The ABC of ICT™ accreditation program announced by EXIN last year is certainly proving its mass appeal. A number of leading ITIL/ITSM trainers have already received status as accredited ‘ABC of ICT workshop facilitators’, proving their commitment to enhancing and enriching company Attitude, Behavior and Culture.

The program itself looks to solve practical issues that face organizations day-to-day through dialogue, workshops and visual aids (playing cards) – moving away from theory towards real practice.

“EXIN has added the ABC accreditation program to its portfolio because of its emphasis on people. EXIN’s ITSM program focusing on ISO20000 and ISO27000 also put people and behavior central to achieving sustainable improvements in IT management. A framework or tool is simply an instrument or method to help people perform” reported Marie-Jose Vermin, Marketing Director for EXIN. 

Ivo van Haren, CEO of Van Haren Publishing, said: "Van Haren Publishing recognized the need to add more people-skills content to the existing frameworks and best practices publications. This is why we are delighted to work together with Paul and Jan of GamingWorks to produce, publish and promote the ABC of ICT publications, to provide the guidance required to ensure the best practices can be successfully adopted and applied."

Peter Lijnse of Service Management Art in Canada, who integrated ABC of ICT™ into his courseware when it first launched, has gained much from the program: “The ABC card game is a valuable instrument for training and consulting companies like ours because it is easier pointing out bad practices”. Other early adopters of ABC include Illumin8 of Sweden and Poland’s CT Partners; both companies have translated the playing cards into their respective languages.

Kevin Holland, Program Head (Service Management and Delivery Directorate NHS Connecting for Health, UK) is also aboard the ABC train, adding: “the ABC of ICT™ book is excellent. It’s the best explained set of business change tools that I've ever seen (and I've been in the BPR game since 1998). So good, in fact, that I'm going to get our HR department a copy to help with the work I'm doing with them on improving IT professionalism.”

The program‘s success has certainly not gone unnoticed: the first international itSMF magazine has already published results from the global workshops. The itSMF continues to champion the program, which it played an instrumental role in from the start: the ABC of ICT™ has now been presented at itSMF events in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the USA.

With major industry players recognizing the value of ABC of ICT™, accreditations are clearly on the rise. Of those recently given the accredited ABC of ICT workshop facilitator status are Johhny Jenssen of Westergaard in Denmark, Paul Leenerds of Getronics Consulting in the Netherlands, David Jones of Pink Elephant in the UK, Maarten Andermatten of Glenfis in Switzerland, and Gustave Kaller of Internal Matters in Germany.

Also further afield: Phyllis Drucker (previously from itSMF USA) and Robert Sterbens of CA were granted accreditation following a national rollout of ABC workshops across the local itSMF chapters in the USA.

The supporting material for ABC of ICT includes:

• The ABC of ICT Card Deck • ABC of ICT – An Introduction Book 
• ABC of ICT – The Exercise Workbook 
  
  You can buy the books at Van Haren.