IT Best Practice PredictionsWhat will 2015 bring to you?

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Why does Pink Elephant release this kind of work for free?Our job is to Translate Knowledge into Results. Theoretical knowledge and Best Practices are only as good as the people using them. We therefore aspire to share knowledge and trigger critical thinking by providing ‘food for thought.’ We hope this presentations inspires you.

Pink Elephant: IT Best Practices

Insights // Understand

Our studies provide insights in the way you can use IT Best Practices into your organisation and how best to apply them.

Toolkit // Act

Our company provides the tools and expertise to make People and IT the strategic assets of your organisation.

Foreword

25 years. That is the time that has passed since the British Government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) published the IT Infrastructure Library, better known as ITIL®. The introduction of ITIL marked the beginning of an era of standardisation, in which companies struggled to remain in control of their people, processes and technology. With ever changing technologies and processes, this struggle still continues today.

After the introduction of ITIL, new ‘standards’ arose from different parts of the planet. Best Practices for Project Management, IT Governance, IT Architecture, etc. Today, it is estimated that there are more than 26 ‘standards’ available in the world – the whole collection is better known as IT Best Practices.

Many companies, including Pink Elephant, have grown rapidly implementing these standards and IT Best Practices in both small and large organisations. However, with developments such as Cloud, Mobile and Social Media, the traditional process-oriented work field of IT Best Practices is changing quickly. With this presentation, we would like to present you our predictions for 2015, which contains knowledge collected from our trainers and consultants across the globe.

I hope you enjoy reading this keynote as much as we enjoyed creating it. Jan-Willem MiddelburgDirector Pink Elephant Educationjw.middelburg@pinkelephant.nl

Our predictions for 2015

1. Service Management shifts to IT GovernanceProcesses need to guarantee that an IT company is in control of its data and services.

2. Self-Service Technology becomes a differentiatorThe end-user is used to arranging his/her life digitally and has the same expectations from a company.

3. The Cloud Architect is best new job in townSelf-service and Self-provisioning are the technologies of the future. The Cloud Architect enables a new wave of growth.

4. Agile wins the battle in Project ManagementIT Technology changes faster than development can cope with. Projects therefore require an increased flexibility.

5. Service Automation is the next big thingFirst companies automated technology and processes. In the next wave, complete services will be automated.

1. Service Management shifts to IT Governance

With the rise of Cloud Computing and Mobile Technology, companies have battled between providing quality service to their organisations and keeping control of data and services. Currently, IT Governance is winning the battle and there is no reason to believe this trend will be different in 2015.

Pink Elephant’s online and classroom attendance supports this research:

Note: Figures are based on Pink Elephant’s online and classroom bookings and consist of an average volume shift between YTD 2013 en YTD 2014. All rights reserved.

ITIL® is a registered trademark of AXELOS Ltd. COBIT® is a registered trademark of ISACA.

-11% 45%

IT Governance Infographic from ISACA

Is your organisation ready for IT Governance?

Both Pink Elephant and ISACA see an increasing interest in IT Governance across the globe. Fuelled by Cloud and Mobile Technology, compliance and control are on the strategic calendar for 2015.

Wonder what you or your organisation can do with IT Governance? Ask yourself one of the following questions:

1. Audit and Assurance: What system or process do we have in place to ensure our organisation is auditable?

2. Risk Management: Do we organize Risk Management in our organisation in such a way that we can actively manage and reduce risk?

3. Information Security: Do we have an active Information Security policy that supports our organisation?

4. Regulatory & Compliance: Can we systematically proof that our organisation complies with our nation’s laws and regulatory requirements?

5. Governance of Enterprise IT: Are IT goals and strategic business objectives aligned in our organisation?

Any of these questions addresses the subject of IT Governance and exceeds the scope of IT Service Management. Pink Elephant predicts the topic of IT Governance will grow significantly in 2015, overtaking IT Service Management in importance.

2. Self-Service Technology becomes a differentiatorOver the last five years, consumers have become used to the fact that they need to arrange their business digitally/online. Whether it is resetting the password of your Gmail account, submitting your energy usage or changing your cell subscription, consumer companies encourage you to arrange as much as possible through online portals and the internet.

What would happen if 1% of these users needs to change his password at a Service Desk, and it takes an average Service Desk Analyst 1 minute to conduct a password reset?

1.23 bln.monthly users

233 mln. monthly users

284 mln.monthly users 425 mln.

monthly users

Why Self-Service has become a MUST

What would happen if 1% of these users needs to change his password at a Service Desk, and it takes an average Service Desk Analyst 1 minute to conduct a password reset?

These four services need a combined capacity of 15.195 24-hour days each month to handle these password request. Assuming a regular 20-hour workweek, that requires around 760 FTE, non-stop changing passwords.

Luckily, these companies require you to change your password yourself.

So why do most companies still require their employees to call a Service Desk?

1618 days / month

1972 days / month 2951 days / month

8654 days / month

In practice, only a very limited number of companies offer their employees some service that remotely represents a Self-Service portal, and allows users to:1. Report incidents or chat to a support team;2. Submit requests for services, access or support;3. Access information with which they can adequately help themselves.

An increasing number of users is already familiar with arranging consumer services online. In 2015, companies and enterprises will need to catch up.

The Enterprise Self-Service Portal

Cloud Computing and Mobile Technology are the biggest disruptors of the last decade.

It is estimated that Cloud Services will be a 241 billion dollar industry by 2020, almost doubling in the next six years.

Already, there is a war on talent for people who have the knowledge and skills to design and integrate Cloud Solutions.

Ambitious? Educate yourself to become a Cloud Architect.

3. The Cloud Architect is the best new job in Town

The Cloud Architect’s playground

Cloud Architect

Reprinted: Copyright ® Arcitura Education Inc. More information on www.cloudschool.com

Cloud Architect Job requirements

What knowledge do you need to become a successful Cloud Architect?

As a Cloud Architect, you should be able to:• Design technology architectural layers of Cloud environments;• Deploy intelligent automation engines;• Enable workload distribution and service state management;• Connect different Cloud environments to each other;• Design elastic and resilient IT architectures;• Understand security principles and threats for Cloud environments.

Gaining the knowledge and skills to execute the above stated principles will result in attractive job offers from leading IT companies.

The war on talent for Cloud Architects has just begun…

4. Agile wins the battle in Project Management

A continuing trend from 2013, Agile methodologies are fast taking over traditional project management approaches. Whether it is called SCRUM, AgilePM® or DSDM-Atern, the principles are similar:

In traditional Project Management approaches, the main purpose is to achieve a pre-defined set op features. In contrast, in Agile Project Management, time and money are fixed, but the features of the end product can be adjusted during the the course of the project.

Quality

Features

CostTime

Quality

Features

CostTime

Variable

Fixed

Traditional Approach Agile Approach

Why is Agile growing so Rapidly?

“Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.”

- Mark Zuckerberg

Successful companies work Agile

In today’s world, technology is changing so fast that companies simply cannot keep up with the pace. Agile is a methodology – and mind-set – to ensure that:1. An organisation becomes more flexible and able to adapt to change;2. The quality of a product increases by focusing on results of details;3. Companies achieve a faster time-to-market.

The majority of successful companies (most frequently in software and tech) have embraced the concept of Agile, naming it one of their critical success factors. Agile adoption keeps growing…

….and Pink Elephant expects this trend will continue in 2015 and beyond.

Reprinted: The Executive’s Guide to Agile” - http://www.innotas.com

5. Service Automation is the next Big Thing

First, we automated agriculture… and cities were born.Then, we automated factories… and started mass production.Then, we automated calculations and computing… and the internet started.Then, we automated processes… and software became the new gold.Then, we automated our personal lives… and social media changed our routine.

From 2015 – 2020, the Next Big Thing will be Service Automation. Since we could not find an adequate description, our definition of Service Automation is:

Service Automation is the practice of an industry that enables their customers to procure, manage and adjust services through self-service applications. In the practice of Service Automation, the customer is an end-user, who is in complete control of his own decisions, basing them on experience, quality and ease of use.

Let’s have a look how successful companies use Service Automation…

Uber: one of the hottest tech companies

Uber is one the fastest growing tech companies in the world, transforming the traditional taxi- and transportation market in a rapid fashion. The company is such a disruptor, that it even challenges legislation and politics.

Uber uses a smartphone application to receive ride requests, and then sends these trip requests to their drivers. Customers use the app to request rides and track their reserved vehicle's location. As of 16 December 2014 the service was available in 53 countries and more than 200 cities worldwide, and was valued at more than US$40 billion.

Ever wondered why the company is such a tremendous success?

Uber has adopted all elements of Service Automation.

Elements of Service Automation

The elements of Service Automation:

Uber is a company that has automated the use of a service (getting from A to B) completely, implicitly using all the concepts of Service Automation. With the elements of technology and mobile devices, they put the end-user in control instead of the cab company. Uber is just an example of a company that mastered Service Automation, but there are many many more.

Our final prediction for 2015: Service Automation is the Next Big Thing!

Elements of Service Automation Uber

Client is an End-User ✔User is in Complete Control ✔User manages the Service through a Self-Service App ✔Decisions are based on experience and quality ✔The Service is Easy to Use ✔

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