There are many elements to a successful Managed Service, we have found that one of the key elements is utilising dedicated Service Transition.
Having a dedicated Service Transition resource can make a significant difference when you move your Professional Service delivery over to a Managed Service. In this blog, we speak to John Davies our Service Transition Manager.
The Service Transition Manager is responsible for all aspects of the transition of SAP projects into Managed Services. This involves the formal management of the entire transition process for each managed service sale or significant contract extension using industry-accepted best practice techniques i.e. ITIL / PRINCE2.
John Davies: ITIL Expert, Consultant Manager in ITSM based on ISO/IEC 20000, ComptiaTIA Security+, PRINCE2 Practitioner.
Q: Tell us a bit about your role
A: The Service Transition Manager should ensure that a project can move from Project initiation to Delivery in operations smoothly. With a clear understanding of what is expected (people & process) to not only run, but improve the service during the managed service.
Working with the customer to produce the high-level service design and ensuring the who / what / where detailed questions are answered before moving into a Service Operation Manual (SOM) or Operations playbook.
Developing and testing during the transition, to increase confidence critical can go-live with limited impact on operational functions/business processes.
When transitioning business-critical services, the Service Transition Manager can facilitate scenario walkthroughs where all stakeholders involved work through a Major Incident or critical business process. This learning reduces the risk of a large ‘go-live’ or ‘big-bang’ deployment.
Q: What are the key factors for success?
A: I see Transition in 4 distinct stages from project acceptance into service delivery. This is set up to continually evolve over the managed service.
4 factors of success in IT project transition
Project Initiation
Project acceptance, conversations with the customer and delivery teams. Selecting standard service definitions that are known capabilities and highlighting where the service will need to be bespoke for that customer or stakeholder.
High-level service design and solution design are produced which are developed during planning and co-ordination.
Planning & Coordination
Robust project planning to deliver the technical solution with a transition plan to ensure the service can be supported in Business as Usual (BAU). The service design is used to prompt who, what, where questions to test the working process. Critical Success Factors used as checks that the service performs as expected. This detail is documented in the Service Operating Manual (SOM) so all stakeholders know what is expected to support the service. The Manual provides an end-to-end picture of the administration tools available with SAP HANA and the key tasks that a system administrator needs to perform.
Service Assurance
Documenting learnings from scenario testing the SOM and gathering acceptance from all lines of service this enables stakeholders to have confidence the service can go-live with little impact to BAU.
Service Delivery
By understanding the current state of the service, stakeholders can set an environment for improvement and having a CSI register that is updated/reviewed as part of regular service reviews.
To discuss the benefits with John please fill out details below or send us an email here.