Why is ITIL Certification important?

It is before your very eyes and under your nose the creeping cost tends to spiral leaving us fuming in frustration when things go haywire and out of control. But why do even allow that to happen is as perplexing a poser that’s always answered in the aftermath.   To save cost, cut cost. Organizations are looking into ways and means to weed out the unwanted, but first identify the wanted. How do you recognize the imminent need?

Forget for a moment being bookish. Don’t be pedantic but pragmatic by drawing from experience.  We were tasked with developing a portal, and the heads that went into the exercise of effort estimation discussed and deliberated the cause and ensuing cost. There was enough padding and buffer to accommodate last minute changes and mitigation of risk.  The customer, from an open-source moved diametrically opposite and chose SharePoint; consequently, the pricing was put on hold pending conclusion from the client.  For us, the technology wasn’t a stunner as worse as the hardware because the amount on the paper was a preposterous eye-popper figure.  The system analyst was sought for expert opinion and that would change the course of the game. Straight the analyst asked “are we ready to invest so much in server? This one not only stores but sinks deep its teeth into your flesh. So it’s a call to be taken.” It was a head-turner statement and the looks exchanged said it all. “Why should we invest? Let the client”, and the response from the calm analyst was nerve-racking “the farm version is needed for development. You can write a line of code” and when the consent for purchase was provided, another one followed “the machine does the math; who will man the machine? Get a system administrator onboard.” And team frowned upon this new inclusion, as the cost of a new hire would saddle the project with more spending.  Along with the system administrator, the allied requirements too were pieced together into the frame, and one look at the image made it inordinately expensive.

The catch in the cacophony that prevailed was ‘why weren’t the system in place to meet the shifting demand? The system analyst notwithstanding, we need strategic system initiatives.”  Why strategic? The investment on servers is going to be high which won’t justify the cost implication. So better hire server or lease? What happens if the client wants support that can be billable? Even then, will the odds favor an outright purchase? The project undertaking proved to be an eye-opener and the undertaking an education in itself about the stress on IT Service Management, which is either overlooked or obscured.  

The project requires a project manager; the system a system manager. This storage and service related issues are not an occurrence in isolation or confined within the IT realm. This is applicable to wherever data resides ad it could be hotel or hospital or factory or library. Of course, the scale differs but the severity stays on. There is a growing need for IT service related professionals – both from management and process standpoint. Hence soft skills complemented with specialization especially trained in ITIL or COBIT makes your identification and validation stand head over shoulders. You might wonder what is the brouhaha about certification. Is it the clincher? Well, we have been in this business to acknowledge the need and underscore the importance of certification as one of the criterion for knowledge quotient. They are not the scales to weigh your expertise nor as a symbol to attest your knowledge base.   You need to speak loud to be heard. Amplify your credential with help of certification.