Shall We Start With Semantics?
Semantics are important. Just to ensure the same language is spoken throughout this blog, establishing an understanding for the following terms is important (1) Business Intelligence or BI (2) Supportability and (3) Service.
The Wikipedia definition of BI is the one I like the best. To quote Wikipedia, BI is "is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, providing access to, and analyzing data for the purpose of helping enterprise users make better business decisions." Wikipedia goes through the liberty of going in more detail, so if you need more detail about BI, I recommend visiting the BI section of Wikipedia. The heart of the definition, and probably the reason why BI is so important, is to help "users make better business decisions." There is more we can talk about, but let's save that for later.
On to supportability -- so what does Wikipedia say about supportability? Interestingly enough, Wikipedia uses the term "serviceability" and "supportability" interchangebly. In computer science terms, supportability is "the ability of technical support personnel to debug or perform root cause analysis in pursuit of solving a problem with a product." I would even extend this definition to include that it's the ability of anyone interacting with the software system to troubleshoot and analyze a problem encountered while using the product. The bottom line: supportability is the ability for a product to be supported. There is much more we can add here, but to establish a baseline definition this should suffice for now.
On to service, or customer service. Again, I will refer to Wikipedia's definition of service: "Customer service is the provision of labour and other resources, for the purpose of increasing the value that buyers receive from their purchases and from the processes leading up to the purchase." Service is a value generating activity for the buyers besides the value generated from the usage of the product. The unique characteristic of services, as opposed to products, is the inclusion of a "human element" to the overall user experience with the product.
An important distinction to make is between service and technical support. Technical Support (TS) can be viewed as a sub-category of services, which actually deals with providing assistance to resolve specific problems with the product. There is a school of thought that says TS is a seperate entity, which is perfectly viable. However, for this blog I am including TS under the umbrella of services. The bigger umbrella of services also includes activities such as training, customization, implementation advice, and other support services. In which ever way one slices the definitions, the underlying characteristic about service (and technical support) is the human interaction involved. This interaction can improve the overall experience of the user or in some cases take away from a good experience altogether.
So while I will discuss each of these subjects individually within their own silos and frameworks, I will eventually integrate these topics with the goal of building a bigger framework. I will propose various strategies for building a "Center of Excellence for BI Service & Supportability." A tall order? Probably so, and even though it looks daunting right now, it's definately possible...
The Wikipedia definition of BI is the one I like the best. To quote Wikipedia, BI is "is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, providing access to, and analyzing data for the purpose of helping enterprise users make better business decisions." Wikipedia goes through the liberty of going in more detail, so if you need more detail about BI, I recommend visiting the BI section of Wikipedia. The heart of the definition, and probably the reason why BI is so important, is to help "users make better business decisions." There is more we can talk about, but let's save that for later.
On to supportability -- so what does Wikipedia say about supportability? Interestingly enough, Wikipedia uses the term "serviceability" and "supportability" interchangebly. In computer science terms, supportability is "the ability of technical support personnel to debug or perform root cause analysis in pursuit of solving a problem with a product." I would even extend this definition to include that it's the ability of anyone interacting with the software system to troubleshoot and analyze a problem encountered while using the product. The bottom line: supportability is the ability for a product to be supported. There is much more we can add here, but to establish a baseline definition this should suffice for now.
On to service, or customer service. Again, I will refer to Wikipedia's definition of service: "Customer service is the provision of labour and other resources, for the purpose of increasing the value that buyers receive from their purchases and from the processes leading up to the purchase." Service is a value generating activity for the buyers besides the value generated from the usage of the product. The unique characteristic of services, as opposed to products, is the inclusion of a "human element" to the overall user experience with the product.
An important distinction to make is between service and technical support. Technical Support (TS) can be viewed as a sub-category of services, which actually deals with providing assistance to resolve specific problems with the product. There is a school of thought that says TS is a seperate entity, which is perfectly viable. However, for this blog I am including TS under the umbrella of services. The bigger umbrella of services also includes activities such as training, customization, implementation advice, and other support services. In which ever way one slices the definitions, the underlying characteristic about service (and technical support) is the human interaction involved. This interaction can improve the overall experience of the user or in some cases take away from a good experience altogether.
So while I will discuss each of these subjects individually within their own silos and frameworks, I will eventually integrate these topics with the goal of building a bigger framework. I will propose various strategies for building a "Center of Excellence for BI Service & Supportability." A tall order? Probably so, and even though it looks daunting right now, it's definately possible...
posted by Taimur at 11:20 PM
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