* SLM in the enterprise: survey results
Earlier this year, I wrote a column about service-level management in the enterprise and asked for your help in understanding changes between the years 2003 and 2004. We conducted a survey that asked the very same questions we had asked in 2003 so that we could track trends, and added a few new questions. I appreciate your participation and would like to share highlights of the research with you.
To begin, more enterprises this year have deployed service-level agreements (SLA). In 2003, slightly more than half (56%) had already implemented formal service commitments. This year, 83% have taken this step. SLAs, as a reminder, are the written agreements between service providers and customers that define the level of service quality. Enterprise Management Associates was happy to see this movement because it indicates that some of the cultural issues are starting to be addressed. For formal commitment on both sides of the equation, there must be dialog in which users are expressing needs, IT is communicating cost and capabilities, and compromise is being met.
A champion within any enterprise is important to service-level management’s (SLM) overall success. EMA has always seen anecdotally that business line managers and executives are heavily involved in driving the need for service commitments from the top of the organization downward. We have not necessarily seen this reflected in earlier research.
However, this year’s comparison shows that while IT remains dominant in driving these initiatives, the frequency of business managers taking on this role is increasing. In 2003, 71% of SLM programs were championed by a CIO or IT director. This year, that number has dropped to 61%, with the remaining championed by executive management and business line managers. EMA sees this as reflective of the trend towards business services management (BSM), where IT services are becoming much more closely aligned with business goals, priorities, and measurements.
There has also been a little bit of a change in the use of best practices. Interest and usage of the IT Infrastructure Library, or ITIL, as a service reference model is growing significantly in the U.S. Our survey showed that 52% of participants in 2003 were using ITIL in some way. In 2004, 71% of the participants had begun to use ITIL. Six Sigma, on the other hand, has dropped off slightly except for those very large, quality process-driven enterprises that remain committed to Six Sigma.
EMA also asked about IT priorities in 2004. Those who responded can be characterized in this way: 38% are focused on mapping IT to business processes, 27% are looking to manage service levels, and 15% are still quite oriented around operational fix-level issues. EMA sees this as indicative of the strategic planning efforts that are happening in IT. Surely, all IT staffs are still addressing operational issues. It is more a case of toolset planning moving down in strategic emphasis – at least outside of service desk efforts where a lot of strategic planning is occurring.
EMA’s assessment based on this and other research is that the SLM market is continuing to ramp up steadily, but not at rocket speed – and it certainly has not matured. This has perhaps been complicated in the past 12 months with a shift in focus to BSM, a subject that can further confuse consideration for committing to and improving service quality.
There are clearly some organizations that have made great progress in implementing a service-based model of doing business. However, most are still looking for more education, particularly practical education that can be used to take baby steps in the direction of service management. This education ideally would help IT demonstrate its value along the way before it asks for funding and support for a complete service-oriented paradigm shift.
