The ITIL framework is a globally recognised set of best practices for IT Service Management (ITSM). Discover why it’s essential for delivering great service.
Ariana Tiwari , Product Marketing Director — IT and HR Service, Salesforce
Your server crashes during Black Friday, and suddenly your million-dollar sales day becomes a customer service nightmare. Do you have set processes guiding you on the next steps? How will you tackle growing customer complaints and volume? When IT systems crash or slow down, businesses lose money, customers, and a competitive advantage. This is where the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework steps in. It’s the cornerstone of IT service management (ITSM), turning your IT department from a contact centre to a strategic partner.
Whether you’re dealing with frequent outages, frustrated customers, or spiralling IT costs, ITIL provides a roadmap to handle them. Let’s break down what ITIL is and how it can help keep your IT operations running smoothly.
The ITIL framework is a set of best practices and guidelines for ITSM. Instead of just fixing things when they break, ITIL offers a structured way to manage everything — from planning new services to keeping existing ones running smoothly.
Think of it like this: if ITSM is building and maintaining a house, then ITIL is your blueprint and building codes. What happens when something breaks? It gives you a clear process for logging the problem, prioritising it, fixing it properly, and keeping everyone informed along the way. ITIL’s principles are rooted in bringing your business and teams together.
The ITIL framework was first introduced in the 1980s and has since undergone several updates, with the latest version being ITIL 4. This is built around the Service Value System (SVS), which is a holistic approach to managing IT services. The SVS includes several key components:
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ITIL encompasses a range of processes and practices to ensure quality and value. They cover the entire service lifecycle, including incident management (restoring service after a disruption) and problem management (finding and fixing the root cause of recurring issues). However, we broadly categorise them into these practices:
The ITIL framework shifts IT teams from being in a constant crisis mode to a service delivery mode. Instead of spending days putting out fires, you can focus on preventing problems before they impact users. This results in dramatically improved service quality and fewer business disruptions.
This structured approach creates clear accountability across teams while providing the metrics needed to demonstrate real business value. The result is measurable: improved customer satisfaction, reduced operational costs, and fewer emergency escalations that derail productivity.
The biggest win? ITIL transforms how the rest of your company sees IT. When your technology consistently works and supports what people need to do their jobs, executives start seeing IT spending as an investment that gives them an edge over competitors — not just another line item in the budget.
While ITIL offers many benefits, implementing it can be challenging. Let’s look at some common challenges and how you can navigate them:
Challenge: Resistance to change from employees
A new framework can be perceived as an unnecessary burden because your teams are accustomed to old ways of working. This can lead to a lack of buy-in and a ‘paper ITIL’ where processes are documented but not followed.
Solution: Start with a small pilot project to demonstrate quick wins and build momentum before a full-scale rollout. Involve employees early, provide comprehensive training through a platform like Salesforce Trailhead, and communicate openly about the ‘why’ behind the changes. Show them how the new processes will make their jobs easier and more efficient.
Challenge: Treating ITIL as a one-time project rather than a continuous culture shift
Businesses with this mindset often abandon it once the initial implementation is ‘done,’ missing out on the framework’s core principle of continual service improvement.
Solution: Emphasise that ITIL is about continuous improvement, not a checkbox exercise, and focus on solving real business problems. This requires a shift in how you and your teams think and approach implementation.
Challenge: Overly complex implementation that tries to adopt every single ITIL process
ITIL is a set of best practices, not a rigid prescription. Trying to implement every single process and practice without tailoring them to your specific needs and scale can result in unnecessary overhead and complexity.
Solution: Customise the framework. Conduct a gap analysis to identify the organisation’s specific needs and pain points, then tailor ITIL practices to provide the most value without adding unnecessary complexity.
Challenge: Lack of buy-in from leadership
Without strong support from senior management, an ITIL implementation is likely to fail. Leaders must champion the initiative, allocate the necessary resources, and communicate its importance to the entire organisation.
Solution: Clearly demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) by showing how ITIL will align IT services with broader business goals. You can ultimately prove its strategic value to the business.
Challenge: Deploying artificial intelligence (AI) without fixing broken processes
Several businesses may rush to implement AI capabilities through chatbots, automated incident resolution, and predictive analytics. But layering AI onto poorly defined processes creates ‘automation of chaos.’ Even perfect AI technology will fail if your underlying ITIL processes — like knowledge management systems (KMS) or incident management — are inconsistent or outdated.
Solution: Treat AI as an opportunity to fix your processes first. An AI solution is only as effective as the ITIL practices it runs on. Standardise and optimise your core processes before deployment to give the technology a solid foundation for delivering real results.
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When you follow standard practices, you can be more productive and get the maximum value from your ITIL and ITSM investment. These practical strategies will help you succeed in this evolving landscape:
Choosing a platform like Salesforce IT Service, which is built on the ITIL framework, is a great starting point. As it’s built on the ITIL framework, your business is set for genuine digital transformation. This approach turns your IT team from a reactive, cost-burdened function into a proactive, forward-thinking enterprise partner. Far more than a tool, IT Service sets the foundation to finally move beyond firefighting, proving that IT isn’t just a place where money goes to be spent.
Your IT team was hired to innovate, solve problems, and move your business forward. IT Service gets them back on track.
ITIL, or Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a framework of best practices for IT Service Management (ITSM). It’s important because it provides a structured approach for businesses to align their IT services with business needs, while improving efficiency and service quality.
ITSM is the overarching discipline that defines how an organisation manages and delivers IT services to customers. ITIL, on the other hand, is the most widely adopted framework of best practices that provides the specific ‘how-to’ guidelines for implementing ITSM effectively.
The ITIL framework was created in the 1980s by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), a government agency in Great Britain. Today, its ownership and intellectual property are managed by PeopleCert, which acquired AXELOS.