ITIL Implementation: A consultant’s perspective – Interview with Alessio Sciuto

I’m Alessio Sciuto, I’ve been working in the IT services field since 2009. At first, in technical roles (system engineer in virtualisation, server infrastructures, Windows, etc.), ideal for gaining more experience, and then, in 2019, I started working as Solution Architect, designing infrastructures related to cloud and virtualisation. In mid-2019, I became Project Manager at Next Digital Wave, an IT service management company in Milan, where I was promoted to Technical Manager in 2020.

Can you introduce yourself by giving us a brief summary of your work experience?

In 2020 I obtained a degree in economics, which made me lean towards more managerial roles, for me more interesting than purely technical roles. Since 2022, I have been working as a freelance ITIL consultant and lecturer.

What are your main activities in your current role of ITIL Trainer and Consultant?

As a consultant, my role is twofold: to support organisations in adopting and adapting the ITIL framework to their needs, and to analyse what already exists in the company (processes, value streams) to see if it fits the ITIL framework and is suitable for the organisation’s needs. With this in mind, I support the implementation of the necessary improvements.

Overall, I try to help companies along their digital transformation journey, i.e. using technology to improve processes, to find opportunities, to reduce costs, to increase revenues or to become more competitive.

There are so many technologies that companies, especially SMEs, can miss out on opportunities by not having the right skills. I try to convey the vision of IT as a distinctive element that can create a competitive advantage, and that can be an element of differentiation from the competition.

Instead, as a trainer, I deal with certification-oriented ITIL training courses. My goal is to make people aware of the ITIL framework, the ITIL guidelines, what this information model entails and the common language that derives from it. As a very operational figure in the field I want to transfer my knowledge and experience to the learners of QRP’s ITIL courses.

What are the most common problems you have encountered in companies trying to implement the ITIL framework?

The most common problem is usually the lack of management support. Adopting ITIL means making a change, and without management support it is very difficult to overcome the normal resistance to change and the initiative is perceived as less relevant. Management support allows the change to enter the organisational culture.

Secondly, there is a lack of collaboration. I see companies trying to implement ITIL in small project groups, but they forget to collaborate with users, customers, consumers and even partner companies: they impose the framework believing that all parties involved will be at their disposal. This lack of collaboration can be very limiting, more so because the objective of implementing the framework is to create value for others.

Moreover, many organisations want to do everything at once, i.e. take the ITIL framework and implement it in all its 34 practices, 7 guiding principles and various components right from the start. Doing everything right away and expecting an immediate positive result is utopian.

Finally, another typical mistake is that many organisations expect ITIL to be a ready-made framework. ITIL is a framework that needs to be adopted and adapted. This is often surprising for organisations and is a major limitation to an effective implementation.

Why implement the ITIL framework for IT Service Management?

ITIL is a set of guidelines that provides tools for delivering quality services. These services are only a means to create value, which is the real goal of the framework.

A quality service must be functional to achieve a certain result and must be fit for use, i.e. it has to be usable with the right level of availability, capacity, continuity and security by users. If a service, even a high-quality one, is not functional to achieve a result, it becomes useless or even harmful because it could waste the organisation’s resources.

ITIL provides everything we need to be able to do this through the Service Value Chain and the four-dimensional model.

The Service Value System (SVS) is a representation of the components needed to create value which, if integrated with each other in an agile, flexible and resilient manner and adapted to changes in the environment can bring important results.

The four dimensions model is another fundamental tool provided by ITIL. It offers an overall perspective, describing the context in which the company operates, defining the fundamental elements for an initiative to be successful and making us think.

To start an improvement/change initiative in an organisation, the following questions must be asked:

• Do I have the right organisational structures, teams and division of roles and responsibilities?
• Do I have the right people? Are my methodologies and knowledge adequate?
• Can my partners and suppliers help me or can they represent a bottleneck?
• Are my processes, flows and procedures mature or do I need to revise something?

The four dimensions model answers these questions by providing an overview that focuses on the people who will need to use it, the suppliers who will need to be aligned and the processes that need to be ready to accommodate this technology. It also defines how these elements must be integrated to achieve value, starting with a demand or an opportunity that I want to accommodate.

What are the keys to successful digital transformation? How does ITIL address these issues?

In my opinion, there are two key factors. Firstly, it is important to look at the whole as a system. The four dimensions model provides the holistic approach that allows us to look at our organisation as a set of larger parts that need to operate with each other in an integrated way.

The first key to a successful digital transformation is to make sure that we have everything we need to achieve the goal.

Secondly, we can summarise the necessary elements by listing the 7 Guiding Principles of ITIL. They give us the answers we need for a digital transformation.

In particular, four essential lessons from the Guiding Principles are:

1. Start where you are: when implementing ITIL, existing processes, knowledge, information, technologies must be used to avoid wasting resources.
   
2. Progress iteratively with feedback: the holistic view must include an assessment of the impact of improvements on other areas. An improvement in one service could damage another area.
   
3. Keep it simple: do not propose complicated solutions and do not waste people’s time. A solution that is simple to use and easy to understand will be adopted quickly by users.
   
4. Optimise and automate: automating repetitive tasks (algorithmic tasks) allows people to dedicate themselves to more complex and interesting tasks (heuristic tasks). That is, instead of devoting time to solving the same ticket over and over again (algorithmic task), you invest time in understanding the cause of the incident in order to solve it completely.

What steps would you recommend to an organisation that is in the phase of implementing the ITIL framework in its daily activities?

In my opinion, we can consider two models that can help us in applying ITIL as a project in our daily work.

• One is a model that originates outside ITIL, the Kotter’s 8-Step Model.
• The other is the Continual Improvement Model, which is actually a model of ITIL.

Kotter’s model outlines the 8 fundamental steps to implement change within an organisation:

1. Create a sense of urgency: make people perceive the importance and urgency of the change.
2. Form an alliance to lead the change: create a team of leaders who can support the initiative.
   
3. Build a strategic vision: what is our goal? What are we proposing? What do we want to do?
   
4. Identify change agents: communicate this vision, ensure that it is shared with all those involved.
   
5. Remove barriers to adoption: think about what might be or is preventing the successful implementation of the framework, remove the barriers and manage the risk.
6. Achieve short-term goals (quick wins): show the concrete benefits of ITIL implementation.
   
7. Supporting change: through reports, dashboards, let’s not abandon what we have done well and go back to old habits.
   
8. Make change become part of the corporate culture

The other model is ITIL’s Continual Improvement Model, which can help us with a high-level approach on how to manage a change or improvement initiative.

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