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Cathleen A. Gagne, Senior Editorial Director
to help organizations incorporate ITIL v3 concepts.
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The latest ITIL refresh, a series of best practices aimed at improving IT service management, contains more prescriptive information related to the lifecycle of business services.
New IBM tools from new ITIL concepts
IBM's new ITIL offerings take the form of two new services that reflect v3's lifecycle and service management concepts. One service is aimed at high level executives, the other at IT practitioners.
The IBM Business of IT executive workshop is an intensive two-day session intended to teach both business and IT executives how to improve IT planning and align IT with business objectives. "This workshop really takes a business view of IT," said Bill Powell, an IT management consultant for IBM. "We approach IT in a way that's different from a process model in which things like incident management and change management are often handled in IT silos," Powell added.
For ITIL practitioners, including data center administrators, there's the IBM service management adoption model workshop, a planning tool that guides clients through the adoption of service management best practices based on the ITIL v3 frameworks. Costs for both workshops vary, but Powell says clients can expect to pay around $50,000 to $75,000—a price that includes several weeks of onsite consulting following the workshops.
For those who balk at the workshop price, IBM offers free downloads: The IBM Tivoli Unified Process shows how to implement service management using best practice controls and standards and includes the process reference model used in ITIL v3 implementations. The IBM Service Management Flash Assessment is a web-based tool that helps organizations identify and prioritize areas where service management can be improved.
Wily tools at CA's ITIL service
At CA meanwhile, the CA Service Quality Management (SQM) system is designed to help IT deliver business services that align with ITIL v3. The system integrates several CA products, including application management tools CA Wily Customer Experience Manager and CA Wily Introscope. In addition, the CA Service Metric Analysis and Service Desk—tools for designing and publishing services in business terms, and automating workflow, respectively—are included.
The company bills its CA SQM system as the industry's first closed-loop system that aligns IT services with business goals. With closed-loop feedback mechanisms integrated into the system, CA says representatives from the business side and IT can negotiate, track and report on service level agreements. CA SQM also supports the service management best practices outlined in ITIL v3. CA was unwilling to divulge pricing for CA SQM.
Let us know what you think about the story; email: Alex Barrett, News Director.