There but for the grace of God, go I!

You must have experienced it. You're catching up with the latest news on TV and up comes a story about the failure of a high profile government or corporate IT system and the ensuing mayhem this has caused. You think to yourself, I bet someone's feeling the heat for this right now. That 'someone' is likely to belong to a service management organisation that is, hopefully, rising to the challenge and restoring the natural order of things.

With technology now such an integral part of doing business, smart organisations have invested in service management arrangements designed to ensure that they can meet their obligations and objectives, whatever the circumstances. Understandably, many of these draw confidence from implementing best practice IT service management, such as ITIL - and this may help. However, in reality getting service management right is much more than simply implementing processes and procedures - important as they are.

A recent blog posting for the Harvard Business Review suggested that less than 25% of business leaders rated their organisation's IT service delivery function as effective, despite 'valiant and tireless efforts on the part of everyone involved'. This would suggest there's more that needs to be done. So, in a fragile, post recessionary environment where 'slash costs' is thankfully being replaced with 'deliver measurable value', what is the answer?

In his latest article, Russell Clifford, a specialist in service delivery and management at DAV, explains how and why the service management role needs to be empowered to ensure that maximum value is delivered to the business from its investment in technology. Why effective leadership, built on a bedrock of relevant experience and informed decision-making that you can rely on, even in complex and uncertain times, is the crucial ingredient for success.

To download Russell's latest article, There but for the grace of God, go I, please click on the adjacent link.