How to Manage IT Service Management Integration for Effective Outsourcing like a Musketeer
“All for one and one for all” may cause you to think of the three musketeers but is also relevant to a paradigm shift in the global B2B IT landscape. Companies that have chosen to outsource and maintain relationships with suppliers have traditionally done so through establishing one to one networks. While the system can work, it fails to empower information in a meaningful way. Businesses from around the world and their partners are beginning to realize the synergies associated with real-time service integration in the cloud. Though the more global minded musketeers exist today many miles apart, they are still able accomplish good deeds through choosing to manage their services inside a one for all service delivery framework.
Lest we be so presumptuous, the following models represent the current state of your service management processes:
Manual Integration – Process is ad hoc and characterized by a manual management of phone, email and fax. Information bottlenecks and managing task responsibility causes you to lose hair at times.
Swivel Chair – Your service provider may provide you with a web page or application client which means you now have two applications: the service customer application and your own service management client. This results in the Swivel Chair Effect and while it decreases costs at your provider’s side, the service requires you to key in dual entries.
Individual B2B Connections – You’ve integrated a one-to-one connection with a partner which is approaching best practice but usually require a hefty investment of both time and money. This investment often becomes the reason that opportunities are postponed and the switching to a new provider costs too much. The pitfall of this management process is that once you introduce additional partners, consistency becomes difficult to maintain as each partner has their own unique requirements.
SOLUTION: THE CENTRAL HUB
The central hub affords you the opportunity to simply connect once and when you base that solution in the cloud you realize further cost savings through multi-tenancy and added convenience. The process is made simple by eliminating the need for software and updates. Integration occurs in weeks instead of months and you get the increased value of real-time information at a reduced monthly cost.
Snapshot of the net benefits of Service Management solutions
Cost Savings
- Reduction of manual effort and elimination of duplication of effort
- Reduction of costs for technical operation
- Lower costs associated with migration or integration of new partners
Added Process Quality
- Increased transparency of service status from end-to-end and relevant metrics
- Decreased mean-time to repair
- Better timely information for improved decision-making and priorities
If you consider yourself a musketeer in any capacity then you may face the dangers of information bottlenecks, inconsistent workflow process, and ballooning service management costs. If you want to rethink how you outsource and integrate workflows with partners we’d love to help.
To show you that incident management can be made simple:
