OGC launches a new Tool Certification initiative, with its commercial partner APMG. Once again, it involves AGI - the company of ITSMF International's chair, emphasizing the commercial relationships between governors and vendors.

Product Certification has long been kept away from ITIL - but not anymore. OGC is going to take a position in a market that - until now - was dominated by a private initiative of Pink Elephant (PinkVerify). OGC has officially endorsed a compliance framework to audit vendor products, documentation and processes against the published best practices of ITIL (versions 2 and 3). The compliance scheme will be managed by The OGC's official Accreditor, the APMGroup.

It won't surprise insiders that Sharon Taylor, Chief Architect of ITIL V3, Chief Examiner of APMG, owner of AGI - the author of TSO's ITIL LIVE - and Chair of ITSMF International has taken a commercial position here. Together with (ex BMC) Ken Turbitt's SMCG, she has set up a joint venture that delivers the audit services for the tool certification to APMG. The SMCG site only mentions a short message: "Breaking News: Sharon Taylor, ITIL v3 Chief Architect, Chief Examinar and ITSMf Internation Chairperson has signed a Joint Venture Agreement with SMCG for the delivery of new Assessment Services. These new services will be launched in Early 2009 with more details issued then."
The OGC has approved the use of an ITIL trademark, under license to the joint venture for award to compliant vendor products. In allowing its chair to again take a commercial position here, ITSMF International illustrates once more that it has a very 'personal' understanding of the word governance.

APMG has already brought a similar approach towards product management tools in practice. That certification program has a three-level approach: 800 GBP for a high level intake, and any other amount for a Silver or Gold status. According to TechTarget, Pink Elephant - on average - sens a USD 12.000 invoice for its certification audit. This way, Pink Elephant had a nice revenue engine going with its PinkVerify: its consultants got a thorough knowledge on the tools at the cost of the vendors - in exchange for money and a stamp. Pink Elephant deserves a compliment for that very smart business strategy. Although not related to any formal standard of position, vendors tended to follow the example of their competitors and go for certification. Especially when customers started putting a tickbox on "tool certification" in their selection questionnaires. In Germany, Serview copied this approach with their "Gütesiegel IT!L Certified Tool" - obviously for the same reasons.

OGC's ITIL partners TSO and APMG have made one thing very clear: they want to be commercially succesful companies. Their pricing strategies have often been criticized. The price tags for the APMG tool certificates are still to be published (if they ever will), but if they are going to be anywhere near the prices for services like ITIL LIVE, ITIL core books, or ITIL accreditation fees, Pink Elephant will have a fair chance of surviving this.

As always, the market gets what the market deserves.

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