|
Service Management Art offers readily available training programs, enabling you to take action on changes now. These programs are designed with you, your people and your customer in mind - and will contribute to your bottom line. |
|
|
|
Improving IT in an economic downturn
By now everyone seems convinced that we are in an economic
downturn. This normally results in management teams taking knee-jerk reactions
to change what they are doing. Projects
are cancelled and no new improvements are initiated. Why? Because we need to cut costs, and prepare
ourselves for the difficult times ahead. The question of course is: "Is that
really the correct approach"?
In an article from Harvard Business Review (Seize Advantage
in a Downturn, Rhodes and Stelter, Feb 2009)
it is described that: During a downturn there are some key activities that
should be executed to reduce your exposure and ideally situate yourself for the
recovery.
First, you must protect the financial fundamentals and
protect the existing business. This usually translates into making aggressive moves to
reduce costs and increase efficiency. Initiatives of this nature involve a
thorough but rapid assessment of your current vulnerabilities and then
prescribed actions to address the vulnerabilities and minimize the exposure.
One key to the success of these downturn related initiatives
is rapid implementation. Long term projects are not going to work. You will
have to get results fast!
So how does this relate to IT? Traditionally, organizations have run  long term improvement
programs utilizing ITIL. This often results in programs that move forward with
benefits varying over time. Changing requirements, staff resistance to change,
and other cultural variables have produced challenges that require the programs
to adjust tactics in delivery in order to deliver the long term value
originally promised. With the
introduction of ITIL v3 the complexity has even increased.
In today's economy, most organizations cannot afford
the costs and the risks of this traditional long term approach to improvement.
Most organizations even see these long term programs suspended or modified -
often in ways that increase risks and long term costs. So what do we do now?
Coming back to the HBR article:
-
Rapid assessment of the current situation
- Rapid implementation of improvements
The introduction of the Continual Service Improvement (CSI)
volume in the ITIL V3 library offers us a great approach. The methods and
techniques mentioned in this part of the ITIL v3 Lifecycle offers us powerful
guidance to do an assessment of the current situation and to improve the
current situation.
Most
organizations will try to target efficiencies in the operational areas (for
instance Incident Management and Change Management) to begin with. Care should
be taken to look at improvements in the tactical and strategic processes as
well. This
will help assure that the organizational priorities are
considered when operational improvements are targeted.
Some of the key areas of improvement that our customers are
targeting through a SMArt application of Continual Service Improvement (CSI)
are:
-
Analyzing the current suppliers and IT
procurement practices
- Reexamining the economics of outsourcing
- Changing IT Services that do not add value to
the business (Align with the business new value requirements)
- Rethinking current service provisioning
- Improving existing processes
- Introducing new technologies that will increase
efficiency
An economic downturn does not mean that you have to sit in a
corner and wait it out. You have to put your own house in order and ensure that
you continue to provide value to your customers. Your customers are redefining
the term "value". So should you! Now is the time to look at Continual Service
Improvement and perform some operational, tactical and strategic IT
improvements that will get your organization through these difficult times.
Peter Lijnse and John Krogh
If you need help with Continual Service Improvement, please contact us at http://www.servicemanagementart.com
You can also register for the ITIL v3 Continual Service Improvement course, April 27 - 29, 2009
http://www.servicemanagementart.com/training/calendar.php?event_id=105
|
SMArt N E W S
As of March 1, 2009 Service Management Art will offer all ITIL v3
courses to get to the ITIL v3 Expert designation.
Apollo 13
On May 13 we will offer an Apollo 13 simulation! The day before Captain
James Lovell will speak in Calgary
at the PMI Gala dinner. Please contact us for more details.
Listen to what Paul Robinson from Corporate Oasis has to say about the
Apollo 13 course:
http://www.servicemanagementart.com/training/whatclientssay.html
| |
Peter's Power Play Demand and Supply in Real Life...
Recently one of my sons was diagnosed with Diabetes. This is a life changing event for him and the rest of the family. It all boils down to aligning food intake (mainly carbohydrates) with insulin. But of course there are other influences like stress, exercise, illness, etc. Getting the blood sugar in a safe range is the key objective.
So how does that work? It is a process. Recording what you eat and how much insulin you take. Planning for what you are going to eat, how much exercise you are going to do, and other potential influences. If you do not stay within the predefined ranges of blood sugar levels there might be potential dangerous situations. So the blood sugar can be too low (Hypoglycemia), or too high (Hyperglycemia). Action will need to be taken. Some of the symptoms for these highs or lows are anxiety, confusion, blurred vision, increased appetite (or the reverse), etc.
You might wonder where this all going and what this has to do with IT Service Management. Well, when we started I found the similarities between Diabetes Management and the ITIL v3 process Demand Management very interesting. In Demand Management we look at the patterns of business activities. This means that we look at when the customer is using the services, how much they are using the services and what they expect from the service provisioning. So if we see the customer as our diabetes patient we see the same thing: when are they eating, how much are they eating, and what additional exercise are they planning. It becomes the same thing.
Now the role of the insulin is to provide the "customer" with sufficient capability (insulin) to process carbohydrates (food) in such a way that we neither get a low blood sugar or a high blood sugar.
We should do this with our IT customers as well. Depending on their requirements and their activities we need to align the demand to the supply. So the right amount of capacity at the right time. So let's see the capacity as our blood sugar. If the capacity gets low we will see anxiety and confusion with our customers: we are getting in a state of HypoCapacity. Systems will stop working; the chance of a customer in coma is very real.
If the capacity gets high, we will see a state of HyperCapacity. This means we will have a blurred vision and the customers will keep asking for more. The customers will fill the available capacity, but it will have to end soon. This state is often not recognized by customer and supplier until it's too late. In IT this can mean costs too high, too much data etc.
Like with Diabetes Management it is important in Demand Management to see the big picture. You will need to manage the capacity over a longer period of time. Reacting to sudden peaks or valleys is not going to help the management. They will happen, being prepared for them is the key. You will need to look over a longer period and see if you have good management of the demand. Sometimes you will have to influence the customer (different way of using the systems). Aligning the demand from the customer to the supply of the IT Service Provider is an art.
Change is an art!
Service Management Art Peter Lijnse |
|
SMArt Confirmed courses
The following courses have been confirmed:
ISO 20000 for consultants, Mar 10 - 12, 2009
http://www.servicemanagementart.com/training/calendar.php?event_id=83
ITIL V3 Service Transition (Calgary),
Mar 2 - 4, 2009
http://www.servicemanagementart.com/training/calendar.php?event_id=175
ITIL V3 Foundation (Victoria),
Mar 2 - 4, 2009
http://www.servicemanagementart.com/training/calendar.php?event_id=101
ITIL v2 Service Manager
We
are running one more ITIL v2 Service Manager. This is still the most cost
efficient way to get to ITIL v3 Expert designation. Register at:
http://www.servicemanagementart.com/training/calendar.php?event_id=91
Training Offerings
For
other offerings please look online at: http://www.servicemanagementart.com/training/training.html
Or
contact our office toll free at +1 (866) 616-4195
Register today!
For more information call:
403 219 4195
|
|
|
Keep in Mind...
You can Unsubscribe to this monthly Email-Magazine at any time by clicking the 'unsubscribe - button' at the bottom of this page. But... don't miss out on all those amazing changes in the IT industry! Let us keep you posted.
Service Management Art Peter Lijnse
|
|
|
