The Power of Information, Technology, Service, and ManagementInnovation, developing and supporting new services,

reducing outages. Today’s service management

professionals face these challenges and the

requirements they bring every day. And with great

responsibility comes the need for great power.

The Power of ITSM.

Let’s take a look at how Information,

Technology, Service, and Management

are changing the IT operations landscape

and how IT can step up to meet new

enterprise demands.

Get Started

There’s something to be said for a break with tradition. For years, enterprises have applied IT Service Management (ITSM) to support basic help-desk and ticket management, along with standard change management functions. Often, the two functions operated independently, outside of any integrated and complete management process. Consistency and efficiency suffered as a result.

Today, however, more and more IT organizations are evolving ITSM to a full service-management approach. This strategy enables them to tightly link IT functions with critical enterprise requirements for improved service and better business outcomes. Used to its best advantage, ITSM can serve as a multi-purpose powerhouse for your IT organization – from harnessing the cloud and leveraging social and big data to deploying more applications and services.

Learn how each area of ITSM provides you with the power to strategically transform IT:

The Changing Role of ITSM

The Power of Information

The Power of Technology

The Power of Service

The Power of Management

The Power of Information:

Understanding What You HaveThe world of IT is changing. The days of IT simply overseeing a few servers and desktop computers are long gone. In fact, the sheer number of devices and applications that must be supported today in most large companies is staggering. It’s estimated to be well into the thousands – and could be millions and growing – when you consider the number and various types of physical and digital assets to be tracked and managed.

For your IT organization to operate at maximum efficiency, you must have detailed information on both your assets and the processes or business services they support.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Do you have a reliable way to inventory IT assets?

The Power of Information:

Understanding What IT CostsUnderstanding what assets are in play is the first step. But to gain real enterprise credibility, IT must also be able to communicate all the costs involved in IT operations. This goes far beyond how much a single server or piece of software costs. The real power lies in the ability to understand and articulate not just the cost of IT assets, but also those related to IT projects, resources, and suppliers.

Leveraging this approach allows you to identify all the core components and functions that contribute to the IT service, while breaking down associated costs for both project and operational efforts. By doing so, you can calculate your actual “cost of goods” and use this information to create a true service catalog.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Do you really know what it costs to support various applications or services?

The Power of Information:

Understanding What IT Is DoingUnderstanding what you can do with the information you have isn’t easy without a complete view of your enterprise data. For example, many IT organizations are working with siloed information as some departments continue to use Microsoft Excel or other point solutions to manage and track data. Meanwhile, other departments that still rely on manual processes make it difficult for IT to capture critical data needed for management reporting.

Without a single source of truth and a process for rolling up information and reporting it clearly and concisely, data remains just data – not a lever of business insight and action.

To operate from a position of strength, your IT organization should employ an integrated approach that lets it gather, organize, and manage information so that it can be accessed and reported on when needed.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Do you have a single source of visibility into your IT operations?

The Power of Technology:

The Platform ApproachThere are platforms, and there are platforms. In reality, many vendors say they offer a suite of solutions, all on the same platform, but what do they really mean?

When you pull back the covers, you’ll find that these vendors’ definitions of a suite may have a lot of gaps, which require work on your part to fill in. Or that you’re now committed to one vendor’s

technology roadmap versus a dynamic approach that gives you core capabilities without a single-vendor lockdown.

A true platform provides you with technology building blocks and hassle-free integration. A true partner delivers this as a manageable service capability, not as a science project. Because a strategic roadmap shouldn’t require you to build the road.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Does your platform provide an easy way to grow beyond basic functionality?

The Power of Technology:

IT’s All About the AppsFor years, managing and provisioning servers was a primary IT focus. Today, the popularity of smartphones and tablets has shifted the focus to applications, or apps. Whether provided to external customers as a billable service or consumed internally, apps must be developed and delivered seamlessly to meet unique end-user and device requirements. And once apps are deployed, IT must be able to not only maintain them, but also monitor their ongoing effectiveness.

Today’s IT organization needs to be able to quickly develop, deploy, and support various types of applications and incorporate those apps into the support infrastructure and process.

Being able to leverage technology for such things as proactive business intelligence and automation is crucial for IT support and operations teams to keep pace.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Do you have a handle on this new application paradigm, or is it managing you?

The Power of Technology:

Leveraging AutomationAutomating processes and activities in IT Service Management can greatly impact the efficiency of your IT organization. When you automate functions such as password reset, your IT team can focus on more important activities like gathering internal stakeholder requirements and rolling out new services. With most companies now operating globally, automation has become essential as it’s just not practical or fiscally feasible to physically visit every server or location.

By extending automation to as many IT processes as possible – change and release management, among them, you’ll gain consistency and ensure that critical steps are not omitted from corresponding workflows.

You’ll also enable core IT team members to handle an ever-increasing infrastructure footprint and workload with greater speed and accuracy. This allows IT to become a more nimble, cost-effective, and valued operation.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

How many routine processes are you still handling manually?

These days, most businesses can’t move quickly enough to embrace mobility. IT needs to consider not only how to support the mobile requirements of corporate end-users, but also how to take advantage of mobility itself. Subsequently, IT becomes both a provider and consumer of the benefits of mobilization – enabling access to information and the ability to take action from it.

Mobility liberates customers, employees, and IT staff from a fixed location – making information the primary factor in decision-making. But it also brings a new set of issues that must be addressed to achieve all the promised benefits.

Implementing the proper access, governance, and ongoing support structure is essential to realizing the return on investment from your mobility efforts.

The Power of Technology:

Incorporating Mobility

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Are you enhancing productivity, reducing costs, and providing added convenience through mobile access to ITSM and other core applications?

The Power of Technology:

Moving to the CloudAs IT organizations support more users and technologies, their underlying infrastructures must grow just as rapidly to meet demands – with more software, servers, and other components in need of attention and service. With IT budgets and resources stretched thin as a result, the cloud has provided a welcome and relatively cost-effective way to maximize budget dollars while quickly increasing computing or storage resources.

But without the ability to properly track, manage, and report on your cloud investments, cloud sprawl, potential security breaches, and a loss of command and control can easily occur. To prevent this, you need to be able to fully monitor and cost your cloud investments.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

What is your current ability to track and manage assets and services residing in the cloud?

The technology that IT is called upon to support is ever-changing. Now, the way that IT supports that technology is changing, as well. The focus is on alignment with enterprise requirements, and IT needs to be seen as a valued service provider.

To achieve this recognition, it’s critical for your organization to establish a catalog of the services that IT can provide. These services may range from provisioning a laptop to on-boarding a new employee to providing support for your legacy HR system.

As IT support departments “shift left” toward more end user self-service, you need to ensure that the focus and support mentality also shifts left from one of thinking about supporting only servers to one of thinking about how IT can deliver better customer service.

The Power of Service:

Shifting Perspectives

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Does everyone in your organization have a customer-service mindset?

The Power of Service:

The End-User ExperienceA new generation of workers is demanding a new way to access applications and services. No longer content with complex screens full of tabs and drop-down boxes, or worse, the dreaded email address, users expect clean, functional user interfaces. Ones that minimize “clicks” to complete an interaction, while providing just the right amount of information needed.

As the face of IT, your service portal reflects both the type and ease-of-use of the services you provide. Are they easy to find and understand, or do employees still need a large user manual to figure out how to request something?

As IT shifts to a business orientation, you need to think about how your customers are interacting with you on a daily basis.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Do end users find it easy to request services and interact with IT?

The Power of Service:

Measuring SuccessEven if an IT organization had the resources to supply an endless roster of services, it wouldn’t make good business sense to do so. Instead, IT should start by listening to what its customers actually want.

After evaluating inputs and agreeing with stakeholders and customers on what should make up the “service catalog,” it’s essential to create a formal feedback loop so you can review the performance of both strategic and day-to-day service-level agreements (SLAs).

Satisfaction and feedback surveys are a useful addition to your service delivery process and close the loop on the daily interactions you have with your customers. Employed constructively, they can go a long way towards ensuring that you’re delivering the service that your customers desire.

When you combine surveys with regular strategic discussions and reviews around new enterprise initiatives, you’ll be taking major strides to truly aligning business and IT goals and objectives.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Do you know if the services you are providing meet user expectations?

The Power of Management:

A Process OrientationWithout process, chaos reigns – especially in IT. Processes built from best practices allow for more efficient utilization of resources, as well as greater accountability of what IT is actually doing. Process also enables consistency.

However, adopting such core processes as ITIL is usually easier said than done. But combining people, process, and technology is essential to creating both the organizational and operational change needed to reap the benefits that process can deliver.

Without the proper executive support, training, and ongoing commitment, any type of process push will fall short of achieving its desired objectives and yield little impact on your organization.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Have you fully embraced installing process within your organization?

The Power of Management:

Seeing Is Believing…And Then ActingDecision-support tools, such as rich dashboards, are a must-have for every IT executive. They enable IT to supply top management with a quick view of critical data – the age and cost of assets, software compliance, and overall system health – so they can make timelier, more informed decisions.

To support this outcome, your IT Service Management solution should capture rich, detailed information. This information can then be applied to drive key improvements in workflow and automation. It can also be used to create meaningful reports that support strategic decision-making and demonstrate the value of your IT organization – in real time.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Do you have a comprehensive view to support better decision-making through real-time service monitoring and predictive analysis?

The Power of Management:

True Service ManagementMoving from simply handling tickets to embracing the journey of true service management is an easy decision to make. However, achieving that goal can appear unfeasible if you plan to tackle it on your own.

Making the journey successfully requires an understanding of what results to measure. Instead of statistics used in the past such as MTTR, you now need to assess results in terms of future quantifiers, such as IT performance, contributions to new organic revenue generated, and nontraditional measurements of customer satisfaction.

Having an experienced partner to help steer you through each step gives you access to the knowledge and insights accumulated over hundreds of other ITSM engagements. It also helps you know what to expect, so you can prepare for and make a smoother transition.

The Power of Information | The Power of Technology | The Power of Service | The Power of Management

Do you know what should be measured to determine the success of true service management?

From core ITSM solutions and managed services to turnkey solutions for complete IT operations, cloud, and application lifecycle management, Unisys unites people, process, and technology into a powerful combination to assist you in delivering value from your IT investments.

Working together, we can help you make the organizational changes needed to implement true service management and reap its many benefits.

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small.

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

– Lao Tzu

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