Service Attributes

Service Attributes can be used to categorize Service Parameter Types. In standard Valuemation, the following Service Attributes are defined:

• Service Consumer Benefits

  A service is taken as a set of benefits which is provided to an authorized service consumer. First of all the Service Consumer Benefits must be captured and specified in the correspondent service attribute 01. It is specified by clearly and concisely paraphrasing the service-specific benefits in free text statements. There is always one indispensable primary benefit which must be effectuated in every case for rendering the triggered service at all. For an e-mail service, this indispensable benefit comprises the delivery of one copy each of the original email with all attachments to the mailbox of each intended addressee. Additionally, there are secondary, tertiary and quaternary benefits which must also be rendered to ensure the delivery of the primary benefits (for example, an email service must be accompanied by antivirus services).

• Service-specific Functional Parameters

  With this service attribute‚ service-specific functional parameters of the technical environment for service delivery are specified (For example, for an email service this can be a maximum allowable MB size of the emailbox for one authorized Service Consumer, a maximum allowable MB size of one single email including attachments, etc.) The authorized Service Consumer must be informed about these limits and consider them before triggering the service. Up to 5 sub-parameters may be determined for completely specifying the service attribute.

• Service Delivery Point

  The ‘Service Delivery Point’ attribute covers the locations and/or physical or logical interfaces used by the authorized Service Consumer to trigger a service. This usually concerns the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the used application, e.g. the email client application for email services. Several different Service Delivery Points from which services are triggered and rendered may be used. For example, an email service may use standard locally installed email front-end application and also the option to trigger the email services via the web browser. Up to 5 optional Service Delivery Points may be specified and the authorized Service Consumers must be equipped correspondingly.

• Service Consumer Count

  The ‘Service Consumer Count’ value is usually set to '1' in the basic specification of an ICT-based Business Support Service (ICTBSS). This configuration means that a service is rendered explicitly to the Service Consumer for whom it has been triggered. (E.g. an email service must be rendered to the triggering Service Consumer by forwarding one copy each of his original email to the mailbox of each addressee he has determined in the address fields.)

• Service Delivery Readiness Time

  'Service Delivery Readiness Time' determines the availability of the service. Service delivery readiness is specified for each day of the week (Monday through Sunday including public holidays). During this time the authorized Service Consumers may trigger and consume commissioned ICT-based Business Support Services. An email service usually has a 24/7 Service Delivery Readiness as it must be triggerable and deliverable at any time.

  Service Delivery Readiness time data should be given in a 24-hour format and completed with time zone information.

• Service Support Times

  The 'Service Support Times' attribute determines the availability of service support when the service desk or service support team is reachable via standard communication media. It is specified for each day of the week (Monday through Sunday including public holidays). For email services the Service Support Times are often constricted to standard office hours of the ordering business units.

  Service Support Times should be given in a 24-hour format and completed with time zone information.

• Service Support Languages

  The 'Service Support Languages‘ attribute determines the languages provided for service support communication. In most international enterprises the first Service Support Language is English complemented with national languages of the most important locations of the enterprise.

• Services Fulfillment Target

  The 'Service Fulfillment Target' attribute determines minimum percentage of successfully rendered services related to the number of all triggered services. By agreeing upon a value, all involved parties jointly accept that a certain percentage of service deliveries may be impaired or denied. Nevertheless, the accountable Service Provider always strives for rendering 100% of the triggered services.

  The 'Service Fulfillment Target' value may relate to each individual authorized Service Consumer or several/all authorized Service Consumers.

  For email services, the Service Fulfillment Target might be 98%. This would specify that at least 98 out of 100 triggered email services must be rendered to the authorized Service Consumer according to the service specification whilst up to 2 email services might be rendered with aberrant service qualities such as exceeding the allowed Service Delivery Duration or even being completely denied.

• Service Impairment Duration

  The 'Service Impairment Duration' attribute specifies the maximum allowable time for service impairments or denials. Service impairment is a situation when the service delivery is delayed or the service-specific benefits are not effectuated. The perception of service impairment is based on the jointly agreed upon service specification.

  If, for example, the 'Service Impairment Duration' value is set to 30 minutes, then a service which has been impaired or denied in the first attempt must be available in full quality within 30 minutes since the first attempt.

• Service Delivering Duration

  The 'Service Delivering Duration' attribute determines the maximum acceptable period of time from service triggering to the closing of service delivery. For example, an email service is triggered by clicking the send button in the email client application, the service infrastructure executes the respective processing steps and the service is finalized by a message informing the user that service benefits have been effectuated.

  The 'Service Delivering Duration' value is normally in the range of several minutes, in rare cases it can reach the range of hours.

• Service Delivery Unit

  The 'Service Delivery Unit' attribute specifies the basic unit for rendering the respective ICT-based Business Support Service (ICTBSS). The basic unit is delivered when all service-specific benefits have been effectuated according to the values determined in the other attributes and rendered to the triggering Service Consumer.

  Clear specification and description of this attribute value is paramount because it is the core reference measure for service pricing, rendering and billing. For an email service, one single Service Delivery Unit might comprise the delivery of one copy each of the original email to the mailbox of each intended addressee.

• Service Delivering Price

  The 'Service Delivery Price' attribute specifies the price of the service related to the 'Service Delivery Unit' attribute.

  Service Delivering Price is subdivided into:

  • The service access price which is a fixed price per authorized service consumer and per reference period for being connected to and/or integrated into the servicescape and/or for having the option to trigger commissioned services as needed. For an email service, service access price may be an amount of Euro per authorized service consumer and a calendar year. The service access price covers establishing and maintaining the email account as well as assigning the agreed amount of email store capacity to the service consumer.
  • The service consumption price actually refers to the Service Delivery Unit. It may be determined on the basis of one of the following basic pricing models:

    - Flat rate-based price which allows the authorized Service Consumer to trigger and consume an arbitrary volume of service volume in the reference period.

    - Volume-based price which allows an authorized Service Consumer to trigger and consume service volumes with graduated pricing, e.g. 50 Euro for the first 1.000 consumed email services, 20 Euro for the next 500 consumed email services, etc.

    - Unit-based price, i.e. charging per consumed Service Delivery Unit, for example a proportional Euro amount per a consumed email service.