Introduction
What is SIAM? The acronym SIAM stands for Service Integration and Management. SIAM refers to a management methodology that enables an organization to receive services from a number of different service providers. The SIAM Foundation Study Guide supports the required learning for the SIAM Foundation certificate from EXIN/BCS.
1. The title: Service Integration and Management (SIAM®) Foundation Study Guide
2. The basics
SIAM is the generally accepted acronym for service integration and management. Other acronyms in use are:
■ MSI – multi sourcing integration
■ SMI – service management integration
■ SI – service integration
■ SMAI – service management and integration
■ SI&M – service integration and management.
The structure and approach of IT service delivery for organizations has changed over the years. As service provision has become more complex, across the whole organization, not just IT, organizations have introduced new ways of sourcing to ensure they achieve their outcomes effectively. Specialized industries have developed over the years, focusing on specific business processes, taking the need for expertise in these areas away from the main organization.
3. Target Audience
This certification is aimed at professionals worldwide who have an interest in SIAM or want to implement this methodology in an organization, particularly those professionals who are already working with IT service management processes. Furthermore, this SIAM certification is intended for providers that want to implement and manage SIAM models. More specifically, the following roles could be interested: Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs), Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Technical Officers (CTOs), Service Managers, Service Provider Portfolio Strategists/Leads, Managers (e.g. Process Managers, Project Managers, Change Managers, Service Level Managers, Business Relationship Managers, Program Managers and Supplier Managers), Service Architects, Process Architects, Business Change Practitioners and Organizational Change Practitioners.
4. Summary
This study guide is based on the syllabus for the EXIN BCS Service Integration and Management (SIAM®) Foundation qualification, which is based on the Service Integration and Management Body of Knowledge (SIAM Foundation BoK). We consider these elements in the following chapters:
1. Introduction
2. Introduction to SIAM
3. The SIAM ecosystem
4. Roles and responsibilities
5. The SIAM implementation roadmap
6. SIAM practices
7. Processes to support SIAM
8. Specific processes to support SIAM
9. Challenges and risks
10.SIAM and other practices
5. Scope
In order to understand SIAM, we need to understand how organizations have developed over time. Many years ago, an organization would have all of its services provided ‘in-house’, including finance, human resources and whatever IT was provided or used. In the 1970s and 1980s organizations began to take a different approach and look at how they could utilize specialist resources provided by other organizations, so that they could focus on their core business. This was the beginning of outsourcing, or external sourcing, which became recognised as a business strategy in 1989.
There are many good reasons for outsourcing services. Some organizations outsource simple processes, some more complex activities, dependent on the benefits that are required. This has led to the growth of ‘business process outsourcing’, and this brings new challenges and requirements.
For example, your organization may have a simple procurement process for new user equipment, which is fulfilled by a third party. A request will be raised in-house, then actioned by the third party, without having any delays or additional steps in the work flow, speeding up the procurement. Another example is outsourcing a particular business process or activity, such as payroll. The specific skillsets, software and management can be provided through the third party, without having to retain those skills in-house. This can be particularly advantageous if the organization is small, as the external provider will have economies of scale, offering the same service to multiple customers at an economic rate.
When we consider these challenges for modern organizations in either public or private sectors, we need to understand how organizations can manage multiple vendors and service providers, and bring them together to deliver a consistent overall approach.
This is the purpose of the SIAM approach. It allows organizations to maintain control over the delivery of services, through governance, management, integration, assurance, and coordination to ensure that the customer organization gets maximum value from its service providers. It is a new way of working that allows organizations to maximize the benefit of working with several different service providers.
Adopting SIAM allows an organization to establish an environment where each of the parties involved understand:
■ Their role, responsibilities and the context in which they operate
■ What they are empowered to deliver, and what is outside their scope
■ What outcomes they are accountable for in the overall service provider model.
This environment encourages the need for a management approach which can coordinate multiple service providers. In the SIAM model, this is referred to as a service integrator. The service integrator is defined as ‘a single logical entity held accountable for the end-to-end delivery of services and the business value that the customer receives’.
SIAM is applicable to any size of organization, public or private sector. The only requirement is that the services are being provided by multiple providers. A SIAM approach is not applicable to organizations with only one service provider, as there is nothing to integrate.
SIAM can be applied to external service providers, internal service providers, or a mixture of both. The more complex the service model, and the more service providers that are involved, the more likely it is for the customer organization to receive value from adopting SIAM.
The SIAM Foundation Study Guide is based on the SIAM Foundation Body of Knowledge, and applies that knowledge to the SIAM Foundation certification syllabus.
Title: Service Integration And Management (SIAM) Foundation Study Guide
ISBN: 9789401801041
Author: Helen Morris , Liz Gallacher
Price: € 42.35
