Leveraging ITIL Best Practices for Indian IT and BPO industry

The software Services organization in India have

India spells Quality: 75% of
demonstrated a leadership in Software Process Maturity
the worlds CMM Level 5
with maximum number of CMMI level 5 companies in
software centers are in India
India and this gives India an unparalleled competitive
advantage. We are at an inflection point now, when it
is an imperative for Indian IT Infrastructures Services and BPO firms to replicate the
success story
ITIL adoption has taken off in India in last two years, driven by the move of offshore IT
and BPO Organizations. Adherence to best practices and BS15000 certification is
increasingly becoming a competitive advantage among offshore vendors and has started
reflecting in the Global outsourcing RFPs.
Critical reliance on Human Capital & IT Infrastructure for delivering value to Global endcustomer is common to BPO and IT Organizations and that makes ITIL an indispensable
framework for them. While there are innumerable benefits in general, listed below are
specific benefits for India IT and BPO Organizations:

IT Infrastructure availability, even at the Desktop level is critical in meeting

end-Customer SLAs
Best Practice adoption helps to comply with international regulations like SOX
(Sarbanes Oxley Act) and achieve certifications such as SAS 70 (Statement on
Auditing Standards 70)
Efficient IT Service and higher uptimes improves Employee productivity the
finished product of Services Business
A professional IT Service Desk goes a long way in improving employee morale

Early Role Models: IT Organizations in India, like

HCL Comnet, Wipro, Infosys, CSC, HP have already
achieved BS15000 certification while many more
are in the process. BPO industry too must follow
the footsteps and achieve a competitive advantage
by going for BS15000 certification.

Mid
and
Large
sized
Service
Organizations, having more than 1000
employees cannot do without the lifeline
of an effective IT Service Desk, where
ITIL framework provides the guiding
principles.

Fig1 ITIL Process Model: ITIL is a best practice framework to address IT Service Management

Where to start.
Typically, someone within the IT organization has to sell the
ITIL philosophy first to the management and hence you must
start with identifying for yourself - why you need ITIL?
Most often, one of two scenarios will indicate the need of ITIL.
The first scenario is when a company repeatedly experiences
IT issues in a certain area, whether it's frequent outages or
just a high level of end user dissatisfaction. The second
scenario is a company that is rapidly growing and needs to
expand the services it offers, while perhaps consolidating at the
same time, such as after mergers and acquisitions.
The need for ITIL also arises when companies are forced to
maintain or improve service levels with a flat or declining
budget. In order to deliver a high quality of service at the right
cost to the business, you have to have repeatable, well-defined
processes.
In either case, the process models described in the IT
Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a set of documentation that
describes best practices for IT Service Management, can help
the company gain control of the situation.

How some of the worlds

leading organizations are
benefiting?
6-8 % cut in operating
costs,...reduction in help
desk calls by 10%,.. $125
million (nearly 10% of annual
IT budget) in IT cost savings
per year Procter & Gamble
reduction in an organizations
total cost of ownership by as
much as 48% while moving
from no adoption of ITIL to
full adoption of ITIL best
practices.Gartner.
saving 6000 man-days
working days, 5 million
dollars due to faster software
upgrades in less than 72
hours Shell Oil
increased target response
time achievement rate to
over 90% from 60%, for
incident management on
Web-related services, in 18
month of ITIL
implementation..Caterpillar
Over 3000 ITIL-trained staff
in Microsoft worldwide.

Implementing ITIL
Fig 2 ITIL and BS15000 Implementation Journey (Courtesy QAI India. All rights
reserved)

IT organizations constantly struggle to ensure that

their IT services are value-added and meet the needs
of the business in a cost-effective manner. One of the
best opportunities for the IT organization to evaluate
whether it is meeting the business goals and
requirements is by getting an objective and third-party
perspective regarding IT Service Management.

Fig 3 Accredited ITIL Certifications from QAI India

Process Maturity Assessment:

An ITIL Consulting Organization
like QAI can help in evaluating IT
service delivery and support
processes, organizational
structure, technology and tools to
identify maturity levels and
resultant improvement
opportunities. The final
deliverable may include maturity
scorecards, a detailed gaps and
issues table, a set of proposed
recommendations, and, most
importantly, a pragmatic and
executable implementation
roadmap

Organizations also need to

invest in ITIL trainings for its
IT Service resources, which
are available at three levels
The
first
level
is
the
foundation
course,
which
should be attended by most
of the Service Delivery staff.
Higher levels at Practitioner
and Service Managers level are for staff specializing in Specific area like Service Desk or
wanting to achieve the highest certification in IT Service Management. Investing in

Service Management tools also makes lots of sense, as

it automates the workflows and minimizes the chances
of error.
Another handy tip is to discuss ITIL best practices with
your peers in the public and private sector, or join a
forum that provides access to a network of experts,
information sources and events.

After rubber hits the road

About ITIL (IT Infrastructure

Library)
ITIL is the only consistent and
comprehensive documentation of
best practice for IT Service
Management. Used by many
hundreds of organizations around
the world, a whole ITIL philosophy
has grown up around the guidance
contained within the ITIL books.
Conceived in the 1980's, it was
originally developed to improve IT
service management within the UK
Government, however it has
become relevant to all
organisations, whether Public or
Private sector.

Having gone through the grind of laying the foundation,

new challenges emerge after the implementation project
is over. The organizations faces the challenge of
sustaining the momentum as initial euphoria vanishes and Champions, who were drawn
for the initiative, are no longer available.
Organizations must focus on putting metrics and measurements in place, and
reviewing them on a regular basis. Success must be widely announced to maintain the
feel good and motivation. Having laid down the foundation with ITIL based processes;
emphasis must be laid on continuous improvement. Six Sigma is a useful tool that
can be employed at this stage for improving the processes and matrices by reducing the
defect rate. Six Sigma helps in systematically enhancing the capability of Service
Delivery Processes to better meet/exceed customer specifications, resulting in a tangible
business gain.
Once the benefits are for everyone to see in a tangible form, it becomes easier to
sustain the organizational momentum.

The road ahead

ITIL has a growing user community in IT and BPO Industry. While ITIL is a best
practice framework, which any organization can claim compliance, BS15000 is an
auditable standard based on the very same best practices which is awarded after a
third party compliance audit. This brings an obvious credibility and confidence from
the customer, for demonstrated IT service Delivery excellence.
After BFSI (Banking Finance and Insurance), BPO has the greatest exposure to
regulations and the road to some of those regulations, passes through ITIL and
BS15000. While IT Industry is leading from the front in getting the best practice
adoption endorsed by BS15000 certification, BPO Industry need to catch up on that
count.