ECP Exclusive: Brian Johnson Discusses the Art of Building Bridges

By Bill Winters

“It’s all about building bridges. And you’re the one who has to build them,” says Brian Johnson when talking about how to make ITIL® work in an organization.

And if anyone knows ITIL, it’s Brian Johnson. He was part of the British government team that developed the standards for ITIL or Information Technology Infrastructure Library. ITIL is a best practice for IT service management. And IT service management is defined as a top-down business-driven approach for the management of information technology.

An increasing number of organizations in North America are adopting ITIL as a way to get the most out of their IT budgets. And Brian Johnson is helping them do it. As they encounter the inevitable difficulties adapting to the new structure, Brian has plenty of advice, and that’s where bridges come in.

For example, Johnson has particular experience attempting to bring IT service management and IT financial management together. The cultures are different, but there is room for both. “You can’t tell accountants what to do,” he says, “so it’s up to IT to build a bridge.”

Likewise, Johnson explains that many organizations struggle with whether they have a help desk or a service desk mindset. “They usually have both,” he says, “but that doesn’t mean they’re not succeeding.” They have, in effect, multiple help desks. “There are opportunities to use automation to get everyone on the same page,” he adds.

ITIL provides a framework for these and many other operations within an IT group. But ITIL “tells you what to do, but it can’t tell you how do it,” according to Johnson. For example, with software license management, Johnson says it’s been done successfully for many years without a service management framework. But it may be done more successfully, at least more efficiently, if it’s done under an ITIL framework. How you adhere to the guidelines is based on your organization and how you’ve accomplished the tasks in the past.

When asked for some specifics about software asset management within the service management framework, he says, “Watch this space. It's not clearly defined yet, but it is on the horizon."

Most recently, the amiable Johnson left his post with the British government for the private sector in Canada, where he is now the ITIL worldwide practice manager for Computer Associates. When asked to compare and contrast working for the government with working in the private sector, he finds vast similarities. “They have the same goals,” he says, “they simply use different terms to describe them.” And with so many firms taking a global stance, there is often little difference at all.

But his take is striking when comparing his work in Europe with his work in North America. As may be expected, he finds practitioners in the U.S. to be more computer literate. But he finds irony that this may hurt more than it helps. Because he has also found more division between IT and other entities within organizations on this side of the Atlantic. In many cases, the increased literacy has necessitated increased specialization and taken the IT group further from the day-to-day business operations.

In general, Brian Johnson sees ITIL as a big growth area for North America. This is one of the things that drew him to his new position. “CA has a serious commitment to the ITIL philosophy,” he says, both providing “thought leadership” and practical solutions for client businesses. With more firms attempting to reduce costs and streamline operations through ITIL, they will be challenged to provide value. Few organizations are willing to put a dollar amount on the costs they save through ITIL, but they are demonstrably more efficient. “One major international company stated some impressive cost savings,” Johnson says, “and they probably regret saying anything, because they’ve been inundated with requests for information.” Clearly, the value is there for the forward-thinking company that is able to adapt to change.

If you are thinking about implementing ITIL for your organization, Johnson has some general advice. “It always takes longer than you think,” he says, which should be no surprise to IT practitioners. But he also adds it takes “business side commitment,” so you had better be ready to “speak their language” if you want to succeed. And, of course, be ready to build some bridges.

For more information about the concepts behind ITIL, much of which was developed by Brian Johnson, he recommends the U.K. government Web site's FAQ at http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1000368.

Brian Johnson led the first successful government implementation of ITIL best practices as well as the first private sector example. He has authored numerous ITIL guidelines and publications, for a total of fifteen major titles. With a team drawn from IT service providers and software publishers, Johnson is at work on the second ITIL Business Perspectives on IT volume. Publication is anticipated later this year.

Bill Winters handles marketing for ECP and is a contributing editor to ECP publications.