If you’re working in the Information Technology (IT) industry, getting an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certification will give your career an added boost and help you stay competitive in the workforce pool.

Deemed worldwide as one of the key accreditation that any IT professional needs to secure, an ITIL certification focuses not only on how to improve a business’ IT services but also how to reduce costs and increase productivity along the way.

An ITIL certification equips an IT professional with the best practices needed in any high-performance IT service management system, which thousands of companies around the world require their workforce to get certified.

An ITIL certification is mainly rooted in the IT industry. However, professionals across various industries such as higher education and healthcare can also benefit from ITIL’s coverage on Service Management concepts.

In fact, Yale University, University of Wisconsin – Madison, and Ohio State University are just some of the universities in the United States that have adopted ITIL in their systems.

Technology companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, and Microsoft use ITIL. In the retail business, companies such as Walmart, Target, and Staples hire ITIL-certified professionals.

In the financial sector, Bank of America, Barclays, and Citibank adopted ITIL, while Sony and Disney for the Entertainment industry. In the manufacturing business, Boeing, Toyota, and Bombardier use ITIL, as well as Takeda, Pfizer, and Lilly in the Life Sciences.

Many of the big industry players have adopted ITIL and are enjoying its many significant benefits. It goes to show that a professional with an ITIL certification can gain a lucrative and competitive edge in the job market.

The Value of ITIL Certification to Companies

Organizations or companies with ITIL-certified employees enjoy a more streamlined service delivery process, which then, improves customer satisfaction and retention rates.

We all know that customers are the lifeline of any business. A company with a high rating for customer satisfaction often enjoy higher returns on their investments (ROI), which makes the costs for getting ITIL certifications worth their while.

Companies with ITIL-certified employees also gain improved visibility and understanding on their IT expenses and assets. In turn, they can come up with better tactics to best utilize their properties and lower costs.

The reduced costs on third-party services and personnel training are greater indirect benefits of getting an ITIL certification. In fact, as more and more team members get ITIL-certified, a company could soon let go of external providers that are raking up in yearly expenses.

“For ITIL adoption to succeed, the people involved in the change need both a common language and a common basis for success in the small, iterative and incremental projects that are part of the effort,” said ITIL instructor, David Moskowitz.

“Adopting ITIL involves a learning process as continual improvement is applied. The certification indicates someone is learning about ITIL. That knowledge is a component of successful ITIL adoption.”

As with any training, getting an ITIL certification boosts the workforce’s morale and level of engagement. An engaged workforce is a high-performance workforce—enabling companies to fare better in a competition. Not to mention, having an engaged workforce improves employee retention and company reputation.

“We refer to our people as alumni for life. We believe that people have strengths and that you must nurture them. When they leave, they will remember us,” said Diana O’Brien, Deloitte’s Chief Marketing Officer.

Who Can Benefit Most from an ITIL Certification

“IT is constantly changing as new technologies are implemented. Certifications are one way IT professionals can keep up with current trends in IT technology, build their IT resume and open new doors of opportunity,” wrote Sam Grier, a Fortune 500 company IT manager.

Various organizations view ITIL as a universal model or business language. Hence, professionals across different disciplines can benefit from an ITIL certification and even make them more flexible when transferring organizations.

While the majority of IT professionals can do well with an ITIL certification, professionals in the service level management, IT financial management, availability and capacity management, continuity management, and service desks are the ones poised to max out the benefits of getting certified.

An ITIL certification is most recommended for professionals in the middle to senior levels of management. Of course, junior-level professionals can also benefit from getting ITIL certified.

However, the younger members of the organizations tend to focus more on understanding the technologies used in their day-to-day tasks rather than studying the IT business as a whole.

Given these observations, those who are planning to go up the corporate ladder can clearly gain a strategic advantage in the competition.

Chief technology officers, chief information officers, business managers and process owners, team leaders, service designers, IT architects and planners, and security managers are also some of the job roles that can benefit from an ITIL certification.

“Certifications should be looked at for what they can do for you now and in the future. If you look at your career plan as a road map, a certification is just one stop on the way to your next destination,” added Grier.

Perks of Becoming an ITIL-Certified Professional

Various surveys show that a professional with an ITIL certification can rake up as much as $95,000 in annual income. Putting things in perspective, an investment banker’s starting annual salary is a mere $75,000 by comparison. Ergo, getting ITIL-certified is an investment in your future and the company as well.

Getting ITIL-certified can also give you that much-needed advantage to work for global companies including Accenture, HSBC, and JP Morgan. These companies often hire applicants who are ITIL certified for their delivery services and IT support.

A young ITIL aspirant with few years of IT experience can apply for posts such as support engineer, help desk engineer, IT service delivery analyst, and technical support.

ITIL-certified professionals with at least seven years of experience can move up to roles such as incident or problem manager, service desk manager, release manager, IT service delivery manager, and other mid-level managerial positions.

Moving forward, ITIL-certificated professionals can join a company’s senior management or leader team. They can also become an independent consultant and even an ITIL trainer.