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Today, more than at any time in the past, organisations are heavily dependent on their information and communications technology infrastructure. Business leaders quite rightly demand the most reliable up-to-date information systems and applications that will meet the expectations of customers and staff – and an increasing number of senior managers and executives believe that IT service management (ITSM) represents the best way to unlock efficiency and effectiveness without the need to inject large amounts of capital funding. But how should a company get started on an ITSM implementation? And what important factors need to be taken into consideration to ensure measurable success?

Gerben van Kesteren is Marketing and Sales Director of Mproof International, and was one of the founders of Mproof in 1997. The company is a certified Microsoft ISV partner focused on the development, distribution and implementation of Clientele business software, and highly experienced in ITSM. Since 1997, Mproof has cooperated closely with Epicor in an extensive sales and support strategy for the supply of Clientele software. As a result of this close relationship, Clientele ITSM is now available worldwide, and is also available as Epicor ITSM.

CXO. What are the key drivers behind the unprecedented rise of IT service management in recent times?

GvK. Today, most business processes are dependent on IT, and a failure in IT can have a significant impact on an organisation’s overall performance. It is therefore little wonder that there is pressure on IT departments to align IT with the business needs, improve performance and make IT costs transparent. In order to meet these objectives, IT managers and CIOs are looking for structure and guidelines. ITSM offers the platform to communicate, learn and improve.

CXO. How can ITSM help ensure that business needs are met and value is delivered through IT services that directly support the business?

GvK. ITSM provides business and the IT department with a common language for IT service management. Traditional IT departments operate in isolation and are technically oriented. ITSM helps to transform the traditional ad hoc helpdesk in to a modern, proactive service desk. ITSM ensures IT activities will be prioritised and planned according to business requirements.

CXO. Although the UK government created the ITIL, it is rapidly being adopted across the world as the standard for best practice in the provision of IT service. Why are best practices important to IT services and, specifically, ITSM?

GvK. IT departments within most businesses experience the same IT challenges; align IT with the business needs, improve service levels and reduce costs. The best practices of ITIL give IT departments the opportunity to learn from the knowledge and experience of people who have faced the same challenges.

CXO. What role does ITSM play in compliance management? How important will this be in the coming years?

GvK. In order to be compliant, organisations need to provide transparency and accountability in business processes and corporate accounting. ITSM delivers the toolset to create transparency, and control and mitigate the risks of IT service processes. In this way, ITSM will aid organisations in achieving regulatory compliance.

CXO. Business success is determined by the bottom line, and a key consideration is the return on investment ITSM can provide. How is it possible to quantify the benefits gained from ITSM?

GvK. In our experience, an ROI calculation is a difficult task in most cases, because organisations don’t have reliable data to define the baseline for measurement prior to implementing ITSM.

We believe the best way to quantify the benefits from ITSM is to measure the performance of the different IT processes by setting key performance indicators (KPIs). When the KPIs are defined, ITSM tools can easily produce the results. Comparison of the results-per-period makes it possible to calculate cost savings and make improvements in productivity and efficiency visible.

CXO. What solutions does your company offer in terms of ITSM?

GvK. We deliver an out-of-the-box solution that supports the key processes of ITIL. Our product is easy to implement, supports long-term growth and provides flexibility so it can be adjusted to the business needs.

Our ITSM product is completely built on the Microsoft .NET platform. It is designed for access via the web, and as such can be installed at a central location while allowing access to users from all over the world. The Microsoft .NET platform makes our product extremely scalable. The XML web services-based integration platform enables maximum and solid integration possibilities.