Queensland Health, a large Australian government agency,
implemented a centralised IT service management model based
on the ITIL framework. This paper presents an in-depth case
study of the implementation. It sheds light on the challenges
and breakthroughs, confirms a set of factors that contributed to
the project’s success and offers a learning opportunity for other
organisations. The study indicates that the commitment of senior
management is crucial to the project’s success as is a project
champion and the recognition of the need for an appropriate change
management strategy to transform the organisational culture
to a service-oriented focus. Maintaining close and forthright
relationships with multiple vendors facilitates technology transfer
to in-house staff while a benefits realisation plan is a valuable
tool for tracking and communicating tangible and intangible
project benefits to the project stakeholders. An effective project
governance and execution process further contributes to the
implementation success.