“Mobile-first” is no longer just an ITSM industry buzzword. Our consumption of digital is accelerating, and increasingly mobility plays a predominant role. In order to be effective and gain business value, IT organizations must take ownership and support digital transformation and its mobile elements in the service catalog and orchestration layers.
The question is not if your IT organization should engage in mobile—it’s now a matter of when and how. Whether in the form of responsive web services supported by an enterprise portal, or that of applications dedicated to heterogeneous environments (smartphones and tablets running on Android, iOS, and Windows), the expectations and needs of customers—both internal and external—revolve around mobility. It’s become a standard and integral component of application design and usage, allowing users to save time while boosting efficiency.
Organizations and their CIOs are challenged with providing real-time, seamless services to the business and customers alike. However, it’s important to understand that user concerns generally do not focus on the technology itself, but rather on its usage. Users don’t care what technology enables them to get the job done as long as it’s easy, fast, and convenient—and mobile fits the bill for all three.
This major trend places priority on the customer. As a result, companies’ service catalogs are being enriched for mobility to meet the needs of internal and external customers. And IT professionals are again faced with the need to break down silos. A key strength of digital transformation is the ability to provide a global view. In order to get to that comprehensive picture, IT must shift its approach and enforce strategies that go with it.
With an increased focus on mobile, IT organizations are facing new challenges like business application development, user interface optimization, and system and data security concerns. To combat these obstacles, IT must have simple, “codeless” tools to limit the resources necessary to develop and adapt mobile-first service delivery. IT organizations must become agile and fast—two essential pillars of modern service management.
Some will argue that the situation has not changed much, only that platforms have evolved. This dated vision is of an IT organization that gives priority to the back office and infrastructure. However, they forget that the cornerstone of today’s IT is customer service and the business, which places importance on the interface, the front office, and the solutions needed for a more consumerized approach.
In this context, collaboration and exchange within the business are essential. In terms of production, this translates into the need for a shared approach based on recognized methodologies—and based on a common platform. The modern goal of mobile ITSM is not to just implement ITIL methods but to achieve an organization-wide platform with ingrained mobile capabilities so business value is delivered to users wanting to interact with IT while they are on-the-go.
The service catalog aims to meet the needs of the business. While users are moving towards mobility, IT has no choice but to also move in that direction or lose relevance to the users. Therefore mobile ITSM is the future.
A mobile-ready service management platform provides users with the information they need, when they want it, and via any device they choose. Not only does it offer quick and convenient service, but the right tool also secures data and helps IT maintain control.
Placed in the context of digital transformation, mobility and IT service management become the keys to the implementation of corporate strategies that increase the value from IT. Moreover, half of IT decision makers say they are ready for the transformation. Yet risk and safety issues still limit companies in their attempts to realize its value. The bottom line is they lack the right tools. It’s up to the business and its IT department to deploy a capable mobile ITSM software tool that is easy to deliver and easy to use to ensure minimal disruption yet will support the mobile-first transformation needed.