In the second webinar of "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐒𝐌 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧" series (https://lnkd.in/gfXbYCdU) on the Unified Service Management method, we received more live questions than we could handle online. Live Question 2 from that webinar was:
"𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐗𝐚𝐚𝐒 “𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬” 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐚𝐦 𝐈 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?"
The 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑟 to that question would be "No - everything is a service."
The 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑟 would be this.
In the previous century, we focused on the transactions of goods. A service was something like 'after-sales support'. Now that we live in a modern, service-dominated market, companies have learned to treat everything as service (with the very same acronym XaaS). Whether a provider only provides software, or hosting, or housing, or even a rack in a rack system, the essence is that even this provider has turned that into 𝐚 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 - according to USM's definition of a service. The provider makes the facility available to the customer according to some agreement that includes the functionality and the functioning of that facility, and then focuses on the continuous delivery of what was agreed. This means that the provider 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 the functioning of the facility, and does everything required to maintain the agreed functioning.
Conclusion: XaaS is a service proposition.
Comment: in terms of USM's Value Maturity Model, these XaaS providers are often positioned at the lower end of the model (technology-driven or system-driven), as they have little relationship to the business of their providers: they provide low-end components that the customer uses in his business. But this doesn't mean that XaaS is not a service proposition....
Join us for the third webinar in the 𝐔𝐒𝐌 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 series: Service Management Architecture & System - 17 September - 3-4 pm CEST - register here: https://ow.ly/pgML50SIUAf