News & Events

AGI Blog

Business Parallels

Posted by Sharon Taylor on November 22, 2011

The recent and tragic passing of Steve Jobs has left a hole in the IT world. It also marks the passing of a genuine marketing genius. Whether or not you are an Apple fan, there is no disputing the success of Apple as the wealthiest company in the USA and the driving force behind it.

Today I read an article in a magazine entitled "Lessons from Steve Jobs". The gist of the article is about how CEO's and CIO's in most large companies never live up to their roles and how they can learn from the example of Mr. Jobs.

But it was something else that struck a chord with me about this piece. It was the lessons themselves. After reading them, I realized that these lessons could just as easily be about how to be successful with ITSM. In fact they are a perfect parallel to the key lessons of business itself.

"Be committed to excellence" - The article states that Apples best products were born out of an endless quest for perfection.

I write about this all the time and while none of us, not even Jobs is perfect, thinking like perfectionists about our ITSM practices force us to commit to excellence, because perfectionists would never settle for less. So let's be perfectionists, content in the reality that we will never achieve it, but we might achieve excellence in our relentless pursuit of perfection.

"Keep it simple" - The article states that simplicity is the key to Apple's products.

In service management, there is a dangerous tendency to fool ourselves into confusing complexity with comprehensiveness. I see the wreckage of that often with over-engineered ITSM that costs too much and delivers too little. The best services practices are those that are simple, uncluttered, easy to use, and effective. They do what they are supposed to.

"Design matters" - The article states that Apple products all have a signature look and feel to them that states they are Apple products.

Your ITSM's design should easily communicate itself to your customers and have its own hallmark statement that customers remain loyal to. This comes from taking the time to actually design service management for your organization instead of trying to ram then refine a cookie cutter solution.

"The user experience begins at the store" - Anyone who has ever visited an Apple store knows what this means. From the moment you step inside on and pick up your first 'i-something' the attention to the user experience is what hooks you.

If we took that factor alone as seriously as Job's has, we would be experts at making ITSM matter right from the moment the user interacts with anything we manage. We pay a lot of lip service to the "end-to-end service measurement" but most companies still don't make it the priority they should. If we spent more time starting ITSM initiatives from this vantage point, we'd be far more successful.

"Be involved in every facet of your organization" - As a hands-on CEO, Jobs had an active role in the company evidenced by his Org chart that resembled a wheel with spokes.

Recall my design for the service lifecycle in ITIL and the hub and spoke design? This is analogous to the same idea that the service lifecycle doesn't really have a beginning or ending, but is interlaced as a revolving lifecycle with connectivity in every facet of service provision. The people who execute ITSM practices must keep this design in the front of their minds and remember that every activity is related to another in the service lifecycle and every consequence as well.

"Inspire those around you" - Jobs' ability to inspire his teams created innovation with critical mass inside the Apple organization.

ITSM efforts often don't create the best ROI they could because they lack sustained momentum. This is often caused by leaving ITSM momentum to lone champions and thinking that is enough. If you are one of those lone champions, make it your prime intention to inspire those around you and create a gravitational force of momentum for ITSM. It is possible and also critical to success.

"When you get knocked down, get back up" - Jobs was ousted as CEO and returned years later after watching Apple go from prosperity to near bankruptcy. He brought the organization back to what it is today. If that isn't a shining example of getting back up, I don't know what is.

ITSM initiatives will not always be steady, smooth sailing. They will falter and sometimes crash loudly. But some of the best ITSM success stories I've seen have either completely failed or near it, at least once before they succeeded. This is most likely because they did not hear (or heed) these lessons early enough. I guarantee that ALL of them did and this contributed to their eventual success.

You don't have to be Apple to learn from these lessons. But it's hard to argue that the teacher was anything but successful by having done so.

I'm writing these lessons down on the back of my business cards. They should be a constant reminder of how alike the lessons of business leadership and ITSM leadership are. In fact, they are exactly alike.

To read more thought leadership by Sharon, join AGI online and stay tuned in to the leaders views and member's comments. We'd love to hear from you.

Are We Driven to Distraction?

Posted by Sharon Taylor on November 17, 2011

Lately I've avoided talking to my financial advisor. Today, he finally caught up to me and tried to instill my confidence in how the market is really solid underneath all the volatility we see in the media. He claims that the companies that comprise my investment portfolio are solid performers and still keep their shareholders happy. He claims I should not react frantically as many are doing and hold steady to weather the storm of current over-hyped craziness. He says this is the best way to proceed... oh and yes plowing more money into my portfolio is also good since the prices are so low! Well I agree with the first part, but still not sure about the second part.

It did get me thinking though about how the media can influence mainstream thinking and how the cause and effect of that can actually create the market conditions we see right now. That also got me thinking about how the same thing can be said about our perceptions of ITSM, and in particular our view of the service providers we rely on in our businesses and personal IT spaces.

Are we really as savvy as we think we are about how good or bad a provider's service actually is, or do we let our perceptions influence our reactions and how we engage with suppliers. (as the media and politics does for the stock market)?

Does a single bad experience create future perceptions? Should it? Is that really an accurate indicator of overall quality? Should it be? Does our desire to have cheaper and faster let us down in the end? Are we being fair to these IT provider's or we actually forcing them to react and focus on our short-term happiness at the cost of what's really best for our long-term stability?

In my experience, we need to take the same approach with our IT service providers that our investment advisors do with our portfolios. We must keep our eyes on the long-term objectives and create partnerships with them that are based on a true understanding of what meets our needs now, but more importantly in the long term. We must invest in each other and create an environment of decision-making and strategic management based on trust, capability and the ability to have a plan for the whole picture, not just what creates a reaction.

Recently, I wrote a couple of books on the topic of creating value from taking a partnership approach to service management.

Service Intelligence is written for the business audience to help them select the right service partners, ones that will enhance their business objectives and increase their potential for success.

Creating and sustaining service excellence - an executive's guide to service management is written for IT executives to help them see why service management is a key ingredient in long-term corporate success.

Each of my books is based in the need for creating a lasting, valued, and trusted partnership with service providers. It illustrates how reacting this way really does drive the best value for money and ROI in both the short or long term.

It's proven that our perception of the political environment today drives our reaction and therefore the outcome of the economic stability of the global markets. I guess that is a bit of "we are what we think we are".

In reality, if we took an historical and long-term view of the viability, we'd resist the media-driven urge to react like the short-sighted, and hype-driven sceptics.

We need to get back to the basics of business by keeping our eyes on the prize; our long-term goals and stop pitting service providers against each other in a race to meet our every whim. Partnerships, trust, and vision have always taken businesses on a stable path of success. The same is true for IT service management.

I was reminded today of how the key messages in my books are even more important now than ever before. Maybe it is time to buy up more stocks!

ENTER TO WIN!

Posted by Candace Dunwoodie on October 18, 2011

Have you read Service Intelligence: Improving your bottom line with the power of IT Service Management yet? If you have, here is your chance to win a signed author's edition!

Step 1: Go to: Amazon.com - Service Intelligence
Step 2: Share YOUR review!
Step 3: Email us to be entered! info@aspect360.net

Remember, you must write a review to be eligable. All submissions will be checked. Contest deadline: November 7, 2011 @ 17:00 EST.

Haven't read it yet - buy your copy today!

ITSMf USA!

Posted by Candace Dunwoodie on September 27, 2011

Sharon Taylor of AGI travelled to the ITSMf USA conference this week to promote her new book.

Check it out here - buy your copy today!

The Service Intelligence book is out and flying off the shelves!

Posted by Candace Dunwoodie on September 16, 2011

A great read if you're interseted in:

• Recognizing what excellent IT Service looks like and assessing what you're getting now
• Selecting the best IT service providers and services for your needs
• Spotting and rectifying trouble with internal or external supplier relationships
• Making sure you don't pay for services you don't need
• Negotiating services, requirements, levels, price, quality and delivery
• Leveraging ITSM Practices without losing focus on the business
• Creating business-focused service reports and scorecards that focus on what matters most

Check it out here - buy your copy today!

Q: Which company has successfully exploited the full potential of Service Asset Configuration Management?

Posted by Sharon Taylor on February 9, 2011

Many companies have fully exploited SACM. Notably, a public sector government agency in Canada spent a few years trying different approaches and found a winning formula to tie together their development and operations areas with their architectural planning. Now, they have a comprehensive Configuration Management System (CMS) which links their Service Portfolio, pipeline, and assets in transition with service development and finally live operations.

Configuration Items (CI's) are grouped as service assets, tied to all operational areas and maintained as a lifecycle management program.

Having difficulty with Service Catalogue Management?

Posted by Candace Dunwoodie on January 6, 2011

Are you having difficulty with your Service Catalogue Management efforts? Has your Service Catalogue succeeded so well that now you seem to have difficulty managing its content ? The larger a Service Catalogue becomes the more difficult it is to keep the data up to date and accurate. Inaccurate data renders a Service Catalogue useless. If this happens no one can rely on it and this can create a lack of support and acceptance with your efforts to correct and continuously improve your process.

These tips might help:

• Ensure that there are appropriate levels of Change control in place around your Service Catalogue. Liaise with the Change Manager and your Change Management team to document the interdependencies between your two processes, ensure that all those involved know and understand both this dependency and the Change Process itself to the Service Catalogue.


• Ensure that you work with the business, to raise awareness for how critical an accurate Service Catalogue is to them and the risks the business is exposed to when it isn't. Not only will your Service Catalogue be supported but the level of understanding in the business of the services IT provides will improve.


• Ensure that the interdependency between the Service Catalogue Management process and Service Asset and Configuration Management process is documented and understood. Is your organizations Configuration Management System (CMS) and Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS) up to date and accurate? Ensure there is a trigger point between Change, Configuration and Service Catalogue so that an activity to make a change to one, triggers a review of the others.


• Ensure that you have the right tools and resources in place to manage and maintain the information. A Service Catalogue relies on automation to make it useful and manageable.


• And finally, is the information too detailed to maintain accurately or at too high a level to be of any value. Remember what you created it for in the first place - to showcase to your customers what you offer. Continue to review it to ensure it isn't too detailed to dissuade customers from using it but that it has enough detail to support decisions. Balance is the key to success for a Service Catalogue.

In the end, Service Catalogue Management is like all ITSM practices - it requires the right blend of balance, intuitiveness and common sense to be useful, accepted and used. The more useful it is, the greater the chances it will be cared for properly and everyone who needs it will take the time to ensure it is up to date and accurate.