Imagine that you’re responsible of IT for a big multinational corporation. You have multiple offices all over the world, each one with its own IT Team, servers, networks and devices. Even though each location is different (office, plant, distribution center) they have similar and regular IT needs. Some might be urgent, some others not that much.
How do you know that something is urgent and make sure it gets fixed as promptly as possible? How do you make sure that problem won’t happen again? How do you document the problem and comunicate it with all the IT teams so they know how to fix if it happens again? How do you measure efficiency of your IT team when responding to this requests?
This and many more questions where the ones that the UK Goverment had in the 80’s when they came up with ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). They recognized that they needed a consistent approach to IT service management.
The first version of ITIL was released in 1986, and it contained a set of books that provided guidance on various aspects of IT service management, including incident management, change management, problem management, service catalog management, and asset management. ITIL also includes guidance on how to measure and improve the performance of IT services. Since then, ITIL has evolved and has become a widely adopted framework in the IT industry.
The latest version of ITIL, ITIL 4, was released in 2019 and it provides a flexible and adaptable approach to IT service management. It focuses on the integration of various frameworks and practices, such as Lean, Agile, and DevOps, and it is designed to help organizations improve their IT services and processes in the digital age.
The goal of ITIL is to help organizations to align their IT services with the needs of the business and its customers, and to ensure that they are able to deliver high-quality IT services in a cost-effective and efficient manner. By following ITIL best practices, organizations can improve the reliability and availability of their IT systems, and better meet the needs of their users.
It is primarily designed to help organizations improve the quality and delivery of IT services. However, ITIL can also be applied to other areas of a business, such as human resources, marketing, and finance, to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these functions.
For example, ITIL principles such as incident management and problem solving can be applied to HR processes, such as handling employee complaints or resolving payroll issues. Similarly, ITIL principles such as change management and service catalog management can be applied to marketing processes, such as launching new campaigns or managing the delivery of marketing materials.
In short, while ITIL is primarily focused on IT service management, it can also be applied to other areas of a business to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these functions. It is important to note, however, that ITIL is not a one-size-fits-all solution and may need to be adapted to the specific needs and requirements of different business functions.
