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Articles Archive
BUSINESS / IT ALIGNMENT Get the Right People for the Right Jobs for Service Level Management Success by Elizabeth Ferrarini The success or failure of information technology service level management within an organization depends on having the right staff in the right management positions. Here’s a roadmap to follow when starting the hiring process. Reaping the Rewards of Resource Consolidation The impact of a sophisticated service level management solution on resource consolidation initiatives by Christopher Marino Unfortunately for IT managers today, doing more with less does not mean that executives and business units are willing to lower performance and availability expectations for business-critical customer services. In fact, the opposite is true. Two ways to improve resource utilization and reduce server costs are centralization (moving servers distributed across an enterprise to large data centers to improve the costs of management) and server consolidation (reducing many smaller capacity servers into a few high-capacity servers). Service Level Management: The Big Picture by Rick Sturm Service Level Management (SLM): To most people in the industry, the term refers to a very narrow, finite space — service level agreements, metrics, data capture, reporting, and so on. However, SLM is much broader, encompassing everything involved in delivering a service at acceptable levels. Why IT and Business Need to Talk: 'Two nations separated by a common language?' by Peter Armstrong In The Canterville Ghost (1887), Oscar Wilde wrote: “We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.” I have an English-American/American-English dictionary in front of me as I write this, and have learnt over the years that Americans think chips are crisps, whereas we British expect them to come covered in salt and vinegar and wrapped in a piece of newspaper. However, I digress ... CIO INTERVIEWS IT Mattered for Helping CIO Devise Strategies for Integrating Disparate Systems IT mattered when it came to the merger of four insurance companies — Colonial Life & Accident, Paul Revere, Providence, and Unum — to form UnumProvident, the world’s largest disability insurance company with $40 billion in assets and 13,000 employees.
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- Interview with Rob Carter: FedEx CIO Says “IT Matters!” - Ameritrade CIO Says Technology Matters for Merging, Delivering Trading Services - UnumProvident CIO Devises Strategies to Integrate Disparate Systems from Four Insurance Companies HELP DESK Guidelines for Creating a Service Desk Based on ITIL Initiatives Most organizations have some sort of an IT help desk staffed by individuals who field calls from users, and then go into firefighting mode to solve users’ problems. However, some IT organizations have transformed their inefficient help desk into a proactive, service desk that offers high productivity and efficiency, but at a lower cost than before. Major companies, such as Procter & Gamble and Caterpillar, have accomplished this goal by adopting ITIL initiatives, a standard set of best practices for lowering and improving the quality of IT service delivery. INTERVIEWS Honeywell IT Executive Says Good Business Practices Matter for Managing the Infrastructure No one knows the value of service level management practices more then Kin Lee, senior vice president of IT infrastructure at Honeywell in Tempe, Arizona, and a graduate of Harvard Business School. Lee oversees the global voice network and data network infrastructures for the $20 billion diversified technology leader’s four business groups: aerospace, automated control systems, specialty materials, and power systems. Last year, Lee reduced IT expenses for the infrastructure from $650 million to $510 million — a $90 million cost savings. ITIL Introduction to ITIL: Early US Adopters Find Business Value IT executives at Procter & Gamble and Caterpillar have turned their IT departments into efficient powerhouses by becoming early adopters of an IT process-driven framework for service management. Despite its highbrow name, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL holds great promise, according to industry analysts. STRATEGY The Business Value of Data by John Hagel Data is the most undervalued asset of business. Endless treatises have been written about the business value of information and knowledge, but one has to search far and wide for any discussion of the business value of data. When the topic comes up, more likely than not, it is dealt with in dismissive tones as in a recent report from a well-known analyst firm (name withheld by the Editor), that declared: “the recommendation to clients is to recognize that data is worthless.” OTHER ARCHIVED ARTICLES Web Performance Metrics - Setting the Standard by Richard Longland Performance benchmarking must be based on the real-time gauging of Internet Web site performance relative to industry peers. Demonstrating IT's Value As An Internal Service Provider by Mary Nugent Internal IT organizations are frequently viewed as cost centers. While most business units assume that the cost of IT is too high, and that they can get better value by outsourcing, they should consider the undocumented services performed by IT. At the same time, IT must prove its business value by demonstrating its understanding of customer needs. Reaping the Rewards of Resource Consolidation by Christopher Marino Examining the impact of a sophisticated service level management solution on resource consolidation initiatives. Service Level Agreements: Consequences for Non-Performance by Rick Sturm A look at establishing effective consequences for nonperformance in Service Level Agreements (SLAs). How Businesses Use Technology: Pushing the Envelope by Jean-Pierre Garbani Studies have shown that the key to productivity in interactive applications is a rapid response time. In this environment, the IT management role is to provide not only the functions required by businesses, but to provide them with a satisfactory level of performances at a competitive price. Speeding up Service Level Agreement Negotiations by Stephen C. Sopko Negotiating a technical contract is nobody's idea of a good time. Eight ways to faster negotiations. Reporting for Service Level Management by Rick Sturm A key element of SLM is reporting. Unfortunately, from the viewpoint of the client, most of today's reportin is worthless gibberish. OPINION: Let's Give Availability Back to the Engineers! by S. A. Hodson With the advent of modern digital systems, new issues arise that can prevent a system from being used for reasons other than that the fact that they are faulty, and the term Availability has been "hijacked" by the Service Level Agreement (SLA) industry to include these periods. Service Level Management: The Big Picture by Rick Sturm SLM is much broader than Service Level Agreements, metrics, data capture, reporting, and the like. Besides managing performance and availability, issues like backup and recovery and security must be addressed, too. Understanding Active Service Level Management by Brad Stone Businesses must improve their e-business application service levels (performance and availability) if they are to protect these profits. However, while sustaining e-business service levels and service level management has become a strategic imperative, improving application performance and availability is not easy. Service Level Management: Not Just for IT Anymore by Rick Sturm Is it possible to implement Service Level Management in a non-IT environment? Yes, and here are some tips about how it's done. Generating Higher Levels of Responsiveness with Sell-Side E-Commerce Applications by Louis Columbus Getting the best possible performance from an ASP takes more than just the standard Service Level Agreement (SLA). Be sure to get past what are the generally acceptable, industry-standard components of an SLA to what really matters. Managing an ASP by metrics of scalability and performance spells out the difference between growth and stagnation for your business. Application Availability: An Approach to Measurement by David Fishman To end users, application availability means continuous application access with predictable performance. But to measure availability, you must define what it is, detail how you'll decompose applications for measurement, classify service level indicators and more. Service-level Agreements in Business Continuity Management by Andrew Hiles Increasingly, service level agreements are viewed as the means to bridge the gulfs between providers of support services and their customers. However, during the most crucial time for any business - recovering from as disaster - neither customer or recovery service supplier is usually protected by a Service Level Agreement. The Heart of the Matter: Service Level Agreements Service level agreements (SLAs) are a must for quality IT service management. Here's what comprises an SLA, what are the essential components and how how to negotiate one. Establishing SLM Whether you are contracting to an external service provider or to your internal IT organization, here are the six compelling reasons to establish SLM. What is Service Level Management? The basics of what is Service Level Management, and why implementing it is truly win-win for both your organization and IT. The Perception and Management of Service Levels It's sometimes true that IT and end users speak different languages. But by measuring end-user experience end to end, IT can truly measure the SLM it's delivering from the end user's point of view. Talk To Me: Reporting on Service Levels SLM is all about good communication between IT, users and the company's business units. So IT must communicate how it is measuring its service delivery to customers with reports that are relevant to customers. |
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