1
1
What shall we
discuss today?
ITSM future
directions
1
2
Exam
Dates are fixed – May 23rd, 30th, June 20th
All starts at 16:00 at A217
Exam – 15 questions (only one correct answer), 5 questions with
more correct answers, 3 free form questions
Do not foget to bring the pen!
3
3
Agenda
• ITSM trends
• Major change enabler
• Cognitive and ITSM
• SIAM
• ITXM and XLA
• New horizon
4
4
When I started my IT Service Management career, ITIL version 2 was king and we
didn’t really question ‘how’ we did service management. The companies I was
working with were busy trying to get change management in place, improve their
Service Desk functionality and decide how much Configuration management they
really needed.
The arrival of ITIL version 3 felt at the time like a huge disruption. Service
management people started to look outside of operations, and to understand how
true service management operates across the entire service lifecycle.
Fast-forward a few years, and ITIL version 3 looks like a minor event compared to
the current state of IT service management (ITSM). ITIL 4, DevOps, Agile, Lean,
SIAM, IT4IT – there’s so many new things bursting onto the scene.
5
5
ITSM future perspectives
PROCESS
PERSPECTIVE
ITIL as only ITSM
framework is no
longer sufficient to design a
future
process map
INTEGRATION
PERSPECTIVE
Agile frameworks are
helpful to
facilitate an enterprise
adoption
COLLABORATIVE
PERSPECTIVE
ITIL in combination with
DevOps leads
to better results in digital
operating
models
ITIL 4 and DevOps: a cultural perspective Discussion Paper
6
The Top hottest
ITSM trends for
2018 and
beyond
7
2018
predictions
1. Most Computers Will Be Invisible – to reference the Internet of Things (IoT) and
the critical need to control such devices in light of security in particular.
2. There Will Be More Major Security Breaches – and if security wasn’t at the top
of corporate IT’s agenda it surely is now.
3. Greater Adoption of DevOps, with More Focus on Culture – and the concepts
of DevOps have definitely continued to make headway into the mainstream at pace.
4. Increased Use of AI and Automation in ITSM – AI was probably the most talkedabout
ITSM (and IT) topic in 2018 (although not necessarily the most acted-upon).
5. More Focus on Value and Customer Experience – it has been great to see the
increased focus on both of these areas in 2018, and I expect there’s a lot more to
come.
6. More Enterprise Service Management – statistics from HDI show the growth in
the use of ITSM principles, best practices, and technologies outside of IT. I share
some of these below.
HOT TOPIC #1 – ITIL 4
ITIL 4 placing at number one across the 30 topic areas is a surprise and yet
unsurprising. There has been so little information made available about what it will
entail that there’s probably pent-up demand from those people who have spent
potentially their whole careers studying and then working with ITIL best practice. For
many people, and organizations, AXELOS can’t afford to underdeliver with ITIL 4.
Thankfully the wait will soon be over – with the first ITIL update publication launch
happening mid-February. We’ll be creating content on what ITIL 4 means for the
ITSM industry, and the people and organizations within it, once the first publication
is released.
HOT TOPIC #2 (JOINT) – AUTOMATION
As I wrote when automation topped last year’s poll:
“Automation is nothing new. IT management and ITSM solutions have been sold for
decades based on the ability to automate previously manual activities for speedier
and better outcomes, plus lower costs.
And now, in addition to traditional IT automation capabilities – such as scripts,
process-workflow automation, and third-party system orchestration – AI, and in
particular machine learning, is capable of extending and enhancing automation
capabilities.”
8
ITSM Trends
and Topics for
2019
ITSM Tools poll among the ITSM
professionals cross the world
1 ITIL4 34.86
2.-3. People(includingattitude,behavior,andculture(ABC)) 24.77
2.-3. Automation 24.77
4 Enterpriseservicemanagement 21.1
5 Digitaltransformation 20.18
6 Customerexperience(CX) 19.27
7 Artificialintelligence(AI) 18.35
8 Valuedemonstration 18.35
9 DevOps 18.35
10 Serviceintegrationandmanagement(SIAM) 17.43
11 Agile 16.51
12 ITSM"advanced" 16.51
There’s no doubt of its importance to ITSM and other business functions, with it
playing a vital part in transforming business operations to meet the needs of digital
transformation and the opportunities and challenges this transformation addresses.
HOT TOPIC #2 (JOINT) – PEOPLE
Well isn’t this a pleasant surprise. I think few people would have predicted that
people would be a top-3 topic area for ITSM pros. Paul Wilkinson and his pointy
finger will likely be doing a little jig of joy right now.
Its importance makes so much sense though – there’s little in ITSM that goes right
(or wrong) without the influence of people. And the possible coverage areas are
wide – from the required skills and capabilities for particular ITSM jobs, through
effective leadership and management, to the need for organizational change
management when driving change. And let’s not forget wellbeing!
Hopefully, 2019 will be the year when the ITSM community finally wakes up to
realize the importance of people – and everything that makes them the best they
can possibly be – to the success of IT service delivery and support.
HOT TOPIC #4 – ENTERPRISE SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Again, as with automation, enterprise service management is nothing new. In fact,
much of ITSM.tools’ enterprise service management content was written 2-3 years
ago when its profile was rising rapidly within the ITSM community.
Recent ITSM industry surveys, such as HDI’s 2018 “The State of Enterprise Service
Management” report (registration required), show just how far enterprise service
management has come in terms of adoption and the proof of benefits. Plus, the
connection of enterprise service management to the third element of digital
transformation – back-office transformation – is another driver for interest and
adoption.
HOT TOPIC #5 – DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Digital transformation is another top-5 holdover from 2018, albeit with a minor
drop. And the words from my 2018 article still hold true:
“There’s no doubt that a key ITSM challenge for <<this year>> will be delivering
against the business need for “digital transformation” – from generating new
revenues (driven by technology and data), providing better customer engagement
capabilities, and the need to bring corporate back-office operations into the 21st
century.”
And I’ve still not seen anything that contradicts the point of view that enterprise
service management (and thus ITSM) can be a great platform for digital
transformation – from better designing, delivering, managing, supporting, and
improving IT/business services to helping to improve business back-office
capabilities using ITSM principles, thinking, capabilities, and technologies.
8
9
2019
“predictions”
AI will move beyond the hype to help with specific ITSM, and
especially IT support, tasks.
Words and phrases such as “value,” “customer/employee
experience,” and “business outcomes” will be a bigger part of the
ITSM lexicon (and approaches). The latest HDI enterprise service
management statistics show that 62% or organizations already use their
ITSM tool outside of IT and another 21% plan to do so.
ITIL 4 has one shot to get it right.
The hesitancy is more about whether the ITSM community is
finally able to embrace the concepts and successes of DevOps
(and, after all, they’re part of the Ops of DevOps). And whether the
App Dev – now DevOps – community wants or needs the ITSM community
to play too.
IT as a Transformation - What companies are doing now is transforming
ITSM to meet their digital transformation efforts, and even looking to
expand the principles and benefits of Service Management into other
business areas – HR, Finance, Legal and more.
10
2019
“predictions”
(cont.)
There’s little in ITSM that goes right (or wrong) without
the influence of people. And the possible coverage areas are
wide – from the required skills and capabilities for particular
ITSM jobs, through effective leadership and management, to
the need for organizational change management when
driving change. And let’s not forget wellbeing!
Hopefully, 2019 will be the year when the ITSM
community finally wakes up to realize the importance of
people – and everything that makes them the best they can
possibly be – to the success of IT service delivery and
support.
People (including attitude, behavior, and
culture (ABC))
Here are the top 10 ITSM trends in 2021.
1 – Better communication between employees working from home
Companies and work teams will find a balance between working from home and
meeting in a central location (which may not be an “office” in the traditional sense).
Many organizations and managers are beginning to recognize the need for face-toface
interactions (whether professional or social) and will need to find creative ways
to bring teams together.
2 – Greater responsiveness to employee needs
If there is one lesson to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that
circumstances can change quickly and dramatically, just like the needs of end users.
For ITSM departments, the importance of understanding employee needs will
continue to grow in the hybrid (work from home + office) work environment.
The end-user experience should be regularly assessed to quickly change and adapt
strategies and services when necessary.
3 – Higher level of automation
ITSM’s levels of automation and integration will increase significantly in 2021,
especially due to the implementation of software solutions that promote this, such
as iTop Professional.
Nevertheless, IT service management departments will need to ensure that they
have the technical skills to manage this new complexity to avoid failures that they
11
Top ITSM trends in 2021 (and beyond…?)
1. Better communication between employees working from home
2. Greater responsiveness to employee needs
3. Higher level of automation
4. More ITSM solutions will be AI-based
5. Increased importance of adaptability
6. Transition to the new ITIL 4 framework
7. Redesigned risk management
8. Redefined organization objectives
9. Enhanced data security
10.Transition toward integrated IT environments
cannot resolve and trigger a decline in employee confidence.
4 – More ITSM solutions will be AI-based
Artificial intelligence will play a huge role in the future of ITSM and IT operations,
providing efficiency, ease of use and new features.
As a result, an increasing number of organizations will rely on solutions that involve
AI, such as chatbots, AI-assisted data analysis and intelligent automation.
5 – Increased importance of adaptability
In 2021, IT service management departments will need to be able to adapt. For
example, they will have to adapt to the increasing volume of requests, consider
replacing outdated ITSM solutions, and deal with new data protection regulations.
Managers need to have excellent leadership and organizational skills to be able to
manage so many changes within a department.
6 – Transition to the new ITIL 4 framework
Unlike its predecessor, ITIL 4 facilitates the shift from cascading management to agile
process management and places greater emphasis on continuous value creation for
end users. As a result, more and more organizations will be adopting ITIL 4 in 2021.
The new Service Value System (SVS) introduced in version 4 of the framework has
defined 34 management practices. These provide closer alignment between IT
service management, development, operations, business relationships and
governance functions so that organizations can manage leaner IT services.
7 – Redesigned risk management
The coronavirus pandemic will cause many organizations to rethink their risk
management and business continuity practices. This could help them be better
prepared the next time an incident threatens their operations.
However, these organizations will need to avoid over-protecting themselves against
unlikely risks, otherwise they could invest large sums of money for no reason.
8 – Redefined organization objectives
The global pandemic has forced many organizations to revisit their business
objectives. Some have put themselves in survival mode while others are preparing
for a huge attack.
When a company’s objectives change, they must be reflected at the operational
level. This is why some IT support departments will probably be eliminated while the
tasks of others will be changed.
9 – Enhanced data security
Cyberattacks no longer only affect large companies, but also SMEs. This is driving
companies to be more focused than ever on the security of their confidential data
stored in their IT systems.
It is not surprising that increased information security will be an important trend in
2021 in information and communication technology management. This is especially
the case in contexts where data needs to be accessible to employees remotely.
10 – Transition toward integrated IT environments
A few years ago, companies had no choice but to use different providers for their IT
needs: a help desk solution, cloud storage provider, telephony system, email
providers, etc. This increases costs and reduces productivity.
The transition to integrated environments and software with more integration
capabilities will therefore accelerate in 2021, as companies seek the stability and
11
lower costs associated with versatile ITSM solutions.
11
Let’s look at a few trends that will shape the evolution of this field in the years
ahead:
1. Artificial intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence (AI) has received a lot of press and hype in recent years,
promising exponential gains in productivity and performance. Some even expect this
technology to completely transform the way we live and work.
Unsurprisingly, a profound technology will exert a massive influence upon the field
of ITSM.
In the near-term, AI security will become a top concern for many CIOs, since AI can
be used both offensively and defensively in the cybersecurity arena.
Another use case for AI in ITSM is performance improvement.
There are several applications of AI to ITSM, including:
Composable IT infrastructure, which uses AI-driven algorithms to dynamically
compose IT infrastructure as needed
Robotic process automation (RPA) can automate many repetitive tasks within ITSM,
increasing productivity and improving efficiency
AI-powered customer care improves the customer experience, slashes customer
service costs, and simplifies many aspects of ITSM, such as incident management
Since AI can deliver significant performance gains – if not a competitive advantage –
it is important to watch this technology closely.
12
How Will ITSM Evolve in the 2020s?
1. A Shift to Proactive and Predictive Capabilities
2. Improved Remote Access Experience
3. Greater Focus on IT Infrastructure Monitoring
4. Increased in Persona-Based Interactions
5. Simplified Processes through Expanded AI and Automation
Key trends
1. People are coming before technology
2. Chat is becoming an integral feature
3. AI is playing an increasingly important role
4. Hybrid customer service is evolving
5. The Chief Services Officer (CSO) jobs are created
2. Enterprise service management (ESM)
Enterprise service management (ESM) is an acronym that represents both a new
approach to service governance and management, as well as new IT platforms.
This new approach to service management applies ITSM approaches, such as ITIL, to
enterprise services.
ESM is designed to integrate IT with other business functions such as:
Finance
Human resources
Customer service
Legal
Marketing
In short, ESM can be applied to virtually any area of the organization.
This new approach, however, doesn’t just represent a change to business areas such
as those listed here, it also represents a shift in ITSM’s core practices. As IT becomes
increasingly central to the organization, the more important it will be to integrate
ITSM with enterprise service governance and enterprise architecture.
3. DevOps
As ITSM evolves, DevOps will become increasingly popular within ITSM.
DevOps, which combines both development and operation teams, focuses on
principles such as:
Incremental change
Automation
A production pipeline built around continuous improvement
Regular feedback and input
Since DevOps aligns well with business approaches such as agile, adopting this
approach in ITSM can help organizations’ IT programs stay adaptable, innovative,
and fast.
4. Low-code and no-code platforms
Another software trend that is influencing the entire enterprise is the no-code and
low-code movements.
Low-code platforms streamline and automate app development and only require a
small amount of programming in order to finalize an app’s creation.
No-code platforms, on the other hand, require zero coding and can be used by
anyone, regardless of their technical skill level. Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) are
examples of no-code tools that can be used to develop apps, automate workflows,
and more.
As ITSM grows more complex, platforms such as these will significantly streamline
the approach to app development and they can save ITSM teams time and money.
5. Remote ITSM
As we all know, 2020 was a tumultuous year that brought about many difficulties on
a global scale.
At the same time, that crisis accelerated innovation in many areas of business.
Remote working is one example – since employees were forced to work from home,
many companies were compelled to adopt new workflows and new software.
Migration to the cloud, for instance, became commonplace and many organizations
can now operate effectively either online or offline.
12
While many workers will return to the office, the transition to the cloud and a
remote working paradigm foreshadows a future where ITSM will also be more
remote.
Future of ITSM and IT operations
We believe the following ITSM trends and predictions will help companies
continually innovate and will make IT easy.
1. A Shift to Proactive and Predictive Capabilities
2020 brought us the reactive and abrupt shift to remote work and digital
transformation. 2021 created the movement to proactive support. In 2022, this
movement will continue to grow and bring predictive capabilities to take proactive IT
support to the next level of self-healing. The future of service delivery means going
beyond shift-left and self-help and into proactive and predictive capabilities.
Proactive and predictive service management means moving your focus from
reacting to solving tickets to actively searching for problems and incidents before
they happen in an effort to reduce downtime.
Moving to proactive and predictive support takes a few additional puzzle pieces in
the ITSM toolbox. You’ll need to implement process automation and remote
support, which we will discuss in greater detail in our next prediction. But that’s not
the end of what you’ll need, as you’ll also benefit from IT infrastructure monitoring.
With these pieces together, you can focus on process automation for proactive and
predictive support.
2. Improved Remote Access Experience
In 2022, we expect to see the rise of proactive and predictive support but that
means improving the remote access experience for both agents and customers.
That’s it will also help agents to resolve issues without interrupting the customer or
their workflow.
Remote access should be seamless and allow the service desk to access the user’s
desktop without causing a major disruption. Process automation technology and
remote support access solutions should enable support agents to have a
comprehensive and exhaustive end-to-end view of all IT services from infrastructure
to endpoints while providing the ability to fix issues proactively before they have a
chance to impact the business. For example, you can identify that a user is not
running the latest software release that will generate performance issues, and in
turn you can push the update remotely.
To learn more about EasyVista’s remote access solution, click here.
3. Greater Focus on IT Infrastructure Monitoring
Earlier we mentioned IT infrastructure monitoring as part of proactive and predictive
support, but it bears mentioning that 2022 will bring an overall greater focus on
organization which goes hand-in-hand with IT infrastructure monitoring.
In other words, IT infrastructure is the collective set of all IT software, services,
devices, and supporting equipment.
Why does IT infrastructure matter so much? Think of IT infrastructure as a map, with
IT infrastructure monitoring working as the weather radar on that map. If one aspect
of IT infrastructure, like an external software that is integrated into another app used
to complete a job, stops working or goes down, it can have a ripple effect and
12
negatively impact the rest of the IT operations and integrations. Not to mention the
negative business impact and loss of revenue caused by system outages.
4. Increased in Persona-Based Interactions
As more of Gen Z enters the workforce, the demand for personalized service
increases – especially in those who work from home and might otherwise feel
disconnected from the business. Customers expect the same level of support and
customization that they receive in their personal lives. With that in mind, it is our
prediction that persona-based interactions will increase in the coming year.
Creating personas takes time and focus, but the best place to start is to understand
the unique needs of your customers based on their business unit, hardware and
software they use, and even their preferred methods of accessing support. From
there, create fictional users to represent your customers and work to provide service
geared toward those personas. Then, once you’ve created those personas, you can
shift to a more customer centric experience.
We’re already seeing more IT service desks shift to this more customer-focused and
tailored support experience, which we predict will only grow.
You can learn more about how to create business user personas by downloading this
Gartner report.
5. Simplified Processes through Expanded AI and Automation
AI and automation have already been popular in ITSM and the IT service desk
generally, however we can expect to see a greater focus on simplifying processes
through automation in the future.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are major drivers in modern
service management. AI on its own can power automation and AITSM but paired
with machine learning it can create an intuitive experience that continues to
improve over time. By analyzing user data, incident patterns, and search habits
which are continually being input, the software will better understand user intent,
predict future issues, provide relevant search results, and even interact via
intelligent automation like AI powered chatbots.
However, automation doesn’t have to be as complicated as that, and we can expect
to see an increase in automating the most simple processes like password resets and
equipment ordering. This will help lower costs and improve the employee
experience.
12
The ‘x’ in xSM represents every department in the organization that demands more
features and functionality than “mature” Service Management (SM) solution is
configured to deliver. Each department ‘x’ in the organization wants (perhaps, more
likely, needs) its own unique solution. E.g. Marketing department, for example,
needs a solution capable of tracking advertising campaigns, dollars spent, and
changes made to datasheets. The Facilities department needs a system that can
handle requests for everything from setting up a new data center to relocating
printers, granting access to rooms and buildings, controlling air temperatures, and
performing hundreds (or thousands) of other tasks. Simply taking the existing ITSM
system and duplicating it in each department without customizing fields, labels,
forms, and workflows would create a very poor user experience. A more efficient
and effective solution is to apply a unique self-service portal to every department ‘x’
within the organization, which results in a specialized portal for everyone.
xSM Benefits:
Increasing productivity. Using an easy ticket tracking process enables teams to
respond to requests quickly, all in one place, leaving inboxes (and employees’ minds)
13
From ITSM to xSM (ESM)
Enterprise systems (services) management is the practice of applying IT service management to other areas of
an enterprise or organization with the purpose of improving performance, efficiency, and service delivery.
Traditional ITSM
Delivering
technology solutions
ESM in 2020s
Delivering business
value
Increase productivity
Minimize waste
Enhance visibility & control
Increase user satisfaction
Sharpen competitive edge
Quickly achieve ROI
xSMBenefits
less cluttered.
Minimizing waste. Mapping processes helps define activities, resources, and more
by how much value they add. Eliminate the activities that add no value. When you
know exactly what is needed, you avoid redundant surpluses. As you mature this
process, you can evolve into a continuous improvement workplace, for long-term
improvement and optimization.
Enhancing visibility and control. Once you establish reporting techniques, reliable
metrics offer a high level of visibility, so you can easily identify problem areas.
Increasing user satisfaction. As processes help define roles and responsibilities,
internal users will become more satisfied with request expectations. (Satisfied
internal users will spill into your external customers, who will also see this
improvement.)
Sharpening your competitive edge. By 2025, companies will need to embrace
intelligent, tech-enabled systems in order to thrive during unforeseen changes.
Increasing ROI on ITSM solutions. With more business units using the same or
similar ITSM and ESM solutions, the ROI increases drastically.
ESM vs ITSM: What’s the difference?
ITSM is a deliberate way of managing and delivering IT services to your customers—
which might include both internal and external customers. But ITSM strategy does
not inherently apply to organizational processes beyond IT. That’s a key difference
between ITSM and ESM.
You might incorporate one or several ITSM frameworks into your ITSM practice. The
most recognized is ITIL®
, a worldwide standard of best practices. Organizations can
use these best practices to integrate IT to their overall business goals in a way that:
Delivers and co-creates value
Maintains a standard level of competency
Meets customer expectations
Beats competitor offerings
Aligns with legal and regulatory requirements
The latest iteration, ITIL 4 demonstrates the importance of planning, implementing,
and measuring in a way that supports continuous improvement (CI). ITIL 4 coined
the Service Value System and 4 Dimensions in order to evolve established ITSM
practices for the wider, modern contexts of:
The customer experience
Value streams
Digital transformation, incorporating DevOps, cloud, and agile approaches, among
others
Inspired by the deliberate approach of ITSM strategy, ESM broadly brings these
service management strategies to the rest of the business, applying them to
enterprise teams beyond IT. ESM takes the same goals of ITSM, improving efficiency
within service design, transition, and efficiency, to support business needs and
increase user satisfaction.
ESM encourages the company to think of everything as a resource or work that has
some status. That’s why ESM-based systems solutions track:
13
Business resources, including people, parts, and assets
The status of service requests, orders, repairs, and more
OK, so ESM has a lot in common with ITSM. But there are some differences. A key
one is that ESM encompasses the processes or mandates that may not be necessary
within IT service management.
For instance, some departments, like human resources (HR) or accounting, may
require a minimum level of data privacy or added flexibility in their templated
answers to requests. Depending on your industry, external mandates could come
into play as well, requiring service management solutions meet safety and
compliance regulations, such as legal protection or medical privacy as associated
with HIPAA.
And, with the advent of GDPR, countries around the world are instituting minimum
levels of data privacy, regardless of industry.
13
14
14
Major change
influencer
Cloud
technologies
adoption
15
What’s driving the move to Cloud computing?
15
• Greater than 70% of businesses are considering or
using private clouds (1)
• Business drivers – speed, flexibility and economics
• Business is adopting cloud 5x faster than IT
operations (2)
• IT challenges – sprawl, control and integration
• 70% of IT resources is captive in maintenance
and operations (3)
(1) IDC, datacenter ad]nd Cloud Computing Survey
(2) “You are not ready for Internal Cloud”, Forrester
(3) Information Week Analytics survey
16
16
OPEX – Operating Expenses CapEX– Capital Expenses
17
…as-a-Service
17
refers to something being made available to a customer as a
service, always in the context of cloud computing.
18
18
Software-as a Service (SaaS)
is a model of software deployment whereby an application is licensed for use as a
service provided to customers on demand.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
is the set of well defined APIs that a cloud provider offers developers to implement
applications in the cloud provider’s environment. PaaS also refers to the
provisioning of a development and testing environment via cloud for a group of
developers.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
is the delivery of computer infrastructure (CPU, storage, backup and network) as a
service.
Monitoring as a Service (MaaS)
Business Process as a Service (BPaaS)
Analytics as a Service (AaaS)
Backup as a Service (BaaS) API – Application Programming Interface
19
ITaaS = IT-as-a-Service
19
IT as a Service (ITaaS) is a technology-delivery method that
treats IT (information technology) as a commodity, providing an
enterprise with exactly the amount of hardware, software, and
support that it needs for an agreed-on monthly fee. In this
context, IT encompasses all of the technologies for creating,
storing, exchanging, and using business data.
IT as a service (ITaaS) is an operational model where the information technology (IT) service provider delivers an
information technology service to a business. (Wikipedia)
20
Four dimensions of ITaaS
20
21
Service Strategy in the Cloud
21
22
Service Design in the Cloud
22
If not done or done inaccurately can have serious impact on cloud effectiveness.
23
Service Transition in the Cloud
23
24
Service Operation in the Cloud
24
CSF – Critical Success Factor, KPI – Key Performance Indicator
SLA – Service Level Agreemnt, OLA – Operation Level Agreement
25
Continuous Service Improvement in the Cloud
25
26
26
27
27
28
28
IT Management moving to *aaS too
What is cognitive IT service management?
Moving to a more proactive operations posture can enable organizations to get in
front of problems before they become an urgent fire-fight. But without the deep
expertise needed to match the rise of IT operations complexity, diagnosing and fixing
an issue can be time consuming and frustrating. Applying cognitive computing
capabilities to service management can help accelerate diagnosis of events and
patterns. The ability to extract deep insights from IT systems can provide early
warnings of abnormal behavior that could cause service impact or poor
performance.
Traditional vs Cognitive Service Management (CSM): CSM uses machine learning to
learn the behavior of applications and resources and get a true understanding of
normal across the enterprise. While traditional service management capabilities
might enable you to identify seasonal activity, applying cognitive capabilities allows
you to go deeper to identify patterns of seasonal activity — and then use those
insights to set and manage thresholds for monitoring data. Cognitive capabilities can
help organizations adjust to rapidly changing environments and intelligently prioritize
problems. Making devices and objects in the workplace more intelligent and able to
communicate could make workers happier and more effective, and make it easier to
29
29
Cognitive ITSM
Cognitive ITSM is next-generation Service Management enabled by digital automation, AI, and machine learning that drives new
levels of agility, productivity, and efficiency.
measure productivity by using real-time data. Today with the advent of so much data
available from sensors and a number of new entrants in the AI market offer
commercially available capabilities such as “natural language recognition”, “machine
learning techniques” and “cognitive reasoning engines.” With so much ITSM data
available, it just makes sense that some of the entrants are combining these features
into specific solution sets for service-desk automation.
When combined with sensor data coming from so many newer devices in the
enterprise workplace it is not difficult to see the appeal of introducing cognitive
services into service-desk operations, because most organizations are attracted to
the benefits of significantly reducing costs, creating a consistent end-user experience
and resolving issues proactively and rapidly with little human intervention.
29
There are three key areas that separate cognitive IT service management from
traditional service management. Together, these capabilities form the foundation of
a proactive, user-focused experience.
Continuously learn Cognitive service management uses machine learning to learn
the behavior of applications and resources and get a true understanding of normal
across the enterprise. While traditional service management capabilities might
enable you to identify seasonal activity, applying cognitive capabilities allows you to
go deeper to identify patterns of seasonal activity — and then use those insights to
set and manage thresholds for monitoring data. Cognitive goes beyond a single
comprehensive view to monitor logs, metrics, events, support docs and tickets to
understand the relationships across applications and resources to anticipate service
impacts. With these deeper insights, organizations can more quickly and efficiently
resolve problems, resulting in significant savings in operational costs and improved
staff efficiency.
Anticipate and adjust
Behind every anomaly is a potential service disruption, which is precisely what
monitoring solutions are designed to detect. Adding operations analytics can help
30
30
Three key areas that separate cognitive IT service
management from traditional ITSM
1.Continuously learn
2.Anticipate and adjust
3.Recommend action
uncover metrics to identify anomalies that recur with regularity. That information in
turn can provide better forecasting for potential service degradations. And as
environments continue to deepen in complexity, changes can occur faster than
manual resources can keep pace. Cognitive capabilities can help organizations adjust
to rapidly changing environments and intelligently prioritize problems.
Recommend action
While teams continuously strive to operate as efficiently as possible, efficiency is
even more crucial when it comes to finding and fixing application and systems
problems. Applying cognitive capabilities can accelerate the ability to find issues by
rapidly searching across terabytes of structured and un-structured data in multiple
detailed modes and views. This information can reveal previously undetectable
patterns, along with intelligent recommendations for corrective repair actions.
30
31
31
Partnering humans with a cognitive ‘brain’ and automation on an integrated platform
enables you to accelerate innovation and deliver unmatched performance by:
Augmenting human intelligence
with cognitive insights
to enable practitioners to make
data-driven decisions.
Autonomously managing your IT operations
to deliver higher service quality through error
reduction and faster incident resolution.
Autonomously governing your IT
to continuously optimize IT usage and cost.
Watson
understands, reasons
and learns from data
Practitioners
make strategic
decisions
Automation
executes tasks
and operations
Insights and advice Directives
Operations and situation dataImperatives
32
32
33
33
Service Integration
and Management
SIAM
34
IT-Service
Processes
e.g. Incident Mgmt.,
Problem Mgmt.,
Change Mgmt., etc...
Tools
e.g. Service Management
and/or Systems Management Tools
Organisation
e.g. Employees/DepartmentsWhen providing a basic service, I need:
Services Integration - What do I need ?
34
When providing services in a Multi-Sourcing / Hybrid Cloud environment, I'm stuck with:
IT-Service
Provider A
IT-Service
Provider B
IT-Service ProviderD
Each Service Provider has his own Service
Triangle...Processes, Tools, Organizations
are not aligned
IT-ServiceProviderC
IT-Service
ProviderE
35
Services Integration - What is the key ?
Service Integrator E2E Incident Management Process
Becky: “Application XYZ
is not responding”
or
“Network is slow!”
LAN Provider:
“LAN is OK”
WAN Provider:
“No WAN
issues”
Middleware
Provider: “No
utilization issues”
Server Provider:
“No server
problem”
Host Provider: “No
performance
problem”
IT-Service
Provider A
SIAMIT-Service
Provider B
IT-Service
Provider C
IT-Service
Provider D
IT-Service
Provider E
Becky
EndUser of ITService
“IT Service Integration and
Management establishes End-toEnd
services based on
independent IT services from
various sources”
Alignment of Processes: The different Providers align or connect their processes E2E as
defined by the Service Integrator
36
36
Service Integration and Management (SIAM) is
an approach to managing multiple suppliers of
services and integrating them to provide a single
business-facing IT organization.
The SIAM framework covers the 6 major dimensions of Service Integration and
Management. It sets out different levels of maturity for the service integration
function and the corresponding capabilities required. It provides a structure to
understand capabilities needed and to plan their development, implementation and
continuous improvement.
1. Process: The set of common processes that define the interactions
among the Client Agents in the ecosystem.
In any Multi-Sourcing Ecosystem, the need for clearly defined interfaces is critically
important.
Two key aspects to consider are:
The interfaces between different processes
Process interfaces are the items of information which relate different
processes;
Typically they are defined as inputs, outputs or controls within each
individual process definition document; and
It is also of high value to illustrate such interfaces in an overall
“process context diagram”.
Organizational interfaces:
Organizational interfaces indicate who is responsible for doing what;
37
Define E2E Processes and Process Interfaces
Define Service Integrator Toolset/ Integration Layer
Define Organizational Structure and Responsibilities
Define Information Standards like e.g a CDM
Define a Governance Structure
Define Demand/Supply Structure with the Business
BUSINESS
GOVERNANCE
ORGANISATION
PROCESS TOOLS
SIAM
INFORMATION
Service
Service Service
SIAM
All 6 Dimensions together
represent the Service Integration
Capability Model
PROCESS
TOOLS
ORGANISATION
INFORMATION
GOVERNANCE
BUSINESS
Service Providers either comply to the Ecosystem Standards or interface to them. Cloud Services are represented by the CSB.
Services Integration - What method should I use ?
SIAM Approach: Consider and define integration standards in six dimensions to create a Multi
Sourcing Ecosystem
and
Typically they are defined as process-specific roles, each with a list of
associated responsibilities.
2. Tooling: The tools, which support the execution of the operating
model.
The SIAM Tools Domain has three major components:
A SIAM ITSM toolset;
An Integration Layer to enable integration to the ITSM Toolsets of the
different Client Agents; and
A SIAM Reporting Engine and Dashboard.
3. Organization: The structures, enablers and behaviors that are put in
place so that each Client Agent knows its contribution and is properly equipped to
deliver it.
A key enabler for the alignment of the SIAM and the Client Agents is the Operational
Level Agreement, which is described in more detail later.
4. Governance: The definition of the decision-making and control
structure in the ecosystem.
The governance model is based on the agreed principles of vested sourcing:
Customer will retain overall control and gain relationship, technology innovation and
cost advantages through Customer’s and Supplier’s joint organizational and
governance approach.
The proper governance model includes:
A clearly articulated decision framework on how and by whom
decisions will be made and clear responsibility for executing against decisions; and
A shared vision for the type of relationship the parties aspire to have
and how they will manage the relationship.
Next to this governance model which will be implemented between Supplier and
Customer we will also respect the existing outsourcing governance commitments,
which are in place for the external business contracts. We will review these
commitments and optimize where possible, without jeopardizing the existing
relationships.
5. Information: The collection of data with regard to measuring service
quality and process performance that is needed to control and report on the
performance of the ecosystem.
6. Business: Positioning Service Integration as a ‘business within a
business’ aligns business demand with the service catalog and capacity.
This capability defines the way the service delivery is structured. In what way
demand for service is captured and how the scope of service delivery is divided
between Customer’s retained groups, SIAM and the Client Agents.
37
38
Services Integration and Management - What does it look like when implemented ?
Service
Consumption1
Service
Integration2
Service
Provisioning3
Service Recipient #1 Service Recipient #2 Service Recipient #x
Service Provider #1
Ex. Application
Provider X
Service Integration
Service Provider #3
Ex. Network
Service Provider #y
Domain #z
Ex. Traditional
IT Service Provdier X Offering #1 Provider X Offering #2 Provider X Offering #n
External
Service Integration
Multi-TierServiceHierarchy
1Service Recipients will likely be a mix of the client’s Lines of Business, retained IT, and may also include customers of the client
2
External Service Integration can either be performed by the Client Retained IT Department, one of Service Providers or by a 3rd
party Service Integrator
3Service Providers can be internal or external to the client enterprise
Service
Delivery
External
Governance
Internal
Governance
39
What’s ITXM™ ?
Experience Management is a practice that has been used in external customer
support and management – via the concept of Customer Experience (CX)
Management – for well over a decade. Whereas in IT operations IT Service
Management (ITSM) best practices have been employed for process operations and
wider management – but this has never focused on the delivered experience or,
more specifically, with the experience as a key outcome of the employed ITSM
processes.
ITXM™ brings experience management principles into IT operations. To allow IT
teams to focus on the outcomes of the work they do and to provide data-driven
insights to fuel the Continual Improvement – which was called Continual Service
Improvement (CSI) in ITIL v3/2011 – needed to improve these outcomes. This
includes making end-users happier with IT services and support and more productive
in their daily work.
Importantly, ITXM™ applies to the whole IT organization and not just the IT service
desk and wider ITSM capabilities.
The ITXM™ Framework
40
ITXM and XLA
ITXM - IT Experience Management
Traditional ITSM in Customer Services – standard Customer Experience Management
used for CSI. The IT Operations did not focus on Customer Experinece.
Now the Experience management principles starts to “penetrate” the ITO.
The ITXM™ Framework
The ITXM™ Framework helps organizations of all sizes – and whether they’re
HappySignals customers or not – to be successful in their experience management
journey. Providing a proven way to transform your organization’s corporate IT
capabilities, whether internal or outsourced, from process or technology-centric to
human-centric. Allowing it to focus on the experiences its end-users receive from IT
services and to improve the factors that matter to end-users most.
Using the ITXM™ Framework’s continuous cycle (as shown in Figure), end-user
experiences are measured and then shared with various business stakeholders
(including IT) and third parties such as partners, vendors, and shareholders. Issues
and opportunities are identified using the real-time experience data – with this
highlighting where people are frustrated and losing the most productivity with IT
services and support. This is in line with the DevOps “second way” of amplifying
feedback loops such that “corrections” can be continually made.
Finally, improvements are made, based on business value, such that IT operations
and outcomes start to bring more smiles and less wasted time for both end-users
and IT personnel in their daily work. This aligns well with the ITIL 4 Guiding Principle
of “focus on value.”
As improvements are actioned, the measurement continues and both the absolute
state and the achieved progress can now be shared – with an organization
continuing around the Framework cycle, tackling more end-user issues and
opportunities as the benefits of experience management permeate the organization.
40
The term ‘experience level agreements’ has been widely used and defined differently
by many. So instead of giving you a biased view, we've summed up key definitions
from industry thought leaders, to provide an overall view of what an XLA is.
Some of these industry definitions include:
•Giarte – a research and consultancy ompany – defines XLAs as being
less of a traditional agreement (such as SLAs) and more focused on
working to achieve desired outcomes.
•Alan Nance – from XLA Collab – defines XLAs as putting outcomes
that determine the consumer experience central to design efforts.
•Hannah Price – from TOPdesk – explains XLAs as how the customer
feels about how they were treated.
XLAs don’t have a universal formula that companies should follow. Instead, XLAs
should be tailored to an organization’s IT problem areas, and the outcome and value
they want to achieve.
It's also worth mentioning that you can use XLAs and SLAs in tandem with each
41
XLA aka Experience Level Agreement
SLAs measure the process or the completing of an objective. XLAs, on the other hand,
measure the outcome and value.
other, you don't have to simply rip and replace SLAs with XLAs. The important thing
to note, however, is the need for the capabilities and metrics that measure success
where outcomes occur and value is created.
There also needs to be the ability to adjust the target levels set in XLAs – which we
cover in later chapters – due to business and end-user expectations constantly
changing, as well as unprecedented phenomena occurring, which no one has no
control over.
One key difference with XLAs, which leads to a totally different culture in IT, is
rewarding performance and not just using the agreement to define and invoke
punitive sanctions (as often happens with SLAs). Putting performance-based rewards
into an XLA highlights the need for all parties to work together to make
improvements for end-users.
The reason for doing this is sharing in success - because if your IT department or
external service provider helps to increase the productivity of your organization’s
employees, then your company will be more profitable. Please check out some of
the customer case studies at the end of this guide to learn how our customers have
successfully used this approach.
Benefits of XLAs
Even though the definition of XLAs can vary from person to person, the benefits
don't. In our blog, we wrote an article about the benefits of XLAs, and have
summarized the key benefits below:
1.XLAs measure the business value of the service desk
2.XLA measurement increases co-operation
3.XLAs motivate service desk teams
4.XLAs drive business value.
The benefits of XLAs differ greatly from the benefits you’ll be familiar with for SLAs.
However, when adopting XLAs in your organization, some teams will struggle due to
a variety of common mistakes.
The outcomes are what the business wants or needs to achieve. The outputs are
the actions or items that contribute to achieving an outcome.
41
42
42
Is ITIL still the “best” available ITSM framework
with the rise of Agile, Dev-Ops etc. adoption?
ITIL and ITSM still are best codifications of the business
processes that underpin IT Operations, and actually describe
many of the capabilities needed in order for to support a work
stream.
ITSM/ITIL shouldn't be pigeonholed as an administrative burden, but rather
used in an agile way. ITIL in particular isn’t perfect and needs a more modern
veneer -- but the core practices are sound and proven.
Let’s be clear: ITIL is important. Around two million people have been trained in it,
and as the closest thing to an industry standard for IT management that currently
exists, it has global reach. Lots of people read the ITIL volumes as guidance to their
IT organizations. Throughout all its versions, ITIL has been framed as a complete
approach to managing the IT function, with the specific exceptions of project
methodology and systems architecture. Plus, it’s worth noting that ITIL also informs
the product directions of vendors selling IT management tools; in fact, they often
market their IT service management tools as “supporting” the ITIL processes.
DevOps is the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools
that increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services
at high velocity: evolving and improving products at a faster pace than
organizations using traditional software development and infrastructure
management processes. This speed enables organizations to better serve
their customers and compete more effectively in the market.
DevOps is a set of software development practices that combines software
development (Dev) and information technology operations (Ops) to shorten
the systems development life cycle while delivering features, fixes, and
43
Classic ITSM
Agile ITSM
DevOps ITSM
Fast
IT
Classic
IT
Pace of the IT
Organization
low highAgile mode
Stage 3: DevOps Enterprise
• Move from a silo approach to a
high-trust culture (ability to fall
without blame)
• Improved customer experience
and design through stable
services
Stage 2: Agile Evolution
• More likely to exceed
profitability, market share and
productivity goals
• Proactive consideration of
customer feedback through
feedback and feed-forward
loops
Stage 1: Status Quo
• Manual, resource intensive
and silo-ed processes,
inefficient hand-offs, lack of
visibility and auditability
• Demand for faster, more
frequent and predictable
releases
Evolutionary stages of ITSM
updates frequently in close alignment with business objectives. 1
Agile was seen as a set of management practices relevant to software
development. That’s because Agile’s initial advocates were software
developers and its foundational document was the Manifesto for Software
Development of 2001. Fifteen years later in 2016, following recognition by
Harvard Business Review, McKinsey & Company and the 2015 Learning
Consortium Project, Agile is now spreading rapidly to all parts and all types
of organizations.
Agile’s emergence as a huge global movement extending beyond software
is driven by the discovery that the only way for organizations to cope with
today’s turbulent customer-driven marketplace is to become Agile. Agile
enables organizations to master continuous change. It permits firms to
flourish in a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and
ambiguous.
43
44
44
§ DevOps = Development & Operations
• We used to say “Integrating ITSM into the
SW Development Life Cycle”
• Faster time to value removes the
middleman
• Continuous release, new platforms in
minutes
§ Legacy Ops Processes “a problem”
• The structure of IT process must change
• The approach to RACI for process must
change
• Consistent process must remain (that
means ITIL)
The Future - DevOps
ITSM should change – control must devolve & processes must
automate
SDLC – System Development Life Cycle
The common perceptions of ITIL and DevOps seem to contradict each other on the
first glance rather than illustrate a perfect match: DevOps is agile, quick and
collaborative while ITIL’s strength lies within the rigid and detailed definition of
processes, services and roles to manage and avoid risks rather than to learn from
them. However, if evaluated carefully, both frameworks complement each other.
••While executing DevOps which focuses on the realization of functional
requirements (“features”), ITIL also ensures that requirements like availability,
scalability and security are met by following proven processes and using well
established metrics and KPIs. The almost rigid and in detail described processes in
ITIL even create the basis for automation – you cannot automate what has not been
well described previously.
•• It is important to note that ITIL grants a degree of flexibility too. The framework
often solely describes what shall be done, but not how (example: KPIs). This
flexibility can be leveraged to make ITIL more agile, customer-centric and even
customer-led by applying tools and methods from DevOps.
45
45
Traditional ITSM is based on ITIL principles - future
IT processes will benefit from the quickness and
flexibility that DevOps brings
Consideration of
Usability
E.g. availability,
scalability and security
Focus on Delivery
Automation of testing
and deployment
Focus on
Features
Quick realization of SW
functionalities
Focus on Process
Definition
Detailed description of
requirements, processes
and roles
ITIL DevOps
supports
enables
46
46
DevOps complements ITIL with proven approaches and
modern collaboration tools to enable a more agile ITSM
organization
DevOps Tools
Cross Functional KPIs
Standardization and Automation
Dynamic and Interactive Monitoring
Operational Feedback Loops
New Idea of Ticketing Systems
47
47
Integrating Agile and ITSM
- ITSM is still seen by many as purely ITIL-focused or relevant only to internal IT
operations.
- ITSM needs to grow up. In the past this has been too narrowly focussed on internal
IT functions, projects and costs.
- ITIL has been the ‘de facto’ training and development approach for the last 10 to 15
years, yet those involved in delivering it know that ITIL is not enough – success
requires much more than knowledge of a process framework. In reality ITIL currently
offers little in terms of practical guidance around successful ‘implementation’. IT and
ITSM also need to be viewed and appreciated more in a business broker role, more
able to react quickly and be a solution provider rather than a ‘blocker’ - or the guys
who always say ‘no’. Without a significant change in speed of delivery, quality and
perception of service and demonstrable value, many IT internal departments and
external IT companies will become more and more exposed as obsolete and,
ultimately, redundant. The ITSM industry itself also needs a make-over, with fresh
and accessible content, some new and contemporary framing and messaging, in
order to remain attractive and relevant.
- There is a large gap in the body of knowledge around ITSM – ITIL is primarily
focussed on process, whereas successful ITSM requires a much wider portfolio of
skills and capabilities. ITIL does not define organisational change, human interaction
or customer experience, all essential for success. Many organisations have expected
48
• Cloud changes everything and you can’t avoid it so
get behind it
• Use ITIL/ITSM to offer mentoring on how to choose
and manage services wisely
• IT doesn’t go away with cloud just its role changes
• ITSM/ITIL are critical to success with cloud
• New SIAM architecture is the way to manage
successfully large IT infra
• DevOps is the angle into conversation
• Agile everywhere as approach not as must
• AI starts to penetrate the ITSM solutions and takes
it’s place there
• ChatOps as the way how t integrate human and AI
communication
• ITXM and XLA is a way how to achieve the best
cuastomer experience and satisfaction
Summary
ITIL to deliver results way beyond its capability or remit, seeing ITIL itself as the
solution and ignoring these other factors. The result has been a lot of failed or
incomplete ‘ITIL projects’ – these have burned cash and resources with few positive
results, leaving the brand names associated with ITIL and ITSM damaged. Without a
central body to manage these issues, each area of the industry has continued
unilaterally to deliver point solutions with limited success and restricted commercial
penetration. ITSM is therefore not a properly codified discipline. In its current form it
will not be sustainable, and the industry needs a new and wider definition, vision
and structure. This should include, for example, a broader definition and portfolio of
skills and capabilities, body of knowledge, and organisational standards, plus clear
career development paths, higher education qualifications and a code of conduct.
ITSM needs to be clearly positioned and presented as a business approach both
within and beyond IT organisations. This is a growth area as many organisations are
now using ITSM processes and tools to deliver wider collaboration and work
management functions. C-level value propositions must be universally promoted
around ITSM as an enabler, broker, orchestrator, rather than administrator. All
stakeholders need to engage and play their part in the delivery of Service
Management - it’s a team game. We need to move away from thinking that ITSM is
‘just what the Service Desk do.’ In other words, in order to survive, the IT and ITSM
industry has to move to the next level of maturity - we collectively need to grow up.
48
49
This was the “last” session.
In case you are interested we can meet next Tuesday May 9th to
discuss more on ITSM topic or clarify some not clear topics from
my previous sessions or even discuss whatever you want. Pls let
me know via e-mail by this Friday May 5th EOB.