B) The Objectives of Financial Management Process
- Reduce long term costs - empower management.
- Declares Added Value of IT.
- Improved Total cost of ownership and return
on investment.
- Forces business to make service levels and their
costs more visible.
- Assures senior management/stakeholders that
IT is well managed and meeting business needs.
- Assists change management processes.
C) Scope of Financial Management Process
Ensures the financial practices within IT is consistent
with organizational standards so that other business
units will have an understanding of how IT is funded
D) Activities of Financial Management
- Budgeting: is the predicting the expected future
requirements for funds to deliver the agreed upon
IT services to the service customers. Budgets are
typically created on an annual basis. The activity
requires careful monitoring of agreed budgets against
the actual spend (accounting).
- Accounting: enables the IT organization to account
fully for the way its money is spent (the practices
allow identification of costs by customer, service
and/or activity). The activity is not simple and
this is one area that should involve some outside
expertise usually provided from within the Finance
Department.
- Charging: is an optional activity within financial
management for IT services. The decision whether
the IT department will charge customers for the
actual provision of IT services is made at a strategic
level - not from within the IT department. Charging
must be linked to controllable aspects for customers/users
as they may wish to alter their behavior/usage of
services based on the charges they incur.
E) Business Case
- A business case is the justification for a significant
item of expenditure. The business case includes
information about costs, benefits, options, issues,
risks and possible problems.
- A business case is a tool for decision planning
and support for understanding the likely consequences
of a business decision in quantitative or qualitative
terms.
- Information can be captured from the Service
Portfolio with sound financial management.
- Business cases are built in Business Relationship
Management process and evaluated in Service Portfolio
Management process.
- Example for business case structure is as follows:
- Introduction - business objectives addressed.
- Methods and assumptions - boundaries of
the business case.
- Business impacts - financial, non-financial
results anticipated.
- Risks and contingencies - probability that
alternative results will emerge.
- Recommendations - specific actions recommended.
3.6.3 Business Relationship Management
Process (BRM)
Business Relationship Management is a process responsible
for maintaining a positive relationship with customers.
BRM identifies customer needs and ensures that the service
provider is able to meet these needs with an appropriate
catalogue of services. This process has strong links
with service level management.
A)Purpose of Business Relationship Management Process
: The purpose of BRM is to establish relationship between
the service provider and customers and to ensure customers
satisfaction by responding to changing requirements
and managing customer expectation.
B)Objectives of Business Relationship Management
Process
- Understand customers needs and prioritize services
accordingly to meet user requirements
- Maintain good communication.
- Handle conflicts and complaints effectively
- Identify changes in business environment and
technology that could impact services
- Ensure customer satisfaction.
C) Scope of Business Relationship Management Process
- BRM focuses on understanding how services meet
customer requirements.
- Business outcomes that the customer wants to
achieve
- Services currently offered to the customer,
and how they are used by the customer
- How services are currently offered including
who is responsible for them, agreed
- levels of service, quality of services delivered
and any changes that are anticipated
- Technology trends that could impact current
services and the customer, and how
- Levels of customer satisfaction; action plans
in place to deal with the causes
- How to optimize services for the future
- How the service provider is represented to the
customer
4. Service Design
4.1 Purpose of Service
Design
The purpose of Service Design is to deliver a new
service / service amendment that can deliver the strategic
outcome required the design of both the services and
the service management processes need to be included.
Need to ensure the service will run within budget
and meet/exceed customer requirements.
4.2 Objectives of
Service Design
An objective of Service Design stage of ITIL service
life cycle is to design Services that can be easily
and efficiently developed and enhanced.
4.3 Scope of Service
Design
Consider not only the current requirements but also
future needs (e.g. take advantage of technical advancements,
can be easily adapted to future needs)
Describes how to identify requirements (functional
and service level) and ensure the delivery of such requirements
4.4 Value to Business
Ensuring that services are aligned with business
objectives
Ensuring that services are able to provide the utility
and warranty required for them to meet the objectives
outlined during Service Strategy.
Ensuring that service management systems and tools
are capable of supporting service offerings
Ensuring that service-e management processes are
capable of supporting service offerings
Ensuring that services are constructed according
to agreed architectural standards
Ensuring that services are designed so as to be implemented
efficiently
Ensuring that services are designed so that their
performance can be measured
4.5 Four P's of Service
Design
A Service Designer need to consider the following
"Four P's of Service Design" while designing a service.
The Four P's are as follows:
- People: Human resources and organizational structures
required to support the service
- Processes: Service Management Processes required
to support the service
- Products: The products are the tools, services,
and technology used in the delivery of, and support
of, the services.
- Partners: When designing services, vendors,
manufacturers, and suppliers should be considered
as they will be utilized to support the service
once it is live.
4.6 Five major Design
aspects of Service Design
The 'Five Aspects of Service Design' are areas which
should also receive design focus as part of the overall
effort design a service. The areas include:
- Service solutions: Include all of the functional
requirements, resources and capabilities needed
and agreed upon
- Service Management systems and tools: these
are used to support and automate processes (e.g.
quality management system, information security
system). To ensure consistency with other services
and guarantee that supporting and dependent services
are adequate to maintain on-going reliable service
delivery
- Technology architectures and management systems:
To ensure they are consistent with the new service
and are suitable to operate and maintain it
- Architecture is defined as the fundamental organization
of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships
to each other and to the environment, and the principles
guiding its design and evolution.
- Processes: To ensure that the process, roles
and responsibilities are adequate to operate, support
and maintain the new or changed service
- easurement methods and metrics: To ensure that
the methods can provide the required metrics on
the service.
4.7 Basic Concepts
in Service Design Processes
Service catalogue: A service catalogue is a database
or structured document with information about all live
IT services, including those available for deployment.
The service catalogue is part of the service portfolio
and contains information about two types of IT service:
customer-facing services that are visible to the business
and supporting services required by the service provider
to deliver customer-facing services.
The service catalogue has different views for different
people (users, IT, etc.)
- Two-view (business service/technical service)
- Three-view (wholesale customer, retail customer
and supporting services).
Service level agreement (SLA): SLA is a written agreement
between the Service Provider and a customer containing
mutual goals and responsibilities.
Operational level agreement (OLA): An Operational
Level Agreement (OLA) is an agreement between an IT
service provider and another part of the same organization.
An OLA defines the goods or services to be provided
from one department to the other, and the responsibilities
of both parties.
Underpinning contract: An Underpinning Contract (UC)
is a contract with a third party, in support of the
delivery of an agreed IT service to a customer. The
UC defines targets and responsibilities that are required
to meet agreed service level targets in an SLA.
Service design package: The Service Design Package
(SDP) that was created in the Service Design phase contains
all aspects of an IT service and its requirements through
each stage of its lifecycle. It includes the information
about the execution of activities of the Service Transition
team.
Availability: The ability of a service, component
or CI to perform its agreed function when required.
Availability is measured and reported as a percentage.
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