ITIL Practitioner - Components of a Service

At the core of ITSM is the idea of delivering services to customers, how these services will be engaged to deliver some form of value to the customer and the customer’s organization, and the value captured by the service provider. For this to be accomplished we must first understand the key elements of an IT service and how, as a service provider, we deliver the correct set of services effectively and efficiently.

“A service is a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks”. This allows the customer to create the desired business outcome without having to invest in specialized tools or skills. By linking activities performed by the service provider to the desired business outcomes the provider can be seen as contributing value, not just as a cost to the business.

The value of a service is derived from what it enables someone to accomplish or what outcomes it enables them to realize. The service provider must have a clear understanding of the types and levels of service that will make its customers successful and then be able to organize themselves in a way which allow the optimal delivery and support of those services by defining a consistent and repeatable approach to developing, delivering and supporting services throughout their entire lifecycle.

Cost is the amount of money spent on a specific activity, IT service or business unit. Costs consist of real costs (money) and notional cost (time) and depreciation. Risk is uncertainty of outcome. It may be an event that could possibly cause harm, loss or impact negatively the ability to deliver desired outcomes. Customers will be concerned with costs and the reliability of the services delivered to them. However they will not need to know in detail every expenditure item or risk mitigation measure engaged by the service provider.

A successful relationship between the customer and the service provider ensures that the customer receives a service that delivers the correct levels of utility and warranty for the right price and that the service provider is able to achieve this balance and communicate it in a way that would allow the customer to make changes to this balance in a way that will meet their changing requirements.

For more information please see https://www.itsmacademy.com/itil-practitioner/

Comments

The Four Ps of Service Design - It’s not all about Technology

People ask me why I think that many designs and projects often fail. The most common answer is from a lack of preparation and management. Many IT organizations just think about the technology (product) implementation and fail to understand the risks of not planning for the effective and efficient use of the four Ps: People, Process, Products (services, technology and tools) and Partners (suppliers, manufacturers and vendors). A holistic approach should be adopted for all Service Design aspects and areas to ensure consistency and integration within all activities and processes across the entire IT environment, providing end to end business-related functionality and quality. (SD 2.4.2) People: Have to have proper skills and possess the necessary competencies in order to get involved in the provision of IT services. The right skills, the right knowledge, the right level of experience must be kept current and aligned to the business needs. Products: These are the technology managem

What Is A Service Offering?

The ITIL4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group . As a service provider, we can’t stop there! We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer. Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include: Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods. Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you. You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you. Note: Goods may not always be provided for every Service Offe

What is the difference between Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner?

I was recently asked to clarify the roles of the Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner and wanted to share this with you. Roles and Responsibilities: Process Owner – this individual is “Accountable” for the process. They are the goto person and represent this process across the entire organization. They will ensure that the process is clearly defined, designed and documented. They will ensure that the process has a set of Policies for governance. Example: The process owner for Incident management will ensure that all of the activities to Identify, Record, Categorize, Investigate, … all the way to closing the incident are defined and documented with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, handoffs, and deliverables. An example of a policy in could be… “All Incidents must be logged”. Policies are rules that govern the process. Process Owner ensures that all Process activities, (what to do), Procedures (details on how to perform the activity) and the

Search