Today's leading IT service providers share similar characteristics and capabilities. The main distinguishing feature of any service provider is the strategy it uses. When developing a strategy , a service provider must be guided first and foremost by the objectives of its potential customer. This requires a clear understanding of what role the IT service provided will play in the customer's business.
In addition, due to the rapid development of the IT industry, today it is no longer enough for the service provider to react quickly to the needs of the customer, but has to know in advance what the customer will need in the future, i.e. , anticipate your needs. Therefore, building a strategy is a fundamental step in the service life cycle . All service providers must realize that customers are not buying specific products, but the means to meet their business needs.
Construction of the strategy as a stage of the IT service life cycle
To develop a strategy , the salesperson must take into account many factors, the main of which are:
• Everything that surrounds IT services is complex : this applies not only to the individual characteristics of specific services, but also to the difficulties arising from the many changing and unrelated factors in the IT realm. A distinction must be made between short-term and long-term planning, since the behavior of the market, customers and the IT sector itself differs depending on the period in question. The main objective is the development of methods that help organizations in the decision-making process and in the subsequent action strategy.
• Customer needs are not always clear, understandable, or even adequate . Many of them are lost in the transition process from project documentation to service implementation. The most important aspect of strategic thinking is understanding what the bottom line should be. What the customer gets instead of their technical requirements for the service is the basis of service planning. Understanding customer needs and goals involves not only knowing when and why specific needs arose, but also clearly understanding who the end user of an IT service is.
• Regardless of the context in which a supplier operates, you must consider the competition when designing your strategy . Even public IT organizations and independent calls are in the competition. It is essential that a service provider knows its position in the market and how its services differ from those of the competition.
Planning a service as a stage in its life cycle allows the provider to understand the following questions:
• What services should be offered?
• Who should the service be offered to?
• What benefit (result) will consumers get from using the service?
• What benefit (result) of the use of the service will investors receive?
• How to develop internal and external sales markets?
• How to determine the quality of service?
• How do customers decide the choice of service provider in a competitive environment?
• How to control the value creation of the service in terms of financial management?
• How to allocate available resources to achieve your objectives in the most effective way?
• Consumers measure the results obtained by the use of a computer service especially in economic terms. For IT organizations it is necessary to think about investment in the development of services in the same categories as companies about the need to implement them.
• For any service, the most significant advantage is the appropriate market price. However, the client is not always guided by this criterion when choosing a service. In addition to the competitive price, it is necessary to develop and enhance other aspects of the service, for example, increase its performance or improve its stability.
• The success of the service management depends mainly on the mutual understanding between the provider and the client. The ITIL publications are designed to achieve success in its construction.