Beyond IT: Managing products and services as one to create enterprise value

As organizations increasingly adopt digital operating models, the traditional distinction between products and services is blurring. Both are ultimately concerned with delivering value, making it important to consider how products, services, and their respective teams collaborate.

A recent PeopleCert community ITIL webinar explored the themes of managing the duality of products and services across the enterprise. Hosted by Daniel Zeelie, Head of Technology at BottomLine IT and a PeopleCert Ambassador for South Africa, featured insights from Mohamed Fayek, ITSM Consultant at InnovaTech IT Consulting and ITIL (Version 5) Master and ITIL Ambassador; Richard Friedl, Consultant Trainer at ITSM Partner Consulting, GmbH; and Pablo Yambot, Managing Director and Adjunct Professor at UBQTY Inc, and ITIL and PRINCE2 Ambassador.

The panel examined how Enterprise Service Management (ESM), governance and value streams can help organizations break down silos and create greater value across the business.

What comes first, the product or the service?

Pablo Yambot explained that the distinction is less important than the outcome. Products provide the capabilities that enable services, while services deliver the outcomes that customers experience: "Both products and services are ultimately intended to deliver value," he said.

Breaking down silos

Although products and services are closely connected, organizations have traditionally managed them separately. Mohamed Fayek pointed to product and service team silos, following different lifecycles, priorities and objectives, leading to fragmented outcomes, friction and value lost as work moves across organizational boundaries.

Rather than assigning ownership exclusively to either products or services, Fayek suggested that organizations should focus on governance that unifies both disciplines. Product owners should participate in service value activities, while service teams should stay closely connected with product developers.

ITIL (Version 5) supports this integrated approach by encouraging product and service teams to move through the same lifecycle, from discovery and design through to building and delivery, with feedback loops embedded throughout. As Fayek noted, organizations should “adopt ITIL but adapt it” to fit their own governance models and ways of working.

Beyond IT

Richard Friedl described ESM as the application of service management principles across the organization, rather than limiting them to IT. While service management has traditionally been associated primarily with technology teams, he believes ITIL (Version 5) presents an opportunity to extend concepts such as value streams, service portfolios and integrated product and service management to other business functions.

Friedl compared this ambition to the original vision of DevOps, which aimed to unite business, development and operations around customer value. Although many organizations have successfully integrated development and operations, he suggested that the business as a whole often remains disconnected from these efforts. Rather than focusing on individual departments or areas of ownership, organizations should put value streams at the centre of their thinking.

The panel noted that some large technology companies have already adopted a more mature approach, breaking down silos between product and service management teams. However, many enterprise organizations still apply service management primarily within IT or selected shared services. Extending these principles across engineering, operations and business functions is one of the biggest opportunities for ESM.

Technology and transformation

When organizations begin service management initiatives, discussions often focus on selecting the right platform. However, the panellists cautioned against treating technology as the starting point.

Fayek stressed that while service management tools provide valuable capabilities, they cannot establish governance, define ownership, or design effective practices. Organizations must first identify the problem they are trying to solve and the value they want to create before deciding how technology should support those objectives.

Friedl agreed that understanding the problem should come before selecting a solution and noted that organizations do not necessarily need to start with a new tool. In some cases, existing technology can support the expansion of service management, provided there is sufficient trust in the people managing it, along with the governance and expertise needed to use it effectively.

The discussion also highlighted the importance of PeopleCert’s Accredited Tool Vendor programme, which audits solutions against specific ITIL practices. This allows organizations evaluating service management platforms to spend less time validating established ITIL capabilities and focus more on their own requirements and challenges.

Governance and leadership

The panel agreed that effective ESM requires clear leadership and governance. Yambot explained that although value is co-created across the organization, accountability ultimately rests with leadership. Product teams, engineering teams, customer service and service management all contribute to value co-creation, but executive leaders are responsible for governance and ensuring that all functions work towards shared business outcomes.

This has important implications for the role of technology leaders. Fayek noted that CIOs are increasingly expected to contribute to organizational strategy rather than just managing technology operations. As IT becomes more closely aligned with business outcomes, technology leaders need to work alongside functions such as HR, procurement and finance and have a voice in wider strategic decisions.

However, the panel acknowledged that this transition remains uneven. In many cases, IT still lacks representation at board level, making it more difficult to influence wider business transformation. Demonstrating maturity in service management and delivering measurable business value can help IT build trust and strengthen its position within the wider business.

Building skills

Having the right people and skills remains one of the biggest challenges for ESM.

Friedl suggested that many organizations struggle because they lack professionals with sufficient knowledge of digital product and service management. Too often, service management initiatives fail not because of the tools themselves but because organizations do not have the expertise needed to implement and govern them effectively.

The panellists called for greater investment in education, from schools and universities to workplace learning. Yambot acknowledged that higher education often struggles to keep pace with rapidly changing technologies. However, he highlighted the growing role of micro-credentials and professional certifications in helping graduates enter the workforce with relevant knowledge. For organizations, this could reduce the amount of time needed to develop these capabilities internally and help address the skills gap in digital product and service management.

Creating enterprise value

Organizations should move beyond thinking about managing products or services in isolation and instead focus on managing value.

Achieving this requires more than new processes or technologies. Leaders must establish a clear vision, create governance that connects product and service teams, and build value streams that extend across the enterprise. Service consumers should also be recognized as active participants in value co-creation, with responsibilities of their own in realizing the intended value from a service offering.

Ultimately, the panel's message was that ESM is about managing value across organizational boundaries. When products, services and the people responsible for them work as part of the same value stream, organizations are better positioned to reduce friction and deliver the outcomes their customers need.