All You Need To Know About
What is ITSM?
ITSM is a solution that helps the IT team of a business to manage all aspects of their IT services and streamlines the end-to-end IT delivery to their customers.
ITSM involves designing the IT services that cater to customer needs, building or configuring the IT system or processes, delivering the services, operating them, monitoring, controlling, and maintaining them throughout.
Let’s understand how ITSM works with an example.
Suppose you are an employee at a healthcare provider firm. One day, you notice that the patient data management software is not functioning properly. It is not storing and
updating the patient’s records correctly. However, you do not have the right skills and authorization to resolve this issue. Thus, you need help from the IT department of your organization.
In this case, first, you log in to your ITSM portal for example ServiceNow ITSM and report the incident specifying all the details about the software issue. Further, the system logs this as an ‘incident’ and assigns a unique ID to it, to help know the status and track the same.
Now, the system would categorize the issue based on the category it would match into. Here, it would be categorized under the ‘software issue’ category. Additionally, a priority would be set for the same. Moving on, the ITSM system would assign this issue to the appropriate person in the IT department, which would be someone from the software support team. The team will investigate the system and will run the required diagnostic tasks to identify the root cause. Once it is identified, the team will work on fixing it.
After the issue is resolved, the incident will be marked as closed in the ITSM system. Also, it will notify you of the resolution and will ask you to check if the software is functioning correctly or not.
All this process includes various steps that come under the process of ITSM. These go from incident reporting, incident logging, categorization and prioritization, assignment, investigation, resolution, closure, and at last review and analysis.
However, the process might differ based on the type of issue and how the IT team would cater to it.
What Steps Should Organizations Take To Get Started In ITSM?
#1. Evaluate Your Business’ Current IT Environment
The foremost thing that you should do is take a look at your business’s current IT setup. In this, you must list out all the IT processes, how they work, and the areas where gaps or problems exist.
It is like doing a full body health checkup of your IT department.
#2. Set Clear Objectives And Goals
After you are well aware of the current state of your IT department, you must define clear goals. This is related to why you want an ITSM system in your business and what you want to achieve through it.
Go with listing out your objectives of where you want to reach with the ITSM system. Maybe your objective is related to solving operational issues promptly or wanting to streamline your IT processes, and so on. Having a clear understanding of the same will help you make the right decision for your business.
#3. Build A Dedicated ITSM Team
To ensure a smooth deployment of ITSM in your business, you need people who are experts in the field. Thus, a dedicated team with the required skills and knowledge will be responsible for planning and implementing ITSM in your organization. They understand how ITSM works and how to get the best out of it.
#4. Choose The Right ITSM Framework
When talking about ITSM frameworks, there are several options that organizations adopt based on their ultimate goal. These frameworks include ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies).
ITIL majorly deals with the practical facets of delivering and managing the IT services of an organization. Whereas, COBIT is concerned with IT governance, risk management, and compliance.
Thus, you can choose the right framework for your business that best aligns with your organization’s needs and requirements. Also, to fit in perfectly, minor customization can be made.
#5. Communicate With Your Team
Before moving forward with your ITSM setup, you must talk to your team about what it is, why you are planning to implement it, and how it will benefit your business. Ask them if they have any queries or questions regarding the same, eliminating confusion at both ends. This helps in getting their support and cooperation.
#6. Implement Your ITSM Solution
Now, it's time to put your plan into action. By collectively bringing all your objectives, framework, and team in one place, start implementing the ITSM processes and ITSM tools across your organization. Clearly define the workflows for incident management, problem management, change management, and service request handling. Further, start using it in your daily operations like automating repetitive tasks wherever possible, to achieve streamlined operations and reduce chances of errors.
What Are The Biggest Mistakes Organizations Make When Just Starting Out?
#1. Only Doing It For Its Sake
When organizations think of implementing ITSM, they just think of doing it with the motive of achieving streamlined delivery of IT services. They forget to consider their business objectives, and priorities and align them with their business objectives. The technology should not be an end in itself but a means to support and enhance business operations.
Therefore, when ITSM is leveraged only for keeping IT processes in place, it might lead to inefficiencies and disconnection between the services and the actual needs of the business.
#2. Unwillingness To Change
Organizations often restrict themselves to legacy systems and processes, as they have worked with them in the past. However, this prevents them from adopting new systems that are innovative and futuristically designed. Thus, to step up with ITSM strategies, you must think of adapting futuristic approaches that can easily adapt to business changes and technological advancements.
#3. Implementing Too Many Processes, Too Quickly
Businesses often tend to implement too many ITSM processes, one after the other. This might overwhelm the system and also the team, leading to poor adoption. Thus, to avoid such a scenario, start with fewer important processes, establish them successfully, and then gradually move on with the other processes.
#4. Lack Of Communication
Communicating effectively with your team about the ITSM system and the advantages it brings is important. Otherwise, this might create misunderstandings and a lack of support from your team.
Also, it is essential to make sure that everyone is in the same place and working together towards the same objectives.
#5. Omitting Process Optimization
Organizations must make sure that they are using the automating features of ITSM correctly. Before automating any process, it is important to optimize them first. If a flawed process is automated, then it would generate false results, which might create issues for the organization. Thus, it is the organization’s responsibility to first correct the flawed processes before automating them.
Organizations must be aware of all the pitfalls and must actively work on them to avoid them from occurring. They must set a strong foundation for their ITSM initiatives to get the best out of it.
#7. Monitor And Improve
At last, it is all your responsibility to keep a check on your ITSM system. See if it is benefiting your business. See if your team’s productivity has improved or are they facing any issues with it? Are you meeting your goals or are you in the process of doing so? What things have improved than before or is there any downgrade?
If so, then look for ways to improve.