Afiniti and EastView merge

Afiniti Limited today announced that EastView, a leading IT Service Management (ITSM) consultancy and training company, is merging with Afiniti.



Ian Bevan, the internationally recognised MD of EastView and a key figure in the ITIL and BS 15000 community, becomes head of Afinitiís new Service Management practice. With Afinitiís existing ITSM business, the merger gives Afiniti one of the largest ITSM consultancy and training practices in the UK.

Drawing on EastViewís expertise, Afiniti will aggressively expand its ITSM portfolio over the next year, aiming to become one of the three biggest companies in this fast-growing sector.

The main services will be IT Service Management consultancy, and training courses for the ITSM Foundation and Managers certificates. These services are available immediately.

Bevan says: ìWe are delighted to join forces with a like-minded company such as Afiniti. Working together, we can advance the UKís adoption of ITIL and BS15000. We will put particular emphasis on expanding ITSM training and delivering consultancy from day one. I am excited to be part of expanding Afinitiís portfolio of services and confident about the growth this merger will bring.î

Jake Holloway, Business Development Director of Afiniti, says: ìI am very pleased to be teaming up with EastView and Ian Bevan in particular. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the leading figures in Service Management. With his help, we can deliver a whole new range of services which we know our customers will find invaluable. This investment and our involvement in Connecting for Health are the main elements of our 2005 expansion plans.

ìWe see the phenomenal growth in the adoption of ITIL as a major opportunity for Afiniti. We expect to invest up to a million pounds over the next year developing our Service Management Practice. As part of this, additional staff will be recruited,î Holloway says.

Ian Bevan has exchanged his shares in EastView to become a significant share holder in Afiniti. No redundancies or staff departures are due as a result of the merger. The new Afiniti Service Management practice is based in Afinitiís London office.

The EastView name will cease to be used following the merger with Afiniti.

Backgrounder: ITIL, itSMF and BS1500

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework is a British innovation which helps IT organisations to better manage and deliver IT services to their users and is being adopted worldwide. It is growing faster than the Prince 2 and Six Sigma methodologies.

ITIL guidelines are developed internationally by members of the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), an independent, not-for-profit organisation with chapters in over 25 countries. Already well established in countries including the US and Australia, new chapters this year include Korea, Singapore and South Africa. Over 100,000 people have achieved ITIL qualifications worldwide, with the majority of them in the UK.

Organisations can prove their professional approach to IT services delivery by attaining the newly-created BS15000 standard. Many leading organisations are expected to apply for this in the next few years.