CIT's ITIL Journey

A few years ago, Acting CIT Director Dr. Jack Jones realized that in order for CIT to remain competitive we had to change the way we functioned as an organization. Dr. Jones challenged the CIT Division Directors to improve our business processes and give both customers and management a better, more accessible and transparent picture of our services. ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) emerged as the tool that could best assist us in enhancing CIT's internal business functions.

What is ITIL?

ITIL is an IT service management framework that outlines good industry practices and processes for IT organizations. It is designed as a continual improvement framework with about two dozen processes dependent upon each other for input.

You can find more general information on the origins of ITIL and its key benefits for IT organizations in the Interface #242 article entitled "Interested in ITIL?".

Introducing ITIL to CIT

An initial assessment of the ITIL framework and CIT was completed in late 2006, and CIT began putting those recommendations into practice in 2007. Our first step was to establish the new Service Management Office (SMO), from which the first major ITIL components at CIT, the Service Desk and the Service Catalog, emerged.

In order to best realize the ITIL framework's full benefits, we had to focus on instituting and then maturing each process to the point at which it could use and share information with other processes as designed. Until we can establish and mature all of the two dozen existing ITIL processes at CIT, such as Financial Management, Service Portfolio Management, or Service Level Management, introducing ITIL into our organization requires finding ways to incorporate some of their functions into our two established groups of ITIL processes.

For example, a process such as Service Portfolio Management is designed to approve services for Service Catalog Management to put in the Catalog. However, Service Portfolio Management is not mature enough yet to provide the information, so it has to be handled by Service Catalog Management.

In implementing ITIL at CIT, we concentrated most of our efforts on training in order to get the entire organization speaking the same language. We have now trained over 200 CIT staff on ITIL v3 Foundations, as well as two dozen at the ITIL intermediate level, and we currently have two fully certified ITIL experts.

A big challenge that we hope to address with ITIL in the next few years is improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization on a flatter budget (resources) while still fulfilling growing requirements for services, products, and innovation.

Service Catalog Management

In 2007, CIT launched one of the initial groups of CIT ITIL processes, Service Catalog Management. The primary goal of the process was to provide our customers with a single, authoritative list of CIT services. The Level 0 Service Catalog published in November 2007 was our first ITIL deliverable. The Level 0 Catalog encompassed approximately 100 services, categorized into logical groups with detailed descriptions, and the entire document was available in print and PDF format.

The next milestone occurred in August 2008, when CIT published a new level of the Catalog, which included 120 services in eleven different categories. Every service was broken down into key components, including: Service Description, Customer Benefits, Hours of Operation, Customer Market, and Related Links. In keeping with our focus on creating something that customers would find easy to use, this version was published on the CIT website and included a printer-friendly view.

The most recent iteration of the Catalog was published in March. This version is by far the most customer-friendly, with services viewable by alphabetical list, categories, or a catalog search. The new Catalog also includes Frequently Asked Questions, recently added services, and related services. You can explore the CIT Service Catalog online at http://www.cit.nih.gov/ServiceCatalog/.

Service Level Management

Since providing services to our customers is the core of CIT's mission, the other ITIL practice we initiated in 2007, from the original groups of CIT ITIL processes, was Service Level Management. The goal of Service Level Management is to establish clearly-defined levels of service, consistent quality, and achievable targets for IT services within an organization. The first deliverable of this process was the creation of the Agreements Repository. This was a tremendous advancement because it gave us the ability to store all agreements from all divisions in one central location. Previously, agreements were in many different locations with no central tracking or reports. The benefits of the ITIL-based solution include more efficient reporting and routing, version tracking, search capabilities, and sorting.

Development and implementation of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) template was the next major milestone because it enabled CIT to use a standard, non-division-centric SLA format to present to all customers, regardless of the type of support or service they need. The benefits of a standard SLA format include a better understanding of the expectations for both the customer and the service provider, and the ability to track any and all metrics as required. As a result, customer satisfaction and reporting capabilities have improved.

In 2009, we implemented the first CIT Operational Level Agreement (OLA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) templates, repository, and process. The new templates and processes enable us to ensure consistency in the way we manage agreements across CIT. The template includes components from CIT best practices and industry examples, as well as items suggested by ITIL vendors and publications. Finally, in 2010, CIT began using a new home-grown system for managing Service Level Agreements. The system enables faster document creation, routing, and enhanced reporting capabilities.

Financial Management

The ITIL Financial Management initiative began in 2009 when there was a demand from our customers for better governance and transparency. ITIL Financials provides CIT with a powerful tool for depicting the relationship between services and our charging models. Drawing information directly from the Service Catalog, it allows us to quantify services in financial terms, analyze and implement standardized budgeting and accounting methods, and continuously review charging models. "Customers and management will be able to see if our strategy is resulting in lower costs or greater service adoption, which services cost us the most and why, and how we compare to alternative sources." – John Burke, Chief Financial Officer, CIT.

NIH IT Service Desk

The Help Desk started its ITIL journey many years ago as a strategy for identifying how best to approach its immaturity as a support organization. ITIL was the most comprehensive methodology available that specifically addressed how we do our core business – delivering competent, high-quality support to NIH. As with any process improvement, there have been many bumps in the road – natural roadblocks that come with making significant changes to the business. By facing these challenges, we have effectively transformed our people, processes, and tools to fit the ITIL Service Desk model as of December 2009.

Our customers and our organization have already reaped innumerable benefits as a result of these changes. The NIH IT Service Desk, for example, has successfully met or exceeded its customer response targets consistently, despite increasing demand for its services. In addition to defining common processes and supporting technology, implementing ITIL has altered the focus of our staff to smarter management of our workload and ensuring our customers can use IT more effectively to do the work it takes to support NIH's mission.

Service Portfolio Management

In the summer of 2009, representatives from all of CIT's divisions came together for a workshop to start putting together a framework for Service Portfolio Management (SPM). SPM is the process that determines which services CIT offers, when they go into the Service Catalog, and when they are due for retirement. The challenges that we face in this area include compliance with the NIH Enterprise Architecture and the Enterprise Project Life Cycle (EPLC), and fitting the SPM process into the NIH governance structure. As CIT works through these challenges, the goal is to produce a repeatable process that can be used to ensure that services are chosen, reviewed, and retired in a structured way.

Questions?

If you would like to know more about ITIL at NIH, you can sign up for the ITILv3 Overview class offered by the CIT Computer Training Program, visit the ITIL@NIH Interest Group website at http://itil.nih.gov (login required), or contact the NIH IT Service Desk online at http://itservicedesk.nih.gov or by phone at 301-496-4357 (6-HELP) (local), 866-319-4357 (toll free), or 301-496-8294 (TTY).

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