One size doesn't fit all for ITSM tools

Some organizations especially smaller ones — find  complete ITSM systems preferable. While others prefer a best of breed approach.

Today you even can have the same capabilities delivered in a SaaS model.


One thing is for sure - for ITSM tools one size no longer fits all, with variables such as

• Company size & IT spend
• Complexity & rate of change 
• Geographical spread of the company
• User distribution (field, HQ, etc.)

Maturity level makes a difference

Others at a different ITSM maturity level wish to accelerate the development of best practices and increase efficiency across groups. They look for more sophisticated solutions that implement best-practice processes across multiple IT disciplines based on IT Infrastructure Library guidelines.

An organization with a high maturity level  has established processes covering multiple service management disciplines, such as incident and problem management, change management, configuration management, and asset management. Typically they require an ITSM solution that integrated tools across disciplines and fosters close collaboration among the various IT groups involved. In addition, the higher maturity level require processes based on ITIL. 

IT intensity affects capabilities

I've noticed that the breadth and depth of ITSM requirements are not necessarily proportional to a company’s revenue or the number of employees. In retail and manufacturing companies, for example, employees often share work­ stations. In the financial industry some employees may have more than one workstation.

Other organizations are outsourcing part or all of their ITSM activities to exter­nal providers. This puts different responsibilities on the requester and fulfiller, but also adds additional requirements around measuring SLA performance and tracking exceptions.

Mobility not just a nice to have

Mobile access to notifications with pagers was once considered advanced. But with today's mobile field force, mobile access is becoming more important both for end users and for IT themselves.

The Bring Your Own Device policies that are taking hold in organizations starts to affect the mobile device management capabilities. And the always on nature of business operations makes access to Service Management functions anytime, anywhere a key consideration.

You need to Decide

Different size and maturity companies have different needs.

Determine your needs up front to ensure that the solution you select meets your current needs and future potential needs.

To future proof your investments look for different solutions to match maturity and scale needs, and flexibility in deployment options.

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