Johannesburg, 12 Jul 2021
Very few people got into IT because they wanted to manage support tickets.
In a perfect world, technology works, users know what to do and the techies at the back can focus on much more interesting activities. But it's not a perfect world, which is why IT service management (ITSM) exists – and has existed for a long time. The earliest forms of ITSM arrived in the early 1980s, just as ledgers became digital spreadsheets and before we had such concepts as CRM, device management or the cloud.
"Older ITSM systems were something else and would be very alien for today's users," says Cor Winkler Prins, CEO of next-generation ITSM provider 4me. "They were still character-based, text-based and you would purchase them as traditional on-premises software. Customers would get a bunch of floppy disks. I remember a stack of floppies this high for the Windows version that we came out with at the time!"
New problems for a digital era
Those types of ITSM systems would not only seem anachronistic with their floppy disks and command interfaces, they would appear woefully unprepared for what a modern service desk environment has to deal with. The digital era has much more elaborate service requirements due to the nature of modern transformation.
Monolithic software is, for the most part, behind us. Instead, a modern organisation pursues digital transformation through variety: "There are literally thousands of start-ups that build enterprise SaaS solutions. All of digital transformation is fuelled by these companies, adding bits and pieces that empower different parts of an enterprise. Large enterprises do not have enough people in their own IT department to make this a reality, but they don't always realise it until much later down the line."
Though much more effective and flexible, these software cohorts essentially turn into a herd of cats for service desks. Understanding this problem explains how ITSM is evolving.
When companies introduce a new piece of software, they contract an implementation partner to get everything running to spec. Yet many quirks and issues subsequently crawl from under the woodwork: things that couldn't surface during the implementation period. And yet, this is the most crucial time for adoption since all those usage quirks and process shortfalls become pain points and barriers.
"Now you have a problematic feedback loop," adds Winkler Prins. "Your people send support tickets to IT, who have to liaise with the implementation and software agents."
In other words, the more you add new software choices that focus on specific areas in your enterprise, the more of a support burden you create for IT as they try to iron out all those minor issues. Soon, problems aren't being fixed, support systems are being skirted, and the bills from software suppliers start bloating.
ITSM for today
Improving ITSM is very crucial for effective digital transformation. The paper, An IT Service Management Literature Review: Challenges, Benefits, Opportunities and Implementation Practices, noted the vital synergy between these two areas: "If well implemented, ITSM frameworks can produce many benefits to organisations, such as decreases in operational costs and increases in operational efficiencies. Some studies point [out] that as process maturity levels grow, [the] more benefits and lower issues organisations will face. These include a positive impact in business performance, an increase of organisation profitability and competitive leverage."
That sounds great, so how do we stop ITSM and an enterprise's technologies from contradicting each other? It may be as simple as just connecting the spheres of users and software providers, says Winkler Prins: "You can do two things to greatly reduce the service burden. First, you want your software suppliers to use the same service channels so that you don't end up with different frameworks that can contradict each other. Second, you want to create more direct communication between users and providers. For example, if a user in your business has an issue and submits a support ticket, that should be able to go directly to the software provider, integration specialists or whoever is actually responsible for configurations or changes to the system. IT should be aware of those requests, but they shouldn't have to manage or funnel them."
This is achieved not by extensive integrations, loads of automation or wrapping your head around AI. The next generation of ITSM is much more eloquent: a platform that can centralise an enterprise with all of its providers but do so flexibly and with no integration to ensure every environment has the support it needs.
"Think of it as a support LinkedIn. What do you need to use LinkedIn? You don't need integration. You don't need lots of customisation. You just need to ensure that the right people can connect at the right time. And through this, you create many other advantages."
Those advantages include a directory of providers, robust reporting and even nuanced tracking of service level agreements. It's the furthest thing not only from text-based ITSM software, but even SaaS ITSM products. Those models are all outdated, adding more to IT's troubles than relieving them.
"The new generation of ITSM combines simplicity and visibility, and it's all about enabling users and suppliers. These are not integration products. They are platforms that connect people, operating through a managed service model. It's an enormous shift."
Simplicity is only the start. In future press releases, we will unpack how this new generation impacts SLAs, generate insights for IT and management, reduce costs and track internal user sentiments. But suffice it to say, if your ITSM still expects IT to juggle support balls, it's not only doing a bad job, it's impeding your digital progress, and you need the new generation of ITSM.
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