Service Provider Interfaces

To support development of sourcing relationships in a multi-vendor environment, guideline s and reference points (technical, procedural, organizational) are needed between the various service provider s. These reference points can be provided through the use of Service provider interface s (SPI) (Figure 6.14).

SPIs help coordinate end-to-end management of critical services. The Service Catalogue drives the service specifications, which are part of, or extensions to, standard process definitions. Responsibilities and service level s are negotiated at the time of service relationship contracting, and include:

• Identification of integration points between various management processes of the client and service provider
• Identification of specific role s and responsibilities for managing the ongoing system s management relationship with both parties
• Identification of relevant systems management information that needs to be communicated to the customer on an ongoing basis.

Figure 6.14 Service provider interfaces

Process SPI definitions consist of:

• Technology prerequisites (e.g. management tool standards or prescribed protocols)
• Data requirement s (e.g. specific event s or record s), formats (i.e. data layouts), interfaces (e.g. APIs, firewall ports) and protocols (e.g. SNMP, XML)
• Non-negotiable requirements (e.g. practices, activities, operating procedure s)
• Required role s/responsibilities within the service provider and customer organizations
• Response time s and escalation s.

SPIs are defined, maintained and owned by process owner s. Others involved in the definition include:

• Business representatives, who negotiate the SPI requirement s and are responsible for managing the strategic relationships with and between service providers
• Service provider process coordinator(s) who take operational responsibility for ensuring the operational processes are synchronized.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14