In today’s digital economy, IT is no longer just a support function. The products and services provided by IT are engines for business growth, enabling a differentiated set of capabilities in the marketplace.
Effective ITSM transforms IT into a powerful engine that drives exceptional business performance and fuels sustained competitive advantage.
Yet, too many organizations have a blind spot when it comes to ITSM. Too many organizations view ITSM only as a back-office activity, providing support and resolving tickets. A significant reason why this situation exists is that many ITSM implementations are focused only on managing the work of (some parts of the) IT organization, and not the business of the business.
I’ve talked about this before – too many organizations take a technology-first approach to service management, rather than investing effort in establishing a mutually-agreed understanding of the benefits of ITSM. Many organizations’ ITSM efforts are not aligned with business goals and objectives. These ITSM implementations are focused on what has happened, seemingly looking through the rear-view mirror rather than looking through the windshield, to proactively becoming a business enabler. These ITSM environments are perceived as being overly bureaucratic, unable to respond to or quickly adopt new capabilities or technologies in response to ever-changing business needs.
These organizations have created – and maintain – a blind spot when it comes to ITSM.
What’s been overlooked – or ignored?
For many organizations, ITSM is only the service desk and the ‘core four’ practices – incident, change, service request, and problem management. Are these practices necessary? Absolutely.
But by only implementing these ‘core four’ practices, organizations will have overlooked opportunities to change the perception of ITSM to business enabler. What has been overlooked?
- Service Strategy – What is the plan for developing, providing, and supporting technology-based products and services that align with business goals and objectives? How will these products and services create value and enable competitive advantage? What trends and emerging business demands should be considered? Unfortunately, many organizations have not considered defining their strategy for service management.
- Portfolio Management – A defined portfolio of products, services, and related service management investments enables strategic decision making. Effective portfolio management helps minimize technical debt, prioritize initiatives, and aligns service with business goals.
- Service Design – Having a formally-defined, holistic approach to designing the products and services that provide the capabilities required by the organization is critical for the realization of business value. In many organizations, service design is the domain of only the application development teams, often with no involvement from users or other parts of the IT organization.
- Measurement and Reporting – Many organizations capture measures and produce reports only because the tools that are in use do that – and even then, those measures and reports are about IT. Measures and reports must be purposeful and specific to the audiences (there is more than one!). If we understand how products and service enable business success (see service strategy), then we know what is important to the organization to measure and report.
- Continual Improvement – Development and implementation of products and services can never be “once-and-done” activities. Business needs in response to marketplaces are continually evolving. Continual improvement provides a means of dealing with the ever-evolving needs of the organization. Yet, many ITSM implementations have not defined a formalized approach to continual improvement to deal with these ever-evolving needs, contributing to the perception of IT being nonresponsive.
Shining the light on the ITSM blind spots holding you back
There is no quick fix for addressing these blind spots in ITSM implementations. Addressing these blind spots will require collaboration, thoughtful experimentation, good governance, and commitment.
However, there are simple actions that can start to shine light on those blind spots.
- Regularly job shadow non-IT colleagues for a day – Learn how IT-provided products and services facilitate the work being done by non-IT colleagues – or get in the way. Shadowing also encourages empathy between IT associates and non-IT colleagues and can provide input into future service designs.
- Critically evaluate your current reporting – Are the measures and reports being produced by IT reflect organizational outcomes and business value? If not, it’s time to revisit that organizational mission/vision/goals statement and learn what is important to the business – and measure and report on that.
- Challenge the status quo – Just because work has always been done in some manner doesn’t make it right. Where are the gaps in the ways that IT and non-IT colleagues interact? What work is being done that just doesn’t quite meet organizational requirements? Even small incremental improvements make a difference.
A “business results first” ITSM mindset transforms IT from a back-office support function into a proactive catalyst for business success. By shining a light on the blind spots in your ITSM environment and embracing strategy, portfolio management, holistic service design, meaningful measurement, and continual improvement, IT can truly enable competitive advantage, innovation, and organizational growth. The journey starts with collaboration, curiosity, and the courage to challenge the status quo—lighting the way for IT to become a valued business enabler, not just a resolver of tickets.
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