How Communication Drives ITIL Process

Many IT organizations use ITIL to organize and standardize how they deliver IT services. This industry-standard process helps the organization serve customers in a cost-effective and quality-driven way.

Developed in the 1980s and most recently updated in 2011, ITIL aims to align processes with desired business outcomes. Since it’s geared toward solving business issues and not just improving IT capabilities, the customers are at the core of ITIL’s concepts.

For IT incident managers, the ITIL framework can play an important role in incident management by improving response times and reducing downtime – vital metrics for any business. But even the best ITIL processes in the world won’t work without a strong communication plan.

Key Concepts

The ITIL framework includes five stages with 26 process areas. At the core, it’s about improving the business service, so a strong support system (process, people and technology) must be in place to successfully execute these key ITIL concepts:

• Provide the most value to customers
• Optimize resources and capabilities
• Plan processes and include specific objectives
• Clearly define all roles

Core Benefits

When those concepts are reached, ITIL delivers six high-level benefits:

• Stronger alignment between IT and the business: Everyone working on the IT service desk should be business-focused. This means understanding customer needs and aligning IT appropriately.
• Improved service delivery and customer satisfaction: Under the ITIL framework, an IT service desk is not a static help desk. The service desk is servicing and applying knowledge to assist customers as quickly as possible.
• Reduced costs through improved resource usage: A mature IT service desk uses efficient processes that are fine-tuned over time. For instance, when first-line resolutions increase, fewer issues go to the second and third line. This frees up those specialized resources to focus on more high-level tasks.
• Greater visibility of IT costs and assets: Numbers should play a critical role in decision-making. Nearly everything associated with an IT service desk is measurable, like length of calls and resolution times. This visibility helps you understand whether your numbers align with your business goals and objectives.
• Better management of business risk and service disruption or failure: ITIL allows the service desk to detect problems before they become a significant issue. The goal should be to first identify the issue, put a workaround in, and then get the service back up and running. After service is restored, IT can focus on fixing the root cause of the issue.
• More stable service environment to support constant business change: ITIL is focused on responsiveness and agility. IT must be able to adapt to the changing needs of the business, and having a stable environment makes adjustments easier and less disruptive to the organization as a whole.

By investing in a sound communication plan, IT incident managers can ensure they’re creating the most sound and responsive IT organization that can best serve the company’s needs.

To learn more about how to improve your organization’s ITIL communications, download our new eBook, “Make Communication Your Secret Weapon In ITIL Incident Management.”

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