What is ITIL

In the 1970s, as IT became a major issue to commerce, the British Government set up a body, The Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA).

Their remit was to advise the Government on standards and best practice. CCTA was later renamed The Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

In the 1980s the CCTA concluded that, while strong methods existed for the development of IT systems, there was little advice available for the management of IT services.

It therefore set about creating a body of 'best practice' guidance for the live running of services, which it called 'The IT Infrastructure Library', now renamed IT Service Management.

The IT Infrastructure Library is the only consistent and comprehensive documentation of best practice for IT Service Management, used by many thousands of organisations around the world.

In essence, ITIL is a 'roadmap', a methodology for implementing and managing your IT Services. It sets out major goals and directives for each of 11 different, and specific, disciplines that can keep your processes in complete control. They are...

  • Service Desk
  • Incident Management
  • Problem Management
  • Change Management
  • Configuration Management
  • Release Management
  • Service Level Management
  • Availability Management
  • Capacity Management
  • IT Service Continuity Management
  • Financial Management for IT Services

ITIL has been developed in recognition of our growing dependency on IT and embodies best practices for IT Service Management; it has a real quality focus, primarily through improvements to the delivery of your IT services.

The quality of service is directly linked to business and IT expectations as well as financial considerations. Every process is integrated with the others so that each one meets its goals. ITIL clearly defines the links between each of the processes, so it takes the guesswork out of determining how they are related. It can also help determine the most cost effective processes.

ITIL is the International Standard for managing IT effectively under ISO20000.

Today, the OGC describes ITIL as "the world de facto standard for service management" because of its widespread use internationally.

Sortium offers a range of ITIL Training courses. To book a specific course or if you have any questions please contact us by calling 0870 767 8486 or email info@sortium.com.