1. Improve IT Operations Management
Deliver your IT services efficiently.

2. Our understanding of the problem
CIOs
IT Directors
VP IT Operations
VP Infrastructure
Identify current IT operations and service delivery pain points.
Target functional areas within IT operations management for improvement.
Develop an IT operations management roadmap.
CFOs
Business Managers
Understand how they can support the implementation of various IT operations management initiatives relevant to them.

3. Executive summary
You have difficulty meeting business expectations for service delivery on a regular basis.
You’re investing to improve various areas of IT operations but you still feel like you’re constantly firefighting.
The first step to effective IT operations management is to make sure service levels exist and are validated with the business. You can’t meet business expectations if you don’t know what they are.
COBIT defines operations management as the activities involved to deliver IT services, which cover a variety of functions within IT. Begin improving operations by targeting the weakest areas and pain points first.
Operations management isn’t a one-time project. It’s an on-going effort.
IT covers a broad spectrum of services and functions. As a result, pinpointing specific pain points and the root of the grief can be a difficult task.
Prioritizing areas to improve can also be difficult. All your initiatives seem to be demanding attention, but your resources are limited.
Perform a current state assessment to identify which areas within your operations management are least mature and are causing the most grief.
Assess the current state assessment results in order to identify which functional areas within operations management need to be prioritized for improvement.
Leverage Info-Tech’s supporting research blueprints to drive improvement and mature specific areas within your IT operations
Review, assess, and continuously improve your IT operations

4. Effective operations management practices will improve service delivery capabilities and lower IT costs
Effective operations management will do help you do the following:
Improve IT efficiency
Effective operations management practices develop structured processes to automate activities and increase process consistency across the IT organization, ultimately improving IT’s efficiency.
Improve visibility and information sharing within IT
Good operations management practices can provide more visibility into current IT performance and activities. It can expose weaknesses and potential problems to anticipate in the future and help IT better prepare to move from a firefighting role to an innovator role. Good IT operations management practices will also promote information sharing across different functions to enable good decision making.
Create and clarify accountability and responsibility
Operations management practices will set a clear level of accountability throughout the IT organization, and ensure role responsibility for all tasks and processes involved in IT service delivery.
Control IT costs
IT operations management is concerned with delivering promised services in the most efficient way possible. Good IT operations management practices will provide insight into current costs across the IT organization and present opportunities for cost savings.
Identify opportunities for continuous improvement
Increased visibility into current performance levels, and ability to accurately identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

5. Info-Tech’s approach to IT operations management combines leading schools of thought with practical insider research
Governance frameworks such as COBIT and ITIL
Project frameworks from our past research archives
Why they’re essential: They offer indispensable advice on the alignment of IT strategy and business strategy. This is especially crucial in a field such as operations management, where effective IT service delivery is the primary objective of the project and initiatives.
Where they fall short: COBIT focuses on standard practices within operations management and does not account for the variations that can occur based on the organization.
Why our approach fits better: We understand the importance of creating a customizable project framework, that can be altered to fit your organization. The Improve IT Operations Management blueprint breaks down the process so that you can perform a current state assessment, validate your service level agreements (SLAs), and develop and implement your project roadmap.
Why they’re essential: These targeted project frameworks provide deep-dives into each of the functional areas within IT operations management. They will provide you with the tools and templates you need to focus specifically on each of the individual functional areas of this project.
Where they fall short: Each of the Info-Tech project frameworks function in isolation and is specifically targeted to only focus on one core area within IT operations management.
Why this blueprint is different: The Improve IT Operations Management blueprint gives you an overarching implementation plan that enables you to pinpoint your key pain points and assess your organization’s primary IT operations areas of focus right away. The blueprint consolidates past research and provides an integrative approach to solving your IT operations management problems.

6. Operations management is crucial to IT service delivery
CASE STUDY
Industry
Source
Transportation
McMurdo Transport
Current situation
Challenges
Solution
McMurdo Transport is an amalgamation of several independent, local, and regional government-owned transportation companies.
As a result of its creation, McMurdo Transport has been expected to uphold the service promises made to its customers by the local and regional governments based on political platforms.
The company has been up and running for approximately four years.
After the amalgamation, the company’s focus has switched from one centered around maintaining day-to-day functionality to meeting these promised service levels at all costs.
McMurdo is finding itself unable to support these promised service levels, without causing major disruptions in the company’s day-to-day operations.
Currently, McMurdo transport finds itself in a “catch 22” scenario; they are experiencing significant lag in their ability to meet daily service delivery levels.
The company seeks to refocus on the operational aspects of IT, with initiatives including:
Knowledge standardization.
Automation of change and asset management processes.
Increased efforts into ensuring quality of information and visibility across the organization.

7. Start the process by assessing your current IT operations management practice – you can’t improve what you don’t know
This blueprint will guide you to improve your operations management using the following process. 1
Assess your current state
Identify pain points and weaknesses
As a team, identify your current IT pain points. Where are the breakdowns occurring? Understanding current pain points will provide insight into your current IT strengths and weaknesses. Use Info-Tech’s Improve IT Operations Management Current State Assessment to assess the maturity of your IT operations management practices. 2
Validate your service level agreements
Align business needs with your service delivery goals
The goal of IT operations management is to deliver IT operational service outcomes as planned. In order to do this, IT needs to know what the business expectations are. Whether or not a formal SLA currently exists, IT needs to establish and validate SLAs with the business to ensure they align with business needs. If IT cannot deliver on required SLAs, IT needs to communicate this with the business and develop a plan to bridge the gap. 3
Develop and implement your roadmap
Target your pain points to work towards improvement
Once IT establishes its service delivery goals, it can begin to develop a roadmap to improve IT operations based on current pain points and functional maturity. Info-Tech will provide the tools and templates for you to develop an IT operations management roadmap and implement your projects.

8. Follow Info-Tech’s methodology to develop your service level management process
After assessing your current state, the first thing you should do is validate your service level agreements with the business.
The process of developing SLAs is critical to the success of IT. The clarity gained by both the business and IT regarding current capabilities, business needs, and the steps that can be taken to close those service gaps, is the key benefit that comes from this process. It’s almost impossible to manage IT operations without understanding and clarifying business needs and expectations.
When IT does not establish SLAs, the business will set its own expectations without regard to current capabilities. In cases like these, IT is almost guaranteed to fail.
The SLA process is just as important as the actual artifact. Don’t just develop an SLA – use Info-Tech’s methodology to generate value from the SLA creation process.

9. Pinpoint and focus on maturing your pain points to improve your IT operations
Info-Tech’s Improve IT Operations Management Current State Assessment will help you identify areas to prioritize for improvement.
Use the rest of the blueprint and supporting Info-Tech research to guide you through each of the improvement processes.
Capacity Management
Cost Management
Change Management
Organization Management
Asset Management
Incident and Problem Management

10. Guided Implementation Info-Tech Involvement Degree of Customization
Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
Consulting
Onsite Workshop
Guided Implementation
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”
DIY Toolkit
Info-Tech Involvement
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
Degree of Customization
Diagnostics and consistent methodologies throughout all four options

11. Best-Practice Toolkit Guided Implementations
IT Operations Management Project Overview
Assess the current state
Define and validate service level requirements
Develop and implement your roadmap
Best-Practice Toolkit
1.1 Identify your key pain points.
1.2 Assess your service level management maturity.
1.3 Assess your capacity management maturity.
1.4 Assess your cost management maturity.
1.5 Assess your incident and problem management maturity.
1.6 Assess your asset management maturity.
1.7 Assess your change management maturity.
1.8 Assess your organization management maturity.
2.1 Identify the SLA you need.
2.2 Evaluate current service levels.
2.3 Build and manage your SLAs.
3.1 Improve your capacity management and planning capabilities.
3.2 Improve your cost management capabilities.
3.3 Improve your incident and event management capabilities.
3.4 Improve your asset management capabilities.
3.5 Improve your change management capabilities.
3.6 Improve your organization management capabilities.
3.7 Develop a final report and action plan.
Guided Implementations
Discuss current pain points within the organization.
Review the current state assessment results.
Discuss your current service level management capabilities.
Build and manage your SLAs.
Prioritize and plan for your functional area deep-dives.
Assess and review the implementation process.
Onsite Workshop
Module 1:
Perform an assessment of the current state.
Module 2:
Build or validate service level agreements.
Module 3:
Develop and implement the operations management roadmap.
Phase 1 Results:
Completion of the current state assessment tool.
Areas to target for improvement.
Phase 2 Results:
Validated service level agreement.
Phase 3 Results:
Action plan to improve your IT operations and a final report.

12. Workshop overview
Contact your account representative or for more information.
Workshop Day 1
Workshop Day 2
Workshop Day 3
Workshop Day 4
Workshop Day 5
Activities
Current State Assessment
Introduction/Discuss scope of IT operations management.
Identify key pain points within your IT organization.
Assess the current state of IT operations within the organization.
Review analysis of current state.
Service Level Agreement Review
Discuss current service level management capabilities.
Select a target service level agreement type.
Examine and refine your service level agreements with the business.
Focus on Two Priority Areas
Review your service level management practices and develop a process for continuous improvement.
Identify two areas within operations management to focus on as priority through the remainder of the workshop.
Metrics and Future Planning
Develop success metrics for IT operations.
Discuss and review the process to improve two areas within IT operations management.
Develop an action plan.
Post-Workshop Activities
Develop the final report on the IT organization’s current state and improvement initiatives.
Deliverables
Current state assessment results
Service level agreement validation
Varies depending on focus areas selected
Project plan
Final report