The reasons for contacting the IT department are usually fairly simple – needing something fixed, needing some other form of help or wanting something new.
take the IT out of ITSM and it can apply to all aspects of a business
Consequently, the IT service management (ITSM) field has developed over the years into a solution which is adept at putting in place processes to address enquiries with speed, efficiency and accountability. However, if you examine the reasons why people contact other business departments like Human Resources, it’s easy to see the reasons are not that much different.
People contact HR or the facilities department for the same reasons:
- To fix something;
- To help with a question;
- For something new.
So, is it time for the ITSM industry to drop the IT element and simply describe themselves as a service management department which can exist outside of the IT field?
ITSM outside of IT
When IT departments can often be the first to face cuts and the threat of introducing ‘efficiencies’, demonstrating the effectiveness of ITSM outside of just IT can protect the team and – more importantly – deliver cost benefits to the whole business.
During the past decade, there has been a global adoption of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) as the guiding principles behind the processes which underpin ITSM. It has proved to be very successful with the combination of process-consulting, technology and Cloud-based solutions meaning large numbers of companies have successfully taken up these types of platforms for servicing and supporting IT functions across the organisation.
Business thinking is changing
The fundamentals which underpin such systems are now also driving a change in the way business thinking considers non-IT service management. The ITSM community has proposed that the IT part of its name is a misnomer and that the processes which are at its core would translate outside of IT.
While there has been nothing stopping that from taking place, until recently the technology solutions on offer haven’t been presented in a logical and simple way which demonstrates how they can be applied to the rest of the business.
But the advent of Cloud-based technologies has made things much simpler. The three interactions that IT consumers have with IT support – something to be fixed, needing help or needing something new – can now be addressed with Cloud-based platforms.
These service management solutions are built to include workflows, user experience elements, approvals, escalations, security and configuration management which can easily translate into other aspects of a business like, for example, Human Resources or Vendor Management.
It’s already happening
There are a number of recent examples of organisations successfully translating service management technology into other business areas. The NHS Blood & Transplant Service created a single point of contact for its 6,000 staff known as HR Direct using ServiceNow – a Cloud-based platform traditionally intended for ITSM. Similarly, Waitrose has adapted ITSM technology to support its business continuity planning strategy.
Across the UK we see that in some organisations, non-IT functions are stealing a march on their IT colleagues by implementing service management solutions at the same time, or sometimes even before, they are applied to IT support.
Here at Technosys we can help you implement these changes. As valued partner of ServiceNow, we can deliver a solution which meets your unique business requirements. Contact us for a free consultation to see how an ITSM could can bring benefits to all areas of your company.
