When we think of modern companies, it’s hard to imagine any of them operating without a dedicated IT department. Successful enterprises require global reach and efficiency in work communications – the sensible use of IT service management (ITSM) can help you achieve both.

By implementing robust ITSM, businesses can maximise their business value and guarantee growth in the long term. Nowadays, even if pandemic restrictions loosen around the globe, many companies still prefer home-office setups for most of their employees. It’s cheaper and more comfortable, but it can also be challenging. Modifying work systems, servers, and home devices can raise efficiency and security queries.

Ensuring all branches operate in sync demands a robust enterprise service management (ESM) plan. This means that all offices and employees at home need a reliable connection, instant access to vital operational data, and communication efficiency.

Nonetheless, placing all pieces of the puzzle together doesn’t happen with a single touch. Companies need to take the time and effort to systematically arrange all their building blocks to form a sustainable and ever-growing enterprise.

Here, we present you with an article on how to do that, along with some tips you might not have found on your own. If you have, we’re happy for you – way to go!

How Does IT Management Fit into Any Enterprise?

The first throw off to adequate ITSM is perceiving that IT needs to be a separate, stand-alone department within the enterprise. 

While it is good to have dedicated IT specialists on and off-site, the lack of communication between IT and other departments can lead to enormous workloads and stalled work progress.

Task duplication, process gaps, and teams’ miscommunication all slow down a business to varying degrees. What is more, if you don’t address productivity issues right away, they tend to pile up, and at some point, even and ultimate ITSM strategy may fall short of fixing everything.

Now, suppose you implement proper IT management across a whole company early on. In that case, you can boost productivity across different departments, enhance company structure, raise agility, and ultimately gain better control over the enterprise.

So, enough theoretical “if”s and “if not”s. Let’s explore how to put the theory into practice!

How to Manage IT Efficiently in Practice?

Below, we’ve compiled a list of sensible practices to improve the connection between all company departments via logic, understanding, and the promise for growth.

First Things Come First – Self-Assessment

Every shift in action requires a plan beforehand. And to plan, you need to know where the weakest links lie. 

Most companies benefit from a stellar IT department to understand what needs improvement. A well-developed IT staff can pinpoint vulnerabilities and potential improvements in all company departments.

Let’s see how to assess your IT department first and foremost.

• What kind of processes does your IT department cover? Up to what extent are they efficient? What level of maturity can you assign to them?
• Do specific processes need improvement? How can we improve them? What will it take to do so?
• Are there defined triggers, inputs, and outputs in place to relate with all other company departments? If yes, are they optimal? If not – what can we do to establish them? Furthermore, do we need to simplify processes to fit all departments’ expertise?
• Are all company departments compliable with the communication and connection processes we have in place? (or “in mind”)
• Would other departments benefit from controls, safeguards, or other monitoring measures? If yes, is it worth implementing them?
• Do some departments need clarification as to how processes operate? Do they need education on process responsibility and process roles? Is there a stand-alone process owner?

You may notice that the answers to these questions relate both to self-assessment and planning. Combining them enables companies to pre-plan while self-assessing their assets and capabilities. Such an approach makes the next part a bit easier. At least we hope it does!

Immediate Follow-Up – Planning

Once we’ve done the self-assessment, it’s time to develop a plan and follow it thoroughly. 

ESM requires a long-term period to become effective, and it’s rare to see a company implement an ESM strategy that works from Day 1 without setbacks. But that’s okay! 

ESM may take time, but it benefits organisations greatly when appropriately implemented.

To set up your company for success, you need to create a structured plan based on your company’s shortcomings. Once you’ve done that, take a breath and decide where to start improving.

It may sound contrary to logic, but starting with the most severe weaknesses is often counterproductive. In most cases, at least.

It’s easier to start with the most motivated departments to initiate quick results. Once every business department gets familiar with the self-assessment, you can begin optimising them piece by piece. 

Teams who are open to optimisation will serve two purposes during the process – one, they will make it easier for your IT department to install changes. Two, they could assist in optimising less prominent departments down the line.

Working together and finishing tasks as quickly as possible brings us to the next point in our list.

Boost Morale from the Start – Task Division

Optimising IT management within any enterprise is no small task. Just like any enormous project, dividing it into smaller pieces achieves several benefits:

• Smaller tasks are easier to accomplish
• The more tasks you complete, the higher morale will be for the ones to come
• With higher overall morale, all company departments should be more efficient in adopting ESM and implementing it properly throughout the whole process

An example of a starter task would be to bring departments stuck in the 90s to modern days – get rid of all paperwork by digitalising communications altogether. Less paperwork means more space for focusing on vital tasks at hand.

Now, on to the next one.

Moving Forward – Service Catalogue Update

We’ve made an assessment, a plan, and some quick upgrades across the company. Now, we can confidently start optimising the service catalogue of the enterprise. Whatever doesn’t serve the company plan can go.

Ensuring your service catalogue matches the plan’s goals achieves the following:

• Service understanding and proper implementation across all divisions, not just IT
• Keeps transparency to the optimal
• Enables employees to focus on essential services and marks productivity high

Understanding ESM – It’s a Business on its Own

It’s crucial to approach ESM not only as a technological change. Yes, it involves some IT magic, but proper ESM is more about organisational changes. This is why we would treat it more like a business project rather than a tech endeavour.

To go deeper, ESM influences all aspects of your company – workflow, employee mindset, service optimisation, and company growth. By fixing the most tiresome issues, ITSM brings security and peace of mind to all departments.

Deep Dive – Pinpointing ESM Benefits

Now, to go even deeper, we must get to the heart of ESM. Ensuring everyone at your company understands the benefits of proper enterprise service management is pivotal to its success.

Take the time to discuss the project with each team across every department. You’d be surprised how efficient can anyone become knowing exactly why, how, and what to pursue.

If you’re hesitant about doing that, don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are plenty of reliable ITSM software vendors who can assist you. Do your due diligence, inspect the research, and proceed confidently!

Software Solutions for an IT Management Well Done

Innovative software use can significantly benefit any ESM campaign. However, upgrading all company departments can be costly and time-consuming.

To summarise potential options, we prefer to divide them into two major categories – Efficiency and Security.

Boosting Efficiency via Software

As much as all companies rely on actual employees to procure their services, you can aid your staff via multiple software solutions.

For example, eCommerce and Shopping Cart software can benefit any online sales business. With it, you can track inventory, automate sales, and improve customer experience exponentially.

Now, what good is having a stellar eCommerce setup if your supply chain lacks efficiency?

Supply chain and inventory management software can track off-site production and manufacturing. Additionally, you can monitor completed products placement, potential delays, and stock availability for all of your offices, domestic and international.

To finish off this section, accounting by hand falls in that previous category we discussed – having a paper trail is convenient if you can’t work a computer, but keep in mind, a program doesn’t subtract or add zeroes by mistake.

Boosting Security via Software

Cyber protection has become a must for every successful enterprise nowadays. It not only adds layers of security to all company data – it eases ESM altogether.

With robust security software, you can schedule and monitor IT patching to minimise the risk of a data breach. Furthermore, reliable security software monitors threats in real-time, enables easy data backups, and provides disaster recovery options, so your company can negate downtime even if a breach occurs.

Last but not least, a cybersecurity service covering all company departments is another stepping stone to achieving absolute common ground across the enterprise. 

And after all, that’s the main idea of ESM for us.