On this page you will find e-books and other downloads, with additional information about USM. For downloads in Dutch or German, please switch the language setting of this page.
- An introduction to USM
- Enterprise Service Management with USM: 20 SMA guidelines
- Simple USM
- Demystifying the term MATURITY
- Demystifying the term PROCESS
- Demystifying the term VALUE STREAM
- Meet the new cash cow: Enterprise Service Management (ESM)
- Devil’s Triangles in Service Management, and how to avoid them
- Transformation and Zero Trust: The Need for a Unified Service Management System
- Xurrent and USM: A Powerful Combination
- Government as a service provider
- Enterprise Service Management with the USM and CEM methods.
- An introduction to USM - To become a continually and consistently improving service organization, you need a structured approach to the management of your customers, your partners and other stakeholders, your people, your processes, your technology, and your services. USM is a universal management method for service providers, delivering just that.
USM describes a service management architecture and specifies a standardized service management system.
Read the introduction to USM and learn how to improve your organization's performance in a simple and efficient way.
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- An introduction to USM - To become a continually and consistently improving service organization, you need a structured approach to the management of your customers, your partners and other stakeholders, your people, your processes, your technology, and your services. USM is a universal management method for service providers, delivering just that.
- Enterprise Service Management with USM - This e-book describes 20 guidelines for a Service Management System, based on USM's Service Management Architecture.
It will enable you to set up a simple but well-structured Service Management System for your own organization, applicable to any internal or external service team involved.
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- Enterprise Service Management with USM - This e-book describes 20 guidelines for a Service Management System, based on USM's Service Management Architecture.
- Simple USM - This is an introductory e-book about USM. It is targeted at people who want to understand the basics of USM, for example for deploying USM with the help of a Coach. This e-book explains the core ideas of the USM method in a simple, condensed format.
The e-book is written by Mikko Ahonen, working at USM Coach, an accredited USM Partner from Finland, with the consent of the SURVUZ Foundation. It contains some linguistic and logical simplifications of the USM Method. For more information about USM Coach, please refer to their website.
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- Simple USM - This is an introductory e-book about USM. It is targeted at people who want to understand the basics of USM, for example for deploying USM with the help of a Coach. This e-book explains the core ideas of the USM method in a simple, condensed format.
- Demystifying the term MATURITY - The term ‘maturity’ has been used for decades in the context of technical capabilities, ignoring the essential purpose of any modern organization: creating value for other organizations by means of services. All organizations are service organizations now. We live in the era of Service-Dominant logic and value creation is core to any and all organizations. As a consequence, the only meaningful way to specify an organization’s maturity is to analyze its capability to create value. This e-book explains how the dimension of value creation can be used to analyze an organization’s maturity, putting terms like ‘customer-driven’ into a more meaningful perspective.
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- Demystifying the term MATURITY - The term ‘maturity’ has been used for decades in the context of technical capabilities, ignoring the essential purpose of any modern organization: creating value for other organizations by means of services. All organizations are service organizations now. We live in the era of Service-Dominant logic and value creation is core to any and all organizations. As a consequence, the only meaningful way to specify an organization’s maturity is to analyze its capability to create value. This e-book explains how the dimension of value creation can be used to analyze an organization’s maturity, putting terms like ‘customer-driven’ into a more meaningful perspective.
- Demystifying the term PROCESS - The terms service, management, and process, are among the most (ab)used terms in economy. This e-book demystifies the term process.
The e-book describes the 10 requirements that something must meet, before we can call it a ‘process’ in a mature service management context.
Download your e-book here and learn to apply the term 'process' in a consistent way. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the result.
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- Demystifying the term PROCESS - The terms service, management, and process, are among the most (ab)used terms in economy. This e-book demystifies the term process.
- Demystifying the term VALUE STREAM - This e-book explains how the term 'value streams' is used to relabel the customer-facing end-to-end workflows we have managed for ages. The term doesn't add any value, unless it helps you improve the way you design and manage these customer-facing end-to-end workflows. The guidance on 'values streams' doesn't do this, so it clearly is a hype, fake news. Or as marketeers would call it: "a case of the Shiny Object Syndrome". USM provides the structured solution for improving these value streams, by offering a new way of designing and managing these workflows: USM explains how Enterprise Service Management Architecture can help you reduce your workflow complexity with no more than 8 templates for any service management value stream in any line of business.
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- Demystifying the term VALUE STREAM - This e-book explains how the term 'value streams' is used to relabel the customer-facing end-to-end workflows we have managed for ages. The term doesn't add any value, unless it helps you improve the way you design and manage these customer-facing end-to-end workflows. The guidance on 'values streams' doesn't do this, so it clearly is a hype, fake news. Or as marketeers would call it: "a case of the Shiny Object Syndrome". USM provides the structured solution for improving these value streams, by offering a new way of designing and managing these workflows: USM explains how Enterprise Service Management Architecture can help you reduce your workflow complexity with no more than 8 templates for any service management value stream in any line of business.
- Meet the new cash cow: Enterprise Service Management (ESM) - Software suppliers are discovering a new cash cow: “label your tool as an ESM tool, and new sales are on the horizon”. Don’t fall for it… especially if you have not set up a service management architecture and an associated service management system.
The SURVUZ Foundation provides simple guidance for setting ESM up in a way that does work. Download your white paper here, and avoid the pitfalls. Selecting and setting up an ESM tool only makes sense after the organization has set up such a service management system based on a service management architecture.
This white paper describes what you need to do before embarking on an ESM journey. Download the white paper and avoid the pitfalls.
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- Meet the new cash cow: Enterprise Service Management (ESM) - Software suppliers are discovering a new cash cow: “label your tool as an ESM tool, and new sales are on the horizon”. Don’t fall for it… especially if you have not set up a service management architecture and an associated service management system.
- Devil’s Triangles in Service Management, and how to avoid them - Customer/user organizations are the victims of poor cooperation between parties in Devil’s Triangles. A methodical approach helps you to prevent that effect. A Devil’s Triangle is a relationship between three parties, where cooperation fails. Each of these three parties has its own interest so that the system (the triangle) fails. This USM white paper describes a series of Devil’s Triangles, the 5 most important causes thereof, and the solutions that come with it. You’ll recognize most of the examples, but do you recognize the solution? If you prefer a copy in German (published by itSMF Germany), please let us know in the comments field.
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- Devil’s Triangles in Service Management, and how to avoid them - Customer/user organizations are the victims of poor cooperation between parties in Devil’s Triangles. A methodical approach helps you to prevent that effect. A Devil’s Triangle is a relationship between three parties, where cooperation fails. Each of these three parties has its own interest so that the system (the triangle) fails. This USM white paper describes a series of Devil’s Triangles, the 5 most important causes thereof, and the solutions that come with it. You’ll recognize most of the examples, but do you recognize the solution? If you prefer a copy in German (published by itSMF Germany), please let us know in the comments field.
- Transformation and Zero Trust: The Need for a Unified Service Management System - - This white paper is available on the MyServiceMonitor resource page. Following a standardized, methodical approach to the development and maintenance of a service management system can simplify compliance, regardless of the rules that emerge. This is a critical enabler of transformative change that will be needed for mandates like zero trust.
This paper summarizes some of the benefits of applying the USM method in a ‘zero trust’ or ‘SBOM’ environment. This is an external publication: get the white paper by clicking the cover or this link.
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- Transformation and Zero Trust: The Need for a Unified Service Management System - - This white paper is available on the MyServiceMonitor resource page. Following a standardized, methodical approach to the development and maintenance of a service management system can simplify compliance, regardless of the rules that emerge. This is a critical enabler of transformative change that will be needed for mandates like zero trust.
- Xurrent and USM: A Powerful Combination - This whitepaper provides an overview of Unified Service Management and how Xurrent (previously called 4me) supports the USM principles and workflows. Xurrent and USM are based on very similar concepts: a clear focus on services rather than technology and the desire to make Service Management less complex.
Using Xurrent according to the principles of USM requires an organization to have all 8 USM workflows in place. A Xurrent account can easily be prepared for USM by importing the USM quickstart dataset. This allows a service organization to start working according to USM with minimal effort. This is an external publication: get the white paper by clicking the cover or this link.
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- Xurrent and USM: A Powerful Combination - This whitepaper provides an overview of Unified Service Management and how Xurrent (previously called 4me) supports the USM principles and workflows. Xurrent and USM are based on very similar concepts: a clear focus on services rather than technology and the desire to make Service Management less complex.
- Government as a service provider - This paper describes the standardized management system of a democratic government organization, steered by a systematic representation of the people. Government is a service provider and thus acts as the provider of government services. The customers of this provider are the citizens, companies and other organizations, in short, the residents of the country or the region. To manage that service in a sustainable way, the service provider can take a systematic approach based on Systems Thinking. It shows how the USM enterprise service management architecture specifies a standardized enterprise service management system according to the views of Systems Thinking, in the form of a link for the interoperability in endless chains and networks of the government ecosystem.
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- Government as a service provider - This paper describes the standardized management system of a democratic government organization, steered by a systematic representation of the people. Government is a service provider and thus acts as the provider of government services. The customers of this provider are the citizens, companies and other organizations, in short, the residents of the country or the region. To manage that service in a sustainable way, the service provider can take a systematic approach based on Systems Thinking. It shows how the USM enterprise service management architecture specifies a standardized enterprise service management system according to the views of Systems Thinking, in the form of a link for the interoperability in endless chains and networks of the government ecosystem.
- Enterprise Service Management with the USM and CEM methods:Keeping Service Management’s Heart in the Right Place - This eBook explains how the Customer Expectation Management (CEM) and Unified Service Management (USM) methods can help. By looking at services from both the customer’s and the provider’s points of view, we can make sure services meet expectations and are efficient.
By taking a service and a process perspective, we can also assure an outside-in and systems thinking approach to service management.
Whether you're a business leader, IT professional, or service manager, this book offers practical advice on delivering value and staying organized. Click the cover to download the paper.
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- Enterprise Service Management with the USM and CEM methods:Keeping Service Management’s Heart in the Right Place - This eBook explains how the Customer Expectation Management (CEM) and Unified Service Management (USM) methods can help. By looking at services from both the customer’s and the provider’s points of view, we can make sure services meet expectations and are efficient.
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