An Example: Hardship From Undocumented IT

I have written extensively (harped may be a better word) on how critical it is to keep up-to-date documentation of all assets, configurations and usage of all your IT assets. I use the term ‘assets’ for software, hardware, services, everything that makes up your IT infrastructure.

How Little Things Can Be Big Problems

We recently finished migrating many applications and databases from a couple of older physical servers to a new server. The migration from the old servers did fairly well, but one issue that caused some issues (because we did not find it until something broke) was as follows;

And How Stupid Is This?

It turned out that a bunch of application code written on the old servers had a job to collect certain data, then this code had to use the popular ZIP format to bunch it up into packages that were sent be E-Mail to particular recipients.

This was not documented – anywhere.

Obviously, when we migrated to the new server, these applications started breaking. Once we identified that something was broken, it was an hour or so for development staff members to comb through all the code to identify why, then more time to identify how!

It turned out that a simple, free, open-source utility that was compatible with the popular ZIP format and could also be accessed programmatically (meaning that the utility can be used by software code) had been placed on the server to do this job.

Equally as obvious – that utility software was not on the new server.

The SMB Takeaway

Document, Document! And Document some more!

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ITIL, Lies, Damn Lies & Statistcs

This blog has covered quite a bit about the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) within the context of the benefits I believe it can provide to the small to medium enterprise.

However, as there is no such thing as a silver bullet in business, I want to point out a post at The ITSkeptic titled; Crap Factoid Alert: Implementing an IT Service Management Solution Can Save a Business More than $500,000

The above post is a goodie and is referencing how dangerous statistics (especially when in software marketing spiels) can be.

While my experience has shown that SME’s can benefit from ITIL, as a ‘C’ level exec, if you are looking for questions and answers on a hard and fast ROI, you will probably be disappointed.

Here’s The Rub

I am going to take a plunge here; Does your General Ledger have charts of accounts titled Frustration or Downtime?

I doubt it.

Moving into an IT Management framework that is ITIL aligned (or any other framework for that matter) deals a lot with the internal processes and roles that improve IT service levels. ITIL is not a Cookbook that forces a business to do things this way. But a road map of best practices.

The point here is that if we have a hypothetical balance sheet that we can call example A, it may show zero CAPEX costs for IT infrastructure, yet it has no means of accounting for hours of lost productivity and frustration as IT infrastructure assets have failed, no way to account for inefficiency in IT service etc.

You then spend dollars and time moving towards ITIL alignment, then a hypothetical balance sheet we can call example B shows costs of  X on replacement IT infrastructure, yet again, it cannot account for the fact that hours of lost productivity and frustration are  no longer there.

THE SMB Takeaway

In my opinion, there is a value in ITIL for SME’s, But most of us have not had the experience with the accounting for softer dollar parts of the balance sheet. The ones that do not directly include operating and capital expenses.

From a pure expense view of your G/L, you may never see a firm return on investment for an ITIL implementation. Simply because accurately accounting for its benefit contains the requirement that we understand the benefits of improved productivity and improved service levels.

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Hands On ITIL Helpdesk

I have written many high level overviews of ITIL on this blog, and to this day it is the most searched for information.

Unfortunately for me, very few of those visitors have left questions on other info they would like to see.

However, if you are someone who stumbled on the ITIL stuff here, Mary Weilage has an excellent post at Techreplublic titled; Implementing help desk software: IT exec offers a firsthand account about Jay Rollins’ search for and implementation of ITIL aligned help desk processes.

It provides an excellent summary of the questions, requirements and trade offs made along the way.

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Accident, Or IT, Avoidance Isn’t Glamorous

Two, well, let me say, rather disconnected events spurred this post!

An Accident That Never Was

First, on the way into work last week I was almost smacked pretty nicely by a 5 Ton truck. It definitely would have been at least a tow truck type accident.

On my local highway there is a point where two highways join (for anyone in Ottawa reading this – the “split” at 174 and 417), and during rush hour, that point comes to dead stop. The truck was behind me on the fast portion – I was watching him in the rear view and saw that he was signaling to get into the right lanes, I could also see that he was looking in his side mirrors. Of course I could also see traffic in front of me was at a standstill. Inertia being what it is, I knew he could not make that lane change or stop in time.

So I wiggled my little car onto the left hand shoulder, right up against the guardrail and actually drove up beside the car that should have been in front of me. I got a funny look from that driver! – but figured that he was just not as observant as I was! Sure enough, that 5 ton got stopped – but close enough to both of our automotive back sides that I had still been behind that other car, it would have been a spectacular surprise and curse fest for all.

Avoidance

There was a bit of adrenaline rush, but it was a non-event. Nothing happened. No emergency; and no spectators. We all continued on towards our destinations.

It reminded me (I should amend that, after the adrenaline rush wore off!) of a discussion I previously had with the president of the company I work for. That conversation was about how aligning along ITIL lines with process and financial discipline had reduced both our IT costs, and the (very) large amount of outages and service failures that we had been having when I joined them.

During that talk, he made the comment; How soon we forget…

The SMB Takeaway

According to the film and television industry – arsonists often stay to watch the fires they start.

I am not stating that your IT staff or suppliers are deliberately setting fires; but if there seems to be too many heroic incidents battling flames and smoke!… (OK, OK dead servers and the like) You should start asking questions.

Because like an accident that never happened, you should not see anything at all. It is not sexy or glamorous, there are no flashing lights or sirens.

But at the end of the day – isn’t that what we want?

PS: I forgot to mention, my car is just over 1 week old – if I had got smacked, I really, really, really would have been pissed!

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Photo Credit jaxxon via flickr

ITIL: Risks And Rewards

If you are a larger organization looking at ITIL, here is a good overview by Bob Mathers on ITWorld Canada titled; Payback time for ITIL

It dives into risk, metrics, and goals required for process improvement frameworks.

It covers many of the processes I have outlined here, and some of the risks and influences to be aware of.

The one piece that I wanted to highlight is an analogy that Mr. Mathers (you know I like analogies!) on defining metrics that incent actions that you are looking for.

In Mr. Mathers words; (emphasis mine)

And this does not apply only to IT processes. Consider a bank that provides customers a confusing telephone self-service option to change their PINs. Callers quickly become frustrated and abandon the service to talk to a live agent. Because the customer problem is easy to solve, the first-call resolution rate approaches 100 percent. Call center management has no incentive to search out and prevent this type of call, because then the calls could be avoided altogether. Fewer calls would push down the overall resolution rate, which would reflect poorly on management performance. Meanwhile, the customer experience suffers.

This is directly linked to your process governance. Direct causal linkages between your goals and the improvements to meet them.

The SMB Takeaway

As I have stated before – do you need ITIL for improving processes (including IT) No!, but regardless of the framework used or chosen. The governance issues remain.

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A Snapshot In Time; Doesn’t Work

I have spent a lot of time on this blog writing that strong documented frameworks such as ITIL can help reduce your IT costs.

In ITIL, the concept behind all of the processes (ie Change and Configuration Management) is having up to date configurations of all IT assets. 

Larger businesses will need more complex configuration management databases, but even smaller businesses should ensure that accurate documentation is maintained.

‘Maintained’ is the key word.

If I document a server configuration, database linkages between applications, or any device configuration. If that information is not modified each and every time it changes, all I have a snapshot of that IT asset at one point in time.

It becomes obsolete as soon as it is written.

A process for managing that asset ensures that its configuration is a living document.

The SMB Takeaway

Photographs can be a great reminder of what a particular event was a few years ago.

But if there is an issue or problem with your IT infrastructure – a few years ago is useless.

You need a reminder of what it was just a few minutes ago.

If you do not enforce a process of ensuring this information is maintained, all you have is an old photograph. Maybe nice to look at , but not of much value to you now.

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Photo Credit: Jeff the Trojan via flickr

Real SMB IT: It Asset Management, On the Cheap

Having a handle on your IT assets is important. Both in the context of ITIL and from the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of your IT assets. 

For larger businesses in the SME space, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of tools that you can purchase.

For smaller businesses, you can do it yourself – and do it pretty cheap as well!

So here is how to start an asset management system on the cheap.

Step 1 The Asset Tags

If you are tracking assets by a name like Jeff’s PC or Printer next to Christine. What happens when Jeff leaves or the printer is moved?

Companies such as Maverick Label  will do Asset Tags in smaller batches, complete with your company name and logo starting at about a buck per tag.

That Asset Tag number becomes the global identifier for that asset. That remote sales rep calls with a laptop or projector problem?

That number will pull up every detail for you.

Step 2 The Asset Data

The exact data that you want to track may vary, but I track the asset number, the device serial number, make, model, manufacturer, purchase and warranty dates, vendor, asset type, who it is assigned to, location, and some general configuration information. I also keep space to document any service and historical information of the asset.

Step 3 The Asset Tracking Tool

Yes, it can be something as simple as a spreadsheet. However I like to use the freely down-loadable Microsoft Sharepoint Team Services.

I used Sharepoints custom list ability to create the asset management tool quickly, and free.

The benefit that I find is that with Sharepoint’s search capability I can pull up any asset by its asset number, or any other criteria.

Who has the projector that Jane used to use? one sec … got it

Which PDA is John using? .. got it.

The SMB Takeaway

Managing the life cycle of your IT assets is the first step in ensuring that you are accounting for both the whereabouts, and status of all IT assets.

It also reduces the time and cost of servicing assets as you have a central repository of each and every asset you own.

It also reduces purchasing assets that you may already have in surplus, and can even identify assets that are beginning to fail to frequently. 

And best of all, for smaller businesses, you can do it cheap!

Larger Image

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Processes Should Be Simple

We have defined processes as where inputs come from, and where they go to in order to get a piece of work completed.

For a simple example, when materials arrive at your loading dock, receiving validates the waybill with the delivery, then gives the way bill to accounts payable, who validates with the purchase order for payment. That way bill is both an output for receiving, and an input for A/P. 

If we were to chart or diagram this, it would be simple one;

Easy Process Flow

Receiving validates bill with Delivery, THEN provides to A/P who validates with PO, THEN pays bill.

Exceptions Can Hurt

But what often happens, is that we try to have our processes handle all possible exceptions. Trying to build that one size fits all type of process gets very complex and more difficult to work with.

For Example

In the example we used above, what could go wrong to cause an exception?

•  The delivery does not match the waybill
•  The delivery quantity does not match purchase order quantity

That is just two obvious exmples.

So our process would then be;

Delivery Arrives; (NOTE: this image is a sample to show complexity – not a true delivery to payment workflow)

Complex Process Flow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IF delivery and waybill match THEN DO….

IF delivery and waybill NOT match THEN DO…

IF Waybill and PO match THEN DO….

IF Waybill and PO NOT match THEN DO….

Now, if we were to chart or diagram this, it is no longer a simple one, it is filled with IF, THEN DO flows and paths.

As more of these pile up- your process gets unweildy and difficult to manage.

The Exceptions Do Count

This is not to state that we ignore those exceptions. You know they exist, you know they will happen.

The key is to not to try and account for them in one huge process flow diagram.

But to separate them out into multiple small and simple sub-processes.

So using our simplistic example, when materials arrive at your dock, one simple process takes place if the delivery and way bill match (ie forward to A/P)

And a separate process gets used if they don’t match. (ie perhaps purchasing needs to reconcile)

The SMB Takeaway

Don’t try and create a process that covers each and every possible exception.

Do create multiple smaller sub-processes. They are easier to use, and easier to update if you change the work flow.

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SMB IT: Consultants and ITIL

Question: Is there anything wrong with using consultants to help you formalize an ITIL strategy?

Absolutely not!

However

Ask yourself if you are renting expertise, or on a lease to own plan.

Renting is a complete knowledge transfer of best practices and processes. The recommendations and roadmap that can get you there.

The lease to own plan is a thick binder on your desk, and then they walk away.

What do you have left?

Well, it will be One of two things;

A nice binder sitting on a shelf

Or the consultants coming back in to do it all for you.

They will love option number two, it is more billable hours!

Here is the rub;

As a SME manager, renting requires more work by you and your team. But then you are driving the car for your ITIL service strategy, not just a passenger in someone elses.

Whenever the word consultant pops up, are you asking if it is a rental or lease to own plan?

My first post on ITIL is way back here. 

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Do I Really Need ITIL To Improve IT?

I write a lot about ITIL on this blog. My reason for that is that I have found that ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) provides a good framework to reduce IT costs and streamline the the processes of managing your technology infrastructure.

ITIL and other formalized frameworks can help provide a baseline on the requirements, inputs, and outputs required to perform a function or supply a deliverable.

But, can you do without ITIL?

In short, Yes.

I wanted to point out a couple of excellent articles that do a much better job at describing this capability than I can.

The first is Dr. John D. Halamka, Chief Information Officer of the CareGroup Health System and his blog post titled; The Broken Window Effect.

In IT organizations the Broken Window Effect can occur when management begins to tolerate downtime, constant workarounds, and broken processes.

In that article, Dr. Halamka does not mention using any framework such as ITIL or COBIT, but he extensively describes their formal change

Broken Windows

review process, and the critical questions asked to ensure continuous improvement and learning.

The second article is titled; Do You REALLY Have Effective IT Processes? by Management Consultant and researcher, Vaughan Merlyn,  which provides excellent guidance on the Charactersitics of Real Process

Processes tell you how work should be done, where inputs come from and outputs go to, what results should look like and how they should be measured and evaluated

The SMB Takeaway

I urge you to read both of those articles.

As both of these examples clarify, if you already have mature internal controls to identify, monitor, and improve your internal processes, then utilizing your existing controls within IT can generate the same improvements as ITIL et al.

The Value of ITIL

If you do not currently have disciplined internal processes and controls, the third party frameworks (including ITIL) can provide  the road map necessary to begin that journey towards continuous improvement, and continuous learning.

Photo Credit phrenologist

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