ITSM Articles

Controlling IBM License Costs

10 Tips for Controlling IBM License Costs

Maximizing the value of IBM license costs while avoiding unplanned and unbudgeted costs is a core concern for both ITAM and ITSM professionals. This article offers 10 tips for better controlling your IBM license costs.
ITSM Tool Churn in 2025

ITSM Tool Churn in 2025 – It’s Better News

Every couple of years, ITSM.tools runs a short poll to understand whether organizations are changing their ITSM tools and – importantly – why. This article shares the results of our 2025 ITSM tool churn poll.
The Future of IT Is Human - Global IT Experience Benchmark Findings

The Future of IT Is Human – What We Learned from 130+ Countries

The HappySignals Global IT Experience Benchmark Report 2025, based on 2.28 million employee feedback responses from over 130 countries, is a comprehensive snapshot of how employees experience IT services and how organizations are using that data to create better, more people-centric support. This article explains more.
ITSM Maturity: Why SMBs Struggle

ITSM Maturity: Why SMBs Struggle to Mature Their ITSM Practices and What to Do About It

According to the new State of SMB IT for 2026 report from EasyVista and OTRS Group, most SMBs remain stuck in the middle stages of ITSM maturity. Nearly 40% of respondents say their organizations still operate without consistent processes. Just 12% describe their ITSM approach as “mature and proactive.”  Read more here.
AI Agents in ITSM

AI Agents in ITSM – What You Need to Know

A recent AI in ITSM survey by ManageEngine examined the progress of AI adoption among a sample of 300 IT professionals and their organizations. It extended beyond the current use of AI to include the future impact of AI agents. This article presents some of the survey findings.
Shadow AI Risks

Shadow AI Risks – The Impact on IT Teams

A year ago, IT departments could easily dismiss GenAI tools as a “marketing experiment” because there were only a handful of AI writing tools that were gaining popularity. Today, every department is trying a new AI tool (cough, OpenAI wrapper, cough) that promises to double their productivity, increase their quality of work, and secure them a promotion. So how do we deal with this Shadow AI?
Defining the Scope of an IBM License Audit – A Guide for ITSM Professionals

Defining the Scope of an IBM License Audit – A Guide for ITSM Professionals

For organizations with mature ITAM and ITSM practices, proactive engagement in defining the scope of an IBM license audit can shift the balance. This article provides details on what your organization can do scopewise to help improve the results of an IBM license audit.
ITIL Capacity and Performance Management

ITIL Capacity and Performance Management: A Complete Guide for Reliable IT Services

Some ITSM practices get widely adopted and closely managed, often using ITIL best practice. Others, like capacity and performance management, receive far less attention despite being just as essential when things go wrong. This article covers what the ITIL capacity and performance management practice does, why it deserves more airtime, and how ITSM teams can put it to work.
IBM Licensing Resources

IBM Licensing Resources for ITSM Professionals

Navigating IBM’s licensing models, contractual obligations, and product lifecycle changes can be time-consuming and risky without access to the right information. To help, here’s a curated list of IBM licensing resources to help your organization manage its IBM licensing risk and reduce unnecessary costs.
How Agentic AI Is Replacing Level 1 ITSM Tasks

The Future of ITSM: Agentic AI and the Autonomous Service Desk

McKinsey’s latest modeling estimates that generative and agent-driven AI could inject $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion of new economic value every year – roughly equivalent to the GDP of the UK. Inside ITSM, that value materializes whenever autonomous software agents absorb the drudgery once handled by Level 1 IT support staff.
ITSM Tool Change

ITSM Tool Change – Is Anything Different in 2025?

ITSM.tools takes a snapshot of the ITSM tool market every couple of years. It’s a short poll about whether ITSM tool change or churn is still happening and what the primary drivers for the ITSM tool replacements are (or were). The 2025 poll is here and we would appreciate you taking one minute or less to complete it.
AI Revolutionizes Your ITSM Knowledge Management

How AI Revolutionizes Your ITSM Knowledge Management

AI-driven knowledge management can help make your ITSM knowledge more accessible, accurate, and actionable. This article explains how AI-powered solutions revolutionize ITSM knowledge management, starting with the limitations of traditional knowledge management before covering how specific AI-enabled capabilities can help.
ITIL 4 Continual Improvement

ITIL 4 Continual Improvement: How to Drive Ongoing Value and Better IT Services

ITSM isn’t just about keeping the lights on. It’s also about delivering better services, better experiences, and better business outcomes over time. The ITIL 4 continual improvement practice is what makes that possible, and this article walks through how it works, what it covers, and how ITSM teams can put it to use without turning it into a paper exercise.
10 Tips for Optimizing IBM License Costs

10 Tips for Optimizing IBM License Costs

This article offers ten actionable tips to help ITAM and ITSM professionals better manage their organization’s IBM license costs. Because maximizing its ROI while avoiding unplanned and unbudgeted expenses requires strategic license management.
Service Design in ITIL 4

ITIL 4 Service Design Explained: From Planning to Delivery

ITIL 4’s Service Design management practice covers how services are shaped before they hit production. This article walks through what the practice is, its role in ITSM, its key elements, its dependencies on other ITIL 4 practices, and the Service Design processes an organization can use to improve IT service delivery.