ITSM Software

For growing businesses in the information technology industry, it can be difficult to properly manage and deliver technological solutions that meet the needs of both internal and external stakeholders. 

Information technology service management (ITSM) tools help IT companies streamline the management and delivery of IT services, ensuring consistent IT service delivery, reducing operational inefficiencies, and ultimately protecting organizational continuity.

In this guide, we'll cover:

• What is ITSM software?

• What are the benefits of ITSM software?

• What are some common features of ITSM software?

• How do small and midsize businesses use ITSM software? 

What is ITSM software? 

Information technology service management (ITSM) software focuses on the management of internal and external information technology (IT) support. These software applications guide IT companies through the planning, design, development, and delivery of their services. The main focus of ITSM solutions is to help businesses provide quality service to end users that adequately satisfies their technological needs. ITSM solutions are similar to help desk and IT service software solutions.

What are the benefits of ITSM software?

• Improved customer experience: ITSM solutions help IT companies deliver their services with fewer interruptions and faster response times. Some ITSM solutions allow the integration of self-service portals that streamline the customer inquiry process, allowing customers to search for the technical support they need 24/7. With ITSM software, IT services are continuously monitored to see if an organization is meeting its goals. This constant evaluation of service delivery prioritizes the customer experience, ensuring that IT teams are always meeting customer expectations. 

• Enhanced visibility: ITSM software allows management teams to track team performance and the progress of active projects. ITSM solutions also offer data insights such as what tasks consume a large amount of resources, what workflows need to be improved, and what tasks and processes can be automated. Enhanced visibility into service delivery processes enables management teams to alter workflows where necessary to make them more efficient, increasing an organizationʻs ability to meet their revenue and customer service goals. 

• Increased team accountability: To ensure that an organizationʻs resources are used properly, companies must be able to track the delivery of each type of IT service they provide. With ITSM software, IT companies can ensure that each instance of IT service delivery comes with a formally documented process. ITSM software also monitors all activities on a businessʻ network and IT infrastructure to ensure that no breaches of company policies have occured, which helps keep company employees accountable.

• Improved workflow standardization: ITSM software implements a set of formal rules and processes that IT companies may follow to standardize delivery of their IT services. By standardizing processes and policies across an organization, internal departments can communicate and collaborate more effectively, ultimately increasing team agility and productivity. 

What are some common features of ITSM software?

• Change management: Track and monitor changes to IT infrastructure, operations, and workflows. 

• Incident management: Identify and resolve unplanned service failures/disruptions with minimal downtime. 

• Problem management: Identify and resolve underlying cause of incident(s) and prevent future service outages from occurring.

• Asset tracking: Monitor and manage the lifecycle and usage of assets such as equipment, tools, software, hardware, etc. from acquisition to retirement.

• Configuration management: Identify and maintain components such as servers, configuration information, software, etc., and their relationships across all services.

• Contract/license management: Track, store, and access customer contracts and licenses.

• Knowledge base management: Create, store, and share information, data, and support articles in a centralized database.

• Self-service portal: Allow employees to resolve IT service issues or request services without assistance. Some solutions allow users access to an organizationʻs product catalog. 

• Capacity management: Monitor and analyze service demand and performance to plan adequate resources to meet current/future business requirements.

• Project management: Plan and coordinate all resources, costs, and time needed to execute assignments.

How do small and midsize businesses use ITSM software? 

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) often need to cut operating costs wherever possible to ensure their organization maintains a good financial standing as it grows. SMBs in the IT industry that embrace ITSM solutions can use these tools to help optimize their budgets. These solutions allow businesses to identify and eliminate redundancies by removing duplicate or obsolete technology from their infrastructure, reducing the amount of revenue spent on futile IT tools. 

Small and midsize businesses also use ITSM software to maintain control while scaling their services. As businesses grow, their customer support efforts will also often increase. ITSM solutions help businesses standardize their IT department processes, enabling them to proactively look for ways to improve key workflows across various departments. By implementing ITSM tools, SMBs can use this new standardized approach to work on developing new capabilities, such as customer-facing applications like mobile apps and/or customer portals. 

What are some important ITSM software integrations?

Integration with other software allows seamless data transfer between applications across your business. Some ITSM software suites might include add-on integrations that are preconfigured for use with that tool, third-party integrations that require vendor assistance, or an open API that allows users to develop and integrate customized tools.

Some common ITSM integrations to look for while evaluating software include:

• Customer relationship management (CRM) systems: ITSM tools often offer CRM integration, allowing organizations to seamlessly exchange data between systems and display customer relationship information within ITSM workflows.

• Messaging platforms: Messaging platforms that many companies already use can integrate with ITSM solutions so employees can continue conversing within a familiar tool without overcomplicating the stakeholder communication process. 

• Chatbot software: Chatbot software simulates a human conversation through text interactions to help customers solve issues quickly, without having to wait for a human support team member to help them. Integrating ITSM tools with chatbot software helps companies handle internal or external incidents.

• Lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP):  LDAP is a protocol that determines how your system authenticates and speaks to directories that store information related to users, systems, and applications (e.g., usernames, passwords, etc.). LDAP directory integration can help streamline the ITSM software user login process and automate tasks such as creating user accounts.

What are the trends in ITSM software I should be aware of?

It's crucial for IT companies to understand emerging trends in the ITSM space in todayʻs competitive market. Here are a few trends that will impact the future of ITSM and IT operations that you should be aware of: 

• AI-powered service management: AISM, otherwise known as artificial intelligence in service management, is a new approach to information technology service management that uses  natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to automate incident responses and optimize business workflows.  

• Expansion of self-service offerings: ITSM self-service capabilities merge knowledge databases with existing ITSM platforms so that employees or customers can answer common inquiries and create and track support tickets. ITSM self-service portals can also be accessed through channels such as mobile apps, chatbots, and social networks. These self-service portals enable customers to solve simple issues on their own, which allows IT professionals to focus on more complex tickets. 

• The emergence of ESM from ITSM practices: In the future, enterprise service management (ESM) will be the primary practice businesses use to innovate management of their services, including IT efforts. ESM extends the best principles of service management beyond IT to the entirety of an organization, including internal departments such as human resources, fleet management, etc. By doing so, businesses can better visualize and control all service workflows, increase overall team productivity, and minimize waste. 

Sources

Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from GetApp’s ITSM software Category Leaders report. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in GetApp’s directory that offer them.

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Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context, and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations, obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.