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Every IT organisation strives to deliver top-quality service to the business it supports. But there are several common challenges that can get in the way:

• Inability to connect the people, processes and technology that comprise an IT service
• Difficulty communicating in terms that the business understands and values
• Lack of alignment between IT operations and business priorities

The six steps outlined below can help you overcome these obstacles and institute what ITIL v3 describes as a process of “continual service improvement.” That, in turn, can lead to a more efficient IT organisation and satisfied business users.

Step 1 – Clarify goals

IT objectives don’t exist in isolation – they are a means to achieve a particular business objective. But are IT and management speaking the same language? To make sure everyone is on the same page, articulate goals in terms of the business impact rather than the IT metric.

For example, the business goal of “increasing online revenue” is different than the IT goal of “maximising load capacity.” The two may be related, but it’s important that all parties understand the difference and communicate in terms of impact to the business.

Once you have identified the business objective, you must decide on the key data points. What metrics are going to give the baseline information you need to make strategic business decisions?

The challenge is that there is usually no shortage of data, and with the wide variety of IT service monitoring tools, you can drown in the metrics. Successful IT leaders maintain a focus on the specific metrics that support the goals of the business.

If you know the metrics you’re after, it’s time to find out whether you have the right approach and combination of tools to collect the data that’s desired.

There are a myriad of ways to measure data, from customer surveys to monitoring tools and IT management software, to the log files of the applications themselves. The key here is determining the right combination of tools and choosing an approach that works for your organisation.

In many organisations, the process of gathering data is not as straightforward as it might seem. Different teams all contribute to the data stream and may not understand how their information fits into the big picture.

For example, the help desk may deliver metrics on mean-time-repair while the application team will report response times and availability. In order to extract value from different data streams, you must gather the information in a timely manner and record it in a consistent format that enables meaningful analysis.

In addition, you must establish defined intervals for processing your data. Whether it’s hourly, daily or weekly, consistent intervals set the stage for successful data analysis.

Establishing data integrity standards is also crucial. For instance, you might want to establish parameters within which the data can fluctuate before it’s deemed invalid, as well as a minimum time to gather the data before it’s cost prohibitive to report.

With an efficient and reliable foundation for measuring performance, IT managers can spend more time analysing the results of their efforts. In this step, look for trends and aberrations in IT service delivery. Perhaps trouble tickets are generated at a particular time of day or from a certain branch or region, which may allow you to correlate the problem with the underlying technology, process or level of resources.

It’s not enough to collect, measure and analyse your data – you have to communicate your findings effectively if you want to improve business performance in the end.

Once reliable measurements are available, people in numerous functions, both inside and outside of IT, and at all levels of management will want to understand the results. Present your findings according to the unique needs of each audience. For example, offer a high-level report to the CIO and save service metrics for those responsible for managing the services.

Role-based dashboards make it easy to customise IT service reports according to your audience. Such dashboards help facilitate communication and alignment between IT and the business, providing a way for different individuals to interpret the data according to their particular needs.

To complete the loop and affect positive change within the business, use your analysis to make strategic recommendations that will improve IT’s impact on business performance.

For example, suppose the metrics show that IT has exceeded all service targets for provisioning end-user equipment such as laptops, PDAs and cell phones, and that the business is more productive as a result. Perhaps it’s time to consider a new provisioning process altogether, such as a self-service solution that provides the same level of service, but is faster and requires fewer resources.

HP Software can help organisations meet service management objectives.

HP Service Manager 7.0 is a comprehensive, ITIL v3-aligned service desk solution that automates and manages an IT organisation’s entire service lifecycle.  From identifying business needs and creating services to meet them, through service delivery, monitoring, support, analysis and optimisation, Service Manager 7.0 helps with the end-to-end management of IT service delivery. Learn more about HP Service Manager 7.0.

HP DecisionCenter 2.0 helps complete a “continual service improvement” process by assisting organisations with the final and most important phase: process improvement. Completely aligned with ITIL v3, DecisionCenter 2.0 offers IT scorecard and business impact analytics capabilities, which help improve IT planning and control, allowing organisations to continually enhance its IT services and delivery processes. Learn more about DecisionCenter 2.0.