The itSMF UK conference, aka ITSM24, was held in Reading this week at the mighty Madejski Stadium. The itSMF UK conference is one of the top IT service management (ITSM) industry events, and for very good reason. It’s packed with exciting content that lets attendees stay current on ITSM best practices and industry trends. It also allows people to network and catch up with industry colleagues and friends.
In this article, I share some of the highlights, along with tips and insights from the presenters.
My top ten learnings from ITSM24
1: We need to humanize IT in order to improve engagement. Our people are everything, but all too often, we forget that. Katrina Macdermid of HIT Global led an ITSM24 session on Humanizing IT: the missing experience ingredient in ITSM. We need to remember that the systems and applications that we so proudly build, manage, and support have to be used by real-life human beings.
So, we need to design them accordingly. We need to strike a balance between innovation and human connection because to provide good IT, we need to look after our people, processes, and products.
2: We need to be prepared for artificial intelligence (AI). I ran an ITSM24 session with my friend Simone Jo Moore called “Sassy Chaos,” discussing how we need to prepare our people for AI. Creating happiness and open-hearted service hinges on understanding the relationship between customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX), ensuring a holistic approach to embracing AI in our day jobs.
3. IT security and ITSM are stronger together. My friend Kumar Ramakrishnan from ManageEngine spoke about how IT security can play a crucial role in enhancing ITSM by strengthening the overall security posture of an organization. One of the key areas where IT security intersects with ITSM is in the management of endpoints.
He highlighted the importance of integrating IT asset management (ITAM) with security strategies to ensure that all devices and systems are properly inventoried, monitored, and protected. By incorporating security into ITSM processes, organizations can proactively identify vulnerabilities, reduce the risk of breaches, and ensure that IT services are effective, efficient, and safe.
4. We need to manage risk better in day-to-day service delivery. Cristan Massey ran an ITSM24 session about applying military values to ITSM. One of the key takeaways was about risk management and risk appetite. Risk appetite refers to the level of risk your organization is willing to accept in pursuit of its objectives.
It’s a critical concept in decision-making, as it helps guide how much uncertainty an organization is prepared to tolerate. In my experience, most people panic when asked to explain their risk appetite, so I really liked Cristian’s take on it, which is “as low as reasonably possible” or ALARP.
5. Customer experience needs to be given more focus. The ITSM24 presentation from Georgina Walton looked at how to gather the right feedback so IT departments can make tangible and measurable improvements to IT services. One piece of really practical advice was recognizing the importance of using Net Promoter Score (NPS) results to structure service and process improvements.
6. AI doesn’t need to be an all-or-nothing game. So many people are concerned about the impact of AI on IT support and delivery but don’t know where to start. My friend Akshay Anand ran an ITSM24 session with Effie Bagourdi on reimagining service management.
He advocated for organizations to apply the ITIL principle of “start where you are” when approaching AI. In this case, he advised that if people feel overwhelmed by AI, then start with small pilots and build on it over time to keep it manageable and reduce risk.
7. We need to be looking at generative AI (GenAI) and how it can support service management practices. Mark Herring and James Warriner ran an ITSM24 session on how far GenAI can transform service management. They discussed how AI can support a more personalized approach to IT support by collecting user information so that it can be applied in real-time support activities.
For example, we can understand CX and identify trends by knowing details about previous service desk contacts. They also talked about the use of consumer-grade experience to provide real-life consumer models (next-day delivery, no queues, automation, etc.) for employees
8. AI needs good data and lots of it. AI only works with data. The more data you feed it, the better it will be. Aaron Perrott’s ITSM24 session on using ITSM AIOps discussed real-life applications and use cases.
One valuable piece of advice was for organizations to define precisely what they want AIOps to do and build backward from that outcome.
9. Releases don’t have to follow a “Big Bang” approach. A weekly release cycle means we can release improvements in regular increments. Callum Carlile and Andrea Moscato presented on transformative ITSM practices.
I loved their suggestion of routing known error details through Slack (other messaging platforms are available) so users don’t have to navigate complex systems designed for ITSM professionals. One of their final suggestions – ensuring that 10-20% of release activity is focused on continual improvement – should be made an industry standard.
10. We need to look to the future. Sandra Whittleston’s ITSM24 session explained how student learning is consolidated and enhanced as they learn about ITSM on an undergraduate computing degree course at the Open University, UK. She talked about how to inspire the next generation of IT professionals, and, in her words: “Learner focus, built on relationships, learning through facilitation and building on existing knowledge.”
This is my take on ITSM24. If you want to discuss this or anything else ITSM-related, please let me know in the comments, drop me an email at [email protected], look me up on LinkedIn, or find me on X (or the platform formally known as Twitter). I’m @vawns.
Further Reading
Please use the website search capability to find other helpful ITSM articles on topics such as continuous monitoring, business process enablement, making informed decisions, handling sensitive data, how ITSM reduces costs, security risk, cloud-based ITSM tools, aligning with business objectives, service management systems, how other ITSM tools include remote support, potential risks with home working, improving team working, long-term improvements, security threats, service request management, key performance indicators (KPIs), and incident response plans.
Vawns Murphy
Vawns Murphy holds qualifications in ITIL V2 Manager (red badge) and ITIL V3 Expert (purple badge), and also has an SDI Managers certificate. Plus she holds further qualifications in COBIT, ISO 20000, SAM, PRINCE2, and Microsoft. In addition, she is an author of itSMF UK collateral on Service Transition, Software Asset Management, Problem Management and the "How to do CCRM" book. She was also a reviewer for the Service Transition ITIL 3 2011 publication.
In addition to her day job as a Senior ITSM Consultant at i3Works, she is also an Associate Analyst at ITSM.tools.
