Independent
The right outcome comes before the solution.
SMS is independent of ITSM platforms and technology vendors. Our recommendations are shaped by what is right for your organisation - not by a product, licence or implementation agenda.
About SMS
Service Management specialists. By design.
SMS is an independent Service Management advisory and delivery company helping organisations get more from their Service Management capability.
We help IT leaders get clear on where to focus, strengthen what's already working, address what isn't, and progressively improve and modernise Service Operations.
Who we are
Built on Service Management
Service Management Specialists (SMS) is an independent advisory and delivery company dedicated to helping organisations get more from Service Management.
Our heritage is firmly grounded in IT Service Management (ITSM) and ITIL, and every SMS consultant is ITIL certified. We combine these proven foundations with extensive real-world experience to help organisations apply Service Management in ways that work for their people, technology and operating environment.
We work alongside IT leaders and their teams to understand what's getting in the way, identify where improvement will create the greatest value, and turn those priorities into practical action.
Our work spans strategy, assessment, process and capability improvement, Service Management platforms, operational optimisation and ongoing improvement - from strengthening individual practices through to broader Service Management transformation and modernisation.
What makes SMS different is that we don't approach Service Management from a purely theoretical, process or technology perspective. We bring these elements together, combining strategic thinking with hands-on experience to develop solutions that work in the real world.
Our experience
Experience that comes from doing the work
Our experience has been built through hands-on Service Management advisory, improvement and delivery across organisations of different sizes, industries and operating environments.
- Years of Service Management experience
- 15+Years of Service Management experience
- Organisations supported
- 60+Organisations supported
- Countries
- 7Countries
- Consulting hours
- 10,000+Consulting hours
Our story
It started with a belief that Service Management could be better.
SMS didn't begin with a grand plan to build a consulting company.
It grew from years of working inside Service Management and seeing the same challenges appear again and again - good people working incredibly hard, processes becoming more complicated than they needed to be, technology not delivering the value expected, and improvement programs struggling to translate good ideas into better day-to-day outcomes.
- The belief
There had to be a more practical way to help.
Founder Kirk Penn had built his career in IT Service Management and ITIL, and kept seeing the same pattern - good intentions turning into complexity rather than better outcomes.
- SMS is founded
One specialist, one simple idea.
Kirk established Service Management Specialists to bring deep specialist expertise to organisations, remove unnecessary complexity, and help people build Service Management practices that actually work.
- Growth through trust
One engagement led to another.
What began with one consultant grew through the trust of our customers. Our experience expanded across industries, government and enterprise organisations, and eventually across countries.
- Repeatable IP
We stopped reinventing the answer.
Along the way, we began turning what we were learning into practical frameworks, assessments, methodologies and tools that could be used repeatedly - rather than starting from scratch for every customer.
- A specialist team
Complementary skills, one standard.
Today SMS brings together a small, experienced team of Service Management specialists with complementary skills across strategy, process, platforms, operational improvement and delivery.
- SMS today
From a single practice to enterprise programs.
We now support IT Service Operations and Service Delivery teams across focused and discrete capability improvements through to larger multi-stream initiatives and long-term Service Management programs - while holding onto the principles SMS was founded on.
What we believe
And some things haven't changed.
- We still believe in listening before recommending.
- We still believe Service Management should make people's working lives easier, not more complicated.
- We still believe practical improvement is more valuable than theoretical perfection.
And we still measure our success by something very simple:
Did we leave the organisation better than we found it?
How we work
Specialist expertise. Practical partnership.
Every organisation is different, and we don't believe Service Management improvement should start with a predetermined answer.
We work alongside our clients, taking the time to understand their environment, people, priorities and challenges before determining the right way forward.
Practical
It has to work in the real world.
We combine recognised good practice with hands-on experience. Rather than pursuing theoretical perfection, we focus on improvements that can be implemented, adopted and sustained within your operating environment.
Collaborative
We work with your people, not around them.
The people closest to Service Delivery often understand its challenges better than anyone. We listen, involve the right people and work alongside your teams, partners and providers to develop solutions people understand and can support.
Capability-building
We want to leave you stronger than when we arrived.
Our objective isn't to create dependency on SMS. We share our knowledge, approaches and practical tools throughout the engagement so your people build the confidence and capability to continue improving long after our work together is complete.
Meet SMS
Specialist people. Complementary experience.
SMS brings together experienced specialists across Service Management strategy, process, platforms, delivery and business operations. Each of us brings different expertise, but we share the same commitment to practical improvement and delivering great outcomes for our customers.
Kirk Penn
Founder & Principal ITSM Consultant
Kirk is the Founder of Service Management Specialists and a certified ITIL Expert with more than 15 years of experience across enterprise IT environments. He works with IT leaders to provide strategic direction, simplify complex Service Management challenges and shape practical pathways for improvement. Kirk's experience spans ITSM transformation, Service Operations, process improvement, operating models and executive advisory across public and private sector organisations.
Ben Stapleton
Senior ITSM Consultant
Ben is a certified ITIL Expert with more than a decade of experience delivering complex Service Management improvement programs. Ben specialises in Service Management discovery, stakeholder engagement, process improvement, tooling and service experience, bringing a practical and outcomes-focused approach to turning operational challenges into sustainable improvements.
Mehdi Moafi
Senior ITSM & Platform Solution Consultant
Mehdi brings more than 15 years of global experience across ITSM platform design, configuration and solution development. Mehdi combines deep technical expertise with a strong understanding of Service Management, helping organisations translate business and process requirements into practical, scalable platform solutions that support better Service Delivery.
Natalie Penn
Finance Lead
Natalie brings more than 20 years of experience in the finance industry and leads the day-to-day financial operations of SMS. Natalie supports the commercial and operational foundations of SMS, overseeing financial management and growth.
Our Specialist Network
Beyond our core team, SMS works with a trusted network of experienced Service Management specialists who can be brought into engagements based on the specific expertise, scale and needs of each program.
This gives us the flexibility to bring together the right capability for each engagement while maintaining the specialist, hands-on approach our clients value.
Our extended network includes expertise across ITSM, Service Management platforms, process and practice design, Service Operations, organisational change, project delivery and related specialist capabilities.
Interested in working with SMS?
We're always interested in hearing from experienced Service Management professionals who share our practical, collaborative approach. If you have deep expertise in ITSM, Service Operations, Service Management platforms or transformation delivery, and are interested in working with SMS on future client engagements, we'd be happy to hear from you.
Get in touchWhere we’ve helped
Enterprise, government and everything in between.
Talk to SMS
Tell us what's going on for you.
Whether you already know what needs to change or you're still working out where to start, a short conversation is usually the fastest way to find out whether SMS is the right fit - and which of our services actually makes sense.