IT is charged with providing an ever-increasing line of products and services to the business. In our nanosecond world the quality of those products and services is paramount. To meet the desired level of service quality management needs to become an essential part of IT.

Many best practices have the goal of improving the quality of these services and products delivered by IT. They are essentially, quality management systems. There are certain basic principles of quality management that every best practice should follow.

Just as the keys to successful IT Service Management is “It’s The People Stupid”, the keys to customer focused quality management is, “It’s the Customer Stupid”.

The first principle in a quality management is to be customer focused. IT serves many customers, both internal and external. Each uses different products and services. Each will have different uses for those products. Each will have different requirements for those products and services. IT must meet the needs of everyone and to do this IT must be customer focused.

There are four keys to becoming customer focused. Since quality management needs involvement of every person enlist your department heads to direct their managers to help in each of these steps for their department.

Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.

Identify All of Your Products and Services

The first step is to create a catalog of all of your products and services. In IT this catalog will be vast and should be broken down by department to simplify your system.

This catalog should include any product or service that a department within IT produces. Products include data products such as reports. Services include tasks such as technical support.

Identify Your Customers

Now you must identify all of the internal and external customers who use your products and services. You need to go beyond “the business” as being a customer and identify the specific parts of the business you serve.

Some services are used by everyone so you need to be smart about what to include. For instance your network infrastructure is the backbone of IT and everyone uses it. However some customers may have requirements such as increased bandwidth so you will need to identify them because they have specific requirements.

Rich Schiesser is an article “Optimizing IT Customer Service” has some good tips on how to identify your customers.

Now match your products and services to the the people or departments who use them.

For example:

• Product: Network Infrastructure
• Customer: ABC Data Storage
• Product: Service Desk SLA Scorecard
• Customer: Director of Customer Service, Service Desk Manager

Determine Your Customers Requirements

A key part of good customer focused service and a quality management system is defining the needs and requirements for all of your customers for each product or service they use. One may use a product or service differently than another.

For example with a data product one may need a complete listing of IP addresses and  locations for every router in your company. Another only needs a count of how many routers are used in the company. Same data source, but each customer has different needs.

The best way to define the needs and requirements for each customer is to talk with them and ask them what services and products they use, how they use them and if they have special requirements. For off site customers and vendors you can create a survey form that can be emailed to them.

Obviously you can not do this with every service and product. You are not going to email everyone in the company and ask them what their requirements are for the network infrastructure. You already know their requirement is a fast connection that is always there. Once again be smart about who you need to ask for requirements.

Meet or Exceed Your Customers Expectations

Now you know who your customers are, what products and services they use and what their needs and requirements are. Providing outstanding customer service means you need to meet or exceed the expectations of each customer for each product or service they use.

An IT department should do no less than meet the expectations of every customer. They should strive to exceed the expectations. Needs and requirements will change so you must stay in touch with your customers and update your products and services as needed. The ultimate goal is to find how to improve IT customer service.

Benefits

• By aligning your IT products and services with your customers you will find not everything your produce is used. You may find A report that takes 15 minutes to produce for a DVP is deleted as soon as it hits their inbox because they no longer need it. You will be able to trim some products and even services and save valuable resources.
• By learning the needs and requirements for each customer you are better able to tailor them so they are more useful. A report may be missing important information the customer can use. You will provide better customer service and your customer will get more from what you do produce.
• Each customer has expectations. By meeting or exceeding their expectations you are providing excellent customer service. Your customers are more satisfied and better able to use your products and services. As an IT department you are more aligned with the needs of your customers so you do not waste time and resources.

Eight Part Quality Principles Series

Read our eight part series on the principles your quality management system can be based on.

Lead Article: Quality Management Principles for IT

1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Involvement of People
4. Process Approach
5. System Approach to Management
6. Continual Improvement
7. Factual Approach to Management
8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

Related posts:

1. Quality Management System Principles For IT
2. How To Improve IT Customer Service
3. Empowerment For Better Customer Service

Most best practices used in IT today define a quality management system (QMS). A QMS defines the standards of quality used within the organization. Regardless of what best practice you follow there are certain quality management principles you should use as a guide.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards. The ISO 9000 family of quality management standards and guidelines are used by companies around the world to establish and improve their quality management system.

You do not need to fully implement the ISO 9000 standards to have a QMS in your IT department. However these eight principles can be guides to set up or improve your present quality management system.

ISO 9000 Quality Management Principles

This eight part series will look at the ISO 9000 quality management principles that can be used as a foundation upon which you can build your quality management system. Here are the eight ISO 9000 quality management principles.

1. Customer Focus

Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.

2. Leadership

Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organization. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s objectives.

3. Involvement of People

People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit.

4. Process Approach

A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.

5. System Approach to Management

Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.

6. Continual Improvement

Continual improvement of the organization’s overall performance should be a permanent objective of the organization.

7. Factual Approach to Decision Making

Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information.

8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

An organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value

Eight Part Quality Principles Series

Read our eight part series on the quality management principles your quality management system can be based on.

1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Involvement of People
4. Process Approach
5. System Approach to Management
6. Continual Improvement
7. Factual Approach to Management
8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

Related posts:

1. Quality Management System – Customer Focused
2. Foundation in IT Service Management – ISO/IEC 2000
3. 20 Leadership Principles Every Manager Needs

With proper problem management any problem or issue can be dealt with in a timely manner to ensure the continuity of IT services the business depends on.

An emergency room is a good example of a team that deals with large and small problems each day. They often work under extreme pressure since lives are at stake. So let’s look at how an ER handles problems that roll through the door each day and learn how their methods can be applied to the IT world.

How An Emergency Room and IT Can Stay Prepared

Have a Plan

An ER has a plan to deal with nearly every issue that comes up. When the issue comes through the door they know exactly what to do and the team executes the plan. IT has disaster recovery plans, but we should not only plan for disaster.

Small issues can have an impact on IT services and a well laid out plan will allow you to quickly restore them. Many fly by the seat of their pants when dealing with problems. Relying on their experience and expertise to deal with it. You should be proactive in approaching a crisis or problem management.

What happens when the help desk receives a call about a problem and vital team members are not there? Running up and down the halls trying to find someone to deal with it, that is what happens. With a well thought out and detailed plan everyone maintains composure and the problem is dealt with in a timely manner.

Sometimes in an ER an issue can roll in the door that there is no plan for. Something nobody ever anticipated. This is when they rely on their past experience to guide them. In the same way you can rely on your past experience to guide you through an unforeseen issue.

These are the times when you do fly by the seat of your pants, but you should have a well-trained team that is multifunctional and  well skilled to help you. This is the time for your A-Team.

Be Well Stocked

Look in any modern ER and they have the supplies and tools needed to deal with every issue that can come through the door. Carts sitting in designated areas and teams of qualified staff are always ready to deal with nearly any problem.

IT should be prepared in much the same way. Important pieces of equipment needed to restore IT services should be ready for use when needed. Qualified and skilled staff should always be on-hand and ready to deal with any problem.

If your network goes down can your business really wait hours or worse days for the needed equipment to arrive?

Have a Well Skilled and Professional Team

The staff in an ER consists of many professionals with the specific skills needed to handle any issue. Nurses, technicians, doctors and many more skilled team members. Each one knows their job well, when to step in and when to get out-of-the-way.

In the same way IT should have teams with various skills ready to jump into action when an issue arises. The makeup of the team and the skills needed will depend on the issue. This is why planning is so important. You want to know the right people to contact that have the skills needed to get the job done.

IT Triage The Help Desk

When a patient first comes to the ER they are seen by a triage nurse. Here the patient is evaluated to determine the severity of their issue. A chart is created, vital signs are taken and any relevant information about the issue is recorded. A priority is then assigned depending on how severe the issue is.

In IT triage is done by the help desk. Their goal is to learn and document everything they can about the issue and determine the priority of the issue. Once this is done the proper person or team can be notified to handle the issue.

1. Determine what the problem is and document all the circumstances surrounding the problem.
2. Determine how critical the problem is. This will decide how quickly it must be dealt with.
3. Route the problem to the department, team or person who can best deal with it.

Putting It All Together

• Detailed steps to be taken to deal with the problem and restore full service
• One or more designated leaders with contact information who will oversee the execution of the plan and alternatives should they be unavailable.
• A list of team members needed to execute the plan with contact information and alternatives should they be unavailable.
• A list and contact information of outside vendors and technical contacts who can provide information if needed.
• A good supply of inventory that can be used to fix any problem that may arise.
• Detailed instructions on how to setup and install the equipment or bring back the service.
• Plan alternatives should the primary plan not fix the issue.
• A review session after an issue to see what went right, what went wrong and how the plan can be improved.

Any issue can best be dealt with if there is already a plan in place. A plan should include:

Summary

IT deals with major and minor problems each day just like an ER. An ER can respond to any problem that rolls through the door because they are well-trained, highly skilled and have a plan. Planning for problem large and small will restore IT services quicker and with less disruption to the business.

Plans should have detailed steps, designated contacts and alternatives with contact information. Equipment should me maintained on-site to enable teams to quickly restore vital services.

Related posts:

1. IBM Service Management Simulator Learn About ITSM and ITIL
2. Project Management Problem-Solving Skills

Using standardized resolutions will make your resolutions more accurate, reduce confusion over what the resolution is, develop a common language that will improve communications and make the training of new team members easier.

Your help desk software may already have a method of dealing with this issue. If it does not this may be a solution to improve your incident management process and the final incident resolution.

Why To Standardize Resolutions

As an example a customer calls the help desk because their monitor is no longer working. The help desk analyst troubleshoots the problem, but it is clear the monitor needs to be replaced. The help desk analyst enters a resolution “replace monitor”.

What type of monitor? A LCD for the desktop, a CRT for the security system? You would hope every team member would put in an accurate resolution description, but often this is not the case. Resolution boxes can include information related to troubleshooting that can confuse team members as to what they are supposed to do.

Nothing should be in the resolution box except how the incident should be resolved!

So why leave it to chance. Establish a set of standard resolutions and enforce that that is the only thing that should be put in the resolution box. This type of system has many benefits as you will see below.

How To Standardize Resolutions

PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) is a good business improvement process to use in this case. PDCA at its heart is about quality control and that is exactly what you are doing here. This process improvement method can be used in many different circumstances.

Plan – Define the Problems, Set Your Goals, Develop the Process

In the plan step you will identify the problems, set the goals you want to accomplish with the process changes and develop the new process that will accomplish the goals.

Some common problems are:

• Inaccurate documentation of the resolution to the problem.
• Confusion about what the problem is or how it should be resolved.
• The lack of a common language that makes communications between team members and other teams difficult or less effective.
• Training new team members is less effective without a common language and a standard.

So your goals may be:

• Create resolutions that accurately describe how to resolve the incident.
• Eliminate any confusion about how to or what the resolution is.
• Errors and rework are reduced due to misinterpreted resolution descriptions.
• Develop a common language that will improve communications and training.

Develop the new process:

Create a list of all of possible resolutions and break them down into groups on different sheets. Your groups may be your equipment such as “Replace monitor” or “Replace laptop”. Actions to be taken such as “Test the router”or “Dispatch service company x”. Escalations should be included such as “Escalate to level 3 support”.

For each group go down the list and next to the equipment, action or escalation write the standardized text for what should be placed in the resolution box. The description should be as short as possible, clearly defined and specific.

For example instead of “Replace monitor” list all of the types of monitors.

• “Replace 15” Dell desktop LCD monitor”
• “Replace 17” Viewsonic desktop CRT monitor”
• “Escalate to network support and test the router”
• “Escalate to vendor support and dispatch XYZ to replace the switch”

As you can see these are very specific and for a good reason. You want to eliminate any confusion about what is to be done. Keep in mind that you are developing the common language that will be shared by many teams so keep them clear and to the point.

Each list should be broken down by the type of resolution. For example your equipment list should first be broken down into types of equipment such as monitors, PC, laptop, router, etc. Then under each type list the standard resolution. This will make it easy for everyone to find the specific equipment they are looking for.

Do – Implement Your New Process

You should now have lists of standard resolutions. You may want to just start with one group such as equipment to test the process then expand it to other resolutions.

Deploy on Media

How you distribute your lists will depend on what media types you have available. The ideal situation is to utilize your intranet and have them web based. You can list your groups on one page with a hyperlink that will take you to the next page that will list types.

If this 2nd page is your equipment list it will have the short descriptions such as “Monitor”, “Laptop”, “Router” and so forth each type of equipment with a hyperlink that will drill down to the standard resolution descriptions.

The 3rd page will list your standard resolution descriptions. If it is your monitor page then every type, size and model of monitor used throughout your company will be listed. The team member now only needs to copy the standard description and paste it into the resolution box.

When a team member needs to enter a resolution description they are just three clicks away from a standard resolution that they can copy and paste. Problem solved.

If your company does not have an intranet or other type of electronic media for your lists you can always use paper ones. Each group such as equipment, actions or escalations will be a separate document. If your list is large use a table of contents which will be the list with short descriptions pointing to a page number. On the page for that type of resolution each standard resolution will be listed.

Training

Now train everyone who will either enter or read resolutions on the new system. This is not rocket science so it should be easy. Point out the benefits of standardized descriptions and of sharing a common language that will improve communications.

Enforce

By nature people are reluctant to change so you will need to enforce the new process. Most will be thankful to have a process where they are not left up to their own assumptions on what to enter.

Check – Is The New Process Meeting The Goals?

The check step requires some form of measurement to determine if the new process is achieving the goals your outlined. You may already have metrics in place that can be used to measure this. Watch for a reduction in rework caused by inaccurate resolutions. For instance the resolution of “Replace monitor” may have caused a CRT monitor to be taken to a cubicle when it should have been a LCD monitor.

Another way to measure is to talk with the help desk analyst, support teams and anyone else who is touched by the resolution to see if the new process is more efficient. Record any issues that you can later evaluate for modifications to improve the process.

Act – Improve and Standardize The New Process

During the check step you may have come up with some issues that require you to refine the process. Keep tweaking and monitoring the new process until your goals have been met. Once they have establish the new process as the standard that everyone will use.

Embrace the philosophy of continuous improvement. Even after the new process becomes the standard business practice, always look for ways to improve it. Lists will need to be updated, groups may need to be divided or new media resources may become available.

Any changes made should start the PDCA cycle over again to ensure problems are identified, new goals are set, the process is tested, then standardized.

Summary

Standardized resolutions has many benefits and few drawbacks. By standardizing your resolutions will be clear and accurate. Team members will develop a common language that will facilitate better communications. Training will be easier for new hires and errors will be reduced.

Over time everyone will learn most of the common resolutions by heart and not need to consult the media. Be sure and monitor the system for people not following the process. Always look for ways to improve the process and update it when changes are made.

Related posts:

1. Improve Your Time Management in Easy Three Steps
2. How to Improve Your Professional Skill Sets For Little Money
3. How To Improve IT Customer Service

The product also provides managers and executives with real time visibility into the status of problem resolution. Kinetic Data will present the technology at Column Technologies’ eighth annual Borgata event, taking place May 7, 2009, in Atlantic City, N.J. The event brings together the leading decision-makers and thought leaders from the BMC Software community.

Kinetic Response is the only problem collaboration tool that automatically documents the problem resolution process. The software maintains a record of all communications, files, and actions related to the resolution of a problem, and it stores closed-problem records for future reference and training. It is designed to work within IT system management frameworks including—but not exclusively—the BMC Remedy platform.

“Managers and executives want to be able to quickly check the status of a problem and move on. Kinetic Response gives real time, online updates so they can do just that,” stated John Sundberg, president of Kinetic Data. “The software eliminates the need for face-to-face meetings—and that’s going to get people’s attention.”

The web-based console system provides immediate visibility into real time chats, as well as a full chat history, across an organization. The system clearly identifies who is working on an issue and gives visibility to executives for high-impact problems, including completed and planned action items.

Kinetic Data’s BSM product line includes:

• Kinetic Request—the only request management portal software that lets nontechnical personnel design and automatically manage their own processes and approvals for internal service and equipment requests, without relying on IT;
• Kinetic Survey—the only process-driven survey management software built on BMC Remedy.
• Kinetic Calendar—the only actionable online calendar tool built on BMC Remedy. The software may be used by any department within an organization that fulfills service requests.

For more information visit the Kinetic Data web site.

Related posts:

1. Access BMC Remedy Service Desk From Smartphones
2. Many Report Problems with SOA Deployments
3. Numara Track-It! 9 Includes Change Management and Better ITIL Support

Pink Elephant has a guide, “Developing an ITSM Training Strategy and Plan” available for download in PDF file format. The 22 page guide highlights the following areas.

• Manager Responsibilities – Before, during and after the training.
• Is It Always a Training Issue – helps you learn how to match people and training.
• Key Steps to Developing a Training Strategy and Plan – Mapping people to process activities, identify job requirements, identify existing skills, identify skill gaps, developing training plans, evaluate and modify process and tool training, create job aids, develop and delivery training, evaluate training effectiveness.
• Key Training Roles – outlines the resources needed to develop, deliver and provide ongoing support.

Download the free “Developing an ITSM Training Strategy and Plan” guide in PDF file format from the Pink Elephant web site

www.pinkelephant.com/ressource/pinklink/PDF/DevelopingAnITSMTrainingStrategyAndPlan.pdf.

Related posts:

1. 4th Annual ITSM Survey Finds 71% of Organizations Do Not Have Defined, Implemented and Enforced ITSM Governance
2. How To Develop Your IT Career Plan and Why You Should Do It
3. Sunrise Software’s Sostenuto ITSM Solution Verified by Independent Testing Lab

With unmatched ease-of-use and integrated automation, Numara Track-It! 9 delivers even greater value to IT help desks in small to mid-sized organizations by offering new change management functionality, support for ITIL best practices and numerous enhancements to improve productivity and work processes as part of the core product.

“As IT continues to increase in complexity, and resources need to be more and more optimized, our customers are seeking low-cost technology solutions that allow them to evolve and adapt with the changes in their organizations,” said Matt Dircks, vice president of Product Strategy at Numara Software. “The new Change Management capabilities in Numara Track-It! 9 have been developed in response to customer demand, making it easier for small and mid-sized organizations to manage IT-related changes, improve control over costs and achieve company-wide compliance across multiple locations.”

Numara Track-It! is a comprehensive workflow-driven solution with one of the highest customer satisfaction levels in the industry. Customers have leveraged this market-leading solution to manage incidents, problems, assets and knowledge within their organizations.

With the new version, their IT help desks can achieve improved efficiency, better cost management and greater transparency with change management functionality that is tightly integrated with help desk and asset management workflows.

“I’ve been working with Numara Track-It! for more than four years, and this new release is a beautiful program that will give us better efficiency and time management with our staff,” said Jason Voyles, help desk senior at Commonwealth Health Corporation.

“Changes used to take me forever, but now we have the ability to keep changes in their own area and separated from other items. Other features I like are the new in-place update, which made installation run a lot faster, and the new Directory Importer, which allowed us to import 1300 employees within 20 minutes. These new additions made my job a whole lot easier. “

Numara Software continues to bring a high level of practical, real world functionality to businesses as the latest version offers powerful, new out of the box capabilities, including:

• Change Management: Organizations need to manage risks associated with unplanned, unmanaged change. Numara Track-It! enables organizations to automate change management to gather the information associated with a change, communicate the data to appropriate people, obtain approvals and implement the change through an automated approval process.
• ITIL® Service Life Cycle Processes: Through its integrated modules, Numara Track-It! 9 supports ITIL processes, such as incident management, problem management, asset management, license management and change management.

“With the new version of Numara Track-It!, Numara Software has taken a first-class product and made it even better,” said Shawn Robertson, senior systems engineer at First Acceptance Corporation. “After testing the beta version, we were immediately impressed with the new Change Management feature. Change Management is a big area for us now, especially with our focus on ITIL.

We’ve been looking for a means to implement a change control process. It’s important to us that we have it fully integrated with our help desk and asset management tool. This is an extremely helpful enhancement that provides us with a better way to track the approvals and checks and balances within our company.”

This release demonstrates the company’s continued focus on delivering advanced, practical functionality to small to medium sized customers at an affordable price, and helping IT service organizations deliver a world-class experience to their customers. For instance, IT Help Desk Coordinator, Lyn Stallard, at Desert Diamond Casino (a long standing customer of Numara Track-It!) said, “By integrating Numara Track-It! Change Management, we have been able to streamline our daily operations and quickly deliver decision-making information to key management personnel with over 100 customizable performance and training reports.

This module also offers an audit trail feature that automatically tracks and manages changes from initial request to final resolution.” To read about how Desert Diamond Casino is using Numara Track-It! Change Management, visit: http://www.numarasoftware.com/case_studies/Track-It/Numara_Track-It_CaseStudy_DesertDiamondCasino.pdf.

Numara Track-It! is a proven and comprehensive IT Help Desk and Asset Management solution that is fast to implement and enables businesses to effectively employ industry best practices. For more information on Numara Track-It! 9, including a complete list of new features, please visit: http://numarasoftware.com/Track-It.asp.

Related posts:

1. Aldon Community Manager 9 Includes ITIL v3 Support
2. Numara FootPrints Service Desk Management Solution
3. Numara Launches Numara FootPrints 9 Service Desk Solution

Broadband Testing Lab’s report provides an overview of the modules that make up Sunrise Sostenuto ITSM v3 spanning system, incident, problem, change and release management and including support for areas such as knowledge, contacts, third-parties, contract management, service levels, products and order management.

The report draws on case studies from customers including CSE Global (UK), Explore and Apex Computers International, all of which highlight the inherent flexibility that Sunrise Sostenuto delivers in a real-world environment.

The Broadband Testing report in summary questions the approach by many enterprise software vendors, whose products are less flexible in their design, often demanding that customers implementing these solutions adapt working practices to the methodology defined by the solution.

It contrasts this with Sostenuto, which allows ITSM to be modelled around the business process flow and function, representing a flexible platform that can be used to support other elements of the business IT infrastructure too, using exactly the same user interface and software components.

Steve Broadhead, founder and CEO of Broadband Testing Labs commented: “Flexibility is an essential pre-requisite of a contemporary ITSM solution. The reality is that companies can no longer deal in 5-10 year fixed business plans and require IT solutions that can evolve in line with their business needs. Our evaluation of Sunrise Software’s Sostenuto solution verifies the product’s inherent flexibility, and with the company’s recent introduction of a subscription pricing model, this also extends to the way that companies can purchase the software.”

The full Broadband Testing Report: Sostenuto ITSM v3: A Focus on Flexibility can be downloaded for free here:

http://www.sunrisesoftware.co.uk/uploads/files/BBT%20Sunrise%20Sostenuto%20Flexibility%20Report%202009.pdf

Related posts:

1. Sunrise Software’s New Subscription Pricing Model Helps Budget for ITIL
2. Digital Fuel Speeds ITSM Excellence with Out of the Box SLM Solution for Service Desks
3. eProcess ITSM Process Design Solution

Accolades were bestowed upon the company for IT Symphony’s ability to manage risk, prevent system downtime, reduce operational costs and secure corporate IT assets and data.

The Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award recognizes the vision, leadership and attention to detail that are the hallmarks of the prestigious award. The most innovative products and services brought to market in 2008 were selected as recipients of this year’s Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award for their groundbreaking achievement.

Based on its unique IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices framework, IT Symphony was recognized for providing a unified solution for IT Service Management as well as the ability to control IT change management processes consistently across organizational silos while allowing visibility and access from anywhere within the IT infrastructure.

Charles Guevara, Change Dynamics’ founder and president, underscores the value IT Symphony brings to organizations within today’s challenging economic climate: “The economic slowdown facing the globe does not spare CIOs. Their teams are under immense pressure to tighten the belt buckle further and do even more with even less — improving the productivity and efficiency of the IT machine has never been more important. IT Symphony continues to provide a strong ROI, allowing companies to easily adhere to internal compliance policies, demonstrate compliance to auditors, and reduce IT spend.”

“Change Dynamics has been recognized with a 2008 Product of the Year Award for their excellence in the advancement of compliance and corporate governance,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Group Editor-in-Chief. “Change Dynamics has proven they are committed to quality and excellence in solutions that benefit the customer experience as well as ROI for the companies that use them. I am pleased to honor their hard work and accomplishments and look forward to more innovative solutions from them in the future.”

For a closer look at IT Symphony, please view the demo at: http://www.cd-it.com/change-dynamics-demo-lead.html.

Related posts:

1. Numara Software Receives 2008 Product of the Year Award
2. Digital Fuel IT Cost Management Product Named 2009 Innovation of the Year
3. iET Solutions Releases iET ITSM 5.0 and iET Enterprise 11.0

This is why IT Service Management has become a key part of a world class IT organization. But what are the keys to successful IT Service Management? I can tell you it is not to throw in the latest best practice framework and expect miracles to happen. It is not throwing money at the problem with new technologies.

The most important part of a world class IT organization and successful IT Service Management is the people who run it and the leaders who guide them. When searching for the best way to implement successful IT Service Management, look for the best people and the best leadership.

People

You can install every best practice and technology known to man, but without the right people to run it you will not get the full benefits of the technology or frameworks. Always remember that people run an IT department, not technologies, and not frameworks.

You must have people who understand the technology, the processes and the frameworks. They need to know why we implement a best practice or technology and what it means to them and the business. You must have people who know how to use them to provide the level of IT services the business requires.

You must have people who are engaged and understand they are they the key to successful IT Service Management. Take these people and train them, build them, make them successful in their jobs. These people are the foundation on which successful IT Service Management is built.

So how do you get your people onboard and engaged?

Leadership

Successful IT Service Management is dependent on good leadership. It takes leaders to implement, guide and inspire the people doing the work, using the technologies or the best practice. Leaders empower their people and get them to understand how their work contributes to the overall success of not only IT, but the business as well.

What kind of leaders do you need for successful IT Service Management?

You need leaders who take the time to interact with their people, who gets to know their people and what drives or motivates them. They do not sit in their office and lead by email. They are out in the “Gemba”, the place where the work is done and actively engaged with their people.

Good leaders must be humble individuals. They do not use the word “I” very often, they use the word “We” or the name of the business or the group. They understand that for them to be successful, the organization must be successful and the key to that is making the people who run it successful.

Good leaders do not sit back and take all of the praise of success. Instead they give the praise to the people who created the success. Good leaders talk the talk and walk the walk, they lead by example and by actions, not just words. They work to change the culture of the IT department from technology centered to people centered.

Summary

You can have the best people in the world. Bulls in the chute, locked, cocked and ready to go. But without good leadership behind them their full potential is never reached, their drive to help the organization succeed is diminished and IT Service Management becomes just another catchy phrase in the IT department jargon.

The keys to successful IT Service Management are the people and the leaders. In the spirit of the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy I give you a new acronym for successful IT Service Management.

ITPS, “It’s The People Stupid”.

Related posts:

1. Foundation in IT Service Management – ISO/IEC 2000
2. The Gemba Walk – A Tool For IT Management and Leadership
3. ITIL v3 and Business Service Management