Service relationships and journeys
Service relationships are co-dependencies where organizations co-create value.
Roles
The service provider delivers and supports services. The service consumer procures and uses them. The digital product vendor creates and continually improves digital products and offerings.
The consumer sub-roles, the classic memorize-this set:
- Customer: defines requirements, owns the outcomes. The CIO negotiating the phone contract.
- Sponsor: authorizes the budget. The CFO approving the cost.
- User: uses the service daily. The employees on the phones.
Relationship types
- Basic: support and efficiency, at the operational level. Commodity services, standard SLAs.
- Cooperative: improvement and effectiveness, operational plus tactical. Customized services, advanced SLAs.
- Collaborative (partnership): innovation and growth, at all three levels. Bespoke services and contracts.
The service journey
Seven stepping stones, iterative rather than sequential: Explore (understand markets and needs), Engage (build the relationship, a prerequisite for the closer types), Offer (shape demand and supply into offerings), Agree (scope, quality, SLAs), Onboard (integrate resources; offboard reverses it), Co-create (actually deliver and consume), Reflect (evaluate value, feed improvements).
The band of visibility is how much of each organization the other can see. The gotcha: the closer the relationship, the wider the band.