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February 2, 2024

2 minutes read

ITSM Best Practices: Should My ITSM include iPaaS?

By

Andrew Graf

As technology continues to evolve, businesses have started to rely more and more on IT to carry out their operations – this is especially true for businesses and organizations working to modernize their service and project management and delivery.

For many, IT Service Management (ITSM) with integration and automation through iPaaS (integration platform as a service) has become essential to run day-to-day operations smoothly. And while many  IT leaders have been exploring ways to combine these two technologies to improve their business processes and streamline their operations – there are now ITSM platforms in the marketing that include iPaaS capabilities on a single codeless platform.

Better Together: A One-Platform Approach to ITSM with iPaaS

Before we get into the benefits of using a single platform for ITSM and iPaaS, let’s first define these terms.

ITSM is a set of policies, processes and procedures for managing the implementation, use and maintenance of IT services. It ensures that IT services are delivered efficiently and effectively to meet the needs of the business.

iPaaS, on the other hand, is a cloud-based platform that allows businesses to integrate different applications and services, usually through the use of connectors. It provides a unified platform for connecting different systems with the intention of automating workflows and syncing data.

Combining ITSM and iPaaS on a single, no-code platform offers several benefits for businesses.

  1. Increased efficiency: By combining ITSM and iPaaS on a single platform, businesses can streamline their operations and reduce manual effort. This can lead to increased efficiency and faster delivery of IT services. For example, ITSM workflows can be automated using iPaaS, which can reduce the time and effort required to complete tasks.
  2. Improved visibility and control: Having a single platform for ITSM and iPaaS can provide businesses with greater visibility and control over their IT operations. This can help them identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in their processes and take corrective action. It can also help IT leaders to better manage their resources and ensure that they are being used effectively.
  3. Better collaboration: Combining ITSM and iPaaS on a single platform can also improve collaboration between different teams within the organization. For example, the IT team can work with the business team to automate workflows and integrate different systems, which can lead to better alignment between IT and the business.
  4. Faster time-to-market: With a single platform for ITSM and iPaaS, businesses can accelerate their time-to-market for new services and applications. This can help them stay ahead of the competition and meet the evolving needs of their customers.
  5. Lower costs: By combining ITSM and iPaaS on a single platform, businesses can lower their costs by reducing the need for manual effort and eliminating the need for multiple platforms. This can lead to significant cost savings over time.

How TeamDynamix Can Help

TeamDynamix offers ITSM, iPaaS and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) all together on one codeless platform – giving you visibility into all of the work and projects being done throughout your entire organization, along with better security and governance over integration and the ability to automate repetitive tasks to save on time and resource drain.

With TeamDynamix iPaaS you can centralize all integrations into one hub with a library of connectors to common systems such as Workday, Oracle, Salesforce, the Active Directory, Azure, and hundreds more, as well as any APIs.

With all systems connected and data points now secured in one spot, end-users can leverage the platform to move data, transform data and build out automation and workflows using a visual flow builder (that’s drag-and-drop) that can be triggered from a field change, form fill or any number of actions.

Combined with TeamDynamix ITSM and PPM, organizations are finding success in automating tasks that bog down their IT service desk.

These types of repetitive tasks often take up time and negatively impact the morale of IT teams – especially those working the IT service desk. A recent study from InformationWeek found that:

  • 58% of organizations say their IT team spends more than five hours per week (six-and-a-half work weeks annually) fulfilling repetitive requests from the business.
  • 90% of respondents say that manual and repetitive IT tasks contribute to low morale and attrition in their organizations.

When asked to rank the types of tasks respondents found to be time-wasting and to contribute the most to poor morale they listed password resets, IT ticket cleanup, onboarding/offboarding employees, managing credentials and software provisioning – all tasks that can be automated through iPaaS.

And with the difficulty many organizations are having hiring IT talent, it’s more important than ever to make sure your IT teams are engaged and content with their work.

At Pima County, Mark Hayes, information technology leader for the county, said reducing toil and improving IT morale was a driving factor for investing in TeamDynamix. Hayes and his team recently implemented TeamDynamix iPaaS and IT Service Management and have had positive results so far.

“People feel so much more empowered and have so much more worth when they are doing things that are intellectually rigorous and challenging versus when they are just repeating the same mechanical actions over and over and over with very little thought,” he said.

Festival Foods, a grocery store chain that operates about 40 grocery stores and supports 9,000 employees with an IT staff of 40, including a seven-member service desk, also uses TeamDynamix for both ITSM and PPM, as well as iPaaS.

“Before, we had no project governance process,” Alex Turek, IT service desk manager, explained. “It was very ad-hoc. Whoever could scream the loudest got the most IT resources. Finding a tool that also included PPM was huge.”

Managing projects and IT services within the same platform has brought significant benefits, leading to improved efficiency and accountability.

“Technicians can see their project work and their IT work in one space,” Turek said. “This means it’s easier to communicate and ensure follow-through. Project managers can assign tasks to my service desk team within the same dashboard they’re using to resolve tickets. Those pop right up, helping them be aware of all their tasks and priorities so they can easily meet their deadlines.”

The next step for Turek and his team is to leverage the integrated Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) capabilities within TeamDynamix to automate their most repetitive processes.

“We’re looking to automate tasks such as password resets, user account deactivation, user onboarding and other tasks we do often, so we can reduce the daily workload on our team,” Turek said.

In conclusion, combining ITSM and iPaaS on a single, no-code platform can provide significant benefits for businesses. It can improve efficiency, visibility and control, enhance collaboration, accelerate time-to-market and lower costs. IT leaders should consider implementing a single platform that combines ITSM and iPaaS to streamline their operations and improve their overall business performance.

To learn more about trends in ITSM and iPaaS check out the latest market study from InformationWeek: State of IT – Resource Drain.

Andrew Graf

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