Well I guess I have to come clean. It would appear I’m causing quite a stir in the marketplace with Vendors at present. Even the IT Skeptic is jumping on the bandwagon. So what is all the noise about? Well it’s a new service Sharon Taylor and I will be offering to the market shortly. A pilot has already been completed with a major Vendor and we simply await the OGC’s last action. Last week a journalist for SearchCIO-Midmarket released the news early following the annual Pink Elephant conference in Las Vegas 2 weeks ago, where APMG were present. The OGC have still to finalise the paperwork and make a formal Press release, before it’s a publicly released service. However, just today, the Butler Group issued an article, following an interview with APMG and myself. It’s below for your interest. So now you can see why I’m causing a stir in the marketplace. I’m sure as more official and unofficial news gets out, this will take on a life of it’s own, but I truly believe it’s for the good of the purchasing organisations of ITSM software, but I guess time will tell.
In a move intended to simplify the corporate procurement of IT Service Management (ITSM) technology, the UK’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC) – the creators and ‘owners’ of ITIL® – will officially endorse a compliance framework for auditing ITSM tools, and associated processes and documentation, against ITIL best practices.
Whilst there are already other ITSM tool verification products services available, such as Pink Elephant’s PinkVERIFY, this is the first time that the OGC has endorsed an ITSM/ITIL tool compliance framework and approved the awarding of an ITIL-compliant trademark, under licence, to compliant products.
IMPACT
The ITIL Software Endorsement Scheme will be operated by APM Group Limited – an internationally recognised accreditation, certification, and qualification organisation. APM Group is the OGC’s official accreditor and already provides an OGC-endorsed evaluation service for project management products and software tools. Richard Pharro, APM Group’s CEO, explained to Butler Group that the ITIL scheme will differ from the existing project management scheme in that compliance assessments will be undertaken by licensed assessors, including Service Management Consultancy Group (SMCG) Ltd. with APM Group responsible for the required standards, which SMCG developed.
The Software Endorsement Scheme will verify both solution functionality and product documentation, awarding certification of compliancy in three tiers: (i) Bronze-level if the functionality and documentation pass the compliance framework’s requirements criteria; (ii) Silver-level if at least three companies have implemented the audited version of the tool; and (iii) Gold-level compliancy is given when three or more companies have both implemented the tool and provided evidence to endorse it.
To allow for the fact that different vendor solutions deliver against different sets of ITIL processes, compliance will be measured against individual ITIL processes. In terms of the cost to vendors, assessment fees will be set by the licensed assessors with APM Group charging a fixed fee per process, per annum, for the use of the ITIL-compliant trademark. A pilot vendor tool assessment has already been completed, resulting in a recommendation to endorse, with the soft launch of the Software Endorsement Scheme planned for April 2009.
ANALYSIS
Choosing an ITSM tool is notoriously difficult, complicated by many factors including the fact that different ITSM solutions support different ITSM processes, to different degrees. So it is great news that organisations will soon be able to compare different vendor products on the basis of an official, ITIL-compliance assessment, removing much of the ambiguity of this software selection process.
The introduction of the ITIL-compliant trademark will help organisations in the compilation of a potential ITSM solutions shortlist and facilitate understanding as to how the tools could enable existing and future corporate ITSM processes. It is, however, imperative that organisations appreciate that an ITSM tool deployment should be a process-driven implementation and that they should start by agreeing the ITSM processes they wish to support, rather than being led by a particular tool’s functionality.
Finally, in these days of social networking tool ubiquity, the Software Endorsement Scheme also offers a potential platform for a cross-business, cross-vendor community; where ITSM tool users can share experiences and comments for the common good, providing another valuable (and much needed) resource to the ITSM software selection process.
So now you can see why I’m causing a stir in the marketplace. I’m sure as more official and unofficial news gets out, this will take on a life of it’s own, but I truly believe it’s for the good of the purchasing organisations of ITSM software, but I guess time will tell.
Let me know YOUR thoughts
Any feedback and comments are always welcome!!
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17th March 2009 To view this comment click on this link. (Aidan Lawes)
27th March 2009 To view this comment click on this link (Dr. Jenny Dugmore)
27th March 2009 To view this comment click on this link (The IT Skeptic)
27th March 2009 To view this comment click on this link (Shirley Lacy)
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27th March 2009
Hi Ken,
Thanks for „dropping the bomb“. In my opinion this is reducing ITIL to a tool issue (just after version 3 where it embraced a more high level management approach) and it will reduce the focus on well implemented processes.
I do agree that the tool vendors have improved the tool support during the last years, but at the same time they have hurt the true meaning of IT service management. Many vendors sell their products as “contains ITIL” and if you install this, you will have implemented ITIL, which is pure marketing & sales nonsense. Unfortunately the vendors have done this with a marketing budget unrivaled by anybody else, so people started to believe it. This endorsement scheme is just another step in the same direction.
I would not mind a scheme that shows how well the tools support individual parts of the ITIL processes, but reducing this to a bronze, silver and gold badge without getting the buy in of the IT service management community is not a smart move.
Regards,
Marc Buzina
P.S.: In contrast to your article, I have not seen the itskeptic jump onto the bandwagon, I guess that is your way of dealing with his reaction even before he writes it (smart tactics).
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22nd April 2009
Hi Ken
I'm sorry I find the whole way this tool certification has been handled deeply disquieting. Where was the open tendering procedure?
James Finister
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