Counting the Cost

I've been away for a while but I'm back now and still working on my house. A couple of weeks ago, I met with my builder to begin discussing options and upgrades for my new home. My head was swimming with all of the possibilities. Seeing as how I like to entertain, one of my key priorities was a great kitchen. After all, it's been said that the kitchen is today's living room. Anyway, I had made a list of all of the upgrades I wanted in the kitchen (e.g. cabinets, professional appliances, etc.). I was pretty excited right up until the builder told me the estimated price of the options I was thinking about. Talk about sticker shock!!

One of the most challenging aspects of a project - be it building a new home or implementing IT Service Management (ITSM) - is knowing where to start. Many people will argue that Configuration and Change Management (CCM) is the obvious place to start any ITSM effort. The rationale for this is that since most other IT processes rely so heavily on CCM, it forms the foundation for your going-forward efforts. For example, solid CCM processes will help reduce incidents and assist in problem management. While this is true, I contend you might want to consider an alternative starting point - Service Level Management (SLM).

Per ITIL, "The goal for SLM is to maintain and improve IT Service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring and reporting upon IT Service achievements and instigation of actions to eradicate poor service - in line with business or Cost justification. Through these methods, a better relationship between IT and its Customers can be developed." In other words, SLM is all about figuring out what your customers want/expect and then working to either manage or meet those expectations all while considering the cost. Without SLM, how do you know how much service management is required to meet you customer's expectations since you don't know those expectations?

When properly executed, SLM helps IT organizations work with their customers to identify realistic service level requirements based on business objectives. These requirements should then be reviewed with the IT Service Providers to assess the feasibility and cost of providing that level of service. This information is provided back to the customer who can then assess their needs in view of the costs. That's where things start to get interesting! Quite frequently, customers "require" services without an understanding of the associated costs. I can relate. I "had to have" soapstone on my countertops until my builder told me the cost! A properly executed SLM process, however, can help reduce sticker shock and avoid customer dissatisfaction.

I suggest the following few steps to help ease SLM discussions with your customers:

1. Begin expectation management sooner rather than later - In the same way that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, you can rarely correct a customer's initial expectation that you can deliver all of their requirements fast, good, and cheap unless you address it at the first meeting. This requires you to have an understanding upfront of what you're capable of delivering, which leads to the second suggestion.
2. Make sure and involve your service providers early in the process. There's nothing worse than negotiating a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with your customer and failing to include the actual service providers. Not only will they have no "skin in the game" but they may not even be able to meet the agreed-to service levels (as mentioned in step 1).
3. Help your customer separate the "must haves" from the "nice to haves". This should be done based on the criticality/priority of the associated business service. Do I really need that professional grade stainless steel range in the kitchen when the thing I make most for dinner is a reservation?!
4. Make sure and discuss service levels in their terms and not yours. During one meeting, my builder kept trying to impress me with discussions about the type of plywood used on the floor or the number of nails used per stud. Can you say "boooring"?!?!?

These few simple steps will go a long way to jumpstarting your service management activities on the right foot with your customer and steer you towards the best place to start your continuous service improvement program.

Now, if I can just figure out a way to justify that Sub-Zero refrigerator!!