How Digital Transformation and the Rise of Automation Is Impacting the Future of ITSM
IT leaders have never been in a more dynamic and pivotal role, no matter what organization they find themselves in than they are right now. The good news is that the importance of IT leadership will continue to grow as organizations apply ITSM best practices across multiple departments, integrating DevOps, Agile, Lean, and other key principles and strategies to drive business success.
Digital transformation is an ongoing effort, and one that will continue well into the future, if not perpetually. The application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to drive the rise of automation. The approach of employee-focused service management to bring what works well in IT departments into action throughout organizations, will continue to propel the ongoing digital transformation well into the future of ITSM.
The Future of ITSM, the Rise of Automation, and Big Data
The ongoing shift from
ETL to ELT, as well as its reliance on emerging capabilities of individuals and teams to use predictive analytics to harness the power of big data, is a bellwether of sorts for what is happening across organizations as ongoing efforts are made to align organizational capacities and processes with their digital potential. Human intervention, the hands-on management of a wide variety of ITSM applications and processes, is largely becoming a thing of the past.
The rise of automation as an underpinning of the functionality of ITSM is helping organizations to realize the potential of their human capacity by freeing up work hours that used to have to be devoted to mundane tasks.
According to a recent survey, 54% of IT professionals said that automations and AI free up 2-4 hours per day."
The future of ITSM is largely dependent on artificial intelligence, as machine learning continues to free up IT professionals to move beyond the traditional boundaries of IT work, and into service management efforts that reach into all aspects of the business.
The Rising Importance of Agile ITSM
Agility in delivering essential products and services will continue to grow in importance for the foreseeable future. Agile development has for some time driven the need to adopt agile principles in the ongoing effort to define and deliver contemporary or cutting-edge service for IT departments.
Agile ITSM learns, adapts, designs, implements, and manages service quickly and efficiently.
And, while this may seem like a commonsense approach, in retrospect, IT has suffered from and benefited from being siloed in a way that has been, and will continue to be, unsustainable. These days, IT departments and ITSM efforts cannot be separate from business interests and overall organizational management. If the present isn’t already demanding this from your organization, then the future absolutely will.
Customer Satisfaction and Employee Experience Are More Important Than Ever
The future of ITSM, regardless (or indeed because) of its reliance on agile principles such as automation,
machine learning, and big data, will increasingly be driven by both user experience (UX), and customer satisfaction. While the satisfaction of the customer, or internal and external stakeholders, was once, perhaps, an afterthought (or at least a side benefit of doing a good job), it will increasingly be centered in the discussion surrounding what is good ITSM.
Thankfully, the trend in ITSM to
drive customer satisfaction (CSAT) as a central consideration in all efforts continues to make it easy to put the employee first. One trend in ITSM that’s aimed at serving internal customers’ needs is the digitization of support – this comes in the form of both chatbots and employee self-service portals. In the coming year, expect to see a push towards automation with an employee-centric focus.
For more insights on the
future of ITSM, read more blog posts here on this blog.
