Adopting ITIL Best Practices for A Better Customer Experience

ITIL is determined to remain the go-to resource for IT service management, despite the fact that it will undergo a much-needed revision in 2019. Many years had gone since the release of ITIL V3, and a healthy dose of scepticism had crept in, with many doubting if this advice was still applicable in the age of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and mobile devices. Earlier this year, a writer to CIO.com characterized this attitude by stating that these changes “have made ITIL a thing of the past.”

Fortunately, many people believe that ITIL 4 redeems itself by upgrading the approach to information technology service management (ITSM). This modernization focuses on integrating now-standard and developing approaches like as Agile and DevOps, which are critical components of the process. ITIL 4 also emphasizes the need of a more flexible and less rigorous implementation when compared to previous editions.

Among the best practices offered by ITIL are “a style of working that has been demonstrated to be effective by various businesses,” according to the ITIL website. Nonetheless, in my opinion, a blend of flavors rather than a single best practice is the most effective way for ITSM in the current environment. Here, I’ll share some of my favorite ITIL Certification best practices that may be implemented quickly and flexibly to improve the customer experience.

ITIL is a framework that facilitates IT service management.

ITIL retains its position as the world’s most widely used ITSM reference. The ITIL framework (along with additional advice and standards) in enterprise service management will continue to be in demand as long as enterprises throughout the globe seek methods to enhance customer experience, service delivery, and business alignment.

The most important piece of advice when implementing ITIL is to avoid doing a cut-and-paste operation. As an alternative, embrace a shift in organizational culture and mentality while interacting with clients and other personnel engaged in the service lifecycle by Sprintzeal. Keep in mind that “ITIL is a framework of instruction, not a product to be installed; everything you do with ITIL and ITSM is about cultural change” (source).

Upon closer examination of the newest ITIL iteration, I discover four best practices (approaches) that give the quickest path to recouping value in an organization’s ITIL adoption process.

• Adopt the ITIL Guiding Principles

One of the finest things in the new ITIL guide is the notion of ITIL guiding principles. These seven principles represent the ITIL core message and enable excellence in service management regardless of industry, size, or technological strategy. These principles are universal and durable, therefore integrating them to your organization’s ITSM framework gives a fast and straightforward approach to profiting from ITIL.

• Adopt the Continual Improvement Model

Continual improvement is an ITIL cornerstone. In ITIL 4, the idea is updated into a 7-step constant improvement paradigm. You’ll start with understanding your organization’s vision, proceed through identifying gaps, planning, and executing actions to attain your target (desired) state, and conclude with evaluating and entrenching the new state into your culture. The concept is iterative in nature and allows for critical evaluation of each phase with an opportunity to reconsider and go back if required.

• Adopt the Service Value Chain approach

Popularized by the worlds of Lean and Six Sigma, value streams have become a critical tool in modelling and understanding how your organization creates value for its customers through internal and external activities and processes. ITIL 4 embraces this notion with the introduction of the service value chain, “an operational model which specifies the main operations necessary to react to demand and support value realization via the production and administration of goods and services”.

• Adopt the Management Practices guideline

ITIL v3 mapped 26 processes throughout the ITIL service lifecycle in a constrained, silo-like approach. ITIL 4 moved away from this rigidity, offering flexibility with the brand-new Service Value System (SVS) and 34 management principles that apply throughout the complete value chain.