The technology used within your enterprise is changing and evolving. Period. And, if you’re in IT, it can feel like the decisions regarding the procurement and adoption of said technology is going in a thousand different directions. Developing an enterprise service management plan is critical to not only the success of the service and support team, but the departments and teams that will be using the technology. It’s time for IT leaders to shift the focus from just the software, hardware, and applications, and remember the larger business objectives and trends to get ahead of.
We all know that visibility empowers IT leaders to gain awareness and control, while identifying key performance gaps and better understanding the root causes. With an enterprise service management platform in place, IT leaders are stepping outside of IT and changing their organization.
Great service management tools will allow you to standardize service delivery across the enterprise. IT asset management tools, for example, don’t have to be used to manage only IT assets. They can be used to manage maintenance tools or even fleet vehicles. Developing a plan around enterprise service management not only solves non-IT problems but could present a good opportunity for IT to build stronger relationships with other departments. IT has service management best practices that can be applied to different departmental initiatives to create greater business value and more collaboration points for departments across the enterprise.
Extending IT Service Management to Human Resources
Service catalogs, employee self-service portals, and tracking of various HR processes (like changing W-4 forms after the birth of a child), can be implemented using enterprise service management. Doing this standardizes processes for similar activities across multiple departments. If someone needs to, for example, enroll in the company health insurance plan, they could go to an HR service catalog to start the process just as they would to requisition new software with the IT service catalog. The result can be considerable time savings and fewer errors in HR processes that involve multiple steps.
Facilities Management and IT Service Management Tools
Facilities management involves coordination of space and infrastructure, and may include tasks like emergency preparedness, “green” initiatives, operations and maintenance, and administration of office space. It’s a broad category, and facilities managers are under increasing pressure to keep costs down and add business value, without falling behind on any key processes. Enterprise service management can be extended to many facilities’ management tasks. For example, maintenance requests could be submitted in a manner like submitting an IT help desk ticket.
Could an Enterprise Service Management Work for External Customer Service?
Since the IT service desk is well-versed in providing internal customer service, it’s only natural that a enterprise service management solutions would be considered for providing external customer service as well. External customers prefer having multiple options for submitting help requests, and the best service management tools allow multi-channel engagement methods, like 24/7 chat utilizing artificial intelligence, email, phone, Slack, Jabber, and Microsoft Teams.
The Tools That Make It Possible
To be able to extend service management outside the IT department, you must have powerful IT service management solution that is adaptable, scalable, and customizable. These tools should allow you to adapt them to your specific needs without difficulty, and should allow for creation of self-service portals, service catalogs, and easy building of knowledge bases.
Nathan Riley
Account Executive – Americas at SymphonyAI Summit
