How the GIGO Axiom Applies to Your ITSM Practice
It doesn’t take much creative imagination to understand how the old “garbage-in, garbage-out” axiom could apply to ITSM CMDB. Data inaccuracies in the CMDB can have a poisoning effect, multiplying as it reaches through various aspects of your organization and its practices. In this article, we will examine what is impact in ITIL and how the impact of CMDB data inaccuracies can affect your organization as a whole, your asset management capacities, your incident and problem management efforts, and the execution of your change management strategy, leading to diminished success across ITSM and a loss of return on your investment in IT. But what is the impact in ITIL? Impact in ITIL, simply put, is the measure of whatever effect a change, problem, or incident can have on your organization and its various processes. It is typically measured by its effect on service levels in terms of duration, and overall impact to the business.How ITSM CMDB Data Inaccuracies Impact Your Entire Organization
As mentioned above, CMDB data inaccuracies can have an effect across your entire organization. As data inaccuracies are compounded through various processes, they can result in downtime that isn’t planned for. This can quickly result in revenue losses and opportunity costs, which generally will give external and internal stakeholders less than a shining perception of your organization, and your business as a whole.How ITSM CMDB Data Inaccuracies Impact Your Asset Management
CMDB data inaccuracies can also negatively impact your ability to manage your assets through generating and compounding misunderstandings regarding usage, impacting your licensees and your ability to generate income from licensees, sparking and compounding issues around asset refresh, even resulting in equipment loss in some cases.How ITSM CMDB Data Inaccuracies Impact Your Incident and Problem Management
Perhaps one of the areas that can potentially be impacted most significantly from CMDB data inaccuracies is incident and problem management. Inaccuracies can lead to incident and problem classification issues, making it more difficult to link incidents and problems. Ultimately, this can impact your ability to measure the impact of incidents and problems.How ITSM CMDB Data Inaccuracies Impact Your Change Management
Lastly, CMDB data issues can have a very profound impact on the execution of your change management strategy in both the short and long term. They can make it far more difficult to track changes on equipment, generate the potential for conflicting changes, and shorten your vision on impact.Why Data Accuracy Is so Integral to ITSM Success
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the areas that can be negatively impacted by CMDB data inaccuracies. In the end, data accuracy is integral to the success of your ITSM efforts, both within your organization and for your customers. Inaccuracies can have effects that are far-reaching and challenging to fully comprehend and address. These effects may initially present themselves as small nuisances, but they are ultimately felt—like everything else in the business world—financially. In order to get the best ROI possible for your business, identify and fix CMDB data inaccuracies as soon as you identify them, which in turn, will help preserve your bottom line.
