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Business Process Framework (eTOM)

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Relationship to ITIL

Frameworx is constantly evolving to work in harmony with other critical industry best practice, enabling you to utilize multiple standards together to address different issues for your business.

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What is ITIL?

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enterprises face real challenges in knitting together their service delivery to their users with their IT support for the service-oriented solutions that they deploy. In many cases, this leads to parallel activity within the enterprises, and duplication of effort and resources.

ICT Enterprises can leverage the past experience of the IT service and telecommunications industry in the operations space by simultaneously adopting two of most successful approaches, ITIL and the Business Process Framework (eTOM).

The TM Forum online training course Business Process Framework (eTOM) Fundamentals contains a module on the relationship with ITIL. Click here to register.

ITIL encompasses a set of “good practices” that are widely recognized and applied, and shows how these can be orchestrated in a service management lifecycle. TM Forum’s Business Process (eTOM) and Information (SID) Frameworks deliver a reusable, agreed, and widely adopted service-oriented architecture, with processes that can be linked directly with ITIL’s good practices.

For companies wanting to blend these needs, clear business advantage can be gained by applying these practices together to get the best of both worlds. Service organizations implementing these practices simultaneously can lower capital and operating cost, as well as reducing deployment risk, software vendor lock-in and integration complexity.

How to adopt both practises simultaneously

The Business Process Framework fully defines a mechanism for delivering ITIL-aligned services using Business Process Framework processes. These alignment mechanisms have been applied commercially and proven in practice by TM Forum members.

For members who want to implement ITIL Practices in conjunction with the Business Process Framework we have developed three documents to help you and all three of them can be downloaded from our Resources and Assets section.

GB921W Working Together — eTOM and ITIL

This document focuses on the overview of how the two frameworks – ITIL and the Business Process Framework (eTOM) – can work together. The frameworks are complementary and the support each provides is compatible with the other and adds to it. Thus, it is feasible and practical to deliver ITIL “good practice” services using process flows built using the Business Process Framework.

GB921L Leveraging Process Elements and Process Flows in Support of ITIL

This document focuses on the methodology to develop more detail on an integrated view between ITIL and the Business Process Framework, with some examples to show how this can work in practice.

TR143 Building Bridges: ITIL and eTOM

A Technical Report prepared jointly with itSMF (the separate trade body whose members develop ITIL) which explores the relationship between the ITIL “good practice” framework and the work of TM Forum (in particular, the Business Process Framework) including some recommendations for evolution of the Business Process Framework to strengthen linkage with ITIL. Outcomes of this work have been implemented and are documented in Business Process Framework document GB921D.
Also available to TM Forum members are Quick Start Packs that demonstrate how to extend the combined Business Process Framework and ITIL processes through to Level 4 decomposition.

Download all 3 of them

GB957 TM Forum Quick Start: Pack Trouble to Resolve V0.4

In terms of the Business Process Framework (eTOM), the scope of this Quick Start Pack is the set of level 2 processes in the Assurance vertical that are related to Problem / Trouble Management (as opposed to Quality or Performance Management):

  • Problem Handling within Customer Relationship Management
  • Service Problem Management within Service Management & Operations
  • Resource Trouble Management within Resource Management & Operations

In terms of the ITIL, the scope of this Quick Start Pack encompasses activities within Event Management, Incident Management, and Problem Management.

Read more

GB959 Quick Start Pack: Fulfilment V0.4

This Quick Start Pack and guide book reconciles the perspective of many standards and organizations including NICC, NBNCO/CA, ITIL, eTOM, SID and BPMS inputs to identify and describe:

  • A set of customer-to-business (C2B), business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) business scenarios and business interactions.
  • A set of end-to-end business processes that integrate ITIL activities
  • A set of key metrics and their collection points

Read more

Testimonials

“As one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators, France Telecom Orange, which provides services in several countries, is constantly endeavoring to share best practices among its subsidiaries, with solution providers and its business customers and partners; hence, France Telecom Orange wishes to leverage on TM Forum eTOM and itSMF ITIL, and is especially interested in reaching real coherence between them.”
Laurent Leboucher, Global IS & Technology Chief Architect, France Telecom Orange

“At Reliance Communications, we see a lot of value in leveraging the TMForum Business Process Framework for ITIL incident management. This integration shall streamline the processes across IT and the business. It shall also eliminate operational redundancy and ensure better service delivery.”
Ms Alpna Doshi, Chief Information Officer, Reliance Group, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance Tech Services

Related Assets

Download

Browse and Download the latest files associated with the Business Process Framework

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Best Practices

Defines an approach for how digital service development and deployment can be visualized using a combination of ITIL practices and Business Process Framework process elements.Part of the addendum files available for the Business Process Framework

TR206 Exploring SES Service Development Scenarios through ITIL and the Process Framework V1.3

An extensive guide to implementing Fulfilment processes using Frameworx.

GB959 Quick Start Park: Fulfilment V0.4

A guidebook tailored specifically for the communications industry that uses the Business Process Framework to identify auditable entities.

GB977 Internal Audit Guidebook R1.0

Training & Certification

Expand your Frameworx foundation: learn a common business-led approach to rationalize the processes that run your business. Get clear direction on how TM Forum’s Business Process Framework can be used to support a range of business activities to deliver maximum efficiency. Includes optional module on ITIL.

Business Process Framework Fundamentals

Implement and use the Business Process Framework (eTOM) to deploy business improvement projects more effectively

Business Process Framework Practitioners

Give yourself a competitive edge by taking courses and exams to gain Knowledge and Career Certification.

Career Certification

Coaching Services

TM Forum Coaching compliments our training and certification program to help you make the link between the skills you learned in class and the proper application of the standards, best practices and tools in the specific context of your project.

Coaching

Conformance Certification

Engage TM Forum to independently verify and certify how well your business processes and information models align with the industry standards found in Frameworx.

Conformance Certification

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