Creating an IT Service Strategy that works
Good practice in IT service management means different things to different organisations. It is currently a focus area for CIOs as they seek to align IT Service Delivery with constantly changing business needs. With the modern CIO taking on growing responsibility for business direction and strategic goals, IT Service Management needs to shift from tactically focused to a strategic enabler of change to catalyse ongoing business innovation and ensure that customer, user, and corporate expectations are met.
Why has this changed?
The traditional IT department and the role of IT Service Management were to respond to business issues and requests when necessary. IT departments were seen as the experts and the people you contacted when you needed something technology-related. Now that technology is ingrained in our everyday life and simpler to use, this traditional role is now necessary to a much lesser extent, which is leaving CIOs with the headache of rethinking their strategy and everyday operations.
Processes that may be methodical and bulletproof now need to be simpler, quicker, and enablers of change.
As mentioned above, IT teams used to be responsible for responding to business issues and requests. Now, they need to be less operationally focused and more focused on service improvement, customer experience, and performance measurement.
Tools that used to be there to automate basic workflows are now needed to remove manual tasks, increase speed to market, and give organisations a competitive advantage.
Suppliers, traditionally supported by the IT department in break-fix activities, are central to successful delivery, especially as cloud services are now the norm.
Unless CIOs elevate IT Service Management to a key enabler of innovation and change, an organisation will miss out on the chance to work quickly, streamline activities, eliminate costs, deliver customer-centric products and services, and fall behind competitors.
Modern Service Management strategies
When IT Service Management was in place to support tactical responses to business issues, measures of success included Mean Time to Repair, Uptime, Availability, and project delivery success.
Now that third-party suppliers are taking on greater responsibility for operational delivery, the CIO and Head of IT Service Management need to avoid focusing on tactics and operations and help close any gaps between business strategy and the delivery of IT products and services. This means asking business executives what is important to them, ensuring that their requirements are captured and delivered against them, and becoming trusted advisors by suggesting ideas and improvements that could improve business performance.
The simpler your IT Service Management strategy is, and the connections you develop with key figures in your business, will help to determine how successfully business goals can be achieved through new or enhanced technology products and services.
The question is, how will you make this step?
If you have read this and would like to discuss and explore the critical steps needed to make this shift, please get in touch.
We have been in business for 25 years and are helping companies and organisations across several market sectors to modernise their Service Management strategy and focus to be effective in a Digital, DevOps world.