Read the Service Transition Abridged Case Study below.In this article, a service transition manager describe his/her personal experience on a SAP implementation project. What's your overall thoughts about this article? What is the most intriguing part of the article?How do the manager's approaches match with service transition processes in ITIL framework? What would you do if you were the manager?

I am the

UK Applications Support Service Transition Manager at National Grid (LSE: NG.;

NYSE:NGG)an international electricity and gas company and one of the largest investor-

owned energy companies in the world.I joined National Grid March1990 and

since then have developed my career in varied roles within both the operational business and

the Information Services function of the organization In my current role I manage a team of 3 direct reports

and a further 5matrix resources and I am accountable for the deployment of all new ITbusiness applications and major releases into the UK production environment.

In addition tothis I also manage all financial processes for UK application support and am also a member of

the Applications Support management team.I joined the UK Applications Support Management Team in 2006 and my first task was to ensure that a major upcoming SAP implementation, due to go-live in mid-

2007,was properly managed into applications support. During this piece of work,spanning9 months, I became aware that there were a number of areas of the approach to implementing new IT system that could be improved upon to reduce cost and improve efficiency. It was after the successful implementation of the SAP system that I was asked to formalize the process of introducing new

IT applications into National Grid UK, based upon the process improvement recommendations I made after the SAP implementation. The primary areas of concern that I identified as requiring improvement were as follows;1. Duplication of effort and inconsistent process execution by individuals 2.Poor recording of transition support costs.

3.Inconsistent approach to defining scope and cost of enduring support

.

4.Poor understanding of the strategic implications of project programmes on applications

support landscape.

5.Inconsistent process execution due to poor understanding coupled with the ability to circumvent processed.

6. Inconsistent approach to quality assurance.

7.Late / inconsistent engagement between the support community and the project community.

The business -cycle / investment-cycle timing in relation to implementing my suggestions

Was critical to National Grid due to the scale of the proposed future investment in new applications

at that time, which was in the region of 100m.

To this end, my objective was to develop and implement a best practice

Framework for implementing new IT applications and appoint a dedicated team to support and continuously improve the framework,in order to reduce cost ,improve process efficiency and ensure the ongoing operational stability of new IT applications I made a real difference to my organization by researching, developing, implementing and continuing to champion and improve the UK Applications Support Service Transition Center of Excellence (CoE). The CoE has been developed to ensure that new IT applications are

Implemented into the National Grid live application landscape in a consistent, and cost effective manner

.The implementation of the CoE took nine months overall, and has primarily delivered process.

and cost efficiency by reducing the number of people involved whilst improving productivity

and maintaining quality. The CoE also ensures consistency of process execution, provides

both process and technical quality assurance, ensures proactive ongoing engagement

between the National Grid project and support communities and delivers a significantly

improved level of strategic reporting whilst ensuring consistent and accurate capture and

recharge of transition costs.The CoE is comprised of three primary elements as follows

1. Service Transition Processes and documentation.

The Service Transition processes are based upon the Information Technology Infrastructure

Library (ITIL) V3 framework and are designed to ensure successful transition of project

deliverables into production support.

The CoE has formally adopted many of the ITIL Service

Transition principles and processes to ensure process consistency when applications are

delivered.

The primary CoE processes are Service Transition Planning and Support, Release

and Deployment Management and Early Life Support Management

. A process management document was developed to ensure that these processes were executed consistently and that information is captured in a consistent fashion.

In addition to the process management document several other document templates were

created to ensure that all relevant information in relation to new systems was captured in a

central repository.

The primary CoE document devised for this purpose is

The Service Transition Handover document.This document also provides guidance to the project

community on the criteria that will need to be met prior to a new application being accepted

into business as usual support.

2. The Service transition Team and the Services they provide As part of the CoE, I implemented a dedicated Service Transition Team to ensure consistent execution of processes and delivery of documentation. This dedicated team approach has delivered significant benefit by reducing effort duplication, improving expertise and providing a

highly visible team to liaise with all stakeholders.

In addition, continuous learning and improvement is derived from having process governance

and management delivered by the same team. This mechanism has significantly improved

expertise and reduced process execution errors.

The services that the team provide are listed as follows.

Provide a point of contact for National Project Managers in order to a

ssist Project Managers in understanding CoE processes, requirements and documentation.

Plan resources & budget for the expected project order book and provide estimates of

Application Support time recharges to the project Set clear expectations of project deliverables in light of enduring support needs and provide the framework and governance for a clear and consistent approach to

Application Support Engagement whilst continuing to monitor, manage and enforce governance over handover activities

Size requirements to provide the most competitive support arrangement and provide

respective RTB costing towards TCO and establish the work pack or alternative support arrangements

for operational support

Where appropriate provide tendering and procurement services for the selection of

support provider Ensure Application Support acceptance criteria have been met by the project prior to

signoff