A solid IT infrastructure is more critical than ever to guarantee the long-term success of any business. From making sure that customer data is stored correctly to providing employees with the tools they need to perform their everyday tasks, this infrastructure must function properly at all times. While having a professional IT team in place allows any IT incidents to be resolved, there are only so many hours in a day. To that end, IT Service Management (ITSM) tools provide teams with the ability to more effectively manage their tasks through an online platform, which allows the organization to meet their goals at a reduced cost to the company.

ITSM Meaning

ITSM refers to how IT teams are able to effectively manage the delivery of various IT services to their customers, which are usually organizations and businesses with an IT department. This form of management covers every activity and process needed to design, develop, deliver, and fully support IT services. It’s important to understand that the main idea behind ITSM is that information technology should be delivered via a service/online service platform. Through this platform, ITSM can be tailored to each individual organization to accommodate their specific needs.

People, Processes, And Technology

ITSM is based around the people, processes, and technology framework involved in an IT service which therefore makes sure that everything is aligned within the IT department to ensure that the organization meets the business goals that they’ve set. When an organization is able to maintain a balance of people, processes, and technology, IT service management can be delivered efficiently.

When it comes to ITSM, people perform all types of IT services for a company using processes as well as technology, the latter of which assists in improving and streamlining the processes. With this framework in place, it becomes considerably easier to increase efficiency, exceed expectations, and improve speed for any IT-related project.

What Is An Example Of ITSM In The Workspace?

IT service management involves a wide range of different tasks and processes that an IT team must adhere to. One example of ITSM processes in the workplace involves problem management. When an incident or problem occurs within the organization’s IT infrastructure, an IT team could perform an incident investigation to detect and eventually eradicate the issue. The entire investigation can be accomplished with sub-processes like proactive problem analysis, problem control, and error control.

Another example of ITSM in the workplace is when an employee requests new hardware for their work, which could be anything from a tablet to a desktop computer. This request could be submitted via a portal, which would require inputting certain information onto a ticket. The ticket would then be sent to the IT team, after which it will be assorted and eventually addressed by order of importance.

What Is An ITSM Toolset?

An ITSM toolset is a selection of ITSM tools that can be used to keep track of the many processes and systems that are needed when performing IT service management. The majority of modern businesses rely completely on the IT infrastructure that they have, which means that operations risk being forced to stop if this IT infrastructure is unavailable for even a short period of time.

Having the right ITSM tools ensures that the ITSM system is functioning properly 24/7, and is able to keep IT operations online at all times. Because of how complex IT services can be, the best ITSM tools provide more than 600 distinct functionality points that support them.

A Walkthrough Of Some ITSM Tools

If you’re making an ITSM tools list, the following takes a look at some of the most important tools that all IT teams should have at their disposal.

ITSM Ticketing Tools

Ticketing tools provide IT teams with the ability to dispense work and track solutions with ease. These tools can be used to store any concern or request that reaches your team. The ticket that’s generated will contain all of the relevant information surrounding the incident, which includes the person’s name, the core incident details, and the steps that have been taken to resolve the problem.

ITSM Automation Tools

Many workflow processes can be automated with ITSM software. A majority of the work completed during IT service is largely repetitive. ITSM tools typically include a certain level of automation that will instantly take care of repetitive IT tasks, which should free up the team to spend their time on more important tasks. ITSM automation also extends to processing documentation, creating and updating tickets, recording user activity, and sending email notifications.

ITSM Self-Serviced Automation

Self-service automation is aimed at providing users with the ability to log requests and issues, chat with members of the IT team, reset passwords, find answers, and view any IT announcements.

ITSM Workflow Automation

Workflow automation is designed to digitize many of the processes that are performed by different employees, departments, and teams. Let’s say that a company is performing the onboarding process with a new employee. This process can involve setting up an email account, purchasing a laptop, and pointing the employee to their training, all of which can be performed by clicking a single button.

What Is The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)?

The IT infrastructure library, available to view at … is a selection of best practice processes that center around delivering IT services to a company’s customers. Applying ITIL allows the organization’s processes and services to become aligned with their goals.

ITSM vs. ITIL: What’s The Difference?

ITIL is the top framework that organizations use when they want to implement ITSM. When designing an ITSM approach for your business, you can use the ITIL best practices to guide your decision-making process.

How ITSM Is Used In Industry

IT service management differs with each industry. What works in the education industry can be entirely different than the ITSM needs within the healthcare industry. Here are some examples of how ITSM is used in industry:

ITSM In Education

ITSM offers many benefits to the education industry. With the use of service orchestration and automation, IT technicians are able to complete more tasks in a given day, which helps to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs. Technology downtime among teachers and students can also be substantially reduced. Because ITSM systems allow for quicker resolutions of any technology issues that occur, the needs of students who are using technology can be fully supported via an ITSM tool.

ITSM In Healthcare

The healthcare industry uses ITSM software and tools to mitigate risk and streamline existing processes. The goal of ITSM in the healthcare industry is to improve patient care and to keep IT costs down. ITSM automation lessens the number of human errors while driving quicker resolutions through the help desk.

ITSM In Manufacturing

ITSM systems are more popular than ever in the manufacturing industry. When ITSM software is in place, teams can perform data entry and log projects in a single, centralized system, which bolsters efficiency. The right ITSM software comes with audit trails, predictive analytics, and a built-in knowledge base, all of which help manufacturers comply with industry rules and regulations.

ITSM In MSP

If you operate a managed service provider that provides businesses with third-party IT solutions, having an ITSM system in place can help you streamline your IT services, automate the more repetitive tasks, and resolve issues at a quicker pace. All of these benefits work together to make your company more appealing when compared to the option of creating an in-house IT team.

ITSM In HR

ITSM has become a core component of the human resources industry. HR and IT can work together to make business operations more efficient. For instance, the service desk feature available with ITSM systems allows both IT and HR teams to effectively manage incidents and implement changes.

What Should A Good ITSM Toolset Have?

When you’re searching for a great ITSM toolset, there are numerous features that the toolset should be equipped with, which include everything from cloud hosting to asset management. Here are some things to look out for when choosing an ITSM toolset:

Ease Of Usage

ITSM software is only beneficial if it’s easy to use. It is designed to make IT teams considerably more efficient, which is automatically undercut when using software that’s not intuitive and is difficult to navigate.

Cloud Hosting

By utilizing cloud-based ITSM instead of on-premise management, you’ll find that IT management is simpler and support options are expanded within your IT department. The main downside to using on-premise software is that you’ll be tasked with paying for complex hardware that will need to be regularly maintained. As such, your IT expenditures will be much higher.

Incident Management

No ITSM software is complete without extensive incident management functionality. When incident management software is in place, any IT incidents can be quickly logged via a ticketing system. These tickets will include ample amounts of information that can be referenced by the IT team as well as the employee who submitted the ticket. Incident management is made easier by being able to prioritize incidents and provide more rapid responses.

Asset Management

This feature acts as a digital inventory for all of your IT assets. You can manage these assets from your service desk, which makes ticket management easier. More efficient ticket management speeds up ticket resolutions. The monitoring functionality available with asset management will allow you to track and respond to any alterations in your network equipment, CPU usage, and memory usage.

Self-Service Portal

With this feature, employees can perform some of the more basic IT processes themselves, which lessens the amount of work your team must perform on a daily basis. Some of the IT capabilities that end-to-end users can gain access to include resetting passwords, chatting with IT support, submitting incidents, accessing FAQs, monitoring existing tickets, viewing IT announcements, and unlocking accounts.

One ITSM That Covers All Of The Above

ITSM tools are significantly beneficial for many work industries. Knowing which ITSM tool works best for you can be particularly challenging, and it may be hard to find one that encompasses all of the aspects mentioned above.

One such system that covers everything and more is SysAid’s ITSM Toolset. Our platform allows your IT team to save time, it is effortless to use and allows for more efficiency within your business. With 3 different plans to choose from depending on the size of your business, all with included implementation, we will ensure that your IT department has never been more efficient. Start your free trial today.