71% of SAP Users Using ITIL

According to a recent online survey from ITIL consultancy Pink Elephant and BMC Software examining ITIL in SAP enterprises, the large majority are using ITIL as a strategy.

The primary benefits of adopting the best practice framework are process standardization and efficiency but cultural issues continue to plague implementation efforts.

The survey was conducted in February 2007 with nearly 700 IT executives, directors, managers and consultants worldwide to assess where IT Service Management (ITSM) is headed in terms of global adoption. Most of the results are based on responses from 240 individuals who met specific criteria that included running SAP for enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations, being responsible for ITIL strategies and holding a senior position in the IT organization.

Key findings of the study, released in the joint Pink Elephant/BMC white paper ITIL Best Practices In SAP Environments, include:

Most respondents are managing their SAP implementations as part of larger IT enterprise ITIL initiatives.

The most common ITIL process implemented first is Incident Management, followed by Service Desk and Change Management.

The biggest challenges to ITIL implementation are cultural (learning to work across silos and avoiding resistance to change).

When asked what they would do differently in the future to mitigate these challenges, participants cited that they would do more up-front planning, get early buy-in and involvement, and increase the socialization of issues to teams outside their regions, as well as conduct more training.

“The main take-away from this survey is that ITIL best practices are well suited to the ERP marketplace,” said Troy DuMoulin, Pink Elephant’s Director of Product Strategy and the white paper’s co-author, in a statement. “ERP customers are often large enterprises with complex IT environments and varying degrees of IT process maturity. However, they do understand the benefits of standardized processes and integrated applications, and can therefore recognize how similar benefits apply to IT by implementing ITIL.”