CIS3008

ITSM

NSI Service Desk

Executive Summary

The present report provides an overview regarding the importance of IT service management in the organization and related standardisation required so as to ensure benchmark for the IT services required in the organization. The major focus for the report would be to ensure service desk requirements for the IT related infrastructure in NSI and establishing certification related with ISO 20000 so that proper processes and policies required for the IT service management are in place for the organization.

From the below report it has been established that IT service management processes are important part of overall IT infrastructure for the organization and managing IT service desk would enhance customer satisfaction (Rovers and Haren, 2012). It is highly recommended to manage outsourced service desk in the organization so that better focus can be done on the core activities of the organization and cost efficiencies can be established with help of outsourced service desk. Further outsourced service desk in the organization would demand for better control over business function and requirement for higher level of information security in the organization. Also it is recommended for the NSI to obtain ISO 20000 Certification in the IT service management field so as to develop higher level of standardisation for the IT related processes. In addition to standardisation ISO Certification would ensure consistent service delivery for the IT processes and policies.

Part-1 Importance of ITSM at NSI

Explain why is it important for NSI to have effective processes in place to manage IT services.

ITSM for any organization working in business or other domains can be defined as the processes and functionalities which are essential in order to manage the IT infrastructure in the organization. ITSM acts as the oil which is necessary for the wheel of IT machinery implemented in the organization.

§  To implement consistent delivery: For NSI major role for information technology service management is in terms of ensuring the consistent value delivery for the activities performed (Van, 2002). Consistent value delivery not only ensures the delivery process but also would ensure the quality standards which needs to be comply through IT services and processes.

§  Improved quality and efficiency: Aim of ITSM is to enable the IT service through improved quality and efficiency in IT services management. Processes followed for ITSM are business centric and helps in improving quality by close monitoring not only in terms of the delivery but from the business point of view as well (Czegel, 1998).

§  Adding business value: ITSM not only helps in enabling IT services for the NSI but it would help NSI to add business value for the organization. Adding value means that the value addition process in terms of economic as well as strategic benefit as well. In terms of strategic benefit value added would be to enhance customer satisfaction through development of effective IT services in place which would give NSI chance to enhance business revenues as well.

§  Governance for information technology: For any organization IT governance is of prime importance and for NSI which is a premium institute IT governance are of vital importance as these would help in order to manage IT services effectively and creates long term strategic advantage for the organization which can be leveraged upon by the NSI in order to have effective IT services for the students ().

§  Goal alignment: Another major objective of the ITSM is to enable IT infrastructure for the organization with such power that it can be aligned with the business goals set up by the organization. In case any organization has proper processes for IT service management then there can be synchronization among the various business activities and processes which are driven with help of IT processes. Appropriate level of IT service management would enforce reliability among the business processes which are dependent upon the IT services so that business processes have higher level of accuracy with them.

§  Faster problem solving: IT service management processes in place for any organization would help so as to resolve the IT issues at much faster pace in comparison to the organization without ITSM processes (Dugmore, 2006). Further establishing IT services in place would provide entire organization a platform for reporting their issues related with the IT implementation and resolving them. Faster problem resolution would not only help in creating higher level of efficiency in the organization but also would induce the confidence for the human resource working in the organization towards IT processes and policies.

§  Long term strategic strength: Implementing IT services & processes in organization can create long term strategic advantage for the organization but implementation of any new processes in organization would depend upon proper support and infrastructure in place. IT service management processes would allow support for the business team and employees so that any new processes implemented in the organization can survive for longer term without any hurdle being faced by the users of the IT application (Rovers and Haren, 2012). Once the IT services are implemented successfully in the organization then these acts as the source of long term competitive advantage for the organization.

Part-2 Service design

In the current design model of IT service provision at NSI, the service desk function is provided in-house by TAFE employees. Consider the option of outsourcing the service desk. Discuss the roles and responsibilities associated with IT support and the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the service desk.

Role and responsibility for the IT support function

Presently the IT support function has been provided in house by the TAFE employees for NSI and considering outsourced function for the service desk for NSI there would be various roles and responsibilities which needs to be played by the outsourced IT service team such as the IT champion, service manager, operation manager, business owner, training manager and change manager. Roles would be assigned by to the entire IT service team in order to manage the IT services in effective way so that overall IT processes can be managed effectively and supports the IT infrastructure for the organization.

IT champion role would be assigned to the very senior person having wide experience into information technology and implementation field who have worked with the various organization into their IT department and is well aware of the IT infrastructure of NSI (Clifford, 2008). Entire responsibility for managing IT service part would be on IT champion as entire business functions for service management would be handled directly by the IT champion. IT champion would work as the bridge between the IT service management team in the organization and management of the organization there by inculcating management values into the IT team for the organization.

IT business owner in the organization would be having role as the owner of entire business function where in entire processes related issues would be handled by IT business owner. Another major responsibility for the business owner would be in terms of assessment of business needs for the customers and designing the IT system so as to accomplish the customer’s business needs for the IT solution. Starting from the role of need assessment for the customers, designing systems which can fulfill customer needs and delivering appropriate solution so as to accomplish business goals for the customers would be the major responsibilities for the business owner working in the IT. Business owner would be the major part of the entire business service design and would be held responsible for the value delivery and customer satisfaction enhancement so that overall information technology processes are designed in such a way that business goals can be realigned with the IT system implemented (Czegel, 1998).

Service manager as the name suggest would be the person who would comply with the actual service requirements of the customers related with the IT processes. A service manager would directly act as the bridge between customer and solution provided thereby communicating the service needs of the customers for IT related processes so that business needs for the customers can be included in the service design. Service manager reviews the entire service delivery for the IT related processes and obtain customer feedback on the services and would communicate IT team so that same can be revised and aligned as per the customer’s needs.

Operation manager has the role to deliver on the operational part for the management of IT services. Operation manager handles day to day functioning concerning with the IT service delivery part and ensures that IT services are going as per the decided quality and reliability. Operation manager supervises the entire operation related issues such as IT infrastructure, compatibility for service delivery and other operational delivery issues so that entire service delivery system does not get affected due to the operational issues being encountered in the service delivery of the IT system. Operation managers are liable to review operational performance of the system implemented for delivering IT services and recommend changes in the design of the operational infrastructure so that better service infrastructure can be designed in the organization for quality service delivery system implementation (Hlvey and Melby, 2005).       

Training manager has the role to supervise and fulfill training needs for the staff involved in the IT service delivery process. IT services required in the organization involves human resource through different sphere of people such as technical, non technical and voice staff. It is important to assess the training needs for the staff and arrange proper training for the people involved in the service delivery for the IT related services in the organization. Every now and then there are several modification and additions in the IT services which needs to be communicated to the line team and accordingly users needs to be educated about the changes in the IT systems. Hence training managers are being given responsibility to train people for their technical and non technical expertise so that overall service delivery for the IT system can be made smooth.

Change manager implements the change in the organization which inculcates through change in any IT related system or processes. At initial stage in the organization people take changes with adverse perception and are not ready to understand & work as per the new processes and system. Role of change manager in the organization is to understand the reason for resistance created by users so as to accept the new systems and processes implemented in the organization. Post understanding of the system & processes for which users has resistance, it is the prime responsibility for the change manager to communicate benefits of the current systems to the users so that users can understand benefits of new system and adopt the implementation of new system which is of immense importance for ensuring smooth service delivery and employee benefits as well (Click and Duening, 2004).

Advantages & disadvantages of outsourced service desk

Outsourced service desk for the servicing of IT systems and processes in the organization can have several benefits and limitations in the organization which can be given as below:

Advantages

Advantages of the outsourced service desk include managing human resource; focus on key working areas, cost reduction and managing business risk. Human resource management has become a tuff task in the current age where there is high rate of churn for the IT human resource and outsourcing service desk would allow management of human resource through external agencies for the purpose of service desk and hence would reduced the burden. Another major advantage for NSI through outsourced service desk would be to focus on the key working areas which are the key strength of NSI. Outsourcing service desk function which is not the core function area for NSI would allow them to have deeper focus on their key business strength leaving aside service desk functionality which would be managed through external agencies.

Cost reduction would be the key benefit which NSI would be seeking through outsourced service desk as service desk is not their strength area and there are chances of higher expenses being made by NSI in comparison to the outsourced agency which has expertise into service desk management (Atwell, 2012). Hence through creation of higher level of competition among vendor NSI can reduce their overall cost to manage the service desk. Business risk can be managed by NSI through outsourced service desk as multiple vendors would allow continued services for service desk without any halt being created into the services hence there would be lesser chance of any contingency pertaining to service desk which would avoid risk pertaining to service desk.  

Disadvantages

Major disadvantages of managing outsourced service desk by NSI would include lower control on service desk, issues of confidentiality of data and uncontrolled expenses. By managing outsourced service desk NSI would be having inherent risk for the confidentiality of data being used in the organization. Hence higher level of tracking mechanism would be required to ensure that data security is not at stake which may enhance the cost as well as risk for the organization. Further any business function which is not managed in house by the organization creates the problem of lower control on that business function and similar issue would arise for the NSI as they would not be able to have higher level of control on the service desk which might create problem for them in future. Finally there would be concerns for NSI in terms of the higher level of expenses being levied for management of service desk as monitoring would become a key issue as NSI would have to monitor whether or not outsourced business function working in synchronization with the business goals of the organization (Eric, 2007).

Part-3 ISO/IEC 20000 Certification

NSI is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and is now considering ISO/IEC 20000 certification. Ms Christie has asked you to advice on the decision. Provide a brief of why NSI should or should not seek certification for ISO/IEC 20000. Identify the benefits and drawbacks of certification.

In addition to the present certifications i.e. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 obtained by NSI, they are seeking ISO 20000 certification which is especially for establishing IT service management through international standards. There are sub divisions done for the ISO 20000 certifications which are in terms of the designing part of the service delivery, improvements in service delivery, customer satisfaction enhancement and procedure established for the service management requirements in the organization. Implementation of ISO 20000 certification helps an organization to achieve international standard best practices in terms of the IT service management where in organization is committed towards regular review of the service design and improvement process.

In the first part of ISO 20000-1 which is mainly focused towards review of design for the service management and recommending various improvements in the service design process for the IT infrastructure setup in the organization. ISO 20000-1 has the major objective to create high level service management practice so that customer satisfaction through service management gets enhanced and higher business value can be created through service management function. Role of ISO 20000-2 is to ensure that proper policies and procedure are into place to carry out service management functionality in the organization. Procedure for the service management regarding IT infrastructure in any organization include below mentioned four steps:

o   Collecting knowledge regarding usage of IT services and requirement

o   Implementation of ISO 20000 certification

o   Following best practice as cited into ISO 20000

o   Implementing practices which helps in maintaining certification

Some of the major benefits for having ISO 20000 Certification include consistency in service delivery, international benchmark and synchronization in business goals along with IT services. Implementing ISO 20000 Certification would help in ensuring consistency in the IT service management processes as best practices would be followed for the delivery of IT services required for managing business functionality. Consistency would be in terms of lower contingency, higher level of business support and well managed services. ISO 20000 would establish a benchmark for the organization where in best practices which are followed into the service management domain worldwide would be followed for the management of IT services. Finally ISO 20000 Certification has the business policies and processes which help the organization to align their business goals with the IT service processes being followed in the organization (Malcolm, 2010).      

Limitations of ISO 20000 Certification for NSI would include lower flexibilities in processes, cost inefficiencies and inconsistency with the other ISO certifications. Implementing ISO 20000 would restrict any organization to become flexible in their processes and policies being followed for the service delivery as strict adherence is ensure for the policies which would reduce flexibility in IT processes which are required many a times to manage smooth business operations. Another limitation for NSI would be in terms of cost inefficiencies as gaining ISO 20000 would be a costly affair for the organization as many a business processes and policies would have to be realigned which would require high cost. Finally there would be chances that business processes being followed for ISO 20000 Certification might clash with the existing business processes followed in the ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 availed by the NSI.

Part-4 Conclusion and Recommendations to Managing director

Recommendations

Some of the key recommendations regarding IT service management for NSI can be given as below:

      Looking at the business processes and IT process synchronization in business it can be recommended that NSI has need for the IT service management policies and procedure which should be managed properly to generate effective results in the organization (Sharon and Ivor, 2005).

      Considering benefits and limitations for the outsourced service desk in the organization it can be recommended that NSI should manage outsourced IT service desk so as to save cost and focus on their core strength areas.

      ISO 20000 Certification would provide international standardization for the organization where in processes and policies followed for management of IT function would be rescheduled.

      NSI should give high emphasis to the IT service management processes through inculcating the service management processes into their mission and vision so that employees in the organization can get significance of the IT service management for the organization.

Conclusion

From the present analysis of the IT service management requirements for the NSI it can be concluded that NSI should have outsourced service desk in order to manage its IT service management process. From the discussion of benefits & limitations related with the service desk it can be clearly highlighted that there are numerous benefits for the outsourced service desk management in the organization and it is always advisable to have well managed service desk for the IT services so that consistent service delivery can be ensured in the organization. Further ISO 20000 Certification would prove advantageous for the organization in terms of establishing international standards for the IT service management in the organization where in higher service delivery consistency and lower number of breakdowns would be encountered in the IT services.  

References

§  Van Bon, J. (2002). The guide to IT service management. Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-73792-2.

§  Sharon Taylor and Ivor Macfarlane (2005). ITIL Small Scale Implementation. The Stationery Office. ISBN 0-11-330980-5.

§  Malcolm Fry (2010). ITIL Lite. The Stationery Office. ISBN 97801133121225 

§  Eric J. Feldman (2007). "The Eight Essential Elements of an IT Service Lifecycle". ITSMWatch.com.

§  Atwell Williams (2012). "A Practical Guide to Service and Service Models". BMC Software.

§  Click, R and Duening, T (2004). Business Process Outsourcing: The Competitive Advantage. John Wiley & Sons

§  Hlvey, J and Melby, B (2005) Information Technology Outsourcing Transactions: Process, Strategies, and Contracts. John Wiley & Sons

§  Czegel, B (1998). Running an Effective Help Desk. Wiley, 2nd Ed.

§  Clifford, D (2008). Implementing ISO/IEC 20000 Certification: The Roadmap. Van Haren publishing

§  Rovers, M and Haren, V (2012). ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011: A Pocket Guide. Van Haren Publishing.

§  Dugmore, Jenny (2006). Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 - The Differences Between BS 15000 and ISO/IEC 20000. BSI Group [1]. p. 124.ISBN 0-580-47348-1

CIS 3008

CIS 3008

ITSM- North Dakota

Executive summary

Present paper explores details for the information technology department of North Dakota pertaining to information technology service management. Importance of IT service management would be explored for North Dakota, ITIL V3 service strategy would be reviewed, decision would be made regarding adoption of outsourcing of IT services and decision pertaining to adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 certification would be made for North Dakota. It has been explored that ITSM is one of the key functionality for the organization which allows organization to achieve higher customer satisfaction, reduce delivery time and provide service support as per customer requirement. ITIL V3 strategy has three important parts (business relationship management, financial management and customer need understanding) which needs to be managed by North Dakota so as to enhance business proposition. Option of outsourcing would be critical for North Dakota in order to focus on their core activity and reduce cost. Adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 certification would be beneficial to evolve as continuously improving organization and to align business strategy as per organizational IT strategy.

  

Table of Contents

Part-1. 3

Part-2. 5

Part-3. 7

Part-4. 9

Part-5. 11

References. 13

Part-1

Importance of IT service management at North Dakota

Information technology service management (ITSM) has gained vital importance in present age for managing business services effectively. The role of ITSM in present age businesses is to simplify business processes so as to align them in accordance with the IT infrastructure in the organization so as to develop a uniform and standardized code of practice organization wide. For North Dakota the major role of ITSM would be to simplify business processes in order to act as the growth driver thereby contributing in the development strategic fit and for business strategy and organizational policies (Bon, 2007). ITSM tools used by North Dakota would be vital in collecting the relevant information which would create a base for the development of sound decision making in the organization. Some of the major factors showing importance of IT service management for North Dakota can be given as under:

§  Service support in accordance to business need: ITSM would allow North Dakota to deliver service support for their customers in accordance to the particular business needs. Several organizations which are not having expertise in information technology field such as Bank of North Dakota, office of management and budget, Criminal justice information sharing, job service and department of human services would be able to concentrate on their core business activity. This would help customers to provide one touch access for all their IT related and Non-IT related issues and queries. For example at present Bank of North Dakota is utilizing these services in order to request for equipment, replacement for any particular machine and any other software or hardware related issues. ITSM would offer the customized set of services for their client based on requirements.

§  Automation of workflow: Entire organizational workflow would be smoothly managed and automated processed would be used. There would be automatic request tracking, resolution providing and closing the call after resolution of the problem. Hence human intervention in most of the processes would be minimal in the present context (England, 2008).

§  Higher customer satisfaction: Delivering services in accordance with organizational requirement and giving organizations opportunity to focus on their core activity would enhance the customer satisfaction level and North Dakota would be able to maintain customer satisfaction up to 99.8%. Further after each issue logged in with the IT service management team a feedback system would be maintained this will evaluate the customer satisfaction index pertaining to service imparted by IT desk. This will help in order to identify possible issues in the service department and accordingly changes can be made in the service delivery model to enhance customer satisfaction further.

§  Reduction in service delivery time: ITSM tools would help North Dakota to reduce their service delivery time considerably as lesser time would be consumed in service delivery and this would also enhance the customer value. This would add to higher efficiency in the organizational context as higher number of tasks would be accomplished within given time frame.

§  Service quality: Usage of ITSM would help North Dakota to give higher emphasis on the service quality aspect. The services provided to the customers would be of best quality and elastic in nature suiting the changing organizational environment. Improvement in service quality aspect would develop brand name for the organization and give customer high value (Knapp, 2010).

§  Competitive advantage: Usage of ITSM tool in the organization would be helpful in order to develop the competitive advantage through lower cost and better quality. An automated system would align organizational tasks and foster higher level of efficiency in the system. North Dakota would be able to compete with its competitors by maintaining the ITSM tool in the organizational context.

§  Improvement in decision making: IT Service management processes implemented in g North Dakota would be helpful in managing all processes efficiently hence better time management and information collection would happen. This would help the organization to make effective decisions so as to align the business processes for better decision making processes to be followed in North Dakota.

Hence North Dakota has high degree of importance for the ITSM tool managed by the organization in order to develop organizational efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction, managed automated work flow, reduce service delivery time and implement cost efficiencies in the organization.

Part-2CIS 3002 Information system analysis

Service strategy

ITIL V3 Service strategy phase

Service strategy can be considered as the major axis for the service lifecycle in ITIL V3 around which entire phases will move and this phase would include the policy making and objective setting. This phase guides how information technology service management needs to be managed in order to provide competitive advantage to the businesses. Based on the service strategy of the organization an organizational competitive advantage would be developed based on the target market of the company (Kolthof, 2007). Management team in the organization would analyze key risks and benefits so as to develop efficient decision making system. There are three major service strategy processes included in the ITIL V3 which are given as under in relation to North Dakota:

1. Service portfolio management: The role of service portfolio management is to ensure that an appropriate mix of services can be developed which would match the customer requirement. North Dakota has a proper service management processes in place so as to meet customer requirement. Continuous customer feedbacks are made in order to align the service according to customer requirements. Management of all service provision is being done in order to improve organizational processes at North Dakota (Sharon and Ivor, 2012). Further there is issue that at North Dakota value of IT to achieve organizational goals has been undermined. Customer need assessment survey conducted by ITD reveals that more than 90% of the customers believe that services delivered by ITD are able to meet consumer requirements. Further approx. 99% of the incidents and requests are completed with high customer satisfaction. In order to develop customer centric approach ITD makes use of the creation of positive customer experience, building strong relations and providing technology directions etc (Buchsein and Dettmer, 2008).        
2. Financial management: The main objective of financial management for IT services is to ensure that sufficient funding can be availed so that IT services can be managed in proper manner and cost related to IT can be managed efficiently. A financial framework has been maintained at North Dakota so as to manage the cost on IT services and to recover these costs from customers. Further strategic analysis in North Dakota involves studying the impact of change in the organizational IT strategy on overall business objectives. Adequate amount of funding is made available for the IT relates services and any other expenditure which are required to be covered in the organizational context. North Dakota has high degree of focus on budgeting, accounting and charging for the financial management of IT services wherein exceptions of income are being managed, unit costs are being established and pricing is established in such a way to charge customers for covering organizational cost on the IT services. As a part of the financial management strategy ITD makes use of the cost effective investments, manage revenue, align prices with customer needs and manage state wide spending on technology (Rovers and Haren, 2012).     
3. Business relationship management: The main aim of the business relationship management processes in ITIL V3 service strategy phase is to ensure that strong relationship is being maintained between the service providers and customers through meeting customer expectations and fulfilling consumer needs. The major objective of business relationship management would be to meet customer needs, maintain effective communication, maintain efficient complaint management system and to ensure high customer satisfaction. Survey conducted in order to assess consumer relationship with ITD it was found out that 90% of the consumers believe that ITD is trusted business partner and more than 90% of the customers would prefer to choose ITD as their IT service provider.     

Improvements in IT service strategy processes

Possible improvements in the service strategy processes for ITD would include development of the strategic processes so as to develop objectives and goals according to the organizational environment. It is important that ITD should realign the business processes in accordance with the organizational goals and objectives.

Part-3

3.0 Service Design

Service strategy section of the present report details various roles and responsibilities which would be assigned to different stakeholders and benefits & limitations in case of outsourcing of service desk by North Dakota can be given as under:

3.1 Roles and responsibilities of for IT support

Below are some of the major roles and responsibilities assigned to the key stakeholders of the organization:

1.      Incident analyst: Incident analyst would have the prime role to analyze impact of various incidents and giving priority based on the level of impact on the organizational services. Incident analyst has the responsibility to adopt proper measure in order to take services back to its original state.

2.      Process liaison: Process liaison is one of the top positions in IT field and has the responsibility to communication and modifies organizational processes to align with the IT strategy so as to develop coherence between the two (Hlvey and Melby, 2005).

3.      Change owner: Role of change owner would be to fill the change owner form in order to assemble the change package. Change owner would initiate the change request by filling the form and this would be assigned to change management team. Change management team would implement the changes as per the change owner request. 

4.      Operational analyst: Operational analyst in North Dakota would be responsible for handling day to day operational activities and to maintain the operational library. Operational analyst would be responsible for managing the overall budget and recruiting staff for the operational activities.

5.      Service analyst: Role of service analyst would be to conduct service audit in order to track which services are not efficient. Once identification for the inefficient services would be done, service analyst would recommend possible changes in order to improve the services.

6.      System administrator: Role of system administrator would be to own the system infrastructure and network infrastructure so that availability of these devices does not affect the task handled by IT team in the organization. System administrator would track the system performance and maintain the devices which are required in the organization for better organizational performance (Eric, 2007). 

7.      Capacity manager: Services handled by service desk would be as per the capacity of the system and role of capacity manager would be to ensure that there is no over burden for capacity on system as this may reduce the overall capacity of the system. Along with reducing service quality this would also elongate the service delivery time.

3.2 Advantage of outsourcing 

Some of the key advantages of an outsourced service desk can be given as under:

1.      Higher emphasis on core activities: By going for the option of outsourcing North Dakota can have higher focus on their core activities. Time, efforts and budgeting requirement and their planning would not be done by North Dakota and this entire part would be taken care by outsourcing partner.

2.      Sharing of risk: Risk inherent in the management of service desk would be shared by North Dakota along with the outsourcing partner making service desk a lower risk composition for the state (McBride, 2000).

3.      Lower cost: Managing outsourcing team for the IT service desk would allow North Dakota to manage low cost IT service system. Significant amount of cost would be saved in terms of human resource, training & development and system deployment.

4.      Staffing: Managing staff for the IT service desk would be another issue for North Dakota as high number of people would be required for the management of service desk. Further North Dakota can leverage on the outsourced staff as they would be highly competent in their field which can’t be achieved by training and development for North Dakota staff (Atwell, 2012).

5.      Lower investment in technology: By deploying outsourcing service North Dakota can save in the overall investment made by state for the technology, systems and other capital investments. These surplus funds can be deployed for some other purpose leading to additional benefits for the state.

3.3 Disadvantage of outsourcing

Some of the key disadvantages which can be faced by North Dakota by outsourcing option can be given as under:

1.      Delayed delivery of service quality: Outsourcing for the service desk would involve business partners and they would lay down their specific processes and these processes may have the chance to delay service quality which is generally observed in case of outsourced business partners.

2.      Third party reliance: State of North Dakota would be having high degree of reliance on the third party due to which there would be much lower degree of organizational control and any changes in processes laid down by outsourcing partner may affect the overall processes for North Dakota as well.

3.      Information risk: Critical information contained in the systems for North Dakota may be at risk due to outsourcing partner as there can be information leakage during the system maintenance or any exchange of information outside the organization.

4.      Difficulties in process alignment: With outsourced partner managing the entire IT operations of the organization it would be really difficult for North Dakota to align the organizational processes with the IT infrastructure of the state as there would be lesser degree of organizational control.

Part-4BUMKT5901 Assignment 2 – Analysis of Supermarket Marketing –Report

4.0 ISO/IEC 20000 Certification

As per the situation faced in present task decision needs to be done whether or not to obtain the ISO/IEC 20000 certification for ITD of North Dakota. This decision for the ISO/IEC 20000 certification would involve reviewing the benefits and drawbacks of this certification which are given as under:

Benefits of ISO/IEC 20000 certification

Some of the major considered for the ISO/IEC 20000 certification include the below mentioned:

• Following service focused business strategies: With adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 certification it would be easy for the ITD to align its services according to the organizational objectives and goals. Information technology business strategy would be focused towards the services and processes and would be an efficient mean to provide the synergy between organizational strategy and information technology strategy of the organization.
• Instant reaction as per changing environment: There can be possible changes in the business requirement with change in economic, political or technological environment for the organization. Adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 certification would help in order to grasp these changes at a faster pace and align the services of the organization according to the changing business scenario. Quick and efficient reaction towards the service changes for ITD would be a major benefit for the adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 certification (Dugmore, 2006).
• Organization with continuous improvements: Achieving ISO/IEC 20000 certification for ITD would help the organization to engage into continuous changing environment wherein organization would strive for service excellence. These continuous improvements in services of the organization would help in order to maintain customer satisfaction and develop sustainability in longer term. This would make ITD to become an organization with high value delivery system.   
• High reliability in service deliverability: Adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 certification would help in order to build reliability in service deliverability to consumers. Consistency and reliability factors would be incorporated in the services provided by the organization giving higher value delivery system for the consumers of the organization. Hence ITD would be benefited to become an organization with high reliability and value delivery system by maintaining ISO/IEC 20000 certification.

Limitations of ISO/IEC 20000 certification

Some of the major limitations for the ISO/IEC 20000 certification for ITD can be given as mentioned below and these factors would be important so as to make final decision regarding adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 for ITD:

• Complex compliance requirements: Compliance requirement for ISO/IEC 20000 certification are too complex in nature which demands extensive process and policies to be implemented by organization and it would be really difficult for ITD to implement these processes in organizational environment. There would be requirement of the high amount of financial and human resources in order to comply with these compliance requirements. Further due to these compliance requirements organization sometime may have to change their existing policies and processes to align themselves with these requirements.  
• High costing for implementation of ISO/IEC 20000 certification: There is significant level of cost involved for the implementation of ISO/IEC 20000 certification in terms of process changes and alignment. This cost may outweigh the benefits of implementation of the ISO/IEC 20000 certification. Hence implementation of ISO/IEC 20000 would affect the overall profitability for the organization (Dugmore, 2006).  
• Developing phase for ISO/IEC 20000 certification: ISO/IEC 20000 certification standards are not quite established and are into developmental phase only. Further there are chances that drastic changes can happen in the entire certification and processes for the organization. ITD would be significantly affected by these changed hence the decision for adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 certificate may not prove beneficial for the organization.

Looking into the benefits and limitations for the ISO/IEC 20000 certification for implementation in ITD there are several important factors which needs to be considered. The major advantages of ISO/IEC 20000 certification such as service focused business strategies; higher reliability, continuous improvements and quick reaction to the changing service environment outweigh the limitations which would be faced due to the implementation of ISO/IEC 20000. Hence from the strategic aspect of evolving ITD as one of the major service provider known for its quality services and reliability it is recommended that organization should go for ISO/IEC 20000 certification.  

Part-5

5.0 Conclusion and recommendations to Deputy CIO

Present report has reviewed several important IT service management issues pertaining to Information technology department of North Dakota. Importance of information technology service management processes were understood with specific context to ITD and some of the key important features evolved includes developing competitive advantage, improvement in service quality, meeting customer satisfaction and improving service delivery time for the organization. ITIL V3 service strategy phase for ITD include service portfolio management, financial management and business relationship management. Service portfolio management deals with understanding consumer requirement and providing business solution according to consumer needs.

Financial management require an organization to maintain its profitability high by passing cost to consumers. Business relationship management include managing relationship with the business stakeholders such as customers and suppliers. Further outsourcing of IT service desk can be a useful tool for North Dakota as it will allow the organization to focus on their core activities and minimize overall cost of the organization which could have been spent in the IT service infrastructure for North Dakota. Though there are some disadvantages of outsourcing as well such as the higher reliance on third party, risk to information and delay in service delivery but these limitations would be outweigh by advantages which would be gained by the organization by going for outsourcing of their service desk. ISO/IEC 20000 certification is a crucial decision which needs to be taken by ITD as its major benefits include focus on continuous improvements, higher reliability and finding instant solution for the changes occurring in business environment. Limitations of ISO/IEC 20000 certification include complex compliances, higher cost implications and developing phase of the ISO/IEC 20000 certification which creates uncertain environment for the ITD to adopt this certification.   

Looking into the various aspects related with information technology department of North Dakota it can be recommended that organization has high importance level for the information technology service management and organization should deploy ITSM as their main tool for improving service quality. North Dakota needs to manage various aspects of the ITIL V3 strategy so as to understand consumer requirement, develop high profitability and to maintain strong customer relationship. Outsourcing of services would be a beneficial decision as organization would be able to give its attention on the core activities and cost pertaining to investment in infrastructure can be reduced. Decision for adoption of ISO/IEC 20000 certification should be taken so as to focus attention of organization towards continuous improvement and aligning organizational objectives.

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