How To Explain ITSM To A Five-Year-Old

ITSM is a relatively new term, one that has become popular only in the last decade or so. Many people, even today, do not really understand what ITSM means and what it entails. For others, it might be too technical a concept to fully grasp, at least initially. What does ITSM mean to a layperson with minimal or no technical know-how? Is ITSM a concept that needs to be widely understood today?

For what does ITSM stand?

ITSM stands for Information Technology Service Management or IT Service Management. It refers to a collection of activities, products, and services that are contained in the IT services lifecycle. It refers to the effective management of all the components of IT services to ensure prompt and quality services and customer satisfaction. ITSM may also include policies and regulations specific to management of IT services.

IT services include not just everyday customer support and problem resolution, but management of various services and processes from start to finish. Booking a ticket online, resetting an account password, and buying a product or service off the Internet are all examples of commonly used IT services today.

There are a number of tools and software used for ITSM. Various ITSM software and frameworks exist today to ensure the smooth delivery of high quality IT services to clients and end users, ITIL being one of the most well-known frameworks. These software, tools, and frameworks guide and assist IT professionals to work effectively, efficiently, and deliver expected results.

Common terms associated with ITSM

These are a few commonly used terms in the context of ITSM that you should be aware of to understand the basics of ITSM.

• ITIL: ITIL stands for IT Infrastructure Library, a term that is used interchangeably with ITSM, although they are not synonymous with each other. ITIL is a framework for ITSM planning and implementation and consists of a wide range of solutions for ITSM-related requirements and issues.
• Lean methodology: Although not specific to ITSM, lean methodology is very important for ITSM to be effective. Lean methodology refers to processes and strategies that reduce wastage of resources and streamline processes to make them more efficient and effective. Incorporating lean increases the effectiveness of ITSM frameworks and tools so your organization gets the most out of various IT services.
• Service desk: This is the most common and well-known terms related to ITSM, although very few make the connection between service desks and ITSM. A service desk acts as an operations center, a single point of communication, or SPOC, for all ITSM processes and services. Service desks manage IT issues and requests, customer and client support services, implement technical updates, and such other activities.

There are a number of other terms associated with ITSM. You will need to know and remember those terms if you wish to understand the in-depth and technical details of how the various process and activities work. However, the terms listed above will help you understand at least the basics of ITSM and what it entails.

Benefits of using ITSM for organizations

There are a number of advantages of using ITSM in a wide variety of organisations. Here are some of the most important benefits of using ITSM in your organisation:

• Improved customer service: ITSM ensures you stay in touch with the problems your customers and clients are facing, so you can take steps in time to resolve their issues. It also ensures that customers and clients have a method of reaching you at all times to get assistance for their IT-related issues. This interaction and ability to problem solve improves customer service and customer satisfaction. It keeps clients coming back for the IT services your organisation provides.
• Efficient use of IT resources: Having a service desk in place assists in managing the various available IT resources in your organization. Other ITSM processes and tools ensure you need minimal resources to achieve a high level of efficiency and effectiveness. All this, in turn, help you provide quality IT services to your clients and customers. In short, ITSM helps you organize all IT-related processes and resources to ensure optimum usage and minimal wastage.
• Increased flexibility: ITSM includes planning and strategizing, which means you have the ability to tweak your strategies and processes and incorporate these changes without any hassles into your plan. The ability to make changes to your strategies and plans whenever required ensures a high level of flexibility and helps you cater to the specific IT requirements your clients and customers better.
• Effective prevention of problems: One of the biggest issues in IT-related industries and work is that there are bugs and resulting glitches that need to be resolved continually. Bugs are unavoidable in software of any kind, no matter how well it is designed and written. ITSM helps put redundancies and checks in place that ensure that end users and clients are only minimally affected, if at all, by such glitches and bugs. It helps prevent major service issues by detecting problems early on and having testing mechanisms in place before the services are released to customers.

What makes ITSM so useful is the fact that it can be used not just in the IT industry but in various other organisations, including tech businesses, government organisations, and various kinds of hospitality services.

Does your business need ITSM?

Once you have understood the basics of ITSM and its applications and the benefits of using ITSM, the next obvious question is, do you need ITSM for your organization? How can you understand whether and when you should get ITSM software and professionals into your organization?

ITSM is particularly useful for your organization if it is customer-focused.

• If your organization often repeats processes and tasks, ITSM can help streamline the processes so there is no duplication of efforts.
• If you have limited financial and IT resources, using ITSM can ensure effective use of these scarce resources and help you provide high-quality IT services.
• If you struggle with extended downtime frequently, which results in poor communication with clients and customers, ITSM can help reduce downtime. This can lead to better customer service and satisfaction.
• If you are looking at cutting costs in IT services without compromising the services, ITSM can help reduce the number of personnel you need for your IT-related work.

With the ever-increasing popularity and use of the Internet and web-enabled services and products, ITSM has become one of the most crucial and sought-after management services for organisations from a myriad of industries, including healthcare, marketing, and of course the IT industry itself.