IT Provider Management and SIAM
IT provider management is responsible for the management of IT outsourcing. This includes the service, control and communication relationship from and to the IT provider. The provision of services must be regularly monitored, compliance with service levels and the correctness of billing must be checked and any penalties enforced. Effective cost management ensures benchmarkable prices. The management of risks - as well as technical progress and, ideally, innovations - is part of IT provider management. Renegotiations, contract supplements and extensions round off the range of tasks.
Service integration requirements
It is no longer a case of relying on one service provider for everything - multi-sourcing is the name of the game these days. This is why the requirements of service integration are added to the activities of provider management.
IT service integration can be provided internally, externally, hybrid or by a lead supplier - with varying degrees of success in practice. The SIAM management method has become popular in this context.
SIAM stands for Service Integration And Management and comprises structures, processes, functions and roles in three levels exclusively in multi-sourcing::
- 1st level: Customer organisation
- 2nd level: Service integrator
- 3rd level: Service provider
Multi-sourcing also means multi-interfaces. Without an adequate concept, these lead to service problems and increased escalations with often unclear responsibilities between service providers and the customer organisation.
The service integrator, also known as the ‘service broker’, assumes end-to-end responsibility (E2E) for service delivery independently of the retained organisation. In practice, the service integrator is a group of people in one or more organisations, internal or external. The services themselves are provided by external or internal service providers. The contracting party is the customer organisation.
The retained organisation remains responsible for IT strategy and corporate governance as well as for the following topics:
- Purchasing
- Contract management
- Requirements management
- Enterprise architecture
- Financial management
- Service portfolio management
- Risk management
- Management of the service integrator
The services and performance of external parties are regulated and managed in contracts and service level agreements (SLAs). For internal teams or departments, these can be Operational Level Agreements (OLA).
When is provider management and service integration successful?
If the processes are designed and managed end-to-end and the focus is on the interfaces. No sourcing project will be successful in the long term without sufficient in-house staff with skills in sourcing management, information and cyber security and compliance monitoring.
