Service Desk

Pearls of ITSM Wisdom from SysAid’s Competitors

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Joe The IT Guy

6 min read

ITSM and service desk pearls of wisdom

There’s no law that says different IT service management (ITSM) solution vendors can’t play well together. In fact some of my favorite people work for the competition, or used to.

Last year I spoke with some lovely ITSM people, gainfully employed by SysAid’s competitors:

I’m beginning to think that undertaking a blog interview with yours truly might be the ITSM vendor kiss of death.


In any case, all of these guys (note to self – I must interview some ladies in 2015) gave their personal answers to questions such as:

  • What do you think is the most important element missing from traditional ITSM? And why?
  • What do you think is the biggest mistake that people can make in ITSM, and how can it be avoided?
  • What one piece of practical advice would you give to somebody working on the Service Desk?
  • What one piece of practical advice would you give to the CIO of a company with regards to ITSM?
  • If you could change one thing about the ITSM industry as a whole, what would it be and why?
  • What do you think the ITSM trend to watch will be in the next 12 months? And why?
  • Where do you see the ITSM industry in 10 years’ time?
  • Finally, what would be your 5 tips for success in ITSM?

I also asked them who their ITSM hero was. But I couldn’t include that question as they all pointed to me. It isn’t easy being an intergalactic ITSM superstar [Editor: Joe, I think you might be being less than honest about this question].

Some ITSM Pearls of Wisdom

If you don’t have the time, or the appetite, to read everything Patrick, John, Ashok, Stephen and Arvind (the ITSM One Direction?) said, here are some of their ITSM pearls of wisdom.

Patrick:

  • Traditional ITSM mentions the four “P’s” – People, Process, Partners, and Products, but I think the most essential “P” often gets missed, and that is “Perspective”…  There’s too much focus on the services we provide, and not enough on the outcomes they deliver to customers.
  • We are all customers and know what service should feel like. At work, when we’re the service provider, why do we forget so quickly?
  • Focusing on ‘cost reduction and efficient delivery of IT services’ will prevent existing value from being destroyed, but won’t create new value.

John:

  • The most important element missing from traditional ITSM is the same thing missing from many IT trends in general; the lack of focus on the customer (the right customer) and lack of focus on business fundamentals.
  • The biggest mistake in ITSM is in thinking that “implementing” a framework automatically results in “magic value.”
  • Reduce the focus on dogmatic certifications for people and technologies and focus energies on increasing and certifying business skills.

Ashok:

  • The main mistake that organizations make is not properly documenting their requirements.
  • My advice to the CIO of a company is to understand that automation in ITSM operations is important.
  • The ITSM Industry should invest more in the development of people and process maturity models.

Stephen:

  • “IT is not about the IT” but about what the IT brings, in terms of business outcomes, to the organizations that employ it.
  • The biggest mistake that people can make in ITSM? Thinking of ITIL (and in many ways ITSM) as just a small group of processes (incident, problem, and change management) rather than a new mind-set around delivering IT as a service.
  • Ask service desk agents to treat their customers as they themselves would like to be treated.

Arvind:

  • The first and foremost thing needed for successful ITSM is some ‘reality’. One thing to remember in ITSM is ‘knowing is not doing’. For instance, you can read a lot about swimming, but knowing how to swim is the reality.
  • ITSM is not about implementing the processes based on the guidelines. There is no bible for ITSM. It’s about implementing what works for you.
  • ITIL/ITSM certification should not be about completing the course, but to observe and learn from the experience of others, what works and what doesn’t in real life situations, what will fit into your IT environment and what will not, and then to go about implementing the processes.
  • Of course they say a lot more in the original blogs. Check them out if you have the time. In addition, I’ve also put all of their top tips into the office blender to create a Top 10 ITSM success tips list.

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Like this article? You may also like: 15 ITSM Tips for 2015.

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Joe The IT Guy

Native New Yorker. Loves everything IT-related (and hugs). Passionate blogger and Twitter addict. Oh…and resident IT Guy at SysAid Technologies (almost forgot the day job!).

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