The launch next month of version three of the popular Itil IT service management guidelines look set to be well received after a new survey revealed over half of organisations plan to implement the new best practices.

The survey of 143 IT managers found that 51 percent planned to adopt the latest version of the guidelines with 60 percent of those planning to do so within two years.

However, the report also found that cultural factors were likely to provide a significant barrier to adoption with 81 percent of organisations keen to implement the new guidelines identifying staff and training issues as the biggest challenge they will face. In contrast, less than a third claimed that gaining managerial support and sufficient resources as a major barrier to adoption.

"There is a lot of momentum behind version 3 amongst firms, but the issue will be getting people trained across the organisation," predicted Mark Ross Sutherland, chief executive of IT service management consultancy G2G3, which commissioned the research. "Version 3 is significantly different in its approach to version 2 so it could be a challenge upgrading everyone."

"We expect version 2 and version 3 to run in parallel for some time and it could take 18 months to two years for firms to upgrade fully," he added.

The survey comes just a week ahead of the release of the five core publications, which comprise Itil version 3 and will be published on May 30th. The five titles will cover the IT services lifecycle through strategy, design, transition, operation and continual improvement and are expected to include improved support for newer technologies such as mobile and wireless systems.

Each manual costs £85, if bought individually, but the whole set can be bought for a discounted price of £299.

In related news, IT services firm Getronics today announced that it would be running an accredited foundation course in July for people interested in deploying Itil version 3.