IT Change Management Automation

IT Change Management Automation How Mid-Size Organizations Can Improve IT Service Quality and Reduce Costs A discussion paper from Numara Software Introduction Information Technology (IT) change management is a business process that enables organizations to manage and implement ongoing changes in their IT environment, while Challenges riddle the change automating and documenting the acceptance, approval, and implementation of such processes. The ultimate goal management path of change management is to continuously align personnel and business processes with technology. This management While these factors have put IT change management discipline has emerged in recent years as a critical area automation at the top of the agenda, the path to success for IT leaders at mid-size organizations for three primary can be challenging. In a recent research report, Gartner reasons: the need to boost IT service quality within complex analyst Kris Brittain states that, “Of all the IT disciplines, and distributed environments; the emergence of industry change management is among the most difficult to properly standards; and requirement to comply with government implement (3).” regulations. Confusing terms, unclear chains of command, turf battles First, effective change management is essential to improving among different departments and groups, antiquated or non- IT service quality, which mid-size organizations must do if existent IT change processes are all contributing factors to they want to boost operational performance, continually meet lengthy and often confusing processes that reduce customer customer expectations, and gain or maintain their competitive service levels, create internal collaboration missteps, and advantage. Mid-sized companies still trying to manage put mid-size organizations at greater risk of noncompliance change processes and approvals with spreadsheets, pen with regulatory guidelines. and paper, email, and other manual processes are likely to buckle under the sheer volume of change requests issued An additional challenge many organizations face is finding per day, week, and month. Industry research firm Gartner® an IT change management automation solution that can reports that organizations that do not properly manage be tied to their service desk, tailored to their specific IT change processes have significantly lower IT service needs, and implemented without requiring any costly quality than those that do (1). In fact, Gartner asserts that programming, consulting, or complex administration. To change management is now just as valuable as IT systems overcome these challenges and to be successful with their themselves (2). IT change management programs, organizations must combine industry-backed process methodologies with a Second, best practices and methodologies that have comprehensive change automation solution – that can be transformed general operations processes at leading easily customized from within to best serve the current and corporations have now extended into IT departments of mid- future needs of the organization. One without the other is not size organizations. As a result, traditional quality improvement sufficient. methodologies such as Six Sigma, ISO 9000, and Total Quality Management (TQM) can now be the guiding light for change management initiatives. The impact of change management For many IT and support departments, the IT Infrastructure Automating change management can sound daunting. Library (ITIL®) has become the preferred workflow Five years ago, this was surely the case, but now, with methodology. This standard allows IT managers and those the marriage of new industry standards (such as ITIL) responsible for change within the organization to map their that provide clear workflow roadmaps, and change current change management processes to a common, best management software solutions that can automate all facets practicedriven framework. of organizational change, success is more obtainable and benefits are more visible to those responsible for managing The third and arguably most influential market dynamic fueling change. In a July 2005 report, research firm Enterprise change management is compliance related to IT governance Management Associates said, “The combination of software mandates, such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and the Health automation and process automation can also bring IT Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). While significant operational savings and nurture a policy-driven each regulation has its unique requirements for IT operations, environment that can promote superior IT-to-business especially for public companies, the general principle for alignment (5).” today’s IT department manager, is that all change processes must be documented and tracked, and electronic audit trails Forrester Research states that nearly 20 percent of are absolutely mandatory for all changes. business-critical application downtime is caused by scheduled changes that don’t take into consideration the dependencies between IT components and critical business services (6). “Improving Change Management is one of the best investments enterprises can make.” – Gartner (4) 1. How? Well the reality is IT is omni-present in every organization and often an intrinsic part of revenue generation. So downtime of anything from a web page to a CRM application is unacceptable. Whether deployed for the internal help desk or external customer support the web-based service desk offers a trusted solution. It’s adaptive nature Select the right change means it is flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs of today’s growing service and support environments, management solution while giving internal and external customers a range of multi- By virtue of its scope, IT change management is closely channel access points to engage the help desk or call center aligned with the service desk, especially in an ITIL-based with demands for service. organization. According to David Coyle, Research Director at Gartner, service desk tools are playing an increasingly larger While there are many different solutions and deployment role in the workplace, giving organizations a centralized scenarios to choose from, the good news is you do not have platform to deliver employee and customer support as well to spend your entire budget to get one and, significantly, the as other strategic business processes, such as IT auditing open and adaptive nature of a web-based solution also means for SOX compliance (7). limited investment is needed to realise other service desks. The most effective IT change management solution is the one that offers an organization the greatest control over their Getting started - hail a cab unique change processes. Therefore, the system chosen should be easily customizable and sufficiently flexible to Mid-size organizations should first establish a Change support different change and approval processes. The Advisory Board (CAB), as recommended by ITIL. This solution should also streamline change workflow, align group should consist of business and IT staff, including interdependent workgroups, and seamlessly integrate with executive and departmental managers. The goal of the CAB an existing service desk solution. It should also leverage is to establish organization-wide approved business and IT modern process methodologies, such as ITIL. process that can be automated, without manual restrictions or roadblocks. The CAB should also create automated controls A web-based solution provides an extra layer of control that meet specific compliance goals.