The best customer service is distinguished by the passion and energy of the staff delivering it. Whilst all know good service when it is seen, measuring it can be a challenge and managing it well can be harder. What can and should be done to sustain outcomes and optimise value? Building and Buying Well An…
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Standardising is so inherently appealing that most people happily accept it as a good thing, until the time comes to make it work. Are you to be like the company with 800 desktop builds for each 1000 staff? What are the costs, benefits, limits and practicalities of standardising service practice? Standardisation can apply to many things:…
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Business models have been around for years in one form or another. How can you use them effectively to use support plans for business transformation or outsourcing? What is a Business Model? A Business model brings together a high-level view of the whole business that addresses: Why Construct a Business Model? The nature of business…
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Access to essential information and the ability to apply it with full knowledge of its implications are essential to all services. IT Services have long depended on knowledge management. What does one have to do to keep the information flowing? The European Committee for Standardization suggests the definition: “Knowledge is the combination of data and information,…
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The choice of partner can have profound effects, in love and in commerce. Few get married with the intent of immediate divorce. What considerations should sway your selection of IT managed service partner? A good selection results in your finding the party that delivers you the best value solution to your need. The Office of…
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Juliet’s farewell to Romeo was full of remorseful kisses. For some approaching the end of a sourcing agreement, the move cannot come too soon. How can you minimise the pain of partition? Most attention is paid to transition in. Here we look from the perspective of the terminating operation. Why Exit? Most agreements run their…
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The contract has been signed. Champagne has been consumed. The hangover is over – or is it just beginning? It takes many organisations two years or more to get a new service up and running effectively. In these times of short contract duration, expectations of flick-a-switch cloud services and agile delivery, what can you do…
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What are the practical measures that need to be taken to establish belief in change and to manage it successfully? William Hooper reports from inside a service transformation. This article was originally published in Business Strategy Review Issue 4 2013 and is reproduced with permission. Inside Change_Business Strategy Review {Click on the link for free…
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Many a governance body and service manager sees themselves as drowning in report data, but intelligence to inform decision-making and drive the business forward is elusive. How to get to brief, succinct relevance that informs and drives performance? Why is Reporting Such a Problem? I have seen, and indeed found myself in the middle of,…
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Business users and IT (and other services) departments love to be rude about each other. Mutual incomprehension and worse frequently reign. What can you do to establish and maintain a healthy relationship and the high quality of service alignment? The gap between Business and IT has long been deep. IT people too often have little…
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