ITSM Weekly the Podcast (Week14) Guest: David Mainville

A few weeks behind this was our podcast from Week of May 10th.

Our special guest for this podcast was David Mainville, CEO and founder of Consulting Portal, a 30 year veteran of IT Service Management.  David brings a great perspective on the industry, and helps clarify the confusion on achieving IT Service Management vs. instrumenting a framework.

Show notes here from Service Sphere http://www.servicesphere.com/blog/2010/5/12/itsm-weekly-the-podcast-week-14.html

ITSM Weekly The Podcast (Week 14) from ServiceSphere on Vimeo.

Show Hosts:
Christopher Dancy
Matt Beran
Matthew Hooper .

Don't underestimate the infrastructure

We all would love to live in a world where extremely complex and sophisticated technology was just simple and easy. Commodity IT, where I can just turn-on my PC and the world is at my finger tips. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but...



Things break - That's life.

We wish they wouldn't.



Like my good friend and colleague Jon Land says "When I booted up my 3270, things just worked. Unless the Mainframe was down". Of course that was until we tried to utilize that system with the corporate networks, Internet and now mobile applications. Then all of sudden we are back into the world chaos.



The analogy of comparing plumbing and IT infrastructure services drives a lot of IT folks crazy, but I like it.

Let's compare this:

• Plumbers cost $60-$80/hr, here in Massachusetts anyway . Yet, the average IT infrastructure consultant is about $40-$55/hr.


• The cost of copper is driving plumbing up through the roof. Just in case you didn't realize guess what is in those rubber ethernet cables... you guessed it, copper. Material costs are through the roof in IT as well, plus we have energy costs off the chart which are more now that we have more dense operating environments.


• Recycling and conservation. Water costs are going up, and so is the cost of recycling old equipment.


• The quality of water in larger facilities are less than desirable and costs are significant to upgrade and improve. Likewise, the performance of networks and systems in larger organizations are not acceptable and significant costs are needed to upgrade and improve.

I could go on with this comparison, but the bottom line is that having turn-key (or turn-faucet) results requires solid planning, a total approach to design and the understanding that when things break it's going to be messy.

A failure to incorporate your infrastructure needs into your enterprise architecture, will result in a continual failure to get the services you need, when you need them.

Like the old adage says: Proper preparation prevents poor performance.

Next up: Can we really spend less and get more? I will share with you 5 top areas of IT spending that could probably be cut in-half.

Service Catalogs are the key to demonstrating Value

What is a Service Catalog? Simply put it is system or documentation that allows people to preview the services they can obtain from you and the expectation they can have of getting those services (time, cost, quality, etc...).
Do we need a Service Catalog? Do you need a resume to get a job? No, but if you want the right job, and want to get paid fairly for the abilities you can bring, and want to set the right expectation, then you will want to have a clearly articulated resume.
Same thing with the IT Service Catalog. If you want the business to appreciate the value IT brings to the organization, and you want to ensure that staff, suppliers, and costs are adequately budgeted for, then you must present to the business your capabilities. The Service Catalog is where you will publish and present what IT will do, and thus what they will not do. At face the business will not necessarily want IT to have this. If you do not currently have an IT Service Catalog, then currently the Business can ask you for whatever they want, and IT has to scramble to either try and justify why they can't do it, or figure it out. If there is no cost allocation in place for IT resources, then in the eye of the Business stake holder IT is a free resource, and we all know what the value of free - zero - free has no value.

Thus to really drive the value of IT services, IT must put in place a definitive "what we do, how we do it, and how much it costs" communication platform. More advanced organizations are using this information to build an on-line IT ordering site where people can order account setups, email boxes, new laptops, PDA's and Blackberries, and other enablement services. These sites will typically hang-off the Service Desk platform so that people can get services ordered without having to interact with a service request person. This can lead to tremendous cost savings and it also leaves the business in more control. So many organizations are finding the business more willing to fund the Service Catalog under the umbrella of Self-Service optimization and cost efficiency.

Next blog: "Is the customer always right?" I'll share some tech support stories to show the difference between a customer focused support person and a person who answers the phone and follows a script.