In today’s economic environment, only the companies that are able to use the right kind of technological tools that help improve product or service delivery quality and speed are the ones that will retain their competitive edge. And one of the ways in which organizations can become technologically competitive is by implementing an ITSM strategy.
A growing number of organizations are beginning to realize the importance of ITSM. In fact, according to a study released by Reportlinker.com, the global ITSM market is expected to grow from its current value of $4.4 billion to $10.4 billion by 2024. And within that market, the software solutions segment is expected to grow at the highest rates in that time period.
What is ITSM?
Before we talk about how ITSM can help an organization become more competitive, we need to understand what it is.
ITSM – IT Service Management – is the process of designing, developing, delivering and then supporting and managing IT services lifecycles.
So, the next question is – what are IT services? IT services are the services provided by your organization’s IT team. To put it more simply – all the technology in your organization – printers and the printer networks, your PCs, laptops, mobile devices, all the applications installed on all these devices, servers, troubleshooting when technology doesn’t work – all of these are IT services.
In today’s world, IT services are a necessity and an organization can come to a complete stop if these services are interrupted in any way. And according to Forbes, not having an ITSM system in place can actually hurt your business.
Why is ITSM Important to an Organization?
Now that we understand what IT services and ITSM are, we also need to know why ITSM is important to an organization and how it can make you more competitive. There are so many reasons why ITSM implementation is important that it will be impossible to list them all down. So, here are the top reasons why.
Creating Simpler Processes
When you integrate software such as SysAid’s ITSM software into your organization, you will have a centralized system to track all IT processes. The centralization of processes will make it simpler for your IT team to track all IT related activities and then use this data to increase efficiency and productivity.
Creating a Cycle of Continuous Improvement
Various processes in an organization such as user request management, customer service, downtime, ticket creation, sales, and so on, generate huge amounts of data.
If this data is intelligently analyzed, it can help an organization identify and plug gaps, which in turn leads to an improvement in organizational processes. And over a period of time, a cycle of continuous improvement makes an organization’s productivity go up. This gives it the competitive edge it needs to stay on top of the game.
Cost Efficiency and Profitability
With an ITSM system is implemented, a business can track its productivity and efficiency. Systems can be made leaner and more efficient by automating lower-end tasks that are taking up man-hours and time and focus on higher-end processes.
The elimination of such tasks can lead to enormous cost savings for any company and also free up talent for more relevant, productivity-oriented work.
Added to this, an ITSM software solution will also allow you to create an organizational level strategy for the management, maintenance, and replacement of IT assets. Such a strategy will tell you exactly what you need for your business to function well, eliminate unnecessary expenses, and create an accurate budget, which will also lead to further cost savings.
Expectation Management
The biggest challenge that most businesses face is managing customer expectations. There is a constant tussle between service delivery, time and cost, and most of the time an organization ends up focusing on service delivery and time to service delivery, but costs get impacted.
When you implement ITSM processes, you can use the data in your system to create a more acceptable balance between the three key components. This will help manage customer expectations much better, thereby leading to not just better customer experience, but also a more efficiently run organization.
Why Haven’t More Organizations Turned Towards ITSM Implementation?
While we now understand how important ITSM implementation can be to an organization, the actual process of change is not easy. The entire organization needs to be geared towards a new process, and this takes time and effort.
This means cataloging all IT services and assets within an organization, which is a hugely time consuming and effort-filled task. This is the main reason why organizations still shy away from implementing ITSM processes.
The initial effort is so much that many organizations simply give up before getting to the point where they can reap the benefits of having an ITSM system in place.
