Ease-of-Use, Flexibility Top Needs for Corporate IT Departments

August 25, 2023

As more and more businesses work to transform their IT processes to support a faster, more efficient service experience many are reevaluating their IT Service Management software and opting to switch to ITSM providers that can support Enterprise Service Management (ESM).

Many IT departments have been working in legacy systems that no longer suit the needs of the business. For many, their existing systems are clunky and hard to use – especially when it comes to making changes – and as a result, it’s difficult to get employees or customers to adopt the platform for self-service (to deflect tickets from the IT help desk) or use the tool outside of IT for ESM.

According to a recent survey from TeamDynamix and Information Week, 36 percent of enterprise IT professionals say their existing ITSM platform lacks the integration capabilities needed for use with departmental systems. This is hindering the adoption of ESM.

In addition, 57 percent say because of the ITSM tool in place any ESM use in departments outside of IT must be administered by IT – adding to the resource strain already in place.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Using Modern ITSM Tools for Enterprise Service Management

When it comes to ESM vs. ITSM – those companies that have already started utilizing ESM in departments outside of IT say they’re doing it for a few core reasons. The most frequently cited driver is to establish more simplified workflows, which was named by 46% of respondents in the survey.

In second place was improved collaboration across the business, selected by 42% of respondents. Thirty-six percent of organizations said that their ESM deployments are driven by faster response times to inbound requests. Close behind that, 34% reported that better project management and prioritization were big drivers for their ESM work.

Among stakeholders who use ESM platforms to process tickets and work orders, 66% of organizations say they view the experience as positive and only 3% rated it as overwhelmingly negative. Meanwhile, those who use the ESM platform to file work order requests also love it. More than eight out of ten (85%) organizations say their employees are happy with the ability to have one place to file work orders.

So how are these happy companies utilizing ESM?

To start, they’ve likely invested in a service management tool that facilitates both ITSM and ESM.

These platforms are modern and come with an integration and automation layer with pre-built connectors to business applications and the capability to allow departmental workers to create button-press automations and workflows without coding for common use cases like onboarding and offboarding for HR, for example.

In addition, these platforms are no-code. A no-code ITSM/ESM platform allows IT to democratize the process of creating configurable portals specific to each department, meaning anyone can use the tool to create a portal, forms, integrations and automations specific to their needs.

Another opportunity for bolstering ESM success will be in the merging of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) with ESM capabilities. Right now, only 25% of organizations report they have PPM rolled out to enterprise groups, and just 26% say that they have a combined service management and PPM platform.

Taking workflow management to another level will require more advanced project management capabilities, no matter which department is leveraging them. Whether in HR, facilities, or marketing, these departments have the same needs as IT to optimize the use of their resources or budgets in servicing stakeholders outside the department. And that is going to take a disciplined, portfolio approach to managing projects across groups, particularly when it comes to assigning and managing resource allocations.

Additionally, project management capabilities help to manage expectations both within and outside the department when it comes to project status, timing and expense billing.

Dos and Don’ts for ESM Success

As organizations endeavor to expand ITSM to other departments, we recommend the following do’s and don’ts to ensure they achieve maximum ROI:

Don’t just take an ITSM platform being used within your IT department and try to scale it across each group. It won’t work.
Do meet with each department or group prior to implementing an ESM solution and settle on the processes and functionalities they need.
Don’t assume that each department has the same language as IT for each process. Marketing might not use the terminology “submit a ticket” for example.
Do ask each group or department for a list of their commonly used terms and how they correspond to the actions they’ll be taking when using the ESM platform.
Don’t overcomplicate or try to overprocess the ESM platform.
Do make your ESM accessible and easy to use. For an ESM implementation to be successful, you’ll want departments and groups to be able to fully utilize the platform WITHOUT reliance on IT for support.

Want to learn more about Enterprise Service Management? Check out our latest report: State of Enterprise Service Management.