University of Technology of Delft (TU Delft)
Jan Klein, IPC Project Manager
Founded in 1864, the University of Technology of Delft (TU Delft) is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive technical university in the Netherlands.
With over 13,000 students and 2,100 scientists (including 200 professors), it is an establishment of both national importance and significant international standing.
In addition to its key research areas of Aerospace, Geology and Mining, TU Delft was one of the first organizations to adopt and develop the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) standards-a now internationally renowned set of best practices for managing service and support.
ITIL had proven itself within the university, having been used effectively for several years by the Department of Technical Support (DTO) and a number of the 'Information and Automation' (I&A) departments.
However, in July 2000, TU Delft embarked on a project to implement a standard, effective means of settling Incidents, Problems and Changes across the entire departments of the University.
The Incident, Problem and Change (IPC) project
The Incident, Problem and Change, or 'IPC' project, was designed to ensure that IT incidents and problems were handled according to defined service agreements, thus providing a long term stability and continuity to clients of the university's Information Systems and Services division.
An immediate and urgent need to be addressed by the project was providing standard support for a number of software applications used across the university.
IPC Project manager Jan Klein makes no secret of his enthusiasm for the IPC project.
"The problem was not that there aren't any process model based management systems at the university. The problem was that not all of these different management systems are complete, and that they're not compatible with each other. "We wanted to establish a process model and an organization structure with a standard common tool to support them, in a short period of time for the entire University."
Selecting a suitable tool
As the IPC project was to be based entirely on ITIL processes, an obvious requirement of any software system selected to support the project was that it should be fully ITIL compatible.
Jan Klein says "We started by making a list of tools which might be appropriate, and ended up with 11 products. On the basis of our specific requirements, we reduced the list to four." Included in this list was Infra.
An IPC workgroup then visited the ITSMF support industry conference in Noordwijk, Netherlands, where several suppliers demonstrated their systems. After meeting with the four suppliers, the management team of the IPC project further reduced their short list to three systems.
These were then fully tested against the project requirements and test cases, as well as assessing their potential to accommodate future requirements.
In January 2001, the IPC project team organized a special day for future users to become acquainted with the suppliers and selected tools. Afterwards, all the feedback from both the Users day and test groups was evaluated by the IPC project management.
The tool ultimately selected was the Infra Incident management application developed by Infra Corporation, and distributed in the Netherlands by Infra Benelux.
Infra linked up perfectly with the ITIL-model of the IPC project, and proved easy to integrate with the HP Open View module used by the university. Details of university employees were also entered into Infra, making the information immediately accessible.
Rolling out the Infra system
The IPC project team made an additional special project of bringing the Infra system into the university, complete with its own advertising and training programs.
In the initial stage of the IPC implementation, 300 people-both within the university as well as third party companies-are using the Infra system.
The processes, organizational structure and Infra system were fully rolled out by July 2001. However, Jan Klein anticipates that it will be another one or two years until the IPC project is able to reach optimum functionality, as "Jobs and roles, defined and recorded in the scope of ITIL, are fully implemented."
With Infra implemented, Klein says the helpdesks of the administration units have the integration they need to work perfectly together. "We try to keep our communication lines as short as possible at every point. The success of the IPC project stands or falls with efficient communication and the exchange of information.
When helpdesks can resolve incidents fast and accurately, functional application administrators, system administrators and network administrators can concentrate more on structural problems and changes.
Klein adds that the web access provided by Infra enables all users to see the status of their call via the Internet. "This is what makes the entire IPC project so transparent; everyone knows what's happening and by whom. So everyone knows where they are."
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