For many years, ITIL practitioners have understood value through two fundamental concepts: Utility and Warranty.
- Utility: Answers the question, “What does the service do?” and is provided when a service helps users achieve a desired outcome.
- Warranty: Answers the question, “How well does the service perform?” and is provided when a service is available, secure, reliable, and performs as expected.
These concepts remain a cornerstone of ITIL (Version 5), as organizations still need services that are fit for purpose and fit for use. However, one of the most significant developments in the latest version of ITIL is the recognition that utility and warranty alone do not always guarantee successful outcomes. Modern organizations are discovering that a service can meet every technical requirement, achieve every service level target, and still fail to deliver the expected value.
Utility and Warranty Still Matter
Let’s begin with what has not changed. Imagine an organization implements a new payroll system.
- The system correctly calculates employee pay, tax deductions, and benefits, providing utility by performing the function it was designed to perform.
- The same system is highly available, protected by appropriate security controls, and experiences very little downtime, providing warranty because it is reliable and available when needed.
From a traditional service management perspective, this appears to be a successful service:
- The service works.
- The service is reliable.
- The expected outcomes are being achieved.
Case closed. Or is it?
When Technical Success Isn’t Enough
Many organizations have encountered situations where a service appears successful according to operational metrics but receives poor feedback from users. Consider a self-service portal that technically functions perfectly, where users can submit requests, check status updates, and access support resources while availability targets and service level agreements are met.
Yet users avoid using the portal whenever possible, choosing instead to call the service desk directly, send emails, or create unofficial workarounds. Why?
- Perhaps the portal is confusing.
- Perhaps the navigation is unintiative.
- Perhaps users do not trust that their requests are actually being processed.
- Perhaps previous experiences have led them to believe that direct contact produces better results.
In each case, the service may be delivering utility and warranty, but something important is missing.
The Missing Piece: User Experience
One of the major themes introduced in ITIL (Version 5) is a greater emphasis on user experience as a component of value creation. A service does not exist in isolation, but rather exists within a relationship between service providers and service consumers. Every interaction shapes how stakeholders perceive the service.
Users evaluate more than whether a service works, also considering:
- How easy it is to use
- How much effort is required
- Whether they trust the process
- How effectively communication occurs
- Whether expectations are being managed appropriately
- How confident they feel when using the service
These factors directly influence adoption, engagement, and ultimately the value realized from a service. A technically excellent service that users dislike may never achieve its intended outcomes.
Value Is Created Through Relationships
ITIL has long emphasized value co-creation between service providers and service consumers. Version 5 expands this concept by placing greater attention on the experiences that occur throughout the service relationship.
- Service providers and consumers interact continuously through requests, incidents, communications, onboarding activities, feedback loops, and support engagements.
- Every interaction contributes to the overall experience.
- Positive experiences help build trust, confidence, and engagement.
- Negative experiences create friction, uncertainty, and resistance.
Organizations that focus exclusively on technical performance may overlook these relational factors until dissatisfaction becomes visible through declining adoption, negative feedback, or reduced business outcomes.
Sustainability Joins the Conversation
Another important expansion within ITIL (Version 5) is the recognition of sustainability as part of value creation. Historically, organizations often evaluated services primarily through cost, functionality, and reliability, whereas today’s organizations increasingly consider broader impacts as well.
Questions now include:
- Is the solution sustainable over the long term?
- What resources are being consumed?
- Are environmental impacts being considered?
- Does the solution support broader organizational goals and responsibilities?
A service may function perfectly today while creating long-term challenges tomorrow. By considering sustainability alongside utility, warranty, and user experience, organizations can make more balanced decisions about the services they design, deliver, and improve.
Looking Beyond Traditional Service Management
The evolution of ITIL reflects a broader shift occurring across many industries, where organizations recognize that success is not determined solely by whether systems function correctly. Success also depends on how stakeholders experience those systems and whether those experiences support the desired outcomes.
This does not diminish the importance of utility and warranty, but rather acknowledges that value is more complex than functionality and reliability alone:
- A service can be technically successful while struggling to gain adoption.
- A service can meet every KPI while creating frustration among users.
- A service can achieve its operational objectives while falling short of its business goals.
Understanding these gaps is becoming an increasingly important skill for service management professionals.
Final Thoughts
Utility and warranty remain essential foundations of service management, and without them, services cannot reliably deliver outcomes. However, ITIL (Version 5) recognizes that organizations must look beyond traditional operational measures to fully understand value.
- User experience, trust, communication, stakeholder relationships, and sustainability all influence whether a service ultimately succeeds.
- As organizations continue to evolve their approach to service management, understanding these additional dimensions of value will become increasingly important.
- Future ITIL qualifications, including ITIL Experience, build upon these concepts by exploring how organizations can better understand stakeholder journeys, improve service relationships, and identify gaps between operational performance and actual stakeholder experience.
To learn more about ITIL training and certification pathways, visit our ITIL training page.