Delivering IT services and achieving consistency when doing so, is more than just ensuring that the IT environments the services run on are robust, resilient and have the required flexibility to ensure peaks of capacity and availability are catered for on a 24x7x365 basis.
Yes, these are vital components that help underpin a consistent IT service but there are other elements that are required that will enable an IT organisation to achieve its ultimate goal which is a reliable and profitable IT service which meets it warranty and utility parameters. If these other elements are executed well they will be invisible to the customer.
So what are they?
- Ensure the appropriate level of funding is available for the development and on-going maintenance of IT services before you start;
- Reduce replication of services by providing central services of sufficient quality and cost effectiveness that customers can readily use without the need for re-development and tailoring at each deployment;
- Coordinate planning between strategic and operational areas on IT service development and delivery;
- Simplify services wherever possible;
- Develop and implement simple and repeatable processes to control the services provided;
- All IT services will have an owner to champion their enhancement and on-going development;
- Clearly define the roles and responsibilities required to execute the support processes;
- Identify the key policies that support the processes and ensure all stakeholders understand them;
- Be responsive to the requirements of the customer through increased agility and innovation;
- Understand customer needs and manage their expectations with tools such as service level agreements and the use of appropriately timed service level review meetings;
- Ensure customers receive the IT news they need, when they need it through dedicated roles responsible for customer communication;
- Deliver targeted and timely communications about IT services to all employees to ensure a consistent message and develop understanding;
- Always seek to improve IT services and their development through feedback and engagement with customers, consumers, technology providers and other service providers;
- Develop an IT organisation fit to deliver IT service excellence and make this the cultural ‘norm’;
- Develop a culture in IT that is professional and friendly, recognises leadership, cultivates collaboration, fosters continuous learning and promotes innovation;
- Ensure there is a “single version” of the truth for any key data source and adopt the principles of storing the data once;
- Ensure that the ownership and responsibilities for data are clearly defined and owners are aware of the legal implications of use and storage of their data;
- Adopt a standards-based approach for all new service developments (i.e. ISO:9001, ISO:20000, etc.) and maintain it throughout the life-cycle of the IT service to embed quality and governance principles;
- Employ IT Governance principles to ensure they are understood if services are operating at the levels that the business wants them too and retire them when they are no longer financially viable;
- Set appropriate Critical Success Factors, Key Performance Indicators and Activity Metrics that will feed the IT Governance needs and Service Level Agreements;
- Manage individual performance to ensure responsiveness to customers, providing accountability to customers, collaboration and demonstrating principle-based leadership.
If you are planning a review of your services iCore can help you. Our knowledge and experience can assist you to fast track a specific piece of work, such as an ‘AS-IS’ assessment and the establishment of the desired ‘TO-BE’ state. We can offer leadership advice, and consultancy, or project manage the end-to-end transition for you.
For further information about how iCore can help you deliver consistent IT services, speak to an advisor on 0207 868 1600.