VPIT
IT’s all in the Service
Paul Sorenson
Vice-Provost (IT) &
Professor of Computing Science
University of Alberta
VPIT
Organizational View
President
Provost & VP(Acad)
VP(Ext Rel) VP(Research)
VP(Fin&Adm) VP(Fac&Oper)
Vice-Provost(IT)
UTS
Nov. 18. 2005
AICT (CNS)
AIS
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Services, Services, Services…
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•
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•
•
•
Services – the definition
Services – the technology
Services – the philosophy
Services – the organization
Services – the plan and the budget
Services – the “Science”
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Services – the definition
• Webster’s:
- “performance
work
for
another;
- “performance
ofofwork
for
another;
- military or naval duty;
- labor, assistance, benefit;
- set of dishes at table.”
• Service in IT:
what’s the nature of the “work” and who is
the “another”;
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“Anothers” include…
•
•
•
•
•
Students
Identity
Faculty
73
Management
Support staff
Alumni
Stakeholders (governments, industry,
organizations, etc.)
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IT Services
• A service is a function that is well-defined,
self-contained, and does not depend on the
context or state of other services.
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Web Services
Description
Language (WSDL)
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Web
Services
Exposed!
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Services – The Philosophy
• Uniformity – services are viewed and
requested in a consistent manner
• Integration – a service can request
other services and can be requested
by other services
• Anywhere at anytime – services
running on the web can be accessed
(on demand)
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Services – The Organization
• Adopts a notion of high-quality service:
- helpful
- performs (does what is says it will
do)
- consistent (reliable)
- uses measurement to improve
quality
of service
• In general, meets service level
Nov.agreements,
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Services – The Organization
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Service Measures
• SERVQUAL - Service Quality Surveys
Performance
Excellent
Adequate
Possible
overkill
Low
priority
Keep up the
good work
Concentrate
here
Slightly Important Extremely Important
Importance
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10 Most Common Dimensions
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•
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•
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Tangibles—physical appearance
Reliability—perform as promised constantly
Responsiveness
Competence
Courtesy
Credibility
Security/Safety
Access—easy to do business
Communication—keeping customer
informed
• Understanding customer needs
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Service – Plan & Budget
• Service score card approach
• Contains:
- Service description
- Service development history [recent]
- Key performance measures and target
service levels [e.g., SIS$/student]
- Current budget/expenditures
- 3-year budget forecast
- Risks of failure and opportunities for
improvement
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Service Culture
• Service week!
• Incentives to
support the
culture!
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Services Science
• IBM’s challenge – 55% of their business is in
services and this portion is growing
• Their major research labs in Yorktown
Heights, Almaden and Zurich focus on
hardware and software research
• Major gap in research on service
provisioning
• New research partnerships and academic
programs in services science
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Alberta CAS (Centre for Advanced Study)
• One of 10 CASs worldwide
• Focus is initially on UofA in machine
learning, nanotechnology, and bio-simulation
• Initial discussions on services science
involving computing science, business,
engineering, law
• Case studies, joint research projects,
development of shared programs
• Involve research, learning and
Nov.administration
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Conclusions
• Services approach provides a simple,
yet holistic approach to information
systems planning, deployment,
evaluation, improvement and research.
• Global impact …
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Globalization
- Globalization I – [1492-1800] shrunk large to
medium, resources and imperial conquest
- Globalization II – [1800-2000] shrunk from
medium to small, global companies focused on
market and labour.
- Globalization III – [2000-?] small to tiny and
flattened, impact of IT
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Is IT Flattening Our World?
&
Should We Really Care?
Bangalore
Beijing
Map from:
www.bfi.org/map.htm#define
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Quotes from the Experts
“The most profound thing to me is
a 14-year-old in Romania or
Bangalore or the Soviet Union or
Vietnam has all the information,
all the tools, all the software
easily available to apply
knowledge however they want.”
… Marc Andreessen,
co-found of
Netscape
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Quotes from the Experts
“When I compare our high
schools to what I saw when I’m
traveling abroad, I’m terrified for
our work force of tomorrow …
America is falling behind.”
… Bill Gates
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Quotes from the Experts
Nov. 18. 2005
“When I was growing up, my parents
used to say to me. ‘Tom, finish your
dinner – people in China are
starving.’ But after sailing to the
edges of the flat world for a year, I
am now telling my two daughters,
‘Girls, finish your homework – people
in China and India are starving for
your jobs’.”
… Thomas L. Friedman,
New York Times
author of
COWFLOP - ITs all in the “The
Service World is Flat”
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VPIT
The End!
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