Ivanti Blog: Posts by

Don’t Forget About ITAM for Driving IT Maturity

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:15:28 Z

At its core, the mission of the IT organization is to deliver services by leveraging assets and data that are the living infrastructure of the business. While most IT professionals would agree with this statement, we commonly see the focus of the organization moving to service delivery or security due to the perceived higher visibility and risks associated with these elements of IT. This can be a mistake if the focus comes at the expense of sound IT asset management (ITAM), and the clear reality is that the most mature and highest performing IT teams have developed a strong appreciation for and commitment to ITAM.

Ivanti Asset Manager: Free Demo

If you are unsure about the role of ITAM in your organization, this is a great time to focus on a few key things that can put your business back on the right track and in a position to fully leverage the tremendous value of ITAM done well.

The role of sound ITAM for the journey of IT maturity can’t be overstated.

Given the key role of ITAM in driving IT maturity, let’s look at three examples of things to focus on for ITAM success:

1. Data accuracy is everything.

Data today is recognized as a precious corporate asset and the quality of our data is a remarkable enabler, or when anything less than current and accurate, an equally remarkable risk that can result in spectacular failures. The impact of failing an audit due to poor data quality is hard to quantify. There is a level of trust that must be achieved with asset data—including a description of the asset itself, its history, current condition, the employee it’s assigned to, current versioning, relationship to services, and much more.

The key here is that the necessary information must be accurate and current. Yes, this seems simple enough, but with the complexity of the modern IT organization application portfolio and the many databases that support these applications, it’s a goal that is not easy to achieve. Data integrity requires commitment and having a plan. This simple formula is leveraged by the most mature IT organizations and is virtually universal among those IT teams we can call the very best.

In many cases, an ITAM initiative should begin with the data itself; creating a method and cadence for ensuring accurate and current data is fueling the broader ITAM business processes and practices. This focus sets up ITAM for success.

2. Who’s the boss?

IT asset management and the data that supports it is strategic to the IT organization and to the business because it is all about the health and performance of the precious assets on which the business runs every day. Because there is so much value here, a good practice of high performing IT organizations is to name a process owner that watches over both the ITAM processes and the data (normally an asset inventory or CMDB) with regards to data accuracy, data integrity, and the process to be used in order to keep the data fresh.

I met a a VP in IT recently who described this well: "Everybody just knows that you don’t mess with our asset data." With strong ownership and accountability in place, the common risks go down, and the value of ITAM goes up.

Mature IT organizations have strong process ownership, and ITAM is a great example of where this oversight is more important than ever.

3. ITAM makes every employee better and every customer happier.

Business today is conducted on mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and servers. Of course this mix is ever-changing, and the motion of business is rapidly migrating to smart phones, tablets, and laptops with an emphasis on the mobile lifestyle and agility. With this reality upon us, every employee is at their most productive and at their very best every day when these assets are healthy and performing as expected through a full and managed lifecycle.

This simple dependency brings us back to the importance of sound ITAM. Then, with a productive workforce, every business is able to provide the best possible products and services to customers everywhere, every day.

ITAM at its best is a success that goes unnoticed because everything just works. This is a wonderfully powerful reality and one that is key on the journey to IT maturity.

Keep the faith my friends.

Creating a New Culture for IT Service Management

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 23:01:08 Z

IT Service Management has and will continue to be a vital element of the IT organization and of the business. But, too often we assume that technology and best practices alone can elevate the performance of ITSM to the levels required by IT and the successful business of the future. While these areas can certainly help, the future of ITSM and the path to creating a high-performing ITSM organization is about much more than great tools, standards and optimized business processes. The future of ITSM and the ability to build a strong and dynamic ITSM capability demands a new focus.

This new focus will be driven by shaping a new culture and one very different than the traditional culture of ITSM and the IT organization.

Expanding a bit on this idea of a new culture for ITSM, let’s look at a few examples of what the leadership of IT and each of our teams can be doing now and in the future to accelerate this change and make the new culture a reality.

Focus on Results

This is a strategic viewpoint that will be embraced by an increasing number of ITSM organizations and one that will create a shower of benefits over time. It is not enough to simply deliver services and improve the internal performance of processes that support these services. We now must understand and measure the results and benefits delivered to employees and customers for each service and each investment of precious resources. By better understanding the measurable benefits and results driven by the services delivered through ITSM, we’re able to make better decisions, create new priorities, and focus our investments where they will have the greatest impact. This focus on results also creates a more natural alignment with the business and with our key business owners who are likely attuned to the same metrics.

This focus will launch an investigation to identify and then understand the business results we expect to achieve for all services delivered through ITSM.

Outreach to the Business

The ITSM organization must drive a proactive outreach to the business and to key business owners with a simple purpose: to help every employee in the organization do their job better every day. This is a long overdue discussion and one that will be welcomed. By assisting every employee to be at their best every day, we then carry this value through the connections of the business—all the way to the customer.

The services of ITSM and systems of IT are tremendous enablers in the work that is performed across the organization every day. Traditionally, the ITSM team was programmed to be reactive to the needs to the business given the practical limitations of resources, high volumes of incidents, and a general lack of time and capacity. This new outreach is able to shift this reactive lifestyle to one that is more proactive and more entrepreneurial.

The ITSM-led outreach should be initiated, owned, and driven by the ITSM organization, and as such will have a widespread and immediate impact on the performance of the business.

Diversity in All Things

Our work on building a new culture for ITSM (and for IT) simply wouldn't be complete without a commitment to a more diverse workforce. While this clearly includes more women in all ITSM roles (current estimates put the percentage of women in IT at 10-15%), this alone is not enough.

The scope of diversity must include more diverse and much needed skills across the ITSM workforce, including skills related to the customer, innovation, business management, automation and AI, creativivity, financial planning, and communication, to name a few. This will create a new set of priorities when interviewing and hiring new staff for ITSM, and will complement the ongoing need for traditional ITSM domain and technical skills.

With a more diverse workforce, we drive new discussions, shape better decisions, build a more balanced and adaptable team, achieve new insights, and create a higher performing ITSM organization.

Engine for Innovation

A new culture for ITSM can’t be properly equipped for future success if missing a passion for innovation and a plan for building a capability to first nurture and then advance the ideas that make innovation possible. This is clearly not a business-as-usual model that normally does not look to ITSM as a source of the innovation that is increasingly critical to every organization. But this too must change, and given the high degree of touch and influence ITSM has across the business, ITSM is a natural point of opportunity to drive innovation from within.

This innovation can begin with the simple goal of improving the user experience for each of our many IT systems, including the increasingly common experiences of service catalog and self service. With an improved user experience, we are creating happier and more productive employees and customers, which in turn unlocks speed and agility across the business. All great innovations begin with an idea, and so we must create the opportunity for these ideas to be shared and then for the most promising ideas to be taken forward.

On a related note, being open to new ideas is a fantastic mindset to promote across the ITSM culture and a behavior I consistently see in the very best IT and ITSM organizations.

While our work on best practices and leveraging frameworks including ITIL, COBIT, ISO, Agile, and much more will continue in ITSM, we must recognize the value of culture and make equal time for a focus on our people and teams. Given the rapidly changing global landscape of business, this investment in the talented people and a new culture for ITSM has the potential to play a bigger role in the transformation of the IT organization over the next decade than will the continued advancement of technology, tools, and best practices. The good news is that this is fully under our control and the effort of building a new culture can start today.

Keep the faith my friends.

Why All the Fuss Over Automation for IT Service Management?

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 20:11:51 Z

It seems that everywhere we look people are talking about automation and the future of this technology for the IT organization and for IT Service Management. New technologies will always be part of IT and this process of renewal never stops. However, some new technologies will have a bigger impact than others—the internet and smart phones are two that come to mind—and today we have every indication that automation will join this high-impact group to the degree that this will change everything.

Automation is a broad category in which we can include AI to keep things simple. For this discussion and in keeping with this theme of simplicity, we will broadly consider automation to be a technology that effectively renders automatic what was previously a human executed process. And of course, manual work dominates the daily rhythm of ITSM today.

With this, the role of Automation in ITSM for the future can’t be overstated.

Taking the idea that automation has the ability to change the world of ITSM, let’s look at three examples of what we can expect from this technology in the years ahead:

1. Automation creates strategic speed.

With the realization that products in a given market will naturally commoditize over time, we look at other differentiators capable of creating a real advantage for any given business. And raw speed quickly becomes a key consideration for every organization—how quickly can daily tasks and business processes be completed? This speed then creates velocity across the business that will translate into shortening the lead times required to deliver any product or service to a customer.

In many cases, this reduction of lead times will be dramatic, with 80% to 90% faster performance being realized by businesses that have taken on a commitment to automation.

This creates a virtually limitless set of benefits that change how the organization operates internally, the level of employee productivity, and how customers can be served. A couple of examples of where automation in ITSM is saving time today are self service and service catalog.

These automated experiences enable employees and in some cases customers to log incidents or requests without the need to speak with an agent or communicate with a person. A simple, fast, convenient, effective and fully automated model that has become popular in the domain of ITSM in the past five to ten years and there is no going back in how we think about these experiences.

2. Automation frees our people to work on new projects and in new roles.

For decades the people of IT have sought to find precious time to work more proactively and on projects that are more strategic and more impactful to the business. Unfortunately, the daily demands of the organization have blocked this shift and made it all but impossible to escape the tactical and daily pull of escalations, outages, daily changes in priorities and much more. Now for the first time, automation creates the opportunity to free our people from the repetitive daily tasks that have demanded our time throughout the history of IT.

Currently, the typical level of automation in IT ranges from 20%-30% but a big change is coming. We should expect the level of automation in ITSM to increase dramatically over the next five years, and likely to approach 90% by 2025. That is a 60%-70% net increase in the level of automation for the typical IT organization—these are compelling numbers.

This level of increase is not just helpful, it is a true game-changer for IT and the business.

The exciting news here is that every minute saved is a precious minute freed to reassign our people to innovation, strategic projects and customer-facing work. Taking our example from the first point forward, self service and service catalog are offloading demand from the ITSM team and this time savings will enable us to reassign talented staff to new projects or in some cases into new roles that can focus on innovation and better serving customers.

3. Automation naturally creates agility.

The strategy of an agile business has gained increasing attention of late. This certainly has some value when we consider the basics of what agility provides—a competency around rapid change, the ability to scale, an iterative approach to key initiatives, rapid feedback mechanisms, and a focus on business outcomes and value. Sounds great, but exactly how do we make this happen? One way we can bring agility to life is by nurturing this strategy across IT and thereby making the assets and systems of IT more agile.

These actions by IT will create agility for the business from the inside out.

With the dependency every organization has today on technology, systems, and data, the IT organization finds itself in the highly leveraged position of managing these systems, and thereby creating agility when these systems are enhanced and evolved with this strategy as a goal. Automation is a natural fit here and with every task or business process that is automated, we take another step forward in creating faster execution, more scalable systems, a more natural ability to manage change and much more. All of this then drives improved agility in every part of the business.

Finally, don’t be fooled by a belief that only the automation of the biggest blocks of work will bring value. This is certainly not the case and every simple task we can automate, every simple business process we can capture with automation, will have an impact and bring immediate value. Create the mindset that every minute saved is critical and every unit of waste eliminated is priceless.

Automation at its best is fast, convenient, perfectly accurate and inexpensive. What’s not to like? Regardless of the measures we might choose to focus on, the advancement of automation and other intelligent technologies for ITSM will ultimately help to propel us forward in a manner simply not possible with the hard work of our people alone.

Keep the faith my friends.

So, What Does It Take to Write a Book?

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 16:07:17 Z

Recently, I was fortunate to publish my third book on the ever-amazing and always-changing world of IT. The new book, titled One IT, One Business, looks at the new singularity of IT and how this enables the organization to create an engine of innovation and speed that is desperately needed in virtually every business today. The book also looks at the unstoppable influences that the unification of IT will have on the business.

The IT Organization and the Business Are More Closely Linked than Ever Before

With this milestone (and celebration) of publishing my latest book now completed, I sat down with Ivanti’s Ashtyn Creel to take some questions about the journey of writing and publishing a book.

How many books have you written, and how many have you gotten published?

KS: The new book was my third and remarkably all three books are now published and available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

My first book, The Practical Guide to World-Class IT Service Management, looked at ITSM and provides a practical framework for implementing and operating Service Desk and Service Management. My second book, The IT Imperative, focuses on a new strategy for IT and the agenda that will drive the transformation of IT for the next decade. The third and newest book was highlighted earlier and explores the why and how of a new unity in IT and the powerful influence this model will have on the future of the business. What we come to understand is that the IT organization is now more strategic than ever given the tremendous value of data and technology to any organization.

What is the general process for getting a book published?

KS: It all begins with an idea. And I always tell people that the first step is very important—select a topic you have some knowledge of—and equally important, select a subject you will enjoy writing about. It should be a topic that you are excited sharing your ideas around and this excitement will become very important later when challenges appear that are always part of the writing process.

Your focus as a writer will be on creating a manuscript that will be interesting to your target audience and be something your readers will enjoy. In the beginning, keep your focus on the manuscript and don’t worry too much about getting the book published. When you write a good manuscript, everything else will fall into place. Once you have made the decision to write a book and have selected your topic, you will need to find a writing cadence and process that works for you. Personally, I discovered after lots of setbacks, delays, and frustrations that I need to write every day—and normally first thing in the morning or in the early evening works best. Set a reasonable goal for how many words you need to write each day or week and then stick to that goal. Some days will be easy, and the words come fast and furious. Then, other days it will be a struggle, but the key is to write consistently and according to your schedule.

When you sit down to write, write. Don’t get distracted and mess around. This is your dream, so make it happen. Set some milestones and then celebrate when you hit those goals. For example, finishing your first chapter, hitting the halfway point of the book, finishing an especially challenging section or chapter, and of course, finishing the manuscript. The only other thing I would add is that it can be very helpful in the beginning to draft a storyboard of your book—an informal outline of the chapters and a brief description of what you want to discuss in each chapter. This is something I had to figure out on my own and it has now become a key to writing my books and preserving the right flow from start to finish. My belief is that if you can draft a good storyboard and it feels right to you, the book is there waiting to come alive.

What are misconceptions people have about getting a book published? Is it easier/more difficult than you thought it would be?

KS: That’s a great question and not a simple one. One misconception is that authors somehow have special skills or special training that enable them to write a book. That is not true. Anybody can be an author, regardless of your experience, education, and background. It’s in fact much more about commitment and determination than anything else, along with the desire to chase a dream.

I learned so much in writing my first book—in some respects it was easier than expected because I discovered there is a joy in the process itself and the creative element of bringing a book to life and creating something that would be timeless. What I underestimated is the daily work necessary to create the book—the dirty work if you will. When people contact me about writing a book or I meet people at a book signing, I share with them that a book is about writing one word at a time, one sentence at a time. If you focus on the enormity of a full book and all that entails, it can be overwhelming. Just focus on writing on a regular schedule, focus on writing the next sentence and then the next paragraph, and don’t worry about creating a 500-page book. It will come to life a little at a time and, the next writing session is the most important one.

Get your writing done today—and worry about tomorrow when it comes. A lot of small steps will enable you to create something big. Also, just write and don’t worry about making the words perfect or worry too much about sentence structure and that stuff. Later, there will be plenty of time for your editors to help you with those things. It’s much more important to just get rough ideas captured on the page because ideas are what make the book.

How long does it take you complete the writing of the book itself?

KS: It will likely vary a great deal for different writers and different projects, but my complete cycle from the first writing session of the book to the completion of the manuscript is about six months. This includes a week or two of creating the storyboard, which is the first step and really helps me get my arms around the full scope of a new book. I try to keep an aggressive schedule and write every day because when I have a flow of ideas going and the book begins to take shape, I want to move faster and make the most of each day and each week. My daily goal for words is 500 to 800, but remember everybody is different and all that matters is finding what works for you and then sticking with it. Starting and stopping does not work in my experience. But I do know authors that only write on the weekend, for example, and that has worked for them. It’s important to realize that if you want to finish your book in the next one to two years—and you expect to have a 40,000 to 50,000-word book, which is about average for non-fiction—then you can begin to shape a schedule.

How long is it, typically, from when you start writing a book to when the complete process is finished, and the book is listed on Amazon?

KS: When we factor in the complete editing and formatting and publishing activities, it takes about a year from beginning to end. It might help to think of the book as something that will be timeless, something you hold in your hands and talk to people about for many years, so it makes sense to take the time to do it right. Hurrying or cutting corners is not a good idea. It’s much better to slow down and take all the time you need to get the right ideas shaped, or to improve an illustration for example, because that’s time that is always time well spent.

We are fortunate as authors today to have some great options available to us in terms of publishing. The traditional publishers are no longer our only option. There are many smaller independent publishers that can offer very reasonable packages to help get your book published. I strongly recommend you find one that will allow you to keep your royalties and can provide a proven ‘package’ of publishing services that are very reasonable. It is also possible to tap the skills of freelancers to complete parts of the book. Websites including www.upwork.com are a great resource and very reasonably priced. Look at a few of the independent and self-publishing options to find the right fit for your timeline and budget. It also helps to speak with authors that have worked with a specific publisher, and don’t hesitate to ask for references.

Do you have plans for future books?

KS: Yes, my plans are to write another three books on IT. The next book will focus on people and culture, and the new relationship between people and intelligent technology. This is a fascinating and timely topic. Then my plan is to write something a little different—a short novel about the life of an IT worker in today’s world and the challenges and opportunities that come along with working in IT and with the technologies of today. The third new book will take a look at the role of AI and Automation in the future of IT and the business.

Some people might think the world of IT is getting old and a little boring, but what I see is there are so many important and rich topics related to IT that need to be addressed, and so many stories that need to be told. In many ways, the future of business is now very much connected to data and technology, and it’s all but impossible for business to succeed without strong IT helping to lead the way.

Any advice you would give to people looking to write a book or get something published?

KS: First, if writing a book is something you have thought about for a while and something you have decided you really want to do, don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done. I know you can do it because I did it. And if I can do it, anybody can.

At every step of your journey you will encounter people that will tell you why it won’t work or will focus on the challenges versus the remarkable rewards and the pure enjoyment of writing your book. Put these people to the side and keep moving forward. Don’t take ‘No’ for an answer because there is always a way to keep your dream alive. Sometimes you’ll move quickly and other times slowly, but the key is to keep moving and to never give up. A book will test your heart, soul, and mind, but the journey holds amazing experiences and a remarkable joy of accomplishing something very special and something timeless—something you can share with your friends and your family for generations to come. Always remember that you can do it!

I hope this short blog has provided some helpful ideas and tips to take the next steps in chasing your dream, whatever that might be. Good luck!

Keep the faith my friends.

Self Service Your People Will Enjoy Using

Mon, 20 May 2019 19:23:39 Z

The ability of users to service themselves is a rapidly growing extension to the discipline of IT Service Management (ITSM). This can come in several different forms, but in our brief discussion here, we will focus on Self Service as it’s a necessary element of every IT organization.

Self Service enhances Incident Management and provides a user the ability to open, track, and close an incident—all without speaking directly with the Service Desk. This is increasingly accepted, but just a few years ago, expectations were very different.

Today that is changing along with the rapidly growing use of mobile devices as a valid business platform, a distributed organization that is less likely to spend the average day in a traditional office, and the flexibility and convenience expected and demanded by a changing workforce.

Self Service is very much a transformative thread of ITSM and a model that has far reaching influences across the IT organization.

Self Service is unique in its ability to create a highly favorable user experience while at the same time saving time and money. Few other elements of IT have this ability to impact the business.

Here we will look at three key considerations for Self Service that, when done correctly, will create an irresistible force to grow the adoption of Self Service in your organization.

1. Make it Easy

The Self Service experience should begin with a user presentation that is, above all, simple and easy.

More Self Service implementations have likely failed due to a complicated user experience than any other single factor. Ideally, the user is authenticated quickly and then answers just a few simple questions and the actions can quickly begin in order to resolve the current issue.

Care should be taken to design an experience that is intuitive and natural for the targeted user groups These groups can include employees of the business and in some cases a specific customer group. Every user segment should have a tailored and optimized user experience that provides the ability to complete a typical session in just a few minutes—and in some cases, a matter of seconds. This easy experience creates a high level of user satisfaction, which in turn unlocks the many benefits of great Self Service. There is far more to easy that one might think. Easy is naturally agile. Easy naturally scales, and this is just the beginning.

A Self Service experience that is easy for the user is very likely to be one that is successful and delivers real benefits to both IT and the business. Everybody loves easy.

2. Make it Fast

Part of the strong appeal of Self Service is the ability to complete our work more quickly, to increase our productivity, and to gain minutes back in our day. A top priority of Self Service must be that it saves us time—including the total time required to resolve the incident. Note there is a natural synergy between easy and fast. It helps to put a stopwatch to the process of Self Service and to measure precisely how long it takes a user to log the average issue.

Remember, every second counts. Because the role of Self Service is to enable employees, and in some cases customers, to log an issue/incident independently, we can see Self Service as an increasingly attractive option to the traditional model of calling the Service Desk.

A fast Self Service experience unlocks precious minutes and hours for employees all across the business. People naturally love speed because completing our work more quickly creates opportunity. Where there is speed, there is likely to be a dynamic organization.

3. Make it Consistent

As appealing as Self Service is due to its natural advantages, it is only viable if the process works every time. Self Service should utilize the standard Incident Management workflow to ensure the management and the fulfillment of the incident is consistent, optimized, and meets all the broader IT requirements including SOX, Governance, and ITIL where applicable.

Self Service should not be made available until these business process and communication processes have been clearly defined and the ITSM organization is confident in their ability to support the Self Service channel. When this is possible, the combination of easy, fast, and consistent is a very powerful model.

Note that Service Catalog is a natural complement to Self Service with Self Service focused on Incidents and Service Catalog focused on Service Requests. These two channels are a powerful combination for the IT organization, and in the near future, both channels will leverage automation and AI extensively.

The consistent execution of resolving Self Service incidents is a valuable extension of the service desk or ITSM for IT and a model that can scale effectively.

Self Service as a Bridge to the Future of IT

In many respects, the key attributes of Self Service are very much a micro-model for the future of IT. Self Service is a natural for mobile devices, supports a mobile workforce, enables agility, drives 24x7 operations, and enables users to work independently and conveniently.

But it gets even better. Self Service also offloads the service desk by reducing the number of incoming calls to analysts because growing numbers of employees and customers are leveraging the Self Service channel to log issues, check on the status of these issues, and to close issues when they have been resolved. Whether it is the immediate benefit of reducing call volume to the Service Desk, providing more convenience and flexibility to users for the logging of incidents, or the cost savings that likely follow, Self Service just makes a lot of sense.

As with many improvements in the models of IT that we are enjoying today as we transform this organization, don’t underestimate the many other business and cultural benefits of Self Service. If you have Self Service today, there might be opportunities to improve the current model, and every incremental improvement does make a difference. And if you don’t have Self Service in place today, now is a great time to get started and these key points can provide a map for where to begin.

Keep the faith my friends.

ITSM: Understanding the Framework and Why It’s Important

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 21:20:14 Z

IT Service Management (ITSM) is a vital element of IT, but it's also sometimes misunderstood and unappreciated. The simple truth is that every business of any size continues to have a timeless business need for IT Service Management (ITSM) both today and well into the future. The business simply can’t perform consistently without a healthy ITSM capability.

However, there has been so much development of tools, technologies, and best practices around ITSM, that it can be confusing to distinguish the many discussions that involve ITSM.

In this discussion, we will look at the core of ITSM and the value it continues to deliver to the organization.

Understanding the framework of ITSM improves our clarity and appreciation for this vital element of both IT and the business as a whole. It will help us best leverage the unique value ITSM can deliver.

Here we will look at four elements for the framework of ITSM and how each can benefit the organization and why all of this is so vital to every organization.

It All Starts With Great Service

At the heart of ITSM lies the delivery of services. This includes the timeless need to fix a machine that is not working properly, answering the many questions that arise daily, providing support for new employee setup, delivering and configuring mobile devices for workers, managing passwords, and much, much more. It helps to think in terms of the many needs employees have in order to be productive, and that many of those needs bring us back to IT and to ITSM.

And the fact is, when the ITSM team is delivering great service, every employee can work more productively and, in turn, service customers better.

This connection is important to understand: the linkage of the ITSM organization to every employee and then to every customer. This linkage is vital to business today, and due to our dependency on technology, more critical than ever. We sometimes get distracted by the many interesting and extensive frameworks including ITIL, COBIT, ISO, DevOps and Agile, but make no mistake—these do not great ITSM make. Yes, the right framework can certainly help with structure and operating models, but the core of ITSM is and must always remain about delivering great service to real people.

Quality services enabled by ITSM is a great boost to IT and to the business.

The Hub of IT

The processes and principles of ITSM are unique in that they connect the assets of the IT infrastructure to the people of the organization. We can think of this as bringing the assets of IT to life through the services that are the heartbeat of the business.

These connections are often direct in that every person in the business will utilize assets in some form, including smart phones, laptops, tablets and desktop computers to perform their work every day. This connection between people and technology is now vital to every business and this dependency is only growing. These technologies are simply how we do our work every day.

Think for a moment about the dependency our employees have on smartphones, email, and internet access to name a few examples. These resources are fundamental to every business of any size, and in order for these systems to operate in a reliable manner, IT is working around the clock to ensure everything is working as expected.

Taking this a step further, the processes of ITSM are at the heart of the daily operations and health of each system. When everything is working correctly, everybody is happy and these systems are simply taken for granted. But if the organization loses internet access or the email server goes down, there is an immediate and significant impact to the business. If we look closely, we can see that some of the fundamentals of Agile are very closely related to this hub and spoke model for IT and ITSM.

The many connections of technologies to people and then to customers brings to our attention the tremendous value of ITSM and the role ITSM plays in keeping the business running.

Process Strategy and Operations

Behind every service that is delivered by ITSM, there is a business process, process strategy, and process model. Yes, we love our processes in IT and nowhere is that more clear than in the domain of ITSM.

Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Release Management and Configuration Management are just a few processes that lie at the core of ITSM and with each there is an important strategy that governs the process itself and then the process model and how it operates every day. Because most organizations today utilize an ITSM software application to support operations, it is important we have the process strategy and design right or we won’t be able to run ITSM processes successfully.

For every business process, there is a connection to an IT and ITSM process that then enables the business to operate effectively.

Why It all Matters

So, why does all of this matter and why should we care about ITSM? That is a great question and that brings us back to the fundamental connection of technology to services to our people.

The modern business has a remarkable and inescapable dependency on technology, and when technology is working for our people, anything is possible. But when technology is not deployed properly and for-purpose, everything becomes more difficult. In some cases, the business becomes paralyzed.

Virtually every element of business today relies on software and/or hardware to perform our daily tasks, and the good people of ITSM help ensure these tools and technologies are performing exactly as they should. Even better, the next ten years of ITSM will bring a new model for personalized service and a focus on bringing new innovations to the business that will help bring business performance to the next level.

In today’s market this is only possible through the strategic use of technology. The business and technology are now inseparable. This focus on real business results and the value we deliver to customers are quickly becoming the new focus of the ITSM organization—success with this new value focus will separate the new market leaders from all the others.

Great service, healthy processes, and reliable technologies are only the beginning. They are very much a springboard to the next decade of ITSM which will be focused on business results and delivering value to customers. This is only possible with a healthy ITSM framework—the key to the new generation of ITSM solutions and the new model for IT.

Keep the faith my friends.

The 4 Key Things Companies Want From IT Service Management

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 00:04:19 Z

The needs of business today continue to evolve and market dynamics are moving faster and are more powerful than ever. However, virtually every business of any size continues to have strong business needs for IT Service Management (ITSM) today, and well into the future.

It is certainly true that needs will continue to evolve, but many of the basic needs associated with ITSM remain as true today as they were twenty years ago, and many of these ‘wants’ from the company will remain in place another twenty years into the future.

It is simply true that ITSM is a key business enabler, and the organizations that do ITSM well are likely to find business success, while those that struggle with ITSM will find it manifesting as fundamental challenges with the business.

Understanding what companies want from ITSM raises awareness around this important element of IT and the business. With awareness comes focus, and with focus, we are likely to experience improved performance and success.

A closer investigation of the four key needs of the business for ITSM will provide a better understanding of what is expected by the business and how IT can deliver on these requirements.

1. Great Service Delivery

A key element of what any company needs from ITSM is great service delivery. This simple and powerful point has big implications for the company. When great service is delivered to any person across the company, that person is then able to perform at their very best and bring value to other employees and ultimately to customers.

There is a chain of value here that exists in the company and then extends to partners and customers of that company in many ways that are both visible and ways that might not immediately be clear.

Let’s take a very simple example. If an employee has a problem with their laptop, a machine used for common tasks including email and for running applications that are required to support customers every day, this can potentially be a big impact to productivity, including an impact to customer service.

However, if this problem is resolved quickly, in a matter of minutes, we have protected the employee’s ability to perform their daily work and avoided any impact to customers. Contrast this with any delay in addressing the problem with the employee’s laptop, a delay that could stretch to hours or even days and this becomes a big risk for the business. Even this simplest of examples around Incident Management reminds us of this important link.

Fast service from ITSM is a great boost to IT and to the business.

2. Process Discipline

From the birth of ITSM in the IT organization over twenty years ago, an important contribution of ITSM to the company has been the necessary structure, flow, and discipline of key processes. These processes include the fundamentals of Incident Management and Problem Management, the new and more flexible service models of Service Catalog and Service Request, to the more strategic processes of Service Portfolios, Configuration Management and Change Management.

Although these processes are most often associated with the IT organization, the impact of strong ITSM strategy and execution to the full company should not be underestimated. For example, the demands of audit and compliance on the business are very dependent on sound processes as designed and implemented by the ITSM leaders of IT. This is very much a company issue and what we often see is that healthy strategic processes including Change Management supported by an equally accurate and healthy CMDB, directly impacts the ability of a company in industries including Banking, Financial Services or Healthcare to be successful with Audits, Governance and Compliance initiatives.

Strong ITSM processes and business rules will normally result in stronger business performance.

3. A Platform for Automation

The rapid rise of Automation and AI in the IT organization hold the potential to change how we work every day in the years ahead like few other things can. And, as powerful and valuable as automation can be for IT, we quickly note a natural fit for these new technologies in the practices of ITSM.

There are strong synergies emerging as ITSM is a natural catalyst for the design and execution of business processes across IT and throughout the business. The growing automation of ITSM business processes including the ubiquitous Service Requests will complement the other areas we have highlighted here by delivering services more quickly, more consistently and around the clock in a manner that is more personal and more targeted.

This is the power of automation, and this strategy changes the perception of IT and energizes the business. The influences of automation and AI go even further, including the ability to transform ITSM and IT into more proactive and strategic organizations—something ITSM teams have aspired to for decades and is now within our reach like never before.

Think of ITSM as a platform for automating IT and the business from the inside-out.

4. Connecting the Business

The ITSM organization creates connections across IT and with the business. As the breadth of business processes grows, we can fairly describe the ITSM organization as the ‘hub of the wheel’ for IT and for the business. Many connections come to life through communications, business processes and the daily flow of information and services that operate virtually every element of the business.

For example, the vital relationships between the assets of the business, the services delivered every day, and the people that consume these services live within the increasingly dynamic models of ITSM. We understand that it’s not possible to operate IT as a disconnected collection of teams, each focused on localized priorities and deliverables. The new model of IT is one that creates a new sense of purpose across every element of ITSM and ultimately IT. It builds a new level of awareness around strategic objectives including innovation, the user experience, customer engagement, and increasing the velocity of performance for all IT systems that touch virtually every part of the business.

What we will find is that ITSM, due to its cross-functional nature and the ownership of key business processes, is a likely place for this change to start and for the ITSM organization to be a recognized leader in the transformation of IT.

The engine of every company is increasingly driven by technology and by increasingly what is ‘intelligent’ technology and the stewards of this technology are our talented people in the teams of ITSM and the IT organization. The company needs technology leadership more than ever from ITSM and these teams are ready to deliver.

Keep the faith my friends.

The Power of Simplicity for Service Management

Thu, 17 Jan 2019 00:00:07 Z

As we push forward in a new year with the continued improvement of IT, service management and ITSM, it should be a time of reflection and renewed focus. A focus on the core things that can truly elevate the performance of all things IT, including the critical delivery and management of services through our service management technologies, processes and people.

Make no mistake, because service management touches so much of what we do across IT and increasingly across the business, this is a great example of a domain that deserves our attention and even more so, a discipline that must hold our highest expectations. We should expect to be great at service management. Nothing less will do.

Being great at service management, both for IT and for the business beyond IT, must include a dedication to fundamentals, many of which are fully under our control. One such fundamental is the relentless simplification of all our service management processes and systems. This should be iterative, and an ongoing cultural priority. As we pursue this commitment, note these efforts will intersect with ITIL, Agile and DevOps initiatives and in a way that is very much complementary. Each will make the other better.

Let’s look at a few areas that will help us advance the simplicity of service management.

A Critical Review

The service management and IT organizations should start by asking the tough questions of ourselves. This is a great exercise. A careful review of all tasks and business processes, as well as asking:

Why is this work necessary?
Who are the consumers of this work product?
Can any of this work be simplified or eliminated completely?

Legacy systems are a great opportunity for improvement simply due to their age and changes in the business.

Are each of our legacy systems required today?
Do we have any overlap in our current systems or business processes?
Do we have manual approvals that slow us down?
Can any manual approvals be eliminated?
Can steps in current business processes be eliminated?

These are just a few examples and there are many, many more questions that should be asked. The key is to question everything. This is a transformative mindset to nurture. Nothing is off limits.

A few great places to start this review is with some of the core elements of service management—fundamental incident management, request management, self-service and the escalation process.

When we start to ask these questions, we are creating the opportunity to learn and to get better.

All Waste Must Go

Any form of waste in IT and in service management should not be carried into our future and this is the perfect time to cleanse our organization of this waste. Waste is poison.

Because we have mature processes, tools and systems in place today—and given that many have been in place for 20-30 years—it is only natural that some degree of waste has accumulated over this time. The larger and more complex processes of service management should be included here. Good examples are change management and configuration management. This journey within the journey should be seen as an opportunity to be embraced, since we know that every element of waste can be eliminated. This results in precious time saved, resources saved, and what is likely to translate into an improvement in agility and speed—two of our strategic priorities for service management.

The elimination of waste is a naturally simplifying force.

More agile services and faster service delivery are good for everybody and can turbocharge the business.

Prepare for Automation

The use of automation and AI technologies over the next 10 years will change the face of the IT organization and that of service management. These technologies have improved dramatically in the past five years, and most service management organizations have automation at the top or near the top of the list of priorities for the next few years.

But it is critical that we don’t simply automate the business rules and business processes we have in place today. Automating business processes and workflows that have not been scrubbed of waste and simplified as much as possible would be a tremendous waste of our resources. With this recognition, now is the time to perform our internal reviews, to eliminate every possible case of waste, and to simplify the business rules and processes to be automated in the future.

This important work and careful vetting brings us a clean baseline that is fully automation-ready.

Simple Is Faster and Speed Is Strategic

Simple is always faster than complex, and simplicity brings the added benefits of being naturally lean and agile. Simple systems are easier to learn, easier to change and faster in execution. The closer we look, the easier it becomes to appreciate the many benefits of smplicity. Once we take simplifying our tasks and processes and systems onboard as a priority, most organizations will find many opportunities to fulfill this goal. The potential improvements are everywhere in most mature organizations. And because one of the fundamental goals of service management is the timely delivery of quality services, we can further embrace simple as it directly enables these core priorities. Simple processes will yield a better user experience, improve quality and consistency, and improve our speed of delivery. Simple can win our admiration in so many ways.

Remember, simple is not just about savings, although that is certainly a benefit of simplicity, but that would be missing the point. Simplicity is much more. It is powerful, it is repeatable, it is reliable and it is elegant. Keep it simple and great things are sure to follow.

Keep the faith my friends.

Here’s Why 2019 Will Be the Year of AI in ITSM

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 23:54:06 Z

The next two years will be exciting for Service Management. We will see the realignment of existing practices as well as a new and strategic contribution from emerging technologies.

First, expect more experienced IT teams to reassess how we leverage best practices and frameworks including Service Management, DevOps, and Agile. With experience comes the understanding that these frameworks and best practices should only be implemented in the context of a strategy for IT and our business. These things are not the strategy itself and should be done in the right roles and in moderation and in the right balance.

Second, we will see Automation and AI accelerate dramatically in the contributions made to Service Management operations. Automation can offload our teams and enable us to focus our talented people on tasks that are more strategic, customer facing, or in advancing our innovation investments. These are key activities our people are uniquely qualified for. Similarly, AI has advanced dramatically in the past five years and can now further offload our teams and improve the customer experience. Intelligent assistants and Bots are now capable technologies when leveraged in the right roles. Automation has now made self-service, Request, and Knowledge experiences much more convenient and richer. But, with all of this advancement, it is important for Service Management teams to take some time to create the following three resources in 2019:

IT strategy refresh and alignment with business strategy
Service Management best practices roadmap
Service Management technology roadmap

These tools can be short and simple but are important exercises for the Service Management team to undertake in 2019. These references then guide how we best leverage resources and technologies in 2019 and 2020. Then, decisions and investments are made in the context of the roadmap and not quickly and without thoughtful planning.

For example, with ITIL 4 releasing in early 2019 it can be an opportunity to improve and optimize ITSM ITIL process models, but the scope of this work should be defined in the Service Management Roadmap, including specific process improvements and timing. Likewise, we should evaluate the current state of ITSM operations and determine how the team can best leverage Automation and AI in 2019. This helps ensure we are deploying these exciting technologies in the right roles and at the right time. Experience has taught us (painfully at times) this should be done incrementally and with time for assessment and feedback. The deployment of Automation and AI in ITSM is no different.

Meeting the Challenge for Excellent Support

It’s no secret that IT teams are being asked to support more applications, make more strategic contributions, and improve customer satisfaction, all without a corresponding increase in budget or resources. Combine that with the increasing demand from employees and customers for better and faster (if not immediate) assistance with IT issues, and it becomes clear many Service Management teams will struggle to meet committed service levels. But this year promises help as proven AI-powered tools join the Service Management toolbox to deliver better support and services to employees while off-loading many routine tasks from IT teams.

What do you predict will be the biggest IT trend in 2019 and beyond?

Transforming the User Experience

One of the first entry points for AI will be handling frontline calls and requests from employees. Chatbots will let employees make requests or ask for help by just having a simple conversation. For example, an employee can just say “I need to reset my network password” or “I need VPN access,” and the bot will automatically log the request, kick off the appropriate workflows, including any required approvals, then provide an estimated resolution time.

Add in a knowledge base connection for “How to” answers or suggestions to common inquiries, it becomes clear how many routine tasks don’t need to be touched by a member of your team anymore. When you combine immediate responses, simple conversation interactions, and always-on help, more employees will have more satisfying engagements with IT. Throw in the absence of filling out forms for every interaction plus the automatic resolution of potential issues before an employee notices, and the picture only improves.

Helping ITSM Teams Work Better

Using chatbots to move self-service closer to the employee will offload routine work from IT teams but it doesn’t have to stop there. AI promises to further automate backend processes, as well as provide IT teams with recommendations to systems issues, sometimes anticipating issues before service disruptions become apparent to IT and the rest of the business. An AI-augmented Service Management solution promises to provide more insight, help identify resolution fixes and create the tasks to resolve the issue, as well as assignments to the appropriate analyst or technician.

Check out the rest of our predictions for Service Management and beyond. Click below to download our white paper loaded with insights from Ivanti’s expert IT Fortunetellers.

The 5 Habits of Successful ITSM Organizations

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 22:30:21 Z

With the continued and exciting transformation of IT, we are challenged with the responsibility to mind the fundamentals of technology and data stewardship while at the same time launching new programs and new initiatives to meet the challenges emerging in the marketplace today. The new vectors of IT and IT Service Management will never slow and never stop—we will always be faced with new disruptive technologies and new business challenges and the ITSM organization must be ready to meet these new challenges because ITSM is so central to the daily work that occurs in IT.

The most successful ITSM organizations tend to follow a similar pattern with regards to how they think and operate. It is helpful to be reminded of these elements of success, and we will call them habits because good habits are a wonderful thing and a good reminder for all of us as we continue to improve the vital domain of ITSM.

Invest in Our People

As ITSM professionals, we all have a natural affection for technology and it is easy to focus our time on the precious infrastructure, technology and tools of IT. In the case of ITSM, our daily process work and automation relies increasingly on software applications and related technologies. As much as we all understand the importance of technology for ITSM today and into the future, our ability to elevate our performance and achieve what we can call World-Class ITSM performance, is all about our people. Great ITSM organizations understand this and the focus of these high performing teams on people has grown in the past five years. Mentoring, training, career development, mental health, and expanded compensation plans are all important to the continued development and nurturing of the talented people of ITSM and now more than ever. Another important element of our people investment are soft skills. These are more important than ever for ITSM and will include communications, creative skills, customer-facing skills, innovation skills and more. Technology expertise is important but it is not enough.

Although not always the focus of traditional IT and ITSM, our people hold the key to achieving the highest level of IT organizational performance in the future.

Just the Right Amount of Best Practices

We are fortunate to have access to a wealth of IT Best Practices and Frameworks today including ITIL, COBIT, Agile, DevOps, Lean, SIAM, VeriSM and much more. The key question becomes, ‘which one and how much…’. This goes right to the heart of the matter and reveals a key habit of successful ITSM organizations. The answer is all about finding the right balance. Never confuse a best practices model or framework for our IT or ITSM strategy. This is a critical point—each of these examples can help to enrich the strategy of IT and of ITSM, but they should never be seen as THE strategy, or THE operating model. Too much of a commitment to any single framework can dilute our efforts on the primary strategies for ITSM. For example, some elements of ITIL can help with the structure of how we operate ITSM processes including Change Management and Release Management, two of the more impactful processes, while DevOps offers good insights into the operations of IT and ITSM and helps improve our cultural discipline and improve our focus on measurable outcomes. However, neither should be taken as the full model for ITSM individually—but combining the best characteristics of both is a great approach.

Each of the most popular frameworks and best practice models offer specific strengths, and should be leveraged thoughtfully based on the current needs of the organization and in the right combination.

Connect to Business Outcomes

Everything we do each day in ITSM and IT must be directly connected to business outcomes. This connection provides the context and measurements we need when clarity might be lacking. Our ITSM teams must understand how the work we are doing in Service Management will bring improved business results, and drive happier customers. This is a cultural change, but a good one in that it naturally drives improved teamwork with key business owners, with senior management, and creates a new push to ask ‘Why’ about everything we do. If we are making an investment in ITSM and we can’t answer this important question with terms that connect to the business, the investment must be reevaluated. This also helps to shift our culture from Inside-Out to Outside-In and this drives a level of customer and market awareness that further advances our culture.

It is healthy for our culture to thinks in terms that are more Outside-In than Inside-Out.

Clear Process Owners

Processes are a natural and important part of the daily operations of Service Management. With this, there are a number of questions, clarifications, strategies and decisions that are necessary to keep our Incident, Problem, Change Management, Service Catalog and other related ITSM processes up to date and healthy. Strong ITSM organizations have strong process owners that can be the focus of these activities and ensure all team members have questions answered quickly, the right planning processes are occurring, process designs are updated, system upgrades are well planned and well executed and much more. These are key roles for the business and should be key leaders both within ITSM, but also across the IT organization and increasingly as liaisons with the business and our key business owners. The lack of clear process owners slows us down, makes even the most basic decisions more difficult and creates a leadership void in the daily work that is so vital to strong IT Service Management.

Process owners are vocal and visible advocates for the elements of ITSM and work across all the teams of IT to drive both ITSM and the key cross-functional processes that are the backbone of IT operations.

Commit to Communication

Communications are not often at the top of the traditional list of priorities for IT and for ITSM but we are beginning to understand just how important improved communications can be for ITSM. Look no further than the very best ITSM teams and we quickly recognize the commitment to a focus on communicating well across these teams of Service Management. A good model for communications is frequent, informal and fast. These frequent updates between teams and with the business keep our people synchronized, avoids surprises and encourages collaboration. Some strong teams use a 5-10 minute checkpoint at the beginning of each day to quickly review key initiatives and the status of key deliverables. The model works best when we make the process easy, frequent, convenient and informal. The focus should be on content, and key insights, and not on structure or process. Everybody benefits when we communicate better in ITSM because service management processes are often driving service delivery and multi-functional business process so the ITSM organization can be a role model for the broader organization with a commitment to improved communications. Remember, a little better goes a long way.

IT Service Management is a key element of IT and increasingly recognized as a key driver of both the IT organization and the broader business and we can all benefit from these proven Habits as displayed by ITSM organizations that are performing at the highest levels.

I hope one or two of these examples can benefit your team today.

Keep the faith my friends.

Security and ITSM: A Dynamic Duo of IT

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 22:03:20 Z

Throughout the rich history of IT, the elements of Security and IT Service Management have been front and center in our daily operations. The mission of securing and managing IT infrastructure and assets while delivering services is timeless—and will continue to be at the heart of the IT strategy and agenda for many years to come.

However, we’ve often witnessed the operations of Security and Service Management working independently, driving to the daily priorities and immediate demands of these domains. But as the world around us continues to change, as the cadence of business quickens, and as the evolution of technology advances faster than ever, we must attain a new level of cooperation and synchronization between the teams, processes, solutions, and technologies of Security and Service Management.

More than ever, we need these titans of IT working closely together to elevate the performance of IT and of the business.

Let’s review a few of the synergies possible when Security and ITSM are closely aligned.

Automation

Automation will reshape the operations of IT over the next 5 to 10 years as few other things will. In this transformation from a highly manual, brute-force IT to an automated IT, we’ll learn that single elements of IT can’t operate independently.

For example, we can’t simply automate the Change Approval process for ITSM without embedding the proper security controls. More than simply convenient, the oversight of Security is critical to ensuring we aren’t creating risk when touching the IT infrastructure. Increasingly we recognize that with the growth of global threats, virtually every action across IT must include a validation through our security practices. Extending this a bit further, we also want our automated processes to recognize governing best practices, including ITIL, Agile, and DevOps to name a few. These principles should be carefully designed into our automated workflow.

Thoughtful automation has the unique ability to change virtually everything in IT and therein change the daily profile of the business. But, automation can’t increase risk to the business.

Service Catalogs

Service catalogs are easy to love and what’s not to like? An effective catalog provides service quickly and conveniently, and it’s easy to see how IT will increasingly employ it to deliver service to both IT and the business. But, once again, we’re reminded that simple service without the appropriate security practices is no longer acceptable.

As the service catalog brings more widespread access to the assets and services of IT, the right level of security is more critical than ever. This is another case where the Service Management team must work closely with Security to ensure that IT is delivering great service quickly while managing risks to the business and not creating any additional security exposures. For example, a common service catalog request is the onboarding of a new employee. This process touches so many of our systems and includes the delivery of a laptop/desktop machine along with a company-issued mobile phone. The engagement of Security in this full process is vital.

Service catalog growth must be moderated with the right Security engagement. Nothing less will do.

Self Service

Similar to service catalogs but with a bit broader range of applications, serving ourselves is increasingly the model of IT and of the business. Self service offers the compelling profile of anywhere, anytime, fast, and easy access to IT resources and services. And of course, more often than not, what’s offered in IT today is likely to be offered to the business.

This makes perfect sense when we consider that the agenda for IT and the agenda for the business are more and more aligned, and the much sought-after partnership between IT and the business is being created before our eyes.

We’re fortunate to be part of the transformation of IT—one that yields a more proactive, more strategic IT. Of course, this doesn’t come without responsibility. A primary example of this isn’t just the engagement of Security in all self-service offerings, but also an increasingly sophisticated and agile security model that doesn’t constrain the flexibility of our self-service models—while at the same time providing world-class security for the business.

The combination of agile and scalable self service along with a best-in-class security model is truly strategic to the business.

Mobile Workforce

The mobile workforce in business today is leveraging an ever-growing number of mobile devices—ones that provide a remarkably rich set of capabilities and user-experience innovations. Perhaps this single part of the market could reflect greater advancement in terms of usability and capability than any other in technology markets over the past 10 years.

Business today benefits from the combined advancements of business-focused technology and applications, as well as from the many advancements focused on personal and consumer markets. In terms of business use, these mobile devices now access corporate resources and assets around the clock and from virtually any location.

This model isn’t temporary—the power of anywhere/anytime is here to stay. This makes sense from an agile, adaptable business standpoint but creates a significant number of new security issues. Once again, we must have the engagement of Security as new access models and business processes that leverage these mobile devices continue to grow. We naturally think in terms of the devices we know today, including smart phones and tablets. But the question quickly expands when we consider that we’re likely to see new devices arrive in the next few years that go far beyond what we know today. This is just the beginning.

There is a fine line between positive business impact and creating new business risks and exposure. We need the combined efforts of Security and ITSM to maximize the value of the growing mobile workforce.

When done correctly, the unified efforts and strategy of Security and ITSM bring the very best of these automation, service catalog, self-service, and mobile models to life. Then, in turn, we accelerate the transformation of IT into a force of innovation and speed that drives the business forward. This is the exciting future of IT, grounded in the joint operations of Security and ITSM.

Keep the faith, my friends.

Kevin J. Smith, Senior Vice President at Ivanti, spent the first 10 years of his career at the NASA Johnson Space Center. For the past 15 years, he has been with Ivanti and the former HEAT Software, working with global marketing leading IT organizations on strategy, business process design, and leveraging software solutions to help all of IT perform better. Kevin has authored two books, “The Practical Guide to World-Class IT Service Management” and “The IT Imperative.”

How Automation Makes IT Sexy

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 19:49:11 Z

IT holds many surprises in the years ahead, as part of our remaking of the IT organization and culture. One of these surprises will be bringing "sexy" to IT for the first time. Expect this makeover to occur in the next 10 years, and not because we are simply trying to be sexy, but rather because automation plays a key role in the transformation of IT.

Through this IT transformation, one of the many benefits that come along with the dramatic realignment is a new flair—what we could safely call sex appeal—that will emerge in the world of IT. Unlikely for sure, but it will become part of our new reality.

While many might think that IT is anything but sexy, we will shatter any long-standing biases and perceptions about that. Automation is one of the valuable initiatives and resources that will reshape the future.

Automation tools for IT, ITSM, and security have made a quantum leap in capability in the past 10 years. An ambitious team looking to implement automation 10 years ago would likely need to do a lot of custom work, including some script development or coding in order to build great automation. No more; commercial tools today have improved significantly, especially among the leading ITSM and security products. Be sure to focus on highly configurable automation tools that enable changes on-the-fly including building business rules and workflow models.

Let’s look at a few of the benefits automation can bring us and how "sexy" arrives in IT.

Fast

Speed is an important part of the new IT, and improving the daily motion of IT helps to get us there. Fast is compelling, speed is strategic, and yes, speed is sexy. Speed created within IT then becomes a powerful engine to the business. Never underestimate the benefits of raw speed. With quality and content being equal, speed wins. Speed creates precious time for the people of IT to think—to think about how we can work smarter, to think about how we can better serve our customers. To think about how we help every person in the business to do their job better every day. Fast gives us the precious time we need to consider the possibilities and to then make these improvements a reality.

Fast gives the IT organization more oxygen.

Easy

Everybody loves easy. Easy is fun, easy is fast, and easy saves us time. Easy is naturally attractive, easy makes us want to come back again. The good news is that easy is an important part of our future in IT because we recognize how making our daily work easier to perform then translates into a better and easier customer experience. Easy is an unstoppable force of good and its influence, once begun in IT, will quickly move forward until it reaches the customer and every person in this chain of actions will benefit from "easy".

The ability of an organization to provide an easy and convenient user experience is central to the success of the business. This is very much about IT as this chain of change begins in IT, at the heartbeat of the business, with a strategy to make all systems easier to use, and by beginning this chain internally, we then empower all employees with a better systems experience and then this momentum continues all the way to the experience of the customer. IT can be a leader in this regard—commit to "easy" as a design goal for the systems managed by IT today and in the future.

When we commit to innovation, our customer focus naturally grows. And when we focus on the customer, we create an engine of creative thought that spawns improvement in everything we do. Each needs the other; each provides for the other.

Consistent

One of the widely underestimated benefits of automation is the wonderful consistency automation brings us. Once configured correctly, automated business rules and automated workflows perform the same way, every day, every week, every month, without fail. No bad days, no sick days, no holidays. Once in place, the automation tools are running around the clock and delivering consistently accurate results. This increases the capacity of the organization and supports scalability. We should not overlook the synergies of this consistent performance along with speed of execution and the ability to give some precious time in the day back to our people to focus on more strategic activities and planning.

Leverage Humanity

Automation has the unique ability to make humanity better. This comes in many forms, including the automation of highly repetitive or routine tasks that are now performed manually in most cases. Lifting this burden from our people then allows our people to reclaim some of their day and work on new and more strategic activities. This begins a cycle of giving more focus to innovation, more focus to customers, and more focus to strategic planning and business alignment. This shift is critical to the future of IT. And this future is very much about a more proactive and a more strategic IT. Automation can bring this within our reach for the first time.

We should not and cannot stand idly by and delay pushing for big strides with automation today. The tools are up to the challenge, we know the business processes well, and in particular, the more routine and highly manual work product that occurs every day across the IT organization. But this is not just about automation for automation’s sake. Automation done well brings us immediate performance improvements and enables a shift to a more innovation and customer experience focused IT. This is only possible with the time savings and assist automation can give our good people. Automation and people working as a team—a beautiful thing to behold.

Keep the faith my friends.

Check out Kevin’s book on Amazon: The Practical Guide To World-Class IT Service Management and follow him on Twitter @kevinjsmith4IT.

Want to Make IT Great? It’s All About Culture

Fri, 20 Jul 2018 22:07:11 Z

As IT professionals we all have a natural affinity for and an attraction to technology. It is natural for us. But the key to our future is not just about technology.

Yes, new technologies—including AI, automation tools, intelligent assistants, mobility, and the like—will certainly change the future agenda of IT and improve how we work every day. But the future of IT is likely more closely tied to cultural change than any single thing. Cultural change is remarkably powerful, virtually limitless, and has the power to renew IT and transform the business.

In today’s post, we will look at a few key elements of this cultural change so we can begin to think about implementing these cultural changes and plan accordingly.

As we remake IT and equip the organization for the future, it is a good guideline to think in terms of every minute that is spent on technology should be matched with a minute spent on people and culture. Commit to this balance and watch the value come back to our teams many times over.

1. Innovation

The very survival—and then the following success of business over the next 25 years—is very much about innovation, and innovation delivered in such a way that it brings real value to customers. Most businesses today are searching for a means to deliver meaningful innovation and create competitive advantage. An important source for this innovation, although unlikely in the eyes of some, is the IT organization. IT has the tools, technologies and know-how to build an engine of innovation for the business—this goes far beyond the traditional boundaries of IT but the talented people of IT are able to answer the call of the business and step up to this critical challenge. And rising to this challenge starts with accepting that IT will shift into a leader of this activity and then making the cultural changes and resource assignments across IT to bring this priority to life.

2. Customer Focus

This is certainly not intended to imply that IT has not cared about the customer in the past. That is clearly not the case. This issue is very much about emphasizing the customer focus in our daily work across IT and elevating it from being "one of" the priorities in IT to being at the top of our list. This focus goes hand in hand with innovation, and together these two elements will drive the transformation of our culture. If there is ever doubt or confusion, this focus on the customer brings us clarity. IT will move closer to the customer and will create new direct engagement models with our customers and then work as a teammate with sales, support, marketing, development, account management, and other organizations to both improve the user experience and improve the pipeline of solutions that will ultimately touch our customers every day. IT will also join new discussions that focus on future, more strategic customer requirements and these needs then take a place in the pipeline of innovation.

When we commit to innovation, our customer focus naturally grows, and when we focus on the customer we create an engine of creative thought that spawns innovation. Each needs the other; each provides for the other.

3. Teamwork

Teamwork is a wonderful and powerful force of good in an organization. Not altogether missing in IT, it becomes a more central model for how we work going forward. In particular, we will form new cross-functional teams to drive the new initiatives of IT and the engagement model with key business owners and customers. This becomes the natural way of working and brings our people of IT closer together and united around common causes. Small teams are best, something like 3-5 people and each team should be cross-functional and represent several of the traditional IT functions. This is a healthy model and brings the additional benefit of melting away the silos of IT naturally and quickly. This model is far more effective than an artificial mandate.

4. Entrepreneurial

Building the entrepreneurial spirit of the IT culture is a natural next step in our transformation of IT and begins with a few simple questions: How can we make the customer experience better? How can we make the jobs of our key business owners easier? How can we create loyal and happy customers? How can we improve the experience of every employee that touches an IT system? How do we make the systems of IT easier to use and faster? These simple questions will drive a change in how we see everything. We can then ask the additional questions of "why do we…" and "what if we …". This positive and business-oriented thinking is highly contagious and will spread through IT quickly.

5. New Skills

The IT organization will always require technology related expertise and domain experts. This is our foundation and this requirement is timeless to a degree. However, we require new skills in IT to complement these technology experts and to drive the new culture and all while supporting our growing alignment and partnership with the business. These skills will further accelerate the changes ahead of us and make the new culture of IT a reality. The new skills of IT will include financial planning skills, customer-facing skills, communication skills, creative skills, and program management skills to name a few. Think in terms of running a business that is focused on innovation and customer engagement and the skills requirements come into focus. We then assign these new skills into the cross functional teams we described earlier and paired with technology and domain experts and amazing things will happen.

We should not believe for a moment that a focus on culture in any way would distract us from the day to day business of managing and leveraging technology. Culture enhances technology and enriches technology. Our people and the culture they create, elevate technology and make it strategic to the business. This is an important relationship that can’t be underestimated. Technology is important, culture is critical, but together they are an unstoppable force.

Keep the faith my friends.

Check out Kevin’s book on Amazon: The Practical Guide To World-Class IT Service Management and follow him on Twitter @kevinjsmith4IT.

The New Priorities for ITSM Tool Selection

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 21:37:28 Z

In the thirty year history of Help Desk and ITSM, it has been a normal practice to replace software tools every five to seven years. But this cycle is now changing.

These days, organizations are looking to select a tool and vendor that will offer both a more strategic partnership and a solution lifecycle looking to a value horizon of 10 years and beyond. This is in recognizing these ITSM tools are a significant investment and IT organizations are increasingly committed to selecting a solution that offers a different profile of capabilities. Simply supporting IT best practices and traditional capabilities is not nearly enough in our changing world.

Given this shift in the IT mindset, let’s take a look at five key priorities for the selection of your next ITSM solution.

The thoughtful selection of a new ITSM tool is more important than ever. The business expects more of IT and a strong ITSM solution goes hand-in-hand with a stronger IT.

#1 Ease of Configuration

The rate of change in business is greater than ever, and as such, we are called to make near-constant changes to the ITSM solution. With this need, it is problematic to call on special skills or expensive consultants to make these common changes.

This could include changing a form, changing a workflow model, updating a business rule, adding a request to the service catalog, and much more. Think of this as all the changes we need to perform our work every day and to keep pace with the business. The users of the system should be able to make many of these changes, with some types of changes requiring the time of a system administrator. What we are trying to avoid is consulting engagements or specialized and extensive training. This is too expensive, too slow, and too complicated. Simple is the only thing that stands the test of time, and is the best model to scale.

#2 Powerful Automation

Automation is more important than ever, and strong automation brings us leverage that supports the new strategic agenda of IT. Automation brings us speed, makes IT more agile, and enables IT to move to 24/7 operations. This is what our customers expect from us and not simply an IT-only agenda.

Good examples of automation are the ability to capture business processes and business rules within the scope of the application and to then execute these sequences of logic automatically. The ability to apply time-based rules, relational and numerical calculations and other related logic embedded in the automation provides more power and more flexibility. Make this a priority and see the benefits of automation returned to IT many times over. Automation is fundamental to self service and service catalog for example, two workhorses for the future of IT.

#3 Innovative Roadmap

Business today must innovate or die, so we should demand the same from our preferred ITSM vendor. It’s important to understand both what the solution offers today and what enhancements are planned for the product over the next few years. Any vendor with a partnership mindset should be happy to share this information and with some detail. This should be an ongoing dialogue. The product continues to evolve and continues to improve as the pressure on IT continues to grow. The innovation discussion was not common in the past, but today it must be on our short list. The ITSM solution worthy of our investment over the next five to ten years must receive a strong R&D investment consistently and to some degree based on customer feedback. Take time to understand how this client feedback occurs and how investment decisions are made.

#4 Agile Self Service, Service Catalog & Mobile

The usage model for ITSM has changed dramatically over the past five years. We are now seeing a shift of the standard usage model to self service, service catalog and mobile device access as these models are a natural fit for the convenience, 24/7 access and personalized service that users today demand. These models are both very efficient and very fast which translates to a lower cost of operation. More importantly, this translates into an empowered and productive user. Everybody is happy when these access models are executed well. The days of calling the help desk and speaking with an analyst are gone forever and the numbers reflect this paradigm shift. These agile models represented usage of about 10 percent a decade ago and today we are now seeing usage in the range of 60-70 percent as increasingly common. As such, a new ITSM solution must be strong and flexible in these areas. This is increasingly how we work and that trend will only accelerate.

#5 AI and Smart Technology

AI and related smart technologies have gone from interesting but not ready for prime time just a few years ago to now being truly useful and ready to help the people of IT. This is a must-have for ITSM, for the future of IT and for the business. Examples here include chat bots, intelligent agents that can make sensible recommendations and data analysis tools. The maturity curve of AI today is accelerating and it’s important we begin to shape our thinking around these wonderful AI tools and not just for today, but in attaching our strategy and operations to the remarkable trajectory of AI that will increase one-hundred-fold in just the next five years and one-thousand-fold over the next 10 years. This is a game changer for ITSM and for IT and is not simply what AI can do for us directly but in freeing some of the precious bandwidth of our people to focus on new advisory services for the business and thinking about how we innovate and improve the precious user experience. This shift is critical.

Keep these five priorities close at hand for your next ITSM tool selection and reap the rewards of a flexible and robust solution you can grow with into the future.

Check out Kevin’s book on Amazon: The Practical Guide To World-Class IT Service Management and follow him on Twitter @kevinjsmith4IT.

Service Catalog: How to Make Yours Successful in 5 Steps

Fri, 04 May 2018 20:02:12 Z

As the technology and practices around IT service management continue to evolve, it is important to recognize the investments that can have the biggest impact on IT and on the business. One such investment is the service catalog.

The service catalog is a rising star in the IT organization, and with good reason. A service catalog done well is a very powerful tool—popular with users, quick, convenient, and highly cost-effective all at the same time. How great is that?

The service catalog is the best of all worlds when implemented correctly. Let’s look more closely at five steps to creating a successful service catalog.

1. Make the Service Catalog Easy

Few things in IT today—and more importantly, in IT's exciting future—are as transcendent as the concept of easy brought to life.

We all love what's easy, and an easy user experience inevitably makes us happy. When a user is happy, all of IT (and all the business) is happy.

We could make the argument that there is no greater single goal for the future of IT than a happy user. Think about the implications of this. From this fundamental experience and emotion, anything is possible. It is important that we resist any temptation to pack more into the scope of service catalog, thus protecting our mission of making it easy.

Above all else it must be easy, and no single flaw has doomed failed service catalogs more than a service catalog that grew and expanded to become complicated, slow, or confusing. Easy is wonderful, and we all know it when we see it.

2. Focus on the User Experience

A successful service catalog is only possible when we understand the primary goals of the user experience. A few questions we should consider:

What will the typical user of the service catalog need and how can we make them more productive?
How can we save the user's precious time?
What is critical in the service catalog experience to ensure the user returns again and again?
What is the best means to collect feedback in order to continuously improve the catalog experience?
How will we measure success?

No doubt, you can think of many other questions, but the key here is to place the user experience front-and-center when planning the design, build, and delivery of the service catalog. Putting a user at the center of this process is healthy for many reasons, and a great model for the future of IT.

3. Speed Is King

Part of the appeal of a service catalog done well is pure speed. The user gets what they want—and exactly what they want—in just a few minutes. No waiting, no messing around, no delays. Seems simple, but speed only comes with careful planning and design.

From the very beginning of making the service catalog a reality, we must focus on an end-result that gives us speed. Think in terms of seconds, then minutes. No such thing here as too fast. And remember this must include the fulfillment process following the user request. Our ability to fulfill what is requested by the user is a critical and necessary part of the process. Our work here is not done until the user has what they need in hand, if you will.

4. Leverage the Power of Automation

The IT organization is fortunate today to have access to powerful and proven automation tools that can help us in many ways. These tools have advanced tremendously in the past five to ten years, and service catalog is a great example of a model that can benefit from these tools.

In fact, service catalog is a natural for automation and a highly performing catalog can be virtually 100 percent automated. This is good for everybody. This gives us the precious speed we are seeking in number three above, allows us to offer the catalog around the clock, helps to minimize the cost of fulfillment, and allows our talented people in IT focus on our high-touch and uniquely human activities.

Oh, and then there are the benefits of scalability and consistency. The upside of scalability should not be underestimated and the IT organization of today is charged with building solutions that can scale and change with the business.

5. Reach Beyond IT

As the rebirth of IT unfolds before us, we recognize the opportunity to extend the influence and value born in IT, far beyond the IT organization. This is an important element of IT leadership—aligning with the business, influencing the business, and making the business better.

HR is a natural for the service catalog, offering a range of services to the business. Marketing is another natural, and there are many others. I would argue that this evolution of IT will go a step further and ultimately lead the business and become one with the business.

Let’s embrace the fundamental need and recognize the opportunity to bring real value to the broader organization and that brings us back to service catalog. The service catalog can be a catalyst for IT changing long-standing perceptions and becoming a somewhat unlikely ambassador across the broader organization.

Make service catalog a priority for your 2018/2019 projects in IT and you’ll be glad you did. If you already have a service catalog, it might be time to give it a tune-up or overhaul using these five elements.

Check out Kevin’s book on Amazon: The Practical Guide To World-Class IT Service Management, and follow him on Twitter @kevinjsmith4IT.

Why a Unified IT Is Our Only Future

Fri, 20 Apr 2018 23:20:36 Z

Our world has forever changed and now IT is called to change in kind. New, powerful, and unstoppable forces are reshaping the world of the consumer, our personal lives, and every business. And these same unstoppable forces are colliding in the world of IT.

What is expected and demanded of IT is to keep pace with the mobile workforce, new security threats, Cloud, around-the-clock operations, social media, the blurring of personal/professional, and a shrinking timeline in all that we do. The business needs IT at its best more than ever.

We simply can’t meet these challenges without fundamentally changing the strategy and operations of IT.

This can best be described as a unification of all things IT.

Let’s take a closer look at a few examples of exactly what that means.

The organization and processes of IT have been built and codified over the past 30 years. As such, a complete cleansing is in order, and the need for this is further exacerbated by the new models of business and powerful market forces that are reshaping how we think and how we act.

This calls us to cleanse virtually all of what we do in IT, including a review of all business processes and workflows with an eye to eliminating waste, integrations, manual reviews, queues, and any other action or requirement that slows us down and costs precious time and resources. This is not easy but will pay back to us many times over with tremendous gains in speed and the many benefits of unity.

This is not about efficiency, efficiency is tactical. This is about creating an organization that is agile, scalable and fast. This is strategic.

Unified IT Understands the Need for Speed

The performance of IT is now being measured with a new yardstick. Simply being good and getting our work done is no longer enough. We now need to not only be good, but also very fast. Being fast has virtually no downside, and quantum leaps forward in speed create new opportunities that don’t otherwise exist. Not the least of which is better serving our customers and creating more time to think and find strategic solutions.

Speed generated by IT translates into a boost to the full business that can be converted into a competitive advantage. This is good for everyone and brings IT closer to the business and changes how the IT organization is perceived—another example of how IT can become an engine for innovation and speed. The business needs this leverage more than ever.

Unified IT Makes It Easy

Customers and system users of like ilk today now have a very different expectation for technology—it should be easy and powerful. One or the other is not enough; it must be nothing less than both and the market today has no tolerance for complex, awkward, and difficult-to-use technology.

This easy and powerful model is simply not possible with a fragmented and distracted IT organization that carries complexity into virtually every element of IT. A siloed and complex IT all but assures systems and infrastructure that are segmented and complex.

By unifying IT, we unify our systems, we streamline our processes, we create a new focus on the customer, we implement more agile development processes, we improve systems design and testing, and we deliver easier to use and more robust solutions. All these elements go hand-in-hand to make the experience of the customer easier and more satisfying. It is a beautiful thing to behold.

Unified IT Eliminates Silos

The organization of IT has been built around functional expertise and silos that we naturally structured around this set of domain-specific functions. But we now understand this is a fundamentally flawed model and brings with it limited visibility, communications, agility, as well as built-in integrations and waste that slows us down.

This waste is nothing less than an anchor cast out the back of the IT boat. This traditional orientation of IT was very much project focused and very much myopic. There is a better way to work—by mobilizing cross functional teams staffed by resources that bring with them the vital technical expertise we need, but working together toward common goals and toward strategic initiatives aligned with the business and with customers. The talented people of IT working together, pulling together, working as one and leaving our traditional silos behind.

Another significant benefit of this model is a shift from optimizing locally, within our silos, to optimizing all of IT. This is a strategic shift and moves us away from what is nothing less than a poison to IT—the mindset and behavior of optimizing locally within our silos moving to optimizing all of IT, recognizing IT is in fact a powerful and wonderful system, in order to better deliver results to the business and to our customers. For a unified IT this is possible, but until that happens across all of IT, it is simply not.

Unified IT Shines a Light on the Customer

The customer is the single greatest source of clarity and focus. Not always closely aligned with the customer, IT moves closer to the customer and with this new model, the full business benefits. This alignment with the customer improves engagement, improves communication and ultimately enables IT to deliver better solutions. The full unified model for IT includes the customer. We are pulling IT together and this new circle of collaboration includes the customer.

With a new engagement model embracing the customer, this reaches across all of IT and brings many natural benefits. One of which is a seismic IT shift—from the inside-out model of traditional IT to an outside-in model of the new IT. This has so many implications to how IT works every day. But that galvanizing force simply can’t come from within and can only come from the customer.

An IT organization that is unified and operating in harmony with the business is a strategic force that changes everything. However, those IT organizations unwilling or unable to rise to the challenges outlined above will all but ensure they will be outsourced completely, or the elements of IT will be transported into the functional organizations in order to perform at the level expected. In either case, the IT we know today ceases to exist.

It is quite a contrast—a new strategic and powerfully unified IT, or the IT that becomes extinct.

Which will you be?

Check out Kevin’s book on Amazon: The Practical Guide To World-Class IT Service Management, and follow him on Twitter @kevinjsmith4IT.

Technology Today: The New Rock Stars of Business Will Be In IT

Fri, 06 Apr 2018 18:30:04 Z

Technology today is not what is was years ago. Traditionally the most talented people in an organization—our brightest stars—were most often found in sales, marketing, consulting, R&D, and other similar departments. The IT department would not normally make the short list of where we would look to find up-and-coming leaders and innovators in the business.

But this is now changing for a number of reasons.

The inevitable infusion of young, talented people in IT will benefit the business in ways we might not anticipate today. But change is here my friends, and IT will become home to many stars of the future who possess a unique combination of business skills and technology expertise.

And as we will see, these skills are more important than ever before.

Technology Today is Strategic

The evolution of technology today is pulling organizations in new and exciting directions. This growing power of technology makes it a more strategic part of business than ever before.

When leveraged properly, technology can win new customers, create competitive advantage, cultivate customer loyalty, and drive success for strategic initiatives.

Technology becomes a natural part of the business model and brings strategy to life. It has become so much more than simply tools and data, and we need the talented people of IT—including a new generation of high impact employees—to show the organization how this new generation of technology can best be leveraged to drive the key goals of the business.

The Partnership of Humanity & AI

Few would argue that AI and intelligent technologies will change the course of business over the next 20 years. However, what some might not understand is that AI needs humanity in order to be great, and humanity needs AI equally in order to create a new generation of successful businesses. The humanity side of this partnership will best be met by workers in the organization who are technology savvy and who understand the business model.

In an increasing number of cases, we will place people who have this unique combination of skills in the IT organization in order to keep these human experts close to the technology, or in a hands-on role if you will.

As AI becomes more strategic, a home in IT makes a lot of sense and we will look no further than IT to keep the partnership of humanity and AI alive and thriving. I would take this a step further—the organizations that get this partnership right will emerge as the market leaders of the future, and those that just can’t embrace this new model will be pushed to the side.

The New Career Paths of IT

The traditional career paths in IT have not been as dynamic as many IT professionals would like. The good news is that the time has come for these career opportunities to blossom and thrive in order to complement the new strategic role of technology in the business. The most talented people in the organization will feel the pull to IT as it brings these technology experts closer to the technology that is more powerful than ever and capable of driving business growth and success. This balance of technology expertise with business acumen is more important than ever, and when we find this unique combination of skills living in the same person, they will have access to new career path options and new compensation plan options that did not exist just a few years ago.

These opportunities exist up to and including the CIO who will increasingly become a candidate for promotion to CEO. Not all CIOs will have the necessary aptitude, but some will, and as such will emerge as a new breed of strategic CIO that joins the ranks of the new rock stars of the business and serve as a mentor to the up and coming business analysts and technology product managers we will place and grow in IT. This is a cycle of hiring, nurturing, mentoring and growth that will accelerate to the benefit of all and change the perception of IT across the business.

Compensation Accelerates

The new stars of the business, possessing a unique combination of technology know-how and business acumen, will drive a new level of value across the organization. As we recognize this value, compensation will grow quickly in order to attract and retain these new stars in IT. We should expect the growth of compensation in the IT organization to outpace the remainder of the organization, in many cases far outpacing other teams. Why? Because the rebirth of IT will be driven by these extraordinary organizational athletes now thriving in IT and compensation always follows value and the value will be found in IT. Close to technology, close to our precious data, and moving closer to the customer.

These powerful market and organizational forces will change the face of IT in the years ahead, and forever change how the IT organization is viewed by the business.

Check out Kevin’s book on Amazon: The Practical Guide To World-Class IT Service Management, and follow him on Twitter @kevinjsmith4IT.

HDI Event: How to Get the Most out of It

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 22:22:54 Z

We're coming up on the annual HDI event, scheduled for April 9-13 at the MGM Grand resort in Las Vegas!

The HDI event is one of the major IT and help desk shows of the year. As with any industry event, you can make the week more productive by taking a few minutes to get organized. You should arrive in Las Vegas with a plan in hand, knowing where to go and when to show up.

Here are a few suggestions on how you can create your conference plan and leave Las Vegas with a fun and productive experience behind you. (And sorry, no gaming advice is included here!)

Making a Plan for the HDI Event

As IT professionals, we normally have one set of projects and initiatives currently underway, and another set of projects and initiatives planned for the next 12-24 months.

These projects can include Automation, new ITIL Processes, leveraging AI, the role of DevOps in IT, compliance challenges, possible updates to core ITSM processes including Incident Management or Problem Management and much, much more.

Take a few minutes to prioritize these initiatives and identify what is most strategic to the success of your IT organization in 2018 and beyond. Make a short list of target topics. These could be anything, because every organization is different, but the key is understanding what are the most important to you and your team.

Then take this short list and look for intersections on the HDI event agenda. The program is very easy to browse and it won’t take much time to find sessions of interest. It is very likely you can find another organization, a lot like yours, or an industry expert who will be delivering a session that speaks to the journey you are currently on. Circle those sessions on your program and make sure you attend.

Seek out Industry Experts

The HDI conference will bring together many of the leading IT and ITSM experts from around the world. Take advantage of this opportunity and either attend a session with these experts or—just as good—introduce yourself to an expert during one of the social events, at a lunch break, a book signing, or after one of the sessions. These people are great contacts to have and invariably you will be amazed at how nice and how approachable they are. They love to meet new people and will most likely enjoy meeting you. These are contacts you can come back to time and time again for years.

A few sessions I can recommend:

Rise of the Machines (session 208) with @IanAitchison on Wednesday, April 11, at 11:30 a.m.
- This session will take a look at the rapidly evolving role of AI, bots, and more in the world of ITSM. As one of the great thinkers in ITSM, Ian is passionate about this topic. He always puts on a great seminar.
The Generation Gap of Business Expectations for IT (session 808) with @VigilantGuy on Friday, April 1, at 10:15 a.m.
- This session will take a look at a topic that is very much on the mind of IT today. Matt is very entertaining and knowledgeable, and I always learn something in his sessions.
Leadership’s 9 Guiding Principles: Modeling Success (session 107) with @StuartRance on Wednesday, April 11, at 10:15 a.m.
- Stuart is a one-of-a-kind icon in the global ITSM market. You will never regret taking a seat in one of Stuart’s presentations and his uniquely colorful style.

Finally, check out my session:

Solutions Spotlight on Wednesday, April 11, at 1:00 p.m. at the Expo Floor Theatre.
- I’ll be talking about common mistakes to avoid with ITIL and how to leverage the best practices of successful organizations. In an effort to keep things moving, my session will run a snappy 20 minutes. I’ll also be giving away two copies of my ITSM book at the end of the session.

Of course, there are many other great sessions, so enjoy looking through the conference agenda and building your own "must see" list!

Make It Personal

The event will include a number of scheduled social slots, networking sessions, breaks, meals, conference receptions, and a conference party. Each of these activities will provide great opportunities to meet new people.

Networking is an important part of the event. Make a goal to meet as many people as possible. Remember that the people in attendance are just like you in that they enjoy hearing about what other organizations are working on and value making new contacts. Sometimes the most valuable information you can leave a conference with will have come from a casual chat over dinner or at a reception.

Catch a Couple of Keynotes

The keynotes at HDI are typically outstanding. They address people, as well as organizational, motivational, and other non-technical topics that can be useful in both our jobs and our lives. It’s a great opportunity to take a step back from the normal, more technical content of the main tracks.

Take the time to catch one or two of these and you will be glad you did. We hope to see you there!

Click here to register.

Be sure to check out Kevin’s book, The Practical Guide To World-Class IT Service Management, on Amazon, and follow him on Twitter @kevinjsmith4IT.

Why ITSM Is the Hub of the IT Wheel

Fri, 09 Mar 2018 00:33:59 Z

There is a motion that occurs in the operations of IT today, and it is changing before our eyes. Increasingly, this motion is moving more quickly and in a more synchronized manner across all of the IT organization. These changes are no accident—they are born out of the need to drive the business around the clock and with an emphasis on velocity. A global marketplace and demanding customers are raising the bar on everything we do as an IT organization.

This new motion requires a higher level of synchronization and unity between the elements of IT and in many cases, ITSM is facilitating and enabling this wonderful new motion.

Service Catalog Is the New IT Ambassador

The model of service requests and service catalog has gained widespread adoption across IT organizations of all sizes. And the reasons for this success are simple—service catalog is easy, fast, and provides immediate gratification for much of what we need to perform our jobs every day.

Due to its warm reception across IT and across the business as a whole, IT has a new face that is being welcomed in organizations including marketing, HR, facilities and finance. Look more closely and we see the powerful engine behind service catalog is ITSM and the service desk. Look even more closely and we can see the backend fulfillment processes for the catalog leverage many functions across IT and rely on workflow automation to help us meet the new standard of speed. Everybody likes fast.

Workflow Automation Coordinates the Actions of IT

Powerful and flexible workflow automation tools are driving many actions across IT every day.

This automation allows us to perform routine and even complex tasks quickly and consistently. This power allows IT to scale, to operate 24X7 and to drive a higher rate of speed in much of what we do. At the core, this automation allows us to mobilize the assets and resources of IT to better service the business. And yes, ITSM is the architect for much of this automation and the connections that occur across IT as a result. These connections bring to life the synergies between the elements of IT including security, servers, endpoints and more.

Governance and Compliance Brings All of IT Together

IT professionals work with a new level of accountability and transparency every day. This is part of our new reality. Of course, much of this is to the good of both IT and business, but the responsibilities of audit, governance, compliance and their spinoffs are significant. We must follow specific procedures, some of which are captured by COBIT and ITIL, and we must ensure we have the right data in the right condition, while managing the clock against much of the work that is performed every day. Although these actions are very much attached to what we do in IT, these initiatives are visible to the CFO, the CEO and the board of directors. The health and future of the full organization are at stake here and IT and ITSM become trusted stewards in protecting the business.

IT Service Delivery Touches Every Employee

As the business grows more dependent and more enabled by technology, the services delivered by IT and the ITSM team are naturally more vital and touch every worker across the business. Think about our dependency on the internet, on mobile phones, on laptops, tablets, cloud and corporate systems. All of this is kept in good health by the IT organization working in concert with the delivery of the necessary services by the ITSM organization. Services for anything and everything are delivered every day to keep our people at their best. These services also serve to create the many spokes of the wonderful wheel of IT and connect every team and every individual across the business both virtually and physically.

Technology helps us to do the simple things of course, but increasingly we can harness technology to deliver strategic value and drive the business. Of course, let’s not forget that should problems arise, the ITSM team is ready with a fix to get us back on track again. This drives the wonderful harmony that can only be created by the talented people of IT and ITSM.

Here we go…

While we enjoy the exhilarating changes occurring in IT today it is important to understand that most of the journey lies yet ahead of us. The business needs IT and ITSM more than ever and the new IT organizations of today and the future are ready to lead, ready to innovate and ready to drive customer success.

This will be fun.

Ivanti Blog: Posts by

Don’t Forget About ITAM for Driving IT Maturity

Ivanti Asset Manager: Free Demo

1. Data accuracy is everything.

2. Who’s the boss?

3. ITAM makes every employee better and every customer happier.

Creating a New Culture for IT Service Management

Focus on Results

Outreach to the Business

Diversity in All Things

Engine for Innovation

Why All the Fuss Over Automation for IT Service Management?

1. Automation creates strategic speed.

2. Automation frees our people to work on new projects and in new roles.

3. Automation naturally creates agility.

So, What Does It Take to Write a Book?

The IT Organization and the Business Are More Closely Linked than Ever Before

Self Service Your People Will Enjoy Using

1. Make it Easy

2. Make it Fast

3. Make it Consistent

Self Service as a Bridge to the Future of IT

ITSM: Understanding the Framework and Why It’s Important

It All Starts With Great Service

The Hub of IT

Process Strategy and Operations

Why It all Matters

The 4 Key Things Companies Want From IT Service Management

1. Great Service Delivery

2. Process Discipline

3. A Platform for Automation

4. Connecting the Business

The Power of Simplicity for Service Management

A Critical Review

All Waste Must Go

Prepare for Automation

Simple Is Faster and Speed Is Strategic

Here’s Why 2019 Will Be the Year of AI in ITSM

The 5 Habits of Successful ITSM Organizations

Invest in Our People

Just the Right Amount of Best Practices

Connect to Business Outcomes

Clear Process Owners

Commit to Communication

Security and ITSM: A Dynamic Duo of IT

Automation

Service Catalogs

Self Service

Mobile Workforce

How Automation Makes IT Sexy

Fast

Easy

Consistent

Leverage Humanity

Want to Make IT Great? It’s All About Culture

1. Innovation

2. Customer Focus

3. Teamwork

4. Entrepreneurial

5. New Skills

​The New Priorities for ITSM Tool Selection

#1 Ease of Configuration

#2 Powerful Automation

#3 Innovative Roadmap

#4 Agile Self Service, Service Catalog & Mobile

#5 AI and Smart Technology

Service Catalog: How to Make Yours Successful in 5 Steps

1. Make the Service Catalog Easy

2. Focus on the User Experience

3. Speed Is King

4. Leverage the Power of Automation

5. Reach Beyond IT

Why a Unified IT Is Our Only Future

Unified IT Understands the Need for Speed

Unified IT Makes It Easy

Unified IT Eliminates Silos

Unified IT Shines a Light on the Customer

Technology Today: The New Rock Stars of Business Will Be In IT

Technology Today is Strategic

When leveraged properly, technology can win new customers, create competitive advantage, cultivate customer loyalty, and drive success for strategic initiatives.

The New Priorities for ITSM Tool Selection