If you're heading to Knowledge14, then make sure you're prepared for the opening keynote, by ServiceNow President and CEO Frank Slootman, entitled "Defining the Service-Oriented Enterprise."
Last year, Frank told the audience that IT needs to become the department of Now, instead of being "the department of no," because we (IT) have a serious image problem. This year again Frank talks of the need for continuing IT transformation - to become truly service-oriented and, in doing so, to set the standard for the other parts of the business.
If you read the abstract:
"As traditional IT duties are replaced by automation and cloud, the service model defined by IT is increasingly in demand for use across the enterprise. Join Frank Slootman, ServiceNow President and CEO, as he defines how IT can use its successful roots to drive service transformation throughout the enterprise and deliver more value than ever seen before. During this thought-provoking keynote, attendees will see first-hand a showcase of enterprise service management applications that spotlight new ServiceNow features. See how to automate the most mundane, tactical activities and enable IT to become heroes of innovation and drivers of the service-oriented enterprise." 
But don't replace that thermal sweater with a cape and Lycra just yet. The heroes Frank refers to are not necessarily everyone that currently works in IT.
So are you hero material?
It's an interesting question.
Consider this: the IT-hero-of-old — the IT employee who saved the proverbial day, probably by correcting an issue caused by a colleague or even themselves — might not make it into the ranks of the new heroes. It sounds harsh I know. But what was the IT-hero-of-old good at? Fixing things.
It's an odd situation from which to earn hero-status IMO; if you look at engineers, engineering heroes prevent things failing rather than flying in to save the day. There is of course the similarity to fire men and women, and fire-fighting, but the fire service don't usually start the fires they put out. However, that's for another blog on another day.
Frank's new heroes aren't IT heroes, they need to be business heroes
… And even before that they need to be service delivery heroes.
As with the employees of enterprise IT organizations that have been through outsourcing and, more recently, multi-supplier sourcing arrangements, it takes a different kind of IT professional to fulfill the new internal IT roles. That's individuals with a completely different mindset and skillset. Ones who can divorce themselves from the technology itself — understanding that instead it's someone else's problem within one of the third-party service providers — to focus on service delivery and achieving the desired business outcomes.
The failure to adopt a service mentality is a continuing issue for enterprises with outsourced or multi-supplier-provided IT services. And having an ITIL, the IT service management best practice framework, qualification and operating ITIL-espoused processes is of little help if you are still thinking of IT provision in terms of technological components rather than procured IT services.
So ask yourself this: Are you really delivering ITIL-espoused IT services or are you just employing the easiest-to-adopt ITIL processes? Better still, ask your customers if they get services from their internal IT organization or IT? And do they get service?
Thinking "services"
Stop for a moment and think about your IT services. Would you say that the following statements are subscribed to by, and are front-of-mind for, the majority of IT employees? That:
- All of the IT people, infrastructure, third-party services, applications, and devices combine into a service that is ultimately consumed by an employee, customer, supplier, or partner.
- All of these IT efforts only generate value once a service is consumed.
- The success of the corporate IT organization needs to be measured not at the point of IT creation but rather at the point of IT or business service consumption.
An easy way to boil this down is:
- For an incident, are you fixing broken technology or enabling an employee to work again.
- For a service request, are you adding software or hardware, or are you helping an employee do more than they used to be able to?
- For a change, are you changing technology configurations or are you improving business performance based on new or changed business needs?
- When measuring and reporting IT performance are you stating what you did, or what you achieved through what you did, last month?
I could go on, but I think I have already over-made my point.
Thinking "service" too
But delivering high quality IT services is no longer enough. Customer expectations have changed — with the service-expectation-bar raised by consumer service experiences. As I wrote in two previous Community blogs:
- Think "Consumerization Of Service" Over "Consumerization Of IT"
- The Consumerization of HR? Yes, Consumerization Is Not Just An IT Thing
"Employees might talk of having better devices outside of work but they are also enjoying a consumer service experience that includes a focus on ease-of-use, self-service, service request catalogs, anytime and anyplace access, knowledge availability, social or collaborative capabilities, and customer-centric support."
And:
"HR needs to recognize that a lackluster approach to service will not cut it with employees' consumer-buoyed expectations over service experience. And additionally that, as one of many corporate service providers, comparisons will no doubt be made within the enterprise — HR versus IT or HR versus facilities. And that HR will potentially be left behind in the corporate service provider pecking order if they do nothing as other functions improve their service delivery and service."
So as you sit and listen to Frank's opening keynote …
Think about yourself, your colleagues, and your enterprise IT organization. You have so many of the right ingredients to become one of the "heroes of innovation and drivers of the service-oriented enterprise" but do you have them all?
If you think that is about ITIL and a great toolset, think again. ITIL qualifications, ITIL-espoused processes, and a best-of-breed service automation tool is a good start but it might not be enough. Think about your service-orientation and how it may or may not need to be improved. Firstly for IT service delivery and then to help other corporate service providers step up to the new age of service.
Many of our customers have already addressed, or are already addressing, the service-orientation opportunity. Make sure you listen to Frank talk to their successes and about how you can do more to improve service in your organization.
Not coming to Knowledge14? If this sounds right up your street then it's not too late to register for Knowledge14. It'll be informative and fun, what more could you ask for?
Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stickkim/
