Blog posted by: Tuula Savolainen - Business Line Lead, Accounts, 01 November 2023.
It's hard to sell continuous services without clarity: a customer is entitled to ask for anything and it's up to the service provider to direct their request properly and effectively, whatever the issue.
Working in a service-focused role for a software solution and outsourcing company for accounting, payroll, and HR, well-defined services are easy to sell and buy. At the beginning of my ITIL journey, one of my colleagues commented on how difficult it is to know what issues a customer needs solving, how long it will take, how much it will cost and how to show the value of what we do.
Though I had gained basic knowledge about service management from ITIL v3, studying ITIL 4 modules beyond Foundation level has given me a new - and necessary - focus on value co-creation.
Developing essential skills
In my role, I need to understand the big picture: what is the customer demand, what valuable outcomes do they need and what are the roles and competencies the company needs to ensure we focus on the right things at the right time.
When building and delivering services - and managing value streams - you always need to improve things and see how this connects to business strategy and customer value.
In practice - as a non-technical person - my job is to teach the processes to our technicians; to guide them and ask the right questions so they can focus on their jobs better. For example, a technical specialist may be confused about what a customer wants, so that needs clarity: is there an incident? Is it critical for the customer? Is it recurring? Knowing this means we can concentrate on solving the incident, the possible problem and prevent the incident from happening again.
ITIL 4 is helping me to make the necessary connections between these details and facilitate the co-creation of value.
Moving up from ITIL 4 Foundation
Everyone in our team has studied or is planning to study for the ITIL 4 Foundation certification. While this a great start, they're only scratching the surface. The “magic” comes in the next level courses which, I think, should be mandatory for everyone working with quality IT Services.
This learning has introduced me to a huge number of tools and knowledge that I can use, for example, when designing services and making service improvements. In fact, there is so much information, details and practices you can use. And, at this level of ITIL knowledge, you recognize there isn't one right answer to solving an issue, so you need a wide range of tools and know which to use in different scenarios.
Put simply, studying the higher level of ITIL courses means you're better prepared.
For example, one of my tasks is to design and build services in response to customer needs: this is important, as these are services the company can generate revenue from while benefiting the customer. The success of this is measured by the services working properly, employees enjoying the clarity in their work and giving customers the value they want and encouraging them to buy more from us.
Also, at this level of ITIL, you can recognize the role of advanced practices - such as Organizational Change Management; giving you the steps to consider to achieve successful change, such as communication, collaboration, training and support.
Above all, having higher level ITIL 4 knowledge is good for the team: I can give them the clarity they need in their daily roles and tasks.
Today, everything in the world of business is changing all the time and you constantly need to evaluate where you are and what you need to do. For me, this means practising the knowledge I've gained to continue creating and improving new services.
Editor's note: visit the ITIL 4 page for information about ITIL learning journeys and certification scheme.