So now the proverbial “rubber hits the road”.  You’ve purchased a service desk tool, and you want it to support your ITIL process initiative.  So how do you get there?
This is part 3 of a three part series (Part 1, Part 2) discussing how to “Bridge the Gap” between Service Desks, IT Processes, and Workflow.  Part 3 offers some practical advice on how to get from what the ITIL Processes describe, and really getting the benefit through automation tools.
In the two parts that preceded this article, I discussed the value …

In our ITSM Consulting Practice, we regularly work with customers on the implementation of service desk tools.  One of the common misconceived requests we receive is…  “Can you implement the ITIL (name one) process in our service desk tool?”   What follows is that we need to educate the customer that you can’t implement a process in a tool; we can only implement a workflow, and documentation.  The process is larger than that.
Last week, we saw “Bridging the Gap – Part 1: Process and the …

It is Friday. And I am a fan of Dilbert toons. Today’s Dilbert reminded me of the often situation some of us find ourselves, when we take a project or a thought or an action plan to our bosses. Well, the good ones would be jubilant (maybe an exaggeration!) and the bad ones would beat the idea down because they feel insecure that someone else thought of something better than them.
Anyways, the toon also reminded me of the how we approach the help desk or ITIL. Documentation, even though a …

I teach the ITIL V3 Foundations Course at least monthly, and without fail a student will ask me a question like “So… How exactly do I set up the incident management process in my help desk system?” at which point I have a discussion with the class about the difference between process and workflow.
This is part 1 of a three part series discussing how to “Bridge the Gap” between Service Desks, IT Processes, and Workflow.  In Part 1, I will describe the role IT …

We are closer to 2010 and the recession seems to have slowed down. But everyone is careful. Companies are still trying to keep costs low. Every expense needs to be justified. And that affects the IT department too. Technology is used to keep those costs down. The IT department needs to make the right choices in getting efficient technologies that will reduce the cost of IT.
Apart from the help desk that is implemented to keep track of requests, there are tools out there that can help the IT manager reduce …

It really is an old question. But then why are people still asking or pondering this? IT managers seem to be in a dilemma of sorts. Some of them know that ITILv2 is sufficient but the market seems to have moved on. After all, when there is a new version in the market, why would anyone want to go to the old version? – it does not seem to be the right thing to do.
But then the real question would be – what is wrong with ITIL v2 anyways? My …