Types of Stake holders and Customers

This article answers following queries

Ø  Who are stakeholders in Service Management?

Ø  Who are different type of customers?

 

Mainly there are 3 stake holder groups.

·         Customers

·         Users

·         Suppliers

Customers:  Those who buy goods or services. The customer of an IT service provider is the person or group who defines and agrees the service level targets.

Users: Those who consume and request services on a regular basis

Suppliers: Third parties who supply goods or services needed to deliver IT services

Also, please note in addition to above mentioned stake holder groups service provider organization contains many stake holders like functions, groups and teams that deliver services.

 

Types of Customers:

There are 2 types of customers

·         Internal

·         External

Internal customers are those working for the same business as the service provider.

External customers are those working for a different business from the service provider.

Definitions of IT service, service provider and supplier

This article answers following queries:

ü  What is an IT Service?

ü  Who is a Service Provider?

ü  Who is supplier?

An IT service is a means of delivering value to a customer by facilitating outcomes customer wants without the ownership of specific costs and risks.

A Service is

§  End to End

§  As perceived by customers and users

§  Service provider owns the costs and risks

Email, Internet Banking, Internet access, Payroll system are some of the good examples of service

A Service is NOT

§  Technology

§  Product

§  Infrastructure Component

Technology components/Operating systems like Linux / Windows servers, Databases like Oracle/Sybase/MySQL, Wide Area Network are NOT considered as services.

A Service Provider is an Organization supplying services to one or more internal or external customers.

A Supplier is a third party responsible for supplying goods or services that are required to deliver IT services. In most cases, Service providers require suppliers to enable them to deliver services.