With a global recession still in full swing, many wonder if it is the right time to invest in ITIL. The short answer is that you don’t have to invest in ITIL per se, but you should invest in what’s necessary for aligning with the business, controlling costs, improving quality, balancing resource allocations and doing more with the same resources. Some refer to this as competitive advantage, which IT still can and does deliver.

According to Wikipedia, competitive advantage is “a position a firm occupies against its competitors, allowing it to earn revenues higher than costs.” So let us ask the question again: Is now the time to position your business in its industry as a leader in either superior service or lowest costs? If the answer is yes, then you need to understand how to achieve these benefits, and ITIL is the pathway to your success.

Setting the Agenda

First, ITIL is not and should not be your goal. Pursuit of ITIL for the sake of ITIL is a sure path to failure. Second, pursuit of ITIL for the sake of process is also doomed. ITIL even says that process is the means to an end, not an end in its own right, and too much process is as bad as too little process.

Pursuit of a worthy goal that you realize through ITIL however, is an entirely different prospect. Competitive advantage is an advantage one business enjoys over its competitors. A business achieves competitive advantage by offering consumers greater value by lowering prices (cost advantage) or providing higher quality products and services that demand a premium (differentiation advantage.) Read the article...