Gaining service maturity perspective
As a reference map for service evolution, the Service Maturity Model helps organisations identify areas of relative strength and opportunities against their ability to deliver against service outcomes. The model provides insight that, when examined in context, provides clarity for evolving and creating a vision and roadmap for living services.
STCK tailors service maturity assessments to the context of our clients' circumstances, using results to inform how to proceed with service evolution. Our team uses their expertise to examine service outcomes through the lens of the human experience and the organisational capabilities that enable this, with particular attention to the influence of technology.
The Service Maturity Model provides leaders with a
point-in-time perspective for understanding your organisation's position.
Clients benefit from a reference guide and tool for their service evolution:
identify gaps, establish focus key areas and starting points
identify relevant disruptive forces
set a context for discussion about service evolution and performance
Levers of a living service
We recognise that delivering a living service means balancing change across a complex ecosystem of capabilities, which should be interpreted for each organisation's context. While the content of the Service Maturity Model remains constant, the benchmark for maturity depends on each organisation's unique context.
6 core elements with 32 dimensions provide a comparable basis for understanding an organisation's service maturity.
Elements
Dimensions
Stages of maturity
The Service Maturity Model examines performance against six relative stages of maturity to guide leaders through purposeful transformation and service.
Speculative
Service change, agile and design approaches are ad-hoc, reactive and tactical. Service sophistication is initiated by individual departments with limited success. Value is unquantified.
Experimental
Individual departments are beginning to adopt service transformation practices such as design and initiating some customer centricity projects and/or agile projects. There is no interconnectedness between departments in the pursuit of service excellence. Value is demonstrated in basic ways.
Forming
There is an articulated service excellence strategy and an accompanying methodology. There is a high-level plan for change with identified outcomes and milestones. Departmental pilots are being rolled out across the group and projects are tracking well against consistent KPIs.
Optimising
There are coordinated and purposeful efforts to align and prioritise service strategy capability across departments and business units. Value delivered is accelerated or maximised because of integration efforts.
Connected
Service excellence capability is embedded in every area of the business and all employees understand their role and accountabilities. Service is a key tenet of strategic decision-making and understood as the basis of quantified value delivered across the business.
Aspirational
The organisation is considered a legendary example of service excellence capability in the eyes of the workforce, competitors and the broader service environment. This aspirational level is ever-changing and once achieved will reset exceptions, raising the bar for all organisations.
Developing understanding
At the heart of the Service Maturity Model is a predominantly-quantitative survey that looks across service delivery variables to assess service performance as influenced by the organisation's context. The survey's questions examine 6 core elements with
32 dimensions supported by specific questions to capture the organisation's context (location, industry, size, etc).
We augment surveys with targeted investigation to provide a richer understanding of organisational performance, drivers, context and roadmap for change/service improvements. This investigation typically combines desktop research and in-depth interviews with leaders and operational staff.
Context influences maturity
Every organisation's context varies in ways that influence both their current service maturity and the stage to which they might aspire. Our assessment considers each organisation's unique internal and external circumstances to determine their maturity.
Vision
Strategy
Business model
Finance and investment
Governance
Socio-economic
Political
Consumer and employee behaviour
Competition and industry leader comparison
Technology, including digital disruptors
Digital disruptors
Changing consumer and employee behaviour and needs are generally matched with a digital response. In determining an organisation's service maturity, we examine the affect of digital disruption and trends in a range of areas.
Digestible insight
When assessing service maturity, we capture findings at varying levels (overall, element and dimension), helping organisations understand high-level, general insights, pinpoint specific strengths and opportunities and establish a benchmark of performance.
Overall maturity
Maturity by element
Maturity by dimension
Findings from the assessment are summarised in an easy-to-read report which clearly presents results alongside useful insights which add more detail and context to an organisation's service maturity outcome.
From insight to action
Helping organisations translate the insights from their maturity assessment into a clear path forward, our assessment report supports findings with recommended actions. These actions provide the foundation for determining and enacting a plan to progress the organisation's maturity, and where obvious or best practice solutions to challenges exist, map solutions and prioritise investment.
Clear direction to apply simple fixes
(e.g. tag digital assets for search)
Apply best practice processes
(e.g. ITIL for IT service management)
Apply best practice problem solving discipline and connect to experts
(e.g. tag digital assets for search)
Scaling the assessment
to different needs
We adapt and scale the assessment of organisations' service maturity based on varying leadership, decision-making and organisational needs.
1. Basic
Light-weight assessment via self-directed survey and automated report
2. Context aware
Detailed assessment incorporating survey, interviews and contextual reviews with a tailored report
3. Tailored
Bespoke maturity assessment mapped against an organisational service ecosystem
