The SIAM Health Assessment is now live and you can complete it for FREE through our website.
The Assessment was created by almost 30 subject matter experts, from different location, different time zones, speaking different languages and all having different opinions and backgrounds.
Here, the Technology author team give a better understanding about the technology topics of most relevance in SIAM such as tooling strategy, data flows, data dictionary and reporting tools.
And we want to say a huge thanks to Martijn Adams for sharing this blog with us!
Late last year I was asked by Simon Dorst and Michelle Major-Goldsmith to participate in the creation of a SIAM Assessment. Being asked by such industry veterans is a compliment on its own but it soon became clear they had brought together a wealth of experience and knowledge with team members from all over the world and many different industries and backgrounds.
We all agreed that it was the right time for a SIAM Assessment. Services are no longer only delivered by the internal organisation alone. They are often supported by a combination of providers and that requires a different approach to managing the ecosystem. SIAM is the common name for such an approach, but it is also sometimes referred to as Multi-Provider Management, Multi-Sourcing Management or just simply provider or vendor management (with a broader scope).
The need for managing this ecosystem is clear and organisations are increasingly starting initiatives to improve the management of their service integration. Developing the assessment, the team were keen to create something that supports the widespread use of and developing experience in the SIAM space.
Thanks to early adopters like the British government and companies like ABB, Credendo and so many more, a great deal of SIAM experience exists and it was this experience we wanted to utilize in the development of the assessment. This experience is further reflected in the annual SIAM survey commissioned by Scopism, which has played an important role in extending or understanding of SIAM adoption.
Welcome to the SIAM Assessment Maturity Assessment
The SIAM Health Assessment reviews an organization across five areas, which are aligned to the SIAM practices from the SIAM Bodies of Knowledge. Specifically, these are:
- People
- Process
- Technology
- Measurement, and
- Governance & Strategy*
*This area of assessment is in addition to the SIAM Practices, as the establishment and administration of these is critical for a SIAM environment.
The power of technology
For SIAM, Technology is relevant not only to services but also to a wide range of tools required to support the services. It is important to understand that tooling in a SIAM ecosystem is more than the service management tool, it is also about reporting, security, project management, collaboration and communication tools. The choice of many of these tools is usually local to each organization, driven by corporate decisions that are unlikely to be changed by a transition to a SIAM model or, for external providers, can only be changed at contract renewal. Each organization may therefore need to integrate them with other parties in the ecosystem or use them in different ways. Within the assessment we wanted to focus on how well organizations had achieved this given the impacts of not doing so on the smooth running of the other practices such as People and cross-functional teams and integration of Process activities across service providers to name a few.
Assessing health
The SIAM Assessment can be a helpful tool for organizations to understand where they are in their SIAM journey and to decide what the next steps could be. But, having been a consultant for many years, I have learnt that organizations are looking for tangible, practical advice. They are not (or should not be) looking for large ‘fluffy’ reports and for me this was the most important consideration. How do we create something that is of direct value to customers? Something that helps them understand their current situation but more importantly, gives practical guidance on how to improve in different technology areas.
My second thought was ‘can I really contribute to this? Would my experience be valuable’ Having managed many large tool implementations, including in a SIAM context, at many different organizations throughout the world, I concluded I could be part of this and that my experience and insight in the technology space would add value.
During the first meeting in January 2021, it became clear that the initiators were looking to build something that was easy to use as a self-assessment but could also be used by consultants to support their more in-depth assessment, analysis and advisory services. For both assessments I was confident that it would help support steps in a SIAM improvement initiative.
Authoring the section – the process
The idea was to split up the assessment in 5 main topics, one of them being ‘Technology’. That was ‘right up my alley’ of course and luckily there were three very experienced people joining me; Steve Morgan, Jordy Mertens and Danny van Vosselen.
Together we had multiple sessions to discuss the technology topics of most relevance in SIAM such as tooling strategy, data flows, data dictionary and reporting tools. We each took sections to focus on, then periodically came back together as a team to review each other’s work. Like any good team our dynamics were important and we had open dialogues in which we critiqued, endorsed and challenged each other. We had fun and learned a lot in the process. We may have missed a few deadlines and perhaps asked many questions (sorry Simon and Michelle!) but we are proud of what we contributed.
It was a real team effort (and not just from the Technology team) because after the development work was done there were plenty of section (content) and end to end reviewers (consistency) who poured through our offering, and providing extensive feedback and input. Many thanks to all reviewers and Michelle and Simon for all the work they put in to streamline all topics and fixing what we have missed.
A few final words…
Technology is a key enabler in establishing effective workflow, communication, information production and technical support within a SIAM ecosystem. The assessment helps to consider the technology in use. When released, I hope and trust it will be of real value and people will find all manner of ways to use it within their organizations. The SIAM Health Assessment is certainly multi-faceted; it provides a way to assess the current condition of an organization’s adoption of SIAM principles and is a useful starting point in any SIAM improvement journey.
Is it the holy grail of SIAM? No, it is not but it certainly is a great asset for anyone interested in improving their service integration and management!
Meet the Propeller heads
Martijn, Steve, Danny and Jordy made up the Technology Author team for the development of the content in this section of the SIAM Health Assessment. Each has unique insight and perspective in this space.
About the author:
Martijn Adams has over 20 years of experience in implementing IT and Enterprise Service Management in large enterprises and governments around the world. He has seen and experienced the change from straight forward ITSM to the wider scope of all enterprise services and soon after that the inclusion of external providers into the service delivery ecosystem. For organizations to be successful in these complex environments he suggests standardizing as much as possible and not get yourself in trouble customizing too enthusiastically.
About the other team members:
Steve Morgan has 30+ years in IT, having worked in operational and consulting roles all his working life. Steve is director of Syniad IT, a consulting firm which helps IT leaders assess, design and improve their IT operating models. Steve has brought his wealth of practical experience to SIAM best practice development since the inception of the body of knowledge, forming a part of the author team.
Jordy Mertens as a Service Management consultant for 2Grips. During his career Jordy has worked on several projects related to process definition, implementation, management, or improvements. Jordy has helped numerous clients of different industries in selecting and implementing the appropriate service management tools and embedding organizational change by training and coaching of the employees.
Danny van Vosselen started his career at a large Belgian service provider where he was employed in various roles and in the end taking up the role as Director of the Service department. In 2006 the entrepreneurship started to ‘tickle him’ and he started as a freelance consultant specialized in service management. In 2015 his sole proprietorship was expanded with the foundation of 2Grips. Danny is taking up the role of CEO and CFO at 2Grips combined with consultancy projects in the field of Service Management. In total he has more than 25 years of experience with guiding organizations in realizing service excellence.
