Feature

MSPs adopt ITIL for better service

Managed service providers and BPO outfits have seen the light and woken up to the need for ITIL, bringing as it does best practices, and helping them trim the cost of managing IT infrastructure. Abhinav Singh reports

ITIL is a comprehensive structured methodology for managing day-to-day IT infrastructure-related services Dinesh Arora General Manager, Services Presales & Middle-East Operations Microland

What is common between managed service providers (MSPs) such as OpSource, Microland and HP, and a BPO player like 24/7 Customer? Well, they all happen to swear by ITIL—Information Technology Infrastructure Library. For MSPs, adopting this standard has become necessary to adhere to Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and to excel. ITIL has become the most widely accepted approach when it comes to IT service management as well. It provides a comprehensive and consistent set of best practices for IT service management, promoting a qualitative approach towards achieving business goals and efficiency in the use of information systems. There is widespread adoption of this standard by organisations operating out of India and MNCs that have streamlined their IT processes. The adoption of ITIL has also prompted many organisations to achieve certifications such as SAS 70 (Statement on Auditing Standards 70) and BS 15000 (British Standards 15000) to further enhance their service delivery levels. Let us take a close look at what is driving organisations to adopt ITIL, and the benefits they are accruing from it.

Better service delivery

Companies have gone in for ITIL for varied reasons, but the foremost of these has been to deliver on their SLAs. According to Dinesh Arora, General Manager, Services, Presales and Middle East Operations at Microland, an organisation which has been practicing ITIL for over five years, “ITIL is a comprehensive structured methodology for managing day-to-day IT infrastructure-related services. It brings in a mindset of how one should look at imbibing a type of culture which can help us manage things better. It also helps demonstrate to our customers that we have IT assets that help us consistently meet SLAs.”

24/7 Customer has tied up with an ITIL-compliant MSP. Although there was no pressure on the company to adhere to this standard, it found the comprehensiveness of ITIL to be attractive. Explains Mohit Jain, Chief Information Officer, 24/7, “ITIL lends a service perspective to the way our organisation works and delivers. Apart from helping us understand and appreciate what goes into delivering SLAs, ITIL helps create a platform for evaluating the state of IT maturity in our organisation.” Once ITIL is in place and a company has the necessary IT systems to collect data from different systems, it can weave them into performance statistics. Additionally, many MSPs feel that the ITIL standard has helped them enhance their ability to manage incidents, problems and disasters. It has also helped them define the predictability levels of an organisation, thereby enabling the service provider to say up to what extent a service level can be maintained.

Comments Bithin Talukdar, Manager, Market Development & Alliances, Software Global Business Unit, HP India Sales, “ITIL has helped HP change the organisational mindset from being an information systems organisation to an information services organisation. It has also paved the way for HP to rise as a global IT organisation in which significant cost savings and quality improvement can be achieved through unified processes.”

Common platform

Adopting ITIL requires huge investments which can be a difficult proposition for an individual organisation Mohit Jain Chief Information Officer 24/7 Customer

Many MSPs have also been able to define a common communication platform by going in for ITIL. The US-based OpSource, which recently started its Indian operations and Indian centre, is playing an instrumental role in managing the complete IT infrastructure of companies such as Agile Software and Novartel Wireless. ITIL has helped create common standards between its Indian and US operations.

Remarks Treb Ryan, Chief Executive Officer, OpSource Inc, “ITIL is a proven approach towards delivering round-the-clock monitoring and managed services. By adopting ITIL, we have been able to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our managed service operations. The adoption of this standard has also paved the way for the adoption of certifications such as SAS 70 and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance across our organisation.” The major benefit of ITIL for OpSource has been that since ITIL-compliant processes were already in place, it became easy for it to go in for SAS 70 which otherwise is a difficult certification to achieve. Vikram Chandna, General Manager, OpSource India explains, “Now with SAS 70 certification, it is easier for us to improve our market value in front of prospective customers in the market and attract business from new customers.”

Not an easy road

ITIL is a proven approach towards delivering round-the-clock monitoring and managed services Treb Ryan Chief Executive Officer OpSource Inc

Adopting the tough norms of ITIL and sustaining it is anything but easy for organisations, especially for MSPs. To sustain the standards of ITIL, organisations are groping with the challenge of putting metrics and measurements in place, and reviewing them on a regular basis. Arora of Microland says, “To support our processes as per ITIL, we have gone in for a Six Sigma practice which has helped us ensure error-free delivery and reduced the defect rate of our processes. ITIL has also helped us get metrics in place, which in turn has led to added productivity. We have been able to get the BS 15000 certification which is difficult to achieve...it is mandatory for organisations going in for BS 15000 certification to be ITIL-compliant.”

Organisations have felt that while going in for ITIL, it is important to probe each IT asset individually; this data needs to be collated and applied to determine whether SLAs are being met or not as the case may be. Jain says, “Adopting ITIL requires huge investments which can be a difficult proposition for an individual organisation such as ours. This has created an opportunity for managed service providers who can provide their services to companies like us.”

Beyond ITIL

After securing ITIL, many organisations are contemplating following this up with BS 15000 or SAS 70. Microland has already gone in for a BS 15000 certification, and the ITIL st andard has paved the way for it. Similarly, OpSource is going in for SAS 70 certification. Broadly speaking, all these certifications are difficult to achieve, but ITIL has helped these organisations in achieving these stringent certifications. With competition on the rise among MSPs, many more Indian players are expected to adopt ITIL.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com