IT services: materiel. Part 1. Introduction and Basics

There is no such thing as a service industry. There are only industries whose service components are larger or smaller than the service components in other industries. All provide services.

Theodore Levitt ( Harvard Business Review, September 1972 ).

Introduction

Hello,



I somehow shared with marketing my intentions about the transfer of knowledge about the whole range of topics related to services to my colleagues. As a result, the topic “How the service is built” appeared in the survey to the article “ IT outsourcing: what is it and what does it eat? ". I admit honestly, the wording of the topic does not quite correctly reflect my plans. Therefore, I adjust your expectations.



I planned to talk not only about the construction of the service and not at all in the first place. The fact is that if you don’t have a very good idea of what a service is, how to manage it and what the service actually gives the consumer , then it’s too early to start building it. Would you like to buy a car created by those who have never sat behind the wheel?

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It is not by chance that I began with the adjustment of expectations. Managing expectations is a key factor in the success of a service, whether you manage it or build it. And since expectations are aligned and corrected in the process of communication, a useful tool that greatly simplifies life is a single terminology.



And with the terminology in IT, we have a lot of confusion. In the first articles I will examine some of her cases so that you can clearly understand:

• what exactly are you discussing when you are discussing a service;
• what exactly do you manage when you manage the service;
• and what you build when you build a service.

In a series of articles I will talk about what types of services you can find in the field of IT, how they differ, and what to expect from them, and what not. I will give examples of categories of services so that you can compare them with each other with great understanding.



In the articles I will give exercises with questions to consolidate the material. If the topic is interesting to you, and you want to practice it, then you can answer the questions of the exercises in the comments. I am ready to actively comment on your answers and answer your questions for at least one month after the publication of the article.

The basics

Start, of course, is to start with. In particular, it is very important to understand the distinctive features of the service - those important characteristics that distinguish it from the product, for example. In fact, the definition of a service can be stated in terms of the following 5 key features.

1. intangibility

Services are intangible and intangible: they can not touch, take, see, smell or try. Thus, there is neither the ability nor the need to transport, store and store them. At the same time, the service can be (re) sold or owned, but it cannot be transferred from its service provider to the consumer. The process of providing the service is introduced into the work of the service provider. The latter must produce and execute this service for each individual consumer request.

2. Nonconservation

Services do not have or almost do not have tangible components and, as a result, can not be saved for future use. Services are provided and consumed at the same time.

Services are not preserved in two ways:

• Resources, processes and systems related to the service, arise to provide it in a certain period of time. If the designated or planned service consumer did not request or consume the service during this period, the service will not be provided to him. From the point of view of the service provider, this situation is a missed business opportunity, as it cannot request a fee for providing the service. Although there is a theoretical possibility to allocate resources, processes and systems for another consumer who requests a service during this period of time.
  
  For example:
  • the hairdresser will start serving another visitor if the recorded one does not appear at the appointed time;
  • an empty seat on a flight in an airplane after takeoff will never be used and paid for.
• After the service has been completely rendered to the requesting consumer, this particular service irreversibly disappears, since it was consumed by it.
  
  For example:
  • the passenger was delivered to the destination and could not be delivered there again at the same time.

3. Inseparability

The service provider is required to provide the service, as it must produce and execute the service for the consumer requesting it in a timely manner. In many cases, the service is provided automatically, but the provider must allocate resources and systems in advance and actively maintain the appropriate availability and ability to provide the service. At the same time, the consumer of the service is inseparable from the process of its provision, because he is involved in it from the moment of the request right up to the consumption of the received benefits.

For example:

• the consumer of the service must sit in the chair in the hairdresser or in the seat of the aircraft, and, accordingly, the hairdresser or pilot must be in the same room or plane for the provision of the service to take place.

4. The variability of quality (variability)

Each service is unique. It is formed, executed, and consumed one-time and can never be exactly reproduced, since the point in time, place, circumstance, conditions, configurations and resources assigned will be different upon the next provision, even if the same consumer requests the same service. Many services are considered heterogeneous or heterogeneous and usually change for each consumer of the service or even for each new situation.

For example:

• the taxi service that takes the consumer from home to the opera house differs from the taxi service that takes the same consumer from the theater home — another point in time, another direction, perhaps a different route, probably a different driver and car.

5. Involvement (complicity)

One of the most important distinguishing features of services is the participation of the customer in the process of providing services. The customer has the opportunity to receive services, modified in accordance with its special requirements.



Taken together, these distinctive features of services make them quite non-trivial, for example, such things as evaluating and comparing services before they are received, as well as the mass provision of services.

If your knowledge of English allows, then I recommend to read the entire article about the service on Wikipedia in English and understand the approach to the service specification given there.



I also want to add here that it is necessary to separate the concepts of " customer " and " consumer ". The customer is the one who makes the decision about choosing a supplier and pays for the service.

The consumer (or User) is the one who uses it to solve their problems or to satisfy their desires or needs.

For example:

• when you buy an attraction ticket for your child, then you are the “Customer” and your child is the “Consumer” or the User of the attraction service. And for the success of the service it is necessary to work with the expectations of both.

Exercise A1

.

1. Which of the distinctive features of the service makes the subject area of ​​services the most difficult?
2. Which of the distinctive features of the service makes it most attractive to the customer?
3. Which of the distinctive features of the service makes it most attractive to the consumer?
4. Which feature of the service is most troubling to the service provider?
5. Do your service delivering readiness times and service consumer support times match (see service specification )?
6. Try to draw a picture explaining to the client what your service is.

Sources:

1. The article contains a translation of the “ Characteristics ” section of the “ Service (economics) ” article in the English part of Wikipedia.
2. ITIL v2011. Service Strategy. Section 3.2.1.1.

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