ITSM evolves and even mutates, because technology evolves, as do user expectations, which keep pressure on the market to keep pace with these changes.
Migrating uses to the cloud
It’s a global change, and ITSM is no exception. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Cloud computing enables companies to align application running costs with actual usage and need, with the ability to scale these costs in real time with business growth. A Cloud configuration offers serious advantages: no capital outlay, regular data back-up, cost based on resources used. Typically, an on-premise configuration requires in-house server hardware, software licenses, integration capabilities and in-house skills to support and manage any problems. Organizations around the world are therefore waking up to the benefits of cloud computing: 80% of corporate workloads will be implemented in the Cloud/Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) by 2025, according to Gartner.
The Cloud is therefore profoundly changing the way IT departments manage technology, shifting the focus from infrastructure to managing internal services for teams. Tooling must adapt to this change.
The growth of Agile and DevOps practices
When IT teams feel the pressure to modernize their practices, they also think about how they work with software development teams, whether in-house or partner teams. This has often led to the adoption of more Agile practices, and even DevOps.
Indeed, it’s no surprise that agility is gaining ground in organizations. If ITSM teams don’t take this Agile / DevOps turn, they will see their processes literally bypassed by users who will solve their problems and find answers to their needs by other means. This is part of the reason for Shadow IT: the mismatch between users’ expectations and the organization’s IT processes.
Adopting Agile and DevOps processes in ITSM applications enables IT services to be better aligned with the business, sales and strategy. ITSM tools are taking this on board in a rather heterogeneous way. Recent and innovative publishers have understood this, and this is what sets them apart. On the other hand, long-established players must continue to provide tools for organizations (often very large ones) that are still rooted in traditional practices, while at the same time embracing agility in order to keep up with the latest trends vis-à-vis their future customers.
The rising of user expectations
IT teams serve internal “customers”, and these customer teams have higher expectations than ever before. They have come to expect the same 24/7 availability of services. In fact, an employee increasingly expects a level of service equivalent to that which he or she would receive as a customer of a brand, business or service in his or her private life.
Indeed, with the strong development of Internet technologies in the private sphere, users expect the same experience from their company: ease of use of tools, responsiveness in service, follow-up of their requests, operational and high-performance services at all times, etc.
As companies grow and acquire more software and technologies, IT teams are faced with an ever-increasing volume of work to meet the growing demands of users: requests, faults, incidents, and so on.
As the number of IT departments grows, so do the demands on IT experience. ITSM tools must be able to keep pace with this growing workload.
How is the market responding to this ongoing transformation?
The Spectrum Benchmark ITSM/ESM study takes stock of this market with an analysis of 12 vendors.
It also presents in detail the ITIL concepts that form the basis of ITSM tools.
