Overcoming Ambiguity with SIAM: 5 Considerations for more Meaningful Service Provider Partnerships

SYDNEY - July 23, 2018 - PRLog -- The Service Integration and Management (SIAM) framework is not new, however, in recent years, while organisations (including service providers) have focused on maturing their own internal IT Service Management capabilities,  SIAM has continued to progress, becoming more widely-adopted and establishing itself as the formal framework for service providers and its customers to operate within.  When implemented correctly, SIAM establishes harmonious ways of working across organisations while allowing each partner to achieve their own objectives in a single and integrated way.

In Dianne K Fasel's book 'Partnering in Action, A guide for building successful collaboration across organizational boundaries', Fasel states:

'…..In order to thrive or even survive in today's business environment most organizations are finding that collaboration across organizational boundaries is necessary……'

An effective SIAM framework works for both sides of the partnership by facilitating agreement over terms, establishing boundaries and ultimately creating clear support demarcations (responsibility, accountability and handover points) across each other's ITSM processes and support models upfront - while utilising a common ITSM language.

So what are the key considerations in getting your SIAM framework successfully established?

• As a minimum requirement, your key control processes such as Incident, Problem, Change and Request Management processes need to be in place to a 'repeatable maturity' level.  A an overall strategic approach needs to be agreed with regards to Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM), tools and platforms.

• Focus on establishing specific process handover points or activities within processes on both sides. These integration points need to be scalable and clear from both sides.

•  While the contract forms the basis and principles of the agreed outcomes, your ITSM processes (and SIAM Framework) will determine how you will work and ultimately the overall partnership performance. Therefore, supplier and commercial management needs to be cohesively formulated to support your SIAM approach.

• Negotiations around specific platform use and platform ownership need to become  secondary to process integration and specifically agreement of formal support models, roles and responsibilities.

• A true partnership spirit is well endorsed across all levels of both organisations including setting behavioural limits, establishing rules of engagement, and defining what is acceptable in terms of specific roles and responsibilities across teams that work together to achieve common goals.

So, if you are seeking to strengthen your current service provider partnerships and relationships by establishing or building out your SIAM foundations, keep these 5 considerations in mind. In case you have any specific SIAM challenge give us a call at Service Management Specialists..

About the Author:

Kirk Penn

Kirk helps people and organisations improve the way they plan, design and operate Information Technology at Service Management Specialists (http://www.servicemanagementspecialists.com/). Kirk has provided guidance to hundreds of people around the world, helping them to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real world experience.