Be a BeanScene: The Importance of ITIL's Definition of a Service

In the world of IT Service Management (ITSM), the word “service” gets tossed around a lot, but without a shared definition, it often leads to confusion, missed expectations, and inefficiency.

That’s where ITIL comes in, offering a clear, standardized definition used by organizations worldwide to align IT with business outcomes.

📘 What Is a Service? (According to ITIL)

A service is a means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks.

In simpler terms:

Services help people achieve results they care about.
The provider takes on the complexity, risk, and cost so the customer doesn’t have to.
Value isn’t just delivered, it’s co-created through use.

Now let’s look at how this definition plays out in real life with a Tale of Two Companies.

🏁 Meet the Contenders: BeanScene vs. Brewtopia

Both BeanScene and Brewtopia are rising stars in the specialty coffee industry. Each runs hundreds of cafes, offers app-based ordering, loyalty rewards, and full-scale barista training programs. On the surface, they look nearly identical.

But inside their IT departments? A critical difference:

☕ BeanScene has clearly defined services, based on ITIL guidance.
🌀 Brewtopia... does not.

Let’s follow what happens when both launch a new initiative: rolling out self-service kiosks across all locations.

☕ BeanScene: Powered by Service Definition

BeanScene treats “Self-Service Ordering” as a formal service. That means:

There’s a named service owner.
They’ve documented expected outcomes (e.g., 30-second average order time, 99.9% uptime).
Teams across IT, Facilities, and Operations know their role in supporting the service.
The kiosk software, Wi-Fi infrastructure, printer maintenance, and menu updates are all mapped to this service.

As a result:

Issues are proactively tracked and resolved.
Field techs know exactly which systems tie to which services.
The rollout completes on time, and user satisfaction scores soar.

Outcome? Kiosk usage exceeds expectations, customer wait times drop, and IT is praised for enabling business growth.

🌀 Brewtopia: Drowning in Chaos

At Brewtopia, the kiosks were treated like just another "project."

No one clarified whether the new tech was part of Retail IT or Marketing.
Printer failures were logged as hardware incidents with no connection to the kiosk experience.
Menu changes required multiple ticket types, confusing staff, and frustrating customers.
Support teams had no idea what “success” looked like for this initiative because there was no shared definition of the service.

Result? Launch delays, negative customer feedback, and mounting support costs. Leadership sees the kiosks as a failure, when the real issue was a lack of clarity, not technology.

🧠 What’s the Lesson?

ITIL’s definition of a service isn’t just academic; it’s transformative. When teams define a service, they:

Create shared understanding across departments
Align technology with business outcomes
Enable smarter decisions and faster responses
Deliver consistent, measurable value

Without that definition? You’re flying blind.

☕ Final Thought: Define It, or Default to Dysfunction

You can have great tech, great people, and a great product, but if your organization can’t articulate what you’re delivering as a service, you’ll struggle to deliver value.

BeanScene and Brewtopia were evenly matched on the outside. But only one defined their services. And that made all the difference.

Don’t let unclear services leave your organization running on empty. At ITSM Academy, we help brew up real-world results by turning ITIL guidance into action. Our training blends the right ingredients to help your team define, manage, and serve up services that deliver real business value.

👉 Register for training today and start defining services the ITIL way.

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