The Alignability Process Model is available in English, German and Dutch!

Bridging the gap between ITIL® and a supporting application

The ITIL® guidelines, along with a healthy dose of common sense, were used to define the Alignability® processes.  The Alignability® Process Model also provides detailed procedures and work instructions for the people who are expected to follow the processes.  This eliminates the need for service provider organisations to work through the ITIL® guidelines to define their service management processes.  It saves a service provider organisation approximately one month per process that is to be defined.

The Alignability® products also come with a set of configuration files for BMC Service Desk Express.  These tool settings (thousands of them) ensure that the service management application provides optimum support for the Alignability® processes.
This allows the service provider organisations to get started without first having to configure a service management application.

This is how Alignability® takes service provider organisations from the ITIL® theory to a fully configured service management application that optimally supports its employees.  And whenever an employee has questions, the detailed instructions of the model are there to answer them.

The Alignability® Process Model provides field-proven IT Service Management processes for the BMC Service Desk Express application suite.  The Alignability® processes are based on a combination of the best-practice ITIL® methodology and theTotal Quality Management principle of continuous improvement.

Where ITIL® provides the theory and guidelines, the Alignability® Process Model provides the processes, procedures, and detailed work instructions.  It even comes with a set of configuration files that automatically configure the BMC Service Desk Express application suite for the support of the Alignability® processes.  The processes and the configuration files for service management application dramatically reduce the time required for, and the risks associated with, service management implementation projects.

The Alignability® Process Model is split into two modules (or products), the "Service Support" module and the "Service Delivery" module.  The Service Support module provides the processes required for a solid service management foundation.  The six service support processes are:

• Configuration Management
• Event Management
• Incident Management
• Problem Management
• Change Management
• Release Management

The Service Delivery module is targeted at mature service provider organisations. This module contains the following advanced service management processes:

• Service Level Management
• Availability Management
• Capacity Management
• Continuity Management
• Financial Management

The configuration files, which automatically configure the BMC Service Desk Express application suite, also help to reduce the duration of service management implementations by saving at least 40 more days.  These 40 days are normally required by an experienced technical consultant for the configuration of the application to ensure that it supports the service management processes that the organisation has defined.

The 30-day implementation plan is provided with the Alignability® Process Model to ensure that customers can reliably complete the implementation of the service support processes within 30 days.  The standard implementation plan (which caters for a detailed process review and subsequent customisation) is also provided for organisations that do not want to start from scratch, but do not yet feel comfortable enough to commit to a 30-day implementation.

The customisation manual and the original Visio drawings are
also included to ensure that the Alignability® Process Model can
evolve over time with the service provider organisation.

The Alignability® Process Model was originally developed in 1999 and is maintained by consistently incorporating the ideas from each implementation into the next version of the model.  The model has already been deployed by more than 250 organisations in over 45 countries in a wide variety of industries.

The Alignability® Process Model has been developed for information and communication technology (ICT) service providers to enable them to deal with the fast pace of change within their industry.

Most service providers are so involved in the day-to-day operations that they have little time left to add new services or to improve existing ones.  Because of their limited ability to improve their service offering, service providers often have trouble competing with new organisations that provide similar services.

It does not matter whether the service provider is the IT department of a larger organisation, or a company which core business is the provision of ICT services.  Both types of organisations need to provide advanced functionality at a competitive service level and price.

By implementing and integrating the Alignability® processes, service providers can shift their focus from keeping their current services up and running to improving their service offering.

This shift from day-to-day support towards improvement is imperative if a service provider wants to continue to meet the ever-changing requirements of its customers.

The first step towards achieving improved Alignability® is to take firm control of the infrastructure by implementing the Configuration Management process. The configuration management database (CMDB) provides an accurate and complete view of the IT infrastructure.

Next, use the information that is registered within the Incident Management process about service disruptions to identify problems.This is done within the Problem Management process where structural solutions are also proposed to eliminate the identified problems.

The proposed structural solutions are, in turn, implemented by Change Management after which the CMDB is updated.

The updated CMDB reflects the new, more stable, environment that ensures a reduced number of service disruptions.

This completes the continuous improvement cycle that is intrinsic to the Alignability® Process Model.  The result of continuously stabilising the infrastructure (i.e.  the reduced number of service disruptions) allows specialists to focus more on implementing changes that were requested by customer representatives within the Service Level Management process.  These changes should deliver a service offering that is better aligned with the current requirements of the customers.

The Alignability® Process Model has already been implemented successfully in over 45 countries.  It has proven its capability to support many different industries and organisational environments, including:

• Aviation
• Corporate Management
• Finance
Food & Beverage
• Government
• Health Care
• Higher Education
• Information Technology Outsourcing
• Internet and Application Service Provision
• Legal
• Manufacturing
• Military
• Publishing
• Research & Development
• Sales & Marketing
• Transportation and Logistics

The relevance of the Alignability® Process Model to all these industries and organisational environments is attributed to the fact that service provision can be regarded as an industry in itself.  The management principles that apply to the provision of ICT services are the same regardless of who uses the services.  The principles always remain the same, even though the level of service that customers require can vary widely.