Tag Archives: Service Assets

October 30, 2011 · 3:45 pm

Service Assets – Basic Building Blocks of a Service

The Service Triangle has been adapted from Fig 3.4 [Service Strategy 2011 Edition]. The purpose of the Service Triangle is to illustrate how each service is based on a balance between Price, Functionality (what the service does) and Performance.

Service Strategy Page 50, Figure 3.4

A reduced Price point will result in lower performance and/or functionality. Conversely if increased functionality or improved performance is required the Customer will typically have to pay more.

The ability of a service to create value from the customer’s perspective is a function of both utility and warranty

Services come in many flavours, but all have in common the creation of value for the customer by facilitating desired outcomes without requiring customer ownership of specific costs and risks.

Service Assets are the Basic Building Blocks

Service Providers must configure their service assets (in the form of capabilities and resources) to deliver services that create value and satisfy the needs of their customers.As you can see from the diagram above People are intrinsic to both Capabilities and Resources. Service focussed personnel aligned with distinctive capabilities will be difficult to replicate; so this configuration should act as a defender to outsourcing.

For now and into the future Infrastructure resouces will be seen as a commodity and will be virtualised first and then moved into the cloud (remote service provision). The only resources that will be retained relate to client sensitive data (Information) and strategic applications.

Service Catalogue – some practical advice

Service Catalog – Are you the Master or Slave?

Challenges of setting up a Service Catalog

For many IT organizations, setting up a Service Catalog requires them to think in a different way. Services become more about the business need than about the underpinning technology components. IT must talk to customers, and see services from a non-technical standpoint. This can be a challenge but one that must be overcome to get a meaningful Service Catalog in place. The first way this manifests is in defining services themselves. This must be understood, agreed and represent a business-defined view.

5 Tips for implementing a Service Catalog

1. Carry out a Service Catalog workshop.

a. Ask the right questions.
b. Involve your business customers.
c. Agree on the definition of a service.
d. Organize the information you already have.

2. List the dependencies each service has.
3. Decide usage parameters.
4. Start with a reasonable number of services first.
5. Make sure you know your requirements before investing in automation tools.

Sharon Taylor Webcast

Service Catalog the Business Case & ROI

Once business needs are clear and documented, begin defining the service value chain. This helps uncover the resource and capabilities [Service Assets] you have and those you may need to acquire. It is usually at this point that hidden benefits for shared services and service packages begin to emerge. Before engaging the business, spend some time visualizing the service value chain to build a basis to instill a communal perception.

Sharon Taylor White Paper

Brian Kerr talks about the Service Catalog as the shop window to the Business – link

Barclay Rae – Why bother with a Service Catalog? – link

Rod Bridgman gave a thought provoking presentation on Plan, Change & Run your Portfolio of Services from the Cloud. Skip to 24 minutes in – Link

There is an “interactive” session on the itSMF conference agenda, Tuesday 08th November entitled – All we need now is a Service Catalogue presented by Karen Brusch who is the chair of itSMF Service Level Management Special Interest Group. Can someone who is attending please ask Karen what the Service Catalogue and Portal component of the Cloud Architecture will look like. (Service Strategy Appendix C.4 Page 389)

5 Ways Cloud Computing will impact Internal Service Providers

Every day, it seems, businesses are making new cloud applications available. For example Apple launched their iCloud service on 13th October. The Internet Exchange Point in London, a conduit for much of the UK’s Internet traffic, showed a significant spike between 6pm and 11pm.

Apple has built iCloud support right into iOS 5, OS X 10.7 Lion, and other major Apple apps. Sign in, and iCloud transparently takes care of syncing music, video, pictures, email, calendars, contacts, and more between devices. iCloud stores customers content and wirelessly pushes it to all their devices.

In this example Apple has a direct relationship with the consumer of their services and has obviated the need for an Internal Service Provider.

So what impact is Cloud Computing likely to have on Internal Service Providers:

Internal Service Provider Support Staff typically focus on technical / platform skills. – In the future, the support staff will most likely be outsourced to a company that can provide services more efficiently by using proven technology solutions and through economies of scale. New Retained Orgnisation capabilities will be required which will result in fewer but more senior hybrid (Business & Technology) roles.

Today’s ISPs build and manage their own Service Assets. –In the future, these Service Assets will be remote (in the cloud). The ISP will likely not be building or maintaining their own infrastructure, platforms or non strategic (KTLO) applications. In the future ISPs will only be responsible for the Strategic Applications that differentiate their Business in the market. Typically IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and BPaaS will be outsourced. (AKA the Goldman Sachs model).

Portfolio & Project management. – IS-related implementations of software and new technology will be outsourced. The Internal Service Provider will be responsible for Portfolio and Project Management. There will be a requirement for staff with strong Governance (ISACA CobIT 5) backgrounds who are empowered to make informed investment portfolio decisions.

Unified Communications. – Internal Service Providers wil need to work with their TelCo(s) to implement real-time collaboration services such as IM (chat), IP telephony, Webinars, video conferencing that is also integrated with unified messaging (voicemail, Email, SMS and Scan to Email). With the increase of Mobility Services (Tablet and SmartPhone) these services must be ubiquitous (always on).

Trusted Business Advisor. – In the future Business Partners / Business Relationship Managers will act as trusted advisors to their respective Business Unit Buyers of Services and Customer Groups. They will present ideas on how Information Services can be exploited by the Business rather than purely serve as order takers.