We’re just over a quarter of the way through 2024 and already the IT Service Management (ITSM) landscape is bursting with innovation.

Everything is increasing: The power of AI, the rate of change, the expectations of our customers… The list goes on.

So in this ever-evolving environment, what changes do you need to make to keep pace?

1. Stop responding. Start anticipating with AI

As AI grows in power and knowledge, you’re going to start having access to more data than ever before. Using patterns and trends, you’ll be in a position to anticipate your customers’ needs before they do.

ITSM tools with powerful AI enable you to spot trends and fix problems before a customer even notices them – from repeating tickets to ineffective Knowledge Base content.

This is going to become a marked differentiator between service providers. Those who can harness their AI tools in this way will become increasingly efficient and effective, with happier customers and more productive teams.

2. Measure success beyond SLAs

Historically, the success of an IT Helpdesk would have been measured by a plethora of quantitative metrics: Time to resolve, incident backlog, SLA response times, CSAT scores…

These still have their place but, in today’s landscape, success isn’t solely based on numbers and efficiency.

With a growing focus on the employee experience, you will instead want to monitor value, customer happiness and collaboration. Understanding your customer and delivering a service that exceeds (not solely meets) their expectations is going to be paramount.

As such, you may need to identify new success metrics to demonstrate this value.

Base success metrics on the ITIL principles. Working holistically for example – explore how you can measure success across your entire value chain, from multiple stakeholders and dependencies, to integrations and partnerships. Or collaboration – how can you set and measure shared goals across different teams and tools?

It’s also worth looking at long term patterns of customer behaviour and how this may have changed in line with your service and support.

3. Information Security needs to be your constant companion

The threat of data breaches is going nowhere in 2024. It’s likely you have an internal Data Protection Officer (DPO) and Information Security teams, but it’s increasingly important for all teams to take responsibility for cyber security.

Be proactive. Schedule regular reviews of your department policies and procedures. Audit your tools, especially third-party apps. With a growing move to Cloud, ensure your providers’ security measures and credentials comply with your own policies, and any regulations in your sector.

It’s such an exciting time to be part of ITSM, and to see its wider value recognised. With the right tooling, technology, support and security, ITSM should be the gold standard to which other business areas aspire.

By Hannah Vincent, Automation Consultants

Meet the Automation Consultants team at stand 155 at SITS, The Service Desk & IT Support Show, on 17-18th April 2024, ExCeL London. You can now register for your free ticket here.