In the last posting, I laid out some of the primary drivers for ITSM adoption among IT organizations. That general articulation of the problem statement will continue to be the context for all content posted hereafter in which we discuss approach and methodology to the design, plan, deployment and continual improvement of the Service Provider Model.
In an effort to bring some focus to the broad ITSM topic, this blog will initially focus on the following ITSM sub-topics:
- Service Level Management
- IT Services Development
- Service Catalog Development, Deployment and Maintenance
- Service Performance Monitoring and Reporting
- Services Costing
- Service Level unit costing, capacity, run rate, cash flow
- Future state investment modeling (TCO, ROI, NPV)
- Activities based budgeting and costing
- IT Service Selection process engineering and deployment
- IT Service Demand Planning process engineering and deployment
To set expectations accurately, it should be noted that in order to cover these sub-topics with any degree of completeness, we will be referencing other ITIL processes such as capacity management, availability management, IT service continuity management, business relationship management, service portfolio management, configuration management, change management, incident management, problem management, and release management. After all, these processes play an important part in sustaining desired service level performance.
For those just beginning the journey into the practical implementations of the SPM/ ITSM you will likely find yourself overwhelmed by a plethora moving parts that require integration for success. To keep your sanity and clarity, I offer this bit of advice that I still observe on a frequent basis.
The sole purpose of every activity and investment of a service provider must exist for the sole purpose of meeting or exceeding the published service level targets of all active customers of that service provider. If that correlation does not exist, then that activity and/or investment should be eliminated.
However, my little filtering tip comes with the following key assumption:
The IT service provider's published service levels, which drive all activities and investments, had better address 80% or more of their customers' needs. In other words, before you start investing in technology, process or people, validate your standard service offerings with the market that you serve.
I will use my next post to describe this dual level rationalization process that is the prerequisite for successful implementation of the Service Provider Model.
Due to the IT portion of business budgets growing exponentially, it has become critical for business executives to get control over their IT spend and the value for their IT dollar.
To address this critical need a model must be put in place to enable business units to work with an IT service provider who makes available a range of standard IT service options that reflect business demand, have predictable outcomes, and can be purchased “by the drink”. And like any mature service in the marketplace, that cost per “drink” (referred to as unit cost) should be proportional to the level of service selected. This desired model must also provide a simple yet effective service selection process for matching the requirements of unique business requests to the standard service options which best deliver balance between cost, risk and quality.
I continually refer to this desired state as the “Service Provider Model (SPM)”. Businesses today need their IT suppliers to deliver the Service Provider Model. As business units recognize this need, they are then faced with the million dollar question: “Is the Service Provider Model available through our internal IT organization; or do we have to look to outsourcing; or is there some combination of the two?” The answer to this question is driving strategic direction for a rapidly growing number of IT organizations across the globe.
So what are the specific pain points within an IT organization that has not yet attained the SPM?- Inability to "quantifiably" rationalize IT investment to business demand
- Poorly defined services or no defined services at all
- Lack of visibility into the true cost of IT services being delivered
- Inefficient process for aligning application requirements to the appropriate infrastructure solutions
- Lack of service performance monitoring and reporting
- Ineffective or non-existent IT service demand planning
- A lack of predictability for IT service delivery results
- Lack of mature policy and process pertaining to IT service delivery and support
In one of my next postings I will get into addressing these pain points. Before I do that I should probably put some scope around the broad topic of ITSM and the SPM.
Till next time...
