Service Strategy
Meghna B. Patel
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
Service Strategy
ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) framework is considered as a set of best practices for IT Service Management (ITSM). This framework is widely used by many IT service providers to deliver quality IT services that adds value to customer and aims at attaining the business objectives. It consists of different processes and functions which are divided among five stages of service life cycle. Service Strategy is the first stage in this life cycle. “ITIL Service Strategy provides guidance on how to view service management not only as an organizational capability but as a strategic asset” (Cannon, 2011). It helps in designing, development and implementation of IT services that aligns with the business strategy and thus allowing service providers to think and act in a strategic manner.
Service Strategy Principles
Utility and Warranty
Value of service consists of two components: Utility (fitness for purpose) and Warranty (fitness for use). According to Cannon (2011), Utility is the functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particular need. It refers to those characteristics of a service that contribute to tasks associated with achieving business outcomes. It is used to improve performance of these tasks and/or to remove constraints that prevent the task from being carried out sufficiently. Warranty is an assurance that a product or service will meet its agreed requirements. It refers to the ability of service to be available when needed, to provide the required capacity and to provide required reliability in terms of continuity and security.

Figure 1 Service designed, built and delivered with both utility and warranty
Thus Utility is what the service does (purpose of service) and Warranty is how the service is delivered which can then