This visual eBook provides eight essential steps for implementing a rock solid IT service management (ITSM) within your organization.

1. 8 Rock Solid Steps
to Elevate ITSM Success

2. Agenda
1. Adopting Best Practice Methods to Deliver IT Services
2. The Relationship Between ITSM & ITIL
3. 8 Rock Solid Steps to Elevate ITSM Success
4. Read More

3. Adopting Best Practice Methods
to Deliver IT Services
• Service Strategy outlines business goals and
requirements needed to service customers
• Service Design provides guidance for
designing, changing, and improving services
• Service Transition guides the processes
for building and deploying services
• Service Operation identifies and defines key
processes related to the service desk
• Continual Service Improvement guides the
plan for IT service improvements
ITSM encompasses proactive processes and procedures used to plan,
design, deliver, and control IT service delivery to business users. ITSM
originated when various technology vendors and product suppliers
needed a better way to help their customers implement and utilize
the technology they purchased.
ITIL is a world-renowned, best practice framework that guides the delivery
of IT services. Each of the five ITIL publications is an integral part of the
overall framework. The ITIL service lifecycle publications include:

4. The Relationship Between
ITSM & ITIL
ITSM and ITIL have a symbiotic
relationship. ITIL provides
guidance on how to work more
effectively, while ITSM is the way
IT manages the delivery of services
to business users.

5. 8 Rock Solid Steps
to Elevate ITSM Success

6. Step 1: Evaluate Your Current State
• Personnel - Are the right people in place?
Will any be resistant to change? If there are
any “round pegs in square holes,” now is the
time to deal with those employment issues.
• Processes - What processes do you have
in place to manage the services you deliver?
Are they standardized and repeatable?
• Technology - Does your current IT service
management technology support the
culture and needs of your organization,
or are you forced to change your business
to fit the technology?
• Service Definition - Have you clearly
defined all of the services that your
customers expect? Also, are you offering
too many or non-essential services?
• Service Level Agreements – Are your
Service Level Agreements and Operational
Level Agreements meeting the needs
of your customers?
Change can be disruptive. Before changing your current people, process,
or business technology, it is important to assess your present situation.

7. Step 2: Define your ITSM Goals
Understanding the value of setting achievable short and long-term
goals that align with the needs of your business is essential.
Use the SMART model to help you achieve quick and quality wins
along the way:
• Specific—Clearly define your goal.
• Measurable—Establish tangible metrics to measure progress.
• Actionable—Ensure the goal is attainable given your resources and capabilities.
• Relevant—Set goals that you are prepared and able to achieve.
• Time-Bound—Ensure you have enough time to achieve the goal.
Clearly defined and well communicated goals help employees and leaders
understand IT’s intentions and forestall resistance to pending change.

8. Step 3: Obtain
Management Buy-In
Gain momentum from the top in
order to secure time and resource
commitments, and encourage
support from peers.
• Provide a clear, concise explanation
of the value service management will
bring to your business.
• Share well-defined goals, and a timeline.
• Communicate successes with leadership
and your peers.

9. Step 4: Develop your
Plan of Attack
• Gain a better understanding of ITSM best
practices and methodologies. One size
doesn’t necessarily fit all. There are many
options, including ITIL, Six Sigma, COBIT,
Lean, Agile, ISO, and DevOps, each a viable
business solution.
• Obtain training and certifications in ITIL
or the methodology of your choice prior
to undertaking the implementation
of ITSM processes.
• Adopt processes that suit your individual
company needs. Evaluating your business
goals, departmental budgets, resource
constraints, and organization culture can
help you determine which processes work
for you.

10. Step 5: Assemble the Right Team
Having the right people in the right positions is imperative to success.
Be sure that your people are not only committed, but also qualified,
and comfortable with your business culture.
Some of the steps you can take to ensure you are effectively using your
people resources include:
• Identify the people you already have on board and their skillsets.
• Document what roles your business needs to succeed.
• Align the people you already have and the roles they can fill.
• Identify gaps.
• Remove people who do not fit your needs.
• Add people with skillsets that can fill in the gaps.

11. Step 6: Take Advantage
of Automation
Improve service management with
automation. However, don’t automate
so much that you lose sight of your
primary goals: your customer’s needs
for personalized service.
Benefits of automation:
• Decrease manual human error.
• Implement repeatable processes.
• Increase productivity and predictability.
• Improve customer experience.
• Reduce costs.

12. Step 7: Select the Right ITSM Software
• Be intuitive and user-friendly.
• Consolidate ITSM functionality into a single system.
• Automate ITSM processes.
• Support integration with third-party solutions.
In order to automate the delivery of services to your end-customer and
provide the most modern user experience, you will want to implement
an ITSM software solution that incorporates service desk, IT asset
management, and IT self-service functionality. Regardless of your industry
vertical, organization size, and specialized needs, the solution should:

13. Step 8: Implement a Continual
Service Improvement Plan
Measure both the successes and the
failures of each process. After defining
the parameters, manage all of the
measurements in a single place so that
you can use the information to define
trends and make changes to continuously
improve your processes.

14. Achieve IT Success
IT success is the considered, deliberate
implementation of IT service delivery
best practices. With proper planning,
communication, and implementation,
ITIL (or a similar framework) and ITSM can
position your company for both present
and future growth, as well as profitability.

15. 8 Rock Solid Steps
to Elevate ITSM Success
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