ITIL – Small Scale Implementation

Information Technology Infrastructure Library or ITIL -- a set of best practice guidelines and concepts for addressing effective and efficient management of IT infrastructure in an organization, focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of any business. ITIL can describe different processes, tasks, and procedures, as well as maintain checklists that can be applied by any organization. Not designed specifically for any single organization, ITIL maintains the integrity of business strategy and appropriately increases the value and competency of all client concerns.

 

ITIL Stepping into Small Scale Industries:

 

Considered to be useful for just the public sector in the initial stages, ITIL has now entered the corporate sector, and how. Due to its ability of allowing organizations to create a baseline from where planning, implementation and measurement can be implemented, it is gaining traction in small scale businesses too. Today, ITIL is being increasingly used for demonstrating compliance and measuring improvements in units of all sizes.

 

Although ITIL adequately supports large industries with complex infrastructure and large manpower, with recent developments, it can serve smaller and less mature processes of small scale industries as well. That said; one has to keep track of the feasibility and relevance of ITIL before implementing the same in a small scale business.

 

While incorporating ITIL in a small industry, one has to undertake an incremental approach instead of jumping head first into implementation. 5 processes need to be defined before-hand, namely:

Once these processes are defined, the core function of offering uninterrupted services can be attained. It is not mandatory to execute all the processes’ specifications. One has to choose the ones that are relevant to his company. 

 

Pinch the Weakness:

 

After the boundaries of the above mentioned processes have been defined, the next step is to identify the weaknesses that the organization is facing. Once that is clear within the team, the concepts of ITIL can be applied to overcome those weaknesses. It’s well advised to create a list of strengths that can be enhanced to the next level with ITIL. Incorporating the results will eliminate the loose ends or gaps caused by the missing spots or weakness, and cement the framework by elevating all strengths.

 

Leading the Way:

 

No process would succeed if there was no one to take a lead and manage it efficiently. ITIL can perform most of the work proficiently, but someone needs to supervise its functionality. Assigning a process owner to each process—one who is willing to take on the responsibility of ensuring smooth operations, serves to be a positive step in this direction. This process-owner has to be made accountable for the ways in which the processes and concepts of ITIL are implemented.

 

Money Matters:

 

Keeping the dynamism and ever-increasing size of this industry in mind, it is imperative to have an approach that focuses on cost savings. While the bigger companies may not have to think twice before implementing any software, this isn’t the case with small scale industries. When the cost factor is kept in mind, it helps companies focus only the relevant features that they would need, instead of falling in the trap of generic ITIL implementations (just because everyone else is doing so). ITIL offers the flexibility to choose some of its aspects, instead of the whole framework, to apply in an organization. Adopting the right features will prove beneficial and more features can be included as the company’s requirements and size grow.

 

Results Speak:

 

It is true that if one takes care of the small things, the bigger things fall into the right places on their own. So, it’s good to follow through the little steps and let ITIL take care of the rest. However, one should avoid making the mistake of assuming that implementing ITIL will completely revamp any organization by making everything simple and efficient. ITIL is a brilliant framework that assists one to design, implement, test, operate and constantly improve an organization’s services and productivity -- in an efficient and simple manner. The results will be more favorable if ITIL and an organization’s efforts are in sync with each other.

 

The Way Forward:

 

ITIL allows small scale industries to compete with the bigger ones and delivers excellent results. Promising to stay around for a long time in future, the small scale implementation of ITIL puts organizations on the right path to success.