{"id":11143,"date":"2017-09-12T12:44:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T19:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=11143"},"modified":"2023-06-16T16:07:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T23:07:43","slug":"from-systems-to-people-rethinking-service-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/from-systems-to-people-rethinking-service-management\/","title":{"rendered":"From systems to people: rethinking service management"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Moving to the cloud requires more than just technology-it demands a new approach to managing services. For the Office 365 service management team at Microsoft, the employee experience is our top priority. We\u2019re focusing on end-to-end services and aligning IT skills with strategic roles. We deliver frequent Office 365 updates in shortened release cycles with new governance models to help protect corporate assets while promoting collaboration. It\u2019s paying off-we\u2019re seeing employees adopt the services and enhance productivity.<\/p>\n

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IT organizations in global companies are under tremendous pressure to support their company\u2019s digital transformation. To maintain a competitive edge, technical decision makers need to adopt solutions that connect teams and people around the world and that empower employees, optimize operations, and transform products to best serve their customers. And with shrinking budgets and compressed release cycles, IT needs to achieve results more quickly and more efficiently than ever before.<\/p>\n

The cloud adoption mandate<\/h2>\n

As the business demands faster, more agile, and less costly solutions to achieve their digital transformation, cloud computing offers a compelling way to meet ever-increasing user needs. The cloud delivers the very latest versions of apps that can enhance employee collaboration and productivity, which in turn accelerates great customer outcomes.<\/p>\n

However, transitioning to the cloud can create growing pains for IT organizations because the old emphasis on server maintenance, applying patches, and other activities in the datacenter isn\u2019t relevant. IT leadership needs to undergo a fundamental shift in thinking about how services are delivered and managed, what value these services bring to the business, and what shifts in organizational roles and mindsets are needed to realize benefits.<\/p>\n

If you are a technical decision maker helping drive innovation in your company, what does service management mean to your IT employees when they no longer manage servers? In the new digital world, service management isn\u2019t just about pushing changes out to users; it\u2019s about helping to articulate business goals, and then creating a plan to achieve those goals. You\u2019re shifting mindsets, not just deploying new technology. You\u2019ll need to restructure your service management processes, transform IT roles to higher-level functions that increase their value to the business, and think about governance and communications in new ways.<\/p>\n

When success is measured in increased employee productivity via increased service adoption rates, IT needs to embrace a user (employee)-centric mindset. Every aspect of service management must be viewed under an end-user lens to deliver the tools, services, and information employees need to do their jobs faster and better.<\/p>\n

Shifting from servers to services<\/h2>\n

At Microsoft, we recognize that the value of IT shifts as business evolves. As a result, we constantly adjust the engagement and boundaries between Microsoft Digital and the business. Today, the success of our IT organization is measured by its contributions to business results. In support of this business model, our IT strategy centers on service management, doing everything we can to demonstrate value to our fellow employees and to promote adoption of these tools and services. This same IT strategy is reflected in how we approach our own internal service management.<\/p>\n

Figure 1 illustrates that, as we continue migrating employees from on-premises\u2013based systems to Office 365, we\u2019ve shifted our focus from maintaining servers to concentrating on how our services can benefit our fellow employees. For example, the types of services we provide our organizations are aligned around collaboration, email services, unified communications, and meeting experiences.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1. Microsoft Digital service management duties in the old, on-premises world versus Core Services Engineering service management duties in the new cloud-based services world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shifting the role of IT<\/h2>\n

IT departments across the industry are facing changes on every front. At Microsoft, our IT department and our roles are also changing. Service management is focusing not just on the technology but also the people. Here, we compare what service management used to focus on versus what we emphasize today.<\/p>\n

Our old focus: Servers and slow, perpetual upgrades<\/h3>\n

In the past, a key responsibility of the Microsoft Digital service management team was maintaining the on-premises servers that delivered our business-critical communications and file storage systems, including Exchange, Skype for Business, and SharePoint. Like many enterprise IT organizations, when the bulk of our systems were on-premises, our focus was on server availability and control\u2014applying patches and upgrades, defining server policies, maintaining availability, and ensuring adequate capacity.<\/p>\n

When we had two or three years between major product updates, we could do compatibility testing well in advance of new builds to minimize any potential issue with other integrated systems and business-critical applications. We began testing in a development environment, moved to a test environment, and then slowly released the update into the production environment.<\/p>\n

In this environment, each team was deeply technical around their own set of systems, but they had little interaction with other groups. Moreover, the technical expertise that an employee developed within one area made it difficult to transition into other areas. A siloed culture often hampered collaboration with other groups, which led to duplication of effort and inefficiency.<\/p>\n

Our new focus: Services<\/h3>\n

The first thing we are changing as we move to the cloud is our mindset. We\u2019re no longer thinking about building individual applications or infrastructure capabilities and delivering big, multi-year projects. Instead, we now deliver end-to-end services such as Office 365 where we make agile, continuous updates. We work in more agile ways, and we recognize business-driven technology choices in our business groups instead of trying to keep control within our Core Services Engineering organization. And we\u2019re fully committed to this\u2014every employee in Microsoft is focused on our services mindset.<\/p>\n

Today, we examine every role and task for business value. We constantly look for ways to accelerate and improve capabilities for our employees, enabling them to connect with teams around the world and improve productivity.<\/p>\n

Key takeaway: Educate everyone on the new service management mindset, and what it means to their role.\u00a0<\/strong>Successfully driving such a transition requires that everyone understands where they fit into the new order. This means:<\/i><\/p>\n