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iStart: First of all, how would you define ITIL?
David Gandar: ITIL - it stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library - is a methodology which enables organisations to implement best practices and improvements to their IT services. There are other methodologies, but we've aligned ourselves to ITIL, which represents about 95% of this market
iStart: Why has ITIL taken off?
DG: Because methodologies like ITIL and the idea of best practice are the only way that an organisation can achieve a permanent improvement in it's IT services. Another reason it's growing is that organisations entering an ITIL programme now have access to a huge community of training resources and consultants.
iStart: It's achieved 'critical mass' in other words?
DG: Yes, and although ITIL originated in the UK it's really taken off here too, especially in the last 12-18 months. In the US it's taken longer but it's starting to happen there now. An ITIL conference in the US earlier this year attracted 2,000 delegates, which gives you some idea of the level of interest that is building there.
iStart: How did Delta Software start to get involved with ITIL?
DG: We started the original concept of what became Service Advantage in September last year. We had been developing some add-on tools to our core infraEnterprise application, and we knew that a few customers had asked for similar things.
One example was a calender tool so their IT operations people could see all of the planned IT moves and changes occurring, and enable them to plan the IT infrastructure impact, and re-schedule changes where necessary so conflicts coulde be avoided.
iStart: Is Service Advantage a software application or a consulting excercise?
DG: We realised that implementing a service desk and improved IT service needed a guideline for getting the IT service processes working. Just implementing the infraEnterprise application wasn't enough - that would give a good service desk tool, we knew that, but not necessarily solve the harder problems of getting complex processes working better. To do this we saw that customers, in fact everyone doing service improvement, were going through a long and sometimes frustrating process of training, briefing consultants, sorting out plans, priorities and IT value.
So we looked at ways to have a more packaged solution, make it easier to get a roadmap for a best-practice IT service.
We wanted to meet the demand for rapid implementation of best practice systems, the toolset packaged with ITIL-guided iplementation.
With Service Advantage we have tools to shortcut the process to develop and deliver service improvement outcomes. This has evolved into a complete process for defining and implementing a best practice solution.
iStart: How does Service Advantage help complanies to get started on the ITIL path?
DG: Once we defined the need for rapid deployment it became easier to define a solution. This has become the part of ServiceAdvantage we call Process Enablement - tools for getting the best-practice roadmap started, without needing a long-winded process of getting training, consultants, knowledge built up within IT, processes re-worked and agreed, etc.
We have begun using this best-practice solution model with new and existing customers, with very good feedback. Now we're seeing other innovations we can add, such as a 'best-practice-in-a-box' service for organizations who want a fast-track and lower-cost option to best-practice, to get a service desk toolset implemented with some best-practice processes inherent and bundled in.
iStart: So does Service Advantage provide a 'cut-down' version of ITIL?
DG: 'Cut-down' is the wrong word. Like most ITIL implementations Service Advantage is a two-stage process; the first is a consultancy phase where organisations work out what they need to do in the way of KPIs and so on. But we started to come across a lot of organisations who said: "But we've done all that, what we really need is some software that we can implement now."
So our concept was to develop a one-step programme that provided the best practice platform and the software to drive it. Service Now offers really rapid deployment and it's part of the concept of Service Advantage. It's a working piece of software with processes and plans, and it's aimed at customers who want to avoid potentially lengthy and costly process of ITIL training, consulting, imporovement assessment and project definition, to then still find they only get assessment and reccommendations.
Usually when these customers want an actual system deployed they then need to upgrade their existing service desk software, or more usually replace it and go through a costly and time-consuming evaluation and purchase process. We want to target those who want that effort a) shortened and b) focused towards service improvement outcomes.
iStart: Who is using Service Advantage?
DG: So far our customers have included electricity supply or retail, large universities, local governement and central government departments. They tend to be organisations with complex IT infrastractures and large, mixed communities of users. Typically these organisations will be supporting 500 plus desktops and the users will include finance and HR departments as well as operational people
iStart: Will ITIL and programs like Service Advantage eventually be outside the IT service are?
DG: They already are. Once you start to look at the wider business, you can see that rather than confining the concept of best practice to individual silos, it can apply right across the business. ITIL can be as relevant for customer services and asset management as it is for IT services.
We have one customer which used Service Advantage to provide a web based support system for asset management both here and for its branch offices in the UK and USA. It's a very powerful tool for companies in New Zealand because the web means the business is open 24/7. People can send in a query from Europe at 5 o'clock and get a reply back from New Zealand that's waiting for them when they come in the next morning.
