The Key to Services is Simplicity
Where organizations start thinking of services in terms of the complications or complexity of delivery they approach services from the wrong direction. Where organizations think in terms of how to make customer transactions simpler, they are approaching services from the right direction. This is another way of saying that service providers should start from the…
01-3 Define and explain the concept of a service (SS 2.1.1)
ITILFND01 Service Management as a Practice 01-3 Define and explain the concept of a service (SS 2.1.1) There are a multitude of definitions for the term service. ITIL provides an excellent definition that covers much ground but truly understanding the concept of service management and running IT like a business requires more than just this…
01-2 Describe and explain why ITIL is successful
ITILFND01 Service Management as a Practice 01-2 Describe and explain why ITIL is successful (SS 1.4) Many believe that ITIL is successful because it provides a practical approach to apply what has worked for other organizations and codifies that “best practice” into a framework that others can apply in their organizations—hopefully to achieve similar or…
01-1 Service Management as a Practice
ITILFND01 Service Management as a Practice 01-1 Describe the concept of best practices in the public domain (SS 2.1.7, Fig 2.3) Best practices are a way of doing things that has been shown by others to produce good results. Generally, best practices will be developed and proven by leading organizations independently. These best practices are…
The Four Aspects of IT Services, Aspect Two
If you have been struggling with building a services business, then ITIL has provided some help in the form of a new definition for services targeted to the business owner or leader of a services organization. It builds upon the conceptual economic definition of service and provides an excellent foundation for creating a service business.…
The Four Aspects of IT Services, Aspect One
IT service management is about delivering sustainable value to the business from the use of technology. It is not about defining the best process. It’s not about assigning process owners or service level managers. It is not about implementing a tool or resolving incidents or problems. It’s not even about managing change. It is about…
How to present value in business terms in the real world
A few years ago, I found myself in a two day meeting with a sales person, a technical presales person, and a client’s IT executive team. The company I worked for sold IT Service Management software and the client was a rather important client. The client as it turns out had attempted to purchase four…
IT support sucks but we made our metrics
SLAs should only include those items that can be effectively monitored and measured at a commonly agreed point. Inclusion of items that can’t be effectively monitored almost always results in disputes and eventual loss of faith in the SLM process. It is essential that monitoring matches the customer’s true perception of the service. A service…
The End-user’s Perception is Your Reality
In order for processes and services to be managed and optimized, there must be a feedback loop that provides management information regarding the functioning of the processor service. This requires monitoring the process or service in appropriate ways to ensure that it is meeting the stated goal in the most effective and efficient manner. From…
IT as Strategic Partner
The quantity and levels of service that IT is able to provide are always bounded by the associated costs. IT Service Level Management (SLM) is tasked with helping the customer understand the tradeoffs between cost and benefit. This should be accomplished in a way that allows the business to make decisions about which services it…