Service Management is a discipline for managing IT systems that is centred on the customer’s perspective of IT’s contribution to the business. It stands in deliberate contrast to traditional technology-centred approaches to IT management. Service management employs a standard set of processes that adhere to accepted industry standards or best practices. This consistent use of a repeatable and measurable set of practices allows an organisation to quantify their performance more accurately.
One of the key reasons for using service management is to improve the delivery of services by continually assessing the way you do things and looking for ways to do them more efficiently, effectively and reliably.
However, IT organisations need to have the expertise to be able to use these best practices effectively. Unfortunately, in house support is often inexperienced in these areas and buying expertise can be expensive. This can result in low quality processes which are labour intensive and add little business value for the customer.
Being able to automate service management processes is a key factor in their success and provides a standardised IT service delivery capability. This standardisation adds business value by enabling faster response to business requirements and increased customer satisfaction.
As service management becomes increasingly important, IT organisations will need to adopt an holistic approach and have the right tools to ensure that they can deliver reduce costs from more efficient services, increased effectiveness from more productive staff and improved reliability from higher quality services.