Oregon Training Network Launches Another Year of Professional Development Training

By Graham Eichman, business development manager, SAO

What is the Oregon Training Network?
The Oregon Training Network (www.oregontraining.net) is a state-sponsored initiative of the Software Association of Oregon to assess, aggregate and deliver on the training needs of the state’s information technology (IT) workforce. The Oregon Training Network (OTN) operates as a broker and neutral clearinghouse for topical expertise and quality in IT-related training services. Seed money to start up the Oregon Training Network was provided by the Oregon Workforce Investment Board (OWIB).

Principal goals of the Oregon Training Network are:

1. Bring the training that IT professionals need to Oregon, thereby advancing the IT industry, all business clusters that use IT and the economy.
2. Identify what new areas of training the state’s IT workforce needs.
3. Save locally based companies money and time in training efforts.
4. Become economically self-sufficient in 2006.
5. Be client-led through an Advisory Council.
6. Coordinate with and advance the mission of Oregon higher educational institutions.

What does OTN offer?
The first courses were delivered last April, and several courses have taken place since then. Most recently, we have held several very well attended training classes on ITIL.

ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (www.itil.co.uk), is a documented set of best practices concerning how to manage an IT operation as a process-based, service-oriented business inside of a larger organization. Conceived in the late 1980s in the United Kingdom, ITIL has gained a great deal of acceptance in Europe and Asia, and is rapidly gaining ground in North America. ITIL principles have relevance to broader customer-facing service and support organizations than just IT. Many large companies such as Caterpillar and the Royal Bank of Canada are realizing positive impact to their organization by implementing ITIL practices. To date, ITIL books are the only comprehensive, non-proprietary, publicly available guidance for IT service management.

ITIL offers a systematic, professional approach to the management of IT service provision. Adopting its guidance can provide benefits such as:

• Increased customer satisfaction with IT services
• Reduced risk of not meeting business requirements for IT services
• Reduced costs when developing procedures and practices within an organization
• Better communication and information flows between IT staff and customers
• Standards and guidance for IT staff
• Greater productivity and better use of skills and experience
• A quality approach to IT services

There are also benefits to the customer of IT services, such as:

• Reassurance that IT services are provided in accordance with documented procedures that can be audited
• The ability to depend upon IT services, enabling the customer to meet business objectives
• The identification of contact points for enquiries or discussions about changing requirements
• The knowledge that information is produced to justify charges for IT services and to provide feedback from monitoring of service level agreements

ITIL emphasizes the importance of providing IT services to satisfy business needs in a cost-effective manner. Many IT organizations are attempting to become more customer oriented to demonstrate their contribution to the business. The library can help IT organizations achieve this. In addition, ITIL provides a consistent and comprehensive approach to service management, ranging from software products to consultancy, training and qualifications. The common approach brings with it a common language of ITIL terms, which permits better communication between IT and suppliers.

With increasing focus on corporate governance, IT governance has come to the fore. ITIL is an excellent base for driving performance and quality improvements, and can be an integral part of a wider quality initiative within an IT governance remit. In order to achieve such benefits, companies need to have an objective assessment of their current IT process maturity in order to build an improvement plan for the future. Developing standards and ensuring accountability are key ways of driving performance and customer satisfaction.

The SAO’s OTN identified ITIL as a hot topic in late 2004. Since that time, with the advice of our client and member organizations, we’ve identified Pink Elephant (www.pinkelephant.com) as the market leader in ITIL intellectual property, training, consulting and implementation services. The OTN has run over 200 people through a series of training courses that we’ve procured, using Pink Elephant as our vendor of choice. The OTN is currently the only organization providing ITIL training in Oregon, so look for more ITIL classes coming soon from the OTN at www.oregontraining.net.

What’s Next?We are currently seeing demand in the following areas:

• Project management for IT professionals
• Information assurance
• Database technologies

We have compiled a list of over 130 organizations that employ IT professionals and we are in discussion with a number of educational institutions, employers and professional groups all over the state. As these talks continue, we are eager to connect with more employers to construct an overall demand picture.

Help steer the OTN

But we need your help. We are looking for members of the IT community to be part of an Advisory Council for the Oregon Training Network, to help provide strategic direction for this initiative. Our target clientele are information technology professionals around the state. This clientele includes software and hardware practitioners and experts of all types, in all industries. 

To learn more, or to be a part of the Oregon Training Network Advisory Board, please contact Graham Eichman, SAO business development manager, at (503) 802-5211. We welcome your feedback and look forward to being a source of training for you and for our Oregon IT professionals.

About the author
Graham Eichman is the new SAO business development manager and director of the Oregon Training Network. He can be reached at graham@sao.org.