| IT Management Issues, | | | | to something that could be sold and was manageable. |
| Want to know why Great IT Support is getting harder | | | | In 2009 a full withdraw of ITIL v2 glossary was |
| to find? | | | | announced by the Office of Government Commerce |
| 1. IT firms generally hire management and project | | | | (OGC), an office of the UK Treasury, while they |
| managers that in practice appear to have your best | | | | regroup to push something new like v3. |
| interest in mind. But if the truth is known over the long | | | | 5. Given ITILS rather short history, and fast introduction |
| haul it is for their benefit not yours. And even then they | | | | into the mainstream of IT support its mostly misused |
| still lose one contract after another. Why is that? It is a | | | | and over delivered. I believe that the IT market and |
| combination of their own managers inherently faulty | | | | those IT models for support in general, based on ITIL |
| training ideals. Its also more often than not coupled with | | | | are starting to show signs of producing burnout |
| poor Human Resource practices but that is a whole | | | | support personal. And managers that can no longer |
| other topic. IT managers have lost their connection with | | | | focus on what great support was about in the first |
| their support technicians who are on the ground | | | | place. ITIL is really a managers numbers game with an |
| supporting you. And the answer to this problem is very | | | | emphasis on processes, time and productivity. With the |
| simple. A truly successful IT firm supports their techs | | | | last couple of years bringing mass IT layoffs and |
| from the bottom up not from the top down. | | | | buyouts the streets are flooding with ex IT personal |
| 2. IT Support over the last decade has changed | | | | just ready to deliver fractured ITIL based Support. |
| tremendously in terms of both technology and the | | | | 6. These ex IT managers and various other IT support |
| ability of IT people to carry out a simple set of | | | | personal eventually find jobs in the IT markets again. |
| common sense rules for support. It appears that real | | | | However they are now usually working for smaller IT |
| care and value are now a thing of the past. And why | | | | business. If they were exposed and practiced ITIL |
| is that? Because, large IT companies and IT consulting | | | | methodologies, they generally, no longer have a true |
| firms are pushing inherently flawed ideas about IT | | | | sense of what great support is all about. And |
| support. And it only gets worse when coupled with | | | | unfortunately, they end up in your small business trying |
| standards of practices that have roots tied to ITIL | | | | to apply methods and practices that fail in smaller to |
| (The IT Infrastructure Library) it is also quite common | | | | midsize environments. |
| for the in house IT department managers to fully | | | | 7. If your business is currently not getting great phone |
| institute Service Support and Service Delivery with | | | | support from your software or hardware vendor there |
| roots wholly driven by ITIL. In larger companies the | | | | is a reason. Its most likely due to the broken and failing |
| Human Resource departments methods and practice | | | | processes, that your vendor is using not only to |
| also have some negative impact on employee | | | | support themselves but you as well. If a vendor of IT |
| relations in general and that tends to get in the way of | | | | cannot successfully retain and maintain great |
| great IT support. | | | | employees because their own IT practices are failing, |
| 3. ITIL in and of itself is not so bad when used wisely, it | | | | how can they truly ever deliver a great service to |
| has been around in some form or another since the | | | | you? |
| 1980s so the British could get a handle on its own | | | | 8. With that said I do believe that ITIL and other |
| government agencies processes as well, they needed | | | | standards of practice have some valuable and useful |
| a way to control the private sector business | | | | tools that produce positive results. A very careful |
| processes. It has since worked its way into the core | | | | examination of these practices should always be |
| fabric of just about every IT department of every | | | | applied and an order of balance should be in place |
| major company in the USA. | | | | prior to its institution. But I find absolutely, no value in its |
| 4. ITIL is used to control and manage everything from | | | | abilities to actually produce real meaningful on the |
| Desktop Support, Change Management, SPOC Single | | | | ground IT support. I find no value in its application to |
| Point of Contact Centers, Incident Management and | | | | produce truly helpful incident controls centers for phone |
| Problem Management to include management of just | | | | support personal. And I find that it severely falls short |
| about every aspect of IT. ITIL v1 grew to as large as | | | | when it comes to tying IT management with its |
| 30 volumes between the years 1989 - 1996. Efforts to | | | | support departments. As I stated at the top:a truly |
| regroup and repackage ITIL for the masses began in | | | | successful IT firm supports their techs from the |
| haste around 2001. Around 2007 it was revised down | | | | bottom up not from the top down. |