Definition of Service Offering.

[Michael Imhoff]

The definition of Service Offering in CSDM 3.0 is: 

A service offering is defined as a stratification of the service into capability, availability, pricing, and packaging options.

The definition from ITIL 4 is:

A description of one or more services, designed to address the needs of a target consumer group. A service offering may include goods, access to resources, and service actions.

My questions is whether this means the same just with different wording or something different. 

Best regards,

Michael. 

[alexrozov · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I think this is an interesting discussion.

But my understanding here these definitions are not fully aligned.

If we look at the ITIL terminology as I understand it based on an example

Let's say our service is a CRM application and our service offerings for this service are standard and VIP

- Access to service - this is just the license/user in the CRM application - would probably be the same in these 2 offerings

- Goods - not sure this is a good example but maybe the VIP offering also includes a tablet that can be used to access the service. and users with the standard offering do not get a device and they need to use their laptop

and service actions - here we might see the same actions but with a different SLA so for example both will have an "open incident" service action but the response SLA will be 1 hour for VIP and 1 working day for standard.

We can also see a service action like 1 on 1 training and this might only be available for VIP offering

When we move to ServiceNow and CSDM and we try to describe the same thing it will not be just a service offering.

- depending how everything is implemented you might see a catalog item for a tablet and a catalog item for 1 on 1 training only available for the VIP offering.

another option to implement this would be to create 2 catalog items for CRM standard and CRM VIP

the CRM standard request will have a task to provision the user in the CRM and would subscribe the user to the standard service offering

the CRM VIP request will have 3 items/tasks - provision a user, provide a tablet and provide 1 on 1 training

and with regards to the SLA  - each service offering will have the option to open an incident but the service commitment would be different

I know that ServiceNow are stating tat with CSDM a service offering can now be requested through the service catalog but I have not seen how this is actually implemented. 

long response and it's not very decisive but I hope it does help a bit.

[Stig Brandt]

Not an ITIL expert, but you should not compare Service Offering with the ITIL Definition.

The service description in ServiceNow is described in cmdb_ci_service (Business or Technical)

The service can then be delivered as a service offering in different SLA/levels, by different suppliers/ in different locations.

Remarks to alexrozov, correct some services can be dlivered by a catalog item, but there shuld always be a link imo, to the service offering, that owns the catalog item, a missing feature in servicenow.

Best regards

Stig

[Michael Imhoff]

Actually your description Stig makes me think that it is the same. And after all ServiceNow is an ITIL "compliant" tool. 

[Mary Vanatta]

Since we are developing and implementing ServiceNow, I recommend following their description for the platform. 
Secondly, a service offering can be designed for the needs of the target group. 

For example;
Service - Desktop Services
Offering #1 - Windows laptop - UK  (Support = ServiceDesk -US)
Offering #2 - Windows laptop - US   (Support = ServiceDesk - UK)
Offering #3 - Mac Users - Exec.        (Support = MacSupport)

Each of these offerings target a different group of users, have different support groups based on location and possibly different SLAs.

The offerings above include "goods" they offer the business users a laptop for their region or position. 
The offerings offer the ability to use the laptops to access the company's "resources" like file shares or applications. 

The service offerings above provide different "service actions" or support based on having different support groups based on location or even type of goods. 

The connection between Service Offering and request is NOT missing.  I recommend installing the SPM plugin in a PDI, create a Service, Service Offering and you will see where you can add a request item.


The service offering can be attached to the more definitive request item when you purchase SPM - Service Portfolio Management.  As of Paris, the current request items can be added to the offering that may have already been created. 

Example 
Offering #1 - Windows laptop - UK  = Request item #1 - Dell, 8 gb, 256 gb harddrive or
                                                       Request item #2 - HP, 16gb, 500 gb harddrive