IT Service Management in Different Industries (PDF)

IT2312 IT Service Management in Different Industries ITSM in Various Industries (ServiceNow) Besides applications in technological-related businesses and organizations, IT Service Management (ITSM) is also enjoyed by different industries. ServiceNow is a software company tha...

IT2312 IT Service Management in Different Industries ITSM in Various Industries (ServiceNow) Besides applications in technological-related businesses and organizations, IT Service Management (ITSM) is also enjoyed by different industries. ServiceNow is a software company that has its service management called ServiceNow IT Service Management. It is a modern, cloud-based, and silo-busting ITSM solution that promises to consolidate on- premises legacy tools into a single cloud platform. It uses AI and machine learning capabilities with virtual agent chatbots to help IT staff and boost overall productivity by 30%. ServiceNow ITSM aims to provide the following: Boost employee satisfaction by enabling employees to solve issues 24/7, raise questions, and get relevant, precise, and consistent information. Make smarter decisions, automate services, and constantly enhance services in role-based workspaces. Triage, collaborate, and enable agents to resolve incidents and stay connected from anywhere to resolve risky incidents and improve agent productivity by 30%. Entertainment The peak value of The Star Entertainment Group offers diverse hotel and entertainment experiences and gaming facilities as it aims to become the leading integrated resort company in Australia. The company’s IT Operation & Services team uses ServiceNow ITSM through its Project Renovation program to drive improvements in services, security, and user satisfaction. The different departments in each property of the company have their processes and methods for service request management before, but with ServiceNow ITSM, they were able to digitalize over 80 paper-based processes and have a single platform that increases the efficiency of their technology service operations. The IT team now has real-time visibility into the company’s entire infrastructure, which helps enable faster diagnosis of trends in incidents, such as constant load increase within an application that can negatively impact the employees or the customer experience. This has helped the company to proactively fix problems before they become one and minimize the impact on the employees and customers. Education The University of Maryland in the United States prides itself on having state-of-the-art technology to become a leader in education, research, entrepreneurship, and innovation. It has a Division of Information Technology that provides world-class support for university staff and students to access new services, get issues resolved quickly, and have their questions answered. The division uses ServiceNow ITSM, which has transformed how they deliver service. They now have a unified IT Support Center portal that allows university staff and students to report issues, access services, and share questions and answers with other school members. 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 1 of 5  IT2312 With the portal, users can ask ServiceNow to create a website for a new research project or to schedule delivery of audiovisual equipment for a class or an entire course. This integration has helped the school reduce incident resolution times by 75%, reduce incident volumes by 25%, and reduce incorrectly routed incidents by 66%. Finance Banco de Costa Rica is a financial conglomerate that drives Costa Rican socioeconomic development, including economic growth, attraction of foreign investment, and sustainable tourism development. The bank used ServiceNow ITSM in 2016 for its service catalog, allowing customers to complete processes digitally using their platform. This was done after the need for technical support rises for their more than 250 offices. From initial usage by their IT team, their IT agents are now able to address problem management, catalog requests, and troubleshooting. By their integration of ServiceNow ITSM, the bank has increased its workflows by 22%, and the number of customer requests has increased by 48%. Service requests outside the bank using a ticketing system have also increased by 41%, and problems have decreased by 24%. Government The city of Raleigh in North California is the home of about 500,000 people and is recognized as one of the best places to live in the United States. Before integrating ServiceNow, the city operated various IT service desk systems that manually tracked ticket status updates using spreadsheets and email, making it harder to resolve issues quickly. Now, with ServiceNow ITSM, the city has replaced six (6) legacy service management solutions and reduced the city’s IT call center team from eight (8) to two (2) employees. The six (6) employees were placed in areas where they more directly impact the services provided to the city staff. The city saved $315,000 on IT service desk costs and garnered 300 daily visits to the employee portal, with less than 25% resulting in manual entry. Healthcare The Francis Crick Institute, Europe’s largest biomedical research facility, is dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology of health and diseases to discover new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat illnesses. As Crick brings 1,500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, they were committed to letting them continue working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using ServiceNow, Crick built a track-and-trace application within 22 days. This created an automated workflow across testing, results, and notifications where staff can manage their testing with results synced to the building entry system. It allowed the staff to continue their critical research work. 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 2 of 5  IT2312 Retail 7-11 is a convenience store with over 66,000 stores in 17 countries. Its success relies on its customer focus, which includes P prioritizing an easier way for customers to receive help when they want it, where they want it, and how they want it. They began to separate customer feedback from help requests. ServiceNow ITSM was used to build the 7-Help Customer Help Desk consisting of various help desks, including payroll, HR, and merchandising help desks, to separate help desks for IT and facilities maintenance. This gave customers and store franchisees a single platform for reporting issues when they want it, where they want it, and how they want it by prioritizing cases when they arrive and routing them to the right agent for rapid resolution. This has a 205% improvement in case resolution rates and a 75% reduction in customer service response time. ITSM Governance and Security (ClydeBank, 2022) It is evident that ITSM is vastly used in different fields and industries, so it is also essential to consider safeguarding the system itself to prolong its advantages and benefits. IT Governance Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT) is a framework for organizations that want to implement, monitor, and improve the best IT management practices. COBIT has also emphasized differentiating “IT Governance” from “IT Management,” wherein the former is more concerned with setting standards and objectives while the latter is tasked with execution. This is important to distinguish as ITSM should be more than “doing” tasks but ensuring that everyone and everything involved is up to the standards. Benefits of IT Governance 1. Measuring Performance: IT governance influences how the performance of the IT department will be measured. It also dictates where measuring points of the performance should be located within the IT organization. For example, if the mission is to become the best web hosting service worldwide, then IT governance must establish evaluation points for this goal. For measuring the performance, the percentage of server uptime percentage could be a metric to consider. The same goes for feedback from customers who use the service and are prepared to endorse it as reliable. 2. Budgetary Matters: IT governance is used to monitor budgetary matters. A system should be set up to monitor IT spending to ensure that it is justified in proportion to the business’s needs for its services. When new IT resources are purchased, the money to be spent must pass the scrutiny of the IT department’s governing techniques. 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 3 of 5  IT2312 3. Disaster Planning: IT governance standards are also applicable to disaster planning. IT governance should establish clear damage control whenever the worst-case scenarios happen, such as a security and service failure. Disaster planning in the banking industry should be applied since critical financial records are stored on servers. IT governance sets standards for backup redundancy, ensuring that a massive data calamity would never leave critical records completely unrecoverable. 4. Reputation: IT governance is also used to help an organization define and position itself. For example, suppose the company is determined to build a reputation as having the most responsive service desk. In that case, IT governance should be used to establish and monitor incident resolution times. Suppose the business does an internet-based stock trading platform and earns commissions on every trade. In that case, IT governance sets a particular threshold for the specific number of trades needed to be processed on any given day. ITSM Security When pursuing ITSM principles, there is a constant effort to show how IT is creating real business value. But when it comes to security, IT professionals are caught in the middle where they are not much credited for preventing things that never happen but will face every consequence if they fail to prevent a security breach. Security is a highly tricky facet of ITSM, as it is difficult to prove that a security system is working. It can appear that a security system is not working, but it is preventing various dangerous attacks. Security KPIs These are key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the effectiveness of information security. KPI 1: Number of Implemented Preventative Measures This charts the number of security measures that have been implemented based on perceived vulnerability or a known or successful intrusion attempt. This can standardize resolutions and be used to keep track of security changes. KPI 2: Implementation Duration This tracks the time between the point a justified security concern is identified and the point in time when a resolution is placed. For example, the time when malware is detected until it is completely cleaned out of the organization’s server. This can be used as a reference completion time in case the same incident happens again. 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 4 of 5  IT2312 KPI 3: Number of High-Risk Security Incidents This tracks the number of security incidents and them with a specific severity level. Putting severity levels for incidents will help the IT department prioritize major and high-risk problems that could jeopardize the organization’s operation. A malware attack is more of a priority than a blue screen monitor. KPI 4: Number of Security-Related Downtimes This tracks the number of downtimes that prevented service from being available to customers due to security concerns. This is for documentation purposes that could be used for explaining quarterly reports. All significant information should be listed, such as the cause, affected operations, duration time, and resolution. KPI 5: Number of Security Tests This tracks the number of proactive steps taken that measure existing data security, such as tests and training. Hiring white-hat hackers to purposely harm the system is an effective way to test the security system, and they can further pinpoint the organization's vulnerabilities. KPI 6: Number of Identified Shortcomings During Security Tests This takes the measurements in KPI 5 and plots them against the identified shortcomings during the tests. This organizes the weaknesses of the security system to help categorize them based on severity. This way, the IT team can easily understand and address shortcomings. References: Bordoloi, S., & Fitzsimmons, J. (2022). Service management: Operations, strategy, information technology. McGraw Hill. ClydeBank Technology. (2022). ITSM: The simplified beginner’s guide to IT service management. ClydeBank Media LLC. ServiceNow (2023). Customer Case Studies. [Web Article]. Retrieved on August 7, 2023, from https://www.servicenow.com/customers.html 04 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 5 of 5