The President's Corner - A Message from David Cannon
By: David Cannon, itSMF USA President
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Featured Columns
From the Editor's Desk
By: Susan Trembly, The Forum Editor
Editor Susan Trembly talks about the new e-newsletter and some standing columns that will appear moving forward. [More]
Organizational Gatekeeping: itSMF USA Governance
By: Sallie Kennedy, President Elect - itSMF USA Board of Directors
Governance is one of those areas much like a Business Plan; everyone knows exactly what it is and can identify it easily when they see it, but no one can easily apply a universal definition. A working definition for this article will be that Governance makes decisions that define expectations, grant power, and/or verify performance. [More]
Committee Updates - Happy New Year from the itSMF USA Publications Team
By: Kirk Holmes, itSMF USA Board of Directors Publications Chair
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Focus on Three
By: Sharon Taylor, Chief Architect for ITIL®, President, Aspect Group
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ITIL®/ITSM Related Articles
A CIO Case Study on IT Service Demand Management
By: Boris Pevzner, Founder & CEO, Lontra, Inc.
IT Service Demand Management, while it is a fairly recent addition to the ITIL® framework, has been a constant business challenge. Boris Pevzner, Founder & CEO of Lontra, Inc. interviews Barry Carter, CIO of Alliance Data Systems, to speak about this issue and how his organization is working to overcome it. [More]
IT Financial Management and the Service Lifecycle - How the Pieces of the Puzzle Come Together
By: Dean Meyer (NDMA) and Nick Schneider (newScale)
Service catalog, demand management, service management, service costing…. You’re implementing the buzz words, but how do they all come together into a comprehensive system of IT financial governance? Dean Meyer and Nick Schneider explain how these are all pieces of a bigger puzzle, a set of processes that put IT’s clients in control of what they buy and align IT’s resources to fulfill those sales.
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The Role of Financial Management for IT Services in IT Service Management
By: Robert J. Messer, Senior Consultant, Plexent
Financial Management for IT Services plays a key role in delivering a fully functional IT Service Management program for a justifiable cost. The process provides a critical gauge of the health of the IT organization. Financial Management helps the organization achieve the three key objectives of IT Service Management: integrating IT with business, maintaining the quality of the service and controlling the total cost for providing quality service to the customer and end user. [More]
The Cost of Doing Business
By: Ron B. Palmer, Author, Trainer, Consultant
For many people, Financial Management is something that should be left out of ITIL®. The argument goes that there is so much information about Accounting and Financial Management in general, why do we repeat it in ITIL®? Author Ron Palmer thinks that argument misses the point, and has contributed this article which supports his view that Financial Management is no different than any other aspect of ITIL®. [More]
ITIL® v3, Service Portfolio, Service Catalog and Financial Management
By: Michael Robinson and Reg Lo, Third Sky, Inc.
By bringing more focus to the lifecycle of services - from their initial definition and design to the ongoing delivery and support - ITIL® v3 emphasizes a critical success factor in your ongoing roadmap of IT Service Management (ITSM) improvement: integrate with your business customers by defining what services you should be offering to them, and how to deliver and support them cost-effectively. [More]
The Role of the Business Services Catalog in Disaster Recovery Planning
By: Christopher Rafter, Vice President of Consulting Services, Logicalis
Disaster Recovery planning has seen a resurgence of interest lately. Is it because people are becoming more responsible and diligent, or might it be due to the fact that we’ve had more large-scale disruption scenarios in the past five years than in any time in modern history. [More]
Mock Disaster Drill for Small Businesses
By: Sara Williams, CBCP, Consultant, Jack Henry & Associates
The benefits of conducting mock disaster drills in a small business environment are hard to measure. The general thinking among small business leaders is that “We don’t need these drills. We regularly respond to events that impact our business more than disasters. Competition and technology are much greater threats.” Many think small businesses don’t need to conduct drills like large companies. They neglect to remember that loss is a relative term and it affects all small or large without respect to the size of the organization. [More]
Three Threats to Disaster Recovery and How to Diffuse Them
By: Dwayne Melançon, Vice President of Corporate and Business Development, Tripwire, Inc.
According to professional sources, one of the most significant events involving lost data came as a result of the terrorist attacks on Sept.11, 2001. Of the 131 sites affected, only two performed a successful “failover.” Of the 129 that failed, 70% of data was recovered after 120 hours, but 30% was lost forever. This means $3.1 billion worth of technology did not work as expected. This article explores possible reasons why the affected organizations’ disaster recovery efforts weren't more successful. [More]
ITSC Planning: Performing Business Impact Analysis
By: Heather DeBernardi, Maryville Technologies
IT Service Continuity (ITSC), as defined in the ITIL® guidance, strives to ensure that the required technical and services facilities can be recovered within required and agreed business timescales. In order to meet this goal, the service level requirements for the organization’s technical and services facilities have to be identified and agreed upon by both business and IT stakeholders. [More]
Quick Tips for IT Governance
By: Richard A. Nietubicz, IT Governance and Compliance Practice Principal, Plexent
Business has created a critical dependency on information technology to initiate, store, move and manage all aspects of transactions, information and knowledge, creating a critical place for IT governance within the enterprise. IT governance ensures effective use of IT resources and integration of IT activities to meet the business objectives. IT governance is the foundation for the decision-making processes that influence organizational and individual behavior. [More]
LIG News
Wisconsin LIG Celebrates another Successful Year
By: Kathy Kiepert and Anil Balla – Wisconsin LIG Communications Committee
The Wisconsin LIG had a year end gathering on December 4th. It was a well attended event, in spite of some impending bad weather. [More]
Greater L.A. One Day IT Service Management Cruise to Excellence Conference
By: Keith Belyea, GLA Membership and Communications Chair
The Queen Mary provided an elegant venue for the Greater Los Angeles LIG inaugural "IT Service Management Cruise to Excellence" event on November 29th. The event was enjoyed by over 100 attendees, an internationally renowned group of speakers, and 20 outstanding IT Service Management Vendors. The Greater Los Angeles LIG and National itSMF USA event cruise staff handled the attendees with humor, aplomb and speed. [More]
Atlanta LIG Vendor Shootout
By: Mike Walter, Communications Chair
The Cobb Galleria was the scene of the Atlanta LIG’s second annual Vendor Shootout. On November 14th , 198 people, more than 65% of them practitioners, attended the all-day event. Attendees had the opportunity to visit with 26 vendors and see three shootouts. [More]
Austin Local Interest Group News
By: Michele Bonner, Austin LIG Secretary/Communications Chair
The Austin LIG recently held elections and the 2008 Board of Directors were chosen. This article talks more about the elections and the LIG's plans for 2008, including their first Regional Event. [More]
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