Method and system for assessing information technology service delivery
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsKatayoun Atefi, Ralph James Foley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method of assessing the delivery of information technology (IT) service delivery from a providing organization to a customer. The system and method include techniques for assessing the maturity of the information technology services and for identifying factors which cause or contribute to a customer's perception of poor service. The present invention focuses on the customer and what he sees, rather than on the internal processes used by the IT organization to develop and deliver services to the customer. That is, the present invention is a system which focuses on the “delivery” aspect of IT services rather than on the “production” aspects of the IT activities within the IT shop.
Claims17
A computerized method for evaluating the satisfaction and value of information technology services as perceived by an external customer using information technology services provided by an information technology organization, the method comprising the steps of:
- connecting the external customer to a collection of databases, the collection of databases comprising an engagement model database, an engagement family database, and an engagement template database;
- retrieving a first engagement template from the engagement template database;
- presenting a plurality of user interfaces of the first engagement template to the external customer whereby the external customer provides input data on a plurality of information technology service attributes,
- the information technology service attributes comprising:
- understanding the external customer and a purpose and objective of the information technology service to the external customer;
- an extent to which the information technology organization providing the services and the external customer function as a team:
- a consistency with which the information technology organization executes and delivers the services to the external customer;
- an extent to which the information technology organization manages and improves and supports the information technology services delivered to the external customer;
- a degree to which a delivery of the information technology services are measured and satisfy the external customer's expectations;
- presenting additional user interfaces having a focus area of the service attribute, a set of descriptions of the service attribute, a set of considerations of the service attribute, and an example of the service attribute;
- retrieving a second engagement template from the engagement template database;
- presenting a plurality of user interfaces of the second engagement template to the external customer whereby the external customer can provide input data, the second engagement template comprising an assessment matrix having a plurality of rows and columns, each row corresponding to a respective one information technology service attribute selected from the group of policies and procedures, team work, consistency of delivery, defect handling, and use of results, and each column corresponding to a respective one level of maturity of the information technology service attribute selected from the group of ad hoc, repeatable, consistent, exceptional, world class;
- providing metrics of the external customer's satisfaction of each information technology service attribute determined by the external customer's input data pertaining to each information technology service attribute in response to the first engagement template;
- and
- providing metrics of a degree to which the external customer and the information technology organization have a common understanding of a scope and objectives of the information technology services;
- identifying any disparity between expectations of the information technology organization delivering the information technology services and expectations of the external customer using the services;
- evaluating the customer's input data to the second engagement template;
- and
- outputting a maturity metric of each information technology service attribute.
A computerized method of assessing an external customer's perception of the information technology services provided by an information technology organization, the steps of the method comprising:
- retrieving a first engagement template and a second engagement template from an engagement template database connected to a terminal application used by the external customer though a network;
- the first engagement template providing a plurality of user interfaces to an external customer to obtain input data of maturity of an information technology service using a matrix format for a plurality of attributes of the information technology service, the attributes comprising definition and understanding of the information technology service;
- a quality of the information technology service a marketing and communications of the information technology service, an achievement of results of the information technology service,
- the second engagement template presenting a plurality of user interfaces to an external customer to obtain input data of the customer's perception of maturity of each of the attributes of information technology services;
- processing the customer's input data of the at least one attribute of information technology services to obtain a measured metric of maturity of the at least one attribute;
- comparing the measured metric of maturity to different possible metrics of maturity of the information technology service attribute;
- and
- outputting a report with recommendations for improving the delivery of the at least one attribute of information technology services to the external customer based on the step of comparing the measured metric of maturity with the possible metrics of maturity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.