About the White Paper:
An increase in the dependency of business on their IT services in recent years has changed the way and the extent that business must consider the delivery of those IT services. IT departments are now viewed by business managers as 'service organisations' and are expected to deliver clearly defined products to agreed service levels. Business organisations thus consider themselves to be customers of their IT departments and expect to be treated accordingly, very differently from the way IT departments traditionally treated their "users" some years ago.
The services must be matched to business needs and customer requirements. They must be flexible enough to adapt rapidly to changes in organisation structure, demand, competition and technology.
Users of IT services are required to obtain value for money. There is continual pressure in many organisations to reduce costs while maintaining or improving IT services. They must also make optimum use of expensive - and often scarce - IT skills. If customers are not satisfied with internal IT services, they will (and should) consider outsourcing.
Most users have no interest in technology or IT components. Their responsibility is to maintain and improve their own business processes and they are only interested in the IT infrastructure in so far as it supports their work. As the nature and volume of the work changes, IT is expected to stay ahead of service demand. This requires a policy of proactive IT service development.
The best way to deliver the services that the business needs is to identify and apply appropriate industry Best Practice. This is effectively taking the lessons learned from others' experience and building upon them using the specific knowledge and skills within your organisation. | 
