Johannesburg, 23 Mar 2023
IT service management (ITSM) solutions can have a significant impact on IT budgets, with the right tools delivering measurable value and ROI.
This is according to Nirmal Krishnamoorthy, senior product marketing manager at Freshworks, who was addressing a webinar on ITSM with real ROI: How to spend less and get more with ITSM in 2023.
Krishnamoorthy said business costs are rising, and CFOs are expecting maximum value from IT. “Today’s economic climate is putting outsized pressure on budgets, and becoming a top concern for IT leaders,” he said.
Echoing this, a poll of webinar attendees found that 87% were concerned about rising IT costs.
Krishnamoorthy said economic headwinds and unexpected employment trends were impacting tech spending in 2023. He also highlighted the four key factors that were driving technology spend this year – Employee experience (EX), Digital experience solutions, AI and automation, and Security and Administration.
“Implementing the right EX tools must be a priority, because businesses with happy employees will be more productive. Digital experience solutions are also important, with more spending on technologies designed to deliver multi-channel end user support and optimise digital experiences across journeys. There is a renewed focus on tools like intelligent agents to make user experiences more human, and security solutions remain a top priority,” he said.
For ITSM, this means organisations must be more employee-centric; optimise operations, assets and services to minimise downtime and drive measurable value; leverage intelligent automation; and implement unified service management for improved productivity, transparency and ROI, he said.
In an audience poll on challenges in their ITSM strategies, 54% cited a reliance on legacy tools, 27% said low or sluggish ROI, 9% said high operations costs, and 9% said other issues were their greatest challenges.
When asked which objectives their organisations were working towards in maximising ROI with enhanced ITSM, 50% said more streamlined IT operations, 28% said reduced costs of tool ownership, and 28% hoped to deliver delightful employee experiences.
Cutting costs and adding value
Webinar panellists Kevin Wilson, GM Group IT at Stefanutti Stocks Construction, and Prof Adré Schreuder, extra-ordinary Professor of Customer Experience Management at the University of Pretoria, and CEO of Schadré Consulting, said cutting ITSM costs and enhancing value require strategic, data-driven approaches.
Wilson said: “It’s challenging to attempt to shrink the tech stack. We tend to make assumptions about our technical stack and what the experience is, so we need a data-driven, risk based approach to optimising the tech stack. Streamlining IT operations is the primary focus – when you create slick, efficient IT support processes with the right tools in place to enable the business, and take out complexity from this, you end up with delighted employees. At the same time, you manage to reduce costs by using the right tools.”
Prof Schreuder said: “The objective shouldn’t necessarily be shrinking the tech stack, but rather optimising it for better service capabilities at lower spend, bearing in mind that a poor employee experience can have a ripple effect throughout the organisation.”
Krishnamoorthy said: “ROI and time to value are key for customers. The first priority in controlling ITSM spending should be to cut bloated software, so it is important to identify a single software solution for ITSM, rather than spending on too many solutions. Experiment with intelligent agents with a pilot approach, and based on quick wins, extend it. Don’t pull back on employee experience – the value you deliver for employees will give returns in terms of productivity and talent retention, which delivers value for the organisation."
He advised: “Leverage the next wave of automation and intelligence, keeping pace with technology advancements. Opt for tools that require low or no developer effort, so that anyone can implement or update software. Organisations should also opt for software with transparent pricing modules and no hidden costs, to lower the TCO.”
Krishnamoorthy said organisations needed a unified, right-sized solution to realise greater ROI.
“A unified solution should maximise existing investments, giving a holistic view of enterprise-level service delivery metrics, breaking down silos between teams, and bringing in operational transparency, faster resolution and increased agent productivity,” he said.
Right-sized solutions deliver ITSM, IT Operations Management (ITOM), Enterprise Service Management (ESM), IT asset management (ITAM), automation, AI and analytics with advanced features that are easily configured within a powerful platform that allows you to easily configure it and scale as you grow.
He highlighted Freshworks Freshservice, which is designed to be a fast and easy, right-sized ITSM solution that is intuitive, intelligent, extensible and delivers fast time to value. It helps lower TCO and increase ROI, with AI-powered service management to deliver an intuitive, automated, consumer-grade service.
“Efficiency leads to rapid time to value: with AI bots and tools enabling a 59% ticket deflection and 60% reduction in resolution time, with Freshservice customers achieving a 308% ROI in less than three months,” he said.
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