This chapter explains service relationships in more detail, including:
•Service offerings
•Service relationship management
•Service provision
•Service consumption
“A service offering is a description of one or more services, designed to address the needs of a target consumer group. A service offering may include goods, access to resources, and service actions.”
The consumer groups to which a service is offered may be part of the same organisation as the service provider, or they might be external to the service provider. Service providers can offer the same product in different ways to different consumer groups; for example, short-term or long-term car leases, or leases with a right-to-buy at the end of the lease.
“A service relationship is a cooperation between a service provider and a service consumer. Service relationships include service provision, service consumption, and service relationship management.”
Figure 2 shows a generic representation of a service. You could use this figure to map some of your own organisation’s services and assess how they are offered to consumers.
Figure 3 shows the service relationship model.3
In this figure, services delivered by Organisation A create or modify resources within Organisation B. Organisation B can then use these resources to provide services to its own consumers. For example, laptop manufacturer Organisation B buys chips from Organisation A as part of its production process. It sells its laptops to Organisation C, which gives them to its consultants.
This figure shows a supply and consumption chain, but remember that for most organisations, supply and consumption is a more complex network of relationships.
3 ITIL® Foundation, ITIL 4 edition, figure 2.1.
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