Service Strategy Introduction

Overview & Objective

1. State the goals, objectives & business value of service strategy

2. Understand the purpose of Service strategy

3. Define service assets

4. Understand the purpose of utility & warranty

5. Describe different types of service providers

6. Describe the sourcing structure or delivery strategies

7. Classify different types of service strategy processes

8. Explain Strategy Management of IT services

9. Describe service portfolio management process

10. Describe Financial management of IT services process

11. Describe Demand management process

12. Explain Business relationship management process

Goal, Objective and Business Value

The goal of Service Strategy is to help service providers to operate and grow successfully in the long-term and provide the ability to think and act in a strategic manner.

The objective is to provide direction for Growth, prioritizing investments and defining outcomes against which the effectiveness of service management may be measured. By achieving these goals and objectives, service strategy provides great business values which sets clear direction for everyone for quicker decision.

Service strategy helps building strategic assets which add value to business guides entire Service Design, Service Transition & Service Operation in a coherent manner for effective service operations.

Service Strategy provides best-practice guidance for the service strategy stage of the ITIL service life cycle. At the center of the service life cycle is service strategy. Value creation begins here with understanding organizational objectives and customer needs. Every organizational asset including people, processes and products should support the strategy.

Here are few questions which Service Strategy answers:

1. What Services should we offer and to whom?

2. How should we define Service Quality?

3. How can Financial Management provides visibility and control over value creation?

4. How do we differentiate from competing alternatives?

5. Do we create value for customers?

6. Do we efficiently allocate resources across Service Portfolio?

7. How to make a case for strategic investment?

Service Assets

Capabilities and Resources combined together build the Service Assets. Organizations use these assets to create value in the form of goods and services. People can be Resources or can be Capabilities based on their skills, experiences, expertise etc.

1. What is easier to acquire?

2. Capabilities or Resources?

Resources are always easier to acquire as you have to build the Capabilities and that takes time and efforts. Aligning the Service Assets to the customer outcomes is the key to success for any service provider.

Value through Utility & Warranty

The value of a service can be considered to be the level to which that service meets customer’s expectations. It is often measured by how much the customer is willing to pay for the service, rather than the cost to the service provider of providing the service or any other intrinsic attribute of the service itself. With the AND and OR gates, we will understand how the Value gets created.

From the customer’s perspective, value consists of achieving business objectives. The value of a service is created by combining two primary elements:

• Utility - Fit for purpose

• Warranty - Fit for use

These two elements work together to achieve the desired outcomes upon which the customer and the business base their perceptions of a service. Utility is what the service does and warranty is how it is delivered.