To avoid confusion and set the right context, it is vital we define upfront what we mean by service management.

Most services falling within our definition of service management involve the physical movement of goods or people. Unlike electronic transactions, the inherent latency in systems that involve physical items means it is possible to design perfect processes.

But perfection is relative and ignores factors that firms can account for but not avoid completely, such as traffic, weather and accidents. So, what we really mean by service management is that to deliver better services organisations have the opportunity to combine information flow and processes in far more effective ways than they have traditionally done.

Where might they gain the skills to do this? In the past, companies managed the services they provided as self-contained units ­ – a system that worked quite well until the dawn of the internet and low-cost communications. Such developments created increasing information exchange between systems, employees and customers.

As technology slowly permeated throughout the business, many of the assets used to deliver services started to look a bit like the equipment residing in the IT department. The majority of the equipment used to deliver a service now has some degree of technical component, with the result that the difference between “asset” and “IT asset” has been shrinking for some time.

Similar changes have been occurring in the IT department. The relationship between business outcomes and technology has moved closer and closer, and forward-thinking organisations have started managing their IT assets from a business outcome point of view.

Thanks to such developments there now exists the possibility of building a complete view of an asset base and the relationships between them and the people and processes that together deliver a business outcome we know as a service.

The same, but different

An important point to acknowledge is that while the two sides of the business are gradually doing more and more of the same thing, they are doing it for different reasons. However, such differences are the key source of improvement for the future.

Simply put, the physical asset side of the business is good at getting things into the right place. It understands the meaning of the term “service”.

The IT side of the business, on the other hand, is good at making things talk to each other and keeping things running, and is starting to think about the capabilities it delivers in terms of services.

Most organisations, then, already have the right ingredients for the next level of service management. But the next level is not a case of simply jamming both sides together, just because the assets they use are indistinguishable.

An opportunity exists to remove latency, communication black spots and broken or non-existent processes, to gene-rate the economies of scale that will emerge from having a single view of an asset base.

The key is to remember that, from the user’s point of view, scheduling an engineering overhaul on a jet engine has little to do with provisioning a server.

Different users’ needs must be provided for and sustained, even if the underlying data and processes are consolidated. Generating a single view of the world, then, is the first of the major opportunities open to service providers today.

So, what about the tools and methodologies required to achieve this? We cannot discuss service management without mentioning mobile technology. This area has taken time to become accepted, but it is now the primary enabler of the real-time communication and data mobility that truly puts the field into field service.

Many organisations that provide maintenance services have been relatively slow to embrace mobile technologies, beyond basic telephony. The slow approach has also been the fault of the technology industry.

Mobile technology has taken time to earn its spurs as being fit for purpose. And ensuring the field organisation has the most appropriate equipment for communications and information access is one of the major challenges facing the chief information officer (CIO) and the chief operating officer (COO).

Business process modelling, management, monitoring, intelligence, integration and automation are all tools that the CIO and COO will need to consider as they design and execute their service management vision.

A service that delivers

Approaches used in other fields may be useful for seeking quality and repeatability, such as Six Sigma from the manufacturing sector. It is also likely that IT approaches such as ITIL and Cobit will find novel applications.

And what should all this mean to the customer? Today, slick sales processes lead to raised expectations of what should come afterwards ­ but often lead to frustration with the shortcomings of behind- the-scenes processes.

But tomorrow, perfect service management will make the weather ­ not the delivery guy ­ the only thing for customers to gripe about.

Martin Atherton is research director at analyst Freeform Dynamics