Today’s shock joint announcement from Microsoft and IBM throws ITIL Refresh into doubt

This article has been podcast

In preparation for the release of Microsoft Service Manager (previously known as “Service Desk”), Microsoft made a surprise joint announcement today with IBM.

SAN DIEGO, April 1st /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- At the Microsoft Management Summit 2007 (MMS 2007) today, Arden Laws, newly appointed Vice President of Infrastructure Methodologies for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) said , “In partnership with our good friends at IBM, and in support of the upcoming beta release of Microsoft System Center Service Manager, Microsoft are pleased to announced the release of Infrastructure Library 20000, scheduled for May 30th 2007. Both our organisations have been concerned for some time by the excessive control and influence wielded within ITIL and itSMF by Hewlett Packard. The ITIL Version 3 Refresh has brought this to a head and left us with no option but to make a competitive response. IBM created ITIL and Microsoft evolved it to a much higher level with Microsoft Operating Framework (MOF) so we decided we were uniquely positioned to create an equivalent ISO20000 Infrastructure Library together. By combining MOF with a number of IBM publications, we have created a library that covers all aspects of ISO20000”.

Briar Jenning, IBM Director of Operational Practice (and also recently appointed), said “The ISO/IEC 20000 standard documents the “what”. We have documented the “how’” with five books of practical advice, based on a Deming lifecycle of continuous process development. Now businesses can implement a process framework across all aspects of their IT operations instead of the limited scope offered by ITIL; they can benchmark themselves against an internationally recognised standard; and they can access practitioners and products certified to the same standard. Due to the rigorous quality assurance cycles we have already applied to this content, the first release will be IL20000 Version 3. Starting on June 1st we will run a Version 3 Road-show in 30 cities across 14 countries with joint presentations and training from IBM and Microsoft staff. There will be free breakfast seminars and free three-day IL20000 Fundamental certification in all locations, along with executive retreats in the Cayman Islands, Boracay, the Azores, Monaco and Goa. ”

Copyright in the books has been gifted to an independent Foundation Institution on Service Management , whose Board of Trustees - we can exclusively reveal - includes an ex-President of the United States, a Gulf War veteran general, a former UK cabinet minister, several board members of Fortune 50 companies, and a French academic. The FIoSM is reputed to have a marketing war-chest of $14M and a permanent full-time staff of nine. In a surprise move, Sharie Tailor has resigned her current positions to take the role of International President of the FIoSM. Said Tailor: “My work on my past project is done. The IL20000 presents far greater opportunities and far greater resources with which to bring those opportunities to fruition.”

When asked to comment, an OGC spokesperson, who asked not to be named, replied "We are not amused. This is a tawdry attempt to buy the market. This will have no impact on the ITIL Version 3 Refresh Roadshow which shall soldier on. Or very little, other than possibly resheduling it once we find replacements for some of the key players".

A Microsoft spokesperson strongly denied that the new group are “buying the market”, responding that “We consider it a great opportunity for our organisation to give back to our loyal customers and future customers by including the eBooks at no charge with every copy of Windows (desktop or server), along with free training and certification to the first hundred thousand practitioners. So as not to disadvantage existing clients, copies of IL20000 will be available for free download from June 1st from the Microsoft website for existing Windows users.”

When asked to comment on the OGC remark, Jenning added “IBM do not seek to profit from IL20000. We will demonstrate our commitment to the open source community by publishing the IL20000 books under the GNU licence for download in OpenDoc XML format from the IBM Linux website”.

The two organisations have also commissioned a print run of 100,000 complementary bound sets of the books for distribution to “valued clients, prospective clients, libraries, tertiary students, and attendees at all major IT conferences in 2007/2008”.

The practitioner’s body, already incorporated in the USA and UK, is known as the IT Service Management Guild. “Local start-up chapters of 25 members or more will receive seed funding of $25,000 each” says Laws, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the itSMG. “Nominations are open for interim positions of International President and committee. These will all be salaried full-time positions. Remuneration will be in six figures, and extensive international travel is required. We would prefer candidates with prior experience from similar organisations. Election will be held in May to assume the positions from June 1st.”

In related news, the Chinese government has announced a free public domain version of the ITIL books based in Mongolia. Apparently a pirate pdf copy of the ITIL Version 3 books has been posted on a server in Ulan Batar along with the message “The forces of capitalism shall hold this wisdom enslaved no longer. The glorious People’s Revolution has set it free on a website in the Autonomous People’s Republic of Mongolia, far beyond the clutches of capitalist pig-dog lackey lawyers and their decadent copyrights or trademarks. It shall be known as the Autonomous People’s Republic Infrastructure Library and the practitioners’ body will be the Foundation Organisational Operations Liberation Service”. The URL for the pirate copy is april.ch and the practitioners’ body aprilfools.ch.