ARMY AL&T ALTESS News
Continual Service Improvement Supports the Customer and the Soldier
Iman Shebaro and Charles Smith
Efficiency and standardized practices are essential for any organization. For Product Director Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Enterprise Systems and Services (PD ALTESS), they are also essential to the customers. PD ALTESS provides the Army acquisition community and hosted customers with full life-cycle information technology (IT) support in a secure environment. Inherent to the fulfillment of that mission is cus- tomer satisfaction. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) approaches services from the perspective of the customer and the value delivered.
In addition to its focus on the customer, PD ALTESS must approach services from the perspective of the Soldier. The products and services used by the warfighter require efficient
planning, deployment, and support. The ITIL framework recognizes the importance and attainability of this efficiency. PD ALTESS’ adoption of ITIL and an IT Service Management (ITSM) Program has been essential to the execution of its mission and its support of the Soldier.
ITIL is a best-practice set of processes that establishes a frame- work for aligning people, resources, processes, and technology to create a superior level of service. PD ALTESS’ ITSM actively implements ITIL across the organization.
PD ALTESS implemented ITIL in 2007 to standardize its business practices. Implementation was accomplished via a “Quick Wins” initiative. A series of small teams were formed to identify organizational pain points and develop initial measures to mitigate them. During the Quick Wins initiative, 11 teams were established to focus on processes throughout the ITIL life cycle and how they could be implemented within the organization. These processes included, but were not limited to, Capacity Management, Change Management, and Incident Management. This initiative was a steppingstone toward mature ITIL development and a formal ITSM.
ITSM now includes Process Managers who represent teams throughout the organization and guide the development and application of specific ITIL processes, supporting these throughout the service life cycle. They meet regularly to discuss improvement opportunities and to leverage ITSM advancements.
Keeping the Focus on the Customer ITIL processes standardize the way business is conducted. By facilitating communication and cooperation among team mem- bers, PD ALTESS sustains a customer-focused culture. Below are some of the major benefits that the most mature ITIL processes at PD ALTESS have provided to the organization and its customers:
• Incident Management has instituted a Single Point of Contact, which provides customers with a centralized location for all issues, concerns, and requests. Incident Management has also standardized the recording, classifica- tion, and resolution of incidents.
• Using Problem Management, PD ALTESS identifies the underlying problems behind recurring incidents and resolves them using problem investigations and root-cause analysis.
PD ALTESS must approach services from the perspective of the Soldier, as the products and services used by the warfighter require efficient planning, deploy- ment, and support. Here, Soldiers of the 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, acquire a grid coordinate for a suspected improvised explosive device during a search near Combat Outpost Meade, Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2009. (U.S. Army photo by PFC Benjamin Boren.)
69 OCTOBER –DECEMBER 2010
• Change Management has instituted the coordination and control of changes, ranging from those as simple as resetting passwords and rebooting a server to more complex actions such as creating a new server and upgrading a system. All changes are categorized according to type, based on the risk of executing the change; the impact to the affected users; and the amount of time, resources, and effort required to implement the change. Changes occurring on an enterprise level are com- municated across the organization and presented before the
ALT ESS NEWS
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