For the first time in the history of business administration, the term IT service management (ITSM) appeared in a book by the Swedish entrepreneurial consultant and researcher Richard Normann.
In the framework with the title: "Service Management: Strategy and Leadership in Service Business", he described in 1984 the importance of the mindset for companies and how he imagined their implementation.
Students can find further specialist literature on the topic in the frameworks: COBIT, Six Sigma, MOF, ISO 20000, TOGAF and ITIL. These each provide clear models for a paradigmatic ITSM and, in accordance with their philosophy, offer their own solution approaches. The increasing complexity of technology has made ITSM more and more important for the working world of the future. This applies not least in view of new challenges such as cloud computing and IoT.
Customer service and IT as a unit
Customer service and technology belong together. All companies that communicate with customers know this. Communication between customer and employee no longer works with telephone, pen and paper, but is highly technical and process-oriented. Customer advisors in sales rely on a complex technological infrastructure in which all key figures for customer contact, including the history, are listed.
The customer advisor can thus respond precisely to the customer or pass him on to another specialist department, where the colleague is also informed about the ongoing process at a glance. ITSM therefore means viewing IT and customer service as a unit and managing the functionality of the system. Of course, especially today, good ITSM has to be innovative and use all resources for optimization potential.
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ITSM in theory and practice
ITSM is based on the four pillars of analysis, advice, support and implementation. The most important goals of ITSM are increasing efficiency, profitability, process optimization, improving customer satisfaction, troubleshooting, failure prevention, transparency (for example with a view to the customer ticket), reducing downtimes, minimizing costs and a sustainable customer experience.
Since only satisfied customers are good customers, the customer should achieve his goals such as advice, answer and purchase as quickly as possible and feel as well looked after and supported as possible.
The technology for communication should work and be intuitive for the employee to master. For as many typical problems as possible, the employee within the system is able to get help as quickly as possible. ITSM strives for a high degree of automation, which in principle goes hand in hand with the detection, removal and replacement of the last analog islands.
Open systems and holism
Gone are the days when the IT department in companies operated in a small room and was almost invisible to the rest of the workforce. In the digital age, technology affects almost every employee, so their feedback is worth something and should be heard.
Criticisms can only be addressed and resolved through the intervention of the IT department through open systems and comprehensive coordination. Modern ITSM therefore takes place across departments and each department has a direct line to the technicians.
Diverse priorities
Modern ITSM is intradisciplinary, also with regard to the focus. If, for example, different specialist groups take on a problem from different perspectives, unique solutions can be achieved through the discussion. For example, a system failure can be viewed from the perspective of malfunctions, problems and changes, so that several possible solutions can be discovered at the same time.
Well-known departments for ITSM processes are incident management, problem management, process management, asset management, change management and knowledge management. Each department has its own focus for the process bundling to be achieved, from which it acts and coordinates its work.
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