1. Create a Service Management Roadmap
Know where you are, where to start and how to get there.
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2. ANALYST PERSPECTIVE
I was surprised when I first noticed this trend. More than 80% of the larger enterprises we’ve worked with start out wanting to develop advanced Service Management processes without having the basics fully in place.
Although you wouldn’t think this would be the case in large enterprises, again and again IT Leaders are overestimating the effectiveness of foundational processes such as Service Desk, Incident Management, and Change Management. You must have these fundamentals right before moving on.
Paul Brown,
Director, CIO Advisory Info-Tech Research Group

3. Our understanding of the problem
CIO
Senior IT Management
Create or maintain service management processes to ensure user-facing services are delivered seamlessly to business users with minimum interruption
Increase the level of reliability and availability of the services provided to the business, and improve the relationship and communication between IT and the business
Service Management Process Owners
Formalize, standardize, and improve the maturity of service management processes
Identify new service management initiatives to move IT to the next level of service management maturity

4. Executive summary
Lack of formal processes over time has led to a fairly chaotic service delivery model that results in poor customer satisfaction and an inability to meet service level targets. There is little structure, formalization, or standardization in the way IT services are managed, leading to diminishing service quality and low business satisfaction.
Effective service management is a journey that encompasses a series of initiatives that improve the value of services delivered.
Understanding the dependencies between service management processes will greatly increase your project success. Don’t build mature processes without a concrete foundation.
Having effective service management processes in place will allow you to pursue activities such as innovation and drive the business forward.
When IT organizations attempt to improve their service management maturity, they often don’t know what order is best when implementing processes, don’t follow best practices when implementing a process, and have difficulty knowing what processes will deliver the greatest benefits for their efforts and resources.
Follow Info-Tech’s methodology to create a service management roadmap that will help guide the optimization of your IT services and improve IT’s value to the business.
The blueprint will help you right-size your roadmap to best suit your specific needs and goals and will provide structure, ownership, and direction for service management.
This blueprint allows you to accurately identify the current state of service management at your organization. Customize the roadmap and create a step-by-step plan to achieve your target service management state.

5. Poor service management manifests in many different pains across the organization
Immaturity in service management will not result in one pain – rather, it will create a chaotic environment for the entire organization, crippling IT’s ability to deliver and perform.
These are some of the pains that can be attributed to poor service management processes.
Low Service Management Maturity
Frequent service-impacting incidents
Low satisfaction with the service desk
High % of failed deployments
Frequent change-related incidents
Frequent recurring incidents
Inability to find root cause
No communication with the business
Frequent capacity-related incidents … … …
And there are many more…

6. There are many misconceptions about what service management is
Misconception #1:“Service management is a process”
Effective service management is a journey that encompasses a series of initiatives that improves the value of services delivered.
Misconception #2:“Service Management = Service Desk”
Service desk is the foundation, since it is the main end-user touch point, but service management is a set of people and processes required to deliver business-facing services.
Misconception #3:“Service management is about the ITSM tool”
The tool is part of the overall service management program, but the people and processes must be in place before implementing. a tool
Misconception #4:“Service management development is one big initiative”
Service management development is a series of initiatives that takes into account an organization’s current state, maturity, capacities, and objectives.
Misconception #5:“Service management processes can be deployed in any order, assuming good planning and design”
A successful service management program takes into account the dependencies of processes.

7. There are many misconceptions about what service management is (continued)
Misconception #6:“Service management is resolving incidents and deploying changes”
Service management is about delivering high value and high quality services.
Misconception #7:“Service management is not the key determinant of success”
As an organization progresses on the service management journey, its ability to deliver high value and high quality services increases.
Misconception #8:“Resolving Incidents = Success”
Preventing incidents is the name of the game. a tool
Misconception #9:“Service Management = Good Firefighter”
Service management is about understanding what’s going on with user-facing services and proactively improving service quality.
Misconception #10:“Service management is about IT and technical services
(e.g. servers, network, database)”
Service management is about business/user-facing services and the value the services provide to the business.

8. Mature service management processes are a necessity, not a nice-to-have
Immature service management processes are one of the biggest hurdles preventing IT from reaching its true potential.
In 2004, PwC published a report titled “IT Moves from Cost Center to Business Contributor.”
However, the CSC Global CIO Survey showed that a high percentage of IT is still considered a cost center.
And low maturity of service management processes is keeping IT away from activities such as digitalization and innovation.
Resources are primarily focused on managing existing IT workloads & keeping the lights on
39%
Too much time and too many resources are used to handle urgent incidents and problems
31%
Source: CSC Global CIO Survey: “CIOs Emerge as Disruptive Innovators”

9. There is an urgent need to improve the effectiveness of service management processes
As IT’s focus shifts to new endeavors such as innovation and analytics, improving the delivery of existing services to business users is a top priority.

10. Service management projects often don’t succeed because they are poorly planned
Immature service management is often the result of poorly planned service management rollouts. 1
IT organizations have difficulty knowing what processes will deliver the greatest benefits for their efforts and resources.
A through diagnostic is needed to help IT identify these high value, low effort areas. 2
IT does not know what order is best when implementing processes.
Don't run before you can walk. Fundamental processes must reach the maturity threshold before developing advanced processes. 3
IT does not follow best practices when implementing a process.
Our best-practice research is based on extensive experience working with clients through advisory calls and workshops.
Info-Tech can help you create a customized, low-effort, and high-value service management program that will shore up any gaps, prove IT’s value, and achieve business satisfaction.

11. Info-Tech’s methodology will help you customize your roadmap so the journey is right for you
With Info-Tech, you will find out where you are, where you want to go, and how you will get there.
With our methodology, you can expect the following:
Eliminate or reduce rework due to poor execution.
Identify dependencies/prerequisites and ensure processes are deployed in the correct order, at the correct time, and by the right people.
Engage all necessary resources to design and implement required processes.
Assess current maturity and capabilities and design the roadmap with these factors in mind.
Determine the appropriate target stage and design the roadmap with this in mind.
You will see these benefits at the end
Increase the quality of services IT provides to the business.
Increase business satisfaction through higher business approval of IT services.
Lower cost to design, implement, and manage services.
Better resource utilization, including staff, tools, and budget.
Doing it right the first time around

12. Follow our methodology and get to your target state in stages
Strategic Partner
Proactive
Stabilize
Service Provider
Service Portfolio Management
Demand Management
Create a service catalog that documents services from the user perspective
Measure service performance, based on business-oriented metrics
Service Level Management
Service Metrics
Service Catalog
Business Relationship Management
Service Continuity Management
Understand your environment and take action to:
Avoid/prevent service disruptions
Improve quality of service (performance, availability, reliability)
Capacity & Performance Management
Event Management + Monitoring & Alerting
Problem Management
Change Management
Deployment Management
Deliver stable, reliable IT services to the business
Respond to user requests quickly and efficiently
Resolve user issues in a timely manner
Deploy changes smoothly and successfully
Incident Management
Service Desk

13. Each step along the way, Info-Tech has the tools to help you
Assemble a team with the right talent and vision to increase the chances of project success.
Phase 1
Launch the Project
Understand where you are currently on the service management journey using the maturity assessment tool.
Phase 2
Assess Current State
Project Charter
Assessment Tool
Info-Tech
Deliverables
Stakeholder Presentation
Full Roadmap
Target State Workbook
Phase 4 Follow the Roadmap
Discuss and prioritize which roadmap phases are necessary. Define metrics to track and monitor progress.
Identify the appropriate target state given IT’s current objectives, capabilities, and budget/resource restraints.
Phase 3
Identify Target State

14. CIO call to action
Taking on a project to improve the maturity of the organization’s service management maturity is a big commitment, and the project can only succeed with active support from the CIO.
Ideally, the CIO should be the project sponsor, even the project leader. At a minimum, the CIO needs to perform the following activities:
Walk the talk – demonstrate personal commitment to the project and communicate the benefits of the service management journey to IT and the steering committee. Improving or adopting any new process is difficult, especially for a project of this size. Thus, the CIO needs to show visible support for this project through internal communication and dedicated resources to help complete this project. 1
Select a senior, capable and results-driven project leader. Most likely, the implementation of this project will be lengthy and technical in some nature. Therefore, the project leader must have a good understanding of the current IT structure, have senior standing within the organization, and have the relationship and power in place to propel people into action. 2 3
Help to define the target future state of IT’s service management. Determine a realistic target state for the organization based on current capability and resource/budget restraints.
Conduct periodic follow-up meetings to keep track of progress. Reinforce or re-emphasize the importance of this project to the organization through various communication channels if needed. 4

15. Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
Guided Implementation
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
DIY Toolkit
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
Workshop
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
Consulting
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

16. Create a Service Management Roadmap – project overview
Launch the project
Assess the current state
Identify the target state
Build the roadmap
Best-Practice Toolkit
1.1 Create a powerful, succinct mission statement
1.2 Assemble a project team with representatives from all major IT teams
1.3 Determine project stakeholders and create a communication plan
1.4 Establish metrics to track the success of the project
2.1 Determine your overall service management maturity level
2.2 understand your level of completeness for each individual process
2.3 Understand the three major phases involved in the service management journey
3.1 Use Info-Tech’s target state workbook, learn about the six target states and the processes involved in each target state
3.2 Determine an achievable target state for your organization based on your current state, future objectives, as well as other prioritization and constraints
4.1 Determine what initiative activities will be included in the roadmap based on the current state assessment and the target state exercise
4.2 Customize Info-Tech’s service management roadmap so you can accurately document your project, including start and end date, task owner, and risks and resolutions
Guided Implementations
Kick-off the project
Build the project team
Complete the charter
Understand current state
Determine target state
Understand the possible target states
Build the roadmap based on current and target state
Prepare stakeholder presentation
Onsite Workshop
Module 1:
Launch the project
Module 2:
Assess current service management maturity
Module 3:
Determine service management target state
Module 4:
Complete the roadmap

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