First in a Ten Part Series
By
Chad
Greenslade
I
have often been asked about my lessons learned in implementing an IT Service
Management (ITSM) tool. Below is the
first in a ten part series examining my ITSM lessons learned. I hope that these lessons help you on your
journey to ITSM nirvana.
Lesson #1: Beware of the
Integrators. An “Integrator” is a
third party professional services firm that will help you to setup and deploy
your selected ITSM tool. Unless you have
requisite development, configuration, and strategy skills & expertise in
your organization, you will need to contract with an integrator to get your ITSM
platform launched. The key thing to
remember is that the contract between you and your selected integrator is no
different than any other professional services consulting engagement; you must
clearly define scope, deliverables, acceptance criteria, etc. Most of these agreements will center on the
modules you want to develop and deploy.
Keep in mind that the overarching strategy is YOURS! Don’t rely on the integrator to tell you how
the modules you’ve asked them to develop and deploy will fit with your overall
strategy. While some integrators can
offer some level of strategy expertise, the strategy completely depends on your
organization’s dynamics and the desire to bring selected modules to
market. The bottom line is that the
modules defined in the integrator agreement will be the sole focus of the
integrator. They will attempt to finish
the development and release of the contracted modules as quickly as possible,
and then move on to the next engagement.
If your organization is not ready to accept their work and deploy into
production, your organization may incur additional cost or rework as the
overarching strategy evolves.
