White Papers

Software as a service (SaaS) is more than just a cloud-based delivery model. It's a service approach that IT organizations are considering for meeting their ITSM needs. With a SaaS model, IT organizations can focus their staff and infrastructure on high-priority activities and initiatives while still enjoying access to IT service management productivity solutions. They can achieve these benefits without having to invest their own resources in the systems or in the management and upgrading of the applications.

Focusing on IT value to the business—at the least cost and amount of time—requires a different view of IT service management, one from a business-value perspective or a customer-oriented approach. Successful IT organizations redirect focus to business transformation and business growth activities versus spending inordinate time, effort, money and precious resources on just "running the business" or "running IT activities."

Are you on a path to become an ITIL v3 Expert? You're not alone. Many consultants, practitioners, and job seekers see this certification as a means of improving their work and IT opportunities. How can you successfully prepare yourself for the long and arduous road to certification? Follow these eight simple habits of successful ITIL Experts.

Effective leadership comes down to one thing: people care when they know that you care! In recent Gallup polls regarding the state of the US worker, it was shocking and disappointing to see how many people are truly disengaged in the workplace. In support organizations, the biggest differentiator between organizations that excel at service delivery, customer service, and delivering business value and the ones that always struggle, is leadership. Leaders who approach their responsibilities with energy, passion, caring, and intelligence will always make a difference in people’s lives.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the service and support industry might be the most schizophrenic industry on the planet today! It seems one minute we're in the back office providing service and support behind the scenes to end users and customers, and the next minute we're moved to the front of the organization and considered “strategic" (or “strategically outsourced and off-shored”). So what’s it going to be? Back office, front office, strategic, outsourced, or off-shored? The answer lies in the ability of service and support leaders to find support models offering what their company’s want: cost-effective, scalable, and customer-centric service.

These days, it seems that all the talk in the industry centers around things like the configuration management database (CMDB), service portfolio, desktop virtualization, and other really important issues. While it’s exciting and sexy to talk about these trendy topics, we shouldn’t lose sight of the value that can gained by putting a new spin on old processes like incident management.

This white paper addresses a key confusion point about service catalogs, and why the service catalog might be the most important ITIL concept you should consider and implement.

Today’s demanding service environment requires service leaders to deliver cost-effective, quality services that meet the dynamic needs of the business. One all-important aspect of service delivery is cost. Service leaders must know their costs at all times and have a strategy for driving down costs and optimizing performance. This white paper focuses on what must be done in a service organization to drive first contact resolution and reap the positive financial, customer satisfaction, and productivity benefits.