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ITSM definition

IT service management (ITSM) is a set of policies, processes, and procedures to manage the implementation, improvement, and support of customer-oriented IT services. Unlike other IT management practices that focus on hardware, network, or systems, ITSM aims to consistently improve IT customer service in alignment with business goals.

ITSM encompasses multiple IT management frameworks that can apply to centralized and decentralized systems. There are multiple frameworks that fall under the ITSM discipline, and some address unique industry-specific IT needs, including those in healthcare, government, or technology. Businesses using ITSM consider IT as a service, with a focus on delivering valuable services to customers, rather than a department that manages technology.

What does ITSM do for your business?

ITSM offers various frameworks for businesses to create management standards around IT services and customer service practices. It encompasses quality management, software engineering, change management, information security management, as well as popular management framework standards like ISO 9000, ITIL, and ISO/IEC.

It isn’t so much what ITSM can do, but what businesses can do with the frameworks that live within the ITSM discipline. They’re designed as a guide to bring organization and structure to service-oriented IT departments, aligning IT goals with business needs and goals, especially for customer-focused companies. If your company has already embraced change management, you’re on the path to building an ITSM environment based on improvement and growth in processes, services, products, and software.

ITSM vs. ITIL

Although they’re sometimes used interchangeably, ITSM and ITIL aren’t the same thing. ITIL is one of the most popular frameworks within the ITSM discipline, and it’s helped inform and inspire other ITSM frameworks. ITSM can be supported with the ITIL methodology, which is designed to guide organizations through the ITSM implementation.

The ITIL 4 framework, the updated version of ITIL v3 released earlier this year, is relatively flexible, so it can adapt to a variety of business goals. Businesses can pick and choose operational processes that are the most relevant to their goals. IT as a service is heavily emphasized in the ITIL v3 and updated ITIL 4 frameworks, and as such, it’s tightly woven into the foundation of ITSM. So it’s less about ITSM vs. ITIL and more about how ITIL supports ITSM and allows businesses to embrace and implement streamlined service management.

ITSM service desk

One primary discipline that falls under ITSM is the service desk, which is defined in the ITIL manual. ITIL views service desks as a Single Point of Contact (SPOC), which can streamline communication within an organization or business unit. Service desks act as hubs for users and customers to contact well-trained staff to manage issues in an organized and coordinated manner.

The service desk is also viewed as a primary IT function in ITSM to provide a SPOC to accommodate and manage users, IT staff, customers, and IT objectives. An IT service desk, call center, or help desk is the central hub for incident tickets, service requests, questions, internal issues, client and customer service, and more. As such, it’s importance is heavily emphasized in the ITSM discipline as well as the ITIL framework.

What is the use of AI in ITSM?

Despite being a relatively recent technology, AI found an early home in ITSM, helping businesses better streamline customer service. Ticketing portals have been commonplace in service management, helping organize and assign tickets to the correct IT staff. The chat bot is another early implementation of AI and ML, guiding customers through preliminary questions to point them to the right representative, or solving simple questions to reduce workload on IT support staff. AI has also been used in ITSM to improve personalization for end-users, based on past interactions and user profile information.

AI in ITSM has the potential to:

• Reduce costs and streamline decision making based on large data sets analyzed by ML, identifying patterns and trends to inform business decisions.
• Predict future needs and demands for IT resources, fairly allocate resources, predict performance issues by analyzing system performance data, and strengthen IT security with more efficient threat detection.
• Automatically categorize incidents and routing tickets to the correct team member, resolve tickets, and use data to predict and prevent incidents before they occur.
• Enable AI powered chat bots and bots used in collaborative tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, assist end-users with simple tasks or connect them with human representatives as needed.
• Identify underlying root causes of recurring incidents to improve problem management.
• Drive change management through automation tools and pre- and post- implementation testing to ensure all changes are safe and effective.
• Identify knowledge gaps using AI in service tickets by comparing them to past tickets and existing knowledge articles.
• Improve security management with AI through continuous monitoring of networks for suspicious or unusual activity, identify potential threats before it’s too late, and uncover vulnerabilities in IT infrastructure. 

ITSM frameworks

ITIL might be the most commonly used ITSM framework, but there are plenty of other businesses can use. Some are targeted at specific industries or business needs, such as healthcare, government, and telecoms. If your business has technology needs unique to your industry, you might do well to find a framework that addresses your specific challenges.

Some popular frameworks are:

• IT Infrastructure Library 4 (ITIL 4): a framework of best practices to deliver IT services.
• Business Process Framework (eTOM): designed for telecommunications service providers.
• COBIT (Control Objectives for information and Related Technologies): an IT governance framework.
• FitSM: a simplified, streamlined service management framework typically aligned with ISO/IEC 20000.
• ISO/IEC 20000: considered the international standard for IT service management and delivery.
• Six Sigma: developed by Motorola with a focus on using data analysis to minimize product and service flaws.
• MOF (Microsoft Operations Framework): a compilation of 23 documents that guide businesses through the entire lifecycle of an IT service, including creation, implementation and cost-effective management, with an emphasis on Microsoft technologies.
• TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework): created and managed by The Open Group as a way to provide businesses with structure when implementing technology, with a focus on software.

Related reading: What is Lean Six Sigma? Blending methodologies to reduce waste and improve efficiency

ITSM processes

IT has always had processes specific to technology. But to integrate IT objectives with business objectives, ITSM shifts the language used to describe these IT processes to be less IT-specific in order to help reinforce the idea that service-IT is at the heart of the business. Some of these changes revolve around:

• Process focus: shifting IT from focusing on technology to thinking about processes on a business-level.
• Prevention: viewed as firefighting in IT, but addressed as preventative on the business side.
• Proactive: shifting IT practices to a proactive rather than reactive strategy.
• Customers: viewing users as customers.
• Distributed, sourced: changing from traditional centralized IT with everything completed in-house.
• Integrated, enterprise-wide: shifting from a siloed IT department to one with less isolation.
• Repeatable, accountable: creating structure instead of ad hoc practices by standardizing processes.
• Formal best practices: establishing processes rather than working off informal policies so everyone’s on the same page.
• Business perspective: moving away from thinking about IT-specific needs to full-scale business needs.
• Service orientation: shifting from traditional operational specific IT initiatives to a focus on customer and client service.

ITSM tools

You’ll find plenty of software suites aimed at supporting entire ITSM processes to handle ticketing, service, incidents, any upgrades, or changes. Typically, these suites are marketed as either ITSM or ITIL solutions, and focus on supporting IT workflow management. These ITSM software suites contain everything businesses need to work within the framework of their choice, and offer flexibility for businesses to deploy all the features they need.

There are over 100 tools that claim to support ITSM and ITIL, yet only some are certified. Software vendors can gain approval from Axelos to use the trademark and an ITIL process compliant logo, according to its website, as long as the software meets the functional requirements to support ITIL.

Top ITSM tools include:

• ServiceNow
• TOPdesk
• SolarWinds
• ServiceDesk Plus
• SymphonyAI
• Jira Service Management (JSM)
• Cherwell
• Freshservice
• SysAid
• BMC’s Remedy Service Management Suite

For a deeper dive into each of these, read our roundup of the top 12 ITSM tools.

ITSM certification

You can earn a certification in the ITSM discipline, and there are options for corporate- and individual-level training. But before you find the correct certification program, you need to know the framework you plan to use. While you can be certified in ITSM as a discipline, most programs are based on a specific framework. And you can also get certified in specific ITSM tools, like SysAid and ServiceNow. For more on ITSM certifications, check out:

• ITIL Foundation certification: 6 tips for acing the exam
• ServiceNow certification guide: Mastering ITSM