Six Benefits of Using ITIL Continual Service Improvement

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) was formed primarily to guide the IT sector in producing manageable systems and applications. It was built on the principle of sharing accumulated knowledge that spans two decades of experience from renowned and reputable IT service management organisations.

Budding IT managers can take advantage of the more than useful nuggets of wisdom contained in ITIL and form a stronger and more reliable service delivery capability. Aside from the included frameworks and varied suggested strategies; ITIL can also help service owners to produce and deliver services in a relatively stable lifecycle with the help of one of the best features of ITIL version 3 - namely ITIL Continual Service Improvement (CSI).

CSI is a great process and best practice set to employ, as it is tasked to keep an eye on the various service applications and service operations within the service lifecycle of a company.

It helps identify and monitor processes and it can help ease the unnecessary worries and problem areas of a service operation - with its proactive approach and keen sense of improvement on the services of the business.

Although ignored by most businesses, CSI can offer tons of key advantages, all of which aim to keep track and boost the progress of a service across its lifecycle.

Here are just a few of the benefits that a company can attain when they apply CSI as a sevice function:

* A relative improvement on the quality of the business operations

Having the advantage of fully knowing how their services operate and function on various levels of the work cycle, managing change and delivering services can be much easier for the service owners.

* Staff productivity improvement

As CSI thoroughly monitors the service lifecycle, it would be easier for them to identify which services or applications are frequently in dispose, and which of those are experiencing frequent errors in a work turnaround. Having this knowledge at hand, it would in turn help the staff to work faster and easier with a more stable work environment. ITIL Training can significantly increase the internal knowledge base of an organisation too.

* CSI strengthens the bond between client and IT provider

As CSI keeps the errors in check and helps to minimize service breakdowns in a service delivery, customers will be more than likely pleased with the results and the delivery of their requested services from their IT provider.

* Gives a better view of the management operations and services

Transparency is the key element in CSI operations. With their vigilant monitoring of the service lifecycle, ITIL CSI can help procure a better and clearer view of the management operations and services.

* Output quality improvement

CSI aims to produce better output quality, as it notes every service problems and hang ups within the service organization. With this accumulated knowledge, the service provider can learn from their mistakes and when this occurs again, it would be easier for them to fix or avoid the problem all together. As the company experiences less errors, the service owners can focus their resources in producing better services and products.

* CSI keeps the costs in check

Employing CSI in the service lifecyle can give the company a great opportunity to keep their budget in check and relatively stable. As CSI aims to fix the server errors and problem areas of an application, its vigilance and dedication helps keep a company from experiencing major breakdowns in the future.

CSI Activities - Whats Involved in CSI?

It is important to understand all of the different activities that must be applied to CSI - in order to implement CSI successfully.

Note: All these activities do not happen 'automagically' within an organization or business. Careful planning and attention to detail is necessary.

The IT organization must be capable of ownership, handling the responsibility andpossesses the correct authority - in order to make these happen.

The optimum position is for CSI to becomes a process in itself within IT;with specific activities, inputs, outputs, roles, measuring and reporting.

CSI must also ensure that Service processes are developed, deployed and enhancedin support of an end-to-end service management approach to business customers.

The following activities support the process improvement plan:

• Reviewing management information (MI) and trends to ensure that services are meeting agreed service levels

• Regularly carrying out maturity assessments against the activities and roles associated with the process to demonstrate areas opportunities, improvements and/or concerns

• Reviewing management information and associated trends to ensure that the output of the ITSM processes are achieving the required results

• Periodically conducting internal audits to verify compliance

• Reviewing existing resources and documents for relevance

• Making ad-hoc recommendations

• Conducting regular customer satisfaction surveys

• Conducting service reviews to identify further CSI opportunities


It is critical to adopt a progressive and well managed CSI strategy for each organizational process - as well as the core services themselves.