It's easy to see the business benefits that implementing ITIL can make on a large IT team.  In my eyes ITIL is about gaining control of the IT processes - making them structured and ensuring they're understood by the people who use them, in large teams this is critical to successful service delivery. However in businesses where the IT team is only made up a few individuals, would ITIL give a significant business benefit?

Extensive documentation and very rigid processes tend not to work in small IT teams, but the control they provide is still important and can be achieved by developing a more streamlined version. For example, FITS (Framework for ICT Technical Support) has been created as a framework for educational institutes with small or no IT departments, it takes into account the budget and time constraints facing educational units, while delivering the benefits.

Whatever size your IT team is you should have a pragmatic approach to implementation, for small teams rolling out a full service desk might not be appropriate, but having a process so end users know how to report a fault is still important! Process timelines can become quicker, but they are still in place and you therefore have a controlled environment.

ITIL can provide a business benefit whatever your team size as long as it is delivered pragmatically and in line with your individual businesses requirements.