12 December 2015

SIAM & BiSL

SIAM is an abbreviation of Service Integration and Management. It usually refers to a model and/or a capability of an IT function. The terms 'Service Integration' and 'Service Integration and Management' are often interchangeable. 

This is a quick comparison between the SIAM model and the BiSL framework. The AXELOS publication 'An introduction to Service Integration and Management and ITIL®' by Kevin Holland goes into SIAM in more detail.

SIAM offers guidance for the internal or external IT service provider, in particular how to integrate and manage the efforts of multiple providers.

BiSL offers guidance for IT service consumer ('the business') with respect to 'business information management', including formulating which IT services are required, and making sure that the IT services are well used and that the intended value is realized.

As such, they are on opposing sides of the Great Business-IT Divide but they interact in the sense that:
  • BiSL guidance helps select, contract and management the IT service provider from an IT service consumer perspective
  • SIAM guidance addresses how the IT provider engages with the business and provides appropriate IT services
While the business could have demands (e.g risk appetite) that influence the choices for few or many providers and how they are managed, the actual integration and management is executed by the IT provider function.