ITIL 2011 and ISO/IEC 20000 working together

Though both ITIL 2011 and ISO/IEC are concerned with IT standards and practices, they both fulfill very different roles, and offer distinct advantages for the businesses that utilize them.  Most people probably aren’t even aware of the fact that both of these (ITIL and ISO/IEC) can be pooled together, providing them with not only the absolute best practices and standards for their system, but also improving their company reputation and helping them to outpace their competition in the process.  Let’s take a look at ITIL 2011 first.   

So, just what is ITIL 2011?
The ITIL framework is a compendium of the best practices and methods for managing and servicing IT systems and technologies.  The information contained in ITIL 2011 is not just theoretical, it has been proven in the field, and that is the ultimate reason that it is in the guide in the first place.  What ITIL 2011 actively seeks to achieve is consistency and results that can be accurately measured.  Additionally, an ITIL –fueled IT department is principally devoted to ensuring that its processes help drive their organization’s business forward.  In the end, ITIL 2011 more or less exists to provide clean and useful technology channels that facilitate the ideas, concepts and desires of key business personnel.  In some cases however, there may actually be certain ITIL-related practices that can trigger or assist in unique business concepts.  

OK, so what about ISO/IEC, what does it seek to accomplish?
The ISO/IEC standard is actually strongly associated with the ITIL 2011 framework.  Unlike ITIL however, ISO/IEC is not a hands-on methodology per se, it is a way of both measuring and validating the systems and processes you possess in accordance with internationally recognized standards.  You could think of it this way; ITIL 2011 helps an organization to establish solid IT practices and the ISO/IEC then tests and measures said practices.  In other words, ITIL 2011 does all the work and the ISO/IEC is there to either give it a “thumb up” or a “thumb down”. Organizations that have been able to achieve ISO/IEC 20000 certification will have a distinctive advantage over competing companies that do not possess this qualifier, the question that must be answered however is, is the cost of attaining this ultimately worth it?  For a majority of cases, the costs associated with achieving ISO/IEC certification are well worth it, and often make certain international business ventures / ideas possible as well.  

Tandem Utilization (of ITIL and ISO/IEC)
The simple fact of the matter is that ITIL 2011 and ISO/IEC were more or less designed to work together to achieve the same ends.  Even if you have constructed and maintained a dynamic IT infrastructure without the assistance of ITIL (quite a feat), the ITIL 2011 framework and the ISO/IEC 20000 standard can be used together to completely corroborate the quality and effectiveness of your work and system, for example.  Additionally, using both sets of standards as a reference will allow you to both identify technological gaps, and improve overall efficiency.  ITIL is more of an inwardly focused set of principles designed to help you, “get your house in order”; while the ISO/IEC standard is more outwardly focused and is more or less, “how your neighbors see you”.  Both sets of principles are needed if one is to truly solve all their IT-related qualms and discrepancies.  

The latest release of ITIL, the 2011 edition has been revamped to be even more in line with the goals and ideas outlined in the ISO/IEC 20000 standard.  Among the additions present in the newest version is a business relationship management process; which has been added to provide further means for strategically utilizing IT services and resources.  This extra addition will allow IT managers, as well as business leaders to work together more efficiently and determine the most efficient means (per scenario) to utilize their available IT resources.  

For serious companies, particularly those with international aspirations, the ISO/IEC 20000 standard represents a clear path that can be taken to increase one’s visibility and reputation. ITIL 2011 on the other hand, is a collection of comprehensive methodologies that can not only help you to better design your IT department, processes and resources, but also train them to be more efficient and increase their overall usefulness / effectiveness.  When working together, these two invaluable tomes of information can literally transform not only your IT department into something incredible, but your entire organization as well.  

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