11/24/2006
Making IT Portfolio Management A Reality
Posted by Al Schultz
The CIO Executive Council shares strategies, tips and insights on making IT portfolio management a reality.
Story by: Sari Kalin
Among IT buzzwords, portfolio management is used so commonly that it hardly needs definition. This magazine has been writing about it since 1998. Analysts preach that managing technology investments as one would a financial portfolio is the surest way to maximize value, ensure alignment with the business and minimize risk. Consequently, software vendors are forever pushing products that promise holistic, color-coded views of the IT portfolio that they say will enable CIOs to prioritize projects; simplify and automate the processes for project approval, planning, resource allocation and project tracking; and standardize metrics for measuring ROI.
To read more: Article Link
06/13/2006
Measures Of ITIL Performance Contribution Lacking, Survey Shows
Posted by Al Schultz
From: Compass America
Story by: John Sansbury
In recent years, organizations have increasingly adopted a variety of “best practice” frameworks as part of their performance improvement and service management strategy. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has emerged as the most popular of these methods. While few doubt the general benefits of ITIL, the ability to quantify gains resulting from its implementation remains elusive.
To read more: Article Link
06/08/2006
ITSM & Teamwork Run Data Centers Better
Posted by Al Schultz
June 8, 2006
Story by: Sean Nicholson
To get the most from your data center requires teamwork, writes ITSM Watch guest columnist Sean Nicholson of Aperture.
In the last few years, standards for data center technology have been refined and improved to the point where data center managers target 99.999% “uptime” for the servers and storage needed to run enterprise systems.
To read more: Article Link
06/07/2006
Next phase in ITIL poker game
Posted by Al Schultz
Jun 07, 2006.
Source: ITSM Portal
OGC have announced the selection of preferred bidders for the exploitation of ITIL. APM Group and TSO win, and ITSMF is out of the game.
As we’ve informed you before, the exploitation of ITIL (and other OGC frameworks like Prince2) will be outsourced to new parties by the end of the year, and the involved parties seem to be involved in a poker game. OGC now announced that they have selected two parties to negotiate further on ITIL rights. The biggest news is that ITSMF is not amongst these parties.
It has become clear that OGC has two faces; the one is responsible for the ITIL product and has been so from the original start in the late eighties; they have a long relationship with ITSMF and have a mutual understanding and respect. “This” OGC has made clear that ITSMF has to be the one party that should be involved in the update of the ITIL documentation in the ITIL Refresh project, and should endorse all new ITIL books before they will be published. The ITSMF International Publications Committee (IPESC) has been put into position to take care of this.
“The other” OGC is managing OGC’s finance and is responsible for the CAR project – and it seems that both departments do not communicate much ("the two (projects) are not logically linked"). How else can one explain the fact that OGC is doing final negotiations on ITIL rights with a party that has no relationship with the targeted community, and no relationship with the user organization of that community? APMG (the APM Group Limited) is known in the field as a company that has been set up to manage Prince2, and has no business with ITIL. APMG follows a commercial approach towards the accreditation of trainers, resulting in a protective and closed training and examination community – something that is perceived as very contra-productive in the ITIL world: the global success of ITIL is attributed highly to the fact that commercial service providers have been able to use it on a very open base. You can find all kinds of ITIL-based products and services all over the world, and many providers have made it their business, without the burden of a having to pay a fee to the owners. The fact that OGC is now negotiating ITIL rights with APMG furthermore neglects the crucial role that has been played by the current accredited exam bodies ISEB and EXIN in marketing ITIL all over the world.
Another threat emerges from this decision: the international ITSMF community is highly involved in the development of ITIL Refresh. But will they continue to do so if a commercial party would own their result? Will all these volunteers be willing to spend their time on a product contributes to the profit of a commercial party? Or will they be compensated? And will they then still choose to spend their time on this instead of on their regular business? And will the result be just as good if a number of the core players would turn away from the project?
It seems that there are a few dark clouds hanging over ITIL’s future. The January statement “that there will be one and only one acceptable outcome of the CAR bidding: the future management of ITIL will have to be an organization lead by the international ITSMF organization - not an organization where ITSMF is participating as an advisor, but one where ITSMF makes the decisions “might prove to be false now, and there’s no saying where this will end.
05/31/2006
Microsoft’s Growing Interest In IT Management
Posted by Al Schultz
May 31, 2006
Story by: Jon Collins
Copyright © 2006 Macehiter Ward-Dutton
If there’s one thing Americans know how to do, its conventions. It seems that every town has its venue, and every association worth its salt will organise an event at least annually. In San Diego a few weeks ago, Microsoft’s management summit cohabited the downtown convention center (sic) with the Society of Realtors and the American Association of Airport Executives. Take away the logos and defocus the eyes a little, and it becomes almost impossible to tell the difference.
To read more: Article Link
05/19/2006
Many IT Departments Fail To Measure
Posted by ITSM Community Administrator
Story by: Lindsay Clark
15 November 2005
IT departments are failing to measure their own performance or service levels to the business, according to new research.
Without such basic measures in place, IT departments risk having their major functions outsourced, analysts said.
A survey by research company Coleman-Parke for IT services provider Dimension…
To read more: Article Link
05/01/2006
Successful Launch of New ITIL Practitioner Certificate in Texas
Posted by Al Schultz
May 1, 2006
EXIN continues to work with experts worldwide to capture the highest level of expertise within IT Service Management. With that goal in mind, another successful pilot of the ITIL Practitioner Support & Restore (IPSR) was held in Texas on April 6th, 2006.
08/19/2005
ITIL Version 3 Refresh Moving Along
Posted by Al Schultz
19 August 2005
Work on the new ITIL Version 3 Refresh is proceeding along. Most recently, the mentor teams have been added to the author teams and preliminary drafts have been prepared. While the basic ITIL framework will not radically change, the structure of how this is presented will appear in a series of 5 books titled: Service Introduction, Service Design, Service Support, Service Delivery and Service Improvement. These better mimic the service improvement lifecycle that most companies are looking for.