White Paper written by John Worthington, ITIL v3 Expert and Director of Consulting, Third Sky

This is the second of a series of White Papers on operational excellence by Third Sky.

Few would argue that process capability and maturity are important to achieving operational excellence in IT organizations, but that’s easier said than done. When it comes to process improvement, many organizations take the time pressures and tight deadlines from other IT projects and translate this to their improvement programs.

White Paper written by Kai Holthaus, ITIL® Expert and Director of Consulting, Third Sky

Developing and publishing a Service Catalog is an important step on an organization’s journey to becoming an IT Service Provider. But what is a Service Catalog?

What is a service? How does a Service Catalog relate to the Service Portfolio? How do Service Requests fit into the picture? And how do I go about identifying services?

This white paper provides some considerations to answer these questions and help you get on your way to producing and publishing a Service Catalog.

White Paper written by John Worthington, ITIL v3 Expert and Director of Consulting, Third Sky

Web Services…Service-Oriented Architecture…IT Service Management…Software-as-a-Service…Infrastructure-as-a-Service…Platform-as-a-Service. This is much more than marketing hype; we have entered a service oriented world. Yet even as the business drives us at an ever-increasing pace, many IT organizations have yet to fully realize a services orientation.

Of course, establishing the right vision and strategy, and laying a foundation of effective and efficient processes are essential elements of success. But perhaps the single most important factor to realizing operational excellence in the 21^st century may be achieving a true services orientation. For many, this is the most difficult and transformative part of the IT Service Management journey.

This white paper will cover:

• Back to the Future - the roots of "outside-in" thinking
• Services as Building Blocks
• The Service Lifecycle: Portfolios, Catalogs and Service Levels

White Paper written by Kai Holthaus, Director of Consulting, Third Sky

Software as a Service (SaaS) has gotten a lot of attention recently. Many companies and IT organizations are embracing SaaS as a new model to provide software-based services to their customers. The field of IT Service Management (ITSM) software is no exception. But is SaaS always the right model for ITSM tools?

This white paper provides a closer look at the pros and cons of SaaS for ITSM software. I’ll discuss the benefits of SaaS and on-premise software installations, and will provide a simple checklist you can use to make the right decision for your organization.