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Better Together: Combining ITSM and PPM

Published Date
Author Brooke Tajer

With ever-increasing levels of competitiveness in the business world, having high rates of efficiency is essential if you want to come out on top. One proven way to increase efficiency is to combine your ITSM and PPM on a single platform.

By integrating ITSM and PPM you gain a clear view of the interdependencies between the functions of IT service delivery and project management. This allows managers to have a more complete view of operations, maximizes resource optimization and is a great solution for industries that struggle with budget and resource constraints.

Maximizing Resource Optimization

With companies managing a wide variety of projects simultaneously, it is likely that one resource is being utilized for multiple different tasks at one time. This makes it critical to track each of your resources so that you understand where everyone’s time and energy are being allocated. Here, you can derive the greatest number of benefits from a single resource.

In addition to keeping an eye on how current resources are being used, forecasting the use of resources is also a huge benefit to having ITSM and PPM on a single platform. This single-platform approach allows users to see the resource availability for upcoming projects, and see how the needs of a future project will affect the projects that are currently in place.

Optimizing resources is essential for organizations that have resource and budget constraints. The functionality of an integrated platform is very practical for businesses that are looking to save.

Wide Range of Information

Combining ITSM and PPM allows users to have all relevant information in one place. Instead of switching between different pages or programs, everything you need can be right in front of you in a comprehensive, custom dashboard. This allows for a great amount of information to be at your fingertips, like:

  • Amount of and type of work that needs to be completed
  • Estimated length of project or task
  • Which areas need more resources
  • Who is assigned to do what
  • Who has the availability to help fulfill certain needs
  • When that person can do the work

Having this list of information readily available to aid in decision-making speeds up a variety of processes. For example, someone would be able to quickly identify where a bottleneck is occurring, or where excess capacity exists within the resource pool.

At Festival Foods they use TeamDynamix for ITSM and PPM (as well as iPaaS). Having just one platform for both ITSM and PPM has greatly improved the lives of their IT technicians, “Before, they couldn’t customize what their desktop looked like,” Alex Turek, IT service desk manager, said. “They couldn’t get their own reporting or metrics. Now, the technicians make their own dashboards showing what they need to see. They can run their own reports. Metrics and key performance indicators are very easily set up, and these go to our leadership team automatically so leaders can see what we’re working on and what our pain points are.”

And now, there’s a process in place for projects too.

“Before, we had no project governance process,” Turek said. “It was very ad-hoc. Whoever could scream the loudest got the most IT resources. Finding a tool that also included PPM was huge.”

Managing projects and IT services within the same platform has brought significant benefits, leading to improved efficiency and accountability.

“Technicians can see their project work and their IT work in one space,” Turek says. “This means it’s easier to communicate and ensure follow-through. Project managers can assign tasks to my service desk team within the same dashboard they’re using to resolve tickets. Those pop right up, helping them be aware of all their tasks and priorities so they can easily meet their deadlines.”

Implementing TeamDynamix

Combining ITSM and PPM through TeamDynamix means integrating project tasks and tickets. With ITSM and PPM together you can pull tickets into a project plan, and tickets can be escalated to a project or project request.

Additionally, change and release tickets can be incorporated into existing projects, and service validation and testing can be supported via a ticketing application or through PPM.

Regardless if you’re trying to create a complex plan for advanced project managers or simply make a task list, TeamDynamix is able to help you based on your specific needs. Our portfolio-driven approach enables users to easily optimize resources, even when dealing with multiple projects and tickets.

Covenant HealthCare used TeamDynamix as a solution to their own IT and project management issues, and the results have been widely appreciated among employees. Frank Fear, Chief Information Officer, comments on his experience, saying “I have my own CIO dashboard and in one look I can see any negative survey that’s come in the last 24 hours, then pivot over and look at any project that has a status of red that needs my attention, then pivot over and look at what’s going live in the next 30 days…”

The ease of use and ability to have a full view of each moving part is what has helped improve their efficiency the most.

Though it sounds simple, information is the most valuable asset within an organization. Without displaying this information in a way that is most useful to employees, you are not making the most of what you have right in front of you.

Being able to view all of your resources, current projects and tickets, etc., all at the same time can be transformative for a business.

Integrating ITSM and PPM eliminates inefficiencies and optimizes resources through systematic processes and workflows, so no more jumping between tools or having to switch views.