MSP Association, IT Service Management Forum to Collaborate; Effort to Help Drive Quality of Service in Internet Delivery of IT Functions

Business Wire, Feb 4, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

WAKEFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2002

The MSP Association, a consortium of companies that are defining and promoting quality of service in the Internet delivery of select IT functions, and the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and helping to set standards for best practices in IT service management, have announced a new collaboration to help drive quality in the service provider sector.

According to Linda Shannon-Hills, chair of the MSP Association, and Ken Hamilton, chairman of the itSMF, the two organizations will work together on the MSP Association's Service Management Quality Initiative (SMQI), a recently announced program to create standards of excellence in the delivery of IT services via the Internet. Specifically, the two associations will collaborate on the adoption of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices for all service provider models. ITIL provides a structured framework consisting of systematic and professional road maps for managing complex IT environments, and is currently is use by hundreds of organizations around the world.

"We're very privileged to be working with the IT Service Management Forum," noted Shannon-Hills, of Hewlett-Packard OpenView in Portland, Oregon. "We anticipate them guiding our Service Management Quality Initiative Council in the use of ITIL best practices as we roll out service provider betterment programs in a number of areas, including self-assessment; quality of service (QoS) modeling; training and certification; and especially standards for service level agreements."

"The itSMF applauds the MSP Association's commitment to ITIL best practices and standards and will contribute our strong user perspective to the SMQI program," commented Hamilton. "The itSMF will share its global ITIL certification and training programs with MSP Association members and partners to help them deliver improved IT service availability at optimal cost."

For more information on the MSP Association's Service Management Quality Initiative, visit www.mspassociation.org, e-mail info@mspassociation.org, or call 1 781-876-8830.

About the itSMF

The itSMF is a not-for-profit organization, wholly owned and principally operated by its membership, which is dedicated to promoting and helping to set standards for best practice in IT Service Management. Formed in the UK in 1991, there are now national chapters of itSMF in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland/Austria/Germany, Australia, South Africa, Canada and North America - with developing groups in several other European countries. For more information about the IT Service Management Forum, visit www.itsmf.net.

About the MSP Association

Founded in June 2000, the MSP Association, Inc. is a consortium of companies that together are defining and promoting quality of service in the Internet delivery of select IT functions. Information on the MSP Association is available on the Web at www.mspassociation.org; from Association headquarters at 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 500, Wakefield, MA 01880; Tel: 781-876-8830; or by sending email to info@mspassociation.org.