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Support Your Burned-Out IT Team with Smart Service Management

Published Date
Author Brooke Tajer

In the wake of the global pandemic, businesses and organizations everywhere are having to get creative to support employees who are feeling burned-out, without using up already limited resources. Employee burnout is especially high amongst IT departments, according to a new survey featured in CIO Dive. The survey found 61 percent of tech workers say their stress levels have risen since working remotely, and 54 percent described themselves as exhausted.

“Workers are also unhappy with the technology — and therefore the IT department — used by their organizations. Forty-three percent of respondents to a ClickUp survey have been frustrated by the number of tech tools and apps they use for work; 42% of employees state that their company is stuck in the "dark ages" when it comes to adopting new technology tools or apps,” the article states.

And it’s these frustrations that help desk employees in IT have to manage every day, “When employees run into a technical problem, the first point of contact is usually the IT service desk. The employee tends to be frustrated or unhappy, and empathy they may have had toward the IT workforce at the beginning of the pandemic faded,” Sumir Karayi, CEO of 1E, said in the article.

42% of employees state that their company is stuck in the "dark ages" when it comes to adopting new technology tools or apps.

So how can leaders support their remote workforce, deliver exceptional customer experiences, AND relive some of the stress and burdens placed on their IT department? By investing in smart service management.  Smart Service Management combines ITSM with enterprise automation.

Support Through IT Service Management with Automation

To start, businesses and organizations should make sure they have an IT Service Management tool that supports the needs of their IT department. The ITSM tool should these features and functionalities to be most effective:

  • Comprehensive Support for ITIL - TIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library and refers to a specific framework for ITSM that was developed in the UK in the 1980s. The ITIL framework bases itself on the five phases of the service life cycle – service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation and continual service improvement. By using ITIL, you can mitigate ongoing service gaps within your organization.
  • Easy-to-use, Functional Service Portals - Your ITSM tool should come with an out-of-the-box self-service portal with a knowledge base that can be easily configured and personalized with your branding WITHOUT any coding or scripting. In addition, the portal should be WCAG 2.0 AA compliant and fully accessible. When you have a functional portal that’s easy to search and navigate you can drive your customers to self-service which saves your IT organization time and money. A support call can cost as much as $22 (according to HDI), while self-service is just $2 per incident.
  • A Knowledge Base that Promotes Knowledge-Centered Service® - Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) should be part of your ITSM processes as a complementary strategy to self-service. By employing KCS across your organization you will be able to crowd-source content to keep your knowledge base accurate and functional. A solid knowledge base is the core of self-service success, and it really brings results. When the University of South Dakota implemented KCS and built out their knowledge base they saw an 18-percent reduction in time logged to service tickets.

Once you have your ITSM in place, you can explore scaling it throughout your organization (Enterprise Service Management).

Rather than a service request dead ending to a queue, what if the request could kick off a series of steps to action the request in real-time?

Supercharge Your Service Management with Integration and Automation

Adding integration and automation to your IT and Enterprise Service Management practices is another great way to free up resources and boost efficiencies. By investing in smart service management for your organization, you’re investing in service management that connects the entire enterprise and allows everyone to interact in real-time, supercharged by iPaaS (integration platform as a service). iPaaS allows you to automate tasks, both simple and complex, as well as connect disparate systems throughout your organization – all through a codeless platform, meaning anyone can use it.

Here are just a few ways iPaaS can reduce IT resource drain:

  • Facilitate enterprise integration by using a single hub with pre-built connectors to systems that you use every day as well as a connector concierge for the creation of specific connectors.  (Imagine being able to automatically change a user name, add someone to a distribution group, onboard an employee)
  • Expedite creation of automation and workflows with a visual flow builder (codeless) that is easy to use, own and operate; reduce IT backlog of integration and workflow requests. 
  • Optimize resources across IT to allow for improved output and a higher level of service delivery to your internal and external customers by removing redundant data entry and manual processing. 
  • Reduce API risk with a single connectivity platform that will offer increased oversight and control. 

To learn more about Smart Service management and the positive effects it can have on your business check out our eBook - Smart Service Management: Working Better Together With a Connected Enterprise.