Service Catalogue

The Situation Faced with continued economic pressures, and growing unit demand for services, with higher service levels, IT organizations are embarking on a fundamental transformation: Aligning services with the needs of the business. Improving internal customer satisfaction levels. Deploying standardized processes. = Service Catalogue!

The need to do more… Service Catalogues offer a way to: Define and publish available services. Standardized service fulfillment processes. Establish achievable service levels. Determine the associated costs manage performance.

Making a Difference The most important concept is that IT services align with the business units needs. Establishing a standard set of service offerings, with associated levels and costs to be made available to internal IT customers mans the organization can leverage market forces and in turn manage the demand for services. Catalogues allow us to be come more informed of our customer desires as well as our offering potential.

Alignment So the focus of the catalogue should be tuned to customer needs, this will provide the basis for a balanced and strengthened negotiation with regards to trade-offs for costs and quality of services. The result is ongoing communications between the customer and the service provider that delivers value to both sides, ensuring improved customer satisfaction, and perfected SLA compliance. Customer demand will drive the actions and choices that produce alignment. Alignment doesn’t weaken us, it makes us stronger!

Ongoing…. Once the Service Catalogue is in place, it will enable changes to the IT organizations that will reduce operational costs and improve service quality. The ability to accurately measure the value performance of the service delivery enables IT to adapt to changing business conditions and apply resources in the most optimal way.

What to do first? ITIL recommends that the Service Catalogue is the first document to be produced, at the beginning of process improvement initiatives. It is essential that sufficient planning takes place, with regards to how the catalogue will look including the format and content.

Two Parts – Business & Technical Too often, catalogues are created that do not work in the real world. ITIL recommends that the catalogue is created in two parts (essentially two perspectives): A Business Catalogue A Technical Catalogue

Think Like A Customer The catalogue must be actionable – containing terms that are familiar to the customer, not just a list of what the IT organization thinks it does! Services need to be articulated using non-technical terminology and address the immediate concerns or needs of the customer. Ideally, services should be tied to a desired business goal or outcome.

Use What They Know! Customers are familiar with catalogues they use everyday, such as Amazon.com, eBay, Dell etc. These websites are used by millions of consumers – and are great examples of the types of catalogues your customers are used to, and expect, to interact with. Easy to use, user-friendly descriptions, intuitive store-front interface for browsing available service offerings – should all be included in a successful customer facing catalogue.

Relevant Content Effective catalogues should also segment the customers they service and provide different content, based on roles and needs e.g. End users. Business unit executives IT managers etc.

Transactional Key ObjectivesCatalogue Elements Appropriate ExpectationsService Names, Descriptions Service Level CommitmentsPricing, SLA Metrics Efficient SearchingCategories, Keywords, Icons Streamlined OrderingAuto Fill Forms Complete OrdersService-specific Forms Correct OrdersField-level instructions Real-time StatusStatus templates

Accessible Key ObjectivesCatalogue Elements Organizational DesignService Teams, Work Queues GovernanceStandard Authorizations ConsistencyStandard Delivery Plans QualityChecklists Efficiency & SpeedIntelligent Workflows AutomationTask Level API’s Appropriate ExpectationsService Level Standards Continuous ImprovementOperating Level Standards ControlAlerts & Escalations

Additional Bonuses! An actionable catalogue can serve as a system of record for data that you need to run your IT service organization like a business within a business. It can be a vehicle to managing: Customer demand. Map fulfillment processes for each service. Track service levels Drive process efficiencies Govern vendor performance Determine costs

Actionable Key ObjectivesCatalogue Elements Demand ManagementPublished Prices Cost ManagementActivity Based Costing Billing ManagementBilling Directories Resource ManagementUtilization Benchmarking ‘SMART’ Work RoutingRouting Algorithms Management VisibilityDashboards, Drill-down Analytics ComplianceAudit & Compliance Reports Vendor ManagementVendor Performance Reports

Foundation for Success Industry leaders create actionable Service Catalogues that: Define services in the language that your customers will understand. Provides a venue where a service order can be placed. Provides performance management data for IT services.

Benefits- of doing it right! IT BenefitsBusiness Benefits Create a communication vehicleClear service definitions Demand driven alignmentBusiness value Demand planningBudget transparency Ensure enforceable standardsOne-stop shopping Identity cost driversPrice comparison Standard delivery processReliable delivery commitments GovernanceSpend control Continuous ImprovementHigher productivity

Operating as a Business When the new catalogue is in place, IT organizations can begin to operate as a business. Services that are not frequently requested by customers can be discontinued, delivery processes for high volume services can be optimized. Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) provide greater visibility to control costs and respond to customer demand – this same data can help drive infrastructure requirements and support broader budgeting conversations.

Hints & Tips Pilot the catalogue – determine which services and attributes need to be included or revised prior to comprehensive rollout. Publishing the initial service catalogue without chargeback, targeting a specific business unit, or covering only a few primary IT services, may allow for refinement and iterative maturity over time.

Establish Team - The initial catalogue should be driven internally within IT and include adequate representation from all stakeholders within each domain to ensure documented services are appropriate and valid; executive sponsorship is also critical. Hints & Tips

Establish Baseline - The team should create a list of all services IT offers, regardless of whether they will be included in the initial catalogue of services. When creating the baseline catalogue, it is important to consider the following key guidelines to ensure services offered can be effectively managed going forward: The service is self-contained and is not part of a larger service offering. The service can be monitored and measured for consumption levels. The service has costs that may vary with changes in consumer behavior. The business could potentially procure the service externally. Hints & Tips

Refine Service Offerings - The initial baseline should be refined to include only those initial services to be included in the pilot or first iteration of the IT service catalog. If different levels of service will be provided, cost variations should be documented by consumption type. Hints & Tips

Perform Service Benchmarks - Once services have been identified, service levels should be benchmarked using available monitoring capabilities and measurement techniques. Resultant metrics should be documented to ensure they are consistent and repeatable for incorporation into service level agreements with the customer. Hints & Tips

Publish Service Catalogue - After services are documented, reviewed and finalized, the service catalogue should be made available to the business, preferably through an appropriate business relationship manager. Business feedback may be incorporated into the catalogue and revised prior to service selection and establishing formal agreements. Hints & Tips

Establish Service Agreement - Following business review and selection of services, any formal service selections and supporting agreements should be facilitated through the service level management process and documented in a standard Service Level Agreement (SLA); service narratives may be used to define and continuously update service descriptions. Hints & Tips

Improve Services - Any service improvement initiative should be iterative in nature and ensure ongoing improvement activities enhance communication with the business. Maximize operational efficiencies and continue cost reductions through a continuous service improvement program (CSIP). Hints & Tips

Refining the Service Catalogue - The cost, complexity and difficulty of implementing an IT service catalogue will vary greatly depending on the details incorporated into the final document. Therefore, different variations of the service catalogue should be considered only after an initial catalogue has been deployed successfully and accepted by the business customer. Hints & Tips

Bottom Line Most companies have not yet created IT service catalogues, let alone implement chargeback to the business for IT services. However, adoption of an IT catalogue of services in alignment with the service level management process can promote rapid maturity of IT business relationship management practices. The deployment of an effective IT service catalogue will not only clarify IT services to the business, but can significantly modify consumer behavior resulting in streamlined service consumption and overall cost reduction.

IT Governance IT Governance is now widely recognized as a critical success factor for managing today's complex enterprise IT environments. It has become one of the most popular buzzwords among IT executives and company boards alike. But, like many buzzwords, this one is far easier to recite than it is to understand, let alone apply.

Complicating the picture even further is that there is no single IT Governance standard. Rather, the topic of IT Governance falls at the intersection of three popular frameworks, which are contemporary buzzwords in their own right: ITIL COBIT ISO IT Governance

At the technology level, the key questions are: How to identify the concepts that need to be defined to enable effective IT Governance? How to implement the processes and tools that make these concepts actionable? The answer is guided by the old "DMMI" maxim: What is not defined cannot be managed. What is not managed cannot be measured. What is not measured cannot be improved. Role of the IT Service Catalogue IT Governance

By implementing best practices-based IT Service Catalogues, companies can ensure that "IT Governance" becomes more than just a buzzword, but rather an actionable methodology to most effectively harness the awesome power of information technology in the interests of the business enterprise. IT Governance