Summing up collaborative ITSM

We've now come to the end of this short series in which I’ve been looking at the whys and wherefores of collaborative ITSM. I’d now just like to sum up and provide a couple of pointers which I hope will help if you’re starting to implement this approach.

Taking a lead from a recent report, Building the Connected IT Service Organization by Jim Rapoza of Aberdeen Group, I’ve reviewed some of the arguments in favor of collaborative ITSM and suggested some things to bear in mind when implementing it.

We’ve seen that collaborative ITSM provides an ability to increase the efficiency of the IT Support function, delivering tangible benefits for the business in terms of faster responses, reduced workloads, and lower costs, as well as improved user satisfaction. The ability for IT staff to quickly identify and engage relevant expertise, wherever it resides in the IT organization, removes long established silos or barriers to getting work done. When collaboration is combined with powerful Business Process Automation and task orchestration the benefits are amplified to enable optimized collective action.

In addition, collaborative ITSM is preferred by users because it enables them to work in the way that suits them, and that mirrors the way they get support for consumer products in their leisure time. It’s a way of working that involves interacting with both peers and IT professionals to solve problems collaboratively. In contrast with some traditional support approaches, processes are transparent and knowledge is shared with users as far as possible.

To make all this happen, you clearly need the right ITSM software – but you may also find that you also need to change your team’s way of working.

Believe me, it’s worth the effort. As Aberdeen puts it, “If you want your organization's ITSM to be high performing, efficient and cost effective, it's time to change your status from closed and restricted to open, social and collaborative.”