The Value of ITIL Certifications to Organizations

There is much debate in the IT world about the value of certifications to organizations, and this debate often includes the value of ITIL certifications to organizations. Value has intangible aspects, and it’s often difficult to adequately assess value. The survey assessed several aspects of the value of ITIL certifications to organizations by asking respondents how earning these certifications helped their employers.

Forty-seven percent of respondents indicated that their employers experienced improved efficiency in terms of cost and time, while 55 percent indicated improvements in overall effectiveness. From a standpoint of efficiency and effectiveness, efficiency is a matter of an organization conducting its activities while minimizing waste. Effectiveness is a matter of conducting the right activities to support business activities. Clearly, organizations found value in terms of efficiency and effectiveness since they encourage employees to earn intermediate and advanced ITIL certifications.

The next two statements also assessed efficiency and effectiveness, but in different ways. First, improved overall organizational quality is primarily an assessment of efficiency, and 41 percent of the respondents indicated value to their employers in this area. Improved alignment within the business is an indicator of effectiveness, or doing the right things, and 52 percent indicated that overall business alignment improved as a result of their pursuit of intermediate and advanced ITIL certifications. This is significant because IT organizations regularly struggle with efficiently using limited resources and budgets, and often suffer from regular conduct of activities that the business does not find valuable. Clearly, individuals earning advanced and intermediate ITIL certifications helped their employers in this area and, therefore, clearly have value to organizations.

The next statement asked respondents if earning advanced and intermediate ITIL certifications improved the perception of IT within the business. Thirty-five percent of respondents indicated that it did. Clearly this issue is not as important an issue as overall efficiency and effectiveness, but it was important enough that over one third of respondents indicated improvement in this area. Some IT organizations suffer from a negative perception by the business, which can limit overall IT effectiveness.

The knowledge gained by earning ITIL certifications can help organizations overcome negative perceptions of IT that are often held by the business. Often, businesses have to compete with other businesses for work, and demonstrating a measure of knowledge and expertise with ITIL best practices can result in one organization winning work or a contract over less experienced organizations. Thirty-five percent of respondents indicated that their earning the advanced and intermediate ITIL certifications resulted in a business ability to pursue new work or contracts. The clear value statement is that when an organization’s employees develop knowledge of ITIL best practices through earning intermediate and advanced ITIL certifications, it can have a direct impact on an organization’s revenue.

Only 23.5 percent of respondents felt that the knowledge they gained provided their employers with an overall form of risk management. A generally held belief in the IT industry is that employees earning certifications is one form of risk management available to organizations. Clearly, participants in this survey did not see as strong an effect here as in other areas assessed in this survey. Finally, 47 percent of respondents indicated that the knowledge they gained allowed them to directly address one or more specific issues, projects, or activities. The benefit for employers here is clear; their employees learned something when they earned these certifications that they could apply directly to activities at work.

Certification is often held to be theoretical; however, this survey indicates true value to employers in the form of developing in their employees the ability to accomplish important and significant things for the organizations. Additionally, 100 percent of the respondents indicated that the costs, in terms of time and money, to earn intermediate and advanced ITIL certification was worthwhile.

Reproduced from Global Knowledge White Paper: The Value of ITIL® Certification

Related Courses
ITIL Foundation Courses
ITIL Intermediate Courses
ITIL Expert Program