Top 5 Reasons for Switching ITSM Software

Switching software vendors can seem like a daunting endeavor, but sometimes the cost of not changing is too great to ignore.

Whether you’ve outgrown your current solution or are using a cumbersome, costly platform with high administrative costs, you may find that switching to a new ITSM tool makes sense.

Further, with the advent of no-code software, ITSM software platforms are now offering integration and automation that will relieve the drain on IT resources – making the drive for change even stronger.

Here are some of the reasons customers have switched to TeamDynamix for their ITSM needs.

1. Cost of Administration

One of the biggest reasons for change is that the current ITSM system administration simply costs too much; this can be in two forms – first, the licensing fees and model do not make sense for you. Perhaps the platform charges by module or the core platform is just too expensive.

Added to this issue is the concept of Total Cost of Ownership with many organizations complaining about the number of resources required to simply care and feed for the ITSM Software.

Sometimes organizations will report they have as many as 8 dedicated resources administering the ITSM tool; often consuming technical experts to create forms, workflows, integrations and scripts.

Many are rethinking this model as they try to put these resources on more value-add tasks.

“I’ve used a couple of (ITSM) tools now and I’ve found that the biggest question is ‘How many IT resources do you need to maintain them?’ There are fantastic platforms out there for IT Service Management, but you might need two full-time head counts just to keep them up and running,” Alex Turek, IT Service Desk Manager for the grocery chain Festival Foods, said. Festival Foods recently switched to TeamDynamix for their ITSM, Project Portfolio Management (PPM) and iPaaS needs.

“This tool can run itself,” Turek said of TeamDynamix. “I’m impressed with the lack of coding knowledge and IT terminology you need to know to set it up. It’s drag and drop, and it’s completely customizable. There’s not a lot of work we have to do to maintain. It just works.”

2. Poorly Supported or Poorly Implemented Solutions

Another area that is often underestimated is the overall care and support of the solution – starting from the beginning through implementation.

When working with a vendor, it is important to consider what steps will be taken along the way; how will you migrate over data? How will you rebuild the Knowledge Base? Do you have the right service catalog? Are you set up with change management and asset management for a more comprehensive approach to IT service management? Do you have an end-user portal? Is it designed well; do you have enough content there? Can your end-users easily search the portal?

Too many times the implementation itself is cut short because the engagements are too long and too costly and what was eventually tagged as ‘phase 2’ simply never happens.

So now you are stuck with a partially implemented product – and because it relies too much on technical resources to modify, you never do it. For this reason, many will start fresh with a no-code platform so that they can quickly overcome the challenges and sustain a product without administrative drag.

3. Incomplete Solutions with Limited Functionality

Just like anything else, when we start to use a product, we really get to know its limitations, and quite often IT leaders will find that while the solution looked complete, it was not.

Perhaps it does not support ITIL, or maybe you cannot actually run projects and tickets together, or maybe the workflow, automation and integration options are limited or cumbersome.

For many reasons, IT leaders will be seeking a new solution to help take them to another level. If the functionality is too rudimentary, over time you will suffer as a team and will be unable to level up your service delivery.

Even basic areas such as automated ticket triage, multiple queues, workflow and multiple client portals are missing from the solution causing deterioration of service delivery.

4. Limited Integration and Automation

Once the dust settles and the new ITSM software is in place, many will start to think – what else – Enterprise Service Management becomes the natural next step… and along with that, integration.

Can I integrate this with my HR system? Can I create automation for updating the Active Directory? Am I able to build workflows between Workday and the ITSM/ESM platform?

As you start to go down this road, it becomes cumbersome, and you are left with APIs and scripts – which will add to the administrative drag.

For this reason, many are seeking ITSM platforms that offer inherent integration and automation with all enterprise systems. This also helps to drive the adoption of ESM in areas such as HR, marketing and facilities where there exists an entire tech stack that should be integrated for better management of workflow and data.

Shopping for ITSM Software? 3 Must-Have Features

Key Drivers for Making ‘The Switch’ at Elon

Patrick Donohue, Assistant CIO and Director of Campus Technology Support at Elon, knew of TeamDynamix from peer institutions. “We found that the company aligned well with our processes and approach to work. Elon implemented TeamDynamix in the spring of 2019 and has realized numerous benefits in doing so.

For instance, this cloud-based platform has helped the IT service team automate many processes that were done manually before with flexible and easily customizable forms and workflows. It has also driven user self-service with better knowledge management practices and an intuitive customer-facing interface. Both enhancements have saved IT employees time while improving the user experience for students, faculty, and staff alike.

Easy Rollout: Service Portal, Knowledge Base, Service Catalog and Automation 

Before implementing TeamDynamix, Elon University didn’t have an IT service catalog, and its knowledge base consisted of a publicly available wiki. To initiate a service request, users would have to call or email the IT support team.

TeamDynamix made it easy – it was easy to spin up a knowledge base and portal; it was easy to hook up the service request catalog; and it was easy to build out the automation and workflows to streamline the process.

The transformation was completed quickly, and now users have the option to submit their requests through an online service portal hosted within the TeamDynamix platform.

“We have configured ways to route service requests directly to the team that’s responsible for resolving them, based on the answers to questions in the service forms,” says Brooke Spires, Service Design Analyst. “By bypassing the first point of contact, we’re cutting down on the time it takes to resolve tickets.”

The service portal also contains the university’s knowledge base articles, which have been imported from the wiki — and this enables IT staff to create simple workflows for creating, reviewing, and updating articles on a regular basis.

Pima County Upgrades ITSM Platform after 10 Years on Previous Solution

With more than 1 million residents living in Pima County, top-notch service delivery is essential for the Pima County government, and that means investing in the right tools and retaining employees as the county moves through its digital transformation.

For Mark Hayes, information technology leader at Pima County, much of the digital transformation work starts in IT, “TeamDynamix is a place where we are really trying to kickstart and accelerate the ideology that automation with the right tools can bring value not just to IT, but to other departments within our organization. We’re starting in IT, so that they can see the possibilities as we move forward with our digital transformation and expand outside of IT.”

Pima County made the switch to TeamDynamix for IT service management (ITSM) after using a different system for the last 10 years. Traditionally, the county has taken in tickets through email, phone and a service catalog with base-level triage, but with TeamDynamix in place, they will be able to leverage self-service and automation to better serve its citizens and reduce the drain on employees and resources.

Automating ITSM to Reduce Mundane Manual Tasks

Aside from performance issues with their old ITSM platform, Hayes said the county is looking at ways to combat both resource drain and employee burnout with their new ITSM in place.

“Prior to TeamDynamix, we didn’t have the ability to automate things and build workflows to do things that eliminate toil and redundancy for our employees,” Hayes said.

And with many organizations struggling to maintain or hire new talent, especially in IT, this was critical for the county, “People feel so much more empowered and have so much more worth when they are doing things that are intellectually rigorous and challenging versus when they are just repeating the same mechanical actions over and over and over with very little thought,” Hayes said.