ITSM, or IT service management, is one of the most important tech jobs, especially when it comes to enterprise. These specialists improve customer interaction through software products and services.
An ITSM job involves different aspects including listening to feedback from customers and clients, adjusting products and workflows, knowing the needs of the entire organization, concentrating on the maximum value, as well as constant optimization and automation.
The execution of these aspects depends on the company. And with COVID-19, many companies had to shift their tech stacks to the cloud. With remote workflows and new procedures and tools, ITSM specialists have to be proactive and smart to make sure the needs of their clients are met.
ITSM specialists handle the maintenance and delivery of IT services and to do so they need to apply a holistic approach. This means that the utilization of the main ITSM principle can vary in different companies, but there are clear starting points. The most important skills for ITSM specialists are work management, communication skills, patience, and a lot of soft skills.
On the technical side, if you want to work with ITSM, you need to know ITIL – or Information Technology Infrastructure Library. This is a library of best practices that are essential for the delivery of IT services so that you can ensure that you provide services in a cost-effective, streamlined, and relatively risk-free way.
As you move up the stack, there are other levels of training and even advanced ITIL training. There are also other organizations that provide role-based training such as Pink Elephant and Help Desk Institute, as well as other companies that provide support on training courses and change management.
These providers can also help with soft skills, in addition to the distribution of knowledge and management. ITSM is all about improvement of the service and this is done through changing the technology so you should be looking for new technology, innovation, and developing and introducing new capabilities.
There are other certifications that are very useful for ITSM specialists, including AWS Certified Solution Architect, Certified Information System Auditor, and Certified Institutional Security Supervisor. All these are valuable given the importance of security and are a requirement for many ITSM jobs.
Another critical technology for ITSM specialists is automation. As it can help businesses grow, ITSM specialists should embrace automation, constantly test new solutions, design, and build automation workflows.
Two other new technologies – artificial intelligence and machine learning can help service managers to provide meaningful changes. The future is all about AI chatbots and intelligent tech that can offer self-service capabilities for customers. ITSM professionals have to be able to know this information and provide analytics on it.
Change management is a valuable skill set for service managers because it provides the opportunity to determine the value of new processes, and encourages compliance and adoption. Since IT has progressed to the forefront, it requires the capability to solve not only tech problems but also organization challenges.
Knowing how systems within the organization work together, as well as mastering concepts like DevOps and Agile are increasingly valuable to ITSM professionals. Another critical area is the understanding of cloud technology, as well as networking protocols and concepts, and end-user compute operating systems – especially in the current times with more and more people working remotely.
