UK businesses not ready for ITL Version 3.

Seven out of ten IT managers say they are not equipped to change over to ITIL Version 3, according to research from ILX Group plc, a training services company that provides flexible training services through traditional classroom, workshops, multi-media training and e-Learning. This is despite the fact that the same number of IT managers (61 per cent), believe that having IT staff qualified in ITIL gives businesses a competitive edge.

The study, which questioned 100 senior IT managers and directors across businesses from a variety of industries, showed that of the 62 per cent of businesses planning to migrate to ITIL Version 3, only 17 percent have any timeline in place for doing so, with only one per cent scheduling the change over in the next six months.

ITIL Version 3 was launched on 30th May 2007 to provide an integrated service lifecycle approach to IT Service Management. Common barriers to adoption of the new framework, according to the ILX research, are lack of understanding of its benefits from management and not enough training time and support.

"There continues to be a real educational need about ITIL, which is a major factor in UK IT managers' inability to deliver against the new requirements of Version 3," explains ILX Group plc. "With the launch of the new version, ITIL provides businesses of any size with even greater access to world class service management expertise, yet barriers to adoption persist, due to fear of change and unwillingness to commit resources. What many organisations don't realise is that there are cost effective ways to provide IT managers with at least a foundation level of knowledge, for example via e-learning which removes the need for users to leave the office and allows them to learn new subject matters in chunks, at their own pace at a time that suits them."

Of those surveyed, the least prepared sector was manufacturing with only nine per cent of respondents claiming to be ready for the change over, despite the fact that 13 per cent are already committed to migration in the next 12 months. This was closely followed by retail and distribution, in which only 22 percent said they were equipped to migrate to ITIL Version 3.

Summary of key findings included:

* 61% of senior IT managers and directors believed that by having staff qualified in ITIL would give their business a competitive edge

* 57% of senior IT managers and directors said that their staff were too busy to take time off work to train

* 54% of IT managers and directors claimed that the benefits of ITIL were not fully understood by management

* 67% of IT managers and directors said that they were not equipped to change over to ITIL version 3

www.ilxgroup.com