Service Management Best Practices

Overview

Services that consume organizational resources without delivering proportional customer value are a drag on the organization’s capacity to invest in services that genuinely matter. Left unmanaged, portfolios accumulate services that were valuable at one time but have since lost relevance — each one consuming maintenance, support, and operational resources that could be redirected to higher-value work.

Best Practice

Regularly assess the investment each service requires against the value it delivers to its customers. For each service, understand: what does it cost to maintain and operate, how many customers use it and how often, what value do those customers report receiving, and how does that value compare to the investment required? Services with high investment and low value are candidates for redesign, consolidation, or retirement. Services with high value and constrained investment may warrant increased resources.

Benefit(s)

Investment-value discipline produces a portfolio that efficiently delivers high customer value with appropriate resource allocation. High-value services receive the investment they need to excel. Low-value services are retired or redesigned before they become organizational liabilities. The overall portfolio becomes leaner and more impactful over time. Leadership gains a defensible, data-driven basis for service investment decisions rather than relying on organizational politics or historical precedent.