Five Ways to Modernize IT Service Management

Five steps. That’s all it takes to modernize ITSM and give your users a better experience. We’ll introduce these concepts in this post and dive into more detail in future blogs.

1. Foster business relationships

Shadow IT, the unbounded use of technologies in the workplace, is more disruptive on a broader scale now than in the past. If you’re not aware of users’ needs you won’t meet service expectations, and you run the risk of users looking for solutions elsewhere.

When they do, it exposes the organization to potential security breaches, data loss, and noncompliance of software licensing policy as well as creating issues of scalability and supportability.

The ITSM team must engage with business productivity teams to understand what users deem critical to their productivity and respond effectively, adding value to the business.

2. Offer exceptional user experiences

Your business users are in the driver’s seat, and you must understand and meet the requirements and experiences they expect. In fact, according to a survey published by thinkhdi.com, the top reason why changes were made in support centers was to provide a better customer experience.

Delivering exceptional experiences through the right channels requires a modern approach. One of those significant points of modernization is your self-service portal—the “face of ITSM”—its design, implementation, adoption, and measurement.

3. Adopt automation

Automating key IT and business processes enables IT service managers to eliminate time spent on manual tasks when service management teams are required to cope with increased demands on a limited headcount while serving business users who won’t tolerate failure.

For service managers who must cope with increased demands, such as digital business requirements, automation is a strategic enabler. As well as eliminating the time spent on manual tasks, automating key IT and business processes in a phased approach that satisfies business users who don’t tolerate failure will reduce manual errors.

4. Demonstrate business value

Traditional IT performance and team productivity reporting has its place, but alone doesn’t reveal how IT assists the business or business users and how IT can offer insights to drive future strategy.

Modern ITSM requires modernized reporting that supports a CIO’s ability to show the value IT brings to the business. It’s time to embrace a value-based reporting approach that ties IT performance and measurement to the business outcomes and financial impacts your C-Level executives are measuring. Business value dashboards offer the rolled-up single view you can provide your CIO.

5. Support enterprise agility

To take advantage of the digital era, enterprises now realize they must offer strategic responses faster and to execute effectively. This demands pervasive agility across the enterprise. ITSM teams are already focused on improving or building consistent, repeatable processes that reduce time to action and improve productivity.

Initiatives that prove impactful within ITSM can extend to the delivery and management of business services beyond the realms of IT. Service management teams become a consultative role model for the enterprise, and your integrated, process-driven ITSM system enables the agility that supports business strategy.