In the wave of information technology, information technology and business operations are closely related. Enterprises rely on information technology to meet their business needs and achieve the company's goals, which rely on every day. High quality information technology services are directly related to the success of the company. At present, information and information technology is becoming the most important asset for many organizations, but this is not adapted and expensive IT services, or the high risk implemented, will reduce the value of information on enterprises, and even lead to IT It has or potentially become a huge threat. Therefore, management needs to ensure that IT is consistent with the company's strategy and the company's strategy has also taken advantage of IT. It is because of the risk, benefits, and opportunities of IT make IT services become important aspects of company strategic management.
Information Technology Service Management: Concept and Scope
Today, the customer's demand for services is no longer satisfied with "Put the broken machine", but hopes that "establishing a sustainable infrastructure", and more hopes to "use IT services to create the final value for the company." The customer's expectation value for the IT service provider is getting higher and higher. The "IT service provider" is a broad concept that can be the information center or information department of the government department or enterprise unit, or it can be responsible for other units. IT service provider of outsourcing business, hereinafter collectively referred to as "IT Service Providers". This change in this demand is in many ways: For example, it is always the cost center IT department, which is quietly transformed into service providers (including the internal and external service); our common include online banking, communication systems The normal operation of the real-time interactive system begins to support the IT manufacturers behind it. So, "Information Technology Service Management" (IT Service Management "," IT Service Management ") is successful.
"IT Service Management" is the process of management methods for the process, customer focus, which assists companies to improve their IT services and support by integrating IT services and services.
This is very simple - while people are increasingly dependent on the plane, the safety requirements for flights are getting higher and higher. If you just guarantee to the passenger: When the fault occurs, you can quickly troubleshoot. This kind of statement will definitely let passengers lose their sense of security. As a airline, you must have a "system" to ensure the safe flight of the aircraft, and this is also the meaning of IT service management - through the establishment of a perfect management mechanism to ensure sustainable operation of enterprise business.
The difference between IT service management and traditional IT management is that traditional IT management is the management of technology and equipment, and IT service management is the management of the entire mechanism, process and service. For example, automatic order processing services, communication billing services, etc. For these services, IT service management provides IT management for business and application. In the words of Yang Xiaoties, General Manager of China HP Support Service Division, compared with the headache for IT, the foot pain, ITSM is like a health care mechanism, which allows patients to restore health through health, so that normal people Become an excellent athlete through scientific training - this is to better survive, and companies must make changes. Enterprises can change the IT manager's idea by transforming IT management objects, from direct management hardware, to manage corporate services, IT service management helps enterprises with fast-service express.
In the field of IT service management, there is a world-wide in fact standard, which is the "Information Technology Infrastructure" (ITIL ITIL) developed by the Ministry of Commerce of the United Kingdom. ITIL divides IT services into nine core processes and a service function. This process is the service level management, availability management, capability management, continuity plan, cost management, problem management, change management, configuration management, software control and allocation, and a service function is a help desk. Their meaning is as follows:
Service Level Management: The goal of service level management is to achieve specific, consistent, measurable service levels by coordinating the idea of IT users and providers, to save costs and improve user productivity.
Availability Management: The target of availability is to optimize the performance of IT infrastructure, its services and supported organizations. Availability management leads to cost savings, sustained service availability levels, such service availability ensures that the business meets its goals.
Capacity Management: Advanced the additional capabilities that manage resources when the organization has appeared in the crisis and predicts the needs of the needs. It describes the plan, implement, and run the procedure necessary.
Continuous Planning: In the case of the interrupt customer service, it provides an IT service and recovered in a controlled manner when there is a problem in the IT system.
Cost Management: Determine the budget of the IT service, supervise the budget implementation, and charge the fee according to the service provided.
Helpdesk: Help Taiwan is not a service process, but a service function, providing a unified contact point for users and IT services organizations. For example, a general technical support personnel can use the information obtained from the system to assist users to solve simple database issues, and do not have to transfer users to dedicated database engineers.
Problem Management: Diagnostically diagnose the potential cause of the interpretation of the desk identifier, and arrange the error of the IT infrastructure and conduct problem prevention guidance.
Change Management: Change Management Process ensures that all changes are valid and quickly handled using standard methods and procedures. Change management is designed to improve the daily operational level of your organization.
Configuration Management: Identify, control, maintenance, and inspect existing IT assets including infrastructure and services.
Software Control & Distribution :. Software assets are secured by control software, and eliminate potential problems caused by different versions of software.
The logical relationship between them is summarized as shown in Figure 1:
It is through this nine core processes and a service function, and it has realized the standardization and process of IT service management. Thus, it is greatly reduced the probability of human misoperation (one survey results of Gartner Group show that there are up to 40% of the downtime due to human error), and the potential problem is expected to be equipped with sufficient system recovery for IT departments. Resources, and formulate response measures, once problems, you can ensure that you recover within the shortest possible time.
Information Technology Service Management: Quality View
Although ITIL is developed to improve IT quality, ITIL is essentially a "best practice" action guide to manage IT services. From the quality point of view, the highest goal of the service is that the customer is satisfied, ITIL can know what we should do, but it does not guarantee that it will be satisfied with the customer. During the IT service provider, the service provider emphasizes the efficiency of the service, and the customer is concerned with the service, the contact points of the two are quality of service. However, the former is highly resistant to the technical quality of IT services, such as 98% availability of networks, while the latter is more important to the functional quality of IT services, such as 98% network availability on its business support and impact. There is also an inconsistent place in the two, for example, 98% of network availability may meet service quality requirements for service providers, but for customers, whether the network cannot be used for a whole week, and the 51 weeks can be used Can you accept it? The content of IT services is very broad and complex. We must manage the quality of IT services as a whole for each type of service. Although there are now many models and frameworks about quality management, except ITIL, ISO9000 and Malcolm Baldrige, etc., specific to IT service management, they all have limitations. Table 1 below is compared from the four aspects of abstract levels, applicable objects, methods, and particle size:
Table a variety of quality management methods
· By the table, ITIL provides specific modules and processes, but no evaluation indicators; ISO9000 focus is "expression" how to complete the task, did not point out how to complete the task; Malcolm Baldrige mainly evaluates organization as a whole quality manifestation It is difficult to apply to specific service processes. We believe that in order to successfully reach "the other side" (customer satisfaction), there must be an accurate "Guide" (Service Quality Standard), Therefore, we combine ITIL and existing research on quality measurement, and propose an IT service quality management method based on life cycle method.
· Before we have identified the object of service quality management, now we have to determine service quality measurement indicators.
Service Quality Measurement: Servqual
Service quality is based on customer feeling that will be provided and the services they are acceptable. The desired and accepted formation "gap 5" (GAP 5). "Gap 5" can be measured by a multi-index system called "servqual". The five indicators of Servqual are:
· There are shape-shaped facilities, equipment, personnel, and external tables of communication materials;
· The ability to reliably and accurately perform service commitments;
· Responsibility to help customers and quickly provide services;
· Knowledge, etiquette, and expressive ability to guarantee sexual employees;
· Employment is equipped with a special attention to customers and give special attention to customers.
Studies have shown that servqual is suitable for measurement of information system services. Servqual is also an evaluation service quality and a valid tool for determining quality of service quality. Therefore, this paper mainly uses servqual as a tool for measuring IT services.
However, servqual is essentially by measuring the service expectations of customers and their services to evaluate service quality, its center is "people", and the object of IT services we discussed is "enterprise" (including business and development) Business staff), both have obvious differences. We can identify three elements of service quality by linking service and service delivery systems: service specification, cost, and time. Considering the importance of service level management in IT service management, we will include service specifications into servqual; at the same time, more and more companies need more and more extensive and complex IT services, IT services in the company's information technology investment The proportion of the proportion is gradually increased, and the cost is also an important factor in service quality. Therefore, we will replenish the cost and service specification to servqual, forming the index system of we evaluating the quality of IT services: equivalent, reliability, responsiveness, guarantee, transformation, normative, and cost. IT Service Quality Management: Method of Lifecycle
IT services are a dynamic process that includes design, negotiation, providing, use (operation & variation) and 5 processes; adapt to this, IT service management, including IT service quality management should also be a dynamic process. From the perspective of life cycle method, IT service quality management consists of four phases: design, negotiation, implementation, and feedback.
We will define the quality management of IT service based on life cycle law as: customer-centric, using servqual to design, negotiate, implement and review the quality of the quality of ITIL's service processes.
First, the service provider plans and design the service quality level, quality parameters, and cost, etc., and the service provider and customer will negotiate, then the service provider and customers will negotiate on service quality. The desired effect and the efficiency of the service provider have a consistent process, and the logo is the parties to sign the service quality agreement (or a statement on service quality in the service level agreement); then, the quality of the service signed in the negotiation phase Agreement, control, supervision, correction, and improve IT service quality, and re-enter the second phase when needed; finally, both parties have reviewed the quality of service throughout the service process and determine the relevant fees. The relationship between these four phases is shown below:
IT service quality management based on life cycle has the following features:
1. Manage the quality of IT service. IT services include 9 service procedures and a service function, evaluating their quality methods and indicators, such as 24 × 7 hours of support, how many users have a contact and response time. This method manages these services from the whole system to satisfy customers.
2. Combined with the IT service process itself. When deciding the IT service provided, we stand on the customer's perspective, according to the principle of servqual, consider how to satisfy customers to design services, on the other hand, we stand in the perspective of service providers, from cost, benefits and Risk and other angles to determine the quality of service that can provide and guaranteed; service quality itself is a very important content of the service negotiation phase; when providing IT services, service quality is the common language of both parties, implement quality management and providing service quality management IT services are an indivisible process; Finally, only after the quality of review services, after confirming the implementation of the service level agreement, it can terminate the service.
3. Effective feedback. Unlike ISO9000 and Malcolm Baldrige, this method provides specific service quality evaluation indicators for service processes, so the quality of service can be improved by more efficient feedback.
Use life cycle method to manage IT service quality: implementation
Through the above analysis, we identified the "object" (ITIL) of IT service quality management, found a valid "SERVQUAL", and proposed design, negotiation, implementation, and review IT service quality lifecycle management method. Here we analyze what questions on every stage of life cycle. 1. design phase
Specifically, the service quality design phase needs to do the following work:
1) Analyze customer quality needs based on the service provided.
2) Cost-efficiency analysis according to 1)
IT services of the same quality standard are different for different customers. For example, service quality requirements are restarted within 1 hour, and customer costs in customers and host concentrations dispersed in the host can be greatly different from within 1 hour. Further, if this task is subcontracted to third parties, the impact on costs is also required to calculate in advance. Finally, even if a single service quality guarantees from cost-benefit analysis, it may be possible from a whole. As Dell's business philosophy "We have limited commitment, but value delivery", service providers should also analyze the cost-efficiency of service quality to ensure that the quality commitment made is feasible.
Quality cost is divided into four categories: internal failure costs, external failure costs, inspection costs, and preventive costs. Service quality costs can also be divided into these four categories. We can also analyze the quality cost of IT service according to this approach and compared to the benefits that may be obtained to determine the feasibility of providing services.
3) Risk analysis
Even "limited commitment" is also risky. Due to information systems and information technology, information technology is extremely rapid, and the information technology is extremely rapid, and the information system is increasingly complex. It is consistently managed to manage IT service quality to service providers. The service provider is a huge challenge. Quality risk can be divided into two aspects, one is to provide a service provider, the risk of service providers, the other is that if the quality of service does not meet the requirements, compensate for the risk of customer loss. When designing quality of service, we must consider providing a service provider and the risk of the customer.
2. Interrogative stage
After analysis and design of the design phase, it will enter the negotiation phase. Depending on the complexity of service, the negotiation phase may be a very time and energy process. Both sides are at least discussed and agree on the following issues:
1) Quality evaluation index. Incident, the quality evaluation index is divided into four categories:
Time-based indicators: such as 7 days × 24 hours technical support, the network crash for one year is no more than 1 hour;
Number-based indicators: If the system allows up to 100 users to use at the same time, there is a technical support personnel every few users.
Frequency-based indicators: back up a customer's database, etc.
Indicators Based on Terms of Service: If the service provider provides the customer's web server to provide DS-3 redundant connection, provide technical training provided by customers;
2) Disclaimer. If the disclaimer provides, such as irresistible natural disasters, service providers can be exempted from the responsibility of the service quality standards.
3) Punishment terms. How to punish the service provider when the quality of service does not meet the pre-established criteria; or how to make up for these losses when the customer is significant.
4) Consultative mechanism. When there is a quality problem, those people will negotiate.
5) Glossary. Both sides confirm the key terms used in assessing the quality of service and keep in writing.
3. Implementation phase
After designing and negotiating, it officially entered the implementation phase of service quality management. Implementation stages are both the application and inspection of the results of the previous two phases, and it is the analysis foundation of the evaluation phase. Implementation phase is essentially a process of continuous cycle of control, supervision and measurement and improvement. Control is to control various activities in the IT service process in accordance with ITIL, which will be operated as required; in this process, we must also supervise and measure service quality to ensure quality quality. Requirements; Under normal circumstances, customer satisfaction, adjust the service process, improve service quality, and improve quality problems, if you have quality problems, you should find out if it is made, and correct or improved.
In the case where IT services become complicated, (sometimes even required) can adopt certain auxiliary tool management services, such as HP Firehunter, HP Firehunter, highly customized, expanded network service management functions.
4. Judge
After the IT service is designed, negotiated, provided and implemented, and finally terminated, at this time, service quality management enters the review phase. The judging phase is a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the three stages of the previous three stages. It mainly has two effects, one is "assessment", which is to satisfy customer satisfaction from the overall assessment of the quality standards set by the IT service provided by the service level agreement, one is "audit", that is, IT service provider The whole process of IT services provided is reviewed, find shortcomings and gaps, the success of mining, summarizing, feedback to relevant departments and personnel.
Implementation of IT Management: Dynamic IT Service Life Cycle Management
Traditional IT management is a technology-oriented management, and the management object is just an IT device such as host, network, and servers. IT service management based on lifecycle is a business and application, scientifically configured equipment, personnel, and processes. Practice has proved that this transformation can solve the most frequently proposed questions of customers, which is the process - how to develop a scientific process, follow this process to configure the corresponding personnel and resources for different IT applications, so that IT works best, Meet business needs, and no waste of resources. In general, the usual process is: First, on the basis of understanding the customer IT environment and application goals, we will jointly develop a complete customer service plan with the customer, which covers all aspects of IT services, such as: daily Manage records, backup and recovery policies, emergency processing processes, change management, etc .; followed by this program continuously evaluate and improve in the implementation process, allowing customers to achieve optimal resources related to IT. Finally, it is reviewed and summarized to form the best practical practices of this unit.
In the process of moving the dynamic IT service lifecycle management, you need to grasp the following questions:
1. From the customer's perspective, we will gradually improve the process by continuous communication and negotiation with our customers;
2. Establish a customized support service process, institutionalize customer support service, process;
3. Develop different strategies and processes for different needs of customers;
4. Continuously learn from customers.
This article has been published in "China Computer User" Weekly
