ITSM Newsletter Volume 4

Preface
Last month we discussed in detail those other necessary infrastructure areas needed for the assessment, planning, implementation, and ongoing support of ITSM service provisioning.

Introduction
This month's newsletter will present the processes and methods required to define, characterize, and develop a Service Catalog as part of IT Service Management best practices and describe the relationship between a Service Catalog and Service Level Management.

What is a Service Catalog?
A Service Catalog focuses specifically on documenting and articulating the IT services provided to the organization. Typically it also contains the necessary service level requirements that are usually detailed in a Service Level Agreement (SLA).

A Service Catalog is part of the Service Level Management area of ITSM. The other co-dependent areas that could described as ITSM linkages with it are service planning, service level objectives and agreements, Availability Management, IT Service Continuity, Capacity Management, and Financial Management.

Service Catalog - Scope, Objectives, and Goals
From a high level perspective, the objectives of Service Level Management is to lead IT organizations through the design of a Service Catalog, the development of detailed service descriptions for their services, and the development of a Service Level Agreements (SLA) for their major, mission-critical services that are well-defined, measurable, and in a negotiable state. These services will then be documented in a Service Catalog.

From an ITSM maturity perspective, the goals of a Service Catalog are encompassed within the goals of Service Level Management. These are to:
   • Detail an inventory of all IT services that are provided to the organization
   • Enable an optimized, service focused organization
   • Describe and document a well defined and effective set of tailored processes and methods that is supported enterprise-wide and is continuously improved
   • Provide an integrated set of people, process, and technology that is well established, can be integrated into the organization, enterprise-wide, and continuously improved as needed

Specifically, one area that denotes Service Level Management maturity within ITSM is the development and maintenance of a Service Catalog that includes identifying and qualifying the types of services being provided and integrating service level objectives and agreements information that employs a business and customer service focus.

RL Consulting IT Service Management Tools and Workshops

Utilizing SolutionMethod™ proprietary questions and evaluation processes, RL Consulting employs 3 automated tools; ITSM Assessment Worksheet, ITSM ROI Worksheet, and ITSM Implementation Readiness Worksheet.

1, 2, and 3 Day ITSM Workshops that offer a broad range of training beginning with Management level, through Strategy and Planning, to Implementation.

To Learn More About These Tools and Workshops and How They Can Help You - Click Here -

Find Out About Our 4 Week ITSM Maturity Assessment Service
and How It Can Assist You - Click Here -

How to Develop a Service Catalog within Service Level Management
The following are recommended steps for developing a Service Catalog:
   1) Develop and document a Service Catalog that includes identifying and qualifying the types of services being provided for all major business systems, similar to an inventory of systems that includes a detailed description of each. Over time these Service Catalog entries are deepened in breath, scope, and detail dealing with a customer business level focus for transactions and the component areas that comprise it.
   2) Develop and document service level objectives. A primary focus should be on internal service such as the technology level for performance and availability. Examples are, network, server response, and "up-time". Over time these objectives should be deepened in breath, scope, and detail dealing with a customer business level focus for transactions and the component areas that comprise it.
   3) Document service level objectives within the Service Catalog and/or develop and document formal service level agreements with customers. (In some IT organizations, individual SLA's are not prepared since they are not charging back for services. In this case the SLA may be replaced with a Service Catalog that defines the same information but without the charges sections. The service catalog then becomes a tool for the IT support organization to establish its own measurable objectives. These objectives identify what the IT staff must do to support the terms of the agreements.) Based on the service level objectives listed above, these agreements will be "contracts" of guaranteed levels of performance and availability. These agreements need to be reviewed and renegotiated as needed (typically on a cyclic basis, i.e., annually). As the scope, breath, and detailed level of the Service Level Objectives expand so to should the Service Level Agreements. NOTE: It is important that for both the Service Level Objectives and Agreements, they are realistic, can be measured, can be achieved, can be monitored, and are agreed to by both IT and the customers.
   4) Put in place the necessary hardware and software technologies to evaluate, monitor, and report on performance and availability. Off-the-shelf software and the associated hardware should be considered initially for practical reasons of maintenance, support, and resources requirements.
   5) Put in place the necessary methods and processes for developing, publishing, and maintaining the Service Level Objectives and Agreements, as well as their evaluation, monitoring, and reporting.
   6) Put in place service managers (and associated ITSM resources if and as necessary) whose primary role and responsibility will be to support Service Level Management enterprise-wide.
   7) Fully complete the Service Catalog, verify it with the user community, and publish it. Assign the responsibility of maintaining and enhancing it.
   8) Enhance the Service Catalog such that it is integrated with service level objectives and agreements and has a business and customer service focus.
   9) Fully develop the other areas of Service Management as defined by ITSM as needed such that an optimized maturity level is attained as uniformly as possible.
The Relationship of Service Catalog to Service Level Management
Within the Service Level Management of ITSM there is a focus on translating IT strategy into IT services, managing the service levels for those services, and putting in place continuous service improvement processes for these services. These services are aligned with business requirements and business strategy. With this focus in mind, service level management plays a critical role through the development and use of service level agreements that provide the necessary metrics for measuring, assessing, managing, and reporting agreed upon service between IT and its customers.

ITSM maturity in the area of Service Level Management is exhibited in several of the following areas:
   • Reactive or proactive mode of processes and operation
   • Customer satisfaction (for IT services) could be improved
   • Costs are not tracked for the service being provided

This includes having defined Service Level (and Operating Level, if required) Objectives and/or Agreements, formally defined service manager roles, formal coordinated service reporting to customers, the use of technology being applied to enable service evaluation, monitoring, and reporting.

Service Level Management is a process that defines, negotiates, monitors, reports, and controls customer-specific service levels within predefined standard service parameters. It also generates customer-specific services if the SLA requires it. Where "defines" means translating customer-specific service delivery requirements into selected values for standard service level parameters and incorporating these into the form of service level agreements (SLA's).

A Service Catalog is where all this information is contained in one place for service documentation, coordination, maintenance, and referral.

Contact us at Service_Catalog@ITSM.info For a Copy of a Service Catalog Template

Is Your Company Triple "A" Rated?
   • Aware - Of internal and external factors that could impact your business
   • Adaptable - To change the focus of your company's resources and expertise depending on changes in internal and external factors
   • Agile - To focus your company's resources and expertise effectively and efficiently in the quickest manner possible

What if you could do this proactively?

RL Consulting Utilizes:
The Proactive Business Model, Realization of Benefits,
SAGA Business Strategy, and Enterprise Infrastructure Architecture

Leveraging Knowledge Management to Optimize Decision Support Systems Proactively
One step beyond IT Service Management,
One Generation beyond Information Systems
Downloads
White Papers:
   » SLA Description and Templates
   » Consolidation Questionnaires
   » Service Continuity Methods
   » Project Management Practices
   » Developing a Communication Plan
   » Data Management Process
   » Proactive Business Model
   » Realization of Benefits
   » SAGA Business Strategy
   » Enterprise Infrastructure Architecture

Service Briefs:
   » ITSM Maturity Assessment
   » Incident and Problem Management
   » Service Continuity
   » Configuration and Change Management
   » Service Level Management
   » Capacity Management
   » Availability Management
   » Release Management

- Click Here -

Additional Information
Visit www.itsm.info to learn about ITSM, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), and SolutionMethod™ (a Policy Based ITSM Approach). In addition, you can download free and informative white papers, questionnaires, and service briefs. This includes more in-depth information on the topics presented in this newsletter.

To learn how RL Consulting can assist in achieving IT Service Management goals and our full range of solutions:
Contact us at RL_Consulting@ITSM.info or phone us at 602-996-6830

Tell a fellow IT Professional

* In the upcoming months this newsletter will contain important information concerning the various aspects of IT Service Management. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter simply reply to this message with "REMOVE" in the subject line.

Volume 4 - April, 2003
This newsletter and the information contained herein is maintained by Rick Leopoldi and property of RL Information Consulting LLC.