THE U NI V ERSIT Y OF OXFORD

A ND ITIL® CASE STU DY

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 1. INTRODUCTION 2.1 THE SMO AND ITIL®
The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. The University of Oxford’s SMO has an overriding responsibility for service quality assurance.
Teaching began there in 1096, and today it hosts more than 24,000 students and It supports teams with the adoption of ITIL best practice to keep quality levels high.
receives, on average, over six applications for each available university place. It provides
over 350 graduate degrees and hosts students from over 150 countries and territories. Andrew said: ‘The bigger the IT organization, the more important it is to use ITIL. It is critical
to have the right practices and processes to ensure everyone does things in the same way.
The University of Oxford was ranked number one in the world in the Times Higher
Education World University Rankings from 2017-2019 and has the largest volume ‘In 2015, IT Services was running ITIL courses and a new service tool, but it was really
of world-leading research in the UK. just dipping its toe in the water as people tried to understand what ITIL meant in an Oxford
University context.’

For the next stage in the University’s IT service management journey, Andrew instigated
2. THE SERVICE MANAGEMENT OFFICE several changes that prefigured what would arrive later in the shape of ITIL 4.

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

The University of Oxford’s service management office (SMO), which has been led by
Andrew Dixon since 2015, is a four-person team within the IT Services department,
3. DESIGNING THE SERVICE CATALOGUE
which itself is comprised of over 300 people. AND DEFINING ROLES
Originally, the SMO was part of an amalgam of project and service management teams When reviewing the University’s service catalogue, Andrew realized that it was just a
that had split into two separate functions in 2015 after a previous merger of several list of services that was both shallow and out-of-date. A secondary issue was support;
departments, each with individual cultures and ways of working. previously, gaps in support occurred because teams tended to shift responsibility for
problems to other teams.
Andrew said: ‘When I joined in 2015 to lead the new SMO, there was already a realization
that the department had been too project-focused and not service- and customer-focused Therefore, the redesigned service catalogue needed to have greater clarity on the support
enough. I was brought in to help re-focus the department to be service orientated.’ structures in place for each service.

The IT services provided to the university encompass three major categories: In addition, four key job roles were defined:

• business systems and administration support, for example finance, HR, and student records • Business owner: responsible for articulating opportunities and demand and ensuring value
• teaching and learning, including virtual learning environments, lecture capture, is delivered
and IT-training courses • Service owner: responsible for governance, practices, and the service’s strategic direction
• research support, featuring high-performance computing and supporting researchers to • Service delivery manager: responsible for end-to-end services with a focus on applications
get the most out of IT. (for example, ensuring that the telephone system is working and its software is available
and configured)
IT Services is also responsible for desktop/laptop support for central administration, as well • Service operations manager: responsible for handling the servers and underlying
as email and telephony. hardware.

Andrew explained the rationales behind these definitions: ‘If you are the service delivery
manager and there is a problem, you are responsible for the end-to-end service, regardless
of whose fault it is.

‘Having service operations managers

means there is a shared responsibility.
“If you are the service
This was important in our relatively delivery manager and
new department at the time, where
teams came from different parts of there is a problem,
the organization.
you are responsible
‘Looking back, this fitted very nicely for the end-to-end
into what we see now in ITIL 4 and the
four dimensions of service management.’ service, regardless
of whose fault it is.”

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1. 2014 Research Excellence Framework
 3.1 REDUCING MAJOR INCIDENTS 5. INTRODUCING ITIL 4 TO
The shared responsibility approach that was instilled by the SMO’s new ways of working THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
began to address the critical issue of major incidents. By 2015, the University had an
average of eight major incidents per year. Some were resolved within one day, but others
left the University with a seriously reduced IT service for three days. However, by 2019,
In late 2018, the University published a new strategy. It included initiatives that would
need IT support, such as the digitization of teaching. Consequently, IT Services worked
“From spring 2019,
IT Services had reduced the annual number of major incidents to only two. alongside the University’s IT Committee to devise a five-year IT strategy. This strategy we started by
was designed to align closely with ITIL 4 principles.
Andrew explained: ‘We had some old, substandard data centres and needed collective taking the best
responsibility to manage and outsource where necessary. According to Andrew, this was important to help address one of the long-standing
issues for universities. He said: ‘The business imperative for IT to deliver value and
bits of our existing
‘Also, projects were operating without any understanding of the support required for, or keep its funding, which is prominent in other industries, is a slightly broken link in practices and
universities. IT Services can sometimes deliver the services it thinks students and
interaction between, services. When a team wanted to make a change, that change’s
impact across all of the related services was unknown.’ academics want, but it does not always have the feedback loop to understand if it is adapting them
Through collaboration, a better understanding of the configuration items, and simplified IT
really delivering value. It can be difficult to hear real, unfiltered feedback.’
into ITIL 4”
architecture, each service was optimized and rebuilt on generic hardware so that all teams When he was introduced to ITIL 4, Andrew saw how the evolved ITIL guidance places
understood how changes would affect all other services. much greater emphasis on creating value.

In turn, a new continual improvement process, which was based on a report and action ITIL Foundation training began at the University in the summer of 2019. Eight people
plan to apply fixes following a major incident, made a significant impact. Andrew said: from the SMO and service desk achieved the certification. Andrew has now attained
‘It made a huge difference to the reliability of all IT services and increased the reputation his Managing Professional Transition certification.
of our department across the University.’

5.1 COMBINING METHODS AND FRAMEWORKS

4. PEOPLE AND CULTURE UNDER ITIL 4
Part of creating an environment in which teams could deliver end-to-end services
successfully involved an ongoing programme to create a collaborative ethos. Andrew felt that ITIL 4 could provide a lot of support around the adoption of other
frameworks in the IT Services department and the University as a whole. For example,
The scheme was about creating a culture that was open, supportive, collaborative, the software development team was largely using Agile methods, so it was important to
accountable, and respectful, so it was abbreviated to the acronym OSCAR. bring Agile methods into the overall structure. The University was also widely adopting
Workshops, coffee mornings, and quiz nights helped to bring the IT Services function Lean principles; using ITIL 4 ensured that this adoption was linked with IT.
together with one common objective, mitigating its history as separate departments.
Andrew explained: ‘From spring 2019, we started by taking the best bits of our existing
Andrew said: ‘We were doing this even before ITIL 4, but it is good to have it confirmed practices and adapting them into ITIL 4. We were creating a new story with ITIL
now as best practice. None of the improvements could have been achieved without all language, which gave us a clearer understanding of what we were doing.
teams working together effectively. It was very much a team effort.’
‘Agile methods are focused on the process and Lean is very good at reducing waste,
but ITIL 4 is aware of the whole picture. Because it is focused on service and value,
ITIL reminds us of something essential: if IT services are not delivering value, they are
wasting their time.’

A X E LOS.C O M 4 The University of Oxford and ITIL case study ITIL 4 case study 5 A X E LOS.C O M
 5.2 ADOPTING ITIL 4: OBJECTIVES 6. IT SERVICES: PROVIDING BUSINESS
AND OUTCOMES CONTINUITY IN REAL TIME
Since 2015, the University’s IT Services department has made steady improvements and is At the time of writing, the context of the Covid-19 global pandemic and its impact on the
performing better as a service organization. Introducing ITIL 4 embedded best practice into entire economy and UK education system has brought organizations’ IT services functions
the department and the minds of its people. into the spotlight.

Andrew said: ‘This has given our teams a new understanding of why they are doing what
they are doing. It helps us all to take a further step on the journey. We are talking about The University of Oxford’s IT Services teams enabled the entire University to move to a
continual improvement for services across the entire service value system.’ homeworking environment, facilitate online teaching, and deliver online exams for the first
time in its history.
“If there is ever For example, monthly reports, which were treated by some as ‘a bit of bureaucracy’, have
become useful for identifying trends, providing early warnings, pinpointing problems, and Andrew said: ‘The University’s leadership realizes that our IT Services function has
a danger that providing fixes before customers are affected, because of ITIL 4. moved with the times, not least because of how quickly we shifted the University to
working from home. In fact, one of our Pro-Vice Chancellors said that ‘staff in IT Services
different parts of Andrew said: ‘If there is ever a danger that different parts of the organization are going in were working wonders’.’
the organization separate directions, ITIL 4 is there to ensure that everyone is moving together.’
‘Today, we are Agile and able to respond very quickly to a changing environment in a way
are going in In particular, he references the ITIL 4 guiding principles as a way of building bridges between that was impossible five years ago.’
people using Agile, Lean, and ITIL. That includes recognizing the partnership that exists
separate between them rather than letting any one take precedence.
directions, ITIL 4
is there to ensure
Andrew said: ‘The principle of collaborate and promote visibility is happening on even the
smallest things, which means we are working so much better than before and focusing on
7. SUPPORTING THE IT PROFESSION
value. ‘Five years ago, we were not keeping things simple. Now, that has changed, and we
that everyone is are also thinking and working holistically.’
Andrew said: ‘IT never stands still. We have to keep moving forwards and ITIL 4 is the
right framework to help.
moving together”
‘For example, much of what we do will move into the cloud. ITIL 4 is a useful foundation
for engaging suppliers effectively and understanding how to manage an IT infrastructure
5.3 ITIL 4 TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION not physically under our control. It means looking at all the services we are responsible
for, making improvements, recognizing how they are interdependent, and moving them to
Andrew is keen to see a relatively new team in the SMO undergo ITIL 4 training, including maturity together.
the more advanced Managing Professional modules. This will support his ultimate aim:
each member of the team having a portfolio of services and a comprehensive ‘IT used to be a craft: today, it is a profession, and there are methods and frameworks to
understanding of the ITIL 4 approach. manage it professionally. ITIL 4 is one of those frameworks. ITIL provides fit-for-purpose
solutions that co-create value not just some of the time, but all of the time.’
‘I have attended training sessions and really appreciate the holistic view to ITIL 4.
It has really opened my eyes to the depth of the material and how it all joins up,
which is very powerful.’

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 The future is built on ITIL.

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