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ITIL adoption growing despite confusion

New research has found that IT organisations are keen to adopt the best practices outlined by the IT framework, but aren't sure which version to adopt.

By Miya Knights, 29 Jan 2008 at 17:34

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Despite growing adoption of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), IT organisations are confused by which version of the best practice IT framework they should follow, a new survey out today has found.

A large majority (87 per cent) of UK, US or Australian IT professionals surveyed said they had already adopted ITIL. One in three organisations intended to adopt ITIL within a year and another third (36 per cent) are considering it.

Nearly two thirds (64 per cent) believed following ITIL was key to improving IT reputation, while more than two thirds (70 per cent) see it as a catalyst for meeting and improving service level agreements (SLAs).

Survey sponsor and helpdesk software provider Axios said more organisations are now looking to adopt the framework following the launch of the latest version, ITIL V3, in search of other benefits, including a reduction in maintenance time and costs, improved first line response, better internal communication and preparation for regulatory compliance.

But the research also showed there is still a lack of understanding in the market about the benefits of ITIL V3, with one third of respondents not planning to adopt the third version because they did not have enough knowledge about it to consider implementation.

Of those organisations without plans to adopt ITIL, almost one in three (30 per cent) see cost and time as the largest barriers to deployment, followed by using its own framework (23 per cent) and ITIL not being seen as a priority (20 per cent).

Tasos Symeonides, Axios' chief executive, said there has been a great deal of confusion in the market about the role of ITIL V3 as it addresses issues relating to service design and strategy, in particular. "While the benefits of ITIL are clear many businesses are still sitting on the fence when it comes to deciding which version to use," he said.

Version 3 was released last June and reduced the previous version's nine books down to five, covering Service Strategies, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement areas. At its launch, ITIL chief architect Sharon Taylor said the new version is designed to offer more insight into how to manage the service lifecycle and offer value to the user.

In response to the survey findings, Axios is hosting a series of live or on-demand webinars to discuss each stage of ITIL's V3 service lifecycle approach. Visit the vendor's website to register.