IT Service Management (ITSM) refers to the management of a company’s Information Technology (IT) services, which aim to design, build, deliver, operate, and control the solutions offered to its customers. One key concept around ITSM is that a company’s IT department should function as a service.
Consider an employee who needs new hardware, like a second monitor. They usually must submit their request through a portal, create a ticket with all the necessary information, and initiate a workflow.
From there, this ticket will enter the IT team’s queue and be categorized according to its importance. When it’s time to fulfill this employee’s request, their new monitor will be sent, and they can enjoy their expanded virtual space.
This is the working philosophy of IT Service Management: your IT team will oversee all types of workplace technologies. This means everything from laptops and servers to the operation of critical workplace software.
Continue reading this article to understand the importance of these services and the difference between ITSM and ESM.
What are IT Services
IT services are processes that align the organization’s objectives with the traditional goals of an IT team. Although technology is an integral part of these services, they also extend to elements such as change management, workflow management, and continuous improvement.
In this section, we will discuss the main processes that are part of ITSM:
Configuration Management
Involves tracking the configuration of all items within an IT system. This includes hardware, software, and documentation—as well as managing the employees involved in the process.
The goal is to provide a reliable repository of information about that specific system. This way, it is possible to create clear relationships between IT infrastructure systems and services.
All this allows for better control and stronger alignment between the IT team and business needs.
Incident Management
ITSM provides for the tracking and resolution of incidents that disrupt normal operations. The main goal of this service is to restore these operations as quickly as possible.
To do this, incidents and requests must be prioritized based on the impact they have on the organization. The IT team can allocate resources to the area where they are most needed, seeking to ensure a faster and more efficient resolution to the problem.
Problem Management
The next service on the list is problem management, which aims to simplify the investigation of incidents—from detection to eradication. For this action, ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) subprocesses are used, such as: problem control, error control, and proactive problem analysis.
The main goal here is to eliminate recurring incidents while removing defects from the IT infrastructure and stabilizing the operating environment. In the end, this improves the overall reliability of the service.
Request Management
Includes handling different types of requests, such as password resets, new workstation installations, and personal information updates. ITSM seeks to simplify these essential activities to allow them to progress without unnecessary delays.
Change Management
This service is designed to ensure that changes to IT systems are prioritized, approved, scheduled, and executed successfully. These changes can directly affect employee productivity and engagement, so it is crucial that they are done correctly.
The IT team should keep in mind best practices for documentation, approval, and implementation in the pursuit of a seamless transition. It is essential that change management planning is aligned with the organization’s objectives.
Continuous Improvement Management
A key aspect of ITSM, continuous improvement management involves a constant search for identifying and implementing improvement opportunities. These improvement efforts should be linked to the company’s overall strategy, with appropriate goal tracking to measure success.
This approach encourages a culture of continuous improvement, allowing the company to adapt to an ever-evolving market. In the end, good continuous improvement management comes with increased efficiency of the product or service offered by the company.
Service Level Management
Empowers organizations by allowing them to track service level agreements (SLAs) with customers, employees, or suppliers. From the information generated by this tracking, managers can take corrective actions and promote compliance with desired standards.
The benefits of service level management include increased customer satisfaction and supplier commitment.
Knowledge Management
This is a crucial process that involves the collection, organization, analysis, and dissemination of knowledge within an organization. It includes all types of IT information, from technical specifications to common issues.
Knowledge management ensures that the correct information is available to the necessary people at the right time. The result is an improvement in training and development, decision-making, collaboration, communication, productivity, and risk reduction.
Talent Management
A vital process for the success of an organization is ensuring that employees with the necessary knowledge to perform a task are in the right place at the right time. Talent management ensures that employees are in the right position within the company, aligning with business objectives.
This process allows for the maximum exploitation of each team member’s unique potential, ensuring they deliver the highest quality services aligned with specific needs.
Release Management
IT service management can include overseeing the development, testing, deployment, and support of new software releases. This service integrates current objectives with long-term strategic planning.
Release management also includes designing the strategic steps necessary to achieve the goals of that specific release.
Differences Between ESM and ITSM
Recently, companies have realized that other departments also provide internal services. However, this does not guarantee efficiency in executing these services.
The lack of efficiency and organization in departments such as HR, finance, and facilities often hinders the company’s development. Tools and techniques successfully used by IT can help these departments.
These sectors also have demands that need to be identified, detailed, forwarded, and monitored. For example, when hiring a new employee, the need for more workforce in a department must be mapped and controlled.
Without a formal process, this need may reach HR through emails or phone conversations, without relevant information or necessary authorizations, and may be forgotten.
The HR inbox may be full, and the employee may not respond to the requester, harming the business. This is where the concept of Enterprise Service Management (ESM) comes in, applying ITSM techniques, tools, and processes to other departments.
What is ESM
ESM is a single platform where users and customers find solutions to their needs and problems. Whether to ask questions about accounting releases or install new software, users turn to one place.
There, they find a knowledge base and a service catalog to open tickets. There are also mechanisms to check the status of requests.
More than differentiating ESM from ITSM, ESM should be seen as an extension of ITSM. ESM solutions bring many benefits to companies. They allow the creation of self-service and automated service mechanisms.
Various sectors of the company can provide ready-to-use solutions. These can be application update packages, procedures to resolve day-to-day issues, or articles with accumulated knowledge.
This set brings speed and agility to those in need and optimizes the time of service-providing sectors. Without the need for so much attention to simple activities, they can focus on more complex processes.
Enterprise Service – ESM
Integrate service processes, IT tickets, incident
and problem management, SLA (Service Level Agreement),
knowledge base, configuration management (CMDB),
and change management on a single platform.
Conclusion
ITSM is essential for aligning Information Technology with an organization’s strategic goals, ensuring efficiency, reliability, and continuous improvement in the services provided. With well-structured processes, ITSM covers everything from incident management to continuous improvement, always focusing on delivering value to internal and external customers.
ESM, while using the same principles and practices as ITSM, should be seen as an extension of its concepts to other departments—such as HR, finance, and operations. By applying ITSM tools and methodologies to different areas of the company, ESM promotes greater organizational integration, agility in demand resolution, and resource optimization.
With ITSM and ESM working together, companies can create more effective processes, reduce operational overload, and offer more agile and structured service to employees and customers. Investing in this integrated approach is a powerful strategy to achieve more consistent and sustainable results across all sectors of the organization.
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