ITIL considers Service Management in the context of a service provider-customer relationship.
Printed 2022-04-14
According to ITIL books, customer is a buyer of goods or services. A customer for an IT service provider is a person (group of people) who enters into agreements with the supplier for the provision of IT services and is responsible for ensuring that the services provided are paid for.
Service Provider
A Service Provider is an organization that provides services to one or more internal or external customers.
There are also service users. A user is an employee of an organization who uses an IT service to perform day-to-day work.
The central and key term of ITIL is a service, which is often called a service in Russian-language literature. Here is the definition from the ITIL v3 Glossary:
An IT service (service) is a way of delivering value to customers by assisting them in obtaining the output results that customers want to achieve without owning specific costs and risks [1].
Here is another definition of an IT service. An IT service is one or more technical or professional capabilities that make a business process possible. In the future, "IT-service" will be called "service", and the terms "service" and "service" will be considered equivalent. The service has the following characteristics:
- satisfies one or more needs of the customer;
- supports the customer's business goals;
- is perceived by the customer as a whole and a product ready for use.
It should be noted that all ITIL literature is presented in English. As a result, some terms have no analogues in Russian (for example, business case) or can be translated in several words at once (as in the case of a service). In the definition of a service, we see the word value - in the original "value". This refers to the potential benefit for the Customer from using the IT service (for example, saving time, money and other resources).
Let's take a closer look at the basic concepts in the definition of a service.
ITIL terminology
Outcomes - what the customer receives in the end. It must be understood that in practice they differ from what the customer initially wants to receive, due to the presence of certain limiting factors. By simplifying the assignment of services, we can say that they help to improve the results of the output by increasing productivity and reducing existing restrictions. The result of the application of services is an increase in the likelihood of obtaining the desired output results. The service models that ITIL offers help manage the complexity, cost, flexibility, and diversity of the IT industry. Each model has a variety of use cases depending on the specific case, which makes the idea of its application universal, flexible and effective. The IT service model can be considered using the information storage system as an example. The system is designed to store, organize and protect information in the context of some work or activity. If the supplier provides the customer with not just a storage device, but an information storage service, he must answer the questions "what to store" and "how to store". At the same time, the delimitation of duties and responsibilities between the supplier and the customer is of fundamental importance.