As we prepare to launch the 2nd edition SIAM BoKs, SIAM contributor Laura Lawrence shares her thoughts on how technology trends affect service provider relationships.
6 months into my new venture, Grange Consultants, I have been pondering the fact that our mission – Building successful partnerships between Customers and IT Service Providers to deliver better outcomes – has never been more relevant.
The world is accelerating and the pressure to keep up with technological disruption and on top of all the new best practice thinking is enormous.
Service integration and management (SIAM) is a management methodology that is growing in popularity in today’s complex sourcing environment. I have been supporting Scopism with their release of the new Body of Knowledge and I thought it would be useful to focus on the key trends in the last 12 months that have/will have an impact on the set up and running of a successful environment with your IT Service Providers. These should be considered in more detail in your strategic thinking and crucially, in your personal development.
AI and skills for the next decade:
As well as offering a huge opportunity for new services within a SIAM model that leverage data analytics and AI, in the years ahead, while we consider the impact AI and robots will have on our jobs, it is more important than ever to take personal ownership of our skills and their ‘niche’ within an end to end service model.
Agile
Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster by delivering in small but consumable increments.
This type of approach to accelerating change and leveraging best of breed skills within your eco-system of Service Providers will become increasingly important.
DevOps
An extension of Agile, the goal of DevOps is to change and improve the relationship between development and IT operations during enterprise software development by advocating better communication and collaboration.
Cloud based computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, including data storage and computing power.
Advocates of public and hybrid clouds note that cloud computing allows companies to avoid or minimize up-front IT infrastructure costs. Proponents also claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and that it enables IT teams to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable demand.
The challenge for us is the ability to integrate our skills and service model to provide an end to end uninterrupted service as part of any service model but particularly SIAM.
Existentialism in IT!
After a decade of profound change, professionals are taking stock and questioning the world we have built and the values that drive us. Is capitalism working as it should? How will we behave as stewards of our planet?
As part of this ‘big talk’ and, at a more practical level, flexible work is no longer an allowance made for a few employees; it is gaining traction for the majority of staff. All service models, including SIAM, must consider the impact and implications of this, particularly where organisations within an eco-system share different values and approaches to flexible working.
Top Tips for success
All the trends above highlight the fact that some form of SIAM model is or should be in place in most organisations to support current and future innovation and change. Success can only be achieved with a laser like focus on:
- Collaboration:
- Business value, and
- An appropriate level of quality
About the author
Laura has over 25 years’ experience in a wide range of senior management positions in finance and IT. She has a deep understanding of the IT industry. Laura has worked on both the client and supply side of IT and understands how to deliver in this complex environment. She has led complex IT programmes for large organisations in most sectors including logistics, finance, retail, utilities and public sector. Her roles have included both IT and business process outsourcing.
