| Johnson & Johnson Had A Problem | | | | J&J's IT department was able to use ITIL to decrease |
| I'm sure that when you picture yourself becoming a | | | | how long it took to resolve problems. This in turn |
| CIO in the future you see yourself sitting at the | | | | resulted in J&J's systems having more uptime and |
| corporate strategy table with the CIO using your deep | | | | therefore allowing more work to be done quicker. |
| understanding of IT to help the company move faster | | | | Needless to say, end users were very happy about |
| and do more. Umm, one problem with that vision - | | | | this. |
| you're not going to make it to the big table if you don't | | | | Sure happy customers are nice, but what about the |
| solve the problem of run-away IT costs. Johnson & | | | | money? J&J says that if you count both cost savings |
| Johnson's CIO had this very same problem and she | | | | and costs that they were able to avoid, then starting in |
| tackled it using the ITIL framework. Maybe this would | | | | 2005 they believe that they've been able to save at |
| be a good time to look into that ITIL thing... | | | | least $30M a year. |
| Just What Is the ITIL? | | | | Why Did This Solution Work |
| You've probably heard about the IT Infrastructure | | | | ITIL is not the only way to standardize the way that a |
| Library (ITIL); however, do you really understand what it | | | | CIO runs his / her IT department. Other methods |
| is? First off, it's an old (10 years is old by IT standards) | | | | include the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), Control |
| set of best practice guidelines for how to do IT service | | | | Objectives for Information and Related Technology |
| management. It was originally developed by the U.K. | | | | (COBIT), Six Sigma, and Lean Manufacturing. However, |
| government in order to help them do a better job of | | | | ITIL has been around the longest and its been shown |
| modeling their outsourced IT projects. It's quite popular | | | | to work. |
| in European IT shops and is only now starting to pick | | | | Taking the ITIL path was the right choice for J&J for a |
| up steam in the U.S. | | | | number of reasons. Not the least of which was it |
| What makes the ITIL so attractive is that it allows a | | | | provided J&J's CIO with a way to both quantify and |
| CIO to run the IT department like a business. This is | | | | measure the quality of the service that J&J's IT |
| exactly what Johnson & Johnson's CIO was looking | | | | department was delivering. Who was the wise man |
| for back in 2001. J&J was going gang-busters from a | | | | who said "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it"? |
| business point-of-view; however, their IT costs were | | | | What All Of This Means For You |
| going through the roof - they were going up by over | | | | When you become CIO you'll be facing the same twin |
| 10% every year. | | | | set of conditions that can keep you from doing all of |
| J&J had previously tried the old stand-by CIO trick of | | | | that strategic stuff that you want to be doing: rising IT |
| pulling together IT operations from all around the | | | | costs and ever increasing user demands for more |
| sprawling company into a single centralized | | | | service. You are going to have to deal with this issue |
| organization in order to get on top of their costs. | | | | and do it quickly. |
| However, even though now they knew where the | | | | ITIL is not a new "flavor of the day" approach to |
| money was going, they still were seeing out-of-control | | | | solving the challenges that an IT department faces. In |
| growth on infrastructure tasks. Something had to be | | | | fact, it's a rather old approach. However, if you're willing |
| done! | | | | to make the investment in time and energy that it can |
| J&J's CIO decided to implement a program based on | | | | take, ITIL just might be the solution that you are looking |
| the ITIL. Now mind you, this is not some silver-bullet | | | | for. |
| magic cure-all. Instead, the ITIL can help with specific | | | | Knowing that there is a solution framework out there |
| parts of running an IT shop. Specifically if you go about | | | | that works is what allows most CIOs to be able to |
| implementing ITIL correctly, your IT department can | | | | sleep at night. Actually implementing a solution and |
| boost the quality of service that it is providing to the | | | | saving the company, well that's a job that will be |
| rest of the company. | | | | waiting for you when you become the CIO. |