It’s now over 30 years since I broke out on my own as an independent management consultant – I started in August 1994. I suppose that qualifies me in the ‘vintage’ category – hopefully like a good wine rather than an old bashed up car.!
It certainly means that from time to time I reflect on these 30 years and what has happed in the industry, the world, and for me both career and personally. With the benefit of hindsight, I can certainly make some observations about what has changed, but also with experience I can also note that many things have not changed at all. That is what seems to me to be the real value of experience and ‘vintage’ status – i.e. the ability to tell the difference and see the value in new ideas, as well as keeping hold of the things that don’t and shouldn’t change. I’d like to think that I do continue to embrace new ideas and avoid the luddite tag of being stuck in the past, but I’m also not afraid to call out things that are important and valuable, regardless of their age or novelty status.
This has formed the backdrop to some of the current content that we are pushing out at BRC – as below with a familiar interlocking Venn Diagram, showing what we are calling ‘Core’ and ‘Value’ elements in Service Management.
In simple terms this reflects the need to ensure that there are strong ‘Core’ foundations used to build a service management approach – that are also universal and long lasting. This would include some established areas such as ITSM/ITIL practices, service desks and tooling. This then provides the platform to achieve new areas of ‘Value’ from some of the new shiny and sexy subjects like AI, experience management and data analysis. There is a clear interdependency between these two areas – core knowledge and ‘hands on experience is needed to build new ways of working – e.g. AI and automation requires good knowledge and configuration data and practices: core practices on their own need new ideas and input to keep fresh and up to date to maintain currency.
Value comes from the combination of these two approaches – (1) CORE experience, knowledge, systems and good practice, plus (2) VALUE innovation, new ways of gathering and analysing feedback. It’s important to reflect that the Core elements don’t just remain static and unchanged – they need to be refreshed and updated when needed to meet changing demands. However, their longevity is usually greater than many of the new concepts that hit us each year. For me, the best of these end up getting integrated and absorbed in core practices anyway.
Enablers
The key area from my 30-year perspective is the bit in the middle – highlighting People, Governance and Culture. These are the mostly unchanging people and business areas that include e.g. strategy, organisational structure, GRC (governance risk and compliance), roles and career development, finance, people management, morale, working culture, social responsibility etc. To me these are the areas where the challenges always lie, and often where the solutions and answers are to develop success – these are the ‘enablers’, and they do not change.
As management consultants, these are the areas where we are mostly adding value and really helping organisations to improve and transform, and to achieve value. This is mostly what I have been doing these past 30 years – not writing processes or building tools, but simply advising on how to manage and improve in the service management environment. In this context, knowledge and experience are positive elements, not signs of decrepitude – we do also try to keep up and abreast of what’s happening ..!
As practitioners, how should service management professionals use these concepts to improve quality and transform to optimum levels of success ? Here are some key points:
Core
Service Desk
It of course true but almost trite to say that the service desk is the ‘face’ of the organisation it represents – like a flagship. The value that this function brings in providing access and a point of contact has been massive over the last 30/40 years. This is not going away anytime soon – in 99% of organisations we work with – although the approach and function of the desk is evolving – moving away from ‘break fix’ to co-ordination and innovation, supporting people not technology or processes. However, the enduring value of the desk is in its knowledge and position as an enabler and sign poster across business and service provision. For many businesses, the service desk is also an entry point and area for developing and building long term employees who move up and on from the service desk – but also who take the experience with them. All these elements must be considered, and risk assessed when any organisation is considering outsourcing or replacing a service desk with automation…
ITSM + ESM Practices
Everyone knows about incident and problem and change, CMDB, etc, (yawn) – or do they? Problem management is a game changer but is still misunderstood. Change is often not integrated with other practices and often is run on different systems, even incident can still be delivered with a ‘by the book’ approach rather than used in context to meet requirements – and also to support improvement with ‘shift left’ etc. It is only relatively recently that more organisations have tried to embrace some of the more obscure ITIL practices and realised that these were key and highly valuable, way beyond what we can do with incident management and an old SLA. Yes, it’s tough but rewarding to e.g. build a proper catalogue and portfolio practice, integrated knowledge management and develop proper configuration data and build effective demand management. There is a significant body of knowledge out there to help with this and it’s encouraging to see more take up of these as foundational projects.
ITSM /ESM tools
There has been a very active tools market in ITSM, service desk and now in ESM – this has been in place for over 30 years. The tools also keep developing although most have been significantly underused and often misused – to the extent that many of their client cycle through several of the major systems every few years. A quick look at the core elements and a good understanding of the Enablers (people, governance, and culture) will help to avoid this and ensure more advanced and successful implementations.
Value
AI + Automation
There is of course a vast level of hype around what Automation can deliver and what Ai can do to change our lives and work. As with many fast-moving innovations there is now a period of relative calm after much initial froth around Ai and how we can put it to work. This is of course ongoing although it is not yet at the level of talking over completely from people who deliver service work. Risk assessment and feasibility are now being used more extensively to assess the business case and impact of using AI in service management – there are many positive and effective use cases for speeding up manual and inefficient processes.
There is also however a need to view any change in the wide context of its impact on people – employees, customers, users -and how this will be mitigated and managed. The sales pitch can be compelling, but the business risk must be understood before we hand over the keys to a successful service desk operation. People and business matter too much to ignore this.
Experience Management
XLAs are an exciting development and one that is attracting attention – this is a good way to get interest and involvement with those that might not previously had an interest in service management or SLAs. Experience management is a natural progression to build on the service level management idea – with the addition of bundled data, balanced scorecards, and indicators. There are not currently many organisations who actually have XLAs as ‘agreements’ in place although metrics and Experience Management capturing various forms of feedback is a growing area.
However, Experience Management doesn’t fix anything – it simply highlights issues. In some cases, the XLA engagement process itself will improve relationships and lead to improvements, however changes and developments still require to be managed and implemented through and organisation and its processes, tools and capabilities. XM and XLAs need data and management from ITSM/ESM practices and tools, as well as the skills and capabilities of those who are working with them.
Meaningful Metrics
Data Analysis has evolved, and AI is a key enabler to develop new combinations of metrics and to provide new insights and analysis. Core metrics are key and the foundation of this across User Feedback, employee feedback, cost and risk, business outcomes and innovation – as well as the standard transactional metrics that have been used for some time. A key element here is ensuring that core practices and tools are set up to capture the right data – this is a key element often missed in tool implementation. It’s a good idea to start with the end in mind – what reports and data is needed? By whom and in what format? Then work backwards to ensure that the format and quality of data is good enough to provide the inputs that are needed.
The joined-up future…
All of the areas mentioned above are connected and should form part of an integrated approach around service management. We need to work more together, across disciplines and functions, to achieve real success and value. BRM and XLAs are key parts of ESM and ITSM. AI needs knowledge management and accurate configuration data. We shouldn’t see these as standalone entities – rather different approaches towards the same goals.
As we progress beyond IT and to the wider business community with ESM there is a compelling need to develop simple clear messages on how service management works, including a simpler taxonomy. We will leave people behind with eyes rolling if we don’t. As such it’s also important that we recognise the different areas of value and activity that we need to use, across the industry – old and new, traditional and shiny, and Core to Value.
If you want more information on BRC and our services, please visit barclayrae.com
Come and speak to us at the #ITSM24 event with @itsmfUK in Reading on 11 and 12 November 2024.
