Is Service Strategy your Everest?

Essentially strategy is separating what to do versus what not to do.
It brings about alignment to your organisation’s vision.
In this blog, I will endeavour to cover why having a service management strategy is critical for your organisation and point you towards well-known principles that will help you scale it.
You could think of this like climbing a mountain.
It starts with your perspective.
Perspective – outlines your vision and direction.
What does Everest look like? What do you see?
In the context of service strategy, it’s how you see yourself in the market. How you differentiate yourself from the providers you engage. At Kloud we are relatively young when it comes to alternate service providers that have dominated the markets over the past, yet we have a sound vision, and that vision is the inevitable shift towards cloud computing. Having this perspective allows us to clearly understand what we are about as we continue to evolve our service strategy.
What route will you take to ascend Everest?
In the context of service strategy, it’s your position.
Position – describes the decision to adopt a well-defined stance. At Kloud we believe that from a service management perspective there is a new model (consumption-based service management) when it comes to delivering value. Have a read of a recent blog I published around this shift.
https://blog.kloud.com.au/2016/04/06/consumption-based-service-management/
Your route will ultimately define the decisions you will continue to take amongst the many potential paths you will be presented to take.
You need a plan to make the ascent.
You can see the summit, you know the route you need to take but now it’s time to plan how your journey.
The Plan – describes the means of transitioning from ‘as is’ to ‘to be’. A plan might detail, ‘How do we offer high- value or low-cost services?’ Or, ‘How do we achieve and offer our specialised services?’ You need a plan that will detail how you will get there. It allows all involved to see what’s required to get you there.
The way you climb.
In the context of service strategy, it’s your pattern.
Pattern – describes a series of consistent decisions and actions over time.  Over a period of time, your climbing style will start to show. What do I mean? Well, are you risk adverse? Do you climb with or without a support ? In Service Strategy, this could be providing service with high availability or high value, this will soon develop into your pattern, what you consistently gravitate towards.
In summary requirements and conditions are ever changing. A service provider may begin with any one form and evolve to another.
As a service provider, you might begin with a perspective. The service provider might then decide to take on a position articulated through Company policies, capabilities and resources.
This position may then be achieved through the execution of a plan.
Once you have been able to achieve this, the service provider may maintain its position through a series of well-understood decisions and action over time: a pattern.
I encourage you to use all four Ps, Perspective, Position, Plan and Pattern. Move between all four as required, seeing the big picture while working through the details.