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Top1. Introduction
The shift in expectancies regarding the use of information technologies (IT) has caused that today, companies from a wide range of sectors and sizes seek for increasingly efficient and innovative technology solutions, and as consequence there has been an increase in research on the concept of service in the Information Systems (IS) discipline (Eikebrokk & Iden, 2017). Organizations – especially multinational ones – are increasingly recognizing that IT services are crucial and strategic assets that call for resource investment to support their provision and management. However, it is also true that, at times, the strategic role of IT services is overlooked or is not addressed with the strategic importance it entails (Adison Cartlidge et al., 2007), and, those who do recognize its importance through implementation of best practices or IT service frameworks, such as Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), have found that one of the success factors to ensure successful outcomes in managing such services is having an adequate process not just for implementation, but also for follow-up, maintenance (Love & Ness, 2016; Neničková, 2011) and continuous improvement, preparing itself to offer better services and care to its customers (De Barros et al., 2015; Yamamoto, 2017).
In light of an analysis of literature on the importance of having an office allowing supporting and following up on effective ITSM from the implementation of an ITSM framework (Cannon, 2011; Fry, 2008; ITGI, 2009; Lucio-Nieto & González-Bañales, 2019; Microsoft, 2008; Plexenet, 2011; Roller, 2009; Shahsavarani & Shaobo, 2011) or as a module where ITSM should be based solely on service, rather than focusing on service from the perspective of hardware, these modules focus on service from the perspective of the user of the applications where the question is not what a service does, but how services can be delivered (Love & Ness, 2016).
Considering the sources analyzed related to Service Management Office (SMO), they suggest the existence of an SMO as a mechanism responsible for delivering quality IT services to users, at both the tactical and strategic levels (Montgomery, 2011). Such office’s main responsibilities are the strategy and design of a service that delivers business value and the governance of IT processes, frameworks, methodologies and standards (Hubbert, 2008). This is empirically supported by studies conducted in 2009 and 2011 (Lucio-Nieto & Colomo-Palacios, 2012; Lucio-Nieto & González-Bañales, 2019; Lucio Nieto & Gonzalez-Bañales, 2009) on a number of Latin American companies in order to know the importance and implications of the implementation of frameworks and best practices in IT service management, as well as the pertinence of the creation of an SMO, considering ITIL as the main framework for IT service management. The results from such study and a bibliographic review, suggest that it is advisable to have an office allowing following up on and meeting the objectives of IT service management.
Although there is no standard definition for a Service Management Office (SMO), its functions and scope (Lucio-Nieto, 2011), by analyzing several definitions, (Cannon, 2011; Clyton, 2012; Hubbert, 2008; Montgomery, 2011; Roller, 2009) it can be said that it embodies an IT governance mechanism that defines, monitors and audits both operating and in-transition process, it is responsible for ensuring compliance of the “end-to-end” service strategy for all of the functions involved in its definition, design, transition, operation and continual improvement; additionally, it has three main responsibilities: strategy and design of services that deliver business value (demand, portfolio and service catalogue management), and is in charge of business relationships and responsible for the governance of IT processes, frameworks and standards.
Considering that the bibliographic review done revels that studies on ITIL are distributed in a dispersed way in the literature, making it difficult to get a general overview on the subject (De Barros et al., 2015) and lacks of appropriate theories and models that capture the distinct characteristics and implications of the ITIL implementation practice (Eikebrokk & Iden, 2017), and does not include an analysis of a company case that has implemented an SMO in a Latin American setting for a multi-national, multi-product company, a study case is presented in this work with the aim of analyzing the lessons learned in the implementation of an SMO in the context of IT services, as a means to ensure efficiency and permanence in the implementation of frameworks in the ITSM area, specifically for ITIL.