In the second webinar of "The USM Revolution" series on the Unified Service Management method, we received more live questions than we could handle online. Let's now answer Live Question 5 from that webinar.

"𝐈𝐬 𝐚 "𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞" 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫?"

The 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 answer to this rather cynical question is "𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 - 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦."
The 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 answer would be this:

A Self Service is something that is still 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑑 by a service provider. In a Self Service, more of the activities that were included in the service delivery are now executed by the user, in what we call "𝑎 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑓𝑡-𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡" move. Nevertheless, this now 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 facility is still provided by the same service provider. Actually, the facility has been 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 to include specific functionality enabling the user to do specific actions that this user couldn't do before. It is only the 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 role that has now shifted from the provider domain to the user domain.

The activities that are now executed by the user in this shift-left move may include:
- 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲, when the user can repair incidents that previously required the action of a service provider's operator, e.g. when the user can take measures to repair the failing component (e.g. by reconfiguring something or by rebooting something);
- 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬, when the user has been given the authority to modify certain infrastructural components of a facility;
- 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬, when the user may explore a knowledge base to find an answer to a question, or when the user can look into he service provider's administration without asking for it (e.g. to monitor progress or statuses of a call).

We may hope that the service provider also still 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 the agreed functionality of this Self Service.

At the end of the day, the user still uses facilities that were made available and supported by the provider, which qualifies this as a 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 - even if we now call it "a Self Service". It's just the specification of that service that has changed... And every service should deliver value to the customer and its users, so this brings us back to the short answer: "𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 - 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦."

The recording of session 3 is here: Service Management Architecture & System - 17 September - https://ow.ly/pgML50SIUAf

If you want to learn more about the unique USM Process Model, please join us for the the 4th webinar in the USM Revolution series: https://ow.ly/RPRZ50TqCXM