Highly Charged Business Environment & IT Service Management

Few people outside the energy trading industry bothered or even noticed the failure of SemGroup, a little known private oil marketing company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Energy trading industry on the other hand was in a state of shock. SemGroup had built large positions in the futures market and at the time of going under had run up losses worth billions of dollars. Those associated with commodity trading business understand the importance of such an event and the damage it can cause to the other players. Commodities trading business like other trading businesses operates in a highly charged environment. Mere delay of seconds can cause huge financial or reputation damage. Reputation is something trading community guards zealously and worries about the most besides annual bonuses.

How does this highly charged business environment impact IT service management? Is IT service management staff working in trading industry any different from their counterparts in other industries? What is so special about trading business and why IT staff in this business generally suffers higher stress levels? A mere visit to the trading floor would be sufficient to get answers to these and many other related questions.

Firstly traders do not know or care about the concept of service desk. Traders are used to the concept of desk side support. They are also used to screaming. Moreover no one blames them for screaming. People understand the reasons behind such behaviour. What would you do if you are unable to execute that all important deal and markets are about to close. In order to handle their IT issues you find a bunch of IT staff located on the floor itself helping out with IT incidents. These people in turn call the service desk and log incidents for the traders and follow up on progress.

The other aspect peculiar to trading business is the service level agreements. Business wants the best and is willing to pay for it. You will only find the best equipment – from computer monitors to application software. Emphasis is on first call resolution hence experienced and highly skilled people work in second line support groups. It is respectable to be part of second line teams.

Lastly, compliance in trading business is sacrosanct. Everything from instant messages, emails, and voice conversations are recorded and archived for years. Access control is of paramount importance. IT service management roles, responsibilities and access levels are documented in detail and refreshed periodically.

Failure of industry players such as SemGroup in not common but contributes to the already charged environment. Good IT service management does help to soothe the frayed nerves.

What do you think?

Commoditization of IT Services

Are IT services such as application maintenance and operations heading towards commoditization? Are frameworks like ITIL going to hasten the journey towards commoditization? These & other related questions have been on my mind for a while. Upon further thinking, reading & discussions with colleagues I am still unable to decide anything conclusively. On one hand I agree with people who argue that application maintenance offerings have beginning to alike across a spectrum of vendors such as IBM, EDS, Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Accenture etc. All of them have well defined global delivery models and make good use of skilled manpower spread across their various delivery centers. They further argue that it is a matter to time when these vendors will start undercutting the prices of their competitors for tactical or strategic purposes. Customers too would start demanding price cuts as it would difficult for them to distinguish one vendor from another. People like Nicholas Carr support this line of thinking. Standardization is the way forward according to him.

Is standardization and commoditization the same thing? Yes and no. Yes, because one of the goal of standardization is to become independent of a supplier. No, because the other goals are to improve interoperability, reduce complexity & raise quality.

My colleagues who argue against IT services going down the commoditization route have a case in point. They believe two vendors maintaining an identical application using an industry standard framework such as ITIL can end up providing totally different end user experience. Their understanding and application of an industry standard framework makes all the difference.

The debate actually opens up lot of other questions. Can any service ever be commoditized? Which is a good example of a commoditized service? I am willing to pay an extra buck or walk for extra 5 minutes to buy a sandwich or coffee for a smile & personalized service I get at Pret. Products do not matter but service does! What do you think?