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Cost savings are ITIL's biggest benefit, says survey

Achieving cost savings based on efficient service provision is the strongest reason for organisations to implement ITIL best practice, according to a survey of customers by training provider QA.

QA said the majority of respondents put cost savings ahead of increasing customer satisfaction or improving the skills and experience of their staff.

Andrew Brown, senior IT service management training consultant at QA, said: "Using the best-practice guidelines provided by ITIL can increase the efficiency of service management, preventing the project slippage that can lead to soaring budgets. It is clearly more effective to prevent problems, than to solve problems that have already occurred.

"By implementing more effective change management processes companies can reduce risk, which in turn reduces the risk of failure. This reduces the likelihood of lost revenue, additional billing costs, overtime charges, rework costs and financial penalties.

"However, it is important for companies not to forget the other benefits of implementing ISEB standard processes. While improving customer satisfaction and staff skills may not appear to give such immediate results in terms of cost saving, they will certainly bring about long-term business benefits such as increased retention of repeat business.

"Companies can not only save money through direct cost savings but by implementing strong processes to make more efficient use of time and resources, further benefit can be gained."

Respondents were asked to indicate what they perceived to be greatest benefit to their organisation from the implementation of ITIL. Possible answers included cost savings, overall improvement in support and delivery practices, accurate billing, improvement in customer satisfaction, providing standards and guidance, improving skills and experience of staff, supporting process change, or an overall business requirement.

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