When compared with industrial production processes IT processes for the development and delivery of services are often seen as being antiquated. This is despite the fact that information technologies are increasingly playing a role as a factor that can increase the competitiveness and value of an organization. IT is now oriented more towards the companies’ business objectives and strategies. Logically, the IT users are not interested in how an IT service is delivered, all that they want is an efficient solution to their problems and the use of IT to complete their daily tasks. The users thus see the ‘IT factory’ for the preparation and delivery of the services as a kind of black box – which should function flexibly, reliably and efficiently. A turnkey service, an end-to-end service, is most relevant to the user.

This user point of view has serious consequences for the IT service provider: services are no longer delivered as traditionally separate components, such as hard disk capacity or CPU time, but as integrated and global solutions – so-called „business enablers". IT service providers have to react quickly to their users’ demands, have to provide a framework for the continuous and quality delivery of the services, and also have to ensure a transparent cost-benefit relationship for the supply of their services. Flexibility in delivery as well as increased dynamism and global availability of services are central characteristics of end-to-end services.


With the help of automation, dynamism and virtualization the IT service processes can begin to approach the stage of maturity common in industry. The ‘industrialization’ of IT will release efficiency potential, free up speed in the satisfaction of new demands and guarantee the accompanying consistent quality of the ‘product’.

This article looks at all aspects of the translation of business requirements into IT services and provides insight into the complex nature of a transformation of existing isolated, technology-oriented services into commercially oriented end-to-end systems.


Traditional service delivery


The need to automate and permanently improve IT services provides the basis for modern IT production due to the constant pressure to achieve more with less. The present status of IT service processes has the following characteristics: 
Next page