Throwback Thursday: Agile Healthcare IT Organizations Can Tackle ITSM and ITIL

Originally posted on November 18, 2011

Organizations today are seeking IT Service Management tools which allow the organization to rapidly modify processes without the need for time consuming and expensive reprogramming of their ITSM platform. Departments tasked with delivering IT services have to be agile, no matter the industry. While technology changes often drive changes in IT processes, requirements also change. These can be driven by regulatory change, a need to increase efficiency within the department, or organization as a whole. Taking that a step further, ITIL aligned entities (departments or organizations) which embrace Continuous Service Improvement will regularly modify processes to ensure the best possible use of existing people, processes, and tools.

Now, if you are part of a department delivering IT services in the Healthcare industry, you know you have to be even more agile. While other IT departments may be able to shoot from the hip when it comes to processes, those providing IT services in Healthcare must accommodate regularly changing regulations and laws, mandates from government on the use of technology such as Electronic Medical Records, and the delivery of high availability services to users whose lives really do depend on these services. In every way, Healthcare IT is challenged to deliver services which have constantly changing requirements. The best way to address those requirements is to have tools, as we mentioned, which can change quickly to meet these challenges.

The problem many IT departments have today, be they in Healthcare or other industries, is that the IT Service Management tools they have in place are built on legacy platforms. These tools, while often very robust, are typically inflexible and require actual reprogramming to make even simple changes to forms, let alone complex changes to workflows and process automation. In other words, these legacy tools are not agile; these tools cannot be quickly adapted to changing organizational requirements.

Agile for Software Development and Beyond

Those of us that are in the field of software development are already familiar with Agile Methodologies for the development process. At SunView Software we use Agile everyday for our development and find it valuable. You can read some excellent articles by our CTO, Russ Miller: 4 Tips to Increase Velocity in Your ITIL-Based Change Process and 5 Steps to Integrate ITIL into Agile Process.

Have you considered utilizing Agile methodologies throughout your enterprise? 
Agile in the enterprise requires a strong backbone, I feel that the first step is to create strong processes - both within the IT Organization and across the enterprise. This should include an ITIL-based framework that has workflows that are easily customized to meet the process needs each department. 

If you do not have a good backbone for processes management in place, then you should consider the offer below. 

Beyond Logistics, IT in Education

As the end of another school year approaches, it is time to think not just about the prom and graduation ceremonies, but also about the technology behind education. Although I am still a fan of the Commencement Speech, IT in education, may be all about administration.

Since the early days of LMS, IT has been a major contributor to the learning sector. In many ways, education administration is all about getting 30 students into a class at a particular time and moving them from room to room until completion for K-12 or 4 year universities. Yes, educational administration has always been about logistics. But in the report by David R. Johnson, "Technological Change and Professional Control in the Professoriate," he makes the case that the overwhelming classroom use of IT is not for teaching or learning, it is for the backbone of education, the ease of administration. 

If you are in education IT, then some, if not most, of your day is undoubtedly spent on the logistics of education. One tool that is vital for that effort is the IT Service Desk. If you are interested in a modern easy to use, quick to implement solution, take a test drive today. 

Throwback Thursday: 10 Items Slowing Down Your Help Desk

Originally posted on March 12, 2012

At the heart of success for a Service or Help desk, perhaps even at the center of any service-focused organization, are two key components, Quality of Service and Time to Resolution. The two do a dance, that if done properly, and well coordinated, result in very happy customers – most of the time.

Barring those customers that would never be happy, even with the highest quality service provided in the shortest possible time frame, if you can get Quality and Time matched perfectly, things will run smoothly. However, looking at these two pieces objectively, Quality of Service is harder to measure, but more easily controlled. In contrast, Time to Resolution is easy to measure, but can be much more difficult to establish realistic standards.

Process Automation in Six Easy Steps

When it is time to drive efficiency in the IT Organization, it is time to build automations into your daily activities. Every process has automation opportunities. It is up to the team to determine where these efficiencies can be found. One way to determine the low hanging fruit is to look at your ticket logs. 

Your reports will show you common issues and this may be the place to start. When you see the developing use patterns, you can start to dig into the processes associated with the most common tickets. Even adding an automated email response can drive efficiencies; let alone adding a process automation that allows the end user to drive the issue to completion. This is a great use of the Service Catalog, allowing the end user to request a service and fulfill independent of a Service Desk Analyst. 

If you are interested in trying automations for yourself, take a test drive of the ChangeGear Service Desk environment. 

Regulatory Audit Preparation Requires Change Management

Are you ready for your next regulatory compliance audit? Do you have processes in place for tracking system changes? Have you been following all of the processes and procedures when making changes to your servers and other IT Organization system? 

Personally, I have been through an ISO audit on one of my large projects and am proud to say that my project management was rated 100% Green. Yes, I am proud because although the audit is the final outside auditor review, that 100% Green rating means that my project management was following company process.  

If you are preparing for your next audit and are not using a Change Management solution, check out the offer below.

Throwback Thursday: Where does Microsoft’s Answer Desk fit into your Help Desk?

Originally posted 12/9/11

Just this week I heard a conversation to the effect of, “What did we do before Google?” Of course, that conversation goes off in a near infinite direction as we piece together the way modern people have found answers to issues - be they technical or not. However, while Google is great, and it has personally gotten me through some past IT assignments with flying colors, it doesn’t really provide answers, at least not yet. Perhaps then, this is the aim of Microsoft’s new Answer Desk - a one stop shop of sorts for sorting out PC and software issues, specifically those related to Microsoft's suite of products.

NERC CIP Version 5 and Compliance

If you are in the Energy sector, then you are well versed in the North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standards or better know as the NERC CIP Standards. Dated April 11, 2013, the recent NERC Transition Guidance announcement: 

The Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) Version 3 Reliability Standards (“CIP Version 3”) are currently mandatory and enforceable for Responsible Entities. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) approved Version 4 of the CIP Reliability Standards (“CIP Version 4”)1 on April 19, 2012, in FERC Order No. 761.2 The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) filed the CIP Version 5 Reliability Standards (“CIP Version 5”) with FERC on January 31, 2013, which are pending FERC approval.

In other words, get ready for CIP V5 – coming soon to a NOC near you.