The Tool Vendor tiering model
The Tool Vendors achieve different levels of ITIL accreditation depending on the two main factors:
- The number and a set of ITIL best practices implemented in their tools, which is verified against a set of specially designed criteria
- The number of specialists with relevant ITIL certifications
By maintaining higher accreditation levels, a Tool Vendor invests in maintaining the proper qualification of professional working in software development for IT management and implements ITIL best practices.
This approach is intended to provide a sound basis for the tool selection process. This will enable end-customers to make more informed decisions and reduce risks due to a better understanding of the market.
| Level | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Platinum Global |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Num of ITIL Practice Managers certificates1 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 80 |
| Num of ITIL How to Implement certificates1 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 80 |
| Num of ITIL Sales Professional certificates1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 40 |
| Number of certified practices | 1 | 3 | 9 | 12 | |
| Mandatory practices | – | – | CMDB | CDMB, SCM and SLM2 | |
| Other regulations | A tool vendor should attain Practice Manager designations for all practices within the scope of the tool certification3 | ||||
(1) The total number of required certificates can be achieved as an arbitrary combination of individual certifications. Multiple-product vendors can fulfil requirements for all products with the same people / certificates.
(2) Configuration Management Database, Service Catalogue Management and Service Level Management.
(3) There should be at least one person certified as a practice manager for every practice designated for accreditation. All practices may be covered by one certified individual or any combination of them.
The tool assessment
Tools are assessed against a set of functional criteria, supporting the business needs of modern enterprises:
- The criteria are developed by leading subject matter experts with over 20 years’ hands-on experience in ITSM consultancy and process automation.
- To align with ITIL evolution and technological innovations (including AI, predictive analytics, and other developments), the criteria are revised and updated annually. The current criteria were updated in 2023.
- The criteria evaluate not only out-of-the-box functionality, but also recognize the flexibility of today’s software platforms accounting for further customization based on all sorts of process and organizational requirements.
The actual set of criteria is based on ITIL 4, but PeopleCert is also currently working on criteria for assessing project management tools based on the PRINCE2 framework and DevOps tools.
Currently, there are over 650 criteria for the following ITIL 4 practices:
- Availability Management
- Capacity and Performance Management
- Change Enablement
- Deployment Management
- Incident Management
- Information Security Management
- IT Asset Management
- Knowledge Management
- Measurement and Reporting
- Monitoring and Event Management
- Problem Management
- Relationship Management
- Release Management
- Service Catalogue Management
- Service Configuration Management
- Service Continuity Management
- Service Financial Management
- Service Level Management
- Service Request Management
- Supplier Management
There are mandatory (core) and optional (enhanced) criteria for each practice. To become certified, the tool must fit all the mandatory and at least 70% of all criteria for the assessed practices.
As the software assessment criteria are regularly updated and new tool versions are released every 6-24 months, software tools need to be re-assessed every two years to maintain vendor accreditation.