I have been wondering – where are all the ITIL<\/A> bloggers? Apparently here they are<\/A>. Thanks Jonathan<\/A>.<\/P> I find interesting it seems mainly Microsoft-oriented folks that are using blogs to talk about ITIL. If MS is the center of gravity for most ITIL conversations, it will begin to “own the standard”, at least from an education perspective [enterprise education drives enterprise sales].<\/P> Of course that’s a long way off. For now ITIL is primarily a service desk phenomenon and MS isn’t even in that market. For that matter neither is IBM.<\/P> IBM is about to pitch heavy into IT Service Management. If I could proffer some advice in that regard. Get blogging folks, there’s a beach-head to establish! Hey look – here is another analyst blogger on the subject<\/A>. Like Jonathan says: “The next step is operationalizing these helpful, but often vague and abstract, guidelines<\/STRONG>“. <\/P> Basically ITIL is an emerging market (one of those 20 year overnight successes). America is finally waking up to IT service management and cost control, which is good news. <\/P> ITIL is not a universal panaceo however, and many of the current ITIL projects will end in major disappointment, for all the usual reasons (poor communications, not enough reporting, not enough change management discipline [ah the irony]). ITIL after all is just the beginning of a conversation between IT and the business, rather than a prescriptive framework that will solve all known IT problems.<\/P> What is great about ITIL is that its now forcing a language coalescence. Customers will be able to talk to BMC<\/A>, CA, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Mercury, NetIQ, Quest about ITSM and get answers that are better aligned. ITIL is forcing a category standardization, the kind of standardization that drives commoditization and lower costs for end users. Cool. <\/P> Am i saying implementing ITIL will be cheap? On the contrary, implementing the standard will require thinking about business process. Enterprises will need to train practitioners. That doesn’t come cheap. But the benefits are potentially high.<\/P> Note to enterprises: If a salesperson or vendor tells you their product is ITIL-compliant then they are either bullshitting, or they don’t know anything about ITIL. ITIL certifies practitioners<\/A>, not products.<\/STRONG> <\/P>