ITIL at a bargain

Commerzbank subsidiary discovers SAP R/3 as an integration tool for ITIL-Processes.

Until recently nobody could speak of a system supported IT-Service-Management within the Commerz Grundbesitz Investmentgesellschaft mbH (CGI). "Basically our IT-Processes were only standardized by the means of forms", says Christian Ebert, head of the department for information technology at the Wiesbaden based Commerzbank subsidiary. Until only a few months ago, his eleven employee strong organization, which supervises 240 PC-Clients, 40 Servers and 70 network printers, gathered their services using Excel spreadsheets. SAPs Asset Accounting functioned as repository for instance for serial numbers of new PCs. That was merely master data maintenance, as we did not have a correct processing of documents for support-tickets", Ebert reflects.

What was missing were transparent and comprehensible processes as the basis for an efficient service organization. In order to standardize the procedures and to be able to transparently visualize the costs ultimately to reduce them, Ebert decided earlier this year, to orientate the service processes of his department towards to the IT Infrastructure Library (Itil) regulations.

As a team together with IT-group leaders they discussed which ITIL-disciplines were possible and in which order they should be implemented and developed. The analysis of the existing installation was completed rapidly: "It doesn't take much time when computerized processes are hardly being used", Ebert said pragmatically. However the IT-department did not have to start from scratch since tools for asset and client management were already in use. Yet information concerning incidents was not available to all IT-employees, common problems repeatedly caused unnecessary costs. Therefore the ITIL-discipline Configuration Management or the setup of the "Configuration Management Database" (CMDB), a database that includes all relevant information concerning infrastructure components and their relations, was of highest priority. In addition the Incident-Management was to be implemented.

The decision, which tool was to be used to support the new processes, proved to be difficult. The ITIL tools in question basically two problems. First of all, only limited funds for their acquisition were at Ebert's disposal. Secondly, the tools available required the development of numerous interfaces for a consistent connection to the SAP-systems in use at CGI since 1998 -- the R/3-Module Real Estate (RE), Financial Management (FI), Controlling (CO) and Materials Administration (MM).

Ebert sought support to clarify this issue. Together with SIRIUS Consulting & Training AG (specialized in SAP) and Maxpert AG (ITIL experienced), the head of IT decided to use the R/3-System as a Support-Tool for mapping ITIL-Processes and consequently to build an interface between the business, and the planning or elements level in IT. The advantages of this unusual approach were the elimination of additional hard or software investments, as the infrastructure was already at hand. It was no wonder then that Ebert decided to launch the pilot project "ITIL mit SAP" in April 2004.

Fortunately it paid off because in practice SAP R/3 proved widely (to conform to ITIL) ITIL conform. "We used SAP-Standard Modules 'Plant Maintenance' (PM) and 'Customer Service' (CS), which are normally used to illustrate incident and configuration management", Ebert reports. Patrick Weck (consultant, chairman of SIRIUS AG) clarifies: the essence of ITIL business is encompassed in the SAP-Module CS. "ITIL aims at aligning IT services to product standards originally put in place within the industry, in order to create transparency and comparability."

These days all CGI relevant information selected by ITIL is managed in SAP R/3. Data altered during change management processes must be managed as separate objects in R/3. Dynamic information such as the dis utilization can be looked up online via Client-Management-System. Moreover it is of importance to directly activate analysis tools during the support process. Therefore the SAP system was extended by CGI by the means of additional components to run other systems directly and enable access to information external to R/3. According to Weck SAP R/3 is suitable as an integration tool to all ITIL-Service-Set "Service-Support" disciplines (Service Desk, Configuration, Incident, Problem, Release and Change Management). ERP solutions are only partially viable for Service Delivery processes. "A topic predestined for SAP is, for example, Financial Management, and, in a sense, SLA-Management. Full implementation of Capacity, Availability Management and IT-Continuity with R/3 is hardly effective."

As the expected advantages have been realised, Ebert’s team was able to go into live operation with Configuration and Incident Management processes in the client area three months after launching the project. The server environment was ready in October. Disturbances, requests and orders are accepted, classified, described and processed via Incident Management centrally located at the Service desk. In Configuration Management, all IT components, applications, licenses and software is filed, monitored, maintained and made available to other processes in the central data base.

According to Ebert the cost for implementing ITIL processes was limited to 25 consultant days and 80 man-days on site . Of these days thirty-five were needed for ABAP/4-development and the customizing of R/3-Modules in use – tasks the CIO, a former SAP developer, performed himself. Looking back, Ebert found the implementation of SAP R/3 in his organization to be the greatest challenge. “It involved an entire modular implementation in a department inexperienced with SAP – their world was turned upside down“, the CIO reflects. He is planning to give his employees “more time to practice“ before the next implementation of ITIL-Processes. Change Management is due to be launched in this current quarter, followed by Problem and Release Management are scheduled in turn for the second half of the year. (kf)

Source: Computerwoche 01/2005 (kf)