IT Service Management - A paradigm shift from technology to service providers

Abstract: Studies indicate that organizations are having problems to deliver IT services that correspond with the business processes. These problems are mainly a result of misalignments between business- and IT processes where IT processes have to be centralized, instead of separated from organizations. In this study we address the issue of misalignments between business- and IT processes by describing how a sustainable alignment should or could be achieved. We are also exploring best practices and concepts of IT Service Management for identifying how achieved business & IT alignment could be used to deliver IT services which correspond with the business processes of an organization. Finally, explaining what is important when measuring ITSM quality and how the quality aspect should be measured. To answer the purpose with the study we have chosen to perform qualitative expert interviews with four different IT-experts working with IT Service Management and business & IT alignment. The collected data from the informants, a theoretical framework including business & IT alignment achievement, business processes improvement, and IT service quality control has together formed the result of our investigation. The findings from our study indicate that the boundaries between business and IT are rather unclear where communication, collaboration, knowledge, understanding, and agreements between business and IT are important prerequisite for delivering IT services that correspond to the business process. We have also concluded that there are no specific guidelines from which the quality aspect of ITSM should be measured. We have identified that different technical and organizational components are dependent on others and these have to be compared for measuring Quality of Service.