Index
1. What is the ITIL framework?
2. Why is the ITIL framework important?
3. The benefits of the ITIL framework for companies
4. The HDA solution, compliant with the ITIL framework
The ITIL framework is the most common standard on which IT Service Management strategies are based.
In general, ITSM systems are based on ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library, a registered trademark of AXELOS), a framework that defines the processes for effectively delivering and managing IT services for a company through best practices.
What is the ITIL framework?
The ITIL framework is a real library: the most recent version ITIL 4, released a few years ago, includes five volumes covering 34 ITSM procedures (up from the 26 exposed in ITIL 3).
We have dealt with this topic in the article "What is ITIL4: what's new compared to ITIL 3" specifying how the new version of the ITIL framework has been updated to provide an evolutionary vision for companies, in order to help them face the disruptive "Digital Transformation".
ITIL starts from the assumption that IT must be seen as a service and not as a confused collection of technological components. Some IT departments focus on elements such as hardware, infrastructure, applications, while organizations adopting ITIL focus on the relationship between IT and users.
The framework offers best practices described in five books: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement.
The ITIL approach involves managing the service life cycle (Service Lifecycle) by managing the strategy, design, transition, operation and continuous improvement of IT services.
The mapping of ITIL processes helps to increase the performance of the IT services provided and, consequently, to keep employees satisfied and productive. At the same time, the IT infrastructure is always in line with the needs of the company.
Although the ITIL framework is exhaustive, often an organization does not need to implement it in its entirety: in fact, the company can select and choose only the ITIL processes and procedures it needs, according to its operating model.
86% of Service Desks use the ITIL framework.
Source: ServiceDesk Institute
Why is the ITIL framework important?
The ITIL framework defines proven methodologies that help organizations optimize ITSM to increase growth, change and value generation for the entire organization, in particular to respond effectively to ongoing digital transformation.
ITIL involves adoption and adaptation rather than the scheduled application of standard activities.
In fact, not all business organizations choose to implement all IT Service Management processes and those that are most frequently adopted are: Incident Management, with an adoption rate of practically 100%, Change Management, with an adoption rate of about 75% and Problem Management, with an adoption rate of about 60%.
We list below the main ITSM processes that are adopted following the ITIL framework:
• Incident management: an Incident is an unexpected interruption of the service. This process aims to restore the service with minimal impact on users and business activities.
• Problem Management: this process, in addition to identifying and addressing the root cause of an Incident, looks for the responsible factors in order to prevent them and minimize their impact.
• Change Management: Change Management manages changes to applications and infrastructure minimizing service interruptions for users, avoiding compliance problems and other risks that could arise from changes made to critical systems.
• Service Catalog: A menu or portal that allows users to take advantage of IT services on their own, encouraging self-service.
• Knowledge management: the practice of sharing data, information and knowledge to support decision-making processes. A constantly updated self-service Knowledge Base is usually the primary tool for this procedure.
• Service level management: the practice of agreeing on the required or desired service levels for the different user groups with the aim of satisfying them. Generally agreed service levels are documented in a Service Level Agreement (SLA), which essentially functions as a contract between IT and the users or business.
• Asset and Configuration Management: defines the processes for authorizing, monitoring and documenting the configuration of software and hardware Asset used to provide services.
These are the main processes, although very structured companies also extend their use to Project and Demand Management processes.
The benefits of the ITIL framework for companies
The goal of IT Service Management is to ensure that IT services deliver efficient performance that meets the needs of users and business activities.
That is why, applying IT Service Management in business strategy, following the approaches described by the ITIL framework, often results in significant benefits for the entire organization.
The main business benefits of the ITIL framework include:
• Alignment with business needs: ITIL becomes a resource for the company when IT acts proactively in identifying solutions as a response to business needs.
• Ability to negotiate service levels: Business and IT become true partners and can agree on realistic levels of service, capable of providing the necessary value at an acceptable cost.
• Predictable and consistent processes: Customer expectations can be established and are easier to predict through the use of defined and shared processes.
• Efficiency in the provision of services: well-defined procedures, with roles and responsibilities documented for each activity can significantly increase the effectiveness of the processes. By evaluating the efficiency parameters (KPI), which indicate for example the time required for each activity, it is possible to further optimize the provision of services.
• Measurable and improvable services and processes: Mapped and defined processes are also precisely measurable and therefore can be better synchronized for accurate release.
By following the ITIL framework, organizations are able to focus on solving business problems rather than IT department problems, reducing IT departments' operational costs and improving productivity and staff satisfaction.
The HDA solution, compliant with the ITIL framework
HelpdeskAdvanced is Pat's platform, compliant with the ITIL framework, designed to improve the quality of the services provided, increase user satisfaction and enhance IT flexibility and agility.
With a very broad design experience, HDA manages all ITSM processes centrally, providing a simple and intuitive interface for both service operators and users.
HDA, thanks to automated workflows, streamlines procedures and improves IT productivity, also guaranteeing savings on operating costs.
Advantages of implementing HDA:
• Process management according to ITIL
• Effective adoption, multilingual availability
• Greater efficiency and productivity
• Management of multi-channel requests
• Enhance the user experience with Machine Learning and Chatbot
• Reduced costs
• Increased ROI
• Greater user satisfaction
• Complete and real-time reporting
Find out how HDA can offer all the right tools to the IT team for continuous improvement of services, aimed at meeting user expectations and achieving business objectives, according to ITIL guidelines.