Adopting a fresh approach to IT service management

Think of IT service management (ITSM) as the glue that brings the disparate parts of IT together: the policies, processes, and tools to design and enhance the IT equipment, resources, and services. More than just optimizing IT for end users, ITSM can help companies propel their digital transformation efforts, and even automate processes to adapt to changing business conditions.

But even though many businesses are ready to reap the service’s full benefits, they have yet to crack the ITSM code of aligning their IT services with their organizational goals. That’s because their approach is often not agile enough to keep pace with today’s evolving business landscape.

A Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey of 225 members of the Harvard Business Review audience, who are involved in decision-making about how the IT department provides service for their organization, finds that 72% say their organization has changed their approach to service management in the past two years but only 59% saw improvement from this change.

Gaining visibility over service processes has long been a challenge for businesses. Many are approaching ITSM as a technical issue, with gaps simply filled by deploying the right tools. Without diagnosing the bottlenecks, they tend to over-engineer their environment, resulting in the growing complexity of their IT environment. This is due to a lack of understanding of service management which, in turn, creates more vulnerabilities. Add in the advent of increased cyber threats and data security becomes another challenge that exacerbates the issue.

Making ITSM better than ever

Overcoming these challenges is more than just making temporary fixes; it’s also changing the culture around how IT services are being managed. To deliver truly transformational benefits, businesses need to modernize their ITSM strategy by breaking down barriers between the organization and their end users.

The upshot of successfully providing ITSM is numerous. Organizations that transformed their ITSM approach and saw improvement experienced heightened data security (63%), better alignment of IT with business priorities (59%), better support for remote workers (58 percent), and improved employee productivity (53%). By reducing silos around service management, businesses could enhance their IT operational efficiency. At the same time, more data on IT services can be captured to drive improvement around these processes.

Deploying a modern ITSM strategy

So how can companies arrive at this picture? As new strategies require people and technology changes, it is important for businesses to address both aspects to successfully deploy a modern ITSM approach.

Apart from detailing the key steps to ensure effective ITSM technology implementation—from setting clear goals and requirements to launch—Freshworks further outlined some considerations for strong change management:

• Adopt a long-run strategy: A point many businesses overlook is that fundamental changes that may not provide an immediate return on investment (ROI) is key to a successful service management transformation. Taking a long-term outlook that’s founded upon a compelling vision, roadmap, and goals can provide enormous enterprise benefits over time.

• Get ready for change resistance: Employees are understandably concerned that change may disrupt existing jobs and routines. Appoint change champions who can help communicate that a new approach to ITSM will bring great benefits while helping them be more productive.

• Training for new roles and processes: A new service management approach will change the processes and roles of individuals. As introducing employees to new ways of working can require patience and cultural change, emphasizing training can build employee skills and gain their investment and confidence.

• Embrace constant feedback and iteration: When it comes to IT operations, businesses should strive for new approaches quickly, learn fast, and iterate based on those learnings. Tap on this feedback loop to drive improvement and implement new operating models, instead of assuming that ITSM transformation is a process that has an end.

• Get approval from all stakeholders: Communicate expectations and timelines with key stakeholders, including short-term disruptions that will arise during the change, which will most probably be a multi-year transformation process. Align on priorities and goals that benefit all the stakeholders who will be affected by service management, rather than just the IT department.

How a university improved its facilities with ITSM

Take a look at the experiences of an organization that benefitted from transforming its ITSM approach. The IT team in Eastern Washington University was tasked with ensuring the on-time availability of its technological facilities and services across all the campuses. It searched for a cloud-based ITSM solution and found one in Freshservice, the ITSM suite by Freshworks.

After implementing the solution, the educational institution saw the user adoption of the ITSM improve sharply with at least 50,000 requestors currently using it, alongside an uptake in the self-service portal, which is powered by the robust knowledge management and service catalog capabilities of Freshservice. In the end, the IT team is able to streamline processes, increase accountability, and enhance transparency across its environment.

Find out more about wielding ITSM as a competitive tool by downloading the report, “The Service Management Advantage: Helping CIOs Turn IT into a Strategic Powerhouse”.