Let's think twice about the self-service bandwagon

Why does the IT industry assume that 'self-service' is always the way to go? When we speak to our clients, it's frequently not what they want — at least, not if self-service means self-provisioning.

They certainly do want flexible and on-demand services. They want the ability to order, deploy, report on, manage and fix their IT services quickly and efficiently. But they want choices about how to make it all happen. They don't want to be told that they can't talk to anyone, that they have no choice but to go online and that they have to do everything themselves.

Two models of IT service: one size doesn't fit all
The tendency to push everything to the customer, irrespective of whether it's the most efficient — or their preferred — way to get it done, has its roots in the first on-demand cloud computing services. For many people, cloud computing is still exemplified by services such as Amazon's that cater to a huge market in an undifferentiated way, leveraging self-service as one strategy to keep costs down. In this model, delivering good service depends on developing the service to cater to the majority. Individual preferences or differences are not the guiding principle.

We would argue it's a perfectly valid service model, but not the best one for an enterprise service provider seeking to help clients manage high levels of service back into their organisation.

Our clients are looking for ways to simplify the delivery and management of complex IT environments that usually comprise a mix of in-house and outsourced, on-premise and off-premise services. More than anything they want seamless end-to-end visibility and control of these different resources and delivery models, and to be able to choose where they want direct control and what to leave to us.

Orchestration across service models
This calls for a different model of service, focused on giving the customer as much transparency as possible, and the tools to respond flexibly to changing business expectations in highly efficient ways. You need the ability to orchestrate across different IT environments to deliver service to your business, confident that the underpinning technology, service and commercial elements will come together in the way that you need them to.

For us, helping you to achieve this is what service is all about. Self-service — for any element of IT delivery and management — is certainly a choice you should have in achieving this; but it's not the only one.