“Know your business” might be a phrase that is over-used these days but I cannot stress how important it is when planning an effective Service Management strategy. An in depth knowledge of every part of the business is essential if you are to succeed. So how do you acquire this knowledge?
The most important step is to raise awareness of yourself and your aims to as wide an audience as possible. You should already have sponsorship for your project from a senior business leader so use their influence to set up meetings with as many key stakeholders as possible. When you talk to them make sure that you come out understanding not only how their part of the business operates but also the key issues they think are hampering their ability to deliver. By doing this you can begin to put together your Service Improvement Programme and ensure that it is targeted to real business requirements. You should also have gained their trust and support as someone who is willing to listen to them and act on their behalf.
Of course the above assumes that your ITIL® or other Service Management project has already been agreed by the business. In most large organisations this will certainly be the case but, in smaller companies, you may have decided upon the need yourself and you then need to sell the concept to the business. Once again the obvious person to target is a key business leader such as the Managing Director or Senior Partner. Nowadays it is highly likely that he or she will have heard something about ITIL® but you may still struggle to convince them that it is worthwhile for a small business. Remember that ITIL® will scale up or down to any size of business and don’t give up. One good strategy to use if you find yourself up against stiff resistance is to look for quick, inexpensive wins based on Service Management principles e.g. draw up your own Service Catalogue and define a few SLAs for delivery of key services. Once presented to the management they will almost certainly begin to see that you are onto something that will benefit both them and the business and, if nothing else, it will get them talking about the services you have defined and the Service Levels you are proposing.
Tags: IT Service Management, ITIL, ITSM, SLA
