Follow ITIL best practices and your SaaS implementation soars
Open skies policies have broadened the competitive landscape and consumer choices for air travel. Similarly, the Software as a Service (SaaS) model of delivering applications increases competition among software suppliers by giving business customers more options.
With the increasing availability of on-demand technologies, local managers within a company can very quickly and directly get applications delivered through SaaS. But with its vast knowledge base, IT should be involved to make sure that customers get the best possible service.
The flexibility of SaaS works if participants have rules to play by. Many IT organizations already have adopted best-practice processes, such as those defined in the ITIL V3 Training, to manage the IT services they provide. Now those processes can provide some rules and control for managing SaaS. But with new approaches like job scheduling software, come misconceptions about technologies and best practices. The sections that follow will dispel some common misconceptions about combining SaaS and ITIL.
Misconception 1: ITIL is old school. SaaS is modern.
They’re incompatible. During the last 20 years, SaaS has revolutionized some businesses. SaaS is more sophisticated now, but it isn’t that much younger than ITIL. As today’s SaaS becomes more widely used, the ITIL processes still apply. However, organizations must apply them a bit differently. To manage SaaS, the IT organization needs feedback from those using SaaS applications. In the past, IT provided the technology for the customers’ use, and IT recorded details about every incident, who
called to report it, when they called, and what they did. With SaaS, IT doesn’t always know the details. Now, business managers can easily opt for their own SaaS solutions, but IT still needs to be involved in supporting, integrating, and managing those solutions. Take, for example, a SaaS consumer who repeatedly encounters a problem when using a sales force automation tool that integrates with internal systems. Each incident will be logged, and the root cause can be identified and eliminated using problem management and workload automation practices. However, if these incidents are logged by the SaaS supplier, the IT organization will not be able to perform proactive problem management itself unless the SaaS supplier collects the correct data and makes that data available.
All the basic tenets of IT service management and ITIL still exist today with SaaS, but the form of communication with the supplier is different. The compatibility of information between SaaS suppliers and consumers must be absolutely precise, so that both sides know what the other is doing. If both the IT organization and the SaaS supplier are using ITIL terminology and processes, then both All the basic tenets of IT service management and ITIL still exist today with SaaS.
As today’s SaaS becomes more widely used, the ITIL processes still apply. However, organizations must apply them a bit differently. To manage SaaS, the IT organization needs feedback from those using SaaS applications. In the past, IT provided the
technology for the customers’ use, and IT recorded details about every incident, who called to report it, when they called, and what they did. With SaaS, IT doesn’t always know the details. Now, business managers can easily opt for their own SaaS solutions, but IT still needs to be involved in supporting, integrating, and managing those solutions. Take, for example, a SaaS consumer who repeatedly encounters a problem when using a sales force automation tool that integrates with internal systems. Each incident will be logged, and the root cause can be identified and eliminated using problem management. However, if these incidents are logged by the SaaS supplier, the IT organization will not be able to perform proactive problem management itself unless the SaaS supplier collects the correct data and makes that data available.
Conclusion: SaaS and ITIL are compatible. They go together like James Bond and fast cars.
Misconception 2: ITIL doesn’t matter with SaaS.
Organizations that have spent years establishing ITIL processes and getting ITIL certifications probably will want to use a SaaS solution that is also ITIL focused. In particular, if you are buying a service management SaaS product, ITIL certification shows commitment to the industry and commitment to the product. ITIL-compatible products are more likely to be adaptable with other products that you might use to support internal service management. For a service management tool, look for a solution with built-in ITIL-based best practices and an embedded cross-function process model.
If the SaaS supplier is providing another type of business tool, then be sure that the supplier is prepared to work with you even if the tool and supplier are not ITIL focused. When putting together a service portfolio, clearly describe the services and
the rules that must be followed. Even if the SaaS supplier is not ITIL focused, your IT organization should be. Follow good
ITIL processes; you’ll still need to implement changes and adhere to processes, and you’ll need to make sure you impose the right
regulations from your end.
Conclusion: Just as it is critical for an airplane pilot to complete a checklist before takeoff, following ITIL processes is critical to success with SaaS.
Misconception 3: SaaS should not affect how you manage ITIL processes.
It’s tempting to think that if you use SaaS, you will not need to adjust how you manage ITIL processes. But you do. For example, with SaaS, who will be in charge of the ITIL process of change management? If the SaaS supplier must make a change, how does the
customer get involved in change management? In those circumstances, you can’t have the same kind of change advisory board (CAB) that ITIL recommends. When incidents, problems, and changes occur to a SaaS application, IT needs to know that the SaaS supplier will resolve problems and implement changes. Ask the supplier questions such as: How do you manage your changes? How do I know your changes are going to be successful? What’s the process if the change fails? How will you notify us of proposed changes? How do you manage incidents?
The answers to these questions will differentiate SaaS suppliers. If SaaS suppliers don’t have good service management processes
behind their applications, then this is cause for concern. Clear lines of responsibility and stringent controls will help you know exactly what is happening and where. Bottom line: IT is no longer the owner of changes. So, in addition to rethinking the way it handles change management with a SaaS supplier, IT might include something about change management in the service contract.
Conclusion: Clarify how SaaS suppliers follow ITIL processes and how their own processes integrate with yours. You may also need to evaluate your processes to ensure they are effective in a SaaS environment.
Misconception 4: ITIL gets in the way of SaaS agility.
The on-demand nature of SaaS can offer tremendous agility to IT organizations and business users, and they may not want to stifle that agility with processes such as those in ITIL. But agility without discipline is dangerous. If you make changes too quickly, without considering the ramifications to your strategy, design, and operations, you might inadvertently create tremendous problems that affect service availability. You can compare ITIL processes to the high performance brakes on a sports car; those brakes give you the confidence to be more agile and take a turn at a faster speed. In many cases, having established processes will actually streamline the accomplishment of your goals. ITIL brings the discipline. It will tell you where to set your parameters, how to manage those parameters, and so on. It’s about having the right agility in the right place. Controlling the agility in all directions is important. IT professionals know that doing things quickly without proper planning and without proper notification is a road to disaster.
Conclusion: Following ITIL best practices actually will increase agility.
A framework for flexibility SaaS offers IT organizations and business users more choices and greater flexibility when selecting applications, but agility without discipline can be a problem. And unless your organization uses SaaS exclusively, you will need to integrate old and new IT solutions. The ITIL processes you already use for managing your IT systems can provide some rules and control for also managing SaaS. Follow ITIL best practices and watch your SaaS implementation soar.
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