IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)version 3Driving business growth through IT

Technology Consulting

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Insights into high performance IT

Zeroing in on the pressure-points…The route to fulfilling this multi-dimensional role begins by identifyingyour own pressure-points. Accenture'sresearch and experience show that thepressure on IT manifests itself acrossthree domains:

• Strategic: a requirement to supportand further the corporate strategyby delivering relevant, innovative,differentiated services while reducingcost and complexity

• Operational: constant and growingpressure to meet operational needs,industrialize, increase flexibility andcontrol costs

• Credibility and relevance: the needto close the credibility gap betweenIT and the business, therebytransforming the perception of IT'sworth and ability to deliver the rightoutcomes

…with some searching questions All three of these pressure-pointspresent tough challenges for any CIO.Especially when, in the era of offshoringand outsourcing, you and yourdepartment are facing competition forthe role of IT provider of choice evenwithin your own organization. As ifthat's not enough, your job is beingmade ever tougher by rising businesscomplexity, and by disconnects betweenIT and the business.

Solving this situation begins by askingyourself some searching questions—and then finding the right answers.Questions like:

• How do I offer innovative,differentiated services whilereducing cost and complexity?

• How do I decide what services toprovide and how to provide them?

• How do I formulate and execute aservice strategy for high performance?

Get the answers wrong, and you riskbecoming marginalized into a technicalsupport role, and could even losecontrol of the IT service agenda. Getthem right, and you and yourdepartment will become a—perhapsthe—cohesive driving force across theentire organization, with a direct andtangible influence on strategyformulation and implementation.

As a CIO today, you are under greater pressure thanever before to produce verifiable business outcomesthat help your organization achieve and sustainhigh performance.

This pressure comes from all sides. The CEO ischallenging IT to contribute demonstrably highershareholder value. The CFO is seeking real anddifferentiated returns on IT investments. The COO is looking to IT to reduce operating costs and makethe business more effective. And all of them wantIT to help them run a high-performance business.

Introduction

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IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) version 3

ITIL: long heritage—growingrelevanceOver the past two decades, ITIL hasestablished itself as the leadingframework for managing IT in thepublic and private sectors worldwide.Launched in 1988 by the UKGovernment, ITIL aimed not just tomanage servers and network equipment,but to provide technology-relatedservices in a cost-efficient, reliablemanner. Since then ITIL has continued

to expand to reflect ongoingdevelopments. The latest version—ITILv3—captures advances in IT best practice over the past decade,embedding a focus on customeroutcomes, and encompassinginnovations such as mobile and webservices. As a result, ITIL nowrepresents an even more relevant andcomprehensive approach for the CIOthan ever before.

Insights into high performance IT

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At source, all the pressure points andquestions highlighted above can beresolved through one action: correctlyidentifying and engineering businessresults that the organization wantsand values. So the key lies in adoptingand embedding a relentless focus onoutcomes for the customer. Peoplewant access to tools that deliversolutions to their problems. They seeIT in the same way—as a tool fordelivering the outcomes they want. So IT needs to put customer serviceand dialogue at the heart of everythingit does.

High-performance businesses aredoing this already—progressing from a reactive and sporadic stance to one that focuses on outcomes, andpositioning service management as astrategic asset (see Figure 1).

Moving to a service mindset

Sustained, higher value

ValueCreation

Sporadic, lower value

Reactive

Services Management MaturityPredictive

III. Business Integration

II. Business Alignment

I. Industrialize Processes

BusinessValueCreation

Formal ITProcesses

ServiceOrientation

BusinessOutcomesOrientation

Figure 1: High performers make service management a strategic asset

Realizing the value of ITIL® v3

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It might be possible for a CIO to rebuildIT from the ground as a relentlesslycustomer-focused organization. Butsuch an initiative would likely beimpractical, not to mention prohibitivelyexpensive. The good news is that aready-made, proven and widely-applicable template is already available:ITILv3—a framework that helps addressall three pressure-points by orientatingIT around a customer service mindset.

You may already have come acrossITIL in its version 2 incarnation. ITILv2,developed in the 1990s, reflects thatdecade's fixation on processes.

By providing globally vetted best-practices designed to improve quality,lessen operational risks and controlcosts, ITILv2 became—and remainstoday—a valid and viable frameworkfor managing an IT function. Its scopewas widely regarded as 'blue-collar',since it focused primarily on operations.

However, IT operations alone cannotshoulder the whole burden of puttingIT at the core of the business. What is also needed—as we highlightedabove—is an approach that addressesthe other pressure points, by buildingIT's strategic relevance and credibility

across the business. To do this, ITILv3both expands and elevates ITIL's focusfrom processes to outcomes. To reworkthe analogy, with version 3 ITIL goes'white-collar', and moves into theboardroom.

A framework for service orientation: ITILv3

What is also needed is an approach that addressesthe other pressure points, by building IT's strategicrelevance and credibility across the business. To dothis, ITILv3 both expands and elevates ITIL's focusfrom processes to outcomes.

Insights into high performance IT

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By tackling IT's strategic and businessintegration alongside its operations,ITILv3 repositions IT as a true andresponsive service provider to thebusiness. And by putting the customerdialogue at the centre of IT strategyand delivery, ITILv3 provides thecornerstone for bridging the gapbetween an organization's existing ITcapabilities and its future vision forhigh performance.

For the CIO it delivers still more,providing the crucial lever for improvingservice-oriented operations—and therebyensuring IT's continued relevance tobusiness performance and strategy.For CIOs who have already invested inITILv2, version 3 opens up opportunitiesto leverage the existing investment stillfurther and expand the impact of ITILacross all IT domains organization-wide.As Figure 2 shows, ITILv3 achieves thisthrough an iterative lifecycle of servicedesign, transition and operation.

These attributes means ITILv3 presentsthe CIO of any major organization witha powerful framework and practicaltools to transform the operationaldelivery capability, credibility andstrategic relevance of IT. The structuredlifecycle described above can providethe CIO with a framework to turn ITinto a strategic asset, and to move the entire function up the servicemanagement continuum shown inFigure 1—from industrialization, throughbusiness alignment, to integration.

ITILv3 provides the roadmap for thisjourney, through a cohesive set ofleading practices, roles and relationshipsspanning the enterprise. These elementsare geared to help embed a servicemindset, guiding IT people not only intheir operational roles, but in theirdiverse interactions with stakeholdersacross the business.

However, while ITILv3 is a structuredapproach, it is not rigid. Rather thanproviding a prescriptive process

blueprint to be applied in a mechanisticway, it is designed to be a flexibleframework that can be adapted andadopted by any organization,irrespective of industry, geographicalor cultural characteristics. A keysuccess factor for ITIL has always beenthat its self-optimizing capabilities,and ITILv3 extends this advantage stillfurther, by including mechanisms andmetrics for tracking and achievingcustomer and business outcomes.

Towards Service Strategy

Complementary Publications

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Continual service

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Continual serviceimprovement

Service Design

Service Operation

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Figure 2: The ITILv3 Lifecycle—with ITIL Service Strategy at its core

Driving new operationalprocesses globally using ITILv3In the financial services industry, a major global banking andinvestment institution, had IToperations across many differentgeographies. Its heritage of globalexpansion and strong client focus hadleft it with an infrastructureenvironment that was highly localized.So clients in Singapore—for example—were handled exclusively by theSingapore hub.

This approach had worked well overthe years, but the company had nowidentified two specific problems. Onewas that its geographical risk profilewas heavily concentrated at its USheadquarters, creating a need tospread its risk more evenly across theworld. The other was that it needed togain greater global control of itsstandard processes and tools, enablingit to use the same leading-practice

mechanisms for interacting withclients in all its operations.

These changes would bring targetedbenefits including economies of scale,higher and more consistent servicequality, lower risk, and tighter controlof costs. However, the client alsowanted to retain the clear advantagesbrought by local knowledge and clientrelationships. This raised a keyquestion about its future operatingmodel: how centralized should itbecome—and how decentralizedshould it stay?

Using ITILv3 as the lever and roadmapfor change, Accenture helped theclient identify and implement theoptimal solution. The process beganwith the application of ITILv3 tocreate a new infrastructure operatingstrategy. This drove the redesign of the operating model, which in turndrove new organizational design,operating processes, roles and

responsibilities across theorganization. Under the new operatingmodel, certain components of thecompany's service management werecentralized, while others weredecentralized to local hubs—includingglobal responsibility for some domains.This approach enabled the client toretain its responsive customercapabilities at a local level, while alsorealizing global economies of scale,standardized working methods,integrated tools and governance.

This new model, combining localresponsiveness and globaltransparency driven by ITILv3, hasproved so successful that it is nowbeing rolled out across all the client'sIT services worldwide.

IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) version 3

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As a CIO, you know that today'scombination of rising complexity andintensifying scrutiny on businessperformance mean you face a clearimperative: to secure and build therelevance and non-optional status ofIT in general and your own role inparticular. Failure to do this could wellresult in a continuing decline in theinfluence of IT across the enterprise.

ITILv3 provides the platform forkeeping IT at the core of the business.Perhaps it's time to rebuild your ITfunction on it.

For more information about whatITILv3 could do to enable highperformance for your organization, or to action an IT diagnostic that willrate your organization's readiness forITILv3, please contact Michael Nievesat michael.k.nieves@accenture.com.

Next steps

Copyright © 2007 AccentureAll rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Deliveredare trademarks of Accenture.

For more information aboutwhat ITILv3 could do toenable high performance for your organization,please contact MichaelNieves at michael.k.nieves@accenture.com or visitwww.accenture.com/itilv3.

About AccentureAccenture is a global managementconsulting, technology services andoutsourcing company. Committed todelivering innovation, Accenturecollaborates with its clients to helpthem become high-performancebusinesses and governments. Withdeep industry and business processexpertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture canmobilize the right people, skills andtechnologies to help clients improvetheir performance. With approximately170,000 people in 49 countries, thecompany generated net revenues ofUS$19.70 billion for the fiscal yearended Aug. 31, 2007. Its home page is www.accenture.com.