ITIL With Small Business, One Size Doesn't Fit All

By Rem Ty

ITIL's procedures do not manage themselves. On the other hand, as with all effective process development, it is necessary to have a process 'owner' and somebody who is responsible for making sure each process is performing properly.

Among the most common misunderstandings concerning ITIL in smaller businesses is that ITIL in some way 'demands' a large organization. Most people think that as there are several 'management' processes involved, there needs to be a similar number of administrative roles, but this is absolutely not the case. A lot of good implementations have basically given out key tasks to individuals as part of their present roles.

Where should you start with ITIL and where should you stop are generally matters of choice. For a few organizations, the change management process appears to have been the starting point since this is where the greater benefits lay. The incident management part of the equation is important but typically comes after.

The incremental approach to ITIL is quite common, which is one that we see usually giving the optimum results with smaller organizations. More commonly, organizations get started with incident management instead of change management, but it truly is very much a matter of individual preferences.

So where should One Stop with ITIL?

Total certified ITIL compliance must not be a short term goal. The objective is to move closer to total compliance after which take a look at whether one would like to go the extra mile. From where a lot of businesses are at present, 75% to 85% compliance ought to make life a whole lot easier. Accreditation simply put, is nice to have not a need to have.

Businesses must not be doing ITIL mainly for the sake of claiming "we have done it". An organization must not be interested in certification but in giving a better service to their personal clients.

Flexibility is extremely important. Around ITIL, you notice the words adapt and even adopt a lot. It happens to be a suggested framework, not a compulsory one: You pick the pieces that suit you best.

Then again, the degree of adaptation is decreasing as ITIL itself evolves into more accessible to smaller establishments. But even though many ITIL practitioners broadly encouraged such moves, they emphasize that smaller institutions can still benefit from dealing with the full set of ITIL guidelines.

There is certainly still a fair amount of ignorance among smaller businesses concerning ITIL's potential benefits. If a lot more small IT organizations were aware of ITIL's advantages, they would be far more inclined to adopt the total guidelines and not a scaled-down version.