ITSM Implementation Challenges| Ways to Overcome with ITSM

by Elina D

In the current IT Service environment, many organizations faced significant difficulties due to a lack of methodologies, procedures, systems, and policies that demanded a drive towards executing a machine-driven ITSM solution that includes IT service management (ITSM) practices and policies.The issues faced during the development phase are manual processes for accessing provisioning, absence of transparency in recharge, application of non-scalable small application to record accidents, and insufficient to track service level agreement (SLA), Incident management, manual tracking,  transitioning process, etc.

 ITSM Implementation Challenges, ITSM Implementation, Ways to Overcome with ITSM,ITSM, IT service Management

Implementation Challenges & ways to overcome with ITSM

Prologue to ITSM:

IT Infrastructure Library is a bunch of modules that portrays an arrangement of best practices for conveying IT administrations. It includes five books, each of which covering various stages of the IT service lifecycle process. ITSM's organized approach to IT service management assists organizations manage business risk, build customer relationships, implement cost-effective practices, and establish a firm IT environment that enables organizations for growth, scope, and change.

Implementation Challenges & ways to overcome with ITSM:

IT Infrastructure Library is a well-organized structure with a set of approved ITSM processes and principles. It serves as a guide for IT service in the service industry. ITSM standards set in place which adheres to ITSM principles assist organizations in reducing IT costs, enhancing customer satisfaction, and improving productivity. Although, well successful ITSM implementation airs huge practical difficulties and the ways to overcome such challenges.

ITSM, ITSM templates toolkit

Challenge 1: Insufficient Information among technicians:

To improvise any kind of resolution, technician personnel must exchange the knowledge for a successful resolution. To merely say as “just resolved” or “fixed” the incident doesn’t supply sufficient knowledge to a technician handling incidents. At the time of closure of the incident, the technicians should document and record the procedures and steps used in fixing the incidents as documentation of records assists technicians in solving incidents in the future.

Challenge 2: Unidentified and unaccounted for auto-generated alerts:

As an IT administrator who administers hundreds of applications running on multiple networks/ servers, as he receives a large number of auto-generated alerts each day, each of the alerts creates an unexpected catastrophe if it goes unseen. Savvy of potential damages of such alerts have to be organized and focused on the business consequences and escalated to the application manager without wasting much of the time. This measure acts as a prime element of emergency management processes.

Challenge 3: Chaos between incident and service requests:

More frequently, service requests are ordinary requests, for instance, “reset the password,” which can easily be solved through a self-service portal or through technicians. Though occurrences are unplanned disruptions in IT service, for example, desktop slows down. It’s unused, or an email gives an error when opening the emails, as these occurrences are different and need to be resolved differently, which involves resolution methods, approvals, service level agreement (SLAs), and workflows if it’s not resolved it may increase technician workload and involves IT coasts.

Challenge 4: Habituation to repetitive functions:

In most organizations, being repetitive in their duties all the time may experience uncomfortable and fear in adopting new methods and methodologies. It is extremely desirable to apply all the simple processes, enhance business productivity, and eliminate manual mistakes, achieve maximum productivity by computerizing manual tasks and duties. Its mandate to seek a streamlined and proper workflow before computerizing it.

Challenge 5: Fail to keep customers informed:

Once the occurrences and incidents are submitted by the customers, the technician categorizes the issue and analyzes the primary cause, and works on resolutions. In certain circumstances, to provide resolution to the incidents that occurred, it requires a system administrator and application owner. Instead of contacting and seeking help separately, contact the system administrator and the application owner by keeping a loop to the customer and keeping informed to the customer of the incidents that occurred for quicker resolution. Keeping it translucent and looping your customers in all the conversations of incident resolution provides you to achieve higher customer satisfaction.

Challenge 6: Lack of appropriate Understanding:

When the incidents occur, technicians should not rush to resolve the incidents, but they need to understand the customer’s issue, analyze and provide resolutions. In some cases, when the customer requests for a service that is restricted for this one approach. And for this type of scenario, the technician has to contact his personnel or manager and get his prior approval for providing service as such a streamlined process helps to reduce IT costs.

Challenge 7: Untimely incident resolutions:

If the incidents are not resolved within the stipulated time, it losses value. For instance, if the incident can be resolved in 2 days and if the high priority customer on a very urgent basis wants to get resolved within 1 day. The best way is to provide the customer with instant and alternate solutions. Alternatives can be provided until the resolution is derived, which should be few hours ideally.

 ITSM Implementation Challenges, ITSM Implementation, Ways to Overcome with ITSM,ITSM, IT service Management

ITSM Implementation Challenges:

ITSM affects overall organization- business, IT department, etc. if ITSM is not in place. The fundamental challenges are:

  1. Management support and commitment: If management wants to execute and approve the ITSM but fails to follow through with appropriate workflow and with strong sponsorship support.
  2. Resistance to ITIL: ITSM is a large alteration of the organization that is often resisted. Resisted.
  3. Project Culture: ITSM doesn’t have a completion date. It is a set of processes that must be continuously improvised in the long run.
  4. ITSM for the benefit of ITSM: Organizations that seek a rubber stamp from ITSM-(ex: ISO 2000 certifications) such organizations see business value in ITSM and seek to minimize costs.
  5. Bing Bang: ITSM has numerous stages. Each stage has a larger organizational mark. Full implementation of ITSM is done in stages. A big Bang ITSM execution has the possibility to disrupt IT and business functionality.
  6.  Tools: ITSM is not a kind of technology. Though, it’s almost impossible to execute ITSM  processes without technology. Technology execution is the greatest ITSM challenge in implementation.

Conclusion:

Adopting technology as difficult as ITSM brings certain challenges to the forefront. Though, it deserves as mention-which ITSM implementation is surely worth in the long run. Proper resolutions provide easy and quick results for incidents that occur in ITSM drives way for speedy implementation. All it needs is proper understanding for educating and training shareholders of the organization for implementing ITSM in organizations which helps in minimizing costs, enhance business productivity and efficiency.

ITSM, ITSM templates toolkit

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