Question 1

What are IT Service Management (ITSM) Tools?

Accepted Answer

IT service management, or ITSM, describes the procedures and policies created and followed by organizations to implement IT services design, provision, and maintenance. ITSM aims to bring a more end user-oriented approach to IT. Most commonly, ITSM is thought of in the context of service desks, but the practices and procedures emphasized in ITSM apply more broadly to IT organizations as a whole. It can help provide structure and order in what is typically a constantly evolving organization. 
 Companies implementing ITSM principles will typically utilize one or more of the following frameworks to provide guidelines to IT actions. 
 
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT)
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Business Process Framework (eTOM—telecom-specific)
Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF)
 
 ITIL tends to be the most commonly referred to or thought of ITSM framework, due to its strong adoption rate amongst services providers. The most recent iteration of ITIL, ITIL 4, is composed of two parts; the service value system (SVS, with 34 individual standards) and the four dimensions model (aligned with the four Ps of ITIL: people, products, partners, processes).

Question 2

What are the Common Features of IT Service Management (ITSM) Tools?

Accepted Answer

The following are some core features within ITSM tools: 
 Standards alignment: ITSM solutions help organizations align their processes and policies with a standards framework. ITSM tools will typically denote which framework(s) they are built to enable. If there is a particular framework an organization is already using, users should select an ITSM tool that aligns with that framework. 
 Service desk: As the name might suggest, a core element of ITSM solutions is a service desk element. Businesses can organize internal requests through a ticketing system. Internal users can find help on a variety of issues using a service catalog, which outlines different types of issues or requests and helps organize addressing various issues. 
 Asset management: ITSM tools help businesses track their internal IT assets. Using these tools, IT teams can track company-owned user devices and hardware, as well as any hardware infrastructure, enabling them to keep tabs on when these items were provisioned and when they would need upkeep. 
 Knowledge base: Knowledge bases are central repositories of information. By providing a knowledge base functionality, businesses can centralize their IT knowledge to a single source that’s accessible by anyone who might need it. 
 Incident management: Addressing the development side of the house, ITSM tools provide incident management features that help product teams track issues related to product development and functions, namely those related to IT systems. Using these active tracking capabilities, businesses stay on top of development incidents by creating visibility around repeat issues that might point to a larger problem. 
 Change management: Changing policies, procedures, or structures is a difficult process for businesses. Change management functionalities offered by ITSM tools allow businesses to more thoroughly track changes from the individual to the organizational level, increasing transparency, and assisting in finding pain points in recent changes. 
 Reporting and dashboards: As with any other solution, transparency is key to the efficient and effective delivery of services. ITSM tools are equipped with reporting and dashboard functions to provide increased visibility into service provisions across the IT organization. These reports may come prebuilt, but most solutions will also offer customization so that businesses get the exact information they need at any point. 
 Solution integration: Considering the huge array of tools and infrastructure involved in IT service delivery, ITSM tools need to be able to integrate appropriately to be effective. Users must check a tool’s integration capabilities before purchasing to verify it will integrate with the systems already in use. 
 Automation: Many ITSM vendors are implementing automation functionality as a standard part of the offering. Many tools will offer automation to reduce the amount of time going into repeat tasks and actions, which can save both IT associates and end users significant time. 
 Configuration management database (CMDB): Some ITSM solutions will include a CMDB feature where businesses can track how different hardware and software systems relate to each other. This provides increased clarity in how a business’s systems work together, and can also offer an excellent starting point when troubleshooting for root causes. 
 Release management: ITSM tools that dive deep into development features may offer release management capabilities where product teams can track software build releases over time including what stage of production releases are in, any rollbacks that took place, etc. 
 Other Features of IT Service Management Tools: Performance logging, Policy dictation

Question 3

What are the Benefits of IT Service Management (ITSM) Tools?

Accepted Answer

Formalize IT processes and practices: ITSM tools help businesses organize and standardize their IT service processes, thereby improving service efficacy. By accessing a central repository of IT knowledge, users can more quickly address their needs and concerns. With more public knowledge available, IT teams can reduce the number of basic or low-level inquiries coming through to the help desk. This saves IT teams time for more complex or important tasks. 
 Transparency: Arguably, the greatest benefits of implementing an ITSM tool are transparency and uniformity. The typical bane of IT teams is a lack of transparency and consistency in processes, practices, and actions, especially when there are multiple teams within the IT organization. By making clear and consistent policies and procedures that teams ought to be following, every team within an IT organization can identify exactly where information should live. This also highlights what procedures are being followed in different activities and how to interact with end users properly, leading to a smoother overall IT service delivery.

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