Aberdeen Identifies Specific Actions to Improve IT Service Delivery

As I started discussing yesterday, Aberdeen Group has recently released a report on ITSM, entitled IT Transforms itself into a Service.

Yesterday we discussed some of the attributes of the Best-in-Class organizations among the 300 Aberdeen had surveyed. Today, I want to share their recommendations for bringing your organization's performance up to the level of the other Best-in-Class organizations.

• Increase visibility into service delivery standards to align IT with business processes.
• Manage your SLAs
• Know how to measure performance
• Implement an ITIL framework now
• Look to experienced IT service providers
• Utilize creative SLA agreements and policies
• Continue to focus on transformation instead of installation
• Continue to optimize your environment around process, performance, and analytic tools

Needless to say, the report expands a bit on each of these points, but the bottom line is to move your organization towards a framework like ITIL. It's important to remember that is not a question that can be solved simply with an investment in more technology - the company must be committed to changing their business processes and investing in the ongoing education of their employees so that everyone understands what the business has to gain from following the processes.

Has your organization adopted a model around IT service management? Where are you in the process? What benefits have you seen from employing IT service management? What roadblocks have you run across?

Share your stories...you don't need to name names, just give an honest view of what you've found in your own first-hand experience.

Contributed by Mark Tordoff