1. When Do You Know Your ITIL Implementation is Successful ? An Exploratory Study on Critical Success Factors M. Banu Yoba& Istanbul Technical University,Faculty of Management Macka 34367- Istanbul, TURKEYABSTRACTIncreasing number of organizations are implementing the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL1) framework in order to improve their IT service management process. However, not all ITIL implementations are successful. Some implementations resulted in disappointment with the outcomes. There are many companies confused about how to implement ITIL successfully, hence there is a need to identify the factors that influence successful ITIL adoption worldwide. This exploratory research provides an overview of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) concepts such as ITIL, organizational maturity, critical success factors, ways to measure benefits for integrated IT management and presents the results of a survey conducted with eight organizations operating in insurance, automotive, telecom, finance and technology sectors in Turkey. Critical success factors (CFSs) suggested in literature and other research is compared against the survey findings.Keywords IT Infrastructure Library, ITIL, critical success factors, best practicesINTRODUCTIONToday IT is one of the strategic assets of any company for two reasons, firstly IT has the greatest potential for innovation, secondly it plays a significant role in supporting business. However IT is not generally managed as the other strategic functions or processes a company has.1 All the abbreviations used throughout the paper are available in Appendix A1

2. There are several studies showing intensive use of IT, especially if aligned with business strategy, can provide several opportunities and benefits to companies of all activities and sizes (Ward and Peppard, 2002).The successful organizations understand, manage and intermittently measure the quality of IT performance by IT Governance and IT Audit activities. Such companies manage IT better than their competitors. They understand the fact that IT is not the subject but the object of their business strategy (Spremic, et al. 2008).IT governance represents the organizational capacity exercised by the Board, executive management and IT management to control the formulation and implementation of IT strategy. IT Governance and IT Audit frameworks are guidelines developed to assist managing and measuring the performance of IT initiatives (Spremic, et al. 2008).Information system audit (IT audit) examines the IT processes systematically, throughly and carefully. This examination is carried out to measure the IT performance and to warn about possible omissions and risks. It is the quality of the companys information system thats being examined. There are several studies on auditing Hunton et al. (2004), Spremic (2005) and Spremic (2007) are only a few.In todays economic conditions companies particularly IT departments are expected to reduce costs without decreasing quality. The global competitive landscape continues to stiffen and the risk of losing the competition mandates many businesses demand IT to improve quality while decreasing costs. Shrinking budgets due to downward economic pressures are becoming very familiar scenarios. It is not uncommon for a CFO to inform the CIO of the need to reduce the company's IT operating budget by 5% and the capital budget by 25% for the coming fiscal year. On the other hand there is a known relation with quality and cost as Porter (1996) suggested in his well-known Efficient Frontier model; the best- practice organizations can choose to improve quality or lower cost, but not both at the same time. In these circumstances how can a CIO improve quality and lower cost at the same time? According to Bittinger (2004), organizations that are performing below best-practice standards can improve quality and reduce cost by moving toward best-practice goals. One very effective way of doing so is improving processes by copying best-practice processes. 2 3. Figure 1. Michael Porters Productivity FrontierThis explains why, the standards like ITIL has only gained momentum recently, although ITIL has a 30-year history.In recent years there are a number of world-wide used standards and best practices in IT process management area such as CobiT and ITIL, which helps management to measure the IT performances. CobiT's bottom line is to ensure IT funds are spent on business outcomes and it has a tendency to expose flaws in investment and execution. ITIL, on the other hand, looks at whether technology delivers the business-grade services that it promises and deals in easily understood concepts, such as uptime and response times.As Hochstein et al. (2005a) describes The ITIL framework has been enhanced continuously and has become a de facto standard under the influence of the internationally active IT service management forum. ITIL is not a process model but a description of activities, documents, roles, success factors, key performance indicators et cetera, which should be taken into account for an ideal IT management.ITIL has gained widespread adoption. According to Bittinger (2004) the reason is closely related to ITIL serving as an open platform for implementing IT Service Management processes. Serving as an open platform enables many IT shops to benefit from using a variety of IT Service Management (ITSM) process methodologies in conjunction with the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). By using the ITIL framework with other methods, such as Six Sigma, project and portfolio management (PPM) and ISO 20000, companies are getting additional benefits including improved customer satisfaction, increased productivity and the ability to provide more value to the business, in a shorter period of time. According to a survey, another reason is the recognition of the value it brings to the business and launch of 3 4. ITIL v3. (Axio Systems, 2008). The consensus is that ITIL V3 meets the needs of today and tomorrow better than previous adaptations have done and is more aligned to the business.Yet recent survey results from BT show that ITIL adoption isnt on the rise. From April 15, 2009 through May 11, 2009, BT in North America conducted a Web-based survey on ITIL, which was completed by 225 IT professionals around the globe. About 44% of those surveyed in 2009 employ ITIL best practices, compared to 51% of 300-plus IT pros polled by BT in 2007 that reported they use ITIL to improve on IT service management processes. And 28% of organizations not currently using ITIL plan to do so within 18 months. But more than 50% currently have no plans. These may be due to the difficulties in measuring the benefits (Dubie, 2006).This exploratory study explores what the critical success factors in successful ITIL implementations are and compare them with the experiencesand expectations of seven private and one public organization in Turkey who already implemented or are planning to implement ITIL.In the next sections IT Service Management concepts are explained, previous research on the benefits of implementing ITIL, how it can be measured and the critical success factors in ITIL implementations are presented then the findings of a survey conducted with 8 companies are reported. Finally, the critical success factors are compared to previous literature and some suggestions are provided.This paper could be of major interest for researchers as well as for practitioners and managers.THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDIT no longer just fixes problems, IT needs to think strategically. The "State of the Data Center" study, which was conducted in April 2007 by Symantec, surveyed 500 IT professionals from enterprise-class companies in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific. Well over 50 percent of time in most IT organizations is spent in break fix and repair activities, while only a small part of their energy is spent creating new solutions to business problems. Now they are working to flip that ratio. In an effort to reduce complexity through standardizing processes, virtually all of those surveyed are implementing ITIL/ITSM frameworks to manage IT services.Successful implementation of ITIL provide significant benefits such as more rigorous control of testing and system changes, more predictable infrastructure, improved consultation with IT groups within the organization, reduced server faults, seamless end-to-end service, 4 5. documented and consistent IT service management processes across the organization, and consistent logging of incidents (Cater-Steel, Toleman and Tan, 2006).ITIL creates a common understanding between IT staff, suppliers, contractors and users within the business by creating a common approach and language towards IT services. The framework can deliver huge cost savings for an organization by promoting the optimum use of people, process and technology, while reducing overall costs. All these benefits and more provided by successful ITIL implementations can be summarized with figure 2. Figure 2 Why are ITIL and IT Service Management Excellence so critical today? ITIL is a series of books representing a repository of best practices in IT service management and related processes. ITIL version 1 was used mainly by governmental agencies. From 1999 to 2001, ITIL version 2 became the cornerstone for Service Management by introducing the Service Support and Service Delivery disciplines. ITIL itself is not a standard, the only standard in IT service management today is ISO 20000. ITIL version 3 was launched on 30th May 2007 to provide an integrated service lifecycle approach to IT Service Management.In order to understand the critical success factors of an ITIL implementation, the processes in version 2 and services in version 3 of ITIL is summarized first.ITIL v2 is process oriented. ITIL v2 identified the key processes of its time. Brief explanations for those key processes are given in the following section.Source: (Clark, 2007)5 6. Service Support focuses on the processes required to keep operations running on aday-to-day basis. It explains how the Service Desk owns and supports IncidentManagement and provides a foundation for supporting user issues and requests. Problem Management reduces the impact of service outages for the user. Effectiveroot cause analysis are carried out in problem management. Change Management considers both business and technical criteria in order to reducerisks significantly and minimise the impact of change. Release Management is a framework to coordinate, control and physical introduction ofa change into the development and production environments from both technical andnon-technical aspects. Configuration Management provides the foundation to all the Service Suppport anddelivery processes. Service Delivery focuses on meeting the current and future needs of the business byensuring the services are maintained and provisioned properly. Service LevelManagement explains the relationship with customers so that business needs areunderstood and delivered. SLM reports on SLAs and manages internal and externalprovider relationships. Availability Management is concerned with how reliable components of the service areand putting alternatives in place should a component fail. Capacity Management ensures that there is sufficient resource, infrastructure andoverall service capacity to meet the current and future business requirements. Financial Management for IT is about costs, effective budgeting and accounting of thewhole IT.It also explains how one can introduce charging into the organization. IT Service Continuity explains how to asses business risk and the importance ofaligning IT service continuity to the business continuity requirements. ITIL v3 is The Service Lifecycle bridging the four key stages of a service; Strategy, Design, Transition and Operations. ITIL v3 focus is much more on recognizing service as a commodity, an entity in its own right providing value and benefit. An IT service [according to ITIL v3] is a service provided to one or more customersby an IT service provider. An IT service is based on the use of IT and supports thecustomers business processes. An IT service is made up from a combination ofpeople, processes and technology and should be defined in a Service LevelAgreement. (Iqbal et al, 2007).In ITIL v3 context, the processes can be grouped into two; namely essentials and optionals. 6 7. ITIL PRIMARIES are those processes that every IT organization must have regardlessof ITIL guidance include them or not. ITIL MODIFIERS are those processes that the primary processes. In a sense these arecomplementary to primaries, modifiers are the rules which modify the behaviour requiredby a primary. ITIL BLENDERS are those processes that ensure all other processes will work together. ITIL FIXATIVES are Financial Management activities which cover the IT infrastructureand organization together. Fixatives help to meet the business needs providing the bestpossible facilities regardless of the budget and governance. Source : Fry, 2008There are many studies and research showing the growing awareness of ITIL worldwide. Axio Systems conducted a survey with 255 IT professionals from global organisations at a series of service management events across the UK, Australia and America including ITSMF in the UK and ITIM 2007 in America reported 64% of IT professionals believe following ITIL is key to improving IT reputations (Axio Systems, 2008). Despite the fact that ITIL supports improving IT quality Evergreen surveyed 100 attendees at a conference, about two-thirds of who work for Fortune 1000 companies. This survey revealed that some 70 percent of those implementing ITIL initiatives dont have a baseline to measure performance improvements.Although there are research and studies carried out both by the academic and private research organizations, academic research is scarce and to date ITSM scientific research in general focused on mostly on definitions and reporting descriptive statistics (Conger, et al. 2008). It is clear that more academic research is needed to understand and answer the questions such as, what the expectations of organizations implementing ITIL are in doing so, what the factors influencing success in ITIL projects are, how the outcomes can be measured (Hochstein, Zarnekow and Brenner, 2005a). Limited academic research is available on reporting outcomes and benefits of ITIL implementations. ITIL implementation in six German firms was analysed by Hochstein, Tammand Brenner (2005) and benefits are reported. Hochsteins research is replicated by Cater-Steel, Toleman, and Tan, in 2006 with 12 organizations in Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand. A case study with a government organization and benefits experienced are reported by Potgieter, Botha and Lew (2005). 7 8. Critical success factors suggested in the literature are; executive management support, interdepartmental communication and collaboration, use of consultants, training and careful software selection. According to a recent exploratory study conducted by Pollard and Cater- Steel in 2009, three new critical success factors are identified: creating an ITIL-friendly culture, process as a priority and customer-focused metrics.Spremic, et al. (2008) investigated ITIL implementation for performace management in finance service industry. Results they presented are based on the data collected in three months time after ITIL implementaton.According to a recent case study in Insurance & Technology Magazine, ICWs incident management resolution times were improved by approximately 90% and reducing the help desk personnel costs by 25% (OConnor, 2009).100 senior IT managers and directors were surveyed in large UK Enterprises (minimum of 1000 employees in the UK) by independent technology market research specialists Bourne in September 2009. The companies were operating in the following sectors; financial services, manufacturing, retail, distribution & transport, business & professional services. The key findings of the 2009 survey on ITIL reported as; 51 % of senior UK IT managers and directors believed that having staff qualified inITIL would give their organisation or business a competitive edge 31 % of IT departments felt that the benefits of ITIL were not fully understood bymanagement 49 % of senior IT managers and directors claimed that budget constraints was thekey barrier to the uptake of ITIL Version 3Questions like where implementing ITIL will yield a return and whether and to what extent ITIL processes have resulted in performance improvements requires some activities to be performed prior to ITIL implementation (Spremic, et al. 2008).Studies on self-assessment of ITIL practices and benchmarking with best practices revealed a number of checklists (Nolan and McFarlan, 2005). These metrics enable companies to assess the maturity of IT service processes using a 1-5 scale for each IT process or activity. The ITIL indicates that assessing maturity is the key to success. The ITIL includes a Process Maturity Framework (PMF), model, and instructions for assessing organizational maturity (Marquis, 2006).Organizational maturity refers to an organizations ability to perform. Most maturity models define five evolutionary levels an organization passes through as it becomes more8 9. competent.At each maturity level organizational competence increases.In a mature organization repeatable practices becomes the norm, and there are fewer and fewer individual acts of heroism. The higher the organizational maturity the more efficient, effective and economical are its operations. (Marquis, 2006)Assessing organizational maturity becomes a preliminary step required before ITIL implementation begins. As the implementation progresses, continued maturity assessment shows the improvement of the organization and shows when to implement new processes or additional activities.There are many maturity models from which to choose. The ITIL offers CMM, COBIT (Governance Maturity model or GMM) and ISO 15504 as examples. The ITIL also includes its own maturity model PMF. The ITIL PMF is a 5-layer model like GMM, CMM, or CMMI.The PMF assumes that a Quality Management System (QMS) is in place and there is a goal to improve one or more aspects of the processes effectiveness, efficiency, economy, or equity. The ITIL offers Deming, Juran, Baldridge, Crosby, and others as QMS models.The ITIL PMF has 5 levels as shown in table 1. Table 1 The ITIL PMFLevelPMFFocusComments1Initial Technology Technology excellence/experts2RepeatableProduct/ServiceOperational processes (e.g., Service Support)3Defined Customer Proper service level managementFocus4Managed Business Focus Business and IT aligned5Optimized Value ChainSeamless integration of IT into the business and strategy makingThe ITIL PMF defines several dimensions that comprise each level. A given level of maturity is a result of the following factors: Vision and Strategy the overall direction as it relates to the role and position ofIT within the businessSteering the objectives and goals of IT in relation to realizing the strategyProcesses the procedures needed to achieve the goals and objectivesPeople the skills and abilities needed to perform the processes9 10. Technology the supporting infrastructure to enable the processes to be carried out Culture the behavior and attitude required in relation to the role of IT within the businessOnce the organization maturity level is defined on the maturity scale, then the best approach for implementation can be determined. The ITIL offers three broad categories of implementation plans: 1. Single process approach 2. Multi process approach 3. All processes approachThe ITIL indicates that at lower maturity levels a company should proceed along the single process approach. As maturity increases, company will need to move more toward the multi process approach due to the interactions and dependencies of processes. In fact, level four or higher requires the all process approach for this very reason. Highest levels of maturity only occur through small steps in all processes over time.The ITIL offers specific details on how to begin as shown in table 2. Table 2ITIL Implementation approaches and starting pointsApproachTechnique CommentsSingle Problem ManagementIdentify and solve most painful issues process Service Desk & Incident Improve customer service and perception as well asManagementsetting the stage for future enhancements Change Management Focus on establishing control of changes, thusimproving service qualityMultiCSIPOverall goal to improve more than one area; tied Processdirectly to stakeholders and business requirements CustomerUse customer dissatisfaction to identify startingSatisfaction/Business point/using business impact analysis to identifyImpactstarting point SWOT analysis Perform Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and10 11. Threats (SWOT) analysis and use the results to identify starting point BenchmarkAssess organization and compare to internal or external organizations to identify starting point Service target Involve customers, establish targets for improvement to services, implement as required to meet targetsAllBusiness/IT strategy Incremental improvement driven from business Processesand Vision CSIP Incremental improvement driven from CSIP BenchmarkIncremental improvement driven from benchmarkingMaturity in all its forms is how the implementation and ongoing operations of the ITIL is managed.The IT Process Institute, in its research on Identifying Key Performance Drivers, gives seven sets of control practices that predict top levels of performance. Most of these control practices map to five of the ITIL essentials (Fry, 2008). Ordered by the impact from highest to lowest they are;1. Release scheduling and rollback (Release & Deployment Management) 2. Process culture 3. Pre-release testing (Change Management) 4. Process exception management (Incident Management and Problem Management) 5. Standardized configuration strategy (Service Asset & Configuration Management) 6. Change linkage (Change Management) 7. Controlled production accessAs an alternative Fry (2008) suggests first implementing the essential elements for a given maturity level. The second step is then comparing the essentials versus current practices and determine one by one how far the current from the v3 guidelines. Then the third step is following the service-oriented methodology v3 defines to close the gap. 11 12. Critical Success FactorsThe concept of CSFs was first proposed by D. Ronald Daniel (1961). It had already been 20 years when it was refined and popularized by John F. Rockart of MITs Sloan School of management. Rockart (1979) defined critical success factors as few key areas that must go right for the business to flourish. If these factors are not performed well, it is unlikely that the mission, objectives or goals of a business or a project will be achieved.An affective strategy is to look for quick wins initially. Many companies start ITIL with incident, problem and change management. They produce the quickest wins and most visible results. (Pollard and Cater-Steel, 2009; Guglielmo, 2009b) Another key factor is effective engagement of personnel affected coupled with support from senior management and communication of results, early and often. The right people must be assigned into the right roles, responsiblities must be cleraly defined and documented, schedules maintained, monitored and controlled, and results measured and reported with a strong customer focus (Pollard and Cater-Steel, 2009).There are only three studies revealing evidence on critical success factors in ITIL implementations: Hochstein, Tamm & Brenners case study (2005). A single case study in Australia reported by Tan et.al (2007). Another case study with four firms (two in US and two in Austria) by Pollard and Cater-Steel (2009).ILX Group's most recent survey, conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne, shows the majority (72 per cent) of companies have less than 25 per cent of their IT staff ITIL Version 3 qualified. While in November 2007 the biggest reason for not having plans in place for a migration to ITIL Version 3 was time constraints. In 2009 respondents now cited budget constraints and the benefits of ITIL not fully understood by management as the primary barriers to uptake (Bourne, 2009).It is important to establish an ITIL service management training program to examine the roles people in the organization will play and the skills (from a process and technology perspective) that they will need to fulfill the specific responsibilities. This is very similar in concept to the ITIL V3 Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed model for things like change management. Once these matrices are set up, very accurate, targeted levels of learning can be delivered.According to ILX Group plc, the blended training services company, just over half of IT departments (51 per cent) believe that having staff qualified in ITIL would give their12 13. organization or business a competitive edge. Despite this, less than a quarter of IT staff was found to be trained in ITIL v2 or ITIL v3 (Bourne, 2009)There are a few tools and techniques that organizations can use to address the people part of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and enhance the training process.Neither the user not the customer base is static; therefore an ongoing program must be considered to have all the training material updated when new releases or enhancements are made.Project failure due to internal or controllable factors can be significantly reduced if staff are trained to properly manage projects and are provided with the right framework and best practices to avoid common mistakes. It is found that the cost of failure exceeds the cost of training. Market conditions for many businesses still remain tough, but getting basic processes wrong can be an incredibly costly exercise if people do not have the right skills (IXL Group, 2009).METHODOLOGYA survey was conducted with eight companies. Survey respondents were selected from among different sectors.There is one public organization, all the rest are from private sector. The respondents were all IT professionals (e.g., CIOs, senior executives, directors, managers). The questionnaire was sent by mail to either CIO, or the highest responsible person in charge of ITIL implementation project regardless of their title. Organizations selected that are known to be among the best in their sectors namely automotive, finance, telecommunications, pharmacology and insurance.While selecting these companies company size is taken into account. In many studies it is shown that companies with sizes 1,000 and more are more likely to implement ITIL and experience better outcomes from their implementation.Survey questions are provided in Appendix B.FINDINGS OF THE STUDYIn this study there are two companies who havent implemented ITIL yet. One of them is a public financial company and the other is an automotive company. Both of the companies plan to implement in 12 months time and both of them stated that they are planning to work with an SI. Financial company also stated that, the SI they will be working with will be one of the well-known 5 companies in ITIL implementations (aka. Big 5). 13 14. All respondents but one implemented ITIL with a Service Integrator. All of those worked with an SI used the project methodology proposed by the SI they have worked with.Throughout the paper the companies are referred to according to the naming given in table 3. Table 3 also provides the size of each company and the respondents title. Table 3 Company CodingSECTORCOMPANYCOMPANYSURVEY RESPONDERS CODESIZE TITLEAutomotive A1,000-10,000 CIOFinanceB100-1,000Systems Specialist, Systems &Operations DepartmentFinanceC100-1,000 Manager Database Management DirectorateFinanceD100-1,000 Asst. ManagerIT security and Audit DepartmentFinanceE100-1,000 Expert, Systems &OperationsDepartmentTelecommunications F1,000-10,000Manager CRM & Sales OperationPharmacology GMore thanACRM Delivery Service10,000 Management Team LeadInsuranceH1,000-10,000Manager Operational Services & SecurityThe respondents are from different departments within IT.The team sizes differ between a min. 2 and max. 24. Project Staff Distribution of those companies that implemented ITIL is shown in Table 4.The contribution of business during project implementation is very low. Only in two cases business is taking place during the project lifetime. One of them is the financial company that implemented ITIL without any SI and the other one is the insurance company. In both 14 15. cases at projects in which business is involved it is interesting that either IT or SI was not a part of the project. There is a case when the project team is 100% IT oriented thats the project team included neither business people nor an SI in the project team. Table 4 ITIL Project Staff DistributionCompanyBusiness ITSITOTALStaffStaffCode Staff Project(%)(%) Staff (%)Already Implemented B-5050 2 C20 80- 10 E-5050 6 F-554523 G- 100- 14 H55 9024 Planning to Implement A-7525 D20 5030The Biggest Problem You FacedThe question was the biggest problem faced during the implementation of ITIL project. For those who are planning to implement, the question was the single biggest problem they expect to face in terms of getting the project justified and its budget approved.According to a recent research the top three reasons for project failure were poor communications to key stakeholders (34 per cent); missed deadlines (22 per cent); and exceeding agreed budgets (17 per cent) (Bourne, 2009).Company A is planning to implement ITIL. When asked the biggest problem they expect in terms of getting the project justified and its budget approved CIO shares his concerns for being able to show the benefits of ITIL implementation to business. This is the biggest 15 16. problem area many companies throughout the world face. Company A has already foreseen it. This is also consistent with results namely communications to key stakeholders reported by Bourne (2009). A similar concern is also shared by Company D as will be seen in their answer to the tip they would give for success.As for Company B the biggest problem was the resources, especially the insufficient project team, consisting only one IT specialist. Other problems they encountered were preparing the workflows and the coordination with the SI. They emphasize that the ITIL implementation project team shall be dedicated.Company C responds the biggest problem they have faced during implementation as To fulfill requirements, a huge change on IT and Business rule sets have been made which caused a change on the way people do their job. The new methodologies were slowly accepted and questioned thoroughly.Company D is planning to implement ITIL. When asked about the biggest problem they expect they responded they had concerns about timing and assigning responsibilities. This is consistent with results namely missed deadlines reported by Bourne (2009)Company E expressed that they havent encountered any big problems during the implementation.Telecommunications Company F answered discovery item definitions was the most difficult part in their implementation, namely the UCMDB Discovery Phase.In Company G the ACRM Delivery Service Management Team Lead says Awareness on ITIL, Service Management concepts. They are quite new and different to the traditional support concept. The biggest challenge is behavior and mind set change of the people. These are exactly the problem points many companies are complaining about. It was no surprise to hear her listing the major problematic areas in ITIL implementations since she has been working in ITIL implementations, particularly global service management in multinational companies for more than 10 years now. She also shares her experiences in other companies and emphasizes that Awareness, convincing business with the tangible and un-tangible benefits they will get by SM implementation is the biggest problem many companies face in terms of getting the project justified and its budget approved.Insurance company H found the transition required by ITIL standards during the implementation was the hardest part.16 17. The Tip You Would Give For ITIL Project SuccessCompany B suggests the dedication of the project team and coordination with SI is crucial for the success of the implementation. This is no surprise since they have the smallest project team with only 2 people.The tip for success of ITIL project company D gives is to have the support of upper management. According to manager, the sponsor of the project shall be CEO but this alone is not enough. The project should be implemented as a company-wide project, otherwise when the ITIL implementation is seen as another IT project there is a high possibility that the biggest resistance will be shown.This is also supported by the fact that in order to increase the availability of IT infrastructure it is often the IT engineers rather than the business process owners, who suggest investments. But often IT is not aware if there could be a return to such investments in the next period, or if these investments are agreed with the customers. In such cases, it is obvious that the business strategy and information strategy are not aligned. The business objectives shall be driving the information strategy, but in such cases the technology strategy drives the strategy of IT department (Spremic, et al. 2008).Company E advises to include a person with a strong theoretical ITIL information in the project team be it from SI or from within the IT. This will help the implementation directed to the right path in difficult times.Telecommunications company F replied as clearly defined and documented process flows would help the implementation.The experienced Project lead of Company G highlights the importance of well organized and implemented project plan. She adds that Service Management delivery is a project delivery so it should be done according to PD principles.Company H suggests the continuity of the processes and people independent approach was the most important factor for the project success.When questions 6, 7 & 14 commented together findings are supporting the study of Sharifi et.al. (2008). The list of implementation failure reasons (Sharifi et al,. 2008) is shown in table 5 together with the companies comments. 17 18. Table 5 Failure reasons and surveyed companies endorsement Failure reasons A B CD EFG H Lack of management commitmentSpending too much time on complicated process diagrams Not creating work instructionsNot assigning process ownersConcentrating too much on performance Being too ambitiousFailing to maintain momentumAllowing departmental demarcation: Endoresed by the companyThe survey reveals additional points which may cause failure if not taken into account as; Coordination with SI, Providing sufficient resources, Being prepared to behavior and mindset challenge, People, Sound theoretical knowledge of ITIL coupled with experience in ITILimplementations.Successful ITIL implementations reveal the importance of people and training as two key points by many studies (Spremic, et al. 2008) and the survey results are consistent with them.How happy are you with your ITIL?Two of the companies operating in financial sector are satisfied with theirITIL implementations. Three companies very satisfied with their ITIL implementations are from 18 19. finance, telecom and insurance sectors. There is only one company delighted with their ITIL implementation. Results are shown in table 6.Table 6Company /How Business Post Implementation Happy Case Createdreview IndustryA AutomotiveN/A PLANNED N/AB FinanceNODONT KNOWC FinanceNO NOD - Finance N/A N/A YESE Finance YES YESF Telecom DONT KNOW DONT KNOWG PharmaYES YESH Insurance YESDONT KNOW : Satisfied : very satisfied : delightedThe survey findings reveal that only 50% created business cases and reviewed the implementation.This is no surprise and even consistent with other research because according to a survey two-thirds of some 80 companies that have deployed an IT Infrastructure Library say they feel the process changes are delivering IT performance improvements, but most dont have effective tools in place to measure the return on their investment (Dubie, 2006).Main benefits you experienced as a result of your ITIL projectITIL provides a systematic and professional approach to the management of IT service provision. Adopting its guidance offers users a huge range of benefits that include:reduced costs;improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes;improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery;standards and guidance;improved productivity;19 20. improved use of skills and experience; and improved delivery of third party services through the specification of ITIL or ISO20000 as the standard for service delivery in services procurements.Company B most benefitted from configuration management. They also benefit from incident management.In Company C, ITIL is implemented without an SI, the project length is 36 months already but it is not completed yet so right now they cant fully experience the benefits. Still they value the outcomes especially to realize the contact points between IT and Business Units and importance of accountability.For company E implementing the change management module provided the biggest benefits, because they didnt have change management at all. The service desk was already implemented with another tool so there were no new benefits introduced by the implementation; it was actually only a replacement.Although their project is still ongoing company F expects change and asset management to provide the main benefits to them.The Project Lead in Company G summarizes the benefits they have experienced as Able to control, monitor and improve the operations which helps you to improve customer satisfaction and provide better level of services with less cost.These benefits are important in the sense of how IT is valued by other departments. According to a Forrester Research report, 62% of more than 500 IT decision-makers polled said improved consistency and quality of IT processes were among the key changes to contributing to a more positive view of IT by the business (Hubbert and ODonnell, 2008).Company H valued the benefits of automatic and proactive approach in workflow escalation in case of problems.LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCHDue to the limited number of organizations the conclusions drawn may be specific to the particular organizations studied and may have limited generalization. A comprehensive analysis on the ITIL implementations of companies promises valuable insight into critical success factors of ITIL implementations.The survey findings reveal that only 50% created business cases and reviewed the implementation. The reasons why the other 50% didnt conducted such reviews shall be investigated. 20 21. Following the ITIL processes of incident, change, problem, configuration and service portfolio management has saved the company approximately $20 million through improved processes and efficiencies, according to Paul Ruppel, production systems consultant lead at Wachovia as reported in Guglielmo (2009a). Similar research with Turkish companies will be very valuable to guide Turkish organizations to measure the benefits in monetary terms.CONCLUSIONSThere is an increasing demand in the organizations for improving quality while lowering costs. In order to do so, having a clear understanding of where the business is going and how it is planning to achieve its objectives is very important.As more companies cut IT budgets, one might think that adoption of best practice frameworks such as ITIL would be on the rise. However not all implementations are encouraging.ITIL is a framework, not a set of instructions to be followed by rote. ITIL framework shall be adapted in a way that makes sense for the business. Understanding the why is critical to getting engagement. According to Fry (2008), ITIL is about people, process and ITIL provides starting points which are to be interpreted.ITIL experiences differ over the results, often influenced by the implementation approach. As a consequence, identifying critical success factors of ITIL implementations are becoming more and more important.Organizational maturity indicates how much of ITIL to implement, and where to start. Thus, assessing organization maturity is critical to ITIL implementation.When well-executed, ITIL can shift an IT organization's culture and focus from the technology in other words how things work, to the business strategy, how the services IT provides affect business performance. But culture change is probably the hardest type of change to manage, and ITIL's processes are only as effective as the degree to which staff adopts them.Senior management doesnt need an in-depth understanding of ITIL, but it must provide support in resources and authority to enforce new policies.Best practice frameworks including ITIL can overlook the importance of the human aspect of technology programmes, a common cause of project failure. Companies shall be aware of these shortcomings of the framework they implement.21 22. The survey findings value experience and people. It is no surprise that the only company delighted with the ITIL implementation has a project leader with more than 10 years experience. Moreover she coupled strong theoretical information together with IT reality. There are two companies satisfied and the other three are very satisfied. This is consistent with the study of Doherty (2009). He suggests, putting some effort into communications and learning, great improvements in the motivation and engagement of people will be seen. This effort will result in improvements in process and technology.This paper presented results from eight Turkish organizations six of them already implemented ITIL and two are planning to. All these organizations have transformed or planning to transform their IT service management to provide significant benefits to their organizations, such as more rigorous control of testing and system changes, more predictable infrastructure, improved consultation with IT groups within the organization, reduced server faults, seamless end-to-end service, documented and consistent IT service management processes across the organization, and consistent logging of incidents. The key success factors for ITIL implementation found in the survey is consistent with previous studies, including effective engagement of the personnel affected, support from senior management and communication of results (Cater-Steel, Toleman and Tan, 2006). Survey revealed four new factors; coordination with SI, providing sufficient resources, being prepared to behavior and mindset challenge and sound theoretical knowledge of ITIL coupled with experience in ITIL implementations.REFERENCESAXIO SYSTEMS 2008, ITIL Adoption Surges Despite Confusion, retrieved 24 January 2010 from http://www.axiossystems.com/six/en/corporate/news/detail.php/211 .BITTINGER, S. 2004, ITIL Implementation Best Practice, Gartner.BOURNE, V. 2009, UK Organisations are Still Failing to Realise Competitive Advantages Offered by ITIL, Retrieved 2 January 2010 from http://www.ilxgroup.com/news_090921.aspCATER-STEEL, A.P., TOLEMAN, M., and TAN, W. 2006, Transforming IT service management the ITIL impact, paper presented at the 17th Australiasian Conference on Information Systems retrieved 20 January 2010 from http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/about/news/conferences/acis09/Proceedings/pdf/032.p df22 23. CLARK J. 2007, Everything you wanted to know about ITIL in less than one thousand words!, Best Management Practice for IT Service Management, White Paper, October 2007 retrieved 5 January 2010 from www.best-management-practice.com.CONGER, S., WINNIFORD, M.A. and ERICKSON-HARRIS, L. 2008 ,Service Management in Operations, Proceedings of the Fourth Americas Conference on Information Systems, Toronto, ON, Canada, 14-17 August, Association of Information Systems.DANIEL, D.R. 1961, Management Information Crisis, Harvard Business Review, 39(5), pp. 111-116.DUBIE D. 2006, Survey: ITIL's ROI hard to measure , Network World , November 2006 retrieved 18 January 2010 from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/111706-itil- survey.htmlDOHERTY P. 2009, Are People the Forgotten Part of ITIL?, CA Advisor: IT Management Newsletter, Februray 2009.FRY, M. 2008, Essential ITIL: What You Need To Succeed, WhitePaper , Computer Associates, www.ca.com, June.GUGLIELMO, K. 2009a, ITIL case study: ITIL best practices at two financial services firms, retrieved from http://searchcio.techtarget.comGUGLUELMO, K. 2009b, ITIL best practices and lessons for the new year , retrieved 18 January 2010 from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid182_gci1377757,00.html)HOCHSTEUN, A., ZARNEKOW, R., and BRENNER, W. 2005a, Evaluation of service-oriented IT management in Practice, Proceedings of ICSSSM, International Conference on Volume 1, Issue , 13-15 June 2005 pp.: 80 - 84HUBBERT, E., and ODONNELL, G. 2008, Forrester Research Inquiry Spotlight: ITIL, Q4 2008 Retrieved 17 December 2009 from http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,47029,00.htmlHUNTON, J.E. ,BRYANT S.M., and BAGRANOFF N.A. 2004, Core Concepts of Information Technology Auditing, John Wiley & Sons Inc.,IQBAL, M., NVEVES, M. and TAYLOR, S. 2007, Service Strategy; TSO (The Stationery Office) Published for the Office of Government Commerce (OGC)23 24. MARQUIS H. 2006, A Prescription ForITIL, Vol.2.11, March 2006 http://www.itsmsolutions.com/newsletters/DITYvol2iss11.htmNOLAN R. and MCFARLAN F.W. 2005, Information Technology and Board of Directors, Harvard Business Review, October, 2005.OCONNOR N. 2009, Trouble Tickets No Longer Trouble, Insurance & Technology, August/September 2009, [34(6)], pp. 19.POLLARD C. and CATER-STEEL A. 2009, Justifications, Strategies, and Critical Success Factors in Successful ITIL Implementations in U.S. and Australian Companies: An Exploratory Study, Informations Systems Management, Volume 26, Issue 2, March 2009, pp. 164-175PORTER M. 1996, What is Strategy?, Harvard Business Review, November-December.POTGIETER, B.C., BOTHA, J.H. and LEW, C. 2005, "Evidence That Use Of The ITIL Framework Is Effective", 18th AnnualCponference of the National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications, Tauranga, NZ, Jul 10-13,2005.ROCKART, J.F. 1979, Chief Executives Defien Their Own Data Needs, Harvard Business Review, 57 (2), pp.81-93.SHARIFI, M.,AYAT M. and RAHMAN A.A. 2008, Lesssons Learned in ITIL Implementation Failure, IEEE.SPREMIC, M. 2005, Managing IT Risks by Implementing Information System AuditFunction, Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop in Wireless Security Technologies, Westminister University, London, April, 2005, pp.58-64.SPREMIC M. and POPOVIC M. 2007, Towards a Corporate IT Risk Management Model, Proceedings of the 6th WSEAS International Conference on Information Security and Privacy, Puerto dela Cruz,Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, December 2007, pp. 111-117.SPREMIC, M., ZMIRAK Z. and KRALJEVIC K. 2008, IT and Business Process Performance Management,: Case Study of ITIL Implementation in Financial Service Industry, Proceedings of the ITI 2008, 30th Int.Conf. on Information Technology Interfaces, June 23- 26, Cavtat, Croatia.TAN, W., CATER-STEEL, ., TOLEMAN, M., and SEANUGER, R. 2007, Implementing centralised IT Service Management: Drawing Lessons fromthe PublicSector, Paperpresentedat the Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Toowoomba.24 25. WARD, J. and PEPPARD J. 2002, Strategic Planning for Information Systems, 3rd ed., John Wiley & Sons Inc.Web sourceswww.evergreen.comwww.ogc.gov.ukwww.tsoshop.so.ukwww.usergroup.org.ukwww.apmgruop.co.ukwww.ixlgroup.comhttp://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid182_gci1369933,00.html# case studies of ITIL version3.APPENDIX ACCTA Central Computer and Telcommunication AgencyCFOChief Financial OfficerCFSCritical success factorsCIOChief Information OfficerCMMCapability Maturity ModelCMMI Capability Maturity Model IntegrationGMMGovernance Maturity ModelOGCBritish Office of Government CommerceIS Information SystemsITIL Information Technology Infrastructure LibraryITSM Information Technology Service ManagementPMFProcess Maturity FrameworkQMSQuality Management SystemSI Service IntegratorSLMService Level Management 25 26. APPENDIX BSURVEY QUESTIONSWhich one is used/planned to be used in your organization ITIL or COBIT? You can mark the multiple-choice questions by any way you find easy, for example; coloring, making bold or italic or by replacing X to the choice you select.1. Have you already implemented or are you implementing ITIL in your organization? o Yes, together with a SI o Yes, but we are not using an SI o No, but we plan to implement ITIL using an SI o No, but we plan to implement ITIL not using an SI o We currently have no plans to implement ITIL o Dont knowSI : System integratorIf your answer is no please continue from question 12. Already implementing ITIL 2. Did you use a project methodology specific to ITIL projects from the SI, or your own standardproject methodology?o We used the methodology proposed by the SIo We used our own methodologyo We didnt use a methodologyo Dont Knowo Other (please specify) 3. What is the size of the overall project team that you have employed on your ITIL project?The average size of the project team was [ ] people.4. What proportion of the project is business staff/ your own IT staff / Systems integrator staff?[] Percentage of staff from business[] Percentage of staff from your own IT department[] Percentage of staff from your systems integrator5. What is the length of an ITIL project that you have been involved with? 26 27. The approximate length is [ ] months. 6. What is the single biggest problem you faced on your ITIL project?------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7. Which one tip would you give for ITIL project success?------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. How happy were you with your ITIL? o Very unhappy o Unhappy o Satisfied o Very Satisfied o Delighted9. What main benefits have you experienced as a result of your ITIL project?------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. Did you produce a business case for your project, with quantified return on investment e.g. netpresent value/IRR?o Yeso Noo Dont know11. Have you conducted a post implementation review of your ITIL project?o Yeso Noo We plan to do soo Dont knowPlanning to implement 12. Do you plan to use a project methodology specific to ITIL projects from the SI, or your ownstandard project methodology? o We will use the methodology proposed by the SI o We will use our own methodology o We dont use a methodology o Dont Know o Other (please specify)13. What proportion of the project is business staff/ your own IT staff / Systems integrator staff?[] Percentage of staff from business[] Percentage of staff from your own IT department27 28. [] Percentage of staff from your systems integrator 14. What is the single biggest problem you expect to face in terms of getting the project justifiedand its budget approved?------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15. Do you intend to conduct a post implementation review of your ITIL project? o Yes o No o Not decided at this stage o Dont knowCompany Details 16. What is your company size in number of employees?o Less than 50o 50-100o 100-1000o 1000-10000o More than 10000 17. What is the main industry in which your company operates? 18. Your title or role in your company?If you like to receive the report on this survey, just leave an email address and the report will be emailed to this address .Thank you very much for your time, I appreciate your help.If you need to contact me please drop me a line at banuyobas@yahoo.com28