ITIL ITSM BI BLOG

The Challenge we all face #2

2008-07-11T03:03:00.001-07:00

Well - probably from my point of view it's getting the time to put this blog together :-)

Seriously though folks - there is a lot to look at in the areas of BI and ITSM - what do you want to know - what pearls of wisdom can I impart?

Let me know as well so I can target some of my posts - I'm not sure that anyone is even reading this, so hey - big wide world of internet people - show me the clicks!

Cheers for now...

The challenge we all face

2008-06-08T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well - some see it as insurmountable, others see it as the way of things, but we should all see it as a challenge to overcome. That is - the views of management that we can all see are holding the business back. Often these relate to IT, how things can be done more efficiently, generate better dollar returns on investment etc etc etc. We've all seen it, but what do you do about it?

The first thing to do is to take a look at things from management perspective. You can see that investment in a proper scheduling tool would make your life much easier. The technical support staff would work together, each having defined roles and looking after specific jobs rather than the mish mash that it is today. What the executives see are a bunch of technies who yet again want to spend a not insubstantial amount of money on software.

So - how do you get around this? Speak their language. Put together a proper business case analysis. Do a SWOT analysis (Stengths, Weaknesses Opportunities, Threats) and show that increases in efficiencies save dollars by reducing user downtime, this increasing productivity, and perhaps look at doing a trial run with your software of choice. Many vendors like iET will provide a demonstration server for you to play around with. Of course it will take time to set the system up properly to your specific business needs, however make sure that the choice to invest in new IT Service Management software is business needs driven.

Most of all, add value to your IT skills by investment in yourself. Make sure you know what is out there, make sure that you know what is capable, and you will do yourself a huge favour.

Cheers for today,

KD

Why ITSM?

2008-05-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

Wow - today's 5 minute rant - Why ITSM is really about the value of IT and business Value on Investment rather than Return on investment.

Businesses have traditionally seen IT and the helpdesk as necessary evils - the helpdesk being manned by pimply upstarts who have nothing better to do than muck around with computers. Fifteen years ago (when I worked on a helpdesk at the University of Melbourne) this may have been somewhat true, but IT pervades every aspect of business that we have today, and so making sure that IT is managed properly is oh so very important!

Business is now moving to look at IT as a service, and adoption of service management frameworks such as ITIL and COBIT are enabling business to realise some of the value of investment in IT, and make IT work for the business rather than the business working for IT. I am certain that I wont endear myself to my former helpdesk colleagues by saying that they can work faster, work smarter and be more efficient, but really that's wha needs to happen in order for the organisation in which they are involved to realise value from IT.

It's the same in corporate organisations and SME businesses alike.

There are now a great number of packages that support IT service management best practice regardless of framework including offerings from BMC, iET Solutions, Infra, HP, CA etc, but the basic idea is to invest in the provision of efficient, trackable IT Service management and helpdesk solutions. The days of the helpdesk queries being tossed around the office by a series of people yelling at each other should be numbered (but I am certain this still occurs!).

One of the solutions in particular, iET's Enterprise platform I have seen to have excellent out of the box OOTB capabilities in Service Desk, and has been built from the ground up to be ITIL enabling. Check out http://www.iet-solutions.com/ to see their offering, and with the platform and basic configurability also comes agreat deal of customisability and the ability to write your own module templates for specific business requirements.

At the end of the day, IT Service Management is about changing the IT processes within an organisation to be governed, accountable and business requirements driven. It's time for the tail to stop wagging the dog.

KD

Why BI

2008-05-26T18:20:00.001-07:00

OK - so many people ask - what is business intelligence or bi? (Not to get confused with the sexual connotations of these two little letters, as I found out when putting together the BI adwords campaign!) BI is about knowing your business. Properly.

Businesses big and small all have lots of data - the challenge now is how to utilise this data in a productive, value-adding way.

BI is very much an issue for all business. Whether it is Health, Banking and Finance, Advertising and Marketing, Sales and retail analytics or just a small business - knowing about your customers, their needs and wants, doing some demographic analysis all adds value to your business.

Most people have a customer list database - now analyse it.

You would normally have Name, Address, Purchase History, possibly birthdate, phone etc. OK - now look at how to profile this - you can demographically match purchases against region, look at the average and total distance travelled by your customers to your shop, what do girls buy, what do guys buy, how much does each average person spend per transaction etc etc etc. These insights might not seem like much, but they add a huge amount of value to your business, so embrace them and get to know your business.

No shameless plugs today - but some sage advice - knowledge is power - power your business or organisation by knowing it properly.

Cheers,

KD

Welcome

2008-05-26T00:20:00.000-07:00

Hi There, and welcome to the ITIL ITSM and BI Blog.

It's my desire (or intention at least) to put up tidbits of information that I come accross in helping service clients in the ITIL IT Service Management and Business Intelligence areas and try and provide a little guidance to those of you who may be new to these areas.

So - why am I doing this ? Well - I work for a company (eProgram - http://www.eprogram.com.au/ - shameless plug!) which provides these services, and if I can spend 5 minutes per week putting some value back into the ITSM and BI communities, then as far as I am concerned, that's Good Karma, and Good Karma comes and visits itself back on you tenfold in my experience.

That's my 5 minutes up topday, but if you want me to look at specific areas or have specific questions, please just ask.

That's it for today - good karma to you all.

KD