Service portfolio management is essentially the process responsible for the establishment and putting together of the basic service design package also known as the SDP. Service portfolio management is fast becoming a critical objective for most IT companies seeking to achieve greater success in providing advanced IT services as well as superior support to customers or users.
The main idea behind service portfolio management is to bring down the complications in the IT processes and establish a greater understanding regarding the association or correlation between different services falling under the realm of IT management.
Objective of service portfolio management
Establishing a strategic partnership between the IT Company or organization and the business is the basic objective of service portfolio management. The path to achieve this objective includes creating a huge variety of all-inclusive, value-added services that are offered to the users.
Service portfolio management entails formulating strict policies and procedures with regards to the designing of policies, their implementation, order and support as well as the pricing, wherever appropriate.
IT service portfolio management core components include:
- Services already in the process of being designed
- Services already available for use (service catalog)
- Services no longer available for use or deployed services
Some specific objectives of service portfolio management include the following:
- Documentation of every service that is planned or designed under service portfolio management.
- Running of every new service through a standardized set of procedures to ensure documentation of vital management related information.
- Reviewing of every service design at regular intervals.
- The service catalog gets its base for developing user information from the service portfolio.
Roles and functions
The entire process of service portfolio management is handled by the service portfolio manager who is responsible for the effective implementation of the process and bringing about the desired results.
The person who sets up or initiates the process, defines particular goals as well allocates relevant resources for the service portfolio management process is known as the service portfolio process owner.
Also, there is a team for service portfolio management which is responsible for implementation of the entire designed process and everything associated with it.
Companies have reported several advantages of service portfolio management, including an increased insight into the impact on the business performance with respect to provision of IT services and improvement in focus and productivity of the IT support staff.
