In order to deliver good services to clients, the service provider needs to understand what services are and how Service Management can help them to deliver and manage these services.Before we go to 5 key aspects a service provider need follow for successful service delivery, let us have a look at what service and service management is?
“Service is means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks”.
“A set of specialized organizational capabilities that provides value to customers in form of services is defined as Service Management”.
The specialized organizational capabilities include the processes, activities, functions and roles that service providers use to enable them to deliver services to their customers. They also include the ability to organize and manage knowledge, and understand how to facilitate outcomes that create value. IT Service Management (ITSM) is the implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the needs of the business.
It is essential for every Service Provider to understand what kind of services they offer and scope for continuous improvement. Service management is what enables service providers to:
- Understand the services they provide
- Ensure that the services facilitate the outcomes their customers want to achieve
- Understand the value of the services to their customers
- Understand and manage all the costs and risks associated with those services.
Customers or clients continue to appreciate best services and to deliver such best services, Service Providers follow a best practice guidance called IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Framework. The ITIL Framework is a set of publications which consists of core and complementary guidance. The ITIL core publications consist of 5 lifecycle publications or commonly termed as Service lifecycle publication which are the 5 key aspects for successful service delivery.
“Service Lifecycle is an approach to IT Service Management that emphasizes the importance of coordination and control across various functions, processes and systems necessary to manage the full lifecycle of IT services.”
The 5 aspects of service or the 5 service lifecycle are Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement. These 5 aspects are very essential to manage services at different stages. Service Providers who have implemented ITIL best practice have seen tremendous success and effective service delivery. We will discuss how these aspects help manage services better in our future articles.
Source: Based on AXELOS Best Management Guidance for ITIL®.