Analysts, consultants and IT managers are all clear that the next three to five years will see widespread use of the IT service management framework Itil across local government.

Simon Mingay, research vice president at analyst Gartner, says Itil is not a fad that will go away. ‘It is here to stay and it shows the industry is growing up,’ he says.

Essentially, Itil is a tool to help IT departments focus on delivering better levels of service to customers through well-defined standard processes. But for it to work, they need to reassess not only their fundamental processes, but also the skills and roles in the department, says Mingay.

‘The consequence of becoming a process-based, service-driven organisation is you create more jobs requiring experience that spans boundaries. We see roles emerging such as process managers, product managers, service managers and relationship managers. That requires fundamental behavioural changes. People at the coalface have to do things differently,’ he says.

‘It means instead of database administrators chucking rocks at networking guys, or service desk people blaming the application support team, everyone has to work collaboratively around a process. IT departments need multi-disciplinary teams focused on positive service outcomes for customers. Itil is basically about organisational change. If you treat it in any other way you significantly reduce your likelihood of success.’

While many private sector organisations have already adopted Itil and similar methodologies to support IT transformation, local government has only recently come on board. Richard Harrison, PA Consulting’s global head of IT service management consultancy, says local government IT departments are generally very technically focused.

‘IT staff frequently do not have the wide range of skills found in other sectors. In addition, the manner in which projects are commissioned often means IT staff do not gain a view of end-to-end service delivery,’ he says.

But things are beginning to change, says Harrison. ‘E-government is putting local authority IT departments more directly in the public view,’ he says.

‘Central government is also pushing for more electronic interfaces across different levels of government which require good processes to support them. The value of Itil is therefore becoming much more evident.’

However, because Itil requires a fundamental transformation of the way they work, authorities can often only consider it in the context of larger changes.

Ben Grinnell, director of consultancy Qedis, says it is very difficult for councils to implement Itil without a step change in the way they work.

‘The new processes need to be set up correctly and they need to restructure the IT department from top to bottom,’ he says.

‘First, they need help defining and installing the processes, typically from consultants. Smaller councils might bring in operations and senior managers who have had experience of Itil elsewhere – generally from the private sector. Alternatively, they might consider outsourcing.’

See next page for definition of Itil