8 Expert Tips for ITSM Tool Selection in 2018

It’s the start of a new year and a time when upcoming advances in IT technology seem endless. The fast pace of innovation makes it hard to imagine what the future holds as new technologies appear seemingly overnight. As rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence, conversational UX, and even, virtual reality emerge, it’s clear the workplace of tomorrow will look much different than it does today.

The challenge at hand for IT organizations is keeping up with these advances, or better yet, staying ahead of them. For many, that means replacing your current ITSM solution with one that will enable the realization of your service delivery goals in 2018 and beyond. As we know, it’s just not enough to invest in a tool that will power your organization today. Tomorrow is quickly becoming reality and the ITSM solution you choose must be well equipped to facilitate your future needs.

8 ITSM Tool Selection Tips

Here’s a list of ITSM tool selection criteria to keep in mind while evaluating service management solutions. These tips on what to look for ensure you’ll choose a tool with a strong foundation that your organization can grow with indefinitely.

1. First and foremost, look for an integrated ITSM platform.
An integrated ITSM platform is a foundational requirement ensuring the vendor has a proven platform — meaning they have experience with global customers and have been operating in the ITSM space for many years. That platform should include features like fully integrated ITIL process lifecycle support with PinkVerified ITIL processes and robust third-party integration methods. The solution should allow you to configure the platform using both drag-and-drop codeless tools as well as simple coding, such as SQL queries, making platform administration flexible, easy, and low cost while not sacrificing on maturity.

2. Make sure it offers a modern user experience for both IT staff and end users.
Modern user experience is important because it does not just apply to staff working in the ITSM interface. The solution should allow you to easily deliver intuitive, responsive portals for specific IT and business personas, including self-service for end users, dashboards for executives, and apps for staff. These should all be created using drag-and-drop capabilities to limit the need for any coding.

3. Smart automation is key for time-savings.
Smart automation functionality should be made available out-of-the-box for ITSM users to streamline complex processes into simple automated actions like repetitive tasks that may normally require several manual steps, creating business rules, or scheduling tasks for later, to name a few examples.

4. Don’t even think of putting a tool on your short list if it’s not a trusted cloud vendor!
A trusted cloud ITSM vendor has a higher ratio of cloud to on-premise customers and commits to security, availability, and performance through SSAE-18 audited processes, the use of big data analytics and global datacenters, all while providing performance transparency to customers via a 24/7 portal.

5. Boost efficiency with robust service analytics & reporting.
Service analytics and reporting should go beyond flat service desk reports by capturing historical data, storing that data long-term and using pre-built reporting capabilities to visualize trends so you can be more actionable and efficient within your organization’s service delivery strategy.

6. Stay on top of your IT assets with integrated IT Asset Management.
IT Asset Management should be integrated with ITSM functions to automate the tracking of asset data such as costs, use, and assignment, while enabling ITSM staff to focus on higher-value activities.

7. Optimize your IT investments with IT Financial Management.
IT Financial Management should also be included for optimizing IT investments with better visibility into financial and service utilization data, like license compliance, asset depreciation, and budget allocation.

8. Don’t forget, make sure it’s global enterprise ready!
A global, enterprise-ready solution should have out-of-the-box features like multi-lingual support and segregation of data and security at the organizational level to support your maturing business.

Next Steps: Download the Gartner Report

Check out this complimentary Gartner report to ensure you make the best ITSM selection for your organization.

Gartner Report: 6 Smart Steps for ITSM Tool Selection Success