Business Services in SL1
Business services are a collection of different activities that help businesses perform essential functions such as managing resources, reducing cost and achieving organizational goals. Examples of business services include consulting, software and IT support, advertising, waste management, staffing, shipping and administration. Businesses need a wide range of these business services to function properly, and often outsource these tasks to external companies.
The main characteristic of business services is that they do not result in the production of any physical products, which makes them an intangible activity. Unlike goods, which can be stored as inventory for future use, services are consumed at the same time they are provided. This inseparability between production and consumption can be a major challenge for service providers because it requires them to constantly meet customer expectations and demands.
Another important characteristic of business services is that they are not limited to specific locations or regions, allowing them to be accessible from anywhere in the world. As a result, many business services are provided through the internet or over phone lines, which make them highly flexible and easily scalable. For example, an IT service can be managed remotely from a single location, but it can also be delivered through the cloud and be used by customers around the world.
While some business services are provided in-house, many companies outsource their functions to specialized business service providers. Outsourcing can save money, reduce the risk of failure and increase efficiency. For example, a company that needs to hire a new employee can outsource this work to an HR agency. Another benefit of outsourcing is that it allows a company to focus on its core competencies and leave noncore work to specialists.
In the context of IT, business services management (BSM) is the process of designing, delivering, and managing services to support the operations of an organization and achieve its strategic goals. BSM is an essential component of any IT organization, and it helps ensure that the technology aligns with business objectives. This in turn drives innovation and enables competitive advantage.
The primary functions of business services management are capacity management and performance management. Capacity management focuses on planning for the right amount of resources, while performance management aims to optimize those resources. BSM is increasingly integrated with DevOps and Agile methodologies, which accelerates service delivery and improves collaboration between development and operations teams.
In SL1, you can customize the view of the Business Services page by selecting certain services as favorites. Favorite services display at the top of the page by default. To select a service as a favorite, navigate to Services > Business Services and click the star icon next to the name of the desired service. To remove a service from your list of favorites, click the star icon again. The service must have a priority to be included in the business services list; otherwise, it will not appear on the Business Services page. You can also create custom dashboards for monitoring your business services.