RE: ITIL is dead. Long live ITIL.

[SimonMorris]

Just came across a new ITIL blog - itsmsavvy.blogspot.com. Martin, the author is Marketing Manager for Axios Systems, another SaaS ITSM vendor.

In his post "ITIL is dead. Long live ITIL" Martin talks about the locked in nature of the data inside the ITIL volumes

People seem to be drifting away from ITIL and I think this is because it's presented in the wrong format for the dynamic world we live in. When will we see a collaborative, expert-moderated ITIL Wiki representing up-to date best practices?

Where a book suffers from a page limit and thus a scope limit, wikis are free to grow and branch out to solve some of the limitations of the ITIL books - like covering more prescriptive best practices for each of the industry verticals. If ITIL is to survive, it needs to be made more valuable, accessible and pragmatic.

I couldn't agree more. If you came across a new framework, programming language, religion or any number of other movements that had the same restrictions on the distribution of it's content as ITIL... you wouldn't expect it to do well.

ITIL2011 comes in 5 super-sized books that are impossible to carry around for casual reference. Or you can buy the PDFs (for the same high price as the paper versions) that cannot be shared amongst multiple people. At a price which excludes most people who might have an interest in the subject.

From Best-Management-Practice.com

Can I copy or print a PDF?
Our PDF files are encrypted and will not allow copying, cutting or pasting. Unless otherwise stated there are restrictions built in on the number of times a PDF can be printed - generally this will be once only.

Oh, and you can't read it on your Kindle. There seems to be a natural tension between wanting to control the ITIL information to such a high degree, and the want to disseminate the information, promote the culture and raise adoption.

I'd love to see a Wiki version of the ITIL library, one that grows over time and fosters discussion, debate and group learning. However I think it's more likely that an ITSM movement that starts with this objective in mind is more likely to get there than ITIL.

Footnote: Looking at Axios website... why is there no publicly available demo? It drives me crazy when I discover a new ITSM vendor and I can't see their product. You could excuse the legacy on-premise vendors for providing low-res screenshots.. but Axios is a SaaS vendor!

If you are reading this post, and you're in the market for a SaaS ITSM platform your next stop is demo.service-now.com. Username: admin Password: admin. Enjoy!