

6. Technology architecture
Test your ITSM tool’s performance over your Wide Area Network, Local Area Network and in remote locations, and then adapt your infrastructure to suit your expectations. For regions that require access to the tool and its full functionality but have limited bandwidth, a Citrix MetaFrame type of solution may be required. Ensure you have the proper types of licenses (e.g., fixed, floating or a combination of both). Fixed licenses should be acquired for resources that are required to use the ITSM tool day-in and day-out (e.g., service desk agents). Those that use the tool on an “as needed” basis should use a floating license. The rule of thumb is one floating license for every three to four users.

7. Technology integration
Ensure your solution is capable of integrating telephony, enterprise messaging, asset management and performance, capacity and availability monitoring tools.

8. Data
The activities required to define your data are time consuming and resource-intensive, and proper identification (including the level of granularity) is critical for the delivery of efficient and effective services. The following are examples of base data definitions that could be considered essential depending on the ITSM tool you select:
• Organization (department name, sections, regions, branches)
• Location (address, building, floor, room)
• People (user information, VIPs, IT resources, logical groupings such as service desk, LAN administrators, telecom, operations, etc.)
• Routing tables (escalation paths for subject matter experts, service breaches, etc.)
• Data entry templates (personalized macros to reduce data entry time such as password reset and any other type of calls that are repetitive in nature)
• Service catalogue (list of services with specific response times and resolution times, escalation paths, classification tables, priority tables, etc.)
• Product catalogue (hardware, software, manuals, etc.) and the desired level of granularity
• Data imported from other applications (performance monitoring alarms, discovery tools, etc.)
You will need to ensure you have the proper representation from all sections of your IT organization. Finally, the federal government requires that data be bilingual, which requires special consideration during the data definition effort.

9. Training
Out-of-the-box training is useful if you want to learn out-of-the-box functionality. It is highly recommended that the course material include training on your ITSM processes and procedures, your base data, metrics, management expectations for the staff, and of course, tool functionality. As an initial step, all IT resources should be trained on the processes and methodology. Training should be delivered just-in-time to improve its impact. Do not assume staff will figure out how to use the tool on their own.

In conclusion, the implementation of ITSM in an IT organization can reduce your total cost of ownership by as much as 45% and provide a return on investment ranging between 5% to 10% of your overall IT budget.



For further information please contact: Tim Eryou, Manager of IT Services, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, (819) 994-7281 or EryouT@INAC.gc.ca or Roger Paris, IT Service Management Consultant, Sierra Systems Group (613) 236-7888 or RogerParis@SierraSystems.com.