Service Management for Dummies®

Book description

Manage your business from a services perspective

What if technology was designed to serve the business — every time? That's service management! Done properly, it can make everybody happy — the customer, the service provider, and the business owner. Understand the value of managing your physical environments and IT systems with an integrated approach. Learn how real companies improve business performance by streamlining business processes and applying service management standards and best practices.

  • Define service — identify what the customer wants, how the business can provide it, and which technological tools will make it happen

  • Who's king? — whether you're the IT manager or the business owner, see how to think like the customer

  • Standards are key — understand the standards and best practices that can improve quality and reduce costs

  • Strategically speaking — develop and implement a service management strategy

  • What's it worth? — assess the costs and return associated with service management

  • Get down to business — discover how to manage data centers, support services, desktops and devices, IT security, and other business services

  • See it at work — explore case studies of service management in the manufacturing, retail, health care, hospitality, and other business sectors

Open the book and find:

  • How the digital world has altered service

  • Service management assets and tools

  • Resources for best practices and standards information

  • Advice for defining, creating, and maintaining a service management plan

  • The six layers of service management

  • How to optimize a data center

  • Ideas for managing your business assets as services

  • The role of virtualization and cloud computing

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Authors
  3. Authors' Acknowledgments
  4. Publisher's Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Foolish Assumptions
    3. How This Book Is Organized
    4. Part I: Introducing Service Management
    5. Part II: Getting the Foundation in Place
    6. Part III: Service Management Technical Foundation
    7. Part IV: Nitty-Gritty Service Management
    8. Part V: Real Life with Service Management
    9. Part VI: The Part of Tens
    10. Icons Used in This Book
    11. Where to Go from Here
  6. I. Introducing Service Management
    1. 1. Understanding Service Management
      1. 1.1. Knowing That Everything Is a Service
      2. 1.2. Looking at How the Digital World Has Turned Everything Upside Down
      3. 1.3. Implementing Service Management
      4. 1.4. Managing Services Effectively
        1. 1.4.1. Behind-the-scenes management activities
        2. 1.4.2. Provider/customer collaboration
    2. 2. Getting Inside Service Management
      1. 2.1. Building a Foundation for Service Management
        1. 2.1.1. Inputs and outputs
        2. 2.1.2. Assets and tools
        3. 2.1.3. A standardized process model
        4. 2.1.4. Skilled participants
      2. 2.2. Seeing the Importance of Oversight
      3. 2.3. Balancing the Physical World and IT Systems
        1. 2.3.1. Physical and IT systems
        2. 2.3.2. Service best practices
        3. 2.3.3. Service delivery and oversight
    3. 3. The Customer Is King
      1. 3.1. Understanding Customers' Expectations
      2. 3.2. Looking at a Service from the Outside
      3. 3.3. Understanding Service Management
      4. 3.4. Dealing with the Commercial Reality
      5. 3.5. Gaining Control of Services and Service Components
  7. II. Getting the Foundation in Place
    1. 4. Service Management Standards and Best Practices
      1. 4.1. Understanding What Best Practices and Standards Can Do for You
      2. 4.2. Using Standards and Best Practices to Improve Quality
      3. 4.3. Finding Standards
        1. 4.3.1. ITIL
        2. 4.3.2. ISO
          1. 4.3.2.1. ISO 9001
          2. 4.3.2.2. ISO/IEC 20000
          3. 4.3.2.3. ISO/IEC 38500
        3. 4.3.3. COBIT
        4. 4.3.4. eTOM
      4. 4.4. Getting Certified
    2. 5. Implementing ITIL
      1. 5.1. ITIL V3: A Useful Blueprint for Enterprise Service Management
        1. 5.1.1. Book 1: Service Strategy
        2. 5.1.2. Book 2: Service Design
        3. 5.1.3. Book 3: Service Transition
        4. 5.1.4. Book 4: Service Operation
        5. 5.1.5. Book 5: Continual Service Improvement
      2. 5.2. Practical Considerations in Implementing ITIL
      3. 5.3. How ITIL Integrates with Other Best-Practices Frameworks
    3. 6. Implementing a Service Management Strategy
      1. 6.1. Seeing What Service Management Can Do for Your Organization
        1. 6.1.1. Considering a real-world example
        2. 6.1.2. Relating the example to service management
      2. 6.2. Starting with the Service Strategy
        1. 6.2.1. Creating a service strategy
        2. 6.2.2. Finding out what customers really want
      3. 6.3. Creating a Service Management Plan
      4. 6.4. Defining a Service Management Plan
      5. 6.5. Understanding Service Management and Governance
      6. 6.6. Automating Service
      7. 6.7. Planning Service Strategy and Service Management
      8. 6.8. Finding Out How Your Organization Measures Up
      9. 6.9. Seeing What Service Management Will Look Like in Your Organization
        1. 6.9.1. Putting the focus on business performance
        2. 6.9.2. Understanding service oriented architecture
      10. 6.10. Getting to the Desired End State
    4. 7. Launching into Service Management
      1. 7.1. Four Key Elements to Consider
        1. 7.1.1. Education: A crucial component
        2. 7.1.2. Service strategy: The driver of the service management plan
        3. 7.1.3. Assessment: Where you are today and where you want to go
        4. 7.1.4. Service management plan: A road map for moving forward
      2. 7.2. Don't Forget to Measure, Monitor, and Optimize
  8. III. Service Management Technical Foundation
    1. 8. The Service Management Universe
      1. 8.1. Viewing Service Management in a Business Model
      2. 8.2. Understanding the Six Layers of Service Management
        1. 8.2.1. Defining the six layers
          1. 8.2.1.1. Facilities and Data Center
          2. 8.2.1.2. Computer Hardware
          3. 8.2.1.3. Information/Data
          4. 8.2.1.4. Software/Applications
          5. 8.2.1.5. Staff/Operatives
          6. 8.2.1.6. Business Services
        2. 8.2.2. Recognizing the dynamic nature of the six layers
          1. 8.2.2.1. Changes in the Facilities and Data Center layer
          2. 8.2.2.2. Changes in the Computer Hardware layer
          3. 8.2.2.3. Changes in the Information/Data layer
          4. 8.2.2.4. Changes in the Software/Applications layer
          5. 8.2.2.5. Changes in the Staff/Operatives layer
          6. 8.2.2.6. Changes in the Business Services layer
      3. 8.3. Determining the Value of Service Management
        1. 8.3.1. Support costs
        2. 8.3.2. Optimization costs
        3. 8.3.3. Risk costs
        4. 8.3.4. Change costs
    2. 9. The Technical Foundation of Service Management
      1. 9.1. Understanding the Relationships in Systems
        1. 9.1.1. Computers and computer networks
        2. 9.1.2. Service management systems
      2. 9.2. Working with a Configuration Management Database
        1. 9.2.1. Integration infrastructure
        2. 9.2.2. Asset management and discovery
          1. 9.2.2.1. Asset management application
          2. 9.2.2.2. Asset discovery application
        3. 9.2.3. Identity management
        4. 9.2.4. Configuration management
      3. 9.3. Federating the CMDB
        1. 9.3.1. Strategy
        2. 9.3.2. Maturity
        3. 9.3.3. Key performance indicators
    3. 10. Governing the Service Universe
      1. 10.1. Understanding the Roles of IT Governance
        1. 10.1.1. Helping the organization meet its goals
        2. 10.1.2. Providing a view from the top
        3. 10.1.3. Improving efficiency
      2. 10.2. Balancing IT and Business Requirements
      3. 10.3. Measuring and Monitoring Performance
        1. 10.3.1. Measurement methods
        2. 10.3.2. Proactive communication
      4. 10.4. Making Governance Work
      5. 10.5. Developing Best Practices
        1. 10.5.1. Establishing a governance body
        2. 10.5.2. Monitoring and measuring IT service performance
        3. 10.5.3. Cataloging control and compliance data
  9. IV. Nitty-Gritty Service Management
    1. 11. Managing the Data Center
      1. 11.1. Understanding the Siloed Nature of the Data Center
      2. 11.2. Seeing the Data Center As a Factory
      3. 11.3. Optimizing the Data Center
      4. 11.4. Managing the Data Center
        1. 11.4.1. Supplier management
        2. 11.4.2. Governance and compliance
          1. 11.4.2.1. Compliance
          2. 11.4.2.2. Governance
      5. 11.5. Managing the Facility
        1. 11.5.1. Asset optimization
        2. 11.5.2. Facility management
        3. 11.5.3. Disaster recovery
      6. 11.6. Managing Workloads
        1. 11.6.1. Application self-service
        2. 11.6.2. IT process automation
        3. 11.6.3. Workload automation
      7. 11.7. Managing Hardware
        1. 11.7.1. Desktop and device management
        2. 11.7.2. Hardware provisioning and virtualization
        3. 11.7.3. Network management
      8. 11.8. Managing Data Resources
      9. 11.9. Managing the Software Environment
      10. 11.10. Managing the Service Management Infrastructure
        1. 11.10.1. Cloud computing
        2. 11.10.2. Service management reporting
        3. 11.10.3. Integration infrastructure
      11. 11.11. Understanding Strategy and Maturity
    2. 12. Service Support and the Service Desk
      1. 12.1. Watching the Service Desk in Action . . . or Inaction
      2. 12.2. Seeing How a Service Desk Works
        1. 12.2.1. Goals of the service desk
        2. 12.2.2. Functions of the service desk
      3. 12.3. Managing Events
        1. 12.3.1. Reporting on events
        2. 12.3.2. Diagnosing problems
        3. 12.3.3. Remediating and verifying problems
          1. 12.3.3.1. Remediation
          2. 12.3.3.2. Verification
      4. 12.4. Tracking Service Key Performance Indicators
        1. 12.4.1. Service-level metrics
        2. 12.4.2. Service desk metrics
    3. 13. Desktop and Device Management
      1. 13.1. Clients, Clients Everywhere ...
      2. 13.2. Dividing Client Management into Five Process Areas
        1. 13.2.1. Asset management
        2. 13.2.2. Service monitoring
        3. 13.2.3. Change management
        4. 13.2.4. Security
        5. 13.2.5. Integration/automation
      3. 13.3. Moving the Desktop into the Data Center
        1. 13.3.1. Session-based computing
        2. 13.3.2. Operating-system streaming
        3. 13.3.3. True client virtualization
        4. 13.3.4. The PC blade
      4. 13.4. Meeting Service Expectations in Client Environments
    4. 14. Data Management in a Service Management World
      1. 14.1. Creating a Data Management Strategy
      2. 14.2. Reviewing the Elements of Data Management
        1. 14.2.1. Typing your data for delivery
        2. 14.2.2. Getting at data: Storage and retrieval
        3. 14.2.3. Securing data: Backup and recovery
          1. 14.2.3.1. Backup media
          2. 14.2.3.2. Elements of a backup strategy
        4. 14.2.4. Preparing for the worst: Disaster management
        5. 14.2.5. Storing data long-term: Archiving
    5. 15. Virtualizing the Computing Environment
      1. 15.1. Understanding Virtualization
        1. 15.1.1. Using a hypervisor in virtualization
        2. 15.1.2. Abstracting hardware assets
      2. 15.2. Managing Virtualization
        1. 15.2.1. Foundational issues
          1. 15.2.1.1. License management
          2. 15.2.1.2. Service levels
          3. 15.2.1.3. Network management
          4. 15.2.1.4. Workload administration
          5. 15.2.1.5. Capacity planning
          6. 15.2.1.6. IT process workflow
        2. 15.2.2. Abstraction layer
        3. 15.2.3. Provisioning software
        4. 15.2.4. Virtualizing storage
        5. 15.2.5. Hardware provisioning
        6. 15.2.6. Security issues
          1. 15.2.6.1. Network monitoring
          2. 15.2.6.2. Hypervisors
          3. 15.2.6.3. Configuration and change management
          4. 15.2.6.4. Perimeter security
      3. 15.3. Taking Virtualization into the Cloud
        1. 15.3.1. Defining cloud computing
        2. 15.3.2. Using the cloud as utility computing
        3. 15.3.3. Veiling virtualization technology from the end user
    6. 16. IT Security and Service Management
      1. 16.1. Understanding the Universe of Security Risks
        1. 16.1.1. Inside and outside threats
        2. 16.1.2. Types of attacks on IT assets
      2. 16.2. Taking a Structured Approach to IT Security
      3. 16.3. Implementing Identity Management
        1. 16.3.1. Benefits of identity management
        2. 16.3.2. Aspects of identity management
          1. 16.3.2.1. Data collation and management
          2. 16.3.2.2. Integration
          3. 16.3.2.3. Stronger authentication
          4. 16.3.2.4. Provisioning
          5. 16.3.2.5. Single sign-on
          6. 16.3.2.6. Security administration
          7. 16.3.2.7. Data analysis
      4. 16.4. Employing Detection and Forensics
        1. 16.4.1. Activity logs
        2. 16.4.2. HIPS and NIPS
        3. 16.4.3. Data audit
      5. 16.5. Encrypting Data
      6. 16.6. Creating an IT Security Strategy
    7. 17. Business Service Management
      1. 17.1. Defining Business Service Management
      2. 17.2. Using Key Performance Indicators in Risk Management
      3. 17.3. Putting Service Levels in Context
        1. 17.3.1. Business service levels
        2. 17.3.2. IT service levels
      4. 17.4. Seeing Business Service Management As a Balancing Act
    8. 18. Planning the Evolution of the Data Center
      1. 18.1. Approaching Service Management the Google Way
      2. 18.2. Corporate and IT Strategizing, and Data Center Planning
        1. 18.2.1. Project portfolio management
          1. 18.2.1.1. Putting PPM in context
          2. 18.2.1.2. Managing change
          3. 18.2.1.3. Coordinating downstream activities
        2. 18.2.2. Technology evaluation
        3. 18.2.3. Governance and compliance
        4. 18.2.4. Business service management
      3. 18.3. Drawing an Evolutionary Road Map for the Data Center
      4. 18.4. Start Developing Your Service Strategy Now!
  10. V. Real Life with Service Management
    1. 19. Manufacturing
      1. 19.1. Elbit Systems of America
        1. 19.1.1. Implementing a service desk
        2. 19.1.2. Streamlining business processes
        3. 19.1.3. Creating a service catalog
        4. 19.1.4. Implementing a CMDB
        5. 19.1.5. Employing virtualization
        6. 19.1.6. Establishing best practices
      2. 19.2. Cisco
        1. 19.2.1. Using the multilayer service catalog
          1. 19.2.1.1. Foundational Services
          2. 19.2.1.2. Client Services
          3. 19.2.1.3. Business Services
        2. 19.2.2. Enhancing the CMDB
          1. 19.2.2.1. Managing service-level agreements
          2. 19.2.2.2. Laying the groundwork for virtualization
        3. 19.2.3. Changing to a customer-experience mindset
      3. 19.3. Varian Medical Systems
        1. 19.3.1. Defining the challenges of the industry
        2. 19.3.2. Implementing a remote-access solution
        3. 19.3.3. Creating a rotating service desk
        4. 19.3.4. Measuring the impact of service management
    2. 20. Health Care
      1. 20.1. The Medical Center of Central Georgia
        1. 20.1.1. Revamping the Technical Support Center
        2. 20.1.2. Automating processes
        3. 20.1.3. Establishing best practices
      2. 20.2. Independence Blue Cross
        1. 20.2.1. Putting transparency back into the process
        2. 20.2.2. Getting proactive for the business: The OCC
        3. 20.2.3. Identifying best practices
      3. 20.3. Sisters of Mercy Health System
        1. 20.3.1. Seeing the need for improved service management
        2. 20.3.2. Prescribing a service management solution
        3. 20.3.3. Providing a service management makeover
          1. 20.3.3.1. Setting expectations
          2. 20.3.3.2. Refining the tracking system
          3. 20.3.3.3. Conducting customer and user surveys
        4. 20.3.4. Achieving a healthy prognosis
      4. 20.4. Partners HealthCare
        1. 20.4.1. Monitoring services
        2. 20.4.2. Planning capacity needs
        3. 20.4.3. Identifying team roles
    3. 21. Retail
      1. 21.1. Virgin Entertainment Group
        1. 21.1.1. (Store) room for improvement
        2. 21.1.2. The circle game
        3. 21.1.3. Monitor the infrastructure; think about the business
        4. 21.1.4. Don't light my fire
    4. 22. Hospitality
      1. 22.1. InterContinental Hotels Group
        1. 22.1.1. Creating a center of excellence
          1. 22.1.1.1. Managing the service life cycle
          2. 22.1.1.2. Collaboration between domain owners
        2. 22.1.2. Meeting service levels
        3. 22.1.3. Finding a balance
    5. 23. Education
      1. 23.1. Commission scolaire de la Région-de-Sherbrooke
        1. 23.1.1. Organizing to succeed
        2. 23.1.2. Deploying the strategy
          1. 23.1.2.1. Asset management
          2. 23.1.2.2. Desktop management
          3. 23.1.2.3. Incident management
        3. 23.1.3. Changing the way things are done
        4. 23.1.4. Establishing best practices
    6. 24. Service Provider
      1. 24.1. CIBER
        1. 24.1.1. Service management solutions: Then and now
          1. 24.1.1.1. Troubleshooting
          2. 24.1.1.2. Reporting
        2. 24.1.2. Service-level agreements: Business versus technical
          1. 24.1.2.1. Measuring business SLAs
          2. 24.1.2.2. Mitigating potential issues
        3. 24.1.3. Lessons learned and best practices
  11. VI. The Part of Tens
    1. 25. Ten Service Management Dos and Don'ts
      1. 25.1. Do Remember Business Objectives
      2. 25.2. Don't Stop Optimizing after a Single Process
      3. 25.3. Do Remember Business Processes
      4. 25.4. Do Plan for Cultural Change
      5. 25.5. Don't Neglect Governance
      6. 25.6. Do Keep Security in Mind
      7. 25.7. Don't Try to Manage Services without Standardization and Automation
      8. 25.8. Do Remember Industry Standards and Best Practices
      9. 25.9. Do Start with a Visible Project
      10. 25.10. Don't Postpone Service Management
    2. 26. Ten Swell Service Management Resources
      1. 26.1. Hurwitz & Associates
      2. 26.2. ITIL
      3. 26.3. ITIL Central
      4. 26.4. ISO
      5. 26.5. ISACA and COBIT
      6. 26.6. eSCM
      7. 26.7. CMMI
      8. 26.8. eTOM
      9. 26.9. TechTarget
      10. 26.10. Vendor Sites
  12. Glossary

Product information

  • Title: Service Management for Dummies®
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: June 2009
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9780470440582