The term ‘business services’ is often used to refer to a set of economic services. Businesses have a stake in providing the right level of service value to their customers and constructing service systems. In the process, they act as both a service consumer and a service provider. Let’s examine some common business services. In this article, we’ll look at how businesses manage their service portfolios and catalogs. This will give us an idea of how to improve the performance of business services.
Service portfolio management
What is Business Services Portfolio Management? A Business Services Portfolio is a set of services offered by an organization to its customers. Typically, the services offered are recurring, such as Education, Support, or Customer Success. These services must be managed across organizational boundaries and without multiple purchase orders. Other services that may fall under this category are operational or adoption services. Using a Business Services Portfolio to manage your services is an effective way to keep your customers happy while maximizing your investment.
Service Portfolio Management includes several components, including a service catalog, a service pipeline, and a retired services catalog. The Service Pipeline documents the status of under-development or proposed services and details timelines for future growth. Lastly, the retired services catalog documents the lifecycle of a service, preserving important historical information. While these components may be necessary, they don’t provide the real value of Business Services Portfolio Management. Instead, the real value of Business Services Portfolio Management is in the information that it provides.
Service catalog management
Business service catalog management is the process of standardizing service portfolios and cost performance. However, many organizations fail to manage their service catalogs effectively. They store too much information and provide too little clarity. Instead, they should store service catalogs at a consistent level of detail that is similar to the CMS or SKMS. For this reason, service catalogs should be stored as a set of’service’ CIs within CMS or SKMS. Moreover, they should be accessible to anyone in the organization. In addition, any new services should be entered into the service catalog after initial definition of requirements.
Once implemented, service catalog software will provide a streamlined experience for your customers. It will automate the service delivery process, similar to an online self-service portal. Besides, it will enable the user to track the progress of their requests. Once approved, the service request will be routed to the appropriate department and will go through approvals and service-level management processes. After the request has been approved, it will be passed on to the appropriate person.
Service design
Service design for business services focuses on the customer journey from the moment they first contact a company or click on a banner. From there, they can navigate through the information phase and ultimately buy a product. Service design for business services also encompasses the time it takes to find a parking spot in front of a store, wait at the supermarket checkout, or claim a problem with a product. The goal is to create a unique experience for the customer, making their interactions with a service as seamless and enjoyable as possible.
To create a service designed for the customer, an organisation must have a culture that encourages risk-taking and experimentation. This is because innovative work requires leaders to stretch themselves and push outside their comfort zones. Without this, Service Design work is often stuck. Here are some tips for implementing a Service Design approach:
Service delivery performance
The corporate support function faces renewed pressure to reduce costs while adding strategic value. A successful adoption of a new delivery model enables corporate support functions to meet these goals. Successful adoption of this model has significantly reduced overall operating costs, boosting the ratio of function to company staff by 20 to 40 percent. While most organizations were forced to implement this model for cost reasons, others attribute the greatest benefit to increased service levels and a more efficient use of resources.
In order to delight customers, service providers must improve their fundamentals. These include tailoring service offerings and meeting delivery deadlines. Although the fundamentals are important, companies that excel in these areas are well on their way to delighting customers. Emerging leaders place an emphasis on effective pricing, contract management, inventory management, and optimizing the back office. They also implement standard procedures, ensure effective technician matching and scheduling, and outsource their field force costs.