Companies all over the world are seeking ways to address sustainability related issues, both to meet external expectations and as a way to find opportunities for growth and innovation. Many attempts have been made in providing descriptions and guidance in how sustainability can be adopted within corporations. However, much of earlier research has focused on the manufacturing industry where materials and production processes are central in the concept. How sustainability can be incorporated in service industries, more specifically by IT service providers (ITSPs), is a somewhat unexplored area even though the potential for sustainability related risks as well as opportunities are high. Previous research in this area that has set out to construct models of this phenomenon has not managed to consider the characteristics of  ITservice providers to the fullest. This study has investigated how ITSPs can incorporate sustainability into business practices through a multiple-case study with four ITSP and one technical consulting company. The data has been collected through interviews and document analysis, and analyzed both separately nd by comparison. Additional interviews were held with experts and professionals with relevant knowledge to strengthen the findings. This study resulted in model that can serve as an analytical tool and presentation format  hen incorporating sustainability in business practices within the IT Professional service industry. The results showed that incorporation of sustainability in practices needs to be divided in two main categories; incorporating sustainability in internal operations and incorporating sustainability in customer offerings. Within these categories the study identified a number of activities that ITSPs can undertake to incorporate sustainability and what outcomes they may have. It was concluded that the activities in within internal operations were primarily focused n building trust towards customers. The study also showed that incorporating  ustainability in customer offerings can be done to different extent with different outcomes. The critical activities to successfully incorporate sustainability in customer offerings has been described in the study and visualized in a 3-level map to further provide guidance. A main finding within this category was that interaction with the customer is crucial to successfully deploy service offerings that incorporate sustainability. The results can be generalized to other ITSPs in similar settings and parts can also be argued to be adoptable to other companies in the professional service industry that rely on intense technology.

Det digitala samhället vi idag lever i ställer allt högre krav på tjänster och tjänsteinnovationer till följd av den förflyttning som skett från ett traditionellt varudominant synsätt till ett tjänstedominant synsätt på varor och produkter där kunden har en betydande stor roll. Den tjänstedominanta synen även kallad IT service Management har växt fram till att bli en viktigpusselbit för organisationer i hanteringen av dess IT-strategier. För att styra organisationers IT-service Management har olika diverse ramverk växt fram delvis för att främja flexibilitet. Ett av de mest använda ramverken är Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL fokuserar på processer för att leverera och hantera IT-tjänster för en verksamhet. De fördelar som ITIL kan främja berör bland annat förbättrad tjänstekvalitet genom att ökatjänstepålitligheten samt tjänstetillgängligheten. ITIL främjar även flexibilitet där samtidigt tydliga avgränsningar och vägledning ges. För ITIL finns olika certifieringsnivåer och utbildningar som kan genomföras. Trots ITILs popularitet, utbreddhet samt den mängdpublikationer som ITIL är uppbyggt av finns dock ett antal svårigheter vid implementering av ITIL. Bland annat upplever verksamheter en osäkerhet i vart arbetet skall börja och vilken process som bör implementeras först i kombination med en efterfrågan på mer praktiskvägledning från utövare. För att besvara denna efterfrågan har Axelos ITILs ägare, introduceraten ny certifieringsnivå och med detta introducerat en ny kurs, Practitioner. Syftet med denna studie är därför att skapa en förståelse för hur ITIL Practitioner kan tillföra praktisk vägledning för en kommunal verksamhet. För att besvara studiens forskningsfråga utfördes en kvalitativfallstudie, där en semi-strukturerad intervju i kombination med granskning av dokumentgenomfördes på en kommunal verksamhet med informanter som har god kunskap av ITIL samt genomgått den nya certifieringsnivå som introducerats av Axelos. Från det insamlade materialet via intervjun och dokumentgranskningen kunde författarna identifiera ett antal faktorer som besvarar hur ITIL Practitioner kan tillföra praktisk vägledning för en kommunal verksamhet. Den mest framträdande faktorn uppnås genom att ITIL Practitioner genomförs internt meddeltagare från den egna verksamheten, där ITIL Practitioner utformas efter verksamhetens egna behov. Ytterligare faktorer som författarna kunde identifiera var att ITIL Practitioner kan egenverksamheter givande diskussioner gällande mjuka frågor, samt att ITIL Practitioner kan ge engemensam grund att stå på, så olika delprojekt bedrivs på liknande sätt. / The digital society we live today poses increasingly high demand on services and service innovations as a result of the shift from a traditional goods-dominant logic to a service dominant view on goods and products where the customer plays a significate role. The service dominated view also known as IT Service Management, has grown to be an important piece of puzzle for organizations in managing its IT strategies. In order to control organizations’ IT Service Management, different frameworks have been developed partly to promote flexibility. One of the most common framework is the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL focuses on processes for delivering and managing IT services for an organization. The benefits that ITIL can promote affects, among other things, improved service quality by increasing service reliability and service availability. ITIL also promotes flexibility as well as providing clear delimitations and guidance. For ITIL there are different certification levels and programs that can be performed. However, despite ITIL’s widespread popularity and the amount of publications that ITIL is built on, there are a number of difficulties in implementing ITIL. Some organizations experience an uncertainty as to where the work is to begin, which processes that should be implemented first in combination with a demand for practical guidance from practitioners. To answer this demand Axelos, ITIL’s owner, introduced a new level of certification namely ITIL Practitioner. The purpose of this study is therefore to provide an understanding of how ITIL Practitioner can provide practical guidance to a municipal organization. To answer the study’s research question, a qualitative case study was carried out, in which a semi-structured interview as well as document review was conducted on a municipal organization with informants who had good knowledge of ITIL and had undergone the new certification level that Axelos introduced. From the collected material through the interview and documentary review, the authors could identify a number of factors that answer how ITIL Practitioner can provide practical knowledge for a municipal organization. The most prominent factor is achieved by practicing internally with participants from their own organization, where ITIL Practitioner is designed according to the companies own needs. Additional factors that the authors could identify were that ITIL Practitioner can provide organizations with meaningful discussions on soft issues, and that ITIL Practitioner can give a common reason to stand on, so that different subprojects are conducted in a similar manner.

One of the key processes of IS/IT service provider is Service Level Management. IT service provider faces a problem how the services should be defined, how a balanced service portfolio should be set up and how the processes covering the service management should be designed to meet strategic goals of the organization. The thesis focuses on IS/IT service portfolio design and management with a particular focus on infrastructure services. General goal of the thesis is to support IS/IT service provider's activities directly linked with service level management, IT financial management and IT service portfolio design. The thesis puts together theoretical sources in the area of IT Governance, generally accepted methodologies and best practices, actual market trends and author's experience. The theoretical part maps current development in the field of IS/IT service management, summarizes relevant theoretical inputs, categorizes IS/IT services, gives an overview of the most commonly used pricing models and presents actual IS/IT market trends, such as SaaS or Utility Computing. The application part, which follows the theoretical part of the thesis, is built upon fundaments of key findings and conclusions of the theoretical part. Application section introduces a method of service level management transformation and a business model suitable for IS/IT service provider. Furthermore a process of IS/IT service portfolio design is introduced. The process is supported by an analytical tool, which enables analysis of provider's financial and infrastructure data. The output of the analysis is a set of scenarios of IS/IT service portfolio including revenue, costs and utilization of resources and technologies. Academic benefit is seen not only in the consolidation of relevant theoretical sources dealing with IT service design and management. The thesis also introduces frameworks for optimization of service level management process and a concept of a IT service provider's business model. A practical contribution of the thesis is seen in a process of IT service portfolio design supported by an analytical tool for provider's real data processing, covering demand, capacity, utilization and financials.