How IT Service Management Tools & ITSM Processes Build IT Customer Service Success

What Are IT Service Management Tools?

IT service management (or ITSM) refers to the processes needed to deliver IT services. It acts as the interface between IT systems and users, providing businesses with the people, workflows, and technology to meet their goals.

While sometimes reduced to help desk or service desk activities, ITSM is a broader field that includes device management, training, network management, security, disaster recovery, and more.

With ITSM, every employee has access to and is proficient in the IT systems required to do their job without having to understand the underlying technology.

Think of it as learning to drive rather than learning how a car works. You don’t need to know the ins and outs of an engine to drive a car and get where you need to go.

To extend this metaphor, possibly to its breaking point, ITSM tools then become the smart traffic management system providing the oversight, information, and actions needed to ensure the entire organisation runs smoothly.

ITSM tools refer to software solutions that manage the end-to-end delivery of IT services to customers. They allow companies to:

• Optimise and automate IT workflows
• Manage third-party software
• Track performance data
• Quickly respond to issues, identify root causes, and reduce downtime
• Remain compliant with industry standards
• Improve the end user’s experience and align IT operations with business goals

Research shows 80% of ITSM professionals saw improvements in customer service after adopting ITSM, and 65% of organisations are planning to invest more in ITSM technology.
With proper ITSM tools in place, businesses can reduce costs while improving IT operations to create an improved customer experience for employees.

ITSM Software enables staff to seamlessly interact with IT systems, regardless of their technical knowledge. Ensuring technology always brings value to the organisation rather than creating performance barriers.

Typical Use Cases for IT Service Management Tools

Listed below are some common ITSM practices that can be improved using ITSM tools. Many of these use cases are defined thoroughly by the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a framework or list of best practices widely used within ITSM.

Service Management

Implementing a sophisticated system for managing service requests, including categorising tickets and assigning priority based on the impact on operations. This includes requests such as hardware replacements or upgrades, acquiring new software, access management, and other similar tickets unrelated to incident requests.

With ITSM tools, businesses can automate simple processes and optimise the organisation and investigation of each ticket for quicker resolutions. This can save time and increase efficiency, particularly when dealing with recurring requests from multiple customers and registering incidents from multiple channels.

Incident Management

Processes used to respond to incidents that cause interruption to IT services or outages. ITSM tools allow businesses to quickly identify and address incidents, minimising downtime.

Problem Management

Related to incident management, problem management focuses on root-cause analysis and understanding the underlying issues behind service interruptions. With improved tools for investigating incidents, businesses can reduce the frequency of service outages in the future.

If incident management responds to outages and finds the quickest solution to getting the service up and running, problem management dives deeper to find permanent fixes that prevent future interruptions.

Change Management

The processes required when IT infrastructure is changed or upgraded. Examples include implementing a new software system or hardware upgrades. ITSM tools enable businesses to better define operating procedures when transferring between IT infrastructure as well as determine the impact of the change.

Asset Management

Accounting for IT assets, ensuring they are properly deployed and maintained to provide the business maximum value. ITSM tools offer features to track IT assets, including a comprehensive register containing data on the company’s software, hardware, and cloud-based infrastructure.

Configuration Management

Closely related to asset management, configuration management maps the relationships and dependencies between a business’s IT assets (both hardware and software). While asset management covers the lifecycle of IT assets, configuration management highlights how they relate to each other.

Using ITSM tools, businesses can develop a single, centralised repository for configuration data that updates in real-time. Ensuring accurate, up-to-date records and relationships.

Knowledge Management

Preserving institutional knowledge related to IT services and infrastructure as well as making it accessible to relevant parties. ITSM tools provide accessible databases with easily retrievable IT knowledge for the entire organisation. Typical features support creating new documentation, categorisation, updating information, and removing duplicates.

Key Benefits of Using IT Service Management Tools

• Improved IT Services: By streamlining the process, ITSM tools ensure that ticket requests and incidents are handled effectively. This minimises the impact on business operations, creating a better customer experience for the end users.
• Efficiency: Automating certain workflows allows IT staff to reduce time spent on simple, repetitive tasks. Instead, they can focus more of their energy on strategic activities and solving more complex issues.
• Visibility and Control: ITSM tools allow businesses to manage, track, and control the way employees interact with their IT environment. Many solutions provide comprehensive coverage from a single platform to view all IT activities.
• Analytics: The data provided by ITSM tools enable more advanced analytics and reporting to continuously monitor and improve IT services.
• Consistency: With ITSM tools, companies can ensure that IT processes follow standard operating procedures. For example, enforcing processes that are consistent with ITIL or other popular frameworks.
• Compliance: Similarly, enforcing consistency in your IT processes simplifies compliance and risk management.
• Cost Reduction: Greater efficiency and improved incident/problem management reduce downtime and optimise the allocation of IT resources, leading to significant cost savings.

ITSM vs. Help Desk vs. Service Desk

ITSM is often mistaken for help desk and service desk services. Whilst there is significant cross-over, these phrases refer to different processes and it is important to understand the distinction between them

A help desk is a team of people assisting users with technology issues. It focuses only on fixing problems and is confined to a single ITSM practice – incident management.
The help desk works to support users, limiting the impact of IT issues while also implementing protocols to improve the user experience.

Help desk services may be performed on an ad hoc basis, but larger organisations typically implement a more structured ticketing system. They can be considered a subset of service desks that focus on a broader set of processes while taking a more strategic approach to requests.

A service desk is the point of contact or communication centre between the IT team and the end-users. They solve IT problems, create, manage, and distribute IT knowledge, and analyse how an organisation uses IT resources. Therefore, service desk activities spread to multiple ITSM practices, including service management, incident management, and knowledge management, as well as having links with problem management and change management.

You could consider help desks as a subset of service desks, which have a broader remit and focus on delivering a service to users rather than fixing problems. However, service desks do not cover all of the processes related to delivering IT services, representing a part of ITSM but not the whole framework.

Easily find Help Desk Software to meet your customer support and IT service management requirements

How to Successfully Implement IT Service Management Tools

1. Define IT Objectives

The first step is clearly defining what you hope to achieve and aligning this objective to broader business goals. This could be solving a specific issue affecting your services or a more general goal of creating a better customer experience for your employees.

Your objectives act as the north star for the rest of the rollout, guiding future decision-making processes.

2. Assess Existing IT Processes

Without a thorough review of your existing processing, you won’t know what needs changing. Take time to gather input from a range of stakeholders across the organisation including management, IT personnel, and the end users. What are the current pain points and bottlenecks they experience, and how could they be improved by implementing ITSM tools?

Not only does this lead to a more comprehensive review, but it also increases buy-in across the organisation.

3. Research ITSM Tools on the Market

Identify the different ITSM Software solutions available with a focus on specific features that match your IT objectives and alleviate the most severe issues with existing processes.
Factors to consider when reviewing different ITSM tools include:

• Scalability
• User experience
• Vendor support
• Customisation
• Compatibility with existing systems
• Pricing

4. Develop an Implementation Strategy

Once you choose an ITSM system, you can develop a comprehensive implementation strategy. Work closely with your software vendor for support during the rollout. Important factors to consider include:

• Customising and configuring the ITSM tool to fit your objectives.
• Defining new workflows based on your chosen ITSM tool’s capabilities.
• Identifying existing technology infrastructure that needs to be integrated with the ITSM Software.
• Migrating data from existing systems to the new software.
• Testing the ITSM Software before starting the rollout.
• Rollout strategy, including implementing the new tool in phases across different areas of the organisation.
• Training IT personnel, management, and general staff on how the ITSM tools will be used within the organisation.
• Monitoring how the tool is used and gathering feedback from key stakeholders to improve moving forward.

Most Recommended IT Service Management Tools on the Market

ServiceNow

ServiceNow offers a popular ITSM tool providing enhanced visibility into IT systems, allowing businesses to monitor the devices on their network from a single platform. Key features include:

• Extensive knowledge management and documentation tools
• Unified incident logging capabilities, including assigning tickets to specific IT personnel
• Tools for change and asset management, as well as Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
• Extensive third-party integrations

Potential downsides include pricing that could limit the platform’s use to larger enterprises, complicated search functionality, and some limitations in its change and asset management functionality.

SolarWinds Service Desk

SolarWinds Service Desk delivers ITSM Software that focuses on support for a business’s own employees. The platform is easy to use, providing companies with controls on how data is presented. Additionally, interested organisations can take advantage of the platform’s free trial to assess its suitability. Key features include:

• Functionality for incident, problem, change, and asset management, as well as cataloguing and fulfilment
• A single portal for submitting requests
• ITIL-compliance across the platform
• Integration with SolarWind’s other products, including observability and collaboration solutions

Some customers have reported performance issues, including the web app being slow to load and more frequent outages than other solutions.

Jira Service Management

Jira is a vendor known for developing project management and bug-tracking solutions as well as ITSM tools. Perhaps one of the best solutions for incident management, Jira Service Management enables businesses to track and solve requests from a single platform. Key features include:

• Combined capabilities for incident, problem, configuration, and change management
• Templates for IT staff to create documentation
• Integrations to over 900 apps, including the vendor’s other products
• Designed for high-velocity development and operations teams

However, Jira does not offer out-of-the-box asset management, requiring customisation to implement inventories of IT assets. Additionally, there are limited workflow automation options.

Freshservice

Freshservice is a popular ITSM tool provided by Freshworks, a company known for building affordable alternatives to popular software products. It offers a range of ITSM features at a price accessible to smaller operations, scaling capabilities depending on the needs of the company. Key features include:

• Automated ticketing for incident management
• A combined service catalogue for comprehensive enterprise software management
• ITIL-compliance documentation database with templates
• Integration with popular cloud providers

The main drawback of Freshworks is the steep learning curve users must climb to get the most out of the software.