The Service Reporting process reports on the results achieved both operationally and strategically. It also reports on any developments related to Service Level Agreements such as hitting various targets, like availability.
Its purpose is to provide information to both IT and the business in order for informed decisions to be made. IT and the business should agree the format and style of reports to suit their relevant audiences.
A reporting framework policy needs to be documented and agreed with the various business units as the finance department would want to see a different set of reports from the marketing department. This would be incorporated at the Service Design phase.
The framework should contain as a minimum:
- Target groups and the services delivered
- Agreement of what should be measured and therefore reported upon
- The basis for calculations
- Access to the reports and what media should be used ie. Intranet, email etc.
- Regular meetings to discuss the reports and subsequent improvements
Activities in the Service Reporting process include:
- Gathering data from various sources
- Processing and Applying the data, what went well, what was not so good, how can we improve?
- Publishing the information, using various tools such as the Intranet, email, briefings etc.
- Tuning the report to the business, different business units would want differing reports in terms of style, format, data, frequency etc.
It is important to review the Service Reporting process and reports generated on a regular basis as reports will change in terms of data required, timings, audience etc. This is constantly evolving process.