The Proof is in the Process
People, Process, and Technology are essential for successful IT operations.
These days we are all talking about IT cloud enablement or IT-as-a-Service, and increasingly these conversations are now about optimizing IT processes to facilitate successful cloud deployment. Based on my own past experience as a technologist, I thought that the most important (and cool) thing to do in IT was deploy the latest and greatest technology. However, today, I am linking technology evolution to process integration because only by optimizing our IT processes will we enable cloud computing successfully. I recently read Peter Fingar’s book, “Dot.Cloud: The 21st Century Business Platform“, and I’m sold on his notions of how the cloud can be applied to day-to-day business operations.
Our goal has always been to increase Customer Delight through improved communication with our business users, and now this is accentuated by the need for process simplification for these new technology deployments and higher user expectations.
From our internal customer surveys, we had realized that our customers were easily frustrated and de-motivated with bureaucratic IT processes. We knew, to succeed on our journey to the cloud, we had to optimize our cornerstone IT processes. By rethinking and simplifying the processes and communicating their benefits – allowed our internal customers to realize and buy into this notion of IT cloud enablement. The efficiency and flexibility in our processes are critical to the success of new projects and operations.
We have traditionally used ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) as a best practice approach for improving IT management and services. We can see how to reduce costs, improve service delivery and enhance business competitiveness by maturing IT processes as explained in the Network World article “A guiding hand for maturing IT processes”. As we move towards IT as a Service (ITaaS), we are extending ITIL concepts to go across a broad base of disaggregated services that IT can deliver. Regular assessments in the form of quality initiatives provide the IT organization with facts and information that it can use to make decision improvements.