ITIL V3, Helping Businesses Enhance Business Value: Sunil Mohal, ITpreneurs

Last November the 20th anniversary of ITIL was celebrated. For the uninitiated, ITIL or "Information Technology Infrastructure Library" is a Best Practice Framework for IT Service Management. It has evolved over the years from version 1 released in 1989, with a version 2 being released around the year 2001 and in 2007, a new version, V3 being introduced. When Version 3 or V3 was introduced, Version 2, or V2 was not withdrawn. This happened only recently in December 2009. This simultaneous existence of two versions between 2007 and 2009 created a huge churn over the respective merits of ITIL V2 and ITIL V3.

To many; V3's emphasis on creating business value over simply improving execution of processes is its biggest achievement, while for others the core focus of ITIL should be on improving processes. In this churn of things I recollected my own experiences with Infrastructure Management, and this brought into focus why I believe that Business Value is enhanced by ITIL V3 and hence it merits greater attention.

About 20 years ago I was working in a company which pioneered Computer Education in the School Segment in India. At that time we had a presence in about 90 cities and towns spanning the length and breadth of the country with an installed base of upwards of 2000 systems. Towards the end of 1989, when the need for enhancing customer support was felt, I was given that task. The brief I had on being given the responsibility was very simple "We need to ensure that our clients are happy and that we can re-sign our contracts. To ensure re-signing, the computer systems must work".

Though we already had a team doing maintenance work, there was a need to have a systematic approach in "Infrastructure Management". Thus the existing department, the FE (Field Engineering) Department was greatly enhanced in size, scope and approach. However imagine India in the 80's and 90's, without its present communications link. There were no mobiles, the PCO system was not up, and calling a place like Kurseong, or Pathanamthitta or Dibrugarh, could take days. Telegrams were a way out, but they were difficult to convey messages.

Sunil Mohal

ITpreneurs