What Is ITSM? 3 Key Features & Aspects Of IT Service Management
What Is ITSM? Three Key Features — and Functional Applications — of IT Service Management
ITSM (IT service management) falls under the broader framework of ITIL, which is the IT infrastructure library. While ITIL concerns itself with key aspects of service management including strategy, design, transition, operation and continual service improvement, ITSM focuses on making the goals of ITIL a reality by deploying new processes, policies and technologies across enterprise IT environments.
What does this mean in practice? Let’s break down three key features — and functions — enabled by effective ITSM.
Essential ITSM Features
While ITIL relies on technical literature — known as “service volumes” — to describe broad service goals, ITSM focuses on translating these volumes into practical steps. To achieve actionable outcomes, three ITSM features are critical:
- People: People underpin ITSM outcomes. Service management strategies won’t work if end users aren’t the focus of new technology deployments and new solution integrations. ITSM-qualified IT service providers have the proven ability to improve the speed and end-user satisfaction of new solutions at scale.
- Processes: Processes form the next layer of ITSM features. While trained personnel are critical to jumpstart the process of ITSM deployments, companies must also create clearly defined policies and processes around implementation, best use practices and service metrics.
- Technology: Continually improving service delivery depends on agile, scalable technologies capable of meeting immediate user demands and evolving needs. From proactive incident assessment and response to remote system administration and access management, the right technologies are critical.
Effective ITSM implementation combines all three features consistently and at scale.
Exploring ITSM Tools
The somewhat nebulous nature of ITIL and ITSM definitions raises a critical question: What solutions does ITSM deliver? The best answer is framed by key tools capable of advancing ITSM objectives, such as:
- Service desk solutions: Comprehensive service desk management improves end-user satisfaction and overall productivity, which aligns with essential ITSM outcomes. From shift-left initiatives to tiered technical support, the right service desk solution can reduce complexity and increase end-user confidence.
- IT asset management: Effective asset management can ensure that end-user devices are continually monitored and regularly updated to help enhance IT operations. Proactive monitoring, self-healing and endpoint protection all fall under this ITSM solution.
- User access administration: Security is now an essential part of effective service delivery under ITSM. Best-of-breed user access administration including IAM, SSO and AD helps boost performance by enhancing protection.
What are ITSM tools? Key processes and technologies that facilitate the work of people in your organization to deliver ongoing service improvements.
Improving ITSM Deployment With Innovative Technology Solutions
At ITS, it’s our goal to deliver client-focused processes that boost end-user satisfaction and deliver measurable, reliable outcomes. With experience across ITIL frameworks and ITSM deployments, we don’t simply deliver IT service management — it’s our mandate to help your organization evaluate and apply ITSM features and solutions at scale.
What is ITSM? It’s the practical application of ITIL framework to help improve service, streamline operations and deliver better performance. Ready to make the shift from strategy to service? Start with ITS.
