Service Management for Dummies®

Chapter 17. Business Service Management

In This Chapter

• Understanding business service management

• Managing risk with key performance indicators

• Setting business and IT service levels

• Balancing business goals

A lot of business, technological, and organizational issues have to come together in proper service management. How can service management goals provide important benefits to your company's business goals? The reality is that companies are at different stages of implementing a service management strategy. But no matter where your company is, the fundamental premise is that service management is an integral part of your business strategy.

Why did we wait until now to discuss business service management? You first have to understand the parts of service management and how they work together; otherwise, you don't know what tools are at your disposal. Here's a way to think about this issue: Imagine that you're in your car starting out on a trip. You don't have a map, and you haven't decided where you want to go. You stop at the nearest gas station and ask for directions. But how can you possibly figure out which path is best if you don't even know which town you're going to? As the old saying goes, if you don't know where you're headed, any road will do.

In this chapter, we explain what business service management is and how a business can benefit from it.

Defining Business Service Management

Note

Business service management (BSM) is an approach to bringing together the following to provide ...