Information and Information Technology (IT) provide a range of benefits to organizations (Dewett & Jones, 2001; Peppard, 2003; Porter & Millar, 1985; Whyte & Bytheway, 1996). The dependence of organizations on their IT has grown so much that failure of IT can cripple the parent organization (Peppard, 2003).
According to Whyte and Bytheway (1996), IT systems have failed to live up to expectations and there have been more failures than successes. Whyte and Bytheway (1996) provide a long list of factors responsible for these failures, culled from a review of the relevant literature. Their list of reasons for failure include: over-optimistic estimates, ill-defined project objectives, poor communication between users and the development staff, lack of user commitment to the project and the system, technical limitations of a system, systems which are unfriendly and inflexible, and the use of inexperienced staff for development. Conflicts between users, developers, tools and technologies in an information system or IT project are a key risk to the success of the project (Whyte & Bytheway, 1996). User-related problems with IT (or information systems) have been captured for some time now, e.g. Galloway and White (1993) stated that “mutual dissatisfaction of users and data processing (DP) specialists continues to be a major problem”.
According to Galloway and White (1993), complaints from users’ perspective are: over-run on budget, late delivery, failure to meet performance criteria, DP specialists’ failure to communicate with users and insufficient maintenance provision. DP specialists complain about users’ failure to specify needs adequately, failure to attend progress meetings, failure to assimilate training and failure to use the system properly (Galloway & White, 1993). Galloway and White (1993) further state that “the situation is so common that both tend to assume that it is inevitable”.
Whyte and Bytheway (1996) state that there are three perspectives regarding the development and delivery of IT systems in organizations. Each perspective has a different view of the problem of system development, delivery, and improvement. These perspectives are the product perspective, the process perspective and the service perspective. In the product perspective, the focus is on the product delivered to the users, e.g. hardware, software, documentation, training courses etc. The process perspective focuses on the process used for system development. The service perspective deals with the softer issues, e.g. answering questions, dealing with problems and addressing concerns of users. Whyte and Bytheway (1996) further state that IT managers are typically more concerned with monitoring of product and process aspects of their operation, rather than with the service aspects related to users.
Recently, user orientation is being seen as an important aspect of strategic IT management in organizations (Braun & Winter, 2007; Hochstein, Tamm & Brenner, 2005). Hirschheim et al.
(2006) state that user participation and involvement in system development are important for successful projects. However, they also state that IT managers find managing this involvement very challenging. To resolve this difficulty, Hirschheim et al. (2006) propose a marketing perspective to IT management. In the marketing perspective, the users are the internal customers of the IT function and the IT function focuses its attention on “determining the needs and wants of the target customers and then delivering satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors” (Hirschheim et al., 2006). According to Hirschheim et al. (2006), the marketing perspective delivers its benefits by making the IT function into a service organization that delivers ongoing services to its customers, namely, the users of the organization.
Hochstein et al. (2005) state that the transformation of the IT function from a technology oriented function to a client-focused IT service provider is possible only with a service management approach. Keel, Orr, Hernandez, Patrocinio and Bouchard (2007) also state that taking a customer perspective “implies a shift from a technology-oriented to a service-oriented approach to IT management”. Similarly, Braun and Winter (2007) state that “this transformation from a technology oriented IT shop towards a customer oriented service provider that engineers its IT processes in a systematic, methodical manner” is only possible by adopting a service management approach to IT. In a similar manner, Tan, Cater-Steel and Toleman (2009) state that ITSM represents a “paradigm shift for IT functions as it deemphasizes the management of IT assets and focuses on the provision of quality end-to-end IT services”.
Consequently, IT Service Management (ITSM) has gained prominence (Hochstein et al., 2005;
Iden, 2009; McNaughton, Ray & Lewis, 2010). Tan et al. (2009) state that ITSM is the provision of quality customer service by ensuring that customer requirements and expectations with respect to IT are met at all times. In ITSM, the IT function in an organization is treated as a service organization delivering services to the organization (McBride, 2009; Peppard, 2003; Whyte &
Bytheway, 1996). The users of the organization constitute the customers of the service. The IT function then directs its attention away from IT and outwards towards the customers and their need for services (McBride, 2009). This leads to few key effects. Firstly, the IT function becomes focused on the business process and the IT services needed to support this process.
Secondly, the IT function needs to be staffed with people having skills in both IT and the business domain (McBride, 2009).
ITSM has proven beneficial to organizations. According to Potgieter, Botha and Lew (2005), the benefits include both enhanced customer satisfaction as well as improved operational performance. Hochstein et al. (2005) state that ITSM leads to improved client/server orientation and quality of IT services; higher efficiency of IT operations; and better transparency and
comparability through process documentation and monitoring. Tan et al. (2009) reported the following benefits: improved focus on IT service management; more predictable infrastructure, improved consultation with IT groups within the organization; smoother negotiation of service level agreements and seamless end-to-end service (Cater-Steel et al., 2006).
This section has provided an overview of IT service management, which is a service management approach to IT management. The IT service is similar to other internal services in an organization and possesses the IHIP characteristics of services (Peppard, 2003; Whyte and Bytheway, 1996), as discussed in the earlier sections. ITSM leads to several benefits for the organization, arising chiefly from the increased customer-orientation of the IT function.
5.7 Conclusion
This chapter has provided an overview of the concepts of services and service management.
Services are a particular kind of product; they possess the IHIP characteristics, making them distinct from goods. Service management is a mind-set that enables organizations to focus on their customers. As a mind-set, the concept of service management is applicable to all types of businesses and activities. This chapter has included an overview of the applicability of service management to internal services in which an internal function of the organization becomes a service provider to other employees, who in turn become its customers. The chapter finally provided an overview of IT service management which represents a case of service management being applied to an internal service.
This chapter is the concluding chapter in the literature overview that includes the previous three chapters also. This literature overview has covered various concepts and topics that have a bearing on this thesis.
The next chapter will apply these concepts to the problem of the end-user aspects of information security management; and it proposes a service management approach to information security management as a solution.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
INTRODUCTION
LITERATURE STUDIES
SOLUTION
CONCLUSION Chapter 3
SECTION III
SOLUTION
CHAPTER 6
Information Security Service Management
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”
- Mahatma Gandhi