At the age of digital transformationbusinesses are reimagining their operations to meet the demands of a technology-driven economy. Entrepreneurs today are not only adapting existing processes, but also pioneering fully digital ventures that operate through integrated technology frameworks. This change requires a structured approach to design, implement and manage digital services effectively, ensuring both seamless delivery and regulatory compliance.

ISO 20000-1 provides a strong framework for entrepreneurs to create and manage IT service systems, making it an invaluable tool for entering the digital business landscape.

Digital transformation involves refactoring business processes to be initiated by predefined environmental triggers, obtaining required data from the environment, creating the expected service as information, and adding its instance to the service repository with each startup. WHEREAS digitization focuses on transforming existing processes, the growing trend emphasizes creating digital businesses from scratch by structuring binary processes.

In this article, I explain how entrepreneurs can become digital businesses by implementing ISO 20000-1, an IT service management framework that results in a service management system.

Related: These are the 3 steps for a successful business through digital transformation

What is a digital business?

or digital business is essentially a binary representation of a business service – a set of processes implemented and integrated using information-related technologies. ISO 20000-1 provides the framework to manage the lifecycle of a digital business, from planning to amortization, supporting only one mode of delivery: digital.

Service Planning: The Foundation of a Digital Business

In service planning, you design a business destined for digital distribution. Unlike traditional businesses that rely on physical components such as offices and human resources, digital businesses are formed by integrating digital components such as software, hardware and information.

Your digital service can take many forms, such as an online shopping platform, a mobile app, or a more advanced service like an automated health monitoring system embedded in a connected vehicle. The process begins with the creation of a service profile that identifies the problem to be addressed, describes the required components, and specifies how they will be integrated to provide the solution.

The role of the entrepreneur: An integrator

As an entrepreneur in the digital age, your primary role is that of an integrator. Most of the components required for your service already exist in the information market. Your task is to:

1. Procure technologies wisely: Study and compare the available technologies, design them according to your requirements and shortlist the providers.

2. Ensure compatibility: Choose technologies that are compatible with service requirements and each other.

3. Optimize integration: Arrange compatible technologies for optimal performance, ensuring customer satisfaction through the reliability and efficiency of the service.

Financial management in a digital business

Budgeting and accounting in a digital business mainly focus on operating expenses (OPEX) instead of capital expenditure (CAPEX). As an entrepreneur, you need to manage supply and demand at the right time and adjust your capacity accordingly. Your OPEX, as the core of your business financial management, revolves around different types of licensing, which are often usage-based. For example, cloud infrastructures are commonly used to provide digital services. To optimize costs, you need to assess your business traffic and manage capacity accordingly.

Related: The 4 main mistakes to avoid during the digital transformation of your business

Regulatory compliance: An essential component

Creating a regulatory profile is essential. This structured file contains the regulatory requirements for your digital service, ensuring compliance and alignment. APIs provided by regulators can simplify this process by providing real-time updates. Otherwise, manual updates are required.

You should determine your acceptable level of service based on a benchmark related to your market and industry. By maintaining this level of service, you meet the demands of the most important stakeholder in your digital business: your customers. Service level guidelines should be added as a supporting component to your digital service. The Service must verify each transaction against these guidelines, log any discrepancies, and report them for further investigation and resolution.

Service catalog and asset management

Maintaining a service catalog is critical. This catalog acts as a register for all digital services offered by your business, outlining their scope and scope.

Any process that supports one or more digital services is a intangible asset. Innovative business processes also have the potential to be granted a patent. Additionally, the ever-evolving information that enables your business processes is considered an intangible asset. Another use of the service catalog is to serve as a registry for these intangible assets, including the processes that make up your digital services and the information that enables them.

Database configuration and service provisioning

You must maintain a configuration database, which acts as a repository for the digital processes that make up a digital service. This database allows you to view the current configuration of each service process, including how a process performs its task, the triggers that initiate it, its input and output data streams, and expected results.

A configuration database enables you, as an entrepreneur, to make more informed decisions about service provisioning by providing timely information on the processes that make up your digital service. This supports you in ensuring service availability, continuity and information security.

Related: Starting a digital business? Here are common pitfalls to avoid

Continuous improvement and change management

The principle of continuous improvement requires process configuration changes. When implementing changes, you must test the updated process against predefined criteria and integrate the new version into the relevant service before it goes live. The new version of the process, with its updated configuration, should then be added to the configuration database while saving the previous versions for reference and backup.

Building a successful digital business requires a combination of strategic planningtechnological integration and continuous improvement. Entrepreneurs must act as integrators, leveraging existing technologies to create efficient and compliant digital services. By adopting ISO 20000-1, they gain a systematic approach to managing the lifecycle of digital services, from conceptualization to delivery. This framework not only ensures operational excellence, but also lays the foundation for innovation, enabling digital businesses to thrive in a competitive market.