idc itsm research white paper - it service management needs and adoption trends.pdf

7/29/2019 IDC ITSM research white paper - IT Service Management Needs and Adoption Trends.pdf

1/31

W H I T E P A P E R

I T S e r v i c e M a n a g e m e n t N e e d s a n d A d o p t i o n T r e n d s : A nA n a l y s i s o f a G l o b a l S u r v e y o f I T E x e c u t i v e s

Sponsored by: HP

Frederick W. Broussard

September 2008

E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y

IDC recently conducted a survey of over 600 IT organizations worldwide, selecting

those operations that are supporting companies with 1,000 employees or more. The

purpose of the survey was to identify issues confronting IT departments that are

adopting service models and to better understand the status and priorities of key

functions and processes that underlie successful implementation of IT service

management (ITSM). The survey covered three major geographic regions: the

Americas; Asia/Pacific (AP); and Europe. Key survey findings include the following.

! IT organizations cited "costs/budgets/financial concerns" as the top-priority needs

for IT-supported business units in 2008.

! "Lack of alignment to the business" and "service delivery issues" were ranked as

the top 2 challenges faced within IT.

! The highest-priority IT service initiatives for 2008 are "improving service

performance," "aligning to the business," and "reducing costs."

I N T R O D U C T I O N

IT organizations are moving from traditional, stovepiped technology-centric

orientations to becoming service providers to the business. Typically, transforming IT

to a service model requires significant changes in organization and changes in the

supporting infrastructure people, processes, and technology to better align with

business needs and respond quickly to required changes in service. IDC found IT

executives and managers are working through a variety of service initiatives. Key

initiatives being undertaken by IT departments include:

! Optimizing the value of IT by adopting formal process standards for IT

service management, especially the Information Technology Infrastructure

Library (ITIL). ITIL adoption has become a key indicator and measure of IT

department progress toward "service orientation." Core ITIL v2 service delivery

and support processes still constitute the majority of existing ITIL adoptions. Most

ITIL v3 interest is an evolution of existing ITIL initiatives, with the ITIL v3

concepts of service life-cycle management and continual service improvement

supporting and expanding the focus on business and IT alignment and on more

predictable end-to-end service delivery.

GlobalHead

quarters:5SpeenStreetFramingham,

MA

01701USA

P.5

08.8

72.8

200

F.5

08.9

35.4

015

www.i

dc.com


2/31

2 #213918 2008 IDC

! Consolidating service support around fewer service desks. The heightened

interest in service desk consolidation reflects the continued role of the service

desk as a key integration hub for IT operations. As infrastructure complexity

continues to proliferate, the consolidation of multiple service desks reduces the

need for multiway integrations, enabling consolidated event processing and

further standardization, scaling, and efficiency of the core processes of incident

management and problem management.

Some major challenges to achieving improved IT service management include the

following:

! Lack of corporate policies and standards around documenting service

requirements and processes plus weak enforcement of policies

! Manual processes that are bringing a lack of accuracy to IT service

measurements

! Lack of automation that reduces IT efficiency

C U R R E N T C H A L L E N G E S A N D P R I O R I T I E S :

K E Y S U R V E Y F I N D I N G S

IDC noted from the survey findings that IT organizations across the Americas,

Asia/Pacific, and Europe are adopting ITIL at different rates and are taking different

paths to achieve IT performance gains. One of the more striking observations is that,

despite a 10-year head start by Europe, the Americas and Asia/Pacific have

overtaken Europe in the number of organizations adopting ITIL as a percentage of the

total survey population. Another observation is that across all three regions, ITIL

adoption tends to increase with the size of the company (i.e., the larger the company,

the higher the ITIL adoption rate).

I T C h a l l e n g e s

IT executives, managers, and professional staff were asked to rank their top 3 IT

challenges. 21.1% of total respondents cited "lack of alignment to the business" as

the top challenge, with 26% of Americas respondents citing it first. 23.6% of AP

respondents and 17.4% of total Europe respondents cited it first.

"Service delivery issues" was cited as the second biggest challenge by 20.9% of total

respondents. Interestingly, 18.8% of Americas respondents, 21% of AP respondents,

and 21.7% of total Europe respondents cited this challenge first.

"Limited visibility into service performance" was listed as the third biggest challenge

overall, with 19.1% of total respondents citing this reason. Regionally, 24% of

Americas respondents, 20.4% of AP respondents, and 16.2% of total Europe

respondents cited limited visibility into service performance. See Figure 1 for more

details.


3/31

2008 IDC #213918 3

F I G U R E 1

T o p I T C h a l l e n g e s

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Limited budget

Limited automation

tools

Service delivery

issues

Lack of alignment

to the business

Inability to prioritize

Limited visibility

into serviceperformance

(% of respondents)

TotalTotal Europe

AP

Americas

n = 488

Source: IDC/HP ITSM Survey, March 2008


4/31

4 #213918 2008 IDC

T o p I T P r i o r i t i e s

IT executives and management staff were also asked to rank their top 3 IT priorities

for 2008. Survey results showed that 25.1% of total respondents cited

"costs/budgets/financial concerns" as their top priority for 2008. It was the top priority

for each of the individual three regions as well, cited by 27% of the total Europerespondents, 26.1% of AP respondents, and 20% of the Americas respondents.

"Improved end-user satisfaction/service/support" was selected next as the top priority

for 2008 by 20.8% of total respondents. It was selected by the second highest

number of respondents as well across the three regions. 25.2% of AP respondents,

18.9% of total Europe respondents, and 17.1% of the Americas respondents said that

improved end-user satisfaction was the year's top priority.

"Upgrade/improve/integrate/innovate" was selected by the third highest number of

respondents in both Europe and AP, as well as third most often among total

respondents. Interestingly, 10% of the Americas respondents selected "improve

speed of service" and "safety/security/risk management" as their highest priority. SeeFigure 2 for more details.


5/31

2008 IDC #213918 5

F I G U R E 2

T o p I T P r i o r i t i e s , 2 0 0 8

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Other

Personnel issues

SLAs/compliance issues

Efficient problem ID and

resolution/reduce downtime

Security/safety/risk management

Improve speed of service

Improve efficiency

Upgrade/improve/integrate/innovate

Improved end-user

satisfaction/service/support

Costs/budgets/financial concerns

(% of respondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 307



6/31

6 #213918 2008 IDC

Regional Takeaways on Challenges and Priorities

It is interesting to note that the top priorities on a regional basis didn't vary as much as

top challenges facing IT organizations. Cost and budget concerns were at the top of

the priorities list for the three regions, but lack of alignment with the business was

chosen most often for the total survey population and by the Americas. Differences

between the regions may point to different levels of organizational maturity across thethree regions, as well as possibly a heavier reliance on technology within the

Americas. It may also highlight that AP is forcing ITIL adoption within AP and the

Americas. Additionally, with the creation of laws and regulations such as Sarbanes-

Oxley and HIPAA, IT organizations adopt process standards in greater numbers in

the United States than in other regions as a way to better address the changing and

tightening legal and regulatory environment.

I T S e r v i c e I n i t i a t i v e s a n d R e q u i r e m e n t s

IT managers, executives, and professional staff were asked to rank the importance of

major IT service initiatives for 2008. "Improving service performance" was ranked as

the top priority by 29.1% of total respondents. "Aligning to the business" was cited by

21.9% of total respondents, and "reducing costs" was cited by 16% of total

respondents.

On a regional basis, "improving service performance" was cited by most of the

Europe and AP respondents 31.9% and 29.9%, respectively. But in the Americas,

"improving service performance" was cited by 20.8% of respondents.

"Aligning to the business" was cited by most of the Americas respondents, with 32.3%

saying that it was their top IT service management initiative. 15.7% of total Europe

respondents and 24.8% of AP respondents cited "aligning to the business." See

Figure 3 for more details.


7/31

2008 IDC #213918 7

F I G U R E 3

T o p I T S e r v i c e M a n a g e m e n t I n i t i a t i v e s , 2 0 0 8

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

End-user satisfaction

Improving compliance with SLAs and

corporate regulations

End-user productivity

Reducing mean time to problem

resolution

Reducing costs

Improving service performance

Reducing headcounts

Aligning to the business

(% of respondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 488



8/31

8 #213918 2008 IDC

It is interesting to note that the responses from Americas respondents are consistent

with their previous answers regarding top challenges as well as major service

initiatives for 2008. However, total Europe respondents indicated that their top IT

service initiative is to improve service performance, but they also must manage

service delivery issues.

I s s u e s i n M e a s u r i n g I T S e r v i c e P e r f o r m a n c e

With a high priority placed on improving IT service performance, it is helpful to know

how IT service performance is being measured and how important it is to measure it.

The survey participants were asked, "How important has it been/would it have been if

you were able to measure IT service performance accurately over time, and then

create reports that address where improvements have been made?" Respondents

were asked to rate their response on a scale of 15, with 1 being "not at all important"

and 5 being "very important."

Across the total population of respondents, 27.6% rated importance of measuring IT

service performance a 5, and 74% rated it either a 4 or a 5. But interestingly, the

Americas were statistically different from the other regions, with 44.2% rating IT

service measurement a 5 and 85.8% rating it 4 or 5 combined. Yet neither Europe nor

AP respondents rated this category a 5 as often, with 22.2% and 26.3% rating it a 5,

respectively. 68.7% of Europe respondents and 75.3% of AP respondents also rated

it 4 or 5 combined. See Figure 4 for more details.


9/31

2008 IDC #213918 9

F I G U R E 4

I m p o r t a n c e o f M e a s u r i n g I T S e r v i c e P e r f o r m a n c e

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

5 = Very

important

4 3 2 1 = Not at all

important

(%o

frespondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634


It is clear that in the Americas, measuring IT service performance has a much higher

priority. This may be due to the emphasis on the overall process for best practicesimplementation as well as the need to comply with internal governance and

compliance processes.

When asked "What were the top 3 issues in measuring IT service performance over

time, and then creating reports identifying where improvements have been made?"

the Americas respondents again had statistically different responses. Respondents

were allowed to pick more than one answer, and the choices were "demonstrate IT

value to the business," "achieve continual service improvement," "increase the

efficiency of IT staff," and others shown in Figure 5. 72.5% of Americas respondents,

64.6% of AP respondents, and 57.6% of total Europe respondents selected

"demonstrate IT value to the business." 71.2% of total Europe respondents selected

"achieve continual service improvement."


10/31

10 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 5

T o p 3 K e y I s s u e s i n M e a s u r i n g I T S e r v i c e P e r f o r m a n c e

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Other

Reduce IT cost and

maintain/improve IT service delivery

Increase the efficiency of IT staff

Achieve continual service

improvement

Receive more accurate reports on IT

performance

Demonstrate IT value to the business

(% of respondents)

TotalTotal Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634

Note: Multiple responses were allowed.


Accuracy in Measuring IT Service Performance

Three questions led to a critical point regarding measuring IT service performance,

which is that it can be a manually intensive process. One of the questions "Does

your organization have the ability to measure IT service performance?" required

respondents to answer yes, no, or don't know. 72.9% of total respondents said yes,

and 19.4% said no. In a breakdown by region, the Americas led the other regions,

with 85% of respondents saying yes. 73.2% of AP respondents said yes, and 68% of

total Europe respondents said yes. See Figure 6 for more details.


11/31

2008 IDC #213918 11

F I G U R E 6

A b i l i t y t o M e a su r e P e r f o r m anc e

Q. Does your organization have the ability to measure IT service performance?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Yes No Don't know

(%o

frespondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634


The respondents who answered yes to the question "Does your organization have theability to measure IT service performance?" were asked a follow-on question: "How

accurate would you say that information is?" Respondents could select from three

choices: "very accurate," "fairly accurate," or "not at all accurate."

62.3% of total respondents answered "fairly accurate," and 33.5% of total

respondents said "very accurate." Interestingly, 51% of respondents in the Americas

said "very accurate" and 48% said "fairly accurate." In contrast, 29.7% of AP

respondents and 27.9% of total Europe respondents said "very accurate," and 66.2%

of AP respondents and 66.5% of total Europe respondents said "fairly accurate." See



12/31

12 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 7

A c c u r a c y o f I n f o rm a t i o n N e e de d t o M e a su r e I T S e r v i c e

P e r f o r m a n c e

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Very accurate Fairly accurate Not at all accurate

(%o

frespondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 462


These same respondents then were also asked if it was a manually intensive processto ensure the data was accurate. 72.5% of Americas respondents, 66.2% of AP

respondents, and 69.5% of total Europe respondents said yes. See Figure 8 for more

details.


13/31

2008 IDC #213918 13

F I G U R E 8

L e v e l o f M a n u a l E f f o r t N e e d e d i n M e a s u r i n g I T S e r v i c e

P e r f o r m a n c e

Q. Is measuring IT service performance manually intensive?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Yes No

(%o

frespondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 462


What we can see from Figures 6 through 8 is that while IT organizations across the

three regions are collecting data they feel is quite accurate, they are going through

very manually intensive processes to get that data. This implies their processes aren't

as efficient as they can be. Additionally, manual processes invite human error that

can be misleading in ensuring that data is accurate by some objective measure.

C o r p o r a t e P o l i c i e s a n d D o c u m e n t a t i o n

Another area showing differences between the regions is in explicit corporate policies

for managing service requests. Survey respondents were asked, "What would you

say is your company's policy toward managing service requests?" They were given

four choices ranging from "there is no explicit policy" to "there is a policy, it is

enforced, and there are strong consequences for violating it."

Figure 9 shows that 11.4% of total respondents chose "there is a policy, it is enforced,

and there are strong consequences for violating it." 14.2% of the Americas

respondents and 16.7% of AP respondents selected this answer, whereas 7% of total

Europe respondents selected it. This is likely due to less reliance on process

standards and frameworks such as ITIL.


14/31

14 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 9

P o l i c y f o r M a n a g i n g I T S e r v i c e R e q u e s t s

0 10 20 30 40 50

Other

There is a policy, it is enforced, andthere are strong consequences for

violating it

There is a policy, and it is enforced

There is a policy, but it is not enforced

There is no explicit policy

(% of respondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634


When asked "How well documented is the process to track, manage, and execute

service requests within your organization?" 33% of the total survey respondents

selected the strongest answer "there is a formal plan for executing service

requests." When the results were broken down by region, the Americas had the

highest percentage of respondents citing this answer, with 40.8% selecting it. 37.4%

of AP respondents and 27.2% of the total Europe respondents selected this answer.

See Figure 10 for more details.


15/31

2008 IDC #213918 15

F I G U R E 1 0

D o c u m e n t a t i o n f o r T r a c k i n g , M a n a g i n g , a n d E x e c u t i n g S e r v i c e

R e q u e s t s

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

There is no

documentation

There is some

documentation

There is a

formal plan for

executing

service requests

Other

(%o

frespondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634


I T S e r v i c e D e s k C o n s i d e r a t i o n s

All respondents were selected based on their current use of service desk solutions. A

number of questions were asked regarding needs in this area.

Service Desk Consolidation

One set of questions dealt with service desk consolidation. Respondents were asked

if they supported multiple service desks worldwide. 65.8% of total respondents said

yes, and 28.5% said no. In the regions, both AP and Europe had similar percentages,

with 65.2% and 62.3% of respondents, respectively, saying yes. The Americas was

statistically higher, with 75.8% of respondents saying yes. Respondents were also

asked if they are looking to consolidate two or more service desks in the near future.Large percentages of organizations responded that they plan to do so in the coming

months, with 49% of AP respondents, 55.1% of total Europe respondents, and 67.5%

of Americas respondents saying they would consolidate within 24 months or less. See



16/31

16 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 1 1

C o n s o l i d a t i o n o f T w o o r M o r e S e r v i c e D e s k s

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Don't know

No, we do have multiple service desks;

however, we are not looking to

consolidate

No, we don't have multiple service

desks in our environment

Yes, within 12 to 24 months

Yes, within 12 months

Yes, within 6 months

(% of respondents)

TotalTotal Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634


Self-Service

IT executives and managers were also asked to rate the importance of giving usersmore self-service capabilities on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "not at all important"

and 5 being "very important." 32.5% of Americas respondents, 23.7% of AP

respondents, and 20.3% of total Europe respondents rated it a 5. See Figure 12 for

more details.


17/31

2008 IDC #213918 17

F I G U R E 1 2

I m p o r t a n c e o f G i v i n g U s e r s M o r e S e l f - S e r v i c e C a p a b i l i t i e s

0

10

20

30

40

50

5 = Very

important


important

(%o

frespondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634


In ranking self-service capabilities that would provide value to the organization,

respondents across the regions most often listed getting answers from the knowledgebase. Respondents could select multiple answers, but 77.6% of respondents in the

Americas, 77.5% of respondents in AP, and 72.1% of respondents in Europe selected

the knowledge base. See Figure 13 for more details.


18/31

18 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 1 3

S e l f - S e r v i c e P r i o r i t i e s

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

None of the above

Other

Ordering IT goods

and services in a

catalog

Getting answers

from the

knowledge base

Opening tickets

and checking

status on those

tickets

(% of respondents)

TotalTotal Europe

AP

Americas

n = 593, respondents who selected 3, 4, or 5 in Figure 12

Note: Multiple responses were allowed.


Prioritizing Service Desk Incidents

Knowing the business importance of service desk incidents was considered very

important for survey participants; 51.7% of IT executives and managers in the

Americas rated importance of prioritizing incidents based on business impact a 5 on a

scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "very important" and 1 being "not at all important." In AP,

38.9% of IT executives and managers rated prioritizing incident importance a 5, and

in Europe, 32.6% of respondents rated it a 5. it is quite clear that business impact

prioritization is more important in the Americas than in Europe, again due to a focus

on business impacts dominating the IT agenda in the Americas. See Figure 14 for

more details.


19/31

2008 IDC #213918 19

F I G U R E 1 4

I m p o r t a n c e o f P r i o r i t i z i n g I n c i d e n t s B a s e d o n B u s i n e s s I m p a c t

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

5 = Very

important


important

(%o

frespondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634


Business prioritization was seen to have specific benefits. 66.7% of Americas

respondents cited improving IT's reputation with the business as the top benefit, while81.8% of AP respondents and 85.8% of total Europe respondents chose improving IT

efficiency. See Figure 15 for more details.


20/31

20 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 1 5

B e n e f i t s o f B u s i n e s s P r i o r i t i z a t i o n

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Achieve SLA compliance, compliance

with corporate regulations

Improve service delivery

Reduce financial risks to the business

(identify which unsolved problems

could impact most revenue/cost)

Improve IT efficiency

Improve IT's reputation with the

business

(% of respondents)

TotalTotal Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634

Note: Respondents selected top 3 benefits.



21/31

2008 IDC #213918 21

I T I L - B a s e d S e r v i c e M a n a g e m e n t

There were differences between the regions regarding how IT aligns with the

business, accuracy of data, and other areas previously noted. These differences may

be due to ITIL adoption. The IT department's need for effective IT alignment with

business helped increase adoption of best practices based on ITIL. ITIL provides aframework for the process-oriented management of software, hardware, and services.

The recent update to the ITIL process standard, ITIL v3, also expands the view of IT

service management to include service life cycle and continual service improvement

of specific capabilities or offerings that IT might provide the business.

ITIL adoption can involve many stages, as IT organizations may start with initial

implementation of a single process and go on to implementing additional ITIL

processes. One question asked of survey participants was "Are you looking to

implement ITIL processes within your organization?" 21.1% of total survey

respondents replied that they had already implemented some ITIL process(es), and

21.8% of total survey respondents replied that they are implementing ITIL processes

now. Regionally, the Americas had the highest percentage of those already adopting

ITIL processes, with 25.8% of IT executives and managers saying they had done so.

23.2% of IT executives and managers in AP and 18% of Europe respondents said

they had done the same.

In terms of current and future plans for ITIL, over one-half (56%) of IT executives and

managers who responded said they are implementing ITIL now or looking to

implement ITIL within the next two years. Regionally, 54.1% of respondents in the

Americas, 56.1% of executives and managers in AP, and 56.4% of respondents in

Europe said they are implementing ITIL now or looking to implement ITIL within the

next two years. See Figure 16 for more details.


22/31

22 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 1 6

I m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f I T I L P r o c e s s e s

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Don't know

No

Yes, looking to implement next year

Yes, looking to implement within 6 to

12 months

Yes, looking to implement within 1 to 6

months

Yes, implementing now

Have already implemented

(% of respondents)

TotalTotal Europe

AP

Americas

n = 634


ITIL v3 expands the number of processes and also expands the ITIL framework to

include service life cycle and continual service improvement. IDC asked those survey

participants who are planning on implementing ITIL what their plans are regarding

moving to ITIL v3. Of the three regions, the Americas plans to move the most quickly

in adopting ITIL v3. 60.4% of Americas respondents who are planning on

implementing ITIL said they are planning on adopting ITIL v3 now or in the next 1 to 6

months. 40.8% of AP respondents who are planning on implementing ITIL said they

are planning on adopting ITIL v3 now or in the next 1 to 6 months, and 38.7% of

Europe respondents who are planning on implementing ITIL are planning on adopting

ITIL v3 now or in the next 1 to 6 months. See Figure 17 for more details.


23/31

2008 IDC #213918 23

F I G U R E 1 7

I m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f I T I L v 3

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Don't know

No

Yes, looking to implement next year

Yes, looking to implement within 6 to

12 months

Yes, looking to implement within 1 to 6

months

Yes, implementing now

(% of respondents)

TotalTotal Europe

AP

Americas

n = 488, respondents who answered that they have implemented or are looking to implement

ITIL within the next year in Figure 16


IT executives and managers were also asked to select from a list of expected

business benefits from implementing ITIL (multiple choices were allowed). 46.9% of

Americas respondents selected "lower IT asset costs." Both "improve business unitcapabilities" and "lower IT operational costs" were tied, with 45.8% of Americas

respondents selecting these benefits.

In the AP region, 47.8% of respondents selected "lower IT operational costs," 45.9%

selected "improve IT security," and 40.8% selected "improve business unit

capabilities." In Europe, 44.3% of executives and managers selected "improve IT

security," 38.7% selected "faster response times," and 33.6% selected "lower IT

operational costs." See Figure 18 for more details.


24/31

24 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 1 8

B u s i n e s s B e n e f i t s f r o m I m p l e m e n t i n g I T I L P r o c e s s e s

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Increased customer satisfaction

Satisfaction of regulatory or IT

governance objectives

Reduction in errors in making changes

to the IT environment

Faster response times

Align IT technologies and processes

more closely with business unit and

company goals

Lower IT operational costs

Lower IT asset costs

Improve IT security

Improve business unit capabilities

(% of respondents)

Total

Total Europe

AP

Americas

n = 488, respondents who answered that they have implemented or are looking to implement

ITIL within the next year in Figure 16

Note: Respondents selected top 3 benefits.



25/31

2008 IDC #213918 25

W h a t ' s t h e T a k e a w a y ? A Q u i c k S u m m a r y

IDC is making observations on a regional basis within this document. Therefore, the

reader is reminded that each country within a particular region is subject to different

economic, political, and regulatory issues, and the resulting ITIL adoption rates would

be subject to those influences. Having said this, IDC notes that:

! In Europe, IT executives and managers viewed their main challenge for 2008 as

addressing service delivery issues. Their priorities focused on addressing cost

and budget concerns as well as end-user service and support. Measuring IT

service performance is important within Europe, but it is not as critical a driver as

in other regions. Relative to the other regions, Europe had the lowest level of ITIL

adoption, both in overall terms and in the time horizons in which organizations

would incorporate ITIL-based processes within their organizations.

! In Asia/Pacific, managers and executives viewed their top challenge as aligning

IT with the business. They most often selected addressing cost and budget

concerns as their top 2008 priorities, along with improving end-user satisfaction.

IT service performance measurement was important to many respondents in this

group, and like their counterparts in Europe, respondents in Asia/Pacific found

that data accuracy was achievable but manually intensive. ITIL adoption was

stronger in AP than in Europe.

! In the Americas, IT executives and managers viewed their main challenge for

2008 as focusing on aligning IT with the business. Their priorities are centered on

addressing that challenge, especially when dealing with legal and regulatory

constraints facing the business as well as IT. But addressing cost and budget

concerns is also a critical concern within this region. The Americas is very

strongly focused on measuring IT service management and wants to offload as

much service management capabilities as possible through self-service portalsand other devices focused on end users. IT service management measurement

is assessed as being accurate, but it is a very manually intensive process,

requiring as much offloading of tasks as possible. ITIL adoption in the Americas

was the strongest of the three regions.

As we look across the regions, one of the more striking observations is that, despite a

10 year head start by Europe, the Americas and Asia/Pacific have overtaken Europe

in the number of organizations adopting ITIL as a percentage of the total survey

population. At the end of the day, ITIL adoption may be stronger in the Americas and

AP than in Europe because IT managers feel that without the strong ties forced by

ITIL between the business unit and IT, IT becomes less relevant and therefore easier

to eliminate through layoffs.

Another observation worth noting is that across all three regions, ITIL adoption tends

to increase with the size of the company (i.e., the larger the company, the higher the

ITIL adoption rate). This can be relatively easily explained through other observations

that companies with distributed IT operations can no longer function as efficiently or

as effectively using ad hoc or informal IT management processes that may exist

within companies with fewer than 500 employees.


26/31

26 #213918 2008 IDC

Optimizing the Value of IT Through ITSM

Integrated IT service management solutions based on ITIL, CobiT, ISO 20000, Six

Sigma, and other process standards allow IT to adopt standardized processes across

the IT organization. Through this standardization, IT organizations can eliminate

redundant processes, better streamline existing processes, remove stovepipes that

exist between IT department silos, and increase IT efficiency by eliminating redundantsteps in change or configuration management. IT shops can also address optimizing

IT service performance and availability while reducing operational costs.

Need for Tighter Product Integration

A clear need exists for stronger integration between ITIL-based processes and the

technologies that IT organizations are using to measure IT service performance.

Across all regions, the manually intensive nature of this measurement can still lead to

errors in measurement and outcomes, as well as an overestimation of the accuracy of

the service levels being measured.

In addition to using ITIL or other process standards as a basis for managing internal

IT processes, functional areas must be a clear part of the process being managed.

This includes service delivery and service support functions such as:

! IT asset discovery

! Change management

! Configuration management

! Event alerting/management/monitoring

! Incident management

! Problem management

! Release management

H P ' S A P P R O A C H T O I T S E R V I C E

M A N A G E M E N T

IT service management software vendors have developed management solutions that

address IT department needs for software solutions that streamline management

software and embed process standards such as ITIL into their operations. HP has

introduced solutions that integrate key processes such as incident, problem, change,

and service-level management while saving costs through automating previously

manual tasks and process workflows. This also includes the discovery and tracking of

assets within the IT environment to increase accuracy and help ensure a less

manually intensive process.


27/31

2008 IDC #213918 27

HP believes its ITSM solution creates business value and aligns IT with the business

through:

! Continuously measuring and optimizing IT's value to the business

! Rightsizing costs through automation at the task, process, and governance levels

! Mitigating risk through centralized and enforced processes

O v e r v i e w o f H P S o l u t i o n

HP's IT Service Management solution covers the key areas of service support and

delivery that are at the heart of modern-day service-focused operations, as shown in

Figure 19:

! The core of the solution is around HP Service Manager, providing both the scale

and the functionality to be the enterprise Consolidated Service Desk

! Key to eliminating cost while increasing end-user satisfaction through end-user

self-service covering ticketing, catalog, and knowledge management

! Efficient detection, prioritization, assignment, and elimination of incidents through

a robust integration between Consolidated Event Management (HP Operations

Manager) and the Consolidated Service Desk

! Proactive measurement of service levels and process key performance indicators

to optimize service value with the Consolidated Service Desk and HP

DecisionCenter

! Efficient management and automation of change, configuration, and release

processes through HP Release Control, Universal CMDB, and Client and Service

Automation solutions


28/31

28 #213918 2008 IDC

F I G U R E 1 9

H P S o f t w a r e I T S M S o l u t i o n

Source: HP Software, 2008

M E T H O D O L O G Y

For this research project, IDC surveyed 634 organizations worldwide as follows:

! Europe 316

! Americas 120

! Asia/Pacific 198

Participating organizations had to have more than 1,000 employees and maintain one

or more IT service desks. Typical respondents had titles such as CIO, VP IT, IT

Director, IT Manager, IT Administrator, and Help Desk Analyst. Respondents were

prescreened via panel demographics and completed the survey online. HP was not

involved in recruiting, and respondents did not need to be HP customers.

The 316 European organizations were segmented as follows:

! United Kingdom and Ireland 69

! France, Italy, and Spain (Western Mediterranean) 83

! Germany, Austria, and Switzerland 89

! Belgium, Netherlands, and Nordic countries 75


29/31

2008 IDC #213918 29

C H A L L E N G E S / O P P O R T U N I T I E S

In moving forward on marketing and updating its ITSM solution, HP faces challenges,

including:

! Increasing demands from the enterprise. In response to economic pressures,

enterprises continue to seek higher levels of productivity, economic efficiencies,

and profits. This will put pressure on HP to continue to offer new technologies to

reflect and to answer these business needs. In the process, HP will need to offer

personal productivity tools that empower individual workers to become more

efficient. For improved application and information access, HP must continue to

offer efficient infrastructure tools and more secure, effective network infrastructure.

! Market penetration from smaller vendors. HP solutions are generally tailored

to meet the needs of larger enterprises looking for both robust functionality and

economies of scale. Customers with fewer than 1,000 employees may have

more of a challenge with working with some of the largest ITSM-focused

solutions. Smaller vendors that focus on enterprises that have between 1,000

and 5,000 employees may provide solutions that provide enough functionality for

that size organization much more easily than HP. This could enable smaller

vendors to generate revenue growth significant enough to start pirating

customers from HP, given enough time.

O p p o r t u n i t i e s

Opportunities for HP are as follows:

! Virtualization. HP's strong road map can be developed to address virtualization.

HP's differentiation strategy views the coming commoditization of the hypervisor

as an opportunity for HP to provide management to virtualized environments.

This management capability will differentiate HP from competitors and show the

value of HP solutions.

! Technology acquisitions. HP has steadily built a broad portfolio of business

and technology solutions to meet different end-user needs. HP can build on its

expertise and continue to evolve its range of solutions, and improve its portfolio

to solve enterprises' virtual collaboration challenges.

C O N C L U S I O N

Transforming IT to a service model requires significant changes in organization and in

the supporting infrastructure people, processes, and technology to better align

with business needs and respond quickly to required changes in service. Aligning IT

with the business requires creation and maintenance of specific technologies appliedto meet business user needs. This in turn requires tight integration among solutions

that provide a specific user-focused service from the IT organization. Recent IDC

research looked at IT organizations supporting as few as 1,000 employees to those

supporting 10,000 or more employees. These IT organizations were surveyed across

three regions: Europe, Asia/Pacific, and the Americas. This was done to identify

challenges confronting IT departments adopting service models and to better

understand the status of key functions and processes that underlie successful

implementation of IT service management.


30/31

30 #213918 2008 IDC

Some of the most-often-cited challenges facing IT included lack of alignment with the

business, service delivery issues, and limited visibility into service performance. Top

IT priorities included addressing cost/budget and financial concerns and improving

end-user support. But IDC noted some regional differences.

In Europe, IT executives and managers viewed their main challenge for 2008 as

addressing service delivery issues. Their priorities focused on addressing cost and

budget concerns as well as end-user service and support. Measuring IT service

performance is important within Europe, but it is not as critical a driver as in other

regions.

In Asia/Pacific, managers and executives view their top challenge as aligning IT with

the business. They most often selected addressing cost and budget concerns along

with improving end-user satisfaction as their top 2008 priorities. IT service

performance measurement was important to many in this group, and like their

counterparts in Europe, AP respondents found that data accuracy was achievable,

but manually intensive. ITIL adoption was stronger in AP than in Europe.

In the Americas, IT executives and managers viewed their main challenge for 2008 as

focusing on aligning IT with the business. Their priorities are centered on addressing

that challenge, especially when dealing with legal and regulatory constraints facing

the business as well as IT. But addressing cost and budget concerns is also a critical

concern within this region. The Americas is very strongly focused on measuring IT

service management and wants to offload as many service management capabilities

as possible through self-service portals and other devices focused on end users. IT

service management measurement is assessed as being an accurate but very

manually intensive process, requiring as much offloading of tasks as possible. ITIL

adoption in the Americas was the strongest of the three regions.

HP has introduced solutions that integrate incident, problem, change, and service-

level management and save costs by automating previously manual tasks, including

the discovery and tracking of assets within the IT environment to increase accuracy

but help ensure a less manually intensive process.

HP believes its ITSM solution creates business value and aligns IT with the business

through a focused approach to IT service performance measurement, using metrics

to measure this performance and what-if scenarios to add rigor to analyzing possible

outcomes. This makes it a strong candidate for IT organizations needing an ITSM

solution.


31/31

A P P E N D I X

E u r o p e a n S u b r e g i o n A n a l y s i s

As noted, the 316 European respondents represented four subregions: United

Kingdom and Ireland; Western Mediterranean; Germany, Austria, and Switzerland;

and Belgium, Netherlands, and Nordic countries. IDC found key differences in the

responses among these subregions in several instances, with significant differences

noted in this section.

Top IT Priorities

For the United Kingdom and Ireland, the top priority was cost and budget, with 36% of

respondents selecting this answer compared with approximately 25% for other

subregions. Improving end-user satisfaction was more important in Germany, Austria,

and Switzerland, with 27% of respondents selecting this answer. The next highest

response was 19% in France, Italy, and Spain. Upgrading and improving was more

important in France, Italy, and Spain (19%) compared with other subregions.

Consolidation of Two or More Service Desks

France, Italy, and Spain (71%) and Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (74%) have a

higher penetration of organizations supporting multiple service desks worldwide than

the other two subregions, which averaged 50%. In addition, France, Italy, and Spain

and Germany, Austria, and Switzerland show a higher number of organizations

planning to consolidate service desks within two years (60%+) compared with the

other two subregions (approximately 40%).

Key Issues in Measuring IT Service Performance

Demonstrating IT value to the business was more important in Germany, Austria, andSwitzerland than in the other subregions (67% versus 53%). Receiving more accurate

reports on IT performance was the most important issue in Belgium, Netherlands, and

the Nordics (69%) and was also ranked higher than in the other subregions.

Achieving continual service improvement was more important in France, Italy, and

Spain and Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (78%) compared with the other two

subregions (62%). Reducing IT cost and improving IT service delivery was the

number 1 issue in the United Kingdom (71%) and was ranked far higher than in other

subregions (approximately 50%).

C o p y r i g h t N o t i c e

External Publication of IDC Information and Data Any IDC information that is to be

used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written

approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the

proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to

deny approval of external usage for any reason.

Copyright 2008 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.

idc itsm research white paper - it service management needs and adoption trends.pdf

Documents