Guide · IT operating models
Most operating models you inherit in a carve-out were designed for a world that's gone: one prime supplier, SLAs that only measure uptime, a tower diagram last touched in 2015. Here's what a modern one looks like — and the four ways to integrate your suppliers.
The business sets direction. A retained function owns strategy and demand. An operational integrator (SIAM) runs the day-to-day across suppliers. A supplier ecosystem delivers — all sitting on a shared service catalogue.
Supplier ecosystem — each tower under a contract or internal agreement
The layers are stable. What's moved on is what you measure, how you integrate, and how many suppliers you hold together.
Every multi-supplier estate needs someone to integrate the suppliers. There are only four ways to do it — pick the one that matches your control-vs-capability trade-off.
Maximum control. Needs real internal capability, people and tooling.
Fast to stand up, one throat to choke — but watch for bias: they're marking their own homework.
Best balance of control and capability — if the RACI between you and the partner is crystal clear.
Neutral, specialist integration — but it's another contract to govern.
"All green" is the most dangerous status in IT.
Every SLA can be met — server up, ticket closed in time, 99.9% availability — while the people using the service are quietly less productive than last year. That's why modern operating models run both: SLAs govern the machine (is the service technically performing?) and XLAs govern the human (can people actually get their work done, easily?). Gartner reckons around two in three IT tenders now ask for XLAs. If your model still only measures uptime, you're measuring half the picture — and not the half the business cares about.
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