In an increasingly interconnected business world, everything is becoming a service. Today even manufactured products are services and managing these services is a challenge. Service Management for Dummies, a just released Dummies series book written by Hurwitz & Associates analysts, Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, Marcia Kaufman, and Fern Halper, clarifies what Service Management is all about. The book takes a common-sense approach to explain the scope of IT services covering everything from understanding the importance of standards and best practices to virtualization in a service management world.

“What if technology was designed to serve the business at every time? If Service Management is done correctly it can transform the valued delivered to the customer and can change the fortunes of whole industries. This is the focus and purpose of Service Management for Dummies,” said Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz & Associates.

Increasingly companies are discovering that more and more components of their companies products are technology based including sensors in the factory floor and embedded systems in cars and hospital equipment. In addition, new business models are emerging based completely on delivering automated services to customers such as Netflix with its delivery of movies as a service. ”This is why the Service Management arena is exploding. Many executives are finding that applying service management principles to both the physical and IT world is transformational,” according to Hurwitz.

“Don't let the name fool you,” notes Al Zollar, General Manager, Tivoli Software, IBM Software Group, “this book is valuable for novices and seasoned professionals alike. It succinctly conveys the vital importance -- and real competitive advantage -- of adopting a comprehensive service management strategy for your organization. In today's service-driven economy, effective service management helps you transform all of your business and IT assets into services that your customers value and prefer. The real-world examples in the book do a great job of bringing these concepts to life."

Service Management for Dummies is the third Dummies book written by Hurwitz & Associates. The team wrote two editions of Service Oriented Architecture for Dummies, published by Wiley Publishing in 2006 and 2008. The team’s fourth book, Cloud Computing for Dummies, will be published during the summer of 2009.

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