University ITSM

On Wednesday, February 4, 2009, the ITSMf USA Higher Education Special Interest Group held its first event on the campus of UC Santa Cruz. We attended the event online. Although we were not physically in attendance, I thought it was noteworthy that we attended the very first meeting of this SIG. Many of groups representing best practices have been around for decades. It is exciting to say that we took part in the initial event of a SIG that has the potential to transform the use of information technology in higher education. Below are a few of my thoughts based on notes that I took away from the panel’s discussion.

Service Catalog as a Foundation
The service catalog is a good starting point when adopting IT Service Management principles. At the most basic level, it is a listing of “services” that are being provided. Many of the panelist stated that their institutions have a service catalog of sorts. The medium does differ, but mostly service catalogs are web-based ranging from simple HTML pages to a content management system environment (such as Drupal). At Wake Forest University, we started with an even smaller first step. We used Microsoft Word! Yes, it is one large document. It’s closer to the Sears & Roebuck catalog than Amazon.com, but capturing the content is the key for the first version. We are now working on a web-based application using Drupal for version two, but the foundation has been laid by keeping it simple in the beginning. This implementation is symbolic of our overall approach to implementing ITSM at Wake Forest University in that small incremental improvements are our modus operandi.

The Early Days
During the discussion, many of the questions were tough! The questions were not ones with an easy sound bite answer. Many institutions are in the early phases of an ITSM program if they are so lucky to have the work effort recognized in a formal sense at all. I predict that in three to five years universities will have a much better understanding of ITSM and that the tough questions of today will become much easier to answer. The Higher Education SIG is uniquely positioned to lead this change.

Quote of the day
Dennis Ravenelle mentioned a point really resonated with me. He said that linking services with costs gives management the tools to adjust services intelligently rather than by the seat of their pants. This point really describes one of the core values of IT service management. By following ITSM principles, leaders can make more informed decisions ultimately resulting in better decisions.

The panel discussion and presentation by David Cannon will be posted to the SIG’s webpage at some point. When it is available, I will link to them.