Published: ServiceTalk - The Journal Of itSMF Forum - February 2004 - in column:

Ask The Experts - Leading industry figures respond to questions received in the itSMF office

ITSM Tool Selection

Karen Ferris

Question: With so many tools on the market how do I begin to decide which one to choose?
 

For me, the key in determining which IT Service Management tool to choose is driven by the process that the organisation wishes to adopt. Too many organisations allow the tool to drive their process design and then the organisation is shoe-horned into the tool.  

So, firstly design the processes that you wish to implement. You may decide that you are only going to design in detail a few of the processes but remain aware of what you may want to achieve from some of the other processes at a later date. It is important that the tool you select allows integration of all the processes. For example, Configuration Management has to be integrated with Incident, Problem and Change Management as a minimum. 

Secondly, produce a specification of requirements. This is now driven by your process design. Produce the specification using the 80/20 rule. Determine which requirements are mandatory and which are desirable. Once you have determined the mandatory requirements do not compromise. Do not let a tool vendor convince you that you don’t need features that you have decided are mandatory for your organisation and your designed process.

Thirdly, prioritise the requirements – assign a weighting to each requirement. This will allow you to shortlist potential tools based on the top requirements.

Fourthly, identify available tools on the market. Based on your top requirements, short-list the vendors that you wish to respond to a Request For Information (RFI) or Request For Tender (RFT). This could be 10 or 12 products.

Fifthly, issue the RFI / RFT to the short-listed vendors. On response to the RFI / RFT, rank the products using your weighting – score each product against your requirements. Select the top 2 or 3 on which to do a detailed assessment. These are the products for which you should now obtain detailed presentations and evaluation copies of the tools for use within the organisation.

Sixthly, let the staff evaluate the tools. These are the people that will have to use the tools on a day to day basis. Provide them with some evaluation criteria that they can use to rate each tool. Criteria such as user-friendliness, reporting, speed of call logging etc. should be included. The tools should also be evaluated in detail against your specification of requirements which should include process requirements (including integration between the processes and interfaces to other products such as system management software), reporting requirements, technical requirements (including performance, security, resilience), supplier requirements (including product assurance, financial stability and reliability of the supplier), and implementation requirements (including timeframes, training and cost).

Finally, select the tool. This whole selection process although it may take some time, will help ensure that you get the right tool for your organisation. This will save time and money in the long run as you will not make the mistakes that other organisations have done, which has resulted in tools being abandoned because they are not suitable and the whole selection process started over again.

Karen Ferris Copyright © 2004 KMF Advance. All rights reserved.