[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]IT service management is sometimes described as a customer-focused approach to making information technology available.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4977″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” image_hovers=”false” lazy_loading=”true”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The idea is to offer value to customers (often other departments and internal end-users) and to build a constructive customer relationship.
As part of this approach, each service should be deployed in a way that allows customers to do business without needing to worry about or understand the IT infrastructure they are using.
Common questions from customers include “what is the service and how do I get it”, “how do I use it or get help”, and “what does it cost”. Yet, with the right marketing approach, IT service management could go much further in terms of business value.
One of the features of effective marketing is the detection of real needs that customers (internal or external) don’t speak about. They may be silent because they don’t know they have that need, or because they assume that the organisation in front of them has no solution to offer.
When it comes to IT, internal customers need applications and infrastructure to help them meet business objectives, including generating profit, competing successfully against rival companies, and maintaining high levels of satisfaction of their own customers.
End-users and managers in an organisation often limit unnecessarily the advantages from IT by only asking the three service-description, support, and cost questions above.
Your first move in adding business value to IT service management is therefore to ask your internal customers about their objectives, and how the services you provide can help them achieve those objectives.
Be ready to probe and be suitably creative and imaginative in the ways IT services could help further. For example, business intelligence software as a cloud service can help managers cut costs and outsmart competitors, while high network availability can help customer support teams wow the company’s external customers.
Certain ITSM solutions even allow you to tie your IT-driven metrics to this kind of business key performance indicator, so that your IT service managements can always be oriented towards added business value.
Finally, remember also that your own company marketing department may have good tips and recommendations to help you serve your customers even better.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]