Friday, August 27, 2004
Pink Elephant Leadership
Fatima Cabral, CEO, Pink Elephant
Fatima Cabral is CEO and co-founder of Pink Elephant. As a very passionate and committed IT professional, she has made many contributions to the IT industry. Fatima has been a driving force behind the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) revolution in North America, the IT best practice framework made popular by Pink Elephant. The company was responsible for delivering the first ITIL course on the continent in 1997, and to this day is the world’s largest and most prolific creator of IT Service Management education and conferences worldwide. Fatima’s leadership and strong entrepreneurial spirit has also played a key role in Pink Elephant receiving several awards that reflect corporate leadership excellence and business results.
David Ratcliffe, President, Pink Elephant
David Ratcliffe is the President of Pink Elephant, an international IT Service Management company that originated in the Netherlands. David Ratcliffe and Fatima Cabral were the co-founders of Pink Elephant’s North American operations, which opened in 1991. With over 25 years of IT experience, David is considered one of the leading authorities in the area of ITSM. In 1997, David was responsible for developing and delivering the first ITIL Foundations course in North America, and later the same year, the first International IT Service Management Conference. A regular presenter at conferences around the world, David offers insightful and practical solutions to real life issues in IT management.
George Spalding, VP, Pink Elephant
Recently chosen to co-author the ITIL V3 Continual Service Improvement core volume, George is one of North America’s most insightful and engaging IT service management and support experts. In addition to his decade-long commitment to improving the industry, George spent several years as a consultant to the White House on technical presentations and White House conferences. He also coordinated technical presentations for members of the President’s cabinet, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He currently serves on the HDI International Individual Standards Committee and is a member of the International Who’s Who Historical Society.
Monday, August 23, 2004
In The News
ITIL In The Organization
Outlook On Management: Staffing, Skills Slated To Become Paramount For Data Center Managers In 2009 Processor Magazine - December 2008
ITIL Essentials For Midmarket - An Expert Podcast Registration required SearchCIO - June 2008
Sanity Check: If You’re Working On IT-Business Alignment, You’ve Already Lost TechRepublic - March 2008
ITIL - A Factor For All Purchases (Building IT standards into RFPs) Summit Magazine - October 2007
SAP Firms Turn To ITIL Projects@Work - August 2007
CMDBs Need People Too bITa Planet - April 2007
The ITIL-SOA Connection CIO - March 2007
Service Desks Improve Operations Automation World - June 2006
Implementation
Best Practices For Rolling Out ITIL Registration required IDG Research Report - December 2008
10 ITIL Implementation Mistakes & Fixes SearchCIO.com - March 2008
Common Myths About ITIL Datamation - June 2006
Case Studies
So, Why ITIL? Sussex Health Informatics Service ITSMWatch - June 2008
How To Get Started On ITIL See Allstate Insurance case study within story Computerworld - November 2007
North Carolina Goes ITIL Projects@Work - June 2007
Toolkit for a Common Approach (Unilever Case Study) Computerweekly.com (UK) - August 2006
How Bank of New York Uses ITIL to Troubleshoot Baseline Magazine - July 2006
Education
Pink Elephant Expands ITIL Foundations Certification Options Certification Magazine - April 2009
ITIL Cert: Industry Game Changer SearchCIO - May 2008
Investing In People
Business Management America - December 2007
ITIL Training Essential Part of IT and Business Integration SearchCIO.com - April 2007
ITIL Training Decreases Confusion itWorld Canada - September 2005
ITIL V3
ITIL Upgrade - Where to start and how to achieve quick wins with ITIL V3 State Tech Magazine - October 2007
ITIL V3: Four Things You Need To Know Baseline Magazine - May 2007
Next Upgrade Promises More How-To Guidance Network World - May 2007
ITIL Refresh Project Focuses on Services IT Business - April 2007
ITIL Goes Strategic CIO - March 2007
Bylined Articles
The Seven Enablers & Constraints Of ITSM ITSMWatch.com - December 2008
ITIL Upgrade - Where to start and how to achieve quick wins with ITIL V3 StateTech Magazine - October 2007
ITIL - A Factor For All Purchases (Building IT standards into RFPs) Summit Magazine - October 2007
ITIL No Longer The Awkward Adolescent Information Age (Australia) - August 2007
Dos and Don’ts for Effective Configuration Management SearchCIO.com - January 2007
CMDB - The Resort Condo For IT CMDB Viewpoint Magazine - Summer 2006
What Does IT Cost? CMDB Viewpoint Magazine - Fall 2005
Mexico Da La Bienvenida A Pink Elephant
Creciente demanda por las mejores prácticas en IT Service Management resulta en expansión a mercados de habla Hispana y Portugués
TORONTO, ON – Agosto 23, 2004 - Pink Elephant, líder mundial en educación y consultoría de IT Service Management, anuncia su expansión al mercado Latinoamericano con la apertura de su oficina en la Ciudad de México. Con la intención de poder atender la creciente necesidad de estrategias de mejores practicas entre los profesionales de IT en esta región, Pink Elephant impartirá cursos en los cuales los participantes aprenderán las habilidades fundamentales para operar de forma eficiente y efectiva un departamento de TI.
Como pilar de la oferta de servicios de educación de Pink Elephant está ITIL® (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), misma que está considerada como el eje central para las mejores prácticas de IT Service Management . Con miles de profesionales en TI ya recibiendo capacitación, Pink Elephant es reconocido como el líder a nivel mundial en educación de ITIL® y fue el primero en ofrecer educación pública en Norte América.
“Actualmente, ninguna otra organización ofrece el mismo nivel de excelencia en la educación de mejores prácticas de TI en México” nos dice David Ratcliffe, Presidente y CEO de Pink Elephant. “Esto aunado a la competitividad del sector de TI en México, nos ofrece las condiciones ideales para continuar la expansión de nuestra presencia global.
México es el segundo mercado más grande en Latinoamérica para los productos TI, según el Departamento de Comercio de Estados Unidos, México es un gran centro de negocios. Muchas de las organizaciones líderes que operan en México se beneficiaran con la implementación de las mejores prácticas de ITIL®, utilizando como guía a Pink Elephant. Entre los beneficios más significativos se encuentran mayor competitividad, procesos centrales mejor integrados y mayor aprovechamiento y optimización de recursos.
“El mercado Latinoamericano está listo para ITIL®, ya que convierte a las operaciones de TI en organizaciones de servicio de alto valor para los negocios”, comentó Eduardo Reynoso, Director General de Pink Elephant para Latinoamérica. “Estamos entusiasmados de poder atender estas crecientes necesidades ofreciendo nuestros servicios en Español y Portugués con profesionales altamente calificados que entienden los que las corporaciones Latinoamericanas requieren.”
El curso de IT Service Managemet Essentials es el prerrequisito para obtener la certificación de “ITIL® Foundations” y se llevará a cabo del 23 al 24 de Noviembre del 2004 en Monterrey, así como del 29 al 30 de Septiembre y 25 al 26 de Noviembre del mismo año en la Ciudad de México, en español. Adicionalmente a esta oferta pública, Pink Elephant ofrecerá capacitación a empresas directamente que deseen incluir a todo un equipo de TI en el proceso de aprendizaje. Más información sobre ITIL y los cursos de Pink Elephant, puede ser consultada en el sitio web http://www.pinkelephant.com.
Mexico Welcomes Pink Elephant’s Latest Office
Growing Demand For IT Service Management Best Practices Causes Expansion To Spanish and Portuguese-Speaking Markets
MEXICO CITY – August 23, 2004 – Pink Elephant, the world’s leading IT service management education and consulting provider, today announced its expansion into Latin America with the opening of an office in Mexico City. In order to meet the increasing need for best practice strategies among IT professionals in that region, Pink Elephant will now deliver courses that teach the fundamental skills to operate an efficient and effective IT department. Consulting services, such as process maturity assessments, will also be available.
Central to Pink Elephant’s educational service line is the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®), which is considered the standard framework for IT service management best practices. With thousands of IT professionals already receiving training, Pink Elephant is the recognized world leader in ITIL® education. The company was the first to offer public education in ITIL® in North America.
“Currently, no other organization offers the same level of excellence in IT management best practice education in Mexico,” says David Ratcliffe, President and CEO of Pink Elephant. “Added to Mexico’s highly competitive IT sector, conditions are ideal for us to continue expanding our global presence.”
As the second largest market for IT products in Latin America according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Mexico is a major business center. Many leading organizations operating out of Mexico will benefit from implementing ITIL® best practices using Pink Elephant as their guide. Among the most significant is increased competitiveness, improved resource utilization and more integrated central processes.
“The Latin American market is eager for ITIL® as it converts IT operations into service organizations that deliver great value to the business,” says Eduardo Reynoso, Regional Director of Pink Elephant for Latin America. “We are excited to meet these demands by offering our services in Spanish and Portuguese, with highly qualified professionals who understand what Latin American corporations require.”
ITIL® IT Service Management Essentials, considered the prerequisite ITIL® certification course, will be held November 22 to 23, 2004 in Monterrey and September 29 to 30 and November 25 to 26, 2004 in Mexico City. The course will be delivered in Spanish. In addition to these public offerings, Pink Elephant will also provide in-house training for companies that want to include their entire IT team in the learning process. For detailed information about this and other ITIL® courses visit http://www.pinkelephant.com.
Friday, August 20, 2004
In The Community
Pink Elephant takes pride in our involvement with the community. Over the years, Pink Elephant has made generous contributions to the United Way, the CIBC Run For The Cure and Halton Children’s Aid.
United Way
Pink Elephant has contributed over $40,000 over an eight-year span to the United Way. The most generous contributions have been made to the surrounding community in which Pink’s head office is located – Burlington and Greater Hamilton. Contributions have been made through a variety of avenues - most prominently through employee payroll deductions and company matching. For every dollar that an employee contributes, Pink Elephant will contribute 50 cents. Pink Elephant also has a social committee that organizes special events throughout the year to help raise money for the United Way. To help employees see how their generosity is helping to their community, Pink Elephant has a guest speaker come in to share their story and reflect on how much the contributions help in their daily life.
Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation
The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation – CIBC Run For The Cure is an extraordinary event that gathers more than 170,000 Canadians together across 51 communities across the country.
Pink Elephant is proud to announce their third year participating in the CIBC Run For The Cure. Each year Pink Elephant has a team participation which steadily keeps growing. Pink Elephant tries to make it as fun as possible to raise money for this fundraiser. When an employee donates at least $35, that employee is able to wear jeans (casual day) to work on specified days. The last two years Pink Elephant has raised over $9,000 and with this years donations still to come, Pink Elephant will exceed $12,000 without a question.
Halton Children’s Aid
Halton Children’s Aid is in partnership with families and the community, with their mission being to protect children and enable them to grow and realize their potential within a safe and nurturing environment. The Foundation raises funds for programs and services currently not covered by government funding that help abused and neglected children served by the Halton Children’s Aid Society.
Pink Elephant has contributed, to date, $660 to the Halton Children’s Aid by holding an annual golf event and fun games to make the fundraising entertaining.
Pink Elephant is a strong believer in helping the community and we feel so grateful and pleased to donate money to the most deserving.
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
The ROI Of ITIL
Print A Copy
Government
Nottingham County Council: Using PinkATLAS™, the Council was able to accelerate the implementation of a key ITIL process, completing deployment in just 11 months. Alongside access to ITIL content and resources, PinkATLAS enabled them to map their implementation and define key project milestones. Pink Elephant case study
Ontario Justice Enterprise: Embraced ITIL in 1999 and created a virtual help/Service Desk that cut support costs by 40%. Network World
Ontario Ministry of Transportation: Used ITIL to resolve Help Desk Incidents 98% of the time, up from 85%, reducing the unit cost of IT. Government Technology
State of Wisconsin: The state’s IT department has saved hundreds of millions of dollars using ITSM best practices [ITIL]. Government Technology
State of Illinois: The implementation of a strong enterprise architecture and IT governance program in conjunction with ITIL saved the state over $130 million annually. Public CIO
State of North Carolina: In 2006, the State of North Carolina’s IT department (ITS) made some improvements with ITIL in less than three months and started with Incident and Change Management. These are the results of tactical quick-win efforts targeted in tandem with the training program and the state’s awareness campaign:
• ITS improved its ability to resolve incidents within their target timeframe by 32%
• ITS improved its ability to resolve Service Requests within its target timeframe by 20%
• Change Management process compliance increased more than twofold, resulting in fewer incidents and reduced downtime
ITIL V3: Continual Service Improvement
State of North Carolina - Updated Information: Bill Willis, State of NC’s Deputy CIO, reports that the average cost to resolve an incident dropped from $1,300 to $750, after completion of the ITIL project’s first phase. “That’s $1.4 million a year in lower resources to resolve incidents, because we’re doing it faster, cleaner, with less confusion.” Government Technology
Victorian State Revenue Office (Australia): Completed full ITIL implementation in August 2005, resulting in cost savings of $2 million per year while improving its overall capabilities and clarifying its IT vision. The State Revenue Office also became the first government agency in the world to gain ITIL certification (BS15000/AS8018). ZDNet
In addition to slashing IT costs by 20%, delivering $50 million in projects on time and on budget and boosting operational productivity by over 60% in the past five years, staff retention has been a key intangible benefit of the revenue office’s ITIL implementation. Computerworld Australia
Oakland County, CA: Centralizing the Service Desk function using CA’s Service Desk Solution has enabled the incident process to be better controlled and has minimized escalation. Computerworld
Sarasota County, FL: Began in 2003, Sarasota County’s Enterprise IT Group’s ITIL implementation has improved IT service, reduced inefficiencies and produced fewer surprises. Sarasota’s ITIL ROI by numbers:
• 2 years: Service Desk set-up, including SLAs
• 7 Employees work on the Service Desk
• 150 messages handled daily by the Service Desk
• 4-24 hours is the range of deadlines assigned to problems
• 8 business hours is the timeframe the Service Desk commits to resolve e-mail problems
StateTech Magazine
State of Kentucky’s Commonwealth Office of Technology: Implemented in 2005, ITIL will enable the state to better cope with IT workforce retirement as knowledge is no longer tribal. Incident Management is better handled because the IT department now categorizes and prioritizes complaints. Improving the Change Management process helped also reduced internal IT problems by addressing testing, documentation and roll-back plans. Federal Computer Week
Finance (Banking & Insurance)
VISA: Began embedding Incident Management guidelines in 2002, resulting in improved monitoring of network and systems outages, and a reduction in the time to resolve Incidents by as much as 75%. Smart Enterprise Magazine
PEMCO: An investment in ITIL Essentials training with Pink Elephant in 2002 resulted in overall savings of $500,000 within 12 months. Gartner
Zurich Life: Since implementing ITIL to maintain Service Desk consistency in the late 1990’s, the company has reduced the number of contracted IT staff from 30 down to 10. Network World
Sallie Mae: Began adopting ITIL Service Support processes in 2005, resulting in a reduction in the length of Help Desk calls by 40% and improving the rate of first-call resolution to a two-year high. Bank Tech News
Nationwide Insurance: Implementing key ITIL processes in 2001 led to a 40% reduction of its systems outages. The company estimates a $4.3 million ROI over the next three years. CMP
Capital One: An ITIL program that began in 2001 resulted in a 30% reduction in systems crashes and software-distribution errors, and a 92% reduction in “business-critical” Incidents by 2003. Computerworld
JPMorgan Chase: Implemented ITIL’s Incident, Problem and Change Management in 2004 to improve Service Desk operations. Their Service Desk now maintains 93% customer satisfaction ratings and a 75% first-call resolution rate; in the bigger picture, ITIL helped JPMorgan Chase eliminate 500,000 Service Desk calls. Computerworld UK
Raymond James Financial Inc.: After implementing ITIL, the number of calls to the company’s Help Desk dropped by as much as 25% within 18 months. Computerworld
Pershing: Adopted ITIL in 2004 to improve Service Desk operations. Within a year Pershing’s Incident response time dropped by more than 50%. CIO Magazine
Bank of America: Used ITIL best practices to improve inventory processes and then used the framework to improve the Asset Management process. Implementation allows the bank to conduct financial planning for equipment based on actual spending. IT Management
Allstate: Senior VP and CIO Catherine Brune spoke to the Wall Street Journal about why it is important during a recession to focus on continual improvement. Allstate started using ITIL 5 years ago for IT staff to have a common language to describe IT services and that anyone who needed a service would know exactly where to go. Today, Ms. Brune states that ITIL has helped them get things done “so much faster.” Wall Street Journal
Telecommunications
Avaya: ITIL has helped the telecom provider cut their IT budget by 30% while also helping to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Their CIO now sits on the board, as IT is now viewed as part of the business, and not just an operational cost. Techworld
Telkomsel: Besides improving customer service at this Indonesian mobile operator, ITIL has helped reduce operational IT costs by 50-60% while keeping pace with the company’s growth. Computerworld UK
Tellabs: ITIL maturity assessment began in 2006 and led to a multi-year service improvement Road Map for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of Tellabs’s IT services. To combat the silo effect in individual engineering departments, ITIL implementation is expected to result in technology and process rationalization, thereby leveraging greater economies of scale, standardization and consolidation. InfoWorld
GCI Inc.: Three years into its ITIL implementation, GCI (a telecommunications company which spans 1.5 million square kilometers across Alaska) can now perform functions in a matter of minutes versus months, such as calling up a new marketing plan. GCI believes ITIL implementation begins with a successful Service Desk. ITIL implementation supports the company’s growth. SearchCIO
Manufacturing
Procter & Gamble: Started using ITIL in 1999 and has realized a 6% to 8% cut in operating costs. Another ITIL project has reduced Help Desk calls by 10%. In four years, the company reported overall savings of about $500 million. Network World
Procter & Gamble - Updated Information: Another more recent ITIL project that started in 2006 saw the company achieve its resource and cost reduction goals with a $5 million cost savings in just over one year, a 30-percent reduction in group staffing, as well as the addition of 40 new applications to the portfolio. itSMF
Caterpillar: Embarked on a series of ITIL projects in 2000. After applying ITIL principles, the rate of achieving the target response time for Incident Management on Web-related services jumped from 60% to more than 90%. nextslm.org
MeadWestvaco: Began using the ITIL framework in 2003. To date, the company has eliminated more than $100,000 annually in IT maintenance contracts and recognized a 10% gain in operational stability. CIO Magazine
Shell Oil: Used ITIL best practices while overhauling and consolidating some 80,000 desktop PCs worldwide. With the project completed, Shell significantly reduced the time it needs to upgrade software, potentially saving the firm 6,000 staff-days and $5 million dollars annually. Smart Enterprise Magazine
Finisar: The computer hardware manufacturer adopted ITIL in 2002 and achieved Service Desk standardization. As a result, customer satisfaction rates rose from 33% to 95%. Finisar also managed to cut the amount spent on IT from 4% of revenue to 2.4%. CIO Magazine
Toyota: Assigning ownership over Service Level Management process implementation helped Toyota’s Financial Services experience a successful second ITIL implementation in 2004. Results include improvements in availability, reliability, quality and stability of IT applications and infrastructure and a reduction in incidents and their overall severity. Network World
Mary Kay Cosmetics: Used ITIL best practices and a compatible tool to standardize internal processes. Implemented a centralized Service Desk and followed with a CMDB following Service Asset & Configuration Management processes. Better business solutions are now provided and IT’s value is measured for the organization. Computerworld
LG&E Energy: Began to implement ITIL in 2001 and by 2005 experienced fewer critical incidents. The change offering the biggest impact has been the addition of the Change Advisory Board. Bizjournals
Corporate Express: Implemented ITIL in 2004 beginning with Service Call Management, Change Management, Problem Management, Service Level Management and Service Asset & Configuration Management components of the Service Desk. The organization estimates a 20% improvement in service management efficiency since ITIL’s introduction. ITSM Community
Yahoo Inc.: Manager of data center services got buy-in from senior management by illustrating how detailing and compiling incident reports helped to determine the root cause of the repeating incidents. Computerworld
Carfax Inc.: Since implementing ITIL in 2004, the CMDB and service-modeling tool have enabled Carfax to reduce manual IT tasks by about 400% in two years. Computerworld
Shoosmiths Law Firm: Implemented ITIL in 2007 and saw marked improvement with an increase in First Call Resolution (FCR) from 60% to 76% and an increase in Overall Service Level (OSL) from 80% to 88% in less than a year. In March 2007, the firm logged 2,500 incidents and had 500 cases unresolved, but, by December, 4,000 incidents/month were logged with only 130 still open. Computerworld
Education
Purdue University: Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) trained half of their 450 full-time employees in ITIL in 2003, and implemented an ITIL-based Service Desk. From these efforts, ITaP was able to cut second-level support calls by 50%. Further, ITIL has enabled ITaP to implement a $73 million ERP project without adding more full-time personnel or degrading service levels. Infoworld
Brigham Young University: Needing to create a comprehensive CMDB to consolidate data across the university campus and from affiliated sites, in 2003 the IT department concentrated on ITIL’s Incident, Problem, Change and Service Asset & Configuration Management processes. BYU can use the CMDB to troubleshoot problems and plan for capacity. Confidence in the security and validity of the database information has increased user confidence in the university’s IT department. NetworkWorld
University of Dundee: A 2007 business services deal prompted need for better Service Desk function as part of university’s Service Level Management process. Implementing Change Management was expected to reduce IT service change problems to 10% from 60%. ITPRO
College Board: Prior to ITIL, the IT department had a 99.9% uptime but the remaining downtime (9 hours/year) occurred during key times. Implementing ITIL and focusing specifically on the Incident and Problem Management processes assisted the IT staff in responding in specific ways to key events. The result was fewer recurring problems leading to improved service levels. CIO Magazine
There are more examples here of ITSM implementation at various other universities, including samples of Service Catalogs.
Health
Hospital Corporation of America: Measured ITIL success and cost savings on the repeatable and consistent delivery of IT services, which directly relates to the infrequency of network/computing outages. Network World
MultiCare: After implementing ITIL, the not-for-profit health network has seen dramatic improvements in IT services and organizational productivity. For example, ITIL enabled MultiCare to reduce its usual backlog of trouble tickets from 700 to 50 within six months. SearchCIO
Johnson & Johnson: J&J’s Networking and Computer Services division (NCS) began implementing ITIL in 2001 and, thanks to ITIL, experienced cost savings and avoidance of more than $30 million within four years. Process timelines were significantly streamlined: In 2005, NCS China’s help desk reduced incident report and resolution time from an average of 27 minutes to 18 minutes; hardware acquisition time for Latin American operations was cut from an average of 60 days to 5 days. J&J attributes its success by taking a slow, measured approached to ITIL implementation, beginning with Incident and Problem Management and moving on to Change and Service Asset & Configuration Management. CIOInsight
Entertainment
TAB Limited: Australia’s premier gambling and entertainment group implemented ITIL and reaped an audited 14% reduction in IT operational expenses and $4 million worth of bottom line savings over two years. Computerworld Australia
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Monday, August 16, 2004
The Continuing History of IT Service Management & Pink Elephant
Print A Copy
Letter Size
A4 Size
