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BPMJ
18,6
Improving ITIL compliance using
change management practices:
a finance sector case study
1020
Peter Yamakawa
ESAN University, Lima, Peru
Claudio Obregón Noriega
Yanacocha Minerals, Lima, Peru
Alfredo Novoa Linares
Rı́mac Insurance, Lima, Peru, and
Willy Vega Ramı́rez
Scotiabank Perú, Lima, Peru
Abstract
Purpose – Although various practices to facilitate organizational change are proposed in the
literature, very little is known about how these practices impact on ITIL adoptions. Therefore, the
purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature by offering insights on how change
management practices impact on levels of ITIL compliance.
Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory research reports on four case studies of
completed implementations of IT service management using the process – based ITILv2 framework.
The firms studied are from the Peruvian financial sector. Data were gained primarily through
semi-structured in-depth interviews with managers involved in the implementation process.
Compliance was measured using the itSMF self assessment questionnaire, which assesses the overall
process capability.
Findings – This study finds that not all of the case firms took full advantage of change management
practices while implementing the ITIL framework. The results show that the firms with a higher use of
change management practices achieved higher levels of ITIL compliance. Additionally, change
practices related to change preparation were used more frequently and fewer practices related to the
implementation and consolidation stages were reported.
Originality/value – Few studies have examined change management practices in the context of
ITIL implementation projects. This study also uses the levels of ITIL compliance as an outcome
measure.
Keywords Information technology, Service management, Information technology infrastructure library,
Organizational change management, Organizational change, Change management
Paper type Case study
Business Process Management
Journal
Vol. 18 No. 6, 2012
pp. 1020-1035
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1463-7154
DOI 10.1108/14637151211283393
1. Introduction
Service firms are searching for ways to deliver higher levels of information technology
(IT) service as well as demanding more from their information systems (IS) groups,
expecting quick responses to new business opportunities, to support critical processes
efficiently and to satisfy their customers and internal staff. Hence there is a growing
The authors would like to acknowledge Gareth Rees who assisted the authors in producing this
English language version of their research.
interest in adopting IT service management (ITSM) and best practices such as the
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) (Galup et al., 2009).
ITSM is defined as “the implementation and management of Quality IT Services
that meet the needs of the business” (ITIL, 2007). ITSM is a discipline for managing IT
service operations, which is process orientated, sharing this theme with other quality
improvement methods and as such it is different from traditional technology-oriented
approaches due to its focus on customer relationships (Galup et al., 2009). A main
benefit reported by ITSM adopters is an increase in customer satisfaction
(Cater-Steel et al., 2009). ITSM concepts are often implemented through the ITIL
framework; a sector specific quality and best practice guide on the management of
information technologies (Iden, 2012). The operational benefits expected from ITIL
implementations are the alignment of IT services with business needs, improved
quality of the IT services themselves, and a reduction in the long term costs of service
provision (McNaughton et al., 2010).
One of the main challenges faced by companies during the adoption of ITIL is the
organizational change required to attain a service-oriented culture (Cater-Steel et al.,
2007; Spafford and Holup, 2010). Various practices to facilitate organizational change
are proposed in the academic and professional literature (Buchanan et al., 2005; Kanter,
2001; Kerber, 2001; Kotter, 1995; Spafford and Holup, 2010), and most of this literature
argues that the use of change management practices (CMPs) has a positive effect on the
speed and quality of the change process and on results for the organization.
Nevertheless, there is little published in terms of these practices as they relate to ITIL
implementations.
Therefore, this paper presents the findings of a multiple case study investigation,
which examines the experience of four Peruvian financial companies implementing the
ITIL framework. The cases offer insight into how the organizational change
management processes supported the ITIL implementation and identifies which
organizational CMPs were more frequently used.
The paper is organized as follows; next Section 2 introduces the ITIL framework,
followed by Section 3, a review of the literature on CMPs concluding with the study’s
research questions. Section 4 provides details of the methodology used. Section 5
provides the case profiles, the findings and the cross-case analysis. Finally, the
conclusion sums up the findings, presents the studies limitations and offers a direction
for future research.
2. Information technology infrastructure library
ITIL is a framework that describes best practices and provides guidance on the
management of IT processes, functions, roles and responsibilities in ITSM. It was first
developed in the 1980s by the UK Government agency, the Office of Government Commerce
(OGC) in response to the government’s growing dependence on information technologies
(Galup et al., 2009), to promote efficient IT operations and to improve IT service delivery and
operations within government controlled computing centers (Salle, 2004).
Version one of ITIL consisted of 40 volumes covering “best practices” in different
areas of IT service provision. In 2000, ITIL version one was replaced by the seven
volume ITIL version two (ITILv2) consolidating the practices within an overall
framework. The two primary components of ITILv2 are service delivery and service
support which consist of ten core processes and the service desk function (Table I).
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Table I.
Core components
of ITILv2
Service delivery level – organization orientated
Service level management
The process responsible for negotiating service level agreements
(SLM)
(SLA) and ensuring appropriate agreed targets
Financial management
The function and processes responsible for managing an IT
service provider’s financial functions
Capacity management
The process responsible for ensuring that the capacity of the
services and infrastructure provided is able to deliver the agreed
targets effectively and on time
IT service continuity
The risk management process that ensures minimum agreed
management (ITSCM)
service provision
Availability management
The process responsible for ensuring that all IT infrastructures,
processes, tools and people are appropriate to meet the agreed
targets
Service support level – user orientated
Service desk function
The single contact point between providers and users: managing
incidents, requests and communication
Incident management process
The incident lifecycle management process, with the objective to
return service to users as quickly as possible
Problem management process
The problem lifecycle management process, with the objectives of
incident prevention and the minimization of impacts for
unpreventable problems
Change management process
The change lifecycle process that enables beneficial changes with
the minimum of disruption to IT services
Release management process
The process responsible for the movements of tests into the live
environment by ensuring system protection through correct
component use and adherence to procedures
Configuration management
Information maintenance lifecycle process for component
process
configuration and relationships that are required to deliver an IT
service
Source: Adapted from Office of Government Commerce (2007)
In 2007, ITILv2 was further enhanced to become ITIL version three (ITILv3), now
consisting of five volumes: strategy, design, transition, operation and continuous
improvement, which extend the ITILv2 model and processes by organizing them
around a service lifecycle model.
2.1 ITIL adoption and implementation
The ITILv2 has become the de facto framework to implement the ITSM concepts
(Cartlidge et al., 2007; Cater-Steel et al., 2009) despite the recent release of ITILv3
(Pollard and Cater-Steel, 2009).
ITIL defines a glossary to ensure a common vocabulary and defines a set of
conceptual processes to outline best practices (Galup et al., 2009). ITIL does not specify
how the implementation should be performed and recent studies on the adoption of
ITIL in organizations have focused mainly on the verification of the benefits of the
program and the study of the implementations themselves, including success factors
and barriers.
In terms of benefits, Hochstein et al. (2005) found, an increase in customer
orientation and service and the efficiency and transparency of IT processes the main
benefits. They also suggest that the biggest challenge in the adoption of ITIL is
resistance in the form of reluctance to accept new processes and a lack of
understanding of why these processes are necessary. Cater-Steel et al. (2006) identified
that ITIL implementation provided firms with a more predictable infrastructure,
improved consultations between the IT groups within the organization, agility in
negotiating service level agreements and consistent services; also identifying that
cultural change is a significant challenge when adopting ITIL. Cater-Steel and Tan
(2005a, b) found that the IT staffs skills, adaptability, and quality of training were
considered more important for successful ITIL implementation than issues related to
clients, external consultants and technology. The importance of IT staff adaptability
and change management was in turn identified in a subsequent investigation by
Cater-Steel et al. (2007).
In terms of ITIL implementation, Tan et al. (2009) identified that a change
management strategy that aims to transform the organizational culture towards being
service-oriented, is a critical success factor. While, Pollard and Cater-Steel (2009)
reported the difficulty of changing the culture of the organization when adopting the
new ITIL processes and they identified three further critical success factors for ITIL
implementations; creating an ITIL friendly culture, giving priority to the processes and
the design of customer-focused metrics. Cater-Steel and McBride (2007) findings
highlight the importance of involving staff and the promoting interest in ITIL as a way
of overcoming resistance to the new processes; facilitating an improved understanding
of them. Spafford and Holub (2010) found that resistance to organizational culture
change is a major impediment in implementing ITIL, such that improved processes are
achieved in less time and less cost when a formal change management plan is
implemented than for projects where the organizational change component is neglected.
3. Organizational CMPs
Kerber (2001) identifies three approaches used in organizations to enact organizational
change:
(1) Direct change, which is motivated from senior management, wielded by
authority and achieved through compliance.
(2) Planned change, which originates from any level in the organization but is
managed through the top management layer and that seeks the commitment
and involvement of the organization through CMPs that mitigate resistance.
(3) Guided change, arising from the within the organization and the through
commitment and the contribution of staff toward the organizational objectives.
Kerber and Buono (2005) argue that the effectiveness of the approach to the
management of change depends on contextual variables such as:
.
the complexity of the business environment;
.
socio-technical uncertainty of the tasks or problems;
.
the ability to change the organization; and
.
the risks associated with the alternatives of not changing or changing slowly.
Other factors may add complexity to the management of change, for example the
cultural context (Martinsons et al., 2009) and the interaction between different agents
of change namely; senior management, middle management, external consultants
and work teams who have different experiences and perspectives (Caldwell, 2003;
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Choi et al., 2011). On the other hand, management support is considered key to the
success of organizational change (Abraham et al., 1999; Spafford and Holup, 2010), as is
the allocation of adequate resources (Becker, 2010). Although, following a change
program is not a guarantee of successful outcomes (Choi et al., 2011).
Kotter (2007) presents a set of eight sequential CMPs that allow for successful
organizational change. Kotter’s approach is well known and has been applied
frequently (Aiken and Keller, 2009; Smith, 2011) (Table II).
CMPs are commonly proposed in temporal sequences such as preparation,
implementation and consolidation (Raineri, 2011). Research has found that change
agents show a preference for CMPs related to the preparation stage because; it is easier
to prevent errors in early stages, which lessens implementation failure at later stages
(Holt et al., 2007); they have the ability to place more resources at the beginning of a
change project (Raineri, 2011) and; the preparation stage requires more analytical skills
of which managers tend to have more training in, compared with the more political and
Establishing a sense of urgency
Forming a powerful guiding
coalition
Creating a vision
Communicating the vision
Empowering others to act on
the vision
Planning for and creating
short-term wins
Consolidating improvements
and producing still more
change
Institutionalizing new
approaches
Table II.
Change management
practices
About the need to make changes in order to alert and raise
awareness among stakeholders of the dangers of maintaining the
status quo, to motivate staff and raise expectations, showing the
benefits of change or the consequences of not changing. Nadler and
Trushman (1989) claim that a sense of urgency that is based on
emotional aspects is more effective in initiating the process of
change
Comprised of senior managers that can overcome resistance and
obstacles to other managers or influencers. That is, form a team
with enough influence and power to support change
That means developing a vision and strategies to achieve the
desired result. Creating a vision is a practice suggested by various
authors for their importance to focus efforts and drive change
(Kanter, 2001; Nadler and Tushman, 1989; Tushman and O’Reilly,
2002)
In order to facilitate the acceptance and understanding of the need
for change. Kotter explains that communication of vision, not only
involves diffusion, but also a strengthening and internalization
process
In order to eliminate obstacles to change, allocate resources,
improve processes and systems, and motivate and encourage staff
to be so involved in the process of change
Also recommended by Kanter (2001) and Kerber (2001), in order to
show that change is possible and the implications of this in
practice, also serving as a motivation to achieve higher long-term
changes in
Regarding the use of the credibility of the results obtained with
short term to promote more changes in the structures and systems
that are not consistent with the vision of change and who have not
yet been questioned
In order to avoid a reversal in progress. To do this, you should
contact the organization and show how new approaches to
generate a position higher than before the change. In addition,
ensure that new employees and managers to adopt new approaches
Source: Adapted from Kotter (2007)
interpersonal skills required in the later stages of implementation (Shipper, 1999).
Similarly, Raineri (2011) found a higher frequency of preparation practices in
comparison with the implementation stage and that the use of CMPs has a significant
impact on objectives and deadlines achievement. Abraham et al. (1999) found that the
key factor in achieving change towards a culture of quality is top management
support, with the lesser factors of the clarity of vision, participation, communication
and appropriate resources. Becker (2010) found that the understanding the need for
change, the level of organizational support and training, measuring the change, the
positive experience and informal support, a history of organizational changes and the
outlook previous expectations and individual feelings are factors that influence
adoption.
Considering the lack of focused research on ITIL implementation and managed
change it would seem useful to investigate this phenomenon by studying firms that
have implemented the ITIL framework and assess which organizational CMPs more
frequently used and whether their influence on the ITIL implementation outcomes can
be observed. Therefore, two research questions were formulated for this study:
RQ1. How did financial companies in Peru that have implemented the ITIL
framework use organizational CMPs?
RQ2. How are the levels of ITIL compliance achieved by financial companies in
Peru influenced by the CMPs that were used?
4. Research method
The study employed the multiple-case design method proposed by Yin (2009) as the
principal method to gather data to answer the research questions. The case study is an
appropriate research method to analyze a phenomenon in its natural environment when
the researcher has no influence over events and when the context is considered relevant
(Benbasat et al., 1987; Yin, 2009). The case study methodology allows for in-depth
questioning and the capture of important aspects of the complexity of an organization.
But it is recognized that the conclusions of an investigation by the case study method can
be limited, with the generalization of the findings being a common criticism (Gable, 2010;
Lee, 1989). However, the problems of validity and generalisability can be addressed by
using competent research methodologies (Meredith, 1998; Eisenhardt, 1989).
The case study method was considered appropriate for this study as it allowed the
phenomenon, the ITIL implementation, to be studied in its natural setting (Meredith,
1998), to have questions of the “how and why” type posed and answered (Yin, 2009)
and it is an appropriate methodology for studying new topic areas (Eisenhardt, 1989).
The design of the investigation involved four sites each studied in depth using multiple
data sources and a range of collection methods (Eisenhardt, 1989).
A single industry was selected for the study, in order to control the influence of
contexts and for different environments and resource availabilities across industries.
Four companies from the Peruvian financial sector that had implemented the ITIL
framework were identified. The focus of this study is on the ITILv2 implementation for
while the ITILv3 · was recently released, ITIL v2 is still the most commonly used (Pollard
and Cater-Steel, 2009). The four companies had each implemented the 11 processes of
ITILv2 and in all the cases, the ITIL implementation projects were supported by
management and had been allocated sufficient of resources for completion.
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Data regarding the implementation were collected through separate, semi-structured
interviews with various staff involved in the project including, top management,
operations and IT managers and users of the IT services. Confirmatory data were
gathered through secondary sources such as internal documents and progress reports.
Through a review of the literature on research related to ITIL adoption and practice of
organizational change management a list of questions based on the change management
framework of Kotter (2007) was developed. The survey instrument was developed in the
Spanish language by native Spanish speakers and all of the respondents speak and write
in Spanish as a normal part of their work. The interviewees were given the set of
open-ended questions about their strategy, motivations, problems and use CMPs used
during the ITIL implementation, before the interview. During the interview, a discussion
following the question format was initiated with the answers to these questions recorded
digitally with additional notes taken by the researchers. Raineri (2011) found a likely
bias from interviewees who were also project implementers that they would be more
inclined to say they had used CMPs. Therefore, to reduce this bias the data were
corroborated with other participants of the ITIL implementation.
The interviews were transcribed verbatim and underwent content analysis.
Responses were coded against the question structure and stages of CMPs
implementation following the seven steps allowing the researchers to gauge CMP
usage for each case. To guard against bias in the data analysis, each interview
transcript was content analyzed twice to verify the results. Each case was then written
up and subjected to a cross-case analysis, identifying the similarities and noting
differences in themes and patterns across the cases.
To determine the level ITIL compliance the researchers selected the itSMF
self-assessment tool (itSMF, 2003). The itSMF instrument compares an organizations
performance with the ITIL best practices, assessing the level of compliance with the
ITIL processes, producing its results based on a framework of capabilities through a
five point scale (McNaughton et al., 2010). Case firm IT managers were each given an
itSMF questionnaire to complete. The questionnaire results provided each case with a
score, between 0 and 5 for each of the ITIL core component’s compliance to best
practice, enabling case comparison.
5. Results
5.1 Case profiles
The cases sites are four financial institutions operating in Peru coded as A, B, C and D.
Table III presents the profiles of the case sites and data on their ITIL implementations.
All four cases confirm there was support of management and commitment of adequate
resources to complete the implementations. All cases placed an emphasis on training
and development during the project implementations. Cases C and D opted to use
external consultants as part of their ITIL implementations. The cases chose phased
execution as their preferred implementation method.
5.2 Case results
Table IV presents data on the frequency of the use of the seven CMPs. The four cases
show relatively high use of change practices in the preparation phases, with fewer
practices being used in the later stages of implementation and consolidation. Case D
seemed to have institutional features that supported the use across the phases of the
Case A
Organization
Financial
institution
Business focus International
Origen
Abroad
ITIL implementation
2008
Commenced
ITIL
implementation
Implementation Two years
time
Implementation Phased
method
Motivations for Cost reduction
Value for money
the ITIL
implementation Alignment with
management
policies IT services
at regional
High-level
Senior
management
commitment
Training focus Firm training
specialist from
Mexico
Participation of No
an external
consultant
Case B
Case C
Case D
Financial
institution
International
Abroad
Financial
institution
International
Abroad
Financial
institution
National
National
2006
2009
2006
Two years
Two years
Two years
Phased
Phased
Phased
Cost reduction
Operational
efficiency
Capacity to support
future corporate
changes
High-level initially
Efficient
Alignment with
policies of ITSM at management and
provision of IT
regional level
services to generate
value to the
organization
High-level
High-level
Training team with
key personnel who
transmits
knowledge to other
staff
No
Group, systems
personnel and
users
Considered a key
factor since the
start of the project
Yes
Yes
ITIL implementation. For example, case D has internal policies and practices that led to
a significantly higher use of the empowerment practice than all of the other cases
combined. In contrast case B showed the least commitment in terms of resource
allocation and staff stimulus in later phases of the change process. In general there is
one group where there seems to be stronger institutionalization (cases C and D), and
another group (cases A and B) where there is less evidence of change practices
consistently being used.
The division between the two groups is equally apparent when comparing the case
ITIL compliance scores. Table V presents the ITIL compliance scores, on a scale of 0-5.
Table V shows that overall cases C and D achieved higher ITIL compliances than cases
A and B. Case D consistently scores high across the categories, especially in those
processes involving customer contacts such as service desk and incident management.
Both cases A and B tend to score lower in the service support level functions despite
having moderate scores for their ITSM level.
5.3 Cross-case analysis
In general, the analysis of the case data shows that the preparation stage practices
are the more frequently change practices used by these Peruvian financial firms.
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Table III.
Profile of cases
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Establishing a
sense of urgency
Number of
processes where
CMPs are reported
Forming a
powerful guiding
coalition
Number of
processes where
CMPs are reported
Creating a vision
Number of
processes where
CMPs are reported
Communicating
the vision
Number of
processes where
CMPs are reported
Empowering
others to act on the
vision
Number of
processes where
CMPs are reported
Planning for and
creating shortterm wins
Table IV.
Change practices
and frequency of use
Number of
processes where
CMPs are reported
Consolidating
improvements and
producing still
more change
Number of
processes where
CMPs are reported
Institutionalizing
new approaches
Number of
processes where
CMPs are reported
Case A
Case B
Case C
Case D
Communicated
adequately
2
No sense of urgency
1
Communicated
adequately
10
Comprehensive
communication
10
The heads of the IT
and operations area to
guide teams
11
The heads of the IT The head of IT was
and operations area to solely in charge
guide teams
11
10
The vision contains
aspects of good
practice, efficiency,
optimization and
control, assisted by
experienced staff
from abroad
The vision contains
aspects of good
practice, efficiency,
optimization and
control, with the
emphasis on staff
training
9
Coalition formed with
the different leaders
for each process
11
11
The vision contains
aspects of good
practice, efficiency,
optimization and
control, using the
support of an external
consultant for some
processes
11
The vision contains
aspects of good
practice, efficiency,
optimization and
control using the
support of an external
consultant for some
processes
11
Some inconsistency
and adequate
6
Inconsistent and
adequate
5
Consistent and
comprehensive
10
Consistent and
comprehensive
10
Adequate resource
availability
No formal system of
incentives
Partial resource
availability leading to
internally developed
solutions
No formal system of
incentives
Full resource
availability for all
processes
Partial incentive
system
1
0
7
Full resource
availability for all
processes
Comprehensive
existing formal
system of incentives
and a clear career
path policy
11
Sought to
systematically
generate short-term
results
11
No system to generate Sought to
systematically
short-term results,
generate short-term
partially achieved
results
9
9
Sought to
systematically
generate short-term
results
11
Team confidence and Staff satisfaction
stalled progress on
commitment
consolidation
increased
Partial consolidation
of changes
Leveraged change
consolidation into
other processes
6
0
6
6
Little
institutionalization
0
Little
institutionalization
0
Adequate
institutionalization
3
Comprehensive
institutionalization
4
ITIL processes
Service delivery level
Service level management (SLM)
Financial management
Capacity management
IT service management (ITSM)
Availability management
Service support level
Service desk function
Incident management process
Problem management process
Change management process
Release management processes
Configuration management processes
Overall compliance level
Case A
Case B
Case C
Case D
2.3
2.5
2.4
3.4
2.8
2.5
1.4
1.4
3
1.8
3.7
3.1
2.6
3.5
3.1
3.6
3
2.4
3.1
2.7
2.8
2.2
1.5
2.3
1.9
1.3
2.3
2.5
2.7
1.8
2.5
1.6
2.3
2.2
3.1
3.6
2.0
3.5
2.7
2.7
3.1
4.4
3.7
3.9
3.7
2.9
3.9
3.4
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Table V.
ITIL compliance scores
Figure 1 shows the frequency of the CMPs employed in each stage across the cases.
The most frequent are: “forming a powerful guiding coalition”, “creating a vision” and
“planning for and creating short-term wins”, and to a lesser extent and
“communicating the vision”. The practice “establishing a sense of urgency” was
used significantly more by cases C and D. The CMPs less frequently used were
“institutionalizing new approaches”, “consolidating improvements and producing still
more change” and “empowering others to act on the vision”. The two groups found in
the case analysis are easily seen in Figure 1, with cases A and B providing little
evidence of activities to communicate, empower and progress the implementations in
terms of using CMPs.
The most frequently used practices are related to the change preparation stage in
contrast to the implementation stage practices. This result is consistent with Raineri
(2001, 2011) findings, where the agents of change showed a preference to the use of
CMPs related to the preparation stage.
However, the results also show a key implementation practice “planning for and
creating short-term wins” is frequently used. This may be due to the implementation
Prepara
-tion
Establishing a sense of urgency
Consolidation
Forming a powerful guiding coalition
Implementation
Case A
Creating a vision
Empowering others to act on the vision
11
10
9
11
11
11
10
11
10
10
1
5
0
1
Creating short-term wins
Institutionalizing new approaches 0
11
6
Case D
11
6
Consolidating improvements
Case C
11
2
Communicating the vision
Case B
11
9
9
6
0
0
11
7
3
6
4
Number of processes where the change
management practice was used
Figure 1.
Use of CMPs
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method chosen by the cases. All cases used the phased implementation approach that
may have facilitated the use of this CMP – for as one respondent stated “successful
results on the initial phases of the implementation were used to motivate the
implementation of the rest of the processes”. Spafford and Holup (2010) also suggest the
phased strategy provides benefits sooner and thus contributes to a gradual reduction of
resistance to change.
The compliance data reveals that in general, the greater the use of CMPs the higher
the level of ITIL compliance achieved, suggesting that the use of CMPs has a positive
influence on the compliance outcomes. Figure 2 shows the score for ITIL implementation
compliance against the number of CMPs used on each process implementation. Cases D
and C score high in change practice use and the levels of ITIL compliance, with cases A
and B that used less practices have lower compliance scores.
Cases A and B that have a low use of implementation and consolidation phase
practices also reported change resistance problems. This observation is consistent with
Siegal et al. (1996) who reported that resistance to change problems can be attributed to
deficiencies in the management of the change process or in part are a result of the
actions and inactions of change agents (Ford et al., 2008; Tavakoli, 2010).
There are some institutional factors that have some bearing on the patterns revealed
in the cross-case analysis. First, the use of outside consultants may have had a
significant impact on project success. Pollard and Cater-Steel (2009) attribute the use of
consultants to be a critical success factor for ITIL implementations. That cases C and D
opted for consultants may have strengthened their ability to achieve higher compliance
scores and to undertake more CMPs. Second, the formation of teams and leadership of
the project was undertaken differently across the cases. At cases A and B the team of
leaders was formed by those at the functional level, while at cases C and D the leaders
5.0
4.5
4.0
Level of
ITIL compliance
3.5
3.0
processes for case A
processes for case B
processes for case C
processes for case D
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
Figure 2.
CMPs and levels
of ITIL compliance
0.0
0
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
2
Number of change management practices used
involved tended to have more influence within the organization. While it is difficult to
directly attribute this factor to the lower compliance scores, the demonstrated the
support of senior managers to uphold change initiatives and reduce change resistance
is well documented (Spafford and Holup, 2010; Abraham et al., 1999; Kotter, 2007).
6. Discussion and conclusions
This study aimed to investigate the importance of applying managed change as part of
an ITIL implementation. To this end four Peruvian financial sector firms were chosen
as cases and a multi case study investigation was undertaken. The study undertook to
ascertain which CMPs were being used and their level of influence on ITIL compliance.
This study finds that not all firms take full advantage of CMPs while implementing
the ITIL framework. The cases showed that higher levels of CMPs achieved higher
levels of ITIL implementation compliance. This result suggests that the use of CMPs
has a positive impact on the outcomes of ITIL implementations. It was also found that
the firms that used less CMPs reported the resistance to change during the
implementation. However, it important not to discount that the higher scoring firms
may have had valuable or rare resources and competencies which they utilized in times
of change giving them an advantage over others (Barney, 1991).
The case studies also demonstrate that more change practices related to preparation
and fewer change practices related to implementation and consolidation were used
during the ITIL implementation process. This result may be attributable to
institutional strengths of the firm, for as case D showed, it seemed to have institutional
policies and practices that supported the ITIL implementation across all of its phases,
and case B seemingly having the least commitment in terms of resource allocation,
sustainable change and staff involvement. Likewise, the participation of an external
consultant during the adoption of ITIL may favor the more frequent use of practices
related to all three change stages (Pollard and Cater-Steel, 2009) allowing those firms
that used consultants to use more CMPs. In addition, the choice of implementation
methodology may contribute to some practices being more evident than others. All of
the four case studies presented applied a phased implementations; a strategy, which
favors the use of the change practice the “generation of short-term results”.
The main limitation of this study is the small number of cases analyzed, so the
findings should be viewed with caution. The cases support the theory that managed
change assists the implementation of ITIL processes. However, it was undertaken in a
single industry, which tends to have homogenous processes and systems and the firms
were all of a similar size. However, when examining cases of different size, system
processes and industries divergent results may be produced, but these results are
necessary to properly extend the case theory in question (Meredith, 1998). Future
research may wish to extend the themes of this paper to design and undertake research
on which CMPs provide the most impact to the levels of ITIL compliance using a
suitable quantitative research instrument and method.
In conclusion this paper makes three contributions. First it provides an exploratory
study of the links between ITIL implementations and the use of CMPs. Second in terms
of results it provides evidence of a link between ITIL implementation and managed
change, which is important information for practitioners who may be planning future
ITIL projects. Finally, this study adds to the literature of ITIL implementations,
particularly with respect to organizational change.
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About the authors
Peter Yamakawa holds a PhD and MSc in Engineering, from Osaka University, Japan, an MBA
from ESAN University, Peru, an Engineering degree and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics
Engineering both from the National University of Engineering, Peru. He also holds PMP
professional certification from the Project Management Institute. He has held managerial and
executive positions in international telecommunications companies. At present he is the
Vice-President for Research and Director of Consultancy Services at the ESAN University in
Lima. Peter Yamakawa is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: pyamakawa@esan.
edu.pe
Claudio Obregón Noriega is the Administrator of IT Projects at Peruvian mining company,
Yanacocha Minerals. He has recently graduated from ESAN University with a Master of
Information Technology degree.
Alfredo Novoa Linares is the Head of Communications at Rimac Insurance in Lima. He has
recently graduated from ESAN University with a Master of Information Technology degree.
Willy Vega Ramı́rez is the Head of Satellite Applications for Scotiabank Peru. He has recently
graduated from ESAN University with a Master of Information Technology degree.
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