ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. The systematic approach of ITIL towards Information Technology Service Management can be helpful in many ways like to strengthen customer relations, establish cost-effective practices, can be helpful to reduce and manage business risk and build a stable IT environment that allows for growth, scale, and change.
The term ITIL is often referred to or associated with the term ITSM. Both the terms ITIL & ITSM seem to be identical, but in reality, both the terms are not identical. But it is a highly specific guidance framework that was developed in the UK and contains very specific process descriptions, success factors, and metrics in a series of documents. But on the other hand, ITSM is a more generic term describing the broad area of providing IT services to users. ITSM project often implements upon the other framework for specific guidelines, but there are many alternative frameworks that are already present. Examples of some alternative frameworks are Cobit, Lean Six Sigma, DevOps, etc.
Age-old summary OF ITIL
ITIL, since its starting in 1980, has continuously evolved into many versions and currently has five books. ITIL was first developed by the British government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) in the 1980s. Over the years, it has undergone multiple revisions that improve its efficiency and aim towards the business alignment. The first ITIL book was published in 1989, followed by version 2 in 2000. Version 3 was released in 2007, but a more up-to-date version of that book was published in 2011.
Key factors Of ITIL
ITIL framework consists of five stages as a part of the service lifecycle. Each stage consists of a set of processes or functions that are aligned with the IT organizational structure. Companies adopt some of these concepts as per their own suitability. ITIL is, therefore, very much flexible in terms of adoption. ITIL service lifecycle stages are described below-
1. ITIL Adoption to Changes Management
Businesses implements new projects or applications on a daily basis. It is important to analyze risk, impacts, and other vulnerabilities before carrying out the planned activities. Based on the risk, impact, and vulnerabilities, change approvals are planned, including all relevant stakeholders. Change Management records every detail of change that is requested for better tracking and audit. Change management is crucial for an organization in order to effectively deploy new implementations without any downtime. The post-implementation review is done to keep things in control.
2. ITIL Error or Threat Management
It helps as well as predicts or detects and keeps a record of the incidents. Matching incidents against known problems are quickly solved. It prioritizes incidents in terms of impact and urgency.
4. ITIL Management of Risks and the substantial analysis
It performs Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to identify, track, and resolve recurring incidents permanently.
ITIL benefits (business POV)
1. Improved product quality practices
Ensures consistency in service levels and improves efficiency by the increased quality of service.
2. Better as well as enhanced ways of management
ITIL helps in proactive ITSM, thus avoiding major incidents and keeping risk in control. With the latest AI implemented ITSM, future events can be predicted based on past trends.
4. Cost controller
Cost optimization can be achieved by ensuring proper usage of the resource and proper prioritization based on business customer requirements.
5. Customer verification of products
As ITIL understands the requirement of the customers, the improvement in the service quality gradually increases.
6. A short differentiation between ITIL AND ITSM
ITIL and ITSM are not mutually exclusive. “ITSM is how you manage IT, and ITIL guides businesses for efficient ITSM.”ITSM is performed inevitably. ITIL enables companies to achieve efficient ITSM.
To top it all, ITIL and ITSM both are the best practices that can be adapted by any company to ensure a stronghold on the market. This would help in the processing of information and also help other sectors flourish with increasing efficiency of the technology and IT types of equipment. When all the departments work unanimously in harmony, the company goal is more likely to be achieved, and every project could be completed properly. Tools are obviously one of the essential commodities needed to execute any plan. Technology is the strength of any organization, and so shall it always serve.