With organizations adopting new technologies and systems to keep up with digitization, IT leaders are always looking to make their IT management process more efficient. Otherwise, there's a good chance you'll spend more time managing your tech than benefitting from it. However, with IT service management, you can streamline and automate core processes, saving valuable time and freeing up your IT staff to take on meaningful projects. This article will offer actionable recommendations for increasing IT team efficiency and demonstrate how, with the right IT service management solution, you can boost efficiency without boosting your budget. In this article, you will learn 6 ways to make ITSM more efficient.
1. Consider a Managed Service
A managed service enables your IT staff to focus less on the day-to-day minutiae of the business and more on ways you can improve the company’s bottom line. For example, with GSI’s ServiceNow managed services, you can reap the benefits of ServiceNow more quickly and at a scale that’s comfortable for your company and budget.
GSI’s ServiceNow experts can help you choose the services with the most benefit to your business’s bottom line while facilitating a smooth onboarding process. The automations available in ServiceNow are vast and varied—and could be a little intimidating—but with GSI’s guidance, you can implement the best setup for your organization.
2. Leverage the Cloud
Leveraging the cloud enhances ITSM efficiency. You can allocate only the services you need to cloud processes and scale up as you’d like. In effect, cloud services enable you to pick and choose the tools you want and then scale up or down as needed.
For example, an organization may notice that the bulk of certain IT team members’ time gets invested in monitoring security alerts. By using a cloud-based service, you can interface your security system with a cloud solution and have an IT service management company monitor, manage, and respond to alerts.
3. Find Opportunities to Automate Tasks for ITSM Efficiency
Some of the most time-consuming tasks can be automated, transforming the daily workload of your IT team. With automation, they can:
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- Do more with less effort
- Save time because automated processes handle the bulk of their work
- Reinvest their mental bandwidth in projects that improve core business systems
- Reduce the number of errors made on a daily basis
For example, suppose your IT team spends several hours each week organizing tickets, recording information about each one, and generating related reports. You can use workflow automation to take care of the bulk of these tasks, giving them the opportunity to serve more customers.
4. Use Data to Increase Visibility
In a digitized environment, every system produces loads of data, and you can collect this information to gain deep visibility into the ITSM efficiency and performance of your processes.
For example, if you work for a manufacturing company, certain machines on the factory floor can interface with ServiceNow, which can collect data regarding how efficiently each machine is operating. By analyzing this data, you may discover that some machines are underperforming. By making a few adjustments, you can optimize your manufacturing process and get the most out of your equipment.
5. Focus on the Needs of the Business, Not Technology
Going after the latest technology without fully assessing how it will benefit your processes would be putting the cart before the horse. The needs of your business, not keeping up with the technological Joneses, should power your strategy.
For instance, if you have a relatively small organization, there may not be a need to use all of ServiceNow’s human resources tools, primarily because there may be less turnover, paperwork, and onboarding in your company than in others. You may be better off using an IT service management solution to guide you through reducing your workloads for maintenance and monitoring. Or, if help desk operations are inefficient, you could use ServiceNow to streamline those workloads. The key is to create value as you decide which services to use.
6. Make Use of Resources for ITSM Efficiency
For many organizations, the resources they already have in-house—both technical and human—can help them improve operations. You just need to reevaluate how to squeeze the most value out of what you already have.
For example, if your IT staff is investing a lot of time in managing network access credentials for users, you can streamline most—or all—of your workload with ServiceNow. In this way, the IT team can spend less time issuing passwords and more time analyzing and improving core processes.
Increase Efficiency Today with GSI
We hope you found this article on 6 ways to make ITSM more efficient helpful! With GSI’s GatewayNow, you can custom-design your ServiceNow solution to maximize the benefits. GSI’s IT service management staff knows exactly how to implement your solution in a way that provides the most efficiency. Or if you want a more hands-on approach to managing your IT processes without having to hire additional personnel, GSI's expert managed services team can provide exactly that. To learn more, reach out to GSI today.