Verso ITSM Blog

Continual Service Improvement is a crucial part of the ITIL lifecycle. Success of CSI requires metrics, but some organisations just don’t seem to know where to stop when gathering data.

The statement “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it” is true, but equally you need to consider the idea that “if you are not going to act, don’t bother measuring.”
I see many businesses where a huge effort is put into gathering data, analysing it and then producing pretty graphical reports which are printed, emailed and otherwise distributed to various parties. Too often that is as far as it goes, these reports will often go straight into the round filing cabinet under the desk, or into the deleted items folder. If they are read, presented at meetings or distributed to management they may be examined, discussed...but is any action taken as a result of the information that contributes to improvements in your IT Service Management processes and performance?
A huge amount of effort goes into the collection, formatting and distribution of these reports, too often these reports are either never used, or are used but not acted upon.
Don’t get me wrong, measuring is absolutely crucial to a successfull Service Improvement initiative, but think carefully about just what you are going to be able to do with the information you are collecting. Is it going to provide you with anything that can be acted upon - and even more importantly, do you have the resources to make changes if they are required. Our current economic climate means that many IT Departments are running at full capacity with no ability to acquire new resources.
I would suggest that you look at the current list of reports that you are providing and ask yourself what has been done as a result of the information contained in these reports - if the answer is “nothing” then you need to consider whether the effort involved in compiling and then examining these reports is warranted.
SerioReports offers a wide range of reports that is adequate for most reporting requirements, we are also able to supply you with the tools needed to produce your own custom reports in your own reporting tools.