Articles tagged with ITSM

Ending the L1 vs L2 Escalation Wars

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

Eusoph Simba April 13, 2026

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.

Illustrated figure in a hat and jacket labelled ITSM Guide facing a server room representing the ITIL guiding principles

ITIL (Version 5) Guiding Principles: A Practical Guide for ITSM Leaders

Sophie Danby April 7, 2026

ITIL (Version 5) describes the guiding principles as “recommendations that can guide an organization in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work, or management structure.” This article walks through what the principles are, how they’ve evolved from ITIL 4, and how ITSM leaders can put them to use today.

AI Readiness: Is Your Organization Ready for AI?

AI Readiness: Is Your Organization Ready for AI? It Depends

Stephen Mann April 2, 2026

AI is already here. The level of AI inclusion in ITSM tools and platforms is remarkable when you look at it closely. The question isn’t whether to engage with AI, it’s whether your organization has the right foundations to make it work. Trust, governance, and a clear reason for adopting it in the first place separate the organizations getting results from those that aren’t.

ITSM Benchmarking

ITSM Benchmarking – Your Chance to Get Involved

Stephen Mann March 31, 2026

How would you rate your organization’s ITSM or ITIL adoption? Not just in terms of process or practice adoption, but in serving the parent business. PeopleCert has built an ITIL Performance Benchmarking Model with defined ways to calculate the key metrics. This article covers how the model works and how ITSM teams can get involved.

What I Learned from SDI SPARK26

Superheroes, Service Desks, and Chaos Monkeys – What I Learned from SDI SPARK26

Vawns Murphy March 30, 2026

The Service Desk Institute held its annual SPARK conference in Birmingham in March. Vawns Murphy captures her pick of the best sessions, the presenters worth listening to a second time, and the practical takeaways that stood out over three days of talks. This article is her selected version of the event for anyone who couldn’t get there in person.

Break the 1–3x ITSM Implementation Cost Rule

How AI Will Break the 1–3x ITSM Implementation Cost Rule

Richard Mendis March 26, 2026

The rule of thumb in ITSM has long been that implementation costs one to three times the software license. Richard Mendis of Bytemethod.ai makes the case that agentic AI finally breaks this calculation, by taking on the configuration, documentation, and maintenance work that consumes the bulk of an implementation budget. The article explains where the savings show up first.

AI Help Desk Software

AI Help Desk Software: How LLMs, AI Agents & Chatbots Are Transforming IT Support

Jeff Hume March 24, 2026

AI help desks powered by LLMs and AI agents are being rolled out to automate IT support, reduce Tier 1 tickets, cut operational costs, and scale support operations without adding headcount. Jeff Hume looks at where these systems are already delivering, what the current limitations look like, and how to think about them if you’re evaluating options for your own service desk.

Illustrated checklist with colorful crayons representing the key ITIL (Version 5) changes from ITIL 4

ITIL (Version 5) Changes Explained: 20 Important Changes from ITIL 4

Stephen Mann March 17, 2026

The release of the ITIL (Version 5) Foundation publication has brought new interest in what changed from ITIL 4. This article walks through 20 changes in ITIL (Version 5) compared to ITIL 4, including updates to the Value System, the new certification paths, AI governance, and how the framework now handles the practices practitioners already know.

The Hidden Cost of IT “Papercuts”: Why ITSM Automation Is a Business Continuity Strategy

The Hidden Cost of IT “Papercuts”: Why ITSM Automation Is a Business Continuity Strategy

Lauren Okruch March 11, 2026

It’s the small issues that eat away at your team’s capacity: password resets, access tweaks, profile changes, and “just a quick question” tickets that never make a headline but never stop arriving either. Lauren Okruch explains why the compounded impact of these papercuts is a real business continuity risk, and how ITSM automation delivers more upside on this class of work than the flashier use cases.

AI in ITSM

AI in ITSM: How AI Is Transforming IT Service Management

Daniel Burley March 9, 2026

AI is changing IT service management, from automation and predictive incidents to smarter knowledge management and better end-user experiences. Daniel Burley walks through where the technology fits in an ITSM setup today, what it does well, what it still gets wrong, and how to think about where to invest first if you’re at the early end of the adoption curve.

FinOps and ITSM

What the State of FinOps 2026 Means for ITSM

Sophie Danby March 4, 2026

The FinOps Foundation has released its sixth annual State of FinOps survey, and ITSM is explicitly named as one of the key disciplines with which FinOps teams are now collaborating. If you work in ITSM and you haven’t been paying attention to FinOps, now’s the time to start.

Illustrated ITIL control tower rising above a digital landscape representing the ITIL (Version 5) framework

ITIL (Version 5) Explained: What’s New, What’s Changed, and Why It Matters

Roman Jouravlev March 2, 2026

ITIL (Version 5) is here, and the questions from practitioners have started. This article works through the most common ones: what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what the key differences from ITIL 4 are. Roman Jouravlev, editor of ITIL and creator of the Conversations with Giants series, walks through the practical implications for anyone already running ITIL 4.