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For any organization in today’s digital world, moving IT from a back-office role to a true business partner brings significant benefits. A strategic plan that integrates IT at every step ultimately improves business results.
Synergy Group technology business management expert Jonathan (Jono) Jones works with IT leaders to maximize the value of their IT investments. He says that a real “IT business” sees its users as customers and then provides them with the services they need. And forward-thinking CIOs know that a user-friendly service catalog is a particularly useful tool for delivering these services.
Know what users want
“When IT positions itself as a customer-centric business partner, with the customer being either an internal or external IT user, they can better match supply with demand,” explains Jono. “Yet we see too many organizations falling at the first hurdle of not being able to define what they provide.”
Being able to compile a clearly defined list of IT products and services is one thing, but they must correspond to what customers really need. “This means providing users with services that they choose to consume based on the price of the service and their desire to consume at that price. This process of matching supply and demand within the organization (both the company and the state administration) can bring enormous benefits in the form of supporting the efficient use of IT resources and at the same time raising the status of IT in the organization.”
Keep it simple
A service catalog with hundreds of IT services and products can be overwhelming for users – especially if users don’t always know what they need. “We often see organizations overcomplicating service descriptions and confusing customers,” says Jono. “The first step is to wrap IT into services that make sense to the customer and organize them into a service catalog for the business.”
“Think about how services are connected so that the user gets what they need in as few steps as possible. For example, if a customer wants to order a laptop, they may not realize that they also need to order network access and email service to get a working device. The catalog must combine the right services and simplify the ordering process as much as possible.”
“Create a simple interface rather than a confusing mix of items so it’s clear what they’re ordering,” says Jono. “Think of it as an online shopping cart where the service is clearly defined, they know what they will get, when it will be delivered and what level of service to expect.”
A simpler service catalog based on user needs also facilitates meaningful service pricing. “This in turn gives the internal customer greater comfort that they are getting fair value and can make decisions about what IT services they want and don’t want.”
Language matters
Many organizations also make the mistake of describing their services in IT language rather than plain language. “We saw a customer with over 400 services with technical details that the end user didn’t understand or care about,” explains Jono. “Thanks to smarter packaging, the company reduced the number of IT services to 50 and at the same time simplified service descriptions.”
Putting packaged services into a catalog of business-oriented services in a well-defined user language makes a big difference to the end user. But Jono also suggests that you don’t throw out the technical catalog entirely.
“There is still room for a technical catalog. Technical details can be framed with lower-layer technical services that provide the building blocks for business-oriented services. At this level, it is easier to define and commit to service levels (often referred to as operational level agreements) because they are measured in terms that make sense to the operations team.”
“The framework identifies technical service dependencies to support the service levels agreed with the customer. This not only helps with service costing, but ensures that service levels are built on a foundation that operations can monitor and support.”
“There are many other things to consider when running IT as a business. Setting up a reliable service catalog is just one way to demonstrate IT excellence and efficiency,” concludes Jono.
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