ITIL gains momentum

The adoption of ITIL best practices for managing organisations' IT services is accelerating rapidly across Europe with many firms claiming they are enjoying major productivity gains by following ITIL guidelines.

That is according to a new report released today by IT management software specialist BMC Software which argues that with ITIL adoption running at over 35 percent, the best practice framework is even more popular than many market commentators believe. "The adoption rate was definitely higher than expected," said Ken Turbitt, global best practices director for BMC. "This proves ITIL really has become the defacto standard."

The survey of just under 200 senior IT decision makers across the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy found that 70 percent were aware of ITIL and of those 56 percent had personally implemented some area of ITIL.

Over three quarters of those using ITIL also said that it had met their expectations, with over half saying it helped improve IT and business alignment, increased productivity and ensured best practice was adopted.

The findings suggest that criticism from some quarters that ITIL is too prescriptive and doesn’t deliver promised cost and performance benefits are unfounded, Turbitt argued.

The report also found that where IT directors are not deploying ITIL, the barriers to adoption often lie outside the IT department. According to the survey over two-thirds of those who have yet to deploy ITIL said that increased awareness of ITIL outside the IT function, increased budget and greater board level support were needed to eliminate the barriers to adoption.

"There is a need to focus more on talking to the other line managers and getting their co-operation if you are to adopt ITIL," said Turbitt.