One of the main components of an ITIL ( Information Technology Infrastructure Library) configuration management process is the Configuration Management Database (CMDB).

A CMDB is a database that contains all the pertinent information about an organization’s technology components (called configuration items, or CIs) such as network equipment, computers, servers and peripherals and the relationships among those components. A CMDB gives enterprises an organized view as to how the various components interact to deliver applications and services for their customers. A CMDB can only be implemented in parallel with an effective Configuration Management Process. That means all data related to core IT operations must be appropriately stored and managed in order to ensure the integrity, validity, and accuracy of the configuration management data.

Here are five benefits of implementing a CMDB:

1. Breaks down the barriers between IT and the business—A CMDB removes IT silos and helps people, processes and technologies work more efficiently together. That’s because knowing what technology components you have, where they are and how they’re connected will let you better manage and improve your IT services.

2. Provides more proactive management—A CMDB allows organizations to better manage change in their IT environments. As the complexity of a organization’s IT infrastructure increases, a central database containing information about all the CIs and how they work together will help you avoid downtime by more efficiently planning and better appreciating how those changes affect the IT environment.

3. Helps better assess risk, improve security—IT organizations can use CMDB data to assess the risks to the business associated with known vulnerabilities on servers. That means your IT team can prioritize patches and secure the most critical vulnerabilities first.

4. Helps keep track of any changes in software—Data from the CMDB lets organizations know if there is any unauthorized or illegal software being used.

5. Makes compliance easier, more accurate—Using CMDB data, IT organizations can make sure that the information about their assets is accurate and up to date in order to comply with such initiatives as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA. By keeping a close eye on CIs and their relationships and continually monitoring them to make sure they’re accurate, your IT organization can better ensure that your systems and their components comply with legislative mandates.

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While this is a good definition for someone who understands the vernacular of ITIL, it isn’t easily understood by the layman. Let’s dissect the definition and put it into terms the general population can understand. The IT Service provider is the organization that has been hired by the Customer to perform a service, for example, answer calls. The service level agreement is the document, which can be a few brief lines or it can be a hundreds of pages, which describes each service level target(s). These service targets are based on the customers business needs. For example, if Large Corp. sells their products worldwide, they may have a need to have a call center that is available 24×7. This one business objective, call center available 24×7, could produce multiple service level targets such as:

Call Center is available to take calls 99.99% of the time each month.

No more than 5% of calls will abandon each month.

99% of all incoming calls must be answered within 30 seconds.

All of the service level targets must be agreed upon by both parties. Once both parties agree to all of the service level targets, they are assembled into the Service Level Agreement document. The service level targets will each have a description that identifies the expectation, how it will be measured and penalties, if missed. For example:

Call center must answer all incoming calls within 30 seconds

Measurement period: 1 month

Report(s): ASA Report 101 – monthly

Penalty: $10,000

The SLA is a joint goal between the IT Service Provider and the Customer. Although penalties do reduce costs and they do send a strong signal to service providers to improve their service, neither you nor the service provider “win” if an SLA is missed. Think of an SLA as a shared goal.

It should be noted that the term Service Level Agreement is used in many companies when discussing agreements between two internal groups, such as the Procurement Department will process all purchase requests by the Engineering Department within 5 business days. Technically, per ITIL, this is not a Service Level Agreement, but instead an Operational Level Agreement.

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Webster’s dictionary defines the word, “expectation” as the act or state of looking forward or anticipating the degree of probability that something will occur. How does this relate to the ITIL standards? Not setting proper expectations with the customer can result in dialogs such as:

CUSTOMER: I submitted a ticket to have someone map a new printer to my laptop, but nobody has come by or called me back.

HELP DESK: I am sorry to hear that but we are busy with a network outage, it may be awhile before somebody comes by to assist you in your request.

CUSTOMER: Can you give me some timeframe on when to expect a visit from a technician?

HELP DESK: It all depends on when we get the network outage repaired; it could be then next 5 minutes or the next 5 days.

CUSTOMER: It is no wonder your area is referred to as the helpless desk. CLICK!

Unfortunately, the above conversation is all too familiar in many help desks across the world because expectations are never set with customer. One way of setting expectations with the customer, even before they call or write, is to establish Service Level Objectives, such as:

Ultimately, service level objectives will benefit the help desk in a number of ways such as: Less repeat callers/tickets – with service level objectives established, customers are less likely to repeatedly call in order to get a status of their issue.Less upset customers – if the objectives are “advertised” on websites and IVR/VRU’s, the customers are less likely to be irate when calling a help desk if they already know that their issue may not be resolved on first contact and may be considered a low priority.Potentially reduces staffing – less repeat calls and tickets to the help desk, lowers call and ticket volume, and potentially reduces the staff needed to perform the volume of work.Assists in priority setting for employees – with objectives in place, the help desk staff have a clear understanding of what issues should take precedent (i.e., individual outage should be worked prior to a individual new request).If your help desk has not established service level objectives, your next step should be to have a project approved to begin establishing the objectives to help you manage your customers.

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