ITSM Products

The day-in, day-out job of the average IT professional (is there such a thing?) is rarely boring. Their knack for developing and implementing timely and inventive solutions to increasingly-complex security challenges can make or break an organization’s ability to function well. As such, the reality of the role can get hectic—often without much warning. 

There’s so much on the plate of these modern-day business heroes, after all. From setting and enforcing security policies and establishing efficient and effective workflows to putting out various fires (not literal) in order to maintain business continuity and keep systems running smoothly, there is always work to be done. It’s no wonder that it’s become so difficult to hire—and retain—high-quality IT talent. 

It can be a lot—even if your organization budgets more than the average company for building out its IT infrastructure, assembling a capable team to support it, and identifying the right IT tools. For many companies, it also makes sense to enhance their IT capabilities by leveraging IT service management (or ITSM) tools.

What are these tools, exactly, and how can they benefit your organization? Keep reading for these answers and more.

What Is ITSM, in Simple Terms?

ITSM stands for IT service management, and it refers to tools and processes related to the planning, delivery, and ongoing management of various IT services used by customers, employees, or both. When you consider the ever-increasing versatility of modern ITSM tools, it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that their market is expected to grow by 9.3% between now and 2030, according to Grand View Research.

There are several compelling use cases for ITSM tools, of which organizations may leverage one, multiple, or all—depending on the present needs of the business. As these needs grow and evolve over time, a major benefit of using the ITSM framework is that it is quick and easy to add or modify features and services without incurring downtime or being susceptible to human error.

What Is the Difference between IT and ITSM?

IT and ITSM are closely connected—remember, ITSM stands for IT service management. But while virtually every modern business relies on various IT services, not every business enacts an ITSM framework or adopts ITSM tools. Basically, ITSM tools make the jobs and lives of your IT pros so much easier. 

Rather than having to react to each system configuration or security incident as isolated events (which can be inefficient and, frankly, maddening), ITSM products approach IT management as a comprehensive, end-to-end endeavor—meaning no operational silos, no blind spots, and fewer surprises.

What Are ITSM Tools?

ITSM tools provide support for IT teams, especially those looking to streamline their workflows, manage support tickets, and maintain an effective cybersecurity posture. Today’s best ITSM tools, like Lumos, offer comprehensive support across end-to-end processes and help to ensure that all business systems work seamlessly together. 

These tools are often highly customizable and scalable, meaning they can be quickly configured as the organization’s needs or priorities change. They also offer a wide range of features and support, enabling companies to consolidate vendors by adopting more comprehensive and versatile solutions.

What Is an ITSM Product Used For?

ITSM products can be used for a fairly wide range of purposes, primarily related to the configuring, coordination, and management of various IT tools and processes. Today’s ITSM tools, Gartner notes, enable organizations to enhance “the tasks and workflows associated with the management and delivery of quality IT services” by streamlining their processes, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and automation where possible.

It’s hard to overstate the potential impact of identifying and working with a reputable and reliable ITSM provider for managing an organization’s IT infrastructure and services. Some of the key benefits include the ability to…

• Improve Efficiency and Productivity: Many ITSM tools—including Lumos—make it easy to automate a wide range of repetitive or routine tasks. For example, you could automate provisioning and de-provisioning processes, access request management, service ticket processing, and more. This not only unlocks a new level of efficiency and productivity, it also frees up your in-house IT team to focus on more complex tasks, including the development of strategic initiatives. 

• Enhance Security and Compliance: By using an ITSM tool to automate access management, your organization can set appropriate access levels and security protocols. Especially in industries with strict security and compliance requirements, an ITSM tool like Lumos can reduce the risk of unauthorized access, pass audits, and avoid regulatory and/or legal penalties.

• Reduce Costs: The average number of software applications in use by companies worldwide has grown exponentially over the past few years, from a dozen or fewer in 2015-2016 to well over 100 applications today. With each different application comes a set of security considerations. A comprehensive ITSM solution like Lumos can help reduce costs by identifying and reclaiming unused licenses, consolidating vendors, and more.

• Access a Single Source of Truth: The more applications your organization uses, the more difficult it can be to develop an accurate and holistic view of its various services. This leads to confusion and inefficiency, but it doesn’t have to be the reality. ITSM solutions provide a unified platform, helping to ensure consistency and accuracy in data management and making actionable insights that much easier to identify (and act on).

• Deliver a Better User Experience: For many companies, the right ITSM product unlocks a more positive user experience. Consider a user who needs to submit a service ticket or report a problem, for example. In these moments, users want accurate and timely help. Many users wish for more IT self-service options, and an ITSM solution like Lumos is the easiest way to accommodate this preference. From submitting and tracking service requests to automating employee onboarding processes, Lumos elevates the user experience. 

• Develop Data-Driven Insights: An organization’s decision-making is only as good as the data and insights behind it. For many organizations, deriving timely and actionable insights is a major challenge, especially when dozens of distinct applications are in use. By using an ITSM platform, you can view a wide range of performance metrics, analyze trends, produce customized reports, and more.

• Modify and Scale IT Services: The modern IT landscape is fast-moving and increasingly complex, so an organization’s ITSM tools need to be appropriately flexible and scalable. With a platform like Lumos, it becomes much easier to not only identify when adjustments are needed, but to quickly take appropriate action. As your needs evolve and change, your ITSM provider can also help you to develop your strategic objectives and tailor your services accordingly—offering plenty of support along the way.

• Mitigate IT Staff Burnout: The growing dissatisfaction of IT workers is a poorly-kept secret within the modern business world. There are several reasons why IT workers are burning out and moving on, including overwhelming workloads and lack of meaningful support. By adopting an ITSM platform like Lumos, business leaders can deliver much-needed relief to their IT team by automating routine, repetitive tasks to reduce their manual workload. That way, they can deal with more engaging and fulfilling projects.

What Are Examples of ITSM Product Features?

Evaluating ITSM solutions can often feel like comparing apples to oranges. Sure, you can visit different providers’ websites and attempt to cross-reference or compare their key features, but you can quickly find yourself bogged down in market-speak rather than straightforward language. That’s why it is recommended that you determine your strategic objectives and priorities before jumping straight to the features list. 

As you research solutions, you’ll probably encounter some language about specific modules. In the context of ITSM tools, the word simply refers to the different processes or actions enabled by the solution. At first, you may have very narrow objectives (enabling self-service requests, for example), and as your needs grow you can leverage additional features. 

What Are Some ITSM Modules to Look for in a Solution? 

As you evaluate different ITSM solutions, you’ll want to make sure they can accommodate your needs—especially since one of the key benefits of ITSM tools is the ability to consolidate vendors and reduce costs. Below is a checklist of features or modules to consider.

• Routine Task Automation: Take repetitive, time-consuming tasks off of your IT team’s plate and let them focus on more interesting, worthwhile tasks. By automating processes related to provisioning and de-provisioning and other access management tasks, you can save valuable time while reducing the potential for human error.

• Custom Integrations: The power of modern ITSM tools is in their ability to bring together a wide range of IT and cybersecurity functions within a single platform. What’s more, a wide range of custom integrations further extends its functionality, helping companies to further consolidate services and ensure that everything works smoothly.

• Security and Compliance: The more applications your company uses, the greater the potential for security breaches, unauthorized access, and similar events. From custom access controls to detailed audit trails and automated compliance, a platform like Lumos increases efficiency, enhances cybersecurity, and ensures that you’re ready when it’s time for an audit.

• Incident Management: Within IT, you’re never going to be able to prepare for every possible issue. An important part of the ITSM framework centers around how to handle both expected and unexpected issues related to logging and categorization, prioritization and assignment, resolution tracking, and more.

• Service Request Management: Managing user requests and keeping track of updated access controls and permissions can needlessly bog down IT teams that don’t have sufficient tools at their disposal. With a platform like Lumos, you can provide self-service portals, streamline approval workflows, and automate the fulfillment of requests (once approved).

• Change Management: Whenever changes are made to the IT environment, steps must be taken to minimize any potential risk. Best practices related to change planning, approval processes, implementation, and post-implementation review help to ensure that changes are made in a smooth, efficient, and secure manner.

• Problem Management: Resolving incidents alone isn’t enough to ensure continuity and security—for best results it’s important to identify and address the root cause (or causes) of any specific incident. Problem management involves several distinct steps, including problem detection, root cause analysis, and solution implementation.

• Configuration Management: Ensuring that IT services are delivered in a consistent, reliable, and secure manner is at the heart of ITSM. It includes processes related to the documentation of how specific assets have been configured. For many organizations, this means creating and maintaining a detailed database of assets and their configurations, as well as change tracking and impact analysis.

• Reporting and Analytics: Without timely, actionable insights it’s difficult to accurately assess how your IT services are performing, and whether any adjustments are needed. Using an ITSM platform like Lumos enables you to identify and track key performance metrics, analyze patterns or trends in the data, and generate customized reports.

How Do I Choose the Best ITSM Tool?

The first step toward identifying the best ITSM tool for your organization starts by identifying—and prioritizing—your strategic objectives, including the most pressing challenges you’re looking to solve. As you evaluate different tools, you can use the following checklist to help you ask the right questions and find the perfect platform for your needs:

• Does it automate routine tasks? 
• How well does it integrate with existing systems? 
• Can it enhance security and compliance? 
• What is the cost-benefit ratio? 
• Does it provide a unified platform? 
• How user-friendly is the tool? 
• What kind of insights and reporting does it offer? 
• Is the tool scalable? 
• Will it reduce IT staff burnout? 

With Lumos, the answer to each of these questions is yes!

What Are the Most Popular ITSM Tools?

Some of the most common ITSM tools examples include comprehensive solutions like Lumos, as well as applications with a more specialized focus—standalone ITSM ticketing tools, for example. As you can imagine, working with a more versatile, end-to-end solution works better in the long run, in terms of both efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

When evaluating different offerings to decide what to include in your company’s ITSM tools list, start by identifying your priorities. Then, as you check out different ITSM platforms and providers, you can be on the lookout for solutions that check multiple—if not all of—the items on your own list of must-have features.

At Lumos, a large reason for our platform’s popularity as an ITSM tool is how easy it makes it to streamline end-to-end (or specific) workflows and unlock new levels of productivity and value creation. For example, by using our platform you can…

• Streamline onboarding and offboarding processes (managing app access and permissions, for example), including through powerful automation capabilities.

• Enable self-service access requests, saving valuable time and energy and ensuring that team members can access the right resources at the right time.

• Speed through access review audits (again, through automation), so you can be ready for any audit that comes your way.

See How Lumos Delivers Value 

Today’s best ITSM products are unlocking new levels of efficiency, productivity, and security for a wide range of organizations. You can learn more about ITSM products, examples, and functions by reading our ultimate ITSM guide. Or, explore our offerings in more depth—including how the right automation platform can transform operations—by visiting our website or reaching out directly to book a demo.