Service Strategy: ITIL Intermediate > Service Strategy Class Notes > Flashcards

Service Strategy Class Notes Flashcards

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1
Q

Strategy Management for IT Services Purpose

A

How a provider will enable an organistion to achieve its business outcomes
estqablish critera and mechanism to deicide which services will be best suited to meet business outcomes and best ways to mangage these services

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2
Q

SM 4 IT Svcs Objectives

A

SWOT
constraints
agree the ServProv’s perspective
establish the postion of the ServProv
Produce and maintain strategy planning docs
ensure that strategic plans have been xlated into tactical and operational plans
-Manage changes to the strategies and related documents

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3
Q

SM 4 IT Svcs Scope

A

-Responsibility of executives
-enables objectives to be set to align
-specify how the org will meet these objectives
-provides guidance on prioritising investments required to meet them
-not limited to a single doc or dept–have to align tho
-most likely to be several strategies within each org:
-strat mgmt linked together
-strat mgmt for IT services has to ensure that the services and the are manged support the overall strategy of the enterprise
(“IT” needs to have a seat/voice at the top table”)

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4
Q

The golden thread

A

alignment of all strategies within an objective

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5
Q

Value to the business

A

Clear goal–know where we are going to go

  • Cost savings => validated business obj’s
  • increased levels of investment for key projects or service improvements
  • shifting investment priorities
  • the Serv Prov will be able to defocus attention from 1 svc and refocus on another ensuring the their efforts and budget are spent on the areas with the highest level of bus. impact.
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6
Q

Policies & Principles

A
  • An org is defined by its execs
  • if the org is an external svc prov with a core business of providing svcs the Service Strategy will be the central component of the org’s strat
  • in Internal Srvc provs the Service Strat will support the overall enterprise strategy and provide a tactical plan for the interal service provider
  • It is therefore vital the the IT strategy be defined in terms of the organiastions overall strategy
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7
Q

Strategy Mgmt 4 IT Services Process

A
  • Strategic Assessment
  • Strategy Generation
  • Strategy Execution
  • Measurement & Evaluation
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8
Q

Strategic Assessment

A
  • Analyse internal factors
  • Analyse external factors
  • Define Market spaces
  • Identify strategic industry factors
  • Establish objectives
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9
Q

Strategy Generation

A
  • Determine perspective
  • Form a position
  • Craft a plan
  • Adopt patterns of action
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10
Q

4 p’s of strategy- Positions

A
  • Variety Based Positioning
  • Needs-based Positioning
  • Access-based positioning
  • Demand-based positioning (variety based approach to appeal to a broad range of customers
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11
Q

4 p’s of strategy- Perspective

A

What the org is, what it does, who it does it for and how it works

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12
Q

4 p’s of strategy - Plan

A
  • How will the strategic objectives be achieved?
  • How much will be invested in order to achieve (how much will it costs?)
  • SHOULD BE compared to actual events over time and adjustments made
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13
Q

4 p’s of strategy - Pattern

A

The way in which an org organizes itself to meet its objectives
-can be internal or external
(Could be an operating model)
required to ensure consistency of approach and to enable investment to be accurately predicted.
(Financial pattern key–is it making money for us?)

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14
Q

Strategy Measurement and Evaluation

A

CSI

Expansion & Growth

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15
Q

Strategy execution

A
  • Other Service Management processes
  • Align Assets with customer outcomes
  • optimise critical success factors
  • prioritise investments
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16
Q

Strategy Management Process - Triggers

A
  • Annual Planning Cycles
  • New Business Opportunity
  • Changes to internal or external environments
  • Mergers or Acquisitions
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17
Q

Strategy Mgmt process - Challenges

A

conducted at the wtong level

  • lack of accurate info about extrenal environ
  • lack of support by stakeholders
  • lack of appropriate tools or understanding of how to use the tools
  • lack of appropriate document control mechanisms & procedures
  • operational targets need to be matched to the strategic objectives–dailure to do so will result in operational managers strive to achieve targets that are not in the support of the strategy
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18
Q

Strategy Mgmt process - Inputs

A
  • Existing plans
  • Research specialised Orgs
  • vendor strategies & product road maps
  • customer interviews & strategic plans to indicate potential future reqs
  • service portfolio to indicate the current and planned future service commitments
  • Service reporting to indicate the effectiveness of the strategy
  • Audit reports that indicate compliance with (or deviation) the org’s strate3gy
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19
Q

Strategy Mgmt process - Risks

A
  • a flawed governance model
  • short-term priorities override the directives of the strategy
  • making strategic decisions when there is missing info about the internal or external environments or using info that is incorrect or misleading
  • the risk of choosing the wrong strategy
  • Strategies are seen as an exercise that happens once a year and that no bearing on what happens for the rest of the year
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20
Q

Srvc Portfolio Mgmt - Purpose

A
  • Ensure the Svc Prov has the right mix of services to balance the investment in IT with the ability to meet business outcomes
  • tracks the investment in services throughout their life cycle and works with other serv mgmt processes to ensure that the appropriate returns are being achieved
  • ensures that svcs are clearly defined and linked to the achievement of business outcomes thus ensuring that all design transition and operation activities are aligned to the value of the services
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21
Q

Srvc Portfolio

A

describes a providers services in terms of business value–it articulates business needs and the providers response to those needs

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22
Q

Srvc Portfolio Mgmt - Objectives

A
  • Provides a process and mechanisms to enable an organisation to investigate and decide on which services to provide
  • maintain the definitive portfolio of services provided
  • provide a mechanism for the org to evaluate how services enables them to achieve their strategy
  • control which services are offered, under what conditions, and at what level of investment
  • track the investment in services throughout their life cycle
  • analyse which services are no longer viable and when they should be retired
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23
Q

Srvc Portfolio Mgmt - Scope

A
  • All svcs that a Svc Prov plans to deliver those currently delivered and those that have been withdrawn from service.
  • Tracking investments in services and compare them to the desired business outcomes
  • internal service providers will need to work with the business units in the organisation to link each services to the business outcomes before they can compare investment with returns
  • external service providers tend to evaluate more directly as each services needs to be able to generate revenue directly or support revenue generating services
  • it evaluates the value of services throughout their life cycles and must be able to compare what newer services have offered over the retired services they have replaced
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24
Q

Service Portfolio Management

Policies

A

-SPM ensures that the service provider has an understanding of all services that it provides its investments strategy and objectives of each service
(Should prevent mistakes)

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25
Service Portfolio Management | Value to the business
- Enables the business to make sound decisions about investments - customers are able to understand exactly what the service provider will deliver to them and how enabling them to make decisions about whether the service is a good or bad investment - The service provider is viewed as a steward of service assets that are key to the customers success and provided the service provider delivers what they promised, the service provider can equip their customers to build their strategies
26
Service Portfolio Management - Define
Strategy - Request from Business - Service Improvement opportunities - Service Suggestion - Existing services - Service, Customer & business outcomes - Impact on service portfolio (existing) - Impact on service model (existing services)
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Service Portfolio Management - Service Economics
Balance Between: - The cost of providing services - The value of the outcomes achieved - The returns that the services enable the service provider to achieve
28
Service Portfolio Management - Service Economics - Business Case
A means to identify business imperatives that depend on svc mgmt -pre-programme ROI Techniques for quantively analysing an investment in service mgmt -post programme ROI Techniques for retroactively analysing an investment in service mgmt
29
Service Economics - Business Case Format
- introduction - methods and assumptions - Business Impacts - Risks and contingencies - Recommendations
30
Service Portfolio Management - Service Economics - Business Case
A means to identify business imperatives that depend on svc mgmt -pre-programme ROI Techniques for quantively analysing an investment in service mgmt -post programme ROI Techniques for retroactively analysing an investment in service mgmt
31
Service Economics - Business Case Format
- introduction - methods and assumptions - Business Impacts - Risks and contingencies - Recommendations
32
Service Economics Pre-Programme ROI
Capital budgeting decisions fall into 2 broad categories (screening & preference decisions) -Screening Decisions are usually made using a discounted cash flow method of net present value (npv) -Preference decisions are usaully made using a discounted cash flow method of internal rate of return (IRR)
33
Service Economics Business Impact Analysis
- Resources from the business and IT will work together - identify all of the major services for designation as critical, secondary and tertiary - identify the core analysis points for use in assessing risk and impact - score the services against the weighted elements of risk and impact and total their individual risk scores - generate a list of services in order of risk profile - decide on a time period with which to standardise the translation of services outage to cost - generate a list of services in order of impact
34
Service Portfolio Management Approve The 7 Rs of portfolio mgmt
is the service or change feasible? ``` New service or Retain Replace Reationalise refactor renew retire ```
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Service Portfolio Management Approve (Change)
Change Proposal Change mgmt authorization Change proposal authorised? (needs to be a strong link between Svc Portfo;io and CHM)
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Service Portfolio Management Approve (Change)
Change Proposal Change mgmt authorization Change proposal authorised? (needs to be a strong link between Svc Portfolio and CHM)
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Service Portfolio Management Inputs
Strategy Plans CSI Financial reports Requests suggestions or complaints from the business Project updates for services in the charter stage of the process
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Service Portfolio Management Outputs
- An up to date portfolio - Service charters that authorise the work for designing and building new services and changes to existing services - Reports on the status of new or changed services - Reports on the investment made in s ervices in the service portgolio and the returns on that investment - Change proposals that are used to allow change mgmt to assess and schedule the work and resources required to charter services - Identified strategic risks
39
Service Portfolio Management Triggers
- a new strategy has been devised or an existing strategy is being changed - BRM receives a request for a new services or a change to an existing service - Service Improvement opportunities from CSI - Feedback from design build and transition teams to indicate the status during the charter stage of the process - Service Level Management review that identify a service is not delivering as expected - Fin Mgmt for IT Services indicates that a service costs significantly more or less than anticipated
40
Service Portfolio Management Inputs
- Strategy Plans - CSI - Financial reports - Requests suggestions or complaints from the business - Project updates for services in the charter stage of the process
41
Financial Mgmt for IT Services
involved in the org's fin mgmt process. Apply the Org's fin mgmt procedures and practices to ensure that they are aligned with the org's objectives and financial policies
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Purpose
Secure the level of funding to design develop and deliver services that meet the strategy of the org.
43
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Objectives
Defining and maintaining a framework to identify, manage and communicate the cost of providing services - evaluating the financial impact of new or change strategies on the service provider - securing funding to manage the provision of services - facilitating good stewardship of service and customer assets to ensure the organisation meets its objectives - this should be done together with service asset and configuration management and knowledge management - Understanding the relationship between expenses and income and ensuring that the two are balanced according to the organisations Fin- policies
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Scope
Budgeting-the process of opredicting and conrolling te icnome and expenditure of money within the org Accounting-this is the process that enable the IT org to account fully for the way its money is spent Charging--this is the process required to bill customers for the services supplied to them (optional)
45
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Scope
Budgeting-the process of opredicting and conrolling te icnome and expenditure of money within the org Accounting-this is the process that enable the IT org to account fully for the way its money is spent Charging--this is the process required to bill customers for the services supplied to them (optional)
46
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Value to the business
``` Enhanced decision making Speed of change Service Portfolio mgmt Financial compliance and control operating control value capture and creation ```
47
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Enterprise Policy
Policies that impact an IT service provider might include: - level of financial expenditure needs to be tracked - how fixed assets are depreciated - how costs are reported - how revenue is accounted for and taxes managed - requirements to comply with legislative or other regulatory requirements
48
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Policy Decisions
Cost Centre -2 definitions for the term cost centre are commonly used in business--although they appear close in meaning they are different. In this context the term is used to indicate a business unit to which costs are assigned but which does not charge for services. Profit centre-- - A business unit that charges for providing services - a profit centre can be created with the objectives of making a profit recovering costs or running at a loss
49
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Funding
Funding comes from 2 sources, external and internal External: comes from revenue that is received from selling services to external customers Internal: comes from other business units inside the same org
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Funding Models
``` Rolling plan - as one cycle ends another starts Zero based Actual Costs Trigger based - After identified critical triggers ```
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Charging
- Charging policies - Cost recovery or break eve - Recovery with an additional margin - Cross subsidisation - Notional Charging - Decide on chargeable items - Pricing - Billing
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Funding Models
``` Rolling plan - as one cycle ends another starts Zero based Actual Costs Trigger based - After identified critical triggers ```
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Triggers
- Monthly, quarterly and annual financial reporting cycles are mandated and form part of the standard financial management policies and standards of any organisation - audits will indicate actions that need to be taken to adjust some aspect of the accounting budgeting or charging system - requests for financial information from other service mgmt - investigation into a new service opportunity - the introduction of charging for IT Services - a request for change
54
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Inputs
- Policies, standards and practices defined by legislation, regulators, and enterprise financial managers - Generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP) and local variations - All data sources where financial info is stored - The service portfolio provides the structure of services that will be provided, which in turn will be the basis for the accounting system
55
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Outputs
``` Service Valuation Service Investment analysis Compliance Cost optimisation Business Impact Analysis Planning Confidence ```
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Challenges
Financial reporting and cost models that are focused on the cost of components rather than the cost of the services - if the org focuses on cost saving rather than cost optimisation it will find itself having to identify cost cutting measures rather than demonstrating return on investment - When its first introduced or formalised it may be difficult to find where financial data is located and how it is controlled
57
Financial Mgmt for IT Services Risks
There is a risk that a lack of dedicated fin- management for IT services will result in poor decisions about the type
58
Demand Management
Process that seeks to understand, anticipate and influence customer demand for services and the provision of capacity to meet these demands
59
Demand Management Purpose
TO understand anticipate and infliuence customer demand for services and to work with capactiy management to ensure the services provider has capacity to meet this demand ,...
60
Demand Management Objectives
- Identify and analyse patterns of business activity - Define and analyse user profiles - Ensure that services are designed to meet the patterns of business activity and
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Accounting
- Cost Model - Cost Centres and cost units - Cost types and cost elements - Cost classification - Chart of accounts - Analysis and reporting - Action Plans
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Financial Mgmt for IT Services Budgeting
- Analysis of previous budget - assessment of plans - specification of changes to funding and spending - cost and income estimation - Budgets
63
Demand Mgmt Through the lifecycle
SS-identify services and Outcomes and patterns SD confim customer reqs re: avail and perf and validate service assets are designed to meet those reqs ST: involved in testing and validating services for forecast utilisation and patterns of business activity SO: Technical, application and operations mgmt functions will monitor service assets and service utilisation levels to ensure that all is within normal CSI: DM will work to identify trends in patterns of bus. activity & to initiate changes to capability of the sp
64
Demand Mgmt Process
- identify source of demand forecasting - patterns of business activity - user profiles - activity based demand mgmt - develop differentiated offerings - mgmt of ops demand
65
Demand Mgmt Objectives
Identify & analyse patterns of bus. activity Define and analyse user profiles Ensure services are designed to meet the patterns of business activity and the ability to meet business outcomes Work with cap. mgmt to ensure that adequate resources are available -Anticipate and prevent or manage situations where demand for a service exceeds capactiy to deliver it manage the utilisation of resources that deliver services to meet the fluctuating levles of demand for those services
66
Demand Mgmt Identify source of demand forecasting
``` Potential sources of info that can assist DM to forecast demand include: Bus. Plans Marketing Plans & forecasts Production Plans (in manufacturing) Sales Forecasts New Product launch plan ```
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Patterns of business activity
Classification Attributes Requirements Service asset requirements
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Demand Mgmt User Profiles
UP's are based on roles and responsibilities within orgs. Processes and applications can have UPs. Each can be associated with 1 or more PBAs. Pattern matching using pBA and UPs ensure systematic understanding and managing demand from customers. Require customers to better understand their own bus. activities & view them as consumers of service and producers of demand.
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Demand Mgmt Inputs
Initiative to create a new service or to change an existing service
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Demand Mgmt Challenges
- Availability of info about the business - Difficulty in breaking down individual activities that make sense to the SP - Lack of formal Service Portfolio Mgmt process or service portfolio
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Demand Mgmt Risks
-Lack of inaccurate, configuration mgmt info -Service level mgmt is not able to obtain commitments to minimum or maximum utilisation levels and it is therefore difficult to commit to levels of services (risk of not having a CMDB)
72
Demand Mgmt Develop Differentiated offerings
- Different levels of performance are required at different times - Work with Portfolio Mgmt to define service packages that meet the variations
73
Demand Mgmt Mgmt of Operational Demand
- During service operation manage or influence the demand where services or resources are being over utilised - The patterns of business activity were inaccurate resulting in over or under utilisation of the service - The business environment changed, resulting in a change to the pattern of business activity - The SP's forecast for resources was inaccurate and there is insufficient budget to increase capacity
74
Demand Mgmt Activity Based Demand Mgmt **
Benefits of understanding PBAs - service design can optimise designs to suit demand patterns - service catalogue can map demand patterns to services - Service Portfolio Mgmt can approve investments for additional capactiy, new services and changes to services - SO can adjust allocation of resources and consolidate demand - Fin Mgmt can approve suitable incentives to influence control
75
Business Relationship Mgmt Purpose
- to establish & maintain a business between the SP and the customer based on understanding the customer and its business needs - ensure that the SP is able to meet these needs as business needs change over time - assist the business in articulating the value of a service
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Business Relationship Mgmt Purpose
-to establish & maintain a business between the SP and the customer based on understanding the customer and its business needs -ensure that the SP is able to meet these needs as business needs change over time -assist the business in articulating the value of a service (realistically not that far up the chain) Type III same as account mgr
77
Business Relationship Mgmt Objectives
- ensure that the provider understands the customers perspective of service - ensure high levels of customer satisfaction - establish and maintain a constructive relationship between the SP and the customer - Identify changes to the customer environment that could impact the services provided - identify technology trends that could impact the services provided - Establish and articulate bus. reqs for new services and changes to existing services - establish complaints and escalation process
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Business Relationship Mgmt Scope
-focus on understanding how services meet customer reqs. | focus on understanding and comm
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BRM vs SLM
Purpose Focus Primary measure 1st port of call should be with SLM (SLAs) Work together 2 roles along with Service Owner
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Business Relationship Mgmt BRM and business relationship manager
(can be confused with the BRM role) BRM often represents other process when undertaking business relationship ....
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Business Relationship Mgmt Roles
``` BR Manager BRM process owner (accountable) BRM process manager (responsible)Day-day May be same person maybe split out to senior exec as owner => promote the process ```
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Business Relationship Mgmt BRM and other proceses
Examples
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Business Relationship Mgmt Principles and concepts 1
Customer Portfolio -DB or doc to record all customers of the IT SP Customer Agreement Portfolio -Customer agreement portfolio is a DB or doc used to manage service contracts or agreements between an IT SP and its customers.
84
Business Relationship Mgmt Principles and concepts 2
Customer Satisfaction - undertake customer satisfaction surveys and compare SP perf with customer satisfaction - investigates any significant variations in satisfaction levels so that the resources are understood - Records trends in customer satisfaction metrics - Works throughout the service lifecycle to understand customer reqs. and expectations and ensure that they are being met or exceeded
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Business Relationship Mgmt Principles and concepts 3
- Service Requirements - Common categories that are gathered & presented incorrectly by customers - Solutions - Specs - Needs - Benefits
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Business Relationship Mgmt Process 1
- consists of activies in every stage of the life cycle - rarely executed as a single end to end process ....
87
Business Relationship Mgmt Triggers
- new strategic initative - new service or a change to an existing service has been initated - new opportunity has been identified - service has been chartered by service Portfolio Mgmt - Customer Requests or suggestions - customer complaints - customer meeting has been scheduled - customer satisfaction survey has been scheduled
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Business Relationship Mgmt Inputs
-Customer requirements -Customer requests, complaints -escalations or compliments -The Service Strategy -Where poss, the customers strategy -The service portfolio -the project portfolio -SLAs -Requests for change -Patterns of business activity & user profiles (sources of information for the BRM)
89
Business Relationship Mgmt Outputs
- Stakeholder definitions - Defined business outcomes - Agreement to fund(internal) or pay for (external services) - Customer portfolio - Service reqs for strategy, desing and transition - Customer satisfactoin surveys and the published resustls of these - ....
90
Business Relationship Mgmt Challenges
- if BRM is attempted as a means of working on levels on customer satisfactoin it will prob fail - hist. of poor service - ... (culture of org =>bus. and IT
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Business Relationship Mgmt Risks
Because BRM is closely related to a number of other processes, confusion about the boundaries will mean that there is potential for duplication of activity -if there is a disconnect between the customer-facing processes and those focusing more on it is likely that the service provider will become ineffectual
Service Strategy: ITIL Intermediate
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