Top 10 Tips on Tackling the IT Service Management Journey: A blog around tackling the IT service management journey

As we all know, the 'new normal' has speedily hastened the digital transformations in businesses around the world. The rapid upheaval in Information Technology has made life easier for employees and customers, but IT support teams are clenched in an uphill battle. Organizations are constantly looking for ways to improve their IT Service Desk performance. Their first and foremost priority is using the IT service desk to its full potential. This will result in a congenial user experience. However, their IT service desks are under immense pressure for many organizations. Support teams are not only expected to manage higher proportions of IT issues and requests but also the need to deliver a simple, scalable and secure service. 

It has become a challenge for an organization to build a perfect IT service desk, especially during this "post-pandemic era ."So, if you are skeptical about where to start, this article will be of service to you. In this article, we will understand various ITSM processes, learn about the role of IT help desk software and inspect the top 10 ways to improve ITSM.

What are ITSM Processes?

IT Service Management, commonly referred to as ITSM, isn't a framework, and there are no intentions to monetize it. ITSM is simply a continuously evolving set of patterns and practices. It consists of the process of designing, delivering, managing, and ameliorating the IT services an organization provides to its end users. 

Benefits of coherent ITSM Processes

• Lesser cost for IT Operations 
• Revamped productivity of IT help desk teams
• Minimal Service outages 
• Higher returns on IT investments 
• Ability to put in place well defined, repeatable and manageable IT processes
• Harmless implementation of IT changes. 
• Efficient analysis of IT problems to minimize repeat incidents
• Clear-cut roles and responsibilities 
• Better clarity into IT process and services 
• With an IT service management platform, businesses can track and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive continuous improvement.
  

Importance of coherent ITSM Processes

• Aligns the goal and activities of IT organizations with those of business.
• Establishes a systemized approach to IT that encourages transparency and accountability between IT and the business. 
• It has a process-oriented approach that helps organizations to become more proactive.
• It slashes IT expenses, helping organizations maximize their returns on IT investments. 
• IT service management tools streamline workflows, enhance efficiency, and optimize service delivery for businesses of all sizes.
  

Tips to tackle the ITSM journey 

1. Importance of using the right tools: IT support needs to be more efficient by "doing more with lesser efforts" to achieve faster, better, and cheaper services. IT service desk solutions can be used to get advanced IT service management features. In addition to basic ticketing, the right tool can help you with incident management, service level management, asset management, knowledge management, and other ITSM processes. An AI-powered IT help desk software will provide you with basic ticket management features and an easy-to-use interface. This tool will help you track all the IT events and requests in a single place. Moreover, representatives can interact with users via phone, email, social media, help portal, live chat, etc. 
   

2. Prioritizing the issues/requests as per their seriousness: The classification of  IT support issues/ requests could be made on the basis of their severity. For example, their effect on business. So, support software could be a great help. It works on prioritizing the urgent tickets by setting up triggers. Now, your representatives can manually prioritize tickets as critical,  high, medium, or low. This will ensure that more urgent IT tickets should not be left behind. There could be some IT support issues that need to be taken care of immediately, whereas others can be handled with more time. For example, a user wants to block an identification card in case of misplacement or loss; they contact the service help desk. The service help desk can be categorized into different kinds of SLA; this case falls in critical and response time as it should be minimum because it is related to the security of the organization.

3. Understanding the clear-cut requirements of the users: It is very crucial for an IT service desk to keep up to the expectations of their users. Your representatives need to have a clear understanding of whether the users want a faster resolution time or they want you to adopt more ingenious IT tools. The users may want more self-service options. The more precise you will be about the user's requirement, the better guidance you can give the IT service desk team to work in that direction. This will help you in establishing pertinent and user-focussed Service Level Agreements.
   

4. Investing in training the employees: Apart from regular training, you can also use IT training software for the creation of various courses. The trainees can take the help of these courses to brush up their skills. You can also create a recognition program to invigorate your employees.

5. Track and measure your progress in ITSM: This will help you to know about the strengths and weaknesses of your ITSM processes. Suppose you generate a huge list of reports and get baffled by the data? You don't need to keep measuring everything. As per the report by Service Desk Institute, almost 35% of the service desk-enabled organizations have lessened the number of metrics they measure. Some key performance indicators like monitoring user satisfaction and an average response time for a ticket could help. It is important to monitor the user's feedback immediately after his interaction with your representative. 
   

6. Build a learning mechanism or a knowledge base from previous case studies: Are your employees trying to solve the same problem that has occurred before? It takes a lot of effort and time to start from scratch. This is when building a knowledge base comes into the picture. You need to entitle your employees with an IT-focused internal knowledge base. This is a one-stop solution to all the repetitive problems that an organization encounters. The internal knowledge base acts as a reservoir where users can find many articles to help them solve their problems. 
   

7. Updating your IT service catalog regularly: An IT service catalog allows your end-users to get a brief idea about the IT services provided by your organization. It ensures that all major stakeholders like the IT department, management, and the user are on the same page. The catalog also helps to minimize the cost.
8. Business goals must be aligned with IT: All stakeholders should work collectively in order to achieve common business goals. Although it is a general notion that IT is related to technology, it helps in speeding up the workflow via automation. Working together with a common goal helps achieve better results with increased efficiency.
   

9. A well-organized knowledge management system: This can have a substantial impact on the productivity and efficiency of the organization. You can achieve this by creating IT-related support content and a solid review process. 
   

10.  Handoff processes should be well understood: This is an activity of transferring responsibility from one person to another or from one department to another. For example, if one of your employees cannot resolve the user's concern, there should be a proper mechanism to raise a flag so that a senior can address the problem without further delay.
    

ITSM concentrates on aligning IT processes and services with business objectives to help an organization grow. It helps in ensuring an impeccable user experience. Hence follow the above-mentioned tips and tackle your ITSM journey effectively.