Some people today claim there is no need for ITILor ITService Management. I have actually visited multiple customers who have said,“Please don’t talk about ITIL around here, ITIL just does not work for us”.There are also organizations that think “the cloud” replaces the need for ITservice management or ITIL. To those people and organizations “ITIL is dead”.
On the other hand, there are many organizations that ITIL is important, and while maybe not a state of nirvana,it has provided a framework and a path in which to bring order to chaos. In our most recent ITSMtoday Pulse Survey,only 20% of companies had no plans to implement any version of ITIL. 
I do agree that ITIL has had its period of hype followed by failed expectations. If you follow the Gartner model, that solution areas go through expectation periods of “technology trigger”, followed by “peak of inflated expectation” (the hype), then through the “trough of disillusionment” before gaining traction in the “slope of enlightenment” then finally becoming a commodity and commonly adopted in the “plateau of productivity”. ITIL has definitely followed this path.
ITIL for some is in the “trough of disillusionment” and for others in the “slope of enlightenment” progressing towards changing the organization for the better. The difference in these two types of out comes is the ability to execute based on capabilities and resources internally and externally with partners. The organizations that believe ITIL is dead or has no value need to take a look around the organization and assess whether incident management, problem management, change management, etc matters in their organization. They also need to look around and decided if the organization’s focus is on delivery or support of services or products to customers that are efficient, effective, and economical to met business outcomes.
If the organization is losing customers, does not care about customer satisfaction, return on investment,total cost of ownership and quality of whatever is produced or supported then I agree ITIL is dead and service does not matter. To this organization, ITIL is probably just a hobby or worse, a distraction.
ITIL disciplines and processes can exist in every organization that wants to deliver and support outstanding products and services for customers. Whether, the organization has knowledge of ITIL or not, ITIL can still exist. ITIL education can empower people with knowledge.People are the key to success. And the right supplier or partner can help an organizationfrom falling into the “trough of disillusionment” and instead embark on a path to true enlightenment
So Perhaps I should re-title this piece, “Give me process or give me… depth”, (the other version was just too extreme).
Longlive ITIL.
By: ITSM Guy