IT services. Who or what creates service utility? Part three

In this series of articles Dmitry Kashtanov writes about what kinds of services you can find in the IT field, how they differ and what you should and should not expect from them. He cites the examples of services categories so you can compare them with each other for a greater understanding.

IT services: introduction and basics. Part One.

IT services: service formula. Part Two.

Part Three

In this series we see IT services only as such services, which outcomes are provided exclusively by means of information technology, rather than the provider’s employees. First of all, we are talking about immediate functionality (utility) of the service. Yes, IT systems fail and become obsolete, and people need to fix and update them. But when everything works people are not needed. Absolutely. In IT services the provider’s employees do not spend their time directly on the formation of the desired outcome.

Examples of IT services are:

• Internet access;
• email;
• cashier workplace.

IT services do not include:

• support and maintenance of network devices;
• support and maintenance of Exchange servers;
• support and maintenance of workplace software.

Let’s take a look at two diagrams to make it clearer how these services are different from each other and how they are interrelated. The first is a conceptual (simplified) composition of the IT service. Something like a class diagram in software development. Second is the developed composition of the IT services taken for example. This is the class object (instance) diagram. To simplify the diagram most objects are not shown.

Dotted lines at both diagrams indicate those things that the owner of the IT service (in fact the customer of supported services) do not have to worry about every day, as its suppliers and contractors are responsible for them.

Diagrams and full article are available on Megamozg.