There are loads of the ‘as a service’ acronyms, but what about simply having ‘service as a service’.
Working in the IT space for a number of years has taught me that while we want to provide the best services many IT organizations continue to look at providing service from an ‘order taker’ perspective. In this model there is a service that might be provided to a business unit, IT makes this available and the business consumes it. Doesn’t sound overly complicated but the challenge is that there is only so far you can go in delivering excellent service this way. To get to the next level you really need o look at how that serice is being provisiond from the perspective of the business. Being a partner with them, rather than another service provider.
Here are a couple of ways that you can make some improvements
Always room for improvement
Realize that no matter how well you think you are performing there is always room to make some improvements. Find out what areas you are doing well within the provision of service but reach out to those who you are working with to find out areas that could still use some work. Don’t make any assumptions. Just because you think things are running smoothly there will be areas that might need some attention.
Communication
Don’t under estimate the ROI for a coffee. Having simple discussions with those you work with in your business open the door to larger conversations. Find out what your services are doing to get your business to where they want to be. In many discussions you will find that while a service is performing effectively there may be a some activity that isn’t widely discussed that might take the business to the next level. This type of feedback could be reviewed and put back into your service to enable them to get to them where they want to be.
Always understand the why
You’ve probably heard this a million times, but surprisingly for as often as its said it may not be practiced nearly as often as it should. Know what your organizational why’s are, but keep in mind that business will need to adjust and this might change periodically. Don’t rely on the vision and value statement on the reception area wall to change to know what’s important to your business. Incorporate this back into your regular discussions
Metrics
IT teams will really get hung up on operational metrics. While understanding what these metrics are is important we should be able to tie them back into some type of business outcome. These discussions are of particular importance to ensure that teams or vendors which support the business are on target to continue to be able to provide the service they need.
The overall message here is that we don’t need to overcomplicate the provision of service, we just need to understand what a business wants and work with them to be as successful as possible.
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