Developing a service strategy where customer introduced variability requires specific planning. IN this part, considerations for using reduction and accommodation strategies are covered. Part 1 is available here on SlideShare.

1. Developing an IT Service StrategyPart 2: Dealing With Variability Jerry Bishop Blog.TheHigherEdCIO.com Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

2. Acknowledgements & References This presentation was inspired by the work of Frances X. Frei, Professor Harvard Business School who has written extensively and very insightfully on managing service businesses. Breaking the Trade-Off Between Efficiency Versus Service, HBR Nov 06

3. Part 1 REcapservice Variability 5 categories of customer introduced variability Developing an IT Service Strategy Part 1

4. Arrival Variability Customers do not want service at the same times which is not always convenient for the company.

5. Request Variability Customers’ wants and needs are not the same.

6. Capability Variability Some customers are more capable of assisting in the service while others require hand-holding.

7. Effort Variability When customers must perform a role in a service interaction, it’s up to them how much effort they apply to the task.

8. Subjective Preference Variability Customers’ opinions vary widely on what it means to get good service.

9. Part 2: Dealing with variability Dealing with variability will follow on blog.thehigheredcio.com and be posted to slideshare.net

10. The Challenge The challenge for service managers is how and how much to reduce or accommodate customer introduced variability in their service model

11. Balancing Service with Efficiency Services must support Consistent and repeatable results Achieving a clear value (cost – quality) target Capable (How) of handling variability Efficiency must provide Boundaries to maintain the value target Capacity (How Much) to handle variability

12. Reality for Services Business Customers introduce tremendous variability You cannot drive out all variability since it is how many customers judge value and quality Since customers are directly involved you can’t eliminate all variability even if you wanted to

13. Conventional Wisdom Variability = Cost Faulty Conclusion Accommodate customers various desires or reduce variability and risk customer satisfaction and defection

14. Frie’s Alternative Perspective Source: Harvard Business Review • Nov ‘06

15. Reduction vs. Accommodation Look for low cost options to accommodate more variability Find ways to reduce variability without compromising the experience

17. Create transparency for IT Service costing

18. “Show-back”, chargeback, allocation or metering

19. Reduce user rights on desktop in exchange for improved quality of experience and more options

20. Create incentives for users to complete training

22. Which Strategy to Pursue Organizations low end of competitive landscape must rely on strategies to reduce variability Organizations under financial pressures must rely on reduction strategies Markets which can support premium prices can rely more on accommodation strategies

23. Questions Jerry Bishop blog.thehigheredcio.com