Proactive Management of IT Operations to Improve IT Services

Abstract IT Service Operations is a high priority improvement target for IT service providers because it is critical for business operations and involves daily interaction with customers, thus directly effecting customer satisfaction. An action research project involving three organizations explored current IT service operation activities and challenges and initiated projects to improve service operation at each organization. The findings indicate that the major challenges include reactive rather than proactive approach to IT operations management, measurement and reporting, classification of incidents, management of customer feedback, and interfaces between IT service operation processes. Recommendations are formulated to help IT service managers and theoretical contributions are provided.