• CHOOSE ONLY ANY ONE OF THE TOPIC BELOW Graded Discussion Forum #1 - Service Strategy First Graded Discussion Forum The discussion covers Units #1 – #4 on aspects of Service Strategy. Please review the Instructions for Graded Discussion Forums posted above in the Header Block under General Information for IS 678. Please check the Schedule and Deadlines for due dates on original postings and REPLIES. Service Strategy Discussion Questions Service vs. Do-It-Yourself: Think about an instance where it made sense to choose a service versus doing it yourself. How did this result in better confidence to control costs and risks? (Please do not use examples previously discussed in class lectures.). Service Management vs. Technology Management: Briefly describe why an organization could benefit from the concepts of service management instead of technology management. What are the risks of an IT service provider failing to link its activities to where the business realizes value? Service Assets: How does ITIL define service assets and what are the different types? Give some specific examples of each type. Which are tangible and which are intangible? Give an example where you have a Type II service provider of an organization as a customer of a Type III service provider. In terms of service assets, how is the Type III service provider offer value? (It would be helpful to review the lecture discussion of Unit #2B in answering this question.) Using Service Assets: Think about this: If most companies have the same basic “ingredients” (resources) for running their IT (networks, ERP, applications, servers, data centers, etc.), why do some organizations achieve better results that others? How is this similar to other non-IT services? Core and Supporting Services: Give an example of a core IT service, its supporting IT services(s), and possible enhancing services. Please go beyond examples discussed in lecture. User Profiles: Give an example from an organization other than NJIT of two different user profiles, comparing and contrasting the patterns of business activity within each. (Discussed in Unit #4) Service Package: Give two examples of a service package and a service level package combination (different from the ones discussed in Lecture Notes). What value comes from these combinations? Customer Satisfaction: What are some ways in which customer satisfaction can be measured for IT services? Can you find tools used or provide examples that are used in your organization (other than NJIT)? (Discussed in Unit #4) Charging for Services: Please find some examples of how IT service providers “charge” for services. Give at least two different examples illustrating different approaches. Do you feel the charges are “understandable” enough so the customer could “change behavior” if the customer wanted to lower costs? Why? (Discussed in Unit #4) Strategy for Type III Providers: Find some examples of the strategy followed by two different Type III service providers. What distinguishes the strategy from one another? Are they within the same “market” or different? You can just provide links to their strategy for us to read instead on copying. (Discussed in Unit #4) Influencing Demand - Service providers have a number of ways to influence the demand for their services. For example, PSE&G, the provider for electrical serve at my home, charges a variable rate for electrical consumption. There is a peak rate during the day, and an off-peak rate on nights and weekends. The off-peak rate is significantly lower providing the incentive to run high electrical use appliances (e.g. washer, dryer, dish washer) during ff-peak periods. Provide an example of an IT service provider who provide incentives that influence the demand for an IT service. Utility defined - Utility is provided by EITHER (i) increasing the average performance of customer's assets by improving the customer's productivity or outcomes, OR (ii) removing constraints on the performance of their assets. Explain this description of utility using a practical example of a service with high utility, and and example of a service with low utility. Be sure to describe is terms of customer assets. Five I's of Services; Pick very two different examples of a service. First describe each in terms of the value provided, the outcomes facilitated, and the specific costs or risks that the service customer does not have to own. Secondly, compare and contrast each in terms of the Five I's of Services. ITIL and Success What makes ITIL successful? Explain why ITIL is NOT a standard but is sometime referred to as a the de-facto standard in IT service management.