IT Service Management and Professional Culture: Netflix Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of IT Service Management (ITSM) at Netflix, examining its implementation and impact on business value. The report begins with an introduction to ITSM and its importance, followed by an evaluation of Netflix's ITSM practices, specifically its partnership with ServiceNow for ticket management and service delivery. It explores how Netflix leverages IT services to enhance business value through better IT services, faster delivery, and cost-effectiveness. The report then delves into the development and enhancement of ITSM, considering strategies for aligning IT services with business needs. Finally, it outlines the planning and implementation of service management improvements, including defining an ITSM strategy and implementing service improvements. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for optimizing ITSM practices at Netflix.

Running head: IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT AND PROFESSIONAL CULTURE
IT Service Management and Professional Culture
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Evaluation of IT Service Management in Netflix:.....................................................................3
How the Services create Business Value in Netflix:..................................................................5
Better IT Services:..................................................................................................................5
Faster Delivery of the IT Service:..........................................................................................6
Cheaper IT Services:..............................................................................................................7
Developing and Enhancing the IT Service Management:..........................................................7
Development of the IT Service Management:.......................................................................7
Enhancement of the IT Service Management:.......................................................................9
Planning and Implementing Service Management Improvements:.........................................11
Defining the IT Service Management Strategy:...................................................................11
Setting of the Implementation Strategy:..............................................................................11
Project Consolidation:..........................................................................................................12
Service Strategy Design:......................................................................................................12
Transitioning Service Strategy:............................................................................................12
Operating Service Strategy:.................................................................................................12
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................13
References:...............................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
The ITSM or the Information Technology Service Management is some set of
activities which are involved with the delivering, creating, managing and supporting the
lifecycle of information technology services (Smith & Wong, 2016). In often cases it is also
known as the IT service management. Generally, the IT service management is performed by
the individual organizations so that they can plan, design, control, operate and deliver the
information technology services to the customers of them (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). The
technology-oriented IT service management includes IT systems management and network
management. The IT service management is characterized by the approach of process
adoption towards focusing on the needs of the customers and management instead of IT
related services for the customers. The IT service management is mainly crucial for the
organization for supporting the service quality and customer experiences (Tao et al., 2015). In
this way the IT service management maximizes the business value of the organization by the
use of information technology. The concept of IT service management is works with the IT
related services for delivering and obtaining of the data. In the IT service management, the IT
service providers can be both internal and external for the organizations. In the IT service
management environment these IT service providers works with the business customers
while they also take the responsibility associated with the risks and the cost. The IT service
management works for the entire lifecycle of a service, starting from the original strategy to
transition, design and live operation.
In this paper the IT service management and its importance to the organizations will
be evaluated briefly. Here, for the investigation about the IT service management Netflix
organization has been chosen. In this report Netflix will be evaluated with respect to service
management best practices. Also, this report will demonstrate how the services creates the

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business value in Netflix. In the further section of this report how the service management
could be developed and enhanced in the practice will be discussed and after that this report
will demonstrate how the improvements can be initiated in the service management processes
which are already existing for the organization.
Evaluation of IT Service Management in Netflix:
The Netflix Inc. is an American multinational organization which is a media
production and media service provider (Jenner, 2018). The primary business of Netflix is the
subscription based streaming services in which Netflix offers online streaming of various of
films and the TV programs, including the in-house productions (Jenner, 2016). Initially the
business of Netflix was based around DVD sales and rental. In 2010 Netflix expanded their
businesses and included the streaming media services. For the online media services, they
moved into the online environment and due to this factor IT service management was
important for the Netflix so that they can provide a better service to their customers (Pittman
& Sheehan, 2015). In this aspect for providing a better IT service management to the
customers Netflix partnered an external IT service provider which was ServiceNow. The
ServiceNow Inc. is an American cloud computing organization which is having the business
model of software as a service provider (Wood, 2016). In this aspect ServiceNow provides
technical management support to the other organizations which includes the IT service
management. Netflix uses the IT service management services of ServiceNow for providing
appropriate support to their customers.
Here, Netflix has selected ServiceNow as their IT service management tools partner
in the ticket management department (Kahlout, 2017). The main idea of implementing the IT
service management in the ticketing department is that it will enable developers at the global
online video streaming services to the grow up and move on from a traditional type of home-

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grown system and to get things out on the fly. Here Netflix has utilized a home-grown tool as
they were aware that they need to grow further and need to move on. This growth of them
was requiring an IT service management which they decided to take from ServiceNow. While
Netflix was implementing the IT service management in their organization, they have chosen
software as a service solution for their problem and there was a reason behind it
(Seethamraju, 2015). Netflix has chosen software as a service due to one main reason that
they do not want to have responsibility for uptime. Netflix was totally focused on how they
can use it and, in this aspect, the ServiceNow comes into the place. Organizational employees
wanted access to a ticketing system (Summers et al., 2016), but for gaining the access there
was various of mandatory requirements from the end of Netflix in order to perform that.
Netflix never required an IT service management in their organizational history before but
after the implementation of the IT service management Netflix was impressed of the simple
type of tools offered by the ServiceNow. With that Netflix was also impressed by the process
of enabling the customization (Desjardins-Proulx et al., 2017). The operations of Netflix are
not really oriented with the IT service management but the service tool that was offered by
ServiceNow was really helpful for the Netflix which helped them in their organizational
growth. Netflix could have easily developed another solution for this problem but then it will
make the organization processes more complex and also finding another solution by their
own was time consuming for them and they really not having the patience for that. Instead,
Netflix wanted to get the things executed very fast and due to that they have implemented this
IT service management. This was the main reason that Netflix opted for ServiceNow and it
also included the customization process of ServiceNow.
In this way Netflix created a proper help desk for the customers by the help of IT
service management provided by ServiceNow where the ticketing management system
improved and it enabled the instant ticket submit process. Also, some other important

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services were provided by the IT service management of ServiceNow which included generic
helpdesk support (Nechyporenko, 2015), access requests, employee off and on boarding,
requests for a new hire and event management. In this way IT service management offered by
ServiceNow helped Netflix to manage its business complexity which provide value towards
the business procedure of Netflix.
How the Services create Business Value in Netflix:
The main aim of implementing the IT services in the organization is aligning the
business services with the IT services so that business goals can be achieved in much faster
way (Mitchell, 2019). For the commercial type of organizations this are the better margins,
more sales and lower chances of risks and Netflix is also a commercial type of organization.
The IT services helps the organizations to achieve these factors by providing a better, faster
and marginally cheap service in terms of cost. Also, if these services are used in an effective
way then these IT services can provide more value to the organizations so that a sustainable
competitive advantage is achieved. Here, the IT services offered by the ServiceNow can
provide value to the Netflix in three different ways (McDonald & Smith-Rowsey, 2016).
First, it can provide better IT services, secondly it can provide faster delivery of the IT
service and lastly cheap IT services will add more value to the business of the organization.
In the following section these aspects of the IT services are discussed briefly.
Better IT Services:
Better IT services provides the business value to the organizations including Netflix in
two ways. First one is the fitness for purpose and the second one is the fitness for use.
 Fitness for Purpose: The fitness for purpose is a specific type of utility which is also
known as the ITIL world and it is also a primary source of business value (Limantoet
al., 2017). This is actually related with the functionality of the information system.

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The IT services are mainly used for bringing automation in the manual type of
working procedure and this way it actually reduces the cost for the organization which
is a big addition of value to the organizations and it is also the same for the Netflix. In
this context, IT services are also used affecting the top line value of the organization
which include prices and revenue. Here, the IT services also provides another
business value to the organization that the IT services affects the reputation of the
organization in a positive way. When the stakeholders of the organization including
the customers are confronted by the digital manifestation of the organization, they
will be going under a certain digital experience and this will be influencing the
opinion of them. In this way reputation of the organization will be increased. Fitness for Use: The fitness for use directly refers to the requirements which are non-
functional in nature. One of the prior example of this type of requirements are the
availability, security and performance. Warranty is not included here as it does not
add any type of value. It actually assists in the prevention of the value of utility which
being affected adversely.
Faster Delivery of the IT Service:
Faster delivery of IT services adds value to the organizations including Netflix in
mainly two ways which are speed of delivery and decision making agility.
 Speed of Delivery: The speed of delivery does not have any type of value in itself.
The speed of Delivery is having the value with which utility is obtained. Here the
value is gained with the speed, with which costs are incurred. Decision Making Agility: The decision making agility is one of the interesting factor
in this aspect. It provides the value in two ways which are setting of the right
priorities and the ability of changing the bets after the starting of the race. In the other

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way it is actually reschedule of the works in such of the cases when priorities are
changed.
Cheaper IT Services:
Cheaper IT services also provides value to the Netflix and the other organizations in
two main ways which are cost of development and cost of operations. The cost of
development and cost of operations actually refers to the entire cost of ownership (Cooper,
2017). It must be regarded with the relationship to the total business cost percentage which is
represented by IT. This varies immensely from a sector to another sector. Thus, in this aspect
by having a cheaper cost of IT service it will be providing a good value to the businesses.
Developing and Enhancing the IT Service Management:
Development of the IT Service Management:
Development of the IT service management is also very important for the Netflix and
the other organizations so that they become always ready for the future cases (Jäntti & Hotti,
2016). While new IT service management is being developed the main question occurs is
where to start for this development process. For Netflix it can be overwhelming. Here the
main importance is aligning the IT services with the greater needs of Netflix but it is very
much confusing for them that where to start for beginning of this alignment process. In such
of the cases if Netflix begin develop the IT service management without any type of clear
roadmap then it very much assured that Netflix will become less productive. Thus it is very
much important to create an IT service management roadmap so that new service
management can be implemented in the organizations easily. This type of roadmap includes
graphically appealing items as per the requirement of the organization and it can also include
goals, protocol and the action items. These all are very much important for the Netflix so that
new IT service management can be implemented.

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For developing the service management four basic things must be followed which are
current point of the organization, how the organization can start developing, where the
organization would like to be and how the organization will achieve that place. Thus, first for
the development of the IT service management it is very much important to examine the
whole organization first. This process of examine must be done in such a way so that it can
be identified that which areas of the organization needs the most improvements and where the
improvements needs to be done most rapidly (Goldberg, Satzger & Fromm, 2016). In this
aspect it is very much important to identify the areas of improvements for the perfect start of
the service management roadmap.
The next step of developing the IT service management is identification of the starting
point for the development. In this stage it is very much important to identify the areas which
are causing issues in the quality, cost, efficiency and the customer satisfaction (Eikebrokk &
Iden, 2017). Here, it is very much important to identify the important needs that must be
executed and how the measurement will be done for the impacts which are occurring for each
of the changes which are being implemented for the organization. Netflix also performed this
operation and they have found that their main problem is in the customer satisfaction area.
Due to that they improved this area by implementing the IT service management through
creating a partnership with the ServiceNow.
In the next step it is very much important to identify the where the organization would
like to be. Understanding of this aspect is very much important so that all the identified
changes in the IT service management roadmap can be executed successfully (Vázquez-
Barreiros et al., 2016). It is very much important to determine the ideal desired state for the
organizations and a timeframe for achieving the state for a perfect type of implementation.
Also, it is very much important to measure the effectiveness of the program so that it can be

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determined whether the organization has arrived at the destination or not in the
implementation of IT service management roadmap.
The final step in this aspect is the achieving the targeted spot. In this aspect it is very
much important to have a strategy so that all the shortcomings of the organization can be
overcome. Here, it is quite critical to gain the funding and the support from the organizational
end so that all the determined strategy in the IT service management roadmap can be
implemented successfully. This strategy can be shown as the service management roadmap
regarding the related projects, important accomplishments and addressing of the specific
gaps. This strategy also aims to increase the organizational acceptance and understanding of
the IT service management, enabling of the processes and increasing of the processes through
the automation, implementation and integration of high effective infrastructure related
process and increment in the overall satisfaction of the customers (Zhou et al., 2016) so that
cost effective and high services can be provided.
Enhancement of the IT Service Management:
After the proper development of IT service management it also very much important
to enhance the overall IT service management with the time so that remains beneficial for the
organizations or create more profit for the organization. Actually, there is no such definition
regarding what a good IT service management is. The IT service management strategies are
chosen by the organizations depending on their needs, which can solve the organizational
problems effectively (Shrestha et al., 2015). For improving the IT service management there
are five important ways which must be followed properly. In the following section these
ways are discussed briefly by following which Netflix can enhance their IT service
management.

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From the five ways the first way is the creation of a team so that the progress of IT
service management strategy can be owned. In this aspect it is very much important to
document the requirements and the stakeholders for the enhancement in the IT service
management strategy.
Here, the second way of enhancing the IT service management is performing a vast
assessment of the organization, technology and the processes (Cots & Casadesús, 2015). By
the evaluation it can be identified in which area further enhancement are required in the IT
service management.
Proper leadership also need to be implemented for enhancement of the IT service
management (Melendez, Dávila & Pessoa, 2016). In the organization it is normal that peoples
does not want to change their working procedures. Thus, a proper leadership is required in
this case so that all changes regarding the IT service management can be implemented in the
organizations without any type of issues. Thus, by following this way Netflix will be able to
enhance the IT service management.
One of the most important way of improving the IT service management is proper
selection of the appropriate technologies which are most relevant with the organizational
problem (Yazici, Mishra & Kontogiorgis, 2015). But, in this case it is also very much
important to understand the interdependencies of the technologies. Thus, it is important for
Netflix to select and implement the proper technologies so that they can enhance the IT
service management.
Continue evaluation is also very much important for successful enhancement of the IT
service management. This continuous evaluation is important so that important requirement
for the IT service management can be identified easily and improved in the further cases. For

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the continuous evaluation further progress must be done in stage following the priorities.
Thus, it is important for the Netflix to implement the continuous evaluation strategy.
Planning and Implementing Service Management Improvements:
Here it is very much important to properly plan and implement the IT service
management so that organizational objectives can be satisfied. In the following section of this
paper proper planning and implementing of the IT service management is discussed.
Defining the IT Service Management Strategy:
The first step for improving the IT service management is defining the strategy for the
IT service management. Here in this step it is very important to identify the particular
components which the organization currently needs. In most of the cases the organizations
requires a proper help desk by using which they will be able to solve the issue of the
customers. For improving the IT service management it is also very much important to
manage all of the IT assets which belong to the organization (Pollitt, Birchall & Putman,
2016). By tracking of these IT assets they can be identified easily whenever those assets
reaches to the end point of their lifecycle. In this way it can be ensured that the IT
infrastructure is always updated regarding the time and maximum utilization of this IT
infrastructure can be done and it will add business value to the organization. Thus it is one of
the crucial steps for enhancing the IT service management. Netflix also need to replace their
IT infrastructure by proper time so that they can enhance the IT service management of them
in a proper way.
Setting of the Implementation Strategy:
In this aspect another important plan for the implementation of the IT service
management is setting up the implementation strategy. In this aspect for implementing the IT
service management it is very much important to use a project management approach so that