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This volume provides guidance on how to design, develop and implement service management both as an organisational capability and a strategic asset. It is a guide to a strategic review of ITIL-based service management capabilities, with the aim of improving their alignment with overall business needs. It is written primarily for senior managers who provide leadership and direction in the form of objectives, plans and policies. It is also benefits mangers at other levels, by explaining the logic of senior management decisions.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sorely needed work on IT services,
By James Voris (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: ITIL Service Strategy (Paperback)
The ITSM community is a parochial and insular lot. Much of what prior versions of ITIL offered as wisdom were either obvious or as thin as tissue paper. Take the case, for example, of the Amazon reviewer who dismissed Service Strategy based on its abundance of diagrams - while admittedly never having read the book! Arrogance indeed.
This volume is a welcome departure from this impoverished tradition. Whilst the prose is challenging (it appears to strive more for precision than ease) the ideas are noteworthy and current. If Service Strategy is intended to provide a strong strategic foundation to ITIL, then it has succeeded. The template offered by Service Strategy for companies that want to use ITIL for value is as follows. First, determine the customer's desired outcomes, and pick one or more that enable it to be unique and inimitable. Then, work backwards to develop the internal outcomes that are essential to the delivery of these external outcomes, and aim for efficiency in them. And, finally, use these choices to pick relevant resources and competencies. Camouflaged in the common-sense--which also links the goal of process reengineering with that of strategy--is a major piece of heresy for those who accept the value-chain as the best analytical tool for understanding the activities of a company and seeking a source of competitive advantage. Its smaller component is the contention that Porter's advocacy of either cost or differentiation--but, usually, not both--as a generic strategy is anachronistic. As industry gurus from Hamel and C.K. Prahalad to Philip Kotler have pointed out, success belongs to those companies that can provide highest value at low costs, without attempting to enter into a trade-off. SS's principle of the value of desired outcomes as the source of advantage dovetails neatly into modern management praxis. More important, however, is its argument that the value which a company seeks to capture resides not in its internal abilities and processes but in its marketplace, in the customer's perception. Everything else must flow backwards from that. And IT's differentiation is a matter of identifying the outcomes that matter to the customer and making them visible while making those that are irrelevant either invisible or extinct. The proof--and the profits--of the competitiveness pudding is squarely in the eating. Out the window, accordingly, goes the notion that merely optimizing processes is a source of advantage. Only by leveraging it for a value offering that, crucially, competitors cannot imitate even with other resources will a company extract a competitive advantage. Why should the customer care that its IT uses processes to ensure speedy repair when alternative providers offer services that never break down? The SS volume should be mandatory study for senior IT leaders. Those seeking the illusion of pragmatism ("12 easy steps to a service strategy") may find themselves treading water but those willing to embark on careful study might find this the most pragmatic ITIL book of all.
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Diagram Fever,
By
This review is from: ITIL Service Strategy (Paperback)
As a qualified V2 Service Manager, active in an ITIL V2-compliant major plc, I have been very keen to get my head around V3 and see if there is practical benefit to be gained from this extensive review of a trusy best practice framework.
I'm now looking at the new cycle, and there are some worrying trends. This volume, Service Strategy, is inevitably going to veer towards the theoretical. However, regardless of the written content (which I have not read in detail yet), this volume is immediately dispiriting as it appears to have been written by a pair of consultants on a drug-binge! I have rarely seen so many meaningless and generally utterly useless charts, schematics and diagrams in one volume. It appears as if the authors are frightened to write more than a handful of paragraphs without drawing a picture to keep us entertained - or confused and in awe of their great learning. They range from the comically obvious to a level of byzantine complexity that the authors themselves would surely be hard put to explain meaningfully. It would be an interesting exercise to remove some of these small works of art from their context and ask a range of insiders exactly what they are portraying and what they both mean and deliver. I suspect most people would be hard put to explain. I note one of the lead authors is from Accenture. Hmmmmm ....
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The complete picture,
By Roger Purdie "Roger Purdie" - Published on Amazon.com
ITIL version 3 is a qantum step forward for the IT professional. The lifecycle approach represents a totally cohesive picture regarding the conception to grave of an IT Service.
The Service Strategy text sets the scene for the journey and it fills in a lot of the missing elements that many may have missed by not reading the other lessor known volumes from ITIL v2 (e.g. Business Perspective and Planning to Implement Service Manaegment). Don't leave this one out of your library. The starting pages of the book cover some generic issues that are covered in the same way in the other lifecycle volumes (e.g. definition of service management and services). However, the text alse defines a business process, along with an overview on the concept of the Service Lifecycle. The principles of Service Strategy are introduced, and should be read by the serious student of ITIL v3, as it's here that a lot of concepts are introduced and discussed. Then comes over 20 pages focussing on Service Strategy as a 4 step activity. These four steps in a training environment are defined as the Strategy Generation process. What follows is more discussion on areas that have been defined as processes, but are perhaps more accurately described as fundamentals. These include Financial Management,Return on Investment, Service Portfolio, and Demand Management. Next are two major sections on strategy and organization, followed by the integration of strategy with other lifecycle elements. The text wraps up with technology considerations, followed by the challenges, risks and required crticial success factors of this core element. 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sorely need work on IT services,
By James Voris - Published on Amazon.com
The ITSM community can be a parochial and insular lot. Much of what prior versions of ITIL offered as wisdom were either obvious or as thin as tissue paper.
This volume is a welcome departure from this impoverished tradition. Whilst the prose is challenging (it appears to strive more for precision than ease) the ideas are noteworthy and current. If Service Strategy is intended to provide a strong strategic foundation to ITIL, then it has succeeded. The template offered by Service Strategy for companies that want to use ITIL for value is as follows. First, determine the customer's desired outcomes, and pick one or more that enable it to be unique and inimitable. Then, work backwards to develop the internal outcomes that are essential to the delivery of these external outcomes, and aim for efficiency in them. And, finally, use these choices to pick relevant resources and competencies. Camouflaged in the common-sense--which also links the goal of process reengineering with that of strategy--is a major piece of heresy for those who accept the value-chain as the best analytical tool for understanding the activities of a company and seeking a source of competitive advantage. Its smaller component is the contention that Porter's advocacy of either cost or differentiation--but, usually, not both--as a generic strategy is anachronistic. As industry gurus from Hamel and Prahalad to Philip Kotler have pointed out, success belongs to those companies that can provide highest value at low costs, without attempting to enter into a trade-off. SS's principle of the value of desired outcomes as the source of advantage dovetails neatly into modern management praxis. More important, however, is its argument that the value which a company seeks to capture resides not in its internal abilities and processes but in its marketplace, in the customer's perception. Everything else must flow backwards from that. And IT's differentiation is a matter of identifying the outcomes that matter to the customer and making them visible whilst making those that are irrelevant either invisible or extinct. The proof--and the profits--of the competitiveness pudding is squarely in the eating. Out the window, accordingly, goes the notion that merely optimizing processes is a source of advantage. Only by leveraging it for a value offering that, crucially, competitors cannot imitate even with other resources will a company extract a competitive advantage. Why should the customer care that its IT uses processes to ensure speedy repair when alternative providers offer services that never break down? The SS volume should be mandatory study for senior IT leaders. Those seeking the illusion of pragmatism ("12 easy steps to a service strategy") may find themselves treading water but those willing to embark on careful study might find this the most pragmatic ITIL book of all. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Business Essentials,
By Gregory P. Rowe "GregRo" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: ITIL Service Strategy (Paperback)
Some books are informative while others are enlightening. This is the latter without neglecting the former.
I've been in the IT community long enough to recognize the theme of the management framework described in Version 2 of ITIL as, "Quit thinking like a geek." In contrast, the theme of Version 3, especially Service Strategy, might be described as, "Think like a broad-minded senior executive." That's a tall order for some of us, yet now within our reach. Perhaps for the first time in our otherwise introspective, techno-centric support organizations, we find in Service Strategy a breath of fresh air and insight into everything from the complexity of value exchanges to practical approaches to reorganization. It provides fundamental principles that are essential for anyone who was too busy studying system architecture to get an MBA, as well as for anyone who simply wants to stay up-to-date with global thought leadership. Service Strategy is in concentrated form, certainly, and you'll need to reform your technical mind to think in business terms to fully grasp the nuances, yet that's the beauty of it and what makes it well worth the effort, and the price. Nowhere else, in my experience, will you find so much knowledge on business management in so tight a package. Enjoy. |
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