The fifth and last element of the SVS is continual improvement. It's everybody's job in the entire organization, if they see something that is broke, or underperforming, or needs to be improved upon, to communicate that to some type of continual improvement manager. You need to have a dedicated team to making sure that the organization, it's always performing at its best. For test purposes, please remember that the true definition of continual improvement is aligning to changing business needs; we are flexible and adaptable to the changing business needs of the organization, and that's why it's an organization's responsibility to continually improve. We see this all the time with Microsoft, and Apple, and Google, they continue to improve. Even though they're number 1 within the marketplace, they have to continue to improve because the consumers demand improvement, they're always looking for the latest, and greatest, and easiest way of doing something. So even if you're at the top of your game, you're the number 1 organization within your industry, you still have to continually improve for return on investment, for competition sake, and also to keep your business sustaining. It's a recurring organizational activity performed at all levels to ensure that an organization's performance continually meets stakeholders' expectations. We know that at the end of the day, people manage IT, so it is the job of the different teams in the organization to get along and communicate effectively. If we don't, we have something called silos. Silos are challenging because every team considers the way they do things the best. There's another reference to silos, and ITIL refers to them as areas of excellence. Sometimes you think your team does things so well, you don't share information, but how can you work together as an interconnected organization if you don't share information? When communication breaks down, we have something called silos and that's why the service value system has been generated so that those silos can be broken down and we can get rid of those obstacles so we can work better together within the organization. We actually have a few recommendations on what your organization can do if you are struggling with communicating effectively amongst your team members. You can look at purchasing the ITIL 4 official published book to give you the guidance that you may need. You may need to stand up a continual improvement team to also encourage better collaboration so that your teams realize that you have to work together, you work for the same organization, and you're all contributing towards delivering products and services effectively that are valuable. Communication plans is one of the tools that can actually help breaking down silos. Regular meetings, being very transparent, you know having an open-door policy, having governing principles and ethical principles like our guiding principles, can help you break down silos as well, and training. Re-educating your staff on how to work together, how to collaborate, how to be a little bit more flexible. Status reports, having regular face-to-face meetings, I know that's tough, but possibly you can use Zoom or Skype to do that so you can have a status of where everyone is, their particular task. This creates collaboration, and we actually need our teams to work together better because the organization depends on people, and without good communication, we're not going to be able to produce valuable products and services. In review, for test purposes, remember that the service value system has five subcomponents that all help to co-create value for stakeholders. Opportunities and demand drive the SVS, and at the end of the day, we are co-creating value in the form of products and services. One of our key stakeholders are our customers and consumers, and they have to accept the outcome, and that's why they are a part of the equation of co-creating value as well. That is the outcome of the SVS. The input is opportunities and demand. We know that people need to get together, communicate better, so that we break down one of the biggest challenges within most organizations, which are silos. Silos, they discourage us from working together, so we have to find ways in which we communicate better amongst staff so that we can prepare the organization to be successful and to prepare for valuable products and services to be delivered to consumers.
