Service Management keeps your technology and workforce moving. It’s often unseen yet underpins how your teams work, day in and day out. We recently held a breakfast meetup to talk about how Service Management is evolving and what you can do right now to maximise the strategic benefit that this key function brings to your organisation.
Setting the Scene
Our morning started with a look at how Service Management is viewed today. People still treat it as routine support rather than a function that shapes daily productivity. Many said they struggle to get enough senior backing to move from current established processes to improvements focused on outcomes, which would generate more value and benefits. That gap can stop teams from adopting better ways of working.
We heard that:
- Some organisations stick to old-school processes and governance gates
- Others have pushed Service Management to third-party suppliers but aren’t seeing real innovation
- Many have invested in an ITSM platform yet overlooked how they manage people, data, and workflows
- Internal governance controls are important and individual to each organisation.
Where Things Get Stuck
A significant issue is the view that Service Management keeps the lights on. As a result:
- It rarely gets the investment and resources it needs.
- Longstanding processes remain clunky and slow.
- New automation and AI possibilities often go unrealised.
Leaders see incidents as inevitable. Service desks handle them; then, everyone moves on. In reality, modern Service Management can improve incident response through smarter design, quality data, and automation.
A Look at the Future
We spent time discussing how Service Management might look in the next five years. Automation and AI came up repeatedly. People want:
1. Self-Service Portals
- Faster for users.
- Free up SM teams to tackle deeper issues.
2. AI Chatbots
- Handle lower-level tasks like password resets and simple queries.
- Let staff focus on real problems that need a personal touch.
3. Experience-Level Agreements (XLAs)
- Goes beyond response times and traditional SLAs.
- Tracks user happiness and actual outcomes.
We also touched on product-focused teams. Instead of handing projects over to a separate ops team, the same group owns the build and ongoing support. That builds accountability and ownership and often speeds up fixes.
Winning Ideas and Small Steps
If you want to move beyond the basics of Service Management, these ideas kept cropping up:
- Audit current processes: Look at each process and ask if it really adds value. Simplify or cut out what slows you down. Be outcomes-focused and be ruthless.
- Build a strong data foundation: AI and automation rely on accurate information about assets, people, and usage patterns.
- Try small automations first: Start with tasks like resetting passwords or provisioning new user accounts. See how those wins add up.
- Measure the user experience: Consider adoption rates, employee feedback, and onboarding times. Numbers like that can reveal hidden problems.
- Show actual outcomes to your leaders: Track how updates affect staff productivity or user satisfaction. That proof can unlock the support you need.
Bringing It All Together
So what’s next? Service Management isn’t just about dealing with incidents. It’s about building an environment where everyone has what they need to get work done. When you shift from firefighting to proactive planning, your organisation benefits on many levels.
If you’re keen to bounce around ideas or hear more details about what we covered, you’re welcome to get in touch. We’d be happy to compare notes on how Service Management can push your teams forward without bogging them down in slow processes and really drive a value-based Service Management function.
