The progress made by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) with regards to the implementation of Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) practices in a relatively short period of time has been described as truly a model which other organisations providing IT services from the Commonwealth island states can learn from.

This remark was made by Mr. Mike Campigotto, the ITSM specialist from Collective Minds Consulting of Canada, at the opening of a five day workshop recently organized at Le Meridien Fishermen Cove by DICT in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat. Mr. Campigotto said that results were accomplished in period of months vs. years and that DICT has positioned itself to not only support effectively and efficiently the systems under its responsibility but also has the right framework in place for continuous improvements into the future.

He said that the Seychelles/DICT model, including lessons learned and approaches followed could be used as the basis for replicating the development of similar ITSM capabilities in other small island states in the Commonwealth.

The workshop which saw the participation of IT Services staff from the DICT and also other ministries that are either; planning to use or are using the DICT Service Desk implementation framework for supporting the delivery of IT services in their respective organizations. The workshop is part of an ongoing initiative to develop Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) capabilities in Commonwealth countries organized in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat. This was the sixth such workshop to be organized so far. 

The DICT Principal Secretary, Mr. Benjamin Choppy, was present at both the opening and closing sessions of the workshop which saw various presentations being made by the local IT professionals involved in the ITSM implementation and also findings made by the consultant. It is to be noted that the Commonwealth funded consultancy firm was also evaluating DICT in its ITSM implementation and also establishing the levels attained by the organisation in the different management areas worked on. These areas included Service Desk Management, Change Management and Configuration Management. As part of the evaluation process, client organizations where DICT is implementing its ITSM framework for managing the delivery of services were also able to provide feedback directly to the consultant.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Mr. Choppy stated that in addition to DICT being able to deliver on complex technical projects in the IT field for Government and have the capability to resolve any technical incidences that emerge, that it is imperative for the organization to have the right type of management framework in place, based on established best practices in the field, that will allow long term sustainability of deployed systems and also allow quality service to be delivered to its client organizations consistently. In relation to the evaluation aspect of the workshop, he pointed out that it is always good to have established external experts coming in to evaluate and assess their work as this helps them to know where gaps are present and to identify possible strategies for addressing them.

For his part, Mr. Tony Ming of the Commonwealth Secretariat, commented that the level of commitment and leadership of senior management, the track record for providing quality service and flexibility to address the specific needs of Ministries / Departments were critical factors for the successful implementation of IT Service Management in any organisation.

In fact, it was during 2009 that the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) started the journey to implement a series of capabilities to address the growth of infrastructure, provide support for the implementation of government services online and deliver quality services consistently.

Senior managers from the Department attended workshops on Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat and subsequently approached the Secretariat for assistance to implement the frameworks and models covered in the workshops and to emulate the Service Desk operations in Ontario Canada, which is viewed as a best practice case in IT Service Management in the Government.

It was the Commonwealth Secretariat which secured the services of Collective Minds /Consulting, Canada to assist DICT in implementing these frameworks and models and utilize their experiences with other Government to accelerate the implementation of the Seychelles initiative.

Over the last two years, DICT has made significant progress and has positioned itself to respond to service requests and problems in a timely and effective manner. According to the department, new systems can now be implemented in a controlled manner to eliminate unintended impacts on other systems and a robust support system is now in place to support deployed systems. This is of particular importance as more online Government services are expected to be deployed in the near future. Furthermore, effective reporting mechanisms are in place to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the department’s operations and allow the management of infrastructure services to be undertaken in a more proactive manner.

The core ITSM implementation team in DICT was lead by the Director General responsible for IT, Mrs. Lanka Dorby and consisted of Mr. Gerard Gill (responsible for Software Standards & Research), Mr. Jude Louis (in charge of Systems Support) and Ms. Jennita Barra.