ITIL to best serve your customers!

The ITIL Process is defined as a set of norms that group together the best practices to ensure efficient management of IT services within organizations. With this guide, companies can optimise their the use of their IT services to guarantee better customer service

Developed in the 80s by a British government organization, ITIL is now known as the most popular international reference source to help organizations in different sectors to help get the most out of their clients services.

Since its inception, ITIL has evolved over time and has been adapted over the years with the help of input from various organizations. Its end goal is to offer organizations a tool or reference point that allows them to improve their services by providing them a better system to manage their IT infrastructure.

4 versions of ITIL

Currently, there are 4 versions of ITIL available.

ITIL version 1

The very first version of ITIL was aimed primarily at giving organizations a guide to providing better customer service and an improved management and control of their softwares.

ITIL v2

The second version gave organizations references mainly pertaining to the integration of innovations within the IT sector.

It covered IT assets, security and production start-up among others.

It was here that the concepts of call centres and help desks were first introduced, making it the heart of this version. They laid out the comparative elements on 3 different call centre structures being local, central and virtual.

ITIL v3

The third version introduced the concept of a lifecycle and the importance of IT integration within an organization.

In this version, there is a set of important processes and procedures distributed through 5 important service principles.

The important concepts covered in this version are:

• Service Strategy
• Service Design
• Service Transition
• Serive Operations
• Continual Service Improvement

ITIL Version 4

ITIL version 4 is the current version. It’s directly influenced by the results of the digital evolution in organizations and offers comprehensive references for companies that want to further leverage information technology and create products that will be of value to their customers.

This latest release leverages 4 dimensions of service management:

• Organization & People.
• Information & Technology.
• Partners & Suppliers.
• Value Streams & Processes.

ITIL is also based on 7 principles:

The 7 ITIL principles are:

• Focus on value.
• Start where you are.
• Progress iteratively with feedback.
• Collaborate and promote visibility.
• Think and work holistically.
• Keep it simple and practical.
• Optimize and automate.

What are the advantages of this version?

• Helps companies work with new technologies to make the best use out of them
• Provides basic guidance to help companies ease their digital transformation
• Highlights the importance of an organization that collaborates together and drives process automation
• Enables organizations to adapt to regular changes faster and provide better service, which also leads to long-term cost savings
• Customers are at the heart of the IT department, they are more satisfied, as are the employees
• Provides a common dictionary of terms used by IT developers so that every employee understands the processes

ITIL Certification

As is the case with ISO certifications, an organization has to have its ITIL certification to be considered an organization that strives to provide quality service and products for its customers.

To Obtain its ITIL certification, an organization must follow a training program (Certification ITIL 4 Foundation) accredited by Axelos (Accredited Training Organization(ATOS)), a training organization known for its certifications in ITIL 4.

Following the initial training, supplementary certifications and training can also be pursued to further specialize. There are four levels of certification; ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 Managing Professional, ITIL 4 Strategic Leader, ITIL Master.

The benefits of ITIL for my organization

Obtaining an ITIL certification is a real advantage, it adds a lot of credibility to an organization, not only for the consumer, but for the employees too.

The evolution of technology having brought forward this most recent version demonstrates how much weight digital holds around the world.

Given that the entirety of your teams won’t be 100% comfortable with these new technologies right off the bat, this certification allows you to bring forth a structure that helps your team master the ins and outs of the necessary technology.

Furthermore, ITIL certification helps to standardize the language used in the industry, and the results of that can be seen across the IT sector internationally. The fact that employees all work in accordance to the same guidelines helps better centralize the information and provide quality services.