What is ITIL Service Operation?

IT service operation consists of periodic activities, infrastructure, and processes that deliver value to businesses using technology.

Purpose of ITIL Service Operation

The main objective of IT service operations is to ensure that the required IT services are delivered efficiently and effectively as per the service level agreements to the business users and customers.

Service operations are vital for an organization as meticulously designed and implemented process will be rendered ineffectual if the operations are ineffectively conducted.

Service Operation also helps to improve the service as periodic activities for performance monitoring, assessment metrics and data gathering are systematically conducted.

Scope of ITIL Service Operation

The following come under the scope of Service Operation

• The service provided by the service provider, external supplier or even the end user comes under the scope of Service Operation.

• Service management also comes under the purview of Service Operation as it provides input and influences service design, strategy and transition.

• Management of technology is an important part of service operations as all IT services need some form of technology to function.

• Human resource is vital as it is the people who manage the services, technology and take the organization forward. Failure to recognize the importance of a skilled workforce will result in failure of projects.

Business Value of ITIL Service Operation

In the ITIL service lifecycle, each stage adds some value to the business involved. Service Strategy, Service Design, and Service Transition play a major role in providing value to a service, but it is only in the Service Operations stage that the actual value imparted is visible. The values are visible through processes of Service Operation such as Incident management, Event management, Problem management, Access management and Request Fulfillment.

Optimization of ITIL Service Operation

There are 2 ways to optimize service operation.

1. Long-Term Incremental Improvement

   It involves evaluation of the performance and output of all the processes and functions of service operations over time. All the reports are analyzed, and decisions are made regarding the necessity and type of improvement needed.

   For example, changes or reconfiguration of process designs and infrastructure are considered as a long-term incremental improvement.

2. Short-Term Ongoing Improvement

   It is concerned with smaller improvements in working practices in the Service Operation processes without any major change to a process or technology.

   For example, reassigning or personnel, balancing of workload and refining a process.

Functions of ITIL Service Operation

There are 4 functions under service operations:

1. Service Desk

   The service desk is the primary point of contact for coordination of activities between the end user and the IT service provider.

2. Technical Management

   The role of the technical management is to provide the required in-depth resources and technical skills which are necessary to support the continuing operations in the IT sector of the organization.

   It is their duty to assist in designing, testing and releasing new services and improving the existing services.

3. IT Operation Management

   The IT Operations Management is in charge of executing the operational activities needed on a day-to-day basis to manage the IT infrastructure in the organization.

4. Application Management

   The Application management is responsible for making decisions such as whether to make or buy a service and to play a major role in designing, testing, and improvement of applications.

Processes Under Service Operation

1. Event Management

   It deals with managing an event through its life cycle. It involves detection of events, filtering them, respond to and logging them to maintain a record.

2. Incident Management

   It is concerned with restoring the disrupted services quickly and bringing them back to normal functioning levels to minimize the impact of the disruption on the business.

3. Problem Management

   Problem management deals with finding out the root cause of the incidents and to take proactive measures to ensure that such incidents don’t occur in the future.

4. Request Fulfilment

   It deals with service requests, which are small and low-risk changes such as the creation of new user IDs, password changes, etc. which are not the core business of a company.

5. Access Management

   Access management is concerned with granting the access to use a service to only authorized users and preventing unauthorized ones from accessing them.

IT service operations, thus ensures that the required IT services are delivered efficiently and effectively to the business users and customers since they are vital for the working of an organization. In addition, they improve the service by periodically monitoring the activities, assessing the metrics and systematically gathering data.