What Is ITSM in Simple Terms

Several challenges face the modern IT professional. They occupy the front lines as companies battle to out-innovate each other and grow their businesses—rarely getting the appreciation they fully deserve. It’s one thing to manage access controls and other concerns related to security and functionality, but the modern organization uses over 100 different applications.

You read that right: 100, not 10. With each new app that’s adopted, new vulnerabilities emerge, making things even more complex for IT teams. And the larger the company, the more these issues can multiply. 

That’s why an increasing number of companies, across many different industries, are realizing the importance of IT service management, or ITSM. Keep reading for an introduction to ITSM and what it can do for your business, in simple terms.

What Is ITSM?

ITSM is best thought of as a framework for determining, delivering, and supporting IT services that align with an organization’s strategic needs. Several important components make up the ITSM framework, like defining objectives, evaluating different IT service providers, and configuring various services to work the way they need to.

What Is the Main Objective of ITSM?

While companies often have multiple ITSM objectives, they all tend to have one thing in common: they’re all meant to improve the lives of the unsung heroes of IT. All too often, companies count on their IT teams to maintain services and security—but if they’re not equipping them with the top ITSM tools, the results are often less-than-ideal.

There are several distinct challenges that ITSM tools help to solve, such as:

• A lack of alignment between different business units, resulting in operational silos and likely inefficiencies.

• Difficulties related to basic communication, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.

• Resistance to change, or an unwillingness to “rock the boat” by rethinking their approach to ITSM.

• Inconsistencies and inefficiencies within core processes, such as reporting (and handling) software issues in a timely and transparent manner.

• A reluctance to adopt modern tools and processes, missing out on opportunities to automate and integrate.

• An inability to easily assess the success of ITSM processes and initiatives, typically related to a lack of reporting and analytics capabilities.

• Challenges in demonstrating or “proving” the ROI of ITSM tools, leading to difficulties or delays in the adoption of the right tools or process improvements. 

What Is the ITSM Service Process?

The ITSM service process typically looks different for each organization, depending on its objectives, existing capabilities, and other factors. As such, there isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits-all or linear approach to ITSM. Instead, organizations must start by assessing their needs and prioritizing their objectives. 

Many organizations’ ITSM service processes may actually look fairly similar, depending on the objectives they set and how they rank their priorities. There are several common ITSM components or core processes) that may be included in an organization's ITSM framework. 

What Are the Core ITSM Processes?

There are at least seven core ITSM processes that help business leaders to assess their current capabilities and evaluate potential ITSM solutions for their business. Consider the following ITSM processes list—and think about how the right ITSM products could benefit your organization:

• Routine Task Automation: Take mundane, repetitive work off your IT heroes’ plates, freeing them up to focus on more complex, fulfilling tasks.

• Custom Integrations: Expand the functionality of your ITSM tools and discover new efficiencies through native integrations with other business technologies.

• Security and Compliance: Companies are using more software applications than ever before, leading to potential security vulnerabilities and other complications—comprehensive ITSM tools enable companies to minimize and mitigate risk while maintaining regulatory compliance (as applicable).

• Incident Management: In a perfect world, IT services would be 100% reliable and ready for virtually anything. That, of course, isn’t the world most of us live and work in. An ITSM framework should always include procedures for responding to the unexpected.

• Service Request Management: Too many IT teams find themselves overwhelmed with setting and tracking user-based access controls and permissions. ITSM tools can streamline service request management, including through automated self-service capabilities.

• Change Management: Security vulnerabilities can present themselves whenever changes are made to an organization’s IT environment. Using an ITSM tool can help with change planning and documentation, approval processes, implementation tracking, and post-implementation review.

• Problem Management: Within an IT context, simply “solving” an issue isn’t enough. Instead, effective problem management is all about identifying and addressing the root cause(s) of a given problem. From problem detection and root cause analysis to solution implementation and knowledge base documentation, ITSM tools play a significant role in an organization’s ability to quickly identify and mitigate a wide range of potential complications.

• Configuration Management: Security misconfigurations are an all-too-common challenge faced by companies of virtually all sizes. These are often the result of human error—using an ITSM tool helps to ensure that applications are correctly configured and properly integrated, avoiding preventable security risks. Combining these tools with best practices like change tracking and impact analysis typically provides the best long-term results.

• Reporting and Analytics: You’ve probably heard this one before, but you can’t improve what you’re not measuring. Tracking the right performance metrics and analysis trends in the data are key best practices for optimizing the IT environment and ensuring its security. Comprehensive ITSM tools like Lumos empower leaders with the ability to generate custom reports, putting actionable insights just a click or two away!

By accounting for some or all of the ITSM processes described above, companies can enhance their ability to streamline operations, consolidate vendors, enhance productivity, improve security, and other benefits.

Discover the Lumos Platform Today

Whether you’re looking to automate routine IT tasks, streamline processes to increase productivity, enhance security, or consolidate IT service vendors, Lumos is ready to help. We’ve built an intuitive and versatile platform, one flexible enough to meet your current needs and evolve alongside your business. Book a demo to learn more about how Lumos can deliver results for you.