METHOD FOR OUTSOURCING TECHNOLOGY BASED SERVICES

1 . A computer implemented method of defining the outsourcing of technology based services, the method including the steps of:

defining a plurality of technology based services that are to be provided by one or more service providers to a customer;

defining a plurality of activities associated with the services;

displaying the services and activities on a graphical user interface;

detecting a selection of one of the activities; and

displaying further information on the interface based on the selected activity, wherein the further information provides a guide on how to define the outsourcing of the selected activity.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the further information includes information in the form of at least one of examples, questions, metrics and tasks.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the further information in the form of examples includes at least one of previously produced reports associated with the selected activity, tools previously used to carry out the selected activity, a list of clients who have previously implemented the activity, photographs, charts, graphs, multimedia or links to alternative sources of information.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the further information in the form of questions includes questions to enable the determination of whether the selected activity is required by the customer.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the further information in the form of questions includes questions to enable the retrieval of information associated with the provision of the selected activity to improve the quality of a contract for the technology based services.

6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the further information in the form of metrics includes information on how the selected activity is associated with a common or industry standard.

7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the further information in the form of tasks includes information identifying the steps required to carry out the selected activity.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the steps are either a task list for a service activity or a list of procedures for a process activity.

9 . The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

defining elements of a business environment in which the technology based services are to be provided;

displaying the elements of the business environment on the graphical user interface;

detecting the selection of an element of the business environment; and

displaying further information that is based on the selected activity and selected element of the business environment, wherein the further information provides a guide on how to define the outsourcing of the selected activity with reference to the selected element.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the activities and elements of the business environment are displayed in the form of a matrix, and the step of detecting is carried out by detecting an intersection point on the matrix where the selected activity intersects with the selected element.

11 . The method of claim 9 further including the step of defining elements of the business environment by displaying the business environment elements in terms of technology based elements, geographically based elements or business unit elements.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the further information includes information in the form of at least one of examples, questions, metrics and task information.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the further information in the form of examples includes at least one of previously produced reports associated with the selected activity and the selected element, and tools previously used to carry out the selected activity as part of the selected element.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein, when the further information is displayed in the form of questions, the method further includes the steps of:

retrieving questions based on the selected element and selected activity; and

displaying the questions.

15 . The method of claim 12 , wherein, when the further information is displayed in the form of metrics, the method further includes the steps of:

retrieving metrics associated with carrying out the task; and

displaying the metrics.

16 . The method of claim 12 , wherein, when the further information is displayed in the form of tasks, the method further includes the steps of:

retrieving steps associated with carrying out the task; and

displaying the steps.

17 . The method of claim 9 further including the steps of:

linking items in a group of one of specific technologies, geographical areas or business units to the defined elements of the business environment; and

selecting the further information to be displayed based on the items in the group that are linked to the selected environment.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the further information in the form of examples includes at least one of previously produced reports associated with the selected activity, the selected element and the linked items, and tools previously used to carry out the selected activity as part of the selected element in association with the linked item.

19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein, when the further information is displayed in the form of questions, the method further includes the steps of:

retrieving questions based on the selected element, selected activity and the linked items; and

displaying the questions.

20 . The method of claim 19 further including the step of providing free form text entry boxes to enable the displayed questions to be answered.

21 . The method of claim 19 further including the step of providing a check box to enable questions to be identified as a potential issue.

22 . The method of claim 19 further including the step of outputting a summary of at least one of answers to the questions, potential issues identified or linked items.

23 . The method of claim 17 , wherein, when the further information is displayed in the form of tasks, the method further includes the steps of:

retrieving steps associated with carrying out the task based on the selected element, selected activity and the linked items; and

displaying the steps.

24 . The method of claim 23 further including the step of displaying check boxes to identify which of the steps are to be applied to the outsourcing of the selected activity.

25 . The method of claim 24 further including the step of providing additional information defining properties of the task, wherein the additional information includes links to instructions on how to carry out the task.

26 . A computer implemented method of validating metric data during the outsourcing of technology based services, the method including the steps of:

defining a plurality of technology based services that are to be provided by one or more service providers to a customer;

defining elements of a business environment in which the technology based services are to be provided and arranging them in a hierarchy;

displaying metric information for the selected element;

enabling metric data for the elements of the business environment to be received; and

determining if any received metric data is valid across the hierarchy of the business environment.

27 . The method of claim 26 wherein metric data can be received by the steps of:

displaying a metric data input page for the selected element of the business environment;

receiving manually entered metric data on the metric data input page; and

storing the manually entered metric data in association with the selected element.

28 . The method of claim 26 wherein metric data can be received by the steps of:

displaying pre-defined metric data for the element;

detecting a selection of at least one item of metric data; and

storing the selected item of metric data in association with the selected element.

29 . The method of claim 26 , wherein the metric data is one of availability data, performance data or capacity data.

30 . The method of claim 29 , wherein the step of determining includes the steps of:

determining a total value for the metric data of one or more child items in the hierarchy, wherein the child items are a hierarchical level below a parent item;

determining a total value for the metric data of the parent item in the hierarchy;

determining if the total value for the metric data of the child items is at least equal to the total value for the metric data of the parent items; and, upon a positive determination,

providing an indication that the metric data received is valid.

31 . A computer implemented method of providing interaction information when defining the outsourcing of technology based services, the method including the steps of:

defining a plurality of technology based services that are to be provided by one or more service providers to a customer;

defining a plurality of activities associated with the services;

defining elements of a business environment in which the technology based services are to be provided;

displaying the services, activities and elements of the business environment on a graphical user interface; and

displaying a graphical indication of the direction of interaction between any two entities, wherein an entity is one of a service provider or the customer.

32 . The method of claim 31 further including the step of displaying the graphical indication in the form of an arrow icon that points from a first entity to a second entity, wherein the first entity is required to interact with the second entity.

33 . The method of claim 31 further including the step of displaying interaction information when a pointer device icon is positioned over the graphical indication.

34 . The method of claim 31 , wherein the interaction is between two entities and the graphical indication is displayed to indicate the interaction is either within the same environment for a single activity, across different elements of the business environment for a single activity or across different activities in a single element of the business environment.