Once the Service Engagement commitments are understood, the Service Engagement Model needs to be established.

A typical Service Engagement Model encompasses:

• Service Engagement Catalogue
• Service Engagement Organization
• Service solution and interfaces.

As an initial step, Service Engagement Initiation Lead and Engagement Manager must establish the Service Engagement Organization to understand how the Service Engagement Model should be developed. It must be determined how the various functions and their interactions should be organized. Common best practice includes, organization of the team under support function areas, and also by business area/function aligning with the customer organization. For large engagements, the Client interface roles may be organized by Client business areas and the technical delivery personnel or business services processes delivery personnel are organized by technology or skill area. A key area to consider is the role of Client owned and managed third parties and how they fit into the commercial framework of the Service Engagement Model, as it may have implications on the service in terms of reporting, escalation and the location of staff within the Service Engagement Model.

Some of the parameters that determine the Service Engagement Organization design are:

• Ease of access to skilled resources is one of the factors in choosing the location
• Matching competencies of engagement requirement and the delivery centre
• Related applications should be grouped together and serviced from a single delivery
• Location
• Criteria of service, such as hours of service, follow the sun, language requirement etc
• For business services, the inclusion of interaction centers, offshore centers and satellite centers.

The format, frequency and delivery of formal reporting and regular meetings/reviews are also impacted by the Service Engagement Organization.The proposed Service Engagement Model may be same as the incumbent solution, may require a completely new solution or maybe a combination of both. Focus on any expectations the Client may have and any concerns or risks the sales team identified during the pursuit.