Ok, it’s Wednesday… but I couldn’t resist commenting on a recent White Paper sponsored by Manage Engine (i.e., ZoHo Corporation) where ten industry authorities commented on ITSM strategies for the next 3 years.
It left me feeling old and weary…
I don’t let my age define me, but the side effects are getting harder to ignore.
Unknown (but thanks to my Brother-in-Law)
There were two common areas of focus I thought interesting:
- The need to address people-related issues
- Ways of working or process-related improvements
The USM method stated this some time ago, as outlined in my recent White Paper, Service Management’s Missing Link:
Organizations that want to be mature service providers, should be very much aware of the fact that they act in a complex, fragmented, and connected society, where everyone is dependent upon the others in terms of being able to deliver the intended value. If they want to be in control of their service delivery, they will need to put cooperation at the top of their agenda.
- Organizations have outsourced many of their tasks to specialized providers. This leads to what we call the fragmented society.
- Decomposed services (sub-services) are heavily supported by technology, especially information technology (IT), e.g., in terms of IoT and application programming interfaces (APIs), which means that you can’t pull a string without creating an inconceivable amount of ripple effects. This is what we call the connected society.
- This fragmented and connected society results in complex relationships between teams and organizations, where no organization or team is capable of delivering their value to their customers without the help of other teams or organizations anymore. The consequence is an ever-growing dependency between teams and organizations: this is what we call the dependent society.
One strategy for combating this complexity and dependency is an integral and integrated management approach that restores and optimizes the control over each contribution to the system, and consequently restores and optimizes the control over the whole system.
Another strategy may focus on the attitude, behavior, and culture of the people involved in the delivery of services. The dependency of customers upon the services they receive doesn’t allow for any one-sided approach. Therefore, each organization will have to face the obligation to set up and maintain a management system to get in control of their continuous contribution to the economy and the society in terms of the services they provide.
USM supports the first strategy, enabling organizations to benefit from the second strategy as they please.
The USM Portal Repository, section 1.4
[Also available in the Introduction to the USM Method book]
I respect and admire all 10 of these service management experts and look to them, ITIL, VeriSM and other practices for guidance. But I have to be honest — ITIL, VeriSM and many other of the practice guidance leave me feeling…. well, old.
I think the USM method can breath new life into this old thinking and is worth much more attention, particularly in the US where we’re almost always focused on the next ‘shiny new thing’.