Last modified: Friday, October 27, 2006
Kelley School professor helps to establish major conference on IT service management
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 27, 2006
Ramesh Venkataraman
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Ramesh Venkataraman, a professor in Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, was one of the primary organizers of a major symposium on information technology service management at the University of Dallas this week (Oct. 26-27).
The symposium involved educators and researchers from about 40 leading universities and was designed to stimulate academic research and degree programs in information technology service management, or ITSM. It was sponsored by Information Technology Service Management Forum (itSMF) USA, the nation's fastest-growing information technology quality management association.
Venkataraman, chairman of information systems graduate progams in the Kelley School, which houses the master of science in information systems program, suggested the idea to members of the itSMF board.
"I noticed that there was a huge gap between industry demand for ITSM knowledge and awareness in academia on this very important topic. I am hopeful that this conference bridges this gap in a timely fashion," Venkataraman said.
The master of science in information systems program at IU has been a leader in its coverage of concepts relevant to industry. In keeping with that tradition, it is one of few schools that has already begun to cover information technology service management and governance concepts in its curriculum.
"In my IT general controls class, I introduce students to frameworks such as ITIL, COBIT and ISO 17799. Coverage of these frameworks provides a significant competitive advantage to students entering the marketplace," said Venkataraman.
itSMF USA President Jean Ritala praised the efforts by Venkataraman and other partners -- Sue Conger of the University of Dallas and Majid Iqbal of Carnegie Mellon University.
"The symposium has attracted academic leaders from around the nation and the world who want to collaborate with fellow researchers and explore how they can introduce ITSM best practices and standards such as ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000 into graduate business and MIS curricula," Ritala said.
"The goals of the conference have been to promote awareness of IT service management among a broad range of universities, discuss different educational models that can be used in universities, provide links between the academic community and the industry and identify opportunities for research in ITSM," Ritala said.
IT plays a critical role in supporting and satisfying business requirements and provides essential services for organizations in many cases. Beyond the need to manage technology, there is the need to establish and employ best practices processes to optimize IT services. This is the focus of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and IT Service Management (ITSM).
ITIL is a set of books that describe an integrated set of process oriented best practices for managing IT services. The set was developed, documented and published by the UK Office of Government Commerce.
Founded in 1997, the Information Technology Service Management Forum (itSMF) USA (www.itsmfusa.org) is a rapidly growing, vendor-neutral, non-profit organization that promotes the use of industry best-practices and standards in the provision and management of IT Services. Current membership exceeds 6,000 individual members, with affiliated Local Interest Groups serving 39 cities and regions nationwide. The itSMF USA is affiliated with the itSMF International, which was formed in 1991 and is headquartered in London. This global organization has members from more than 2,500 companies, with international chapters in almost 40 countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Sweden, and Switzerland.
itSMF USA is a trademark of the Information Technology Service Management Forum USA. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. ITIL is a trademark of the UK Office of Government Commerce.
