The GroStore company offers its customers high-quality products at reasonable prices, and it
has several locations across the city.
We will assume that GroStore is established two years ago.
The GroStore company has an IT department that is responsible for managing the company's
technology infrastructure and applications, Like:
• Maintaining company servers and networks.
• Assessing the company's technology infrastructure.
• Software development and deployment.
• Technically supporting employees.
• Protecting company data and systems.
• Enforcing company technology policies.
However, the IT department has not been following best practices, and as a result, the
company is experiencing a number of problems, such as:
•
•
•
•
•
The company's servers are frequently down, causing disruptions in business operations
and revenue loss.
The IT department is unable to meet the growing business demands, resulting in delays
in the development and deployment of new features and applications.
The company's data is not adequately backed up, resulting in the loss of critical business
information.
The IT department is failing to properly monitor the company's technology
infrastructure, resulting in security flaws and potential data breaches.
Employee productivity and morale suffer as a result of the IT department's failure to
provide adequate support.
Those problems and issues were a result of the following:
Problem no.1: A lack of standardization in the IT department processes and procedures.
This has resulted in team confusion and inefficiency, as well as difficulties in providing
consistent support to the rest of the company.
At "GroStore", the IT department was divided into several teams, each with their own roles and
responsibilities, like the development team, database team, technical team, and support team.
This lack of standardization caused team confusion and inefficiencies, as well as challenges in
providing consistent support to the rest of the company.
For Example:
When a customer needed technical support, he would have to contact the IT department and
explain his issue. Depending on which team member he spoke to, he might be given different
advice and instructions on how to resolve the problem. This inconsistency frustrated customers
and users and made it difficult for the IT department to provide the level of support that the
company needed.
Problem No.2: A lack of documentation and knowledge management.
The IT department does not have clear and comprehensive documentation on its systems and
processes, which has made it difficult for team members to stay up-to-date and share
knowledge with each other.
For Example:
One day, a major system outage occurred at “GroStore”, causing widespread disruption and
impacting the company's ability to do business. The IT department was called in to resolve the
issue, but quickly realized that they lacked the necessary documentation and knowledge to
diagnose the problem and find a solution.
The team had to spend hours piecing together information from various sources and
conducting trial-and-error troubleshooting, which ultimately resulted in a lengthy downtime
and a frustrated customer base.
Problem No.1 & 2
Solution/or Part of the solution in
Section 5: Service Value Chain
Section 10: Governance
(Each lecture has a part of the solution)
Student Notes.
Problem No.3: A lack of visibility and control over the IT infrastructure.
The IT department struggles to manage and maintain the company's technology infrastructure
because they don't know what's what.
Problem No.3
Solution/or Part of the solution in
Section 6: ITIL 4 Practices
Student Notes.
(Each lecture has a part of the solution as well)
Problem No.4: A lack of incident and problem management.
IT disruptions and outages occur due to ineffective incident and problem management
processes.
Problem No.4
Solution/or Part of the solution in
Section 6: Practices
Student Notes.
Incident Management
Problem Management
Service Desk
How these Practices are working together
Problem No.5: A lack of communication and collaboration within the IT department and with
other teams within the company. The IT department has been operating in silos, which has
made it difficult to coordinate and work together effectively.
For example:
One team was responsible for managing the company's network infrastructure, while another
team was responsible for managing the company's servers. However, the two teams' efforts
were not coordinated, resulting in conflicts and inefficiencies.
One day, the network team decided to upgrade the company's routers without consulting the
server team.
As a result, the upgrade caused compatibility issues with the server software, leading to a major
outage that impacted the company's ability to do business.
Problem No.5
Solution/or Part of the solution in
Section 7: Guiding Principles
Student Notes.
(Each lecture has a part of the solution)
Problem No.6: The IT department outsourced the development of the online shopping system
a year ago, but unfortunately the development company went bankrupt and we don’t have
the source code.
So, the situation is as follows:
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Poor system performance caused slow loading times and a bad user experience, which
frustrated customers and drove them away from online shopping.
Insufficient security: cyberattacks and other threats make online shopping vulnerable.
This puts credit card and personal data at risk and damages the online shopping
platform's reputation.
Inefficient processes and procedures prevented the system from being properly
integrated with the organization's infrastructure, delaying order processing and
customer requests.
Difficulty adapting to change: the company struggles to adapt to changing market
conditions and customer needs. This hinders the company's competitiveness and user
experience.
Problem No.6
Solution/or Part of the solution in
Student Notes.
Section 6: ITIL 4 Practices
(Each lecture has a part of the solution)
Problem No.7: Beside all those issues, a lack of best practices in IT management led to
problems with IT spending.
Without effective processes and controls in place, the IT department doesn’t have a clear
understanding of its budget and is not able to prioritize and allocate funds effectively.
Example:
At “GroStore”, the IT department was allocated a budget of $1 million for the current fiscal
year. However, due to a lack of effective processes and controls, the IT team was unable to
prioritize and allocate funds effectively. As a result, they spent too much money on some
projects while underspent on others, resulting in waste and inefficiencies.
The IT department spent $300,000 on a new software system that was never used because it
had not been thoroughly researched and tested before purchase.
Meanwhile, the team was unable to allocate sufficient funds to maintain and upgrade existing
systems, leading to outdated and unreliable technology.
There are now a number of software products in the GroStore that do not have integration. The
top management wants to implement an ERP system to integrate all departments and increase
performance.
Problem No.7
Solution/or Part of the solution in
Section 2: Key concepts of Service Management,
Lecture: IT Business Alignment
Section 10: Governance
Student Notes.
(Each lecture has a part of the solution)
Section 7: Guiding Principles
(Each lecture has a part of the solution)
Problem No.8: There are now a number of software products in the GroStore that do not have
integration.
The top management wants to implement an ERP system to integrate all departments and
increase performance.
Problem No.7
Solution/or Part of the solution in Student Notes.
Section 5: Service Value Chain
(Each lecture has a part of the solution)
In General each component can help in addressing an issue in almost every problem faced by
the IT Department in any company.
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