The following are the specific roles that are involved in a service consumption.
- Customer – defines requirements and takes responsibility for outcomes
- User – who actually uses the service
- Sponsor – authorizes budget
These roles can be executed separately (multiple persons) or combined (single person).
Example: Consider an organization buying air conditioners to its office. The infrastructure procurement team is the customer here, the finance manager who provides money to purchase it is the sponsor and the employees in the organization are the users. Here the roles are executed separately.
Example: Consider a person buying an air conditioner to his home. Here all the roles are executed by a single person. This person is the customer, user and sponsor.
Other stakeholders involved in a service consumption are:
- Employees of the provider organization
- Investors
- Suppliers
- Government organizations – regulators
