ITIL® Service Offerings & Agreements Online (90 Days) Training Course

Organisational Benefits

Service Strategy is at the core of the ITIL® Lifecycle. Value creation begins here with understanding organisational objectives and customer needs. Every organisational asset including people, process and products should support the strategy. Service Strategy also provides guidance on how to view service management not only as an organisational capability but as a strategic asset. It describes the principles underpinning the practice of Service Management which are useful for developing service management policies, guidelines and processes across the ITIL® Lifecycle.

Where Service Strategy identifies the 'what shall we do?', Service Design identifies the 'how should we do it?'. Service Design takes a holistic approach to the designs, ensuring all requirements are identified to cover the service throughout its Lifecycle, including process requirements, measurements and metrics, transitional and operational guidelines. The processes most closely associated with Service Offerings and Agreements are:

• Service Portfolio Management – A service portfolio describes a provider's services in terms of organisational value. It articulates organisational need and the service provider's response to that need (service offerings)
• Service Catalogue Management – Provides and maintains a single source of consistent information on all operational services, and those being prepared to run operationally
• Service Level Management – The purpose of service level management is to ensure that all current and planned IT services are delivered to agreed achievable targets
• Demand Management – A crucial aspect of service management – poorly managed demand is a source of risk, while excess capacity generates cost without creating value. Demand management seeks to understand, anticipate and influence organisational demand for services, and the provision of cost-effective capacity to meet that demand.
• Supplier Management – The supplier management process ensures that suppliers and the services they provide are managed to support IT service targets and organisational expectations.
• Financial Management for IT Services – The purpose of financial management is to secure the appropriate level of funding to design, develop and deliver services that meet the strategy of the organisation. Financial management is also a gatekeeper that ensures that the service provider does not commit to services they are not able to provide.
• Business Relationship Management – The purpose of business relationship management is two-fold, firstly to establish and maintain a business relationship between the service provider and the customer based on understanding the customer and their business needs. Secondly to identify customer needs and ensure that the service provider is able to meet these needs as they change over time.