Catalog is the center of a Service Delivery world in Digital age
Over the next few years, IT Service delivery will move to a productized IT model where every user need will be like an app or a Service catalog, that is fully automated and can be subscribed from an App-store. The productized catalog model unleashes greater potential thru Enterprise agility and a Consumer grade User Experience
Background:
Service Delivery today is built for processes that rely on intermediation by support personnel. These are highly siloed and disintegrated. Each of the following functions, be it Architecture & Design, Security &Compliance, Automation, Customer satisfaction, Consumption management, Service Life Cycle management etc is being viewed as a disparate entity. They are not tightly integrated with Service Delivery
Service excellence is a reactive attempt to bring back Customer into focus for a process that was initially designed with User Experience at its core..
This is also a key reason why the current managed service delivey does not rapidly transform into rigor of Digital Delivery. Digital shift brings with it, a change in the type of services offered, a change in user expectations, a change in way services are procured, managed and delivered. Digital Native companies do not have a traditional support model. We do not call typically anyone on a support team at AWS or GCP for the standard services we procure. What does it take for Enterprises to move to a similar model?
The most relatable place to look for is the way your consumer services are delivered. We do not wait to raise a ticket to order a cab, or to watch a movie. Every service that is needed in a consumer world is an app that is available on app-store. Every service is designed like a product that can be easily transacted over an App-store. A productized service is self-service enabled and does not require a support personnel to fulfill any requirement. Service Delivery is zero-touch and delivered instantly. Enterprises will need to follow a similar rhythm.
The future of digitized service delivery in Enterprises is zero-touch!!
In order to enable zero touch , Enterprises needs to productize their delivery. Each product is designed for enabling customer experience and zero touch operations.
Catalog is the center of Digital world.
All services are transacted as catalogs in Digital world.
For example,
Uber — cars are the catalogs
Netflix — Movie titles are the catalogs
Amazon — Retail items are catalogs
AirBnB — Vacation rentals/Homestays are catalogs
What does Catalog-centric Service Delivery look like?
In order to obtain a similar experience , Enterprises need to embrace a catalog-centric approach
a. Every digitized user need in an Enterprise will be productized and published as a catalog.
b. The product catalogs are centrally maintained in an app-store and transacted over a service exchange or an app-store equivalent
c. The catalogs are amenable to a subscription model of service procurement
d. The catalogs are self-service enabled and fully automated (Zero-touch)
Catalogs are designed and architected with a different rhythm — similar to a product management methodology that involves Design Thinking, Lean, Agile methodology and DevSecOpS. Customer Experience and customer journey mapping is at the core of the design of a productized catalog.
Service is the new product.
The following are integral to a productized catalog
a. User Profiling
b. Architecture & Design
c. Security
c. Compliance Requirements
d. Standards & Best practices
e. Automation & Delivery Methods
f. Usage /Spend Management & Chargebacks
g. Service Analytics
h. User Experience
i. Technology Life Cycle management
Catalogs designed thus, will be maintained as part of an App-store or a service exchange. It is not uncommon for a organization with 5000+ employees to have 500–1000 catalogs. Each organization will start to maintain a portfolio of services something similar to the one below
Organizations will start to have new roles like Product managers to design, develop and maintain services portfolios. Some of the conventional roles around Service Management will lose relevance. We anticipate Enterprises to embrace this culture of subscription model of service Delivery and a catalgized service model start trending significantly over the next several years.
The new model provides better Enterprise agility, reduced cost of operations, faster speed of delivery but mostly a consumer grade Experience.
How well are your organizations planning for this shift? What percentage of your services are self-service enabled with zero touch. Chime in with your thoughts on this topic.
