1. Senority – Service Excellence
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Service
Excellence
“Goal and Means”
for complex relations
Senority
A multi-disciplinary network of experienced Service Excellence experts
Version: 1.0
Status: final
Date: April 2010
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Copyright: © 2010 Senority

2. Senority – Service Excellence
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Service Excellence “the next generation” of Strategic cooperation
As organisations dedicate themselves more and Below model (figure 1) demonstrates the gaps
more to their “core competences” ever more which Senority identifies within complex service
complex forms of cooperation and collaboration models.
with customers and their service providers have
emerged.
For years “Traditional” market segments such as
manufacturing have successfully built deep
relationships between customer and supplier so
that a supplier’s products are delivered “Just In
Time” for the customer’s production process to
proceed with a minimal inventory. This requires
advanced forms of cooperation and trust on
multiple levels of the involved companies.
Other markets also demonstrate ever advanced Figure 1 - Partnership gaps
forms or strategic cooperation, and the value
chain is intersected by organisational boundaries Service Excellence’s aim is to introduce and
within different modalities of Business Process implement methods for business partners to deal
Outsourcing. Even within a relatively young with each other so to erase these fractures or at
industry such as ICT the market has gone through least minimize the impact.
several generations of outsourcing, and services
such as outsourcing of ATM related services are Current service contracts most often focus on the
in full motion. gap between a contract or Service Level
Agreement (SLA) and actual performance. A
Recent experiences, including IT outsourcing, tremendous effort is invested on isolated
indicate still much additional value is to be technical measurements instead of concentrating
obtained by improving service maturity, on supporting the business process.
cooperation, collaboration and the management
thereof. Lack of communication (transparency) The limitations of such an approach become
and trust (measurable) can cause multiple gaps in obvious as:
the relationship between customer and service Contracts are more or less static and do not
provider to appear. Such gaps become most adapt at the same rate as the business
apparent when a provider does not deliver what changes occur;
was agreed upon, and this is being perceived as Customers are not able to suitably mould and
negative. Yet plenty of examples exist where the formulate their wishes and demands in a way
strategic relationships deteriorated and became adequate for contracts;
toxic without the service provider explicitly failing Therefore customer needs and expectations
to meet their agreements. usually differ from the services agreed upon;
Performance levels are sometimes indicative
of technicalities, but irrelevant from a business
perspective.
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Copyright: © 2010 Senority

3. Senority – Service Excellence
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Thus, it is essential to not merely measure the introduction and implementation of this way
operational performance of the provided of working, and support the daily practise by
services, yet to continuously warrant these continuous monitoring of performance
services match the customer’s requirements and indicators, and routing of “alerts” to pre-
needs. Organisations which manage both appointed stakeholders.
operational performance as well as customer
requirements, dealing with their expectations, Evaluetor contains several modules with specific
requirements and needs in a fulfilling way, can functionality. First, there is “Delivery
reach a situation of “Service Excellence”. Performance” in which all information is collected
concerning actual delivery compared to what is
Service Excellence approach agreed upon. Although this type of information is
Senority offers an extensive “tool box” in support under good control at most companies, several
of Service Excellence. Central to this is a process shortcomings can be identified:
whereby all relevant signals “performance Non-measurable agreements exist;
indicators” concerning the provided services’ are Measurable agreements exist, but no
gathered and improvement needs are translated measurements are recorded nor reported;
in concrete improvement actions. Measurable agreements exist, but have little
Premise of the Service Excellence process is to meaningful relevance (such as server uptime,
have both the relationship between customer rather than uptime of a business process).
and provider, as well as the provided service
flagged as “green”. By automated comparison of delivered results
with the contractual agreements, with Service
Figure 2 depicts the most important focal points Excellence meaningful statements can be made
of the Service Excellence process. concerning the performance gaps. If there are
issues, these are captured within the process and,
Delivery if this wasn’t already, dealt with via incident and
(SLA)
Performance problem management, covered within the
“Improvement Management” module to
guarantee the necessary follow-on actions are
started and monitored. All this with the aim of
Contract Relationship facilitating the continuous improvement of
Compliance Status
provided services.
Within the “Relationship Status” module the
process measures softer aspects of the provided
Improvement
Management
service and the relationship. Perceptions and
opinions of different actors and stakeholders are
being collected and tracked. The different
Figure 2 – Service Excellence Management opinions of both the providing as well as the
receiving side of the relation are being shared via
Senority offers an approach by which not only a Service Excellence portal which greatly
actual service performance can be managed, but improves and stimulates transparency and
also other relevant aspects of the provided communication.
service can be integrally managed. This is Pervasive to multiple organisational layers
supported by our Service Excellence tool existing issues and other potential forms of
“Evaluetor”. This unique tool greatly simplifies dissatisfaction are collected in a structural
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Copyright: © 2010 Senority

4. Senority – Service Excellence
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manner so to be monitored and dealt with within Service Excellence supports an organisation’s
the “Improvement Management” section. capability to deal with transparency and
measurability. Service providers often tend to
Finally, Service Excellence will register if existing react defensively when their delivered services
contractual agreements are being met and if are being criticized, or to refer to another part of
these agreements are still adequate enough for the organisation, whereas customers most often
the existing situation. Identified issues arising fail to satisfy many of the prerequisites needed
from this part of the process will again be fed into for successful delivery by the service provider.
“Improvement Management” to ensure the
relationship and the provided services are at an Service Excellence forces an organisation to deal
optimal level. Below figure 3 demonstrates with critique and perceptions in a constructive
Service Excellence’s continuous improvement manner. This requires a way of working anchored
cycle: in the organisational genes, from both the side of
the service provider, and from the customer.
Senority’s Service Excellence approach has
proven to be highly effective in real life due to
the following critical success factors:
Transparency about opinions and sentiments
regarding the services provided forces both
the customer and the service provider to
communicate about matters relevant to keep
the relationship on the desired level;
Executives from both organisations are
better equipped to manage the strategic
relationship based on facts instead of
emotions;
Because identified issues are translated in
improvement actions, both parties have the
guarantee something is done with remarks
and comments, and avoid hiding behind
contractual agreements;
Progress of the improvement actions is
transparent in an insightful way for both
parties;
By recording agreements in Evaluetor, these
can be automatically compared with real life
Figure 3 - Service Excellence process measurements resulting in alerts which are
used to notify predefined stakeholders
within the overall process at the moment
Implementing Service Excellence certain thresholds are reached.
Although figure 3 depicts a relatively simple Evaluetor allows for both parties to view a
process, realizing it is a complex endeavour. Clear given situation from their own preferred
agreements on roles and responsibilities for the angle using the same information, and agree
process are needed along with a high degree of upon follow-on actions as well as monitor
discipline in executing the process. the progress on these.
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Copyright: © 2010 Senority

5. Senority – Service Excellence
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Evaluetor has proven to be a useful aid in Contract Management – expose and make
realizing strategic Governance, Risk the contractual agreements accessible and
Management and Compliance programs as a relate these to Performance Indicators;
worthwhile facilitating tool, helping to guide Governance – facilitate communication
a company to Service Excellence rather than concerning the relationship on different
forcing it. layers of the organisations.
The Service Excellence approach allows parties to
adapt and adjust both the provided service and Business Benefits.
the relationship at the moment when this has Organisations which manage to increase the
maximum effect, rather than draw negative added value of strategic service provisioning
conclusions in hindsight, something which is obtain various benefits:
clearly disadvantageous for both parties. Durable customer relations;
Structured and documented governance
How to start with Service Excellence process;
Depending on organisational maturity, Service Reduction of integration issues;
Excellence can be started with in multiple ways. Less risk within a contract’s scope;
For some organisations becoming open and Lowering the costs of “non-performance”;
receptive for a customer’s opinion is already a Increased insight of the value chain across
large step, whereas other organisations will organisational boundaries;
already have partial solutions in place which are Engaged and proactive service providers;
in urgent need of being integrated. Engaged and informed employees;
Typical work streams in a Service Excellence Professionalizing the value chain;
programme are: Increase yield of contracted value
Service Excellence core team – Focus and Trust.
initiate the Service Excellence initiatives and
coach the internal organisation; If parties engaged in a strategic relationship
Communication – it is highly important to would invest as much time and effort on keeping
inform all involved parties in an up with the evolving relationship and provided
understandable and timely fashion; services, as is spent on negotiating and securing
Internal Customer Satisfaction – record the the initial contract, the value of these contracts,
perception of the providing party concerning for both parties, will increase exponentially.
their client’s degree of satisfaction; In a time with increased pressure on cost
Customer Interview process – introduce an reduction and more added value this is an
interviewing technique which can create a irresistible proposition.
controllable offset for a continuous
improvement plan;
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Copyright: © 2010 Senority

6. Senority – Service Excellence
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CONTACT
info@senority.nl
www.Senority.nl
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Latitude: 51.9128993
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Copyright: © 2010 Senority