When viewing IT as a single value chain, the incoming stimuli that initiate the end to end process are of primary concern. They need to be captured as early and systematically as possible, to eliminate missed handoffs, redundancy, and rework.
A challenging aspect of demand management is therefore the service entry point, an interface or avenue of contact between IT and its customers and/or users. There are three major types by which customers (internal and external) experience value with these processes:
- Professional service
- End user service
- Application service interface
The processes map to the entry points as follows:
Table 4. IT processes and Service Entry Points
All of the services may be represented in a modern service catalog, but the fundamental differences between Professional Services, Service Desk services, and Application services must be reflected in the structure of any Service Catalog.
The high profile activities of Project, Release, and Change have specialized entry points requiring trained professionals and sometimes longer standing relationships on both sides of the interaction. Service Requests and requests for service restoration may be more commoditized. And Demand, while often seen as entry to professional services, needs to encompass the other types of services as well.
From the senior executive down, the business/IT interactions can be defined:
|
Business |
What |
IT entry point |
|
Senior executive |
Discussions of largest-grained needs; final escalation of most serious issues. Ideation/ exploration. |
Senior IT leader (Customer Relationship Management function) |
|
Unit executive |
Requests for major new systems. Large project level. |
Accept Demand |
|
Functional area owner |
Requests for new systems, additional functionality, improvements |
Accept Demand, Execute Project, Deliver Release, Improve Service |
|
User |
Requests for orderable IT services; reporting of incidents |
Fulfill Service Request, Restore Service |
Service consumers and entry points
These service entry points need to be broadly understood in the IT organization and every IT staff person should be educated that any contact with business customers or users should be assignable to one of these categories.
Software development is an interesting service entry point. The primary service entry point of concern to the software development capability is requirements capture. The Agile movement in particular sees this as an ongoing interaction.
Such requests for enhancement are still demand requests, and depending on the service model for the application service, might be prequalified or discretionary. As noted elsewhere, this book views Agile pipeline systems as compatible with a Service Request Management system platform.
| Professional Services | Service Desk | Application Service interface | |
| Accept Demand | X | ||
| Execute Project | X | ||
| Deliver Release | X | ||
| Complete Change | X | ||
| Fulfill Service Request | X | ||
| Deliver Core Transactional Services | X | ||
| Restore Service | X | ||
| Improve Service | X | ||
| Retire Service | X |
