Nitin Laghate explains the knowledge, skills and benefits of SAF for him, his organization and his clients.
Why did you decide to take the Service Automation Framework certification?
I wanted to take Service Automation to be able to enable my clients further.
I’m working with my clients to help them leverage service automation in their digital transformation journey. What I found good in this course importantly, is the way the syllabus is structured. So, when we say service automation, the course typically consists of a foundation of – ‘What is a service?’. ‘What are the different aspects of service in terms of the service provider?’. How it reaches and impacts a customer and a user. It provides you an end-to-end view of the service lifecycle.
Was there anything you liked especially?
We focused especially on defining the user criteria, different user groups in terms of geographic and segmented ways. It helps us to put a focus on the different aspects of the user. When you base your objectives on user groups, it is very important to identify and plan these services from provisioning -> service activation ->, and then flow through to the service operation. The service blueprint is a complete overview, right from service strategy through to service operations.
I have expertise and experience in these areas, so these things are not new for me. The value addition of this structured course brought new insights from the customer and service providers’ perspectives with more clarity in the end-to-end service automation area.
Did you find the SAF blueprint useful?
One of the aspects I found particularly brilliant was ‘serendipity management’ which is actually turning ‘customers into fans’. Let’s put things like pricing or discounting models aside.
When the customer is not expecting a gift or discount etc – the concept of serendipity management is offering unexpected gifts to the customer such as – a free parking space if the customer is visiting a conference – for instance, every 15th person (here, the customer doesn’t know it, your algorithm knows!).
Or, say take say a florist or a cake shop – every 25th person will receive a surprise discount (not advertised) just to delight the customer in the moment – a bit like getting an upgrade from economy to business on a flight (this example is pretty familiar to us). It leaves you with a great feeling, resulting in happy customers that are likely to feel good about the service and its providers. It creates a special bond between you and the product/service/provider.
You can apply this serendipity management principle, anywhere at any stage as part of service automation and the blueprint.
“One of the aspects I found particularly brilliant was ‘serendipity management’ which is actually turning ‘customers into fans’. Let’s put things like pricing or discounting models aside.”
How do you envisage yourself using service automation in your role?
One of the concepts is the ‘familiarisation’ – it is not new – but the way it is discussed and connected in this course is important. When we visit a website, we have an opinion or expectation – on how it should look; Take menus and sub-menus – are they organized? Are they user-friendly?
Since going through this course and taking the SAF examination, I am confident in reviewing client websites and identifying improvement areas in terms of user experience constructively. It helps me to support my clients better.
What were you hoping to gain from SAF training and certification?
Would you recommend the Service Automation Framework certification to someone else?
Nitin Laghate – Agile Coach and ITSM Transformation Manager
Nitin Laghate has more than two decades of Industry experience in IT Services, Telecom, Manufacturing, and Banking domain space. He managed Digital Transformation initiatives and Service Automation programs applying Design Thinking and Agile mindset. He guided clients in transforming from traditional to agile organizations. This was achieved by aligning Business Unit Strategies with Corporate Strategies and thereby efficient usage of Technological Capabilities.
He provides agile coaching to the leadership, program, projects, team and individuals and is an expert in Scrum (scaled agile), Kanban & Lean management agile methodologies.
Leave A Comment