Service Desk Articles

Illustration of a shattered USB drive breaking apart, representing data loss from a deleted partition

Important IT Support Skills: How to Recover a Deleted Partition on a USB Drive

Losing access to a USB drive partition does not necessarily mean your data is gone. In many cases, deleted partitions, file system corruption, and accidental formatting only make files inaccessible rather than permanently erased. This guide explains how to recover USB data from a formatted or deleted partition, restore lost partitions using Windows tools and recovery software, and apply best practices to prevent future data loss.
Illustration of a person presenting an ITSM webinar on a laptop screen, with a live chat bubble and audience engagement icons

ITSM Webinars: Free On-Demand ITSM & ITIL Webinars

This “living” article has been created as a handy resource that lists the ITSM webinars ITSM.tools has participated in since 2021. It was most recently updated in 2026 with new webinars as needed.
Confused robot surrounded by a question mark, representing AI operating without context in IT service desks

Beyond Intelligence: Why Context Is the Missing Piece in AI-Driven IT Service Desks

AI is transforming IT service desks, but not in the way many expect. The real limitation isn’t the intelligence of AI models, it’s the lack of usable, high-quality context within most IT environments. From CMDB accuracy and knowledge articles to service catalogs and tacit expertise, AI is only as effective as the information it can access. Without strong contextual foundations, even the most advanced AI simply scales existing issues. The real opportunity lies in building richer, more reliable ITSM context so AI can deliver consistent, meaningful operational value.
Illustrated humans and AI robots in a meeting representing Agentic AI in ITSM collaboration

Agentic AI in ITSM Insights and Correlations

Discover the latest findings from the 2026 HCLSoftware-sponsored ITSM.tools survey on Agentic AI. This article explores AI adoption trends, governance priorities, regional differences, and the correlations between AI maturity, trust, business value, and organizational success, helping IT leaders better understand where Agentic AI is delivering measurable impact in ITSM.
Cartoon child dressed as a superhero standing in a server room representing ITSM heroics culture

Why ITSM Heroics Are Hurting Your Organization

From ancient myths to modern workplaces, we’ve always admired heroes – the ones who step into chaos and save the day. In ITSM, that same mindset often plays out when organizations celebrate the individual who resolves a major incident while overlooking the systemic issues that created the crisis in the first place. While ITSM heroics can demonstrate expertise, dedication, and resilience, they can also reinforce a reactive culture built on firefighting rather than prevention. This article explores why ITSM heroics persist, the hidden organizational and psychological factors behind them, and how leaders can shift recognition away from emergency responders.
Illustrated phoenix rising in flames, representing renewal and rebirth in the ITSM tool renewal cycle

ITSM Tool Renewal Guide: 7 Questions to Ask Before Renewing or Replacing Your Platform

Many ITSM tool renewals are treated as procurement exercises when they should be strategic business decisions. With AI reshaping service management, increasing pressure to reduce costs, and rapidly evolving vendor capabilities, renewing the status quo is no longer the default choice. This guide outlines a practical 90–180 day framework for evaluating your current platform, assessing alternatives, and building stakeholder alignment before contract renewal. It also covers the seven critical questions every IT leader should answer to determine whether to renew, expand, or replace their ITSM solution with confidence.
Illustrated IT support agent at a computer with headset, representing AI-driven service desk operations in a ticketless enterprise

The Ticketless Enterprise: How AI Agents Prevent Work Instead of Processing It

The best support tickets are the ones never submitted. And with the emergence of AI, a ticketless enterprise is becoming a reality, allowing Enterprise operations teams to become more effective and less expensive.
ServiceTeam ITSM Enterprise 3.0

Provance ServiceTeam ITSM Enterprise 3.0

Provance ServiceTeam ITSM Enterprise 3.0 continues the platform’s evolution as a Microsoft-centric service management solution built natively on Microsoft Power Platform. Designed for organizations looking to maximize existing Microsoft investments, the solution combines ITIL-aligned service management capabilities with low-code flexibility, workflow automation, AI-driven innovation, and deep integration across Microsoft 365, Azure, Power BI, Power Automate, and related technologies. ServiceTeam ITSM Enterprise 3.0 offers organizations a modern alternative to traditional ITSM tools while leveraging the scalability, security, and extensibility of the Microsoft ecosystem.
Illustrated figure measuring with a large ruler, representing flow metric measurement in IT service management rather than just SLA use

SLA Compliance is Misleading: How to Measure True IT Service Health

SLA metrics capture resolution and response times against fixed targets. They’re aggregate. They’re historical. But they tell you nothing about internal flow quality. A team might optimize for the clock. But the way they get there – escalation ping-pong, midnight heroics, workarounds instead of fixes – degrades the system underneath.
Why service management keeps outliving its ITSM is dead obituaries

ITSM is Dead? Why Service Management Keeps Outliving Its Obituaries

Somebody announces the death of service management every few years, and they’ve been doing it for 35. Barclay Rae has heard every version and thinks they all miss the same thing: the job at the heart of service management is human, not technological, which is exactly why no new wave of tech has managed to kill it. If anything, AI has made the case for it stronger.
CTO checklist for building AI-ready IT operations in 2026

The CTO Checklist for AI-Ready IT Operations in 2026

Every new tool promises to simplify IT operations and somehow adds another layer of complexity instead. Rui Alves argues that bolting AI onto a tangle of disconnected systems just gives you automation without intelligence, and that the CTOs getting real value in 2026 are doing the unglamorous work first: connecting service management, monitoring, assets, FinOps, and governance into a single operational layer. A practical checklist for what AI-ready operations actually require.
From VIPs to VIRs

From VIPs to VIRs: Rethinking IT Support Prioritization for Business Impact

Many IT service desks still operate with a “very important person” (VIP) list (after all, it’s a long-held IT support best practice). However, given the importance of technology to business operations and outcomes, the VIP list is showing its age. And more importantly, it’s likely getting in the way of something more useful to your organization. Does your IT service desk need a VIR list?
Shadow AI in IT Support

Shadow AI in IT Support: When Employees Fix Problems Outside the Service Desk

It’s 9am and a sales manager hits a VPN error before a client call. Rather than wait on a service desk ticket, they paste the error into an AI tool and get a fix in seconds. The problem is solved, but no incident was recorded. Judin Joan Soundarya S of ManageEngine looks at what shadow AI costs problem management and security operations, and the practical ways ITSM platforms can regain that visibility without slowing users down.
Agentic ITSM

Agentic ITSM: Understanding the 4 Levels of AI Maturity in IT Service Management

Everyone is selling agentic AI, but the gap between the weakest and strongest versions is enormous. Manish Sharma of Rezolve.ai sets out a four-stage maturity model for AI in ITSM, from legacy retrieval through reactive assistants and process agents to true agentic systems that reason, act across connected systems, and catch problems nobody asked them to look for. He also offers the questions to put to any vendor claiming agentic AI.
Ending the L1 vs L2 Escalation Wars

Ending the L1 vs L2 Escalation Wars: Rethinking IT Support Tiers

A ticket gets escalated, comes back marked “add notes before escalation,” gets reassigned, then returns with “should have been resolved at L1.” Meanwhile the end-user is still waiting. Eusoph Simba argues the ticket ping-pong between support tiers isn’t an escalation problem but a problem with how we frame support levels. He makes the case for treating every ticket as an issue to solve, escalating on capability rather than hierarchy, and a simple standard format that breaks the loop.