IT Service Management (ITSM) is the essence of IT service delivery in an organization. However, ITSM cannot properly contribute value if the people, processes, and technology in place are not optimized. This is where ITSM automation can help streamline operations to generate optimum efficiency.
But, you may ask, what is ITSM automation exactly and what kind of benefits can it reap for your business? Let’s find out!
What is ITSM Automation?
ITSM automation refers to the development and implementation of capabilities that enable service desk administrators to create processes that can be completely or partially employed using technology, without the need for manual involvement. These processes can be self-initiating when certain criteria are satisfied or can be commenced by any service desk agent.
Although ITSM is used as an umbrella term for many techniques of information system management, it explicitly refers to the technique of using ITIL & ITSM best practices for delivering IT services.
Some ITSM processes include creating and managing tickets, enabling self-service for common requests, and accelerating digital transformation across the organization.
ITSM automation is accomplished through the use of ITSM software that is designed to leverage structures and accumulated knowledge, as well as AI technologies like chatbots or virtual agents.
The fundamental objective of ITSM automation is to increase efficiency across various teams and departments in an organization by utilizing automated workflows, a knowledge base, and ITSM software as the foundation.
To see what service desk processes you can start automating to increase your organizational efficiency, read our blog 8 Service Desk Processes to Start Automating Today!
Top 10 Benefits of ITSM Automation for your Organization
ITSM automation can impact both your service desk teams and the entire organization in a positive way.
Here are some of the top benefits of ITSM automation worth considering while implementing this advanced strategy for your organization.
1. Streamlined Ticket Creation and Routing
When tickets are created, they must be routed to the right service desk agent in the first go. In addition, service desk agents can leverage automated workflows to make sure that tickets are handled properly every time they come in. This not only reduces the time it takes to resolve each ticket from beginning to end but also improves overall efficiency.
2. Simplified Escalation of Critical Incidents
Just like how ITSM automation can be used to route tickets to the appropriate service desk agents, it can also be used to flag critical incidents. In businesses without 24-hour support staff, this is extremely beneficial. Having an automated process that escalates major incidents to the right personnel in situations when incidents need to be resolved outside of normal business hours due to a major service outage, is of utmost importance and can result in cost savings.
3. Elimination of Repetitive Tasks
ITSM automation improves the capacity to minimize low-level tasks, consequently facilitating a shift-left initiative. Through the use of automation, this approach transfers level-1 tickets to self-service and entirely removes certain low-level requests, reducing the amount of time spent on low-level tickets and boosting ROI on cost-per-ticket.
4. Efficient Incident Management
IT service desk agents spend extensive hours identifying and analyzing the underlying root causes of incidents. But with ITSM automation, agents are equipped with system-level insights into incidents, through better categorization, that assists them in identifying and resolving incidents as well as implementing necessary resolutions, thus simplifying the whole incident management process.
5. Improved Change and Release Management
With ITSM automation you can not only streamline incident management but also successfully develop multi-level and approval workflows to implement seamless changes and releases while effectively resolving problems and incidents. This helps the DevOps teamwork more closely with service desk agents, resulting in reduced friction in operations.
6. Enhanced Service Desk Efficiency
With an ITSM platform that supports automation like chatbots or an automated self-service portal, the service desk can increase its productivity by avoiding time-consuming interactions and instead focusing on resolving incidents and underlying problems.
7. Reduced Operational Costs
Automation can help organizations drive down operational costs by considerably minimizing the manual effort involved in managing and executing repetitive ITSM tasks. The high degree of precision provided ensures zero human errors, therefore preventing the need for re-work, thus saving time and cost.
8. Availability of Performance Insights with Analytics and Reporting
Accurate analysis and reporting help the service desk agents to discover areas that require improvement. ITSM automation helps to gather historical data, save it long-term, and enable users to view trends with integrated reporting abilities to develop an effective services delivery approach.
9. Improved Customer Experience
With ITSM automation, you can provide round-the-clock availability, eliminate errors, and offer considerably faster ticket resolution and services to provide end customers with better engagement and experience.
10. Accessibility to Customer Feedback
ITSM automation can simplify the process of collecting feedback, comments, and proposed improvements from customers. Instead of having a prolonged discussion, automation can trigger a brief poll or survey after each ticket resolution to assist managers in determining which areas need to be streamlined and which processes are incompetent.
How to Successfully Implement ITSM Automation
Now that you understand how ITSM automation can prove to be a major factor in your organization’s digital transformation, find the following key points that can help you get your ITSM automation implementation right.
- Take into account the long term ROI
The tremendous benefits might persuade anyone to implement automation but the advantages must be assessed against the expenses. Factors like operational costs, the impact of process errors on the business, speed of execution, service desk agents working on essential activities, etc. must be evaluated before investing in automation.
- Recognize the difference between automation and orchestration
To put it simply, automation is the process of establishing a single process to operate by itself. Orchestration, on the other hand, is the automated implementation of multiple automated processes like a digital workflow. However, if you automate tasks without orchestrating the process in which they are executed, you are just achieving local optimization rather than complete digitalization.
- Identify what processes can be effectively automated
Consider highly repetitive processes with known solutions. If the tasks and their solution options are simple to describe and map, and the consequences of such tasks are predictable, then such processes can be automated quickly and easily.
- Ensure availability of proper automation tools and capabilities
The use of a technology that does not meet or does not suit your ad hoc requirements can lead to a failure and catastrophe of your ITSM automation strategy. Consider using an advanced ITSM platform that supports automation through workflows.
- Develop the right skill sets
ITSM automation success is reliant on having the right personnel with the basic design skills, logical thinking and reasoning, awareness of organizational goals, and more. Without the right people, the automation effort can become futile.
Conclusion
ITSM automation can not only help organizations save operational costs, but also increase service desk agents’ efficiency to enable them to concentrate their efforts on more value-producing initiatives that boost customer satisfaction.
If you are on the lookout for a sophisticated ITSM platform that supports automation capabilities to help you significantly improve your IT operations, then check Motadata ServiceOps ITSM software.
Request a Demo to see what processes you can start automating using Motadata ServiceOps ITSM, today!