How do you Automate the ITIL Service Management Process?

Answer 1

Automating business processes delivers higher Utility and Warranty thereby generating better performance and value from service and customer assets.

The same applies to IT Service Management. Earlier in this chapter, we learnt that IT Service Management capability is a strategic asset. Building this capability through automation is fundamental to providing value to the business by remaining competitive.

Of course, effective Service Management in all but the smallest organizations is inconceivable without a level of automation. For example, Configuration Management based on paper records could hardly deliver in an organization of any significant scale.

Beyond this basic level, we can identify a number of areas where automation can improve capability. For example:

• Monitoring and measuring to an extent not possible by other means, handling high levels of complexity and volume irrespective of time or location.

• Generating automated alerts helps us respond more rapidly to events, helping us maintain service availability.

• Discovery tools enable us to maintain an up-to-date Configuration Management System and identify and deal with a range of control related problems.

• Sophisticated modeling and simulation helps us design infrastructure and applications, and model complex options for service delivery.

• Artificial Intelligence is able to offer a range of capabilities from root cause analysis, through sophisticated alarm and control systems, to complex scheduling and resource management.

• Workflow management systems improve customer service and efficiency across a range of processes.

At a more basic level, automation increases productivity, enables us to handle fluctuating demand and generally do more for less. Critically for IT Service Management, it also enables us to integrate across different Service Management Processes and Functions, for example through improved coherence, shared workflow and escalation processes, shared alarms and alerts, better inter-process communication, information sharing and organizational learning. This improves efficiency, helps reduce errors and duplication of effort, and delivers better value and better service to the customer.