Only 27% of IT managers have directly measured the return on investment from ITIL implementations, and under half measured the value that IT service management brings to their business, according to new research.
The findings suggest that more needs to be done if the new version of ITIL, announced in May, is to work at its best, researchers have claimed.
And less than a quarter of IT service managers said they believed that measuring budgets and cost was “very important”.
ITIL, which stands for the IT Infrastructure Library, is a set of methods to help manage technology operations as a set of services.
It is a widely adopted standard of IT practices in the UK, Europe, Asia Pacific and the US.
Seventy UK IT services managers were interviewed for the research, which was conducted by Parity Group.
Rick Firth, managing director at Parity’s training division, says that ITIL version 3 could drive the strategic aspects of IT in businesses and raise ITIL awareness to board level — but more work needs to be done.
“Despite widespread adoption of ITIL processes, few organisations have attained a true business led IT focus”.
A cultural change that involved a shift in mindset from “measuring transactions and processes to that of measuring contribution and value to the business” was needed, he says.
It is important to teach the business skills to make ITIL more fully integrated into whole businesses, not just IT departments, Firth says.