The Power of the Core Service Catalog Michele Morrison and Judy Shandler EDUCAUSE – Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Agenda Definitions How it all started Our support environment Getting up to speed and process to date What’s next? Keeping it current Lessons learned So what is the power of the Core Services Catalog?

Acronyms ITIL – IT Infrastructure Library SLM – Service Level Management SLA – Service Level Agreement OLA – Operation Level Agreement UC – Underpinning contract.

Definition Core Services Catalog Default SLA for an organization Defines base level services for all clients In most organizations it should cover 80% of your clients support requirements Part of an overall SLM strategy Starting point to define specific SLAs for clients with differing support requirements.

Service Level Management Service Desk / Service catalog SL A StaffFacultyStudentsTenants PC NET LA B APP Clients IT Services OLA – Operating Level Agreement UC – Underpinning Contracts Vendors

How it all started A need for improved customer service by managing client expectations No clear definition of what we supported Client complaints about inconsistent service Some SLAs were being developed for departments with special needs SLAs needed for the rest of the Institute.

BCIT’s IT support environment We support: –Students –Faculty –Admin staff –Tenants –BCIT community groups (e.g. Student Association, Unions, etc.) 2,000 employees 16,000 full-time and 32,000 part- time student registrations 5 major campuses 12 – 15 satellite campuses 80+ IT staff at two locations

BCIT’s IT support environment (cont.) 250 Servers (Novell, Windows, AIX, Linux, Solaris) 2,000 Staff PCs 300 Software Apps 2,400 Lab PCs 165 Computer Labs Increasing demand for 7 x 24 Support

Getting up to speed Help Desk Institute (HDI) training on Service Level Agreements (2002) ITIL Fundamentals (2002) and Practitioner training– Service Management (2004) PINK Conferences (Toronto 2002, Orlando 2003 and Vancouver 2005) – attended sessions on Service Catalogs (e.g. Justice Cluster of Ontario, ABN Amro Bank, etc.) HDI Conference (Vancouver 2003) We learned about industry best practices before we started – Don’t start cold!.

What to include in the Core Services Catalog Service name and description Service availability Identification of the clients/customers Metrics Business process supported by the service Customer role How to access the service Version numbers and creation/revision dates.

Process to date Defined our services Divided the project into two phases Marketed the need for a core service catalog internally Involved team leaders to help define and write content Reviewed UCs Established a review cycle and editing process.

Process to date (cont.) Developed an OLA for IT staff Conducted focus groups and updated content based on feedback Integrated service level targets into our Help Desk tool Published Phase I and II on the web and in hardcopy format Started to create SLAs for groups with differing needs.

How we defined our services Phase I: Help Desk Network Infrastructure & Printing Enterprise Server & Centralized Data Storage Lab Desktop Security and Business Continuity Appendices: –List of Supported Products –Current Computer Specifications –Service Request Estimates.

How we defined our services (cont.) Phase II: Messaging & Collaboration Application and Database Hosting Web & Portal.

What’s next Establish formal role for Service Level Manager Continue to identify groups with unique SLA requirements (based on business requirements) Define, negotiate, sign-off and publish remaining SLAs Annual review and updates of Service Catalog and SLAs.

Keeping it current Need to ensure that ongoing resources exist to keep the catalog and SLAs up to date Client community needs to have input into the catalog during updates Update schedule: –Core Service Catalog – annually –Appendices – quarterly –SLAs – annually.

Revision Process Process for both annual and quarterly updates Updates go through change management process Updates are communicated to the Institute.

Lessons learned It is all about building relationships You need to educate your contributors Writing is quick, getting everyone to agree on what was written can take weeks or months Get commitment and support from all IT managers Create IT department buy-in early.

Lessons learned (cont.) Involve your clients and/or customers Services need to be measurable Include an index Communicate what you learned about what the IT department does within the department This is not an “off-the-side-of-the-desk” project Need the ability to translate technical jargon to client-friendly language.

So what is the power of the Core Services Catalog? It becomes the starting point for an ongoing dialogue between the IT department and its clients It is a set of common language/definitions for the clients and within the IT department It clarifies what is supported and sets expectations for how the service will be delivered It becomes the starting point in the process to create SLAs.

Resources BCIT- HDI- itSMF- OGC (ITIL)- PINK- ITIM-

Questions? Feel free to look at our Core Services Catalog on our website: Thank you!