The life of an L1 engineer … receiving all the tickets, providing all the IT services, and interacting with all the stakeholders.
Tickets, like requests for access to an application or system, account unlocks, onboarding and offboarding employees, and more are here to stay. And as the IT Service Management (ITSM) team moves through those high-volume, repetitive tasks, the business misses out on opportunities for big outcomes – during a business era packed with changes, challenges, and uncertainties. Organizations must push “fast forward” on innovation to drive their business, starting with ITSM tasks and processes.
Economic uncertainty and other pressures are mounting on organizational leaders, and they’re looking for IT to enable faster acceleration to meet goals: doubling productivity, cutting costs, enhancing customer experiences, overcoming talent gaps, and future-proofing the company as a whole.
It means aligning IT goals with the business and using automation to do so effectively.
The four ways automation can help ITSM achieve objectives and promote business growth include enabling self-service, implementing full-stack service desk automation, managing change, and shifting to Experience Level Agreements (XLAs).
1. Enabling Self-service
Self-service tools are also known as L0. Self-service capabilities release ITSM professionals from common tickets and again, free them up to use deeper knowledge on complex tasks that require human expertise.
Maintaining, or even improving efficiency, self-service capabilities help to meet user expectations while organizations are on tight budgets. They empower users to be self-sufficient and give them tools to resolve their own issues in an IT approved way.
READ MORE: Automated Password Resets: The Effortless Way to Get Employees Back Online
A real perk for today’s ITSM teams, there’s no more 24/7 human-based operation that provides basic support around the clock. Users can access self-service help whenever they need to, which means requests like a password reset no longer hassle anyone after hours. It also means companies don’t have to pay human staff to work as many shifts since salary-free self-service is available at 3 a.m.
The increased availability for all employees sends benefits through the entire organization, as talent too can shift from meaningless tasks to relevant, motivating work that contributes to the bigger picture, like more time for ITSM to work on complicated escalations and major incidents.
2. Implementing Full Stack Service Desk Automation
The service desk is responsible for a laundry list of items leading up to closing the ticket, from receiving it and acknowledging it, and sending through the multi-step resolution process. Full stack automation lends a critical hand by taking many tasks over, and can therefore minimize human error, reduce costs, and ensure a faster ticket turnaround.
Full stack automation can complete the fulfillment of all run-of-the-mill ITSM requests. Organizations, dealing with an exponential data surge, generate information and log data on a what’s often an abnormally large scale. It’s far from ideal during today’s IT talent shortage, when businesses are relying on IT processes more and more.
Self-driving automation solves the problem. It manages itself with minimum human intervention, only when there’s a need beyond the automation’s capabilities, as well as aids ITSM in supporting IT infrastructures and continuous business processes.
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3. Managing Change
Organizations and their IT teams are surrounded by change. Inside some companies, leaders and employees are still skeptical of automation and fear they’ll lose control or be replaced. With ITSM, however, automation is a must for the show to go on. Regardless of intelligence and capability, ITSM staff cannot handle the workload coming in. Networks are generating huge volumes of data, which increase demand for IT services and ticket help.
Adding automation to ITSM teams helps scale up accordingly, and ensures human professionals are better positioned to contribute to business growth.
Change management … we’ll call it “change enablement” … reduces disruptions to services provided by IT and adjusts critical systems as needed. The right approach to change makes things better for IT, including fewer tickets and service requests, increased happiness among ITSM staff, and more bandwidth to contribute to big business goals.
As managing change impacts the business, done right, it helps guarantee stability of services, support organizational productivity, and meet user expectations. Changes are about preparing for what’s ahead, and executing the right practices will unlock the momentum and tenacity needed to keep pace with the speed of business.
4. Shifting to Experience Level Agreements (XLAs)
Traditionally, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have been of great importance in ITSM. As ITSM delivers services to end users, staff have had to respond to and resolve requests within a certain amount of time per the agreement.
Today, in an increasingly competitive market of sky-high employee and customer expectations, IT leaders must redirect focus to Experience Level Agreements (XLAs) in order to retain their internal and external customers.
WEBINAR: From SLAs to XLAs: The Necessary Shift and 5 Practical Ways IT Automation Gets You There
SLAs are the core enablers of XLAs. ITSM automation smooths processes, and gives them a regular rhythm for consistent, satisfactory services and exceptional experiences. Experiences are top priority for leaders and are only gaining importance, and they must be enhanced whenever possible. Driving service excellence though automation allows IT to add another 9 to SLAs accordingly, which means increasing application uptime – an invaluable requirement today.
Less interruption fuels revenue, which business leaders critically depend on during economic uncertainty and heightened challenges.
ITSM teams are the face of IT in most organizations. As rapid changes create new demands for businesses, IT is spearheading tech support as a whole. With more and more of the business being digitized, ITSM teams are going to be the focal point of experiences.
READ MORE: AI and Automation: Transformative Potential for the Future of Business
More employees are working remotely and consumers are buying from home, and organizations critically depend on uninterrupted services. ITSM is the backbone of managing services as they relate to business needs and help to alleviate pain points.
Learn how Resolve’s ITSM automation can enable positive business outcomes through innovation. Book your demo today.
