The business economic impact of COVID-19 is likely going to change almost every organization for at least the next 2-3 years, including how service consumers and service providers interact with each other, i.e. service management. And, as revenues are decreasing for virtually every organization, the criteria for investments will be scrutinized more than ever, even where organizations had ROI that was never met or measured. Your planned IT service management (ITSM) investments will be no different. This is just one of many ways in which ITSM will be different in a post-COVID-19 world. Please keep reading to find out eight more changes to ITSM best practice.
There are many ways in which #ITSM will be different in a post-COVID-19 world. Here @ITSMNinja explores just eight of them. #COVID19 Click To Tweet-
The business value of ITSM investments will need to be demonstrated (as will changes to ITSM best practice)
Understanding and communicating the value of investments will be critical for obtaining approval. Similarly, for many IT organizations, deciding what will be done (and what won’t) will be based on the value to the organization:
- How is the ITSM initiative linked to the short-term and long-term goals and objectives of the organization?
- How will the improvements be measured, and can management trust the anticipated improvement metrics?
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Value creation will require a focus on what can be done well
ITSM strategies will be reevaluated, as will changes to ITSM best practice, and understanding how each activity contributes to the success of the organization will be essential for service organizations. Most organizations will be expected to do more, yet have fewer resources than previously available.
To achieve these objectives, IT organizations will need to assess what they can do well, what brings value, and then automate or stop doing those activities that don’t bring value to the organization. They also need to better evaluate what they should do themselves, and when to outsource to provide better value to the organization and customers.
Post COVID-19 #ITSM strategies will be reevaluated, and understanding how each activity contributes to the success of the organization will be essential for service orgs, says @ITSMNinja #COVID19 Click To Tweet-
Review of the IT operations status quo will be mandated as will changes to ITSM best practice
Organizations will be asked to evaluate and reevaluate what they’re doing. Organizations that have value streams, customer journey maps, and service value chains will be able to do this quicker when considering changes to ITSM best practice. However, these organizations will still need to reassess what their customers need today, tomorrow, and next year. I expect we’ll see more personalization as this is done.
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Continual improvement will be key to business success
Many, small, ongoing changes to ITSM best practice will be essential to the long-term success of many organizations. They’ll need to be more agile, understanding that they need to break down the more significant initiatives into smaller, manageable improvements that will cumulatively bring more than the sum off the individual activities.
As revenues decrease for virtually every org, the criteria for investments will be scrutinized more than ever, even where orgs had ROI that was never met or measured. And #ITSM investments will be no different says @ITSMNinja #COVID19 Click To Tweet-
Selling will require a new approach
It’ll be some time before customers are ready to have salespeople stop-by or will return to large conferences. We’ve seen Google and Microsoft move large (previously face-to-face) events to virtual, and we’ll see this continue for ITSM events.
As organizations see reduced travel costs compared to revenue, they’ll assess what the right mix is. This will also change how vendors spend their marketing budgets. Relationship management is still what drives many business decisions, so adapting to other channels to provide value to customers will be critical to grow and develop these relationships. Increased sensitivity to the various communication channels that each of us uses, as well as which channels we prefer, and what channels our customers prefer, is necessary for success.
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Remote working will continue and bring changes to ITSM best practice
Working virtually is here, and more organizations will move to it, if only as a cost-saving mechanism. As someone who has worked remotely for 20+ years, the most significant difference is how the tools have improved, facilitating communications.
What is needed in terms of changes to ITSM best practice, however, is the ongoing communication and authenticity to build, maintain, and grow the relationships with our peers and customers. What this means is that we need to ensure that the discussions, conversations, and communications continue, and doing it virtually is different. We’ll need to meet customers where they want to meet the service provider, not where we want.
Working virtually is here, and more orgs will move to it, if only as a cost-saving mechanism, post COVID-19 says @ITSMNinja. #COVID19 Click To Tweet-
Security issues will be heightened with the new or different services
As we’ve seen with the media attention on Zoom, and previously Facebook, there’s a growing concern over security. Understanding the risk profile of both the organization and customers will continue to increase in importance. Not all service requires the same level of protection, yet any security breach will bring unwanted scrutiny. Similarly, any outage will have a more significant impact on the organization, impacting credibility and confidence in the service provider and bring about more changes to ITSM best practice.
Just as 9/11 resulted in many changes, COVID-19 will be the cause of many other changes, personal and business. Here @ITSMNinja explores what we can expect post pandemic. #COVID19 Click To Tweet-
Service management frameworks will be more important going forward
Product and service managers need to think more from a DevSecOps mindset. To achieve the innovation and productivity gains that many organizations are seeking means a more holistic approach to how everything is done is required. Product management and customers will expect changes faster, at a higher quality. To achieve this, adopting a service management framework, e.g. ITIL 4 with its guiding principles and service value system, will allow organizations to meet the challenges brought to us by COVID-19. Service providers need to understand better what their service consumers value, and ensure that each of their organizations continues to adapt to ensure that the changes made provide the value that customers expect and need.
The innovators will be the organizations that we’ll notice first. And that innovation will be the result of meeting the customers’ needs by understanding what they value. Just as 9/11 resulted in many changes, COVID-19 will be the cause of many other changes to ITSM best practice.
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John Custy
John Custy is the Managing Consultant at JPC Group and has spent his career working in IT and service management organizations; providing a practical, pragmatic approach to service management by understanding it’s about the people and outcomes first, then the processes, and finally the technology. He’s also a well known educator and speaker on service management having presented at industry conferences worldwide.
In addition to the day job, he is also an Associate Consultant at ITSM.tools.
