Many of us are not unaware about the term ITIL. What is it exactly? What are its key concepts? Who uses it? What are its benefits?
In this blog, I'll try to summarize the fundamental concept of ITIL, the globally recognized IT governance framework, its history, its key concept, and its uses and benefits in a business.
What is ITIL?
ITIL simply stands for IT Infrastructure Library. It is one of the IT governance framework introduced by British government for the optimum utilization of the IT resources effectively and efficiently. The main aim of ITIL is to standardize the selection, planning, delivery and maintenance of IT services within a business. The goal is to improve efficiency and achieve predictable service delivery.
ITIL is a set of detailed practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. There are five stages in the ITIL V3 Service Lifecycle:
Service Strategy
Service Design
Service Transition
Service Operation
Continual Service Improvement
The details about these stages will be discussed in my next post.
History of ITIL
The history of ITIL can be traced back to 1980s ,Where,the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), now called the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) developed the earliest version of ITIL called GITIM, Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management targeting large companies and government agencies in Europe
Later, in 2001, version 2 of ITIL was released. The Service Support and Service Delivery books were redeveloped into more concise usable volumes. Over the following few years it became, by far, the most widely used IT service management best practice approach in the world.
Again, in 2007, version 3 if ITIL was published. This adopted more of a lifecycle approach to service management, with greater emphasis on IT business integration.
In February 2019, The most recent edition of ITIL Version 4 (ITIL 4) was released by AXELOS. ITIL 4 incorporates the latest trends in technologies and service management. It provides a flexible basis to support organizations as they undergo digital transformation and integrate digital technology into all areas of their business.
Why ITIL?
Based on my study, I came to know that why organisation should practices ITIL are as follows:
ITIL has long success history can be trusted to test its business processes
There are many templates, checklists and documents that can be accessed and implement easily
ITIL generates relatively quick results.
ITIL helps to separate administrative tasks and technical tasks that help in assigning the most appropriate resources.
It minimizes costs in the organization.
Due to the implemenation of ITIL, non-technical staff can also be involved in technical support issues. It is easy to measure technical support performance.
Who is ITIL for? ITIL is suitable for large, medium, and small organizations all over the world that will improve the value of their services. ITIL helps to solve business issues as well as improving IT capability. Organizations use ITIL as a guide to improve or implement a capability that provides business value. Information technology service providers, IT directors and managers, Business Managers and indeed, any organisation that depends on IT Services can implement ITIL.
Benefits of ITIL
Organizational benefits of adopting ITIL include:
Faster and more flexible service delivery practices to support digital transformation
Better strategic alignment between IT and the business
Smoother integration between evolving software delivery practices and the enterprise customer support framework
Improved service delivery and customer satisfaction
Reduced costs through improved use of resources
Greater visibility of IT costs and assets
Better management of business risk and service disruption or failure
To find out more about ITIL you can:
Read An Introductory Overview of ITIL® 2011, published by AXELOS (the owners of ITIL)
Read the ITIL books, available from many bookshops
Take some ITIL Training, available from many training organizations
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