The IT Skeptic - Comments for "A Brief Review of Creating and Driving Service Excellence"

Nevermind the width - feel the quality

Matthew Flynn — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:40:43 +0000

Skep - I am surprised at your concern over the price. You too, know how difficult it is to write a short book. Distilling the collective wisdom of many a BOK and presenting it in the right way to a specific audience is not easy and if Sharon has done it well it is worth paying for.

Just think of the time, effort and therefore money she'll save you when you use her book as a tool to win you work by persuading those sceptical business executives making the decisions.

I just wish Sharon had published it with BCS.

Review of Creating and Driving SE

Sharon Taylor — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:04:55 +0000

Rob, many thanks for your review of the book. You hit the nail on the head about it being tough to condense a compelling message to C-level about ITSM in such a small package, but we know that unless we can, it won;t be read. And in my view, that's the place we have to start; getting C's to read about it. This is why you see some admittedly tired examples of success. For the C's they want to relate to something tangible, and P&G, and the like are such examples instantly recognized and widely accepted as empiricle. I wish we as an industry spent more time uncovering the new, fresh and just as compelling examples.

In a book this small, as you know, one has to make choices about what is in an out. I did have this reviewed by a sizeable number of C's and largely followed their advice about what would compel them to buy other books and seek out ITSM knowledge to a deeper level. Sadly, culture was not as high on that radar as it could have been, [perhaps a sign of the hard, economic times], but I think as an industry we are making strides.

I'm pleased that you find it valuable and will put it in front of your own customers. I hear it is gaining a good rate of acceptance, even among the "Western egg-sucking" gang!

And since when does anyone ever pay list price for books these days? I think these days cover prices are set for two main reasons and this book is likely no different in that regard; not so cheap that it will lack credibility with an executive audience and allowing room for the large discounters like amazon to offer it.

In the end, I spent the time writing it in the hope that exec's will read it, and that the people who will put in in front of them will benefit from that.

I believe your review of the book will help that happen as well and I thank you for that too!

Culture change

Paul Wilkinson — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:23:20 +0000

Rob, a nice summary of the book. I totally agree about the Culture change bit, however Sharon did add bits about ABC and the need to adress it........we are perhaps slowly changing the culture with the authors to add the people bits.....Colin Rudd in 'Planning to implement' also mentioned ABC and declared that 'Cultural issues' were the biggest reasons for initiatives failing......but then again nobody read this book because it doesn't contribute to getting an ITIL expert certificate so why bother reading it........yes there is still work to do changing our culture to accept that culture is an issue....I blame the culture.....that is the end of my morning rant.

to enlighten the

skeptic — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:19:40 +0000

It's not the execs who will buy this book - it is their underlings desperate to enlighten them so the flaky ITSM business case will get through. I used to hand out the similar V2 itSMF pocketbook liberally. I will be more restrained with this one.

BTW: The books I've been given for free are only a small part of my library, and I own my own company, so yes the price of books hurts.

Claims of Gains

Martin Erb — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:19:08 +0000

Re "sad collection of unsubstantiated boasts"

I can vouch for the Capital One claims. I retired from there years ago, but ITSM is still sending cash to the bottom line there.

One thing we adopters forgat all to easily: ITILs processes are atthe core, dis-entropic - and are themselves subject to entropy. Maintaining what has been adopted takes some effort. The more complicated the process, the more effort it takes to maintain it. Just like every thing else!

Perception as a creator of value - mentioned by ITIL

Value Propositions — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:02:46 +0000

You say the book is too expensive. Yes, 60 pages at 25 quid - 2.40 pounds a page - is expensive. But too expensive?

Too expensive for who? For an ITSM professional, used to getting some books free from reviewing them, or bought by the company, it's outrageous. They aren't the audience, though, are they. Their perception of value is not the point.

The audience is Senior Management or Directors. They'll be impressed by the price - do they really want to be seen on the aeroplane reading 'Boardroom Surfing for Dunces' for a mere 50p a page? Of course not!

I think that there should be a kindle version - maybe priced at 40 quid for the HD ( Huge Dunce ) special red copy ( with an automatic donation to starving ex-Castle staff ) and 5 quid for the black and white peon edition ( for those giving the lift-bore justification for buying the HD version ).