Ivanti Blog: Posts by

The Hidden Gems of ITSM: Features That Matter Most

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 12:34:36 Z

Service management doesn't have to just be a buzzword. It can be a foundation of efficient operations where IT Service Management (ITSM) plays a crucial role in keeping businesses running smoothly. But what truly sets exceptional ITSM apart from the rest? It’s not just about having a sleek user interface — it’s about the powerful features and functionalities that operate beneath the surface, improving user satisfaction and driving operational excellence. From automated incident management to self-healing capabilities, the true power of ITSM lies in its ability to anticipate and resolve issues before they become problems.

The power underneath: what truly matters

Beneath the surface of sleek interfaces and user-friendly designs lies what makes service management indispensable. While a polished UI can improve the user experience, it’s the underlying functionality and efficiency that determines the success of any service management system.

For employees, it’s the speed and effectiveness with which their requests are handled that matters. When an employee submits a request, they expect it to be actioned and resolved quickly. Delays lead to frustration and a decline in productivity, which ripples through the entire organization.

Employees also highly value transparency and communication. They expect to be informed of the status of their requests and any potential delays. By providing regular updates and maintaining clear lines of communication, IT teams can significantly improve satisfaction and trust in the service management process.

For IT professionals, the stakes are equally high. They need the right solutions to efficiently address and resolve issues. The ability to handle incidents at the initial level, often referred to as Level 0 support, is crucial. This means resolving simple issues quickly without escalating them, which can drastically reduce the number of tickets that need to be managed.

In the end, the true test of employee satisfaction with the service management system is in the results it produces. The speed and efficacy with which issues are resolved, the quality of communication received, and the overall impact on their day-to-day productivity are key metrics.

Beyond the Flashy UI: The Core Capabilities of Service Management

The underlying architecture and processes are what actually make service management strong. At the heart of any good service management solution is the ability to streamline workflows, which can greatly increase efficiency. When processes are optimized, teams can focus on more important work, reducing the time and effort spent on mundane, repetitive tasks. This not only increases productivity, but also ensures that the IT department can respond more effectively to the needs of the business.

Automated incident management is another critical component that often goes unnoticed. By automating the detection and resolution of issues, organizations can drastically reduce response times. These self-healing capabilities are a game-changer in modern service management. Ensuring that problems are identified and remediated before users even log them, leading to higher user satisfaction. Additionally, users are less likely to experience disruptions, and when issues do arise, they are resolved quickly and efficiently. This proactive approach not only improves the user experience but also helps in maintaining a positive perception of the IT department.

Integration capabilities are another essential aspect that often gets overlooked. A service management solution that seamlessly integrates with various enterprise applications and services ensures all components work in harmony. This eliminates silos and ensures that data flows smoothly across the organization, improving overall operational efficiency.

However, it’s important to note that not all vendors deliver on their low-code/no-code promises. While many claim to offer these features, the reality often involves more coding than advertised. True low-code/no-code solutions should minimize the need for extensive coding, making it easier for IT teams to deploy and manage services without requiring deep technical expertise.

The digital employee experience is more than just surveys. It involves a comprehensive 360-degree view of how employees interact with various aspects of the service management system, including applications, security and devices. Proactively identifying and addressing issues across these areas can significantly improve the overall employee experience.

Features that make service management great

But what are the specific features that elevate service management from a mere tool to an indispensable solution? One of the most transformative features is automation. By automating routine tasks and ticket resolution processes, service management solutions can significantly improve user satisfaction while reducing the workload on IT teams.

Self-service portals are another game-changer. These portals empower users to resolve simple issues on their own, such as password resets or software installations, without needing to involve the IT department.

Advanced analytics are also crucial for modern service management. By providing deep insights into service performance and user behavior, these analytics enable organizations to proactively address issues before they become major problems. For example, predictive analytics can identify patterns that may indicate an impending system failure, allowing IT teams to take preventive action.

Mobile access is also key. With the increasing mobility of the workforce, it’s essential that IT support is always available, no matter where users are. Mobile-friendly service management platforms enable users to submit tickets, track progress and receive updates on the go.

Finally, AI is increasingly becoming a crucial aspect of successful service management. AI-driven tools can automate more complex tasks, provide intelligent recommendations and even predict and resolve issues before users are even aware of them. However, it’s crucial that these AI systems are transparent and trustworthy, ensuring they operate ethically and in the best interests of the organization and its users.

How Ivanti Helps

This is where Ivanti comes in. We provide a suite of solutions that not only make service management more efficient but also enhance the core aspects of service management. We do this through our AI-driven service management capabilities that make the service desk smarter, faster and more efficient. With AI-driven capabilities, we can summarize incidents and tickets, generate knowledge articles, classify incidents and even create dashboard widgets.

In today’s digital world, security is top of mind for all organizations. That’s why we’re the only ITSM vendor to have signed the Secure by Design pledge. We don’t just say we’re secure — we build security into our products.

Our robust security is complemented by our extensive enterprise integration capabilities. With over 1,000 connectors, our platform can seamlessly integrate with a wide range of third-party systems, both IT and non-IT. Our low-code/no-code approach, powered by the leading iPaaS platform, makes it easy to extend ITSM automation and workflow to external systems without requiring deep technical expertise.

In addition, we offer five out-of-the-box (OOTB) enterprise workflows for HR, facilities, project portfolio management (PPM), governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) and security operations. These aren't just templates — they're fully functional business objects that can be customized to meet your specific organizational needs.

The low-code visual editor is a powerful feature that allows organizations to build and modify workflows across all IT and non-IT processes. This capability allows for the creation of custom solutions that align with unique business requirements, minimizing administrative effort and maximizing productivity. The platform’s integrated DevOps capability, with OOTB bi-directional connectors for Jira, Azure DevOps, GitHub and Jenkins, extends this flexibility to DevSecOps.

One of the most innovative aspects of Ivanti’s platform is its self-healing capabilities. Proactive service management ensures that issues are identified and resolved before they impact users, significantly reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR). This proactive approach not only improves service quality but also improves the overall digital employee experience. Ivanti is the only ITSM vendor that measures the digital employee experience, providing insights into employee sentiment and the performance of devices, applications and security measures.

In a landscape of rapid technological change, Ivanti’s solutions offer the flexibility and security required to lead the pack. Through the power of advanced AI, resilient security and seamless integration, Ivanti equips organizations to deliver exceptional service and spearhead digital transformation with confidence.

Want to learn more? Check out our webinar, Beyond the Surface: Unveiling the True Power of ITSM, to take a fresh look and elevate your service management game to gain a competitive edge.

Automating IT Operations with ITAM

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 12:00:01 Z

IT professionals, because of the massive shift to Everywhere Work, have been tasked with blazing the trail for a fast-tracked automation and AI process at their organization – as well as a move to the cloud.

With constantly expanding IT environments, automation has moved from a luxury to a priority for IT professionals. But for your automation processes to be successful you need to consider investing in IT asset management (ITAM). Why? Because one of the key areas for automation is unifying your existing asset information.

According to EMA research, 18% of respondents plan to manage all asset types on one platform.

15% of IT professionals say that incomplete, siloed, conflicting or inadequate asset information is standing in the way of automation. If you want to introduce AI and automation that will increase efficiency and productivity, investing in an effective asset management solution is a step that can’t be skipped.

How ITAM is a cornerstone for automation

Your AI implementation is only as good as your data. AI and automation won't work well when your data is hard to find and spread out. A lot of EMA respondents are already on the right track; with 43% reporting that AI is aiding their automation.

In addition to increased automation, 55% of EMA research respondents reported that they already use one platform to unify asset visibility, workflow and automation. The consolidation of asset information allows for holistic and comprehensive understanding of processes - including dependencies between assets and software and streamlining processes.

ITAM also provides necessary details when automating or applying AI, especially when you connect it with endpoint management and discovery solutions – helping to provide real-time insights into health, security and performance of all devices.

Being able to have this level of data can help remediate any device issues and security threats before they can cause harm to the IT environment or impact user productivity. With 80% of IT professionals planning to change their current systems either by adding on or doing a complete rip-and-replace, ITAM will be an integral part of the transition to automation and AI for organizations.

How ITAM improves IT operations

An investment in automating your asset management is almost certain to bring value to your operations. IT professionals need to be ready and able to operate at scale and address any issues, while juggling delivering business value and implementing strategic initiatives like speeding up resolution times, reducing costs and improving service quality.

Being able to automate repetitive tasks and leverage AI for proactive identification and remediation of performance and security risks generates operational benefits. Reducing manual tasks will not only take pressure off your team, but you also improve operations by eliminating the possibility of human error, leading to improved accuracy and efficiency.

Eliminating these manual tasks opens new doors for IT professionals to take on innovative and strategic projects for the organization, such as cloud deployments to accelerate ROI. Even though cloud is the number-one challenge to delivering high-quality IT service, it should be noted that ITAM maturity is highly correlated with having cloud waste below 5%.

With asset management growing in importance for security and employee experience initiatives, having automation will help IT professionals become a strategic partner and enjoy heightened levels of influence.

An overwhelming 85% of respondents rated automation and AI investments as profitable ventures, with an additional 10% as a breakeven proposition. When you’re looking to implement effective AI and automation initiatives in your organization, having an effective ITAM solution can’t be skipped.

To explore all EMA’s research findings, download the eBook.

Leveraging IT Asset Information to Deliver Outstanding Employee Experience

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 15:38:29 Z

With the rise in Everywhere Work, IT professionals have become burdened with managing their growing IT infrastructure. In fact, some organizations have reported their digital transformation being accelerated by three to five years as they look to build their IT environments.

The volume of assets used for work has grown significantly – averaging 2.6 devices per person. This new wave of assets has opened the door for more issues to occur – reflected by 45% of employees experiencing more tech issues since the start of the pandemic.

Work-from-anywhere means assets are everywhere, bringing asset management challenges from all points of the globe. Now that employee productivity hinges on their experience with devices and systems they use, senior leaders recognize ITAM’s critical role in enabling their service teams to better serve employees. Glossing over employee experience is a risk organizations simply can’t afford to make.

To avoid high turnover rates, work-related stress and employee burnout, organizations need to rethink their strategy. When 89% of IT professionals say they manage a combination of IT and non-IT assets, ITAM and its various capabilities can help you gain control over your IT investments while redefining employee experiences.

How ITAM elevates the employee experience

A great employee experience helps employees be more productive and efficient. With the average worker using 2.6 devices to complete tasks, their productivity depends on the experiences they have with their tools.

IT asset management has proven to be a Swiss army knife for delivering a great employee experience by:

1. Automating tasks

Quicker ticket resolution enables self-service opportunities, critical in improving efficiency of your service desk. When you eliminate repetitive tasks from your teams’ agenda, they can finally get on with this platform consolidation project or that critical system update that has fallen off their priority list. But designing automated workflows is impossible without a full overview of all assets that should be part of the process.

2. Providing a comprehensive understanding of assets

When IT professionals understand what assets they have and when to use them best, they improve asset utilization and prevent waste. When IT can support all assets, they are able to quickly view each user’s assigned devices and identify those that are causing issues.

3. Providing proactive support

When your asset data is connected with your service management platform, you’re able to provide more proactive support to your users. The continuous monitoring of assets allows you to resolve issues before the end user even notices – eliminating the need to raise a ticket request!

4. Speeding up the ticket resolution process

Combining asset information with your service management platform means your service desk has all insights into the potential core of the issues and their remediation at their fingertips, including usage, performance details, status updates on warranties and licenses. When you’re able to get to the center of issues, you’ll create an environment that helps enrich employee experience.

This ability to continuously monitor your assets allows you to provide proactive support, giving your team to identify and remediate problems before they impact users. Instead of filling out ticket requests, employees can spend that time developing or implementing strategic projects for the organization.

With recent research showing it can take as much as 20 minutes for workers to refocus back on their jobs after an issue has been resolved, you could reclaim hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of lost productivity across your teams.

A great IT asset management tool gives you both increased visibility and context. With a data-driven, proactive support system, your IT team can deter threats before a ticket even hits their inbox.

How ITAM for employee experience improves IT operations and cross-functional workflows

Nearly 15% of organizations say incomplete, siloed, conflicting or inadequate asset information disrupts cross-functional workflows. A shared ITAM system that powers workflows across the organization, not just within IT teams, allows for improved service delivery across the organization. Whether employees deal with IT assets or line of business technology, great service is consistently and efficiently delivered.

Connecting everything in the cloud with a single platform significantly enhances your efforts to transition and consolidate onto a single configuration management database (CMDB) or “single source of truth” which can support many additional organizational requirements, such as security. Moreover, integrating assets with your data from patch and discovery makes your IT operations more scalable and efficient.

This heightened efficiency allows for an empowered IT team. When you grant them access to holistic data in context for each device, they will be able to proactively address issues. And, by recognizing and automating repetitive tasks, you can lift the workload for overwhelmed IT professionals, helping to deliver a great employee experience to IT teams as well as the users.

Delivering a great employee experience is more than just employee appreciation days and putting arcade games in the break room. It’s about giving your employees tools that help them do their jobs to the best of their ability and allow them to focus on the most impactful projects for the business and their own professional growth.

Access EMA’s full research eBook on modern ITAM in the modern workplace.