Demonstrating Value from IT Using Service Catalogues & SLAs

Barclay Rae BCS Presentation, 6th December 2010

Agenda SLAs

– SLAs are a waste of time

– Silly SLAs and the small print

– Why are SLAs like this?

– 7 simple tips for successful SLAs

SLM

– SLM implementation

– Service Catalogue Concepts

– Portfolio Management

– Delivering and demonstrating business value

SLAs

SLAs are a waste of time?

Service Level Agreements

Most SLAs,

created by IT departments,

are a complete waste of time …!?

Service Level Agreements

What do you mean?

Patronising

Irrelevant

Inappropriate

IT and system-focussed

Over-engineered

Under-estimated

Un-measureable

Un-actionable

Not measured or acted upon

Generally untroubled by use

Generally just about what IT thinks it does

Usually annoying to non-IT people…

The SLA small print…

– ICT accepts no responsibility whatsoever at any time for anything it might or might not do..

– The person of the first party shall be ICT, pending approval from the ICT Steering committee. In respect of the second party this should be the user community as appropriate. 3rd parties are not allowed, unless these include free alcohol.

– SLA performance is not guaranteed, but is expected to reach 60% of 90% of the agreed target, except when the DBAs and Network team are on a bender.

– The Service Desk will accept calls from users if they really feel like it They also reserve the right to ask unreasonable questions about serial numbers, otherwise all contact is invalid.

– IT reserve the right to send meaningless automated emails to users at any time.

– Query response times are expected to be sub-second, unless there is excessive run-time load from QRG tables on the JTAG server in X/DOPP. XSPART nodes are enabled for elves, except under BS/0906688, including abusive calls to the monkfish database.

– IT will respond in a timely manner to high-priority business incidents, if they are asked very nicely indeed and also made to feel very special and important.

– System availability will be 100% when not required, patchy at key business times, which are not agreed or understood.

– All requests will be ignored until they are chased up by users or their angry PAs.

– Requests for PCs will be delivered within 6 months or at least before the requester leaves the organisation – or whichever is most convenient for the IT department.

– Users are responsible for care and maintenance of their own PCs – if not they will be subject to abuse and humiliation from young geeky guys with no socials skills and who don’t have any other sort of life and couldn’t get a girlfriend.

– This SLA document is binding and any breach of the aforementioned conditions will result in immediate dismissal and summary execution.

– This SLA will be filed for reference and stored in the private folder D://unused/garbage, marked ‘Do not read’. In the event of it being read it will become invalid.

– Issues or complaints should be escalated to the least responsible person available, and will be ignored.

– ICT accepts no responsibility whatsoever, at any time, for anything it might

or might not do…

– The person of the 1st party shall be ICT, pending approval from the ICT

Steering committee. In respect of the second party this should be the user

community as appropriate. 3rd parties are not allowed, unless these include

free alcohol.

What the small print means…

What the small print means…

– SLA performance is not guaranteed, but is expected to reach 60% of 90% of

the agreed target, except when the DBAs and Network team are at the pub.

– The Service Desk will accept calls from users if they really feel like it. They

also reserve the right to ask unreasonable questions about serial numbers,

otherwise all contact is invalid.

– IT reserve the right to send meaningless automated emails to users at any

time.

– Query response times are expected to be sub-second, unless there is

excessive run-time load from QRG tables on the JTAG server in X/DOPP.

XSPART nodes are enabled for elves, except under BS/0906688, including

abusive calls to the monkfish database.

– IT will respond in a timely manner to high-priority business incidents, if they

are asked very nicely indeed, and also made to feel very special and

important.

What the small print means…

– System availability will be 100% when not required and patchy at key

business times, which IT are unaware of.

– All requests will be ignored until they are chased up by users or their angry

PAs.

– Requests for PCs will be delivered within 6 months or at least before the

requester leaves the organisation – or whichever is most convenient for the

IT department.

What the small print means…

– This SLA will be filed for reference and stored in the private folder

D://unused/garbage, marked ‘Do Not Read’. In the event of it being read it

will become invalid.

– Issues or complaints should be escalated to the least responsible person

available, and will be ignored.

What the small print means…

Why are SLAs like this?

SLAs are often started without services being defined or understood.

There is often little understanding of how to build and negotiate

services and SLAs.

In effect the services are also being defined as well as the SLAs –

perhaps unwittingly.

Get everyone from IT and the business together to agree the

objectives and approach

Start with services and Service Catalogue

Get the right people involved

Adopt a pilot / phased approach

Avoiding Issues

7 Simple Tips for Successful SLAs

How do you make your SLAs successful…?

1. Start with Services – understand what current

services are provided and what needs to be designed

for improvement.

2. Ask the business what they want…

…or what they think their services are

3. Use simple and appropriate language

4. Keep the SLA realistic and achievable

5. Only set up an SLA that can be measured

6. Keep them short and concise…

…otherwise no one will read them.

7. Keep smiling…!

SLM

SLM Implementation

CUSTOMERS

What IT services

are key to you?

Key people

Key systems

Key departments

Key times/targets

When do you need them?

How quickly do you need them

restored?

What support information do you

need?

What reviews do you need?

IT SERVICE PROVIDER

What IT services

do you provide?

Infrastructure

Networks

Applications

Service/Help Desk

Procurement

Projects

What are your resource levels?

3rd party contracts?

What levels of service can you

provide?

SLM PROJECT

Planning

Workshops

Negotiation

Facilitation

Documentation

Build Service Catalog

Set up reporting

Set up review mechanisms

Plan full

implementation

Ongoing support as needed

Service Catalogue Concepts

Elements:

User Request Catalogue

For the IT end-user

Self-service request fulfillment

Similar to online shopping experience

Business Service Catalogue View

For the business customer

In business terms

Specific non-IT information

Business SLAs

Technical Service Catalogue View

For the IT provider

Technical and supply-chain details

Component level service data

OLA and Underpinning Contracts

Service Catalogue Elements

Service Catalog Hierarchy

Service Catalog Hierarchy – Non-IT

Service Catalog Hierarchy – Non-IT

Portfolio Management

Portfolio Management

Business approach to managing services and service lifecycles

• Pipeline

• Service Catalogue

• Retired

Service Attributes • Description

• Business Area

• Customer

• Users

• SLA

• Service Type

• IT Delivery

• Portfolio Status

• Criticality

• Customer Resp.

• Sourcing Model

• Contingency/DR

• Status/lifecycle

• Service Owner

• Cost/Price

Example: Univ. ICT Services

• Business Services

• Central IT Services

• Communications Services

• Professional Services

• Learning & Teaching Services

• Commercial Services

Business Services

• Finance & Payroll • HR • Management Reporting • Student records • Corporate websites • Timetable • MS Office apps/productivity • Document Management System • CRM

Central IT Services • Service Desk • Infrastructure – cabling, hubs, switches, routers, servers • Web • Wifi • IT Asset Management • Desktop H/w & S/w • Portable devices, peripherals • Print Services • Security • Backup • Network Services, IP, DNS • Storage • Database Mgmnt • Provisioning – build, imaging • PAT testing

Communications Services

• Mobiles • Email • Telephones, desktop, ip, vmail, call logger • Communication links, vpn, adsl… • Conferencing, video, audio • Contact Centre service • Intranets • Collaboration tools • Digital signage

Professional Services

• Consultancy, advice, tenders, pricing, decision support

• Training

• Project support/consulting

• Project management

• Research & Development

• Procurement

Delivering and Demonstrating Value

Key Questions

• Do we deliver what our customers need via our

services?

• Can we demonstrate this?

• Would our customers agree?

Moments of truth

Moments of truth

• A customer can log on to the website and buy CDs and DVDs

• Doctors and medical staff access records when needed

• Sales staff get information when they need it to help sell products to customers

• Till and EPOS systems area available to checkout staff.

• Logistics teams get the information they need to distribute goods to stores

• Online and communications systems are available to process financial

transactions between organisations

• Call centre systems are available and responsive to staff when customers call in

• Systems are available for access to mobile and broadcast communications

networks

• A system user can access their applications when they need to work

• Support is available, helpful and effective when needed

ITSM/SLM Basics

• To have an agreed set of business goals that Support is working

towards

• To measure and review performance against these goals

• To develop and deliver services, with appropriate process, systems and

organisational structures to ensure that the goals can be met

• To ensure that suitable people are in place with appropriate skills to

deliver the services to meet those goals

• To constantly review performance and make relevant adjustments in

resources, processes to ensure that IT is able to meet the goals

• To constantly review progress with the business and to regularly review

and amend the goals as necessary

• To ensure that performance – and success in meeting the goals – is

suitably publicised and understood across the business

Any Questions?

Barclay Rae Independent Management Consultant IT Service Management bjr@barclayrae.com +44 7885 629308 Website: www.barclayrae.com LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/barclayrae Twitter: http://twitter.com/barclayrae