Our research focus for this quarter was about how to make your team – The Service Delivery Team – more effective and efficient part of the I&O team. This spans four key topics: how to support your company's employees, how to become more automated, how to increase your speed and quality of service delivery, and who should or could you leverage in a broader ecosystem. The following reports are just a few highlights of our work for you to put on your night time reading list:

Automation is the story of the digital business and the huge transformation within technology management and I&O, and JP Garbani tackles it head-on in the first installment of The Automation Manifesto series, “Automate I&O To Answer Digital Disruption”. Because of the fast pace and ever-changing demands of digital disruption, organizations’ data centers are being pushed to their limit, both with man-power and finances. Enter the need for automation – today’s automation solutions address scale, speed, costs, and repeatable accuracy that is needed to remain competitive. JP’s report will help you assess the best ways to implement automation for your company and the benefits it will bring, no matter your current position.

Our passion for automation is only matched by our passion for customer experience. Amy DeMartine pushes you to think about collaborating with your customer experience team in her collaborative report with CX analyst Allegra Burnette, “I&O And CX Pros Jointly Improving Customer Experience Is A Win-Win”. I&O pros are now expected to optimize software delivery design by understanding who the target customer is and what they are trying to achieve with the product, and your CX colleagues are the ones who have this knowledge. Amy’s report is an excellent basis for understanding who your CX colleagues are and how to interpret and apply the information these colleagues provide to maximize your software delivery design.

What if you’ve determined that it’s more beneficial for you to outsource than collaborate in-house? As far as we’ve come with multisourcing, we still see firms struggle with service integration and management (SIAM) in multisourced environments. Wolfgang Benkel guides  you how to successfully use SIAM to manage your multisourced environment in his report, “Meet The Multisourcing Challenge”. From the high level down to the most granular interactions, this involves detailed, precise communication and collaboration across services and vendors.

Unsure of how much outsourcing is right for you? Not to worry – Bill Martorelli has you covered in his “Market Overview: Use Project Services To Accelerate Infrastructure Transformation report. As technology advances, customer demands become increasingly detailed; customers know they can get more, so they ask for more. Luckily, the market for infrastructure transformation services has grown tremendously, but still may be hard to maneuver if you’re unsure of what you’re looking for. Bill will show you how to decide whether to pursue an outsourcing transaction strategy or pursue a project-based approach for immediate results, based on your needed speed for change.

Knowing your own services and capabilities isn’t just a secret to infrastructure transformation, it’s the secret to unlocking self-service and process improvements. Elinor Klavens’ report, “The State And Best Practices Of Your Service Catalog Initiative” will help you develop a road map to effectively plan your next steps and communicate your offerings to your employees.

We would also like to extend a warm welcome and introduce you to the newest analyst on the I&O team, Milan Hanson. Milan will be researching the tools, techniques, and implications of application performance management. He tackles the nexus between APM and CX in “Mobile Application Performance Management Extends To The Customerwhere he discusses managing your company’s mobile apps and how to increase value to the business by monitoring the “last mile” between traditional IT infrastructure and the customer.

Stay tuned for more exciting research from the I&O team on service desks, multisourcing, and automation in the coming months. Some of our upcoming reports are below.

Amy DeMartine: “Seven Habits For Rugged DevOps”
Bill Martorelli: “Cloud Strategies For The Leading System Integrators”
Elinor Klavens: “Five Steps For Your Service Desk to Wow Your Workforce”
JP Garbani: “The Future Of Service Delivery Requires A New Management Taxonomy”
Milan Hanson: “Vendor Landscape: Mobile Application Performance Management”
Wolfgang Benkel: “Global vs. Local Sourcing: What Do You Need To Consider?”