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IT Customer Relationship Management supported by

ITIL

Melita Kozina, Tina Crnjak

Faculty of Organization and Informatics
University of Zagreb
Pavlinska 2, 42000 Varaždin, Croatia
{melita.kozina, tina.crnjak}@foi.hr

Abstract. Information Technology Infrastructure Service Level Management (SLM) has the central
Library (ITIL) is de facto standard for establishing role in the IT Customer Relationship Management
Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) supported by ITIL concept. SLM process is used to
processes within the IT organization. IT Customer ensure that adequate levels of services are delivered to
Relationship Management has an important role in all IT users in accordance with business needs and
the alignment between the business and IT strategy as priorities within acceptable level of quality and costs.
well as a significant impact on the quality of IT In general, SLM process provides the balance
services. The goal of the paper is to conduct the between the areas of IT service support and IT service
analysis of the business cooperation and negotiating delivery[5].
between the business organization (customer/user) The concept of IT Customer Relationship
and the IT organization (service provider) through Management supported by ITIL is decribed in the
strategic, tactical and operational levels applying the Chapter 2.
ITIL concept. Furthermore, it is necessary to assess The practical application of this concept for the
the maturity level of the usage of ITIL practice in the concrete IT organization is described in the Chapter 3.
Customer Relationship Management through all the The maturity level assessment of the usage of ITIL
three levels. practice in IT Customer Relationship Management is
conducted and described in the Chapter 4.
The research method is mainly based on the
Keywords. ITIL, IT Customer Relationship interviews with the process owners within the IT
Management, assessment of the usage of ITIL organization and their documentation.
practice.

1 Introduction 2 Concept of IT Customer

Relationship Management
IT organizations have to provide the quality of IT supported by ITIL
services related to the business requirements and to
concentrate on customer oriented approach. The concept of the horizontal and vertical
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) communication between the business organization
is de facto standard for establishing Information and IT organization supported by ITIL is shown in
Technology Service Management (ITSM) processes Fig.1[3].
within the IT organization. Strategic level of communication has very
The quality of IT services depends on good important role in the alignment between the business
relationships with the customer (users) of the IT and IT strategy. ITIL practice such as Service
organization. The purpose of the paper is to research Portfolio Management, Financial Management and
the relationships between IT organization (service Demand Management provides IT management with
provider) and business organization (customer/user) the general requirements and the guidelines for the
through the strategic, tactical and operational levels implementation of the requirements in order to define
of their cooperation and negotiation. the strategy of IT services according to the business
Furthermore, it is necessary to examine the goals with regard to the IT assets and potential
maturity level of the usage of ITIL practice in the risks[4].
Customer Relationship Management through all three
levels. Tactical level of communication focuses to
service design and transition. The SLM process is

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very important for negotiating with the user of IT

services and has the following goals: 3 IT Customer Relationship
 to align IT strategy with the business needs; Management in the practice
 to describe the service provided to the
customer(user) in a terminology that they
understand; Applying the method of interviewing, a research
 to create the documents that clearly describe the was conducted on the usage of IT CRM concept in the
services; specific company. Further text will show how
company uses ITIL processes at decision-making
 to integrate the elements required for the
levels and accordingly will determine the maturity of
provision of IT services;
the usage of ITIL practice within the company.
 to improve the IT service delivery.
Internal provider of IT services in company is IT
If a customer wants to change out of the Service
department that provides infrastructure and
Level Agreement (service extensions or
availability of IT services, configuration and change
modifications), the changes will be implemented
management practice, as well as the continual service
within the Change Management and the requirements
improvement.
will be involved in the SLM.
At the operational level, users can contact
Service development strategy is based on the
Service Desk and other support groups for all
needs for automatic process control, integration of
operational issues, incidents and problems.
business processes and tasks as well as the need for
optimization in order to achieve greater business
Policy and quality plans of the Service
value. Given that the company has a large number of
Management System must be reviewed and
automated processes, there are also a large number of
continuously improved. Accordingly, it is important
IT solutions that require maintenance.
to measure customer satisfaction as well as the quality
of the practice in the Customer Relationship
IT services in the company generate the business
Management. According to ITIL, each of the ITIL
value having influence on the company assets which
process has the defined quality plans, critical success
include capabilities and resources. The business value
factors and key performance indicators.
is estimated by KPIs (Key Process Indicators) that
support the overall business goals. In the context of
capabilities, IT services have the impact on the
management, organization, processes and knowledge.

In the context of resources, labor productivity is

improved, duration of the production and product
development are shorten, production costs are reduced
and thereby increased profits. KPIs include overall
equipment efficiency, productivity – defined in
kilograms of product per unit of time and the used
volume of the production equipment, duration of the
production cycle one batch or one campaign
compared to other batches or campaigns
manufacturing the same products as well as other
generally accepted non-financial measurements that
reflect manufacturing success [6].

Following table represents how and to what extent

the company uses ITIL practice in the CRM by
analyzing responses of the interviewed process
owners.

Fig. 1. IT Customer Relationship Management

supported by ITIL

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Table 1. IT Customer Relationship Management supported by ITIL within the company (source:
Authors)

ITIL Process Questions Answers

Service Level 1. What is your main Our main documentation for SLM is SLA (Service
Management documentation for SLM? Level Agreement). When contracting services, in
(SLM) 2. What do you incorporate in SLA SLA we incorporate the following important
when contracting services? components: service definition, service support
3. When you receive a request for a organization, roles and responsibilities, problem
new service or modifying existing and incident definition, support process flow,
ones, which responsibility do you escalation, KPIs and communication.
take and to whom you forward the Operating with requests for a new service or
requests? modifying existing ones, responsibilities we take
4. Are there any OLA (Operation are application maintenance, infrastructure
Level Agreement) between IT maintenance and service desk while other
department (IT service provider) requirements are addressed to vendor. We conduct
and working groups within the supervision over the evaluation of IT services and
organisation? such reports contain monthly, quarterly and annual
5. Do you conduct supervision over reports, resolved ticket statistics, planned and
the realization of IT services and executed tasks and activities, analysis of customer
what do such reports contain? satisfaction survey, etc. Unfortunately, there is no
OLA (Operation Level Agreement).

Capacity 1. Do you follow to ensure capacity Depending on the existing service, capacity
Management utilization for delivery of IT utilization is monitored to ensure the delivery of IT
services? services. Required data for capacity planning are
2. Do you work with capacity plans disk space usage increase, test transactions, etc.
and what information do you need
for that?

IT Service 1. Do you conduct a Business To ensure continuity of IT services we conduct a

Continuity Impact Analysis (BIA) i.e. do you Business Impact Analysis, therefore we estimate
Management evaluate the business processes of which business processes of the company are
the company that are critical given critical given the interruption IT services. Also, we
the interruption of IT services? develop and implement the adequate IT service
2. Do you perform any IT service continuity plans.
continuity plans?

Change 1. How and who carries out the Change management is represented by analyzing
Management Change Impact Analysis of how any change will affect the everyday work and
financial, technical and business is dealt with so that users are trained after each
aspects of the impact? introduced changes. There are no special
2. Do you have a special procedure procedures for implementation of immediate
for the implementation of changes. Every implemented change is considered
immediate changes? successful if there is user satisfaction.
3 Do you evaluate the implemented
changes and who is responsible for
those? How do you measure the
success of the change management
process?

Configuration 1. Have you implemented a Configuration management is slightly less

Management configuration management process? represented because there is no CMDB, but there
2. Do you have a CMDB base and are implemented activities of the configuration
is it regularly audited? management process.

Service Desk 1. What types of requests does the Service desk has largely represented ITIL practice.
Service Desk recieve? Service desk can receive the various types of the

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2. What is the main role of Service requests such as incident related to the computers,
Desk in the first line of support to computer networks, telephony, mobile devices,
resolve incidents? user software and business applications. Main role
3. How do you measure the success of service desk in first line of support for incident
of the Service Desk? resolving is to provide a single point of contact
(SPOC) for all users, resolve all requests that can
be solved, and the other to escalate to the next line
(expert teams – L2). The success of the customer
service is measured by using pre-defined key
performance indicators (KPI) like number of
solved tickets in 24 hours, average time to resolve
a ticket, the average response time of second level
support.
Incident 1. Do you categorize incidents and Incident and problem management in IT
Management do you determine their priority? department also largely use ITIL
2. On which part of the IT recommendations. Incidents are categorized and
infrastructure are usually related prioritized. The resulting incidents are most often
incidents occurred? related to computer networks. Database known
3. When resolving incidents, do you errors is used in handling incidents. Escalation of
use the known errors databse? the incidents has been resolved so that the first line
of support redirects requests to the expert teams L2
or L3.
Problem 1. Do you also categorize Problems are also categorized and introduced into
Management problems? the base of incidents and problems. During the
2. During the diagnosis of the problem diagnosis we use workaround solutions to
problem, do you use the restore services as soon as possible.
workaround solutions to restore
service as soon as possible?
3. Is there any incidents and
problems database created?
Continual Service 1. Do you measure the quality of To ensure Continual Service Improvement (CSI)
Improvement the ITSM performance? we measure the quality of the ITSM performance
2. Do you measure the IT service as well as the quality level of IT services. We have
quality level ? implemented the process of continual service
3. Do you conduct improvements of improvement. Service reports contains details
the IT service management about what should be measured and reported, the
processes? basic calculations and definitions of upper and
lower limits, gap analysis and customer satisfaction
analysis, process compliance report, quality,
performance and business value reports. The
metrics used in CSI are related to the technology,
processes and services.

The next chapter represents practical assessment of implementation requirements of the ITIL process
the usage of ITIL practice in IT CRM for the (AWARENESS AND COMMUNICATION),
company. Input data for the assessment is based on knowledge and responsibility for requirement
the responses of the process owners (as shown in table implementation (RESPONSIBILITY), structuring and
1). documentation for the ITIL processes
(PLANS/PROCEDURES) and measurement and
improvement (MEASUREMENT/IMPROVEMENT).
4 Practical assessment of the usage Below is shown the scale to satisfy the criteria
expressed in percentages:
of ITIL practice in IT Customer
Relationship Management a) not satisfied: 0-10%
b) partially satisfied: 10-50 %
c) largely satisfied :50-80 %
To determine the maturity level of the utilization d) satisfied: 80-100 %
of ITIL practices in IT CRM within the company, we
used four main criteria: awareness on the

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The maturity model provides a foundation for Measurement/improvement is partially satisfied and
process improvement and describes an evolutionary other criteria are satisfied.
improvement path from ad hoc, immature process to 4 Managed and measurable – processes are
a mature, disciplined process. Main goal is to measured by collecting detailed data on the processes
improve efficiency, return on investment and and their quality. Measurement/improvement is
effectiveness. There are five levels of process largely satisfied and other criteria are satisfied.
maturity: 5 Optimizing – continuous process improvement is
0 Incomplete – the process is not implemented or adopted piloting new ideas and technologies. All
fails to achieve its purpose. All criteria are criteria are satisfied[2].
unsatisfied.
1 Initial – processes are ad hoc, organization usually Following table represents maturity level of each
does not provide a stable environment. Awareness ITIL process used within IT CRM in the company
and Communication are satisfied and other criteria are according to decision levels on which the final score
unsatisfied. is made for ITIL practice in IT CRM.
2 Repeatable – basic processes and responsibilities
are established with no documented procedures.
Awareness and communication are satisfied and other
criteria are partially satisfied.
3 Defined – processes are well characterized, defined,
documented and integrated into each other.

Table 2. Practical assessment of ITIL usage in IT Customer Relationship Management within the
company (source: Authors)

ITIL Process Criteria Maturity level

Service level Awareness and Communication = SATISFIED
management Responsibility = SATISFIED
3 - DEFINED
Plans/Procedures = SATISFIED
Measurement/Improvement=PARTIALLY SATISFIED
Capacity Management Awareness and Communication = SATISFIED
Responsibility = PARTIALLY SATISFIED
2 – REPEATABLE
Plans/Procedures = PARTIALLY SATISFIED
Measurement/Improvement = PARTIALLY SATISFIED
IT Service Continuity Awareness and Communication = SATISFIED
Management Responsibility = SATISFIED
3 - DEFINED
Plans/Procedures = SATISFIED
Measurement/Improvement=PARTIALLY SATISFIED
Change Management Awareness and Communication = SATISFIED
Responsibility = SATISFIED
3 - DEFINED
Plans/Procedures = SATISFIED
Measurement/Improvement=PARTIALLY SATISFIED
Configuration Awareness and Communication = SATISFIED
Management Responsibility = SATISFIED
3 - DEFINED
Plans/Procedures = SATISFIED
Measurement/Improvement=PARTIALLY SATISFIED
Service Desk Awareness and Communication = SATTISFIED
Responsibility = SATTISFIED 4 – MANAGED AND
Plans/Procedures = SATTISFIED MEASURABLE
Measurement/Improvement = LARGELY SATTISFIED
Incident Management Awareness and Communication = SATTISFIED
Responsibility = SATTISFIED 4 – MANAGED AND
Plans/Procedures = SATTISFIED MEASURABLE
Measurement/Improvement = LARGELY SATTISFIED
Problem Management Awareness and Communication = SATISFIED
Responsibility = SATISFIED
3 - DEFINED
Plans/Procedures = SATISFIED
Measurement/Improvement=PARTIALLY SATISFIED
Continual Service Awareness and Communication = SATISFIED
Improvement Responsibility = PARTIALLY SATISFIED 2 – REPEATABLE
Plans/Procedures = PARTIALLY SATISFIED

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Measurement/Improvement = PARTIALLY SATISFIED

Overall maturity level of ITIL usage in IT CRM in the company 3 - DEFINED
5 Conclusion [4] OGC ITIL V3, Service Strategy, TSO, London,
2007.

This study, conducted in the paper, show how [5] OGC ITIL V3, Service Design, TSO, London,
much a specific company invests in strategic IT assets 2007.
(capabilities and resources) in order to increase the
maturity of IT CRM and quality assurance for IT [6] PLIVA Magazine, December 2013.
services. IT services include potential that have an
impact on the user assets and achieve the business [7] Kang K. C., Cohen S. G., Hess J. A., Novak W.
outcomes. The study was conducted in one of the E., and Peterson A. S., Feature-Oriented Domain
major companies of the pharmaceutical industry Analysis (FODA) Feasibility Study, Technical
having a very high level of process and ICT Report, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie
development. Mellon University, 1990.

According to obtained results, IT CRM in the

company, supported by ITIL practices, has the
maturity level 3 (defined). It means that majority of
business processes in the IT department within the
company are documented, have defined
responsibilities, required knowledge, conducting
measurements and improvements according to the
ITIL recommendations. It delivers qualitative and
quantitative benefits for the company (service quality,
user satisfaction, improved efficiency and
productivity, lower production costs, etc.) The overall
maturity level of ITIL usage in the company is higher
than average of other companies in the country.

However, improvements are needed, especially for

the capacity management and continual service
improvement- currently on the maturity level 2
(repeatable). Awareness and communication do exist
but other criteria are only partially satisfied. Processes
should be repeated in order to be measured and
improved. In addition, it is very important the
management support for the implementation other
processes and modules of the ITIL practice. This
would increase the overall level of ITIL to CRM.

References
[1] CMMI Product Team. CMMI for Development,
Version 1.2, (CMU/SEI-2006-TR-008),Software
Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213, August 2006, Available
from:http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports
/06tr008.cfm, Accessed:2014-03-15.

[2] CMMI Maturity Levels, Tutorialspoint, Available

on http://www.tutorialspoint.com/cmmi/cmmi-
maturity-levels.htm, Accessed:2014-02-15.

[3] OGC Introduction to ITIL, TSO (The Stationery

Office) London, 2005.

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