Case StudyAugust 2010Case Study Using ITIL® and PRIN

Case Study
August 2010
Case Study: Using ITIL® and
PRINCE2™ Together
Noel Scott, PMP
© The Stationery Office 2010
2 Using ITIL® and Prince2™ Together
Introduction
Setting up service desks in offshore locations is big business.
There
are various drivers behind such efforts. Some are pure cost
savings.
Others are to attain quality improvements by leveraging
superior
language or business skills available in the new location. Some
projects can be extremely emotive, and all are certainl y
challenging
projects that need to be handled with care.
Recently I was employed by a corporation to manage their first
foray into this arena. Their service desk supported not just
internal
but also external customers, providing in particular incident and
access management plus request fulfilment. Their key driver
was

that their existing service desk was reaching capacity.
Expansion in
the current location was not physically possible or cost
effective,
and so an offshore location was selected. To add urgency, a new
IT
product was going to be released which meant an imminent
increase in volume and pressure on the service desk. Demand
and
capacity management already had calculated the size of the
expansion required (150 extra service desk staff, along with the
usual supporting IT infrastructure).
The project to set up the new service desk following ITIL®
procedures was formally initiated by the company’s official IT
change authority, in our case called the Change Advisory Board
(CAB). The CAB rightly recognized early on the scale of the
change and so officially invoked the project management group.
The vice president for the overall department was confirmed
as the project executive to sponsor the project going forward.
I was assigned the project to set up the new offshore service
desk to run in parallel with the existing service desk.
Specifically,
I had to ensure the new desk was designed and built to
replicate the existing service desk, and bring the two physical
services desks together so that they became a single logical
virtual service desk.
PRINCE2 supporting ITIL
From the moment the CAB provided the project mandate, the
project was run using PRINCE2™ methodology. PRINCE2 was
extremely valuable in ensuring success. It did this in many
ways,
but of particular value were the following:
1. The PRINCE2 principle focusing on business justification

throughout.
2. PRINCE2’s management by stages to break it down into
manageable chunks.
3. The PRINCE2 emphasis on lessons learned from previous
efforts.
4. PRINCE2’s risk management provided a methodical and
consistent approach throughout.
1. Business Justification
Perhaps the greatest benefit PRINCE2 brought was the principle
of continued business justification and consistent focus on the
business case throughout the project. It ensured that the project
did not deviate away from its central objective. And thank
goodness. As there were many tests and traps trying to entice
the project away from the original design.
One such lure away from the plan was in the area of function
creep. The primary aim of establishing the new service desk
was to ensure greater capacity ahead of the release of a new
IT product. The new service desk had to be online and ready
ahead of the IT product’s launch. It had to be done at minimal
expenditure, and so the second site in an offshore location was
selected rather than expanding the existing site. The second
site did provide other benefits, in particular some extra cover
for disaster recovery. If there was a denial of service (such as
a fire alarm) or denial of access (such as a network outage) in
the existing site, then the new second site could be designed to
provide business continuity.
However, to guarantee such extra benefits were realized
required extra expense. This additional expense was not overly
significant in relation to the overall budget for the project.

Moreover, some project savings had already been made
elsewhere, so we did have sufficient funds to cover the extra
expenditure. However, I did NOT authorise the expenditure.
PRINCE2’s principle on focusing on the business case ensured
I did not fall into the trap of spending the savings on realising
these extra benefits.
Why not? Yes, thanks to the savings already made on the
project, our budget would still have remained within our
financial tolerances as laid out by the project board. And yes,
it is certainly true that it is cheaper to put in place the disaster
recovery (DR) infrastructure from the outset (as retrofitting
offices with the extra DR requirements afterwards will always
be the more expensive option). However, the DR benefits were
a perfect example of gold plating. They were still an exception
beyond what we had originally justified. Our PRINCE2 business
case reminded us that we were not creating this site specifically
for disaster recovery purposes. Our primary concern was to
expand capacity. So when extra expense was requested to
ensure the new site was fully capable of providing such
business
continuity options, it was clear this was beyond the scope of
the original business case. As the project manager, I had been
entrusted to spend specific company resources to expand
capacity. I therefore could not authorise spending on something
else, however inexpensive and beneficial that might be.
That is not to say that I ignored the potential extra benefits
either.
In such circumstances it is not the role of the project manager to
say no and to move on regardless. I worked to ensure the project
board were aware of the new opportunity. It was their decision,
and the request had to be referred to them. My role and the role
of
the project team was to provide the board with all the
information

to help them weigh up the pros and cons of extending the
project
to include this extra requirement.
Ultimately they deemed the risk to the timeline to be too high
and so the project continued as originally planned. The project
board confirmed it was better for me and the project team
to focus on delivering the extra capacity by the required date
Using ITIL® and Prince2™ Together 3
as stated in the business justification and ensure that that
meets the requirements. The cost of missing the deadline far
outweighed the cost of retrofitting the new site with the full DR
capability, and so only minimal DR that did not add any extra
time was completed.
2. Management by stages
ITIL is huge. It has a wide breadth, covering all IT functions
across
the organization. It also has a great depth, getting deeply
involved
in the very root of processes and their design. Making changes
and
additions to ITIL can therefore be very daunting. The
ramifications
can spread far and wide. PRINCE2 helped us be successful by
ensuring we avoided biting off more than we could chew. It did
this through PRINCE2’s management by stages.
We focused on Service Operations, and within that on the
Service Desk. We ensured each of the ITIL service operations

processes (Incident management, problem management, access
management, event management and request fulfilment) were
covered and adopted correctly by the new service desk. Of
particular benefit was the Service V-model. The Service V-
model
breaks down relatively high level requirements into smaller
more detailed designs. It does this by defining the requirements
at the high level and requiring that to be signed off. Once that
is approved, the next level of more detailed design is then
documented and approved. Each step of the model can be
considered a stage for PRINCE2. The V-model gets its name
because the requirements and documented design represent
the left hand side of the ‘V’. As they get towards the base
of the ‘V’ the signed off definitions get progressively more
detailed. The right hand side of the ‘V’ then shows the test
plans, with each of the tests being built around its equivalent
requirement definition on the left hand side. This stepping
stone approach down one side and then back up the other
helps ensure that you document and sign off first and then test
and deliver precisely what is required. We tailored the model
to meet the specific project requirements, making sure we kept
the fundamental concept of the defined requirements at each
level then being used as the acceptance test and sign off criteria
going forward. Each definition itself was signed off before we
moved onto the next one, thereby ensuring we managed the
project in sizeable chunks.
3. Lessons learned
The emphasis on learning from previous experiences is another
area that PRINCE2 helped ensure the successful implementation
of the ITIL based service desk. Lessons learned from past
efforts
(both successful and disastrous) were used from the outset.
For example, the business justification and business case were
based upon former historical failures. Previous IT product
launches had swamped the service desk. The ramping up of

service personnel had been reactive, with major decreases in
customer satisfaction reflecting the lack of investment. Those
lessons were used in the business case to justify the upfront
expenditure ahead of the launch. It was the first time the
company had geared up ahead of a major IT product release.
The consistently high customer satisfaction scores during the
eventual IT product release were a real vindication of the
forward planning.
Lessons learned also helped avoid common pitfalls in setting
up the new service desk. A review of other expansion attempts
within the company was carried out. There had been one or
two attempts by other departments to expand, and so a few
nuggets of value were gleaned from this internal review. In
parallel a review of external sources for lessons learned was
also undertaken. Some of the best lessons came from this. In
particular, industry trade bodies were a wealth of information
around what works and what doesn’t. I already had set up
service desks abroad for previous companies as well, and
so I brought with me some key lessons from outside of the
organization. The combination of internal and external sources
helped ensure all possible lessons were learned.
We reaped the reward for these internal and external lesson
learned reviews as we progressed. The single biggest win I felt
was in ensuring that all the potential costs were accounted
for up front. We therefore avoided underestimating the total
expenditure. The hidden costs were everywhere, ranging
from individual extra talent acquisition to consultancy for local
tax experts to help you move your IT stock from one floor to
another within the same building! Not only were we able to
identify up front the vast majority of the potential extra costs.
(It is perhaps unreasonable to think you will get all of them!).
We were also able to accurately estimate them as well. It was
only thanks to the review of lessons that ensured we could

provide the estimated costs with such accuracy. The fact that
we successfully came in under budget is in no small part thanks
to the effort made up front in calculating all the potential costs.
The lessons learned did not stop with previous projects. By
identifying and capturing lessons within our own project itself,
we learned quickly what we were doing right and wrong. By
doing this methodically at least at the end of each stage, we
were then able to communicate that out to the wider project
team, so they could replicate what works and avoid what
did not. For example, we learned early on that there was an
incredibly long lead time to source IT equipment in the remote
location. Items that might only take a few weeks in the UK
could take many months to arrive in the new location. We
therefore adjusted our project plans to ensure this lengthy
delivery time was accounted for. We could not change the
project completion date. Rather we moved other work
around, and brought purchase requests forward as much as
possible. The long delivery times actually moved some of the
procurement items onto the critical path, and therefore they
gained the correct visibility to get them completed on time.
Lastly, our project provided lessons for future efforts as well. In
this regard our own project plugged well into ITIL’s “Continual
Service Improvement” theme. While building the new service
desk we identified specific process improvements which could
be harnessed by both service desks in the future. These follow -
on action recommendations were collated and made available
in the end project report, ready to be used by future projects.

4. Risk Management
The risk management aspects of the PRINCE2 method
helped guarantee a consistent attitude to both opportunities
and threats. It provided a methodical and robust approach
throughout the project. In particular it supported the change
advisory board (CAB) in their efforts. PRINCE2’s emphasis on
identifying and assessing risks helped the CAB in its role to
provide approval for rolling out the changes. The detailed risk
register reinforced to the CAB how seriously the project took
risk management. The CAB recognized that the project team
was working hard to reduce and avoid threats occurring. In
particular the fallback or contingency plan (often a roll back
plan) should the threat occur helped the Change manager and
the CAB give the required approvals.
ITIL supporting PRINCE2
I found during the project that the relationship between
PRINCE2
and ITIL was not all one-sided. Quite the reverse. For each
occasion
where PRINCE2 supported the ITIL implementation, ITIL
reciprocated.
In particular, ITIL helped the PRINCE2 implementation in the
following:
1. During Starting Up a Project
2. Communication
3. Quality versus cost balancing
4. Plugging a potential PRINCE2 gap
1. ITIL supporting Start Up
Over recent years I have noticed that projects initiated by

departments that are mature practitioners of ITIL have certain
things in common. Take for instance the project mandate; it is
never an illegible scrawl on the back of an envelope. Service
Strategy and Service Design generate very clear and detailed
project mandates. The reasons why the project is being
undertaken, why this particular approach is required, the scope,
the success criteria and so on all tend to be clearly thought
through and then documented. These greatly simplify the time
and effort required in starting up the project.
It could be argued that the clear mandate is as much a
reflection of the maturity of the organization as it is to do with
their adoption of ITIL principles. What is less contentious is
how
ITIL helps the designing and appointing of the project board
when the venture is starting up. ITIL initiated projects tend to
have clearly identifiable personnel to fit the roles of the project
management team. For instance, in my project, the incident
manager was an obvious candidate to sit on the project board
as the senior user.
2. Communication
Another area where ITIL supported the PRINCE2 project was
communication. ITIL provided a standard language around
which all could operate. To ITIL practitioners, incidents are
clearly different to problems which again are clearly different to
requests. Thanks to ITIL, we were able to make these kinds of
distinctions and therefore speak very precisely. It ensured there
was no confusion.
For instance, PRINCE2 rightly places significant focus on
defining the products required and the quality criteria of the
products. We used ITIL heavily in the quality definitions of the
end products. The service desk technology was all defined using
ITIL terminology. Likewise ITIL featured in the job
descriptions

of the new service desk personnel. When the time then came
to managing product delivery the team managers knew exactly
what was required of them.
I mentioned the Service V-model earlier. One additional
benefit of the Service V-model was in communication. There
were stakeholders who were ITIL trained, and stakeholders
who were PRINCE2 trained, but few knew both. Using the
Service V-model allowed us to speak to both ITIL and
PRINCE2
audiences at the same time, each understanding immediately
where we were in the project. Even those uninitiated in these
Office of Government Commerce best practices could still very
quickly understand and follow the project plan thanks to the
intuitive nature of the model.
3. Quality versus cost balance
As with all things, there is a risk of getting bogged down in the
detail. It sometimes becomes difficult to see the wood for the
trees.
ITIL’s emphasis on seeking an optimal balance between quality
and
cost proved extremely useful as a reminder to take a step back
and
weigh up quality improvements against the bigger picture. In
our
project, as we focused on the details, some of the IT teams
began
to lose sight of the need to be cost effective. IT teams generally
can
be extremely customer focused. They often go into IT support
because they enjoy helping people, and this is a very positive
attribute. This though became a concern during the project as
some of the IT teams appeared to put the customer first
regardless
of costs. We were not a charity. I needed a way to gently remind

members of the IT teams of the overarching company goal to
increase revenue and decrease cost. ITIL’s constant balancing
act of
quality versus cost fitted the bill perfectly. When requests came
in
to spend budget on specific tools, functionality, resources, etc, I
encouraged those making the applications to review them using
this ITIL principle. The number of change requests decreased as
people realized the costs of making the changes. More cost
effective alternatives began to be sought. ITIL helped make sure
that the project team only had to focus on the most important
change requests.
Using ITIL® and Prince2™ Together 5
4. Plugging a gap
Perhaps the biggest benefit of ITIL was in plugging a potential
gap within the project. We had been tasked to implement a
new service desk following ITIL principles. As with all good
projects, we were working and being measured against what
the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) sums up
as the “triple” constraints. This covered not just the traditional
measures of cost, time and quality, but also the more modern
and enlightened approach of measuring as well against risks,
scope and customer satisfaction.
Towards the end of the project, we were ready to roll out the
new
service desk. We were within both time and cost tolerances. We
had stayed within the clear scope outlined. The quality of the
end
product itself as well was met, as the new service desk team had

been trained, tested and were ready to go.
From a purely PRINCE2 project perspective we were hitting our
key
targets as outlined in our own project’s success criteria.
However,
the rollout of the product (the new service desk) was going to
impact the quality of the existing service desk. There was still
some
nervousness and anxiety within the existing service desk team.
While it had not been technically within the boundary and scope
of
the project, this was obviously a major concern.
The nervousness of the existing teams had to be addressed.
We could not let morale of the existing team suffer needlessly.
Based on ITIL principles a change to our project was therefore
made. The emphasis moved away from rolling out the new
service desk by the deadline come what may. We still had to
launch the new service desk by the required deadline, but
now we had to do it without negatively impacting the existing
service desk.
This reflected ITIL’s need for transition of the new service into
operations without generating undesired consequences. ITIL’s
stability versus responsiveness principle as well ensured that
we looked at not just delivering the project’s end product
regardless. We had to also be aware of and minimise any
ramifications on other groups. So although it increased the
costs, a more gradual rollout of the new service desk was
agreed upon. This ensured a good balance of stability to
the existing operations while allowing the new team to be
introduced into their work.
Whilst this oversight in the original project brief might have
been captured anyway, ITIL helped ensure that it was resolved

satisfactorily, with the best solution in mind. Like programme
management best practice (as reflected in Managing Successful
Programmes), ITIL helped the project remember that it is
simply
an enabler. Delivering an end product is the goal of the project,
but to only consider that goal is not enough. The project must
also keep one eye on the benefit realisation that will come from
that end product. The project itself cannot necessarily focus
100% on this, as often the benefits only commence after the
project is completed. We successfully avoided the temptation
to roll out the new service desk and declare victory too soon.
When our post project review took place, it showed the extra
costs spent in rolling out the desk were well spent. The review
demonstrated that the benefits had indeed been realized and
firmly embedded in.
Weaknesses of combining
PRINCE2 and ITIL
This is not to say that ITIL and PRINCE2 were a marriage made
in heaven. As in any partnership, there are some lows as well as
highs. Some of the ITIL functions and processes certainly added
an extra level of bureaucracy to the project. For instance, the
change management process covered all IT changes. However,
it was independent of the financial approval process which
went through a completely separate procurement process.
We therefore on occasions had the odd situation where we
had the project executive’s approval, and the business and
financial approval (shown through the approval of the purchase
order), yet we still struggled to get approval from the IT change
authority. This added if not time then certainly some frustration
to the project. With hindsight, one potential solution could have
been for the role of the leader of the CAB (the official IT
change
authority) to have been added to the project board. This would
have given the CAB greater insight into the project, which

could
only be a positive step.
Another area where the two did not mesh so well was that ITIL
did
seem to introduce an inordinate number of stakeholders. It is
understandable that lots of departments and lots of personnel
would be interested in the introduction of a new service desk.
However, we were somewhat taken aback by just how many
groups felt they should have a say in project decisions. ITIL
terms
were often quoted to justify this. It is difficult to say if this was
more to do with the specific ITIL implementation and the
personnel involved rather than ITIL itself. Either way, it did
seem to
be overkill. The project team had did have to spend significant
effort on engaging and managing stakeholders with sometimes
tenuous links at best to the project.
Conclusion
Whatever metrics you choose, the project was a success. From
a timing perspective, it was completed ahead of the release
of the new IT product, and so it was able to manage the
spike of incidents that followed. From a quality and customer
satisfaction perspective, our loyalty scores not only avoided
a dip, but in fact increased, both during the period when the
new service desk came on line, and then later when the new IT
product was launched. From a cost perspective we came in just
under budget, and that included some extra costs to provide a
more gradual rollout.
Moreover, the project illustrated several key benefits in using
PRINCE2 and ITIL together. Yes, there were some conflicts.
But overall the two OGC best practices did naturally and
neatly interlock together. ITIL worked well in defining the best

practice targets; PRINCE2 then assisted as the best practice
route to get there. For me it was clear that combining the two
provided benefits greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that we do not see more ITIL and
PRINCE2 projects together.
Author
Noel Scott
(PMP)Consultant
Noel Scott (PMP) is a MSP Advanced Practitioner, PRINCE2
Practitioner and ITIL Practitioner specializing in managing
programmes and projects within the contact centre industry.
With over 10 years experience in a wide range of customer
services programmes, Noel regularly delivers articles and
speeches
on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of contact
centres.
Noel is a leading member of the “Customer Contact Council”
and the “Service and Support Professionals Association”.
Acknowledgements
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Case Study
March 2015
Essex County Council
Louise John & Hayley Skargon
AXELOS.com
Contents

Introduction 3
Adopting ITIL 3
ITIL’s Continuing Use 6
What are your recommended Best Practices? 7
About AXELOS 8
Trade marks and statements 8
Introduction
Essex County Council (ECC) is England’s second largest local
authority and is the overarching local
government body for Essex, an administrative area east of
London. In collaboration with 12 district
and borough councils, two unitary authorities, and about 300
town and parish councils, the
Council provides vital services to a varied population of around
1.4 million people over an area of
1,300 square miles.
Information Services (IS) are an in-house Information Services
department who support a user base of
around 10,000 County Council employees, plus external
customers. Made up of around 200 people,
IS provide a fully managed IT service, looking after servers,
networks, websites and applications in
partnership with external suppliers.
Within IS sits the dedicated Service Management team. Made up
of six people, including process
owners, process managers and an ITIL lead, they are committed
to the adoption and Continual Service
Improvement of IS’s ITIL processes.

Adopting ITIL
WHAT CHALLENGES WERE YOU TRYING TO SOLVE
WITH THE HELP OF ITIL?
When David Wilde joined in 2011 as Chief Information Officer
(CIO), the customer base had little or no
faith in the IT department and there was a service report full of
red Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).
We had silos of knowledge without adequate tools to enable
sharing and out of date documentation. As
Essex County Council was and is under continued financial
pressure, with aspirations to become a truly
mobile and flexible workforce, we needed to standardize our
estate, meet our Service Level Agreement
(SLA), gain control of the service, get our underpinning
contracts into line and capitalize on sensible
outsourcing opportunities, such as our networking.
1
2
Essex County Council 3
Introduction
Essex County Council (ECC) is England’s second largest local
authority and is the overarching local
government body for Essex, an administrative area east of
London. In collaboration with 12 district
and borough councils, two unitary authorities, and about 300
town and parish councils, the
Council provides vital services to a varied population of around
1.4 million people over an area of
1,300 square miles.

Information Services (IS) are an in-house Information Services
department who support a user base of
around 10,000 County Council employees, plus external
customers. Made up of around 200 people,
IS provide a fully managed IT service, looking after servers,
networks, websites and applications in
partnership with external suppliers.
Within IS sits the dedicated Service Management team. Made up
of six people, including process
owners, process managers and an ITIL lead, they are committed
to the adoption and Continual Service
Improvement of IS’s ITIL processes.
Adopting ITIL
WHAT CHALLENGES WERE YOU TRYING TO SOLVE
WITH THE HELP OF ITIL?
When David Wilde joined in 2011 as Chief Information Officer
(CIO), the IT function had been in
a period of transition. The customer base had little or no faith in
the IT department and there was
a service report full of red Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
We had silos of knowledge without
adequate tools to enable sharing and out of date documentation.
As Essex County Council was and is
under continued financial pressure, with aspirations to become a
truly mobile and flexible workforce, we
needed to standardize our estate, meet our Service Level
Agreement (SLA), gain control of the service,
get our underpinning contracts into line and capitalize on
sensible outsourcing opportunities, such as
our networking.
1

2
Essex County Council4
HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT ITIL?
David Wilde had previously worked for the Cabinet Office
(from 1998–2001) and was involved in the
early design and creation of ITIL.
HAS ITIL TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION BEEN USEFUL
TO ACHIEVE
YOUR GOALS?
Yes – ITIL Process Owners are trained to intermediate level and
the whole department has been trained
to at least foundation level. Ensuring everyone is trained to
foundation level has really helped to gain
momentum and increase awareness and understanding. The
Service Management team have also
completed ‘what ITIL looks like in practice’ sessions – so those
who have completed the formal training can
then easily see how we already follow the ITIL processes and
their roles and responsibilities as part of this.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE ITIL RATHER THAN SOME
OTHER METHODOLOGY?
Because it’s the best – it gets the right blend of service
management, infrastructure management and
customer focus. It is internationally recognized and it has
proven successful in both the UK and Europe.
David Wilde had previously adopted ITIL in four separate
organizations and had seen the difference it makes.
HOW DID YOU APPROACH ITIL’S ADOPTION?
Our ITIL journey began with the help of third party consultants

who documented and educated us on
7 processes – Incident Management, Problem Management,
Service Asset & Configuration Management
(SACM), Change Management, Release Management and an
improvement process based on the
Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle and Continual Service Improvement
(CSI) approach. We then started a brand
new Service Management team from scratch to bring these
processes to life, to educate, implement
and continually improve. To start with, we had one team
member per process, but quickly moved to a
structure where team members were responsible for a lifecycle
stage (e.g. Service Operations, Service
Transition) instead. We then embarked on training the whole
department and working closely with all
the team to bring their current processes and procedures into
ITIL alignment.
WHAT PUSH-BACK HAVE YOU FELT WHEN ADOPTING
ITIL?
At the start, we felt a lot of push-back due to a lack of
understanding and the fear of extra work and
extra overhead on top of day jobs. There was a view that ITIL
just created a lot more paperwork when
we, as a department, were trying to be agile and responsive to
the customer. There were also silos
between Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition
and Service Operations – people didn’t
see the value of ITIL to the whole department and organization,
they just viewed it as something they
might have to do.
WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES WHEN
ADOPTING ITIL?
Dealing with the push-back to ensure process compliance was
one issue. Also, the Business As Usual

(BAU) vs CSI compromise – getting people to take a fresh view
of what they were doing to see where
and how we could improve our service. For the Service
Management team, it was taking the documents
that had been created by the consultants and digesting them,
understanding the ITIL theory, then
making it a reality at ECC – and getting other people
enthusiastic about it!
WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY?
●● Started with less – we tried to implement all the processes
all at once without really realizing that it
is a journey, and we underestimated the dependencies between
the processes. Definitely start with
less and build from there
●● Ensured the process owners – the ones bringing it to life –
had the time and space to take in the
theory and apply it, allowing time to build confidence and
knowledge. Then, encouraging them
to educate the process managers and practitioners to gain buy-
in. It is very difficult to adopt ITIL
without the right people involved – ’making it real’ is key
●● Implemented CSI in a quick and easy way from the start,
rather than overcomplicating it and making
CSI unachievable.
WHAT WENT RIGHT?
●● Our CIO had the vision and was prepared to support the
investment in the implementation and

continuation – understanding that it is a journey and it’s
important to stick with it
●● Implementing a team whose sole focus was pragmatic ITIL
alignment. The team were enthusiastic,
willing to learn and passionate about getting the whole
department excited and on board with it
●● Getting the right balance between the external consultants
and the new Service Management team in
order to share knowledge and upskill the team members.
WHAT ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
●● Our KPI journey – we identified the KPIs that were
important in regaining the trust of our
customers and focused our CSI on getting those KPIs from red
to green. In fact, we have had a 30%
improvement in our KPIs since the adoption of ITIL. Our
biggest improvements are Standard Service
Requests delivered within target, which were formally at just
was 32%, and are now at 86%, and
we have had a 25% reduction in Major Incidents
●● Our CSI culture – we now have a culture where CSI is
embedded, celebrated, part of the day job and
enables everyone to get involved
●● Awareness and ITIL education – when people come back
from their ITIL foundation training and can
understand and see how ITIL is adopted in ECC and how it all
fits together
●● Our process compliance – we have achieved sustained and
improved results in all of our audit

assurance over the last three years. This is most notable within
Service Transition, where all audit
results have improved, but in particular within Service Asset
and Configuration Management, which
has moved from ‘No assurance’ to ‘Substantial assurance’.
HOW (SPECIFICALLY) DID ITIL MAKE IT EASIER TO PUT
THINGS RIGHT?
●● ITIL makes it easier as it avoids a lot of questions and
queries by setting best practice standards.
The framework is logical, reasonable and transparent – making
it hard to disagree with!
What are your recommended Best Practices?
TOP FIVE ITIL SHOULD DO’S
● Get appropriate stakeholder engagement from the start – in
every level of the organization, from
the CIO to the service desk analyst, paying customer making the
decisions to the IT end-user.
Enthusiastic and empowered stakeholders are one of the main
factors in the success of ITIL from the
start and going forwards
● Finding flexibility in the framework – ITIL is a great recipe
for success, but should be adopted and
adapted to make it appropriate for your organization
● Do CSI – don’t be scared of it! Focus on CSI as soon as you
start. It is sometimes looked at as a
future dream state but, as soon as an ITIL process is in place, it

can be improved! Make it easy –
don’t overcomplicate it
● Make it real – explain and demonstrate how ITIL works in
practice, bring the documentation and the
textbooks to life!
● Excite your process owners – with the right people, right
attitude, education and understanding, you
can’t go wrong!
TOP FIVE ITIL DON’T DO’S
● Don’t forget about the business – keep the customer at the
centre. It’s easy to forget that we exist for
them, and keeping them happy is the aim of the game
● Don’t get bogged down with paperwork – make the process
documents easy to digest and not
theoretical – make it real
● Don’t bombard people with ITIL jargon – if you are excited
by ITIL, it’s easy to talk about the CSIs
for SACM’s KPIs, but some of your stakeholders who you are
trying to excite and empower might
feel alienated
● Don’t assume you’re going to get it right the first time – even
CSI needs CSIs. We’ve taken our
improvement process through CSI just recently, there is always
improvements needed, whatever the
maturity of your processes and organization
● Don’t stop believing – don’t give up when it gets tough or
when there is resistance, keep the
momentum going – it is worth it in the end.

4ITIL’s Continuing Use
HOW DO YOU CURRENTLY UTILIZE ITIL?
ITIL is now embedded as Business As Usual. It is at the centre
of everything we do. For all CSI, we refer
to ITIL, actively encouraging alignment every day.
IS EVERYTHING PERFECT NOW?
No – although most of our KPIs are now green, we are still on
our journey with a way to go, still
maturing our processes, still improving, still educating and
enthusing!
WHAT ARE THE CURRENT CHALLENGES?
We are currently working our way back through the lifecycle.
We are quite mature in Service Operations
and Transition, so have set our sights on bringing Service
Strategy and Service Design up to the same
maturity level.
HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO IT?
Through our CSI process – identifying the areas which are
causing the most pain for the customer or
ourselves and improving them step by step.
WHAT OTHER METHODOLOGIES ARE YOU USING?
Across the department, we also use APMP, TOGAF and
ISO27001. We don’t use a formal agile
methodology but our project team, PMO, TDA’s and
applications development do use an agile approach.
HOW DO THESE DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES WORK
TOGETHER?
We have worked on improving the interfaces between the
processes – e.g. TOGAF inputs into the
Service Design package and APMP has defined, documented

and understood interfaces across the
lifecycle but, most importantly, with release management.
WHAT PLANS DO YOU HAVE FOR THE FUTURE?
In the medium term, we are looking to gain SDI accreditation
for our Service Desk and in the long term
we would like to gain ISO20000 accreditation.
3
What are your recommended Best Practices?
TOP FIVE ITIL SHOULD DO’S
●● Get appropriate stakeholder engagement from the start – in
every level of the organization, from
the CIO to the service desk analyst, paying customer making the
decisions to the IT end-user.
Enthusiastic and empowered stakeholders are one of the main
factors in the success of ITIL from the
start and going forwards
●● Finding flexibility in the framework – ITIL is a great recipe
for success, but should be adopted and
adapted to make it appropriate for your organization
●● Do CSI – don’t be scared of it! Focus on CSI as soon as you
start. It is sometimes looked at as a
future dream state but, as soon as an ITIL process is in place, it
can be improved! Make it easy –
don’t overcomplicate it
●● Make it real – explain and demonstrate how ITIL works in

practice, bring the documentation and the
textbooks to life!
●● Excite your process owners – with the right people, right
attitude, education and understanding, you
can’t go wrong!
TOP FIVE ITIL DON’T DO’S
●● Don’t forget about the business – keep the customer at the
centre. It’s easy to forget that we exist for
them, and keeping them happy is the aim of the game
●● Don’t get bogged down with paperwork – make the process
documents easy to digest and not
theoretical – make it real
●● Don’t bombard people with ITIL jargon – if you are excited
by ITIL, it’s easy to talk about the CSIs
for SACM’s KPIs, but some of your stakeholders who you are
trying to excite and empower might
feel alienated
●● Don’t assume you’re going to get it right the first time –
even CSI needs CSIs. We’ve taken our
improvement process through CSI just recently, there is always
improvements needed, whatever the
maturity of your processes and organization
●● Don’t stop believing – don’t give up when it gets tough or
when there is resistance, keep the
momentum going – it is worth it in the end.
4

About AXELOS
AXELOS is a joint venture company, created by the Cabinet
Office on behalf of Her Majesty’s
Government (HMG) in the United Kingdom and Capita plc to
run the Global Best Practice portfolio.
It boasts and already enviable track record and an unmatched
portfolio of products, including ITIL®,
PRINCE2®, and RESILIA™ – the new Cyber Resilience Best
Practice portfolio.
Used in the private, public and voluntary sectors in more than
180 countries worldwide, the Global
Best Practice products have long been associated with
achievement, heightened standards and truly
measurable improved quality.
AXELOS has an ambitious programme of investment for
developing innovative new solutions, and
stimulating the growth of a vibrant, open international
ecosystem of training, consultancy and
examination organizations.
Developments to the portfolio also include the launch of
PRINCE2 Agile™, the ITIL Practitioner
qualification and a Professional Development programme, fully
aligned to AXELOS Global Best Practice,
for practitioners.
Latest news about how AXELOS is ‘Making organizations more
effective’ and registration details to join
the online community can be found on the website
www.AXELOS.com. If you have specific queries,
requests or would like to be added to the AXELOS mailing list

please contact [email protected]
Trade marks and statements
AXELOS, the AXELOS logo, the AXELOS swirl logo, ITIL,
PRINCE2, MSP, M_o_R, P3M3, P3O,
MoP and MoV are registered trade marks of AXELOS Limited.
PRINCE2 AgileTM and RESILIA™ are
registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited.
Reuse of any content in this Case Study is permitted solely in
accordance with the permission terms at
https://www.axelos.com/policies/legal/permitted-use-of-white-
papers-and-case-studies.
A copy of these terms can be provided on application to
AXELOS at [email protected]
Essex County Council logo is used with permission.
© Copyright AXELOS.
Our Case Study series should not be taken as constituting
advice of any sort and no liability is accepted
for any loss resulting from use of or reliance on its content.
While every effort is made to ensure the
accuracy and reliability of the information, AXELOS cannot
accept responsibility for errors, omissions
or inaccuracies. Content, diagrams, logos, and jackets are
correct at time of going to press but may be
subject to change without notice.
Sourced and published on www.AXELOS.com.

Case StudyAugust 2010Case Study Using ITIL® and PRIN

Case StudyAugust 2010Case Study Using ITIL® and PRIN

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