IT must provide more and more services to users and solve more and more service problems. Without the IT Service Management system, managing the support area becomes difficult, if not impossible. Moreover, according to the EMA Research report “What Is the Future of IT Service Management?” nearly 50% of companies having ITSM implemented in 2015, reported an increase in revenues so investing in an ITSM system is really a no-brainer!
If you are just starting your journey with an ITSM system, focus on these 4 topics:
1. Usability
Think simplistic and keep it simple at all cost. The information flowing through the ITSM processes is very important. Better minimize the risk of faulty data provided by users because of bad usability. Not everything requires a self-service catalog item and not every user story needs to be taken care of. Make sure you run focus groups and lab testing with to-be IT and business users and collect all feedback carefully.
2. Versatility
Almost all ITSM software providers have a solution for basic task-based ticket handling, like single sign-on, integrations with flagship brands and assets center. The processes I always pay more attention to and recommend you spend time on is the Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB) and Asset Management Processes.
It’s of utmost importance to know which users are affected by service interruption and only well implemented and accurate CMDB will provide such info at your fingertips. By the same logic knowledge on how to plan and prioritize impact of a change is far more important than state-of-the-art models for Capacity Management or even Incident Management.
As a rule of thumb, aim for 90% accurate data and 10% system capabilities.
3. Hosting
Most providers have a long track record for hosting their service in the Cloud. The need to keep your solution on premise is a thing of the past. Imagine from a user perspective that you have to VPN yourself into your company network in order to be able to access the Employee Self-Service Portal to then Register a Ticket or Request for a Service. Majority of the Vendors have a mobile/tablet app version as well. Evaluate it from a user perspective, usability is key. Just make sure you involve your IT security or CISO office early on to reflect the IT risk policies you have like encryption, dual-factor authentication or right to audit.
4. Community
All vendors have a user community (it can be a Facebook group, an internet forum or dedicated conferences). But… is it a truly active user community online? If the answer is yes, then go and check it by yourself. Investigate what are the issues brought by existing customer, how visible and firm is the application roadmap, how frequently are the new functionalities brought to the market and how eager is the vendor to respond to comments and fix registered software bugs. The benefits you gain by actually finding information without calling your sales rep or Key Account Manager, or even Tech Sales Support saves you a lot of time.
Can we cut some corners?
There are a few shortcuts to be taken and the lowest of the low hanging fruits is
“As-Is process documentation”. The cost savings itself should make this a no brainer. Why document the AS-IS process for a legacy solution that is soon to be replaced? ~2-4 months project on enterprise company level with 10-20 resources involved is a lot of money to be saved! Also, I have a more controversial saving tip that you can achieve; Skip the documentation of the To-Be processes as well and put your faith in the vendors expertise and market best practices. They all make and sell ITSM Solutions for a living, and the processes they bring to the table include years of experience for a wide variety of customers and business areas.
As a final word, what you cannot compromise is data quality of your CMDB, usability of the solution and IT security of the software. More on that later!
Author: Håkan Edvardsson, Management Consultant in Euvic. He has previously worked with a wide variety of ITSM tools and solutions on Enterprise and mid-Tier Companies as a Business Analyst, Requirement Lead, Scrum Master and Change/Release Manager.
About Euvic
Euvic is one of Europe’s leading IT-companies with 1700 highly skilled system-engineers and system-developers. It provides a full range of IT-services like software development, application testing, integration projects, IT Service desk, cloud migrations and IT out-sourcing. We are expanding into the Swedish market thanks to the confidence from customers within the transportation industry, production industry and service industry.
