For: Infrastructure
& Operations
Professionals
The State And Direction Of Service
Management: Progression, Deceleration,
Or Stagnation?
by Courtney Bartlett, March 17, 2014
Key Takeaways
Service Management Has Both Progressed And Plateaued
While data from the third annual Forrester/itSMF US survey supports SMA’s positive
influence on the business by way of improved service quality, productivity, and cost
reduction, demands are rising and other areas of service management are struggling to
keep up, resulting in stasis and potential decline of the industry.
Realism And Visibility Must Remain Top Of Mind
“Unknown knowledge” and quixotic self-assessments continue to hinder progress
as too many SMA professionals lack visibility and realism into their state of service
management affairs. This must change, as the only way to progress is to understand both
what you’re up against as well as how solid your foundation truly is.
What’s Hot: Strategic Thought, Cost Transparency, Service-Centricity,
And SaaS
Strategic processes like service portfolio management and demand management are
garnering more attention from your peers, as are initiatives areas like service catalog and
IT financial management. 2013 is also the breakout year for SaaS, as it leads purchasing
plans for management and automation software within the next two years.
Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA
Tel: +1 617.613.6000 | Fax: +1 617.613.5000 | www.forrester.com
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
March 17, 2014
The State And Direction Of Service Management:
Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
Benchmarks: The Service Management and Automation Playbook
by Courtney Bartlett
with Eveline Oehrlich and Michelle Mai
Why Read This Report
“How do we stack up against our peers?” is perhaps the most common question asked of Forrester,
and never has this information been more important for service management and automation (SMA)
professionals. Forrester’s third annual survey of SMA professionals, done in conjunction with the USA
chapter of the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), shows that since 2011, areas like process maturity,
service catalog development, DevOps, and strategic thinking have improved, but not by much and not
enough to keep up. Demand from the business is growing exponentially, while technology management’s
ability to support it is progressing linearly, and though service management is an integral part of IT, it is
not immune to obsolescence. SMA professionals should use this benchmarks report to understand their
service management program’s status, strengths, and weaknesses and where they should focus future
attention and investments to transform this borderline stasis into substantial progress.
Table Of Contents
Notes & Resources
2 Change How You Think About Yourselves,
Your Silos, And Your Services
Forrester interviewed and surveyed 184
service management professionals in
enterprise IT organizations as well as
consultants and technology providers for
the Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM
Online Survey.
Break Down Barriers With DevOps And
Business Service Management
5 ITIL: Turning A Solid Foundation Into Fuel For
Success
9 Maturity Versus Adaptability: Rethinking How
We Measure Progress
13 The SIS, Service Catalog, And ITFM: Where
To Focus Attention In 2014
17 The Service Desk Landscape Gets SaaS-y
22 Supplemental Material
Related Research Documents
Transform Infrastructure And Operations For
The Future Technology Management Cycle
February 13, 2014
Technology Management In The Age Of The
Customer
October 10, 2013
Five Concerted Steps To Maximize The
Business Value Of IT
December 10, 2013
© 2014, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available
resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar,
and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. To
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For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
2
Change How You Think About Yourselves, Your Silos, And Your Services
The way we think forms the basis of our actions, and as technology management professionals, we
often focus too much on the technology itself rather than on the business requirements that drive
it. Service management, as a theory and practice, is rooted in product marketing and management
principles that place the customer at the center of all decision-making within the service provider
organization.1 Unfortunately, this extreme customer focus is often lost when the principles are
applied to technology management, producing the well-known discipline of IT service management
(ITSM). In today’s age of the customer, this absence is unacceptable.2 Forrester recommends that
I&O leaders start focusing on the services they are offering to their business partners and that they
adopt automation to increase efficiency and agility across all of I&O. Prompt this focus by changing
the name of your IT service management program to service management and automation, or SMA.
This directs attention to what truly matters — the outcome (services delivered faster, cheaper, and at
a higher quality) and the enabler of those outcomes (automation).3
While it may seem trivial, changing what you call your effort changes how you think about yourself
at a foundational level, which can have resounding effects. There’s a certain gestalt to a successful
SMA organization — subtle mind shifts, iterative standardization, gradual automation — and when
executed in the right way, such pieces can come together to equal something much greater than the
sum of their parts. Our survey results show that some of these pieces are progressing but that others
have stalled. While the progression is great news and SMA professionals should be proud of these
steps, they are just steps — and at this point, they should be strides, as this journey began with the
onset of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) in the early 1980s.
Break Down Barriers With DevOps And Business Service Management
DevOps and business service management (BSM) are two movements that break down silos and
focus on leveraging technology to support and enable the business rather than on technology
for technology’s sake. DevOps depends on two once-disparate departments moving past
their differences and toward seamless collaboration. Business service management requires a
deep knowledge of business services and the technical components supporting those services,
necessitating thinking not just about the delivery of a service but about the complete management
of that service, with a constant focus on the business. The survey results show that:
■ DevOps relationships are improving. The relationship between the application development
and operations groups has been historically, and notoriously, conflicted. However, demand from
the business to deliver business value quicker has compelled these two teams to overcome their
discord, understand each other’s worth, and join forces in a movement commonly known as
DevOps.4 The walls between development and operations are coming down as more SMA
professionals in 2013 than in 2011 rate the relationship between Dev and Ops as hopeful,
collaborative, or seamless (see Figure 1-1). Though just a slight improvement, this is encouraging.
DevOps is a byproduct of great service management and exemplifies a new age of collaboration
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3
that has already proven quite successful in leading organizations such as Amazon.com, Facebook,
and Google. For example, Amazon executes an application release cycle every 11.6 seconds; to
put that into perspective, release cycles are typically monthly or, aggressively, biweekly.5
■ Business service management has still not taken off. Forrester defines BSM as the concept
of dynamically linking business-focused technology services to the underlying technology
infrastructure.6 There are varying levels of maturity, but essentially, BSM is business-focused
rather than IT-focused service management, and 50% of respondents either are not practicing
BSM on any level or do not have enough visibility into their environments to describe their
current state within their IT operations space (see Figure 1-2). This is partly because BSM’s
(and arguably service management’s as a whole) Achilles heel is the configuration management
database (CMDB). However, the intent behind both the CMDB (an accurate, reliable
information model) and the intent behind BSM are correct and worthy of pursuit. Complete
knowledge of the services you deliver and their dependencies, coupled with an understanding
of not just service delivery but the full management of a service, are paramount to support and
enable your business in serving your customers.
Expert tip: Understand where your organization stands relative to BSM and DevOps around
mission-critical and business-critical services for a particular line of business. List these services
and their dependencies and understand the required service levels. Then check to see if you have
managed these services to their expected and agreed service levels. The findings will get you started
in potentially changing how you transition and then manage and operate these services.
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4
Figure 1 Break Down Barriers With DevOps And Business Service Management
1-1
DevOps relationships are improving
“How would you characterize the relationship between application development
and operations in your organization?”
9%
7%
Isolated
Détente
10%
2011
2013*
14%
31%
34%
Hopeful
40%
41%
Collaborative
6%
8%
Seamless
Base: 491 SMA professionals
*Base: 181 SMA professionals
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q2 2011 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
March 17, 2014
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5
Figure 1 Break Down Barriers With DevOps And Business Service Management (Cont.)
1-2
Business service management has still not taken off
“Please select the statement that best describes your current state within
your IT operations space.”
BSM 1.0: We bridge the view from
the end user, who sees mostly
applications, and IT, which sees
only infrastructure components in
technology silos (mapping the
dependencies).
I can’t answer the question
(not in operations, don’t have
visibility, or don’t know).
19%
19%
We have not done any of
the above.
14%
31%
BSM 2.0-plus: All of the above,
plus we have adopted financial
and resource analysis so the
business better understands the
cost of service operations and
demand management.
7%
10%
BSM 1.0-plus: All of the above, plus
we are working on application
performance management, and we
understand the performance of an
application across its components.
BSM 2.0: All of the above, plus we
map business services to the
enterprise application portfolio and
are now reporting on the quality of
service at the business level.
Base: 181 SMA professionals
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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ITIL: Turning A Solid Foundation Into Fuel For Success
ITIL, as a best-practice framework for service management and automation, was slow to gain
a foothold in the US after its proliferation across Europe throughout the 1990s and early 2000s,
but around 2004, awareness within North American enterprises started to accelerate. Today, the
adoption of ITIL programs is commonplace, and organizations that have not officially adopted ITIL
often employ common-sense practices that mirror the framework. By targeting the professionals
who actually put ITIL principles into practice, we can determine just how effective ITIL has been at
improving or diminishing organizational and personal performance; for the third year in a row, its
impact is significantly positive.
With ITIL’s help, service management organizations enjoy better service quality and higher
operational productivity as well as cost savings; even ITIL certifications have increased in benefit
(see Figure 2-1 and see Figure 2-2). However, technology management’s reputation with the
business plateaued, which raises the question, “If everything else increased in benefit, why did
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6
reputation remain the same?” The answer is “inertia.” Technology management’s reputation
has been dismal for years. Neither ITIL nor any other framework can fix the friction between
technology management and the business, but best practices can improve service quality and
technology management productivity and can also save costs. Building on the positive results from
our 2013 survey, SMA professionals should focus on these areas of opportunity:
■ Service quality: Build on your success. In 2013, 73% of service management professionals
report that ITIL has a positive impact on service quality; that is a fantastic foundation upon
which to continue to define, align, and automate your services. The more defined your processes
and services, the easier they are to automate, resulting in consistent execution, fewer errors, and
higher quality delivery.
■ Operational productivity: Automate everything you can. Exponential gains are not
achieved via manual methods, and anything hand-operated can fall victim to human error.
When automation tools are applied to good processes, productivity increases to a level
unattainable manually. Standardized processes simplify execution; automation yields fewer
(or zero) mistakes; and you are able to do more with less. Employees have more time to focus
on innovative tasks, like standardizing and automating even more processes and services,
producing a positive feedback loop of productivity.7 Again, in 2013, 73% of respondents tout
ITIL’s ability to improve productivity; the fuel behind that is automation.
■ Operational costs: Have patience and keep tackling what you don’t know. While it’s
impressive that 42% of SMA professionals listed ITIL’s impact on operational expenses as
beneficial in 2013, it pales in comparison with the impacts on quality and productivity. ITIL and
SMA require an investment, which initially may offset some of the savings, but if pursued with
diligence, these investments will eventually, and continually, reap rewards. A significant finding
with regard to operational expenses is the drop of respondents in the “don’t know” camp, from
23% in 2012 to 18% in 2013. You cannot control, you cannot manage, and you certainly cannot
improve upon what you do not know or do not understand. SMA professionals must continue
to eliminate this “unknown knowledge.”
■ Certifications: Proven ITIL capability pays off. Both the return on investment (ROI) of
certifications and the number of SMA professionals with certifications have grown. In 2013,
“high return” was the most popular choice when respondents were asked how beneficial they
found their ITIL certifications to be, while none of the respondents deemed them useless. Also,
the number of those who do not have a certification dropped down to 6% in 2013, from 13%
in 2012. Certification is an investment of both real time and real money — this proliferation
of certification indicates a strong interest and commitment by senior management of ITIL
adoption and awareness.
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7
Expert tip: Continue your best-practice journey and measure your results. This means that you
must be able to determine the value of your service management and automation work with
regard to quality, productivity, and costs. By measuring your organization’s work, you can prove
the benefits and therefore continue your journey. You should communicate these results to your
business executives in terms they understand and in relationship to their goals.
Figure 2 ITIL’s Influence
2-1
ITIL certifications increase in benefit
“How beneficial have you found your ITIL certification(s) to be?”
2011
2012*
2013†
29%
27%
34%
High return: My certification has opened
new career opportunities for me
31%
31%
32%
Limited: My certification is recognized,
but career boost is less than expected
Questionable: My certification helps me
understand my operation better, but it seems to
offer little benefit to my career growth
25%
27%
35%
Useless: My certification was a waste of my 0%
time and has either done nothing for my
3%
career or has harmed it 0%
I don’t have
certification
4%
6%
13%
Base: 491 SMA professionals
*Base: 194 SMA professionals
†
Base: 182 SMA professionals
(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q2 2011 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
†
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
March 17, 2014
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The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
Figure 2 ITIL’s Influence (Cont.)
2-2
ITIL continues to positively affect the business
“How has ITIL impacted the following?”
Detrimental
Significantly
detrimental
Beneficial
Significantly
beneficial
Don’t know
ITIL’s impact
Service quality
2011
2012*
1%
1%
2%
2013†
2%
62%
54%
21%
10%
59%
6%
10%
14%
7%
Operational productivity
2011
2012*
1%
2%
2%
2013†
2%
61%
57%
24%
14%
59%
14%
4%
7%
5%
Operational costs
2011
2012*
2013†
3%
1% 4%
6%
24%
35% 6%
23%
32% 5%
34%
18%
8%
Reputation with the business
2011
2012*
2%
1%
2%
2013†
2%
49%
42%
38%
10%
13%
16%
8%
13%
13%
Base: 491 SMA professionals
*Base: 194 SMA professionals
†
Base: 183 SMA professionals
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q2 2011 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
†
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
March 17, 2014
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Maturity Versus Adaptability: Rethinking How We Measure Progress
Service management professionals continue to be good firefighters and bad strategists, and an
important goal of this survey is to understand service management process maturity. Forrester asked
respondents to self-assess their maturity across 20 SMA processes, based on ITIL and Forrester’s
service management and automation assessment framework methodology (see Figure 3-1).8
How did SMA professionals fare? At a high level, the results from 2012 and 2013 appear quite similar,
with classic firefighting processes showing the highest maturity rating and the more strategic
processes at the lower end. But if we take a closer look at the year-over-year results, we find that:
■ Strategic processes maturity soars. Though they’re still in last place, service portfolio
management, strategy management, and demand management all jumped approximately half a
maturity point, more than any other processes. This is great news, as service management must
move away from firefighting and must focus on more strategic processes to support the business
with the right services and technology while ensuring a quality and cost balance. Your peers are
making the shift; so should you.
■ Incident management declines in maturity yet improves in reality. SMA professionals rated
themselves slightly less mature in 2013 than in 2012, though incident management actually
advanced year-over-year (see Figure 3-2). Mean time to resolution (MTTR), a good indicator
of incident management success as it changes over time, improved by 10 percentage points
overall (“increased” went down by three percentage points, while “decreased” went up by seven
percentage points). The contradiction here is a result of increased realism, another theme
scattered throughout the 2013 results. SMA professionals tended to rate themselves a little too
rosily in past surveys, and further data, such as the question regarding MTTR, has proved that
things weren’t as sturdy as they seemed.
■ Change management still has an unhealthy ratio of chaos to control. Change management
declined in the maturity self-assessments (see Figure 3-3). Even so, SMA professionals are not
as mature at the process as they suggest. This group dropped by eight percentage points from
2012 to 2013. If more than 70% of your incidents are caused by changes, you are living in a very
dangerous state of chaos; 5% fall into this group. Combine that with the 19% in the secondworst group of 40% to 70%, and nearly a quarter of SMA professionals are living with poor or
terrible change management. However, these folks are actually in a better state than the 26%
who fall into the “don’t know” category because at least they can identify their challenges.
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■ “Unknown knowledge” improves but is still too high. Too many service management
professionals fall into the dangerous “don’t know” category. While “unknown knowledge”
dropped for both incident and change management, the percentages still hover at around a
quarter of respondents. These “don’t know” organizations suffer from unknown unknowns
(enemies impossible to fight because you don’t know where they are) and are therefore at the
greatest risk of serious consequences.9
Expert tip: Do maturity assessments, self-assessments, and models measure or strive for the right
thing? Maturity seems like an ideal end result but only when measured on a continual base. An
organization’s processes must be constantly revisited, revamped, and reinstated to better serve an
ever-changing business environment. Adaptability, flexibility, and agility are additional key topics
to define an ideal state of processes. Forrester invites all SMA professionals to take a step back and
think about this maturity versus adaptability debate. If we keep doing the same things, we cannot
expect different results, and as a community, we must join together and direct the change necessary
to weather our competitors. Be the change, or be changed.
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Figure 3 Reality Checks And Visibility Influence Process Maturity
3-1
Classic firefighting processes are mature, and strategic process gain momentum
“How would you assess your organization’s maturity in the following processes?”
(Responses on a scale of 1 [not mature at all] to 5 [completely mature])
3.26
3.17
Incident management
3.03
2.88
Change management
2012
2013*
2.46
2.45
Service request management
2.23
2.41
Event management
1.99
Business relationship management
2.28
2.35
2.27
Problem management
Release management
2.10
2.24
Financial management
2.09
2.23
2.08
2.19
Service continuity management
1.85
Availability management
2.19
Asset management
2.12
2.13
Supplier management
1.90
2.10
Knowledge management
1.98
2.10
Service-level management
1.96
2.07
Configuration management
2.04
2.07
1.87
1.99
Capacity management
1.53
Strategy management
Service portfolio management
1.37
Demand management
1.34
1.84
1.81
1.77
Base: 179 SMA professionals
*Base: 163 SMA professionals
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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Figure 3 Reality Checks And Visibility Influence Process Maturity (Cont.)
3-2
Incident management declines in maturity yet improves in reality
“How has your incident MTTR changed over the past 12 months?”
15%
12%
Increased
2012
2013*
Remained
the same
34%
32%
27%
Decreased
34%
25%
23%
Don’t know
Base: 217 SMA professionals
*Base: 182 SMA professionals
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
3-3
Change management still has an unhealthy ratio of chaos to control
“How many of your incidents can be related to changes?”
<10%
Ideal
15%
20%
23%
10% to 39%
Decent
27%
33%
34%
16%
14%
19%
40% to 70%
Poor
>70%
Terrible
2011
2012*
2013†
6%
5%
9%
22%
Don’t know
Chaos
26%
30%
Base: 491 SMA professionals
*Base: 217 SMA professionals
†
Base: 182 SMA professionals
(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q2 2011 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
†
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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The SIS, Service Catalog, And ITFM: Where To Focus Attention In 2014
The service information system (SIS), also known as CMDB; the service catalog; and IT financial
management are just three areas that, when executed well and applied and implemented in
conjunction, can equal something much greater than the sum of their parts. Forrester is confident
these areas of interest will remain key priorities and sources of investment for 2014 and beyond.
■ CMDB intentions are correct but struggle to materialize . . . When asked to rate their level
of development with regard to CMDB, 45% of survey respondents responded, “rudimentary,”
while another 10% selected “nonexistent” (see Figure 4-1). This should be better, but it’s not
surprising. The CMDB has a dark past riddled with unreliability, which is one of the reasons
Forrester encourages renaming it as SIS to better reflect its true intentions. As with the ITSM
versus SMA debate, using a different name is the first step in evolving away from a huge,
all-encompassing relational database and toward the realization of what this should be: an
information system that is contextual, behavioral, agile, and trustworthy. The SIS is the brain of
your organization — something that takes in and pushes out information quickly and accurately.
■ . . . yet SMA professionals are optimistic about the future. Nearly 70% of survey respondents
characterize CMDB market maturity as good, very good, or excellent, and looking forward to 2015,
80% predict that market maturity will fall into those categories (see Figure 4-2 and see Figure 4-3).
Also encouraging are the most popular selections of forces driving CMDB development: the
demand for better service visibility; change management; and increased automation (see Figure
4-4). These imperatives are the fuel behind the true intent of the SIS and support the servicecentric mind shift necessary to keep SMA relevant and progressing. The SIS/CMDB is the
cornerstone of BSM; you cannot have great business-focused service management without the
fundamental knowledge of service assets and the deeper relationships among those assets.
■ There is less planning and more implementing of service catalogs. Few endeavors are more
important to the future of I&O than service portfolio management (SPM), and the embodiment
of SPM is the service catalog.10 In 2013, funding was much less of an issue for service catalog
initiatives, proving that the value of a catalog is understood by the necessary stakeholders
(see Figure 5). Also, more SMA professionals are currently working on, rather than planning,
their catalogs. Further along in the life cycle, however, progress plateaus, with the number of
respondents who have realized or exceeded the anticipated benefits of their catalogs remaining
the same as in 2012, and those who have received no benefit from their initiatives dropping a
mere one percentage point. Proper planning and implementation take time; benefits are not
going to materialize overnight.
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■ IT financial management improves slightly . . . To operate as a true business function, IT
needs to apply financial principles and run its function as a business. In the 2013 results, more
SMA professionals describe their financial management capabilities as “good” and “optimized”
than in 2012 (see Figure 6-1), However, more also describe them in 2013 than in 2012 as “poor.”
Overall maturity did shift slightly in the right direction, though.
■ . . . but still sits below average maturity. We believe that SMA professionals were again too
optimistic in their self-assessment. While the fact that 22% of organizations are performing
chargeback and an additional 12% are performing show back is encouraging, this isn’t enough
to support mature, or even average, financial maturity (see Figure 6-2). You cannot be “good”
at financial management without transparency. The notorious “don’t know” group dropped by
seven percentage points year-over-year, but the fact that a full 40% of respondents do not know
whether chargeback is even in place suggests poor financial maturity.
Expert tip: Transparency of your technology management costs is fundamental to understanding
your technology spending. Technology management organizations face pressure to reduce costs of
technology management on one hand while delivering more value on the other. The only successful
strategy is the effective management of demand, ensuring that technology resources are applied to
the maximum benefit for the business. Cost transparency is the first critical step to fulfill this and
should be the first step in your financial management journey.
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The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
Figure 4 The CMDB Story In 2013
4-1
CMDB development is rudimentary
4-2
“Please rate your level of development
with regard to CMDB.”
CMDB market maturity is good
“How do you feel about the
market maturity with CMDB?”
What is CMDB?
2%
Extensive
Nonexistent
9%
10%
Don’t know
8%
Excellent
Poor
4%
2%
Very good
Fair
22%
21%
Good
34%
Rudimentary
45%
Good
43%
Base: 181 SMA professionals
4-3
SMA professionals are optimistic about the
future
Base: 179 SMA professionals
4-4
Service visibility drives future CMDB
development
“What is driving future CMDB development?”
Demand for better
service visibility
“Where do you think the CMDB
market maturity will be by 2015?”
Don’t know
11%
Poor
1%
Excellent
12%
Increased automation
11%
Other (please specify)
11%
Incident/
problem analysis
Service portfolio
management
Very good
43%
Base: 183 SMA professionals
21%
Change management
Fair
9%
Good
25%
25%
10%
8%
ITIL compliance
4%
Don’t know
4%
Service desk integration
3%
Vendors are infusing the
capability into their tools
3%
Base: 183 SMA professionals
(multiple responses accepted)
(percentages do not total 100 because of rounding)
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
March 17, 2014
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
16
The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
Figure 5 Less Planning And More Implementation Of Service Catalogs
“Which of the following best describes your service catalog initiative?”
31%
2012
2013*
25%
18%18%
16%
12%
17%
16%
13%
7%
2%
7% 7%
3%
3% 3%
2% 2%
We are
We are not We are
interested interested planning
for a
but
in a
service
currently
service
catalog
lack the
catalog
funds to
commence
an initiative
We are
currently
working
on our
service
catalog
initiative
We have a We have a We have
killed
service
service
our failed
catalog
catalog
service
and have but have
catalog
not
realized or
initiative
exceeded realized
the
the
anticipated anticipated
benefits
benefits
Don’t
know
Other
Base: 174 SMA professionals
*Base: 182 SMA professionals
(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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March 17, 2014
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
17
The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
Figure 6 IT Financial Management Improves And Gains More Visibility
6-1
IT financial management improves
6-2
IT financial management gains visibility
“How would you describe IT financial
management capabilities within your
organization?”
2012
“Are [you] doing or planning
chargeback or show back?”
2013*
2012
47%
2013*
40%
33%
29%
24%
19%
d
M
at
ur
in
g
O
pt
im
ize
d
Pl
an
ni
ng
sh
ow
oo
G
M
ixe
d
Po
or
Di
si
nt
er
es
te
d
ba
ck
10%
6%
5%
2%
sh
Pl
ow
an
ni
ba
ng
ck
ch
ar
ge
Do
ba
in
ck
g
ch
ar
ge
ba
ck
Do
n’
tk
no
w
15%
11%
21% 22%
16%
13%
11%12%
8% 9%
Base: 173 SMA professionals
*Base: 178 SMA professionals
Do
in
g
25%
21%
Base: 173 SMA professionals
*Base: 179 SMA professionals
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
The Service Desk Landscape Gets SaaS-y
Any discussion on SMA eventually comes down to the tools required to put service management
processes into action — in particular, service desk tools and the vendors who provide them. The
number of solutions and the different business models — SaaS or on-premises — stays pretty much
the same, but vendors are eager to snatch customers from their competitors.
■ Major vendor satisfaction slightly slips again, while small vendors get more of a grip. Across
the board, for the past three years, vendor satisfaction has greatly exceeded dissatisfaction, but
there are also some telling fluctuations (see Figure 7-1). Major vendor satisfaction dropped another
two percentage points from 2012 to 2013, which is nothing too serious on its own, but coupled
with the fact that small vendor satisfaction rose four percentage points, this is a faint warning that
larger vendors must continue their efforts to improve their products and customer relations.
© 2014, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
March 17, 2014
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
18
■ SaaS as a solution is taken off its pedestal. SaaS solutions continue to lead the pack, with 83%
of respondents expressing satisfaction, yet this is the third year in a row that satisfaction has
dropped. However, this decline has less to do with SaaS as a solution than it does SaaS as an idol
(i.e., something worshipped). In 2011, nearly all (96%) service management professionals with
a SaaS solution were satisfied with it. But SaaS is merely a business model. While it may solve
issues surrounding upgrades and reduced management, it is not a substitute for good service
management. Now the novelty has worn off and customers of SaaS have realized that no matter
what the delivery method, vendor pains, tool pains, and adoption issues still exist.
■ Service desk loyalty is still very high, and SMA professionals are more decisive. Ultimately,
vendor sentiment can be measured by customer flight to another choice (see Figure 7-2). The
group of service management professionals who are planning a switch in the next two years rose
in 2013 by two percentage points, but so did the group planning to stay put. The rise in both
of these groups is due to decisiveness, as those who either didn’t know or hadn’t decided their
plans dropped by six percentage points.
■ The vendor landscape stagnates. We asked SMA professionals to rate their vendors’ ability
to solve their management and automation needs; not much has changed since last year, and
in this case, no news is news (see Figure 7-3). ServiceNow took a large jump, surpassing all of
the big five except for Microsoft. HP and IBM increased slightly, while BMC Software and CA
Technologies decreased slightly.
■ 2013 is the breakout year for SaaS. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has been a topic on a tear
across almost all aspects of business technology, and in 2013, SaaS overtook “classic perpetual
license” as the future delivery and purchase model for SMA tools (see Figure 8). Although the
classic licensing model is still popular, it is clear that the simplicity of pricing models and the
time-to-value of SaaS have proven very attractive to enterprises.
Expert tip: The service desk is the wow factor of your organization, so treat it as such. Current
trends such as implementing self-service and personalizing your services to increase customer
experience are the right investments. SaaS solutions are one way to shift your focus onto the benefits
of ITSM rather than the management and technical implementation of it. The vendors have made
great investments in their SaaS solutions and are eager to get you started, but you must know your
key goals and understand how to make your SaaS purchase successful.11
© 2014, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
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For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
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The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
Figure 7 The SMA Tool And Vendor Landscape In 2013
7-1
Major vendor satisfaction slips, while small vendors get more of a grip
“What’s your current state with the service desk?”
2011
2012*
2013†
2011
2012*
2013†
31%
32%
34%
69%
68%
66%
Small vendor
29%
71%
41%
37%
2011
2012*
2013†
2011
2012*
2013†
Dissatisfied
Satisfied
Major vendor
4%
14%
17%
29%
36%
31%
59%
63%
SaaS
96%
86%
83%
Homebrew
71%
64%
69%
Base: 491 SMA professionals
*Base: 174 SMA professionals
†
Base: 181 SMA professionals
7-2
Service desk loyalty remains high, though SMA professionals are more decisive
“Do you plan to switch your service desk solution to another vendor’s in the next two years?”
21%
21%
23%
Yes
57%
53%
57%
No
Don’t know or
haven’t decided
2011
2012*
2013†
22%
26%
20%
Base: 491 SMA professionals
*Base: 174 SMA professionals
†
Base: 181 SMA professionals
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2011 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
†
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
March 17, 2014
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
20
The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
Figure 7 The SMA Tool And Vendor Landscape In 2013 (Cont.)
7-3
The vendor landscape stagnates
“Please rate each of the following major vendors for their ability to solve your broader
challenges (not point tools) for management and automation software.”
(Responses on a scale of 1 [no value] to 5 [valued partner])
Big five
BMC Software
CA Technologies
2011
2012*
2013†
3.11
2.86
2.83
2.80
2.47
2.44
3.28
2.87
2.92
HP
3.18
2.95
2.96
IBM
3.38
3.48
3.42
Microsoft
Challengers
ASG
2.01
1.80
1.78
Fujitsu
3.40
3.47
3.34
Cisco Systems
Citrix Systems
Compuware
Dell‡
EMC
3.04
3.10
2.53
2.29
2.03
2.55
2.94
2.77
3.11
2.80
2.83
NetIQ§
Oracle
Symantec
ServiceNow
VMware
1.67
2.00
2.26
2.27
2.32
3.21
3.21
3.00
3.04
2.71
2.77
3.23
3.74
3.67
3.46
Base: 491 SMA professionals
*Base: 174 SMA professionals
†
Base: 181 SMA professionals
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2011 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
†
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
‡
In 2011, this was Quest, since acquired by Dell.
§
In 2011, this was Novell, since acquired by NetIQ.
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© 2014, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
March 17, 2014
For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
21
The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
Figure 8 2013 Is The Breakout Year For SaaS
“How do you plan to purchase management and automation software within two years?”
31%
2011
2012*
2013†
25% 25%
25%
22%
19%
7%
5%
8% 8%
6%
5%
8%
7%
4%
C
la
ss
So
ic
f tw
pe
a
m re
rp
ai
et
nt ren
ua
ai ta
l
i
ce l
n
lik l/le
n
se
e as
Pa
pe in
ck
g
rp
ag
et (in
ed
ua st
l m all/
in
a
od
ph
el
y
)
Pa
si
c
ck
al
ag
ap
ed
pl
ia
Pr
in
nc
eb
a
e
ui
v
ir t
lt
ua
in
to
la
an m
pp
d an
lia
ap ag
nc
pl ed
e
C
ic
la
at inf
ss
r
i
on as
ic
ou
co tru
ts
m ctu
o
po re
pr urc
ne
ov in
nt
id g m
s
er
o
is de
De
do l (
liv
in se
er
g rv
ed
it ic
fo e
vi
ru
an a S
s)
d aa
pr S
es (a
en uto
te m
d a
vi ted
a
W
eb
)
5%
9%
8%
th
er
9%
11%
O
10%
11%
10%
11%
Base: 491 SMA professionals
*Base: 174 SMA professionals
†
Base: 155 SMA professionals
(multiple responses accepted)
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2011 US ITSM Online Survey
*Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2012 US ITSM Online Survey
†
Source: Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online Survey
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Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
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For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals
The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?
22
Supplemental Material
Methodology
In Q3 2013, Forrester and itSMF USA launched the Forrester/itSMF Q3 2013 US ITSM Online
Survey, a web-based survey designed to gain perspective on the sentiments and status of IT service
management (ITSM) among technology management professionals focused on ITSM. Forrester
now refers to ITSM as service management and automation; therefore, we are designating our 2013
survey respondents as “SMA professionals.”
One hundred eighty-four Forrester clients, itSMF members, and Twitter followers responded
to this survey. Please note that sample sizes vary by question, as not every respondent answered
every question.
In 2011, 95% of total responses originated from North America, while in 2012, that figure was 89%.
Due to this overwhelmingly North American response in previous years and the fact that this survey
is done in conjunction with the USA chapter of itSMF, we did not ask respondents to list their
country of origin in 2013.
Seventy-four percent of respondents’ firms/organizations employ more than 1,000 people. Thirtynine percent employ more than 20,000 people. Eighty-four percent of respondents hold a bachelor’s
degree or higher; 29% of respondents hold a degree in computer science/engineering; and 32% hold
a degree in business.
Endnotes
“Service management” originated with the product marketing and management theories of Theodore
Levitt and Richard Normann. Early service management research and thinking can be attributed to
Theodore Levitt. Modern-day service management as a term is attributed to Richard Normann. Source:
Theodore Levitt, Marketing Myopia, Harvard Business Review Press, 1975 and Richard Normann, Service
Management: Strategy and Leadership in Service Business, Wiley, 2011.
1
2
Forrester defines the age of the customer as a 20-year business cycle in which the most successful
enterprises will reinvent themselves to systematically understand and serve increasingly powerful
customers. To learn more about how technology management must adapt in this rapidly changing world,
see the October 10, 2013, “Technology Management In The Age Of The Customer” report and see the
October 10, 2013, “Competitive Strategy In The Age Of The Customer” report.
For more information on this evolution of ITSM to SMA and the trends that I&O leaders need to
understand to plan for the future, see the February 6, 2012, “Become Customer-Centric, Service-Focused,
And Automated” report.
3
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23
Inspired by innovations in Agile software development and the application of the Lean principle of
continuous improvement, development and operations have been chipping away at the obstacles that
have prevented faster delivery of value to the business. Joining together, the movement, called DevOps by
some, has been gaining momentum and achieving impressive results. For information on the seven main
principles of DevOps, see the September 3, 2013, “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective DevOps” report.
4
Source: “Velocity 2011: Jon Jenkins, ‘Velocity Culture,’” YouTube, June 20, 2011 (www.youtube.com/
watch?v=dxk8b9rSKOo).
5
Business service management (BSM) is a way to bridge the user’s view of applications and services to the IT
operations’ view of infrastructure; it maps business services to the components used to deliver them. The
promise is that this insight will provide visibility into IT from a business service standpoint and give IT the
ability to resolve issues faster, focus on key business services, and better align IT management processes
with business needs. For more information, see the September 24, 2012, “Business Service Management:
Beyond 2012” report.
6
Positive feedback loops is a concept Forrester will be exploring more in our upcoming industrial revolution
of I&O report series. Just as the 18th-century Industrial Revolution altered the concept of labor, the
21st-century IT industrial revolution is altering the concept of computing, and much can be learned
from comparing these two periods of upheaval. Throughout the original Industrial Revolution, many
advancements fueled or refined other advancements, creating self-sustaining and steady progression. How
we get from point A to points B, C, and D is no longer a straight line but a cycle, with each step along
the way fueling the next one or refining a previous one. This is how we will go from linear to exponential
progress.
7
Forrester’s service management and automation assessment framework consists of four SMA domains
(oversight, technology, process, and people) and 26 SMA functions. See the June 5, 2012, “Forrester’s
Service Management And Automation Assessment Framework” report.
8
In a US Department of Defense news briefing on February 12, 2002, US Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld gave a confusing but accurate account on the challenges of battling terrorist threats. He
infamously identified threats to be battles with varying degrees of difficulty. Introducing the public to terms
such as “known knowns,” “known unknowns,” and “unknown unknowns,” he earned a place in comedic
history, but his statements were technically correct. Source: “DoD News Briefing — Secretary Rumsfeld and
Gen. Myers,” US Department of Defense, February 12, 2002 (http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.
aspx?transcriptid=2636).
9
A service catalog can be so much more than a catalog of the capabilities and services IT offers to the
business. It can, and should, be a strategic control point for your entire organization. To learn more about
how a service catalog can enable visibility, agility, and control, as well as understand where you fall in terms
of maturity and how to choose the best tool for you, see the June 12, 2013, “Master The Service Catalog
Solution Landscape In 2013” report.
10
For more information and advice on making SaaS purchasing successful, see the January 22, 2013, “SaaS
Capabilities Maturity Assessment” report.
11
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About Forrester
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You are responsible for identifying — and justifying — which technologies
and process changes will help you transform and industrialize your
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Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) is a global research and advisory firm serving professionals in 13 key roles across three distinct client
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