BSM: Basic Service Management - the book

Buy it now

BSM is a 50 page description of how to plan and provide services, or put another way: how to manage your organisation.

Now available in Spanish

Service Management is the potent idea that could change the way you run your organisation. This useful little book is a guide to operating any enterprise, from the point of view of the services it delivers. After all, delivery is what success is about.
Whether you are in manufacturing, trades, retail, IT, public sector, or not-for-profit… Basic Service Management introduces service management.
It will get you started and set you on the path to more advanced concepts.
Or this book may be all you need.

I worked hard to keep the book to 50 pages as a counter-balance to some of the door-stop texts out there, to make service management accessible and useful to those accountable for delivering an enterprise's services. You will seldom find this much value packed into 50 pages.

BSM cover

The book is now available:

Sorry the book is no longer available in ePub format due to Lulu dropping support for DRM.

in paperback

for $19.90:


(or Amazon.co.uk for £12.78 here
or Amazon.de
or Amazon.jp
or Amazon.ca )

on Kindle

for $9.99:

(or Kindle Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.de
Amazon.ca
Amazon.jp )

on iBook/iTunes

for you Apple fans.
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Feedback

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Email from Daniel Winson (Teacher, TAFE NSW Riverina Institute)
Basic Service Management provides an accessible introduction to service management, it’s the perfect starting point for someone with good technical skills but limited business acumen. My students now understand the importance of thinking from the customer’s point of view and have the knowledge needed to implement basic service management.

Email from Fatima Ratcliffe (Canada, CEO of Pink Elephant)
I'm so impressed that you've been able to capture all the right elements in 50 pages. I would highly recommend your book to any manager who needs a good, concise reference for leading a service team. Or, anyone who wants to understand what it really means to plan for, and provide service.

Peter Wheatcroft (British Computer Society review)
9 out of 10... the book triumphs over meatier publications since it explains the supplier-customer interface and what is necessary to establish and then maintain it far better than do official publications... Two examples stand out for me ... service improvement and service catalogues. I won’t steal the author’s thunder by saying how he has defined these, but they are little nuggets that should be pinned on your wall planner

ITAM Review Martin Thompson (UK)
It is quick, accessible and thought provoking... the best recipient of this book is a non-IT business owner or service owner who wants to appreciate the benefits of service management... This would also be useful to an entrepreneur looking to start or scale their business... Rob urges the reader to “Read it, It is short”. In a similar fashion my advice to you is, “Buy it, it is good”.

Danish IT Service Management Forum
Google translation: Rob England has set out on pages 50 to review what Service Management is and what it covers. It actually succeeds amazingly well... simple, understandable and sometimes humorous, the book is highly recommended as a gift for the boss

JF Blanc
It is really a must read. I've recently recommended it at the French itSMF conference at which I was a speaker.

Good book covering the basics Osama Salah Ghazy "Uso" (UAE)
The book is a good read for people starting with ITSM. I recommend reading it before you get lost into ITIL.
For others the books has some good suggestions and a simple way of explaining things that might come handy.

BASIC, not for simple, but for core Antonio Valle (Barcelona)
If you are in the services business, don't matter which sector, this is your Service Management foundations book. It covers everything you need to know about SM and points you to the knowledge sources you need to enhance your knowledge. A great lecture, straightforward and easy to understand.

@markeboulton A good summary for us smaller manufacturing folk, who tend to trip up on our doorstep ITIL books. Great book!

Daniel (Ottawa) It's a nice summary on service management. I especially liked the various references on the various topics. The distinction between governance and management is a bit more clear for me now. One of the references - The check-plan-act cycle makes more sense to me than the Deming cycle of plan-do-check-act.

Popular Highlights

Don’t try to do it all at once: don’t try to do all areas and don’t try to do all of one area.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

Have a formal project plan for the rollout. About a third of the effort should go on people-oriented activities, one third on practices, and one third on technology/facilities/things.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

report not on what you do but rather how you help them do what they do.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

don’t structure what you improve around service management theory.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

Spend a serious chunk of the money allocated for improving service on improving your people: communicate, involve, motivate, consult (pick their brains), communicate, train, incent, communicate, monitor and coach.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

In order to deliver a service your staff must interact with the consumers.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

All comments and suggestions are welcome. Contact Rob

Owners of this book will find the references and other useful resources here

Find out about Rob's other books.