Implementation of a Service Management Office Into a World Food Company in Latin America

Abstract

Research on service management office (SMO) related with its implementation, challenges, relevance, and outcomes is scarce. The purpose of this case study research is to contribute with the lessons learned from the implementation of an SMO into a big sized company. The lessons include the experience of the company designing and implementing an SMO. A general roadmap and main challenges for the creation of an SMO are presented through the lessons learned of three perspectives: people, processes, and technology. The results in the SMO implementation reveal that it could become a strategic complement for IT services in order to ensure quality, efficiency, and continuous improvement for information technology service management (ITSM). The main changes derived from the SMO implementation were migrate from a function model to a service model, go from management of cost by function to management by service, from an order taker to a focus on business transformation initiatives, from a portfolio management based on applications to a process based on flexible governance.