Since 2011, the IT Service Management Office (ITSMO) has provided ITIL certification training courses to nearly 300 participants, including twelve Foundation courses and nine Intermediate courses.
The SMCC provides scholarship funds to a select group of attendees. Carlos de Leon from the Candler School of Theology was one of these participants. As a scholarship award winner, Carlos provided this summary of the course:
ITIL v3 Foundations training – Jan 7-9, 2014
Summary by Carlos de León, Desktop Support Specialist, Candler School of Theology
The ITIL framework can help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of IT services by reducing risks, aligning the services with the needs of the business, controlling IT service costs, and creating a common language for service provision, among others.
ITIL is important to improve customer satisfaction as well, which in turn delivers value to both the customer and the business. By focusing our attention on the customer needs, user satisfaction increases and this helps develop better relationships with the customer.
Some of the ways the ITIL framework can be applied in my work environment include:
- Increasing the response time when a service request is placed.
- Following up with the customer upon finding a resolution to their problem.
- Communicating with the customer throughout the entire process of delivering IT services.
- Delivering the IT services in a manner that creates value to the customer (effectively and efficiently).
In my role as an IT Support member, I can definitely see the value of implementing the ITIL Framework to improve the quality of service. For example, one of the learning points of this training was the differentiation between “incident” and “service request.” An incident is defined as an unplanned interruption or reduction of quality of an IT service. A service request is a formal request from a user for something to be provided.
Based on these definitions and the impact of each, I can have a better understanding of the customer needs and prioritize accordingly.
The training also highlighted the importance of a Service Catalog because it provides a single and consistent source of information regarding the services provided to the users. This is especially important in my situation since at the moment our department is in the process of developing a comprehensive service catalog so that users have a better understanding of the IT services we provide for them.
In general, the application of the ITIL Framework to the work environment will help increase productivity as the direct result of streamlining work processes. Simplification and standardization lead to increased productivity.
Leave a Reply