IT is changing! Businesses that once depended entirely on IT to deliver services are transitioning to a mix of internal IT and external service providers to meet the demands of their business. For instance, if a department manager wants to implement a cloud-based customer relationship management tool, she orders it with a credit card online and in minutes she can be up and running. There is little compulsion to ask permission, because she is not adding any machines or installing any software. She is just solving a business problem - one that needs solving right now with Cloud Computing!
This situation is becoming more familiar! Flexibility to respond quickly is becoming a critical business requirement to stay competitive. Unfortunately many in IT believe that this same flexibility results in a loss of control, although I might argue that this control has already been lost. (Refer to my blog last week Are you still in a "fog" over cloud computing? for more insight to Cloud Computing). IT is charged with maintaining the sanctity of corporate networks, data and applications, but no longer knows or controls all of the services that the business is using. Controlling this environment is becoming more difficult, and it is getting worse as more and more services become available and IT needs to consider that it is now the manager or coordinator of suppliers to deliver the product called a Business Service.
I see a real parallel here with the maturity cycle of the industrial revolution when electricity first became the automation technology for mass manufacturing. Organisations initially focused on the provision of electricity themselves and over time as the supply improved manufacturers moved from the producer to consumer of electricity except where exceptional circumstances mandated otherwise and focused on the business service of manufacturing. Over the next few years this will become more prevalent with IT and IT will be required to consume multiple components to deliver the manufactured service. The fundamental question is should IT "control" the situation or rather be the enabler of the service provision from the appropriate source(s) and manage the delivery?
To migrate to the aggregator of services, IT Service Management is a fundamental requirement to ensure Quality of Service. Processes including incident, problem and change management are going to become exceptionally complex if IT doesn't understand both sides of the service value chain, the demand side and the supply side. Further, IT is going to be required to have a good understanding of how the supplier network components will work with the internally delivered components to deliver the service. Additionally IT is going to have to ensure that the aggregation of components is at a price that the service can bear and be delivered at an acceptable cost whilst meeting the performance SLA.
To measure the service, sound governance is critical in the form of establishing agreements with your business partners quality agreements (SLA's) and understanding how the supply chain is a part of this and the underpinning agreements and operational level agreements required to meet them. The secret sauce here is that you need to understand the business expectations in terms of performance, integrity, confidentiality, cost and priority and then you can determine how to measure the infrastructure components whether within your own IT organisation or the metrics you need from your service value network. Now, this can be complex and the temptation is to boil the ocean, my advice is to stay close to the business and identify the most critical metrics and focus on those first - over time you can extend what you monitor and measure. To do this you are going to need to be close to the business and consideration should be given to the Business Relationship Management role between IT and the business - if you don't have this role I would consider it.
My final words of wisdom from my experience are that you need to walk before you run - so start by walking a day in the shoes of your users, ask them for a "take your IT buddy to work" day and you can see what they do and more importantly experience what drives them crazy!