In the last six months, Hornbill has seen a dramatic increase in the number of organisations, both public sector and commercial, looking to invest in ITIL-ready helpdesk and support centre systems. Over 25% of new helpdesk and IT service desk systems installed by Hornbill during 2006 will support full ITIL capabilities. Of the remaining number intending to adopt ITIL from the outset, many are opting for a phased approach to help them achieve a degree of benefit. This trend is indicative of the scale of the task of identifying best practice processes, which business and technical functions must work to establish together.

This recent analysis of new installations by Hornbill shows that although organisations recognise the benefits of best practice, few are able to afford the time and resource that a full ITIL adoption requires. This has resulted in many organisations adopting a ‘step by step’ approach. One such proponent of this approach is Lee Kielty, IS Customer Services Manager at Sussex Police. He explained, “ITIL is a broad framework of best practice that you can use at different levels, but I would not recommend that you try to apply it straight out of the book. That is most unlikely to work because you have to understand the important issues for your organisation at this point in time, and distil that into processes that will produce clear business benefits.”

At Waveney District Council they have also taken a considered approach to ITIL. The IT department has adapted the standard version of Hornbill’s Supportworks helpdesk software to provide a platform for future ITIL roll-out. The IT department at the council is looking to adopt some of the best practice principles of ITIL and many of the staff are currently studying for the ITIL foundation qualification. David Cutting, Helpdesk Manager explains, “The built in flexibility of Supportworks means we have been able to use the standard version to support our first ITIL initiatives, providing a cost-effective stepping stone as we move down the ITIL path.”

One company that is ahead of the adoption curve for ITIL is Flextech TV, where they are using Hornbill across four ITIL disciplines and are already seeing clear benefits. Tim Drew, Project Manager at Flextech commented, “We had no documented processes before we started down the ITIL path. Supportworks has provided us with fast-start templates and a platform for four ITIL disciplines – and this can be expanded as required. Being able to keep all this information in one place is a considerable help to our support and technical analysts because they now have comprehensive information at their fingertips. This will help us to provide a better service to our internal customers, to manage our IT assets more closely and achieve a longer term reduction in costs associated with IT support.”

Gerry Sweeney, Managing Director at Hornbill Systems commented, “ITIL has long been seen as a preserve of the public sector, however we are now witnessing the beginning of the second wave of adoption of ITIL by commercial companies. Most organisations are finding that ITIL is far more wide reaching than they initially imagined, and a project impacts the entire organisation, not just IT. Practically speaking, this means that many companies are taking steps towards ITIL, because the ‘big bang’ approach would be just too disruptive and too expensive. With this in mind Hornbill has, over the years, developed a flexible, multi-faceted helpdesk and service desk platform that enables our customers to implement as much or as little of ITIL processes as is appropriate for their organisation. When developing products and solutions our primary strategy focuses on what is practical for our customers to use; our strength has always been our ability to translate a requirement or standard into a usable and friendly product. In addition, the solutions we provide are designed to evolve alongside our customers as their knowledge and experience develop. With ITIL we have found this strategy a real advantage, what is very complex behind the scene is presented in a way that both technical and business users alike understand and find intuitive. Providing tools that people like to use encourages fast adoption and user acceptance, the business benefits are immediate.”