Onsett Valuable Services: We start with strategies and finish with solutions

Service Management

Onsett provides two key IT Service Management services: Service Management Transformation and Virtual CIO consulting to address the specific needs of your organization.

Value of Our Services

Service Management Transformation provides a comprehensive vehicle to help IT fulfill its role as corporate provider of IT services (in-sourced or outsourced), and improve relationships with business management within your organization. Realized benefits of Service Management Transformation will be in terms of:
- IT cost management
- quality of IT services delivered
- user satisfaction with IT
- accelerated implementation of a Service Management program
Virtual CIO provides a temporary strategic trusted advisor or technology manager only when you need it, thereby reducing your overall IT costs. This service is designed to:
- eliminate the need for hiring a full time technology manager
- provide an interim solution to an immediate problem
- augment your existing management with additional resources that have an outside perspective based on experiences in many organizations

Service Management Transformation

Onsett provides Service Management Transformation consulting services to help small or large companies apply innovative IT strategies and solutions to achieve measurable business benefits. We specialize in helping C-level managers (CIO, CTO, CFO, CEO, etc.) solve tough technology management problems--creatively, pragmatically, and cost effectively.

Through the 1990s companies reduced their routine IT responsibilities and increasingly focused on adding value to the IT environment. While the sequences were compressed (or even inverted) the basic set of steps varied little:

Consolidate: reduce the number of data centers
Standardize: establish standard platforms for both hardware and software
Streamline: reduce redundancy in operations and development
Outsource: capitalize on outsourcing non-core operations
Operationalize: establish effective processes for in-sourced and out-sourced environments

Today, in spite of executing many or all of these steps, companies are in the position of wondering what they can do to improve their services and optimize their investments. The answer is to restructure services and simplify the "face" that IT presents to its business customers by:

Defining clear and simple service definitions that are aligned with business needs and allow for regional variation
Clarifying charges and charge-back mechanisms associated with actual consumption of services
Optimizing integrated services that meet business requirements
Managing service performance from end to end

Consolidating and outsourcing are painful but straightforward. Realizing additional benefits requires innovative approaches and leveraging relevant experience. Improvements in cost control and customer satisfaction depend explicitly on IT organizations putting the volume control in the hands of the business consumer.

Even in successful companies information technology services can be hard to explain and difficult to understand. For Global companies the problems are compounded by variations in service level requirements, costs, and suppliers. Today’s circumstances most often result from legacies of efforts in disparate IT management and Merger & Acquisition activities. The problem is that IT organizations have difficulty describing their services in terms that are meaningful to their business unit customers and allow for cost controls. The result is low customer satisfaction and misunderstandings in service quality and cost.

Customers want to know "What do I get?" and "What will it cost me?" and "Why is it so different in different places?"

Onsett addresses all dimensions of Service Management Transformation including:

Defining company-wide shared IT infrastructure services
Establishing service level agreements and service performance models
Developing service cost and pricing models
Developing or renovating charge-back models
Developing, reviewing, and amending outsourcing agreements
Creating implementation roadmaps and managing implementation

Onsett’s Service Management Transformation Services help clients navigate through the challenges by constructing universal service definitions that describe IT services in clear understandable user terms. Our proven approach includes establishing unambiguous definitions and explainable financial management processes. We help our clients improve IT effectiveness and reduce the cost of IT delivered by internal staff and outsourcing providers.

We provide leadership to Global 2000 organizations throughout the entire service management lifecycle from analysis and definition, design, development, launch, and continuous improvement to retirement.

We deal with IT Service Management--the structure, definition, delivery, and cost of IT services--in large and small organizations as much more than just provisioning technology products and solutions; we deal with it as a business "alignment" problem of building IT capabilities that support business objectives and expectations.

A leading technology magazine claims that IT organizations continue to fail meeting business objectives, and our engagements consistently highlight disconnections between IT and business units. IT departments continue to offer discrete services that only they understand. Business units are not clear on what they need to request, what they are paying for, what is included, and what levels of services to expect. Outsourcing may help IT departments buy necessary components (sometimes at a reduced cost,) but this does not simplify the choices for the average business user. Regardless of the cost recovery approach (budget, allocation, consumption) IT is still deemed 'too expensive' for the services they provide.

It is not that technology management has failed to engage the business consumers, but rather the offerings of technology groups are organized and stated in terms that are more appropriate for the provider than the user. As a result, users' frustration causes mistrust and unnecessary costs to explain the content and the bounds of the services, the costs associated with them, and the relationship to the cost recovery approaches.

Onsett's approach to service management will help you solve these problems and "transform" your organization seamlessly.

For more information, please email ITMT@onsett.com or call +1 617.577.9130, dial 1 232.

Click to see details on Onsett's Service Management Transformation consulting services.

Virtual CIO

We work with rapidly growing companies as their key C-level technology manager to provide the virtual equivalent roles and functions of a CIO or CTO. Investment in technology can be significant yet business owners and executives question the value that is being returned. Our technology management professionals have the expertise and experience to help assess and navigate through the complexities of IT and return identifiable benefits to your company.

Flexibility is more the key than the exception in today’s IT organizations. As IT has become increasingly important and integral to a successful business, companies are rethinking their IT structure to better manage information and its availability. Whether it be renovation of the technology infrastructure, better alignment of the infrastructure to business needs, or providing a scalable foundation in readiness for business growth as new opportunities arise, a professional technology manager is required to achieve the desired results. Sometimes these are one-time requirements, others are ongoing, but in each case it may not be not sufficient to warrant the appointment of a full time professional.

The structure and function of the IT organization varies from one enterprise to another depending upon business nature and size. Despite InformationWeek’s research survey in June of 2000 showing an array of companies having increased IT staffs within the past few years, there seems to be no strong consensus on whether IT efforts should be centralized or decentralized. However, one thing is for sure, Onsett realizes that most businesses have a difficult time balancing two key responsibilities: leading new initiatives and maintaining the existing technology infrastructure.

The Onsett Team recognizes the challenges that come with maintaining the balance between these two responsibilities, and has a broad cross section of skills and experience that can be tapped for your specific needs. So, Onsett designs and implements a technology management service that focuses on the key functions and metrics of an effective CIO--a service that "virtually" enhances any business’s capabilities.

For more information, please email ITMT@onsett.com or call +1 617.577.9130, dial 1 232.

Click to see details on Onsett's Virtual CIO consulting services.