How Do I Go about Selecting an IT Service Management Tool for My IT Organization?
PinkSELECT helps you answer that question.
The goal of PinkSELECT is to support an IT organization by providing an objective, vendor-neutral, and cost-effective methodology. In addition, it offers a set of templates for conducting a tool selection process while leveraging Pink’s vast industry experience that covers more than 40 years.
A service offered to IT organizations, PinkSELECT comprises a tool kit made up of many components used to evaluate and assess the IT service management tools deemed to be compatible with specific ITIL® processes, using a systematic approach of mandatory and customized criteria.
Two Options for PinkSELECT
IT organizations can choose the service described on this page, which includes the involvement and assistance of an experienced consultant.
Or, choose the do-it-all-yourself option, which is offered as a Smart Kit. The Smart Kit is an off-the-shelf online product that includes how-to documents, templates and much more. To read more about the PinkSELECT Smart Kit option, click here.
The remainder of this page describes the full-service consulting option.
Benefits
PinkSELECT will not only find the best match for organizations by providing an end-to-end tool selection process, but will also customize it to best meet the organization’s needs. This will save time and money by decreasing the timeline to determine a tool of choice, as well as freeing people resources so they can be best utilized elsewhere. A further return-on-investment is created by finding a tool more quickly and ensuring it is aligned to meet the goals and objectives of the business. In addition, an organization will be able to leverage Pink Elephant’s vast knowledge of numerous vendors and their offerings from across the globe.
With the right IT service management tool in place, long-term benefits to be gained are cost savings and increased productivity, which in turn can lead to an increase in the quality of IT service provision.
Pink Elephant works through the development of the request for proposal (RFP), provides an analysis and a tool scoring grid, and produces written reviews on RFP responses that are based on extensive ITIL expertise. This is accomplished by using thousands of documented and detailed criteria for the following areas:
| For ITIL v3: | |
|---|---|
|
Access & Integration |
Incident Management |
| For ITIL 4: | |
|---|---|
|
Portfolio Management |
Incident Management |
By using this established process and a PinkSELECT tool kit containing all necessary forms, templates, and process definitions, an organization can make an informed and accurate decision and measurably decrease the time and cost required to select a service management tool without foregoing quality.
PinkSELECT Approach
The following is a sample list of best practice requirements that organizations should consider when evaluating the functional abilities of an IT service management tool. Pink Elephant has incorporated these requirements into PinkSELECT’s RFP documentation:
- A careful evaluation of tool requirements has been performed before selection
- All the mandatory and desirable functional tool requirements are based on a defined IT process:
- All mandatory requirements covered
- The tool provides a minimum of 80% compliance for all operational requirements
- The tool does not require extensive product customization
- The tool supports the required ITIL processes
- The tool satisfies current and future business requirements
- The tool provides the required interfaces with systems management tools
- The tool provides the required interfaces with business processes such as HR, financial, and research and development
PinkSELECT Scope
PinkSELECT provides the process, forms, templates, and analysis tools to facilitate a tool selection process and includes the following:
- A functional requirements matrix based on the ITIL v3 and ITIL 4 frameworks and enhanced by Pink Elephant’s consolidated experience from multiple best-practice consulting engagements. It covers: incident, problem, change, configuration and service level management, etc.
- Tools to support the selection and weighting of functional, technology, and organizational criteria
- Documented client specific criteria:
- Prioritized, functional requirements matrix
- System criteria and vendor cost sheet
- Scoring matrix
- Documented use case(s)
- Template RFI/RFP document
- Analysis and scoring grid for use by the following:
- Selection team
- Analysis grid to evaluate returned vendor responses and to support the final selection of the ITSM product
Outcome and Deliverables
From this engagement, your organization can expect the following:
- Documented client-specific criteria
- Weighted and prioritized functional requirements matrix
- System (description) requirements and vendor cost sheet
- Scoring matrix
- Documented use case(s)
- Template of a request for proposal (RFP) document
- Analysis and scoring grid for use by the following:
- Vendors
- Selection team
- A written analysis and comments on vendor responses
Request a Quote
To learn more about PinkSELECT or to get a quote, contact us at 1-888-273-PINK or info@pinkelephant.com.
PinkVERIFY
PinkVERIFY™ is an assessment service offered to the vendor community.
This information is particularly helpful to IT practitioners seeking to understand which tool sets are compatible with the ITIL processes they are seeking to automate.
Software vendors seek to have the PinkVERIFY certification to give their tool sets recognition that they have achieved a specific level of standard and, therefore, meet the established criteria for compatibility with ITIL best practices.
The PinkVERIFY certification process involves a detailed assessment for a specific tool set to determine the tool’s compatibility with ITIL v3 or ITIL 4 processes/practices. To determine if a tool should be certified, the assessment includes very specific criteria based on ITIL best practices and the questionnaires are created by Pink’s highly knowledgeable and experienced ITIL consultants.
There are currently more than 60 vendors across the globe who have achieved PinkVERIFY certification. To view the list of tools and vendors as well as which specific ITIL processes have been certified, click here.
