Service integration and management

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Service Integration and Management (ger .: service integration and management , SIAM) is an approach to different suppliers of IT services to manage and a single business-oriented IT organization map for users. It consists in the seamless integration of interdependent services from internal and external service providers with the aim of enabling end-to-end services for managing business processes.

background

The use of technical possibilities and capacities with the help of external service providers is becoming the dominant model for many IT organizations. This model is commonly known as multi-sourcing. Cooperation with different providers enables an IT organization to provide internal and large external resources flexibly as required in order to react more adaptably to changes in competition that favor cost reduction or innovation. However, the use of specialized top providers can result in high management overhead costs and difficulties in managing end-to-end processes. SIAM was designed with this management challenge in mind.

The term SIAM has been in use under the term service integration since 2009. It should not be confused with the term system integration. In contrast to ITIL (IT Service Management) and PRINCE2 (Project Management), SIAM is not a standard and does not yet have a permanent standardization committee. Instead, SIAM is largely implemented with proprietary models from large IT service providers, including Accenture , Cap Gemini , Atos and IBM , in order to meet the requirements of consultants, especially KPMG , Gartner and ISG. In the UK government it is seen as a method that allows the large government IT organizations to better manage and control a large number of external service providers. This is done by collecting and sharing their experiences and their most successful management methods.

SIAM is a rapidly developing area of ​​IT management that is closely related to various disciplines such as IT service management, enterprise architecture, organizational development, quality management and risk management. Other developments in IT management such as DevOps could also affect how SIAM evolves.

Basic IT functions

For effective and efficient service integration and management, multi-sourcing companies need appropriate basic IT functions. These have to be built up and continuously improved to ensure a functioning SIAM. In total, the research identifies six competencies that companies need to develop and optimize:

  • Service integration governance: Multi-sourcing organizations must be able to define, establish and continuously adapt a service integration governance.
  • Service Integration Organization: Multi-sourcing organizations must be able to develop and manage a distributed organization in accordance with changing business requirements.
  • Business management: Multi-sourcing organizations have to analyze the operational business processes and offer a service portfolio tailored to the business requirements.
  • Management tools and information: Multi-sourcing organizations need to be able to control distributed information and the tools for integration.
  • Manage suppliers and contracts: Multi-sourcing organizations must be able to choose from an appropriate provider portfolio and control the providers according to the outsourcing contracts.
  • Management of end-to-end services: Multi-sourcing organizations must be able to understand, set up and manage services end-to-end.

A conscious and systematic implementation of these skills should effectively enable the effectiveness of multi-sourcing strategies and ensure overall success. Challenges, Problems and Advantages When services are provided by a large number of teams or suppliers, comprehensive support for an organization's business processes becomes a challenge. Strict operational and commercial governance is essential to obtain substantial benefits. Research has shown that SIAM must address four fundamental challenges:

  • Track and measure end-to-end services
  • Overarching goals and specifications for supplier contracts
  • Management of relationships and cooperation with and among each other the providers
  • Definition of standards and modules

SIAM implementations must be able to circumvent these challenges in order to prevent problems and to realize the possible advantages. Typical problems are:

  • Individual teams (both in-house and external) act autonomously and there is a lack of coordination.
  • Although individual providers fulfill their contractual obligations, there is no guarantee that the end-to-end service provided is satisfactory.
  • Fragmentation can complicate the tasks of integration and governance, both of which are essential to providing effective services to a business or organization.
  • Individual providers focus on finding the fault instead of fixing the root cause of the problem.

Some of the key benefits to well-run multi-sourcing organizations are:

  • Easy procurement of additional resources as needed
  • Flexible adaptation and quick response to changing business requirements.
  • Competition between providers to reduce costs and improve quality.
  • Expansion of the service portfolio and additional support for the organization.
  • Faster implementation with increased innovative strength and IT coupling.
  • Opportunity to have a lean organization focused on IT strategy, business relationships, architecture and governance.
  • Use of top specialists, niche experts or other individual strengths that benefit the overall service.

SIAM aims to enable the desired governance and control. These ensure that company guidelines and standards are not ignored or not applied consistently and that suppliers work efficiently and in compliance with them.

organization structure

The creation of a SIAM team that acts with central responsibility and controls different suppliers is seen as a central element in preventing problems and optimizing the network IT organization. A SIAM function, department or team will usually:

  • Control different suppliers in order to enable the optimal mix of flexibility, innovation, standard and consistent service.
  • are responsible for the integrated business support services provided.
  • Define IT service management processes and procedures that will be used across the organization and ensure that they are followed.
  • represent the central control point between IT requirements and IT supply.
  • be the central coordinative role for all service management processes.

Activities of a SIAM team would be for example: Assessment of changes in the infrastructure and applications, management of the resolution of incidents that affect a joint service from several service providers and coordinated disaster recovery. In addition, a SIAM team acts as a control body for changes, security accreditation, testing and approval processes. There are five different organizational models to establish SIAM in multi-sourcing environments with interdependent services. The models relate to the type of organizational unit:

  • Staff organization: The company takes responsibility. His staff IT organization is responsible for the coordination and integration of services.
  • General contractor: The service integration is carried out by a general contractor. He has the duty to subcontract third parties and integrate their services.
  • Lead Contractor: One of the existing service providers is responsible for service integration in addition to its original service delivery.
  • Independent service integrator: An independent third-party company is responsible for the integration without providing its own services.
  • Distributed service integration: The tasks are distributed among the customer and all service providers. This is a hybrid of the other four organizational models.

Therefore, a key feature of the SIAM approach is that the SIAM team is either fully or partially provided by a supplier. While it might be beneficial from a governance perspective for this provider not to provide any further services itself, in practice it is usually the supplier with the largest order volume. Theoretically, they should have the greatest interest in delivering a high-quality service.

ITIL and SIAM

ITIL processes and functions provide the basis for the implementation of SIAM, as they cover the life cycle of IT services and the terminology of which is understood by most IT providers. ITIL thus represents a platform and common language with which a SIAM team can control and coordinate a network of providers. SIAM also uses other example solutions and selected specifications such as ISO 38500 and COBIT5. While ITIL provides extensive guidelines relevant to SIAM, there is no consideration of interconnected independent service providers. AXELOS, the current license holder of ITIL, published the first white paper on SIAM in spring 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Goldberg M., G. Satzger and A. Kieninger (2015), A Capability Framework for it Service Integration and Management in Multi-sourcing , forthcoming, Twenty-Third European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Münster, Germany.
  2. ^ Goldberg M., A. Kieninger and H. Fromm (2014), Organizational Models for the Multi-Sourcing Service Integration and Management Function , Proceedings of the 16th Conference on Business Informatics (CBI).
  3. ^ "Service Integration Deliver's Multisourcing's Promise," Euan Davis, Forrester, 2009
  4. ↑ Is SIAM the right answer for Government - what about the business process? . Archived from the original on October 23, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 11, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.softwareag.com