More organizations are becoming increasingly reliant on information technology service management (ITSM) processes to meet rapidly-changing needs as digital transformation continues to disrupt every business industry. 

 

Forbes reports that 56% of business executives revealed that ITSM plays a crucial role in their digital enterprise initiatives. As the pace of IT change accelerates significantly, ITSM processes allow for increased visibility into business processes, improving overall transparency and productivity.

 

This way, leaders can maximize the value of their resources and increase operational efficiency while improving their workflows greatly. Effective ITSM processes also allow for organizations to reduce costs by automating manual processes and procedures, freeing up their staff members from menial and repetitive tasks to use their skills in pressing matters. Regardless of its overwhelming advantages, ITSM processes still have more room to grow to serve the needs of every enterprise. 

 

A separate Forbes report reveals that ITSM will continue to accelerate, especially since artificial intelligence (AI) has grown by 270% over the past few years. That being said, businesses have to know the changes and trends around ITSM to enhance the overall customer experience in 2021 and beyond. In this article, we’ll look at the latest trends in IT service management that will shape the industry in the post-pandemic world. 

 

• ITSM Will Adopt People-First Approaches

 

Combining people and process management is no longer an option for optimal service management. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that leaders will adopt people-first approaches in IT service management in 2021 and the coming years. By highlighting the value of their worker over IT service desk technologies, organizations can provide a better work-life balance and improve overall engagement, which is key in ensuring success in a remote work setting. 

 

It is not uncommon for leaders to move with agility and adaptability in today’s fast-paced environment. While this creates a significant advantage among competitors, this increased speed can be difficult on the workforce. As a result, you increase the likelihood of disenfranchisement and confusion among employees, which can ultimately lead them to become out of touch with the primary values that matter the most. 

 

By adopting people-first approaches to their ITSM strategies, leaders can signify to their employees that everyone has a part in the success and failure of their processes. It will also ensure that team members focus on the core values leaders are trying to communicate to achieve value-added service management and improve culture. After all, the successful adoption of ITSM practices will depend heavily at the speed of the organization’s culture. This also stresses the importance of building a team of experts with relevant experience and skill set, such as a professional with an IT or computer science degree, depending on your relevant business processes.

 

• Hyper Automation

 

Rapid and innovative developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) point to hyper automation becoming one of the hottest ITSM trends 2021. As more organizations start adopting hybrid and multi-cloud IT strategies, the need for automation tools and technologies in the ITSM landscape becomes even more critical in ensuring improved onboarding workflows and service requests. The advantage of hyper automation is it combines numerous technologies such as AI, ML, and robotic process automation (RPA) to eliminate manual provisioning and configurations. 

 

Unlike the typical automation process, hyper automation can also aid and even handle the decision-making processes within an organization. Hyper Automation uses AI to understand and identify which ITSM processes are to be automated before choosing the appropriate automation tools required for the job. In other words, hyper automation ensures that the ITSM processes adopted by organizations can make people more successful at their jobs by augmenting and expanding their skills and expertise. 

 

This can be especially critical considering that most ITSM activities are still fragmented within most organizations. Through hyper automation, organizations can enable the consistent resolution of issues before they are escalated to their service desk analysts. This ultimately reduces the number of tickets on their plates and allows them to be reactive to issues instantly. 

 

• Increased AI Security

 

Increased AI security is one of the ITSM market trends that is brewing in the industry. As a result of hyper automation, more organizations will be using AI and ML technologies to improve ITSM service efficiency and enhance analytics for data-driven decision-making. Implementing AI in ITSM can also help organizations address unpredictability and augment the skills of their existing IT teams to accomplish more with an identical resource pool. 

 

However, in doing so, leaders expose themselves to cyber criminals which continuously exploit and compromise business infrastructure. Recent data shows that sophisticated hackers are now incorporating AI and ML into their malware programs to bypass security and penetrate targeted networks. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the IT service management industry will likely put great emphasis on security in building AI-driven ITSM processes.  

 

By improving AI security, organizations can recognize patterns in their ITSM processes and enable their systems to learn from past experiences. This makes it easier to close gaps in any potential vulnerabilities and automate components of the cybersecurity processes. Moreover, it also enhances the quality of every employee’s experience and eliminates long delays in resolutions to unforeseen issues. 

 

• Enterprise Service Management Takes Center Stage

 

Economic changes are driving companies to opt for innovative options for service delivery that can aid them in operating cost-efficiently and achieving service excellence. As they look for better and efficient processes, it is no longer sensible to have several layers of functionalities and silos. After all, they can make it even more challenging and difficult to gain comprehensive support. 

 

One way for organizations to break down silos and remain efficient is to take advantage of enterprise service management (ESM). Technically-speaking, ESM is the use of ITSM tools and principles to enhance all organizational functions. Through this process, leaders can enhance visibility and control over their ITSM processes while reducing waste and improving user satisfaction. 

 

This is because ESM allows staff and management to understand what has been achieved and what hasn’t, allowing for improvement opportunities to be identified. It is, however, important that organizations provide frequent standard reports and deliver time-sensitive requests that must be monitored and handled before implementing ESM practices. Providing complete flexibility and automation in your ITSM processes is crucial for ESM to work.

 

• Transition to ITIL 4 Framework

 

Business success mainly depends on how effectively and efficiently leaders can deliver their products to the services in a way that meets customer expectations and aligns with regulatory and legal requirements. For organizations to achieve it in today’s industrial revolution, they must react and move quickly to keep up with the evolving consumer needs. This is mainly because user preferences and choices are expanding and changing uncontrollably. 

 

An excellent way for organizations to keep up with these technological changes while still providing modern and cost-effective IT services is to leverage the new Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 4 framework. Technically, the ITIL 4 framework is composed of key components such as the ITIL service value system (SVS) and the four dimensions model which work conjointly to provide service value chain and guiding principles for the continual improvement of service. 

 

By using the ITIL 4 framework, IT leaders can align their physical, digital, and human resources within the contemporary and complex landscape. The ITIL 4 framework also helps leaders navigate the future of ITSM and know how customers are using the services. This way, they can focus on co-creating business value and not just IT service delivery while ensuring effective asset management and seamless integrations of IT operations and other software development ideologies into an ITSM environment. 

 

Keeping Up with ITSM Trends to Increase Efficiency

 

The ITSM industry is undergoing a significant change and keeping up with these changes is key to delivering immersive experiences. One way to keep up with these changes is taking advantage of service management software platforms such as GLPI which is based on open-source technologies. GLPI is brimming with dynamic tools and features such as data center management, notification queue, and knowledge base in addition to its quote-based pricing packages.