Service governance is a means of achieving good

corporate governance Corporate governance refers to the mechanisms, processes, practices, and relations by which corporations are controlled and operated by their boards of directors, managers, shareholders, and stakeholders. Definitions "Corporate governance" may ...

through managing internal corporate services across and throughout an enterprise. It engages stakeholders and delivery channels for the purpose of effectively managing risk, as well as driving the intended business value with a focus on how decisions are made and enforced in a dynamic business environment. Though its initial focus was on

IT services Information technology service management (ITSM) are the activities performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate and control IT services offered to customers. Differing from more technology-oriented IT management approach ...

, this approach to management can apply to accounting, business administration, and other internal service sectors. Institutionalizing these services enables the monitoring and control of risk, value, and cost. Principal among the issues is the fair funding for each service and the allocation system for scarce services. Institutionalizing internal corporate services is the corporate management equivalent of a massive

general ledger In bookkeeping, a general ledger is a bookkeeping ledger in which accounting data are posted from General journal, journals and aggregated from subledgers, such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, fixed assets, purchasing ...

, only with the line items reflecting the services, not simply departments. The service portfolio allows the governance of services as a means to govern the organization by value.

History

The term ''service governance'' has been used to describe the success that a number of organizations have had in using the 'best practice' advice found in frameworks such as

ITIL ITIL (previously and also known as Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework with a set of practices (previously processes) for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus ...

and others, for organization-wide service design and operation. Many of the ideas of service governance, including the important one of sustainability, are included in ISO 37000, published in September 2021 ISO 37000.

Service portfolio

The portfolio of services is a list of all internal services that are available within the organization. The portfolio describes each service, how it is funded, its associated costs and ownership boundaries, and its current performance and identified conflicts. The services portfolio provides a map of the organization, providing directors with a different way of understanding the dynamics of the organization than those received from financial reports. This allows the board to more easily make decisions based on accurate and contemporaneous information.

Value

Service governance uses the methods described in the management of value (MoV) to discover the requirements of the organization and to use those on design services, and their measures to deliver those values. In particular, the service governance organization is chartered to define clear service ownership boundaries and specify a fair funding model.

Measurement and compliance

Well-established practices are used to design measures and metrics for the organization and to meet the requirements of the corporate mission, charter, and policy. This ensures that metrics inform what is required by the organization and supply accurate information: to the board for strategic governance decisions and to management for operational decisions. Accurate metrics also ensure compliance with the requirements of audit, enable the production of financial and sustainability reports, and reports on corporate citizenship.

Enterprise service management

A component of service governance, enterprise service management (ESM) is a means of extending service management across an entire organization, often from

IT service management Information technology service management (ITSM) are the activities performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate and control IT services offered to customers. Differing from more technology-oriented IT management approach ...

(ITSM). ESM provides an integrated view of core service

business process A business process, business method, or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks performed by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product (that serves a particular business g ...

es, often in real-time, using common databases. ESM systems track: business resources, including people, parts and assets; and the status of customer commitments, such as service requests, orders, repairs and

service-level agreement A service-level agreement (SLA) is an agreement between a service provider and a customer. Particular aspects of the service – quality, availability, responsibilities – are agreed between the service provider and the service user. T ...

s (SLAs). The applications that comprise the system share data across various departments (customer service, technical support, sales, field service, etc.), which then use the information for their work. ESM facilitates information flow between departments and coordinates activities with external resources involved in the service business process.

References

External links

WorldBank/IFC Corporate Governance Portal

{{Corporate titles Corporate governance Corporate governance in the United Kingdom Economy of South Africa Information technology governance IT service management