We are often asked in the course of our activities, “Why use an ITSM solution? ” There are questions among organizations about the need for such a tool.

It is a fact that several of them have not previously used such tools and have done well so far. In fact, some of them will likely never use one.

At that point, it raises the question, ” Do you actually have a need for it? ».

So what are ITSM solutions?

Of course, if you don’t know the purpose of an ITSM solution, you most likely will never use one. At some point, due to an ever increasing absence of IT service management, this could eventually lead to search for this type of solution.

First, let’s decompose ITSM into two terms, IT and SM.

The use of the term “IT” means “Information Technology”, and the term “SM” means “Service Management”. IT Service Management is, according to ITIL, a set of specialized organizational capabilities to create value for customers in the form of a services.

Now all that remains is to add the word “solution” and that’s it! You have an ITSM Solution.

An ITSM solution is a software in which you will be able to:

  1. manage all your flow of information in relation to the various services provided by your IT department and other groups and suppliers in your organization
  2. centralize all the data associated with your physical and logical IT components
  3. and finally, organize and record all your IT tasks and operational duties.

5 Reasons to implement an ITSM solution

Since we now have an idea of what an ITSM solution can do, let’s look at some of its benefits. There are perhaps a million reasons why you should use an ITSM solution. Here is a non-exhaustive list of benefits that may be of interest to you:

  1. Operational efficiency: One centralized solution that logs all the preventive and corrective maintenance activities on your IT components to help the organization better understand what is being performed and help you prioritizing your day-to-day operational activities.
  2. Supporting the entire organization: An ITSM solution will ensure that the IT services delivered by your IT department are aligned with the real needs of your organization’s stakeholders. This way, your IT staff will work in support of your business services and not the other way around!
  3. Process automation: Many hours are lost in repeating the exact same tasks, re-explaining the same processes and/or managing IT efforts. An ITSM solution allows you to significantly automate several tasks so that your IT operations are more streamlined, intuitive and consistent.
  4. Establish a baseline to rely on: each day brings its share of changes. These days, with the proliferation of computer systems and more importantly with virtualization, it is almost impossible for a human being to keep a record of all the changes in their IT environment and to remember why this has occurred. An ITSM solution allows you to record and track all changes in the version of an IT component.
  5. Enhanced IT customer experience: We can never emphasize this enough, we have to simplify and optimize the way customers procure their IT services. From software to new laptops to systems access, an ITSM solution will allow for easy communication with customers and provide the operating team in charge of delivering these services with centralized and quality information.

When should I plan to acquire a new ITSM solution?

It may be difficult to determine whether or not you should equip your organization with an ITSM solution. First of all, you should pause for a moment and take a step back and think about it. First familiarize yourself with your IT environment and observe how daily activities are handled in general.

  • How are outages and incidents reported?
  • How can IT customers get in touch with customer support?
  • How satisfied are employees with IT services?
  • Does IT service delivery respect the deadline?
  • Are there any services listed in a catalogue?
  • And so on.

Also, do not simply focus on the size of your organization and the actual number of employees, but also try to have a better understanding of the complexity of the IT environments you are managing and the types of services you are providing to your IT customers.

Then consider the ways in which all IT-related information and the various IT systems being used are managed.

  • Do you have to copy information from one system to another?
  • Do you have to manually input user request information?
  • Do you have to use or export data in various formats to ensure that the systems work?
  • And so on.

For some organizations, software such as Outlook and Excel are still the easiest way to manage their IT assets and IT user requests. For others, it will no longer be adequate. There is no perfect answer or perfect condition.

At some point, centralizing IT services activities becomes a reality.

  •  Money saving
  • Time saving
  • New features and functions
  • Community of users and knowledge repository (FAQ)
  • And so on.

How to discover more on ITSM solutions?

We believe that the most important thing is not to rush to the first option or the most trendy solution! The selection of an ITSM solution needs to be done in a pragmatic way.

  1. Get the facts! Visit forums, meet with customers, talk to vendors and other partners, review blogs on the topic, look at what ITSM or ITIL frameworks are advising you. The Internet is packed with information, so make up your very own mind!
  2. Try them out! There’s nothing like testing to adopt it. Please do not only ask for a demonstration of the product, test the product in the real world with your current operating environment. Ask employees what they think about the solution and the benefits they can expect from its features. If the software is “open source” it’s even better, you can install and use it for free for any period of time and evaluate it more effectively.
  3. Take action! There are no easy choices or wrong decisions. As a result of your analysis, you may decide not to change your ways of proceeding because you have perceived little or no benefit from using ITSM software. Be sure to list your requirements and functionalities that will suit your organization and guide you through the selection process.

Conclusion

Do not hesitate to ask any questions and investigate.

Choosing an ITSM solution is an important decision that should not be taken lightly, as it implies long-term costs and impacts: invoicing model, licence agreement, maintenance fees, ease of installation and configuration, complexity to upgrade, and so on.

Hope you appreciated this article and that it will help you to have a clearer understanding of ITSM solutions. Be aware that there are many excellent ITSM solutions and they all have their particularities.