Methodology to Improve Services in Small IT Centers: Application to Educational Centers

Abstract

Educational centers (schools, academies, high schools, etc.) are usually small companies, which make them special in terms of management. The management of IT services is far from standard and based in home solutions. The disadvantage of this approach is clear, as it happened during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The solution to properly managing IT services is based on the use of the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). The question is how to apply this standard that only defines the processes to implement, but does not describe the way or the order to implement them. In this article it is shown which IT processes are really needed in any educational center and the order in which they should be implemented. The method used consists of fulfilling a knowledge database with extensive information from schools, academies, and other educational centers. After that, an existing optimization model is adopted and a representative learning center is defined, which is used to propose the IT processes sequence; finally, a set of optimal IT processes and the order to implement them is defined. These ordered processes optimize the quality of IT for learning services. The main result is an ordered set of IT processes that best fit the needs of IT departments in small educational centers.

Digitalization of Educational Services with Regard to Policy for Information Security

“…The ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) [2], [10], [22] approach to IT management provides a set of best practices derived from the public and private sectors of various countries. ITIL is a set of rules that describe a systematic approach to IT deployment, implementation, and management.…”

Optimization Algorithm to Sequence the Management Processes in Information Technology Departments

“…Another approach to the problem which has been taken for ITIL in big companies is to analyze ITIL in small companies by industry [13].…”

“…These processes are independent of the software, the technology, the programming language and other parameters such as the size of the company, the country and the industry it belongs to. Currently, ITIL describes the set of processes that should be implemented in any IT department, but it does not explain a procedure, nor does it offer a guide on how to implement it or which processes should be selected first for its implementation [12,13].…”