What Is ITIL?

• ITIL Definition

  ITIL Definition

  ITIL provides guidance and best practices to help organizations improve service management design and delivery to drive efficiency and tackle service management challenges.
• What is ITIL used for?

  What is ITIL used for?

  ITIL serves as one of the most popular frameworks for ITSM (or IT service management) and gets used by thousands of organizations, large and small, to efficiently manage and improve ITSM practices and activities. ITIL contains proven recommendations to help organizations navigate and implement changes to ITSM strategies, design, and delivery to drive business growth. With a focus on co-creating value and promoting culture, organizations have the flexibility to interpret ITIL’s recommendations and adopt the guidance they find important for their business and service objectives.

  Organizations use ITIL guidelines to maximize the value of their IT and digital services by enabling the IT department to be a part of the business strategy. IT administrators become centered on solving the overall business problems rather than solely IT-related issues. ITIL has the potential to lead to greater customer satisfaction, continuous improvement of service delivery, minimal wastage of resources, and overall improved operational efficiency.
• ITIL Service Value System and Guiding Principles

  ITIL Service Value System and Guiding Principles

  When designing and practicing service management, it’s crucial to focus on the value the services and support bring to the organization and its users. Reflect on the ITIL Service Value System (SVS) to understand how all the activities and components within the organization work together to enable value co-creation. Consider the opportunities and demand, or inputs, paired with the elements of the system, such as guiding principles and service management practices, to enable the outputs or value to the business. While the SVS helps ensure the organization is continually co-creating value, the guiding principles can help teams further frame their service management strategy.

  ITIL’s guiding principles can be used to help organizations navigate how they operate and adopt service management practices in alignment with the business’s needs and culture. The guidance from ITIL can also be applied to the ways teams embrace and enact various service management practices, such as incident management, change management, IT asset management (ITAM), service-level management, and configuration management, among others. The seven guiding principles include:

  • Focus on value
  • Start where you are
  • Progress iteratively with feedback
  • Collaborate and promote visibility
  • Think and work holistically
  • Keep it simple and practical
  • Optimize and automate

  These guiding principles encourage organizations to identify areas for opportunity to grow and continually improve their service management activities and delivery.
• What is ITIL certification?

  What is ITIL certification?

  An ITIL certification shows the candidate has successfully specialized in service management best practices, processes, and methods in the ITIL framework. Axelos certifies candidates across different levels in specific areas of the ITIL framework.

  • ITIL 4 Foundation: Acts as an introduction to the ITIL v4 framework, helping candidates understand foundational concepts of IT and service delivery. It covers key components such as end-to-end Service Value System (SVS), seven guiding principles, and four dimensions of IT service management, among others.
  • ITIL 4 Managing Professional: Comprised of four modules, this certification was designed to provide practical and technical knowledge around running IT projects, processes, and teams.
  • ITIL 4 Strategic Leader: This certification shows the candidate understands IT’s influence and role in business strategy. These candidates see the value of ITIL for both digitally enabled services and IT operations.
• How can the service desk benefit from the ITIL framework?

  How can the service desk benefit from the ITIL framework?

  The service desk has a more significant and strategic role than the help desk, which focuses mainly on solving user problems and other technical issues. The service desk lets users report incidents, service requests, and other queries related to the overall service delivery and business processes, fostering a single space for users to obtain support.

  The service desk works to mitigate service disruptions to maintain the success and productivity of its users and the business. Several service management practices can be enacted through the service desk. These practices range from change management, incident management, service request management, asset management, and problem management, among others. Organizations use service desk software to automate practices such as incident triage and request fulfillment to heighten visibility and collaboration across support teams, ultimately bringing value to users in the form of services.
• ITIL vs. ITSM

  ITIL vs. ITSM

  It’s common for people to get confused between the terms ITIL and ITSM. While the two terms are related, they don’t mean the same thing. IT service management (ITSM) refers to designing, operating, controlling, and delivering value in the form of IT services to the customers. On the other hand, ITIL refers to the framework that offers recommendations and guidance for ITSM practices for organizations to adopt and follow. The overarching ITIL framework can help streamline the delivery and heighten the efficiency of ITSM practices and workflows.