According to the 2016 Walt Disney Company financial report, Theme Parks and Resorts is their 2 nd largest revenue generator, behind Media Networks. This division generated $ 16,974,000,000 in 2016 (p. 31). That's over 30.5% of their total turnover for the year. Disney is one of the most famous companies to adopt ITIL, but you might be wondering how and why they did it.
Why Disney needed ITIL
Disney is a huge umbrella company, invested in many industries. Even their theme parks involve things like restaurant management and event planning. So it's hard to imagine how much they invest in IT or what a Disney IT infrastructure looks like. To give you an idea, their IT department employs close to 1,000 people worldwide. The Walt Disney Company has more than 1,800 servers and 800 applications.
Almost 45% of these applications are dedicated to theme parks and resorts. Some of these apps include:
The Disneyland mobile app. This application offers an interactive GPS map with attraction wait times and character locations. It is essential to the management of their IT departments because it is customer oriented and needs to be up to date and accurate.
Portable devices for tracking inventory on mobile carts. It allows for quick replenishments when stocks are low.
A comprehensive costume management system, used with radio frequency identification. It makes it easy for cast members to find the right costumes and schedule trades.
How Disney implemented ITIL
It was Glen Taylor, vice president and chief information officer of the Walt Disney Company, who introduced ITIL. He was a supporter of the setting long before he joined Disney. Glen took a three-step approach to adopting ITIL:
Step 1: Marketing ITIL to staff. The staff understood how Disney did business, but lacked a working knowledge of ITIL. For top-down approval, Glen used the “Lunch 'n' Learn” sessions and company management meetings. He made managers aware of the challenges facing the company and how ITIL could help. For bottom-up marketing, he used “BackLot”, the company's internal social network.
Step 2: ITIL Foundation training program. 250 people, from CIO level, have received ITIL Foundation training. After that, they were given the opportunity to take the certification exam. 50% of those trained chose to become certified.
Step 3: election of ITIL experts. Another 20, a mix of people with different levels of responsibility, were put on the path to Expert level. It was about solidifying organizational membership and commitment. The 20 were chosen for their persuasive personality and their ability to articulate vision for the processes they manage or work with.
How you can implement ITIL
The key to remember is to get buy-in from all levels. Glen has marketed ITIL to hundreds of staff, as well as executives. This helped to integrate the culture of ITIL before its adoption. Glen used the Lunch 'n' Learn sessions, manager meetings and BackLot. You will need to identify what is working in your business. Then you can use your organization's most popular communication methods to market ITIL.
ITIL has become a staple of the Walt Disney Company. If you want to learn the same IT Service Management framework that Disney uses, you can search for a Foundation certificate here. If you have any questions about ITIL Training, you can contact us here.