OTRS : What is ITIL?

How can an organization get started with ITIL?

Any business can benefit from embracing the spirit and concepts of ITIL, regardless of size. It outlines a way in which ideas for new and improved services can be evaluated so that they really do help everyone involved and the business as a whole.

1. Begin with education. The ITIL v4 Foundation book is the first step. This will give you a good overview of the concepts and components that are touched on above. You'll gain an understanding of how all of the pieces work together to create value and to improve IT Service Management more specifically.

Of course, if you want to gain even more expertise, you can take a certification class like I did. These are offered worldwide and dive deep into the concepts, as well as into the application of these. If you think you'll tackle ITIL implementation for your organization without hiring a consultant, a certification course may be helpful.

2. Evaluate the state of your organization today. It's likely that some of ITIL's built-in concepts already exist in one form or another within your organization or company. So, before you start trying to implement all of the ideas found within the ITIL framework, spend time to honestly evaluate the state of things today. This will help you prioritize what's next in your ITIL journey. Start thinking about:

• What components of ITIL v4 already exist?
• Are they effective?
• Is change needed? How hard will this be?
• What components don't exist at all?
• Can we move forward without these?
• If not, how will we incorporate them?

3. Find the tools and support you need.Consultants and IT professionals can help you answer these questions and create a roadmap for implementing ITIL. They will work with you to outline the practices and processes that your specific organization needs to benefit from the ITIL framework.

And, of course, there are many tools on the market that will help you streamline various parts of your new service management approach too. From process automation to CMDB and helpdesk software, it's important to consider investing in tools that make your ITIL implementation efforts faster and easier.

So in the end, what is ITIL?

It's a way of thinking about services in a structured and organized way that can be used by leaders throughout the organization to ensure that they are delivering the most value for their customers, stakeholders, business and team. Regardless of your role, I encourage you to gain a basic understanding of its principles. While ITIL certainly remains heavily focused on IT service management success, its intent and constructs could certainly be applied to other areas of your business as these mature too.

And, of course, if you are interested in incorporating the concepts of ITIL into your organization via process automation, ticketing, CMDB and more, request a demo to find out how OTRS can help you.