Business Service Management (BSM) is the holy grail of good IT management, and achieving it using the current crop of IT management tools from the "big four" management platform vendors is about as hard as finding the real holy grail.  The world needs a simpler, less expensive, more responsive way of achieving BSM.

First, let's define BSM. There are several definition sources, the most comprehensive of which is found on Doug McClure's blog.  We were surprised to learn that despite the fact that he works for IBM Tivoli, he presents a clear headed and not a product driven BSM view (probably due to his hands-on experience in many BSM engagements).

In Doug's definition BSM enables managing IT in the service of the business.  He makes the case that, "The people and process components of Business Service Management solutions are equally, if not more, important than the technology components you'll get from a vendor."

History is a big anchor.  Most IT management tools were designed to gather data about technology for the purpose of helping technologists keep their services operating.  Managing technology components as an end unto itself is like making sure the roads in your community are free from downed trees, snow and potholes, while assuming that all roads are of equal value to the community and that they were located and sized to support efficient traffic flow.  If you examine the roads and traffic conditions in your area you will probably find that simply keeping roads open is not enough to really support traffic needs. 

The big four management platform vendors (BMC, CA, HP, and IBM) have what we'll call a BSM Heavy story because it requires an up front mega investment in tools. After this investment enterprises can achieve BSM by customizing information integration dashboards to create business management views of how well the IT infrastructure is supporting the business.  The assumption is that this approach will show the dynamic linkage between the underlying infrastructure components and business performance.  In the big four's story, such a linked view should provide business context to assess the business effects of component failures or performance degradations, and enable business-driven capacity planning to change or upgrade components and systems.

It all sounds good, but it the BSM Heavy story has holes.  First, this view is IT driven even if it is seen through the filter and lens of business drivers.  The dashboards often group IT infrastructure assets into business function "containers".  If component X fails we instantly see that order processing is affected but shipping is operating just fine, but this approach does not define services and service levels required for order processing to function successfully.

Second, this approach is designed for very large organizations that have already invested heavily in IT management instrumentation, platforms and frameworks.  We recently discussed ITIL and BSM with some very successful businesses that live on the Web.  In a nutshell they told us, "Oh yes, someone came through here a year ago talking about this stuff.  We took a bunch of training and started to design an approach.  But it was all too costly, would take too long to implement, and could not keep up with the changes in our business.  The initiative faded away and the guy responsible for it is gone."

The world needs what we'll call BSM Lite--a simpler, less expensive, more responsive way of achieving BSM.  Remember that Doug McClure says BSM should be achieved at least as much through people and how they are organized and motivated as through technology. Enterprises can achieve BSM with a combination of modest tool investments and smart, properly tuned organizations. Although BSM Lite will not come easily or quickly, it should carry a smaller price tag.  It will start to show business/IT linkage using targeted views that grow into the big picture over time. 

We smell opportunity for smart vendors who recognize that there is a much larger market for a practical BSM Lite solution than for the BSM Heavy solutions available today.