Breaking Free from ITIL’s Limitations and Costs
Jan van Bon
Forget about ITIL or COBIT until you've learned to think the USM way. Reduce your organization's complexity for a sustainable Enterprise Service Management strategy. USM's revolution is ESM's evolution.
Embracing a Sustainable Service Management Approach
For decades now, countless organizations have invested heavily in ITIL’s practice-based approach to service management. While ITIL initially promised improved efficiency and structure, it has often left organizations with fragmented processes, limited ROI, and, all too frequently, frustration. Despite the money, time, and emotional energy poured into ITIL implementations, the value has been limited, with improvements that quickly fade without constant maintenance and reinvestment, now leading to ITIL's decline.
The core issue lies in ITIL's complexity and its focus on practices rather than providing a simple, holistic, adaptable and methodical approach that comes with Systems Thinking. This forces the users of ITIL to find their own solid solution for managing ITIL's guidance - without being offered the management system required to do so. As a consequence, ITIL users create all kinds of 'adopt & adapt' solutions, without the proper understanding of their management system. Many organizations now find themselves buried in processes that do little more than meet compliance goals while failing to drive real business value. And when they then select a tool that is designed to follow the ITIL structure, they are really lost in the swamp of complexity and high cost. This leaves them in a reactive state, struggling to keep up rather than innovating and improving service delivery, and paying the price on a daily base. Sound familiar?
Some organizations walk away from this, covering the failures and disillusions of the past with a sheet, focusing on new techniques such as agile, Lean, ESM, and AI. By running away, however, they do not solve their problem, and the cost of solving this will only increase.
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This is where the Unified Service Management (USM) approach offers a game-changing alternative. Unlike ITIL’s fragmented and often overwhelming practices, USM provides a unified and methodical approach that focuses on aligning people, processes, and technology to deliver lasting value, based on Systems Thinking. By simplifying the approach to service management, USM allows organizations to develop a sustainable model that grows with them— without the constant overhaul of processes and costly retraining that ITIL often requires.
It’s time for organizations to re-evaluate their approach to service management, to critically re-think the things they’ve learned before, and to move beyond practice-based frameworks like ITIL.
To learn more about this, visit the USM wiki (usmwiki.com) and join us in the series of USM Revolution webinars. Episode 5 will be on Streamlining Workflows, Customer Journeys, Value Streams, and Capabilities. Exciting topics! And we'll demystify them.
The webinar is at 19 November, 3-4 pm CET. Register here: https://bit.ly/USMrev5
With 20 years at implementing ITSM practices with organizations of all kinds, big and small, it is correct to recognize that a system is what makes ITSM whole. Where I disagree with the article is that ITIL is lacking such system… in fact, the core element of the current version of ITIL is the Service Value System, offering the supporting elements of governance, continual improvements, comprehensive and integrated practices (yes, practices are still important but not the only focus), guiding principles and a value chain to deliver the services/roducts. In fact I found the new identity of ITIL very relèvent and adapted to today’s reality. Is investing on ITIL more costly today than it was under previous ownership, we can probably agree that it is, but the global ITSM community obtains in return more consulting and training products and capabilities than under previous ownership…. I csn attest to that fact, having been an ITIL trainer for over 23 years… Many IT management frameworks are needed for an IT organization and business to succeed. I for one am not of the opinion that creating and overlapping framework will help our industry… Just my 2 cents worth in a complex discussion… but just wanted the facts to be correct …
Global IT Service Management Leader | Enhancing Customer Experience & Business Outcomes through Technology Innovation
3 个月Having spent years navigating the complexities of traditional ITIL implementations, I deeply relate to the frustrations you've shared here Jan. The real challenge, however, lies in convincing those who have heavily invested in ITIL to take a step back and critically assess the advantages and sustainable value USM brings. Shifting mindsets from entrenched, practice based models isn’t easy, but no doubt essential for sustainable change & progress across this area.