IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

By Rick Blum, Director, Strategic Marketing

Highlights

The number of ITOC services offered to end users and customers is increasing substantially, with the average ITOC
now offering eight services. Video over IP, currently offered by 30 percent of respondents, is expected to more
than double in availability within the next 12 months.

Integrated management of IT services is the ultimate goal, yet only 19 percent of respondents have achieved this
level of sophistication. However, 66 percent have at least partially integrated management of all IT services.

The ITIL framework for ITSM is the primary model used to manage ITOCs, preferred by nearly six out of ten
respondents. The ISO FCAPS model, a longtime favorite of network operations centers, is now used by only
one-quarter of respondents for their ITOCs.

Few organizations (8 percent) have outsourced their IT operations. The main barrier to doing so is the cost of these services.

Availability and customer satisfaction are the most frequently employed metrics of ITOC effectiveness.

Ensuring operations staff have appropriate skills is the most important factor for optimizing ITOC operations, but
also the one with the largest gap between perceived importance and satisfaction.

The cost of products and tools is most frequently cited as a significant barrier to improving ITOC capabilities,
although availability of products and tools that meet respondents requirements is rarely a significant barrier.

The Bottom Line

Most enterprises operate increasingly interdependent networks, systems and applications. Effectively managing the
multitude of IT services is crucial to the health of the business, which is why many IT organizations have expanded their
network-focused operations centers into IT operations centers.
Successful ITOCs require a diverse set of technical skills and appropriate processes and policies to control routine activities, as well
as skillful management of the entire operation. Managers responsible for achieving these goals should consider the following:

The demand from the business for more reliable and flexible IT services can be best achieved by integrating the
management of these services. An ITOC is the best organizing model to effectively manage services during a period
of rapid expansion.

Ensuring that operations staff have the appropriate skills to do their jobs will have the most impact on optimizing
ITOC operations. Be sure to build sufficient time for training into your staffing plans. Lack of regular training will
breed discontent, driving up turnover, not to mention the cost of retention.

Although the cost of products and tools required to effectively run ITOCs continues to be an issue for the majority
of organizations, the situation is not hopeless. Solicit the help of vendors and consulting organizations with ROI
expertise to enable you to sell investment in these necessities to those who hold the purse strings.

High user satisfaction with services delivery is the most important metric for advancing ITOC capabilities and
obtaining future funding. Measure availability and customer satisfaction regularly as an indication of how the rest
of the business views IT, and to enable proactive response to any problems that can erode support.

IT Operations
Centers (ITOCs)
2008

Introduction
For many years, mid-to-large-sized enterprises have managed their critical networks from
dedicated network operations centers (NOCs), which were designed to provide reliable
operational service levels to end users of multivendor, heterogeneous, distributed
networks. However, more recently, as business systems have become more reliant on
predictable and flexible network operations, enterprises have started to expand the scope
of the operations center to encompass not only networks, but the systems, applications
and other services that are transported over these networks. This integrated IT operations
center (ITOC) enables better coordination of services and more effective deployment of
resources to deliver business value.
From March 26 to May 9, 2008, BT conducted a Web-based survey on IT operations
centers, which was completed by 86 IT professionals around the globe. This survey was
designed to yield valuable insight into the current and planned strategies of these
respondents IT organizations for the successful operation of their ITOCs, as well as
identifying some of the barriers to improving the performances of these centers. The
results are compared where appropriate to those of similar surveys on network operations
centers conducted by BT (formerly INS) in 1999 and 2003.
For the purposes of this survey, IT operations center was defined as a combination of
organization structures, staffing, processes, technology products and tools and service
providers designed to provide reliable operational service levels to end users of
multivendor, heterogeneous, distributed networks, systems, applications and other IT
services. ITOCs differ from NOCs primarily in the scope of responsibility, with the former
encompassing systems, applications and other services, in addition to networks, which are
the focal point of NOCs.
The ITOC survey was posted on the North American BT Professional Services Web site.
Invitations to participate in the survey were sent to subscribers of the BT Initiatives
newsletter and former BT industry survey participants. All Web survey responses were
automatically collected into a survey tool. Any questions skipped or incorrectly answered
by survey respondents were not included in the tabulations. Not-applicable responses
were also not included in the tabulations. Each chart includes the number of valid
responses for that particular question (e.g., N=100 indicates 100 responses). Percentages
shown in charts may not equal 100 percent due to rounding.

July 2008

BT

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

ITOC Profile
Between 1999 and 2003, the number of IT organizations that had totally integrated their network and systems
increased dramaticallyfrom just 14 percent in 1999 to 40 percent in 2003. This year we asked respondents how much
integration they had achieved for not only networks and systems, but for all IT services, including applications. When
the definition is expanded, the level of full integration declines to just 19 percent. However, the percentage of
organizations that have partially integrated management of all IT services is a substantial 66 percent. Hence, virtually as
many IT organizations today have integrated the management of all IT services as had integrated just networks and
systems five years ago.

This year we asked respondents how

much integration they had achieved for
not only networks and systems, but for
all IT services, including applications.

July 2008

BT

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

Previous surveys of NOCs, beginning in 1999, showed a clear trend toward multiple local/regional centers with
integration at a centralized site, coupled with a steady decline of the single, centralized center. This trend has been
reversed for ITOCs in 2008. The single centralized center is now the most common model, being favored by more than
one-third of respondents. However, the model of multiple local and regional centers with integration at a centralized
site remains popular also, with 30 percent of respondents organizing their ITOCs in this fashion.
While the NOC results arent directly comparable to this years survey since ITOCs have a broader scope of
responsibilities, it can be said with some confidence that approximately two out of three IT organizations use one of
these two models for their operations centers. The next most common model, for both ITOCs today and NOCs in 2003,
is multiple, centralized centers that are integrated for follow-the-sun coverage. Very few IT organizations (four percent)
have multiple local and/or regional centers that are not integrated.
Only eight percent of respondents IT organizations have outsourced most or all of their IT services, and just nine
percent do not have an IT operations center. As would be expected most (63 percent) of these IT organizations are
smaller, supporting less than 1,000 employees. These two groups of respondents, along with those who indicated
another type of ITOC organization, were excluded from the remaining questions on ITOCs, except two on outsourcing of
IT operations and one on IT organization size.

July 2008

BT

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

The number and variety of services that IT organizations deliver to end users and/or customers continue to grow.
Currently, local-area network (LAN) services are most commonly offered (by a whopping 93 percent of respondents IT
organizations). Not far behind are virtual private networks (VPNs), which 90 percent of IT organizations offer.
Server services are the next most frequently offered. However, nine percent of respondents who do not currently offer server services
expect to do so within the next 12 months, at which time this service will become nearly ubiquitous, as will LAN services and VPNs.
Among the services that are expected to be most frequently added in the next 12 months are video over IP (36 percent),
voice over IP (22 percent), business service management (13 percent) and managed security services (10 percent).

July 2008

BT

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

As impressive as the high percentage of multiple services offered to end users and customers is, perhaps more
impressive is the across-the-board increase since 2003, when these services were offered by an average of 41 percent
of respondents. Today those same services are offered by 56 percent of respondents, an absolute percentage increase of
15 percent. The increase in services was not even, though. The services that increased (in absolute percentages) the
most are managed security services (35 percent), client (desktop in 2003 survey) services (29 percent) and VPNs (28
percent). The services that increased the least were video over IP (six percent), business service management (seven
percent) and WAN services (ten percent).
While some of this difference may be due to the 2003 services being restricted to NOCs, most likely the increase is due
to the growth in demand by the business for these services. The need for most businesses to communicate via multiple
channels in order to increase productivity and attain competitive advantages is driving IT organizations to continually
broaden the services they offer to achieve these business goals.

The need for most businesses to

communicate via multiple channels
in order to increase productivity and
attain competitive advantages is driving
IT organizations to continually broaden
the services they offer to achieve
these business goals.

July 2008

BT

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

Measuring and Improving Network Operations

Ensuring ITOCs staffs possess appropriate skills is regarded as the most important factor for achieving optimal IT
operations. In fact, 94 percent of respondents say this is critical or very important to the success of their IT operations.
The next most critical factor is effective processes and procedures, rated as critical by 37 percent of respondents, and
very important by another 44 percent. Obviously, without effective processes and procedures, even highly skilled IT
staff will not perform up to their potential.
Using tools effectively is rated critical to optimizing IT operations by only 21 percent of respondents, but 67 percent say
it is very important. An effective organization structure is rated critical by more respondents (33 percent) than using
tools effectively, but far fewer respondents say that this is very important.
Other factors that are considered critical or very important to optimizing IT operations for a majority of respondents are
integrating tools and utilizing vendor and/or service provider NOC services. Leveraging external skills and/or resources is
critical to only 15 percent of respondents, though very important for another 32 percent.

July 2008

BT

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

On the flip side of the coin is satisfaction, that is, how satisfied respondents are with each of various factors that impact
IT operations. Unlike the importance ratings, the range of satisfaction is much smaller, with less than 20 percent of
respondents indicating complete satisfaction with any one factor.
Respondents are most satisfied with their ability to ensure operations staff have appropriate skills. But only 19 percent
are completely satisfied, and 10 percent are somewhat dissatisfied. For all the other factors, less than two-thirds of
respondents can say they are satisfied with that aspect of their IT operations.

July 2008

BT

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

Ideally, satisfaction would be rated as highly as importance, or at least fairly close. However, for only two categories is
this true: utilizing vendor and/or service provider services and leveraging external skills and/or resources. Unfortunately,
these are also the two factors that have the least impact on optimizing IT operations.
The biggest gap between importance and satisfaction ratings, surprisingly, is for the factor that is highest rated in
satisfaction: ensuring operations staff have appropriate skills. While this factor attained a satisfaction rating of 3.8, it
also had an importance rating of 4.3, leaving a gap of 0.5. Effective processes and procedures has a gap just as large,
although it is somewhat less important in the view of most respondents. These gaps are good indicators of where
efforts to improve IT operations should be focused, and which can be put on the back burner.

The biggest gap between importance

and satisfaction ratings, surprisingly, is
for the factor that is highest rated in
satisfaction: ensuring operations staff
have appropriate skills.

July 2008

BT

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

Having identified multiple areas in which ITOC operations can be improved, respondents identified significant barriers
that hinder their efforts to improving ITOC capabilities. From a list of 13 potential barriers, respondents named an
average of more than five significant barriers to improving their ITOCs capabilities.
The high cost of products and tools is tagged as a significant barrier to improving ITOC capabilities by more than half of
respondents, leading all other barriers by a wide margin. Further exacerbating this hurdle is the fact that 38 percent of
respondents have difficulty justifying cost/benefits of expenditures to upper managementa deadly one-two punch
for many ITOC operations.
Organization and/or process issues are a significant barrier for 38 percent of respondents, while lack of experienced
staff and difficulty in implementing product and/or tools are significant barriers for nearly one-third of respondents.
Thirty percent of respondents say that lack of products and/or tools, metrics and services level agreements (SLAs) are
each barriers for them.
One bright spot is that staff turnover is infrequently a significant barrier to improving IT operations centers capabilities,
affecting less than one in five respondents.

July 2008

BT

10

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

Compared to the 2003 survey on NOCs, the average number of barriers selected is higher this year. In addition, three of
the barriers increased significantly in frequency. In this survey, 11 percent more respondents say that organizational
and/or process issues are a significant barrier for them. Likewise, difficulty in implementing products and/or tools
increased eight percent as did lack of proven business benefit. Declining somewhat in frequency are available product
and/or tools dont meet requirements (down six percent) and lack of SLAs (down 12 percent).
While its not reasonable to ever expect that all significant barriers to improving ITOCs will be eliminated, right now the
trend is going in the other direction, which is not a good sign for the industry.
Lack of experienced staff continues to be a significant barrier to improving ITOC capabilities for nearly one-third of
respondents. With that in mind, we asked respondents which of six factors has the greatest impact on requirements for
staffing their ITOCs. While there is no one single factor that stands out well above the others, the most often selected
(by 30 percent of respondents) is the
implementation and administration of
new technologies. Nearly as important
is the complexity of the technological
environment supported, identified by
23 percent of respondents. These two
were also the top factors in the 2003
survey of NOCs, although in the reverse
order. In fact, complexity of the
environment declined by six percent,
which is good news.
Cost pressures grew slightly this year,
and are now the top factor impacting
staffing for 20 percent of respondents.
The challenge of recruiting skilled
network professionals topped the list
for just 10 percent of respondents.
Recalling that staff turnover is a
significant barrier to improving ITOC
capabilities for only 17 percent of
respondents, it follows that challenge of
retaining skilled operations staff is the
top factor impacting staffing ITOCs for
only nine percent of respondents.
Similarly, training operations staff is
considered as having the greatest impact
for only seven percent of respondents.

July 2008

BT

11

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

Managing ITOCs
There are a number of standard models that can be use to manage ITOCs. We asked respondents to tell us which is the
primary model they use, and were surprised by the results.
Normally, changes in the industry happen in increments, but between 2003 and 2008 there was a huge shift in the
primary model used to manage ITOCs. In the 2003 NOC survey, ISO FCAPS (Fault/Configuration/Accounting/
Performance/Security) was the preferred model for 59 percent of respondents. In a dramatic shift, FCAPS has fallen to
just 25 percent usage, while ITSM (IT Service Management), as defined by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC)
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), has risen to the fore, becoming the preferred model for managing ITOCs for 57 percent of
respondents. While the 2003 survey focused exclusively on NOCs, not the more encompassing ITOC, that difference
cannot nearly account for the magnitude of this shift. In fact, in a September 2007 BT survey, more than half of
respondents identified ITIL as the model they used for managing IT services in general, while only nine percent used
FCAPS, corroborating the results of this survey.
The TMN (Telecommunications Management Network) model, defined by the ITU-T (International Telecommunications
Union Standardizations committee), also fell in preferencefrom 18 percent to just five percent of respondents. Most
respondents who selected Other indicated that they dont use a formal model, but rather manage on an ad-hoc basis.

July 2008

BT

12

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

In 2003, availability was a metric employed to manage NOC effectiveness by just 42 percent of respondents. This year,
availability is the most frequent metric (by 64 percent of respondents) used for measuring ITOC effectiveness. In fact,
availability had been used for measuring NOC effectiveness at this higher rate in the 1999 survey, so the 2003 result
was probably just an anomaly. However, what is not an anomaly is the continued use of customer satisfaction as a
metric, both this year and in 2003 by more than half of respondents, and in 1999 by more than 60 percent.
Three other metrics increased
significantly in frequency of usage:
average time to close ticket (from 36 to
49 percent), ticket volume (from 38 to
48 percent) and cost of services (from
19 to 38 percent). Overall, respondents
are using more metrics to measure ITOC
effectiveness.
Three other metrics are used frequently,
although by less than half of
respondents: IT service performance
(41 percent), mean time to repair (38
percent) and call volume (28 percent).
A relatively few number of respondents
use call answering delay (20 percent)
and event volume (19 percent) as
metrics. Other metrics used by
respondents are mean time between
failure and solution targets.

July 2008

BT

13

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

ITOC Outsourcing
We asked respondents who currently outsource their IT operations, or are considering doing so, which types of service
providers they either use or are considering using. The results show a fairly diverse set of vendors, with only managed
network services providers being used or considered by half of respondents. Network service providers are the choice of
43 percent of respondents, with systems integrators (38 percent) and hardware vendors (31 percent) a bit further back.
Each of these providers has strengths
and weaknesses, so users undoubtedly
are going to different sources
depending on their specific needs.
We further asked respondents who are
either outsourcing all or part of their IT
operations, or are considering doing so,
to identify significant barriers to this
strategy. Topping the list is simply that
the service is too expensivea barrier
for more than half of respondents.
Two other issues are significant barriers
for more than 40 percent of
respondents: justifying costs against
benefits for upper management, and
the view that IT operations are too
critical to trust to an outsourcer.

July 2008

BT

14

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

IT Operations Demographics
In this survey, respondents represent a wide range of ITOC sizes in terms of number of elements managed, including
nodes, network components, circuits, applications, etc. While 27 percent of respondents manage fewer than 500
elements, 28 percent manage 5,000 or more elements. On average, respondents manage approximately 6,900
elements from their ITOCs.
The size of respondents IT organizations
is fairly evenly distributed as measured
by the number of employees they
support. One fifth of these IT
organizations support 10,000 or more
employees; another 32 percent support
1,000 9,999 employees; and the
remaining 48 percent support less than
1,000 employees.

Respondent Comments

July 2008

Cost is always the highest priority.

Demand management is now playing an increasingly important rolewith or without outsourcing solutions.
Having an E2E view of business roadmaps and current resource capacities being channeled through one function
has already paid dividends.

There are two "Holy Trinities" required to maximize Operations Center (and IT business) effectiveness. The first
tools, technology and peopleis widely talked about; the secondApplication Management, Network
Management and Service Managementis . . . even more vital for ideal operations center delivery.

Green is key to Operations Centers.

Need assurance of better security.

. . . it's very important consider the hiring and retention of IT people (operators and administrators) with the
proper skills and experience because they are [the ones] who work with the software, hardware and soulware.

BT

15

IT Operations Centers (ITOCs) 2008

About BT

About BT IT Industry Surveys

BT in North America provides solutions that help enterprises

effectively use technology to drive business growth. The expertise
of our more than 4,000 employees enables us to help customers
globalize their businesses in innovative and sustainable ways.
Through strategic development, strong partnerships and a diverse
collection of best practices and methodologies, BT has emerged as
a leader in networked IT services providing professional services
and consultancy, managed services and full outsourcing for
business and IT transformation.

BT conducts industry survey projects intended to provide IT

managers with insight into key issues impacting the ability to
develop and deploy IT-infrastructure-dependent business
initiatives. Previous survey report topics include:

Application Impact Assessment

Ethical Hacking

IP Address Management

IPv6

IT Infrastructure Library

Malicious Code

Network Access Control

Network and Systems Management Total Cost of Ownership

Network Operations Centers

Network Quality of Service

Network Security

Outsourcing and Offshoring

Patch Management

Performance Management and Engineering

Server Virtualization

Service Level Management and Service Level Agreements

Storage Networking

Unified Communications and Collaboration

Virtual Private Networks

Voice Over IP

Wireless LANs

Our professional services are driven by the needs of our customers.

In our role as a trusted advisor we shape our business around
helping our customers navigate the rapidly changing technology
landscape through solutions that:

Unify complex network environments to connect the

people, applications and devices needed to achieve
business goals.

Achieve compliance, mitigate vulnerabilities and

address threats to protect assets and enable secure
and effective communications with customers,
employees and business partners.

Analyze, implement and optimize technology to

improve collaboration and efficiency with business
partners and suppliers.

Employ and manage systems to implement flexible

working initiatives that improve productivity and
promote knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Utilize technology to reduce the complexity of

customer management and increase the quality
of the customer experience.

Our consultants hold over 1,300 certifications in 106 categories

and our KnowledgeNet database gives them access to over 16
years worth of intellectual property, solutions and proven
techniques in an easily-searchable format. Our customers include
global enterprises and service providers in all major industries,
including telecommunications, financial services, retail,
pharmaceutical/healthcare, manufacturing, government and travel
and transportation.

To see the results of previous surveys, go to:

http://www.ins.com/resources/surveys/

For more information regarding the IT industry

survey program, please contact:
Rick Blum
Director, Strategic Marketing
Email: rick.blum@bt.com

For additional information, please visit http://bt.ins.com or contact

us at 1-888-767-2788 in the U.S., 44 (0) 1628 503000 in
Europe, 65 6549 7188 Asia, or 1-408-330-2700 worldwide.

For additional information, please contact your local BT professional services representative.
You can also visit our web site at http://bt.ins.com or call 1-888-767-2988.
All trademarks and registered trademarks are properties of their respective holders. This document is for planning purposes only and is not intended to modify
or supplement any specifications or warranties relating to BT products or services.
2008 BT INS, Inc. All rights reserved.

06.27.2008