Biogs and Case Studies: SLM: Achieving Service Excellence with Service Levels Seminar

Barclay Rae - Barclay Rae Consulting

ITSM consultant and business manager who has worked on approximately 400 ITSM projects over the last 20 years. He has worked for a number of ITSM vendors and organisations, as well as running consultancy company e2e for 10 years. He delivers strategic ITSM consultancy and business development, as well as analyst services to the ITSM industry.

"SLM - the heartbeat of Service Management"

Service Level Management provides the business mandate for IT and breathes life into ITSM/ITIL processes. It is central to any ITSM activity, yet is often avoided or only partially attempted. There is a lack of good practical guidance on how to make this work and this presentation goes through key elements of success in this area, with tips and guidance based on 100s of SLM projects.

Main Takeaways:

Clarity and pragmatic definition around key SLM elements and concepts
Practical guidance on implementing SLM, Service Catalogues and SLAs
Vision and opinion on how SLM can support ITSM in the face of current and future challenges

Karen Brusch - CGI UK Ltd

Karen is an SLM specialist with 9 years experience, and an ITIL Expert. Currently she is the chair of the itSMF Service Level Management Special Interest Group, leading work on their new advanced publication due in 2012. Specifically, she is the lead author on the chapters relating to Service Packages and Culture.

"Delivering excellence through Service Packages"

Defining the Service Portfolio in a business language, stating the services required. Assessing the needs and defining the gaps in the capability of the service provider. Closing the service and capability gaps via transformation projects.

Managing the Service Portfolio as a living document to grow with the business and the service provider. Reporting on outcomes and doing continual service improvement.

Main Takeaway Points

What to consider when developing Service Packages
How to integrate Service Packages into the lifecycle
How to use Service Package to deliver flexibility

Jo Johns - Jo Johns Education and Training

A specialist in the behavioural aspect of ITSM and its impact on the reputation and relevance of IT to the organisation it serves, Jo is a regularly invited speaker at industry conferences and events. She is also an ITIL expert, SDI standards committee member, budding author, hypnotherapist and EFT practitioner.

"Managing Customer Expectations"

Customer satisfaction is key to the reputation, effectiveness and longevity of your IT operation. If your IT organisation is to truly satisfy (and retain) its customers you must first know a) what they DO like, and b) where their points of pain are as far as your current IT service delivery and support is concerned.

Main Takeaway points

Key activities to help you identify current and future customer/user needs

Actions to build and maintain good work relationships with your customers/users

Points of pain - making sure you get the customer/user view not the IT view

Colm Hayden - Anaeko

Colm is Technical Director of Anaeko, a specialist ITSM consultancy focussed on SLM and IT Process Automation. At Anaeko Colm leads the company's R&D and oversees the delivery of SLM and IT Process Automation solutions for leading MSPs. Colm's diverse expertise spans Cloud, real-time monitoring, open data and mobile advertising.

"Addressing the challenges of Service Level Management in the Cloud"

The adoption of Cloud computing presents interesting challenges for Service Providers. Services are increasingly composed of on-premise and Cloud-based IT infrastructure and applications. This heterogeneity adds to the complexity of monitoring service levels. This presentation identifies the challenges of managing service levels in the Cloud and proposes some innovative solutions.