George Spalding – the new ITIL Philosopher

During one of the lighter moments of the ITIL v3 Launch in London recently, one question to the author panel was “what are one or two sentences that I can tell my boss are the benefits of ITIL v3”. As expected the majority of authors used words like “integration, alignment, value, etc. etc.”.

However, George Spalding’s answer was a classic; “You can use ITIL v3 to guide you through ITIL without consultants”.

Amidst much laughter, I felt myself wondering if he knows something the rest of us don’t !! Of course Georges answer is fine as he is employed by one of the largest IT Service Management training companies in the world – Pink Elephant. And of course, guess what Pink DON’T DO much of – you guessed it “consulting”.

I wonder if George will have an equally clever answer when he is asked about the “official” ITIL Study Guides that the OGC plan to publish for every ITIL v3 exam. Will George still think that move (which is likely to hit education vendors the hardest) is equally amusing.

We don’t know the answer to the question – but if the global vendor community had to appoint a single representative voice – then I think they could do worse than George Spalding. The man is buoyant and energetic and he calls it as he sees it.

However, it is likely that whoever is involved with the development of the official study guides would not be a great supporter of such a Vendor OrganIzation Community(E) - or as I shall formally announce it the "VOICE".

ITIL v3 Launch - an emmotional event.

The suits were out for the official ITIL v3 launch in London. The 5th June 2007 marked the start of a global tour for the intrepid and brave authors of the “new and improved” material. As always Sharon Taylor led from the front – and in a rare show of emotion there was even a small hint of a tear when the larger than life George Spalding gave an impromptu , but heart felt acknowledgement of the work that Sharon has put in over the last several years.

I don’t think there would be anyone that would argue that the effort required to get v3 off the ground is enormous. Whether v3 will fly or not remains to be seen. However, the signs are positive – especially as there will be a live, on-going feedback mechanism that everyone can contribute to.

The involvement of the ITSM community for v3 does not appear to be lip service. There are genuine efforts to retain the high degree of user contribution that has characterized this latest version of the popular framework.

5th June 2007 - Who will be on the invite list ?

June 5th 2007, London - looms as a 'red letter' day for the "ITILites" amongst us.

The "offical launch" of the framework version 3. Bit like the Olympics, with the official publication date being set at the 30th May.

Who will be on the invite list? Well for one, your intrepid ITSMer will be there and will be able to rub shoulders with the rich and infamous of the ITIL world.

Stay tuned for a full briefing. However, I have heard tell that there are speeches from OGC (expected), TSO (expected), APMG (interesting, but not unexpected)..... notice who is missing from this list - Exin and ISEB.

It seems that not all Examination Institutes are created equal... it obviously pays to have won the OGC contract for Managing the ITIL certification scheme.,,, you get invited to all the good parties (just like the Oscars).