VitAL Magazine - September-October 2010

vital Inspiration for the modern business Volume 4 : Issue 1 : september / October 2010

Rediscovering the value of IT Dave Ramsden says it’s time to add more value

Punching above your weight Using the cloud for rapid growth

The need for speed Does faster broadband mean faster applications?

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The carbon footprint of the internet Leader i

CaN’T imagine how they managed it, but ‘boffins’ have calculated that the carbon footprint of the internet roughly equates to 300m tonnes of CO2 a year, reputedly as much as all the coal, oil and gas burned in Turkey or poland, or more than half of the fossil fuels burned in the uK per year.

Like I said, I have no idea how the figure of 300m tonnes of cO2 a year was arrived at given that the Internet consists of millions of machines, networks, servers etc, distributed all around the world and, one might presume all powered using a range of power generation methods (all with their own individual carbon footprints), from burning coal to wind power; from peat-powered turbines to photo-voltaic cells; from fast-breeder nuclear reactors to the latest high-efficiency gas-powered stations. even if we take the ‘worst’ of these examples where fossil fuels are burnt to release their energy, many now use technology to recover or trap the carbon produced. what I’m basically saying is that it’s a very complicated mosaic from which we are trying to discern the outlines of a picture. The feature in our VitAL Planet section (page 58) looks at how the new coalition government is trying to tackle the issue, while a story in our news section claims that legislation on carbon will force data centre operators offshore seeking a more favourable (ie, cheaper) operating environment.

According to a report by gartner, data centres account for around a quarter of the energy consumed (and the carbon emitted) by the IT sector as a whole – around half a percent of global cO2 emissions. gartner says the world’s Pcs and monitors are even more power hungry, accounting for around 40 percent of total IT energy demand and 0.8 percent of global cO2 emissions. we would have to assume the average amount of Internet usage from all these computers and choose an amount of carbon and then add on the emissions from the data centres that make the online activity possible. with this somewhat sketchy figure arrived at, the Internet clocks in at around one percent of all the cO2 emissions released from burning fossil fuels.

Is that good or bad? I suppose the point is it could be better.

Until next time...

service management training in particular, becomes vitally

important in tough economic times

because it will be

those operations that

can adapt quickest to changing circumstances Matt Bailey, editor

that will be strong enough to survive, and even thrive, under the present economic

if you have any thoughts, feedback, or suggestions on how we can improve VitAL Magazine, please feel free to email me matthew.bailey@31media.co.uk

climate.

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cOnTenTs

vital Inspiration for the modern business

Contents 6 news

vital

11 Letters to the editor

Rediscovering the value of IT

12 Rediscovering the value of IT

Inspiration for the modern business Volume 4 : Issue 1 : september / October 2010

The VitAL CoVer STorY dAVe rAMSden iT must become more than a cost centre in the eyes of the greater organisation, and it can only do this by raising the stakes and adding value.

Dave Ramsden says it’s time to rediscover the value of iT.

Dave Ramsden says it’s time to add more value

Punching above your weight Using the cloud for rapid growth

The need for speed Does faster broadband mean faster applications?

ViSiT ViTAL onLine AT: www.ViTAL-MAg.neT

editor Matthew Bailey matthew.bailey@31media.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)203 056 4599 To advertise contact: grant Farrell grant.farrell@31media.co.uk Tel: +44 (0)203 056 4598 Production & Design Toni Barrington toni.barrington@31media.co.uk Dean cook dean.cook@31media.co.uk

VitAL SignS – Life in A worLd wiTh iT

15 Service locked to market share STeVe whiTe With all the information of the internet at everyone’s fingertips, Steve White says never before has service been locked so tightly to market share.

VitAL MAnAgeMenT

16 Punching above your weight MATT BAiLeY Matt Bailey speaks to the uK Wealth Management’s iCT services manager Anthony Smith and finance director Gordon Flower about how the company is utilising cloud services from its iT partner to support rapid growth.

editorial & Advertising enquiries Tel: Fax: email: web:

+44 (0) 870 863 6930 +44 (0) 870 085 8837 info@31media.co.uk www.vital-mag.net

Printed by Pensord, Tram Road, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood. nP12 2yA © 2010 31 Media Limited. All rights reserved.

VitAL Magazine is edited, designed, and published by 31 Media Limited. no part of VitAL Magazine may be reproduced, transmitted, stored electronically, distributed, or copied, in whole or part without the prior written consent of the publisher. A reprint service is available.

Opinions expressed in this journal do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or VitAL Magazine or its publisher, 31 Media Limited.

Issn 1755-6465 Published by:

21 Avoiding accidents waiting to happen CALuM MACLeod iT security is an accident waiting to happen for most of us. Calum MacLeod offers advice on how swerve that pile-up.

VitAL ProfiLe

24 Service management at its best VitAL Magazine, Proud to be the UKcMg’s Official Publication ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark, and a Registered community Trade Mark of the Office of government commerce, and is Registered in the U.s. Patent and Trademark Office.

VitAL speaks to Tony Jupp, managing director of one of the uK’s leading iT service management consultancies, iCore.

SuBSCriBing To VitAL MAgAZine VitAL Magazine is published six times per year for directors, department heads, and managers who are looking to improve the impact that IT implementation has on their customers and business.

For a FREE annual subscription to VitAL Magazine please visit: www.vital-mag.net/subscribe September / October 2010 : VitAL 3

Launching iCore

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iCore has a track record

• Introduce more reliable planning and sizing of the release and deployment activities, putting Live Service onto the Project Critical Path

many leading IT Organisations

• Engage with Change, Project, Program Managers and Teams at the right time, in the right way • Ensure solutions are designed and built with Operations in mind • Provide transition resources with both project and operational service expertise • Build you a fully effective transition operation and, if required, manage the skills transfer back into your own in-house team • Do this for an agreed price

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working on IT Transition for (including Global) and covering many leading technologies (including SAP and Virtualised). iCore will provide practical experience and methods in Service Transition to Clients as a Managed Service, which is both flexible and scalable and can be applied to anything from a project of around 6 months to a large program of 3-5 years.

We utilise best practice methods and guidance from ITIL v3, COBIT, CMMI-SVC and other industry frameworks to develop a strong approach to Transition which is both pragmatic and effective.

CONTENTS

Contents VitAL SuPPorT

28 Customer service for support technicians noeL BruTon This issue Bruton tackles the tricky subject of teaching customer service to iT support technicians.

46 Planning for IP telephony dAVe PAuLding are all ip telephony solutions equal? and what concerns should you have when looking for a new communications system?

Dave paulding lists some of the questions you will need to have answered.

50 The need for speed: Does faster broadband really mean faster applications?

MArk LewiS Following the launch of BT’s infinity superfast broadband service for home and business users, Mark Lewis explores why it’s not just about additional bandwidth, and why poor performance of businesscritical applications is still an issue that needs to be addressed.

VitAL inTerView

30 The King (v2) is dead – long live the King (v3) MATT BAiLeY as iTil v2 takes its final curtain call before exiting stage left, Rosemary Gurney speaks to Matt Bailey about how iTil’s implementation, consultation, education and training has changed since the new regent of Service Management, iTil v3, took to the throne.

34 Behind a cloud: Is cloud computing an option for disaster recovery? iAn MASTerS instead of investing in tapes or hardware to provide disaster recovery, organisations may find it more beneficial to back up their data to a cloud provider. Ian Masters outlines the benefits of a cloud-based approach to Dr.

54 Self-directed work teams: An agile prerequisite or a pipe dream?

JuLiAn hoLMeS The lessons learned from self-directed work in the software development field could bring benefits to iT services teams too.

Julian Holmes reports.

VitAL driVe – iT hiTS The fAirwAY

VitAL eYeS on

57 Play it as you find it

37 Darkside of the cloud MATT BAiLeY as Jonathan Westlake is on holiday, Vital editor Matt Bailey has his eyes on what the iT world is saying about the impact the cloud is having on iT jobs.

VitAL ProfiLe

38 Smarter working as one of the largest further education colleges in the country, Kirklees College has a formidable iT estate to manage. VitAL speaks to the establishment’s iT manager, Richard Brook about how his department is working smarter to deliver service.

42 A compelling case for investment

gerAinT LewiS Facing a lull in iT managing over the holiday season, Geraint Lewis, iT manager for the professional Golfers’ association is looking ahead to the ryder Cup.

VitAL PLAneT

58 Does the new broom sweep greenest?

The new Government is pushing for 30 percent emissions cuts in europe in addition to whatever it reveals in its domestic energy policy. how is the uK’s energy future unfolding and how will emissions targets affect business?

VitAL eVenTS

61 itSMF UK Conference: The essential event for IT service managers Now it its 19th year, the itSMF uK Conference offers education, networking and an annual awards dinner all under one roof.

When Cherwell wanted to commission a white paper examining the total economic impact and potential rOi offered by its Service Management offering it turned to Forrester Consulting.

VitAL ProCeSSeS

44 Chaos to value: The IT Service Management journey PATriCk BoLger The development of iT Service Management is a journey, moving the organisation from chaos into value with the aid of best practise. www.vital-mag.net

64 Secret of my success after a career spent This issue, Dave ramsden of atrion Networking Corporation in the uSa gives us the benefit of his experiences in the iT industry.

September / October 2010 : VitAL 5

news

Cautious businesses freeze IT recruitment despite skills gap

a

CCOrDiNG TO a selection of uK iT managers interviewed by esteem Systems, when it comes to investing in recruitment, the general feeling amongst businesses is understandably one of extreme caution. Only three percent of uK businesses are planning to replace iT staff to fill the skills gap. however, 95 percent of the businesses questioned believe it’s vitally important to continue investing in iT solutions, with 61 percent citing managed services as a preferred approach. esteem says that businesses are putting IT at the heart of their recovery plans because it can provide better cost savings and efficiency compared with recruiting more staff which will not necessarily provide immediate efficiency gains, as it takes time to skill them up, plus companies will be tied into the cost of longterm contracts. Therefore, any skills lost due to cuts made over the past 12 to 18 months are more easily replaced by buying-in the expertise. Plus, many cIOs still fear a doubledip recession could be around the corner and therefore put pressure on their IT departments to investigate ways of either stripping the cost

out of their existing system or considering alternative flexible solutions.

Analysts are also predicting a clear move towards managed services to make up the IT skills shortfall, with gartner forecasting that worldwide cloud services will grow to around £46 billion this year alone. Many businesses will justifiably consider cloud computing, giving IT services players an ideal opportunity to develop current offerings.

“Introducing more managed services to bridge the skills gap is being considered by many businesses in the coming year, particularly those hit by recent government cuts - whether it’s for managing complex IT infrastructures or revamping a legacy system,” says Alastair Kitching, chief operations officer of esteem

Energy statement threatens to drive data centres off-shore

e

NerGy SeCreTary Chris huhne’s first annual energy statement to parliament threatens to drive many of the uK’s Data Centres off-shore to escape an energy pricing prejudice against business, according to alex rabbetts, managing director of data centre company Migration Solutions.

The government’s new energy statement promises that domestic bills would only rise by one percent by 2020 while business bills would rise by up to 43 percent as policies are implemented to reduce carbon emissions.

“This pricing difference between business and home users will definitely make data centre companies think about moving offshore to more attractive energy locations, like France or germany,” says Rabbetts.

“Undoubtedly data centres do use a lot of electricity. However, they are also key to the new low carbon economy. IT uses two percent of the country’s electricity but it also provides many of the solutions that will reduce our domestic power consumption and carbon emissions. Initiatives proposed by the government such as smart meters, home-working and streamlining their IcT strategy all completely depend on the 6 VitAL : September / October 2010

information storage and computing power of our data centres. “when it comes to low carbon Britain, data centres are part of the solution – we need to take a balanced view of energy pricing and find ways to encourage the businesses that are helping this country reduce its carbon emissions, not drive them away,” concludes Rabbetts. see page 58 for more on the government’s carbon reduction plans.

systems. “Businesses are also recognising that not only are the risks reduced but the investment is far less when compared with spending heavily on recruitment.

“It’s been a difficult year for many IT workers, some have already witnessed redundancies around them and may see managed services as yet another threat to their job security. This is largely because managed services is often tarred with the ‘outsourcing’ brush, and many workers worry that these new IT services are brought in to replace them. “senior management have a duty to reassure existing IT staff that these services are being implemented to drive business growth, rather than to directly replace staff,” concludes Kitching. “By communicating to staff that managed services will make their business more successful, current IT staff should be reassured that their jobs are more secure and that further jobs won’t be shed. Helping IT departments to understand the reasons why implementing services like these are a sensible move in the current climate will make for a much smoother transition and future working environment for all.”

MIND THE GAP a

NeW OFCOM report suggests that the uK’s largest broadband providers were found to be advertising broadband speeds that could not be experienced by the vast majority of their customers. according to Ofcom, 97 percent of consumers do not get the broadband speeds advertised by their providers and the gap has widened to an average of 54 percent between advertised and achievable performance.

“The Ofcom findings show that there is a high degree of variation between broadband providers’ claims and the actual quality of service delivered and that only 8% of homes are actually connected to a service that can achieve the highest speeds advertised,” comments John Adey, cOO of star.

“Businesses that are planning to provide remote working facilities for staff, to allow them to work from home, need to be sure that staff can actually do so. The claims made by many providers would lead you to believe that delivering secure remote access to business critical applications, data and telephony should be easily achievable but the reality, especially in remote regions, could be quite different.”

www.vital-mag.net

news

More women needed in IT W hile perhaps female IT professionals can feel encouraged that the new Government has put its faith in IT entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox to be its champion and chief advisor on all things web-related, strong and inspiring female role models in the IT world are still few and far between according to a poll from the 360°IT event.

The poll revealed that the industry still faces a massive dearth of women in IT jobs, with three quarters responding that their organisations are not doing enough to attract women into IT and only five percent saying enough is being done. Rather depressingly, the remaining fifth responded that there were

already enough women in IT so no more New Government web-champion needs to be done. With this in mind, it is Martha Lane Fox perhaps not surprising that currently only 20 percent of the IT workforce in the UK is female.

According to Maggie Berry, managing director of Women in Technology, “Research

by McKinsey has shown a link between the number of women in senior positions and strong financial performance. What’s more, in an IT sector that is becoming increasingly crowded and commoditised organisations need to harness creativity to differentiate, innovate and stay ahead of who can provide fresh ideas, approaches the competition. What better way to do this and insights previously unavailable to than by bringing more women into the mix the organisation?”

Liberal approach to lunchtime surfing may negatively impact security and application performance R

esults from an independent survey have revealed that a majority of British workers (72 percent) spend their lunch hour online: shopping, banking, catching up with the latest sport or chatting to their friends on email or Facebook.

The research was commissioned among more than 1,000 workers after Star found that the network bandwidth usage for business Internet traffic in its data centres was consistently peaking between 12:00 – 14:00 hrs when British workers should be enjoying their lunch breaks. The change pointed to the growing influence that video and non-work related Internet use can have on the corporate network.

The statistics from the research reveal that the most popular lunchtime habits for 63 percent of people are checking their personal email accounts, engaging in online shopping and banking (62 percent), and 31 percent catch up with friends on social networking sites like Facebook – unsurprisingly this trend was higher (40 percent) for younger workers between the ages of 16 to 34 years.

One in three of British workers spend their lunch time watching online sports or checking out the latest sports results. More men (16 percent) admitted to watching catch-up TV, compared to only seven percent of women. On the other hand, 37 percent of women spend their time on social networking sites, compared to 25 percent of men.

“We believe that the high Internet traffic volumes during the 12:00 – 14:00hrs time frame indicates that employers are taking a liberal approach to allowing employees access to the Internet during the lunch hour for non work related activities,” comments John Adey, chief operating officer of Star. “However, the use of high bandwidth intensive applications like live sports and catch-up TV could mean that businesses may have to increase their bandwidth capacity to support their employees’ lunchtime surfing habits.

“Another issue worth thinking about is that accessing non work-related sites could leave their business open to a greater risk of employees downloading malware onto the corporate network. While there are many benefits to having a liberal policy to Internet use it seems the potential risks and costs are being ignored. We would always suggest that UK www.vital-mag.net

businesses continue to benefit from giving people access to the content they want during non-working hours but do so in a safe way. The ideal way to do this is via dedicated computers that are not connected to the corporate network which mitigates the risk of anyone introducing any threats or leaking sensitive company data.”

The survey findings are online at: www.star.co.uk/lunchhour

September / October 2010 : VitAL 7

news

Work never stops – even on holiday a

S the holiday period comes to an end, it is no surprise to find out that with bags packed, flights booked and foreign currency in their pockets the workforce might be jetting off but they’re definitely not leaving the daily grind behind. instead, 95 percent of those iT professionals surveyed by Credant will be taking their mobiles and smartphones abroad with them with the expectation of working.

That’s the remarkable findings of a survey amongst 1,000 office workers in London, which discovered 65 percent of those questioned that plan to take a summer break overseas will remain in contact with the office, check email accounts and text to ensure things stay on track during their absence. Almost half of those who plan to check emails will do so at least once a day even though they should be laying back and taking a well earned break.

Unsurprisingly 54 percent of those that felt they had to be available while away from their desks admitted checking their emails would leave them more stressed instead of relaxed following their break. Fifty eight percent confessed that the mechanics of remaining in contact, such as data security, caused them additional worry. Forty six percent actually believe remaining in contact would leave them feeling in control and able to relax. Fifty seven percent blamed being a work junky on the current Thirty nine percent believe that their bosses actually expect to be able economic climate making it important that they are reachable while away. to contact them nowadays when taking annual leave.

THE RISE OF PRIVATE CLOUD

a

NeW report by consulting firm, BroadGroup reveals that enterprise adoption of private cloud will accelerate over the next five years. The report, ‘Competing in The Clouds’ says private cloud will be the fastest growing segment in the enterprise market. with private clouds being viewed as a step towards enterprises completely adopting public cloud infrastructures, 90 percent of all business applications could be delivered on public clouds by 2020. enterprises will overcome their reluctance to public clouds as they become accustomed to its use as ‘normal’ business activity (already the case in many companies with business departments – not IT – using saas) and as relationships of trust are built between cloud service providers and IT departments.

“Today cloud is being promoted enthusiastically by cloud vendors however, its adoption is still considered in its infancy,” explains Marion Howard Healy, senior consultant Broadgroup consulting. “The adoption of cloud will be an evolutionary process, without a trigger-point as such, and the use of private clouds will be that stepping stone for most organisations – a learning process that is happening now. Public cloud services are pay as you go for on demand services, which is a different business model to the one IT is used to in most companies today.

This new consumption model is a significant change in the market (look at Amazon’s 8 VitAL : September / October 2010

approach to cloud against traditional IT vendors) with IT departments having genuine concerns about data security and control as well as service level agreements.”

The report finds that cloud is being developed by the most innovative firms, with some companies in the financial sector already willing to consider a move to cloud and with its stringent requirements in terms of speed, sLAs and data protection there is a view around the industry that once the finance sector is comfortable with cloud computing, others are likely to follow.

This move towards the cloud will also see demand on data centres double in terms of data volumes, storage and replication by 2015 according to the report. Against a backdrop of space and power and cooling

issues, next-generation data centres will need to evolve to satisfy the need. “gradually, as more applications move on public cloud service provision, and things run well, then IT departments’ trust will grow and using the cloud will become ‘business as usual’,” explains Howard Heally. “Just think of it in the same way that bank ATM machines and PIn numbers have developed – if enough people are using them as a normal way of life then both users and vendors accommodate the risks involved. In the credit card industry there is massive fraud but vendors and users cope and manage the risks. cloud will be no different in my view – eventually. critical business data maybe a different matter but there are plenty of applications in an organisation that can go to cloud.” www.vital-mag.net

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news

Energy efficient data centre a

NeW £5 million data centre in Bedford is said by the owner to be among the most eco-friendly in the uK. home to many of data centre operator Blue Chip’s existing customers, the centre houses up to 600 racks, supporting the highest levels of resilience and security according to the company. “The design supports the changing needs of today’s industry, such as hosting, service management, consolidation, cloud computing and virtualization, enabling uK clients to operate their iT at optimum value for money,” the company states.

Blue chip says the data centre uses stateof-the-art technologies that enable the secure flow of information to and from the customer site, using half the energy of data facilities of a similar size, thereby conserving resources and making savings in speed of service and operational cost.

“At more than 26,000sqft, our new data centre significantly expands our offerings and abilities in meeting the demand from our customers for our hosted and managed services,” says Brian Meredith, managing director of Blue chip. “This is the third and largest data centre we have built and places us in an excellent position to provide and respond to the growing needs of our customers.”

To help fund the new data centre, Blue chip received an interest-free loan from the carbon Trust under its ‘Big Business Refit campaign’. The loan was invested in energyefficient cooling systems that the company claims will produce significant savings on energy bills. The carbon Trust is a not-for-profit company with the mission to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy, providing specialist support to business and the public sector to help cut carbon emissions,

save energy and commercialise low carbon technologies.

Pierre Dufour, head of the carbon Trust loan scheme comments: “The cooling technology which Blue chip bought with the interest-free carbon Trust loan will enable the facility to reduce its electricity use by over 60 percent.

It was one of over 2,000 businesses taking carbon Trust loans last year. Together they used our loans to fit £70m of energy efficient equipment – providing savings of over £20m a year, as well as 140,000 tonnes of cO2.”

The new data centre is a two mega watt facility, making it one of the most efficient data centres in europe. electricity consumption is a major concern but with a cooling system that uses evaporative cooling technology, more efficient than traditional refrigeration, Blue chip has greatly reduced electricity consumption for all the IT equipment and servers.

Mobile devices are a threat to security

i

N a new white paper titled ‘Securing Mobile Devices’, iSaCa, a global association for enterprise governance of iT, noted that the use of wireless networks, typically less secure than wired networks, leaves information at greater risk for interception.

From smartphones to uSB sticks, many devices also store data that are unencrypted, which can result in sensitive information being compromised through interception and device theft or loss. Mobile devices can also be the targets of malware attacks as employees carry them beyond the protection of their company’s network.

The white paper notes that a lack of enterprise control of physical devices, along with the growing practice of employees using personal devices for business, has increased mobile device risk levels.

According to the Ponemon Institute’s global 2009 Annual study on cost of a Data Breach, 32 percent of all data breach cases in the study involved lost or stolen laptop computers or other mobile data-

10 VitAL : September / October 2010

bearing devices. while the average organisational cost of a data breach was Us $3.4 million, all countries in the study reported noticeably higher data breach costs associated with mobile incidents.

“Ironically, many of the risks associated with mobile devices exist because of their biggest benefit: portability,” said IsAcA white paper project development team member Mark Lobel. “To help their company meet its goals of protecting intellectual property and sustaining competitive advantage, information security managers need to create an easily understood and executable policy that protects against risks related to leaking confidential data and malware.”

The white paper concludes that a governance framework such as cOBIT or Risk IT will help businesses ensure that process and policy changes are implemented and understood, and that appropriate levels of security are applied to prevent data loss.

A free copy of the white paper is available at: www.isaca.org/mobiledevices.

www.vital-mag.net

LeTTeRs TO THe eDITOR

Letters to the editor...

This issue we received two letters to the editor which we thought worthy of your consideration. in response to last issue’s cloud computing focus, Paul Evans of redstor sets the record straight about this ‘new’ wave of technology, while Chris Nagele of CentraStage offers advice on the best ways educational establishment can use iT with cuts and shrinking budgets becoming the new reality. We thank them both for their input and urge any reader with something to get of their chest to fire their correspondence of to the editor at: matthew.bailey@31media.co.uk Dear Sir,

Dear Sir,

The term ‘cloud computing’ is just another marketing bandwagon the technology industry is jumping on, it’s a popular buzz word used to describe any service provided via the internet. The majority of end users understand what cloud is about and know it’s basically just jargon.

Lots of corporates are already using cloud services such as salesforce, which is a service that is delivered on a pay as you go basis via the Internet or cloud. end users have been using cloud computing for many years without realising, for example Hotmail and AOL are cloud email services, it was simply referred to as ‘the Internet’ or ‘online’ email before. some people are still unsure of the difference between software as a service (saas) and cloud; essentially they are the same thing. saas is a financial approach to delivering software, rather than paying upfront end users pay on a monthly basis, or ‘pay as you use’ the basis of the cloud. Typically rather than a technology or solution sitting on a corporate network it is delivered via the Internet/cloud.

This is how cloud computing has evolved, many organisations have moved their services and offerings into the cloud one step at a time, for example moving e-mail to the cloud or mail scanning which is hosted by a separate organisation or placing certain applications in the cloud for flexibility and instant access. As much as these first steps could be defined as saas the simplest and more widely understood term now is ‘cloud’. end users expect everything to be instantly available and at the touch of a button, for the technology industry to meet these demands it needs to use the Internet or ‘cloud’ to offer its services and solutions to a wider audience. As far as end users are concerned, they have a perfectly good understanding of what cloud computing means to them and despite the hype many are aware of all the jargon.

Paul Evans Managing director, Redstor

with so many failed public sector IT projects hitting the headlines, it is a common perception that on the whole technology is not delivering cost-savings into the public sector; given the urgent need to find cost effective strategies in all areas of government, it is important for both the public and private sector organisations to be more aware of the fact that technology can actually help drive efficiency and reduce cost.

The challenges faced by local authorities supporting IT in schools are considerable, and are set to increase. with Building schools for the Future (BsF) cancelled, budgets tightening and schools delaying investment in new equipment, IT support teams are facing the prospect of sustaining an ageing IT estate with higher volumes of support calls and fewer resources as budget cuts impact the LAs. with the right technology and processes IT Managed service providers, whether private or public sector organisations, can deliver proactive management of IT environments across hundreds of schools and tens of thousands of devices; in automating hundreds of manual, repetitive tasks and helping reduce downtime, they can deliver material efficiency and cost savings as well as reducing downtime in schools. some of the statistics coming out of LAs such as east sussex, who are creating a suite of ‘next generation’ school IT support contracts around their centrastage platform, are compelling and centre around significant efficiency (and therefore cost) savings.

The demise of BsF also means that the movement towards privatisation in IT support for schools has virtually ground to a halt. while being targeted at secondary schools, many in the industry felt that it was only a matter of time before BsF IT service providers turned their attention to the primary sector. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of halting BsF, its demise presents a wonderful opportunity for those LA support teams who take a progressive approach to IT support and who have a good relationship with their schools – the challenge is to provide cost-effective IT support services that meet the increasing reliance on IT from schools. even in these cash-constrained times IT managed services, with proactive monitoring, can provide an effective solution for schools, but the service providers themselves need flexible commercial models from hardware and software vendors that suit the current financial climate – meaning that LAs who support IT in schools can buy the necessary technology from their operating budgets, essentially paying for what they use and enabling them to match costs to the revenues from their customers, There are undoubtedly hundreds of IT support teams across all areas of the public sector that could drive significant savings in the delivery of IT support were they aware of the technology, and the enhanced IT services that can be delivered.

Christian Nagele Managing director, CentraStage

www.vital-mag.net

September / October 2010 : VitAL 11

cOVeR sTORy

Rediscovering the value of IT iT must become more than a cost centre in the eyes of the greater organisation, and it can only do this by raising the stakes and adding a new level of value to its clients. Dave Ramsden, chief intelligence officer at atrion Networking Corporation, says it’s time to rediscover the value of iT.

T

r a D i T i O N a l ly, T e C h N i C a l expertise has been the primary path to a leadership role in iT. This requirement is warranted, as iT is no longer an invisible entity or reluctant addition to small and medium sized businesses. in many cases, ‘always on’ and accessible email and phone services provide the backbone of the business itself. But network uptime has become such a commodity that flawless execution has actually degraded in status from holy Grail to table stakes. iT must become more than a cost centre in the eyes of the greater organisation, and it can only do this by raising the stakes and adding a new level of value to its clients.

12 VitAL : September / October 2010

Today, in order to add compelling value to an organisation, IT must function as a servicefocused entity that understands the ins and outs of the business. In its unique place at the hub of all company activity, IT is in a position to use that perspective to accelerate the cross-functional processes at the heart of the business. Moreover, by changing the focus of IT from information to intelligence, it can offer new services to the executive leadership team that enables them to make better decisions on both a tactical and strategic level. Through filtering information, analysing it and setting up effective delivery mechanisms, IT transforms information to intelligence and ultimately earns a key seat at any company’s strategic www.vital-mag.net

cover story

table. This calls for IT to shift its perception.

Three basic changes in mindset can help accomplish this: Redefine your purpose: Make a meaningful shift from technology to services; Leverage your connections: Use the unique perspective of IT to identify and execute cross functional improvements; Transform information to intelligence and strategy: Expand into business intelligence, empowering leadership to achieve unity of thought and action.

Let’s take a look at these ideas in more detail.

Redefine your purpose Why does IT exist? Dig five or six whys deep and we get past the technical reasons and into the business needs. Our goal is to better propel the organisation towards its goals. We are by our very nature a service organisation.

But by the same token, we must ask ourselves why do IT staff members exist? They may be passionate people, but business processes and bean counting are rarely the objects of that enthusiasm. Most IT professionals have a passion for technology, which is why we are able to do all of the amazing things we can today. But it is also why the goals of IT can get misguided over time, more focused on our sometimes siloed existence than on the greater reason they are there in the first place: to help all of the end users drive business.

When challenged with the idea that service is a higher calling than technology, some CIOs are sceptical, as are many engineers. Who can blame us when our driving passion is most often technology? Nevertheless, our role is clear and the means of achieving our goals requires a change in attitude. Three key ways to accelerate this change are as follows: Executive buy-in: Start by convincing yourself.

You need to establish a clear vision of what you are trying to create. Understand what sacrifices you may have to make in some areas to be strong in others. Make sure that other stakeholders in the organisation understand the change and give you feedback as things progress.

Redefine how staff measure success: As part of the vision you set, your team needs to understand how you measure success.

It may not be a matter of uptime or ticket closure rates, but rather a gauge of the enduser’s experience. If you close every ticket within a reasonable SLA, but the general opinion of a department is that their tools suck, you have lost.

Build the right team: If your focus is on service, then service must be the primary www.vital-mag.net

strength of your team. IT staff interact with any number of personality styles within an organisation, and they need to be skilled at navigating those interactions. Some of the most brilliant engineers have little or no soft skills, and they are just not the right fit for this type of role.

If you are able to paint a compelling vision of IT as a champion of service, if you have the right people on board to drive that change, and if you are all measuring your success in ways that are clear and significant, you will have already accomplished quite a lot. The fruits of your labour will be found in the feedback of your end users and other leadership team members. But this is only the foundation of the value we can create. Our next example builds upon this foundation, to look at the value that can be created by IT’s unique vantage point within an organisation.

Proactively leverage your connections: Help Desk and Service Desk functions can follow ITIL best practices until the cows come home, but if the relationship is primarily reactive we have two problems. First, IT only has control of the situation once there is a fire to put out, because that is the only time they are engaged. Second, we are fools if we think we are engaged whenever there is a problem.

The act of engaging IT to fix something takes work. Some staff are happy to highlight issues (sometimes too happy?). But many people are too busy with their own workload to take on the small but real task of reporting the issues.

How many times have we run into the sporadic problem that has been going on for weeks and never been reported? Or the reported issue with absolutely no valuable information to aid in troubleshooting and resolving it quickly? Some clients would rather assume that a certain amount of problems are unavoidable (and still retain the right to complain about them) than take on an active role, however small, in resolving it. And it’s not their fault, they’re busy too. Like Plato said, “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” So how do we proactively aid our brothers and sisters in arms?

IT, like finance and HR, touches just about every part of an organisation. If you want to show value, what better place to be positioned than at the hub of all that matters? The business processes of every function within a company flow through the applications and infrastructure we host, and for this reason IT has a relationship with both end users and leadership in every division. What’s more, because IT often has to design, troubleshoot and improve the way applications support cross-functional processes, IT becomes

IT, like finance and HR, touches just about every part of an organisation. If you want to show value, what better place to be positioned than at the hub of all that matters?

The business processes of every function within a company flow through the applications and infrastructure we host, and for this reason IT has a relationship with both end users and leadership in every division.

September / October 2010 : VitAL 13

cover story

more aware of the interdependencies between groups than some of the isolated group members themselves. This gives us an excellent opportunity to add value when it comes to objective consulting on process improvement.

In our organisation IT meets bi-weekly with key departments to proactively find sources of friction and lubricate them. We actively look for bottlenecks and recurring headaches. This process reveals festering issues and uncovers great suggestions for improvements. It also helps the various department staff feel more empowered to make changes that have a direct impact on their jobs.

These discussions provide IT leadership a broader perspective on the business operations. This, in turn, enables them to participate at a higher level in tactical and strategic conversations. But IT holds even more strategic potential which is often untapped.

That potential sits idle in our SANs, terabytes of information waiting to be transformed into something with a higher purpose.

Transform information to intelligence and strategy Strategy requires a vantage point which allows one to see the big picture. Focusing on technology does not give one that vantage point, but focusing on business processes does. The more one broadens one’s perspective the more one begins to see the greater patterns at work within an organisation.

There are many paths towards this end, but one which deserves more attention is the shifting focus from information to intelligence.

When federal officials recently apprehended Times Square terror suspect Faisal Shahzad, he was aboard a plane at New York’s JFK Airport, just moments away from taxiing to the active runway and departing for Pakistan via Dubai. Though information provided the raw materials necessary for the apprehension, that information would have been useless without filtering, analysis, and timely delivery of the intelligence to people who could act quickly on it. As it was, the 14 VitAL : September / October 2010

authorities barely caught the flight in time.

This is a sobering example of the way in which information can be useless, even detrimental without an efficient means of converting it into intelligence and putting it into the hands of those who are best positioned to act upon it. Poorly done, the results can be disastrous.

But when unity of thought and action is achieved, a business can truly become a high performance organisation.

In our company, key metrics are gathered and posted monthly for reference by decision makers. But that information is also analysed and summarised into intelligence reports which are pushed out to those decision makers proactively. At a glance those decision makers can get insight into meaningful trends which are affecting our strategic initiatives that very minute.

IT has long been a steward of information.

But, if IT is to add value to an organisation, it needs to leverage the information it possesses in new ways. It must provide intelligence to senior leadership for timely decision support. Intelligence strengthens the crafting of corporate strategy and induces effective execution of it. The fusion of business strategy and technology ultimately connects IT to executive level decision-making at its highest levels.

Concluding thoughts There is value in what we do every day, but the environment we work in is changing constantly.

In order to maintain and increase the value we provide, we need to remain focused on our core purpose: serving the greater organisation.

That service may be to the end users who collectively propel us forward each day or to the decision makers who lean on our resources to make wise choices. Either way, we need to remain focused on the end results so that our execution is continually propelling us all closer to our goals. *For more information about Dave Ramsden, check out this month’s Secret Of My Success on page 64. VitAL www.vital-mag.net

VitAL SIGNS: LIFe In THe wORLD wITH IT

Service locked to market share With all the information of the internet at everyone’s fingertips, Steve White says never before has service been locked so tightly to market share.

IT has long been a steward of information.

But, if IT is to add value to an organisation, it needs to leverage the information it possesses in new ways. It must provide intelligence to senior leadership for timely decision support.

Intelligence strengthens the crafting of corporate strategy and induces effective execution of it.

www.vital-mag.net

T

WO yearS ago i was looking to buy a portable GpS system and before making my decision i searched for <device name> review. The returns from the two searches were (and i checked today, still are) of a completely different tone. One product seems to be ‘ok as long as something doesn’t go wrong, and if it does you are in for a world of pain’ and the other has a page full of reviews of the product, how good it is and even searching for <device name> problems indicates that if there are problems they are sorted out quickly by the manufacturer and supplier. several years ago a producer of goods or a supplier of services could afford to be mediocre, because no-one would know if they were mediocre – there was no ‘rallying cry’ over poor performance. The Internet has exposed mediocrity to the light of public opinion and expression like never before. never before has service been locked so tightly to market share. so I worry about one of my clients, they have the same problems as so many support organisations – overwhelmed with easy to solve problems – small things that go smoothly if you just know what to do.

They are call deflecting, and it is fairly easy to find answers to regularly seen problems on the web. Their product is fairly straightforward to understand and to fix; they do a good job with the 90 percent of easy calls. The problems come with the ten percent that are not so easy, and four percent that are downright difficult and complex and the tiny percentage that make it to the news.

How they are handled is getting to the internet, and there is a stirring of unrest amongst the masses. The worry I have is that they seem to think that 90 percent is good enough. That’s leaving ten percent or four percent of their customers to blog about their experiences

on the web. when the revolution comes – in the form of a change of business context – they may be first against the wall.

Reading the gPs device reviews gave me some indication of the future – a way of assessing risk when making a choice. I did not base my choice on device features, but the support that came with it, and when I did once have a problem I called them up, it was a new problem but they were able to work out what must have happened, they gave me the things to do and it’s worked fine ever since.

The Internet may be making us individually less able to concentrate on detail, but in respect of perceived service value it is making us collectively smarter, and increasing the importance of effective service strategy to business value and business results. VitAL September / October 2010 : VitAL 15

vital management

16 VitAL : September / October 2010

www.vital-mag.net

VitAL MAnAgeMenT

Punching above your weight

Anthony Smith

Gordon Flower

u

K WealTh Management (uKWM) is one of the country’s leading wealth management services organisations. head quartered in leeds, uKWM was established in 2008 when it became the holding company for several independent advisory firms, including yorkshire investment Group. it employs over 120 people with branches across the Midlands and North of england, including rugby, Macclesfield, york and pontefract which provide a range of financial services for high net worth clients. uKWM provides centralised services to each of its seven trading companies.

“UK wealth Management is a new entity,” says the company’s IcT services manager Anthony smith. “It was set up two years ago from yorkshire Investment group; the idea was to create a holding company to provide central services, including IT, research and governance to our various financial services companies.”

Growing the business not the costs since its formation, UKwM’s plan was to invest in a technology infrastructure that would provide a stable and secure platform giving them the scalability, high performance and cost controls necessary to support the strategy. “I believe that having the right people who share our company vision is key and that is why I consider ourselves lucky to have the services of an IT services Manager who is totally committed to the strategy and its execution,” says finance director gordon Flower. “I’ve www.vital-mag.net

uK Wealth Management was set up to provide centralised services to its seven trading financial services companies.

VitAL editor Matt Bailey spoke to the company’s iCT services manager Anthony Smith and finance director Gordon Flower about how it is utilising cloud services from its iT partner to support rapid growth.

seen IT departments in other businesses that are not aligned to the corporate strategy, they tend to go off in their own direction and almost become a separate entity in their own right.

That does not serve the business well and is usually inefficient and costly.”

“I’d had prior experience of working with our IT partner star while at yorkshire Investment group,” confirms Anthony smith, “and from this positive experience it was easy for me to approach them to help us manage our growth plans following the formation of UKwM. The first requirement was to build a stable, secure and scalable infrastructure, one that would allow us to add on new branches quickly and easily and without requiring an increase in our management input. we have achieved this objective using star’s fully managed network services. This helps us to guarantee that our seven trading companies are always connected to each other and to their customers.”

In this way all branch offices have access to centralised applications and tools, housed in UKwM’s Pontefract data centre. star also provides round the clock management of the network, customer support and project manages the connectivity for all new offices.

This means that UKwM has been able to increase turnover by a quarter, without recruiting additional members to its IT team.

Managed services in the cloud

It is illogical to recruit an expensive professional when you can get what you need quickly and cost effectively through a service provider. This approach means the team can focus on supporting the business strategy instead of dealing with the low value day-today tasks that most IT departments seem to get bogged down by.

The business plan is to grow the business over the next few years through strong organic growth and appropriate acquisitions. A crucial part of this plan is the IT services aspect and September / October 2010 : VitAL 17

VitAL MAnAgeMenT

“For an organisation of our size we have a very lean IT team which is a fraction of the size of other similar sized companies. we have no need to invest vast sums of capital in order to own our IT infrastructure, when we can simply manage a relationship with a service provider and focus our attention and resources on the core business objectives.”

UKwM has decided that the time has come to take cloud services seriously. “cloud services have been around for a decade or more in various guises,” says smith, “the question is what has changed in the last couple of years and why is there such a compelling argument for sMes and bigger organisations to use the cloud today? I put it down to the maturity of the technology and an improvement in bandwidth. The nature of IT is now such that you can blend and keep some service in house and migrate some to cloud, following whatever path is right for your business. But you do have to be very careful in your choice of cloud providers – especially in the financial services industry – you have to know where your data is.”

It may come as a surprise to some but the main driving force for the decision to go cloud wasn’t financial. “It’s an important consideration, but not the most import one,” says smith. “The question we asked was, ‘do we want an IT department of our size managing a business as large as ours?’ It’s not a sensible approach. specialists at star, the company we approached to provide our cloud IT services, have a bunch of skills and groups of people whose talents we can’t justify having in house, that I can draw upon as and when needed.” These skill are a playing a crucial role in UKwM’s strategy to grow the company.

Growth strategy “At UKwM we have strong ambitions for growth through organic propositions and expansion via acquisition,” explains gordon Flower, UKwM finance director who also has overall 18 VitAL : September / October 2010

responsibility for the IT function. “we have a strong vision for our company and it has been critical for us to have the right building blocks in place to help us meet our objectives. “whenever we consider potential partners, suppliers or acquisition targets the first thing we do is to look for synergies with organisations which share our vision and values. growing through acquisition presents its own challenges and as such we are committed to using managed IT and communication services.

This helps us to centralise the management of all systems and roll out services to support our branches as and when needed, but without large capital investment. This approach means we don’t have to increase costs proportionately with the expansion of the business. we can avoid the need to continually recruit more IT staff as we acquire additional and dispersed offices. In fact, we operate with a very small in-house team of two IT professionals and still have spare capacity to open more branches before we need to consider hiring more people.”

This is a very different model from other growing businesses where they often run all their own systems in-house. “we prefer to make use of managed services in the areas that make sense, such as standardised processes and applications, as well as systems that require specialist knowledge in a particular area,” says Flower. “It is illogical to recruit an expensive professional when you can get what you need quickly and cost effectively through a service provider. This approach means the team can focus on supporting the business strategy instead of dealing with the low value www.vital-mag.net

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Now we receive many ‘thank-yous’ from the business!”

Service Desk Manager, Comet Group plc

Tel. +44 (0) 20 8582 8282 | Email sales@hornbill.com | www.hornbill.com

VitAL MAnAgeMenT

day-to-day tasks that most IT departments seem to get bogged down by. The ability to grow without incurring huge costs is a critical part of our strategy execution and it would be accurate to say that we could not even begin to pursue our aggressive growth strategy without a partner like star to support us.”

A light IT footprint “we have servers and data centres which we are in the process of virtualising,” says Anthony smith, “and all the data is replicated to a disaster recovery (DR) site using star’s V Platform which allows you to run virtual machines on their infrastructure as a DR solution.”

The partnership with star allows UKwM to run a ‘light-touch’ service desk solution.

“As there are just two of us in the IT team, we simply don’t have the scope to manage our network around the clock,” says smith, “it certainly wouldn’t be feasible for us to replicate the level of service, monitoring and management that star provides, and even if we could the cost would be astronomical. For us it’s all about achieving the right balance and managing the total cost of ownership with our philosophy of using managed services to do the things we shouldn’t have to. This comes with the usual service level agreements for a high level of service, guaranteed availability and performance.”

The speed of integrating new offices within the corporate network was another key factor in the partnership. “when we open a new local office we have to make sure that staff can be up and running as quickly and seamlessly as possible to guarantee a smooth transition for their clients,” explains smith. “with star I have a trusted partner who can manage the entire process with minimum disruption to our operations.”

In addition to managing the network star also provides a managed firewall, content filtering for web and email to keep systems and users as secure as possible and co-location services for replicating data to support the organisation’s disaster recovery plans.

20 VitAL : September / October 2010

“Bringing in new sites has been a simple task,” says smith. “A call to star and it is up and running over a weekend. The partnership has given us great agility and speed of movement to new systems. I see no value in having to micro-manage every aspect of our service and now we can really punch above our weight while keeping control of our applications. Virtualisation technology has played a huge part in this – there are now no barriers to sMes going down the private cloud route. Looking at it in the round, cloud lowers the barrier for entry.

In five years’ time I predict there won’t be too many IT managers out there that aren’t using these services. Virtualisation is the best bit of technology I’ve implemented in a 15 year career. The cost savings not vast perhaps but it gives you real flexibility and agility and these are far more important.

I can now provision a new server in about ten minutes – you can’t do that in the physical world! The agility and speed of response have been fantastic revelations. If you were starting this business today you would have to be mad not to use some of these cloud services.”

Planning for the Future This project demonstrates the strategic role IT can play in a growing businesses.

UKwM has been able to execute its business strategy thanks to solutions which have given them the platform to expand quickly, seamlessly and cost-effectively. “we have the confidence to know that we can achieve our growth plans because we have proved that we have the right IT strategy to support our vision,” concludes Flower. “For an organisation of our size we have a very lean IT team which is a fraction of the size of other similar sized companies. we have no need to invest vast sums of capital in order to own our IT infrastructure, when we can simply manage a relationship with a service provider and focus our attention and resources on the core business objectives.” VitAL www.vital-mag.net

VitAL MAnAgeMenT

Avoiding accidents waiting to happen iT security is an accident waiting to happen for most of us. Calum MacLeod director eMea at Venafi offers advice on how swerve that pile-up.

i

T’S alWayS when you least expect it and when you least need it. That accident waiting to happen. Friday evening after a long week, and you’re heading home for a relaxing weekend, suddenly a truck comes out of nowhere on the motorway and the next thing you know you’re standing at the side of the road; your ‘pride and joy’ looking rather dejected and you standing next to it as a million motorists slow down to view the latest car wreck and thank their lucky stars it wasn’t them. i’ve been one of them on many an occasion but i guess every one of us is just a moment away from that accident waiting to happen.

And life is like that, especially in IT security. weekly we read about breaches, failures, increased snooping and you’d think we’d learn but generally we seem to think it’s always the other guy who gets it, and one of the areas which seem to generate the greatest risk is the expired certificate.

www.vital-mag.net

In cryptography, a public key certificate (also known as a digital certificate or identity certificate) is an electronic document which uses a digital signature to bind together a public key with an identity – information such as the name of a person or an organisation, their address, and so on.

Digital certificates are used to establish and validate an identity on the internet.

Digital certificates, issued and managed cAs (certificate authorities), can address a number of security concerns. For example, they can verify the identity and privileges of an individual, a server, an application, a device, a database, an organisation on the Internet, provide non-repudiation and authorise transactions such as payments. Most of us seem blissfully unaware that they’re there.

But the reality is that today there are hundreds and in many cases thousands of them distributed throughout our infrastructures. Our VPn concentrators’ use September / October 2010 : VitAL 21

vital management

An expiry, or failure, of any of these certificates will always lead to chaotic finger pointing throughout the organisation with everybody blaming somebody and nobody taking responsibility. Just imagine if I’d had to face my wife with the news that not only had my car been mugged but that I’d also forgot to renew the insurance. That would be tame compared to the hysterical reaction you get when a certificate brings a trading floor to a grinding halt in the middle of the afternoon, or results in the production line of a global manufacturer to stop working for eight hours!

them for authentication, load balancers use them to secure connections, and virtually every application to application process uses them to ensure authentication and secure communication. And all it takes is just one failure or expiry and bang goes your weekend.

What you don’t know can hurt you The problem with accidents is that you could always avoid them if you knew when and where they would happen. Had I somehow been able to have an early warning that a certain truck with a certain registration was going to change lanes at the exact moment I had passed him, then I could have taken preventative measures.

And the same goes with certificates.

If you knew ahead of time where the certificates were and when they would expire, and who was responsible for them; then you’d be able to take pre-emptive action. The problem is that most organisations simply do not know. If you happen to use certificates signed by a trusted third party (TTP) then they will notify you when renewal is due – after all you’re paying for them year on year. But then there are the certificates that have been created using your own CA which are usually managed using a spreadsheet or some other archaic method, and then there’s the nightmare ‘self signed’ certificates which have been created on some application or device with no need to get any external validation.

But regardless of who or what is supplying your certificates, none of these systems by themselves are going to take care of the actual task of renewing the certificate on the actual application and device. It wouldn’t have done me much good if I hadn’t taken action 22 VitAL : September / October 2010

six months ago to renew my insurance when I received the letter reminding me that a renewal was required! Fortunately my valid insurance document was sitting in the glove box!

An expiry, or failure, of any of these certificates will always lead to chaotic finger pointing throughout the organisation with everybody blaming somebody and nobody taking responsibility. Just imagine if I’d had to face my wife with the news that not only had my car been mugged but that I’d also forgot to renew the insurance. That would be tame compared to the hysterical reaction you get when a certificate brings a trading floor to a grinding halt in the middle of the afternoon, or results in the production line of a global manufacturer to stop working for eight hours!

telling the whole street that I have a damaged car as if in some way I’ve just been responsible for a 50 percent drop in the value of the properties around me; the loss of productivity from having to spend a day chasing insurance companies and getting repair estimates; and just the sheer inconvenience of having to remove a lifetime’s personal belongings from my car before sending it off to be repaired.

So, a loss of productivity, a dented ego and financial loss, all because I was in the wrong place at the right time. Of course you console yourself with the thought that it could have been worse, and sure in many cases things are just simply unavoidable, but when it comes to your certificates there is no reason why an accident should happen.

Crisis management is not making it up as you go along

Get some insurance!!

When my truck driver ‘friend’ stepped down from his magnificent chariot, I quickly discovered he didn’t speak my first, second or third language, but fortunately having a mobile phone with the police emergency numbers, and the ‘what happens when you hit a truck in a foreign country’ number from my insurance company, it was relatively simple to set procedures in motion.

Most organisations I meet with are not able to tell you who owns or is responsible for certificates on systems and applications. There is no verification process to check if certificates are installed correctly, and in the event of a crisis everyone suddenly looks at the Infosec group and expect them to simply fix it.

Counting the cost Ultimately my altercation has come with a price, whether it’s the neighbour who seems intent on

The first step in managing encryption is to determine where keys and encryption certificates are deployed within the enterprise environment, and assess where imminent risks exist, such as which systems are using weak key strengths, which certificates and keys are about to expire, where rogue certificate authorities are in use, etc. Five simple questions: • What has actually been deployed, and on how many systems?

• Which certificates are still in use?

• What certificates have been issued by all CAs? • What is the status of root and intermediary roots that are in use on those systems?

• Are those certificates within policy?

And if you don’t know the answer to the list of questions then that ‘truck’ may just be around the next bend! VitAL www.venafi.com www.vital-mag.net

VitAL PROFILe

Service management at its best VitAL profiles one of the uKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading iT service management consultancies iCore, speaking to managing director Tony Jupp.

i

COre iS one of the largest specialist iT Service Management consultancies in the uK. it has a long and impressive track record of delivering and embedding pragmatic iT service management processes and projects with its customers.

The company says this success has been achieved with a combination of strong leadership and discipline with outcomeand value-driven projects that focus on cost control and efficiency. The company relies on the real world experience of its consultancy team which is lead by managing director Tony Jupp.

24 VitAL : September / October 2010

Tony Jupp has over 15 years business management experience operating in positions of middle and senior management in a variety of capacities. He spoke to VitAL about icoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s origins and philosophy and where it is headed.

VitAL: what are the origins of the company; how did it start and develop; how has it grown and how is it structured?

Tony Jupp: icore has been operating in the service Management space for the last 13 years. we have developed from a company offering project resources and consulting www.vital-mag.net

vital profile

into a specialist in all aspects of Service Management and IT Governance. We have a small board of directors consisting of Greg Lake (exec chairman), Jim Chapman (deputy chair), Peter English (a venture capital investor from Foresight which holds a small share in the business) and myself, Tony Jupp (managing director). Foresight has been a great addition to our board and a very supportive investor in the business.

Structurally we operate a simple practicedriven organisational model. The consultancy practice is headed and driven by Steve Ingall and we currently have some 40 consultants within the team and a small number of associates. Within the practice we have roles for product managers who look after certain aspects of our IP and services together with three team leaders to provide guidance and focus for the wider team while on client site.

Consulting can be a disparate and lonely business so we do our best to maintain good communications within the team and keep team spirit high.

Outside of the practice iCore operates a dedicated sales teams and a telesales function.

In addition we have the usual finance and resourcing roles plus a dedicated marketing resource. This makes up a small central team to support the practice delivery operation which runs out of our Lombard Street offices near Bank in London.

VitAL: What is the company’s specialist area or product group?

TJ: iCore specialises in the field of Service Management. We are a consultancy group focused on improving the governance and operation of Corporate/large IT environments. In essence our work breaks down into a number of areas around this capability. These can be pure strategic and directional consulting, defining and delivering process, through to operational support and interim management activity. Most of our people are also qualified and experienced project managers.. The key frameworks we work to on this basis are ITIL, COBIT, ISO20000 and Prince2. www.vital-mag.net

One of the key differentiators that we focus on is practical delivery and solutions. All of our people have an operational focus and background and we pride ourselves on providing clearly understood and pragmatic solutions to clients that are fit for purpose. We are all about delivery!

VitAL: Is that specialisation to make the best use of skills in the company or because it fits the company’s world view or has it simply evolved?

TJ: This is our chosen focus which allows us to position ourselves as a niche player focused on Service Management within the general consulting market. We could broaden our horizon into other consulting areas but prefer to be an expert in one discipline rather than a generalist consultancy. All of our employees are people with many years’ experience in the IT environment with a focus on Service Management and Service Operations.

Consulting can be a disparate and lonely business so we do our best to maintain good communications within the team and keep team spirit high.

VitAL: How has any specialisation influenced the company’s general stance?

TJ: Service Management for iCore has not changed dramatically over the last few years.

The shift from ITIL v2 to v3 has had a minimal impact to our operations and approach mostly due to the fact that the key beneficial aspects of v3 (namely the advent of Service Transition and relating the IT strategy back to Business drivers) are issues that iCore has been promoting for a long time. However new frameworks emerge from time to time which means that the way in which we package and sell services will shift (the likes of ISO 20000 and the rise of COBIT for example). However the key focus for iCore remains practical solutions for effective Service Management. iCore is all about delivery and value add. In today’s market that generally means more bang for your buck which in our language is all about efficiency/effectiveness and leaner ways of thinking/working.

VitAL: who are the company’s main customers today and in the future?

TJ: Principally we deal with blue chip organisations but do have some business with September / October 2010 : VitAL 25

vital profile

tier two companies as well. This is mostly due to the fact that organisations need to be of a certain size before using ITIL and consulting becomes viable. We are not market specific and have or have had clients from a broad spectrum of markets. Typical customers include: BP, Shell, TUI, Xchanging, London Clearing House, Xtracter, Bank Of England, Skipton Building Society, Barclays, Arval.

VitAL: What is the company’s business model ie, does it select a market and then design solutions to meet the needs of that market or does it specialise in particular solutions and seek markets where those solutions are needed?

TJ: Service Management is largely market agnostic, all major organisations with IT groups over a certain size need to have a level of governance and operational control.

Be it a financial institution or an oil company the processes and operational dynamics for controlling and running IT are not dissimilar.

Based on our history and client relationships we do have a lot of strength in the financial and energy sectors but also have clients in travel, manufacturing and the public sector.

In terms of business strategy it’s very simple. As a consultancy business we typically struggle with long range forecasting given most client commitments are normally short term, usually eight to twelve weeks and sometimes up to six months. Although in general we tend to maintain long term relationships with our clients the purchase order process usually remains the same with extensions occurring as required. This only changes when you move into longer term managed service arrangements with clients.

As a result we have had to be very prudent in our management of our financial position and growth of the business.

Strategically we are working towards a business model split as follows: 20 percent high end consulting: This is the strategic and directional activity that we undertake with major clients to help formulate strategy and direction, undertake major programmes or transitional activity.

40 percent operational consultancy: Our main business, all the process design consulting, 26 VitAL : September / October 2010

ITIL processes, Service Improvement activity, interim management and operational work.

40 percent managed service: This is long-term operational activity to manage Service Management processes on behalf of our clients. The Business as usual stuff, if you will.

The above focus allows us to pull clients through from thought leadership into design and deployment and finally into BAU operational management. iCore is able to offer each of these services at the right time using the right resource meaning the right price for the work.

In addition to the above, iCore has also just launched a recruitment and resourcing arm to increase our value chain. Very often we are asked if we know of good people and this activity is a great addition to our service catalogue.

VitAL: What is the company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, ie, ‘green’ issues?

TJ: While iCore does not produce anything physical we do have a focus on lean mechanics and efficiency. It can be argued that a better run IT organisation that has a clear understanding of its capacity and demand issues will operate leaner and as such waste less energy. This is clearly becoming a more visible issue with our clients especially given the market conditions over the last 18 to 24 months.

All of our people have an operational focus and background and we pride ourselves on providing clearly understood and pragmatic solutions to clients that are fit for purpose. We are all about delivery!

VitAL: How does the company communicate with vendors and customers?

TJ: From a vendor perspective we remain unbiased and are not directly associated with any specific vendors. When asked to recommend toolsets and Hardware etc, iCore will advise based on what we believe to be excellent products and how best they suit our clients’ needs. Having this level of independence is a strength in our view and allows us to speak with a defined level of independence.

From a client perspective I suspect our model is little different from most consultancy organisations. We have a sales vehicle which has one level of comms with clients and prospective clients. We also have the practice www.vital-mag.net

vital profile

vehicle which over and above the day to day delivery also has a focus on ensuring that we spend some executive and management time ensuring that our clients are getting what they want from us and that expectations are met and/or exceeded. iCore is 9002 certified and as part of our quality process we have clear process for defining requirements, delivery, comms, expectation and exit with all of our engagements.

VitAL: What does the product range cover?

TJ: iCore offers a range of services in and around the Service Management, project and Governance space. You can find most of our service offerings on our website, but a good example is the Maturity Assessment. Typically a good place to start for many clients who are starting their service management journey or looking to move to the next level of maturity.

The MA is an interview-based process that essentially asks a wealth of questions around each ITIL discipline which culminates in the production of a spider diagram showing the client how they score against the Maturity Model. This can be run for either v2 or v3 models of the ITIL framework. The MA allows the client to get a clear view on where they are now and the resulting presentation and report from this exercise provides clear direction and recommendations on how to move forward.

VitAL: What is your view of the current state of IT Service Management and IT in business and the economy in general, the challenges and the opportunities?

TJ: Clearly the last two years have been very difficult for most companies in the UK. As a consulting business we are often one of the first hit when client budgets and projects get pulled. iCore has been very prudent with growth and financial management through this period to ensure that we get through and are well positioned to grow with the recovery of the market. Many organisations in our space have not been so fortunate which in our opinion provides us with better positioning now that the signs of recovery are evident and sales activity is picking up. One of the benefits across this period has been our ability to acquire some quality people, including Steve Ingall (our head www.vital-mag.net

of consulting practice) and Paul Whitlock, who people will know from the industry.

With respect to the service management market, little has really changed over the last few years. There was a lot of expectation around v3 but essentially this has had minimal impact on consulting and many organisations are still on a journey towards a mature v2 environment with only the advent of Service Transition really having any direct impact on the majority of our clients.

Opportunity is there for those consulting groups that can demonstrate true realisable value to their clients. Right now that value is very focused on leaner and more efficient ways of working due to the market and resulting budget pressures. Truly understanding the practical impacts and effects of good service management is a strength that has and is serving iCore very well in the current climate.

VitAL: Has the company grown organically or by acquisition and how much is growth expected in the future?

TJ: iCore has grown organically to date.

Predicting growth in our market is very difficult and of course is dependent on the market conditions and budget positions of our clients.

Certainly the last two years have been very difficult for many organisations in our space including ourselves. However with that said we have a positive order book, positive outlook and strong financial position.

VitAL: What are the future plans for the business?

TJ: iCore is already established as a leader in Service Management consulting with one of the largest SM focused teams in the UK. Quite simply we will look to grow, maintain our financial strength and extend our credibility and brand. We aim to achieve this through the strength and credibility of our existing consulting business and team, via value chain extensions such as the recruitment and contracts arm we are starting to establish and via acquisition should the right opportunity come along that benefits both parties.

Certainly the last two years have been very difficult for many organisations in our space including ourselves. However with that said we have a positive order book, positive outlook and strong financial position.

VitAL: Tony Jupp, thank you very much. www.icore-ltd.com September / October 2010 : VitAL 27

VitAL sUPPORT

Customer service for support technicians This issue Noel Bruton* tackles the tricky subject of teaching customer service to iT support technicians.

i

N My consultancy and training practice, my goal is to show my clients’ managers and staff how to improve the iT support they deliver to their computer users. Often, this means i must impart the concepts of ‘customer service’ to technicians. This is a tricky one – it is safe to say that technically minded people are not always receptive to these ideas and the more technical they are, the more that may tend to tip over into downright resistance.

And I for one don’t blame them. I can see lots of reasons for the folding of the figurative arms and the suggested, if not actual, mildly aggressive slight incline of the head that challenges me to tell them something they

28 VitAL : September / October 2010

don’t know. Because there’s the thing with so-called soft skills like customer service. everybody thinks they know them. After all, aren’t soft skills just bottled common sense?

Customers or users?

And why do we call them ‘customers’ and not ‘users’ anyway? Isn’t that just hype? Actually, a far more accurate term rather than ‘hype’ refers also to certain excreta of male cattle, but I’m sure the editor of this magazine would scrub the b-word if I used it, despite its conceptual precision, for which there is no real alternative.

But talk about customer service with some technicians and that word will often be at the front of their minds.

There is a great deal of ‘the-material-that-shallnot-be-named’ spoken, written and generally professed about ‘customer service’. I’m aware of it and I know my trainees are aware of it. Too often, customer service training is delivered as a series of crass techniques. A classic example of this is the incitement to “smile when you are on the telephone – the customer on the other end can tell you are smiling, and so both you and he feel good about the exchange”. what utter, utter nonsense. some people are simply not smiley, as their nature is serious. gordon Brown. Jack Dee. Tell them to smile falsely and see what you get back. smiley niceness has a place in the world – daytime television perhaps – but maybe that place is not in the www.vital-mag.net

vital support

middle of the crash of a crucial business system requiring cool-headed diagnostics and serious analysis.

No wonder some technicians actively resist drivel like “Smile to your customers” or the similarly irritating cliché, “Go the extra mile”.

You cannot and must not attempt to deliver customer service by means of techniques. This is a matter of sincerity. It is banal, dishonest and indeed unprofessional, deliberately to use insincerity as a fundament of customer relations. Yes, I train IT support technicians in good customer service – but not that mendacious kind of “customer service”.

Nonsense Given the nonsense generally surrounding the topic, those resistive technicians are usually right. They do indeed know what “customer service” is. They experience it whenever they buy something, although perhaps there lies part of the problem – there is no worse service experience than being patronised by a salesman who will do, say, guess or lie about anything just to get the sale.

So your technicians don’t have to be ‘taught’ customer service as such. But what they perhaps do not know is how to apply it in their jobs without being untrue to themselves or insincere to their customers. For if that were common IT practice, then the institution would not be paying me to change that. And they are. So they believe that some adjustment is needed to the delivery of customer service in this IT support mechanism.

It is not ‘customer service’ that the technicians are resisting. It is the arrogance of the affront that they need to be taught something they think they already know, coupled with the risk of being institutionally compelled to use selfbetrayal and insincerity as work methods.

Add to that the context in which the soft skills training is being delivered. These people are technicians. They probably enjoyed acquiring technical knowledge when they were children.

In adulthood, they went into IT because it is a field where technology is always changing, so there is always something new to learn.

They get to follow their instinct to know more technology and get paid at the same time.

Perfect. And then two things happen. They www.vital-mag.net

don’t get sent on technical training courses as often as they would like and then they have to listen to some outsider telling them about customer service (or worse, they have to attend the dreaded ITIL Foundation course, but that’s a topic I’ve covered in an earlier issue of Vital).

How does that look to them? They come to you looking for technical knowledge and then you spend your hard-pressed training budget on service, rather than server-training.

Budget We all know that you spend your training budget wisely. You have all the server technicians you need right now, and there’s no point in sending people on courses to acquire technical knowledge that there is no immediate opportunity for them to use. Yet you have noticed that the service mentality among some IT staff has lost its sheen and needs refreshing.

Ironically, it is precisely because you know that and your technicians see it differently, that they evidently need that soft skills training to put their ‘technical knowledge’ back into perspective.

It is a simple truth about IT services that we cannot produce them without the raw material of abundant technical knowledge. But in business, you can have all the knowledge in the world and it is completely useless if you are unable to translate it into a service. That translation is a matter of design. How do you turn knowledge into a service?

The answer is that there are people out there who need the fruits of that knowledge, packaged in the right way to meet their business, not technical needs. One thing technicians and customers have in common is that they are people. And like it or not, when people meet in a supply and demand relationship, there are always emotional and psychological dimensions to contend with.

Why emotional? Because of the existence of a need. Where there is a need, there is a risk associated with that need not being met.

Where there is risk, there is fear. This exists on several planes, which may manifest themselves in diverse ways, such as importance, urgency, expectation and so on. The emotional, psychological need must be met too, or the service is incomplete. That dimension is inescapable, so it must be understood.

Translation This is why some of the users don’t like some of the technicians in IT, because there are differences in the level at which some technicians are able to make that final translation of knowledge into service. It is why “just reboot it” isn’t a satisfactory answer, because it doesn’t take the risk away. It is also why “Fred normally deals with that but he’s out of the office today” is also unacceptable, and it is the technician who does not understand customer service who would give either of those as an answer to a user’s enquiry. That technician also doesn’t realise the damage he is doing to himself by answering that way, for he is adding to what Peppers and Rogers, writers on customer service, called the “thousand small demonstrations of incompetence”.

Of course, perhaps the original fault lies with the manufacturer that now and again the operating system loses its grip and only a restart will resolve it, and maybe with the organisation, that only Fred can fix that kind of problem. Nevertheless, the damage is done. The technician has not grasped the inseparable nature of customer service and his own professionalism. And it is that link wherein lies the solution to customer service as delivered by technicians.

It is why managers further up the organisation seem to be able to deliver good service instinctively, without smiling unless they want to, without dipping into insincerity, without resorting to crass technique, without coming across like an exploitative salesman. The trick to understanding and training customer service is to comprehend the mentality that makes senior people able to do that so naturally, and thus to show technicians which switches to flip, so they can immediately do it too, while still being true to their nature. *Noel Bruton is a long established, UK-based consultant and trainer specialising in IT support management and delivery. He is the bestselling author of ‘How to Manage the IT Helpdesk’ and ‘Managing the IT Services Process’. www.noelbruton.com VitAL September / October 2010 : VitAL 29

VitAL InTeRVIew

The King (v2) is dead – long live the King (V3) as v2 takes its final curtain call before exiting stage left it is the perfect time to stop and reflect on how iTil’s implementation, consultation, education and training has changed since the new regent of Service Management, v3, took to the throne. Wardown Consulting director and acting CeO of itSMF uK, Rosemary Gurney* spoke to VitAL’s Matt Bailey.

T

he iT infrastructure library’s roots hail from the 1980s when the Central Computer and Telecommunications agency (CCTa) – now known as the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), developed a set of recommendations in response to growing dependence on iT. iTil was born from the recognition of the need for a common framework of best practices within the management of iT, the absence of which was spawning a vast array of differing processes and procedures in government agencies and private sector suppliers alike.

This original library grew rapidly in the ’80s and ’90s into more than thirty separate tomes.

In 2000/2001, in an attempt to make ITIL more practical, accessible and cost effective, ITIL v1 was transformed into v2 which consolidated the previous publications into seven logical sets: ’service support’; ‘service Delivery’; IcT Infrastructure Management’; ‘security Management’; ‘The Business Perspective’; ‘Application Management’; and ‘software Asset Management’. These in turn were complimented with the release of the publication, ‘Planning to Implement service Management’ in 2002. These groupings provided process guidelines mapped to the different aspects of IT management, applications, and services.

“Everything flows, nothing stands still. Nothing endures but change.” Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.535 BC - 475 BC) In June 2007 ITIL v3 was delivered into the world kicking and screaming. Made up of five core publications: ‘service strategy’; ‘service Design’; ’service Transition’; 30 VitAL : September / October 2010

Crown Copyright 2007 reproduced under license from OGC

©

As any fully qualified, badge wearing Service Manager will confidently tell you, the core material on Service Management was held in the blue ‘Service Support’ and the red ‘Service Delivery’ publications and it was from these that the ITIL Foundation, Practitioner and Manager training courses were seeded. In fact these two publications represented the most widely used, circulated, and understood of entire library.

‘service Operation’ and ‘continual service Improvement’ it represented a 21st century approach to service Management and a shift in thinking towards the concept of service lifecycle structure.

Crown Copyright 2007 reproduced under license from OGC

©

Much has changed in the world of IT and Service Management in the decade since v2 was first launched. The focus in v3 is now very much on integrating IT practices with the business lifecycle and the original concepts of Service Support and Service Delivery have been absorbed into a more holistic approach which stresses the importance of providing and supporting the ‘business as usual’ delivery of an organisations IT.

“where ITIL v3 has moved on is in the recognition that all the service Management processes are integrated and as such are reliant upon each other,” explains Rosemary gurney, director of wardown consulting and newly appointed acting ceO of itsMF UK. “The lifecycle-based approach is more readily recognisable and appreciated by organisations as opposed to the old ‘silo-style’ approach to ITsM but the transition from v2 to v3 has made for some interesting challenges in the training and education of ITIL.”

When two becomes five The service support and service Delivery books of the v2 library were the two main publications used for training under ITIL v2, but as gurney suggests, “v3 has a much broader base now. Often our end-users don’t grasp that they are actually being taught more than simply the concepts contained under the old ‘support and delivery’ banners. It is a much more realistic and holistic approach we have now; the traditional support and delivery processes are still covered, but they are now spread throughout the entire lifecycle.

“There were courses available under v2 covering the other six books in the series but they weren’t so popular. Under ITIL v3 these two volumes no longer exist. The terms service support and service delivery were often used as job titles which didn’t seem to mean a great deal, they were generic titles that don’t really marry up to what is in the v2 books.

For example, Availability as a process lives in the service Design phase, but it also has interaction with service Operation processes and functions, amongst others, so if there is an incident that is availability-related, knowledge of availability management techniques may www.vital-mag.net

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vital interview

be needed to get a resolution and conversely, knowledge obtained in Service Operation is used to refine the design of new and changed services for the future. In practise, all the processes interact at various stages of the lifecycle.

“Now there is a different approach to education,” says Rosemary Gurney. “We talk about why you have to do it much more rather than how it is done. Foundation is much more about the awareness and understanding of the concepts; the Intermediate modules are much more about applying and analysing these concepts and the education allows the student to apply what is learned in the classroom into their workplace situations.”

Applying the lessons “The difference between education and qualifications is real life. Real life is different from the class room, you have to adopt and adapt,” says Gurney. “Having done the ITIL training people go back to their jobs and have to adapt it in their own business. They have been given the concept in training and then gone back and adapted it to their business.

“ITIL at its best should be tried and tested best practise. ‘This is what we believe good practise looks like, if it doesn’t work in your organisation then adapt it to meet your requirements’.

People run into trouble when they implement it from the book and totally by the book,” states Gurney.

An example of where ITIL has to be adapted to individual circumstances is when it is used in police forces. Police forces in England are not all structured in the same way, they have fundamental differences although they are all doing the same job. Individual police forces have to implement ITIL in different ways that reflect their organisation, the resources available to them and the requirements of the community they support. And if these 32 VitAL : September / October 2010

organisations, which on the face of it appear to have so much common ground, have that degree of diversity, what chance does anyone else have in getting it right first time?

Not the only tool in the box “There has to be a widening of peoples’ understanding of IT Service Management, we have got to get away from the idea that ITIL is the be all and end all,” argues Gurney, “there are other standards and frameworks that people could be using, ITIL is just one tool in the box. You have to find the right tool and it could be ITIL, but it could also be COBIT or ISO 20000 or one of many another approaches. When we talk about service management ITIL is only one part of the picture. Service management is the future and ITIL is one – very important – part of it, but still only one part of it.” VitAL * Rosemary Gurney is director of Wardown Consulting Ltd and acting CEO, itSMF UK. She has gained a reputation as an exceptionally successful and sought after lecturer whose work has taken her to many clients and locations in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. She has recently been appointed acting CEO of itSMF UK while continuing to hold the post of chairman of the itSMF UK Qualifications & Certifications committee which she has held for the past four years and chairman of the itSMFI Qualifications & Certifications committee for three years. She is a Senior Examiner on the APM Group international examiner panel and has played a pivotal role in the creation of the ITIL v3 Foundation syllabus and examination.

ITIL at its best should be tried and tested best practise. ‘This is what we believe good practise looks like, if it doesn’t work in your organisation then adapt it to meet your requirements’. People run into trouble when they implement it from the book and totally by the book.

ITIL is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries www.vital-mag.net

Properly equipped for the job?

In the current climate every organisation is balancing the need to reduce risk and costs, but at the same time maintain or increase service levels. Headcount freezes are becoming the norm, but the IT organisation is still expected to deliver the same, if not better service to its customers.

When most companies need additional or temporary resource the first port of call is the preferred recruitment agency, who will perform a word matching exercise in their CV database, then send you a stack of CVs. With a Pink Elephant resource you get much more than a body – you get people who: • Are cost competitive • Are highly skilled in their field and have a very high aptitude for delivering ‘Service’, not simply ‘Techies’

• Understand ITIL and IT Service Management • Will transfer their knowledge to your staff • Have the backing of the world’s leading niche player in Service Management behind them – with the ability to call on their colleagues for help and support And finally, you will be using an organisation that really understands IT Service Management and can help you to reduce risk and costs, and increase customer satisfaction.

• Understand how good process can deliver benefits to the organisation, and will look to improve at any opportunity

To speak to us about our resourcing solutions and the quality of personnel we provide;

phone us on: + 44 (0) 118 903 6824 email us at: info.europe@pinkelephant.com or visit our website: www.pinkelephant.com

Pink Elephant – Leading the way in IT Service Management Best Practices © Pink Elephant 2008. These contents are protected by copyright and cannot be reproduced in any manner. Pink Elephant and its logo, PinkVERIFY, PinkSCAN, PinkATLAS, PinkSELECT, and PinkREADY are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Pink Elephant Inc. ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.

VitAL InTeRVIew PROcesses

Behind a cloud: Is cloud computing an option for disaster recovery? instead of investing in tapes or hardware to provide disaster recovery, organisations may find it more beneficial to backup their data to a cloud provider. Ian Masters, director of Double-Take Software outlines the benefits of a cloud-based approach to disaster recovery.

34 VitAL : September / October 2010

www.vital-mag.net

vital management

F

or many organisations, IT plays a critical role in their success. Software, applications and electronic data are vital to how companies operate, and when they aren’t available due to a disaster or outage, business is slowed or stopped altogether. In the short term, outages result in data loss, employee and customer frustration and lost revenue. The long-term penalties of an outage can affect a business for a lifetime; lost records, transactions and accounting files can even put a business at risk of regulatory violations.

The discipline of business continuity is focused on ensuring that organisations are protected against these disasters, whether they are large events including fire or flooding, or smaller IT problems such as lost data or a broken server. This involves moving copies of the business’ data off-site. However, this backing up of data is only part of the equation; if you can’t recover the data, the backup will not help.

Currently, almost all backup processes are based on using tape media, or disk-to-disk replication. If a server blows up, or a hard disk fails, then the recovery would start from the last backup. All in all, with tape you will be looking at significant lost time as well as productivity for end-users being affected. With disk-to-disk backup, the recovery process will be much faster, but the cost is also higher than tape, due to the requirements for additional servers and storage hardware, as well as the cost for provisioning and maintaining a second site environment.

Enter cloud computing as a potential way to solve this problem. Instead of investing in additional tapes or hardware to provide recovery, organisations can backup their data to a cloud provider. The cost for this approach is a monthly fee based on how much storage you require, so you should only pay for what you are actually consuming. The cloud service is offered without any investment in hardware by the customer, as this set of resources is shared across all the organisations that are sharing the service. www.vital-mag.net

This breaks down into two offerings: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where users get access to raw storage and IT resources from the partner and are responsible for what they do with them, and Software as a Service (SaaS), which includes the applications and set-up as part of the overall package.

The overall result from using cloud should be the ability to protect critical data more quickly and with greater flexibility than using tape, and at a lower cost than disk-to-disk methods. However, is this really a viable option for most organisations? Can it deliver on its promises?

Understanding recovery The best approach to answering this question is to go back to basics around disaster recovery. The right way to evaluate the quality of your system and data protection is to evaluate the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). These metrics define how long you think it will take you to get back online and how current the data has to be.

Every business will have different RTO and RPO goals. If an organisation has a four hour RTO, then the business can tolerate four hours of downtime between the point of failure and recovery. Similarly, for a four hour RPO, they will only have to recreate or do without the last four hours of data.

Taken together, this is about eight hours of lost productivity, or equivalent to a full business day.

For most serious problems, this is an optimistic goal for a tape or disk-to-disk backup system to meet on its own. Here is a quick list of things that can easily push recovery times into days or weeks: • Equipment failure, requiring a replacement; • Extended or recurring power outage; • Air-conditioning failure; • Fire; • Flood (water leak); • Physical damage to the building.

To ensure a faster recovery, you would

require replacement equipment standing by at an off-site location with the necessary software and configuration to quickly transfer users and data. Disk-to-disk replication software can be used to keep the backup systems constantly updated, but this best practice approach includes a remote data centre with servers, storage, networking equipment and internet access.

An organisation’s DR requirements can be met by current technology, so why isn’t every server in the world protected? Usually the answer is ‘cost’. The cost of an off-site, rapid recovery solution soon builds up: • The upfront cost of investment; • Technical complexity requiring new IT specialists, or time and budget to train existing staff; • Operational complexity around managing a new data centre and twice as much equipment; • Project management – this is a complex, potentially expensive project that requires lots of planning and management; • Risk – complicated projects sometimes fail.

Given the cost, complexity, time, and risk involved in implementing this capability, these projects are necessary investments due to either regulation or business requirements. If not, then they can be delayed in favour of projects that produce more immediate results such as a web server update or a desktop refresh.

Where the pain really is Most of the cost and complexity around business continuity solutions does not come from the specialised tools for replication and recovery; the biggest pain points are, ironically, the extra facilities and equipment required to make this work. This extra investment will also sit relatively idle most of the time, so it cannot pay back unless the organisation has a major outage.

Looking at traditional recovery environments, there is a peak-versus-average problem, where time and money are spent building September / October 2010 : VitAL 35

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a redundant data centre than can meet the peak capacity of the IT department, but the average utilisation of that capacity will be very small. You pay for peak, but only get the benefit of a very low average utilisation.

Cloud computing removes this cost from the organisation. Instead of having to select, implement and manage the IT infrastructure directly, all you would see is the website through which the service is delivered.

Data can be copied over to a cloud storage provider rather than sitting at the second site, and all you have to pay for is the amount of resources consumed. Cloud services providers can also provide more than just online storage. The cloud can provide computing capacity as well as storage, so the data can be manipulated and processed remotely as well.

The best cloud providers will let you buy capacity in very small chunks, change your usage on the fly, and bill you only for what you consume; all without a long-term commitment to any specific usage pattern or cost. This new financial arrangement breaks the peak-versus-average problem mentioned above.

When cloud recovery makes sense For organisations looking at the cloud for DR, there are several areas where it makes real sense. For smaller companies, where the cost of acquisition makes full-scale continuity or DR 36 VitAL : September / October 2010

solutions too expensive to contemplate, then a cloud-based approach can fill this gap in an affordable way. For larger organisations, cloud can complement their existing continuity strategy and widen the number of machines that are being protected.

A cloud-based DR strategy can also overcome the issue with downtime experienced during the recovery phase. If you are putting full server instances into the cloud, then you can potentially run those workloads in the event of a disaster affecting the main site. This is the main difference between online storage being used for DR, and a full use of the cloud for recovery of workloads. Instead of waiting for a physical copy of the data to be delivered, or for a full download to be completed, the workload image can take advantage of the full set of resources that the cloud offers and be run like a standard machine.

This does require certain resources from the cloud provider, such as the ability to handle larger boot volumes, but it gets around the problem of lost time while any data is recovered. This option to work with an upto-date copy of their data and applications reduces the potential window of downtime, by shrinking the RTO for users to get back online and productive.

Wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get fooled again?

Sound good? It should. However, like any interesting technology development, there is a lot of hype around cloud. Many managed

service providers and hosting companies are touting their solutions as cloud computing platforms, as well as offering disaster recovery or online backup on top. This confusion in the market makes individuals wary of investing in cloud, so the best approach is to stick to DR best practice and ask how cloud can support your Recovery Point and Recovery Time Objectives in particular.

With this in mind, it helps to ask a few key questions: 1. Can the cloud offering protect all of my servers and applications?

2. Can it protect the OS and applications as well as the data?

3. Does it provide a mechanism to recover the data/servers without lots of downtime?

4. Can I actually failover to the Cloud and stay up and running?

5. Can I test the failover process to ensure the servers are recoverable?

6. Can I just pay for what I use or do I need dedicated servers in the cloud?

Looking at this list of questions, there is still a great deal of education required around the potential that cloud computing can offer around improving disaster recovery. Using best practice techniques around recovery of data is one route to ensuring that any implementation is a successful one. However, the biggest impact that cloud can have on recovery is around making this a viable technology for businesses of all sizes. VitAL www.vital-mag.net

VitAL EYES ON

Darkside of the cloud

VitAL editor Matt Bailey listens to what the iT world is saying about the impact the cloud is having on iT jobs.

In the short term,

W Using best practice techniques around recovery of data is one route to ensuring that any implementation is a successful one.

However, the biggest impact that cloud can have on recovery is around making this a viable technology for businesses of all sizes.

www.vital-mag.net

henever a new technology makes its presence felt there are bound to be implications; there is often a panic in the wake of discovery that soon passes as the novelty is assimilated. you can usually put the knee-jerk reaction down to ignorance or misunderstanding, although i usually put it down to the Daily Mail myself. The panic soon passes and the ‘latest thing’ becomes just another weave in life’s rich tapestry.

Much has been made of the potential of cloud computing, not least in these pages, but is a downside starting to raise its profile? Just lately I have seen a few comments and talked to a couple of pundits who have raised the prospect of cloud computing being a means by which IT jobs will be shed. Perhaps if more functionality can be hosted in the cloud, so can much of the service element. And in the current economic climate any means of cutting cost is sure to be grasped at.

IT industry blogger and sometime VitAL contributor Dominic Monkhouse is however upbeat, “cloud has been and continues to be a huge driver for the IT sector and while job losses are an inevitable part of any change so should job creation arise out of this evolution,” he says. “cloud should see an increase in the number of start-ups that spring to life, developers will be able to expand as a result of the efficiencies of on-demand provisioning, and of course cloud providers themselves will need more staff with the right skills. There will be a shift in where the jobs are and the roles that teams play but the optimist in me believes that ultimately more jobs will be created as businesses prosper and grow.”

Dave Paulding of VoIP telephony specialists Interactive Intelligence (see page 46), a pioneering company in the field of communications as a service (caas), suggests that there may be a minimal reduction in IT staff levels: “It will vary from organisation to organisation,” he told VitAL recently, “but there will still be a need for local on-site IT support and staff reduction isn’t the over-riding reason why companies are adopting cloud services.” so, the message is ‘don’t fear the cloud’; as is often the case with changes of paradigm the best policy is to adapt to the new reality, keep calm and carry on.

outages result in data loss, employee and customer frustration

Jonathan Westlake is on holiday.

His column will return in the November / December issue of VitAL. VitAL

September / October 2010 : VitAL 37

VitAL PROcesses

Smarter working as one of the largest further education colleges in the country, Kirklees College has a formidable iT estate to manage. VitAL speaks to the establishmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iT manager, Richard Brook about how his department is working smarter to deliver service.

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he KirKleeS area, Kirklees abbey in particular, is famous for being the last resting place of robin hood and while i struggle to find a parallel between the medieval heroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modus operandi and that of the iT department in a further education establishment, iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sure both are well used to having to do their best with limited resources.

Richard Brook is the information and learning technology (ILT) Manager at Kirklees college; He has a long history with the college both as a student and a member of staff. He began his career as an electrician 38 VitAL : September / October 2010

and developed through the fields of electrical engineering, electronic servicing and computing, meanwhile studying at the college and local University in Huddersfield.

Today he works as part of the IT team responsible for the implementation of training, web systems development and the cherwell service Management implementation.

Kirklees college came into being in 2008 with the merger of Dewsbury college and Huddersfield Technical college. It is now one of the biggest colleges in the country with a vast range of courses and study options for students to choose from. Based at the www.vital-mag.net

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heart of Yorkshire, it has centres across the Kirklees district serving the local population, communities and businesses.

VitAL: Please explain what you organisation is and what it does?

Richard Brook: Kirklees College is a Further Education College, serving over 20,000 students a year with around 1,400 staff.

Kirklees College is aiming to position itself as the first choice for anyone wanting to gain vocational skills that will lead to employment, but also offers higher education courses, and a wide range of part time options.

VitAL: What are the particular challenges faced by the IT service management staff in your organisation?

RB: There are three main challenges for us in the College: 1. The need to ensure the service is up to date for teaching, and testing students, and ensuring any outage is reacted to promptly and resolved as quickly as possible.

2. The need to support a wide variety of IT equipment and software for a huge range of uses.

3. The need to achieve this on a very tight budget.

VitAL: who are your main customers today and in the future?

RB: Our customers are our learners. Either directly, or indirectly via supporting our teachers and back office staff so that the College is ready and prepared to teach.

VitAL: What commitment do you have to social responsibility, ie, green issues? How is the ITSM department involved?

RB: The IT department as a whole has a significant contribution to make to the green issues. The College IT and Estates teams have www.vital-mag.net

already implemented voltage reduction energy saving technology to reduce our overall power consumption. Equally, whenever we tender and procure for new equipment and services we look at this – including reviewing CRMworks’ Green Policy as part of our tender evaluation process. Recently we have signed up to use new network switches which utilise significantly less power.

The College as a whole is very committed to this with all our new buildings seeking high level green certification. And as a team, we choose to travel using public transport between our sites wherever possible – this is mainly on planned work as opposed to incident response.

VitAL: What is your view of the current state of IT service management and the economy in general, the challenges and the opportunities?

RB: Like many other areas, IT service management is going to need to deliver more for less. This will require smarter working practices. This is easy to say but not always simple to deliver.

For us, the adoption of standard best practices such as ITIL and Prince have enabled us to work in a more managed way. Reducing some of the frantic, very reactive ways of working to a more managed and considered response, but one that delivers a far higher level of service overall. This way of working allows us to manage what a very limited pool of engineers can do and optimise their positive impact on the end-users and make sure that it is really occurring.

Working very closely with our service desk supplier CRMworks, the UK full service delivery partner for Cherwell Software, we have prepared a set of reports which allow us to closely monitor who is working on what, where people are, manage the incidents and

“The education environment is used to changes in targets and focus. The FE sector is especially used to extremely limited budgets. This means we need to be both flexible in everything we do, be able to cope with changing priorities and yet be able to utilise best practice to help achieve improved performance.

September / October 2010 : VitAL 39

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changes against SLAs ensuring we meet the agreed expected standard – and that problems are not lost between teams.

VitAL: What current issues, regulations, legislation and technologies are having an impact on your business, and which if any will be important in the future?

RB: The education environment is used to changes in targets and focus. The FE sector is especially used to extremely limited budgets. This means we need to be both flexible in everything we do, be able to cope with changing priorities and yet be able to utilise best practice to help achieve improved performance.

In education there are obvious elements such as virtual learning environments, interactive white boards, the use of mobile technology, broadband, and (a bit older but still relevant) WiFi. The key message is using technology to enhance and improve the teaching and learning process – and not as a replacement.

The particular area which is growing in importance is the need to access learning resources 24/7. This is something most college IT service management teams were not built to deliver. We are delivering this by improving our automated resilience and then adding service management tools and processes which allow our engineers to receive notification of these incidents almost instantly. They can then either start working on the resolution from home or arrange an appropriate response onsite as soon as possible.

VitAL: What IT projects / products have had a positive impact on your operations? How has this helped?

RB: Kirklees College was formed from the merger of two colleges (Dewsbury College and Huddersfield Technical College) nearly two years ago. This means a lot has happened over a short time. We have integrated two 40 VitAL : September / October 2010

disparate systems at the different colleges into one – this includes different MIS system, email and network operating systems, authentication methods, file stores, SANs and approaches to server virtualisation.

In addition to this we have introduced new working practices such as ITIL and Prince 2. We introduced project planning and governance, change and release management, had an organisational restructure within the IT team and delivered over 1,000 new desktops and laptops to replace old equipment – all within 12 months.

Originally we had no service desk which could report on faults against SLAs, or easily identify who was meant to be doing what, or monitor how well we were undertaking the workload. To overcome this and after a long tender process, we chose the Cherwell Service Management solution as supplied by CRMworks.

Working closely with the supplier, a range of reports were produced, and the standard ITIL processes amended, to reflect the needs of a large College. We can now report on what is being delivered – which means we can manage and optimise the service that is being delivered. It also allows us to automatically track customer satisfaction. It is fair to say that since this has been implemented we have significantly improved our overall performance and customer satisfaction levels.

Even the simplest elements such as allowing people to track their own faults, and sending them regular email updates on the status of the calls have been a big step forward for the college as this was not possible from our old system.

We get notified of every call that breaches its SLA and can investigate it to ensure appropriate action is being taken. Calls cannot be forgotten about anymore. It is fair to say this has had a massive impact on both the actual service delivered by IT and the perception of the service being delivered. www.vital-mag.net

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VitAL: What are the future plans for the organisation?

RB: The college is building a new centre in Huddersfield to replace the existing Huddersfield Centre and we are currently developing our new three to five year strategy for both ILT and ICT. We are about to enter phase two of our development plans for our service desk introducing a tracked change management approval process and implementing the business continuity process into the service.

We are still developing our asset management to include configuration management, and eventually service management. I am a believer in introducing something like ITIL in bite sized chunks – one bite at a time. This gives people time to learn and develop with the system, rather than going for a full implementation at once.

VitAL: Any other points you would like to add?

RB: The Kirklees College IT Team is relatively small, with only about 35 staff currently – but we are supporting both service and new projects for over 6,000 devices across ten sites. This team has moved from being 90 percent ‘firefighting’ and ten percent projects to nearer 60/40 – and we are still moving towards more resource being available for the new projects.

While the service delivery is the core of a good IT service, the improvement in ICT project focus means people are seeing extra services and tools being available in their day to day teaching and learning which were not there before. This process has only just started but now we are on a firm path to deliver the improvements the students expect and desire.

VitAL: Richard Brook, thank you very much. www.cherwellsoftware.com VitAL www.vital-mag.net

I am a believer in introducing something like ITIL in bite sized chunks – one bite at a time. This gives people time to learn and develop with the system, rather than going for a full implementation at once.

The Cherwell solution Cherwell Software is the developer of Cherwell Service Management – a fully integrated solution for IT and support professionals for the delivery of internal IT or external facing support services. Designed using the Microsoft .NET platform and Web 2.0 technology, it delivers ‘out of-the-box’, 11 fully integrated ITIL v3 PinkVERIFIED management processes including; Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Configuration, SLA, Service Catalogue, Event and Knowledge. Plus, a customisable end user selfservice portal, open API for systems integration, business process design engine, dynamic dashboards for customised displays of key operational data and integrated customer survey module, plus much, much more.

Offering a true holistic approach to IT service management, Cherwell provides a 360 degree view of incident, problem, change and configuration records, empowering IT and support departments to fully align themselves with the organisations they support. Being quick to deploy and easy to use, implemented as either a traditional On Premise perpetual license solution or a fully hosted On Demand SaaS subscription service, Cherwell delivers true enterprise power, scalability and flexibility.

The Cherwell Service Management solution is 100 percent customisable and configurable, without the need for specialist resources, requires no changes to source code, no bespoke programming or any SQL scripting. The solution delivers a highly scalable and extensible development platform, enabling customers to add new custom built applications through the use of customisable business process templates. Cherwell’s CBAT application development platform empowers users to easily develop and build integrated additional business applications. In addition, and very importantly, irrespective of any customisation or configuration performed the future upgrade path is completely seamless, significantly reducing ongoing solution management overheads.

In these difficult economic times when organisations are be challenged to reduce costs, deliver improved services with fewer resources, Cherwell says its solution can provide a compelling business case for the replacement of expensive, resource-intensive and technologically out dated solutions being used to deliver existing support services.

September / October 2010 : VitAL 41

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A compelling case for investment When Cherwell wanted to commission a white paper examining the total economic impact and potential ROI offered by its Service Management offering it turned to Forrester Consulting.

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n August 2009, Cherwell Software commissioned Forrester Consulting to examine the total economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realise by deploying Cherwell Service Management, its fully integrated software solution for management of service desk, help desk, or customer call centres. It is a web-enabled product that uses Microsoft’s .NET technology and outof-the-box Pink Elephant-verified ITIL v3 best practices. The product is available through a traditional licensing model (Cherwell On-Premise) or as a subscription service (Cherwell On-Demand), implementing the latest in the SaaS evolution: SaaS 3.0.

Either model supports a ‘browser-based’ or ‘rich client’ user experience. This study illustrates the financial impact of implementing on premises Cherwell Service Management for the information services department (ISD) 42 VitAL : September / October 2010

of a US-based research company with 14 major locations.

As the organisation has grown considerably over the past five years, the IT director wanted to align the ISD with its long-term business needs through managing costs, processes, and services. The IT director initially implemented a manual change management process and developed a home-grown solution for service management. Struggling with the need for a more sophisticated solution for change management and reporting requirements, the organisation purchased a service management solution for the enterprise.

The organisation attempted to implement the solution for more than a year but was unable to do so due to challenges with upgrade compatibility, contractors, and matching the software configuration with its requirements.

It ultimately decided to discontinue the implementation of the previously purchased

software and to start its search for an IT service management software solution from scratch.

It conducted an extensive requirements and needs assessment phase for three months, identifying 33 different possible software vendors. This field was narrowed to four vendors. After a series of site visits, two vendors were selected to pilot their software over 30 days with the organisation. After this evaluation process, it picked Cherwell Service Management.

In conducting in-depth interviews with the organisation, Forrester found that with the selection and implementation of Cherwell, it achieved: • Productivity savings from improved IT service management processes around incident and problem management.

• Savings from cost avoidance of software maintenance fees for the previous IT service management solution. www.vital-mag.net

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• Labour savings from cost avoidance of additional administration for the previous IT service management solution.

• Additional savings from solution development, such as a project and portfolio management solution, using Cherwell Service Management.

• Improved reporting in terms of timing, accuracy, and flexibility.

• Improved accountability to address continuous service improvements.

• Better perception of IT within the organisation through improved customer service.

Purpose The purpose of the study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Cherwell Service Management on their organisations. Forrester’s aim is to clearly show all calculations and assumptions used in the analysis. Readers should use this study to better understand and communicate a business case for investing in Cherwell Service Management.

Methodology Cherwell selected Forrester for this project because of its industry expertise in IT systems management – particularly IT service management – and Forrester’s Total Economic Impact (TEI) methodology. According to Forrester, TEI not only measures costs and cost reduction (areas that are typically accounted for within IT) but also weighs the enabling value of a technology in increasing the effectiveness of overall business processes.

For this study, Forrester employed the four fundamental elements of TEI in modelling IT service management: 1. Costs and cost reduction.

2. Benefits to the entire organisation.

3. Flexibility.

4. Risk.

Given the increasing sophistication that enterprises have regarding cost analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology serves an extremely useful purpose by providing a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions.

Approach Forrester used a four-step approach for this study: www.vital-mag.net

1. It gathered data from existing research relative to Cherwell Service Management and the IT service management market in general.

2. It interviewed Cherwell Service Management’s executive leadership, marketing, product management, and sales personnel to fully understand the potential (or intended) value proposition of Cherwell Service Management.

3. It conducted a series of in-depth interviews with an organisation currently using Cherwell Service Management.

4. It constructed a financial model representative of the interviews.

Key Findings Forrester’s study yielded the following key findings: ROI: Based on interviews with the organisation, Forrester constructed a TEI framework for the organisation and the associated ROI analysis illustrating the financial impact areas. The ROI for the organisation is 108 percent with a breakeven point (payback period) of 9.7 months after deployment.

Benefits: The main quantified benefits for the organisation were: 1) Productivity savings from improved service management processes such as incident and problem management; 2) The avoidance of software maintenance fees due to the replacement of the previous purchased service management solution; 3) The avoidance of administrative costs from the previously purchased service management solution; 4) Additional savings from development of a project and portfolio management solution using Cherwell Service Management. These benefits comprise a net present value (NPV) of $842,182 over a three-year analysis.

Costs: The costs of Cherwell Service Management include: 1) Software license fees; 2) Associated annual maintenance fees; 3) Additional software costs; 4) Implementation fees for external contractors; 5) Training fees; 6) Internal labour fees for implementation; 7) Annual administrative costs.

The costs add up to an NPV of $405,381 over three years. Forrester risk-adjusts these values

to take into account the potential uncertainty that exists in estimating the costs and benefits of a technology investment. The risk-adjusted value is meant to provide a conservative estimation, incorporating any potential risk factors that may later impact the original cost and benefit estimates.

Conclusions Based on information collected in interviews with a current Cherwell Service Management customer, Forrester found that organisations can realise benefits in the form of: • Productivity savings from improved IT service management processes around incident and problem management.

• Savings from cost avoidance of software maintenance fees for the previous IT service management solution.

• Labour savings from cost avoidance of additional administration for the previous IT service management solution.

• Additional savings from solution development, such as a project and portfolio management solution, using Cherwell Service Management.

• Improved reporting in terms of timing, accuracy, and flexibility.

• Improved accountability to address continuous service improvements.

• Better perception of IT within the organisation through improved customer service.

The financial analysis provided in this study illustrates the potential way an organisation can evaluate the value proposition of Cherwell Service Management. Based on information collected in the in-depth customer interviews, Forrester calculated a three-year risk-adjusted ROI of 108 percent for the organisation with a payback period of less than 10 months. All final estimates are risk-adjusted to incorporate potential uncertainty in the calculation of costs and benefits.

Based on these findings, companies looking to implement Cherwell Service Management can see gains around the benefits of improved efficiency in IT service management, productivity savings, and cost avoidance. Using the TEI framework, many companies may find the potential for a compelling business case to make such an investment.

The full report can be downloaded at: www.cherwellsoftware.com/analyst-reviews September / October 2010 : VitAL 43

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Chaos to value: The IT Service Management journey Patrick Bolger* sees the development of IT Service Management as a journey transforming from the organisation chaos into value with the aid of best practise.

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he purpose of IT Service Management (ITSM) is to integrate IT strategy and the delivery of IT services with the goals of the business, with an emphasis on providing benefit to customers. The ITSM journey demands a shift in focus and culture, from managing IT within separate technology silos, to managing the end-to-end delivery of services using guidance from best practice frameworks such as the ITIL. Service improvement doesn’t have an end point, so the ITSM journey is more like a perpetual trip around the world. The traveller spends time planning the journey and embarks with excitement and trepidation, visiting destinations where the culture at first seems alien. After a period of time they settle into the culture and once familiar with the territory, they move on. As soon as they have arrived back at their starting point, they start the journey again, but on this second trip, they view the journey differently. Countries that were once alien are now familiar, so they visit the areas that have the most to offer and take in some new destinations to broaden their cultural horizons.

The ITSM journey also requires planning and involves taking in new cultures. One of the greatest mistakes made by adopters is to embark on a project to ‘implement ITIL’, without fully understanding the challenges they are trying to address, or setting measurable targets that enable them to identify when their goals have been achieved. ITSM programmes are initiated with high expectations of what can be achieved, but aspirations are often tempered by common barriers to adoption, such as lack of resources (time, people and budget), cultural

44 VitAL : September / October 2010

resistance and lack of business sponsorship.

The early stages of the ITSM journey enables the organisation to take the initial steps out of ‘chaos’ with a focus on gaining firm control of the technology by introducing process. Initially, IT staff may not be receptive to the benefits of process, nor will they have a natural affinity with the concept of managing services. This is one of the greatest challenges to the adoption of ITIL and explains why ‘cultural resistance’ is cited as one of the main barriers. To make real progress, due consideration must be given to the IT organisation’s cultural readiness to adopt any given set of processes at every stage of growth and maturity.

Planning the ITSM journey When planning any initiative that involves continual improvement, there are a few things that need to be considered before we start.

Obviously, we need to know our starting point, where we are aiming to get to, how much effort we can afford to expend and how long we want to take to reach our goals. Along the way we are likely to encounter obstacles that we didn’t plan for, but if we don’t take the time at the outset to consider and plan our progress, we are not very likely to reach our goals in a sensible timeframe, if at all.

ITIL advises the importance of securing backing from the business and while this is desirable, the business may not see the value and at worst may view this as yet another IT project that promises much but delivers little.

IT wants to play a more strategic role within the business, but aspirations won’t earn it a place at the boardroom table. That position must be earned and IT must show that it can

deliver improvement and efficiency to capture executive attention. Adopters should be able to identify quick wins at every stage of the journey and be able to express the benefits realised in business terms to secure sponsorship for the next stage.

Where are we now?

There are several resources available to help IT organisations determine their current level of capability and maturity. A quick search on the internet will reveal a number of maturity assessment guides, tools, and consulting organisations that can assist not only in identifying the starting point, but also will highlight specific weakness and areas of focus, to achieve some quick wins.

There are a number of process maturity models that describe the evolution of IT. The ITIL v3 book includes a Process Maturity Framework model based on CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) that rates maturity between levels 0 (chaotic) and 5 (optimised).

Virtually every analyst group has its own model and there is one constant through all of these models, the recognition that improvement is an evolutionary process, requiring different focus and management processes to master it.

When people speak of the ITIL v2 books, they normally think of the Service Support and Service Delivery book. However, there were several other ITIL v2 books. “Planning to implement service management”, provided solid advice on aligning the provision of IT with the needs of the business. This book describes how to implement or improve IT Service Management within an organisation and outlines five critical steps that need www.vital-mag.net

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to be taken when embarking on a service improvement programme: • Create a vision for aligning IT and business strategies; • Analyse the current position (“Where are we now?”); • Set goals and priorities for the improvement process; • Improve the provision of services; • Measure the improvement to determine whether goals have been met.

This ITIL v2 publication contains a diagram that depicts the evolution of an IT organisation, from a focus on technology, through a number of growth stages, to a focus on IT as a value network, directly enabling business growth.

As the focus of IT evolves, its role within the organisation changes and influence on the business increases.

if IT has major operational issues, there is little time available for strategic thinking.

In reality, it doesn’t matter which version of ITIL you adopt, provided you appreciate which processes your IT organisation is culturally ready for. Attempting to implement processes with which IT has no natural affinity is likely to cause resistance and make it difficult to maintain momentum. Hornbill’s research paper “ITIL: The State of the Nation” found that the majority of IT organisations have a relatively low level of process maturity, sitting somewhere between Technology and Service Focus in the model above.

Those completely new to a process-based, best practice approach may be looking to ITIL to bring order to a chaotic environment. The good news for IT organisations at this early stage of evolution is that implementing just a few of the most commonly adopted ITIL processes can deliver real value.

A bite-size approach makes sense

Which processes do you start with?

There is much airplay given to this question on various forums and social networking groups, and there are equally as many points of view as there are questions. ITIL v2 did not define a clear starting point and organisations selected the processes that enabled them to address the main areas of pain. ‘Chaotic’ IT environments would typically implement Incident, Problem and Change Management to enable them to gain control of technology.

ITIL v3 promotes adopting the service lifecycle; starting with Service Strategy, moving through Service Design, then Service Transition, into Service Operations, with Continual Service Improvement closing the lifecycle loop and feeding back into Service Strategy.

In an ideal world, if an IT organisation is being built from the ground up, on a green-field site, with the budget to recruit practitioners and managers experienced in running mature IT organisations, it would start with Service Strategy. Vision, direction and policies would be established at the outset, so that IT and business goals are fully integrated. However, there are few opportunities to build such mature organisations from the ground up and www.vital-mag.net

Taking a phased or bite-size approach and introducing processes that IT groups can identify with, increases the likelihood of success.

Incident, Problem, Change, Asset and Service Level Management enable IT to reduce firefighting, get the most from limited resources and stabilise the infrastructure. The processes are familiar, easily understood, supported by tools and are seen to work.

IT organisations adopting ITIL as the foundation for service improvement can overcome the common barriers to adoption.

A staged approach requires less resource to execute and sets achievable goals that are readily attained. Cultural resistance is reduced by introducing processes with which IT can easily associate and understand. These same processes deliver tangible benefit, increasing service quality, improving customer satisfaction and creating efficiencies that enable IT to achieve more with the same resource.

Articulating success captures management attention, creating an appetite for further improvements. This ensures that momentum is maintained and sets the stage for the next leg of the journey from Technology to Service Focus. *Patrick Bolger is chief evangelist at Hornbill Service Management. For more details or to download the white paper “Chaos to Value – the ITSM Journey”, visit www.hornbill.com/journey VitAL

In an ideal world, if an IT organisation is being built from the ground up, on a green-field site, with the budget to recruit practitioners and managers experienced in running mature IT organisations, it would start with Service Strategy. Vision, direction and policies would be established at the outset, so that IT and business goals are fully integrated.

However, there are few opportunities to build such mature organisations from the ground up and if IT has major operational issues, there is little time available for strategic thinking.

September / October 2010 : VitAL 45

VitAL PROcesses

Planning for IP telephony are all ip telephony solutions equal? and what concerns should you have when looking for a new communications system? Dave Paulding of interactive intelligence lists some of the questions you will need to have answered.

i

p TelephONy for business is now a given.

The old concept of the pBX with individual telephone wiring around the building is a thing of the past. Manufacturers no longer supply pBXs, or even support them in many cases. But are all ip telephony solutions equal? What are the concerns you should have in the front of your mind when looking for a new communications system? This article lists just some of the questions you need to have answered.

Is it reliable?

First, of course, is reliability. when a telephone switch was just that and nothing more, we all assumed that it would work day in, day out.

A Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone system is driven by software. Are you convinced that the application software, and the underlying operating system, is sufficiently reliable? what is sufficiently reliable? I would suggest you should be looking for five nines: 99.999 percent availability. If that sounds challenging, turn the numbers the other way up. It is equivalent to about five minutes of down time in a year. More than that would definitely be 46 VitAL : September / October 2010

irritating and almost certainly disruptive to your business.

A question of quality Moving on from absolute availability, you should address the question of quality. Again, this is a slightly different issue now that we have moved from analogue telephony to voice over IP. conventional telephone circuits sounded like, well, telephones. They were bandwidth limited to make the best use of the simple twisted pair, long-distance connection.

VoIP can offer the full audio bandwidth without any real penalty, so the sound can be startlingly good. Today, the issues come in quality of service, the way that the conversation is delivered. speech is digitised, then converted to packets to be sent over an IP circuit. These packets must be delivered as quickly as possible, otherwise there will be a noticeable delay. early IP telephony suffered from latency issues which meant irritating lag in the speech.

Because telephones introduce a degree of crosstalk between the send and receive signals â&#x20AC;&#x201C;you feel comfortable because you www.vital-mag.net

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can hear yourself on the line – delay leads to a perceptible echo, which can be extremely distracting. For staff spending much of their working day on calls it is wearying, and for customers ringing in and having to deal with an audible echo it will have an impact on their impression of you as a professional organisation. The third culprit in reducing quality of service is jitter, when packets do not take a uniform time to be transmitted, with some delay then a burst of sound when the phone buffer tries to cope with packets arriving in a rush. It reduces clarity and again breaks concentration away from the content of the call.

One of the claimed benefits of IP telephony is that it allows phones to use the same office network infrastructure as data. That is certainly true: it is all packetised data routed under Internet Protocol. But, to maintain good quality of service you need to be able to prioritise the audio packets. So the switch has to be intelligent enough to understand how to apply these priorities. Equally, the network infrastructure has to play its part by carrying enough capacity for all traffic, whether or not it is prioritised.

So a picture of a good IP telephony system is being developed, which depends upon advanced router control to deliver clean conversations with reliable high quality of service. Some vendors would suggest that the best way to meet these goals is with a proprietary system, tuned to these demands. That, I would suggest, is not the way to proceed.

Simple software solutions There is an international open standard that provides all the functionality required. SIP – Session Initiation Protocol – is a simple solution which resides entirely in software, and allows all network traffic to be managed on a common network. Thanks to SIP, your network can carry 48 VitAL : September / October 2010

prioritised voice traffic alongside data, online communications like web chats, and video.

That these can all be implemented on the same network, using the same core technology, reduces the need for gateways and interfaces to other infrastructure platforms like PSTN telephony. This reduces the number of potential points of failure and congestion. The use of the open standard actually increases the system capabilities and stability, as well, of course, as reducing the number of boxes burning energy and needing air conditioning.

Even more important, this use of open standards and the consequent simplification of the architecture leads on to the real benefits of IP telephony. These can be measured in better productivity and return on investment: they are real business advantages.

First, it simplifies the infrastructure. Putting telephones on the same Ethernet as data makes it easier to locate and relocate workstations. But because everyone will have a computer screen on their desks, it means that telephony functions can be moved away from the phone and onto the PC. Contact databases, presence management, conference calling and re-routing: these are all completed easily with a keyboard and mouse rather than with combinations of function keys on a phone.

In turn, this means that the phone can be simpler in design, and therefore less expensive.

SIP telephones are offered by a number of vendors, and for many applications the simplest instrument will be the most appropriate: little more than a handset or headset and a couple of buttons. That reduces training and familiarisation time for new staff, too. It also means that you can add capabilities quickly.

A contact centre pitching for a new contract might need to add a number of additional workstations. Being able to do this quickly – days rather than weeks – could be the crucial advantage in winning the deal.

This use of open standards and the consequent simplification of the architecture leads on to the real benefits of IP telephony. These can be measured in better productivity and return on investment: they are real business advantages.

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vital processes

Following on from that, the ability to directly link a user’s phone and computer allows real application integration. With IVR we have the concept of calls being routed to the person most able to respond. With IP telephony based on open standards we add to that by presenting the relevant information on the computer screen at the moment the call is picked up. Operators do not need to call up customer information: it is automatically presented.

Unified communications While the benefits of ‘unified communications’ have yet to be universally recognised or understood it can be seen that this concept of integrated applications can lead to a common platform serving every means of communication, and through that to efficiencies and improved service.

As an idea of what I mean, imagine a call arriving at an insurance company’s contact centre, from a policy holder who has had a motor accident. That one call triggers a whole set of processes which need to be actioned immediately – moving the vehicle to the nearest registered repairer, booking and delivery of a courtesy car, inspection of the damage, repairs, perhaps legal processes and so on.

Some of these actions will require other calls, some emails, some computer-to-computer links. The policy holder will need to be kept informed, which may be by SMS message.

Unified communications tracks and enables all of those actions in a single system.

If your business has multiple sites, then they can be linked over data lines, appearing as a single logical location with seamless communication between colleagues whether they are on the same site or across the world.

Staff that need to travel between offices can be contacted in exactly the same way wherever they are, with the same presence functionality, access to voicemail and so on. www.vital-mag.net

Saved capacity Network operators are beginning to offer SIP trunking. As this develops, so businesses will be able to connect into the telephone network using SIP over data lines rather than dedicated telephone circuits. The benefit of this is that it saves capacity: packetised voice only uses the circuit when someone is saying something, so multiple conversations can be multiplexed together without impairing quality.

Because SIP-based IP communications uses open standards, it works over the open internet, too. With intelligent software for integrated applications, anyone can work at any location without losing any functionality.

Anyone can work from home, with their SIP phone and computer working in exactly the same way as it would in an office, including presence management, IVR call direction and all the other business tools.

In the USA there is a company called VIP Desk, which provides very high quality customer care for premium brands 24 hours a day. It does not have a call centre: every single member of staff works from home. They save travel time and costs, it is easy for them to work flexible hours, and so everyone is happy. Staff on the road can connect into the complete communications network with a laptop and headset from a hotel room, an airport lounge or a Starbucks.

In summary, IP telephony is not all the same. In its basic form it provides a perfectly adequate replacement for a life-expired PBX. When based on open standards, and driven by powerful and flexible software, it delivers genuinely unified intelligent communications.

The return on investment comes not just in reduced operating costs, but in much greater productivity, business agility and staff who feel better supported and therefore more likely to stay. VitAL www.inin.com

While the benefits of ‘unified communications’ have yet to be universally recognised or understood it can be seen that this concept of integrated applications can lead to a common platform serving every means of communication, and through that to efficiencies and improved service.

September / October 2010 : VitAL 49

VitAL PROcesses

The need for speed: Does faster broadband really mean faster applications?

Following the launch of BTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s infinity superfast broadband service for home users and businesses, riverbed director Mark Lewis explores why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just about additional bandwidth, and why poor performance of business critical applications across the network infrastructure can still be an issue that needs to be addressed.

50 VitAL : September / October 2010

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VitAL PROcesses

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N The wake of BT’s pledge to provide home users and businesses with 40MB broadband by 2012, iT managers from organisations of all sizes may be forgiven for thinking that with this additional bandwidth capacity, the demands of running resource-heavy applications across their networks will ease. however, iT managers that adopt this belief soon discover the harsh truth that bandwidth isn’t always the clear and simple answer to improving application performance over the wide area network (WaN).

Distributed organisations, regardless of size, rely upon the wAn to connect their branch office locations to a corporate data centre or centralised location. The problem with delivering IT resources over the wAn is that many organisations don’t know why the distributed nature of their business dramatically increases the complexity of the way files and data are dealt with. In addition, individuals can be blissfully unaware of the performance implications that running resource-heavy

applications such as Lotus notes, Microsoft sharePoint, Oracle or Microsoft exchange has on a company’s wAn. Poor application performance can be a common byproduct experienced by users accessing data over the wAn, resulting in reduced productivity and frustration for employees and IT managers alike. when users complain of poor application performance, one of the first moves organisations often make is to look to upgrade bandwidth. However, cIOs often discover that upgrading bandwidth to remote sites has little or no effect on application performance, and doesn’t solve the performance problem. This is because performance problems are often the result of latency and application protocol inefficiencies across the wAn, rather than constrained bandwidth.

cIOs often discover that upgrading bandwidth to remote sites has little or no effect on application performance, and doesn’t solve the performance problem

Increasing performance The good news for cIOs is that there are different approaches that IT managers can take to accelerate applications for business

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VitAL PROcesses

wAn optimisation is a key tool for distributed organisations. wAn traffic can be reduced, application performance can be significantly improved, and IT infrastructure consolidation, and backup and recovery projects can be implemented. wAn optimisation has enabled many companies to get more out of their existing infrastructure and at the same time enabled them to avoid or delay costly bandwidth upgrades. use and to prevent network congestion.

In the past, organisations have taken the approach of either attempting to block web access to all known sites that can restrict the performance of business critical applications or to simply re-order the priority of traffic through the use of a quality or service (Qos) mechanism. However, by deploying wAn optimisation, IT managers can improve application performance across the network typically by five to 50 times – in some cases up to 100 times – and can simultaneously reduce bandwidth utilisation by 65 to 95 percent.

This can mean that an existing wAn can support many users, new additional applications can be rolled out and an expensive bandwidth upgrade can be deferred – in some cases by up to five years. In addition, investment in a wAn optimisation solution can enable enterprises to realise substantial cost savings in other ways, including: consolidate infrastructure into the data centre: Organisations can remove much of the IT infrastructure, such as file and email servers, sMs servers, sharePoint servers, tape autoloaders, network attached storage (nAs) and remote office backup systems that sit in branch offices—without impacting application performance.

Optimise disaster recovery: Performance of a disaster recovery site can be improved, resulting in cost savings for organisations and data backups can be performed in a more frequent and reliable manner. enabline greater collaboration: employees can share large files regardless of where they are located, resulting in more productive users.

52 VitAL : September / October 2010

Reduce RPO: Backups and replication can be performed over long distance wAn links and completed during backup windows that were previously unachievable. wAn optimisation is a key tool for distributed organisations. wAn traffic can be reduced, application performance can be significantly improved, and IT infrastructure consolidation, and backup and recovery projects can be implemented. wAn optimisation has enabled many companies to get more out of their existing infrastructure and at the same time enabled them to avoid or delay costly bandwidth upgrades.

In this way, management can minimise the load on, and accelerate applications across, the wAn. As a result, employees can become more productive and much less frustrated as they are able to access business-critical applications without experiencing slow performance.

In summary, the BT Infinity announcement should be seen as a good thing. After all, allocating additional bandwidth to businesses won’t hurt. However, although all organisations want additional bandwidth to access applications that are critical to their business, companies may want to stop and consider the overall performance of their network resources and look at pragmatic ways in which to manage this process through wAn optimisation technologies. Above all, to increase work productivity amongst their employees, organisations must ensure that speed and performance of business essential application traffic is a top priority too. VitAL www.riverbed.com www.vital-mag.net

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VitAL PROcesses

Self-directed work teams: An agile prerequisite or a pipe dream?

The lessons learned from self-directed work teams in the software development field could bring benefits to iT services professionals too. Julian Holmes, cofounder of work place consultants upMentors reports.

54 VitAL : September / October 2010

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vital processes

A

gile principles have always required self organised teams but there has been recent debate over whether these teams also need to be self directed.

In my opinion the discussion shouldn’t be about self organising or self managing teams surely it should be more about what is going to work for your individual organisation and how you will achieve it?

What is a self directed work team?

Unlike software tools you can’t buy a self directed work team and configure them for immediate deployment. The level of independence a team has will depend on the organisational constraints placed on it. A company should define what it means by a ‘self directed work team’ up-front because at its purest level a team like this could potentially select members, determine remuneration, discipline team members, agree holiday leave and the list goes on.

While some organisations may be comfortable with this, on the whole most would take the view that this way of working would only result in anarchy. It is therefore not appropriate for all organisations to aspire to and also takes time, experience and a particular culture to get to this level of maturity. For a team to achieve self direction it will follow an evolving and maturing development process, taking time and careful management.

The very nature of an industry, its complexity or its legal constraints will prevent most organisations achieving this pure level of self directed work teams; however this is not to say that organisations shouldn’t aspire to create a roadmap for teams and manage the level of self management that is acceptable to the organisation to deliver business value

So how can it be achieved?

The recommended approach is to start off with directed work teams and develop through the team lifecycle, increasing the level www.vital-mag.net

of responsibility as the team demonstrates its capability to handle the broader responsibilities of self management and not just the task at hand. Here are some things to consider: • What responsibilities will the team have?

• What are they accountable for?

• Do they have the support, resources, and control to deliver?

• Should all the responsibility be given on day one or should this be a staged programme based on the how the team develops?

The job of management is to understand and review the development of the team within defined parameters of self management.

It is also their role to support them when challenges arise, facilitate the team to overcome these obstacles and to keep external distractions at bay. Figure 1 illustrates how this can be achieved.

Managed team: A group of people working together toward a common goal. The ‘what’ will happen, ‘where’ it will happen and ‘how’ it will happen is set by the organisation and/ or the manager.

Self managed team: Is a group of people working together in their own way toward a common goal which is defined outside the team. The team decides their work schedule, in what order, when to deliver, how, to what standards, and by whom.

Self Directed Team: A group of people working together in their own way toward a common goal which the team defines. They will perform all of the above but in addition also have input on recruitment to the team, training, compensation, performance management, discipline, and acts as a profit centre by defining its own future.

September / October 2010 : VitAL 55

vital processes

Unlike software tools you can’t buy a self directed work team and configure them for immediate deployment. The level of independence a team has will depend on the organisational constraints placed on it.

What are the challenges?

The move to an empowered team-based approach to software development is a huge change for the industry and will not be without its challenges. Not all employees will welcome this change, such change will be perceived as a threat to some and as with any change programme it is to be feared. Many people prefer to work on their own the way they have done for many years, they may not want to learn new skills or collaborate with others.

A good example is the software development industry. By the nature of the industry, specialists who are highly skilled have operated in discipline silos working in isolation to produce software that works often for them but no one else. In fact the way in which work has traditionally been organised has been a huge barrier to the concept of a ‘one team’ or ‘whole team’ approach to developing software.

The approach now is to form teams of ‘generalising specialists’ working together across disciplines, who are highly collaborative, task-orientated, responsive to changes and organised to deliver quality software quicker, with cost savings; a huge plus in this current economic environment. Such methods as Agile, lean and scum will offer a framework and principles in which to assist an organisation looking to ‘up their game’. However, it will place new challenges on individuals, teams and the organisations in terms of defining their approach, culture change, skills change, the way they communicate and their relationship with the customer.

The benefits While the challenges are not for the faint hearted, the benefits to an organisation, teams and an individual can be many. An individual has an opportunity to become an equal contributor, they can learn new skills and disciplines, they will interface with the customer and they will 56 VitAL : September / October 2010

take responsibility and be accountable. This all adds up to increased job satisfaction, leading to a greater retention of talent within the organisation and less churn. The team benefits from learning to address such issues together like estimation, the risk value lifecycle, prioritisation of tasks, collaborating between themselves and the customer. In the software development example, the organisation will be able to deliver usable software early in the project, which can have instant benefits for their client and early commercial return for the developing organisation.

They will focus on delivering what is important and essential and not waste time on developing software that is a nice to have, saving time and money for the developing company and the client. The trust levels between the client and the customer significantly increase as confidence is developed over time when workable software is produced at regular intervals and the client gets exactly what he/she wants because they have been involved in the process of development, and delivery. An enhanced relationship between the organisation and the customer will increase the level of customer satisfaction and lead to further working opportunities.

So should your organisation be contemplating this change, or have started on the road to change already. My advice to you in solving the self directed team conundrum is to be conscious and clear about what ‘self direction’ means for your teams and your organisation.

Organisations that do this well will have a competitive advantage over those who prefer to take the traditional route, or only dabble in a team-based approach. The benefits are there for the taking but it takes leadership and commitment to make it work. Are you up for the challenge? VitAL www.upmentors.com www.vital-mag.net

VitAL DRIVE: IT HITs THe FAIRwAy

Play it as you find it Facing a lull in iT managing over the holiday season, Geraint Lewis, iT manager for the professional Golfers’ association is looking ahead to the ryder Cup.

The very nature of an industry, its complexity or its legal constraints will prevent most organisations achieving this pure level of self directed work teams; however this is not to say that organisations shouldn’t aspire to create a roadmap for teams and manage the level of self management that is acceptable to the organisation to deliver business value

O

NCe aGaiN the Open Championship provided us with a great spectacle of golf and a worthy champion in louis Ossthuizen, who held his nerve to win golf’s most special major. While not a european by birth, Ossthuizen learnt his trade on the tours in europe, firstly on the pGa europro Tour and then on the main european Tour, proving the strength of european Golf.

The number of european Players in the Top 10 at the Open backs this up and provides colin Montgomery with a pleasant dilemma ahead of his final team selection for the Ryder cup. There were some complaints around the old town of st Andrews that some players had the best of the conditions by virtue of their place in the draw, going out later in the day on day one and then earlier on day two, on both days taking advantage of the friendlier conditions. This may have been the case,

but the players are unable to influence the weather and it is in this case quite literally “the luck of the draw.” some ‘experts’ point out that the Us Open and the Us PgA championships have a ‘two tee’ start ie, players start from the first tee and the tenth tee, meaning that the play is compressed into a smaller part of the day and not affected by potential changes in the weather. That may be ok for those events but the Open has always gone its own way, sticking to the traditional ways, playing on links courses. The wind will blow and the rain can come down sideways, making it a true test of all aspects of the golfers’ game to ‘work the ball’ around the course, rather than play ‘target golf’ from a manicured fairway into a postage stamp sized green. with play from 6:30am to 8:30pm at night there are going to be changes in the weather, but as it says in the Rules of golf, that’s the ‘rub of the green’, you play the course as you find it, warm, wet or windy.

The Ryder cup is now less than two months away and it will be a hectic week for all those involved behind the scenes at celtic Manor, not least the IT staff, dealing with no end of problems, issues and incidents, none of which will be obvious when the players walk out onto the first tee.

Otherwise, August finds the IT manager in a bit of a lull, with staff away on holiday, meaning dealing with problems such as users unable to access their work emails from the internet café in nepal or ‘fed-exing’ a mobile phone out to a villa in spain to replace the one dropped in the pool / jug of sangria.

Let’s hope the weather in wales stays fair for the Ryder cup and a good week of golf is had by all. VitAL September / October 2010 : VitAL 57

VitAL PLAneT

“Climate change is the greatest threat to our common future. We must now go further and faster to turn climate change targets into real action.” chris Huhne,UK energy and climate change secretary

Does the new broom sweep greenest?

The new Government is pushing for 30 percent emissions cuts in europe in addition to whatever it reveals in its hotly anticipated domestic energy policy. Speakers at the european Future energy Forum* reveal here how they see the uK’s energy future unfolding and how emissions targets may affect business.

58 VitAL : September / October 2010

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VitAL PLAneT

C

liMaTe ChaNGe is the greatest threat to our common future. We must now go further and faster to turn climate change targets into real action,” says uK energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris huhne. “We also know that energy investors need certainty to make the substantial investment decisions that are required to decarbonise the energy sector. a meaningful carbon price would drive the deployment of clean energy technology and help secure our future energy supplies. Getting a global deal on climate change, pushing for a 30 percent cut in emissions for the eu and the introduction of a carbon floor price here in the uK are all part of that.” while Jos Delbecke, director general for eU climate Action said on June 14, 2010 that the commission will be holding “months of dialogue” before reaching a decision on increasing emissions targets across europe, the commission itself is pushing for a 30 percent cut by 2020. while the debate over the eU-wide cuts will continue and certainly be leading the discussion at the european Future energy Forum, there are a range of reactions to the recent developments.

Ben caldecott of climate change capital comments, “Moving from a 20 to a 30 percent emissions reduction target by 2020 is absolutely essential if europe is to stimulate the investment required to effectively tackle climate change and create the green jobs and industries of the future. It will ensure that europe’s emissions reduction target is in-line with the urgency of the task at hand and that europe can retain its position as a global leader on these issues.”

The new UK government has expressed its broad commitment “to implement a full programme of measures to fulfil our joint ambitions for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy”. These measures include: The full establishment of feed-in tariff systems in electricity – as well as the maintenance of banded ROcs, the establishment of a smart grid and no new runaways at Heathrow, stansted or gatwick.

In reaction, nick winser, national grid’s executive director for transmission, commented: “we share the vision of the new www.vital-mag.net

“Moving from a 20 to a 30 percent emissions reduction target by 2020 is absolutely essential if europe is to stimulate the investment required to effectively tackle climate change and create the green jobs and industries of the future.

It will ensure that europe’s emissions reduction target is in-line with the urgency of the task at hand and that europe can retain its position as a global leader on these issues.”

September / October 2010 : VitAL 59

vital planet

coalition Government in wanting to achieve a low carbon and eco friendly economy.

Delivery of this low carbon future must also be affordable and maintain our security of supply. But crucially, new energy infrastructure is urgently needed and decisions will have to be taken soon to create the right conditions for investment.”

The Government has decided that it will establish an emissions performance standard that will prevent coal-fired power stations being built unless they are equipped with sufficient carbon capture and storage (CCS) to meet the emissions performance standard. They will continue with the former Government’s plans for public sector investment in CCS technology for four coal-fired power stations.

According to Jeff Chapman, chief executive of the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Association: “We look forward to working with the new UK Government to ensure an EPS is introduced effectively. There is a potential for unintended consequences such as inhibiting investment in fossil fuel power stations. However, we are confident that we will come to a sensible arrangement as the new Government are clearly committed to the deployment of CCS in the UK.” One of the most hotly anticipated domestic policies surrounds nuclear energy in the UK, the Liberal Democrats are strongly opposed to the nuclear energy. The policy states that the Liberal Democrats will abstain when plans for the replacement of existing nuclear plants come before parliament and there will be no public subsidy. Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority commented: “The UK is still committed to the construction of new nuclear power plants.

All parties involved have been assured that plans that were in progress in the UK should be continued. We feel a growing consensus amongst the UK public that building new nuclear power plants is imperative to diversify our energy supply.” *The European Future Energy Forum 2010, will be taking place in ExCeL London, October 19-21. VitAL www.europeanfutureenergyforum.com 60 VitAL : September / October 2010

“The UK is still committed to the construction of new nuclear power plants. All parties involved have been assured that plans that were in progress in the UK should be continued. We feel a growing consensus amongst the UK public that building new nuclear power plants is imperative to diversify our energy supply.”

Consultancy questions carbon reduction commitment M&C Energy Group, the UK’s largest energy consultancy, has criticised the progress made in connecting with participants in the new carbon reduction commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme and questioned the government’s effectiveness in communicating its impending deadlines.

According to M&C Energy Group only 1,229 organisations have so far registered and with less than 50 days to go; it has warned that many UK businesses and public sector organisations are unaware of the obligations placed on them and are therefore in danger of failing to properly register by the deadline date.

Chris Davenport, M&C Energy Group director comments: “UK Energy and Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker, has admitted that the complexity of the scheme may have deterred some organisations from registering. There is simply no ‘may’ about it. M&C Energy Group, which represents businesses consuming £4bn of energy, has seen first-hand how this legislation is leaving businesses cold. The simple fact of the matter is that many organisations don’t know whether CRC applies to them and therefore run the risk of missing the deadline and incurring significant fines.

“Additionally many will not have established the full extent of their organisational structure, a requirement necessary for full compliance with the scheme as set out by the regulations, and are therefore at risk of failing to collect the necessary energy data in time in order to accurately complete their registration.

“Unfortunately, due to the complex nature of the scheme, an organisation cannot predict with accuracy where they will be in the league table of all participating organisations. This unknown makes investment criteria for capital to spend on efficiency improvements, as well as budgeting for the cost of the scheme, extremely difficult,” concludes Davenport. www.mcenergygroup.com

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vital events

itSMF UK Conference: The essential event for IT service managers Now it its 19th year, the itSMF UK Conference is the annual event for IT Service Management professionals, offering education, networking and an annual awards dinner all under one roof.

T

his year, for the first time, the itSMF UK Conference will take place in London, running at the Novotel London West on 8th and 9th November.

“We believe the new London location will greatly improve the entire conference experience for sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and delegates alike,” said itSMF UK’s deputy CEO Ben Clacy. “However we are also tailoring sponsorship packages, providing greater flexibility to delegates and giving the conference programme a complete makeover with a reduced number of streams and presentations, as well as introducing three further days of ITSM training for those who wish to take full advantage of their time in the capital.”

In total there are over 40 educational sessions in the programme, broken down into five topic areas (Lessons Learned, People, Continual Service Improvement (CSI), Tips & Techniques, and Back to Basics, as well as a further selection of interactive sessions). In addition, there is an exhibition involving more than 50 trainers and vendors.

User experience The main aim of the conference programme is to allow speakers to share their practical service management experiences with delegates. The Lessons Learned topic area, for example, includes a case study by www.vital-mag.net

Lara Osgood and Carl Chambers of Virgin Atlantic. Their presentation describes the formation of Virgin’s Service Delivery and Management Programme, launched in a climate of global aviation price and cost cutting and driven by a desire to improve service by moving to industry best practices underpinned by tools that supported this philosophy. The session offers invaluable input for delegates to add to their own service improvement programmes.

In ‘The right capability in the right place at the right time’ in the People group of presentations, Daryl Back of Unilever talks about his company’s methodology for obtaining resource for its IT function, which has changed from predominantly internal development to also include external recruitment and supply through strategic outsourcing contracts.

Guilio Tedeschi and Helen Morris of Belron International go ‘back to basics’ with a session entitled ‘I can see clearly now – working towards ITSM best practice in a changing environment.’ This presentation discusses the challenge of managing the expansion of the organisation, including international mergers, while maintaining stable, effective and efficient IT services. With best practice in mind, the speakers describe their first steps towards ISO/IEC 20000 accreditation.

In the CSI topic area, Dave Howard of Toyota Financial Services introduces Toyota Business

Practices (TBP), an eight-step process that clarifies a problem, identifies the root cause, develops counter-measures, monitors and measures the results of the improvements and standardises the successful process.

TBP combines the familiar Deming Cycle (Plan, Do, Check and Act) with the principles of the Toyota Way (Continuous Improvement and Respect for People.)

If you don’t believe that process maturity assessments are ever simple, fast or free, try the ITIL Cooper Test, a technique from Ben Kalland of Tieturi. Based on ITIL, COBIT and ISO/IEC 20000, the test allows delegates to assess their own Incident Management process in twelve minutes and determine where improvements are needed. And they get the charts for the Change Management process as well!

Hope to see you there!

These are just a few of the presentations on offer at this year’s itSMF UK Conference.

Along with the exhibition, networking opportunities and training in such popular topics as capacity planning, service level agreements and service catalogues, this is undoubtedly (as one delegate put it last year) “the best value IT Service Management consultancy you can obtain.” VitAL www.itsmf.co.uk/conference2010/ September / October 2010 : VitAL 61

directory

Hornbill Systems

Wardown Consulting

Ares, Odyssey Business Park, West End Road, Ruislip, HA4 6QD

Prudence Place, Proctor Way, Luton, Bedfordshire. LU2 9PE

T: F: W: C: E:

020 8582 8282 020 8582 8288 www.hornbill.com sales@hornbill.com info@hornbill.com

Hornbill develops and markets ‘Supportworks’, applications for IT Service Management (ITSM) and business helpdesks. Hornbill’s ITSM & service desk software with a ‘Human Touch’, enables its customers to provide excellent service while benefiting from consolidation on a single technology platform.

InfraVision

T: 01582 488242 F: 01582 488343 W: www.wardownconsulting.co.uk C: Rosemary Gurney E: rosemary.gurney@wardownconsulting.co.uk Wardown Consulting was established to help businesses capitalise from the substantial benefits that IT Service Management can deliver. Our consultants boast a wealth of industry experience and are accredited to deliver ITIL v2 and v3 training.

ICCM Solutions

Unit 4 Charlton Business Park, Crudwell Road, Malmesbury, Wiltshire, SN16 9RU T: + 44 (0) 1666 828 600 F: + 44 (0) 1666 826103 W: www.iccm.co.uk C: Kate Colclough E: info@iccm.co.uk ICCM supply Service Desk software created within Metastorms™ leading process improvement architecture. This collaboration delivers unparalleled Service Management capabilities across all industries and business functions. By developing its technology from the process up around the ITIL® framework ICCM’s software allows customers to tailor processes around their company’s actual needs.

Kepner-tregoe

NetSupport Software Ltd

Quayside House, Thames Side, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1QN T: +44 (0) 1753 856716 F: +44 (0) 1753 854929 W: www.kepner-tregoe.com C: Steve White E: swhite@kepner-tregoe.com Kepner-Tregoe provides consulting and training services to organizations worldwide.

We collaborate with clients to implement their strategies by embedding problem-solving, decision-making, and project execution methods through individual and team skill development and process improvement. Clients build competitive advantage by using our systematic processes to achieve rapid, targeted results and create lasting value.

Towngate East, Market Deeping, Peterborough, PE6 8NE

T: +44 (0) 1778 382270 F: +44 (0) 1778 382280 W: www.netsupportsoftware.co.uk C: Colette Reed E: colette@netsupportsoftware.co.uk NetSupport provides a range of complementary Remote Support and Service Management solutions that help organisations deliver a productive and cost effective IT support service. Products include multi-platform Remote Control solution NetSupport Manager, IT Asset Management suite NetSupport DNA and web based ITIL Service Management tool NetSupport ServiceDesk.

Pink Elephant

Sunrise Software

G2G3

Atlantic House, Imperial Way, Reading. RG2 0TD

50 Barwell Business Park, Leatherhead Rd

Delegate House, 30A Hart Street, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, RG9 2AL T: +44 (0) 1491 635340 F: +44 (0) 1491 579835 W: www.infravision.com C: Nigel Todd E: n.todd@infravision.com InfraVision inspire organisations to move from a Break/Fix culture to a Service led culture. We enable clients to be ITIL aligned and therefore more efficient in 12 weeks with BMC SDE. Be inspired; be transformed; be a customer of InfraVision.

T: + 44 (0) 118 903 6824 F: + 44 (0) 118 903 6282 W: www.pinkelephant.com C: Frances Fenn E: info.emea@pinkelephant.com Acknowledged worldwide as niche, independent, IT Service Management Education and Consulting providers.

Having trained more people than any other company in ITIL related subjects since 1987, we have contributed to all 3 versions of the ITIL books.

62 VitAL : September / October 2010

Chessington, Surrey. KT9 2NY T: +44 (0) 208 391 9000 F: +44 (0) 208 391 0404 W: www.sunrisesoftware.co.uk C: Angela Steel E: welcome@sunrisesoftware.co.uk Sunrise is a leading independent provider of service management software solutions for IT and across the organisation, with a customer base of over 1000 blue chip and public sector organisations.

Panama House, 14 The High Street, Lasswade, EH18 1ND T: + 44 (0) 131 461 3333 F: + 44 (0) 131 663 8934 W: www.g2g3.com C: David Arrowsmith E: info@g2g3.com G2G3 is the leading provider of communication tools, gaming solutions and simulations that propel enterprise IT and business alignment. Headquartered in the UK, G2G3 has a strong global network of partners supporting the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. www.vital-mag.net

DIRecTORy

denniS AdAMS ASSoCiATeS

AVoCenT LAndeSk

houSe-on-The-hiLL SofTwAre

Tel: +44 (0)845 055 8935 www.dennisadams.co.uk info@dennisadams.co.uk

dukes Court, duke Street, woking, Surrey gu22 7Ad

127 Stockport rd, Marple, Cheshire Sk6 6Af

Dennis Adams Associates IT Management consultants enable clients to:

T: +44 (0) 1483 744444 f: +44 (0) 1483 744401 w: www.landesk.com C: Sarah Lewis e: sarah.lewis@avocent.com Avocent delivers IT operations management solutions that reduce operating costs, simplify management and increase the availability of critical IT environments 24/7 via integrated, centralized software. This includes systems Management, security Management, Data centre Management and IT service Management.

specialists in providing comprehensive solutions for any size business on time, in budget and carefully tailored to your needs, House-on-the-Hill produces supportDesk; the most flexible ITILcompatible service Management solution on the market. House-on-the-Hill provides comprehensive solutions for over 500 businesses worldwide.

uniPreSS SofTwAre

TeST MAgAZine

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● ●

●

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Build high performing IT Management teams Implement effective IT strategy create empowering IT Processes and Procedures establish Production supportable Technology Roadmaps Be visibly Accountable to the Business

CherweLL SofTwAre

Lime kiln house, Lime kiln, wooton Bassett, wiltshire, Sn4 7hf

uniPress Software – London

T: + 44 (0) 1793 858181 w: www.cherwellsoftware.com/contact

2 Sheraton Street

cherwell service Management delivers ITIL v3 best practice ‘out-of-the-box’ including: Incident, Problem, change, cMDB, sLA, Knowledge, selfservice and is PinkVeRIFy certified. Our unique cBAT development platform empowers users to fully customise screens, workflow processes and develop additional business applications. The cherwell solution is available via a standard license model or ‘On Demand’ saas service.

T: f: w: e:

eMC

Connaught house, Portsmouth road, Send, Surrey, gu23 7JY T: f: w: e:

+44 (0) 1483 213 200 +44 (0) 1483 213 201 www.infra.co.uk infra-info.uk@emc.com

Based on ITIL best practice, eMc’s IT service Automation & Operations solutions deliver end-to-end IT service Management, visibility and control by enabling and improving the service Desk function, servicecentric cMDB population and federation, as well as key processes.

www.vital-mag.net

uniPress Software Ltd London, w1f 8Bh + 44 (0) 8450 646566 + 44 (0) 8450 636261 unipress.co.uk sales@unipress.co.uk

web Help Desk is a 100% web-based helpdesk solution which provides a low cost of ownership, ultimate portability and simple implementation. A totally cross-platform solution, web Help Desk has a diverse feature-set that will allow you to fulfil any submitted request more efficiently and effectively.

T: f: w: C: e:

+44 (0) 161 449 7057 +44 (0) 161 449 7122 www.houseonthehill.com Tim roche info@houseonthehill.com

31 Media, Media house, 16 rippolson road, London Se18 1nS T: f: w: C: e:

+44 (0) 870 863 6930 +44 (0) 870 085 8837 www.31media.co.uk grant farrell grant.farrell@31media.co.uk

The European Software Tester is a publication designed specifically for individuals and organisations aligned with software testing. with independent, practical, and insightful editorial T.e.s.T aims to inspire its readers and provide its advertisers with a clearly defined route to market.

iT SerViCe MAnAgeMenT foruM

e-wArehouSe

.

150 wharfedale road, winnersh Triangle, wokingham, Berkshire. rg41 5rg

e-warehouse Ltd, hampden house, hampden house, Monument park, Chalgrove,oxfordshire , oX44 7rw

T: f: w: C: e:

T: 0845 299 7539 f: 08717143802 w: www.oxygenservicedesk.com c: Victoria eggleton e: oxygen@e-warehouse.com

0118 918 6503 0118 969 9749 www.itsmf.co.uk Ben Clacy ben.clacy@itsmf.co.uk

The itsMF is the only internationally recognised and independent organisation whose sole focus is on the on-going development and promotion of IT service Management ’best practice‘, standards and qualifications. The forum has 14,000 UK members and official itsMF chapters in 44 countries

Oxygen Service Desk is a process automation engine that simply interprets your pre-defined business processes and then mobilises the actual process, pushing work tasks to people and to systems, streamlining how the processes run across your entire department or organisation.

September / October 2010 : VitAL 63

secReTs OF My sUccess

Dave Ramsden Chief intelligence officer, Atrion Networking Corporation

This month Dave Ramsden of Atrion networking corporation in the Us provided our timely cover feature, ‘Rediscovering the value of IT’, but we felt it was important to find out a little bit more about Mr Ramsden, so we asked him the secret of his success...

VitAL: name, company and job title please?

Married? Kids? dave ramsden: My name is Dave Ramsden, and I’m the chief intelligence officer at Atrion networking corporation. I have been married to my wife, Laura, for seventeen years. Together we have four phenomenal children.

VitAL: what got you started in IT? dr: I had a liberal arts background, with a BA in History and an MA in english. I took a job in operations at a nynex agency when I was finishing up my masters, and it turned into a career. I moved from there to a VAR and got into managing technology projects, which I enjoyed tremendously.

VitAL: was there any one person or organisation that was your inspiration? dr: As much as I joke about it, it was my wife. shortly after I began in the field she was promoted to a role as my boss. she was so good at what she did that it really set the bar high for me. Her high standards and professionalism at that point in my career were a great example to learn from.

VitAL: First IT job and major IT triumph? dr: My first major project was a nationwide rollout of a redundant wAn network to about a hundred racing establishments throughout the Us. we hired a project team with the expectation that most of them would be on the road for a year. The logistics of the project were challenging to say the least, but it was a great learning experience and it led to a lot of personal growth.

64 VitAL : September / October 2010

VitAL: Did you ever make any embarrassing mistakes? what did you learn from them? dr: yes. yesterday I spread toothpaste on my face instead of shaving cream (it goes on thicker and tingles more). But I like the (Artie shaw?) adage: “if you don’t ever make a mistake, you’re not trying, you’re not playing at the edge of your ability”. Once you lose the stigma of making a mistake, then edge-work becomes really rewarding.

VitAL: what do you like best about your job? dr: The way it has taught me to change constantly, and to seek constant improvement. every day is not a success story, but looking back you can’t help but see constant growth.

VitAL: what is your biggest ambition? dr: To be an outstanding father, or at least half as good as my dad was.

VitAL: what are your hobbies or interests? dr: I used to be a musician, but I don’t play out much anymore. I do love to learn though, and most of my passion ties in some way to history, communication or philosophy. Language and its patterns fascinate me, from music to poetry, semiotics and cryptography. It’s geeky and boring, but I love research work.

VitAL: what is the secret of your success? dr: I’m not sure that I’m successful, but I do enjoy what I do and feel constantly challenged.

The supportive environment at Atrion plays a big part in that. I have never worked for a company that is as focused on both personal and professional development as we are, and it’s great to be a part of that.

VitAL: Dave Ramsden thank you very much.

I like the (Artie Shaw?) adage: “if you don’t ever make a mistake, you’re not trying, you’re not playing at the edge of your ability”. Once you lose the stigma of making a mistake, then edge-work becomes really rewarding.

www.vital-mag.net

The best value IT Service Management consultancy you can obtain

SIR RANULPH FIENNES BT OBE, "the world's greatest living explorer" will open this year's Conference, drawing a connection between nature’s most dangerous and difficult challenges and the day-to-day hurdles we all face.

SHARON TAYLOR, the former Chief Architect for ITIL and Chair of itSMF International and current Chief Examiner for ITIL V3 qualifications will close the conference with a focus on the future of IT Service Management.

Plus JON CULSHAW will host our prestigious awards evening, bringing professionalism and humour to this unparalleled event!

If you are interested in the delivery and support of IT services and the essential concepts behind service management you should be attending this year’s itSMF UK Conference Now in its 19th year of providing presentations, workshops, training, vast networking opportunities and the best collection of ITSM suppliers of toolsets, training and consultancy under one roof, the Conference is most definitely “the best value ITSM consultancy you can obtain” Whether you are a beginner or highly experienced, we guarantee you will gain insight, best practice, knowledge and contacts which in turn will cut cost, improve performance and increase efficiencies throughout your IT infrastructure • A great line-up of over 40 educational sessions on a broad range of IT Service Management topics • A chance to network with other delegates and over 50 exhibitors • Our celebrated Awards Dinner • Three days of optional training on using COBIT and ITIL together; capacity planning and management processes; service level agreements; service catalogue strategy... and much more!

be part of it... 8-9th November, Novotel London West

For further information or to book online, go to www.itsmf.co.uk/conference2010 Platinum sponsor:

Gold sponsors:

Silver sponsors:

vital focus groups Helping you overcome obstacles

21st June 2011 ●

One Day Event ● 120 Decision Makers ● 15 Thought Leading Debate Sessions Peer-to-Peer Networking

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Exhibition

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Cutting Edge Content

For more information Contact Grant Farrell on +44 (0) 203 056 4598 Email: registration@vitalfocusgroups.com Website: www.vitalfocusgroups.com

Held at: Park Inn Hotel, Heathrow