The traditional management of IT has typically depended upon the size of an IT department. In smaller companies with a handful of employees, often each member of the IT team wears multiple hats throughout the day, managing almost every aspect of IT at one point or another. Larger companies have dedicated roles for different IT pros. However, with IT Service Management (ITSM), IT management is streamlined regardless of the size of the internal team.
ITSM is, in essence, IT as a service. The platform allows for IT departments to implement and manage IT services in order to better meet the needs of the business. Specifically, it allows It departments to better manage end user support, allowing end users with little IT knowledge to better communicate their need.
Examples will be determined based on the organization implementing ITSM, but there are several general benefits ITSM provides any business.
Incident Management
Incident management allows end-users to reach IT support through a number of channels. Emails can be automatically logged as tickets, and those tickets can be automatically categorized and organized based on prior data. Tickets can then be automatically assigned to the right agents or groups so the right requests are going to the right personnel.
Incident management also allows for IT managers to view the spectrum of tickets, track progress, and visualize how the IT team is responding. This speed up resolution time and improves service all around.
Related: Working Remotely – Make Sure Your IT Team is Ready
Problem Management
Some ITSM software is able to perform root cause analysis, record impacts, symptoms, solutions, and workarounds, and monitor the progress of these throughout the process. The software will also allow managers to view timelines of events leading up to the problem in order to better analyze the problem. This will also allow for problems to be archived in a database so teams can quickly search to find if the same problem has been fixed, and quickly find a solution.
Change and Release Management
ITSM can allow for IT teams to track changes through the lifecycle, ensuring fulfillment of mandatory check and requirements before moving on to the next stage. This will minimize redundancy and automate change approvals. Teams can also set up a change calendar to easily see when updates will occur. Some software can even allow for control approvals within the platform, as well as insights from post-release reviews.
Request Management
Employees can identify and acquire services and products they need directly from an ITSM platform. IT teams can automate and simplify the request fulfilment process and eliminate errors such as double orders. Teams can also automatically assign individuals for approval, and those individuals can approve directly from the platform.
Reporting and Analytics
Perhaps the most impressive portion of ITSM is the ability to visualize date in order to provide analytics. ITSM platforms can provide a UI that shows transparency and insights into all processes and services, with built-in dashboards and analytics capabilities. Teams can monitor service desk performance, improve service delivery, and more thanks to the business intelligence gained.
These are just some of the benefits of ITSM software. It’s something every IT team should look into in order to manage some of the headaches that come with managing IT.
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