tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52186878315863562862024-02-20T01:08:46.184-08:00ITIL SERVICEAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08740083714355778364noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218687831586356286.post-61156381565834971042014-01-04T22:58:00.000-08:002015-03-23T12:57:42.935-07:00IT Service Support Management Tools<b>IT service support management</b> tools go beyond traditional service desk ticketing and reporting functions to address release governance and provide visibility into the production environment. I&O organizations aspiring to mature can use this research to evaluate products to support their efforts.<br /><br /> <b>Market Definition / Description </b><br /><br />IT service support management (ITSSM) tools extend the capabilities of IT service desk tools by providing modules that automate configuration and release governance processes, and provide a business view of IT services. These capabilities enable the IT support organization to manage incidents, problems, changes and service requests throughout their life cycles at a more efficient and effective rate. ITSSM tools also provide capabilities that enable business end users to gain knowledge to support and resolve their computing-related issues or to request an IT service.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08740083714355778364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218687831586356286.post-10598429010051968642013-12-13T10:53:00.000-08:002015-03-23T12:57:42.977-07:00IT Services a Fragmented Supplier MarketplaceThe world's 50 largest IT services vendors accounted for less than half of total market expenditure last year, according to the latest rankings from ComputerWire.<br /><br />The top 50 suppliers made combined revenue of $293,7bn in their most recent reported financial years, which was up 7,3% on a comparable level of $273,7bn in the previous year. The rankings painted a largely positive picture of the services sector, with most of the vendors enjoying growth driven by renewed spending on project-based services such as consulting and integration, as well as global sourcing initiatives.<br /><br />According to our parent company Datamonitor, worldwide spending on IT and BPO services rose 8,3% to $557,4bn in 2006, which means that the top 50 suppliers grew at a slower rate than the overall market. However, it is misleading to generalise as individual growth rates among the top 50 varied widely, as some of the industry's established players focused on bottom-line improvement, while offshore sourcing specialists continued their rapid rise to prominence.<br /><br />The top 50 vendors held a combined market share of 49%, which highlights the fragmented state of the market. M&A; activity among the top 50 players is clearly accelerating. This week Fujitsu announced plans to acquire the 44th largest vendor, GFI Informatique, while Getronics, Atos Origin, and ACS remain the subject of takeover speculation.<br /><br />But John Tilley, managing director of Perot Systems' European business, does not expect the IT services industry to see the same rationalisation that has taken place in more mature supplier market places. He said: "We will only see the sort of consolidation that has happened in, for example, the motor industry, when the big suppliers really focus in on two or three specific service lines. At present, they are trying to be all things to all men, and are offering 100 plus different services in which they claim to be specialists."<br /><br />IT services remains an industry where scale is important. Although a lot of clients are increasingly looking to work with a number of best-of-breed suppliers, rather than outsourcing to a single vendor, they also want their vendors to be able to provide them with the cost benefits of global sourcing and to deliver a uniform service across multiple locations.<br /><br />IBM Global Services again ranked as the largest services vendor in the world, a position it has held for more than a decade as it clocked up $48bn in sales in 2006, which was more than double that of its closest competitor EDS, with $21,3bn. IBM's individual market share stood at 8,7%, so theoretically it could go out and buy its 10 main rivals and still not hold an overall monopoly position.<br /><br />However, IBM's top line rose by just 1,8% last year, which reflected some slow quarters for contract signings in previous years. In contrast, some of IBM's closest competitors, notably EDS, Fujitsu, and Capgemini, reaped the benefits of successful restructuring programs during the last few years to return healthy growth rates of 7,6%, 8,3% and 10,3% respectively.<br /><br />The five fastest-growing companies within the top 50 were all offshore sourcing specialists, as they rode the growing demand for low-cost, high-quality services in applications maintenance and development, and increasingly in new areas such as infrastructure management and back office administration. Cognizant was the biggest riser, growing sales 61% in 2006 to $1,42bn, the vast majority of which came through organic expansion.<br />The share prices of Cognizant and fellow global sourcing specialists such as TCS and Infosys continue to trade at huge premiums and despite their rapid growth, they have barely scratched the surface of the global marketplace. The combined revenue of the top five offshore suppliers: TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Satyam, and Cognizant, came to $14bn last year, which gave them a combined market share of just 2,5%.<br /><br />Of the top 50 vendors, only three reported an operating loss in their most recent financial year, while of the 38 companies that report net profitability, just four made a loss. Atos Origin was hit by restructuring charges at its UK operation, while perennial strugglers Unisys, Getronics and BearingPoint all fell into the red. But compare this to our top 50 rankings in 2003 where 14 of the 44 companies reporting net profitability made a loss, and it is clear that the services vendor community is, financially at least, in a much healthier state than it was three years ago.<br /><br />There was also huge variety in the operating margins reported by the top 50 vendors, with several clear groups emerging from the rankings. The top five offshore sourcing players had margins between 18% and 28%, benefiting from a relatively low cost base compared to western suppliers.<br />The group of six suppliers that specialise in projects for US central government and defense agencies (including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman's IT divisions) all made margins of between 8% and 9%, while the three services divisions owned by telecoms operators (BT, Deutsche Telekom, and NTT) reported margins of between 2,5% and 5,2%.<br /><br />Between them, the top 50 IT services vendors employed 1,7 million employees at the end of their most recent reported financial years, which represented an increase of 13% of the comparable total of 1,5 million from the previous year. Much of this growth has been driven by the major offshore sourcing suppliers, with the top five players adding 88 000 new staff last year taking their combined total headcount to 307 500. TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Satyam, and Cognizant are poised to add a further 100 000 new recruits between them in fiscal 2007, which underlines the scale of the challenge facing their human resources leadership teams.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08740083714355778364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218687831586356286.post-65640556597333319632013-02-01T21:49:00.000-08:002015-03-23T12:57:42.990-07:00Service Strategy ITIL Financial ManagementIncreased user numbers and demands for new technologies have caused the costs of IT Services to grow faster than other costs and are perceived as high and inflexible. The complex nature of Accounting for IT usage often leads to dissatisfaction and questionable 'value for money' of the services themselves. IT Services must understand true cost of providing service and manage costs professionally.<br /><br /><b>ITIL Financial Management</b> supports the organization in planning and executing business objectives, and requires consistent application to achieve maximum efficiency with the minimum of conflict. The scope of Financial Management includes Budgeting, IT Accounting and Charging.<br /><br /><b>Benefits of ITIL Financial Management</b><br /><br />The benefits of ITIL Financial Management include:<br /><br /><ul><li> Increased confidence in the setting and managing budgets</li><li> Provision of accurate cost information to support IT investment decisions</li><li> Accurate cost information for determining the cost of ownership for ongoing services</li><li> More efficient use of IT resource throughout the organization</li><li> Increased professionalism of staff within the IT organization</li></ul><br /><b>Possible problems</b><br /><br />The following problems may be encountered when implementing IT Accounting and Charging:<br /><br /><ul><li>Limited understanding in IT Services in Cost Modelling and Charging mechanisms could potentially lead to over-complex and ineffective systems</li><li>IT Accounting relies on planning information internal and external to IT Services Management which may not be routinely available, thus delaying project(s)</li><li>Staff combining accountancy and IT experience are rare, may involve staff external to IT Services whose priorities may differ</li><li>IS strategies and objectives of the organization may not be well formulated, documented and prediction of Capacity requirements are not accurate</li><li>Senior business managers may not recognize the benefits of IT Accounting and Charging, resenting administrative overheads and limitations on workload</li><li>IT organization becomes inflexible to Changes in Users' demands once costs become an influence</li><li>Processes are so elaborate that the cost of system exceeds the value of information produced</li><li>Monitoring tools providing resource usage information are inaccurate, irrelevant, costly to develop and maintain </li></ul><br /><b>Costs</b><br /><br />The costs fall into three broad categories:<br /><br /><ul><li>Administration and organization costs for planning, implementation, ongoing operations and management of the process</li><li>Extra computing resources to automate and facilitate IT Accounting and Charging</li><li>Purchase and support of tools required to carry out the processes</li></ul><br />When costs are visible, particularly when Real Charging is in place, demand for some services may fall, assisting organizations to identify and reduce inefficient use of IT resource.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08740083714355778364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218687831586356286.post-84319857302771986582013-01-01T21:38:00.000-08:002015-03-23T12:57:43.035-07:00ITIL Service Strategy<b>ITIL Service Strategy</b> provides guidance on the importance for all organizations of a well defined business strategy, underpinned by an effective IT strategy. ITIL Service Strategy is the starting point in the ITIL service lifecycle, setting the vision, direction and many of the goals, objectives, policies, requirements and targets for the other lifecycle stages and the processes and functions within them.<br /><br />Put simply, the strategy will ultimately decide and justify what services will be provided to whom, when, in what way and at what cost - easy to say, but a lot more complex to achieve!<br /><br />When ITIL was first introduced in the late 1980s it rightly concentrated on the operational areas where focus was needed at that time. The scope was later widened and when the lifecycle approach was introduced it broke new ground by including guidance for the first time, regarding the vital area of service strategy. The aim of this updated version has been to provide greater clarity regarding the practical activities involved with the development, introduction and ongoing management of an effective strategy.<br /><br />A clearer definition has been drawn between an organization's business strategy and its IT strategy - the business strategy (amongst other things) defines the IT strategy and the IT strategy supports the business strategy.<br /><br />The processes within service strategy have now been more clearly named and defined: strategy management for IT services; service portfolio management; financial management for IT services; demand management; business relationship management.<br /><br />Greater clarification has been provided around value creation with a sharper differentiation between value added and value realized, including a new table to give better examples of utility and warranty. Financial management guidance has been re-instated regarding budgeting, accounting and charging.<br />Business relationship management is now covered as a process as well as a role. The differentiation between business relationship management for a Type I, II and III service provider is better explained and clarified. Greater detail of how customers differ from users and consumers is provided and internal and external customers are more clearly defined and explained. The role of business units and other IT departments as customers has also been clarified; IT as an external service provider has been expanded and clarified.<br />More detail has been included regarding governance, including a fuller definition of what governance means, the difference between governance and management, a governance framework and how service management relates to governance.<br /><br />By way of an update, some coverage has been added on how IT service management is impacted by the prevalence of cloud computing, and a new appendix has been added specifically covering service strategy and the cloud; characteristics, types, types of services, components of cloud architecture.<br />In summary, an effective IT strategy is essential for all IT service management organizations. It is hoped that this book now gives improved, more practical guidance on how such as strategy can be assessed, planned, implemented and managed. 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