# LLMs.txt - Sitemap for AI content discovery
# SysAid
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## Pages
- [HP](https://www.sysaid.com/hp): There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
- [Get Calendar](https://www.sysaid.com/get-calendar):
- [Lansweeper](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/lansweeper): The SysAid Advanced Discovery solution powered by Lansweeper eliminates blind spots by bringing real-time asset intelligence into your ITSM workflows
- [Homepage 2025](https://www.sysaid.com/homepage): Explore SysAid's AI-powered ITSM platform. Automate workflows and optimize IT service delivery. Get started today!
- [Plans Calculator](https://www.sysaid.com/plans-calculator): Explore SysAid’s range of ITSM plans tailored to your business needs. From Help Desk to Enterprise, find your perfect plan today!
- [SysAid Partners - Join Our Global Network](https://www.sysaid.com/company/sysaid-partners-join-our-global-network): Join SysAid's partner network to deliver exceptional, AI-enhanced IT service solutions globally and grow your revenue.
- [SysAid AI Agent Builder](https://www.sysaid.com/ai-agent-builder): AI Agent Builder can take actions, automate tasks, and drive seamless service experiences across your organization.
- [About us](https://www.sysaid.com/company/about-us): Discover how SysAid innovates in ITSM across various industries. If you’ve never heard about us, click here to learn more!
- [CSR](https://www.sysaid.com/company/about-us/csr): Discover SysAid's CSR initiatives that celebrate diversity and inclusion, empower communities through volunteer efforts, and prioritize employee wellbeing with innovative programs and benefits.
- [KO 2025](https://www.sysaid.com/ko-2025): SYSAID KICK OFF 2025 What’s this all about? Charting Our Course 2025 Company Goals & Plans Preparing...
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.sysaid.com/privacy-policy): Ensure your privacy is respected. Take a minute to understand our data practices in the Privacy Policy.
- [SysAid is officially certified by PinkVERIFY](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/sysaid-is-officially-certified-by-pink-verify): SysAid is officially certified by Pink VERIFY - The Industry’s #1 Stamp of Approval for IT Service Management (ITSM) Tools
- [SysAid Copilot for Agents](https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-copilot/sysaid-copilot-for-agents): Discover SysAid Copilot for Agents – your AI-powered ally for streamlined IT support. With real-time issue detection, task automation, and multi-language capabilities and more
- [SysAid Copilot for End Users](https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-copilot/sysaid-copilot-for-end-users): Discover SysAid Copilot for End Users. Our AI-powered chatbot provides 24/7 support with intuitive image analysis, task automation, and multi-language capabilities. Explore SysAid Copilot today.
- [SysAid Copilot](https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-copilot): Empower your admins with generative AI so they can deliver consumer-grade support to end users automagically
- [PeopleCert Accredited ITIL Tool Vendor](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/peoplecert-accredited-itil-tool-vendor): SysAid is proud to be officially certified by PeopleCert as an ITIL 4 Accredited Tool Vendor. Discover our comprehensive IT Service Management solutions, designed to meet the highest standards and best practices in the industry.
- [AI Chatbot via MS Teams](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/ai-chatbot-via-ms-teams): Wow end users with easy and conversational support directly from within the familiar interface of Microsoft Teams.
- [SYSAID AI SERVICES – TERMS AND CONDITIONS](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/sysaid-copilot-terms-and-conditions): Get Started Risk-Free: Understand SysAid AI Services Terms and Conditions license agreement.
- [Interactive experience](https://www.sysaid.com/interactive): Interactive - Discover SysAid's interactive tools and resources designed to enhance your IT service management experience.
- [KO 2024](https://www.sysaid.com/ko-2024): SYSAID KICK OFF 2024 What’s this all about? Charting Our Course 2024 Company Goals & Plans FlightSimulator...
- [Home](https://www.sysaid.com/): Explore SysAid's AI-powered ITSM platform. Automate workflows and optimize IT service delivery. Get started today!
- [IT Service Management Software](https://www.sysaid.com/enterprise): SysAid Enterprise - The ITSM plan large teams use to scale service management throughout the organization–now backed by the full power of generative AI.
- [SysAid Partners - Join Our Global Network](https://www.sysaid.com/company/partners): Join SysAid's partner network to deliver exceptional, AI-enhanced IT service solutions globally and grow your revenue.
- [SysAid for Microsoft Teams](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/sysaid-for-teams): Deliver seamless IT service with SysAid's native Microsoft Teams integration. Empower users within their workspace. Request a demo today.
- [AI Chatbot](https://www.sysaid.com/ai-chatbot): Empower end users with SysAid’s AI Chatbot. Get instant answers and improve efficiency. Try it now!
- [Next Gen AI ITSM Ticketing System | Power by SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/ticketing-system): Transform your IT support with SysAid’s AI ticketing system. Simplify issue resolution and boost efficiency. Learn more now!
- [Service Automation](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/service-automation): IT Service Automation uses AI built from a decade of real usage data from over 4,000 organizations. It makes every aspect of ITSM automatic.
- [Help desk Software](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/help-desk-software): Boost your IT team's efficiency with SysAid's AI-driven Help Desk. Streamline operations now—request a demo!
- [IT Service Desk Software](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-desk-software): Backed by the full power of generative AI, SysAid's IT service desk software empowers organizations to deliver exceptional service— automagically.
- [Plans](https://www.sysaid.com/plans): Explore SysAid’s range of ITSM plans tailored to your business needs. From Help Desk to Enterprise, find your perfect plan today!
- [Free Trial](https://www.sysaid.com/trial): Experience SysAid’s help desk and ITSM software for free. Sign up for a trial and see how automation can improve your IT support. Try it now!
- [Personal demo](https://www.sysaid.com/personal-demo): Get a hands-on, personalized demo of SysAid’s ITSM platform. Discover tailored automation solutions for your IT team. Book your demo now!
- [Candidates Privacy Policy](https://www.sysaid.com/candidates-privacy-policy):
- [On-Premise Software Security Vulnerability Notification](https://www.sysaid.com/security-compliance/on-premise-software-security-vulnerability-notification): Security vulnerability notification about our response to previous security vulnerability affecting on-premise customers
- [Sitemap](https://www.sysaid.com/sitemap): Discover the complete sitemap of SysAid's website, providing a structured overview of all the pages, resources, and features offered.
- [Glossary](https://www.sysaid.com/glossary): Enhance your IT terminology knowledge with this comprehensive glossary. Explore the meanings of important IT terms from A to Z by SysAid.
- [Sexual Harassment, Discrimination and Retaliation Policies](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/sexual-harassment-discrimination-and-retaliation-policies): Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of human rights. SysAid believes that it has no place in our business or supply chains.
- [Environmental and Waste Management Policy](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/environmental-and-waste-management-policy): SysAid's environmental and waste management policy demonstrates its dedication to sustainable and responsible business operations.
- [Self-service Depot](https://www.sysaid.com/support/upgrade-account): Talk with your Customer Success Manager about additional licenses and useful modules with Self-Service Depot
- [Calendar Thank You](https://www.sysaid.com/calendar-thank-you):
- [SysAid for Teams Free Trial](https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-for-teams-free-trial): Sign up for a free 30 day free trial, let us help you resolve your issues faster and make service smoother.
- [KO 2023](https://www.sysaid.com/ko-2023): SYSAID KICK OFF 2023 What’s this all about? Future Quest 2023 Company Goals & Plans Your Universe...
- [IT Asset Management](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-asset-management): Boost your service desk efficiency with SysAid’s IT asset management. Simplify tracking and resolve issues faster. Discover how today!
- [Milestones](https://www.sysaid.com/milestones):
- [Events](https://www.sysaid.com/events): View Up and Coming Events brought to you by SysAid
- [All-In-One ITSM For Higher Education: Student - Staff | SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/higher-education): Today’s challenges of running an educational institution are countless. SysAid is the most Customizable and Low-Cost ITSM solution for your campus.
- [Anti-Money Laundering Policy](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/anti-money-laundering-policy): SysAid upholds its commitment to ethical business practices with its anti-money laundering policy, ensuring compliance with regulations.
- [Data Management](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/data-management): Enhance performance and declutter your workspace with effective data management. Discover more with SysAid!
- [Remote Desktop](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/remote-desktop): Enable secure remote access to PCs from any device with SysAid. Boost IT productivity with remote desktop capabilities. Request a demo today!
- [Tasks and Projects](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/tasks-and-projects): SysAid's Tasks & Projects module enables efficient management and coordination of IT and business projects with specific tasks and deadlines.
- [System and Interfaces](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/system-and-interfaces): Integrate SysAid with LDAP, email, APIs, and more. Seamlessly fit into your corporate IT ecosystem. Explore SysAid ITSM integration capabilities today.
- [Mobile Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/mobile-solution): Manage incidents, requests, and IT assets on-the-go with SysAid Mobile Apps. Stay connected and efficient. Try it today!
- [Manager Dashboard](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/manager-dashboard): Use SysAid Manager Dashboard to get real-time visibility into your help desk, IT asset management, and other critical KPIs. Try Manager Dashboard now!
- [IT Benchmark](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark): Use SysAid’s IT Benchmark tool to compare your IT performance with other departments worldwide. See where you stand instantly. Try the tool today.
- [Hardware and Network Monitoring](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/hardware-and-network-monitoring): SysAid Monitoring provides alerts and notifications so you can proactively manage hardware and IT network components, monitor space and usage
- [Network Discovery](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-asset-management/network-discovery): Discover your network and deploy the SysAid Agent to computers running Windows, Linux, Mac, and Unix. Also discover and enroll iOS and Android devices.
- [Flexibility](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/flexibility): Learn about SysAid's IT service management software and its flexibility in meeting the diverse needs of businesses.
- [Knowledge Management](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/knowledge-management): Service desk agents can find and share knowledge articles, and end users can self-help via SysAid's Self-Service Portal.
- [Service Level Management](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/service-level-management): Service Level Management Software: SysAid helps define, track, and meet IT service level agreements (SLAs).
- [Change Management Software](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/change-management-software): Simplified ITIL change management software with SysAid. Ensure smooth transitions—start improving today!
- [Problem Management](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/problem-management): Streamline your problem management workflow with SysAid’s ITIL-aligned software. Use templates to manage issues efficiently. Learn more now!
- [Incident Management](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/incident-management): Incident Management: Streamline IT service restoration with Sysaid's incident management software.
- [Chat](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/chat): Enable instant issue resolution with SysAid's live chat for IT teams. Empower users and IT support with seamless communication. Request a demo today!
- [CMDB Software](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/cmdb-software): Discover SysAid CMDB to enhance your IT operations. Boost efficiency and productivity. Try it now!
- [Remote Control](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/remote-control): Remote Support Software allows you to remotely connect to active end-user sessions or remotely access unattended computers. Try Remote Support now!
- [Password Reset](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/password-reset): SysAid's Self-Service Password Reset module empowers end-users to securely reset passwords without IT support, enhancing productivity.
- [Knowledge Base](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/knowledge-base): With SysAid Knowledge Base agents can find and share knowledge articles within SysAid Help Desk, and end users can self-help via the Self-Service Portal.
- [Important Update Regarding Apache Log4j](https://www.sysaid.com/security-compliance/important-update-regarding-apache-log4j):
- [Trial Inner](https://www.sysaid.com/trial-inner): Sign up for SysAid's 30-day free trial. Resolve your IT issues and make your help desk smoother with automation.
- [SysAid for Teams Free Trial](https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-for-teams-free-trial-2): Sign up for a free 30 day trial- let us help you resolve your issues faster and make service smoother.
- [AWS Partnership](https://www.sysaid.com/aws-partnership): Migrate your IT apps from on-prem to cloud with SysAid and AWS. Leverage best practices for a smooth transition. Explore SysAid's AWS partnership.
- [Vulnerability Policy](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/vulnerability-policy): Vulnerability Policy, To be quick and efficient with our response, please make sure that your report includes...
- [Data Backup Policy](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/data-backup-policy): Any data that You upload to SysAid’s Server throughout the Term while using the Services, belongs to You.
- [Data Processing Addendum (“DPA”)](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/data-processing-addendum-dpa): This DPA sets out the terms that apply with regards to SysAid processing Personal Data.
- [Cloud Terms and Conditions](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/cloud-terms-and-conditions): Get Started Risk-Free: Understand SysAid Cloud Terms and Conditions License Agreement.
- [Server Uptime Commitment](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/uptime-commitment): SysAid's Uptime Commitment underscores its dedication to providing reliable and uninterrupted service to its customers.
- [Anti-Slavery](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/anti-slavery-policy): Access SysAid's anti-slavery policy documentation, reflecting its commitment to ethical business practices and human rights.
- [Non-Discrimination Policy](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/non-discrimination-policy): Each Party to this Contract shall abide, as applicable under governing law, to the requirements of applicable law.
- [Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Laws](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/anti-bribery-policy-and-anti-corruption-laws): Learn about SysAid's anti-bribery policy and its adherence to anti-corruption laws, ensuring ethical business conduct globally.
- [Governing Law, Jurisdiction and Venue](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/governing-law-jurisdiction-and-venue): The applicable governing law provision is based on Your country of incorporation.
- [Product Summary](https://www.sysaid.com/plans/product-summary): Check out SysAid's product summary. We give a rundown on all components with a detailed description of each.
- [Data Security](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/data-security): Access SysAid's documentation on data security, outlining best practices for ensuring the safety of customer data.
- [Data Storage Location](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/data-storage-location): SysAid strictly adheres to all relevant local data protection laws and regulations. We stores your data in the location where you access SysAid’s services.
- [Evaluation License Terms](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/evaluation-license-terms): Get Started Risk-Free: Understand SysAid Evaluation License Terms. free of charge.
- [Maintenance Thank You](https://www.sysaid.com/order/maintenance-thank-you):
- [Renewal Thank You](https://www.sysaid.com/order/renewal-thank-you):
- [KO 2022](https://www.sysaid.com/ko-2022): SYSAID KICK OFF 2022 What’s this all about? Our Oyster 2022 Company goals & plans Get Sharp...
- [Upgrade Thank You](https://www.sysaid.com/order/upgrade-thank-you):
- [New Thank You](https://www.sysaid.com/order/new-thank-you):
- [Order](https://www.sysaid.com/order): Order Form OrderInformation ContactInformation PaymentOptions Finish What Do You Want to...
- [YCBM - Expansion](https://www.sysaid.com/ycbm-exp):
- [Trial Thank You](https://www.sysaid.com/thank-you):
- [MSP Solution 2](https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/msp-solution): Meet your clients across multiple locations, with a centralized service desk software that is uniquely customizable for each site.
- [Sitemap](https://www.sysaid.com/site-map):
- [Service Automation LP](https://www.sysaid.com/lp-service-automation): Service Automation uses AI built from a decade of real usage data from over 4,000 organizations. It makes every aspect of ITSM automatic.
- [Website Image Disclaimer](https://www.sysaid.com/website-image-disclaimer): Website Image Disclaimer - Learn about SysAid's website image disclaimer policy, ensuring transparency and accuracy in visual content.
- [Send files](https://www.sysaid.com/support/send-files):
- [sales-content-packages](https://www.sysaid.com/sales-content-packages):
- [MTTR Calculator](https://www.sysaid.com/mttr-calculator):
- [Professional Service Thank You](https://www.sysaid.com/support/professional-services/thank-you):
- [On-premises upgrade](https://www.sysaid.com/plans/on-premises/upgrade):
- [Upgrade account thank you](https://www.sysaid.com/support/upgrade-account-request/thank-you):
- [Form](https://www.sysaid.com/video/bi/form):
- [BI](https://www.sysaid.com/video/bi):
- [Thank you plans](https://www.sysaid.com/plans/thank-you):
- [Payment Incomplete](https://www.sysaid.com/payment-incomplete):
- [Pathfinders thank you](https://www.sysaid.com/pathfinders/thank-you):
- [SysAid Professional Services](https://www.sysaid.com/support/professional-services): SysAid Professional Services works with you to: identify your needs, tailor SysAid to suit those needs, and execute the plan from start to finish.
- [Trial Thank You](https://www.sysaid.com/trial/thank-you):
- [SysAid Documentation](https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation): Access SysAid’s online resource library – detailing edition functionality, FAQs, installation guides, advice on getting started and module guides.
- [Automate Joe](https://www.sysaid.com/automate-joe-helpdesk): Automate Joe is not yet enabled in your SysAid. Speak to your Customer Success Manager to see what you’re missing...
- [Thank you - 2nd form Employees](https://www.sysaid.com/thank-you-test):
- [Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.sysaid.com/support/faq): Find answers about SysAid’s ITSM, service desk, asset management, and more. Explore key features and modules in our FAQs section
- [Upgrade Account](https://www.sysaid.com/support/upgrade-account-request): Talk with your Customer Success Manager about additional licenses and useful modules.
- [Management Team](https://www.sysaid.com/company/management-team): Want to know the secret sauce of Sysaid? It's their people! Meet the passionate team dedicated to building the future of IT service management.
- [Contact Us Thanks](https://www.sysaid.com/company/contact-us/thank-you):
- [Video Knowledge Base](https://www.sysaid.com/support/video-knowledge-base): ideo Knowledge Base - Explore SysAid's video knowledge base for insightful tutorials and demonstrations on IT service management, troubleshooting, and more.
- [Newsletter](https://www.sysaid.com/company/newsletter):
- [On-premises](https://www.sysaid.com/plans/on-premises): Ensure the quality of your work doesn't decline. On-premise IT software with ticket management, ITIL adoption, asset management, advanced analytics and more.
- [Cloud](https://www.sysaid.com/plans/cloud): Try SysAid's scalable cloud ITSM and help desk software for free. ITIL-aligned, trusted by 1000+ customers. Start your free trial today.
- [Task Automation](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/task-automation): SysAid’s Automate Joe lightens your service desk team’s load – boosting productivity, service agility, and end-user satisfaction.
- [Ticket Automation](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/ticket-automation): Streamline ticket routing and escalation with SysAid's automation. Categorize and prioritize efficiently. Schedule a demo to boost IT workflows.
- [Personal demo thank you](https://www.sysaid.com/personal-demo/thank-you):
- [Thank you #2](https://www.sysaid.com/thank-you-2):
- [Thank you #1](https://www.sysaid.com/thank-you-1):
- [Careers positions](https://www.sysaid.com/company/careers/positions): Careers Positions - Explore career opportunities at SysAid and browse current job openings for various positions in IT and beyond.
- [MSP Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-msp): Manage IT services for multiple clients effectively with SysAid's MSP service desk. Improve efficiency across teams. Get started with a demo today.
- [Manufacturing Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-manufacturing): Streamline Manufacturing Operations with AI-Powered Service Desk Software
- [Healthcare Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-healthcare): Deliver exceptional patient care with SysAid’s healthcare service desk and Copilot. Optimize support and operations. Request a demo today.
- [ROI Calculator](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/password-reset/roi-calculator): Understand how time-consuming and costly manual password reset procedures are in your company by using this Password Reset ROI calculator.
- [Education Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-education): Service Desk for Education: Enhance the learning experience for educators and students with Sysaid's service desk.
- [Pathfinders](https://www.sysaid.com/pathfinders):
- [Careers](https://www.sysaid.com/company/careers): Ready for a new challenge? Join the innovative team at SysAid and explore a variety of career opportunities. Apply now!
- [Instance Form](https://www.sysaid.com/instance-form): SysAid’s on-premises version of the software has been found to contain a security vulnerability. This vulnerability does not exist in...
- [Contact us](https://www.sysaid.com/company/contact-us): Contact SysAid ITSM Service Support, we provide exceptional customer service – there's no request too large or too small that we won't handle.
- [Video](https://www.sysaid.com/video):
- [BI Analytics](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/analytics/bi-analytics): BI Analytics module gives you the most simple way to access the data you need, SysAid offers all the essential tracking & management tools in one software.
- [Patch Management](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-asset-management/patch-management): Keep your systems secure with SysAid’s patch management. Manage and deploy updates seamlessly. Discover more today!
- [Analytics](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/analytics): SysAid offers a range of sophisticated & user-friendly analytics tools to help you obtain an accurate view of your IT service performance.
- [Languages](https://www.sysaid.com/languages): SysAid’s customer base is spread across more than 140 countries, with SysAid available in 7 languages and easily translated into additional languages
- [MSI](https://www.sysaid.com/support/msi): hen deploying the agent using a group policy, you need to create a configuration file to include your unique parameters using Microsoft Orca.
- [Worksafe App](https://www.sysaid.com/worksafe-app): Learn how SysAid's Worksafe app helps organizations ensure compliance with health regulations as they plan their return-to-work strategies.
- [My Cal](https://www.sysaid.com/support/my-cal):
- [YCBM - Acquisition](https://www.sysaid.com/ycbm-acq):
- [System requirements - cloud](https://www.sysaid.com/support/system-requirements-cloud): Understand the minimum system requirements, based on use cases, for server hardware and software, and SysAid discovery agent client requirements for cloud
- [Workflow Designer](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/workflow-designer): Workflow Designer: Build, share, and optimize digital processes effortlessly with Sysaid's workflow designer.
- [System requirements](https://www.sysaid.com/support/system-requirements): Understand the minimum system requirements, based on use cases, for server hardware and software, and SysAid discovery agent client requirements.
- [News](https://www.sysaid.com/news): Welcome to Sysaids Newsroom- learn about our companys releases and important updates.
- [Compare](https://www.sysaid.com/compare-service-desk): Not sure which ITSM software to choose? Here you can see how SysAid stacks up against other ITSM systems and competing companies.
- [Percentage of Surveys Answered Out of Surveys Sent](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark/benchmark-surveys): IT Benchmark Surveys: See how your IT service desk measures up against industry benchmarks in areas like average service requests closed per admin.
- [Percentage of Service Requests Opened via Incoming Email](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark/benchmark-opened-via-email): Benchmark Opened via Email - Learn how to benchmark and analyze service requests opened via email with SysAid's IT benchmarking tool.
- [End User to Administrator Ratio](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/benchmark-admin-ratio): Explore the optimal admin ratio for your IT service management with SysAid. Benchmark against industry standards and streamline your IT operations.
- [Average Service Requests Closed per Admin](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark/average-service-requests-closed-per-agent): Benchmark your IT service management efficiency with SysAid's insights. Learn how your organization stacks up against industry standards.
- [HR Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-hr): Service Desk for HR: Optimize HR processes and employee satisfaction with Sysaid's service desk solution.
- [benchmark avg resolution time](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/benchmark-avg-resolution-time): Track and benchmark the average resolution time of closed service requests with SysAid’s IT measurement tool. Improve efficiency with real insights.
- [Benchmark Opened Closed](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark/benchmark-opened-closed): This SysAid IT Benchmark measurement reflects your IT department's ability to close tickets and its overall ability to provide service.
- [service maintenance](https://www.sysaid.com/support/service-maint):
- [mac agent](https://www.sysaid.com/support/mac-agent): Please download the relevant SysAid Agent and follow the installation instructions.
- [customize SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/support/customize): Learn how to customize SysAid 7.0.x (and above) with a few simple steps.
- [SysAid Reports](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/reports): SysAid Reports provides the reporting tools needed to quickly measure help desk and ITSM performance, track inventory, and identify issues and bottlenecks.
- [Support](https://www.sysaid.com/support): Connect with SysAid ITSM service support for expert guidance. Fast, reliable assistance. Contact us today!
- [Remote Discovery for SysAid Releases](https://www.sysaid.com/support/remote-discovery-for-sysaid-releases): The SysAid Server comes with a built-in discovery service to perform network scans. In some cases you may wish to install a Remote Discovery Service.
- [gdpr statement](https://www.sysaid.com/gdpr-statement): As one of the largest ITSM providers, with thousands of both cloud and on-premise implementations, our customers’ privacy one of our top priorities.
- [New vs old background](https://www.sysaid.com/new-vs-old-background): NEW ANIMATION IS ABOVE, OLD ANIMATION IS BELOW
- [IT Service Management Software](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software): Automate IT services with Gen AI and scale effortlessly with SysAid ITSM. Improve response times—learn more!
- [Self Service Portal](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/self-service-portal): Boost IT efficiency with SysAid’s self-service portal. Enable users to solve problems on their own. Learn more now!
- [Professional Services Packages](https://www.sysaid.com/professional-services-packages): Unlock the Full Potential of SysAid! Our experts help you optimize your service desk and maximize your ROI.
- [Marketplace](https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/marketplace): SysAid has pre-built third-party integrations with business applications and services, such as SAP and Salesforce, and IT applications and services.
- [Resources](https://www.sysaid.com/resources): Welcome to SysAid Resource Center. Here you could find our articles and to stay in-the-know with ITSM.
- [Success Stories](https://www.sysaid.com/customers): Our Customers Success Stories- See how organizations like yours have taken service delivery to the next level with smarter, faster and more agile services.
- [Blog](https://www.sysaid.com/blog): Welcome to SysAid Blog. Click here and read our latest tips, news, and trends in the IT world!
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.sysaid.com/privacy): Ensure your privacy is respected. Take a minute to understand our data practices in the Privacy Policy.
## Posts
- [How to Improve Your Organization’s ITAM Maturity](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/how-to-improve-your-organizations-itam-maturity): This blog looks at what will improve your ITAM practice’s maturity to make it far more valuable to your business.
- [What is Agentic AI? Transforming ITSM Through Intelligent Automation](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/what-is-agentic-ai-transforming-itsm-through-intelligent-automation): Learn how Agentic AI empowers IT teams with proactive detection, contextual decision-making, and continuous evolution to streamline complex ITSM tasks.
- [Transforming IT Operations with SysAid’s New UI](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/sysaid-new-ui-transforming-operations): This blog explains the need for SysAid’s new UI, shares its key capabilities and benefits, and highlights a customer case study.
- [Better Business Through Better IT – The TigerFeet SysAid Story](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/tigerfeet-sysaid-story): This blog explains how SysAid Spaces is helping TigerFeet improve its business operations and outcomes through better IT.
- [Why Winning the TMC 2024 Generative AI Product of the Year Award is Just the Start](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/why-winning-the-tmc-2024-generative-ai-product-of-the-year-award-is-just-the-start): This blog takes a look at how SysAid won the TMC 2024 Generative AI Product of the Year Award. Read it here.
- [Unlock Deeper Insights with SysAid Copilot](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/unlock-deeper-insights-sysaid-copilot): This blog explores how SysAid Copilot delivers valuable insights across eight key areas. See what it's all about here.
- [What ITSM Professionals Need to Know About GenAI Capabilities](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/genai-capabilities-need-to-know): This blog looks at what ITSM pros need to know about how GenAI capabilities are changing the ITSM landscape.
- [Kicking off 2025: SysAid Wraps Up 2024 With Prestigious Recognitions from Gartner Digital Markets in 2024](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/kicking-off-2025-sysaid-wraps-up-2024-with-prestigious-recognitions-from-gartner-digital-markets-in-2024): SysAid celebrates earning top honors from Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp in IT Asset Management, Remote Support, and more. Discover how we’re driving AI-powered innovation and delivering exceptional user value.
- [How Agentic AI is Transforming IT Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-agentic-ai-is-transforming-it-service-management): The world of IT Service Management (ITSM) is changing rapidly. For mid-market companies, this isn’t just an abstract trend—it’s a daily reality
- [Streamline IT Operations and Optimize Resource Utilization with GenAI](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/streamline-it-operations-genai): This blog looks at how GenAI can help enhance employee experience and streamline IT operations and optimize resource utilization.
- [Cybersecurity Considerations When Choosing ITSM: A Deep Dive](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/cybersecurity-considerations-when-choosing-itsm-a-deep-dive): IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms have become the backbone of modern organizations, streamlining operations, optimizing workflows..
- [AI-Powered Asset Management: A Game-Changer for IT Departments](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/ai-powered-asset-management-game-changer): This article explains how AI-powered asset management is a game changer for your IT department. Read it here.
- [Transform Your Service Desk with a GenAI Chatbot for Agents](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/service-desk-genai-chatbot-for-agents): It’s essential not to overlook the opportunities to transform your IT service desk with a GenAI chatbot for service desk agents. Here's why.
- [Streamline IT Support with Image Analysis](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/sysaid-image-analysis): The SysAid ITSM solution now includes Image Analysis – a GenAI capability that can help all organizations. Here's all the information.
- [Why Multi-Channel IT Support is Essential in the GenAI Era](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/multi-channel-it-support-genai-era): Multi-channel IT support is essential in a GenAI era, enhancing capabilities in accessibility, automation and efficiency. This blog explains.
- [What’s the Difference Between AI and GenAI in the Context of ITSM?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/difference-ai-genai): The distinction between traditional AI and GenAI relates to their capabilities, methodologies, and applications. This SysAid blog explains.
- [10 Ways AI Improves IT Service Desk Operations and Outcomes](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/ai-improves-service-desk-operations): Take a look at ten AI use cases for the IT service desk which are available now for ITSM professionals and organizations to benefit from.
- [If AI is the Future, That Future is Already Here for ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/ai-future-already-here): This blog shares some recent insights about AI adoption in ITSM that show that the future of ITSM is already here.
- [IT Self-Service: Crash, Burn, and Comeback with GenAI](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-self-service-crash-burn-and-comeback-with-genai): IT self-service has always been the go-to for overworked service desks looking to better serve end-users. But let's be honest, the last decade hasn't exactly been smooth sailing.
- [IT Pros Are Going All-In on Advanced AI for ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-pros-are-going-all-in-on-advanced-ai-for-itsm): IT service management (ITSM) tools are shaking things up. They're getting smarter, fast. Think AI and GenAI – the new must-haves.
- [Measuring Success in IT](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/measuring-success-it): There's a wealth of best practice KPIs out there for IT organizations, but are these still the best way to measure and report on IT success?
- [Why Your IT Service Desk Agents Need Copilots](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/service-desk-agents-copilots): This blog explains what Copilots are before focusing on how they help and why your IT service desk agents need them.
- [Debunking Generative AI Myths in ITSM: It's Time to Rethink](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/debunking-generative-ai-myths-in-itsm-its-time-to-rethink): Gen AI is a trending topic, but many of us are still figuring out how it fits into ITSM. Let's explore how Gen AI can help us work more efficiently.
- [Key Factors to Consider when Evaluating AI ITSM Solutions](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/evaluating-ai-in-itsm): The key criteria for evaluating AI in an ITSM solution can be viewed across four groupings. This blog explains all you need to know.
- [Overcome Asset Warranty Chaos: 6 Best Practices for Effective Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/overcome-asset-warranty-chaos-6-best-practices-for-effective-management): Keeping your IT equipment running smoothly is crucial, But between complex terms, expiring dates, and a claim process that feels like a maze,
- [Let's Talk Employee Experience: Why Our AI Chatbot via Microsoft Teams is the Gamechanger You've Been Waiting For](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/why-our-ai-chatbot-via-microsoft-teams-is-the-gamechanger): The way employees interact with IT support is due for a major overhaul. We're talking about saying goodbye to those clunky ticketing systems
- [Employee Experience is for IT Service Provider Staff, Too](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/employee-experience-is-for-it-service-provider-staff-too): The IT organization is focusing more on the employees it serves, but what about the employees working in IT and their employee experience?
- [How Does AI in ITSM Enhance Service Management?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/ai-improves-itsm): Explore this blog to discover how AI in ITSM improves processes. Uncover specific methods that enhance ITSM through AI. Dive in now!
- [How Best to Sell Enterprise Service Management to Other Lines of Business](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/sell-enterprise-service-management-other-business): Advice on how best to sell enterprise service management to other lines of business. Rea the full article here.
- [Practical Business Use Cases for ESM](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/practical-business-use-cases-for-esm): This blog shares some practical business use cases for ESM (enterprise service management). Take a look here.
- [Preparing IT Staff for AI Use](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/preparing-it-staff-for-ai-use): Tips to ensure that your org’s adoption of AI for ITSM is facilitated by focused, people-related activities that prepare IT staff for AI use.
- [SysAid On-Prem Software CVE-2023-47246 Vulnerability](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/on-premise-software-security-vulnerability-notification): SysAid On-Prem Software CVE-2023-47246 Vulnerability - Learn about the security flaw in SysAid's on-premises software version.
- [Managing Healthcare Onboarding and Offboarding More Efficiently](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/healthcare-onboarding-offboarding): Here we look at the common challenges of healthcare onboarding before explaining how existing IT practices can be used to make improvements.
- [Automating Healthcare Workflows Using IT Practices to Improve Efficiency](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/automating-healthcare-workflows): Automate healthcare workflows with IT practices for improved efficiency. Learn more from SysAid.
- [2024 ITSM Trends – “Do Existing Things Better”](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-trends-2024): Which 2024 ITSM trends will be relevant to organizations seeking to improve their business value? This article explores.
- [HIPAA and IT Asset Management in Healthcare](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/hipaa-and-it-asset-management-in-healthcare): This blog explains where and how ITAM supports HIPAA requirements across various compliance and efficiency needs.
- [ChatGPT in ITSM and ESM: Use Cases](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/chatgpt-in-itsm-and-esm): This blog shares examples of ChatGPT in ITSM and how it can be employed in operations to improve operations and outcomes.
- [Considering Generative AI for ITSM? Here’s What You Need to Know](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/generative-ai-for-itsm): What is generative AI in ITSM and how it works (at a high level)plus see ITSM-related examples for its use. Read it here
- [The Many AI-enabled Capabilities Available to ITSM and ESM](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/ai-enabled-capabilities-itsm): This blog post shares information on different types of AI-enabled capabilities and how they will benefit your ITSM and ESM operations and outcomes.
- [What You Need to Know About Change Enablement](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/know-about-change-enablement): This blog looks at everything you need to know about change enablement. From what's different in ITIL 4 to successful CAB meetings.
- [Everything You Need to Know about Service Desk Metrics](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-metrics): Metrics are essential as they communicate value, progress, and improvements, facilitate alignment and collaboration.
- [How to Increase Manufacturing Throughputs Thanks to Greater Equipment Uptime](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-increase-manufacturing-throughputs): This blog focuses on the ITSM processes and enabling technology that can help both the MTBF and MTTR in the world of manufacturing.
- [Why Your Modern ITSM Capabilities Need Better Knowledge Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/knowledge-management-capabilities): Enhance your organization's ITSM capabilities with insights from this blog.
- [How Service Management Capabilities Will Reduce Your Manufacturing Operating Costs](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/service-management-manufacturing-operation-costs): This blog looks at the opportunity for ITSM tools and best practices to benefit manufacturing operating costs.
- [Why and How 2023 Will Be an Interesting Year for ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/2023-interesting-year-itsm): What’s likely to impact your organization’s ITSM capabilities in 2023 to make it an interesting year for ITSM? This blog by SysAid explores
- [Getting Started with Continual Improvement](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/getting-started-continual-improvement): Here Joe the IT Guy provides guidance on how to embed continual improvement in your day-to-day activities successfully.
- [7 Key Steps for When Your IT Service Desk is Struggling ](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-is-struggling): This blog offers up seven practical steps for what to do when your service desk is struggling. Read it here.
- [The Future of IT Self-Service: Self-Resolving with Conversational Bots](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/self-service-conversational-bots): In this blog you'll learn how the future of IT self-service involves employees self-resolving with conversational bots.
- [How SysAid manages agents behind restricted firewall rules with AWS IoT Core](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/how-sysaid-manages-agents-behind-restricted-firewall-rules-with-aws-iot-core): How SysAid manages agents behind restricted firewall rules with AWS IoT Core - SysAid blog. Read now.
- [Prioritizing ITSM Improvements Based on Employee Experience Impact](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/prioritizing-itsm-improvements-employee-experience): In this blog Greg Sanker looks at how to introduce a new way to prioritize improvement work in direct alignment with EX.
- [How an AI-enabled Service Desk Improves Employee Experience](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-an-ai-enabled-service-desk-improves-employee-experience): This blog looks at the opportunities and benefits that AI-enabled service desk capabilities offer to improve employee experience.
- [How to Tell a Story That Pops](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/events-marketing/how-to-tell-a-story-that-pops): How to apply the magic formula to make your brand stand out and tell a story that pops
- [Stop Wasting Time And Start TESTING](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/stop-wasting-time-and-start-testing): This article delves into the myriad of benefits of shift-left testing, and offers up suggestions how to increase code quality.
- [How to Measure Employee Experience](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/measure-employee-experience): Here Ben Brennan discusses some of the key data points from SysAid's 2022 State of Service Management study related to employee experience.
- [Still Insecure About Cloud? Then Read This Cloud Myth Debunker!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/still-insecure-about-cloud-then-read-this-cloud-myth-debunker): Statements like this show there's still a lack of understanding about the use of public cloud services. Joe the IT Guy debunks all the myths!
- [The Top 5 Things ITSMers Get Wrong about Cloud Migration](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/top-5-things-itsmers-get-wrong-cloud-migration): Some cloud “attitudes” can lead ITSM professionals to do the wrong thing such as lift-and-shift cloud migrations.
- [Microservices Architecture: Asynchronous Communication is Better](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/microservices-architecture-asynchronouscommunication-better): There are many communication protocols but for web applications - this blog looks at why you should favor asynchronous in all cases.
- [Pros with Benefits: ITSM Capabilities for Better Business Functions](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-capabilities-better-business-functions): In 2022 enterprise service management needs to offer businesses so much more than just shared ITSM capabilities. This blog explores.
- [From Monolith to Microservices](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/monolith-to-microservices): Monolith to microservices - the story of how we broke off a piece of our monolith in order to greatly increase our system’s reliability.
- [Understanding Enterprise Service Management Systems](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/understanding-enterprise-service-management-systems): What is an enterprise service management system, how does it differ from ITSM and how can it benefit a workplace? Find out everything and more here.
- [Automation for Humans](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/automation-for-humans): What’s involved in building a successful approach to automation for humans? In this blog, Barclay Rae explains.
- [SysAid’s Top 6 Must-Read Blogs](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/6-must-read-blogs): Here we take a look back at the top 6 must-read blogs of SysAid's 2021 roll. Make sure you've read them all!
- [What are IT Service Management (ITSM) Tools?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/what-are-itsm-tools): ITSM Tools are used to keep track of the many processes and systems that are needed when performing IT service management. Learn more about ITSM.
- [ITSM in 2022: The Year of the Employee](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-in-2022): What does ITSM in 2022 look like? Here, SysAid CEO Sarah Lahav shares her four predictions for the year ahead.
- [A Superhero's Guide to IT Metrics](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/superhero-guide-to-it-metrics): Throw everything you thought you knew about IT metrics out of the window and check out this blog by Ben Brannan.
- [Automation Is Your Friend](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/automation-is-your-friend): In this blog Roy Atkinson covers the WHAT, the WHY, and the HOW of automation. Check out his thoughts here.
- [Monitoring IoT disconnects](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/monitoring-iot-disconnects): Here we look at three things we can utilize to monitor IoT disconnects: CloudWatch metrics, IoT logs, and custom services.
- [Smarter ITSM Is a Strategic Choice](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/smarter-itsm-strategic-choice): This blog looks at how smarter ITSM is essentially like ordering your coffee in Starbucks. Check it out here.
- [Reducing Traffic by Using AWS IoT (Part 2 of 2)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/aws-iot-part-2): For IoT to work you must create a persistent connection to the AWS IoT servers — but what can you do if that's blocked?
- [The 21 Hidden Costs of Having On-Premise Software](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/the-21-hidden-costs-of-having-on-premise-software): The benefits that businesses and IT teams alike are gaining from well-managed, cloud-based services are rapidly changing the face of IT. Read more...
- [IT Guide for Seeing Through the Matrix](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-guide-matrix): In this blog Ben Brannan provides an 'IT Guide' to understanding what your business really thinks about IT and its services.
- [Why Service Management Needs to Drive Digital Business Operations](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/service-management-needs-to-drive-digital-business-operations): Service management should be an important facilitator of your organization’s digital transformation needs and ambitions. Here's why.
- [Reducing Traffic by Using AWS IoT (Part 1 of 2)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/aws-iot-reducing-traffic-part-one): Learn how SysAid uses AWS IoT to reduce traffic to its servers and get rid of polling, and see if you could benefit from the same.
- [Hero or Villain: Which Is Your IT Team?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/hero-villian-it-team): Is your IT team Batman or The Joker? Here Ben Brannan shares three steps to saving the day and your team's reputation.
- [Persisting Tomcat Sessions to Redis](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/persisting-tomcat-sessions): Learn about SysAid’s journey to high availability and session persistence using Tomcat and Redis. Explore our technical blog today!
- [How To Automate Your IT Service Management - All You Need To Know](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-automate-it-service-management): Read here to learn how you can easily automate your IT service management, and how to get your IT automation right.
- [So, Your Organization Doesn’t Need Digital Workflows?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/so-your-organization-doesnt-need-digital-workflows): Discover how technology has boosted your company's operations & outcomes. Dive into our blog for insights on technology-enablement.
- [How to Convince Senior Management to Move Your Help Desk to the Cloud](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/how-to-convince-senior-management-to-move-your-help-desk-to-the-cloud): Tips on moving your help desk to the cloud: Addressing common objections and busting myths to ease the transition process.
- [8 Tips for Getting Started with Knowledge Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/8-tips-for-getting-started-with-knowledge-management): Many orgs are still struggling to get started with knowledge management – usually because of people-related issues. So here's my 8 tips to help.
- [What You Need to Know About the ITIL 4 Book Portfolio](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-itil-4-book-portfolio): Explore the ITIL 4 book portfolio with our comprehensive guide. Learn about the key publications and their insights. Discover more today!
- [Enterprise Shift – It’s Not Just About IT Anymore](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/enterprise-shift-not-just-about-it-anymore): IT emerged from the pandemic as a heroic and highly capable and professional team of heroes. Here Barclay Rae looks at this enterprise shift.
- [We’ve refreshed our brand. Here’s why.](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/weve-refreshed-our-brand-heres-why): SysAid Unveils Powerful Storytelling Tools! Engage Audiences & Simplify Communication.
- [Accelerated IT: The Pandemic and the Future](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/accelerated-it-the-pandemic-and-the-future): Here Roy Atkinson looks at the top of Accelerated IT... how we got to where we are through the pandemic and how we plan to move into the future.
- [Why Automation Is the Cornerstone of Your IT Strategy](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/why-automation-is-the-cornerstone-of-your-it-strategy): From incremental improvements to digital transformation, this blog looks at how automation is the cornerstone of your IT strategy.
- [Consumerize Your Portal for IT Self-Service Success](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/consumerize-your-portal-for-it-self-service-success): This blog offers up 8 tips to help you consumerize your IT self-service portal capabilities to achieve the expected, and required, level of success.
- [How to Know that Your 2021 Plans Are Aligned with the Latest Industry Trends](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-know-that-your-2021-plans-are-aligned-with-the-latest-industry-trends): Discover the top goal for businesses in 2021: automation. Explore more in SysAid's "2021 State of Service Management Report."
- [5 Tips for Adopting ITIL 4’s Continual Improvement Management Practice](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/5-tips-for-adopting-itil-4s-continual-improvement-management-practice): Learn how to adopt ITIL 4’s continual improvement practices in your IT environment. Get 5 actionable tips today!
- [Security Product Update: What You May Not Even Be Aware Of](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/security-product-update-what-you-may-not-even-be-aware-of): SysAid prioritizes customer security and privacy, continuously enhancing security capabilities to uphold this commitment.
- [6 Tips to Stay Motivated on the Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/6-tips-to-stay-motivated-on-the-service-desk): Read tips from our experts on how to stay motivated on the service desk.
- [What Does the Word Service Mean to You?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/what-does-the-word-service-mean-to-you): What does service mean in the IT world? Dive into our blog to find out and share your perspective. Learn more today!
- [How to Get Your IT Support KPIs Right](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/itsm-basics-getting-your-kpis-right): How you measure and improve your IT Support performance has never been more critical. But are you employing the right IT service desk measures?
- [6 Steps to Successfully Migrate Your Organization to Cloud](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/6-steps-to-successfully-migrate-your-organization-to-cloud): Discover the 6 essential steps for a successful organization migration to the cloud with SysAid. Read now
- [Are You Missing Out On the BI Opportunity with Your ITSM Tool?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/are-you-missing-out-on-the-bi-opportunity-with-your-itsm-tool): Highlights of the current limitations of ITSM tool reporting and analytics capabilities and how the use of a BI tool.
- [2021 ITSM Predictions – It’s All About Digital Enablement](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/2021-itsm-predictions-its-all-about-digital-enablement): We have all been through so much in 2020. How we need to work has changed forever and, surprisingly, potentially for the better.
- [SysAid Named a Leader in 12 Categories in G2’s Fall 2020 Reports](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-named-a-leader-in-12-categories-in-g2s-fall-2020-reports): We’re very excited to announce that SysAid has been named a Leader in G2’s Service Desk and ITSM categories for Fall 2020.
- [How We Won the Tech Cares Award](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/how-we-won-the-tech-cares-award): I'm flattered and grateful that TrustRadius honored SysAid with this award that recognizes companies for going the extra mile during COVID-19.
- [When Your Awesome Feature Turns Out to Be a By-Design Bug](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/when-your-awesome-feature-turns-out-to-be-a-by-design-bug): Engage with customers to understand their needs, exchange innovative ideas, and create impactful new features. Discover it now.
- [Reap the Rewards of ITSM Tool Integrations](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/reap-the-rewards-of-itsm-tool-integrations): To help you improve the quality of service, to speed up operations, or to save money – this blog looks at how ITSM tool integrations can benefit you.
- [How to Sell the Value of a Self-Service Portal to Employees](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-sell-the-value-of-a-self-service-portal-to-employees): Discover the benefits of a self-service portal for employees and get 5 adoption tips in this insightful blog post!
- [Paving the Road for Digital Transformation with ITSM and ITIL 4](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/paving-the-road-for-digital-transformation-with-itsm-and-itil-4): Explore the connection between digital transformation and ITIL 4. Learn how ITIL 4 can enhance and support your digital transformation journey.
- [5 Steps to Better Patch Management and a Securer Business](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/5-steps-better-patch-management-securer-business): Many of us ITSM & IT support pros are way too busy fixing “broken” things, the existing IT infrastructure also needs to be maintained & improved.
- [Digitally Transform Your HR Operations with Enterprise Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/digitally-transform-your-hr-operations-with-enterprise-service-management): Digitally Transform Your HR Operations with Enterprise Service Management - SysAid
- [How Automation Improves Business Operations and Results](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/how-automation-improves-business-operations-and-results): This blog looks at how your ITSM team can better utilize automation in pursuit of the modern-day business Holy Grail of “better, faster, cheaper”.
- [Digital Transformation in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/digital-transformation-in-age-of-covid-19-and-beyond): Thrive in Any Environment: Unlock the Power of Digital Transformation with SysAid.
- [SysAid Workflow Designer: Take Control of the Way Your Work Flows](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-workflow-designer-take-control-of-the-way-your-work-flows): SysAid Workflow Designer empowers you to dictate how your work flows. Master control with SysAid.
- [Processes are an Important Part of IT Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/processes-are-an-important-part-of-it-service-management): Discover why Stuart Rance advises against discarding your ITSM processes due to bureaucracy, conflict, and inefficiency in your organization.
- [SysAid CEO's Open Letter to Customers, as COVID-19 Transforms Our Reality](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/sysaid-ceos-open-letter-to-customers-as-covid-19-transforms-our-reality): This post is a copy of an email message sent to all SysAid customers in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Read it in full here.
- [5 Best Practices for Working from Home](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/5-best-practices-for-working-from-home): Whether you’re in mandatory isolation/quarantine, or simply asked by your employer to work at home due to COVID19, make use of these working from home tips.
- [The 30-Year Evolution of the IT Help Desk (and Where It’s Going Next)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/the-30-year-evolution-of-the-it-help-desk-and-where-its-going-next): From the pre-ITIL helpdesk, to the birth of the service desk, here Joe the IT Guy takes a look back over the last 30 years of IT Support.
- [8 Things Teachers Wish Education Institution IT Support Staff Would Do](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/8-things-teachers-wish-education-institution-it-support-staff-would-do): In this blog a teacher (yes a real one) outlines a number of things that he wished his school’s IT support staff would do.
- [Continuity Planning for the Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/continuity-planning-for-the-service-desk): Here Stuart Rance looks at the topic of continuity planning and why you need to make sure your service desk can still operate in an emergency.
- [10 Superpowers to Strengthen Your Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/10-superpowers-to-strengthen-your-service-desk): Here we share with you what we believe to be the ten superpowers you need that will strengthen your service desk in 2020.
- [Technology Issues in Education and How ITSM Helps](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/technology-issues-in-education-and-how-itsm-helps): This blog shares five real-life examples of technology issues in the education sector and how ITSM can help with them. Read it here.
- [Service Management in 2020 and Beyond](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/service-management-in-2020-and-beyond): Here's five things you can do to improve your chances of service management success in 2020 and beyond, according to industry authority Stuart Rance.
- [Gliding Through 2019](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/gliding-through-2019): This blog takes a look back at the year 2019 at SysAid, from huge customer successes to product improvements, and top blogs to award wins.
- [10 More Tips for Better ITSM Performance Reporting and Metrics](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/10-more-tips-for-better-itsm-performance-reporting-and-metrics): Here’s the second part of Joe the IT Guy's list of 20 ITSM performance reporting and metrics tips, starting with some tips on being SMARTer.
- [10 Tips for Better ITSM Performance Reporting and Metrics](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/10-tips-for-better-itsm-performance-reporting-and-metrics): This blog offers up the first ten of twenty tips for better ITSM performance reporting and metrics to help you improve the health of your service desk.
- [How Planning User Journeys Can Improve Your Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/planning-user-journeys-can-improve-your-service-desk): Here Stuart Rance provides advice on how to improve your service desk by not just planning individual interactions, but by planning the entire journey.
- [Service Desk Meets GPS to Create “Ticket Journey Management”](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-meets-gps-to-create-ticket-journey-management): Discover the six key features of SysAid's automation capabilities, empowering you to streamline ticket management by eliminating manual processes.
- [ITIL 4 and COBIT 2019 Working Together](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itil-4-and-cobit-2019-working-together): This blog by Joe the IT Guy explains what ITIL 4 and COBIT is and how they’re able to be used together to deliver greater business benefits.
- [5 ITSM Trends and Predictions for 2020](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-trends-and-predictions-for-2020): This article looks at what we think will be the biggest ITSM trends and predictions for 2020, from staff wellbeing to the impact of ITIL 4.
- [Errors, Bugs, Incidents, Defects, Oh My!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/errors-bugs-incidents-defects-oh-my): For many ITSM is only about the operational aspects of IT. Managing incidents, problems, contacts to the service desk. Here's why it needs to be more.
- [The Best Way to Prevent Incidents](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-best-way-to-prevent-incidents): Here Stuart Rance explains that the best way to prevent incidents is to learn how to identify problems before they cause incidents in the first place.
- [The Importance of Industry Benchmarking for IT Support](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/the-importance-of-industry-benchmarking-for-it-support): This blog aims to convey the power of industry benchmarking for IT support. How it can help, and why you should consider it in your organization.
- [5 Reasons Why You Need Monitoring Tools](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-reasons-why-you-need-monitoring-tools): If your IT organization is struggling with root cause analysis check out these 5 reasons as to why you need monitoring tools.
- [SysAid’s Magical Built-In Service Orchestration Engine](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/sysaids-magical-built-in-service-orchestration-engine): Discover SysAid's powerful Built-In Service Orchestration Engine for streamlined IT service management.
- [How Value Streams Can Help you do a Better Job](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-value-streams-can-help-you-do-a-better-job): Here Stuart Rance explains why you need to think about the things you do in terms of value streams, rather than just as processes.
- [How to Create Value-Based Metrics for Your IT Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-create-value-based-metrics-for-your-it-service-desk): This article looks at three ways in which you can start to introduce value-based metrics to your IT service desk. Read more here.
- [5 Top Soft Skills for IT Service Desk Agents (and Why They're Important)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-top-soft-skills-for-it-service-desk-agents): Here we take a closer look at five top soft skills that we believe will make future IT service desk agents more desirable.
- [5 Reasons Why You Need an Event Management Tool](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/5-reasons-why-you-need-an-event-management-tool): In this blog post we explain what events are in the IT world and provide 5 reasons why you would benefit from the use of an event management tool.
- [What’s the ROI of ITIL?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whats-the-roi-of-itil): How can you get an ROI from your investment in ITIL? The answer is very simple says industry authority Stuart Rance. Read on to find out more.
- [Are You Providing an IT Help Desk or an IT Service Desk?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/are-you-providing-an-it-help-desk-or-an-it-service-desk): This blog looks at the difference between an IT Help Desk and and IT Service Desk, and questions whether the terminology really even matters.
- [9 Ways ITAM Can Empower IT](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/9-ways-itam-can-empower-it): A good ITAM practice enables IT departments to make smarter decisions, demonstrate value, and help reduce nasty surprises. Here we explain how.
- [Problem Management: Most Problems Don’t Have a Single Root Cause](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/problem-management-most-problems-dont-have-a-single-root-cause): Learn why pinpointing just one root cause in problem management could be limiting your improvement opportunities. Stuart Rance shares insights.
- [8 Key Benefits of IT Asset Management (and How to Get Them)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/8-key-benefits-of-itam-and-how-to-get-them): To help your organization consider how best to manage its IT assets, here are eight benefits of ITAM and, most importantly, how to get them.
- [You Can’t Automate What You Don’t Understand](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/you-cant-automate-what-you-dont-understand): Doug Tedder explains the difference between automation and service orchestration and how to know you're ready for both or either.
- [If You Ignore These 7 IT Operations Activities, You’re Heading for Failure](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/if-you-ignore-these-7-it-operations-activities-youre-heading-for-failure): Discover the 7 critical IT operations activities you must not overlook to avoid failure. Learn more in SysAid's insightful article.
- [Top 7 Reasons Why Your IT Service Desk Needs ITAM](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/top-7-reasons-why-your-it-service-desk-needs-itam): This article looks at seven reasons why your organization should adopt ITAM to improve upon your IT service desk’s operations and outcomes.
- [The Secret to Ending Known Errors](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-secret-to-ending-known-errors): This blog discusses Continuous integration and how if done correctly, should result in no more known errors coming from development efforts.
- [15 Tips for Success for Service Desk Managers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/15-tips-for-success-for-service-desk-managers): Empower your service desk managers with SysAid's expert tips! Unlock the secrets to success in managing your service desk effectively.
- [ITIL 4 Practices – What’s New and Changed](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itil-4-practices-whats-new-and-changed): This blog describes 34 practices in ITIL 4, looking at what’s completely new (to ITIL) and what has changed significantly.
- [How to Use a Data Model to Drive Configuration Planning](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-to-use-a-data-model-to-drive-configuration-planning): Here we explain how a data model aids in configuration management – covering planning, baselining, control, verification, and audits.
- [How to Avoid ITSM Conversation Blunders](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-avoid-itsm-conversation-blunders): Here Doug Tedder discusses the importance of effective communication in ITSM and shares tips on how to improve communication in your organization.
- [Is Your IT Service Desk Training Keeping Up with ITSM Industry Changes?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/is-your-it-service-desk-training-keeping-up-with-itsm-industry-changes): Discover how organizations are preparing their IT service desk staff for evolving IT support and business landscapes.
- [ITIL 4 Value System, Value Chain, Value Stream: What’s the Difference?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itil-4-value-system-value-chain-value-stream-whats-the-difference): Explore the key concepts of ITIL 4 with Stuart Rance. Understand the value system, chain, and streams. Read the blog now!
- [5 Tips for Putting Customers First on the IT Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-tips-for-putting-customers-first-on-the-it-service-desk): Struggling with low customer satisfaction? Learn 5 tips to exceed IT service desk customers' expectations and boost satisfaction!
- [How Valuable Is Your IT Service Desk?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-valuable-is-your-it-service-desk): Where do you sit relative to the value of your IT service desk? Have you defined, and reported on, it? Or would you struggle even know where to start?
- [The 7 Guiding Principles of ITIL 4: Practical Advice to Help You Make Decisions](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-7-guiding-principles-of-itil-4-practical-advice-to-help-you-make-decisions): Learn the 7 guiding principles of ITIL 4 to improve your IT management. Get practical advice from Stuart Rance. Explore today!
- [SysAid UI Refresh: A Dual Effort with Our Customers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-ui-refresh-a-dual-effort-with-our-customers): We did it! But, not alone, only with our customers. SysAid collaborated with many customers around the world to get...
- [Your ITIL 4 Questions – Answered!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/your-itil-4-questions-answered): In this article Stuart Rance answers all the ITIL 4 questions raised in the recent webinar: How ITIL 4 can help you get closer to your customers.
- [ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Knowledge Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-a-simple-introduction-to-knowledge-management): Looking for an introduction to knowledge management? This blog looks at what it is, its objectives, and the benefits of knowledge management.
- [IT Optimization Never Ends - But Are You Riding the Right Wave?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-optimization-never-ends-but-are-you-riding-the-right-wave): Discover the evolution of IT optimization with insights from Doug Tedder. Explore the third wave of optimization in IT organizations.
- [Everything You Officially Need to Know About ITIL 4](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/everything-you-officially-need-to-know-about-itil-4): In this blog, ITIL 4 author Stuart Rance provides an overview of what you’ll find in the newly released ITIL 4 Foundation, including what has changed.
- [4 Tips to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Third-Party IT Service Providers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/4-tips-to-increase-the-effectiveness-of-your-third-party-it-service-providers): Learn to effectively manage your third-party IT service providers to optimize collaboration with other service providers.
- [“Great Balls of Fire” - SysAid’s Heading to Pink19](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/events-marketing/great-balls-of-fire-sysaids-heading-to-pink19): We’ve got our hoverboards ready here at SysAid because we are on our way to Pink19! Stop by and say hello to us, we'll be there with free coffee cards!
- [19 Tips for Problem Management Success in 2019](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/19-tips-for-problem-management-success-in-2019): Want to achieve problem management success in 2019? This blog capture as many of the most-helpful tips that we know to help you.
- [How to Make Your ITSM Processes Work for You](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-make-your-itsm-processes-work-for-you): Here industry authority Stuart Rance discusses the need to ensure that your ITSM processes are simple and effective, along with how to do so.
- [19 Timely ITSM Tips for the New Year 2019](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/19-timely-itsm-tips-for-the-new-year-2019): What can you do to deliver better IT service delivery and support this year? Here, Joe the IT Guy shares his top 19 ITSM tips for a successful 2019.
- [A New Year’s Resolution to SysAid Customers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/a-new-years-resolution-to-sysaid-customers): SysAid reaffirms its commitment to IT professionals and the ITSM community, outlining its New Year's resolution to drive growth and innovation.
- [ITSM Basics: What Is Service Transition? (Part 2)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-what-is-service-transition-part-2): Here we offer up tips related to release and deployment management, service validation and testing, and knowledge management.
- [ITSM Basics: What Is Service Transition? (Part 1)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-what-is-itil-service-transition-part-1): Here we explain the responsibilities within service transition and offer up some top tips for successful service transition within your own organization.
- [How to Replace Your IT Service Management (ITSM) Tool](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-replace-your-it-service-management-itsm-tool): Here industry authority Stuart Rance share his approach to selecting a new IT service management tool, and how to plan your migration.
- [What Do We Want from ITIL 4? The ITSM Industry Speaks](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/what-do-we-want-from-itil-4-the-itsm-industry-speaks): We collected opinions from various ITSM professionals worldwide to understand what they wish to see in ITIL 4.
- [5 ITSM Trends and Predictions for 2019](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/5-itsm-trends-and-predictions-for-2019): The world we live in (or on) will soon be another year older and, despite what we see in the...
- [Creating the Business Case for Enterprise Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/creating-business-case-enterprise-service-management): Discover the benefits of Enterprise Service Management investments as Stephen Mann presents key statistics from a new report.
- [What’s Coming in ITIL 4?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whats-coming-in-itil-4): Discover what's in store with the upcoming release of ITIL 4, the latest iteration of the renowned IT service management framework.
- [Test Your Software Asset Management: Request a Vendor Audit](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/test-your-software-asset-management-request-a-vendor-audit): Test your software asset management by requesting a vendor audit - ensure your assets are in check. Read now
- [ITSM: Are You Managing Services, or Just Incidents & Changes?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/are-you-managing-services-or-just-managing-incidents-and-changes): IT service management is about much more than just managing incidents and changes. If you’re not maximizing the value you create for customers through ITSM, then this blog will help you get started.
- [DevOps Is ITSM (Like It or Not)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/devops-is-itsm-like-it-or-not): ITSM seems to have many definitions. The definition you get depends upon who you ask. My friends here at SysAid...
- [3 Key Responsibilities of the IT Help Desk (and How to Meet Them)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/3-key-responsibilities-of-the-it-help-desk-and-how-to-meet-them): Explore the crucial role of the help desk in providing excellent IT services to businesses and the key responsibilities for success.
- [DNA of IT Support – Everything You Need to Know](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/dna-of-it-support-everything-you-need-to-know): Are you thinking about a career in IT support? This article breaks down the key roles of everyone involved in IT support and all the key processes.
- [6 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started in IT Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/6-things-i-wish-id-known-when-i-started-in-it-service-management): Learn IT service management lessons from experience. Gain insights to avoid pitfalls and improve ITSM strategies.
- [Making ITSM a Business ‘Good Practice’](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/making-itsm-a-business-good-practice): SysAid offers tips on transitioning ITSM from IT best practices to business good practices, aligning IT operations with organizational goals.
- [Has GDPR Made the World a More Secure Place?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/has-gdpr-made-the-world-a-more-secure-place): Learn about the implications of GDPR on global cybersecurity efforts and its role in promoting data security.
- [How to Get a Job as an IT Service Desk Agent](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-get-a-job-as-an-it-service-desk-agent): Explore the benefits of starting your IT career on a corporate IT service desk with SysAid's insights into entry-level opportunities.
- [10 Reasons Why Self-Service Is Important for Your IT Department](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/10-reasons-why-self-service-is-important-for-your-it-department): Discover why self-service is vital for IT departments with SysAid's insights into the importance of empowering users.
- [5 Ways to Reduce Telephone Calls to Your IT Help Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/5-ways-to-reduce-telephone-calls-to-your-it-help-desk): Many IT help desks face high workloads and limited resources, prompting help desk managers to seek ways to ease the pressure on their agents.
- [How to Level Up Your Skills to Stay Relevant in ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-level-up-your-skills-to-stay-relevant-in-itsm): Explore the significance of continuous improvement in processes, services, and honing ITSM skills by following ITSM expert Stuart Rance's.
- [The Curse of “Faster, Better, Cheaper”](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-curse-of-faster-better-cheaper): At what point should you prioritize innovation over speed and cost? Explore the balance between efficiency and creativity. Learn more today!
- [5 Ways Your IT Service Desk Can Add Value to Your Organization](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-your-it-service-desk-can-add-value-to-your-organization): See how reviewing your IT service desk can uncover improvement areas and hidden issues in a chaotic work environment.
- [6 Reasons to Automate Your IT Service Request Tickets](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/6-reasons-to-automate-your-it-service-request-tickets): Automate IT service request fulfillment to boost efficiency, meet SLAs, and ensure customer satisfaction.
- [The 5 Time-Saving Tips for Busy SysAid Agents - Revealed](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/the-5-time-saving-tips-for-busy-sysaid-agents-revealed): Being an IT agent is tough with endless ticket queues. Time becomes a precious resource. Find out how to manage it effectively.
- [When Should ITSM Change Management Start?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/when-should-itsm-change-management-start): Why is it that most organizations don’t start change management until they are ready to deploy the change? ITIL and ITSM authority Stuart Rance blogs.
- [The Emerging “X Factor” of Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-emerging-x-factor-of-service-management): Delivering the best experience to customers, users, and employees is the game-changer and differentiates the progressive service management organizations.
- [5 Ways to Recognize and Reward Staff Performance on the IT Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-to-recognize-and-reward-staff-performance-on-the-it-service-desk): Importance of acknowledging & incentivizing IT service desk agents' performance. Discover why it's crucial in a challenging work environment.
- [Everything You Wanted to Know About IT Self-Service but Were Afraid to Ask](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-it-self-service-but-were-afraid-to-ask): Discover everything about IT self-service in this comprehensive guide by SysAid.
- [How to Design an ITSM Process](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-design-an-itsm-process): Creating a new ITSM process should leave you feeling energized rather than drained. Understand what you’re trying to achieve, and then do the work.
- [People, Process, Technology, Automation - The Next Evolution of Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/people-process-technology-automation-the-next-evolution-of-service-management): Learn how automation can elevate operational scaling, enabling individuals to focus on high-value tasks with the gift of time.
- [5 Reasons Why Your Organization Needs Problem Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/5-reasons-why-your-organization-needs-problem-management): Discover the top 5 reasons why problem management is crucial for your organization in this SysAid article.
- [Customer Experience: How Well Do You Really Meet End-User IT Support Needs?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/customer-experience-how-well-do-you-really-meet-end-user-it-support-needs): Explore the balance between task execution and outcome significance in IT, delving into the dangers of prioritizing speed over user assistance.
- [10 Skills and Capabilities Required of a 2020 ITSM Professional](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/10-skills-and-capabilities-required-of-a-2020-itsm-professional): Explore vital IT service management (ITSM) skills for 2020. Gain industry influencers' insights on the role's future direction.
- [Change Models: For When a Standard Change Is Not Flexible Enough](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/change-models-for-when-a-standard-change-is-not-flexible-enough): Learn how to swiftly implement impactful business changes with change models. Efficiently address updates without needing a CAB.
- [How to Stop Sending Every Flipping RfC to a CAB](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-to-stop-sending-every-flipping-rfc-to-a-cab): If your IT organization funnels every Request for Change (RfC) to a Change Advisory Board (CAB) for implementation approval, then you’re doing change management wrong.
- [What’s the Impact of DevOps on Business Continuity?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/whats-the-impact-of-devops-on-business-continuity): SysAid explores the impact of DevOps on business continuity, highlighting the role of new IT management approaches in ensuring resilience.
- [ITAM Is Now a Top 5 “ITSM Process” Adopted by IT Support Organizations](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/itam-is-now-a-top-5-itsm-process-adopted-by-it-support-organizations): ITAM is in HDI’s top 5 service management processes adopted by support organizations. Read more on our blog.
- [Be Careful How You Use Metrics](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/be-careful-how-you-use-metrics): SysAid offers insights into effectively utilizing metrics to enhance service delivery and ensure customer satisfaction.
- [The Difference between “Outcomes” and “Outputs” Makes a Difference!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/the-difference-between-outcomes-and-outputs-makes-a-difference): Shifting from an “output” to “outcome” mindset may not be easy, but it’s critical to the ongoing relevance of IT within a business.
- [Change, ITSM Tool, Robot, Metrics, and Cloud Learnings from SDI](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/change-itsm-tool-robot-metrics-and-cloud-learnings-from-sdi): Explore insights on Change, ITSM Tool, Robot, Metrics, & Cloud learnings from SDI in this article by SysAid.
- [The Service Management Conversation is (Rapidly) Changing](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-service-management-conversation-is-rapidly-changing): Join the evolving conversation on service management in 2018. Explore how it's becoming a strategic business asset.
- [5 Tips for IT to Better Manage the Customer Experience](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/5-tips-for-it-to-better-manage-the-customer-experience): Customer experience is vital for corporate IT and users. Aligning with consumer standards is crucial to prevent dissatisfaction.
- [5 Steps to Start Improving Your IT Organization, for the Non-Unicorns Amongst Us](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/5-steps-to-start-improving-your-it-organization-for-the-non-unicorns-amongst-us): SysAid provides practical steps for IT organizations to start improving their operations and delivering better services.
- [10 Tips for Public Speaking at Work and ITSM Conferences](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/10-tips-for-public-speaking-at-work-and-itsm-conferences): Speaking in front of large groups of people, whether at IITSM conferences or elsewhere, isn’t a natural thing.
- [Umpteen Reasons Why “It Depends”](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/umpteen-reasons-why-it-depends): SysAid provides assurance of success in ITSM implementation, offering guidance on key considerations for organizations engaging consultants.
- [Learning the Language of Customer Experience (and Its Importance to Corporate IT)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/learning-the-language-of-customer-experience-and-its-importance-to-corporate-it): Discover how customer experience in corporate IT evolves as employees merge personal-life expectations with work.
- [9 Guiding Principles That Can Help Improve Your Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/9-guiding-principles-that-can-help-improve-your-service-desk): Explore nine guiding principles that can enhance your service desk operations and improve customer satisfaction.
- [How to Use AWS Managed Services to Learn About ITSM and Hyperscale Cloud](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/how-to-use-aws-managed-services-to-learn-about-itsm-and-hyperscale-cloud): Discover ITSM and hyperscale cloud through AWS Managed Services. Read now on our blog.
- [6 ITSM Service Management Tool Questions Answered](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/6-itsm-tool-selection-questions-answers): Service management tools can break the costly cycle of switching ITSM solutions every 3-6 years.
- [The One Change Management Measure that Matters (But No One Measures)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-one-change-management-measure-that-matters-but-no-one-measures): Discover how IT can showcase ITSM value by capturing and reporting key metrics that reflect business value.
- [Meltdown and Spectre: What Should You Do?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/meltdown-and-spectre-what-should-you-do): Gain insights into mitigating risks associated with Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities with guidance from ITSM and cybersecurity expert Stuart Rance
- [2018: More of the Same, with a Few Step Changes](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/2018-more-of-the-same-with-a-few-step-changes): I think that we’re going to see many of this year’s trends continuing into 2018, and that they’re going to lead to a surprising conclusion. IT will stop being viewed as a necessary evil, a cost center that needs to be run more efficiently.
- [4 Ways the Digital Age Is Dramatically Changing IT Support](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/4-ways-the-digital-age-is-dramatically-changing-it-support): Discover how digital transformation is reshaping customer service and IT support. The evolution has just begun!
- [3 Ways Our Technology-Led World is Changing](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/three-ways-our-technology-led-world-is-changing): Technology changes our personal & work lives – influencing expectations of products/services, IT support, and customer service alike. How do we adapt?
- [In 2018, Great IT Service Delivery Will Require ITSM Alchemy](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/in-2018-great-it-service-delivery-will-require-itsm-alchemy): Discover the synergy between DevOps and ITIL as they work hand in hand to enhance traditional IT practices.
- [Defining Metrics for Problem Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/defining-metrics-for-problem-management): Many define KPIs for their ITSM processes by looking in books & copying metrics other organizations use. Bad idea. Here's a better one, from Stuart Rance.
- [How to Explain GDPR to a 5 Year Old](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/how-to-explain-gdpr-to-a-5-year-old): SysAid simplifies GDPR compliance with its informative blog post, breaking down complex regulations into understandable concepts.
- [Top 4 Keys to Self-Service Portal Success & More](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/top-4-keys-to-self-service-portal-success-more): Don’t consumers want self-service? So why aren’t your consumers using the self-service portal? Why isn’t the self-service portal saving your service desk?
- [7 Ways to Diagnose IT Incidents and Problems](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/7-ways-to-diagnose-it-incidents-and-problems): You need to train and mentor service desk and IT support staff in techniques they can use to diagnose incidents and problems. Read more now...
- [VeriSM: There’s a New ITSM Good Practice Approach in Town](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/verism-theres-a-new-itsm-good-practice-approach-in-town): Much of ITIL 2011 is still relevant, but how does an ITSM practitioner know what is? Welcome VeriSM - a new ITSM approach for guidance.
- [5 Ways to Improve Your Capacity Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/5-ways-to-improve-your-capacity-management): Most organizations have some form of capacity planning & management in place today, but many haven’t advanced the practice beyond the basic data-gathering
- [Your Cybersecurity and ITSM Questions – Answered!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/your-cybersecurity-and-itsm-questions-answered): SysAid addresses cybersecurity concerns in ITSM, offering practical advice on improving security measures.
- [The Top 20 Questions About SysAid's Self-Service Portal - Answered!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/the-top-20-questions-about-sysaids-self-service-portal-answered): We’ve gone ahead and answered all of your questions about SysAid's Self-Service Portal, with the top 20 questions featured in this blog post.
- [SysAid Seeks & Destroys in Week-Long Hackathon](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-seeks-destroys-in-week-long-hackathon): During a week in September 2017 we teamed up and competed to proactively search and destroy bugs in a first-time, week-long SysAid hackathon event.
- [3 Steps to a Practical, Real-World On-Ramp to DevOps](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/3-steps-to-a-practical-real-world-on-ramp-to-devops): Discover the essential three steps to kickstart your DevOps journey, Read the full article now on our blog.
- [Defining Metrics for Change Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/defining-metrics-for-change-management): The first thing to do when you are thinking about KPIs is to decide what they are for. Who are the stakeholders for any reports that you will generate?
- [How to Continually Improve Your Service Portfolio – Even If You Don’t Have One!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-to-continually-improve-your-service-portfolio-even-if-you-dont-have-one): Learn why boosting your IT service portfolio is key for organizational success. Unleash the potential of every IT organization's.
- [Is it Time to Reconsider the IT Support Walk-Up Channel?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/is-it-time-to-reconsider-the-it-support-walk-up-channel): Explore the evolution of IT support channels from the late 1980s "walk-up" approach. Learn how IT issues were handled back then!
- [Why I Love Unreasonable Customers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/why-i-love-unreasonable-customers): Why unreasonable customers can be great! See how SysAid turns frustration into loyalty
- [3 Canaries in Your Cloud: Advanced Cloud Release Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/3-canaries-in-your-cloud-advanced-cloud-release-management): The IT “playing field” is leveled with public cloud as it brings world-class IT management & ITSM capabilities to all. Read Now
- [5 Cloud Service Practices for “ITSM as Code”](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/5-cloud-service-practices-for-itsm-as-code): We often focus too much on IT service management (ITSM) processes and technology, and then we underestimate how much the people are the real ITSM glue.
- [Back to ITSM Basics: Do You Deliver Valuable Services, or Just Technology?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/back-to-itsm-basics-do-you-deliver-valuable-services-or-just-technology): Gain insights from ITSM expert Stuart Rance as he steers IT organizations to shift focus from tech to business.
- [Why ITSM Is More Important Now Than Ever Before](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/why-itsm-is-more-important-now-than-ever-before): There are some rumors that IT service management (ITSM) is dead. No way – I’m here to tell you that ITSM is far from dead. Read more...
- [How to Help an Angry User in 5 Easy Steps](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-help-an-angry-user-in-5-easy-steps): When you work on a service desk, calls from angry users can be difficult and emotions can get in the way. Here's effective steps to manage these situations.
- [8 Tips on How to Plan for Configuration Management - Part 2](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/8-tips-on-how-to-plan-for-configuration-management-part-2): Read on to learn more about how best to get started with configuration management through effective planning.
- [8 Tips on How to Plan for Configuration Management - Part 1](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/8-tips-on-how-to-plan-for-configuration-management-part-1): We’ve all probably heard the phrase “fail to plan, plan to fail” but never has this been more pertinent than when planning for a corporate IT configuration
- [How Cloud Changes ITIL Capacity Management from the Vague to the Specific](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/how-cloud-changes-itil-capacity-management-from-the-vague-to-the-specific): Don’t be fooled – by the cloud tech-talk of instances, databases, code, and APIs – into thinking that cloud is all about technology.
- [Yes, WannaCry Makes Me Want to Cry](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/yes-wannacry-makes-me-want-to-cry): By now we've all heard about the ransom attack called WannaCry - what can we do to protect ourselves and our organizations?
- [The Emerging Cloud Service Delivery Manager Role](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/the-emerging-cloud-service-delivery-manager-role): Clouds are services, not products or technologies, so who better to manage them than an IT service manager with a “special set of skills.” Find out more...
- [How Do You Measure IT Services?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-do-you-measure-it-services): All the IT service providers I’ve worked with assure me that they measure the services they provide by using metrics & KPIs to document what’s been agreed.
- [The 7 Deadly Sins of Change Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-7-deadly-sins-of-change-management): Is your change management process in the way of making changes? Don’t give up – these fixes will move it from being the barrier to being the value enabler.
- [4 Reasons Why ITSM Is a Key Investment for SMBs](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/4-reasons-why-itsm-is-a-key-investment-for-smbs): Discover why ITSM is a key investment for SMBs with SysAid's insights into the returns and benefits of effective IT service management.
- [A Beginners Guide to Serverless Computing](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/a-beginners-guide-to-serverless-computing): The “serverless” computing paradigm emerged a couple of years ago. This blog explains & visualizes serverless for IT professionals who are new to the topic
- [5 Tips to Help Prioritize Your CSI Improvements](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/5-tips-to-help-prioritize-your-csi-improvements): Discover 5 tips in this blog to maximize value quickly and affordably by prioritizing impactful improvements.
- [How Hot Is Your F11 Key?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/how-hot-is-your-f11-key): Learn about SysAid's innovative F11 key feature, enhancing user experience by streamlining access to the Self-Service Portal.
- [5 Ways to Better Equip the IT Service Desk for Enterprise IoT](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-better-equip-it-service-desk-enterprise-iot): There are of course going to be far more than 5 things that could be done to help IT service desks but here are five to get you thinking...
- [Feeling Good about Your Help Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/feeling-good-about-your-help-desk): Learn about the significance of delivering a positive help desk experience and its impact on user satisfaction.
- [Hide and Seek With Problem Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/hide-and-seek-with-problem-management): It's possible you think you're not doing problem management but it's only just hidden. Stuart Rance easily takes you to the real deal (out of hiding).
- [A Different Way of Looking at Categorization](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/a-different-way-of-looking-at-categorization): How do you define your categorization scheme? Are you making common mistakes? Benefit by looking at it differently, from the consumer's angle.
- [The Downside of Using Email to Manage IT Support](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/the-downside-of-using-email-to-manage-it-support): There are a number of reasons why email & other personal productivity tools are used for IT support. But easy isn’t always best…or even appropriate.
- [Is the Term “Service Desk” Merely an ITSM Marketing Coup?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/is-the-term-service-desk-merely-an-itsm-marketing-coup): Discover why the term "help desk" is being replaced by "service desk" in ITIL, and why 23% of IT professionals still use the old term.
- [Enterprise Service Management Is Not Just for Service Requests](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/enterprise-service-management-is-not-just-for-service-requests): Discover how incident and problem management can extend beyond IT into enterprise service management (ESM).
- [Back to ITSM Basics: The 9 Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-9-guiding-principles-of-itil-practitioner): Whatever you’re responsible for in IT, the ITIL Practitioner guiding principles can help you focus on what’s important. ITSM guru Stuart Rance explains how.
- [Using the Knowledge from Within (Your Help Desk)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/using-the-knowledge-from-within-your-help-desk): The most powerful concentration of useful knowledge & awareness in organizations resides right inside the help desk. How to retrieve it and the benefits.
- [Major ITSM Improvements Should Start with Small Steps](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/major-itsm-improvements-should-start-with-small-steps): Discover how agile software development principles benefit IT Service Management (ITSM) in Stuart Rance's insightful blog post.
- [How to Deliver More Value from Your Help Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/how-to-deliver-more-value-from-your-help-desk): A great help desk can do a lot more than just the essentials. Here are some things to think about if you’re ready to take the next step. Find out more...
- [Back to ITSM Basics: Start Where You Are](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/back-to-itsm-basics-start-where-you-are): If you’re involved in ITSM improvements, and especially if you’re fairly new to the field, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Start smart and stay in control!
- [The Case of the Ignored Business Case](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-case-of-the-ignored-business-case): What happens when your business case for ITSM is created but ignored? Here’s 7 things you could try, from Doug Tedder, ITSM consultant.
- [Machine Learning – the Next Big Thing for ITSM in 2017](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/machine-learning-the-next-big-thing-for-itsm-in-2017): In 2017, ITSM tool vendors will be partnering with machine learning technology partners. SysAid CEO Sarah Lahav presents some interesting use cases.
- [How to Meet Customer Expectations](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-meet-customer-expectations): One of the biggest problems we have to deal with in IT service management (ITSM) strikes whenever we fail to...
- [What’s Essential for an IT Help Desk?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/whats-essential-for-an-it-help-desk): An IT help desk can easily take on a huge range of activities, but if you have limited resources then...
- [Your Help Desk Is Alive and Well](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/your-help-desk-is-alive-and-well): The help desk was a new idea for IT departments back in the 1980s and 90s. That’s when organizations figured...
- [Defining Metrics for a Help Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/defining-metrics-for-a-help-desk): Some time ago, I wrote a blog about Defining Metrics for the Service Desk. Recently someone asked me what about...
- [10 Tips for Providing Negative Feedback](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/10-tips-for-providing-negative-feedback): Working in IT, particularly on the IT help desk, can often be a “glass half empty” rather than a “glass...
- [Users, Customers – What’s in a Name?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/users-customers-whats-in-a-name): It isn’t often I get to start an IT service management (ITSM) blog with a William Shakespeare quote, but he...
- [Small IT Support Teams Without Desks Can Still Benefit from Help Desk Technology](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/small-it-support-teams-without-desks-can-still-benefit-from-help-desk-technology): Discover how small IT support teams without desks can leverage help desk technology effectively with SysAid.
- [How to Manage Your IT Problems](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-manage-your-it-problems): IT organizations often spend huge amounts of time, money, and other resources on managing incidents, but they spend surprisingly little...
- [5 Ways to Recapture Your Service Desk Team’s Lost Motivation](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-to-recapture-your-service-desk-teams-lost-motivation): Discover 5 effective strategies to reignite your service desk team's motivation in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [Is Your Business Value in Color?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/is-your-business-value-in-color): ITIL® tells us that there are three components to business value: Business outcomes Customer perception Customer preferences Once this has...
- [Bridging the Gap Between Service and Customer Experience](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/bridging-the-gap-between-service-and-customer-experience): “Customer experience” you say. What the heck is that? If this sounds like you, don’t worry, you’ve come to the...
- [Supplier Management Is More than Just Negotiating Contracts](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/supplier-management-is-more-than-just-negotiating-contracts): Explore the depth of Supplier Management beyond contract negotiations with SysAid.
- [Incident Categorization – Reasons and Consequences](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/incident-categorization-reasons-and-consequences): I was thinking about incident management and categories and it came to me that really, every single day, we find...
- [What’s Better in ITSM, Getting It Right or Looking Good?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/whats-better-in-itsm-getting-it-right-or-looking-good): Discover the key to success in ITSM: Is it about getting it right or simply looking good? Join SysAid for insights.
- [Why Can’t Our Customers Be More Like Us?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/why-cant-our-customers-be-more-like-us): Why do we IT service management (ITSM) people have trouble understanding and predicting how our customers and other colleagues in...
- [Do You Know When to Break the Rules?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/do-you-know-when-to-break-the-rules): My colleague Ivor McFarlane once described the concept of intelligent disobedience to me. This term was first used in relation...
- [A Fashionable Route to ITSM Capacity Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/a-fashionable-route-to-itsm-capacity-management): Capacity management was an important driver for the development of ITIL®. The original team writing the ITIL books back in...
- [3 Common Traits of Super Successful IT Service Desk Staff](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/3-common-traits-of-super-successful-it-service-desk-staff): Discover the 3 common traits of highly successful IT service desk staff in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [How to Persuade Management to Support Your Idea, Every Time](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-persuade-management-to-support-your-idea-every-time): Discover effective strategies to consistently win management support for your ideas in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [5 Tips for Supercharging Your Change Management Process](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/5-tips-for-supercharging-your-change-management-process): Discover 5 powerful tips to supercharge your change management process in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [Are You Pedalling Furiously but Getting Nowhere Fast?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/are-you-pedalling-furiously-but-getting-nowhere-fast): Struggling to make progress despite your efforts? Learn how SysAid can help you overcome obstacles and move forward efficiently.
- [Service Desk and ITSM Nuggets from SITS16](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-and-itsm-nuggets-from-sits16): As an exhibitor, it seems to take forever to plan for the Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS) but,...
- [Emergency Room Syndrome in ITSM and Real Life](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/emergency-room-syndrome-in-itsm-and-real-life): I was trying to get support from a supplier recently and, after considerable delay in reaching a service desk agent,...
- [Please, Don't Just "Do" DevOps!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/please-dont-just-do-devops): DevOps is currently very fashionable, and so I hear lots of people talking about how their IT organization will be...
- [3 Tips for Creating and Keeping a Cohesive ITSM Team](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/3-tips-for-creating-and-keeping-a-cohesive-itsm-team): Forge a Unified ITSM Team: Streamline Workflows & Collaboration with SysAid. Read Now!
- [8 Recommended Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS16) Sessions - Try Saying That After a Few Beers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/8-recommended-service-desk-and-it-support-show-sits16-sessions-try-saying-that-after-a-few-beers): 8 Recommended Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS16) Sessions - Try Saying That After a Few Beers - SysAid Blog
- [Demystifying the Latest Cloud Terminology - Part 2](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/demystifying-the-latest-cloud-terminology-part-2): Demystifying the Latest Cloud Terminology Part 2 - Gain insights into the latest cloud terminology and trends in part 2 of SysAid's blog series.
- [Demystifying the Latest Cloud Terminology - Part 1](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/demystifying-the-latest-cloud-terminology-part-1): Demystifying Cloud Terminology Part 1 - Dive into the world of cloud computing, understand the latest terminology and concepts with our blog series.
- [What Value Are You Creating from Your IT Job?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/what-value-are-you-creating-from-your-it-job): We all like to believe we are doing a good job. We all take pride in our achievements. But sometimes...
- [DevOps Success via the Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/devops-success-via-the-service-desk): If you ask what a service desk is you might get any of these responses: IT operations or IT service...
- [ITSM Improvement: 3 Steps to Happy Self-Service Customers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/itsm-improvement-3-steps-to-happy-self-service-customers): Discover 3 steps to keep self-service customers happy in this ITSM improvement guide by SysAid.
- [At HDI 2016, Make Time for These ITSM Thought Leaders](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/at-hdi-2016-make-time-for-these-itsm-thought-leaders): Discover the must-see ITSM thought leaders at HDI 2016. Join SysAid for insights and innovation.
- [ITSM Tool Selection Basics: 10 Tips to Make RFP Stand for “Right Fit Procurement”](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-tool-selection-basics-10-tips-to-make-rfp-stand-for-right-fit-procurement): Discover expert tips for selecting the right ITSM tool in this insightful article from SysAid.
- [What’s Wrong with IT Service Management Maturity Assessments?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whats-wrong-with-it-service-management-maturity-assessments): Learn about the pitfalls of IT Service Management Maturity Assessments in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [Working in IT: 5 Tips for Dealing with Undermining Behavior](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/working-in-it-5-tips-for-dealing-with-undermining-behavior): This post relates to a personal experience with undermining behavior and offers advice for dealing with it.
- [A Practical Approach to Getting Started with Service Catalog](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/a-practical-approach-to-getting-started-with-service-catalog): Discover a hands-on guide to kickstarting your Service Catalog journey with SysAid.
- [Pink16: Some of the ITSM Wisdom That Shouldn’t Stay in Vegas](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/pink16-some-of-the-itsm-wisdom-that-shouldnt-stay-in-vegas): Discover valuable ITSM insights from Pink16 conference in Vegas by SysAid.
- [Who Is Your Customer?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/who-is-your-customer): Great IT services create value for customers, with a focus on customer experience and customer satisfaction. Organizations that deliver IT...
- [ITSM Basics: Change Impact Assessment - Part 2](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-change-impact-assessment-part-2): In part 1 of this blog, I focused on what to look, and ask, for when assessing a change. Here,...
- [ITSM Basics: Change Impact Assessment - Part 1](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-change-impact-assessment-part-1): One of the things that worries me most about where the IT industry is headed is how we sometimes get...
- [Why ITSM OpEx Efficiencies = IT Efficiencies](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/why-itsm-opex-efficiencies-it-efficiencies): In preparing for this blog I interviewed a global support manager at an international agribusiness corporation where SysAid was enabling...
- [Pink16: So Little Time, So Much to Learn](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/pink16-so-little-time-so-much-to-learn): It’s that time again, for one of IT service management’s (ITSM) “grand slam” industry conferences – Pink Elephant’s Pink16, now...
- [How You Can and Should Manage Availability of IT Services](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-you-can-and-should-manage-availability-of-it-services): Explore effective IT service availability management techniques in this SysAid guide. Master the art of maintaining smooth IT services.
- [ITSM and Business Intelligence: Why Do We Continue To Ignore Our Wealth of ITSM Data?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/itsm-and-business-intelligence-why-do-we-continue-to-ignore-our-wealth-of-itsm-data): I’ve written about IT service management (ITSM) and the opportunities of business intelligence (BI) before, but that was four years...
- [Problem and Incident Management Benefit from a Joint Effort](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/problem-and-incident-management-benefit-from-a-joint-effort): Boost Problem and Incident Management with collaborative efforts. Discover more at SysAid.
- [Change Management Webinar - The Listeners Speak](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/change-management-webinar-the-listeners-speak): In my recent webinar for SysAid, Never Underestimate the Importance of Change Management, I had the chance to ask three...
- [Looking Both ITSM Ways When Crossing the Service Street](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/looking-both-itsm-ways-when-crossing-the-service-street): Discover SysAid's ITSM guide, emphasizing the value of diverse perspectives in navigating the service landscape.
- [5 New Year’s Resolutions for ITSM Practitioners](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-new-years-resolutions-for-itsm-practitioners): New Year’s resolutions are traditional at this time of year. So I’ve been thinking about what would be great resolutions...
- [10 IT Predictions for 2016](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/10-it-predictions-for-2016): Anyone can predict the future, although whether they are right or not is a different matter. Just look at the...
- [Winter 16 Beta Bliss: Reporting...Redefined](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/winter-16-beta-bliss-reporting-redefined): “The new reporting is SUCH an improvement! I love the new design too, but the functionality in the reporting though......
- [What’s the Future of Corporate IT and ITSM?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/whats-the-future-of-corporate-it-and-itsm): While we were at FUSION, the joint itSMF USA and HDI IT service management (ITSM) conference, we asked a number...
- [The First Call Resolution Paradox](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/the-first-call-resolution-paradox): You’ve no doubt heard the saying “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. ” Therefore, naturally, we try...
- [Change Management Webinar – Here’s Your Questions Answered](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/change-management-webinar-heres-your-questions-answered): Join our Change Management Webinar to get all your questions answered by SysAid experts!
- [Reap All of the BYOD Benefits and None of the IT Headaches with Nubo VMI](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/reap-all-of-the-byod-benefits-and-none-of-the-it-headaches-with-nubo-vmi): Maximize BYOD benefits effortlessly with Nubo VMI - SysAid. Discover more in the full article.
- [Work on a Service Desk? Say What You’ll Do, then Do What You Said](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/work-on-a-service-desk-say-what-youll-do-then-do-what-you-said): Discover how to excel on the Service Desk with SysAid - state your tasks and deliver on them.
- [FUSION15: People, Process, Technology, and Even More People](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/fusion15-people-process-technology-and-even-more-people): Discover the synergy of people, process, technology, and more in FUSION15 with SysAid.
- [The Help You Need to Adopt Continual Service Improvement](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-help-you-need-to-adopt-continual-service-improvement): Continual Service Improvement (CSI) is one of the most important concepts in ITIL, but very few IT organizations put anything...
- [Usable Metrics Are More than Just Numbers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/usable-metrics-are-more-than-just-numbers): We live in an age of measurements and analytics, where organizations like to calculate how well they are doing, and...
- [The ITSM and DevOps FUSION](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-itsm-and-devops-fusion): The IT service management (ITSM) event season has kicked-off again, and it’s time for myself and the rest of the...
- [5 Reasons the Service Desk Should Care About Information Security](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-reasons-the-service-desk-should-care-about-information-security): Discover why the service desk should prioritize information security in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [How to Write a Communications Plan](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-write-a-communications-plan): It’s human nature to seek out others to communicate. Through communications we learn, relate, help, influence, and play. ...
- [ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Change Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-basics-a-simple-introduction-to-change-management): If you read my blog regularly you’ll know that I’ve already written simple introduction blogs related to: Incident management, and...
- [Look Harder to Find the Real Heroes of Problem Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/look-harder-to-find-the-real-heroes-of-problem-management): Uncover problem management heroes with SysAid - your solution for efficient IT support.
- [People, Process, and Technology – 3 Things or 1?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/people-process-and-technology-3-things-or-1): For as long as ITIL has been around (26 years) and longer, it’s told us that Service Management needs a...
- [Self-Service Webinar Q and A](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/self-service-webinar-q-and-a): I really enjoyed delivering a webinar with Stephen Mann recently. The webinar, which was called Real-World Tips for Self-Service...
- [The Secret Life of Incidents](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/the-secret-life-of-incidents): Everyone knows that incident management is designed to manage the overall life of an incident. Start to finish. Cradle to...
- [5 Tips To Improve Your Service Desk’s Customer Service](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-tips-to-improve-your-service-desks-customer-service): Discover 5 key tips to enhance your service desk's customer service in this SysAid article.
- [Service Desk Tension Metrics](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-tension-metrics): Sets of best practices for service management – like ITIL for example – are full of good ideas and good...
- [IT Managers Need a Vacation Too](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-managers-need-a-vacation-too): It’s summer time in the Northern hemisphere, and many of us are getting ready for our annual holidays. It’s really...
- [7 Service Desk Myths Debunked and How to Kill Them](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/7-service-desk-myths-debunked-and-how-to-kill-them): TV programs such as The IT Crowd and the Dilbert comic strips convey IT teams and service desks in a...
- [ITIL's 4 Ps Need Another P - Purpose](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itils-4-ps-need-another-p-purpose): The corporate IT service desk gets a lot of criticism. More specifically, service desk agents get a lot of criticism....
- [Practical Tips for Self-Service Success](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/practical-tips-for-self-service-success): Many IT organizations see employee self-service as a ‘knight in shining armor’, ready to solve all their service desk issues...
- [Service Desk Challenges and Joys at Georgetown University Law Center](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-challenges-and-joys-at-georgetown-university-law-center): Service Desk Challenges and Joys at Georgetown University Law Center - SysAid
- [Significantly Enhance Your Service Desk Operations with Our New Barcode Add-On](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/significantly-enhance-your-service-desk-operations-with-our-new-barcode-add-on): Enhance service desk operations with our new Barcode Add-On from SysAid. Optimize efficiency and streamline processes today!
- [Using Theory of Constraints to Help Continual Service Improvement](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/using-theory-of-constraints-to-help-continual-service-improvement): Utilize Theory of Constraints for effective Continual Service Improvement with SysAid.
- [SITS15: Who Said Some Good Stuff at the ITSM Conference?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/sits15-who-said-some-good-stuff-at-the-itsm-conference): Key takeaways from the SITS15 ITSM Conference with SysAid - concise summary for you.
- [SysAid 15.2: Your Voice, Your Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-15-2-your-voice-your-service-desk): Experience the evolution of service desk solutions with SysAid 15.2! Learn how SysAid puts your voice at the center of service management.
- [We Need to Talk...About Change Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/we-need-to-talk-about-change-management): You know those awkward conversations that start with “we need to talk”? Well, it’s time. We need to talk. About...
- [The 2015 ITSM Show – The Greatest Show on Earth](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-2015-itsm-show-the-greatest-show-on-earth): It may be in a completely different month to normal, and at a new venue, but the buzz around the...
- [COBIT 5 Plays Well with Others](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/cobit-5-plays-well-with-others): Are you looking for an overarching IT framework that is compatible with other IT standards and approaches? Do you...
- [My SysAid Beta Adventure](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/my-sysaid-beta-adventure): A warm hello to all readers. I’m Danny, and some of you may already know me as the Technical Community...
- [What Is ITIL?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/what-is-itil): If I type “What is IT” into my favorite search engine then the suggestion “What is ITIL” appears near the...
- [Change Evaluation: The Seven R's Revisited](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/change-evaluation-the-seven-rs-revisited): The 2011 version of ITIL introduced the lesser known change evaluation process. It’s a great addition, and I haven’t seen...
- [Software Asset Management: How to State the Case for Obtaining a SAM Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/software-asset-management-how-to-state-the-case-for-obtaining-a-sam-solution): SAM makes a compelling case for a solution in this SysAid article. Read more know on our blog.
- [Meeting Business Needs: Doing the Right Things and Doing Things Right](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/meeting-business-needs-doing-the-right-things-and-doing-things-right): Discover how SysAid meets business needs by focusing on doing the right things and doing them right.
- [Improving Categorizing Incidents](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/improving-categorizing-incidents): Recently a customer asked me how many different categories they should have for managing incidents. They seemed to think that,...
- [Workshop as a Blog: How to Mature a Service Management Process](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/workshop-as-a-blog-how-to-mature-a-service-management-process): Learn how to mature a service management process with this workshop turned blog by SysAid.
- [Human Communications Protocol](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/human-communications-protocol): How many times does the word ‘communications’ get mentioned as an issue in your organization (and we’re not referring to...
- [We Don’t Do People!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/we-dont-do-people): . When I started in the IT industry I was a fairly junior hardware engineer. One day I went out...
- [Governance: Management? Leadership? Culture!!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/governance-management-leadership-culture): One of the most quoted words in use in tech management and marketing these days is ‘governance’. What do we...
- [Hospital IT Heroes](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/hospital-it-heroes): Over the last few weeks I had the opportunity to speak with several customers in various industries about the exciting...
- [Defining Metrics for the Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/defining-metrics-for-the-service-desk): I have written a number of blogs about metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) recently, each focussing on a different...
- [Information Technology: What Business Are You In?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/information-technology-what-business-are-you-in): Think Nike is in the athletic shoes and apparel business? Not on your life. “Nike sells shoes but it’s not...
- [10 Best Practice Tips for IT Transformation](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/10-best-practice-tips-for-it-transformation): We talk a lot about transformation in IT. That the changing IT landscape is causing us to evaluate and ultimately...
- [Pearls of ITSM Wisdom from SysAid’s Competitors](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/pearls-of-itsm-wisdom-from-sysaids-competitors): There’s no law that says different IT service management (ITSM) solution vendors can’t play well together. In fact some of...
- [ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Incident Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-a-simple-introduction-to-incident-management): Don’t tell anyone but for some reason I can post to the SysAid blog now... and to start I want...
- [The Service Desk and Relationship Management: All You Need Is Love](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-service-desk-and-relationship-management-all-you-need-is-love): Discover the importance of Service Desk and Relationship Management in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [15 ITSM Tips for 2015 - Part 2](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/15-itsm-tips-for-2015-part-2): In my blog last week, I recommended 6 tips that you might like to consider as New Year’s Resolutions. They...
- [15 ITSM Tips for 2015 - Part 1](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/15-itsm-tips-for-2015-part-1): As 2014 draws to a close I’ve started to think about what’s going to be important for IT service management...
- [2014 in (Content) Review](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/2014-in-content-review): 2014 in Content Review - SysAid Blog. Gain insights into industry trends, IT best practices, and SysAid's journey throughout the year.
- [What Can Estonia Teach You about IT Service Management?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/what-can-estonia-teach-you-about-it-service-management): Discover what Estonia can teach you about IT service management in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [15 IT Trends for 2015](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/15-it-trends-for-2015): To shepherd in the New Year I’ve created a list of 15 IT trends for 2015. They’re in no particular...
- [Car Insurance, Broadband, and the Real User Experience](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/car-insurance-broadband-and-the-real-user-experience): Car Insurance, Broadband, and User Experience - SysAid: Discover insights on managing IT services efficiently.
- [Whose Fault Was It?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whose-fault-was-it): We all know that IT service management is about people, processes and tools, but for some reason we always seem...
- [SysAid 14.4, Are You Ready for More?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-14-4-are-you-ready-for-more): I can’t tell you how excited I am to be a part of SysAid’s latest release SysAid 14. 4. Sure,...
- [Self-Service: The Benefits and 5 Tips for Success](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/self-service-the-benefits-and-5-tips-for-success): The launching of a self-service portal – a web-based application aimed at the end users, providing 24/7 access to IT...
- [How Can You Create an SLA that Helps to Delight Your Customers?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-can-you-create-an-sla-that-helps-to-delight-your-customers): Learn how to craft a customer-centric SLA to delight your customers with tips from SysAid.
- [Everything ITSM in Less Than Three Days](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/everything-itsm-in-less-than-three-days): Well FUSION 14 was a whirlwind of ITSM Goodness (the royalties check is in the post Barclay Rae). Working the...
- [How to Make Sure Your KPIs Are Balanced](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-to-make-sure-your-kpis-are-balanced): I have written a number of blogs about metrics and KPIs recently, each focussing on a different area of IT...
- [FUSION14: Bringing the ITSM Community Together for the Greater Good](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/fusion14-bringing-the-itsm-community-together-for-the-greater-good): FUSION14: Network & Level Up Your ITSM Skills! Join SysAid & the ITSM Community.
- [BYOD: Will IT Departments Live Long and Prosper?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/byod-will-it-departments-live-long-and-prosper): Last week at Interop, New York’s Javits Center was abuzz with IT professionals seeking practical advice on IT management good...
- [Interop: a First-Timer's View](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/interop-a-first-timers-view): Well, SysAid’s and my first day at Interop New York was a busy one. As Joe the IT Guy states...
- [CVE-2014-6271 aka Shellshock Bash Bug](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/cve-2014-6271-aka-shellshock-bash-bug): sysaid. com/... /cve-2014-6271-aka-shellshock-bash-bug Remember Heartbleed? Back in April, I was flooded with questions from our customers, so I wrote that...
- [Defining Metrics for Incident Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/defining-metrics-for-incident-management): I have written about how to define metrics and KPIs for IT service management processes before. In Defining Metrics for...
- [ITSM: Shift Left, Left, Left...](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/itsm-shift-left-left-left): When looking at ways to improve your IT support and service desk, it’s always useful to take a look at...
- [Evolution and How to Keep IT from Going Extinct](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/evolution-and-how-to-keep-it-from-going-extinct): When I hear about Shadow IT and comments that the IT department will soon be dead, here are a few...
- [The Cloud Behind the Curtain - Why ITSM Matters](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/the-cloud-behind-the-curtain-why-itsm-matters): I’ve enjoyed working in the technology field for well over a decade. Either working on the service desk, in the...
- [Clearing Up the Myths of CMDB](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/clearing-up-the-myths-of-cmdb): Clearing Up the Myths of CMDB - Gain clarity on CMDB (Configuration Management Database) and debunk common myths with SysAid's informative blog post.
- [IT Service Management at LEADit - It’s as Easy as ABC](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-service-management-at-leadit-its-as-easy-as-abc): IT Service Management made simple with LEADit - Discover how SysAid streamlines your processes effortlessly.
- [How Long Should an ITSM Project Take?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-long-should-an-itsm-project-take): I know that the question “How long should an ITSM project take? ” is going to get an answer of...
- [4 Things You Need to Know About IT Maturity Assessments](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-it-maturity-assessments): Discover key insights on IT Maturity Assessments with this quick guide from SysAid. Read now on our blog.
- [It's 14.4 O'Clock in the Cloud](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/its-14-4-oclock-in-the-cloud): I can’t believe how fast time flies. It’s been only a few weeks since our last release and already our...
- [Whipping ITSM into BDSM](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/whipping-itsm-into-bdsm): Why do I keep reading such statements as “get rid of IT from ITSM? ” Is it that Service Management...
- [Advice for Improving Customer Satisfaction on the IT Help Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/advice-for-improving-customer-satisfaction-on-the-it-help-desk): Discover top tips to enhance customer satisfaction on the IT help desk in this article by SysAid.
- [Can You Imagine a World Where IT Professionals Do Not Exist?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/can-you-imagine-a-world-where-it-professionals-do-not-exist): Imagine a world without IT professionals. Dive into this thought-provoking article by SysAid.
- [Knowledge Management Is Not Just About Document Repositories](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/knowledge-management-is-not-just-about-document-repositories): When I ask people how they acquire the knowledge they need to do their jobs they describe a huge variety...
- [5 Tips for Creating a Successful Service Catalogue](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-tips-for-creating-a-successful-service-catalogue): A service catalogue offered as a self-service facility can bring a number of benefits to both the IT organization and...
- [SysAid 14.3 – It's Your Voice that Matters](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-14-3-its-your-voice-that-matters): For me, one of the greatest things about introducing new features in new releases is the fact that they get...
- [Debunking the Top 3 Customer Service Myths](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/debunking-the-top-3-customer-service-myths): The less complaints from customers, the better, right? Well, not exactly. When it comes to customer service many companies believe...
- [SysAid Support is About to Get Even More Supercalifragilisticexpiali-Help-You!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-support-is-about-to-get-even-more-supercalifragilisticexpiali-help-you): We’re very excited – because SysAid has further upped its commitment to exceptional customer service. We’ve made some structural changes...
- [High Touch, Transparency, and Good Customer Service](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/high-touch-transparency-and-good-customer-service): Quick word association. I say “Customer Service” and you say... . No wait time High 1st call resolution Rapid issue...
- [We’re Challenging IT Pros Across the Globe to Let the World Know What It Is They REALLY Do](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/were-challenging-it-pros-across-the-globe-to-let-the-world-know-what-it-is-they-really-do): We’re Challenging IT Pros Across the Globe to Let the World Know What It Is They REALLY Do - SysAid Blog
- [What To Do When the CFO Says, "You Need to Reduce Costs"](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/what-to-do-when-the-cfo-says-you-need-to-reduce-costs): Learn how to handle the situation when the CFO demands cost reduction in this article by SysAid.
- [If We Could Just Talk to Our Customers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/if-we-could-just-talk-to-our-customers): There is currently a lot of good industry guidance and advice around how IT organizations need to get out and...
- [Five Reasons Why You Need to Embrace Virtualization](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/five-reasons-why-you-need-to-embrace-virtualization): Though many leading economists across the globe agree that the economy is indeed recovering, albeit slowly, many business owners may...
- [Smart Ways to Dispatch Your Service Records](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/smart-ways-to-dispatch-your-service-records): If you’ve ever attended one of our courses, then you must have heard the term Let SysAid Work For You....
- [What’s the Point of Configuration Management?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whats-the-point-of-configuration-management): I have been working with a customer who wants to improve their service transition processes, and I came across a...
- [If You Don't Have an SLA, You're Delivering Bad Service](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/if-you-dont-have-an-sla-youre-delivering-bad-service): Discover why having a Service Level Agreement (SLA) is crucial for delivering top-notch service according to SysAid.
- [It’s All About You - A Huge Thank You to Our Customers](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/its-all-about-you-a-huge-thank-you-to-our-customers): Discover why it's all about you! Join us in expressing immense gratitude to our customers at SysAid.
- [Like a Virgin - ITSM for the Very First Time](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/like-a-virgin-itsm-for-the-very-first-time): Well I’m finally back in the real world after the whirlwind experience that was the Service Desk and IT Support...
- [How to Take Your Help Desk Career to the Next Level](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-take-your-help-desk-career-to-the-next-level): Did you know that the recruitment of skilled labor in specialized areas like information technology has become highly competitive? According...
- [What Is SysAid's Service Level Agreement?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/what-is-sysaids-service-level-agreement): What Is SysAid's Service Level Agreement? - Learn about service level agreements (SLA) and how it ensures quality and reliability in IT service delivery.
- [How to Manage a Tech-Savvy Workforce](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/how-to-manage-a-tech-savvy-workforce): Look out baby boomers, the millennial generation is taking over the workforce. In fact, millennials will make up 75 percent...
- [CVE-2014-0160](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/cve-2014-0160): The last few days have been all about the OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability, officially called CVE-2014-0160. Many of you surely heard...
- [Customer Love in London - What You May Be Missing Out On?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/customer-love-in-london-what-you-may-be-missing-out-on): Discover the essence of Customer Love in London with insights from SysAid. Uncover what you might be overlooking!
- [My Feet Are Killing Me!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/my-feet-are-killing-me): The long hours and back pains notwithstanding, I have to say that HDI 2014 was a magnificent conference with terrific...
- [ITSM Magic, No Magician Required](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-magic-no-magician-required): We’re back again in the States, this time in the land of ultimate magic, Orlando, Florida, for the annual HDI...
- [IT Benchmarks: Customer Satisfaction Surveys](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-benchmarks-customer-satisfaction-surveys): Following on from my last IT Benchmark blog on Knowledge Management and Reuse, this time around we are going to...
- [What Is Change Management For?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/what-is-change-management-for): Whenever I look at the tools, processes and metrics that IT organizations implement for their change management processes I see...
- [ITILandMe Does It SysAid Style](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/itilandme-does-it-sysaid-style): Today is a milestone day for SysAid – it is the 1st day of employment for our 1st USA-based employee!...
- [What the Donald Duck Are You Measuring THAT For?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/what-the-donald-duck-are-you-measuring-that-for): At the end of March we’ll be heading to Orlando, the home of Disney World for the HDI Annual Conference...
- [What Are the First 3 Steps You Need to Take to Successfully Migrate Your Organization to Cloud?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/what-are-the-first-3-steps-you-need-to-take-to-successfully-migrate-your-organization-to-cloud): What Are the First 3 Steps You Need to Take to Successfully Migrate Your Organization to Cloud? - SysAid Blog
- [IT Benchmarks: Knowledge Management and Reuse](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-benchmarks-knowledge-management-and-reuse): Following on from my last IT Benchmark blog on Incident Classification Categories, this time around we are going to look...
- [Continual Service Improvement (CSI) - The Most Important Service Management Process](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/continual-service-improvement-csi-the-most-important-service-management-process): Sometimes people ask me which service management process they should implement first, or which process is the most important. They...
- [The Power of People at Pink 14](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-power-of-people-at-pink-14): On the third day at Pink14 I was fortunate to have a much better opportunity to chat with delegates and...
- [Day 2 for SysAid at Pink14 Conference and Exhibition](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/day-2-for-sysaid-at-pink14-conference-and-exhibition): SysAid's Day 2 at Pink14 Conference & Exhibition. Stay updated with SysAid's latest ventures and insights.
- [Day 1 for SysAid at Pink14 Conference and Exhibition](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/day-1-for-sysaid-at-pink14-conference-and-exhibition): SysAid kicks off Day 1 at the Pink14 Conference and Exhibition. Stay tuned for updates!
- [10 Tips to Help Prepare You for Your Next Conference](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/10-tips-to-help-prepare-you-for-your-next-conference): Get ready for your next conference with these 10 helpful tips from SysAid!
- [Top 5 Tips on How to Deliver Exceptional Customer Service](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/top-5-tips-on-how-to-deliver-exceptional-customer-service): Discover top 5 expert tips for delivering exceptional customer service in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [4 Tips: How to Get the Most Benefit from the New SysAid Announcements Feature](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/4-tips-how-to-get-the-most-benefit-from-the-new-sysaid-announcements-feature): Discover 4 tips to maximize the benefits of the new SysAid Announcements Feature in this informative guide by SysAid.
- [Why You Should Stop Doing Problem Management](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/why-you-should-stop-doing-problem-management): Discover why traditional problem management might be hindering your IT success. Learn from SysAid why it's time to rethink your approach.
- [Pink 14 Annual Conference and Exhibition Is All About the Personal Experience](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/pink-14-annual-conference-and-exhibition-is-all-about-the-personal-experience): Pink 14 Annual Conference and Exhibition focuses on delivering a unique personal experience, presented by SysAid.
- [SysAid Blog Celebrates 1st Birthday](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-blog-celebrates-1st-birthday): One year ago SysAid extended its multi-layered approach to social networking by starting this blog. We ventured to create a...
- [IT Benchmarks: Incident Classification Categories](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-benchmarks-incident-classification-categories): Following on from my last IT Benchmark blog on Customer Access Channels and Improving Service, this time around we are...
- [The Revolution of the Embedded Database in SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/the-revolution-of-the-embedded-database-in-sysaid): Ever since the very first release of SysAid, we made sure to support several database types. To this day, SysAid...
- [Google Apps vs. Microsoft 365: Who Packs the Bigger Punch?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/google-apps-vs-microsoft-365-who-packs-the-bigger-punch): Discover who packs the bigger punch between Google Apps and Microsoft 365 in this SysAid comparison.
- [Progressing from 2013 to 2014: It Is All About You!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/progressing-from-2013-to-2014-it-is-all-about-you): 2013 was a great year and it is all thanks to you... SysAiders around the world, you rock! Just as...
- [Top 4 Considerations When Moving to the Cloud](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/top-4-considerations-when-moving-to-the-cloud): Since it burst impressively onto the scene in the late 1990s, when Salesforce. com introduced the concept of delivering enterprise...
- [itSMF Estonia 2013: One Day in December](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsmf-estonia-2013-one-day-in-december): Last week I had the privilege to attend and to speak in another leading itSMF event in Europe – This...
- [What's New in SysAid 14.1?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/whats-new-in-sysaid-14-1): My previous blog explained how and why we’re jumping from SysAid 9 to SysAid 14. 1, the latter being the...
- [IT Benchmarks: Customer Access Channels and Improving Service](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-benchmarks-customer-access-channels-and-improving-service): Explore IT Benchmarks on customer access channels and service improvement in this article by SysAid.
- [Productivity vs. Security: BYOD Pros and Cons](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/productivity-vs-security-byod-pros-and-cons): Explore the advantages and disadvantages of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in the workplace. Is it a productivity booster or a security nightmare?
- [SysAid's New Version Numbering System Keeps It Simple](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaids-new-version-numbering-system-keeps-it-simple): Discover how SysAid's simplified new version numbering system is keeping things straightforward and efficient.
- [SMCongress - Viewed Through a Customer Lens](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/smcongress-viewed-through-a-customer-lens-2): At FUSION 13, the annual joint itSMF USA and HDI conference, a group of pre-selected people came together to consider...
- [Gartner's Top IT Predictions for 2014: BYOD and Cloud Computing to Take Over](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/gartners-top-it-predictions-for-2014-byod-and-cloud-computing-to-take-over): Stay ahead with Gartner's 2014 IT predictions - BYOD and Cloud Computing trends by SysAid.
- [itSMF UK Conference and Exhibition 2013: Review from a CEO and First-Timer](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsmf-uk-conference-and-exhibition-2013-review-from-a-ceo-and-first-timer): Discover a CEO's perspective as a first-timer at the itSMF UK Conference and Exhibition 2013 in this insightful review by SysAid.
- [5 Techniques IT Departments Are Learning from Apple's Genius Bar](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-techniques-it-departments-are-learning-from-apples-genius-bar): Discover 5 techniques IT departments are adopting from Apple's Genius Bar in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [Movember: SysAid Helps Change the Face of Men's Health](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/movember-sysaid-helps-change-face-mens-health): Discover how SysAid is making a difference in men's health this Movember.
- [Get Off the Bench and Make Your Mark Through Effective Benchmarks](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/get-off-the-bench-and-make-your-mark-through-effective-benchmarks): Make your mark with effective benchmarks! Learn more in SysAid's latest article.
- [Managing the Explosion of BYOD with Mobile Device Management Solutions](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/managing-the-explosion-of-byod-with-mobile-device-management-solutions): Manage the BYOD surge effectively with Mobile Device Management Solutions. Read more in our blog article.
- [4 Metrics for Monitoring the Performance of Your Self-Service Channels](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/4-metrics-for-monitoring-the-performance-of-your-self-service-channels): Discover the top 4 metrics for monitoring your self-service channels' performance in this SysAid article. Read now
- [Under the Hood...Replacing Our Default Embedded Database](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/under-the-hood-replacing-our-default-embedded-database): Discover the process of replacing our default embedded database at SysAid in this insightful read.
- [SysAid Customer Relations Take a Trip to the Blue](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-customer-relations-take-a-trip-to-the-blue): Sysaid Customer Relations: Take a Trip to the Blue: Discover how Sysaid prioritizes customer satisfaction and fosters strong relationships.
- [4 Features That Will Improve Your Life as an IT Admin](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/new-release-sysaid-9-1-webinar-4-features-that-will-improve-your-life-as-an-it-admin): Elevate your IT admin role with SysAid - uncover 4 essential features to streamline your work efficiently!
- [Nubo - World's First Remote Android BYOD Launches](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/nubo-worlds-first-remote-android-byod-launches): I just got back from TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013 and have a lot of news to share with all of...
- [How We Celebrated the New Year with the SysAid Race!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/celebrated-new-year-sysaid-race): SysAid Rings in the New Year with an Amazing Race! Teamwork & Fun Fuel Success.
- [My Year in Tanzania as a Support and Integration Engineer](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/year-tanzania-support-integration-engineer): Tanzania - Support and Integration Engineer at SysAid. Boosting tech solutions for seamless operations.
- [SysAid 9.1 Beta Keeps Rocking Onwards](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-9-1-beta-keeps-rocking-onwards): So far, 90 companies have upgraded to SysAid 9. 1 Beta: 11 Pro 25 Pro Plus 54 Enterprise/Full Here’s what...
- [The Challenges of Modernising ITIL: The AXELOS Chronicles](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-challenges-of-modernising-itil-the-axelos-chronicles): Explore the challenges of modernizing ITIL in "The AXELOS Chronicles" by SysAid.
- [Signs It's Time to Upgrade Your Free Asset Management Software](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/signs-time-upgrade-free-asset-management-software): Upgrade your asset management software with SysAid. Streamline your processes and boost efficiency today. Read More
- [Everything You Need to Know About SysAid 9.1 Beta](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/everything-need-know-sysaid-9-1-beta): Happy Beta testing to all our dear Pathfinders who have been enthusiastic and thorough, helping us ensure the official release...
- [SysAid 9.1 On-Premise Beta is Here!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-9-1-on-premise-beta-is-here): The excitement level here at SysAid is increasing because we just started the beta season for SysAid 9. 1 On-Premise!...
- [The Magical Mystery Tour of Metrics - The Real Power Inside ITSM Reporting](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/magical-mystery-tour-metrics-real-power-inside-itsm-reporting): Discover the real power of ITSM reporting with "The Magical Mystery Tour of Metrics" by SysAid. Uncover insights that drive success!
- [Introducing SysAid Cloud Release 9.1 with Brand-New UI](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/introducing-sysaid-cloud-release-9-1-brand-new-ui): Discover SysAid Cloud Release 9.1 featuring a fresh UI design. Upgrade your IT experience with SysAid!
- [Touch-Tone Phone Menus: Helping or Hindering Hopeless Humans](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/touch-tone-phone-menus-helping-or-hindering-hopeless-humans): Touch-Tone Phone Menus: Exploring the Impact on User Experience - Read now on SysAid blog.
- [Watch the SysAdmin Day Movie Trailer: Revenge of the SysAdmin](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/watch-sysadmin-day-movie-trailer-revenge-sysadmin): Check out the trailer for the SysAdmin Day Movie, "Revenge of the SysAdmin" by SysAid.
- [Call of Duty to Shape ITIL and the Best Management Practice Portfolios](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/call-duty-shape-itil-best-management-practice-portfolios): Explore how Call of Duty is reshaping ITIL and the best management practice portfolios in this article by SysAid.
- [How to Motivate Your IT Support Staff for Better Performance](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/motivate-support-staff-better-performance): Discover effective ways to motivate your IT support team for improved performance in this insightful article by SysAid.
- [How Can Microsoft Win the Enterprise Customers Back in Windows 8.1?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/can-microsoft-win-enterprise-customers-back-windows-8-1): Discover strategies for Microsoft to regain enterprise customers in Windows 8.1. Learn more in this SysAid article.
- [Behind the Scenes: Building a Website for a Software Company](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/behind-scenes-building-website-software-company): Discover the process of crafting a website for a software company in this behind-the-scenes look.
- [Release Preview: SysAid’s Fresh User Interface!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/release-preview-sysaids-fresh-user-interface): Sysaid Release Preview: Sysaid's Fresh User Interface: Get a sneak peek at Sysaid's new user interface designed to improve your service desk experience.
- [The Process of Giving a Facelift to an IT Management Software](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/the-process-of-giving-a-facelift-to-an-it-management-software): Revamp your IT management software with SysAid - discover the process of giving it a facelift!
- [How Much Should a Good Service Desk Software Cost?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/much-good-service-desk-software-cost): As someone who has been in the IT services industry for several years, I am often asked – what is...
- [8 Cool iPhone Features That You May Not Even Know Exist](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/8-cool-iphone-features-that-you-may-not-even-know-exist): Discover 8 hidden iPhone features you didn't know existed! Explore more at SysAid.
- [Effective IT Change Management: How to Get Everyone On Board](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/effective-change-management-get-everyone-board): Discover effective IT change management strategies with valuable tips from SysAid in this engaging read.
- [5 Ways to Stay Healthy as an IT Agent](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-stay-healthy-agent): For many of us in the IT Service Management world, our time at work takes up the majority of our...
- [FIFA Goal-Line Technology: #Gamechanger](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/fifa-goal-line-technology-gamechanger): It is likely that many years into the future, historians will look back at this decade as the time when...
- [SysAid Wins the Gold for Most Innovative IT Software from Network Products Guide](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-wins-gold-innovative-software-network-products-guide): SysAid wins gold for Most Innovative IT Software from Network Products Guide. Discover more about SysAid.
- [Capita - Best Practice Visionaries Or Just Out On A Spending Spree?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/capita-best-practice-visionaries-or-just-out-on-a-spending-spree): Capita: Are They Best Practice Visionaries or Just on a Spending Spree? Find out in this SysAid article.
- [6 Best Practices When Incorporating Online Chat in Your Help Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/6-best-practices-when-incorporating-online-chat-in-your-help-desk): Discover the top 6 best practices for integrating online chat into your help desk strategy with SysAid.
- [My SITS 2013: A Service Desk Show with Sensible People Saying Sensible Things](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/sits-2013-service-desk-show-sensible-people-saying-sensible-things): SITS 2013: Join us at the Service Desk Show for sensible discussions with sensible people - SysAid.
- [Surveys: Pat On the Head, Or Beating Stick?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/surveys-pat-on-the-head-or-beating-stick): Every now and again, an all-too-rare thing happens to me these days—I get great customer service! More often than not,...
- [Day 2 at SITS13: It's Been a Whirlwind](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/day-2-sits13-whirlwind): We have been very busy here at SITS13... and I do mean VERY BUSY! To be perfectly honest, I had...
- [SITS13 in London - Day 1 on the Exhibition Floor](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sits13-in-london-day-1-on-the-exhibition-floor): At 9 o’clock this morning we were like busy bees taking care of all the last minute details for our...
- [Mind the Gap](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/mind-the-gap): The weather has been perfect here in London, sunshine all day, every day! We are all here in Earls Court,...
- [Internal Customer Service - Is It Really So Important?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/internal-customer-service-is-it-really-so-important): Discover the significance of internal customer service in this intriguing article by SysAid.
- [Is My Level of ITIL Better Than Yours?](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/is-my-level-of-itil-better-than-yours): I only ask, because the other day I spotted a forum where a keen, recently Foundation-certified person was handed a...
- [Come and Meet Us Face-to-Face at the Service Desk Show, 23-24 April in London](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/come-and-meet-us-face-to-face-at-the-service-desk-show-23-24-april-in-london): Come and Meet Us Face-to-Face at the Service Desk Show, 23-24 April in London - SysAid
- [10 Tips to Improve Your Google Apps Experience](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/10-tips-improve-google-apps-experience): After reading Oded Moshe’s post Migrating Exchange to Google Apps: This is My Story, I thought it would be nice...
- [Request Fulfillment: Keep It Simple](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/request-fulfillment-keep-simple): So you’ve read the ITIL book, been on the course, copied and tweaked the diagrams in PowerPoint/Visio and you have...
- [Honoring Excellence on SysAidday 2013 – Where We Started and Where We Are Going](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/honoring-excellence-sysaidday-2013-started-going): Honoring Excellence on SysAidday 2013 – Where We Started and Where We Are Going - SysAid
- [The Cult of Google Glass: Building a Customer-Centric Community](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/cult-google-glass-building-customer-centric-community): Explore the customer-centric community around Google Glass in this compelling article by SysAid.
- [Adopting ITIL Best Practices Into Marketing Processes](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/adopting-itil-best-practices-marketing-processes): Discover the benefits of implementing ITIL in marketing with SysAid Insights. Read our article on the blog now.
- [3 Essential Changes You Must Make to Your Service Desk to Support BYOD](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/3-essential-changes-must-make-service-desk-support-byod): Discover the 3 crucial changes needed for your service desk to effectively support BYOD. Learn more from SysAid.
- [What Would Warren Buffett Do? Advice for CIOs on BYOD](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/warren-buffett-advice-cios-byod): Get insights on BYOD strategies for CIOs inspired by Warren Buffett. Read more on SysAid.
- [Patch Management - How To Do It Correctly](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/patch-management-correctly): Hello everybody, For a long time already, lots of our existing customers and prospects have been looking for integrated Patch...
- [5 Tweaks to Revamp Your SysAid Help Desk!](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/5-tweaks-revamp-sysaid-help-desk): I don’t have time to spend making technology easier for me to use. If I need to download this, update...
## Resources
- [ Agentic AI & Responsible Adoption: Unveiling SysAid AI Agents](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/turbocharge-2025-with-agentic-ai-unveiling-sysaid-ai-agents): Built for your IT environment to proactively anticipate needs, make intelligent decisions, and take action, all while learning and adapting over time.
- [How Educational Institutions Can Improve Their IT Support](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/how-educational-institutions-can-improve-their-it-support):
- [SMART 2024](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-2024): Join us at SysAid SMART'24 on November 19 to discover the latest trends and innovations in IT operations. Learn from industry experts, enhance your SysAid skills, and network with like-minded professionals.
- [Top 5 IT Metrics You Must Track: A Practical Guide to Collecting, Analyzing, and Reporting with SysAid Analytics](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/top-5-it-metrics-you-must-track-a-practical-guide-with-sysaid-bi-analytics): Tired of guessing when it comes to assessing ITSM performance? Want a clear, data-driven strategy to showcase your IT team’s value? Join us now
- [Empower your IT teams with AI and no-code tools!](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/empower-your-it-teams-with-ai-and-no-code-tools):
- [How SysAid Uses AI to Redefine IT Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/how-sysaid-uses-ai-to-redefine-it-service-management): Discover why collaboration is crucial at the service desk with insights from SysAid.
- [Collaboration at the Service Desk Is Key, Not Compromise](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/collaboration-at-the-service-desk-is-key-not-compromise-2): Discover why collaboration is crucial at the service desk with insights from SysAid.
- [Gen AI Under The Hood: Lessons Learned From 7,000 Active SysAid Copilot Users](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/gen-ai-under-the-hood-lessons-learned-from-7000-active-sysaid-copilot-users): Curious about Gen AI and its impact on ITSM? Join us for an in-depth look at SysAid Copilot's architecture and technology. Learn from real-world customer experiences and discover how Gen AI is revolutionizing IT Service Management.
- [Stop Firefighting, Start Thriving: Mastering IT Service Desk Excellence with Gen AI](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/mastering-it-service-desk-excellence-with-gen-ai): Join our upcoming webinar to learn how SysAid Copilot's AI Chatbot for Agents can transform your IT service desk overnight.
- [2024 ITSM Mega-Trends Report](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/2024-sysaid-annual-report): State of Service Management Report Deep dive into the minds of 1,200+ IT professionals from across the globe to discover the winning tactics and trends you need to gain a competitive edge in the IT industry
- [Mega Trends in ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/mega-trends-in-itsm): Join this data-driven webinar to explore the top trends in IT service management (ITSM) and how generative AI is revolutionizing the user experience.
- [Panel Discussion: The Impact of AI in Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/panel-discussion-the-impact-of-ai-in-service-management): The Impact of AI in Service Management: Panel discussion on how AI is transforming IT service desks
- [Revolutionize Service Experiences with Gen AI in Microsoft Teams](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/revolutionize-service-experiences-with-gen-ai-in-microsoft-teams): Join us for this insightful webinar and discover how Gen AI within Microsoft Teams can revolutionize the service experiences you provide.
- [Product Roundup LIVE](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/product-roundup-live): Gain a 360° view look at next-generation AI features in our Product Roundup webinar. See live demos, and ask Product Managers your questions.
- [Gen AI Strategies for Superior Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/gen-ai-strategies-copilot): Discover firsthand how generative AI can take your service management to new heights. Learn innovative approaches to crafting and executing digital strategies to ultimately deliver superior service for unmatched customer satisfaction and operational excellence.
- [Turbocharge 2024 with AI unveiling SysAid Copilot](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/turbocharge-2024-with-ai-unveiling-sysaid-copilot): AI-powered ITSM in 2024: Join us on SysAid Copilot Launch Event. Boost MTTR, with meaningful AI Insights with Copilot and its cutting-edge generative AI
- [IT Onboarding Checklist](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/it-onboarding-checklist): Start your new job with confidence! Our comprehensive IT onboarding checklist and expert tips ensure you’re fully prepared from day one.
- [What’s the difference between a Help Desk and a Service Desk?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/whats-the-difference-between-a-help-desk-and-a-service-desk): Learn the essential differences between help desks and service desks. Dive into our blog article today and enhance your IT support strategy!
- [SMART'23 | It’s All About Experience: How Generative AI Transforms Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-its-all-about-experience-how-generative-ai-transforms-service-management): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | Bringing IT All Together With One Integrated Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-bringing-it-all-together-with-one-integrated-service-desk): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | Liberation: Putting AI to Work for Your Organization and Your People](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-liberation-putting-ai-to-work-for-your-organization-and-your-people): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | Case Study: A New Approach to IT Service in an Old City](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-case-study-a-new-approach-to-it-service-in-an-old-city): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | Case Study: Breaking Down Silos for Holistic Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-case-study-breaking-down-silos-for-holistic-service-management): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | Keynote: Tales from the Wild West - Former CIA CISO Shares Some Stories](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-keynote-tales-from-the-wild-west-former-cia-ciso-shares-some-stories): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | Closing Keynote: The Big Bang - Generative AI and Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-closing-keynote-the-big-bang-generative-ai-and-service-management): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | A Time to Shine: SMART Awards & Winners Panel](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-a-time-to-shine-smart-awards-winners-panel): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | Welcome to SMART 2023](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-welcome-to-smart-2023): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [SMART'23 | Welcome to Day Two](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-welcome-to-day-two): SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- [How to Successfully Implement Service Desk Software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-successfully-implement-service-desk-software): Learn the necessary steps to successfully implement service desk software & their importance to help optimize your organization’s customer service experience.
- [How to Successfully Implement Ticketing Software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-successfully-implement-ticketing-software): Learn how to successfully implement ticketing software throughout pre-implementation, ticketing software set up, & post ticketing software implementation.
- [How to Select a New Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-select-a-new-service-desk): Learn what you should consider before selecting a new service desk such as service desk features and options, service desk cost, user feedback, and more.
- [How to Successfully Implement Help Desk Software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-successfully-implement-help-desk-software): Learn the necessary steps to successfully implement help desk software & their importance to help optimize your organization’s customer service experience.
- [Reach for the Cloud [Healthcare]](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reach-for-the-cloud-healthcare): Healthcare was long deemed unfit for Cloud migration. After all, worrying about complying with HIPAA and GDPR regulations alone would give any SysAdmin anxiety, and for good reason. This webinar will provide you with data-based insights about healthcare cloud migration, along with addressing regulatory compliance and patient privacy concerns.
- [How to Successfully Implement ITSM Software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-successfully-implement-itsm-software): Learn the steps you need to take to successfully implement ITSM software, streamline your IT processes and make the most out of your IT tools.
- [How to Integrate IT Asset Management With Your Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-integrate-it-asset-management-with-your-service-desk): Learn how to integrate IT asset management (ITAM) softwares with your service desk to allow for a seamless integration while boosting your IT efficiency.
- [2023 State of Service Management Report](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/2023-state-of-service-management-report): State of Service Management Report Deep dive into the minds of 1,200+ IT professionals from across the globe to discover the winning tactics and trends you need to gain a competitive edge in the IT industry.
- [Reach for the Cloud [Public Sector]](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reach-for-the-cloud-public): 2023 data and actionable tips for safe and compliant Cloud migration for Public Sector organizations
- [Reach for the Cloud [Manufacturing]](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reach-for-the-cloud-manufacturing): AWS Best Practices & Expert Tips For the Manufacturing Sector
- [Barrachd Sets up Their End Users for Success with SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/barrachd-sets-up-their-end-users-for-success-with-sysaid): Boost end-user success with SysAid. Learn how SysAid can enhance user experience and efficiency.
- [Priory Group's IT prioritizes flexibility and ease of use with SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/priory-groups-it-prioritizes-flexibility-and-ease-of-use-with-sysaid): Priory Group prioritizes flexible IT solutions with SysAid for enhanced efficiency and productivity.
- [The A&A Group Utilizes SysAid’s Workflows to Optimize Their Business](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/the-aa-group-utilizes-sysaids-workflows-to-optimize-their-business): Discover how the A&A Group maximizes business efficiency with SysAid's workflows.
- [University of London Saves Big with SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/university-of-london-saves-big-with-sysaid):
- [Omni ISG unifies their IT with SysAid, boosting efficiency](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/omni-isg-unifies-their-it-with-sysaid-boosting-efficieny): Boost IT Efficiency with Confidence: Learn More About the Omni ISG & SysAid Partnership!
- [Spectrum Health's IT Blossoms with SysAid's ITIL-Aligned Tools](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/spectrum-healths-it-blossoms-with-sysaids-itil-aligned-tools): Discover how Spectrum Health's IT flourishes with SysAid's ITIL-aligned tools. Learn more in this article by SysAid.
- [Bacardi conquers business after applying SysAid’s IT principles](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/bacardi-conquers-business-after-applying-sysaids-it-principles): Explore how Bacardi utilizes SysAid's IT principles for effective business operations.
- [Sense redefines what customizable IT means with SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/sense-redifines-what-customizable-it-means-with-sysaid): Discover how Sense redefines IT with SysAid in this insightful article.
- [Scope’s budgeting is made easy with SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/scopes-budgeting-is-made-easy-with-sysaid):
- [Scope sees IT all with SysAid’s revolutionary Asset Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/scope-sees-it-all-with-sysaids-revolutionary-asset-management): Discover how Scope Sees All with SysAid Asset Management. Unlock the power of SysAid for comprehensive asset management.
- [MobileEye streamlines IT processes with SysAid](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/mobileeye-streamlines-it-processes-with-sysaid):
- [SMART'22 | Digital Employee Experience: The Opportunity for IT to Transform How We Work](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-digital-employee-experience-the-opportunity-for-it-to-transform-how-we-work): Join us at SysAid SMART 2022, the annual virtual conference showcasing the latest trends and innovations in IT service management.
- [SMART'22 | The Future of Cloud with AWS](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-the-future-of-cloud-with-aws): SysAid SMART 2022, Annual Virtual Conference, Join AWS expert Jerry Pang, who will be sharing his personal insights and predictions on the future of Cloud.
- [SMART'22 | Reimagining Employee Experience: SysAid for Teams](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-reimagining-employee-experience-sysaid-for-teams): Join SysAid SMART 2022 Annual Virtual Conference for the latest insights and trends in IT service management.
- [SMART'22 | How Innovation in IT Translates into Real Impact](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-how-innovation-in-it-translates-into-real-impact): SysAid SMART 2022: Join our annual virtual conference for the latest insights and trends in the industry.
- [SMART'22 | ITIL 4 is not about changing what we do - it’s about changing how we do it](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-itil-4-is-not-about-changing-what-we-do-its-about-changing-how-we-do-it): SysAid SMART 2022 - Annual Virtual Conference: Join us for the latest in IT service management innovations and trends.
- [SMART'22 | The Future of Service Management: A Tale of Two Futures](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-the-future-of-service-management-a-tale-of-two-futures): Join the SysAid SMART 2022 Annual Virtual Conference for the latest insights and trends in IT service management.
- [SMART'22 | Awards Ceremony & Winners Panel Discussion](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-awards-ceremony-winners-panel-discussion): Join us at SMART'22 for the Awards Ceremony & Winners Panel Discussion hosted by SysAid. Get inspired by the brightest minds in the industry!
- [SMART'22 | A Word to Customers from SysAid CEO](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-a-word-to-customers-from-sysaid-ceo): SysAid SMART 2022, ANNUAL VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
- [SMART'22 | Opening and Welcome from SysAid CEO](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-opening-and-welcome-from-sysaid-ceo): SysAid SMART 2022, ANNUAL VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
- [The Ever Enjoyable Erik Snider](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/the-ever-enjoyable-erik-snider): IT After Hours Podcast: 2022 IT Trends with Ben Brennan & Erik Snider
- [Launch Event: SysAid for Teams](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-for-teams): Join us to hear SysAid’s CEO visionary keynote, an insightful customers panel, and a real talk on how to make your employees happier. Together, let's reimagine the employee experience.
- [Employee Experience Through An ITSM Lens: What’s The Secret?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/employee-experience-through-an-itsm-lens-whats-the-secret): Learn what employee experience is, why it’s important, and how ITSM can help you to provide the ultimate employee experience.
- [2022 State of Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/infographics/2022-state-of-service-management-infographics): First-hand insights, outcome, and technology trends from over 1,200+ IT peers to successfully navigate 2022.
- [The Complete Guide to Automated Chatbots for ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/the-complete-guide-to-automated-chatbots-for-itsm): Automated chatbots are useful to increase sales, service productivity, and efficiency. But how do they relate to ITSM? Find out here.
- [What is ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/what-is-itsm): IT Service Management (ITSM) is a process used to manage the activities involved in designing, creating, delivering, supporting & managing IT services.
- [2022 State Of Service Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/2022-state-of-service-management): We asked +1200 professionals to share their insights on IT. They’ve spared nothing. The Data's out. And it's a big one.
- [Workflow Automation](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/workflow-automation): Discover Workflow Automation with definitions, examples, benefits, comparisons, and more. Learn everything you need to know.
- [SMART'21 | SysAid SMART - It’s All About the Love!](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-smart-its-all-about-the-love):
- [SMART'21 | SysAid Workshop: How Do You Know You're Doing a Good Job?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-workshop-how-do-you-know-youre-doing-a-good-job): Join SMART'21 Workshop on Good Job Assessment by SysAid for insightful discussions.
- [SMART'21 | SysAid Workshop: Troubleshooting Your Asset Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-workshop-troubleshooting-your-asset-management): Join SMART'21 Workshop on Asset Management Troubleshooting for expert insights and solutions.
- [SMART'21 | Case Study: Automating Staff Onboarding & Offboarding](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/case-study-automating-staff-onboarding-offboarding): Automate staff onboarding and offboarding with this SMART'21 case study featuring SysAid.
- [SMART'21 | Reimagining the Virtual Workplace](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reimagining-the-virtual-workplace):
- [SMART'21 | Giving CPR Can Save Your IT & Business Health](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/giving-cpr-can-save-your-it-business-health): Learn how giving CPR can save your IT and business health in SMART'21 by SysAid.
- [SMART'21 | Lessons Learned from Two Decades of Tool Implementation](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/lessons-learned-from-two-decades-of-tool-implementation): Discover valuable insights from two decades of tool implementation in SMART'21 by SysAid.
- [SMART'21 | Is Service Automation the Future of ITSM?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/is-service-automation-the-future-of-itsm): SMART'21: Discover the latest in Service Automation for IT Service Management with SysAid.
- [SMART'21 | What Does It Mean to Be Employee-Centric in the Digital Workspace?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/what-does-it-mean-to-be-employee-centric-in-the-digital-workspace): The digital workspace has evolved from a concept to a reality for business, and IT is at the frontline of this change. SysAid SMART 2021.
- [SMART'21 | The Future Is Fast and Transformation Is Key](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/the-future-is-fast-and-transformation-is-key): SMART'21: Explore the Fast Future Transformation with SysAid in this insightful session.
- [The Way & Where You Want IT. SysAid’s New Release](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/the-way-and-where-you-want-it-sysaids-new-release): Introducing SysAid’s newest features including Zapier integration—for automating processes across your favorite business applications.
- [Your Guide to building a Digital Workspace](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/your-guide-to-building-a-digital-workspace): The challenges and opportunities of the digital workspace and IT’s key role in the transformation.
- [Get Your Self-Service Charged Up!](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/get-your-self-service-charged-up): WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
- [Eliminate Complexities of Ticket Management with Built-In ITAM](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/eliminate-complexities-of-ticket-management-with-built-in-itam): Streamline IT ticketing with SysAid's IT Asset Management (ITAM). Auto-populate data & optimize workflows for faster resolution.
- [Get more visibility, make better decisions](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/get-more-visibility-make-better-decisions): WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
- [Digital Workflows 201](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/digital-workflows-201): WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
- [Reduce COVID-19 self-reporting burdens and compliance risk](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reduce-covid-19-self-reporting-burdens-and-compliance-risk): Learn how to use the new Worksafe app, which simplifies daily self-reporting of location and health status, while automatically alerting management to potential exposure at work.
- [Creating amazing self-service experiences](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/creating-amazing-self-service-experiences):
- [Jump-start your remote support](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/jump-start-your-remote-support):
- [The ‘New Normal’ Automation boom](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/the-new-normal-automation-boom): One thing that’s clear; COVID-19 will herald an automation boom. Take advantage of advanced automation to take your service desk to the next level.
- [2021 State of Service Management Report](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/2021-state-of-service-management-report): Uncover the latest insights, outcomes, and trends in research conducted among over 1,000 IT professionals across industries around the globe.
- [ITSM Podcast: Do You Deliver Valuable Services, or Just Technology?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/itsm-podcast-do-you-deliver-valuable-services-or-just-technology): Listen to ITSM expert Stuart Rance's podcast as he breaks down the basics in his soothing voice.
- [ITSM Podcast: The 9 Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/itsm-podcast-the-9-guiding-principles-of-itil-practitioner): ITSM guru Stuart Rance podcasts, The 9 Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner
- [ITSM Podcast: Start Where You Are](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/itsm-podcast-start-where-you-are): ITSM guru Stuart Rance podcasts, explaining a few of the basics...in his own serenading voice.
- [Save Time with Automation](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/save-time-with-automation): Save Time with Automation - Watch SysAid's video on saving time with automation in IT service management and streamline your workflow today.
- [Collaboration at the Service Desk Is Key, Not Compromise](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/collaboration-at-the-service-desk-is-key-not-compromise): Discover why collaboration is crucial at the service desk with insights from SysAid.
- [Joe the IT Guy Learns to Be Proactive](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/joe-the-it-guy-learns-to-be-proactive): Joe the IT Guy Learns to Be Proactive - Join Joe the IT Guy on his journey to becoming proactive in IT service management. Watch the video for tips.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #13: Which ITIL Processes Should You Start With?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-13-our-customers-needs): Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #13: Learn how ITIL processes begin with SysAid.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #12: Change Management Best Practices](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-12-change-management-best-practices): Discover Stuart Rance's IT Service Management Tip #12 on Change Management with insights on SysAid.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #11: Why Should You Practice Availability Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-11-why-should-you-practice-availability-management): Get insights on Change Management with Stuart Rance's ITSM Tip #11 on SysAid.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #10: Shift-Left Concept](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-10-shift-left-concept): Explore the insights and expertise of renowned ITSM thought leader Stuart Rance. Learn about the latest trends and best practices in IT Service Management.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #9: Share Your Knowledge](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-9-share-your-knowledge): ITSM Tip: Share Your Knowledge - Gain insights from Stuart Rances on sharing knowledge effectively in IT service management.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #8: Set the Right Expectations](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-8-set-the-right-expectations): Stuart Rance shares ITSM Tip #8: Setting the Right Expectations in this SysAid article.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #7: How to Choose a Framework](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-7-how-to-choose-a-framework):
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #6: Fully Understand Your Customer's Needs](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-6-fully-understand-your-customers-needs): Learn how to fully understand your customer's needs and tailor your products or services to meet their expectations.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #5: Focus on Customer Experience](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-5-focus-on-customer-experience): Stuart Rance, a renowned ITSM thought leader ITSM Tip #5 focuses on Customer Experience with SysAid.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #4: Don’t Focus Your Service on Technology](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-4-dont-focus-your-service-on-technology): Stuart Rance shares ITSM Tip #4: Prioritize Service over Technology in this insightful article on SysAid.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #3: Design Your Process](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-3-design-your-process):
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #2: Define Metrics that Drive the Right Behavior](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-2-define-metrics-that-drive-the-right-behavior): Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #2 focuses on driving the right behavior metrics for improved IT service management. Discover more in this SysAid article.
- [Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #1: Choose the Right Staff](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-1-choose-the-right-staff):
- [10 Superhero Tips for Service Desk Managers](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/tips-service-desk-managers):
- [10 Superpowers to Strengthen Your Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/10-superpowers-to-strengthen-your-service-desk): Empower your service desk with these 10 superpowers! Discover how to strengthen your support system with SysAid.
- [How to Choose the Right Help Desk for Your Small Business](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-choose-the-right-help-desk-for-your-small-business): Struggling to handle your help desk with a small team? Discover how the right features can streamline tasks, freeing up time for other priorities.
- [Convert a Customer Complaint into a Sale – 8 Tips for Help Desk Staff](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/convert-a-customer-complaint-into-a-sale-8-tips-for-help-desk-staff): Learn to turn customer complaints in live chat into new sales opportunities. Uncover the reality of complaints and how to use them for business growth!
- [10 Reasons to Choose SysAid's Help Desk Software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-reasons-to-choose-sysaids-help-desk-software): 10 Reasons to Choose SysAid Help Desk: Learn why SysAid's help desk software is the best choice.
- [10 Reasons to Choose SysAid’s IT Service Management Software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-reasons-to-choose-sysaids-it-service-management-software): 10 Reasons to Choose SysAid ITSM: Discover the benefits of SysAid's IT service management software.
- [What is a Self-Service Portal](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/what-is-a-self-service-portal): What is a Self-Service Portal?: Empower users to find answers and resolve IT issues on their own.
- [2021 STATE OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/2021-state-of-service-management): Discover the key findings from our newest research conducted amongst over 1,000 IT professionals from various industries around the globe.
- [Better Problem Solving With Knowledge Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/better-problem-solving-with-knowledge-management): Produce knowledge articles more efficiently, work with them more effectively, and ultimately improve employee and customer satisfaction.
- [Five Reasons the Service Desk Should Care About Information Security](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/5-reasons-the-service-desk-should-care-about-information-security): Don't Let Service Desk Issues Become Security Breaches! Learn how to prioritize information security for a more secure & efficient IT environment.
- [Business Intelligence: Take an Informed Approach to ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/business-intelligence-take-an-informed-approach-to-itsm): BI for ITSM will give you better decision-making, business process optimization, and increased operational efficiency and effectiveness,
- [5 Tips To Help You Improve Problem Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/5-tips-to-help-you-improve-problem-management): Good problem management can provide enormous value, by reducing IT service failure and by limiting the impact of failures when they do occur.
- [Thinking About a Service Catalog, But Your Organization Isn’t Ready For It?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/thinking-about-a-service-catalog-but-your-organization-isnt-ready-for-it): Get practical guidance on how you can get started with a basic service catalog, even if your organization isn’t ready for a full ITSM program.
- [8 Tips to Help You Improve Service Level Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/8-tips-to-help-you-improve-service-level-management): service level management (SLM) tips, including Customer satisfaction, customer-facing KPIs, and continuous improvements.
- [How to Start Collaborating](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/how-to-start-collaborating): An exciting workshop designed to help you collaborate with other teams and third parties.
- [5 Top IoT Trends for SMBs](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/infographics/5-top-iot-trends-for-smbs): Internet of Things (IoT) trends SMBs absolutely must adopt. SysAid CEO sheds some light on leading IoT trends SMBs. Read now.
- [How To Initiate Continual Service Improvement](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/how-to-initiate-continual-service-improvement): How to initiate continual service improvement (CSI) within your organization - workshop.
- [Practical Steps for Planning Your ROI Business Case](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/how-to-build-a-business-case-for-itsm): Practical steps for planning your ROI business case. This guide will help you build a strong business case for an ITSM investment.
- [15 ITSM Tips](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/15-itsm-tips): 15 Tips for ITSM (IT service management) resolutions.
- [6 Tips to Help You Improve Change Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/6-tips-to-help-you-improve-change-management): ITSM thought leader Stuart Rance offers tips to help you make sure your change management process is effective.
- [Never Underestimate the Importance of Change Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/never-underestimate-the-importance-of-change-management): This white paper will get you thinking about your change management process, and help you figure out what works best for your organization and when.
- [Your 7-Point Checklist for Better ITSM Tool Selection](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/your-7-point-checklist-for-better-itsm-tool-selection): Understanding and agreeing what’s really important to your organization when choosing the right ITSM tool and vendor doesn't have to be difficult.
- [6 Tips to Help You Improve Configuration Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/6-tips-to-help-you-improve-configuration-management): Effective configuration management can improve how well you carry out every single ITSM process. here are 6 tips to help you improve.
- [6 Tips to Help You Improve Incident Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/6-tips-to-help-you-improve-incident-management): Constantly improving incident management will ensure you can deliver the best possible outcome with the lowest possible use of resources.
- [Highlights From Our Future-Readiness Survey](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/the-future-of-itsm-survey-infographic): Explore the reasons for self-service, discover its benefits for you and your customers, and learn how to avoid common pitfalls in this insightful paper.
- [Alphabet Song A-Z: 26 Keywords For The Modern ITSM Lexicon](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/infographics/the-a-z-of-modern-itsm): Joe the IT Guy sheds some light on ITSM terms you should become familiar with - 26 keywords for the modern ITSM lexicon.
- [How To Provide Top-Notch IT Service That Your Customers Will Love](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/itsm-back-to-basics-might-not-be-what-you-expect): Download our free white paper: ITSM ‘Back To Basics’ Might Not Be What You Expect and learn the basics every IT organization needs for success.
- [What is ITSM?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/what-is-itsm-getting-to-grips-with-it-service-management): ITSM is complicated, so we’re going to cut through the jargon, break ITSM into its elements, and address some common misconceptions for you.
- [The Future of ITSM
Survey Results](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/the-future-of-itsm-survey-results-2019): The future of ITSM survey results shows the potential future challenges and opportunities organizations face.
- [Skills and Capabilities Required of a 2020 ITSM Professional](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/skills-and-capabilities-required-of-a-2020-itsm-professional): Insights from 20 service management experts, influencers, and analysts on what you need to succeed as an ITSM professional in 2020.
- [The Ultimate Tips Guide for Getting Started with ITIL](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/how-to-get-started-with-itil): Discover how to kickstart your journey with ITIL through SysAid's comprehensive ebook on getting started with ITIL.
- [7 Tips to Help You Adopt Continual Service Improvement](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/7-tips-to-help-you-adopt-continual-service-improvement): Continual service improvement (CSI) is one of the most important concepts in ITIL, but few IT organizations put anything in place to make it happen.
- [Self-Service to the Rescue](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/self-service-to-the-rescue): SysAid's whitepaper explores the benefits of self-service solutions in ITSM, offering guidance on implementation and optimization.
- [SysAid’s Brand-New UI](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/ui-refresh-webinar): SysAid's releasing a brand-new user interface (UI) with a fresher and simpler user experience that will speed up your IT service delivery.
- [Workshop: Workflows 101](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/workshop-workflows-101): Learn how to build and modify workflows with Workflow Designer, Digital workflows help to break down silos and drive up employee productivity
- [Critical Organizational Success Factors & Practical Guidance For Service Request Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/pink-webinar-09-19): In this practical joint Pink-SysAid session, we’ll explore the necessary building blocks to achieve the ultimate goal of automated service orchestration.
- [Get Lean, Get Agile, Get Automated, or Get out of the Way!](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/pink-webinar-1219): In this joint Pink-SysAid webinar, we’ll discuss how businesses can provide exceptional quality without compromising on speed. ‘Do more, by doing less!’
- [Get More Out of SysAid and Drive Business Impact](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/q1-product-webinar): Discover what is new in SysAid and how it will help you drive business impact.
- [How to Select a Service Desk for Educational Institutions](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/selecting-service-desk-for-educational-institutions): Choose SysAid's Service Desk for Education for top-notch support tailored to educational institutions.
- [SysAid’s Jira Embedded Webinar](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-jira-embedded-webinar): ITSM and DevOps have come together with the new SysAid-Jira integration, providing you with a seamless end-to-end experience.
- [Never Underestimate the Importance of Change Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/11-2015): Enhance change management processes - attend our webinar to discover challenges in change management and how to overcome them.
- [Automate Joe Gives You Back 30% Of Your Time!](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/automate-joe-webinar-0320): Built-in service orchestration engine that powers a new level of productivity – slash ticket resolution time and drastically enhance service delivery.
- [How To Start With Service Orchestration](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/automate-joe-ga-webinar): Built-in service orchestration engine that powers a new level of productivity – slash ticket resolution time and drastically enhance service delivery.
- [5 Risks Organizations Face Using Homegrown Service Desk Solutions](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/homegrown-solution-risks): Find out the risks organizations face using homegrown service desk solutions.
- [Real-World Tips for Self‑Service Success](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/07-2015): Gain insights into cybersecurity challenges in ITSM with SysAid's webinar, addressing key concerns and solutions.
- [The Right Metrics for Your Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/05-2015): FREE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR - IT Help Desk Performance Metrics. Understand the importance of correctly interpreting your metrics data.
- [Improving Incident Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/03-2015): Learn to improve your incident management process in this on-demand webinar given by renowned ITSM consultant Stuart Rance.
- [How a Service Desk Can Prevent a Heart Attack](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/how-a-service-desk-can-prevent-a-heart-attack): IT availability and performance can mean the difference between life and death. It’s time to check your organization’s pulse.
- [Your Cybersecurity Challenges in ITSM - Q&A with the Experts](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/cybersecurity-and-itsm): The impact of data breaches can be irreversible. Are you aware of the security processes in ITSM? Ask the experts YOUR questions answered.
- [How to Choose a Solution to Replace Your Homegrown IT Helpdesk](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/replace-your-homegrown-it-helpdesk): Discover what’s new in SysAid and how it will help you drive business impact. If you’re using a homegrown solution, that’s a titanic mistake.
- [Get More Out of SysAid and Drive Business Impact](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/get-more-out-of-sysaid-and-drive-business-impact): Discover what’s new in SysAid and how it will help you drive business impact.
- [Say Goodbye to Remote Control Hassle](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-teamviewer-embedded-webinar): "Launch remote support sessions directly from incidents, with embedded TeamViewer
- [Recipe for Success: 7 Key Ingredients for a Successful RFP](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/building-a-successful-rfp): Discover the essential 5-step recipe for success in creating a winning RFP.
- [Vitamin KM - Better Problem Solving with Knowledge Management](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/09-2015): Join our webinar to boost ITSM and service desk workflows. Learn how to cultivate a healthy knowledge culture with effective knowledge management.
- [Taking Control of Digital Workflows in the Age of Coronavirus](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/workflow-designer-0420): A modern, simple, and intuitive process builder that helps you configure workflows on the fly.
- [A Practical guide to help you get started with Service Catalog.](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/02-2016): Get started with a practical approach to service catalog implementation.
- [It’s Your Time To Shine With BI & Analytics](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/bi-webinar): SysAid’s BI Analytics provides the most comprehensive view of service management performance and trends; turning insights into action.
- [How to Encourage End Users to Adopt Your Self-Service Portal](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/self-service-portal-webinar): Join this webinar to learn how to encourage your end users to adopt your SysAId Self-Service Portal.
- [5 Time-Saving Tips for Busy SysAid Agents](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/5-tips-webinar): Join this webinar to learn how IT can successfully close the mobile security gap with Nubo’s virtual mobile infrastructure (VMI).
- [Your 7-Point Checklist for Selecting the Right ITSM Tool](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/7-points-itsm-webinar): Join ITSM industry analyst Stephen Mann’s webinar to discover how best to select the ideal ITSM solution that's right for your organization.
- [Does My Organization Need Help Desk Software?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/does-my-organization-need-help-desk-software): Overwhelmed by support requests? SysAid's help desk software can streamline IT ticketing & improve service
- [10 Reasons to Choose SysAid’s IT Asset Management Software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-reasons-to-choose-sysaids-it-asset-management-software): Manage IT assets efficiently. Discover 10 reasons to choose SysAid's IT asset management software
- [10 Reasons to Choose SysAid’s Ticketing System](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-reasons-to-choose-sysaids-ticketing-system): 10 Reasons to Choose our Ticketing System - Discover the top reasons why our ticketing system stands why it's the right choice for your organization.
- [Does My Organization Need IT Asset Management?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/does-my-organization-need-it-asset-management): Unsure about IT asset management? SysAid helps you decide. Discover if your organization needs it!
- [How to Build & Manage a Knowledge Base](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-build-manage-a-knowledge-base): Empower your support staff and end users to resolve common IT issues faster and enhance your knowledge base, with SysAid Knowledge Management
- [Does my organization need it service management software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/does-my-organization-need-it-service-management-software): Discover if your organization requires IT Service Management Software with SysAid.
- [What is IT Help Desk Software](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/what-is-help-desk-software): Discover efficient Help Desk Software solutions with SysAid! Streamline your support system for enhanced productivity.
- [Why Outsourcing Help Desk Is Risky Strategy](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/why-outsourcing-help-desk-is-risky-strategy): Why Outsourcing Help Desk is Risky: Discover the hidden costs and drawbacks of outsourcing
- [Does My Organization Need a Ticketing System](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/does-my-organization-need-a-ticketing-system): Help Desk Software offers a powerful ticket management tool, IT asset management, self-service, chat, password reset, benchmarks, and advanced automation.
- [What is an IT Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/what-is-an-it-service-desk): Discover the key benefits of an IT Service Desk. Learn how it serves as a single point of contact (SPOC) between your company and customers. Explore today!
- [Useful IT Asset Management Tips](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/useful-it-asset-management-tips): What can you do to increase your chances of IT asset management (ITAM) success? Here's 9 tips to make it happen.
- [Useful IT Service Management Software Tips](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/useful-it-service-management-software-tips): Useful IT Service Management Software Tips - Explore practical tips for optimizing your IT service management software and maximizing its effectiveness.
- [Useful Ticketing System Tips](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/useful-ticketing-system-tips): Useful Ticketing System Tips - Discover useful tips for optimizing your ticketing system in IT service management and improving efficiency.
- [10 customer support tips for startups](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-customer-support-tips-for-startups): New Startup? Don’t forget to set up your customer support team right away! Learn how to create a world-class customer service operation in just a few days
- [ITIL 4 Webinar on Demand](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/itil-4-webinar-on-demand): Join our webinar to hear how the new version of ITIL builds on the success of ITIL V3 but has a much better focus on creating value for customers.
- [Take Control Of The Way Your Work Flows](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/workflow-designer-0320):
- [Harness the Power of TeamViewer Embedded](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/teamviewer-embedded-webinar):
- [Automation Matters, Even More So During A Global Pandemic](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/automation-matters-even-more-so-during-a-global-pandemic): if you’re still contemplating your automation strategy, the unfortunate global crisis has now brought you to a critical juncture. We’ll break it down into 5 main benefits you can achieve.
- [Email is so 2019. What’s filling the gap in 2020?](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/email-is-so-2019-whats-filling-the-gap-in-2020): During the COVID-19 pandemic, what has become clear is that everyone needs a ticketing system – not just IT.
- [Take Control Of The Way Your Work Flows](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/take-control-of-the-way-your-work-flows): Take Control of Your Workflows: Podcast on how SysAid helps manage and optimize workflows
- [How To Better Support Your Home Workers – With Remote Control](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/how-to-better-support-your-home-workers-with-remote-control): With your employees working at home, having easy-to-use remote control capabilities is essential. we cover tips and practical use cases.
- [Slash 30% of Your Time With Advanced Automation](https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/slash-30-of-your-time-with-advanced-automation): Doron Youngerwood, SysAid Director of Product Marketing, discusses why 2020 is the year of automation and provides practical steps to level up your productivity and show true value to your organization.
## News
- [SysAid Announces General Availability of Agentic AI Platform with AI Agents for ITSM — Easy to Use, Secure, and with Enterprise-Grade Capabilities](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-announces-general-availability-of-agentic-ai-platform-with-ai-agents-for-itsm-easy-to-use-secure-and-with-enterprise-grade-capabilities):
- [SysAid Wins 2025 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service Among Over 2,100 Nominations Across Industries](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-wins-2025-stevie-awards-customer-service):
- [SysAid Enhances AI-Driven ITAM with Advanced Discovery, Powered by Partnership with Lansweeper](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-enhances-ai-driven-itam-with-advanced-discovery-powered-by-partnership-with-lansweeper):
- [SysAid Copilot Customers Showcase Significant Productivity Gains with AI-Powered ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-copilot-customers-showcase-significant-productivity-gains-with-ai-powered-itsm): SysAid Recognized in 2025 Gartner® Innovation Guide for Generative AI Technologies
- [SysAid Welcomes Softchoice as Partner to Deliver AI-Powered ITSM Solutions to Its Customers](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-welcomes-softchoice-as-partner-to-deliver-ai-powered-itsm-solutions-to-its-customers):
- [SysAid Recognized as one of the Emerging Leaders in the 2024 Gartner® Innovation Guide for Generative AI Report Technologies](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-recognized-as-one-of-the-emerging-leaders-in-the-2024-gartner-innovation-guide-for-generative-ai-report-technologies):
- [SysAid Copilot Named a Winner of the 2024 Generative AI Product of the Year Award](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-copilot-named-a-winner-of-the-2024-generative-ai-product-of-the-year-award): SysAid today announced that its innovative IT service management (ITSM) solution, SysAid Copilot, has been named a winner of the 2024 Generative AI Product of the Year Award by global media company TMC
- [SysAid Now Available on AWS Marketplace, Extending Reach and Streamlining IT Procurement for Customers](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-now-available-on-aws-marketplace-extending-reach-and-streamlining-it-procurement-for-customers):
- [SysAid is recognized as a Sample Vendor in the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for IT Management Intelligence, 2024, and Gartner Hype Cycle for ITSM, 2024, in the Operations Assistant Category](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-recognized-as-a-sample-vendor-in-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-it-management-intelligence-2024-and-gartner-hype-cycle-for-itsm-2024-in-the-operations-assistant-category):
- [BDO South Africa Transitions to SysAid, Upgrading Its Legacy Enterprise Service Management Platform](https://www.sysaid.com/news/bdo-south-africa-transitions-to-sysaid-upgrading-its-legacy-enterprise-service-management-platform):
- [SysAid Hits 100+ Customer Milestone for SysAid Copilot and Continues to Release Innovative Features Enhancing it’s Gen-AI Driven IT Service Management Offering](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-hits-100-customer-milestone-for-sysaid-copilot-and-continues-to-release-innovative-features-enhancing-its-gen-ai-driven-it-service-management-offering): SysAid announces a significant milestone with over 100 organizations using SysAid Copilot. The latest AI-driven enhancements, including Image Analysis from Chatbot, redefine IT Service Management, streamlining workflows, and boosting efficiency. Discover how SysAid continues to lead in ITSM innovation.
- [TrustRadius Awards SysAid with Prestgious 2024 Tech Cares Award](https://www.sysaid.com/news/trustradius-awards-sysaid-with-prestgious-2024-tech-cares-award): The TrustRadius Tech Cares Award is granted annually to a select group of innovative businesses dedicated to excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
- [From End Users to Agents: SysAid Continues to Innovate and Transform the IT Service Management Experience by Unveiling its AI Chatbot for Agents ](https://www.sysaid.com/news/from-end-users-to-agents-sysaid-continues-to-innovate-and-transform-the-it-service-management-experience-by-unveiling-its-ai-chatbot-for-agents): SysAid redefines IT service management with its AI Chatbot for Admins, offering instant solutions, reduced MTTR, and a more efficient admin experience.
- [SysAid Strengthens Executive Team with Strategic Appointments: Paul Snelson as Senior Vice President of Sales and Nitai Fine as Vice President of Product](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-strengthens-executive-team-with-strategic-appointments-paul-snelson-as-senior-vice-president-of-sales-and-nitai-fine-as-vice-president-of-product): SysAid, announces key executive appointments: Paul Snelson as Senior Vice President of Sales and Nitai Fine as Vice President of Product.
- [SysAid expands its global footprint, announcing a new strategic partnership with BDO in South Africa, bringing Generative AI-Powered ITSM to new regions](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-continues-to-expand-its-global-footprint-announcing-a-new-strategic-partnership-with-bdo-in-south-africa-bringing-generative-ai-powered-it-service-management-to-new-regions): SysAid partners with BDO in South Africa to bring cutting-edge AI for ITSM, delivering unparalleled value to organizations of all sizes in the region.
- [SysAid Copilot, Enhanced with Gen- AI Powered Features, Gains Unparalleled Momentum, with Dozens of Deals Signed](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-copilot-enhanced-with-new-generative-ai-powered-features-fuels-unparalleled-business-momentum-with-dozens-of-signed-deals): Discover the transformative power of SysAid Copilot, the next-gen solution revolutionizing IT teams' efficiency and organizational productivity.
- [SysAid expands globally with Hatchit Studios, bringing AI-powered ITSM to Australia & New Zealand](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-continues-to-expand-its-global-footprint-through-a-new-strategic-partnership-with-hatchit-studios-introducing-generative-ai-powered-it-service-management-to-the-australian-and-new-zealand-mark): SysAid partners with Hatchit Studios to introduce SysAid Copilot, its advanced generative AI solution, to the ANZ market.
- [New SysAid Copilot counters ineffective chatbot deployments with next-gen, generative AI-powered IT Service Management ](https://www.sysaid.com/news/new-sysaid-copilot-counters-ineffective-chatbot-deployments-with-next-gen-generative-ai-powered-it-service-management): New SysAid Copilot counters ineffective chatbot deployments with next-gen, generative AI-powered IT Service Management - SysAid
- [Consist and SysAid announce a new partnership bringing the power of advanced Generative AI-based IT Service Management to the DACH region](https://www.sysaid.com/news/consist-and-sysaid-announce-a-new-partnership-bringing-the-power-of-advanced-generative-ai-based-it-service-management-to-the-dach-region): Consist and SysAid announce a new partnership bringing the power of advanced Generative AI-based IT Service Management to the DACH region - SysAid
- [TrustRadius Honors SysAid with Coveted 2023 Tech Cares Award](https://www.sysaid.com/news/trustradius-honors-sysaid-with-coveted-2023-tech-cares-award): SysAid receives the prestigious 2023 Tech Cares Award from TrustRadius. Learn more about this recognition!
- [SysAid Recognized by SIIA as Best IT Management Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-recognized-by-siia-as-best-it-management-solution): SysAid awarded Best IT Management Solution by SIIA - Learn more about SysAid's recognition here.
- [SysAid Recognized in Enterprise Service Management Landscape, Q2 Report](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-recognized-in-enterprise-service-management-landscape-q2-report): Technology leaders with an understanding of the value, expect from an ESM vendor, learn how vendors differ, and investigate options based on market focus.
- [SysAid appoints Avi Kedmi as new Chief Executive Officer](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-appoints-avi-kedmi-as-new-chief-executive-officer): SysAid, a leading provider of IT service automation, announced today that Avi Kedmi has been named as its new Chief Executive Officer.
- [SysAid is recognized as a 2023 Gartner Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for IT Service Management Platforms for Midsize Enterprise](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-recognized-as-a-2023-gartner-peer-insights-customers-choice-for-it-service-management-platforms-for-midsize-enterprise): SysAid is recognized as a 2023 Gartner Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for IT Service Management Platforms for Midsize Enterprise - SysAid
- [SysAid Is Again Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Tools](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-again-recognized-in-gartners-magic-quadrant-for-it-service-management-tools): SysAid Is Again Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Tools - SysAid
- [SysAid Joins AWS ISV Accelerate Program](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-joins-aws-isv-accelerate-program): SysAid Launches SysAid for Teams, a conversational chatbot in Microsoft Teams to improve employees’ experience, anywhere.
- [SysAid Joins AWS ISV Workload Migration Program](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-joins-aws-isv-workload-migration-program): Streamline Your Cloud Operations with SysAid & AWS! This integration is a unified platform for managing IT services and resources in the AWS cloud.
- [SysAid and Oomnitza Partner to Provide Customers with Insights and Management Across Enterprise Technology and Services](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-and-oomnitza-partner-to-provide-customers-with-insights-and-management-across-enterprise-technology-and-services): Stay informed on the 2022 State of Service Management with SysAid. Gain insights and trends in service management practices.
- [SysAid is recognized as a 2022 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for IT Service Management Tools](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-recognized-as-a-2022-gartner-peer-insights-customers-choice-for-it-service-management-tools): Discover why Employee Experience is a top ITSM priority for 2022 in the latest SysAid report.
- [SysAid Report Finds Improving the Employee Experience as a Top ITSM Priority in 2022](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-report-finds-improving-the-employee-experience-as-a-top-itsm-priority-in-2022): Employee Experience named as a Top ITSM Priority in 2022 in SysAid report
- [SysAid Is Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Tools](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-recognized-in-gartners-magic-quadrant-for-it-service-management-tools): SysAid forms strategic partnerships to address the rising need for ITIL-compliant service automation solutions, empowering IT professionals.
- [SysAid expands its global footprint by partnering with leading software resellers, bringing the digital workspace to companies of all sizes](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-expands-its-global-footprint-by-partnering-with-leading-software-resellers-bringing-the-digital-workspace-to-companies-of-all-sizes): SysAid expands its global reach by partnering with leading software resellers, bringing digital workspace solutions to companies worldwide.
- [Service automation takes over as top priority in 2021 for IT organizations, according to SysAid customer survey](https://www.sysaid.com/news/service-automation-takes-over-as-top-priority-in-2021-for-it-organizations-according-to-sysaid-customer-survey): Of the 1,011 customers who participated in SysAid’s survey, 56% ranked the use of automation to improve productivity as their number one goal for the year
- [SysAid Named Best Ticketing Software Company of 2021 by Digital.com](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-named-best-ticketing-software-company-of-2021-by-digital-com): The platform was highlighted among the most reliable systems for tracking and resolving customer requests
- [SysAid Earns the 2020 Tech Cares Award From TrustRadius](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-earns-the-2020-tech-cares-award-from-trustradius): SysAid Wins 2020 Tech Cares Award: Recognized for exceptional customer support by TrustRadius.
- [SysAid Launches Worksafe App to Reduce COVID-19 Self-Reporting Burdens and Compliance Risk as Employees Return to Work](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-launches-worksafe-app-to-reduce-covid-19-self-reporting-burdens-and-compliance-risk-as-employees-return-to-work): Learn how SysAid's Worksafe app simplifies COVID-19 self-reporting for returning employees, reducing compliance risk and administrative burdens.
- [SysAid Wins SIIA Award for Best IT Management Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-wins-siia-award-for-best-it-management-solution): As employees start to return to offices, stores, and factories, SysAid’s free Worksafe app simplifies employees’ daily self-reporting requirements.
- [SysAid Unveils Workflow Designer, the Easiest Way to Create, Share, and Optimize Digital Processes](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-unveils-workflow-designer-the-easiest-way-to-create-share-and-optimize-digital-processes): SysAid Unveils Workflow Designer: Easiest way to create, share, and optimize digital processes.
- [SysAid Launches Refreshed UI Designed to Accelerate Ticket Resolution](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-launches-refreshed-ui-designed-to-accelerate-ticket-resolution): Simplify employee health checks & ensure compliance. Free Worksafe app by SysAid flags risks & locks accounts
- [SysAid Launches Partner Program to Meet Demand for a Comprehensive, Mid-Market ITSM Solution](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-launches-partner-program-to-meet-demand-for-a-comprehensive-mid-market-itsm-solution): SysAid Launches Partner Program: Providing comprehensive ITSM solutions for the mid-market.
- [Housing 21 and SysAid Win HDI Award for Advancing Elderly Care Across the UK](https://www.sysaid.com/news/housing-21-and-sysaid-win-hdi-award-for-advancing-elderly-care-across-the-uk): Housing 21 wins HDI award for smoother IT changes! See how SysAid helped them improve service delivery.
- [SysAid Ranks #1 in G2 Momentum Grid® for Service Desk](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-ranks-1-in-g2-momentum-grid-for-service-desk): SysAid Ranks #1 in G2 Momentum Grid: Leading the way in service desk software user satisfaction
- [SysAid Unveils Automate Joe, Built-in Service Orchestration for ITSM](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-unveils-automate-joe-built-in-service-orchestration-for-itsm): Automate repetitive IT tasks! SysAid Automate Joe simplifies service delivery across your IT infrastructure
- [SysAid Wins Gold Medal in IT Service Management from Info-Tech](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-wins-gold-medal-in-it-service-management-from-info-tech): SysAid placed at the top of the ITSM pack with 100% of reviewers planning to renew their service
- [SysAid Survey Reveals a Strong Correlation Between Appreciation and Wellbeing in ITSM Organizations](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-survey-reveals-a-strong-correlation-between-appreciation-and-wellbeing-in-itsm-organizations): Show you care, boost IT wellness! SysAid survey finds appreciation key to employee wellbeing.
- [SysAid announces $30 million investment to deepen its commitment to improving productivity of IT and operations in mid-market organizations](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-announces-30-million-investment-to-deepen-its-commitment-to-improving-productivity-of-it-and-operations-in-mid-market-organizations): The investment by leading tech growth fund IGP will accelerate SysAid's growth in the ITSM market and beyond
- [SysAid Service Desk Ranks in Top 5 for Implementation and Ease-of-Use on G2 Crowd](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-service-desk-ranks-in-top-5-for-implementation-and-ease-of-use-on-g2-crowd): G2 Recognizes SysAid as a Leader in Service Desk Solutions! Get the award-winning IT service management you deserve.
- [SysAid Recognized as a Leader in the Israel Tech Scene by G2 Crowd](https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-recognized-as-a-leader-in-the-israel-tech-scene-by-g2-crowd): Strong user ratings place SysAid among the top five B2B tech companies in Israel
---
#
# Detailed Content
## Pages
### HP
- Published: 2025-04-15
- Modified: 2025-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/hp
---
### Get Calendar
- Published: 2025-03-12
- Modified: 2025-03-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/get-calendar
---
### Lansweeper
> The SysAid Advanced Discovery solution powered by Lansweeper eliminates blind spots by bringing real-time asset intelligence into your ITSM workflows
- Published: 2025-02-25
- Modified: 2025-03-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/lansweeper
The SysAid Advanced Discovery solution powered by Lansweeper eliminates blind spots by bringing real-time asset intelligence into your
ITSM workflows.
---
### Homepage 2025
> Explore SysAid's AI-powered ITSM platform. Automate workflows and optimize IT service delivery. Get started today!
- Published: 2025-02-12
- Modified: 2025-02-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/homepage
---
### Plans Calculator
> Explore SysAid’s range of ITSM plans tailored to your business needs. From Help Desk to Enterprise, find your perfect plan today!
- Published: 2025-02-06
- Modified: 2025-02-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/plans-calculator
---
### SysAid Partners - Join Our Global Network
> Join SysAid's partner network to deliver exceptional, AI-enhanced IT service solutions globally and grow your revenue.
- Published: 2025-02-06
- Modified: 2025-02-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/sysaid-partners-join-our-global-network
---
### SysAid AI Agent Builder
> AI Agent Builder can take actions, automate tasks, and drive seamless service experiences across your organization.
- Published: 2025-01-29
- Modified: 2025-03-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/ai-agent-builder
---
### About us
> Discover how SysAid innovates in ITSM across various industries. If you’ve never heard about us, click here to learn more!
- Published: 2025-01-23
- Modified: 2025-02-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/about-us
---
### CSR
> Discover SysAid's CSR initiatives that celebrate diversity and inclusion, empower communities through volunteer efforts, and prioritize employee wellbeing with innovative programs and benefits.
- Published: 2024-12-30
- Modified: 2025-03-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/about-us/csr
---
### KO 2025
- Published: 2024-12-24
- Modified: 2025-02-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/ko-2025
SYSAID KICK OFF 2025 What’s this all about? Charting Our Course2025 Company Goals & Plans Preparing to LaunchDeveloping Knowledge Jetsetting to New HeightsVision & Path for Growth January 14TH Company Kick Off Global Sites January 14TH Sales Kick Off TO, CA January 15TH Sales Kick Off TO, CA Session 02025 TrajectoryThe Vision and Keys for Success in 2025Led by Avi KedmiSession 1The Chairman's Perspective: Guiding Our TrajectoryWords from our ChairmanLed by Haim ShaniSession 2Fuelling GrowthFinancial Insights from our CFOLed by Tal AzuzSession 3Rocketing AheadProduct and Innovation RoadmapLed by Nitai Fine and Sasha ShapirovSession 4The Gen AI GalaxyStaying Ahead of the Curve in an Emerging MarketLed by Israel LifshitzSession 5Expanding HorizonsMarketing Strategy and Power Plays for 2025Led by Eyal ZombekSession 6Culture in OrbitA Word from HRLed by Miri ShalevSession 7Mission AlignmentCS and Sales Priorities for 2025Led by Paul Snelson and Francis LiSession 8Cosmic TrendsMarket and CIO Trends to Watch in 2025Led by Dorit Oren and Eyal ZombekSession 9Our Star PowerUnderstanding Our Competitive EdgeLed by Dorit Oren and Alexander JamiesonBreakout – Session 10Charting the CourseSpaces Demand ManagementLed by Gal Tvila, Cindy Sivan and Francis LiBreakout – Session 10Let’s Jetset! Advanced Sales TechniquesLed by Quintin PeirceSession 11The New FrontierGenAI Deep DiveLed by Jonathan Teitcher and Jasmine ChiuBreakout – Session 12Outbound Mission PlanMaster Outbound TechniquesLed by Terence Fernandes and Paul SnelsonBreakout – Session 12Rev up Your InsightsGainsight 101Led by Gal Tvila and Cindy SivanBreakout – Session 13Mapping the FieldReview of 2025 Competitor Plans & Q4 WinsLed by Paul SnelsonBreakout – Session 13Navigating Unchartered HorizonsStrategies for...
---
### Privacy Policy
> Ensure your privacy is respected. Take a minute to understand our data practices in the Privacy Policy.
- Published: 2024-09-24
- Modified: 2024-10-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/privacy-policy
---
### SysAid is officially certified by PinkVERIFY
> SysAid is officially certified by Pink VERIFY - The Industry’s #1 Stamp of Approval for IT Service Management (ITSM) Tools
- Published: 2024-09-03
- Modified: 2024-09-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/sysaid-is-officially-certified-by-pink-verify
---
### SysAid Copilot for Agents
> Discover SysAid Copilot for Agents – your AI-powered ally for streamlined IT support. With real-time issue detection, task automation, and multi-language capabilities and more
- Published: 2024-08-29
- Modified: 2024-12-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-copilot/sysaid-copilot-for-agents
---
### SysAid Copilot for End Users
> Discover SysAid Copilot for End Users. Our AI-powered chatbot provides 24/7 support with intuitive image analysis, task automation, and multi-language capabilities. Explore SysAid Copilot today.
- Published: 2024-08-21
- Modified: 2024-12-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-copilot/sysaid-copilot-for-end-users
---
### SysAid Copilot
> Empower your admins with generative AI so they can deliver consumer-grade support to end users automagically
- Published: 2024-08-20
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-copilot
Master SysAid Copilot with our Comprehensive Training Program This certification program is designed to upskill service desk agents eager to harness the power of generative AI and SysAid Copilot. The course provides a deep understanding of how this technology works and how to optimize your SysAid Copilot experience. Level 1: AI Fundamentals for Agents Gain a solid foundation in Generative AI Understand the power of Large Language Models Learn to effectively use SysAid Copilot's AI Chatbot with step-by-step demonstrations Level 2*: AI Administration for Advanced Users Dive deeper into SysAid Copilot with no-code customization Optimize user experience, ticket management, and performance measurement *Prerequisite: Completion of Level 1 Certification Reach out to your SysAid representative to learn how to sign up!
---
### PeopleCert Accredited ITIL Tool Vendor
> SysAid is proud to be officially certified by PeopleCert as an ITIL 4 Accredited Tool Vendor. Discover our comprehensive IT Service Management solutions, designed to meet the highest standards and best practices in the industry.
- Published: 2024-08-01
- Modified: 2024-08-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/peoplecert-accredited-itil-tool-vendor
---
### AI Chatbot via MS Teams
> Wow end users with easy and conversational support directly from within the familiar interface of Microsoft Teams.
- Published: 2024-04-24
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/ai-chatbot-via-ms-teams
---
### SYSAID AI SERVICES – TERMS AND CONDITIONS
> Get Started Risk-Free: Understand SysAid AI Services Terms and Conditions license agreement.
- Published: 2024-02-25
- Modified: 2025-03-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/sysaid-copilot-terms-and-conditions
---
### Interactive experience
> Interactive - Discover SysAid's interactive tools and resources designed to enhance your IT service management experience.
- Published: 2024-02-22
- Modified: 2024-06-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/interactive
Welcome to SysAid Interactive Product Tour
---
### KO 2024
- Published: 2024-02-01
- Modified: 2024-03-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/ko-2024
SYSAID KICK OFF 2024 What’s this all about? Charting Our Course2024 Company Goals & Plans FlightSimulatorDeveloping Knowledge Gearing to New HeightsVision & Path for Growth Cleared for Landing2023 Accomplishments FEBRUARY 13TH COMPANY KICK OFF FEBRUARY 13TH SKO (SALES & CS) FEBRUARY 14TH SKO (SALES & CS) GLOBAL OFFICES CA, WOODBINE CA, WOODBINE Welcome On BoardOpening Remarks & Agenda OverviewSession 1Altitude CheckKeys for Success in 2024Led by Avi Kedmi and Tal AzuzSession 2Navigating Changing WindsMarket Overview & Product RoadmapLed by Sasha Shapirov and Eyal ZombekSession 3Passenger FeedbackStories Worth TellingLed by Christine PunSession 5Charting the True NorthCustomer Revenue PhilosophyLed by Francis LiIn-flight SnacksSession 6Building MomentumGen AI Deep DiveLed by Hilly Noy and Sasha ShapirovSession 7Preparing Our Crew for SuccessA Word from HRLed by Miri Shalev Welcome On BoardOpening Remarks & Agenda OverviewSession 1Altitude CheckKeys for Success in 2024Led by Avi Kedmi and Tal AzuzSession 2Navigating Changing WindsMarket Overview & Product RoadmapLed by Sasha Shapirov and Eyal ZombekSession 3Passenger FeedbackStories Worth TellingLed by Christine PunSession 5Charting the True NorthCustomer Revenue PhilosophyLed by Francis LiIn-flight SnacksSession 6Building MomentumGen AI Deep DiveLed by Hilly Noy and Sasha ShapirovSession 7Preparing Our Crew for SuccessA Word from HRLed by Miri ShalevTouch Down BreakSession 8Full Throttle ModeThe Marketing Plan & Key KPIsLed by Eyal Zombek, Dorit Oren, Sarah Libi & Tejasvini SawhneySession 9Picking the Right CarrierAsk Us AnythingLed by Stephan Meyer and Austin D’SouzaSession 10On the AirwavesProduct and R&D DiscussionLed by Sasha ShapirovSession 11In-flight EntertainmentGametime: “Who Am I? ” Celebrity EditionLed by Christine PunRefueling Lunch BreakSession 12First in the CockpitCopilot Competitor AnalysisLed...
---
### Home
> Explore SysAid's AI-powered ITSM platform. Automate workflows and optimize IT service delivery. Get started today!
- Published: 2024-01-25
- Modified: 2025-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/
NEW Unveiling SysAid AI Agents AI That Acts and Decides See how SysAid AI Agents go beyond automation with goal-directed intelligence—anticipating needs, making decisions, and taking action with minimal intervention. AI That Learns and Adapts Discover how SysAid AI Agents dynamically understand context, adapt in real-time, and continuously learn from interactions to refine their approach over time. Unlock More with AI Agent Builder Tailor AI Agents to match your exact IT workflows—adjust parameters and requirements, all without writing a single line of code. Learn More
---
### IT Service Management Software
> SysAid Enterprise - The ITSM plan large teams use to scale service management throughout the organization–now backed by the full power of generative AI.
- Published: 2024-01-25
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/enterprise
---
### SysAid Partners - Join Our Global Network
> Join SysAid's partner network to deliver exceptional, AI-enhanced IT service solutions globally and grow your revenue.
- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2025-04-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/partners
---
### SysAid for Microsoft Teams
> Deliver seamless IT service with SysAid's native Microsoft Teams integration. Empower users within their workspace. Request a demo today.
- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2024-12-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/sysaid-for-teams
---
### AI Chatbot
> Empower end users with SysAid’s AI Chatbot. Get instant answers and improve efficiency. Try it now!
- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/ai-chatbot
---
### Next Gen AI ITSM Ticketing System | Power by SysAid
> Transform your IT support with SysAid’s AI ticketing system. Simplify issue resolution and boost efficiency. Learn more now!
- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/ticketing-system
---
### Service Automation
> IT Service Automation uses AI built from a decade of real usage data from over 4,000 organizations. It makes every aspect of ITSM automatic.
- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2024-03-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/service-automation
---
### Help desk Software
> Boost your IT team's efficiency with SysAid's AI-driven Help Desk. Streamline operations now—request a demo!
- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/help-desk-software
---
### IT Service Desk Software
> Backed by the full power of generative AI, SysAid's IT service desk software empowers organizations to deliver exceptional service— automagically.
- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2024-10-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-desk-software
---
### Plans
> Explore SysAid’s range of ITSM plans tailored to your business needs. From Help Desk to Enterprise, find your perfect plan today!
- Published: 2024-01-22
- Modified: 2025-04-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/plans
---
### Free Trial
> Experience SysAid’s help desk and ITSM software for free. Sign up for a trial and see how automation can improve your IT support. Try it now!
- Published: 2024-01-17
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/trial
Start your free trial
---
### Personal demo
> Get a hands-on, personalized demo of SysAid’s ITSM platform. Discover tailored automation solutions for your IT team. Book your demo now!
- Published: 2024-01-17
- Modified: 2025-04-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/personal-demo
---
### Candidates Privacy Policy
- Published: 2024-01-01
- Modified: 2024-03-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/candidates-privacy-policy
---
### On-Premise Software Security Vulnerability Notification
> Security vulnerability notification about our response to previous security vulnerability affecting on-premise customers
- Published: 2023-11-05
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/security-compliance/on-premise-software-security-vulnerability-notification
On-Premise Software Security Vulnerability Notification Avi Kedmi Chief Executive Officer Updated: November 8, 2023 Published: November 8, 2023 The issue and our response Our customers’ security is our top priority, and we are committed to communicating actively and openly with customers to ensure they have the information they need to mitigate risks and continually strengthen their systems. This post outlines a vulnerability in our on-premise software, and the steps we took to address the situation. After being alerted to a security vulnerability affecting our on-premise software, which was being actively exploited, we initiated our incident response protocol and appointed leading cyber security experts to support our response. We worked around the clock to address the situation as quickly as possible, identifying an interim workaround to mitigate the risk and proactively communicating with our on-premise customers to ensure they could implement the recommended steps. A product upgrade was then developed and rolled out which included security enhancements to address the vulnerability. We are grateful for collaboration from Microsoft’s Defender team throughout our response to this issue. We take cyber security seriously and our customer’s security is our top priority. For further technical information, please see our technical blog here. As always, our Customer Care team is available in real time to assist clients with any questions. Please do not hesitate to contact us via the portal. Timeline NOV 2, 2023 Security Risk Description - Our security team has detected a vulnerability in our on-premises software. At this time, we have no...
---
### Sitemap
> Discover the complete sitemap of SysAid's website, providing a structured overview of all the pages, resources, and features offered.
- Published: 2023-10-24
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/sitemap
---
### Glossary
> Enhance your IT terminology knowledge with this comprehensive glossary. Explore the meanings of important IT terms from A to Z by SysAid.
- Published: 2023-08-01
- Modified: 2024-03-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/glossary
---
### Sexual Harassment, Discrimination and Retaliation Policies
> Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of human rights. SysAid believes that it has no place in our business or supply chains.
- Published: 2023-05-17
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/sexual-harassment-discrimination-and-retaliation-policies
---
### Environmental and Waste Management Policy
> SysAid's environmental and waste management policy demonstrates its dedication to sustainable and responsible business operations.
- Published: 2023-05-17
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/environmental-and-waste-management-policy
---
### Self-service Depot
> Talk with your Customer Success Manager about additional licenses and useful modules with Self-Service Depot
- Published: 2023-03-23
- Modified: 2024-06-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/upgrade-account
Welcome to SysAid Agent's Alley Your Self-Service Depot
---
### Calendar Thank You
- Published: 2023-02-27
- Modified: 2023-04-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/calendar-thank-you
---
### SysAid for Teams Free Trial
> Sign up for a free 30 day free trial, let us help you resolve your issues faster and make service smoother.
- Published: 2023-02-12
- Modified: 2024-05-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-for-teams-free-trial
---
### KO 2023
- Published: 2022-12-21
- Modified: 2023-01-31
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/ko-2023
SYSAID KICK OFF 2023 What's this all about? Future Quest2023 Company Goals & Plans Your UniverseDeveloping Knowledge Castles to StormVision & Path for Growth The Legend2022 Accomplishments JANUARY 10TH AUDIENCE: ALL EMPLOYEES JANUARY 11TH AUDIENCE: SALES & CS QUOTA CARRIERS JANUARY 12TH AUDIENCE: SALES & CS QUOTA CARRIERS Byte 1Let's Boot UpOpening & CEO GreetingPowered by Yonatan and Sarah LahavByte 2The Unbeaten LevelCompany GoalsPowered by SysAid LeadershipByte 3What's Happening in Our WorldMarket Trends & Company StrategyPowered by Ronit AmitayGame PausedByte 4Hit Q + A On Your ControllerAsk Us AnythingPowered by SysAid LeadershipByte 5Our Power PlayersCompany AwardsPowered by Miri ShalevGame OverByte 6A C-Level GameCRO & CCO WelcomePowered by Damian Saunders & Francis LiByte 7Supercharging 2023CEO Opening RemarksPowered by Sarah LahavByte 8+9 | BREAKOUT SESSION:Charge Up Your ToolsBreakout: SalesPowered by Damian Saunders & Sales LeadersHitting New LevelsBreakout: CSMPowered by Francis Li & CSM LeadersGame PausedByte 10Power OverdriveThe Marketing PlanPowered by Eyal ZombekByte 11The Game MasterKeynote AddressPowered by by Jen WelterGame PausedByte 12Secret Weapon UnlockCompetitive OverviewPowered by Gil AlterByte 13The Product Quest MapProduct Roadmap 2023Powered by Ari Engelhart & Carmit PellegByte 14Memory Card RewindWrap-upPowered by Damian Saunders & Francis LiGame OverByte 15Booting UpOpening RemarksPowered by Damian Saunders & Francis LiByte 16Unlocking the Vertical LevelThe Vertical OpportunityPowered by Damian Saunders & Eyal ZombekByte 17Perspective ShiftFireside Chat With Maricopa CountyPowered by Maricopa County & Francis LiByte 18New Character UnlockedFireside Chat With BozemanPowered by Bozeman & Francis LiByte 19+20+21 | BREAKOUT SESSION:Keeping ScoreBreakout CSM: The Value of KPIsPowered by Oded MosheBonus LevelBreakout Sales: Fireside Chat With CapricornPowered by...
---
### IT Asset Management
> Boost your service desk efficiency with SysAid’s IT asset management. Simplify tracking and resolve issues faster. Discover how today!
- Published: 2022-12-19
- Modified: 2025-04-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-asset-management
---
### Milestones
- Published: 2022-12-04
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/milestones
---
### Events
> View Up and Coming Events brought to you by SysAid
- Published: 2022-08-17
- Modified: 2024-09-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/events
---
### All-In-One ITSM For Higher Education: Student - Staff | SysAid
> Today’s challenges of running an educational institution are countless. SysAid is the most Customizable and Low-Cost ITSM solution for your campus.
- Published: 2022-08-17
- Modified: 2024-06-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/higher-education
---
### Anti-Money Laundering Policy
> SysAid upholds its commitment to ethical business practices with its anti-money laundering policy, ensuring compliance with regulations.
- Published: 2022-08-09
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/anti-money-laundering-policy
---
### Data Management
> Enhance performance and declutter your workspace with effective data management. Discover more with SysAid!
- Published: 2022-07-26
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/data-management
---
### Remote Desktop
> Enable secure remote access to PCs from any device with SysAid. Boost IT productivity with remote desktop capabilities. Request a demo today!
- Published: 2022-07-26
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/remote-desktop
---
### Tasks and Projects
> SysAid's Tasks & Projects module enables efficient management and coordination of IT and business projects with specific tasks and deadlines.
- Published: 2022-07-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/tasks-and-projects
---
### System and Interfaces
> Integrate SysAid with LDAP, email, APIs, and more. Seamlessly fit into your corporate IT ecosystem. Explore SysAid ITSM integration capabilities today.
- Published: 2022-07-25
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/system-and-interfaces
---
### Mobile Solution
> Manage incidents, requests, and IT assets on-the-go with SysAid Mobile Apps. Stay connected and efficient. Try it today!
- Published: 2022-07-25
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/mobile-solution
---
### Manager Dashboard
> Use SysAid Manager Dashboard to get real-time visibility into your help desk, IT asset management, and other critical KPIs. Try Manager Dashboard now!
- Published: 2022-07-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/manager-dashboard
---
### IT Benchmark
> Use SysAid’s IT Benchmark tool to compare your IT performance with other departments worldwide. See where you stand instantly. Try the tool today.
- Published: 2022-07-25
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark
---
### Hardware and Network Monitoring
> SysAid Monitoring provides alerts and notifications so you can proactively manage hardware and IT network components, monitor space and usage
- Published: 2022-07-20
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/hardware-and-network-monitoring
---
### Network Discovery
> Discover your network and deploy the SysAid Agent to computers running Windows, Linux, Mac, and Unix. Also discover and enroll iOS and Android devices.
- Published: 2022-07-20
- Modified: 2023-01-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-asset-management/network-discovery
---
### Flexibility
> Learn about SysAid's IT service management software and its flexibility in meeting the diverse needs of businesses.
- Published: 2022-07-20
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/flexibility
---
### Knowledge Management
> Service desk agents can find and share knowledge articles, and end users can self-help via SysAid's Self-Service Portal.
- Published: 2022-07-20
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/knowledge-management
---
### Service Level Management
> Service Level Management Software: SysAid helps define, track, and meet IT service level agreements (SLAs).
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/service-level-management
---
### Change Management Software
> Simplified ITIL change management software with SysAid. Ensure smooth transitions—start improving today!
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/change-management-software
---
### Problem Management
> Streamline your problem management workflow with SysAid’s ITIL-aligned software. Use templates to manage issues efficiently. Learn more now!
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/problem-management
---
### Incident Management
> Incident Management: Streamline IT service restoration with Sysaid's incident management software.
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/incident-management
---
### Chat
> Enable instant issue resolution with SysAid's live chat for IT teams. Empower users and IT support with seamless communication. Request a demo today!
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/chat
---
### CMDB Software
> Discover SysAid CMDB to enhance your IT operations. Boost efficiency and productivity. Try it now!
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/cmdb-software
---
### Remote Control
> Remote Support Software allows you to remotely connect to active end-user sessions or remotely access unattended computers. Try Remote Support now!
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/remote-control
---
### Password Reset
> SysAid's Self-Service Password Reset module empowers end-users to securely reset passwords without IT support, enhancing productivity.
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/password-reset
---
### Knowledge Base
> With SysAid Knowledge Base agents can find and share knowledge articles within SysAid Help Desk, and end users can self-help via the Self-Service Portal.
- Published: 2022-07-19
- Modified: 2024-05-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/knowledge-base
---
### Important Update Regarding Apache Log4j
- Published: 2022-06-16
- Modified: 2024-03-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/security-compliance/important-update-regarding-apache-log4j
---
### Trial Inner
> Sign up for SysAid's 30-day free trial. Resolve your IT issues and make your help desk smoother with automation.
- Published: 2022-06-14
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/trial-inner
---
### SysAid for Teams Free Trial
> Sign up for a free 30 day trial- let us help you resolve your issues faster and make service smoother.
- Published: 2022-06-08
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/sysaid-for-teams-free-trial-2
---
### AWS Partnership
> Migrate your IT apps from on-prem to cloud with SysAid and AWS. Leverage best practices for a smooth transition. Explore SysAid's AWS partnership.
- Published: 2022-06-06
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/aws-partnership
---
### Vulnerability Policy
> Vulnerability Policy, To be quick and efficient with our response, please make sure that your report includes...
- Published: 2022-06-06
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/vulnerability-policy
---
### Data Backup Policy
> Any data that You upload to SysAid’s Server throughout the Term while using the Services, belongs to You.
- Published: 2022-05-23
- Modified: 2024-06-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/data-backup-policy
---
### Data Processing Addendum (“DPA”)
> This DPA sets out the terms that apply with regards to SysAid processing Personal Data.
- Published: 2022-05-02
- Modified: 2025-03-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/data-processing-addendum-dpa
---
### Cloud Terms and Conditions
> Get Started Risk-Free: Understand SysAid Cloud Terms and Conditions License Agreement.
- Published: 2022-04-28
- Modified: 2025-03-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/cloud-terms-and-conditions
---
### Server Uptime Commitment
> SysAid's Uptime Commitment underscores its dedication to providing reliable and uninterrupted service to its customers.
- Published: 2022-04-14
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/uptime-commitment
---
### Anti-Slavery
> Access SysAid's anti-slavery policy documentation, reflecting its commitment to ethical business practices and human rights.
- Published: 2022-04-14
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/anti-slavery-policy
---
### Non-Discrimination Policy
> Each Party to this Contract shall abide, as applicable under governing law, to the requirements of applicable law.
- Published: 2022-04-14
- Modified: 2022-09-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/non-discrimination-policy
---
### Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Laws
> Learn about SysAid's anti-bribery policy and its adherence to anti-corruption laws, ensuring ethical business conduct globally.
- Published: 2022-04-14
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/anti-bribery-policy-and-anti-corruption-laws
---
### Governing Law, Jurisdiction and Venue
> The applicable governing law provision is based on Your country of incorporation.
- Published: 2022-04-14
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/governing-law-jurisdiction-and-venue
---
### Product Summary
> Check out SysAid's product summary. We give a rundown on all components with a detailed description of each.
- Published: 2022-04-04
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/plans/product-summary
---
### Data Security
> Access SysAid's documentation on data security, outlining best practices for ensuring the safety of customer data.
- Published: 2022-03-24
- Modified: 2024-06-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/data-security
---
### Data Storage Location
> SysAid strictly adheres to all relevant local data protection laws and regulations. We stores your data in the location where you access SysAid’s services.
- Published: 2022-03-24
- Modified: 2024-03-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/data-storage-location
---
### Evaluation License Terms
> Get Started Risk-Free: Understand SysAid Evaluation License Terms. free of charge.
- Published: 2022-03-24
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation/evaluation-license-terms
---
### Maintenance Thank You
- Published: 2022-01-05
- Modified: 2024-02-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/order/maintenance-thank-you
---
### Renewal Thank You
- Published: 2022-01-05
- Modified: 2024-02-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/order/renewal-thank-you
---
### KO 2022
- Published: 2022-01-05
- Modified: 2023-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/ko-2022
SYSAID KICK OFF 2022 What's this all about? Our Oyster2022 Company goals & plans Get SharpDeveloping knowledge The Big OceanVision and path for growth Celebrating2021 accomplishments JANUARY 10TH AUDIENCE: ALL EMPLOYEES JANUARY 11TH AUDIENCE: SALES, CS, PRODUCT MARKETING & MARKETING JANUARY 12TH AUDIENCE: SALES, CS, PRODUCT MARKETING & MARKETING Pre-dive minglingWelcome reception in Israel DIVE 1:Before we dive inOpening remarksLead by Sarit LahavDIVE 2:All aboard 2022Company goalsLead by the Management TeamDIVE 3:Message in a bottleA word from our boardLead by Haim ShaniCome up for airDIVE 4:Ask your captainsManagement Q&A panelLead by the Management TeamDIVE 5: THOUGHT LEADERStaying ahead of the currentITSM market trends & trajectoryLead by Rae Ann BrunoDIVE 6:Sea into the futureProduct visionLead by Hila LammDIVE 7:Getting Pacific in 2022Strategy and roadmapLead by Hila Lamm & Carmit PellegLunch/dinner breakDIVE 8:Dive buddiesFireside chat with Queen's UniversityLead by Francis Li & Paul HilesDIVE 9:Advancing our diveSysAid Branding 2. 0Lead by Eyal ZombekDIVE 10: KEYNOTE SPEAKERAdapting to new temperaturesLeading in a post-pandemic worldLead by keynote speaker Heather McGowanShake your booties - let's danceFINDIVE 11:SysAiders, Ahoy! Opening remarks DIVE 12 | BREAKOUT SESSION:How big's the fish? Sales: Sales Plan 2022Lead by Damian Saunders & Matt MeghoryMaking a splash! CS: The year aheadLead by Francis LiDIVE 13:Changing altitudesHelping our customers become employee-centricLead by Oded MosheComing up for airDIVE 14:Sinking the competitionCompetitor landscapeLead by Christine Pun & Gil AlterDIVE 15:Submerging expectationsFrom prospects to happy customersLead by Matt Meghory & Jaime AronowitzDIVE 16:Gauging the depthsPlaybooks: Pricing, processes and best practicesLead by Gil Alter, Steve Oram, Andrew Day & Cindy SivanLunch/dinner...
---
### Upgrade Thank You
- Published: 2022-01-04
- Modified: 2024-02-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/order/upgrade-thank-you
---
### New Thank You
- Published: 2022-01-04
- Modified: 2024-02-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/order/new-thank-you
---
### Order
- Published: 2022-01-04
- Modified: 2024-03-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/order
Order Form OrderInformation ContactInformation PaymentOptions Finish What Do You Want to Do with Your Trial Account? Start fresh with a new account NextCompany Contact Details Your organization's main point of contact for all technical issues related to SysAid. Your Customer's Contact Details Your customer's main point of contact for all technical issues related to SysAid. First Name*Last Name*Work Email*Phone*Job Title*Company Details Your Customer's Account DetailsCompany*Industry* What industry are you in? Accounting Advertising Aerospace & Defense Automotive Banking Beverages Call Center Outsourcing Chemical & Petroleum Consulting Education Electronics Energy Entertainment Financial Services Food Government Healthcare High Tech Hospitality Insurance Information Technology Legal Manufacturing Marketing Pharmaceuticals Public Relations Real Estate Restaurants Retail Services Telecommunications Tourism Transportation Travel Utilities VAR/Systems Integrator Other Number of Employees* Please select the number of employees 1-999 1000-2999 3000-7499 7500+ Billing Address Your Customer's AddressStreet Address*City*Zip Code*Country* Select a country United States Canada United Kingdom Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chagos Islands (BIOT) Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo-Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia...
---
### YCBM - Expansion
- Published: 2021-11-16
- Modified: 2024-02-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/ycbm-exp
---
### Trial Thank You
- Published: 2021-08-30
- Modified: 2022-02-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/thank-you
---
### MSP Solution 2
> Meet your clients across multiple locations, with a centralized service desk software that is uniquely customizable for each site.
- Published: 2021-08-18
- Modified: 2024-02-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/msp-solution
---
### Sitemap
- Published: 2021-08-15
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/site-map
---
### Service Automation LP
> Service Automation uses AI built from a decade of real usage data from over 4,000 organizations. It makes every aspect of ITSM automatic.
- Published: 2021-07-21
- Modified: 2022-10-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/lp-service-automation
---
### Website Image Disclaimer
> Website Image Disclaimer - Learn about SysAid's website image disclaimer policy, ensuring transparency and accuracy in visual content.
- Published: 2021-07-13
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/website-image-disclaimer
---
### Send files
- Published: 2021-07-01
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/send-files
---
### sales-content-packages
- Published: 2021-06-27
- Modified: 2023-03-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/sales-content-packages
---
### MTTR Calculator
- Published: 2021-06-24
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/mttr-calculator
---
### Professional Service Thank You
- Published: 2021-06-24
- Modified: 2021-08-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/professional-services/thank-you
---
### On-premises upgrade
- Published: 2021-06-24
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/plans/on-premises/upgrade
---
### Upgrade account thank you
- Published: 2021-06-24
- Modified: 2021-08-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/upgrade-account-request/thank-you
---
### Form
- Published: 2021-06-24
- Modified: 2021-08-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/video/bi/form
---
### BI
- Published: 2021-06-24
- Modified: 2023-02-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/video/bi
---
### Thank you plans
- Published: 2021-06-24
- Modified: 2024-12-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/plans/thank-you
---
### Payment Incomplete
- Published: 2021-06-23
- Modified: 2023-08-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/payment-incomplete
---
### Pathfinders thank you
- Published: 2021-06-23
- Modified: 2022-12-11
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/pathfinders/thank-you
---
### SysAid Professional Services
> SysAid Professional Services works with you to: identify your needs, tailor SysAid to suit those needs, and execute the plan from start to finish.
- Published: 2021-06-23
- Modified: 2024-10-27
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/professional-services
---
### Trial Thank You
- Published: 2021-06-23
- Modified: 2024-12-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/trial/thank-you
---
### SysAid Documentation
> Access SysAid’s online resource library – detailing edition functionality, FAQs, installation guides, advice on getting started and module guides.
- Published: 2021-06-23
- Modified: 2024-06-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/sysaid-documentation
---
### Automate Joe
- Published: 2021-06-22
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/automate-joe-helpdesk
Automate Joe is not yet enabled in your SysAid. Speak to your Customer Success Manager to see what you’re missing out on!
---
### Thank you - 2nd form Employees
- Published: 2021-06-21
- Modified: 2021-08-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/thank-you-test
---
### Frequently Asked Questions
> Find answers about SysAid’s ITSM, service desk, asset management, and more. Explore key features and modules in our FAQs section
- Published: 2021-06-20
- Modified: 2025-02-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/faq
---
### Upgrade Account
> Talk with your Customer Success Manager about additional licenses and useful modules.
- Published: 2021-06-17
- Modified: 2025-03-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/upgrade-account-request
---
### Management Team
> Want to know the secret sauce of Sysaid? It's their people! Meet the passionate team dedicated to building the future of IT service management.
- Published: 2021-06-15
- Modified: 2024-06-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/management-team
---
### Contact Us Thanks
- Published: 2021-06-13
- Modified: 2021-08-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/contact-us/thank-you
---
### Video Knowledge Base
> ideo Knowledge Base - Explore SysAid's video knowledge base for insightful tutorials and demonstrations on IT service management, troubleshooting, and more.
- Published: 2021-06-10
- Modified: 2024-09-01
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/video-knowledge-base
---
### Newsletter
- Published: 2021-06-09
- Modified: 2025-03-31
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/newsletter
---
### On-premises
> Ensure the quality of your work doesn't decline. On-premise IT software with ticket management, ITIL adoption, asset management, advanced analytics and more.
- Published: 2021-06-08
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/plans/on-premises
---
### Cloud
> Try SysAid's scalable cloud ITSM and help desk software for free. ITIL-aligned, trusted by 1000+ customers. Start your free trial today.
- Published: 2021-06-06
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/plans/cloud
---
### Task Automation
> SysAid’s Automate Joe lightens your service desk team’s load – boosting productivity, service agility, and end-user satisfaction.
- Published: 2021-06-06
- Modified: 2024-05-29
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/task-automation
---
### Ticket Automation
> Streamline ticket routing and escalation with SysAid's automation. Categorize and prioritize efficiently. Schedule a demo to boost IT workflows.
- Published: 2021-06-03
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/ticket-automation
---
### Personal demo thank you
- Published: 2021-06-02
- Modified: 2024-12-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/personal-demo/thank-you
---
### Thank you #2
- Published: 2021-05-31
- Modified: 2021-08-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/thank-you-2
---
### Thank you #1
- Published: 2021-05-31
- Modified: 2021-08-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/thank-you-1
---
### Careers positions
> Careers Positions - Explore career opportunities at SysAid and browse current job openings for various positions in IT and beyond.
- Published: 2021-05-11
- Modified: 2024-08-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/careers/positions
---
### MSP Solution
> Manage IT services for multiple clients effectively with SysAid's MSP service desk. Improve efficiency across teams. Get started with a demo today.
- Published: 2021-05-10
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-msp
---
### Manufacturing Solution
> Streamline Manufacturing Operations with AI-Powered Service Desk Software
- Published: 2021-05-10
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-manufacturing
---
### Healthcare Solution
> Deliver exceptional patient care with SysAid’s healthcare service desk and Copilot. Optimize support and operations. Request a demo today.
- Published: 2021-05-05
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-healthcare
---
### ROI Calculator
> Understand how time-consuming and costly manual password reset procedures are in your company by using this Password Reset ROI calculator.
- Published: 2021-05-03
- Modified: 2022-07-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/password-reset/roi-calculator
---
### Education Solution
> Service Desk for Education: Enhance the learning experience for educators and students with Sysaid's service desk.
- Published: 2021-05-02
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-education
---
### Pathfinders
- Published: 2021-05-02
- Modified: 2023-03-27
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/pathfinders
---
### Careers
> Ready for a new challenge? Join the innovative team at SysAid and explore a variety of career opportunities. Apply now!
- Published: 2021-04-30
- Modified: 2024-12-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/careers
---
### Instance Form
- Published: 2021-04-29
- Modified: 2023-11-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/instance-form
SysAid's on-premises version of the software has been found to contain a security vulnerability. This vulnerability does not exist in our cloud edition, and a fix has been made available for our on-premise customers to download and install.
---
### Contact us
> Contact SysAid ITSM Service Support, we provide exceptional customer service – there's no request too large or too small that we won't handle.
- Published: 2021-04-29
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/company/contact-us
---
### Video
- Published: 2021-04-28
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/video
---
### BI Analytics
> BI Analytics module gives you the most simple way to access the data you need, SysAid offers all the essential tracking & management tools in one software.
- Published: 2021-04-28
- Modified: 2023-02-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/analytics/bi-analytics
---
### Patch Management
> Keep your systems secure with SysAid’s patch management. Manage and deploy updates seamlessly. Discover more today!
- Published: 2021-04-28
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-asset-management/patch-management
---
### Analytics
> SysAid offers a range of sophisticated & user-friendly analytics tools to help you obtain an accurate view of your IT service performance.
- Published: 2021-04-27
- Modified: 2022-07-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/analytics
---
### Languages
> SysAid’s customer base is spread across more than 140 countries, with SysAid available in 7 languages and easily translated into additional languages
- Published: 2021-04-27
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/languages
---
### MSI
> hen deploying the agent using a group policy, you need to create a configuration file to include your unique parameters using Microsoft Orca.
- Published: 2021-04-27
- Modified: 2022-10-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/msi
---
### Worksafe App
> Learn how SysAid's Worksafe app helps organizations ensure compliance with health regulations as they plan their return-to-work strategies.
- Published: 2021-04-27
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/worksafe-app
---
### My Cal
- Published: 2021-04-26
- Modified: 2023-01-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/my-cal
---
### YCBM - Acquisition
- Published: 2021-04-26
- Modified: 2024-09-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/ycbm-acq
---
### System requirements - cloud
> Understand the minimum system requirements, based on use cases, for server hardware and software, and SysAid discovery agent client requirements for cloud
- Published: 2021-04-26
- Modified: 2024-05-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/system-requirements-cloud
---
### Workflow Designer
> Workflow Designer: Build, share, and optimize digital processes effortlessly with Sysaid's workflow designer.
- Published: 2021-04-22
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/workflow-designer
---
### System requirements
> Understand the minimum system requirements, based on use cases, for server hardware and software, and SysAid discovery agent client requirements.
- Published: 2021-04-21
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/system-requirements
---
### News
> Welcome to Sysaids Newsroom- learn about our companys releases and important updates.
- Published: 2021-04-09
- Modified: 2025-03-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news
---
### Compare
> Not sure which ITSM software to choose? Here you can see how SysAid stacks up against other ITSM systems and competing companies.
- Published: 2021-03-29
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/compare-service-desk
---
### Percentage of Surveys Answered Out of Surveys Sent
> IT Benchmark Surveys: See how your IT service desk measures up against industry benchmarks in areas like average service requests closed per admin.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark/benchmark-surveys
---
### Percentage of Service Requests Opened via Incoming Email
> Benchmark Opened via Email - Learn how to benchmark and analyze service requests opened via email with SysAid's IT benchmarking tool.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark/benchmark-opened-via-email
---
### End User to Administrator Ratio
> Explore the optimal admin ratio for your IT service management with SysAid. Benchmark against industry standards and streamline your IT operations.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/benchmark-admin-ratio
---
### Average Service Requests Closed per Admin
> Benchmark your IT service management efficiency with SysAid's insights. Learn how your organization stacks up against industry standards.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark/average-service-requests-closed-per-agent
---
### HR Solution
> Service Desk for HR: Optimize HR processes and employee satisfaction with Sysaid's service desk solution.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/solutions/servicedesk-for-hr
---
### benchmark avg resolution time
> Track and benchmark the average resolution time of closed service requests with SysAid’s IT measurement tool. Improve efficiency with real insights.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/benchmark-avg-resolution-time
---
### Benchmark Opened Closed
> This SysAid IT Benchmark measurement reflects your IT department's ability to close tickets and its overall ability to provide service.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2022-09-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/it-benchmark/benchmark-opened-closed
---
### service maintenance
- Published: 2021-03-24
- Modified: 2021-09-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/service-maint
---
### mac agent
> Please download the relevant SysAid Agent and follow the installation instructions.
- Published: 2021-03-24
- Modified: 2022-11-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/mac-agent
---
### customize SysAid
> Learn how to customize SysAid 7.0.x (and above) with a few simple steps.
- Published: 2021-03-24
- Modified: 2021-06-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/customize
---
### SysAid Reports
> SysAid Reports provides the reporting tools needed to quickly measure help desk and ITSM performance, track inventory, and identify issues and bottlenecks.
- Published: 2021-03-24
- Modified: 2022-07-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/reports
---
### Support
> Connect with SysAid ITSM service support for expert guidance. Fast, reliable assistance. Contact us today!
- Published: 2021-03-21
- Modified: 2025-03-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support
---
### Remote Discovery for SysAid Releases
> The SysAid Server comes with a built-in discovery service to perform network scans. In some cases you may wish to install a Remote Discovery Service.
- Published: 2021-03-21
- Modified: 2021-08-11
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/support/remote-discovery-for-sysaid-releases
---
### gdpr statement
> As one of the largest ITSM providers, with thousands of both cloud and on-premise implementations, our customers’ privacy one of our top priorities.
- Published: 2021-03-21
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/gdpr-statement
---
### New vs old background
- Published: 2021-03-08
- Modified: 2021-06-28
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/new-vs-old-background
NEW ANIMATION IS ABOVE, OLD ANIMATION IS BELOW
---
### IT Service Management Software
> Automate IT services with Gen AI and scale effortlessly with SysAid ITSM. Improve response times—learn more!
- Published: 2021-03-07
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software
---
### Self Service Portal
> Boost IT efficiency with SysAid’s self-service portal. Enable users to solve problems on their own. Learn more now!
- Published: 2021-03-07
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/self-service-portal
---
### Professional Services Packages
> Unlock the Full Potential of SysAid! Our experts help you optimize your service desk and maximize your ROI.
- Published: 2021-03-01
- Modified: 2025-04-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/professional-services-packages
---
### Marketplace
> SysAid has pre-built third-party integrations with business applications and services, such as SAP and Salesforce, and IT applications and services.
- Published: 2021-03-01
- Modified: 2025-02-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/it-service-management-software/marketplace
---
### Resources
> Welcome to SysAid Resource Center. Here you could find our articles and to stay in-the-know with ITSM.
- Published: 2021-02-12
- Modified: 2025-03-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources
---
### Success Stories
> Our Customers Success Stories- See how organizations like yours have taken service delivery to the next level with smarter, faster and more agile services.
- Published: 2021-02-12
- Modified: 2025-02-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/customers
---
### Blog
> Welcome to SysAid Blog. Click here and read our latest tips, news, and trends in the IT world!
- Published: 2021-02-12
- Modified: 2024-06-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog
---
### Privacy Policy
> Ensure your privacy is respected. Take a minute to understand our data practices in the Privacy Policy.
- Published: 2021-01-18
- Modified: 2024-06-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/privacy
---
## Posts
### How to Improve Your Organization’s ITAM Maturity
> This blog looks at what will improve your ITAM practice’s maturity to make it far more valuable to your business.
- Published: 2025-03-27
- Modified: 2025-04-01
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/how-to-improve-your-organizations-itam-maturity
- Categories: Asset management
- Blog authors: Tanvi Malik
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s time to talk about IT asset management (ITAM) maturity. Hopefully, your IT organization appreciates that ITAM is critical to optimize its IT operations - helping to prevent outdated asset records, compliance risks, and slow incident resolution. However, “there’s ITAM, and then there’s ITAM. ” What’s meant by this is that there are “basic” ITAM capabilities that allow your IT organization to put a tick in the “We do ITAM” box. Then, there are more advanced ITAM capabilities that enable your organization’s ITAM capabilities to make a far more significant positive impact on business operations and outcomes. Your business likely wants and deserves the latter of these, and to help, this blog looks at what will improve your ITAM practice’s maturity to make it far more valuable to your business. Why understanding your IT organization’s ITAM maturity is important It’s important to appreciate that not all ITAM programs are equally effective. There can be many potential issues or omissions where an IT organization might have suboptimal ITAM capabilities or lack certain ITAM capabilities altogether. For example, they could struggle with fragmented asset tracking methods, poor asset lifecycle management, and face compliance risks due to lacking maturity in their ITAM processes. They might also have never considered their ITAM in maturity terms. After all, how often are you asked about ITAM maturity? Instead, you might face more black-and-white questions like “Do we have ITAM capabilities? ” To which the affirmative answer hides the fact that they might not be as effective as...
---
### What is Agentic AI? Transforming ITSM Through Intelligent Automation
> Learn how Agentic AI empowers IT teams with proactive detection, contextual decision-making, and continuous evolution to streamline complex ITSM tasks.
- Published: 2025-03-26
- Modified: 2025-03-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/what-is-agentic-ai-transforming-itsm-through-intelligent-automation
- Categories: Service Desk, SysAid
- Tags: service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Inesa Bass
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT Service Management (ITSM) is becoming increasingly intricate as organizations grapple with accelerated digital transformation, growing system complexities, and rising demands. Amid this evolution, a new technological paradigm is emerging to address these challenges head-on: Agentic AI. This innovative approach signifies more than a technological upgrade. It represents a shift in how IT teams operate, enabling them to move beyond traditional methods and leverage intelligence that adapts, learns, and acts autonomously. To understand its significance, we must explore what makes Agentic AI unique, why it matters for ITSM, and how it stands apart from other forms of artificial intelligence. What Is Agentic AI? Agentic AI is a sophisticated framework of artificial intelligence designed not just to automate tasks but to handle them intelligently and independently. While traditional automation relies on predefined rules and scripts, Agentic AI adapts to context and initiates actions based on dynamic assessments of its operating environment. This autonomy is key. Unlike straightforward automation, which executes repetitive tasks like clockwork, Agentic AI actively analyzes, learns, and solves problems—even in intricate systems. For IT environments, this means moving from task completion to problem resolution. Examples of its capabilities include: Proactive Detection: Recognizing patterns that indicate future issues, such as identifying server instability before it causes downtime. Contextual Decision-Making: Weighing various factors to determine the best course of action for resolving issues like ticket prioritization or system resource allocation. Continuous Evolution: Learning from past events to improve its future responses, making it better suited to complex IT infrastructures. Agentic...
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### Transforming IT Operations with SysAid’s New UI
> This blog explains the need for SysAid’s new UI, shares its key capabilities and benefits, and highlights a customer case study.
- Published: 2025-03-06
- Modified: 2025-03-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/sysaid-new-ui-transforming-operations
- Categories: Service Desk, SysAid
- Tags: service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Inesa Bass
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Corporate IT teams and their IT service management (ITSM) capabilities must deliver better IT support experiences to meet higher business and employee demands. This means better working methods that speed up incident resolutions and service request provisioning and provide better end-user experiences are needed. There’s a need for IT operations transformation. To help, SysAid’s latest version combines an intuitive user interface (UI) with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven efficiency and business intelligence (BI) analytics to help your IT organization perform better, increase productivity, and deliver the required IT support experiences. This blog explains the need for SysAid’s latest version, shares its key capabilities and benefits, and highlights a customer case study that showcases its impact. The need for SysAid’s New UI Your IT teams are likely subject to a spectrum of challenges. These include the never-ending need to reduce costs plus the greater demands employees and customers place on corporate IT service delivery and support. At an operational level, other factors might impede the effectiveness and efficiency of your IT operations (and IT support capabilities in particular). For example: Complex workflows, with traditional ITSM solutions potentially offering cumbersome working methods that delay resolution times. Siloed data, where the lack of integration between tools makes creating or accessing actionable insights difficult. Collaboration limitations, where disconnected tools and platforms make it hard for IT teams to collaborate effectively. SysAid’s latest version has been designed to address these and other issues through a transformative IT support environment that employs modern design principles and AI to...
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### Better Business Through Better IT – The TigerFeet SysAid Story
> This blog explains how SysAid Spaces is helping TigerFeet improve its business operations and outcomes through better IT.
- Published: 2025-02-21
- Modified: 2025-02-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/tigerfeet-sysaid-story
- Categories: Asset management, Service Desk
- Tags: ITAM, ITSM, service desk, SysAid Spaces
- Blog authors: Inesa Bass
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
You might have heard the phrase, “Every company is a technology company, no matter what product or service it provides. ” This is very true for TigerFeet, which is well-known in the UK for supplying greeting cards, party supplies, and gift items. Headquartered in Manchester, TigerFeet’s operations span eight warehouses across the UK, with customers serviced both online and in-store. Technology has long played a part in TigerFeet’s success, with the ability to better serve customers a key priority that’s increasingly dependent on better IT and business operations. TigerFeet’s technology ambitions mirror the strategic moves of industry-leading companies like Walmart or Zara that have leveraged advanced technology management systems to transform their operations. By integrating target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">check out our free demo.
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### Why Winning the TMC 2024 Generative AI Product of the Year Award is Just the Start
> This blog takes a look at how SysAid won the TMC 2024 Generative AI Product of the Year Award. Read it here.
- Published: 2025-02-13
- Modified: 2025-02-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/why-winning-the-tmc-2024-generative-ai-product-of-the-year-award-is-just-the-start
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: SysAid
- Blog authors: Jasmine Chiu
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In Q4 2024, SysAid was again recognized for its innovation. This time, based on its investments in generative AI (GenAI) capabilities by TMC. The second TMC Annual Generative AI Product of the Year Award recognized companies for developing applications, platforms, models, and other hardware/software solutions that harness GenAI to elevate business performance across market segments. This was a great achievement for SysAid. Avi Kedmi, CEO of SysAid, stated it validated SysAid’s dedication to leveraging GenAI to revolutionize IT service management (ITSM) and deliver exceptional value to customers. But, importantly for us, this isn’t a final achievement; it’s simply a milestone on a longer journey to improve the lives of customer sysadmins and the people they support. Winning this award is just the start for SysAid and our customers. SysAid’s long-held vision for better IT management and business outcomes When Israel Lifshitz founded SysAid in 2002, his vision was to make the lives of IT professionals worldwide easier and improve their IT environments and IT service delivery. This is still at the heart of what SysAid does. SysAid’s mission might have moved with the times (and technology) to state, “Our mission is to liberate organizations by putting AI to work for them and their people. ” But the original vision still holds true – SysAid solutions help make your sysadmins “the best version of themselves” in ensuring that the IT organization delivers against the many business needs for technology. SysAid is helping customers through GenAI In a time when IT organizations...
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### Unlock Deeper Insights with SysAid Copilot
> This blog explores how SysAid Copilot delivers valuable insights across eight key areas. See what it's all about here.
- Published: 2025-01-30
- Modified: 2025-02-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/unlock-deeper-insights-sysaid-copilot
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: AI, Copilot, GenAI, Generative AI, ITSM, SysAid Copilot
- Blog authors: Jasmine Chiu
- Role / functions: IT Manager, Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Businesses now expect more from their IT organizations, in part due to their greater reliance on technology. Consequently, your IT organization must leverage new IT service management (ITSM) innovations and the enabling technologies to improve – offering “better, faster, cheaper” operations and outcomes. The opportunities of artificial intelligence (AI), when built into ITSM tools, is a great example. Much has been said and written about AI’s ability to automate ITSM processes and tasks, with many “Copilot” solutions emerging in the tech industry. These AI-powered assistants are designed to help professionals by automating repetitive tasks, offering insights, and enhancing decision-making. While other Copilot solutions exist, SysAid Copilot stands out by using generative AI to provide IT pros with deeper insights, better reporting, and more actionable analytics. This blog explores how SysAid Copilot delivers valuable insights across eight key areas. 1. Agent recommendations SysAid Copilot analyzes historical data and patterns to offer your service desk agents recommendations and suggested solutions for common issues that accelerate incident resolution and service request management processes that improve the end-user experience. It can also identify potential problems before they escalate. For example, identifying incident trends that indicate underlying problems, enabling your ITSM teams to proactively address the root cause(s) using problem management tools and techniques (and focused Copilot capabilities). A key SysAid Copilot capability is that it quickly identifies similar incidents to help your IT organization spot and address underlying problems faster. 2. Task management The IT service desk issue of “cherry picking” tickets is well...
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### What ITSM Professionals Need to Know About GenAI Capabilities
> This blog looks at what ITSM pros need to know about how GenAI capabilities are changing the ITSM landscape.
- Published: 2025-01-23
- Modified: 2025-01-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/genai-capabilities-need-to-know
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: Copilot, GenAI, ITSM, ServiceDesk, SLA
- Blog authors: Jasmine Chiu
- Role / functions: IT Manager, Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The IT service management (ITSM) world is consistently awash with trends related to new ITSM thinking and technology. Unfortunately, these trends often take a long time before they become mainstream in ITSM. However, generative AI (GenAI) is the exception. This has accelerated the existing ITSM interest in AI capabilities, with the most technology-capable ITSM tool vendors and their customers adopting new GenAI capabilities at an unprecedented rate in the history of ITSM evolution. This blog covers much of what ITSM professionals want and need to know about how GenAI is changing the ITSM landscape – from what it is to how organizations already benefit from it. ChatGPT played a big part in GenAI’s accelerated growth Before getting into how GenAI is already helping organizations with “better, faster, cheaper” IT operations and outcomes, it’s worth understanding the drivers for the rapid adoption of GenAI capabilities for ITSM. Before 2023, ChatGPT was relatively unknown, even though OpenAI introduced GPT-1 in 2018 and GPT-2 in 2019. The critical mass happened once ChatGPT was made public in November 2022 as a version of GPT-3. 5. It allegedly achieved 100 million users within two months and was getting 2 billion monthly visits at its peak in April 2024. More importantly than these numbers, ChatGPT did something for GenAI that technology doesn’t usually achieve. The global media brought the opportunity of GenAI to company board attention worldwide and raised GenAI up business to-do lists, including those of IT and ITSM leaders. GenAI allows your IT organization...
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### Kicking off 2025: SysAid Wraps Up 2024 With Prestigious Recognitions from Gartner Digital Markets in 2024
> SysAid celebrates earning top honors from Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp in IT Asset Management, Remote Support, and more. Discover how we’re driving AI-powered innovation and delivering exceptional user value.
- Published: 2025-01-23
- Modified: 2025-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/kicking-off-2025-sysaid-wraps-up-2024-with-prestigious-recognitions-from-gartner-digital-markets-in-2024
- Categories: General IT, Help desk, ITIL, ITSM, Service Desk
- Tags: IT asset management, IT service management
- Blog authors: Avi Kedmi
- Role / functions: CEO
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As we kick off 2025, we are thrilled to share that SysAid has earned multiple accolades from the Gartner Digital Markets brands – Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp. Featured across several flagship reports released in 2024, these recognitions highlight the consistent value we deliver to our users. Check out our incredible badges Capterra IT Asset Management Help Desk Remote Support Knowledge Management ITSM Issue Tracking Software Advice Remote Support Knowledge Management ITSM Issue Tracking GetApp Knowledge Management ITSM Issue Tracking Great help getting started and also with the support team after implementation, they truly helped me in getting started. They truly listen to their customers for when they bring up new things like intune support for asset management. I like the way AI is actually helpful for myself on the helpdesk side but also for the end user with a problem and it is not just another marketing thing, and the marketplace with really useful add-ons and integrations like Zapier. ” “It is one of the best ticketing tools available in the market & it can be easily customizable. The self-service portal & knowledge helps the user for immediate resolution for common issues in the service desk. It is one of the best ITSM tool available in the market with better pricing. It has all the recent integrations like AI, chatbot, & it also works well with Teams. ” “Great support all the way through the install and setup. Post-implementation interactions were fantastic as well. Firstly, ROI. Additionally, ease of...
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### How Agentic AI is Transforming IT Service Management
> The world of IT Service Management (ITSM) is changing rapidly. For mid-market companies, this isn’t just an abstract trend—it’s a daily reality
- Published: 2024-12-19
- Modified: 2024-12-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-agentic-ai-is-transforming-it-service-management
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: IT asset management, IT service management
- Blog authors: Avi Kedmi
- Role / functions: CEO
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The world of IT Service Management (ITSM) is changing rapidly. For mid-market companies, this isn’t just an abstract trend—it’s a daily reality. Increasing demands, limited resources, rising expectations. For years, we’ve asked our IT teams to do more with less, and we’ve all felt the strain. But now, we’re standing at a tipping point, and I believe agentic AI is the key to moving forward. What is agentic AI? Unlike traditional automation that follows pre-defined scripts, agentic AI has the ability to act independently and adapt to changing contexts. It observes its environment, takes initiative, and makes decisions to solve problems—all while learning and improving. This capability makes it especially suited for complex, evolving IT environments like those found in ITSM. Agentic AI goes beyond routine automation. It doesn’t just run pre-set tasks; it reasons like a seasoned professional, weighing conflicting data and making thoughtful decisions even when the path forward isn’t clear. This is more than automation—it’s what Daniel Kahneman might call 'system 2' thinking, where the model deliberately ponders options, evaluates complexities, and acts with intention. The result? Teams are freed to focus on truly impactful work. From where I sit, this technology holds incredible potential to reduce inefficiencies, eliminate repetition, and set IT teams free to thrive. Freeing Teams from Routine I’m not just talking about shaving a few minutes off a ticket resolution time. I’m talking about offloading the sort of, repetitive tasks that weigh teams down—password resets, categorizing tickets, running compliance reports. But here’s the...
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### Streamline IT Operations and Optimize Resource Utilization with GenAI
> This blog looks at how GenAI can help enhance employee experience and streamline IT operations and optimize resource utilization.
- Published: 2024-12-19
- Modified: 2024-12-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/streamline-it-operations-genai
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Copilot, GenAI, Generative AI, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Inesa Bass
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent, VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The opportunity of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for IT service management (ITSM) brings many benefits. As with traditional automation, these benefits cover all three of “better, faster, cheaper. ” However, while “cheaper” is often always good (and especially in today’s financial climate), the “better” and “faster” dimensions are likely to help under-pressure IT organizations more. This need was reflected in the SysAid 2024 Report, which found the top three service desk goals for 2024 to be: Enhancing employee experience through increased AI self-service (28%) Better visibility and analysis into performance, improvement, and outcomes (22%) Improving productivity through automation (15%). GenAI capabilities help. For example, they can streamline IT operations and optimize resource utilization so that your IT organization is better positioned to meet evolving employee and business needs. This blog explains how starting with what’s probably the most high-profile opportunity – the automation of routine tasks. Automating your routine IT support tasks with GenAI The automation of your routine IT support tasks using GenAI will save money. However, and more importantly, it also speeds up service delivery and makes better use of potentially limited IT people resources. A common example of the increased speed and productivity offered by GenAI capabilities is workflow automation. For instance, to automatically classify, prioritize, and route incident and request tickets to the correct resolution groups based on historical data. Other workflow automation examples include routine processes such as software updates, patch management, and system monitoring, where the GenAI-powered automation frees up your IT people to...
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### Cybersecurity Considerations When Choosing ITSM: A Deep Dive
> IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms have become the backbone of modern organizations, streamlining operations, optimizing workflows..
- Published: 2024-12-18
- Modified: 2024-12-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/cybersecurity-considerations-when-choosing-itsm-a-deep-dive
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: cyber security, IT asset management, IT service management
- Blog authors: Alex Raif
- Role / functions: CIO
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms have become the backbone of modern organizations, streamlining operations, optimizing workflows, and ensuring seamless service delivery. But this increased reliance on ITSM solutions has also expanded the attack surface, making cybersecurity a critical pillar of any ITSM strategy. Recent examples underscore the vulnerabilities inherent in these platforms. For instance, in July 2024, CrowdStrike released a faulty configuration update for its Falcon sensor software on Windows. The resulting system crashes caused widespread operational disruptions across sectors such as airlines, banks, and healthcare. This incident highlighted how even trusted software updates can introduce risks, with cascading effects on interconnected systems. Similarly, in November 2024, Schneider Electric experienced a cyberattack that compromised over 40 gigabytes of critical data tied to its internal project tracking platform. Despite being a global leader in energy management, this breach proved that no organization—no matter how secure—is immune to sophisticated cyber threats. These incidents shine a spotlight on why integrating robust cybersecurity measures within ITSM frameworks is no longer optional. Implementing features like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and integrating API security solutions that support ITSM principles (discovery, monitoring, and access control) are non-negotiable in safeguarding against evolving threats. The reality is simple: as organizations deepen their reliance on ITSM platforms, embedding cybersecurity practices not only protects critical assets but also ensures resilience and continuity of operations. Bridging ITSM and Cybersecurity: A Critical Connection Modern ITSM platforms are indispensable. They manage sensitive data, orchestrate incident responses, and integrate seamlessly with enterprise systems. But their central...
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### AI-Powered Asset Management: A Game-Changer for IT Departments
> This article explains how AI-powered asset management is a game changer for your IT department. Read it here.
- Published: 2024-12-12
- Modified: 2024-12-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/ai-powered-asset-management-game-changer
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: Copilot, GenAI, IT asset management, IT service management, ITAM
- Blog authors: Sofia Skubiy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Most IT organizations are under pressure to better meet business needs. This pressure can relate to increased service quality and velocity, innovation, or cost reduction. Thankfully, artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, and generative AI (GenAI) in particular, will help by improving employee capabilities and the business operations and outcomes they contribute to. Please keep reading to find out how GenAI helps IT asset management (ITAM). AI-powered ITAM Corporate IT management is front and center of these technology changes, and your organization’s ITAM capabilities provide a great opportunity for GenAI to improve your IT operations and business outcomes. It’s an important area with rising IT and business influence. For example, the Flexera 2024 State of ITAM Report found that 46% of ITAM teams now report directly to CIOs or CTOs. If you ask any ITAM thought leader about the current trends in ITAM, they’ll undoubtedly call out AI and its ability to improve ITAM data management, process and task automation, and decision-making. Industry analyst firms also support the power of AI for ITAM. For example, Gartner Research estimates a 30% reduction in IT hardware costs, and IDC a 15-25% improvement in asset utilization. However, the ability of AI-powered asset management to help your organization goes beyond ITAM itself. In particular, enabling your corporate IT service management (ITSM) capabilities, with the ability to improve IT service delivery and support. This article explains how AI-powered asset management is a game changer for your IT department, providing “better, faster, cheaper” asset and service management capabilities....
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### Transform Your Service Desk with a GenAI Chatbot for Agents
> It’s essential not to overlook the opportunities to transform your IT service desk with a GenAI chatbot for service desk agents. Here's why.
- Published: 2024-11-21
- Modified: 2024-12-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/service-desk-genai-chatbot-for-agents
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Chatbot, GenAI, Generative AI, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Much has been written about the opportunities of generative AI (GenAI) chatbots in an end-user context. Where the GenAI capabilities finally turn IT self-service capabilities into a service that meets end-user expectations. However, it’s essential not to overlook the opportunities to transform your IT service desk, and not just your IT self-service capabilities, with GenAI chatbots for service desk agents. After all, most service desks are looking to transform their operations to deliver better business outcomes in the face of higher business expectations across “better, faster, and cheaper. ” This blog explains more, starting with the “Why? ”. Why provide GenAI chatbots to service desk agents? GenAI chatbots offer a wealth of opportunities for your IT organization to improve (or transform) the roles and performance of service desk agents. Two key opportunities are: Providing information and automation when it’s needed Content creation to reduce administrative work. Importantly, these benefits are not only felt by your service desk agents. They also help by providing better service experiences to end-users (which in turn makes them more productive) and time and cost savings for the service desk. Chatbots for information and automation Modern IT service management (ITSM) tools offer virtual assistants (often called Copilots or chatbots) for your service desk agents. These chatbots deliver real-time, tailored (AI-generated) responses that conversationally address your agents’ needs. This can provide information, knowledge, or actions so agents can quickly resolve end-user issues. All without leaving the ticket record. This capability not only helps seasoned agents but also...
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### Streamline IT Support with Image Analysis
> The SysAid ITSM solution now includes Image Analysis – a GenAI capability that can help all organizations. Here's all the information.
- Published: 2024-10-31
- Modified: 2024-10-31
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/sysaid-image-analysis
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: GenAI, Image Analysis
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT service management (ITSM) teams are under increasing pressure to meet growing end-user expectations of corporate IT support. As example data points, the Forrester Research “The State Of The Service Desk, 2022” report found that 62% of employees avoid the IT service desk. Unfortunately, 58% live with ongoing IT issues that the service desk can’t fix. This is just a snapshot of the end-user discontent with IT support capabilities. Thankfully, however, customer-focused ITSM tool vendors are using new generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in both obvious and innovative ways to improve customers’ IT support capabilities and their ability to meet the expectations of their end-users. One of the innovative ways is image analysis. “A picture paints a thousand words” The SysAid ITSM solution product managers have long understood the importance of image capture to IT support. Over a decade ago, an F10 screen capture capability was available to customers and their end-users. This capability was a unique differentiator for SysAid’s IT support capabilities in a crowded ITSM tool marketplace. It was the IT support version of the adage that “a picture paints a thousand words. ” However, the ITSM tool market, enabling technologies, and end-user expectations have all moved on. GenAI capabilities now offer even more use cases to streamline IT support and provide better end-user experiences with image analysis. Using GenAI image analysis for IT support The SysAid ITSM solution now includes Image Analysis – a GenAI capability that will be developed further based on customer needs and technological evolution....
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### Why Multi-Channel IT Support is Essential in the GenAI Era
> Multi-channel IT support is essential in a GenAI era, enhancing capabilities in accessibility, automation and efficiency. This blog explains.
- Published: 2024-09-26
- Modified: 2024-09-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/multi-channel-it-support-genai-era
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: GenAI, ITSM, Multi-channel
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
A decade ago, the IT service management (ITSM) industry was awash with talk of the IT self-service portal being the cure for all IT support ills. There were also service portal strategies where the traditional telephone and email channels were to be closed, with end-users forced to use the “superior” service portal channel. However, many of the service portal implementations of a decade ago didn’t deliver on their promises (for various reasons). Now, a decade later, the rise of end-user-centric and experience-focused IT support strategies means that multi-channel IT support is now essential in the generative AI (GenAI) era, with this enhancing capabilities across accessibility, automation, and efficiency. This blog explains why. Expectations and technical capabilities Before diving into specifics, it’s important to understand two of the overarching drivers of the multi-channel approach to IT support. The first is employee expectations, where “choice” is the key word. The second is the available technical capabilities, with it easier than ever to pass end-users and their issues between channels and support personnel to get them the best possible support experience and outcome. These two overarching drivers can be seen in the following reasons why multi-channel IT support is essential in the GenAI era. Meeting end-user preferences and expectations Modern end-users are bringing their consumer-world service and support experiences into the workplace. They expect to interact with internal IT support through multiple channels – whether it’s chat (including chatbots), email, telephone, service portal, Microsoft Teams and Slack sessions, or even social media. For...
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### What’s the Difference Between AI and GenAI in the Context of ITSM?
> The distinction between traditional AI and GenAI relates to their capabilities, methodologies, and applications. This SysAid blog explains.
- Published: 2024-09-18
- Modified: 2024-09-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/difference-ai-genai
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: AI, GenAI, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
When considering adopting artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled capabilities in an IT service management (ITSM) context, it’s essential to appreciate the difference between traditional AI and generative AI (GenAI). This blog explains the key differences and how they impact possible ITSM use cases. The key differences between traditional AI and GenAI The distinction between traditional AI and GenAI relates to their capabilities, methodologies, and applications. Traditional AI employs algorithms and models designed to perform specific tasks or solve particular problems by following predefined rules or learning from data. These AI capabilities are typically task-specific and can’t generate novel content or solutions beyond their programming or training data. High-level work-related examples include classification, recommendation, and anomaly detection. Traditional AI relies heavily on labeled datasets for training and validation and often uses supervised learning techniques where the model is trained on the labeled dataset to learn the mapping from input to output. This enables traditional AI capabilities to identify objects in images, convert spoken language into text, suggest products and content based on the preferences and past behavior of users, identify fraudulent activities in financial transactions, or power chatbots and virtual assistants that follow scripted responses. Whereas GenAI capabilities are models and algorithms that generate new data or content that resembles the input data they were trained on. For example, GenAI systems can produce new content in the form of text, images, music, and video that didn’t exist in the training data. GenAI systems employ advanced neural network architectures such as transformer-based models...
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### 10 Ways AI Improves IT Service Desk Operations and Outcomes
> Take a look at ten AI use cases for the IT service desk which are available now for ITSM professionals and organizations to benefit from.
- Published: 2024-09-12
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/ai-improves-service-desk-operations
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: AI, AI Tools, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, GenAI, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The last half decade has been notable for the blogs, presentations, and other sharing opportunities on how artificial intelligence (AI) will radically alter corporate IT service management (ITSM) and the IT service desk in particular. However, thanks to the rapid progress of generative AI (GenAI) development and adoption brought on by the success of ChatGPT (and others such as Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini), the opportunity for IT service desks to improve their operations and outcomes using the AI-based capabilities embedded within ITSM tools has accelerated significantly. The state of ITSM AI adoption at the start of 2024 This blog isn’t about where we currently are; instead, it focuses on where we could or should be. However, it’s worth undertaking a quick “pulse” check to see how far ITSM AI adoption has progressed. The ITSM. tools ITSM Well-being in 2024 Survey included questions on AI adoption. It found that 36% of respondents already use corporate AI capabilities. 17% reported that they help, and 19% that they don’t. This dissatisfaction with early AI adoption is perhaps to be expected, with potential issues including bad technology choices, inappropriate use cases, and poor technology implementations. It’s also unknown whether these AI capabilities are part of existing corporate applications, such as ITSM tools, or bespoke AI applications. However, ITSM professionals can also access an alternative to corporate ITSM capabilities, particularly in their absence. The survey found two-thirds (66%) of respondents had used non-corporate AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to help with their work, with...
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### If AI is the Future, That Future is Already Here for ITSM
> This blog shares some recent insights about AI adoption in ITSM that show that the future of ITSM is already here.
- Published: 2024-08-22
- Modified: 2024-12-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/ai-future-already-here
- Categories: ITSM, Service Desk
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Copilot, IT service management, ITSM, service desk, Workflow Automation, Workflows
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Artificial intelligence (AI) in IT service management (ITSM) has long been touted as the future of IT service delivery and support. It’s an unavoidable future, thanks to the benefits AI-enabled capabilities bring to ITSM and the ever-increasing challenges the corporate IT organization faces. However, all the talk of AI as the future of ITSM is now a little misguided. Not because it’s no longer something that will happen but because the AI-assisted future for ITSM is already here for many IT organizations. This blog shares some recent insights about AI adoption in ITSM that show that the future of ITSM is already here. Automation is still the leading ITSM trend for SysAid customers Despite finding that employee experience has dramatically gone up in importance from 56% in 2022 to 73% in 2023, the SysAid 2023 State of Service Management Report, which collated the responses from over 1200 SysAid customers, showed that improving productivity with automation was still the highest scoring ITSM trend for 2023 at 76%. Additionally, using AI to predict and resolve issues more proactively jumped from 21% to 29%. IT organizations are now ready for AI-powered ITSM capabilities, with generative AI solutions leading the way. For example: Virtual agents (often called chatbots) Email autoresponders Real-time assistance for IT support staff Ticket summarization Writing assistance Automated performance insights Sentiment analysis. In addition to what we’re seeing with customers, the following statistics have helped to inform this view. ITSM pros are already using free (and non-corporate) AI tools Before considering...
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### IT Self-Service: Crash, Burn, and Comeback with GenAI
> IT self-service has always been the go-to for overworked service desks looking to better serve end-users. But let's be honest, the last decade hasn't exactly been smooth sailing.
- Published: 2024-08-07
- Modified: 2024-10-08
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-self-service-crash-burn-and-comeback-with-genai
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: AI, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT self-service has always been the go-to for overworked service desks looking to better serve end-users. But let's be honest, the last decade hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. Despite shiny new tech, users weren't thrilled. Adoption rates? Low. Satisfaction? Even lower. Back in 2017, a telling stat showed that less than 12% of organizations felt they got their money’s worth from self-service tools. The promises were big: cut costs, boost satisfaction, and 24/7 support. Reality? Not so much. Turning the Tide with Two Key Trends Fast forward to today, and two trends are shaking things up: Experience Management: Figuring out what users hate about self-service. Artificial Intelligence (AI): Making those self-service experiences not just bearable, but actually good. After the initial crash and burn, self-service is making a comeback. And it’s all thanks to generative AI (GenAI). Insight into Employee Experience and IT Self-Service The SysAid “AI Revolution in ITSM: Mega-Trends You Can’t Ignore” 2024 report has some eye-opening data. For instance, 81% of SysAid users report a better employee experience thanks to AI tools. The top goal for IT service desks in 2024? Enhance employee experience through more self-service. 28% of respondents are all in on this. It’s clear: organizations still believe in self-service to speed up support, cut costs, and improve employee experiences. Why the Shift? Early on, the focus was all about cutting costs and boosting efficiency. Employee experience? Not even on the radar. Fast forward to 2024, and it’s a different game. Now, 71% of our...
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### IT Pros Are Going All-In on Advanced AI for ITSM
> IT service management (ITSM) tools are shaking things up. They're getting smarter, fast. Think AI and GenAI – the new must-haves.
- Published: 2024-08-07
- Modified: 2024-08-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-pros-are-going-all-in-on-advanced-ai-for-itsm
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: AI, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT service management (ITSM) tools are shaking things up. They're getting smarter, fast. Think AI and GenAI – the new must-haves. Leading ITSM vendors are all over it. The SysAid “AI Revolution in ITSM: Mega-Trends You Can’t Ignore” 2024 report shows just how big this shift is. Nearly 60% of respondents say IT is a top strategic priority, and over a quarter (26%) of IT leaders see it as an even bigger deal this year. So, what’s driving this push? It’s simple. Better ITSM operations mean better business outcomes. Our report says 81% of SysAid users are seeing a boost in employee experience thanks to AI tools. But we’re not there yet. Many IT pros still need more help, especially with service desk capabilities. Service Desk Goals and How GenAI Steps In: Our survey nailed down the top three service desk goals for 2024: AI isn't just a buzzword anymore. It's a game-changer. And in the world of ITSM, it's making waves. Ready to ride them? Better Performance Insights: Get clearer visibility and analysis on performance and outcomes. Productivity Boost: Leverage AI and automation to get more done, faster. AI isn't just a buzzword anymore. It's a game-changer. And in the world of ITSM, it's making waves. Ready to ride them? AI-Enabled Capabilities: More Than Just Productivity AI isn't just about cranking up productivity (though it does that pretty well). It’s a game-changer across the board. Here’s how: Self-Service: Picture GenAI-powered chatbots or virtual agents. They're conversational and get you...
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### Measuring Success in IT
> There's a wealth of best practice KPIs out there for IT organizations, but are these still the best way to measure and report on IT success?
- Published: 2024-08-01
- Modified: 2024-08-01
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/measuring-success-it
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, KPIs, metrics, service desk, Service Desk Metrics
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s an issue nearly as old as corporate IT itself. How should an IT organization measure its success? Many IT metrics and key performance indicators have been branded as “industry best practices” over the last three decades. For example, the wealth of IT service desk metrics contained within the ITIL body of service management best practice guidance. However, are all these IT metrics the best way to measure and report on IT success? For many organizations, the answer is “no. ” This is because of the difference between the IT organization’s perception of its success versus what the rest of the business thinks of IT’s performance. It can be a significant difference. Assessing traditional IT success measures An IT organization’s performance is usually assessed across various quality, time, and cost parameters. This applies to both running the business (IT operations) and changing the business (development and projects). In terms of the former, this includes customer satisfaction, meeting service level agreement (SLA) speed targets, and budget management. However, an IT organization can hit targets across all of these areas, but it is still not considered successful by the business as a whole, including its employees. This is because of what the IT industry has called “the watermelon effect. ” The watermelon effect explained If you think of a watermelon, it has a green exterior, but cut it open, and it’s red inside. The same can happen with IT performance measurement. From the IT organization’s perspective, all of the performance metrics are...
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### Why Your IT Service Desk Agents Need Copilots
> This blog explains what Copilots are before focusing on how they help and why your IT service desk agents need them.
- Published: 2024-07-10
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/service-desk-agents-copilots
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, Copilots, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you’re new to Copilots, it might seem like an aviation term. There’s a connection, though – because an aircraft copilot supports the pilot in navigating and operating the plane. However, artificial intelligence (AI)-based Copilots are an IT service management (ITSM) technology exploitation opportunity that will radically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of IT support operations. This blog explains what Copilots are before focusing on how they help and why your IT service desk agents need them. What are Copilots? A Copilot is an application that employs AI to help people with tasks and improve their lives and experiences (including for the people they support). Copilots can help across a broad spectrum of areas, including: Automating routine tasks – freeing up people’s time to focus on other work Decision-making – analyzing vast amounts of data quickly to provide insights Real-time guidance – for example, issue-handling assistance Predictive analytics – predicting trends and behaviors based on historical data Personalization – adapting to individual preferences based on previous interactions. Copilots exist for different corporate and social needs, but specific IT support examples are shared next. How Copilots help IT service desk agents Some of the ways a Copilot can be employed in IT support to help IT service desk agents are: Intelligent work intake. There’s no longer a need for manual triage because Copilots can employ natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to classify, prioritize, and route incident and service request tickets to the appropriate team. Virtual agents (often called chatbots)....
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### Debunking Generative AI Myths in ITSM: It's Time to Rethink
> Gen AI is a trending topic, but many of us are still figuring out how it fits into ITSM. Let's explore how Gen AI can help us work more efficiently.
- Published: 2024-07-09
- Modified: 2024-08-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/debunking-generative-ai-myths-in-itsm-its-time-to-rethink
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Avi Kedmi
- Role / functions: CEO
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Gen AI is a trending topic, but many of us are still figuring out how it fits into our daily routines in ITSM.
Gen AI is a trending topic, but many of us are still figuring out how it fits into our daily routines in ITSM. Is it just a passing trend, or could it be a useful tool? Let's explore how Gen AI can help us work more efficiently. Myth #1 Busted: Gen AI Requires Manually Updating Knowledge Bases Ever heard the myth that Gen AI needs constant manual updates to keep its knowledge base accurate? Turns out, that's not entirely true. Modern Gen AI can learn and adapt on its own. It's like having an intelligent assistant who continues to improve without constant supervision. And on That Note, Here’s a Related Myth Busted: Poor Ticket Data Prevents Effective Gen AI Use Some say Gen AI won't work well due to their ticket data quality. But here's the twist – we can blend our data with global knowledge and adjust our approach to make it work effectively. It's a journey of improvement, not an instant fix. Myth #2 Busted: You Can't Control Gen AI and It Makes Mistakes Contrary to popular belief, we have control over Gen AI. We can monitor, tweak, and correct it as needed. It's just like having a helpful colleague who's open to feedback and learns from mistakes. Myth #3 Busted: Implementing a Gen AI Chatbot Takes Months Let's dispel this myth once and for all. Implementing Gen AI-powered tools like chatbots doesn't have to be a lengthy process. We can integrate them seamlessly and get started quickly....
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### Key Factors to Consider when Evaluating AI ITSM Solutions
> The key criteria for evaluating AI in an ITSM solution can be viewed across four groupings. This blog explains all you need to know.
- Published: 2024-06-13
- Modified: 2024-08-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/evaluating-ai-in-itsm
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
So, your organization has realized that it needs a new IT service management (ITSM) solution. But what should it include in the evaluation of the available ITSM solution options? Thanks to the wealth of capabilities organizations might want from their new ITSM solution, it has never been an easy activity. However, it’s now even trickier, with ITSM solutions expected to deliver more than just ITSM thanks to enterprise service management initiatives. But there’s also the opportunity of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled capabilities to consider, too – with the failure to receive these likely to hinder an IT organization’s IT service delivery and support operations and outcomes relative to competitor organizations that have already adopted AI-enabled capabilities. This blog explains some of the key additional criteria your organization needs when evaluating the AI-enabled capabilities available in ITSM solutions. Understanding the Various ‘Flavors’ of AI in ITSM Solution Requirements As you’ll see in the rest of this blog, the key criteria for evaluating AI in an ITSM solution can be divided into groupings. These are, of course, in addition to the requirements for assessing an ITSM solution without AI-enabled capabilities, such as core ITSM process enablement and the non-functional requirements required of any technology solution. When assessing an AI ITSM solution, the key criteria can be broken down into four categories: AI-related capabilities Technology-related capabilities Success measurement Process-improvement-related capabilities. Of course, some of these criteria can be considered to fit into multiple groups depending on your organization’s perspective and needs. 1. AI ITSM:...
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### Overcome Asset Warranty Chaos: 6 Best Practices for Effective Management
> Keeping your IT equipment running smoothly is crucial, But between complex terms, expiring dates, and a claim process that feels like a maze,
- Published: 2024-05-26
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/overcome-asset-warranty-chaos-6-best-practices-for-effective-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM
- Blog authors: Sofia Skubiy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Keeping your IT equipment running smoothly is crucial, and warranties are supposed to be your safety net. But between complex terms, expiring dates, and a claim process that feels like a maze, managing warranties can become a real headache for IT professionals. This blog post cracks the code on warranty management, offering 6 best practices to streamline the process and ensure you're getting the most out of your IT investments. 1. Establish a Comprehensive Warranty Inventory: Your Asset "War Room" The foundation of efficient warranty management lies in creating a comprehensive inventory. Think of it as your personal "war room," where you have a clear picture of all your warranties for hardware, software, and anything else in your IT battalion. Here's how SysAid empowers you to build your war room without the stress: Automated Asset Capture: You can upload a list of your assets, including type (laptop, server, printer), manufacturer, model number, and all the warranty details. Feeling lazy? SysAid's Asset Management module can even automate this process, freeing you up for more important tasks (like napping... or conquering the world... we don't judge). Centralized Storage: Say goodbye to lost documents! With SysAid's centralized storage, warranty information is always accessible, no matter where you are. 2. Embrace Automation: Unleash Your Warranty Management Superpowers Remember the days of manually tracking expiration dates and sifting through mountains of paperwork? Yeah, those were dark times. Thankfully, SysAid's warranty management software is here to automate those tedious tasks. These tools act as your...
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### Let's Talk Employee Experience: Why Our AI Chatbot via Microsoft Teams is the Gamechanger You've Been Waiting For
> The way employees interact with IT support is due for a major overhaul. We're talking about saying goodbye to those clunky ticketing systems
- Published: 2024-05-26
- Modified: 2024-08-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/why-our-ai-chatbot-via-microsoft-teams-is-the-gamechanger
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: AI Chatbot, automation, employee experience, ITSM, Microsoft Teams
- Blog authors: Christine Pun
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The way employees interact with IT support is due for a major overhaul. We're talking about saying goodbye to those clunky ticketing systems, relentlessly tapping your IT colleague's shoulder, and impersonal phone calls. Instead, imagine a world where getting IT help could be as easy as chatting with a coworker. This isn't just about convenience, it's about fundamentally changing the employee experience for the better. At SysAid, we've recently released our cutting-edge AI Chatbot via MS Teams, powered by SysAid Copilot. It leverages the power of generative AI to understand natural language and generate human-quality responses. This means employees can get conversational support directly from within the familiar, and preferred interface of Microsoft Teams. So why is this a game-changer? How will it impact employee experience? Let's dive in. The SysAid Copilot Advantage: Our AI Chatbot via MS Teams is like a superpowered search engine for IT and operational needs. It can search through SysAid's system of records, articles in approved SharePoint sites, documents, and even public websites. SysAid Copilot can be monitored, fine-tuned, created, and tailored to meet the unique needs of any organization. Think of it like training a super-smart assistant who knows all your company's ins and outs. For example, agents can upload an HR policy so employees can get answers to questions specific to their organization, right on the spot. Meet Employees Where They Are: Employees are already living in MS Teams for communication and collaboration. Would you believe that 300 conversations take place every minute...
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### Employee Experience is for IT Service Provider Staff, Too
> The IT organization is focusing more on the employees it serves, but what about the employees working in IT and their employee experience?
- Published: 2024-05-22
- Modified: 2024-05-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/employee-experience-is-for-it-service-provider-staff-too
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: employee experience, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There’s no escaping the continuing march of employee experience in IT. Over the last few years, most IT organizations have recognized the importance of better meeting employee or end-user needs and focusing improvements on what matters most to them. They might not have yet invested in employee experience measurement (or digital employee experience (DEX) management) mechanisms to gain greater insight into how IT operations help or hinder these employees and business outcomes. But they are likely talking about it. The IT organization is focusing more on the employees it serves through its IT service delivery and support capabilities, which must be a good thing. But what about the employees working in IT and their employee experience? IT employees and processes have long been the “cobbler’s children” There’s a saying that “the cobbler’s children are the worst shod. ” This “old English” means that the shoemaker’s children have the worst, or potentially no, shoes. Reflecting that we can be so focused on serving the needs of others that we forget, or never get around to, meeting the needs of those “closer to home. ” In the case of employee experience, it’s more than likely that IT organizations will be so focused on improving the experiences for the employees or end-users they serve that they’ll overlook the expectations and needs of IT staff. It first happened in the 1990s when IT organizations originally introduced business-enabling technology, and I predict that it will happen again with experience management if we aren’t careful....
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### How Does AI in ITSM Enhance Service Management?
> Explore this blog to discover how AI in ITSM improves processes. Uncover specific methods that enhance ITSM through AI. Dive in now!
- Published: 2024-04-25
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/generative-ai/ai-improves-itsm
- Categories: Generative AI
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, change management, incident management, ITSM, knowledge management, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There’s a lot of media hype around artificial intelligence (AI), especially on the back of the buzz created by generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. However, this hype shouldn’t overshadow the AI-enabled capabilities already added to IT service management (ITSM) tools, including the use of generative AI. Especially the capabilities that improve ITSM process efficiency and effectiveness in line with the automation mantra of “better, faster, cheaper” operations and outcomes. This blog looks at some specific ways that AI-enabled capabilities have been introduced to ITSM tools, taking a process-based perspective. But first, here’s some benefits-focused scene setting. The Benefits of AI in ITSM The potential benefits of AI for ITSM include: Improved service experiences including personalization, with AI able to provide personalized engagements to end-users based on their profile, including past interactions and preferences. Improved operational efficiency and speed, with AI automating routine ITSM tasks. This includes improved Level 0 support capabilities via AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants that can handle basic inquiries and support requests. Cost reduction, which includes labor savings and a reduction in the costs related to service downtime. Enhanced decision-making because AI technologies such as machine learning can analyze large data sets to identify patterns and trends that inform better decisions. This includes better planning, with AI predicting future demand for IT resources and allocating resources optimally. Proactivity, including with problem-solving capabilities, because AI can predict potential issues before they occur by analyzing system performance data. Enhanced IT security by identifying and responding to security...
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### How Best to Sell Enterprise Service Management to Other Lines of Business
> Advice on how best to sell enterprise service management to other lines of business. Rea the full article here.
- Published: 2024-03-14
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/sell-enterprise-service-management-other-business
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: enterprise service management, ESM, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The IT service management (ITSM) world is always full of trends, and many take a long time to move from “the next big thing” to being mainstream ITSM best practices. The opportunities of enterprise service management (also known by the acronym ESM) are among these ITSM trends. It’s the use of ITSM capabilities by other lines of business – such as Human Resources (HR), Facilities, Finance, and Legal – to improve their respective services, operations, experiences, and outcomes. Enterprise service management has seen the initial interest of over a decade ago turn into something different in recent years. What started as a “quick fix” for the need for process-enabling technology in other lines of business moved to sharing service management best practices before seeing its adoption accelerate because of the global pandemic. This latter change was caused by the corporate need for digital transformation, specifically the business-process digital enablement element. But what if your IT organization still needs to sell enterprise service management to other lines of business? To help, this blog offers advice on how best to position what can be seen as ITSM capabilities as the solution to the digital enablement needs of other lines of business. 1 - Be careful about using IT-created terminology The term “enterprise service management” will mean little to other lines of business. Neither will much of the ITIL-created process terminology, such as incident and problem management. Instead, enterprise service management needs to be described and positioned differently to better sell its value...
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### Practical Business Use Cases for ESM
> This blog shares some practical business use cases for ESM (enterprise service management). Take a look here.
- Published: 2023-12-14
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/practical-business-use-cases-for-esm
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: enterprise service management, ESM, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
While enterprise service management is frequently described as the extension of IT service management (ITSM) capabilities to other business function departments to help improve their operations, services, experiences, and outcomes, the reality is that the shared capabilities are often related to the IT service desk and its service and support capabilities. There’s more insight on this below. With this in mind, it’s good for organizations looking to start or expand on existing enterprise service management strategies to understand where enterprise service management is commonly applied. To help, this blog shares some practical business use cases for enterprise service management. What the enterprise service management “footprint” looks like While enterprise service management definitions might make it look like organizations are sharing all 34 ITIL 4 management practices with other business functions, the reality is that some ITSM processes or practices are shared more than others. Plus, some business functions are more amenable to enterprise service management than others. These spectrums are evidenced in Axelos and HDI surveys. The global Axelos Enterprise Service Management Industry Report 2021 found that: Customer service/support was the most common recipient of shared service management capabilities (50% of organizations). This figure equated to 74% of the organizations with ongoing enterprise service management strategies. The level of adoption for other business functions, across all organizations, was business operations 42%, human resources (HR) 29%, security 27%, facilities 21%, finance 21%, procurement 19%, sales and/or marketing 15%, and legal 9%. The most commonly shared ITSM capabilities were incident management 53%,...
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### Preparing IT Staff for AI Use
> Tips to ensure that your org’s adoption of AI for ITSM is facilitated by focused, people-related activities that prepare IT staff for AI use.
- Published: 2023-11-08
- Modified: 2024-08-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/preparing-it-staff-for-ai-use
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
While there’s much IT service management (ITSM) focus on the technical skills required to introduce artificial intelligence (AI)-based capabilities, there’s also a need to ensure that people (both IT staff and the people they serve) are suitably educated and potentially trained to fully benefit from the new capabilities. This need is encapsulated within the use of organizational change management tools and techniques. However, it’s still worthwhile ensuring that your organization’s adoption of AI for ITSM is facilitated by focused, people-related activities that prepare IT staff for AI use. The key challenges with AI adoption for ITSM A short AI survey by ITSM. tools found that: 73% of the organizations with an ITSM tool have access to AI capabilities 84% of organizations have adopted some form of AI capability (either in IT or business functions) In terms of the key challenges, the survey found that over half of the respondents felt the “lack of skilled people internally” to be a barrier to AI adoption success. ChallengesPercentageLack of skilled people internally57%Competing priorities for resources44%Legacy IT applications and infrastructure43%Employee resistance to change40%Additional costs38%Organizational politics and other barriers34%The available intelligent automation capabilities24%Lack of third-party assistance16%Don’t Know or N/A4% However, all these statistics need to be recognized in the context of the likely survey bias caused by the survey’s singular focus on AI. 5 steps for preparing IT staff for AI use As mentioned, organizational change management tools and techniques can help ensure that IT staff are fully prepared for the AI-based ITSM use cases...
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### SysAid On-Prem Software CVE-2023-47246 Vulnerability
> SysAid On-Prem Software CVE-2023-47246 Vulnerability - Learn about the security flaw in SysAid's on-premises software version.
- Published: 2023-11-08
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/on-premise-software-security-vulnerability-notification
- Categories: ITSM, Service Desk
- Blog authors: Sasha Shapirov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Written by Sasha Shapirov CTO @ SysAid & Profero Incident Response TeamOn Nov 2nd, a potential vulnerability in our on-premise software came to our security team’s attention. We immediately initiated our incident response protocol and began proactively communicating with our on-premise customers to ensure they could implement a mitigation solution we had identified. We engaged Profero, a cyber security incident response company, to assist us in our investigation. The investigation determined that there was a zero-day vulnerability in the SysAid on-premises software. We urge all customers with SysAid on-prem server installations to ensure that your SysAid systems are updated to version 23. 3. 36, which remediates the identified vulnerability, and conduct a comprehensive compromise assessment of your network to look for any indicators further discussed below. Should you identify any indicators, take immediate action and follow your incident response protocols. What Happened The investigation identified a previously unknown path traversal vulnerability leading to code execution within the SysAid on-prem software. The vulnerability was exploited by a group known as DEV-0950 (Lace Tempest), as identified by the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team. The attacker uploaded a WAR archive containing a WebShell and other payloads into the webroot of the SysAid Tomcat web service. The full directory path was C:\Program Files\SysAidServer\tomcat\webapps\usersfiles\. The WebShell provided the attacker with unauthorized access and control over the affected system. Subsequently, the attacker utilized a PowerShell script, deployed through the WebShell, to execute a malware loader named user. exe on the compromised host, which was...
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### Managing Healthcare Onboarding and Offboarding More Efficiently
> Here we look at the common challenges of healthcare onboarding before explaining how existing IT practices can be used to make improvements.
- Published: 2023-10-19
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/healthcare-onboarding-offboarding
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Healthcare, ITSM, offboarding, onboarding, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you think back to when you joined your Healthcare organization, you’ll probably remember the experience. It might have been super slick with everything in place for your first day at work. However, employee onboarding can be complicated, with Sapling HR stating that the average new hire is expected to complete 54 activities during onboarding. This figure is likely to be even higher in Healthcare environments. For many Healthcare organizations, the onboarding and offboarding of both permanent and temporary employees (or contractors) can be problematic, with it taking far longer than it should. Even worse, an employee can find themselves starting without the full complement of equipment they need to be a fully functioning staff member. The quality of onboarding can also affect employee retention, with research by Brandon Hall Group finding that great employee onboarding can improve employee retention by 82%. To help, this blog looks at the common challenges of employee onboarding before explaining how existing IT practices can be used to improve your Healthcare organization’s onboarding and offboarding capabilities. The common challenges with employee onboarding Many organizations will say that their employee onboarding process takes too long and is filled with examples of “dropped batons,” where tasks are delayed or even lost. These are the symptoms, though, with the root causes likely to be one or more of the following: A lack of process structure and consistency Communication gaps, which can include unclear expectations on responsibilities and timeframes as well as onboarding messages (that likely have tasks)...
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### Automating Healthcare Workflows Using IT Practices to Improve Efficiency
> Automate healthcare workflows with IT practices for improved efficiency. Learn more from SysAid.
- Published: 2023-10-12
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/automating-healthcare-workflows
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: automation, Healthcare, ITSM, service desk, Workflow Automation
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Healthcare organizations are not immune to the need to increase process efficiency, improve employee productivity, and reduce costs. According to McKinsey research in 2020, 33% of Healthcare provider tasks could be automated to reduce costs and improve affordability. Whether it’s the need to streamline operations to improve competitiveness or meet industry regulations such as the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements, workflow automation offers many benefits to Healthcare organizations. One solution is the procurement and implementation of a process automation tool. However, Healthcare organizations with a fit-for-purpose IT service management (ITSM) tool already likely have the business-wide workflow automation capabilities they need. This blog explains why. The need for workflow automation in Healthcare organizations Organizations have automated manual operations since the 18th Century, when the Industrial Revolution took manufacturing operations from hand-production methods to machine use, i. e. automation. However, no matter the automation already in play, there’s still usually the opportunity to further automate practices, especially workflows – where there’s likely still the use of paper and personal productivity tools (such as email and spreadsheets) and manual operations that slow down processes and increase operational costs. For a Healthcare organization, the improvement opportunity can cover various operational areas and processes. For example: Administrative processes – such as patient registration, patient scheduling, billing, claims processing, compliance monitoring, and people management Clinical processes – such as patient triage, diagnosis and treatment planning, medication management, surgical procedures, and patient discharge Support services processes – such as supply chain management,...
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### 2024 ITSM Trends – “Do Existing Things Better”
> Which 2024 ITSM trends will be relevant to organizations seeking to improve their business value? This article explores.
- Published: 2023-09-27
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-trends-2024
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, employee experience, enterprise service management, ITSM, people, service desk, sustaintability
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As 2024 rapidly approaches, it’s worth considering what will change in the IT service management (ITSM) industry next year, i. e. , the 2024 ITSM trends. In some ways, there’s “much of the same,” but there’s a need to finally address some long-known needs. As covered in our 2023 ITSM trends blog, value demonstration, people focus, and “advanced ITSM” remain relevant to IT organizations seeking to improve their business value in 2024. Advanced ITSM includes not only doing new things but also doing existing things better – which could cover many of the “ongoing” ITSM trends that will likely be listed in other “2024 ITSM trends” blogs that appear in December and January. These 2024 ITSM trends are covered first in what can be considered an “umbrella trend” that’s a variant of 2023’s advanced ITSM trend – where the focus is on being and doing better rather than simply starting new things. For tips related to these trends, please check out this "ITSM Tips for 2024" from everybody's favorite Joe the IT Guy. Top 5 ITSM Trends For 2024 Many ITSM trends have moved from year to year, appearing in multiple “ITSM trends for” lists because while some organizations have adopted them, they’re still relevant to others. They can also suffer from the time it takes the ITSM industry to bring in new concepts and innovations. These trends include value co-creation or demonstration as an overarching IT and ITSM priority, enabled by the following four focused trends. #1: Enterprise Service...
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### HIPAA and IT Asset Management in Healthcare
> This blog explains where and how ITAM supports HIPAA requirements across various compliance and efficiency needs.
- Published: 2023-09-21
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/hipaa-and-it-asset-management-in-healthcare
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: Healthcare, HIPAA, ITAM, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Do you want to know how IT best practices can help with your Healthcare regulatory challenges? Corporate IT asset management (ITAM) capabilities are a great example. They’re commonly extended to other business functions as part of digital transformation or enterprise service management strategies to help manage non-IT technology assets (ITAM is the third most-shared IT service management (ITSM) capability after incident and service request management). A valuable non-IT ITAM use case is in Healthcare scenarios, where ITAM can help with the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This blog explains where and how ITAM supports HIPAA requirements across various compliance and efficiency needs, covering IT-provided and medical technology assets. A Healthcare customer example Church Health uses SysAid to address its operational challenges, with ticketing and asset management used across the organization – for example, for physical facility repairs, credentialing, employee onboarding, software troubleshooting, tickets for collecting donated medical equipment, and adding new healthcare providers, drugs, or treatments to a picklist in the system. Another Healthcare-industry-specific function SysAid fulfills for Chruch Health is monitoring encryption on the organization’s laptops. It helps ensure patient medical information is secure and confidential, even in the event of a lost device, avoiding the risk of a costly HIPAA breach. It’s an important capability given that, in 2022, an average of
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### ChatGPT in ITSM and ESM: Use Cases
> This blog shares examples of ChatGPT in ITSM and how it can be employed in operations to improve operations and outcomes.
- Published: 2023-08-24
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/chatgpt-in-itsm-and-esm
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, ChatGPT, CMDB, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Right now, it’s hard not to notice the hype around corporate artificial intelligence (AI) use caused by ChatGPT, a generative AI tool. At one end of the spectrum, it can provide better answers than Google (and by “better,” I mean more focused and more quickly than taking the Google route) and, at the other, there are opportunities to embed ChatGPT-based capabilities into IT service management (ITSM) and enterprise service management (ESM) operations. This blog shares what ChatGPT is and how it works, the pros and cons of using ChatGPT, and examples of how it can be employed in ITSM and ESM operations to improve operations and outcomes. How ChatGPT works ChatGPT is an advanced natural language processing (NLP) model based on the OpenAI Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) architecture. It’s a generative model, which means it generates text by responding to a prompt or answering questions in a conversational manner. Importantly, it doesn’t have a fixed set of “canned” responses and creates its answers dynamically based on the input it receives. The underlying ChatGPT architecture is based on transformers – neural network architectures that are good at handling sequential data and capturing dependencies and relationships in the text. At its core, ChatGPT is a language model, which means it is trained to predict the likelihood of a sequence of words appearing in natural language. It uses this ability to generate grammatically correct and contextually appropriate text. The model is pre-trained on a massive body of text data from the internet, allowing...
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### Considering Generative AI for ITSM? Here’s What You Need to Know
> What is generative AI in ITSM and how it works (at a high level)plus see ITSM-related examples for its use. Read it here
- Published: 2023-07-26
- Modified: 2024-08-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/generative-ai-for-itsm
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, Generative AI, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In the world of IT service management (ITSM), people are often keen to understand and potentially try out new technologies. Hopefully, in the context of their business application and the benefits this brings. So what about using generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) for ITSM? It might be that it’s still on your to-do list, with a need to understand what it is and how it works in an ITSM context before dipping your toe into the generative-AI waters. To help, this blog looks at what generative AI is and how it works (at a high level), offering ITSM-related examples for its use. Generative AI technologies explained Generative AI is an AI category where algorithms generate new data based on their training data, having learned the underlying patterns and distributions of the data in the large training data sets. The most common types of generative AI technologies include: Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) – GANs use a generator and a discriminator neural network to improve their data generation through a feedback loop, where the discriminator critiques the generated data. GANs are often used for visual tasks such as video creation, AI-generated art, and image resolution enhancement. Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) – VAEs learn the probabilistic mapping between the data space and the latent space (it’s best to Google it if you require more insight). Example use cases are drug discovery to create potential new drug molecules and generating new video game content by learning the underlying game structure and features. Recurrent Neural Networks...
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### The Many AI-enabled Capabilities Available to ITSM and ESM
> This blog post shares information on different types of AI-enabled capabilities and how they will benefit your ITSM and ESM operations and outcomes.
- Published: 2023-07-05
- Modified: 2024-08-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/ai-enabled-capabilities-itsm
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
While many blogs talk about the opportunity of artificial intelligence (AI) and its benefits for IT service management (ITSM) and enterprise service management (ESM), it can feel a little like being told that you can now sand a wall after being given a bag of electronic do-it-yourself (DIY) tools. You know that technology can help you. You also understand that the right tool is in the bag. But you don’t necessarily know which piece of equipment is best suited to your need. Which AI-enabled capabilities are best for your organization? To help, this blog post shares information on different types of AI technologies and capabilities and how they will benefit your ITSM and ESM operations and outcomes. Categorizing AI technologies Knowing how best to “slice and dice” the world of AI technologies into easy-to-understand groupings can be challenging. For example, a commonly seen way to separate AI capabilities is across four areas: Reactive machines – basic types of AI systems designed for narrow, specific tasks and unable to learn or apply knowledge from one domain to another. Limited memory – which learn from historical data and past experiences to some extent. Most current AI systems, including chatbots, are limited memory AI. Theory of mind – AI systems that understand human emotions, beliefs, intentions, etc. This AI type is currently a concept rather than a reality. Self-aware AI – an advanced AI that has its own consciousness, emotions, and self-awareness. Self-aware AI is theoretical and does not exist. Three other AI...
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### What You Need to Know About Change Enablement
> This blog looks at everything you need to know about change enablement. From what's different in ITIL 4 to successful CAB meetings.
- Published: 2023-05-24
- Modified: 2023-05-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/know-about-change-enablement
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CAB, change advisory board, Change Approval, Change Enablement, change management, ITIL 4, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Change enablement is the practice that deals with IT change, transitioning new services or their supporting components into your production environment effectively, efficiently, and safely. It's also one of the trickiest practices to get right. We often get it wrong by either going in too hard with restrictions, making it challenging to innovate, or we're not careful enough, which causes service disruption to our businesses and end users. The introduction of ITIL 4 brought a focus on change. It has a new name, is now practice-driven rather than purely a process, and is aligned with the service value system. But what does that mean for stakeholders of the new and improved change practice? This article will look at the following: What has changed with ITIL 4? How to design for an improved colleague and customer experiencePractical guidance on how to run Change Advisory Boards (CABs) within your organization with the support of the DevOps 3 ways. We live in an ITIL 4 world ITIL has existed since the 1980s, so a new version would always be a big deal. The latest version of ITIL has brought some changes to the change practice. Firstly, a name change from management to enablement is a small but crucial detail. Change management was always about controlling and protecting the production environment and the business from there. But that sort of perspective can always act as a blocker. From ITIL 3, we've focused on delivering value and removing blockers, so it would make sense to...
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### Everything You Need to Know about Service Desk Metrics
> Metrics are essential as they communicate value, progress, and improvements, facilitate alignment and collaboration.
- Published: 2023-05-04
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-metrics
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: service desk, Service Desk Metrics
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
When looking at service desk metrics, it’s good to start with your organization’s mission statement. An organization’s mission statement is its reason for being, with it often comprised of multiple components such as customer experience, employee experience, profitability, etc. Goals are usually identified from the mission statement, and specific targets are prioritized from the organizational goals. In addition to these goals, some organizations might have specific objectives and milestones to achieve their goals. However, many organizations can be confused between and often interchange goals and objectives, as no definitive industry definitions exist. For this blog, we will use goals as the target or outcomes to be achieved and objectives as milestones on the journey to achieving these targets. Hopefully, this differentiation will make it easier to understand what you need to know about successful service desk metrics. The pros and cons of traditional service desk metrics Metrics are essential as they communicate value, progress, and improvements, facilitate alignment and collaboration, and convey an organization's contribution to achieving a goal. However, too often, organizations don't clarify or communicate the purpose of a metric, use the wrong metrics, or don't understand why they need to change what they measure to mature and increase the value of the underlying services. The result is confusion, lack of alignment, and a loss of confidence in management. An example is that service desks like to report on Average Speed to Answer (ASA), Abandon Rate (ABA), Average Handle Time (AHT), and resolution time. These are the metrics...
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### How to Increase Manufacturing Throughputs Thanks to Greater Equipment Uptime
> This blog focuses on the ITSM processes and enabling technology that can help both the MTBF and MTTR in the world of manufacturing.
- Published: 2023-03-30
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-increase-manufacturing-throughputs
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, Manufacturing, Mean Time Between Failures, Mean Time to Repair, MTBF, MTTR
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Manufacturing operations can benefit from IT service management (ITSM) capabilities – from service management principles, through ITSM processes, to the capabilities offered by ITSM tools. In particular, ITSM capabilities can improve equipment uptime and performance. This improvement increases manufacturing throughputs and the manufacturing organization’s operations and outcomes, positively impacting customer perceptions and the financial bottom line. This blog focuses on the ITSM processes and enabling technology that can help both the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). Increasing throughputs by applying ITSM capabilities to manufacturing equipment Through ITSM capabilities, manufacturing companies can improve the IT employed in supporting the company, such as the corporate IT network and direct and indirect manufacturing employees. Examples of the latter include the Human Resources Management System and the PC and telephony devices used by Human Resources personnel. However, this blog is focused on how ITSM can be used to directly improve the manufacturing, rather than IT, equipment employed. Although, it’s appreciated that there can be a blur between the two when equipment is network or internet connected. A separate blog looks at the opportunities for manufacturing organizations to leverage what the IT industry calls enterprise service management to improve operations and outcomes through ITSM capabilities. Examples of ITSM capabilities that can be focused on manufacturing equipment include: Asset management – where these ITSM capabilities help manage the entire lifecycle of the manufacturing equipment, from procurement through to retirement, including tracking, maintenance, and repair. This help can also involve contract...
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### Why Your Modern ITSM Capabilities Need Better Knowledge Management
> Enhance your organization's ITSM capabilities with insights from this blog.
- Published: 2023-03-09
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/knowledge-management-capabilities
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Continual Improvement, continual service improvement, Knowled, knowledge management, KPIs, Modern ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Knowledge management is a highly adopted IT service management (ITSM) process, or ITIL practice, that organizations continue to struggle with. While the concept of corporate knowledge management dates back to the last millennium, the introduction of knowledge management to ITIL v3 best practices in 2007 and the potential benefits have made it a high priority for many IT organizations in the last decade and a half. In 2023, an effective ITSM knowledge management capability is more important than ever. Because the reliance on shared knowledge has extended beyond the operational needs of IT staff – for example, IT service desk agents seeking solutions to incidents – to include employee self-help (as part of IT self-service capabilities) and machine-learning-based chatbot capabilities. While the phrase “knowledge is power” has been a long-held management cliché, “knowledge is operational fuel” is now likely more accurate. Especially because both traditional self-help and newer virtual assistant capabilities will live or die based on the quality of the knowledge they have access to. However, the modern knowledge management need is not only to power technology-based ITSM use cases but also to maintain IT and business operations in a world of remote working and higher staff departure levels. So, how good are your organization’s ITSM knowledge management capabilities? If they need improvement, then this knowledge management blog is for you. The current state of knowledge management The Axelos 2022 ITSM Benchmarking Report found that knowledge management is the fifth most-adopted ITIL practice at 79% of organizations. However, the...
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### How Service Management Capabilities Will Reduce Your Manufacturing Operating Costs
> This blog looks at the opportunity for ITSM tools and best practices to benefit manufacturing operating costs.
- Published: 2023-02-23
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/service-management-manufacturing-operation-costs
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Like many other businesses, manufacturing organizations constantly battle to reduce costs and improve margins and profitability. As part of this fight, manufacturing organizations can employ IT service management (ITSM) tool capabilities and service management best practices to help. However, it’s important to appreciate that the opportunities for manufacturing organizations to benefit extend beyond using ITSM tool capabilities and service management best practices for IT service delivery and support. This use case is merely the first two of four discrete opportunities for your manufacturing organization to benefit. These opportunities relate to the following: The IT employed in manufacturing operations and other business functionsThe IT used by manufacturing and “supporting staff”Manufacturing processes and equipment useOther business functions that enable manufacturing processes. For example, the knowledge management capabilities enabled by an ITSM tool can be used to improve across all four of these opportunities. Plus, it’s essential to recognize that service management capabilities encompass all three of people, processes, and technology, not just the ITSM tool. 1 - Manufacturing-organization IT This is the “bread and butter” opportunity for service management capabilities, particularly ITSM. A raft of ITSM best practices, enabled by a fit-for-purpose ITSM tool, will help deliver “better, faster, cheaper” IT service delivery and support. For example, reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) and the performance of the IT employed in manufacturing operations, including the technology used by the other business functions needed for the manufacturing organization as a whole to function. This opportunity can involve a variety of service management...
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### Why and How 2023 Will Be an Interesting Year for ITSM
> What’s likely to impact your organization’s ITSM capabilities in 2023 to make it an interesting year for ITSM? This blog by SysAid explores
- Published: 2023-01-26
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/2023-interesting-year-itsm
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, enterprise service management, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Global business operations have changed significantly since 2020. Corporate IT organizations helped deliver this change and accordingly amended their IT service management (ITSM) capabilities. However, much of this was done “on the fly” to ensure business survival, perhaps based on meeting the immediate needs rather than reflecting the required evolution of ITSM to match the business changes. Now that 2023 and a new annual IT budget are here, where and what does your IT organization need to change? It might have spent 2022 making the rapidly-delivered changes more formal and robust. However, further ITSM improvements are likely needed to meet business and employee needs in 2023 and beyond. After all, there’s no doubting the increased importance of technology to business operations and outcomes, with this only increasing going forward. So what’s likely to impact your organization’s ITSM capabilities in 2023 to make it an interesting year for ITSM? Trend #1 – value demonstration Demonstration isn’t the key word here; value is. An IT organization can’t successfully demonstrate the value it has created or co-created without knowing what business stakeholders deem valuable. So when (and not if) your organization needs to change the IT performance conversation – from what it has done to what it has achieved (and in business terms) – this understanding of value is paramount. It’s not easy, though. First, IT has probably never connected what it does to business results. Second, various business stakeholders have differing views on what value is (and isn’t). A lot has already...
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### Getting Started with Continual Improvement
> Here Joe the IT Guy provides guidance on how to embed continual improvement in your day-to-day activities successfully.
- Published: 2022-12-21
- Modified: 2022-12-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/getting-started-continual-improvement
- Categories: ITIL, Service Desk
- Tags: Continual Improvement, DevOps, ITIL 4, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Continual improvement is part of the service value ecosystem that improves service delivery and customer experience (CX) and is arguably one of the most important practices of any service organization. The Continual Improvement ITIL 4 Practice Guide (2020) defines continual improvement as follows: “The purpose of the continual improvement practice is to align the organization’s practices and services with changing business needs through the ongoing improvement of products, services, and practices, or any element involved in the management of products and services. ” Sounds simple right? However, all too often, IT service management (ITSM) teams look at continual improvement as either a project (it’s not) or take on too much, opting for a ‘big bang’ approach, resulting in feeling overwhelmed and nothing ever really improving. Whereas the correct way to approach continual improvement is to look at making small, achievable improvements so that you to continue to make things better (and better – it’s continual, see? ) over time. Back in 2021, I wrote a blog featuring 5 tips for adopting continual improvement, but I still think many organizations are struggling to see how to make continual improvement a standard day-to-day practice on the service desk. So, to help get you started or to improve what you already have in place (see, we’re improving already), in this blog, I provide additional guidance on how to embed continual improvement in your day-to-day activities successfully. Use the force Or, in our case, the ITIL guiding principles. My good friend, Stuart Rance, has...
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### 7 Key Steps for When Your IT Service Desk is Struggling
> This blog offers up seven practical steps for what to do when your service desk is struggling. Read it here.
- Published: 2022-11-30
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-is-struggling
- Categories: ITSM, Service Desk
- Tags: IT service management, ITSM, Leadership, Major Incidents, service desk, Service Level Agreements, SLA, Wellbeing
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s not uncommon for IT service desks to be under pressure. Working in IT has always been fast-paced and challenging for people, but the increased business and employee expectations have impacted workloads and collective stress levels. Sadly, this isn’t going to go away. For example, ITSM. tools survey data found that 88% of people think working in IT will get harder over the next three years. So, IT professionals must get used to increased workloads, different working conditions, more remote and hybrid support calls, and new technology solutions and delivery mechanisms. All of this adds up to an industry-wide feeling of being out of control and in a perpetual struggle to meet targets. To help, this blog looks at seven opportunities to improve things when your IT service desk is struggling. 1. Be realistic about the situation Sometimes we can’t help being in a particular situation. For example, the circumstances that cause an incident backlog – perhaps incidents are linked to problem records that are still under investigation. Maybe open service requests are for something we don’t have a budget for yet or that we’re unable to support. Perhaps the person calling in needs to speak to a different team, like facilities or procurement. The temptation in IT is “but we can fix that,” but sometimes we can’t. In our experience, most IT service desk techs don’t want to disappoint the end user, but at the same time, we need to be realistic about where we are and what we...
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### The Future of IT Self-Service: Self-Resolving with Conversational Bots
> In this blog you'll learn how the future of IT self-service involves employees self-resolving with conversational bots.
- Published: 2022-09-14
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/self-service-conversational-bots
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Conversational bots, self-service, self-service portal
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
How many IT service management (ITSM) survey reports and blogs have you read that talk about the issues the IT support industry has had, and continues to have, with IT self-service portals? I’d imagine the answer is “too many. ” While using self-service as part of an omnichannel approach to service and support has worked well in many consumer-world scenarios, the same hasn’t been true for corporate IT use cases. The industry has known the contributory issues for at least half a decade. However, organizations can still struggle to get the level of employee uptake needed to consider their IT self-service portal a success. And even then, the employee experience associated with the portal might be lacking compared to other IT support channels. Thankfully, there’s now a better way. One that repositions the issue to solve it. What’s interesting about the solution, though, is that while it employs new technologies, it also relies on one of the oldest ITSM capabilities – knowledge management. Intrigued? Please keep reading to learn more about how the future of IT self-service involves employees self-resolving with conversational bots. But first, there’s a need to understand how poorly traditional IT self-service has fared – because this helps to explain the need for conversational bots. Why traditional IT self-service is dead (or at least on life support) The IT self-service portal was going to address various IT support issues, with the promise of “better, faster, cheaper” IT service and support capabilities. In particular, meeting employees’ consumer-world-driven support...
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### How SysAid manages agents behind restricted firewall rules with AWS IoT Core
> How SysAid manages agents behind restricted firewall rules with AWS IoT Core - SysAid blog. Read now.
- Published: 2022-08-17
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/how-sysaid-manages-agents-behind-restricted-firewall-rules-with-aws-iot-core
- Categories: SysAid Tech
- Blog authors: Jonathan Yom-Tov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
This blog post will outline how SysAid uses AWS IoT Core and the MQTT over WebSocket Secure communication protocol at scale for managing remote software agents and overcoming restricted firewall rules securely.
Originally published on AWS Official Blog by Doron Bleiberg and Jonathan Yom Tov. This blog post will outline how SysAid uses AWS IoT Core and the MQTT over WebSocket Secure communication protocol at scale for managing remote software agents and overcoming restricted firewall rules securely. SysAid is a global Software as a service (SaaS) automation company that provides IT Service Management (ITSM) and Asset Management solutions, which serve thousands of customers. Sysaid provides software for IT teams to control all aspects of service management. Introduction SysAid software agents are installed at the customer’s site. Agents collect telemetry and status from IT resources such as computers and printers and relay it to the SysAid SaaS service running on AWS. Occasionally, the SaaS backend needs to reach the agents, instructing them to take specific actions, such as configuration changes. To enable communication, the simplest solution is for the agents to initiate connection with the cloud on specific allowed IPs and ports, periodically polling for the latest instructions. However, this approach generates a lot of network traffic. As an example, if an agent polls once per second, that’s 86,400 requests a day. Over thousands of customers, that can easily come to billions of requests a month or more. Additionally, since over 95% of the time the server has no message waiting for the agent, most of this traffic is redundant and unnecessary. Furthermore, corporate firewalls often restrict inbound and outbound traffic to be transmitted over a small range of TCP ports. This is done as a security measure to...
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### Prioritizing ITSM Improvements Based on Employee Experience Impact
> In this blog Greg Sanker looks at how to introduce a new way to prioritize improvement work in direct alignment with EX.
- Published: 2022-07-20
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/prioritizing-itsm-improvements-employee-experience
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: employee experience, EX, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Traditionally, efforts to improve IT service management (ITSM) practices was tied primarily to either objective maturity models, or where there's desire or opportunity to improve. In this article I’ll describe why all improvement efforts must support employee experience (EX) and then introduce the concept of mapping specific EX points to the ITSM practice(s) that most directly contribute to that element. It's worth pausing to note that the art and science of Customer Experience (CX) is often times intermixed with EX. For all practice purposes, they’re the same; but when an internal IT department speaks of customers of its services, they most often mean non-IT employees of the same organization. The opportunity, then, is that excellent employee experience empowers employees to provide better value to the organization’s customers (what ITIL 4 refers to as cocreation of value. ) Note: I’ll not be addressing experience level agreements (XLAs) or user journey/value stream mapping but I will reference them. This will not be a typical how-to, but rather introducing a new way to prioritize improvement work in direct alignment with EX. The question of where and how to improve ITSM practices has been somewhat of an enigma for many years. It’s not uncommon to start with maturity assessments, where practice areas are benchmarked against established maturity models (like CMMI, ITIL Maturity Model, etc. ). Once current maturity is established, target maturity in key practice areas is planned. With current and desired future states defined, it’s straightforward to develop an improvement plan to get...
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### How an AI-enabled Service Desk Improves Employee Experience
> This blog looks at the opportunities and benefits that AI-enabled service desk capabilities offer to improve employee experience.
- Published: 2022-06-23
- Modified: 2024-08-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-an-ai-enabled-service-desk-improves-employee-experience
- Categories: Generative AI, ITSM
- Tags: automation, employee experience, EX, Intelligent automation, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you work (or have worked) on an IT service desk, you’ll have felt many of the pressures or challenges that IT support teams commonly face. Sometimes perhaps without being fully aware of why there never seems to be “enough hours in the day” to achieve everything that’s asked of your IT service desk. The list of common IT service desk pressures and challenges seems to be growing too – as the business and IT worlds continue to change, reflecting the increasing reliance on technology and the greater complexity of operations and the IT that enables them. To help with these pressures and challenges, this blog looks at the opportunities and benefits that artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled service desk capabilities offer. But first, it’s worth taking a quick run through some of the challenges your IT service desk is facing or is likely to face in the future. And then you’ll appreciate even more how SysAid for Teams can help. The Common IT Service Desk Pressures and Challenges Not all of the following will apply to your IT service desk, but this list is a good summary of what is being seen across the IT industry: Higher ticket volumes Tighter budgets Higher end-user expectations Issues with staff retention and recruitment ITSM tool issues Insufficient improvement resources Like I said, not every common IT service desk challenge will apply to your organization, but many will and – importantly – there are likely interrelationships between them that need to be handled carefully....
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### How to Tell a Story That Pops
> How to apply the magic formula to make your brand stand out and tell a story that pops
- Published: 2022-05-26
- Modified: 2022-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/events-marketing/how-to-tell-a-story-that-pops
- Categories: Events and Marketing
- Blog authors: Sarah Libi
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Back at my desk after a busy week in the UK at an industry tradeshow, it’s time to recap. In fact, as a Marketing Communications Manager, recapping a show is a process and takes different forms. Internal comms, social media, pictures, video clips, team debriefing, and of course results and numbers. While I work my way through the steps and wrap it all up for the different functions and channels in our organization, I’m realizing that my favorite part of creating our brand presence at the show is how we tell our story. Imagine, a 2-day event, attended by over 3,000 visitors looking to deliver smarter IT service and business efficiency. Now imagine, a hall full of 68 of the industry’s top vendors exhibiting over 200 IT Service Management products and services. How do you make your brand stand out? Here’s the magic formula. Have a clear message. Keep it simple. Make it fun. And with that in mind, we built a mini-golf course smack-bang in the middle of our booth. Now you ask, “what on earth does mini-golf have to do with ITSM? ” Here’s where the story begins The golf course was full of obstacles. Just like a bad employee experience. From manual resolution to broken workflows through misrouted tickets, you name it. Actually, we did name them. When visitors came by our booth, we invited them in to take a swing. Geared in their SysAid golfing cap, players had 10 seconds to sink their “ticket” into the...
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### Stop Wasting Time And Start TESTING
> This article delves into the myriad of benefits of shift-left testing, and offers up suggestions how to increase code quality.
- Published: 2022-05-25
- Modified: 2024-03-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/stop-wasting-time-and-start-testing
- Categories: SysAid Tech
- Tags: Code, Coding, Shift left
- Blog authors: Jonathan Yom-Tov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
This is based on a talk given to SysAid R&D by Dr. Shmuel UrWe’ve all been there. Someone, a lecturer, or a product manager, wants us to build something quickly. It could be a homework assignment or a proof of concept or a MVP, but the important thing is to get it out there quickly. So we cut corners, twist monads, and bang out a couple hundred lines of code and voila! It works. No need for unit tests, code reviews, or (gasp! ) manual QA. Now for many developers the lesson here is that we can get a feature out the door more quickly if we don’t have to coordinate with other people for e. g. testing and review. Relax those constraints and developing a new feature gets faster and easier. Except that as we all know there’s a wide gulf between something that works for a demo and a robust feature that survives user interaction, network outages, and other abuse. Why code quality is important Say that feature sailed out of our desktop and breezed itself through our CD into production. Now someone finds a bug. The button’s font is invisible, the server crashes every second Monday at 10:19PM. You know, something nice. The first person to realize this is the customer, he contacts support, who go through tiers 1-4 and then to R&D. Someone has to realize who’s responsible for the bug and route it back to us and now we have to fix it. So...
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### How to Measure Employee Experience
> Here Ben Brennan discusses some of the key data points from SysAid's 2022 State of Service Management study related to employee experience.
- Published: 2022-05-19
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/measure-employee-experience
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CSAT, employee experience, EX, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Ben Brennan
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Last month I was privileged to get to sit in with the SysAid team and help present the results from their 2022 State of Service Management study. SysAid collected surveys from over 1,200 IT professionals and we revealed the results live to over 800 folks from around the globe on a webinar with Erik Snider and Gaelle Elgazar. Besides being an absolute blast and a fun conversation, the data was eye-opening in several ways, particularly when it comes to the topic of employee experience. The first eye-opener for me was this graphic showing that providing a good employee experience was identified by IT leaders as the #1 challenge in offering remote support. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not surprised that this is a challenge, but what I loved was that IT leaders across the globe are talking about it, that it’s a priority. Listen, providing a good experience for remote employees has always been a huge challenge. The fact that IT leaders are now identifying it as such, however, is an amazing indicator that we, as an industry, are still trending in the right direction, even more so after the pandemic, and that the term IT “experience” is likely to move beyond buzzword status and onto the priority lists of IT leaders everywhere. But let’s not get too excited just yet. Identifying experience as a challenge and solving experience in reality are two different things. A few slides later in the webinar, the following slide caught my eye and provided...
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### Still Insecure About Cloud? Then Read This Cloud Myth Debunker!
> Statements like this show there's still a lack of understanding about the use of public cloud services. Joe the IT Guy debunks all the myths!
- Published: 2022-05-18
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/still-insecure-about-cloud-then-read-this-cloud-myth-debunker
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: cloud, help desk, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Statements like this show there's still a lack of understanding about the use of public cloud services. Joe the IT Guy debunks all the myths!
Are you like me and still hearing crazy stuff about security in the cloud? “We don’t think public cloud is secure. ” “We’re interested in cloud, but we’d need to overcome the security issues. ” “You can’t trust cloud because someone else has control of it. ” “The on-premises delivery model is ultimately cheaper than cloud. ” Questions such as these, and similar, show that there’s still a lack of understanding (and potentially myths) out there around the use of public cloud services – to improve your organization’s IT services, flexibility for change, and bottom line. Now before I start my blog proper (I mean rant really), I realize that different organizations are at different levels of IT service management (ITSM) maturity, have different business models, and different risk appetites. And therefore, it’s hard for me to write about cloud in the context of an average organization because I can guarantee their needs will be different to yours. So please bear this in mind when you read my responses to many of the common objections to cloud. It’s time to make it rain cloud truths! Myth 1: “Cloud Isn’t Secure” Almost every time I hear seriously negative vibes towards cloud, pointing at security, they are from organizations that already have considerable on-premises management issues. So, bear this in mind when your colleagues start bringing up their cloud issues and concerns – security-based or otherwise – as they might just not want you to open up their existing “can of worms....
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### The Top 5 Things ITSMers Get Wrong about Cloud Migration
> Some cloud “attitudes” can lead ITSM professionals to do the wrong thing such as lift-and-shift cloud migrations.
- Published: 2022-05-18
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/top-5-things-itsmers-get-wrong-cloud-migration
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: cloud, help desk, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Some cloud “attitudes” can lead ITSM professionals to do the wrong thing such as lift-and-shift cloud migrations.
As an IT service management (ITSM) professional, which public cloud “camp” are you in: Cloud is great? Cloud is a disaster? Couldn’t care less about cloud? (Hopefully none of you are still at “what’s cloud? ”) These and many other cloud “attitudes” tend to be present, all at the same time, in a typical enterprise. And, worryingly for ITSM professionals, it can lead to doing the wrong thing such as lift-and-shift cloud migrations. A lift-and-shift migration is the seemingly simple and innocuous process of moving a workload from on-premise to the public cloud – changing little and with the same operational model. Lift-and-shift is perceived as a low-risk approach to getting into the cloud because of the assumption that “if you don’t change anything, then surely it’s kind of the same as before the move. ” That moving a workload to the cloud is like moving from one server type to another, after all cloud is just running your workload on someone else’s servers, right? ! No, cloud is not “just someone else’s servers. ” Public cloud is a different operating and business model to on-premise and it’s why ITSM professionals need to be involved. But before they do, they need to be able to avoid the five common misconceptions about migrating to the public cloud. 1. Lift-and-Shift to Cloud is a Good Idea This is an appealing idea among people who are risk-averse and/or are not familiar with cloud. The people who want change but don’t want to change....
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### Microservices Architecture: Asynchronous Communication is Better
> There are many communication protocols but for web applications - this blog looks at why you should favor asynchronous in all cases.
- Published: 2022-04-14
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/microservices-architecture-asynchronouscommunication-better
- Categories: SysAid Tech
- Tags: microservices, SysAid tech
- Blog authors: Jonathan Yom-Tov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In recent years there’s been a lot of talk about microservices architecture. Switching from a monolithic architecture to a microservices based architecture is a complicated step that requires rethinking many aspects of development, testing, and deployment. One of the most important aspects of software architecture is communication. How do we pass messages between components? In a monolithic architecture that’s straightforward: everything is written in the same language and we can simply call methods to execute some logic on our data. In a microservices architecture this, like many other things, it’s not as straightforward. Types of communication Generally speaking there are two types of communication: synchronous and asynchronous. You either want to have a reply, or you don’t. With synchronous communication the caller sends a message and waits for the receiver to respond. This is appropriate for actions such as login and purchase, in which the caller must have a reply. With asynchronous communication the caller skips the wait and continues executing whatever code is necessary. So, for example, in many cases changing settings is not something the caller would want to wait on. There are many communication protocols but for web applications the mainstream application level protocols are HTTP/S for synchronous communication and AMQP for asynchronous. Given that most sufficiently complicated applications have a need for both synchronous and asynchronous communication it’d make sense to employ both methods. But what if I told you that you should favor asynchronous in all cases? Talk to the hand you say? Trust me,...
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### Pros with Benefits: ITSM Capabilities for Better Business Functions
> In 2022 enterprise service management needs to offer businesses so much more than just shared ITSM capabilities. This blog explores.
- Published: 2022-03-24
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-capabilities-better-business-functions
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Citizen Developers, enterprise service management, ESM, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s common to fall into thinking of enterprise service management (ESM)as simply sharing core IT service management (ITSM) capabilities with other business functions. However, the service professionals in these other business functions are in dire need of the ability to create digital workflows. The workflows that will allow them to undertake the work they need to do. And do it faster. Sure, these service management professionals will benefit from sticking to the trusty ITSM best practice processes for handling requests for help, information, new services, and change. But, and it’s a BIG but, in 2022, enterprise service management should offer them much more. How much more exactly? This blog explains just that. (cue the drum-roll) What’s In This Article? The Traditional View of Enterprise Service Management Not Your Everyday ESM Facilitating “citizen developers” Citizenship with Benefits. The Traditional View of Enterprise Service Management In large, enterprise service management can thank its origins for the traditional view it adopted from people “on the inside”. Historically, various business functions used the corporate ITSM tool to help teams formalize manual practices, coping with increasing workloads. And probably save a pretty penny too. Where enterprise service management is defined as something like: “the use of ITSM principles and capabilities by other business functions to improve operations, services, experiences, and outcomes. ” This approach has meant that other business functions have benefited from the corporate ITSM tool’s automated workflows for incident management, service request management, and asset management. ...
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### From Monolith to Microservices
> Monolith to microservices - the story of how we broke off a piece of our monolith in order to greatly increase our system’s reliability.
- Published: 2022-01-26
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/monolith-to-microservices
- Categories: SysAid Tech
- Tags: AWS, microservices, monolith, SysAid tech
- Blog authors: Jonathan Yom-Tov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Monolith to microservices is a transition that many companies are making nowadays. There are many advantages, and not a few disadvantages, to making the switch. In this post I’ll show how we diverted some of our traffic from our monolith to a new microservice and the benefits we reaped from that change. The problem SysAid’s traffic can be split into two sources: human and machine. Our human traffic originates with our users and our machine traffic comes from software agents our customers install on their computers. The agents report back to the system with information that helps the system administrators perform asset management and IT service management (ITSM) more efficiently. The software agents report on their status by sending messages to our servers, which are written to our database. Some of the agent traffic is served by the same application servers as our human traffic. Here’s a diagram illustrating the situation. Our software agent sends a HTTP message (1) that gets routed from our load balancer to one of our application servers (2), from there it’s written to the file system (3) and a background task (4), writes the contents of the message to our database (5). It should be mentioned that the load characteristics of the traffic from humans and machines differ. The former is affected by on-hours and off-hours. The latter is more bursty, with no specific pattern. It’s quite common for many agents from one client to report every hour on the hour, causing a sudden...
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### Understanding Enterprise Service Management Systems
> What is an enterprise service management system, how does it differ from ITSM and how can it benefit a workplace? Find out everything and more here.
- Published: 2022-01-23
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/understanding-enterprise-service-management-systems
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: enterprise service management, ESM, IT asset management, IT Automation, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager, Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Understanding what is an enterprise service management system (ESM) is critical when you are thinking of applying ITSM to your entire business. Although linked, ITSM and ESM are different, and understanding the differences is crucial so you can apply the best practices to your business.
Understanding what is an enterprise service management system (ESM) is critical when you are thinking of applying ITSM to your entire business. Although linked, ITSM and ESM are different, and understanding the differences is crucial so you can apply the best practices to your business. Let’s explore everything on enterprise service management systems, and how to best apply the system to your workplace. What Is An Enterprise Service Management System (ESM)? If you're wondering "What is an Enterprise Service Management System? " you’re in the right place. An Enterprise Service Management is an extension of the principles outlined for IT service management systems. It facilitates enhanced service delivery for teams like legal, marketing, finance, facilities, and human resources. An example of an enterprise management service is when a company creates aservice deskto accommodate every team in the organization. This type of service management system usesIT workflowsto facilitate better management of service demand as well as delivery via an ESM tool. How Does ESM Differ From ITSM? As mentioned previously, an enterprise management system effectively builds onIT service management, which means that the foundation of ESM is ITSM. IT service management involves all of the processes, activities, and policies that an organization uses to deploy, improve, and manage IT service delivery. However, enterprise service management takes the best aspects of ITSM and applies them to the entirety of the organization. The main aspects of ITSM that ESM uses include: Service management principles and theories Service desks Self-service tools like chatbots and...
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### Automation for Humans
> What’s involved in building a successful approach to automation for humans? In this blog, Barclay Rae explains.
- Published: 2022-01-20
- Modified: 2022-01-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/automation-for-humans
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, OCM, Organizational Change Management, Service Orchestration
- Blog authors: Barclay Rae
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Emerging blinking into the light, we’re all currently stumbling back to some sort of ‘normality’, in life and work. Like the three bears, going out for a walk whilst their porridge cools down, we come back to find that there have been changes and challenges in how we eat our breakfast. Someone (a robot. . ? ) has been sitting in our chairs and eating our porridge – and now they’re threatening our jobs, roles, and... sense of value? Well, that is one way to look at automation – I’m glad to say it’s not a prevalent one, but I do still hear fear, uncertainty, and doubt being uttered and muttered. What is the reality of the spread and growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation technology? What are the expected benefits? In particular, what are the issues associated with making this technology work successfully and with a focus still on humanity and what we do best? Also, what really is best for our customers and other stakeholders? There are clearly many great potential benefits in terms of new capabilities, freed up resources, with ability to focus on innovation etc, plus of course the obvious options to save on costs. So, there’s a clear need to clarify what the expected benefits are in using this technology successfully. We should also be clear on the potential issues and challenges that must be met and mitigated. Let’s take a look at what’s involved in building a successful approach to automation, and...
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### SysAid’s Top 6 Must-Read Blogs
> Here we take a look back at the top 6 must-read blogs of SysAid's 2021 roll. Make sure you've read them all!
- Published: 2022-01-13
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/6-must-read-blogs
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: AI, automation, ITSM, SysAid blog
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As we enter a new year, many of us are grappling with some tricky questions for the year ahead, such as: How to become employee-focused and give them the tools they need to succeed? How do you keep your teams and you motivated while working remotely? What do The Matrix Resurrections, the red pill and IT have in common? And as we kick off our best practice content publication for 2022, we're also reflecting on the past twelve months. Did you know that more than 11,250 of you read our blogs every month, spending an average of 9 minutes per article? We thank you 💗 So which blog posts got you thinking, laughing, and inspired in 2021? Drumroll, please... Here are SysAid’s Top 6 Must-Read blogs that will make you a water-cooler legend. ITSM in 2022: The Year of the Employee - learn how focusing on your employee’s IT experience will get the best out of them. Mind = blown. Smarter ITSM is a Strategic Choice - smarter ITSM that is automated will definitely make your life easier and save you some precious time. We’ve checked. IT Guide for Seeing Through the Matrix - changing your point of view on IT can actually change your entire organization’s environment! Change is the only constant, so own IT. Why Automation is the Cornerstone of Your IT Strategy - ever had the feeling that no matter how hard you try to keep up with the tasks, you still feel overwhelmed? Yeah, it’s horrible....
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### What are IT Service Management (ITSM) Tools?
> ITSM Tools are used to keep track of the many processes and systems that are needed when performing IT service management. Learn more about ITSM.
- Published: 2021-12-19
- Modified: 2024-11-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/what-are-itsm-tools
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: asset management, incident management, IT asset management, IT Automation, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, self-service portal, Workflows
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager, Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
What are IT Service Management (ITSM) Tools?
A solid IT infrastructure is more critical than ever to guarantee the long-term success of any business. From making sure that customer data is stored correctly to providing employees with the tools they need to perform their everyday tasks, this infrastructure must function properly at all times. While having a professional IT team in place allows any IT incidents to be resolved, there are only so many hours in a day. To that end, IT Service Management tools provide teams with the ability to more effectively manage their tasks through an online platform, which allows the organization to meet their goals at a reduced cost to the company. IT Service Management Meaning ITSM refers to how IT teams are able to effectively manage the delivery of various IT services to their customers, which are usually organizations and businesses with an IT department. This form of management covers every activity and process needed to design, develop, deliver, and fully support IT services. It's important to understand that the main idea behind ITSM is that information technology should be delivered via a service/online service platform. Through this platform, ITSM can be tailored to each individual organization to accommodate their specific needs. People, Processes, And Technology ITSM is based around the people, processes, and technology framework involved in an IT service which therefore makes sure that everything is aligned within the IT department to ensure that the organization meets the business goals that they've set. When an organization is able to maintain a...
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### ITSM in 2022: The Year of the Employee
> What does ITSM in 2022 look like? Here, SysAid CEO Sarah Lahav shares her four predictions for the year ahead.
- Published: 2021-12-16
- Modified: 2021-12-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-in-2022
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, Citizen IT, employee experience, IT asset management, IT service management, ITAM, ITSM, Service automation
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The last two years have been transformative for many markets and industries. IT has been pretty much the star of the show, with the acceleration of digital transformation and the urgent need for remote work arrangements. But it's definitely been a two-way street. Just as IT service management (ITSM) has played an impactful role in shaping the new workplace, developing workplace norms are having a major influence on how ITSM is seen and used. In 2022, this trend will take on a more defined shape with an intensified focus on individual employees and the tools that empower them. Redefining ESM as ‘Employee Service Management’ The digitally transformed, remote workspaces created with more and more frequency in the last two years have made life more convenient for many, many people. However, they've also made it harder to make connections at one’s place of work and, in turn, that much easier to leave. This is especially so in the current labor market, with a high demand for employees in the tech sector and generally looser location requirements. In fact, a Harvard Business Review (HBR) Analytic Services study found that 77% of companies surveyed believe good employees are willing to look for a new employer if they don’t have the tools, technology, or information they need in their current position. As it's getting harder to retain staff, there's a push toward providing employees the best possible experience. Companies that are able to do so gain a clear competitive edge, because they're more likely...
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### A Superhero's Guide to IT Metrics
> Throw everything you thought you knew about IT metrics out of the window and check out this blog by Ben Brannan.
- Published: 2021-12-09
- Modified: 2021-12-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/superhero-guide-to-it-metrics
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CSAT, ITSM, metrics, service desk, Service Desk Metrics
- Blog authors: Ben Brennan
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Every superhero has her origin story. One could even argue that it's the tenacity and courage that comes from knowing what you are on this earth to do that enables superhuman performance. I like to think of this as the democratization of superpowers. While Superman possesses super strength and speed, what really empowers him to save the world is that he understands his destiny. If Superman didn’t know what he was here to do, and why he was doing it, he’d be a lot less effective. It’s no coincidence that he has a fortress of solitude. Saving the planet requires a little soul searching from time to time! Why Am I Here? There’s an old Zen proverb that I like to share with first time managers, as well as first time meditators. “You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day – unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour. ” Usually this comes into play when I’m teaching my leadership team about the difference between working “on the business” and working “in the business. ” The morale: if you’re too busy putting out fires to have a strategy meeting, you need to spend more time on your strategy. This isn’t just for leaders. IT analysts, help desk staff, sysadmins at every level are asked to perform near superhuman miracles nearly every day in IT. You can only pull this off if you’ve taken time to stop and reflect. Why are we here? What...
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### Automation Is Your Friend
> In this blog Roy Atkinson covers the WHAT, the WHY, and the HOW of automation. Check out his thoughts here.
- Published: 2021-11-30
- Modified: 2021-11-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/automation-is-your-friend
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, employee experience, password reset, Service Orchestration
- Blog authors: Roy Atkinson
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Automation is, according to Technopedia, “the creation and application of technologies to produce and deliver goods and services with minimal human intervention. ” Since delivering services is what most IT organizations do—whether we’re talking about internal IT departments, or Managed Service Providers (MSPs)—many of the tasks and workflows involved are prime candidates for automation. Why automate? For years, IT has operated under the edict to “do more with less,” and one way to expedite work without adding more employees is to take advantage of automation. (Remember that by definition automated procedures and processes require minimal human intervention. ) Right now in the US we’re in the midst of The Great Resignation, with workers leaving jobs in record numbers. In addition, companies have discovered the effectiveness of remote work during the past twenty months, and location has ceased to be either a priority or an advantage. Companies from Silicon Valley and other hi-tech areas are now able to pluck good employees from other organizations wherever they might be. Add to the mix a very low unemployment rate in the sector and thousands of open positions. Adding so-called headcount right now is difficult and expensive. Simultaneously, Employee Experience has become a front-and-center topic, especially for those lines of business that touch everyone in the organization: Human Resources and IT. Automation done right produces rapid results and reduces the inconsistencies that will invariably occur when humans are involved. Consistency is a major component of good experience for both employees and ultimately for customers....
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### Monitoring IoT disconnects
> Here we look at three things we can utilize to monitor IoT disconnects: CloudWatch metrics, IoT logs, and custom services.
- Published: 2021-11-18
- Modified: 2021-12-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/monitoring-iot-disconnects
- Categories: SysAid Tech
- Tags: Amazon Web Services, AWS, IoT, SysAid tech
- Blog authors: Jonathan Yom-Tov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In our last two posts on Reducing Traffic by using AWS IoT (part 1 and part 2) we discussed how we used AWS IoT to reduce our polling traffic and how we can establish connections to AWS IoT through our clients’ firewalls. But, we left out an important part - monitoring. There are three things we can utilize to monitor the health of our system: CloudWatch metrics, IoT logs, and custom services. Metrics IoT publishes a number of metrics we can use. Looking at the Golden Metrics in Google’s SRE book we want to monitor errors and traffic at the very least. We can build a dashboard that shows us things like client connects and disconnects, errors and warnings, and message publications. All these metrics are readily available within CloudWatch and you can easily incorporate them into your dashboard. Logs Another essential part of IoT monitoring is logs. IoT logs report various events such as connect, subscribe, and publish together with metadata such as clientId and disconnectReason. These can be used to troubleshoot bugs in our environment. For example, if we see a client disconnecting and reconnecting frequently we can look into the logs. It can sometimes be the case that that we have two clients connecting with the same ID, which AWS doesn’t allow. Or we can look into the disconnectReason to try and find out more about why a client disconnected. Logs are not turned on by default. To turn them on go to the AWS console...
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### Smarter ITSM Is a Strategic Choice
> This blog looks at how smarter ITSM is essentially like ordering your coffee in Starbucks. Check it out here.
- Published: 2021-11-03
- Modified: 2021-11-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/smarter-itsm-strategic-choice
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, ITSM, Service automation, Service Orchestration
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It started slowly. At first, there were some notable trends toward digital workspaces, remote employment arrangements, and the proliferation of task-simplifying work applications. But then, lightning struck in the form of a global pandemic. It hyper-accelerated those trends and irrevocably changed the role of IT in companies across most industries. The IT team is no longer simply fighting bushfires day to day; they have become a strategic partner at the heart of the business. Turning ITSM into IT Service Delivery Ready or not, like it or not, the spotlight today is on IT. The department must be able to support all the novel business apps and workflows their company is dependent on in today’s complex professional environment. But the impact of changing norms is not limited strictly to IT. Other organizations within a company can be considered service providers as well, with digital tasks, tools, and processes that need to be managed or coordinated. Consider the marketing department when someone needs to, for example, write a smart, insightful, witty blog that you absolutely must share with all your colleagues immediately. Or think of HR when they onboard a new employee; or legal when they need to review contracts and collect signatures; or finance reporting on budgets; or procurement teams working with suppliers. There are several cross-departmental intersections in all these workflows, as well as some specialized applications that come into play. That means IT service management (ITSM) needs to grow and mature, becoming more efficient and easier for everyone. Many...
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### Reducing Traffic by Using AWS IoT (Part 2 of 2)
> For IoT to work you must create a persistent connection to the AWS IoT servers — but what can you do if that's blocked?
- Published: 2021-10-20
- Modified: 2021-12-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/aws-iot-part-2
- Categories: SysAid Tech
- Tags: AWS, HTTP, IoT, Servers, SysAid
- Blog authors: Jonathan Yom-Tov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In the previous post we saw how we used IoT to significantly reduce polling traffic to our servers. But there’s a twist. Some of our clients’ firewalls not only block incoming traffic, they also block outgoing traffic. Remember that for IoT to work the client must create a persistent connection to the AWS IoT servers — if that’s blocked we’re in trouble. Our clients are required to open their firewall to SysAid’s IPs, but we can’t require them to open themselves to all of AWS’ range. So what to do? If they can’t connect to the IoT servers they won’t be able to use our latest feature and will have to keep polling our overworked servers. If only we could run IoT on our own servers, or at least redirect the traffic through our IPs. Well, as it turns out we can. IoT can use the MQTT protocol, but it can also run MQTT over HTTP websockets, which opens up the possibility of using an HTTP proxy. So now, instead of our server and client connecting to the IoT broker to pass messages, the client has to route the connection through a proxy, the proxy is in SysAid’s IP range and voila, problem solved. So now the question is how do we achieve this magic? The first thing to realize is that this complicates the security model somewhat. Security infrastructure (authentication and authorization) Yeah, that’s a lot to unpack. The security infrastructure (see diagram above) is composed of the following...
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### The 21 Hidden Costs of Having On-Premise Software
> The benefits that businesses and IT teams alike are gaining from well-managed, cloud-based services are rapidly changing the face of IT. Read more...
- Published: 2021-10-20
- Modified: 2022-09-29
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/the-21-hidden-costs-of-having-on-premise-software
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: cloud, ITSM, on-premise
- Blog authors: Rafi Rainshtein
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The world has been living with on-premise software for far too long now. The benefits that businesses and IT teams alike are gaining from well-managed, cloud-based services are rapidly changing the face of IT. We’re also becoming far more confident about how the costs of migrating IT service management (ITSM) software to the cloud can be quickly recouped. This cost benefit is elevated even more so when IT departments are able to calculate the true cost of on-premise software. From the cost of physical servers, to the time spent running weekend upgrades... the list of hidden costs to the business is endless. To help you get thinking about how these costs appear in your own IT environment, here is our arm’s length list of hidden on-premise costs: Let’s start with a few easy ones... 1. Servers So your software has to live on a physical server, which you need to buy, keep somewhere, run electricity to, and keep cool. You might even need to give it a polish from time to time. 2. Backups Your data is only as good as your last backup. The costs attached to managing your own backups, storing data off site, and checking yesterday’s backups for any errors is an additional expense often not accounted for. 3. Anti-Virus Software Keeping your anti-virus up-to-date is obviously important on all your software and servers. However, the more software you have, the more instances of anti-virus you need. 4. Upgrades Oh the dreaded upgrades! Managing your own upgrades is...
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### IT Guide for Seeing Through the Matrix
> In this blog Ben Brannan provides an 'IT Guide' to understanding what your business really thinks about IT and its services.
- Published: 2021-09-22
- Modified: 2022-01-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-guide-matrix
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CSAT, customer service, employee experience, EX, IT leaders, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Ben Brennan
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In my previous blog, I shared some research showing that it was time for a wake-up call in IT. Specifically, I reference several studies showing that while most IT teams see themselves as heroes of the enterprise, the businesses those same teams support see them more as villains, even if well-meaning ones. The good news is that an increasing number of IT teams have undergone transformations and aligned how they see themselves with how the business sees them. The results, not surprisingly, are more respect for IT, and happier, more productive employees. A good ol’ fashion win-win. The answer is straightforward, and the changes required are easier and less expensive than what you’re currently doing. The only hard part? Being willing to see things from your customer’s, or end user’s perspective. Take the Red Pill Today, the epic heroes of the IT world don’t get that way by making a decision matrix. Rather, they get that way by making a matrix decision: choosing either the Red Pill or the Blue Pill. Take the red pill, and you’ll find out what employees really think of IT in your company. A very hard pill to swallow (sorry! ), but a prerequisite to changing IT’s reputation. Take the blue pill, and you can be one of those IT teams that researchers find in blissful ignorance, feeling great about the job you’re doing, while your end users feel the exact opposite. The choice is a real one – but for true...
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### Why Service Management Needs to Drive Digital Business Operations
> Service management should be an important facilitator of your organization’s digital transformation needs and ambitions. Here's why.
- Published: 2021-09-02
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/service-management-needs-to-drive-digital-business-operations
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, ITSM, Service Center, service desk, Service Orchestration, Workflow Automation, Workflows
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The world has changed as a result of the global pandemic. We’ve likely had more digital transformation in the last ten months than we’d seen in the last ten years. Because organizations have needed to have more intra-team and cross-functional working. They needed more and better collaboration. And they’ve needed to do it remotely. These digital transformation needs had been bubbling under the surface for a while. Some organizations had already jumped in, many had been dipping their toe in, and some had just been standing beside the water having a look. Now, however, we’ve all been plunged in – some would say “headfirst. ” And, in the last year, like it or not, organizations and their employees have gone through a major transformation in terms of how they work, query work, and what they understand the work to be. All kinds of work that supports the way the business functions. The impact of remote working For all those organizations, and all their teams and people, during the early part of the crisis things went crazy. For example, they had to suddenly ramp up their remote, off-site provisioning massively to enable most employees to work away from the office. Then there was the effect on employees, for most of whom working at home was an alien activity. The crisis’s effect on IT support impacted the informal as well as the formal help channels. For example, if an employee previously had an issue with their technology, before they contacted the IT...
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### Reducing Traffic by Using AWS IoT (Part 1 of 2)
> Learn how SysAid uses AWS IoT to reduce traffic to its servers and get rid of polling, and see if you could benefit from the same.
- Published: 2021-08-26
- Modified: 2021-12-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/aws-iot-reducing-traffic-part-one
- Categories: SysAid Tech
- Tags: Amazon Web Services, Tech
- Blog authors: Jonathan Yom-Tov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Here at SysAid, to help us track our clients’ computing resources (computers, printers etc. ), we have software agents running on client sites. These periodically report to our servers on the resources’ status. Reports are relayed to our servers using encrypted HTTP requests. Occasionally we have to send messages from our servers to the agents instructing them to take specific actions, such as configuration changes. There are several options to implement the server to agent communication. The simplest would’ve been for our agents to listen to traffic from our servers, but for security reasons we couldn’t ask our clients to open their firewall to incoming traffic, so instead it was decided to have the agents poll our servers instead. That generates a lot of traffic. Just to give an example, if our agents poll once a minute and we have a thousand clients with a hundred agents each, that's over four billion monthly requests. Worse, since in most cases we don’t actually have a message to relay to our agents, most of this traffic is redundant. To reduce the traffic to our servers, we decided to get rid of polling. There are several options to do this, mostly involving a publish/subscribe model. We wanted a solution which would: Support tens of thousands of devices. For example, if we have a thousand clients with a hundred devices each that’s 100,000 devices. Encrypt its traffic. Be able to recover from disconnects. Be able to send a message to a specific subscriber. Be...
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### Hero or Villain: Which Is Your IT Team?
> Is your IT team Batman or The Joker? Here Ben Brannan shares three steps to saving the day and your team's reputation.
- Published: 2021-08-19
- Modified: 2021-08-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/hero-villian-it-team
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: customer service, employee experience, IT leader, ITSM, metrics, service desk
- Blog authors: Ben Brennan
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Unlike a lot of my peers, I was never into comics as a kid. Sure, I watched the old school Batman TV show and was into some nerdy stuff, like math and gadgets, but to be honest, I started my IT career as a closet non-nerd. When I started leading IT teams, I realized that just being nerd-ish was not going to scale and so like any good IT Director, I spent hours watching the Marvel movies in chronological order and binging sci-fi series to make sure I had at least a baseline, if unimpressive, amount of nerd cred. What I realized on this journey is that a career in IT has a ton of parallels with those of comic book superheroes. Exceptional IT, in particular, is a rare accomplishment and truly requires a hero's journey to arrive at. The analogies are endless. Think about it: mild mannered folks doing extraordinary, heroic things every day, often without praise or understanding from the people they seek to save the day for. That could easily describe a day in the life of both Superman and your favorite IT technician. Pretty cool, huh? IT professionals are superheroes. Sweet! End of story! Not so fast, Batman. Reality Check Most of us take for granted when we see a superhero film that Batman is good, and Joker is bad. One similarity between heroes and villains, perhaps the most impactful one, however, is the one most of us overlook. That similarity: When...
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### Persisting Tomcat Sessions to Redis
> Learn about SysAid’s journey to high availability and session persistence using Tomcat and Redis. Explore our technical blog today!
- Published: 2021-08-13
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid-tech/persisting-tomcat-sessions
- Categories: SysAid Tech
- Tags: SysAid, Tech, Tomcat
- Blog authors: Jonathan Yom-Tov
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
This is the story of how we achieved high availability and session persistence in our Tomcat clusters. Years ago, before the Cloud was born, SysAid was founded. During those dark times software ran on bare metal, there were no microservices and AWS was just a twinkle in Andy Jassy’s eye. Things were a lot different then. Software was written in a completely different environment, with different constraints. But today it’s different. A LOT different. As such, I’ve decided to embark on a new blog series writing about the modernization of SysAid’s technology and our migration from a mostly monolithic architecture to microservices in the cloud. You can expect one-two blogs a month and I’ll be writing on a number of topics, including cost and performance optimization, handling legacy code, migrating to the cloud and hunting bugs in production. Today I’m starting with persisting Tomcat sessions to Redis. The problem Say you have a web application and everything is going smoothly. Users are logging in, clicking buttons, filling in forms and everyone's happy. Then one day disaster strikes and your application server crashes. Now everyone is less happy. You scramble to bring up another application server and in a few seconds it's up and running. Whew! All is well. Wait, not really. Your users have lost their session data. Everything not saved to the database is gone. Depending on how your application is written the effect can range from inconvenient and embarrassing to disastrous. Something needs to change. So you get...
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### How To Automate Your IT Service Management - All You Need To Know
> Read here to learn how you can easily automate your IT service management, and how to get your IT automation right.
- Published: 2021-08-12
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-automate-it-service-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, IT Automation, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Is your organization thinking about adding more automation to itsIT service management(ITSM) capabilities? Or maybe your IT department is simply looking to find a way to better deliver against the increased business need for technology and the higher expectations of the employees it serves? Either way, this blog is here to help – from the benefits of adding automation to the key steps for getting your automation investments right. Let’s start with the “why. ” 4 key benefits of automation for ITSM The “why” of most things in IT these days is pretty self-explanatory, with modern businesses requiring: More technology for the IT departments to then manage and support Faster change, including the introduction of new capabilities Better technology enablement in the form of higher-quality services and employee experience improvements Lower unit costs Hence, it’s best to view automation through a benefits-based lens, with four key benefits of increased automation: Improved customer/employee experience and outcomes. In many ways, enhancing the customer or client experience is a key objective ofIT Service automation– either directly through externally-facing technology in particular or in the support of other corporate capabilities where the linkage might not be so obvious. For instance, the IT department – and ITSM – might help to “power” a capability that better enables the employees who deliver the products and services that are eventually consumed by external customers. The automated provisioning of home-based working capabilities for employees is a great example of this. With the digital workflows and associated automation capabilities...
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### So, Your Organization Doesn’t Need Digital Workflows?
> Discover how technology has boosted your company's operations & outcomes. Dive into our blog for insights on technology-enablement.
- Published: 2021-07-29
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/so-your-organization-doesnt-need-digital-workflows
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, digital workflows, enterprise service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
How old is your organization? A decade? Multiple decades? Perhaps over one hundred years old? And how old are its practices and processes? Or asked another way, how successfully has it employed technology in improving its business operations and outcomes? And not just its customer-touching business operations but also the operations within its many back-office business functions, such as human resources (HR), facilities, procurement, finance, etc. I think most people would respond with “Oh, we have so much technology these days” because every business function has its own systems and tools. HR has its HR management system (HRMS) or HR information system (HRIS). Finance has its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or accounting system(s). And that ERP system might also be shared with HR, procurement, business operations, or other business functions. But what about technology-enablement in the form of digital workflows? Please keep reading to find out more, including why your organization needs them now more than ever. The evolution of enterprise service management – let’s not overlook the need for technology While enterprise service management is described as the use of IT service management (ITSM) capabilities by other business functions to improve their operations and outcomes, there’s often a reluctance to recognize the importance of technology in doing this. Yes, a service-focused mindset is needed. And yes, ITSM best practices can be “adopted and adapted” by other business functions. But many of the benefits of enterprise service management (as well as of ITSM) are limited without the use of...
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### How to Convince Senior Management to Move Your Help Desk to the Cloud
> Tips on moving your help desk to the cloud: Addressing common objections and busting myths to ease the transition process.
- Published: 2021-07-25
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/how-to-convince-senior-management-to-move-your-help-desk-to-the-cloud
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: cloud, help desk, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you haven’t convinced senior management to move the help desk to the cloud, don’t fret. The most common objection to new technology is the anticipation of imagined problems. The person who loves physical books fears that an e-reader will ruin the experience. The person who takes calls with a wired headset assumes that a Bluetooth earpiece will run out of battery or not be loud enough. Likewise, the executive against a cloud-based help desk fears that it will be costly, insecure, or no better than the current system. To get more tactical, let’s divide senior management into different personas and discuss how to get them past their imagined fears: 1. Senior Management Without IT Experience At small companies, IT people often work beneath a CEO, CFO, and COO who know little about information technology. They don’t see the need for a help desk, let alone one that exists in the cloud, which few people conceptually grasp. The non-IT mindset is, “You and your team solve all our IT problems already. Clearly you don’t need the software to do this. Why should we spend money on it? ” They think of a help desk as a cost, not a cost-saver. You need to collect some data that will help you prove the opposite: What software licenses do you pay for annually? What is their cost? What devices do you own? What did they cost? How many hours do you spend troubleshooting those devices and software solutions? What is the cost...
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### 8 Tips for Getting Started with Knowledge Management
> Many orgs are still struggling to get started with knowledge management – usually because of people-related issues. So here's my 8 tips to help.
- Published: 2021-07-21
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/8-tips-for-getting-started-with-knowledge-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: KCS, Knowledge Base, Knowledge Centered Service, knowledge management, Organizational Change Management
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
8 tips for better knowledge sharing in your organization
Ah, knowledge management. The concept is nearly as old as IT service management (ITSM) itself, but many IT departments still struggle to make knowledge sharing work in their organizations. To back this up, there’s a wealth of available statistics on knowledge management adoption and success – from the likes of HDI and the Service Desk Institute (SDI) – with these pointing to a strange situation where: The value of knowledge sharing is understood, especially by IT service desks People appreciate that technology is needed to share knowledge effectively Knowledge sharing is known to increase speed, reduce workloads, and improve customer satisfaction But many organizations are still struggling to make knowledge management work – usually because of people-related issues. Thus, this blog aims to offer you a number of tips, aimed at helping your organization start, or restart, with knowledge management. And not just started – started with a higher probability of succeeding. 8 tips for better knowledge sharing in your organization Establish a shared understanding of what knowledge management is for your organization. Different people might have different views as to what knowledge management means in practice and what’s needed to support it. For example, an over-focus on high-volume knowledge-article creation or the adoption of the Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) approach. The important thing here is to collectively decide what knowledge sharing will and won’t be, with success-related objectives created accordingly. Make knowledge sharing part of the way of working. Knowledge management needs to be embedded into the...
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### What You Need to Know About the ITIL 4 Book Portfolio
> Explore the ITIL 4 book portfolio with our comprehensive guide. Learn about the key publications and their insights. Discover more today!
- Published: 2021-07-21
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-itil-4-book-portfolio
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: AXELOS, ITIL, ITIL 4
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
If you’re taking the ITIL 4 exams or simply want to update yourself on the new body of IT service management (ITSM) best practice guidance, then it can still be difficult to understand what’s available in ITIL 4 book-wise. In particular, where to find the detail of the 34 ITIL management practices that every ITIL 4 blog seems to call out. If you want to know more, then this blog is for you. Because, over the next 1000 words or so, I’ve written about the six key ITIL 4 books. Yes, there are six books and another 34 PDFs! And this is why I’ve written this blog. A brief overview of the current ITIL 4 publication portfolio I get into the detail further below; this is just a starter so you can see what’s coming and appreciate how the books map onto the ITIL 4 qualifications: ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 Edition – this was the first ITIL 4 book, released in 2019 to support the updated ITIL Foundation qualification. Create, Deliver and Support – this was released in early 2020 and supports the ITIL Managing Professional qualification. Drive Stakeholder Value – this was released in early 2020 and also supports the ITIL Managing Professional qualification. High-velocity IT – this was released in early 2020 and also supports the ITIL Managing Professional qualification. Direct, Plan and Improve – this was released in early 2020 and supports both the ITIL Managing Professional and ITIL Strategic Leader qualifications (please see the qualification overview...
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### Enterprise Shift – It’s Not Just About IT Anymore
> IT emerged from the pandemic as a heroic and highly capable and professional team of heroes. Here Barclay Rae looks at this enterprise shift.
- Published: 2021-07-21
- Modified: 2021-07-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/enterprise-shift-not-just-about-it-anymore
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: digital transformation, enterprise service management, ESM, IT support, ITSM
- Blog authors: Barclay Rae
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT has stepped up through the COVID-19 pandemic and is now ready to take its seat at the top table. To make this work we can use an enterprise-wide approach and remove the distinction between ‘business and IT’... You’ll probably have read a million blogs by now that start with ‘there is no return to normal’, or ‘it’s been a year of unprecedented change’. Hopefully that sums up the backdrop to this, without needing to cover old ground. Of course, there is no return to ‘normal’ and change has been monumental. However this has also helped to move a number of areas of IT development forward in months compared to years. There’s certainly no return to ‘old’ or ‘the way we used to do things’. The opportunities are here now for the technology industry to really step up and take its rightful place at the top level in every type of organization. Better communications People in IT are strange creatures. From almost all of my current client projects, I’ve picked up the same thread as follows: IT people have thrived during the pandemic and in many cases they’ve reported that uses of the likes of TEAMs and Zoom etc has actually improved their cross-team communications and collaboration. Surely this is counter intuitive? Don’t we like to physically engage with people to pick up on non-verbal communications, direct contact, relationship building etc. ? When I question this further, I discover that, in many cases, the use of home-working and universal...
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### We’ve refreshed our brand. Here’s why.
> SysAid Unveils Powerful Storytelling Tools! Engage Audiences & Simplify Communication.
- Published: 2021-07-05
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/weve-refreshed-our-brand-heres-why
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: Eyal Zombek
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Our new brand identity is finally here and we’re elated to share it with the world. To honor the occasion, on June 28th we celebrated the unveiling at a fabulous event with SysAid employees at our offices, and now it’s official! Our refreshed branding is bold and iconic but before we go into the details, you’re probably asking yourselves why. So let’s explain. Back in 2002, SysAid joined the ITSM game. At the time, it was clear that the old way of doing IT wasn’t working. So we decided to fix IT. So much has happened since then and SysAid has evolved into the IT service automation leader that we are today. With service automation, built on sophisticated AI from over a decade of real usage data, SysAid is reinventing service management. We help IT work smarter, not harder. From tasks to tickets, workflow to self-service. IT professionals have recognized how badly they need automation, especially over the past 1. 5 years. Actually, they just can’t do without it. So in fact, our new branding merely brings out what we’ve always stood for, our core competence and expertise, since way back then. It now voices what we’ve always done best. Using service automation to deliver faster service, lighter workloads, and smoother experience to millions of users around the globe. Our refreshed brand takes the mastery of automation ingrained in our DNA, and puts it at the forefront, clearly and proudly amplified everywhere we go. And this is where our journey...
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### Accelerated IT: The Pandemic and the Future
> Here Roy Atkinson looks at the top of Accelerated IT... how we got to where we are through the pandemic and how we plan to move into the future.
- Published: 2021-06-27
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/accelerated-it-the-pandemic-and-the-future
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: COVID19, Home Working, ITSM, Remote Control, Remote Work, self-service, State of Service Management
- Blog authors: Roy Atkinson
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Just over one year ago, organizations of all kinds, shapes, and sizes were told by government agencies and their boards of directors to empty their offices and have everyone except essential on-site personnel working from home as rapidly as possible. While some organizations allowed some workers the ability to work remotely and the numbers of workers who were considered “mobile” had been increasing for years, this was different. This had to happen now. The logistics were frightening. People who had never worked from home were going to be doing that for an unknown length of time. Did they have laptops? Would they need extra monitors? Did the organization have enough VPN access? Would their applications work from outside the organization’s physical network? If they allowed people to use their own computers, would they have licenses for the required software? Existing budgets were swept aside and the overarching question for CIOs and other IT and business leaders became, “Can you do this? ” Not just an IT question Although much of the rapid movement to remote work hinged on IT’s ability to “make it all work,” there were other questions as well, including: Did HR have policies that prohibited or restricted working from home? How would the onboarding of new employees be done? How would teams communicate? How could employees who were inexperienced at remote work get up to speed on working from home? How could collaboration and innovation continue? Would people have access to the files and information they needed?...
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### Why Automation Is the Cornerstone of Your IT Strategy
> From incremental improvements to digital transformation, this blog looks at how automation is the cornerstone of your IT strategy.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/why-automation-is-the-cornerstone-of-your-it-strategy
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, Service Orchestration
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
From incremental improvements to digital transformation, these are the foundations for IT strategy success, and today's automation capabilities deliver on both. Here this blog explores.
As a child, you roamed around your neighborhood on a bike, scooter, or skateboard. And that did the job until you grew older and wanted to roam to other towns. So, you levelled up and bought a car. In effect, as you matured, you moved from using a tool that performed a simple task to one that provided better connections and experiences on a broader scale. Like your childhood experience, a primary benefit of IT automation is its scalability. From tactical and local use to crossing IT functions and siloes. As a result, automation has become invaluable for forwarding thinking organizations. As organizations grow and evolve, IT becomes essential to business success. Your IT team is charged with maximizing availability, performance, and flexibility while minimizing cost and risk. To meet these challenges, successful IT leaders have turned up the automation dial with more companies piloting projects. According to our 2021 State of Service Management report, 56% of respondents ranked automation as their number one goal for the year. Starting with tactical blocking and tackling of simple service desk tasks, automation can scale to orchestrate IT operations providing the foundational element for transformative initiatives. Automation approached holistically becomes the cornerstone on which to build out your IT strategy. Tactical automation supports daily demands In its simplest use cases, automation provides tactical advantages for service desks. It opens opportunities to optimize processes, inspect tasks in the flow, remove inefficiencies, mature processes, and free resources. Tactical automation dramatically improves service desk process handling...
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### Consumerize Your Portal for IT Self-Service Success
> This blog offers up 8 tips to help you consumerize your IT self-service portal capabilities to achieve the expected, and required, level of success.
- Published: 2021-05-05
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/consumerize-your-portal-for-it-self-service-success
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: IT Self Service, IT support, SDI, Self Help, self-service
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
One of the key IT service management (ITSM) capabilities available to IT service desks during the COVID-19 crisis is self-service. When functioning well, it’ll take the pressure off overworked service desk staff, especially when employees can help themselves to immediate solutions. Which, of course, is a win-win for both IT support and the people they serve – with fewer tickets hitting the service desk and a better employee experience respectively. If you’re like 80% of IT departments, then you’ve already implemented some form of self-service technology. However, you’ve also likely struggled with employee adoption. There are many reasons as to why, but the bottom line is that your organization’s investment in self-service technology has likely failed to deliver the anticipated benefits including the expected return on investment (ROI). So that’s the bad news. The good news is that much has been learned in the last five years or so of IT self-service portal initiatives. In this blog, I’ll explain how to avoid the many obstacles to self-service success – ranging from having the wrong objective, a lack of organizational change management activity, to the quality and the suitability of the self-service portal technology. Importantly, many of the eight offered tips point to the need to consumerize your IT self-service portal capabilities to achieve the expected, and required, level of success. Please bear this in mind when trying to up the adoption of your existing or new self-service portal to help with the increased ticket volumes resulting from the COVID-19...
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### How to Know that Your 2021 Plans Are Aligned with the Latest Industry Trends
> Discover the top goal for businesses in 2021: automation. Explore more in SysAid's "2021 State of Service Management Report."
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-know-that-your-2021-plans-are-aligned-with-the-latest-industry-trends
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, IT service management, ITSM, survey
- Blog authors: Christine Pun
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The concept of service automation is not new to IT service management (ITSM). It’s role is to ensure consistent and efficient handling of those well-defined and recurring tasks that are found within any organization. This way IT staff can reduce their overhead of high-volume, low-value manual tasks, and free up more time for higher value work. In other words, service automation enables increased efficiency and productivity. That’s why it’s no surprise that in SysAid’s recent global customer survey, 56% of respondents ranked the use of automation as their number one goal for the year. In fact, with over 1,000 responses in total, the survey’s findings uncover how the challenges faced during the pandemic are influencing the priorities and goals for IT managers in 2021, and driving the latest technology trends that are transforming the industry. Interested in learning what else your peers have planned for the year ahead? Join our webinar on April 14th, in which industry thought leader, Doug Tedder, will discuss live with SysAid customers, the trend towards adoption of service automation as well as other pertinent findings disclosed by the survey. Following the webinar, you’ll be eligible to receive your own copy of the 2021 State of Service Management Report — based on the SysAid customer survey — and delve further into how IT is reshaping and what that means for you. For example, the survey results show that improvement of user experience, which was ranked as last year’s top IT priority, came in second this year,...
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### 5 Tips for Adopting ITIL 4’s Continual Improvement Management Practice
> Learn how to adopt ITIL 4’s continual improvement practices in your IT environment. Get 5 actionable tips today!
- Published: 2021-04-09
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/5-tips-for-adopting-itil-4s-continual-improvement-management-practice
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: Continual Improvement, continual service improvement, CSI, ITIL 4
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
ITIL 4’s continual improvement management practice – remember, it was continual service improvement (CSI) in ITIL v3 – is a recurring organizational activity performed at all levels to ensure that an organization’s performance and outcomes are always aligned to changing stakeholder expectations. It’s a critical part of the ITIL 4 service value system (SVS) because, if used effectively, it will enable your IT organization to adapt and flex to the needs of the business – becoming more proactive by anticipating future trends and optimizing services, operational performance, and outcomes. This post looks at how to inject ITIL 4’s continual improvement practices into your day-to-day IT service delivery and support environment and offers up 5 helpful tips. 1. Start where you are One of my favorite aspects of ITIL 4 is the expansion of the guiding principles from the ITIL Practitioner publication, and the principle of “start where you are” is key to continual improvement. All too often, we’re so focused on making things better that we overlook the great work that we already have in place. And by missing out on these existing improvement activities you’re missing a trick – so, look for localized pockets of awesomeness to see if you can expand or build on them. Things to look for include: Service desk knowledge wikis Templated changes Prioritization models Existing processes and ways of working that can be replicated elsewhere. By taking a step back and looking at what you have in place already, you can adapt existing best...
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### Security Product Update: What You May Not Even Be Aware Of
> SysAid prioritizes customer security and privacy, continuously enhancing security capabilities to uphold this commitment.
- Published: 2021-03-21
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/security-product-update-what-you-may-not-even-be-aware-of
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: cybersecurity, IT security, ITSM. service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
When things are running smoothly, and you’re not checking into any security issues, then you know you’re in good hands. I know that this is the case for our SysAid customers, and that makes me happy Nevertheless, I wanted to take this opportunity to list out (for anyone who is interested) all the security enhancements that SysAid has recently implemented. 58627 - We’ve continuously tightened security around preventing potential XSS attacks. Among these enhancements we’ve added more input filtering and escaping methods for defending against XSS attacks. We also resolved an XSS-related weakness related to the local Forgot Password process, which addresses CVE-2020-13168. 62099 - And to prevent another XSS vulnerability, documented in CVE-2018-1000129, we limited access to Jolokia in LBs. 55806 - In February 2020, we limited the permissions that allowed for displaying SysAid within an iframe in order to prevent threats of click-jacking. 53673 - In May 2020, to tighten the secured connection to our services, we started blocking the older non-supported TLS protocol versions 1. 0/1. 1, and now only allow the more advanced secured versions. Customers using very old browsers, can no longer access our services. They need to ensure that all machines that are running the SysAid agent use a . NET Framework of 4. 6 or higher that supports higher TLS protocols. For details on browser support for TLS versions, please read this article: https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security#Web_browsers 57991 - In June 2020 we expanded enforced timeout functionality to cover more cases of session inactivity....
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### 6 Tips to Stay Motivated on the Service Desk
> Read tips from our experts on how to stay motivated on the service desk.
- Published: 2021-02-25
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/6-tips-to-stay-motivated-on-the-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, Wellbeing
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Before the infamous year that was 2020, working on an IT service desk was sometimes a thankless job. Then a global pandemic started, and IT service desks became (almost) as important as our frontline healthcare workers. IT had to ensure that employees were able to continue to keep working outside of the office. And they’ve continued to help maintain business operations in what is a new world for us. But even before the IT support pressures caused by the pandemic, there was a reason why it’s generally accepted that there is often a finite shelf life for people in the service desk/help desk analyst role. For example, if your IT service desk is of the “log it and flog it” variety, where the ticket is logged and transferred to a specific resolution group if it isn't a super-easy fix, then it can feel like you’re working in a never ending loop of IT issues. Where feeling enslaved to your telephone and computer can be dreadful. Or if you’re working on a service desk where first-line support tries to maximize its resolution levels, you might end your day with your head hurting from all of the issues that you’ve tried to resolve – using a mix of experience, knowledge articles, and trial and error – for end users who are expecting immediate fixes. Working on a busy IT service desk can, of course, have its highs but it can be a serious drain on morale, with a direct impact on how...
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### What Does the Word Service Mean to You?
> What does service mean in the IT world? Dive into our blog to find out and share your perspective. Learn more today!
- Published: 2021-02-17
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/what-does-the-word-service-mean-to-you
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In light of the global pandemic of 2020-21, many organizations have accelerated their digital transformation initiatives – through the use of enterprise service management. And they are, I’m sure, fully aware of what enterprise service management is. But what about what service is? Think about it. Service. For such a simple word it sure can mean a lot of different things to different people. For sports fans, a good service is a critical part of tennis success. For the religious, a service is a ceremony of worship. For the military, it’s their employment, i. e. military service. And in other vocations it’s the length of time that they have stayed with that particular employer. For lawyers, service is the formal delivery of legal documents such as a summons. For homeowners, it can be a utility such as gas, electricity, or water. For car owners, it’s the annual maintenance of their vehicle. And (you can tell I’m running out of steam here), it could even be a set of matching crockery of all things. So, service can mean different things to different people. And service in the context of the corporate IT organization is no different. So, what should the word "service" mean to IT? For those that work in the IT organization, service can mean multiple things. For some, service relates to technology domains like network or storage services. For others, particularly those schooled in IT service management (ITSM) and ITIL, it relates to an IT service, i. e. something...
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### How to Get Your IT Support KPIs Right
> How you measure and improve your IT Support performance has never been more critical. But are you employing the right IT service desk measures?
- Published: 2021-02-03
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/itsm-basics-getting-your-kpis-right
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Right now, with the growing corporate and employee reliance on technology to function, and increased technology adoption through digital transformation, your organization’s IT support capabilities are more important than ever. Meaning that how you measure and improve performance is too, with your IT service desk’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics vital to its success. But are you employing the right IT service desk measures? For instance, is first contact resolution (FCR) a good KPI for your IT service desk and incident management? Many corporate IT organizations think that it is – after all, it’s definitely one that’s prominent in the ITIL books and is popular with many IT service management (ITSM) consultants. But is it right for every IT organization? And what about the many other measures that are currently employed by your IT service desk? Assessing the suitability metrics using FCR as an example On one level, is it just a measure of closed calls or of the percentage of end-user issues that were given proper care and attention? On another, what’s included in FCR stats? Just easy incidents, including password resets? FCR can be fiddled with, and I’ve even seen service desks that add room bookings into their FCR calculations. Are trickier issues disallowed for “fairness”? And I bet some would include wrong number calls if it made their FCR stats look better. Plus FCR, along with other ITSM KPIs and metrics, can definitely drive the wrong staff behaviors. However, the real issue for me is that...
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### 6 Steps to Successfully Migrate Your Organization to Cloud
> Discover the 6 essential steps for a successful organization migration to the cloud with SysAid. Read now
- Published: 2021-01-19
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/6-steps-to-successfully-migrate-your-organization-to-cloud
- Categories: Cloud
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Last week I posted a blog looking at the first 3 essentials steps that you need to take to ensure a successful migration to the cloud. We looked at how to: Map your current environment Consider candidates for migration Search for cloud vendors Today’s blog post will look at the final 3 steps required to build a workable 6-step plan to guide you through your cloud migration. Step 4: Setup and Data Migration Data transfer and validations are very critical to look at during this step; you may encounter issues with time zones, different features, etc. Make sure you conduct a test data transfer and set up a test environment before you attempt the actual migration. Another important aspect to consider is your bandwidth for uploading. You may have excellent download speeds, but it is important to remember that upload speeds and download speeds are not the same thing. We've seen small 200 GB database of emails take several hours to upload, so it is very important to estimate the downtime associated with your data migration. Sometimes it can take hours, and sometimes it can even take several days. To estimate this effectively you need to check what your average upload speeds are. Also, you need to make sure that your internet (which is a crucial part of accessing cloud services) is redundant, whether it’s two lines, hardware that takes care of it, or a back-up plan/line. You need to ensure that you don’t get stuck with your services and...
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### Are You Missing Out On the BI Opportunity with Your ITSM Tool?
> Highlights of the current limitations of ITSM tool reporting and analytics capabilities and how the use of a BI tool.
- Published: 2021-01-12
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/are-you-missing-out-on-the-bi-opportunity-with-your-itsm-tool
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: BI, Business Intelligence, enterprise service management, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
If your IT service management (ITSM) tool is “average” in nature, then you might be experiencing many of the common issues that IT service desk personnel, in particular, have with their tools. One of these is that the native reporting and analytics capabilities are limited. For example, in terms of flexibility, the data that can be accessed; and most importantly, the ability to gain valuable insights that could significantly improve service desk operations and outcomes. It’s why SysAid added business intelligence (BI) capabilities to its advanced reporting and analytics capabilities. But more on this later. First, I need to call out the continuing reporting and analytics issues faced by IT service desks. What improvements would you like to see in your ITSM tool? If your thoughts are in line with Service Desk Institute (SDI) research data, then you might call out any or all of the top five ITSM tool frustrations: Usability/functionality Reporting Features Out of the box/development needs Speed Reporting was also the third most wanted improvement to ITSM tools (after automation/AI and self-service/chatbots) in the same report. Surely this seems strange when ITSM solutions house so much IT-related data. Whether it be in a configuration management database/system (CMDB/CMS), a service catalog, or within the more-transactional records for incidents, service requests, problems, and changes. It raises the question of how many IT organizations can currently use all of this data to better understand their past and to positively influence their present and future? Your large portfolio of IT service...
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### 2021 ITSM Predictions – It’s All About Digital Enablement
> We have all been through so much in 2020. How we need to work has changed forever and, surprisingly, potentially for the better.
- Published: 2020-12-01
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/2021-itsm-predictions-its-all-about-digital-enablement
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, digital transformation, digital workflows, IT Automation
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The world is now a very different place to when I sat writing my 2020 ITSM predictions blog last year. We have all been through so much in 2020. How we need to work has changed forever and, surprisingly, potentially for the better. On the one hand, it makes looking into 2021 more difficult, because we simply still don’t know what 2021 will hold. But, on the other, it also makes it easier to isolate (no pun intended! ) what’s going to be most important for your business in the year ahead and the role that your IT service management (ITSM) team needs to play. So, please keep reading to find out where I’m predicting that ITSM is heading in the year ahead. But first a very quick look at how my 2020 predictions fared among the year’s heartaches and heroics. 2020 in the rear-view mirror I think that many of us are quite looking forward to having 2020 behind us. But there have been spots of sunshine. For example, I’d be remiss if I didn’t call out the heroics of the many IT professionals that kept their businesses and society alive – sometimes literally. With 2021 now hopefully “the sunshine after the rain” that will allow us to finally get back to some semblance of normality both at home and in the workplace (although for some I imagine the dividing line has blurred considerably during 2020). So, what did I forecast in last year’s 2020 ITSM predictions blog? In...
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### SysAid Named a Leader in 12 Categories in G2’s Fall 2020 Reports
> We’re very excited to announce that SysAid has been named a Leader in G2’s Service Desk and ITSM categories for Fall 2020.
- Published: 2020-10-15
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-named-a-leader-in-12-categories-in-g2s-fall-2020-reports
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: Award, G2, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It seems like ages have passed since SysAid launched its new, refreshed UI. Actually, only 18 months – but what an 18 months it’s been. In this time, we released a record number of improvements to help our help desk and ITSM partners work the way they want to: from advanced automation, to the Workflow Designer for automated digital workflows, to a codeless self-service portal. We invested much time and effort to continue providing our users with the world-class service and support they learn to expect, even during a pandemic. Furthermore, we’re doing everything possible to keep up the momentum and find new ways for service desk heroes to thrive in these challenging times. That is why we’re very excited to announce that SysAid has been named a Leader in G2’s Service Desk and ITSM categories for Fall 2020. In addition, SysAid has earned the #1 spot across many product categories: ITSM best results An award that’s given to the highest-ranked ITSM tool for real-user satisfaction ratings, best estimated ROI, and overall satisfaction of a product's quality. Best relationship The highest-ranked service desk software based on customers' likelihood to recommend and customer care scoring. Usability index Ranked #1 for ease of admin experience, ease of use, and meeting overall requirements. SysAid was identified as a leader in these categories (and 24 others! ) based on high levels of customer satisfaction and likeliness to recommend ratings from real users on G2. The Fall 2020 awards follow SysAid’s recognition as a Leader...
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### How We Won the Tech Cares Award
> I'm flattered and grateful that TrustRadius honored SysAid with this award that recognizes companies for going the extra mile during COVID-19.
- Published: 2020-09-24
- Modified: 2022-07-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/how-we-won-the-tech-cares-award
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: Award, COVID-19, SysAid
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
2020. Not a great year, by any stretch of the imagination. As soon as the pandemic began its cruel spread across the globe, my dedicated management team at SysAid all sat together, on Zoom of course, and planned. What are we going to do to keep our employees safe, and our customers on track towards success despite the unique challenges the IT community was suddenly facing? We embarked on a program composed of a number of initiatives. Which led to us winning the 2020 Tech Cares Award. Nice surprise! Obviously this was not the purpose of any initiative (the award did not even exist back then). I am flattered and grateful that TrustRadius, one of the most trusted customer review platforms for business tech, honored SysAid with this award that recognizes companies for going the extra mile during COVID-19. It’s SysAid’s honor to help our customers – we’re one global village and this is the time to show responsibility and care for one another. Safety and business continuity for customers and employees alike In mid-March 2020, when COVID-19 was spreading like wildfire all over the world, SysAid sent all its employees (in Canada, Israel, and Romania) home to work remotely. The same can be said for most (if not all) of our customers around the globe. Safety first, of course! But what about business continuity? I felt personally responsible for our customers, because SysAid is an IT service management (ITSM) solution (service desk, asset management, automation, etc), which...
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### When Your Awesome Feature Turns Out to Be a By-Design Bug
> Engage with customers to understand their needs, exchange innovative ideas, and create impactful new features. Discover it now.
- Published: 2020-08-18
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/when-your-awesome-feature-turns-out-to-be-a-by-design-bug
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: ITSM, product management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I want to share a lightbulb moment I had recently. I love my work as a product manager in SysAid, being empowered by data from one end, and working closely with SysAid customers from the other end. Each interaction with customers is an opportunity to listen to the customers’ needs as well as share some fresh ideas, and as a result – create meaningful features. Not long ago, we had a request from a customer to add specific functionality to our notifications feature. Here’s how the story began... Our new awesome feature Based on the request of one of our customers, new functionality was inserted to enhance an existing feature regarding notifications. The feature was very specific: it allows agents to get notified about specific actions when their users modify attributes in SysAid. The whole Product department was so excited, that we even added a special shout-out to the customer inside the product, to thank them for encouraging us to add this functionality. And the customer truly appreciated this gesture. Going back to the Beta stage This feature request was initiated from feedback that we received from a customer via the support department. We inserted it into our product backlog and after analyzing it, we interviewed the customer. At this point we started to validate this requirement with other customers as well, trying to understand the impact of this new feature on our customers' ecosystems. We realized that this functionality has a positive ROI, especially when we compared the development...
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### Reap the Rewards of ITSM Tool Integrations
> To help you improve the quality of service, to speed up operations, or to save money – this blog looks at how ITSM tool integrations can benefit you.
- Published: 2020-07-14
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/reap-the-rewards-of-itsm-tool-integrations
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Integrations, ITSM, ITSM Tool
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The use of integrations with IT service management (ITSM) tools is nothing new – with email integration, and the email channel, a big part of IT support operations (at least until IT self-service gains greater traction). Now, during the necessary firefighting of the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve seen more customers extend the power of SysAid via our integrations with other IT solutions (you can see these in the SysAid Marketplace). Here's a couple of examples: Seamlessly integrate Jira issues with SysAid's service records for streamlined collaboration Provide a direct channel for communication and synchronization between SysAid agents and Jira handlers If you’re not one of these customers, you might be thinking “Why? Weren’t they busy enough dealing with the extreme impact of the crisis on IT support operations? ” Well, the short answer is that the use of these integrations is the ITSM tool equivalent of “the gift that keeps on giving. ” Especially in the “new normal” where the focus on costs, the speed of execution, and the service experience will be higher than ever. Because the integration of SysAid with other applications and services is something that pays back by an order of magnitude. This is something that’s best explained via a journey through some of the key benefits of ITSM tool integrations. The key benefits of ITSM tool integrations The COVID-19 crisis is a difficult time for most organizations and their IT departments. There was much to do in both maintaining business operations and ensuring that the now-remote-working...
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### How to Sell the Value of a Self-Service Portal to Employees
> Discover the benefits of a self-service portal for employees and get 5 adoption tips in this insightful blog post!
- Published: 2020-06-30
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-sell-the-value-of-a-self-service-portal-to-employees
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: self-service, self-service portal, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
A self-service portal can offer a wealth of benefits to organizations and their employees – whether it’s specific for IT or used by other business functions like HR, facilities, finance, legal, procurement, or other internal service providers. You probably already know the benefits, for example self-service is a cheaper and swifter support channel for employees. But there’s so much more to go on about. Even though the available self-service technology is very mature, we still see organizations encountering issues with employee uptake of their self-service portals. For example, the 2019 Service Desk Institute (SDI) “A View from the Frontline” survey and report highlighted that close to half of organizations still need to improve IT self-service adoption in 2020. If you’re one of those, this blog is for you. I’ll outline the key benefits specifically for employees, and intersperse 5 employee-related self-service adoption tips to help. What really matters to employees (when it comes to your self-service portal)? In the manner of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there are several must-haves or must-dos related to self-service portals and their successful adoption by employees. Then there are the other benefits that further help to sell self-service to employees. So, let’s start with the must-haves. Self-service needs to be easier, quicker, and a better service experience compared to calling or emailing the IT service desk, when employees need to achieve a desired support outcome. Whether this is getting help, requesting a new service, or simply checking on the status of an existing ticket. Failing...
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### Paving the Road for Digital Transformation with ITSM and ITIL 4
> Explore the connection between digital transformation and ITIL 4. Learn how ITIL 4 can enhance and support your digital transformation journey.
- Published: 2020-06-04
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/paving-the-road-for-digital-transformation-with-itsm-and-itil-4
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: COVID-19, digital transformation, ITIL 4
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
One of the more-positive outcomes of the COVID-19 crisis is that the need for organizations to better support a distributed, remote workforce has caused many of them to accelerate their digital transformation strategies. Using technology and data to improve both business operations and outcomes. However, digital transformation isn’t simply about the greater exploitation of technology – with it also reliant on improvements to both the people and process elements of business capabilities. Which, if you stop to think about it, is in line with the age-old ITIL and IT service management (ITSM) mantra of “people, process, and technology. ” This blog looks at the linkages and dependencies between digital transformation and ITIL 4, offering advice on how the latter can support the former. Thinking about digital transformation, ITSM, and ITIL 4 together ITSM has been around for over three decades in terms of the original ITIL best practice. Digital transformation has been with us a while, over a decade (at least in terms of early adopters). And ITIL 4 is hopefully about to get serious, in adoption terms, thanks to the release of the ITIL 4 Managing Professional content. They might have all been born in different decades, based on differing perspectives of improvement, but in some ways, though, it’s wrong to think of them as separate things. With digital transformation impacting ITSM and ITIL 4 adoption, and ITSM and ITIL 4 a key enabler for digital transformation. The impact of digital transformation on ITSM and ITIL 4 adoption When...
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### 5 Steps to Better Patch Management and a Securer Business
> Many of us ITSM & IT support pros are way too busy fixing “broken” things, the existing IT infrastructure also needs to be maintained & improved.
- Published: 2020-05-26
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/5-steps-better-patch-management-securer-business
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: asset management, help desk software, ITSM, patch management, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The COVID-19 crisis has hit organizations, of all sizes and all around the world, hard. Many of the challenges and issues that it brings are very visible – from the need to change ways of working (in order to comply with stay-at-home mandates) to finding new ways to interact with customers who have also adapted to social distancing and isolation. However, there’s one COVID-19 challenge that’s less visible – that of increased cybersecurity threats as criminals attempt to take advantage of organizations under pressure from the impact of the crisis. As a result, IT security is more important than ever, with patch management having an important role to play in this. Did you ever see the unfortunate TV weather lady who was interrupted by the Microsoft Windows 10 upgrade notification? It was one of those situations that’s funny but also serious at the same time. It’s a great reminder that, while many of us IT service management (ITSM) and IT support pros are way too busy fixing “broken” things, the existing IT infrastructure also needs to be maintained and improved. A set of potentially recurring tasks that are particularly relevant when you consider the risks associated with unpatched machines. Security now perches atop the patching tree The need to patch software is nothing new, whether it be to apply bug fixes, security updates, or even to deliver new functionality. But these days there’s no escaping the growing focus on security and the threat of vulnerability-based breaches, raising the importance of patching from a “good...
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### Digitally Transform Your HR Operations with Enterprise Service Management
> Digitally Transform Your HR Operations with Enterprise Service Management - SysAid
- Published: 2020-05-19
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/digitally-transform-your-hr-operations-with-enterprise-service-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: automation, enterprise service management, HR, Service Orchestration, SysAid Workflow Designer
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
The use of IT service management (ITSM) principles and capabilities in other business areas to improve performance, service, and outcomes – i. e. enterprise service management – is nothing new. However, there’s no doubt that it’s seen significant growth in adoption in recent years. Often on the back of corporate digital transformation strategies that require back-office improvements to better enable the front-office digital transformations related to: The introduction of new products and services, and The improvement of customer engagement mechanisms. With this digital transformation activity recently accelerated in response to the COVID-19 crisis – as many organizations look to better support employees and customers in a world where both are self-isolating or even locked down. One business area that has seen significant traction for enterprise service management, including the non-IT use of ITSM tools, is human resources (HR). This blog explains why and the how. But first, I’d like to share a few enterprise service management statistics. The current state of enterprise service management The use of ITSM principles and capabilities outside of IT has grown significantly in recent years. Our Q1 2019 Future of ITSM report found that two-thirds of organizations either have, or are planning to develop, an enterprise service management strategy: Does your organization have an enterprise service management strategy or approach? HDI research offers greater granularity into where enterprise service management is being adopted. In their Q4 2018 “The State of Enterprise Service Management” report, HR is highlighted as the #1 non-IT use case for the corporate...
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### How Automation Improves Business Operations and Results
> This blog looks at how your ITSM team can better utilize automation in pursuit of the modern-day business Holy Grail of “better, faster, cheaper”.
- Published: 2020-04-28
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/how-automation-improves-business-operations-and-results
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: Automate Joe, automation, incident management, IT service management, ITSM, Service Orchestration, SysAid Workflow Designer
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
How Automation Improves Business Operations and Results
The concept of automation is nothing new in IT service management (ITSM) – from what’s already embedded within ITSM tools for workflow automation and the associated capabilities to additional capabilities that help ITSM teams to remove themselves from the manual overhead of high-volume, low-value repetitive ITSM tasks. Used smartly, IT automation will help your organization to eliminate defects, redundancies, and free up staff for higher-value work. In this blog, I look at how your ITSM team can better utilize automation to improve its IT services, support, and customer satisfaction across the organization in pursuit of the modern-day IT department and business Holy Grail of “better, faster, cheaper. ” 1. Improving customer experience and outcomes Business-affecting automation isn't just a differentiator, it's a fundamental component of the modern enterprise – with it used to not only speed up “the work” but also to deliver better customer experiences. The use of automation within ITSM capabilities should also be thought of in this way – with the employed automation not only helping within IT operations but also providing superior IT capabilities that ultimately deliver better business outcomes. Enhancing the customer or client experience is, therefore, a main objective of IT automation – either directly through externally-facing technology in particular or via the support of other corporate capabilities where the linkage might not be so obvious. For instance, the IT department – and ITSM – might help to “power” a certain human resources (HR) capability that better enables the employees who provide the capabilities...
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### Digital Transformation in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond
> Thrive in Any Environment: Unlock the Power of Digital Transformation with SysAid.
- Published: 2020-04-16
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/digital-transformation-in-age-of-covid-19-and-beyond
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: COVID-19, digital transformation
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Basic
For the last few years, both the IT and business worlds seem to have been preoccupied with digital transformation, with it hard to read or listen to anything that didn’t make at least one reference to the need for organizations to digitally transform. Now, unfortunately, the last couple of months have been preoccupied with the COVID-19 crisis. The crisis has been hard for everyone. No matter their working role. Plus, it’s still likely to be hard for a good while to come. However, there’s a potential “silver lining to the cloud” for digital transformation advancement. With the COVID-19 crisis an opportunity for organizations to push forward their digital transformation initiative(s) – to help them cope with the impact of the crisis on their customers, employees, and operations. Digital transformation explained In better understanding the link between COVID-19 and the opportunity for digital transformation, it’s important to appreciate the three different elements of the latter. That digital transformation is all of: The delivery of new products and services, and revenue streams, that exploit technology and data. Improved customer engagement mechanisms across the customer lifecycle, again exploiting technology and data. Improved back-office operations that leverage automation and remove unnecessary manual labor, plus the unwanted consequences of human error. There’s a lot that needs to be done with digital transformation, and for some organizations it has been – and continues to be – a long journey. Digital transformation initiatives have been around longer than you think I was being generous when I said...
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### SysAid Workflow Designer: Take Control of the Way Your Work Flows
> SysAid Workflow Designer empowers you to dictate how your work flows. Master control with SysAid.
- Published: 2020-03-31
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-workflow-designer-take-control-of-the-way-your-work-flows
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: automation, IT service management, ITSM, ITSM Tool, service desk, Workflow Designer
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The COVID-19 pandemic is a sad reminder that the ways organizations work will inevitably change at some point in time. Sometimes at a pace that necessitates those doing the work to make the changes themselves, rather than having the luxury of waiting for others to bring about the required changes for them. This was applicable to IT and other business function operations in a pre COVID-19 world, with it now even more so. Especially where corporate tools are seen to be in the way of such rapid and easy change. For example, IT service management (ITSM) practitioners and those working on the IT service desk, have long been both helped and hindered by their ITSM tools. On the one hand, ITSM tools have helped ITSM practitioners be more organized, work more consistently (and in line with industry best practice), be quicker at what they do, offer superior IT service delivery and support (along with a better employee experience), plus many other benefits. However, while helping, these tools have also hindered ITSM practitioners. For example, not quite meeting their needs in terms of digitized workflows and the use of automation. Perhaps requiring expensive development resources – either internal or external – and unwanted lead times from customizing the workflows. It doesn’t need to be this way though. ITSM practitioners can be empowered to easily make changes to their workflows – and consequently drive real business impact. Make your ITSM tool work for you Service management works better with workflow and automation...
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### Processes are an Important Part of IT Service Management
> Discover why Stuart Rance advises against discarding your ITSM processes due to bureaucracy, conflict, and inefficiency in your organization.
- Published: 2020-03-24
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/processes-are-an-important-part-of-it-service-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: change management, incident management, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITSM, problem management
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
When everyone in a team is working together effectively, and chatting to each other in the office, you may not see the need for formal processes. Now that lots of us are working from home, keeping us all safe from COVID-19, we need a little more consistency in our processes, to ensure that we deliver the things that are expected from us. A very common complaint about IT service management (ITSM) is that it’s focused on the wrong things. Staff blindly follow rigid processes, to the detriment of overall value, customer experience, and necessary innovation. ITIL 4 is, in part, an effort to address these concerns, and I’ve written lots of blogs about it, explaining how this focus on processes can have the wrong results. If you want to read more about this, here are some examples: Service Management in 2020 and Beyond How Value Streams Can Help you do a Better Job The 7 Guiding Principles of ITIL 4: Practical Advice to Help You Make Decisions This change of emphasis is important, because people in IT do, too often, treat following ITSM processes as their goal, forgetting that the reason these processes exist in the first place is to help create value with and for customers. An exclusive focus on processes like incident management, problem management, and release management often results in staff who are very inward-looking. They strive to make their processes as efficient and effective as possible, even when this has a negative effect on the organization...
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### SysAid CEO's Open Letter to Customers, as COVID-19 Transforms Our Reality
> This post is a copy of an email message sent to all SysAid customers in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Read it in full here.
- Published: 2020-03-18
- Modified: 2021-07-27
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/sysaid-ceos-open-letter-to-customers-as-covid-19-transforms-our-reality
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: COVID-19, SysAid Customers
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
This post is a copy of an email message sent to all SysAid customers in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. To our dear SysAid customers, We appreciate your ongoing support and business and we understand that SysAid is critical to the day-to-day operations of your organization. To that end, our commitment to ensuring your ongoing business continuity amidst great uncertainty is paramount and I wanted to share with you how we’re prepared to help you get through these tough times and ensure business continuity. We're ensuring the safety of our employees and by extension, the ongoing support of your business, by encouraging our global teams to work remotely. This means that it’s business-as-usual for us across Sales, Customer Success, DevOps, Professional Services, Support, Development, Delivery and the entire SysAid team. We have also established a COVID-19 response team composed of our executive leaders to monitor the latest developments, avoid service interruptions, and maintain employee health and safety. Enough about us, here’s how can we help you better during this global pandemic: We're ready for customers who are looking to move faster with their SysAid implementation to ensure that you’re ready to handle the demands of this new reality sooner – just let us know. We understand that the rise in remote workers requires a new approach to dealing with internal service and so we've allocated additional resources towards supporting our on-premises customers looking to move to cloud immediately, if needed. We’ve had a number of customers request additional...
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### 5 Best Practices for Working from Home
> Whether you’re in mandatory isolation/quarantine, or simply asked by your employer to work at home due to COVID19, make use of these working from home tips.
- Published: 2020-03-17
- Modified: 2022-03-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/5-best-practices-for-working-from-home
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: Coronavirus
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s the middle of March 2020, and life seems gloomy. Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that the entire world is experiencing a pandemic called Covid-19, or coronavirus. But I don’t want to speak about the alt-reality and despair. Instead, I want to offer some advice to make us feel good, comfortable, and productive. After all, what better way to feel safe than to have “work as usual” on our schedule? You’re in good company Whether you’re in mandatory isolation/quarantine, or simply asked by your employer to work at home due to government and health officials’ requests, know that you’re in good company. Over the last few years, many industries have experienced a vast increase in remote workers, and it looks like this trend is only going to grow. In fact, experts predict that by 2020, 50% of the global adult workforce will be remote. So how should you prepare to move things forward and achieve outstanding results? 5 best practices for working from home 1. Use face-to-face video for all virtual meetings. Audio is not going to be enough for your online conference calls. In order to make an impact and be productive, it’s crucial for you to show your face and act like people having real conversations. Because it is real. I don’t mean for this to sound overly tough – it's just a fact that we can communicate better when we’re looking at each other, even if it’s through a camera lens. Which brings me...
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### The 30-Year Evolution of the IT Help Desk (and Where It’s Going Next)
> From the pre-ITIL helpdesk, to the birth of the service desk, here Joe the IT Guy takes a look back over the last 30 years of IT Support.
- Published: 2020-03-03
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/the-30-year-evolution-of-the-it-help-desk-and-where-its-going-next
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: help desk, IT support, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
2019 was a big year for ITIL, the IT service management (ITSM) best practice framework. First, it turned 30. Second, the revised ITIL 4 Edition was released – with the integration to other IT management concepts such as Agile, Lean, and DevOps plus newer ITSM challenges/opportunities such as employee experience, value demonstration, and the exploitation of new technologies. However, we shouldn’t overlook how the humble IT help desk has also evolved over this 30-year period, or the influence that ITIL has had on it. The pre-ITIL IT help desk If you’re old enough, think back to the days of “big hair” at the tail end of the 1980s and the introduction of personal computing into the workplace. There were, of course, IT help desks before this, because there were IT (and telephony) systems that needed support (think mainframes and dumb terminals). But it was the introduction of desktop computing that saw the importance of the IT help desk grow, with technology increasingly becoming a key enabler for business operations and the quality of the resulting outcomes. At the end of the 1980s and the start of the 1990s, the IT help desk was a very different beast to today. Phrases such as “log and flog” and “catch and dispatch” were coined to describe an asynchronous IT support capability where your need was captured (when calling in), perhaps even on an answering machine, and you then waited for your turn to be helped. As to when that help would appear was...
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### 8 Things Teachers Wish Education Institution IT Support Staff Would Do
> In this blog a teacher (yes a real one) outlines a number of things that he wished his school’s IT support staff would do.
- Published: 2020-02-18
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/8-things-teachers-wish-education-institution-it-support-staff-would-do
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Education Institution, IT support
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In this follow up to my previous blog with Tom the teacher (he is a real teacher in case you’re unsure), this second education-focused IT blog has again been created in conjunction with Tom, a Design and Technology teacher in the UK. This time he outlines a number of things that he wished his school’s IT support staff would do. They aren’t complaints – Tom values all the help he gets from his IT colleagues. Instead, they’re opportunities for IT to do an even better job in helping him and his students to get their learning done. 1. Let teachers reset student passwords (or let students reset their own) Passwords are the bane of Tom’s trips to his school’s computer room. His students set their passwords and write them down in their planners (so they won’t forget, it’s not a great security practice I know) in the first lesson of the school year. Then, they not only forget their passwords but also where they wrote it down (as they try to be secretive). Tom then needs to spend the first 20 minutes of the next lesson getting everyone logged in. Then there are the streetwise students who suddenly “forget” their password so they can get a trip to the IT support office to get it reset (and thus get a break from the lesson). Which can, unfortunately, turn into a wave of “needed” password resets. Tom states that being able to reset the passwords himself, or for students to self-reset,...
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### Continuity Planning for the Service Desk
> Here Stuart Rance looks at the topic of continuity planning and why you need to make sure your service desk can still operate in an emergency.
- Published: 2020-02-11
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/continuity-planning-for-the-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Continuity Planning, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
About 30 years ago, I worked for a multi-national IT company and one of our buildings burned to the ground. This building included a data center that supported lots of essential services, and yet most of the people who used those services were unaware that anything had gone wrong until they heard about it from colleagues. The IT services seamlessly failed over to other locations and everyone was able to keep working. Creating truly resilient services took a great deal of effort back then, so this was a great tribute to our state-of-the-art technology, and, perhaps more importantly, to the excellence of our continuity planning. But there have been major improvements in both infrastructure and service architecture since then. A combination of cloud infrastructure and loosely coupled service architecture means that it’s fairly easy nowadays to build IT services that can survive the loss of a building. Managers know that their services will continue to run even in the event of a disaster, so they often don’t see the need to invest in IT service continuity and don’t devote much of their time to continuity management. This is true as far as it goes. But there are still aspects of an organization’s IT services that won’t survive a disaster without good continuity plans in place. And one of the most important of these is your service desk. If your technology is all working perfectly, but your users can’t get help when they need it, then they aren’t going to be...
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### 10 Superpowers to Strengthen Your Service Desk
> Here we share with you what we believe to be the ten superpowers you need that will strengthen your service desk in 2020.
- Published: 2020-02-04
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/10-superpowers-to-strengthen-your-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Today service desk managers are consistently required to do more with less – helping ever-demanding end users and trying to promote their organization’s digital transformation efforts. You know what I’m talking about, all those missed service level agreements (SLAs), unresolved tickets, lack of visibility, and wishing you had the time to focus more on innovation. So, what can you do in the year ahead to help your organization move beyond all this turmoil and start actually moving forward? I’m here to show you that there are 10 superpowers you need that will strengthen your service desk in 2020. Let’s jump right in. Reaching success with service desk superpowers Superpower #1: 360-degree vision – The power to see in all directions at once According to SysAid’s data scientists, IT admins waste 85% of their time on ticket resolution. Having the ability to gain insight into all activities from a single application gives you the capacity to eliminate the complexity of managing incidents and requests and resolve issues faster. It also gives you the power of knowledge. Picture the value of having all the data you need at your fingertips, helping you identify the root cause of each incident. You can also close the loop much faster by having everything in one place – the ticket. This helps to provide a highly productive, intuitive, and seamless experience that reduces MTTR. Superpower #2: Super speed – The ability to move at a speed beyond the normal human capacity Today, the main goal is...
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### Technology Issues in Education and How ITSM Helps
> This blog shares five real-life examples of technology issues in the education sector and how ITSM can help with them. Read it here.
- Published: 2020-01-14
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/technology-issues-in-education-and-how-itsm-helps
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
This week’s blog is a little different. In that much of it has been contributed to by what we’d call an end user or a customer – in this case, a Design and Technology teacher named Tom. The purpose is to outline many of the technology-related issues that those working in education are currently experiencing, and to point out where those of us working in IT service management (ITSM) and IT support roles can do more to help. I’ve chosen not to share Tom’s full name just in case he catches some grief at his school. Below you’ll find 5 real-life examples of technology issues in the education sector, and then I'll talk about how ITSM can help with them. 1. Tom’s day-to-day reliance on IT Tom finds that all the technology in education makes it almost impossible for him to educate without it. It’s everywhere. From planning lessons, to storing student data, to projecting lessons on the board. Even paying for his lunch in the canteen with a thumbprint. Unfortunately, however, for an industry so dependent on technology, the technology isn't always dependable. And, when the technology doesn’t work, it might mean the same for the teacher and their classroom full of students. 2. There’s no doubt that money can be blamed for much of this They say that “Money makes the world go around. ” Tom finds that this couldn't be truer when it comes to technology in an underfunded education establishment. Many a time he’s waited weeks...
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### Service Management in 2020 and Beyond
> Here's five things you can do to improve your chances of service management success in 2020 and beyond, according to industry authority Stuart Rance.
- Published: 2020-01-07
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/service-management-in-2020-and-beyond
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: IT service management, ITSM, service management, Value Streams
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I’ve seen many organizations work hard to improve how they manage IT services. And almost every time they’ve focused on changing the way they run their internal processes, and the tools and technology they use. This focus on processes and technology does deliver improvements, but there’s is a limit to how far it can take you. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your incident management, change management, problem management, and other ITSM processes can lead to benefits. But if you think beyond these common processes, and focus on how you co-create value with other stakeholders, you can get so much further. Here are 5 things you can do to make the kind of difference that you, your organization, and most importantly, your customers and users, will genuinely appreciate. 1. Focus on value streams, not processes Improving a process like incident management, or change management can certainly enable you to work better, and can often lead to lower costs or improved service quality. And yet, these improvements sometimes fail to make things better for your customers, and sometimes they result in an increase in overall costs. This is because your processes don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re not independent, and they each have a part to play in the overall value streams that create value for you and your customers. What this means may be counter intuitive. When you optimize just one process you can end up making things worse. Let’s think about why. Every value stream starts with demand...
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### Gliding Through 2019
> This blog takes a look back at the year 2019 at SysAid, from huge customer successes to product improvements, and top blogs to award wins.
- Published: 2019-12-19
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/gliding-through-2019
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: Automate Joe, HDI, ITSM, service desk, Service Orchestration, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. ” Looking back at the year in retrospect, I’d say by golly, 2019 was a fantastic year for SysAid, and here’s why! 1. Product highlights Well, we started the year off with a bang when we unveiled the release of our new UI. Offering a cleaner, and simpler user experience reducing IT agent effort and time to resolution (MTTR). The creation of this new UI was made possible with the collaboration of many SysAid customers from around the world, providing their personal input on the new UI design. The finished product preserves the unique customizability that sets SysAid apart from other platforms while minimizing the need to click or scroll while working on incidents. As our CEO Sarah Lahav put it, “We want customers to resolve tickets in minimum time. So, we aimed for a UI that is smart, beautiful, and simple”. In addition, we also revealed the extraordinary Automate Joe, the very first ITSM offering that orchestrates and automates service delivery across the business, application, and infrastructure layers at the push of a button. The idea here is to free service desk agents from manual tasks, such as employee onboarding and provisioning virtual machines. Automate Joe empowers your organization to improve productivity, accelerate processes, and slash ticket resolution times. Interested in learning more? Check out my blog, SysAid’s Magical Built-In Service Orchestration Engine – this genie will really knock your socks off! 2. ’Twas a year of...
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### 10 More Tips for Better ITSM Performance Reporting and Metrics
> Here’s the second part of Joe the IT Guy's list of 20 ITSM performance reporting and metrics tips, starting with some tips on being SMARTer.
- Published: 2019-12-10
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/10-more-tips-for-better-itsm-performance-reporting-and-metrics
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CSF, KPIs, metrics, service desk, Service Desk Metrics, SLAs
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
In my last IT service management (ITSM) blog, I offered up 10 metrics-related tips with an emphasis on getting service level agreement (SLA) measures and reporting right. Here’s the second part of my list of 20 performance reporting and metrics tips, starting with some tips on being SMARTer. With metrics that reflect goals that are: Specific Meaningful (or measurable) Agreed (or attainable or achievable) Realistic (or relevant) Timely. 11. Get specific Make sure that your metrics are SMART, in other words specific, meaningful, agreed, realistic, and timely. Let’s start with specific, it’s the guidance around making sure that we’ve clearly defined and understood what is being measured. Talk to your customers and support teams to clearly document the service definition. Agree what the service will look like day-to-day. Confirm which teams will be involved for support activities. Make sure users know where to go for help. Is it the IT service desk? Can they log tickets via a self-service portal? Is there a self-help offering or knowledge base? Ensure this content is captured in the reporting requirements otherwise you might fail to deliver the right data which leads us on nicely to: 12. Make metrics meaningful This is ensuring that the measurement or metric provides value to the customer. So when you’re agreeing on how service levels should be measured, things to consider could include: Availability – for example, service uptime Performance – for example, transaction or page loading times Knowledge levels – for example, the percentage of calls resolved...
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### 10 Tips for Better ITSM Performance Reporting and Metrics
> This blog offers up the first ten of twenty tips for better ITSM performance reporting and metrics to help you improve the health of your service desk.
- Published: 2019-12-03
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/10-tips-for-better-itsm-performance-reporting-and-metrics
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Critical Success Factors, CSF, customer experience, CX, Key Performance Indicators, KPIs, OLA, Operational Level Agreement, Underpinning Contracts
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
IT service management (ITSM) is such a nuanced set of practices that you need the right support structure in place to better understand performance, outcomes, and improvement opportunities. Metrics might not be the most exciting subject, but the right reporting framework will help you to stay in control (and in your stakeholders’ good book). No one automatically thinks about metrics at the beginning of any new endeavor and all too often in ITSM, we offer up what our ITSM tool can easily deliver. The issue with a tool-centric approach to metrics is that we get carried away with the wealth of available metrics. We get so excited by sparkly dashboards, balanced scorecards, and pivot tables that we lose focus. Then, instead of reporting on key business drivers and results we produce bloated metric reports that take days to create and forever to get through in review meetings. And never mind whether people truly understand the content. This blog looks at some key things to consider when looking at the overall health of your ITSM practices and outcomes, offering the first ten of twenty tips for better ITSM performance reporting and metrics. 1. Start at the beginning Start with an appropriate set of goals or mission statement. Make it relevant and supportive of your organizational role and employed practices. Think of your goal(s) as a statement of intent – something that sets out what you want your practice to look like. Some examples include: Change control (the ITIL 4 version of...
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### How Planning User Journeys Can Improve Your Service Desk
> Here Stuart Rance provides advice on how to improve your service desk by not just planning individual interactions, but by planning the entire journey.
- Published: 2019-11-26
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/planning-user-journeys-can-improve-your-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer experience, IT service desk, service desk, User Journey
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
The service desk is all that most users see of their IT service provider. Consequently, it’s often how they experience your service desk that determines whether or not you earn a reputation for excellence. Even if IT services never failed, you'd still need a service desk. Organizations have to manage all sorts of interactions with their users. They have to deal with service requests from customers who want new equipment or access to services; to answer questions from people who don’t know how to use services, or to handle general queries and complaints. Many of the organizations I work with understand this, and they work hard to give their users the best possible experience when they contact the service desk. Staff are trained to be polite and to empathize with users who may be stressed by IT failures. Knowledge is provided to help service desk agents provide fast resolutions to most routine incidents. Self-service portals enable tech-savvy users to resolve their own issues quickly and efficiently. All of this helps form a great impression of the service desk, and so of the organization. But, inevitably, users sometimes have to contact the service desk more than once to resolve an issue, and this is where I’ve often seen things going wrong. If you take the time to consider the entire user journey, from when they first contact you, until their issue has been fully resolved, you’ll probably discover many opportunities to improve user experience. Here are some examples of things to...
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### Service Desk Meets GPS to Create “Ticket Journey Management”
> Discover the six key features of SysAid's automation capabilities, empowering you to streamline ticket management by eliminating manual processes.
- Published: 2019-11-19
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-meets-gps-to-create-ticket-journey-management
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: incident management, service desk, ticket management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Do you remember the days when your dear father refused to stop for directions, and you ended up helplessly lost? Or, how you simply wasted time trying to find a specific “hidden address” or ended up stuck for hours in traffic jams? This seems like a lifetime ago. But then something miraculous happened, the GPS arrived. If you like how GPS helps you navigate, you’ll definitely appreciate SysAid’s “ticket journey management. ” What exactly is ticket journey management? Ticket journey management is just like our modern GPS apps, only the difference is the vehicles are the tickets and the GPS is SysAid’s automation capabilities. And just like your GPS ensures you arrive promptly at your destination, the same goes for SysAid’s automation capabilities. Automating the journey of every ticket allows you to hit all of your SLAs. There’s no more manual dispatching of tickets. You can now focus on resolving issues, closing tickets, and driving your business forward. All the bells and whistles included SysAid’s ticket journey management consists of 6 main features: Automatic routing: Ensuring the route the car travels takes the fastest highway and avoids traffic in order for it to reach its destination on time. Just like with SysAid Automation does with tickets, automatically assigning tickets to the most appropriate team or agent, based on location, group, or category. Automatic escalation: Alerts that appear showing roadblocks up ahead. When this happens, the car is re-routed. With SysAid, it escalates tickets automatically if they haven’t been classified, and...
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### ITIL 4 and COBIT 2019 Working Together
> This blog by Joe the IT Guy explains what ITIL 4 and COBIT is and how they’re able to be used together to deliver greater business benefits.
- Published: 2019-11-12
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itil-4-and-cobit-2019-working-together
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Best Practice, COBIT, COBIT 2019, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITSM
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
IT service management (ITSM) best practice guidance options available, it can be easy to get confused as to which one should be used for your organization (and this is, of course, if your organization doesn’t automatically default to ITIL given it’s “most popular” status). The truth is, however, that for many organizations, only using one body of ITSM best practice could mean that you’re missing out. In fact, most of the available bodies of ITSM best practices have been designed with others in mind, with organizations actually encouraged to integrate them, in an adopt and adapt fashion, to create an optimized ITSM capability. Two such bodies of ITSM best practice that go particularly well together are ITIL 4 and COBIT 2019. Where ITIL is the most popular best practice framework when it comes to service management, while COBIT is globally recognized for enterprise governance and the management of information and technology. Alone, each framework can do wonders for any organization wishing to focus on delivering quality service management and fit-for-purpose governance. But together, they’ve the potential to create even more value, not just for customers, but for employees, suppliers, and partners as well. This blog explains what each of these bodies of ITSM best practice guidance is and how they’re able to be used together. What is ITIL 4? ITIL 4 is a best practice framework designed to help organizations with service management, including ITSM, in a digital world. It provides assistance around a wide range of IT and management...
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### 5 ITSM Trends and Predictions for 2020
> This article looks at what we think will be the biggest ITSM trends and predictions for 2020, from staff wellbeing to the impact of ITIL 4.
- Published: 2019-11-05
- Modified: 2023-02-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-trends-and-predictions-for-2020
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: 2020, automation, enterprise service management, IT service management, ITSM, Service Orchestration
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Wow. It doesn’t seem a year since I wrote my IT service management (ITSM) Trends and Predictions for 2019 blog but I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun. Now it’s time for a similar 2020 blog, with “similar” a very suitable word to use given that much of what changes in ITSM does so across multiple years. Please read on to find out what I see as the key trends for ITSM in 2020 and beyond, starting with the areas that have rolled over from 2019 (and even earlier). The ITSM trend rollover from 2019 (and some quick reflection on them) Last year, I called out five trends and predictions for 2019. I’ve listed these below plus a quick summary of what has happened: AI will move beyond the hype to help with specific ITSM, and especially IT support, tasks. AI definitely took off in ITSM in 2019 – from the addition of AI-enabled capabilities in ITSM tools to the percentage of those who are starting to use them. ITSM industry surveys showed this in 2019, as well as there still being a high proportion of organizations still waiting to move on AI. It’s also increasingly prevalent in our customer conversations. Words and phrases such as “value,” “customer/employee experience,” and “business outcomes” will be a bigger part of the ITSM lexicon (and approaches). Bingo! 2019 was full of these words, including the emphasis that the new ITIL 4 placed on value – from the Service Value System...
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### Errors, Bugs, Incidents, Defects, Oh My!
> For many ITSM is only about the operational aspects of IT. Managing incidents, problems, contacts to the service desk. Here's why it needs to be more.
- Published: 2019-10-29
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/errors-bugs-incidents-defects-oh-my
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Bug Fixes, incident management, IT service desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
IT service management (ITSM) has always been about end-to-end service – a means of co-creating value to customers by facilitating outcomes that customers want without ownership of specific costs and risks. In theory. In theory, ITSM has always been about translating business requirements into the right mix of people, process, and technology that results in business value. ITSM has always been about building, implementing, delivering, and managing IT services from end-to-end – from point of origin to point of consumption. This means that, in theory, ITSM encompasses all parts of the IT organization – from operations to security to development to quality assurance. In theory. But in actual use... for many organizations, ITSM is only about the operational aspects of IT. Managing incidents, problems, changes, contacts to the service desk. Not services. Not quality. Not development. Not that those other things are not being done... they’re just... . ignored. But often this approach has had some benefit to the IT organization... or more precisely, the IT operations team. These organizations used what they called “ITSM” to build a wall around the infrastructure in an effort to ensure stability and reliability. But taking an ‘operations only’ approach to ITSM only helped... IT operations. In actuality, it’s not really “ITSM. ” What about IT development? Meanwhile, the IT development team is also working hard and faced with its own set of challenges. IT development is typically reacting to ever-changing business demands and changes in marketspaces by writing code to drive and...
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### The Best Way to Prevent Incidents
> Here Stuart Rance explains that the best way to prevent incidents is to learn how to identify problems before they cause incidents in the first place.
- Published: 2019-10-22
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-best-way-to-prevent-incidents
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: incident management, Proactive Problem Management, problem management, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Organizations that put time and effort into problem management get a huge return on their investment. Although fixing incidents when they happen is important, it’s much better to stop them happening in the first place; and if you can’t do that, then at least make sure you know what you can do to minimize the impact of future incidents. ITIL (the world’s leading best practice for IT service management) says that the purpose of problem management is “to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors. ” What are the phases of problem management? According to ITIL 4 (the latest release of ITIL, published in February 2019), problem management has three phases Problem identification – which identifies and logs problems Problem control – which analyzes problems and develops workarounds Error control – which monitors and improves workarounds, and resolves problems if this looks cost effective How do most organizations identify problems? Most organizations that I’ve worked with use two methods to identify problems There’s been a major incident, and the organization needs to understand the underlying causes to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen again. The major incident management process focusses on resolving the incident and restoring normal operations, and then problem management kicks in to analyze what happened and what needs to be done next. There’s been lots of similar incidents. Each of them has been investigated and closed, but they may recur and are causing...
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### The Importance of Industry Benchmarking for IT Support
> This blog aims to convey the power of industry benchmarking for IT support. How it can help, and why you should consider it in your organization.
- Published: 2019-10-15
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/the-importance-of-industry-benchmarking-for-it-support
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Benchmarking, IT Benchmark, IT support, SysAid IT Benchmark
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
If an international friend or colleague were to tell you that, “It’s too hot here” – how hot do you think it is (where they are)? Of course, it depends. And on many different factors. For example, it depends on where they live – with a Finnish friend likely to have a different definition of what hot is to a friend from Brazil. Or whether that friend is at home or traveling abroad. Or even their personal preference for hot and cold environments. The same is true for how well your IT service desk is performing and how you can truly understand its level of performance. For example, is your IT service desk having a per-analyst average of six tickets handled per hour a good, bad, or indifferent level of performance? The answer is again, “It depends. ” And as with my opening analogy, it will depend on many factors. Importantly, it’s hard and potentially dangerous to measure your IT service desk’s performance in a vacuum – and it’s where the power of industry benchmarks will help. Don’t overlook the opportunity to benchmark internally using trends Before jumping into the opportunities of industry benchmarking, it’s important not to miss the opportunity that’s closer to home – that of benchmarking your organization against itself. This could be as simple as looking at IT service desk performance trends to understand where improvements are being made over time. Or, depending on your organization’s size and structure, perhaps even benchmarking across different IT service...
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### 5 Reasons Why You Need Monitoring Tools
> If your IT organization is struggling with root cause analysis check out these 5 reasons as to why you need monitoring tools.
- Published: 2019-10-08
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-reasons-why-you-need-monitoring-tools
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: IT Services, IT support, Monitoring Tool
- Blog authors: Hanan Baranes
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Imagine trying to navigate your way through a maze. It’s full of dead ends and puzzling pathways, and sometimes the paths change too. Where what was once a path, that you took towards the end, is now blocked off. Thus, getting to the exit, or end, is pretty tricky. But it can be done – with dedication, perseverance, and hard work. Now imagine trying to traverse that same maze blindfolded – even dedication and hard work aren’t really going to help you. In fact, it’s now likely an impossible task. Bring this back to IT, trying to run an IT department, delivering and supporting IT services. To do this without monitoring tools is like getting inside that maze with a blindfold on – you’re essentially making a tough job even tougher. When you can’t see what you’re working with, how can you expect to get on top of issues and to improve performance? If your IT organization is all too used to hearing about incidents via its customer base, is struggling with root cause analysis and is spending too much time and money on manual support, then the following five reasons as to why you need monitoring tools should be of interest to you. 1) Monitoring tools help to set your IT organization’s performance benchmark Without a benchmark, how does your IT department know what it’s capable of or whether it's improving? Quite simply, it doesn’t. It’s going to be pretty difficult to come up with your IT strategy when...
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### SysAid’s Magical Built-In Service Orchestration Engine
> Discover SysAid's powerful Built-In Service Orchestration Engine for streamlined IT service management.
- Published: 2019-10-02
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/sysaids-magical-built-in-service-orchestration-engine
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, automation, service desk, Service Orchestration
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If I were a genie, and I could grant your organization just one wish – wouldn’t you love me to slash your ticket resolution time? And what if I could also give you back 30% of your day? Well, guess what? You don’t even need a genie to accomplish this – because earlier this year we launched Automate Joe™, the first IT service management (ITSM) offering that enables you to orchestrate and automate service delivery across the business, application, and infrastructure layers at the push of a button. What does that mean for you? Automate Joe frees up your time and solves automation problems by fully orchestrating the delivery of low-level services such as provisioning, updating, changing, and de-provisioning of service components. Most automation tools are siloed, but Automate Joe is built into SysAid and it orchestrates tasks involving systems and applications outside of the SysAid environment, all from a single point of control. With Automate Joe you’re able to lighten your service desk team’s load while boosting productivity, service agility, and end-user satisfaction. Sounds like genie work, huh? The beauty of Automate Joe is that it can free up service desk agents from manual tasks, such as employee onboarding and offboarding. It improves productivity, accelerates processes, and the magical part of it all – it slashes ticket resolution times. Why did SysAid develop Automate Joe? Most service desk agents are stuck doing rote, error-prone tasks that siphon time away from more valuable work. We found that IT departments spend...
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### How Value Streams Can Help you do a Better Job
> Here Stuart Rance explains why you need to think about the things you do in terms of value streams, rather than just as processes.
- Published: 2019-09-24
- Modified: 2021-08-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-value-streams-can-help-you-do-a-better-job
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: IT service management, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITSM, Value Streams
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
People who work in IT service management (ITSM) spend a lot of time thinking about and perfecting their processes. And that’s a good thing. But when we focus on processes to the exclusion of everything else, we lose out. In this blog I’m going to explain why you need to think about the things you do in terms of value streams, rather than just as processes. What’s the difference between a value stream and a process? There’s a lot of confusion about the difference between value streams and processes. It’s not surprising we sometimes find the distinction confusing, because both value streams and processes describe how activities work together to achieve something. So, what is the distinction? Here are the definitions from ITIL 4 to start the discussion. Value Stream: A series of steps an organisation undertakes to create and deliver products and services to consumers. Process: A set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs. Every value stream starts with demand or opportunity and ends with value being created for one or more stakeholders. For example, the demand might be that an IT organization is asked to create a new service to help sales teams understand their customers. The end point – the value that gets created – would be the increase in sales arising from the sales teams’ improved understanding of their customers. Every process produces well-defined outputs. For example, an IT organization may have a process for authorizing changes. This takes an RfC (request...
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### How to Create Value-Based Metrics for Your IT Service Desk
> This article looks at three ways in which you can start to introduce value-based metrics to your IT service desk. Read more here.
- Published: 2019-09-17
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-create-value-based-metrics-for-your-it-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: IT service desk, ITIL, ITIL 4, KPIs, metrics, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
There are a number of trends affecting IT service management (ITSM) and the IT service desk right now. One that sits at the top of the “Oh, that’s difficult” pile is that of value demonstration – with this not simply being value for money. Because, while many business conversations are moving from a focus on cost to value, it can be difficult to know what value actually is and then how best to measure and report it. Some people might see this as a reincarnation of the focus on “IT-to-business alignment,” which has been oft-quoted but rarely publicly addressed in the last ten years. There are similarities but, this time, IT has to deliver tangible change or risk losing relevance. It’s a tough nut that needs to be cracked – starting with what value is. What’s value? There are many definitions out there. For instance, the ITIL 4 Foundation Edition defines value as: “The perceived benefits, usefulness, and importance of something. ” So, why is your IT service desk useful and important? In answering this question, it’s easy to make the same mistakes that we always have when it comes to both our “description of purpose” and the portfolio of IT support metrics we employ. You are what you measure If I were to guess what your IT service desk currently measures, beyond it potentially measuring far too many things just because your ITSM tool makes it easy to do so, I would go for the common metrics such as:...
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### 5 Top Soft Skills for IT Service Desk Agents (and Why They're Important)
> Here we take a closer look at five top soft skills that we believe will make future IT service desk agents more desirable.
- Published: 2019-09-10
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-top-soft-skills-for-it-service-desk-agents
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Service Desk Skills, Soft Skills
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The digital age is upon us and it’s changing the way we work. This is true for many roles, in particular those with heavily repetitive manual processes that are now being replaced by automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. One such role is that of the IT service desk agent who would traditionally spend the majority of their time manually logging tickets, resolving them or triaging them to resolver teams, and chasing for ticket updates. Nowadays tickets can be resolved or logged automatically by chatbots, the workflows to triage them can be automated, and tickets can be updated and closed all without the need for human intervention. However, this doesn’t mean that the role of the IT service desk agent is being eliminated – it just means that the role is changing, and with that change so too are the skills required to be successful. What are soft skills? Soft skills relate to our personalities and include traits such as being patient, a good listener, or having empathy for others. They’re skills that we can develop but they’re not really skills that can easily be taught – these are usually hard skills. Such as learning to code, fixing machines, or speaking another language. Soft skills are more about who we are as a person and for that reason, they’re also known as “people skills. ” These soft skills are the skills that differentiate us from technology – so while machines are taking away some of our manual tasks, they’re a...
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### 5 Reasons Why You Need an Event Management Tool
> In this blog post we explain what events are in the IT world and provide 5 reasons why you would benefit from the use of an event management tool.
- Published: 2019-09-03
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/5-reasons-why-you-need-an-event-management-tool
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: continual service improvement, CSI, Event Management, ITSM Basics, ITSM Tool
- Blog authors: Hanan Baranes
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In ITIL v3, event management is defined as “the process that monitors all events that occur through the IT infrastructure. It allows for normal operation and also detects and escalates exception conditions. ” It sat within the Service Operation stage of the ITIL v3 lifecycle and is responsible for flagging issues and changes occurring in the IT infrastructure, both expected and unexpected. Now in ITIL 4, the purpose of the renamed monitoring and event management practice is “to systematically observe services and service components, and record and report selected changes of state identified as events. This practice identifies and prioritizes infrastructure, services, business processes, and information security events, and establishes the appropriate response to those events, including responding to conditions that could lead to potential faults or incidents. ” It’s one of ITIL 4’s service management practices. But what’s actually special about event management and do you really need it? In this blog post, I explain what events are in the IT world and then provide five reasons why your organization would benefit from the use of an event management tool. What’s an event? Before looking at the benefits of an event management tool, I should first explain what the meaning of “event” is within IT service management (ITSM). An event is essentially any change that occurs to a significant piece of your IT infrastructure. This could be, for example, a system, an IT service, or a configuration item. These changes are not necessarily bad. Sometimes an event is just...
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### What’s the ROI of ITIL?
> How can you get an ROI from your investment in ITIL? The answer is very simple says industry authority Stuart Rance. Read on to find out more.
- Published: 2019-08-27
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whats-the-roi-of-itil
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: IT service management, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Somebody asked me recently how they could get a return on investment (ROI) from investing in ITIL. I found it really hard to answer the question, because of the way that they’d phrased it, so I spent a while thinking about the topic, and here are my thoughts... ITIL training The first thing I wanted to know is exactly what they meant by “invest in ITIL. ” I guessed that they were talking about sending their IT staff on ITIL training, but as we’ll see later, there are other investments that they could’ve been talking about. So, why invest in ITIL training? What return can you expect on your investment? Here are some of the benefits that I’ve seen organizations get as a result of sending significant numbers of staff on ITIL training. Common language ITIL provides a common language for people involved in IT service management (ITSM) to use. Like every other field of human endeavour, we need to have common language if we want to communicate effectively and efficiently. If I call something an incident, you call it a problem, and our manager calls it an issue, then we’re all going to get very confused. This could result in people completely misunderstanding what’s expected from them. Here’s an example from my past. I worked for a big hardware and software vendor. A customer called to log a problem. Their UNIX server had crashed. The person in my company taking the call had never heard of ITIL, and didn’t...
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### Are You Providing an IT Help Desk or an IT Service Desk?
> This blog looks at the difference between an IT Help Desk and and IT Service Desk, and questions whether the terminology really even matters.
- Published: 2019-08-20
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/are-you-providing-an-it-help-desk-or-an-it-service-desk
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: help desk, IT Help Desk, IT service desk, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Talk about a tricky question. Are you and your colleagues offering, or working on, an IT help desk or an IT service desk? And does it really matter? Looking at this from another perspective, what do your customers, your end users, call your IT support capability? If you look past the expletives, and jokes about “no-help desks” and “out-of-service desks,” then they probably refer to it as the IT help desk rather than the IT service desk. Why? Because they need IT’s help (though they could also want one of its services. ) And what does "service desk" actually mean? If I were to use the term “service desk” in the US, it’d probably be interpreted as the place where I return damaged or unwanted goods within a store. However, thanks to ITIL IT service management (ITSM) best practice in the main, most of us working in IT support now like to talk about the IT service desk rather than the IT help desk. Although I do sometimes wonder whether we talk more about the ITSM tool – in many ways, the desk – rather than what we achieve through using the tool. What’s the difference between an IT help desk and an IT service desk? There’s the ITIL process-based view on the difference – where an IT help desk is considered to operate a limited number of processes, probably ticketing or incident management in the main. With ITIL talking of other processes (or practices as they’re now called in ITIL...
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### 9 Ways ITAM Can Empower IT
> A good ITAM practice enables IT departments to make smarter decisions, demonstrate value, and help reduce nasty surprises. Here we explain how.
- Published: 2019-08-13
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/9-ways-itam-can-empower-it
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: IT asset management, IT service management, ITAM, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT asset management (ITAM) is the discipline of managing IT assets throughout their lifecycle. If IT service management (ITSM) is primarily concerned with the efficient delivery of quality IT services, then ITAM is primarily concerned with managing the costs and risks of using the IT assets that underpin services. Like ITSM, ITAM should be considered an on-going commitment and practice rather than a short-term project. It’s important for the disciplines of ITAM and ITSM to be aligned within the IT department since most lifecycle stages of an asset are delivered by, or in some way interact with, the IT service desk. ITSM is the source of asset changes; and by working closely with ITAM personnel the organization can collectively help to ensure that the risks associated with changes are proactively managed. A good ITAM practice enables IT departments to make smarter decisions, demonstrate value, and help reduce nasty surprises. In this article, I explain nine key ways in which ITAM can empower the IT department. 1. Smarter decision making Better asset management data, information, and knowledge about what is being used, what is being spent, and what risks exist allows IT decision makers to make more-informed decisions based on facts. For example, if the CIO needs to manage the merger of two IT departments during an acquisition, good ITAM data allows them, and their team, to take stock and make decisions based on fact not fiction. 2. More efficient IT spend A key line of questioning for any IT department...
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### Problem Management: Most Problems Don’t Have a Single Root Cause
> Learn why pinpointing just one root cause in problem management could be limiting your improvement opportunities. Stuart Rance shares insights.
- Published: 2019-07-30
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/problem-management-most-problems-dont-have-a-single-root-cause
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITIL, ITIL 4, ITSM, problem management, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If your problem management just identifies one root cause for each problem, you’re missing out on lots of opportunities to improve. One of my clients had a problem that caused lots of incidents. They investigated the problem and identified the root cause. It was, they agreed, a bug in a software application that had been developed in-house. They fixed the bug and closed the problem. This is typical of what I see happening in problem management, and superficially it looks OK. But actually, it isn’t good enough, because you need to ask a lot of awkward questions if you want to understand what really happened. Thorough investigations demand answers to awkward questions A thorough investigation of this problem would have asked lots of awkward questions like: Why was the software incorrect in the first place? Was the specification correct? Was this a simple coding error? Was there a failure to understand the business process? Did the developer correctly understand how the user would interact with the software? Did the software developer have all the information they needed? Did the software developer have the correct skills and experience? Why was the software bug not detected before deployment? Did a peer review take place? Was the peer reviewer competent and experienced enough? Did they have the information they needed? Was testing performed? Was the test environment fit for purpose? Was the testing scope sufficient? Why did it take so long to identify that there was a problem after the first incident(s)? Did...
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### 8 Key Benefits of IT Asset Management (and How to Get Them)
> To help your organization consider how best to manage its IT assets, here are eight benefits of ITAM and, most importantly, how to get them.
- Published: 2019-07-23
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/8-key-benefits-of-itam-and-how-to-get-them
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: IT asset management, ITAM, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT asset management (ITAM) is a key capability needed for any organization to manage its IT assets effectively. Put simply, ITAM is a set of proven practices that combines financial, technical, and service management functions in order to balance spending versus usage, and to support lifecycle management for IT software and hardware. Done well, ITAM will save you time, money, and effort. To help your organization consider how best to manage its IT assets, here are my top eight benefits of ITAM and, most importantly, how to get them. Benefit #1: Control of your IT environment ITAM is the set of practices that helps you to manage your IT environment from a service and component level. When mapping out your ITAM process, start with your most business-critical areas. For instance, work with your IT service desk to see what’s used day-in and day-out from a software perspective. Your biggest hitters are probably the likes of Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, and SAP. Look for your biggest software outlays and prioritize getting them under control – from both a compliance and cost-management perspective – first. And don't forget your hardware! Again from a day-to-day perspective, this will probably be desktops and laptops – and with this not only ensuring that issued inventory is being well controlled (perhaps via network monitoring and periodical audits), it’s also making sure there are enough assets in stock to deal with demand. Benefit #2: Effective deployment of software assets Ensure that all corporate software is installed from a...
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### You Can’t Automate What You Don’t Understand
> Doug Tedder explains the difference between automation and service orchestration and how to know you're ready for both or either.
- Published: 2019-07-16
- Modified: 2021-08-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/you-cant-automate-what-you-dont-understand
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Automate Joe, automation, IT service management, ITSM, Service Orchestration
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In a blog I wrote last year, I said that automation is the next evolution of service management – that the way we do ITSM was going to change. Guess what? Not to sound smug, but heck, I was right! The way that we’re doing ITSM is changing – and changing for the better. Over the past year, many ITSM tool vendors (SysAid included) have incorporated automation and orchestration capabilities within their toolsets. But automation is much more than routing a ticket. And even with all of the advances in technology, what I also said in that previous blog still holds true – “You can’t automate what you don’t understand. ” Automation vs. orchestration First, there’s a subtle, but distinct difference between “automation” and “orchestration. ” Automation is setting up a single task to run on its own. Orchestration is the automated execution of many automated tasks – think process or workflow. Automation is the basic building block for orchestration; orchestration builds upon automation – essentially, orchestration automates process execution. Why automate? Why orchestrate? While automation may be all the rage currently, I would argue that automation is not one of those things you should necessarily do “just because you can. ” So why automate tasks? When the benefit of automation outweighs the cost of automation. Automation requires an investment of time and resources. While the right tools can help, someone has to understand the task to be automated to the depth needed to automate it. Moreover, because of the...
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### If You Ignore These 7 IT Operations Activities, You’re Heading for Failure
> Discover the 7 critical IT operations activities you must not overlook to avoid failure. Learn more in SysAid's insightful article.
- Published: 2019-07-02
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/if-you-ignore-these-7-it-operations-activities-youre-heading-for-failure
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: IT Operations, Risk Management, security, service desk, Software
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT organizations tend to devote most of their time and effort to two areas: Design, development, testing, and deployment of new and changed software and infrastructure Managing incidents and problems. These activities are very important, but if you want to deliver high quality IT services then you need to manage your IT operations. If you don’t actively manage your IT operations, you’re likely to have sudden and catastrophic failures. The activities that could have prevented these failures are often painfully obvious once they’ve happened, so wouldn’t it be a lot better to have the right steps in place before anything goes wrong? There are a lot of things people can do to manage IT operations effectively. Here are seven operational activities that I think every IT organization needs to carry out: 1. Certificate management Security certificates are used to authenticate the identity of people and computers, and to support encrypted communication. They’re issued by trusted certificate authorities who vouch for the identify of the person or organization concerned. For example, if you connect to https://www. sysaid. com/ you’ll see a green padlock symbol on your web browser, and if you click this you can see that you have a secure connection to the website. But certificates come with an expiry date, and if your organization does not renew a certificate at the right time, then that certificate expires. And when that happens any person or system trying to connect to you will see that your certificate is no longer valid....
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### Top 7 Reasons Why Your IT Service Desk Needs ITAM
> This article looks at seven reasons why your organization should adopt ITAM to improve upon your IT service desk’s operations and outcomes.
- Published: 2019-06-25
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/top-7-reasons-why-your-it-service-desk-needs-itam
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: IT asset management, IT service management, ITAM, ITSM, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT asset management (ITAM) best practices, along with the technologies that support them have evolved and dramatically improved since ITAM's early days. It’s now relatively easy for IT assets to be efficiently managed throughout the IT asset lifecycle. So why aren’t more organizations using ITAM to improve their IT service desk and overall IT service management (ITSM) operations and outcomes today? ITSM and ITAM should be thought of as like two peas in the same pod. They’re both IT management disciplines that work best in tandem to significantly help IT organizations to Improve service quality and customer satisfaction Increase efficiency and effectiveness Reduce costs up Improve governance and reduce risk Please read on for seven reasons why your organization should adopt ITAM to improve upon your IT service desk’s operations and outcomes. 1. Get quicker incident resolution IT issues can relate to a number of things across the IT service delivery spectrum. So, when issues relate to hardware and software, the ability to understand more about devices or the applications used on devices can truly help a service desk agent to quickly understand the root causes. For instance, conflicts between certain applications or the implementation of unauthorized software that causes operational issues can be clearly noticed and swiftly rectified. 2. Be more informed when handing service requests When an end user requests something new, it’s helpful and important to understand the assets they already have. This could be related to the possibility of overprovisioning and overspending but also incompatibility – where...
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### The Secret to Ending Known Errors
> This blog discusses Continuous integration and how if done correctly, should result in no more known errors coming from development efforts.
- Published: 2019-06-18
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-secret-to-ending-known-errors
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CI, Continuous Integration, DevOps, Known Error
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As a young(er) sysadmin, I once tried to stand in the way of a major system rollout. The development effort for this new system had taken over nine months of effort, with a project team comprised of over 100 people from across the business. One of the major goals of the initiative was to replace a few legacy systems and deliver a consolidated and standardized solution to the organization. The project was timed so that the new system would go online in a few weeks prior to the leases and maintenance contracts coming due on the legacy systems. Multiple millions of dollars had been invested in the development of the new system, with additional monies at risk if the new system didn’t go online in time. But I was aware of multiple bugs in the new system, ranging from minor to significant. And I raised the issue and my concerns to project leadership. I questioned whether we should go live, knowing we had bugs, or take a few more weeks to resolve these issues. And I got ran over. The new system went live, on time, as planned. Back in the day, new development projects usually took a long, long time to get done. Invariably, there was a lot of scrambling at the end of the project to get those last features in, and those last unit tests and end-user acceptance tests done. There usually were some “last minute” errors or bugs discovered; sometimes, there were issues that were discovered...
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### 15 Tips for Success for Service Desk Managers
> Empower your service desk managers with SysAid's expert tips! Unlock the secrets to success in managing your service desk effectively.
- Published: 2019-06-04
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/15-tips-for-success-for-service-desk-managers
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: service desk, Service Desk Manager, Service Desk Tips, Training, Wellbeing
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Ever feel a little bit like Clark Kent or Linda Lang? A little unnoticed, when you really want to be that service desk superhero? As a service desk manager, leading and managing your team is never without its challenges. The toll it can take on you, and your team can be of ever-increasing stress. The key is to harness your power as a service desk manager, to understand the best way you can utilize your position to influence your team positively. This way you’ll be able to fully unleash the full potential of your team’s capabilities - for greater success. How can you accomplish this? Below I provide a series of tips to help set you on the right path. Every team member counts “There is a superhero in all of us, we just need the courage to put on the cape. ” Superman Before we even start talking about the team as a whole, let’s take a look at each of your team members individually. Your team’s motivation is directly correlated with your management style. Did you know that employees who rate their manager’s performance poorly are four times more likely to be searching for a new job? In addition, 40% of employees who give their manager’s a poor performance score, have gone on an interview for a new job in the last three months, compared to 10% for those who gave their manager’s a high score. It’s the manager’s job to help each of their team members optimize...
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### ITIL 4 Practices – What’s New and Changed
> This blog describes 34 practices in ITIL 4, looking at what’s completely new (to ITIL) and what has changed significantly.
- Published: 2019-05-28
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itil-4-practices-whats-new-and-changed
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: Availability Management, BRM, incident management, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITIL v3, problem management
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The ITIL 4 Foundation publication and exams were released in February 2019, and I hope that you have seen some information about this new version. But if you haven’t, then reviewing some of my earlier blogs should help: What’s coming in ITIL 4? Everything You Officially Need to Know About ITIL 4 Your ITIL 4 Questions Answered The 7 Guiding Principles of ITIL 4: Practical Advice to Help You Make Decisions ITIL 4 value system, value chain, value stream: what’s the difference? In this blog, I am going to tell you all about the 34 practices that are described in ITIL 4. I will explain why they’re called practices and not processes, and I’ll tell you what’s completely new (to ITIL) and what has changed significantly. What’s a Practice? Why the change from a focus on processes to an emphasis on practices? In previous versions of ITIL, a process was just a sequence of activities, but in ITIL 4 a practice is something you can do because you have all the right resources, including the processes that you need. The previous version of ITIL included descriptions of 26 processes. Each of these processes described a flow of activities, as well as providing information about suggested roles, metrics, and other process-related information. Examples of processes include incident management, problem management, and availability management. ITIL 4 includes information about all of these, as well as introducing many new topics, but it calls them practices, rather than processes. Here’s why. ITIL 4 introduces...
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### How to Use a Data Model to Drive Configuration Planning
> Here we explain how a data model aids in configuration management – covering planning, baselining, control, verification, and audits.
- Published: 2019-05-21
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-to-use-a-data-model-to-drive-configuration-planning
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: configuration management, Configuration planning, IT asset management, IT service management, ITAM, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Configuration management – or service configuration management as ITIL 4 now calls it – is the capability, or set of practices, that helps your organization to understand how your business services and processes are delivered using technology and the dependencies that underpin them. Configuration management is positioned as a key part of IT service management (ITSM) by best practice approaches such as ITIL. However, many organizations still struggle to succeed with it – often starting then losing steam due to the complexity and/or the competing demands for resource and attention from other ITSM disciplines. In particular, many configuration management initiatives get stuck in the mapping out of the IT estate, including the relationships between configuration items (CIs). So, this blog looks at how a data model can help with configuration management – from configuration planning and baselining to control, verification, and audits. What’s a data model and why should you care? The benefits of configuration management can sometimes be difficult to articulate – because configuration management generally doesn’t come with the quick wins associated with implementing, say incident or change management capabilities. One way to make it easier for stakeholders to understand the benefits (of configuration management) is to include a data model when setting out your configuration plan. Where a data model is something that maps out the end-to-end services at a high level. A typical model would start with the following items: Infrastructure CIs – the hardware hosts your application and service CIs such as servers, storage arrays, and...
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### How to Avoid ITSM Conversation Blunders
> Here Doug Tedder discusses the importance of effective communication in ITSM and shares tips on how to improve communication in your organization.
- Published: 2019-05-07
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-avoid-itsm-conversation-blunders
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
At a recent networking event, a senior IT leader stated, “I sometimes get frustrated when I ask a team member about a particular issue or end user. Often, I get this long, drawn-out technical explanation of the situation. I’m not asking about how the clock works; I just want to know what time it is. ” I was struck by his remark. When we talk about IT things, are we describing how the clock works, or talking about what time it is? A typical IT environment The IT environment found within most organizations is a complex collection of interconnected servers, laptops, software, off-premise services, networks, applications, storage devices, and much more. Each of these components has a number of subcomponents that interact to make it work. For example, a “network” consists of things like cabling, routers, hubs, switches, control software, monitoring tools, and more. An individual server is made up of a motherboard, CPU, RAM, firmware, internal and external buses, one or more fans, a hard drive, a power supply, and more. Sometimes, physical servers are components of virtual servers, which then act as single units of computing. Sometimes a server is not in the same physical location as the organization using the server. Sometimes the software and applications used by an organization are physically installed and running on that server that is not in the same physical location as the organization utilizing them. Interesting, huh? And knowing all of this is critical for us IT types that are responsible...
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### Is Your IT Service Desk Training Keeping Up with ITSM Industry Changes?
> Discover how organizations are preparing their IT service desk staff for evolving IT support and business landscapes.
- Published: 2019-04-30
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/is-your-it-service-desk-training-keeping-up-with-itsm-industry-changes
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Benchmarking, customer service, IT service desk, IT service management, IT support, ITSM, SDI, service desk, Service Desk Training, Training
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Appropriate and effective training is an important part of ensuring that IT service desk agents are up to the challenges of delivering IT support and meeting the expectations of the people they serve. But how well is IT service desk training matching the current and evolving needs of IT support? This blog takes an in-depth view of current service desk training practices. IT, IT service management (ITSM), and IT support have always been about people helping people. And, even with the greater adoption of self-service capabilities, automation, and then artificial intelligence (AI) – it will still be people helping people. Even if there are potentially fewer people involved in scenarios that span: People helping people Technology helping people People helping technology Technology helping technology, and The “people + technology” variants of the above. I’m surprised that someone, probably a consultant or an industry analyst, hasn’t created a visual-quadrant depicting this yet! But how well are organizations training their IT service desk staff to deal with the changing IT support and business environments? How the changing IT support environment impacts staff-capability requirements The IT-support environment is changing – or should be changing – to reflect changes within the wider IT organization and business. For example: More of the simpler issues and requests are no longer reaching the service desk thanks to self-service, automation, and self-help via informal channels (such as the Internet). Thus, a higher proportion of service desk staff workloads will relate to the more complicated and time-consuming of issues...
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### ITIL 4 Value System, Value Chain, Value Stream: What’s the Difference?
> Explore the key concepts of ITIL 4 with Stuart Rance. Understand the value system, chain, and streams. Read the blog now!
- Published: 2019-04-23
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itil-4-value-system-value-chain-value-stream-whats-the-difference
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: Change Control, IT service management, ITIL 4, ITIL service value system, ITSM, Organizational Change Management, release management, Service Value Chain, Value Stream Mapping, Value Streams
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
ITIL 4 Foundation was released in February this year. This new version of the leading best practice framework for IT service management (ITSM) introduced a number of new concepts. You can read an overview of ITIL 4 in my previous blog: Everything You Officially Need to Know About ITIL 4. Three of the concepts introduced in ITIL 4 are: The ITIL service value system The service value chain Value streams Because these have very similar names, I’m seeing some confusion about what exactly they are, and what the difference is between them. The three ideas are related, and the names certainly help to emphasize that ITIL 4 is all about how value is created through services. In short: The highest-level concept is the service value system. The service value chain refers to activities that lie at the heart of the service value system. Value streams offer more detailed descriptions of the activities needed to respond to specific types of demand and opportunity. The ITIL service value system The ITIL service value system includes everything needed to create value in the form of services. It encourages service providers to think about how all the different components needed to deliver services can work together to help co-create value with service consumers. The diagram below provides a way to visualize this. Figure 1. 1 on Page 3 of ITIL Foundation. Copyright © AXELOS Limited 2019. Used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved. My previous blog about ITIL 4 included a brief description...
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### 5 Tips for Putting Customers First on the IT Service Desk
> Struggling with low customer satisfaction? Learn 5 tips to exceed IT service desk customers' expectations and boost satisfaction!
- Published: 2019-04-16
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-tips-for-putting-customers-first-on-the-it-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: continual service improvement, CSI, customer experience, customer service, Major Incidents, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The IT service desk is an important function within an organization, serving as the face of IT and controlling nearly all the communications between IT and the rest of the business. It’s a real hub of activity and at the center of it all is the requirement to provide a top level of support to customers. Sometimes, however, in the frenzied madness of resolving incidents, escalations, and unexpected system downtime, prioritizing the customer experience can get left behind. If your organization’s IT service desk is struggling with: low customer satisfaction – or even customer experience (CX) – scores, a high number of complaints, and disengaged end users, then please read my list below which offers five tips that will help your IT service desk to exceed its customers’ expectations. 1) Listen to what customers say (and don’t say) It sounds obvious, right? When talking about delivering great customer service on the service desk it always feels a little obvious to mention the topic of listening. However, it’s incredibly important to do this because it’s often the simplest of ideas that get forgotten about in the strive to be better. Your end users will always have something to say, particularly when something isn’t working for them, so listen to what they’re telling you. You can listen to your customers in various ways, for instance by: Conducting regular feedback surveys Using short experience scorecards when a ticket closes (“Rate Our Service Today”) Reviewing complaints and following up with every customer that submits...
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### How Valuable Is Your IT Service Desk?
> Where do you sit relative to the value of your IT service desk? Have you defined, and reported on, it? Or would you struggle even know where to start?
- Published: 2019-04-02
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-valuable-is-your-it-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: BRM, Business Relationship Management, Experience Level Agreement, IT service desk, IT service management, ITSM, SDI, service desk, Service Level Agreement, SLA, XLA
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We – the proud members of the IT service management (ITSM) community – often think of IT service desk performance in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. We’ve metrics that quantify how quickly our people work, plus how much work (relative to the demand for IT support) is done each month. Then, there are many other common metrics that look at the mechanics of running an IT service desk and providing a support service that meets service-level agreement (SLA) targets. And I struggle to remember a time when this wasn’t the case. For many organizations, all these metric targets are met month-on-month, and quarter-on-quarter, with the monthly IT service desk performance report showing a pictorial “field of green. ” It’s a green tick in every possible performance-metric box, and life is good. Or is it? You’ve probably heard much talk of late about the need for experience level agreements (XLAs), that are better suited to: Understanding how business colleagues perceive the service they receive from IT support Establishing how IT activities affect real business operations and outcomes. So, it’s an interesting time to better understand where we are (in IT support) and what needs to change to: firstly, stay relevant and to, secondly, continually increase the business value that’s created by the IT service desk. The business’ views on IT service desk value The following pie chart is taken from a recent Service Desk Institute (SDI) report called: “The State of Service Desk Strategy 2018. ” Do you think the service...
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### The 7 Guiding Principles of ITIL 4: Practical Advice to Help You Make Decisions
> Learn the 7 guiding principles of ITIL 4 to improve your IT management. Get practical advice from Stuart Rance. Explore today!
- Published: 2019-03-26
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-7-guiding-principles-of-itil-4-practical-advice-to-help-you-make-decisions
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: incident management, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The guiding principles are one of the most useful and practical parts of ITIL 4. If you share these principles with all your people, and use them when you’re making decisions, then you’re going to do a much better job of creating value for your customers, your users, and your own organization. ITIL 4 was published in February 2019. This updated version of ITIL has a new architecture and lots of updated guidance. You can read a description of ITIL 4 in my blog Everything you need to know about ITIL 4. ITIL first introduced the idea of guiding principles in ITIL Practitioner, which was published in 2016. You can read about them in Back to ITSM Basics: The 9 Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner and 9 Guiding Principles That Can Help Improve Your Service Desk. These ITIL guiding principles have been updated and expanded for ITIL 4, and they’re now a core part of the ITIL architecture, rather than an addition just studied by a few people. If you attend an ITIL 4 Foundation course, then you’ll learn how they can: Provide guidance in all aspects of ITSM work Encourage good decision making Promote continual improvement at all levels. The ITIL Guiding Principles ITIL now has just seven guiding principles, instead of the nine in ITIL Practitioner, but they actually cover slightly more ground. Some of the previous guiding principles have been consolidated, and some new ones have been added. The updated ITIL guiding principles are: 1. Focus on...
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### SysAid UI Refresh: A Dual Effort with Our Customers
- Published: 2019-03-20
- Modified: 2024-05-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-ui-refresh-a-dual-effort-with-our-customers
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, SysAid, UI, user experience, user interface, UX
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We did it! But, not alone, only with our customers. SysAid collaborated with many customers around the world to get their input on the new UI. We did this because we value our customer's opinion, and we strive to keep our customers happy. So, what is all the hype, and what is exciting with SysAid’s new UI? I’ll fill you in. The goal was to significantly enhance the user experience by creating something that is cleaner, drives action, and will help you be more effective in delivering top-notch service. The result preserves the previous unique customizability, setting SysAid apart from other platforms while minimizing the need to click or scroll when working on incidents. We mentioned in our press release that IT agents spend 85 % of their time on ticket resolutions. Ever feel like your tickets just keep escalating? Or that you are wasting your time on repeated incidents? You might think it’s fine, but it’s not, there are ways to save your time! SourceYour time is important Fortunately, our enhanced UI is engineered to reduce IT agent effort and save time. This is wonderfully accomplished by providing all the tools and data you need in one window. Other helpful features include a: Personalized insights panel: including a selection of agent and departmental KPIs at a glance, which enhances efficiency for IT agents and speeds up ticket resolution. Modernized agent dashboard: making it easier for IT agents to gain immediate valuable insights from their service desk data. Configuration without...
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### Your ITIL 4 Questions – Answered!
> In this article Stuart Rance answers all the ITIL 4 questions raised in the recent webinar: How ITIL 4 can help you get closer to your customers.
- Published: 2019-03-12
- Modified: 2021-08-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/your-itil-4-questions-answered
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITIL 4, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I delivered a webinar about ITIL 4 on 6th March. The webinar was titled How ITIL 4 can help you get closer to your customers, and it included lots of stories to help participants understand how to use the ideas in ITIL 4 to help them co-create value with their customers. I guess my stories went on a bit too long as I suddenly realized it was time to end and I hadn’t had time to answer all the great questions posted in the Q&A area of the webinar during the live session. Well, I know several participants commented that they loved my personal examples (thank you! ), but I don’t want anyone to miss out on getting the information they need and requested, so here are some written answers to the questions you raised. “Why practices not processes? ” Previous versions of ITIL described things like incident management and supplier management as processes. ITIL 4 takes a more holistic view. Everything is considered in the context of the four dimensions of service management: Organizations and people Information and technology Partners and suppliers Value streams and processes Processes are obviously very important, but they are just a part of what is described for each practice. ITIL 4 describes 34 practices. Each of these practices represents an organizational capability, something that organizations can do really well when – and only when – they have in place the right balance of the four dimensions of service management, and apply them as...
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### ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Knowledge Management
> Looking for an introduction to knowledge management? This blog looks at what it is, its objectives, and the benefits of knowledge management.
- Published: 2019-03-05
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-a-simple-introduction-to-knowledge-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change management, incident management, IT service management, ITIL, ITIL 2011, ITSM, KCS, Knowledge Base, Knowledge Centered Service, knowledge management, problem management, VeriSM
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In the words of The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz: “If I only had a brain. ” In some ways this describes the role of knowledge management in companies as a whole, then within their IT departments, and also for IT service management (ITSM) purposes. Think: “If we only had a brain. ” A corporate brain that collectively knows more than we know as individuals and from which it’s easy to access and consume knowledge, information, and even data. For me, knowledge management is about allowing every employee to know more, thanks to the availability of this collective knowledge and perhaps even collaboration (because a known solution might not be text or a video, it might be speaking with a person). But, before I get into the detail of what knowledge management is, you might also be interested in three of my previous “A Simple Introduction” blogs: ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Incident Management ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Problem Management ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Change Management To give you a simple introduction to knowledge management, I’ll quickly cover the following in this ITSM Basics blog: What knowledge management is The objectives of knowledge management The benefits of knowledge management. I refer to ITIL 2011 a fair bit below (as at the time of writing this I wasn't aware what was happening with the newly released ITIL 4, plus now having checked it I can't see any significant change within the new publication except the...
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### IT Optimization Never Ends - But Are You Riding the Right Wave?
> Discover the evolution of IT optimization with insights from Doug Tedder. Explore the third wave of optimization in IT organizations.
- Published: 2019-02-26
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-optimization-never-ends-but-are-you-riding-the-right-wave
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CIO, Consumerization, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT organizations have long been driven by the need to optimize. Whether it’s because of competition, changes in the marketplace, new technologies or methodologies, regulatory compliance, or an acquisition, de-acquisition, or merger – businesses are continually trying to optimize. It may seem that IT optimization is a never-ending quest. Just as soon as an IT organization reaches a desired level of optimization, a new wave of optimization seems to begin. If I think about how IT organizations have optimized over the past 10 or so years, there have been two clear waves of optimization. And we’re already beginning a third wave. The first wave – optimization for cost The first wave, starting around 2007, was cost optimization. Business investments in technology were often driven by cost savings. Often, businesses made what I would call “trade-off” decisions – they invested in technology-based solutions as a trade-off for investing in additional staff or other resources. And in many cases, this investment did deliver instances of cost savings, often represented in terms of greater efficiency (lower cost per unit of work). But sometimes cost optimization resulted in less than optimal outcomes. The drive to optimize for cost often inhibited taking a big-picture view or creative thinking. Because of the possible additional costs involved, organizations sometimes fell victim to siloed-thinking, i. e. solutions addressed the immediate issues for the immediate concern. Too much siloed-thinking then resulted in needless duplication – two different solutions that essentially did the same thing, were implemented by two different...
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### Everything You Officially Need to Know About ITIL 4
> In this blog, ITIL 4 author Stuart Rance provides an overview of what you’ll find in the newly released ITIL 4 Foundation, including what has changed.
- Published: 2019-02-18
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/everything-you-officially-need-to-know-about-itil-4
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITIL 4, ITIL v3, ITIL v4, ITIL4, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
This year sees the publication of a new version of ITIL, the world’s leading best practice for IT service management (ITSM). The rollout of ITIL 4 will come in sections. In this blog, I want to give you an overview of what you’ll find in the just-now-released ITIL 4 Foundation. About the release plans ITIL 4 Foundation (publication and exams) will be available from February 2019. But this is just the initial release of ITIL 4, with further details to be released later in 2019, including additional publications and exams. You can read more about these future plans for ITIL 4 in my blog What’s Coming in ITIL 4? Value, outcomes, costs, and risks The first thing you need to know about ITIL 4 is that it emphasizes the importance of value creation, rather than just delivering services. ITIL 4 defines a service as: “A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks. ” The key to understanding what’s in ITIL 4 lies in understanding how the terms value, outcomes, costs and risks have been used, and how this is fundamental to delivering IT services. Value: ITIL 4 defines value as “The perceived benefits, usefulness, and importance of something. ” It is vital to understand that value is not absolute. We can only measure the value of our services to our customers if we understand how the customers perceive them. Outcomes: There is a difference...
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### 4 Tips to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Third-Party IT Service Providers
> Learn to effectively manage your third-party IT service providers to optimize collaboration with other service providers.
- Published: 2019-02-12
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/4-tips-to-increase-the-effectiveness-of-your-third-party-it-service-providers
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: service desk, SIAM, Third-party supplier, Vendor Management
- Blog authors: Hanan Baranes
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s no longer enough for IT service providers – whether internal or outsourced – to just be reliable. Instead, they need to be agile and scalable – ensuring they’re flexible enough to meet the changing demands of your business. However, in terms of outsourced suppliers, the discipline (or required corporate capability) of vendor management often isn’t that well understood. Or, if it is, it isn’t widely adopted/implemented. And, with the advent of the service and integration management (SIAM) model, there’s an extra dimension of ensuring that disparate service providers are working well together. Nonetheless, effective vendor management brings with it a host of benefits, such as: Risk mitigation Performance optimization Cost reduction Administrative efficiencies Increased supplier onboarding speed Brand protection. This blog offers up four tips that will help you to successfully manage your third-party IT service providers and have them work alongside other service providers in an optimal way. 1. Incentivize collective success As IT teams outsource a larger amount of their IT – including IT service management (ITSM) – needs out to more than one vendor, the chance of numerous suppliers needing to cooperate, especially to tackle issues, increases. When this happens, you’ll likely find that suppliers might be hesitant to work together or will take a default approach of pointing the finger at others when there are issues. But, by incentivizing and holding each vendor accountable it creates a sense of responsibility and understanding that it’s in their best interest to work together – including fixing issues...
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### “Great Balls of Fire” - SysAid’s Heading to Pink19
> We’ve got our hoverboards ready here at SysAid because we are on our way to Pink19! Stop by and say hello to us, we'll be there with free coffee cards!
- Published: 2019-02-05
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/events-marketing/great-balls-of-fire-sysaids-heading-to-pink19
- Categories: Events and Marketing
- Tags: ITIL 4, ITSM, Pink19, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We’ve got our hoverboards ready here at SysAid because we are on our way to Pink19! Hoverboards? Wait. What? That’s right, if you haven’t already heard, the theme this year at Pink19 is Back To The Future. This event will take place February 17-20 at the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas. If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, Pink is an annual event, now in its 23rd year that’s recognized globally as the leading IT service management (ITSM) conference. This year the focus will be on the updated ITIL best practice framework (ITIL 4), and providing assistance on how to best integrate the various approaches and methodologies – ITIL, Agile, Lean, DevOps, and more. I’m excited to get together with the best of the best in ITSM thought leadership. What a chance to be exposed to such great content all under one roof! My top session recommendations When you’re deliberating over what sessions to attend – as the choices are so vast – here are some that I’m most excited to attend: The Future Is Built On ITIL – Welcome To The Future Presenters: Mark Basham & Roman Jouravlev, Axelos DevOps is Going to Fail Presenter: Paul Wilkinson, Director & Co-Founder, GamingWorks Digital Transformation Requires Digital Standardization & An Integrated Approach! Presenter: Troy DuMoulin, VP, Research & Development, Pink Elephant The Cold Hard Facts of Process Presenter: David Mainville, CEO & Founder, Navvia Stop by and say hello We’d love to be...
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### 19 Tips for Problem Management Success in 2019
> Want to achieve problem management success in 2019? This blog capture as many of the most-helpful tips that we know to help you.
- Published: 2019-01-29
- Modified: 2021-08-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/19-tips-for-problem-management-success-in-2019
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: Cynefin, enterprise service management, incident management, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, problem management, Problem Manager
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Okay, so you’ve finally realized that while your IT organization “does problem management,” it doesn’t really do problem management. Are you with me? If you are, then I’m writing this blog to capture as many of the most-helpful problem management tips I know will help you – my dear IT service management (ITSM) professional – to take another run at getting problem management right in your organization. So, please keep reading for my 19 tips for problem management success in 2019. Establish a high-level owner, and champion, for problem management. Nothing new here for ITSM adoption, but it’s still a great place to start a list of problem management success tips. Understand, and be prepared to articulate, the business value of problem management. This means rising above the ITIL best-practice process (or capability), and any targeted technology issues, to see the positive business-level impact that problem management will make. Or, flipping this, the negative impact (on business operations and results) of not doing problem management. Please, please, please, ensure that everyone knows the difference between incidents and problems. (And thus incident management and problem management). You don’t have to use this (ITIL) terminology, just make sure that there’s a distinction between the two and that everyone consistently uses the terminology. As you hopefully have for other ITSM capabilities, document your problem management policy and scope. Also define key problem management roles and responsibilities. And don’t forget to regularly review everything (because circumstances change). When starting, don’t aim for problem-management perfection...
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### How to Make Your ITSM Processes Work for You
> Here industry authority Stuart Rance discusses the need to ensure that your ITSM processes are simple and effective, along with how to do so.
- Published: 2019-01-15
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-make-your-itsm-processes-work-for-you
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CAB, change advisory board, incident management, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
A simple process that is designed with help from the people responsible for the activity can be very valuable, but if your processes are complex and hard to understand then you may need to think again. Learning to cross the road When I was a small child, I was taught to cross the road. We all had to recite the following words: “Stop at the kerb Look right Look left Look right again Listen If all clear then cross” And we were encouraged to chant these words whenever we needed to cross the road. Of course, as small children, we didn’t really understand the dangers, and like many others I thought that chanting the magic words would in some way protect me from the nasty cars. I’m not sure I understood that I was supposed to look out for cars and listen to see if there were any cars that I couldn’t see. And what was I supposed to do if I did detect any? Hide from them? Run across the road very fast? What I did know was that if I chanted the right words then I could cross the road. Later research showed that I wasn’t the only child who used these words as a magic chant, rather than as guidance for how to cross a road. “By the late 1960s, it was clear from a number of studies that the ‘kerb drill’ was outdated. Research now suggested that children learnt it by rote and did...
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### 19 Timely ITSM Tips for the New Year 2019
> What can you do to deliver better IT service delivery and support this year? Here, Joe the IT Guy shares his top 19 ITSM tips for a successful 2019.
- Published: 2019-01-08
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/19-timely-itsm-tips-for-the-new-year-2019
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, DevOps, employee experience, enterprise service management, IT service management, ITIL, ITIL Practitioner, ITSM, knowledge management, KPIs, Organizational Change Management, self-service
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
“It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day. It’s a new life. For me. And I’m feeling good. ” Said no one in IT service management (ITSM) on January 2nd. Okay, some of you might have, but many are just stepping back onto the same old treadmill – with the new year the start of 12 months of new challenges along with much of the same-old, same-old. So, what should you do to start off 2019 the right way – or at least in the best possible way? Or, put differently, what can you do to deliver better IT service delivery and support, and at the same time make ITSM roles more rewarding? It’s why I’ve crafted this blog – my 19 ITSM tips for 2019. Let’s see how many you’d agree with. Start with the Right DirectionMy first group of 2019 tips relates to creating the right foundation for future improvement and change. Understand that ITSM “as we know it” is changing (as will your ITSM capabilities). Every which way one looks, there has been a lot of change of late: In the technology we manage and employ to help us manage. The business demand for, and reliance on, this technology (well, the services it contributes to). And the rising expectations of employees and external customers who are being treated to the better outcomes of customer experience (CX) strategies. All of this, and other drivers (including the next bullet) will dramatically change ITSM in the next 12 months and...
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### A New Year’s Resolution to SysAid Customers
> SysAid reaffirms its commitment to IT professionals and the ITSM community, outlining its New Year's resolution to drive growth and innovation.
- Published: 2019-01-03
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/a-new-years-resolution-to-sysaid-customers
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: customer experience, customer service, help desk software, IT service management, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
16 years ago, SysAid was founded to improve the lives of IT professionals. Our original team had spent years on the service desk and lived the challenges that SysAid ventured to solve. Here’s a little known fact: I was SysAid’s first IT admin and used our software to serve customers. Bootstrapped, lean, and committed to IT professionals, we built SysAid with our own capital. We were diligent about listening to customers and creating what they needed. Unlike our venture capital-backed competitors, we had to run a profitable business. And we have. For 16 years. Recently, though, we began to feel like our roadmap had a speed limit. We knew we could innovate and deliver faster if only we had access to more capital. So, a year ago, we started searching for a partner who understood SysAid’s business and would respect our dedication to the IT service management (ITSM) community. Thankfully, we found Israel Growth Partners (IGP). In November, IGP made a $30 million investment in SysAid, the fund’s largest investment to date. We welcomed IGP General Partners Haim Shani and Uri Erde to the SysAid board of directors. This New Year, SysAid has never been better equipped to grow and innovate. Our resolution is to uphold SysAid’s steadfast dedication to IT professionals and the ITSM community. This investment is about you, our customers. The Big Questions Today, I want to answer some questions about IGP’s investment. What does it mean for SysAid’s future? How will it affect you? First, you...
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### ITSM Basics: What Is Service Transition? (Part 2)
> Here we offer up tips related to release and deployment management, service validation and testing, and knowledge management.
- Published: 2018-12-18
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-what-is-service-transition-part-2
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, knowledge management, release management, service desk, Service Transition
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Welcome back! I hope you read the first part of this blog that looked at what ITIL’s service transition is – across transition planning and support, service asset and configuration management, change management, and change evaluation – and offered up helpful tips. Plus, that you’re here because you found it valuable. For this second part, I’ll focus on release and deployment management, service validation and testing, and knowledge management. Again, offering helpful tips along the way. So, here we go with the final three of the seven parts of ITIL service transition... 5. Release and Deployment Management The goal of release management is to take an overall view of a change to a service and to ensure that all aspects of that release, including technical and business requirements, are considered together before deploying it into the live environment. Release management plays an important role in bridging the gap between project management and IT operations – delivering the outputs of each “project” to the business in terms of tangible services. In doing this, release management provides a structured approach for bringing changes together, testing to make sure that they work correctly, and then safely introducing them into the live environments that business operations rely upon. Top Tip: Use A Release Management Policy to Drive the Right Behaviors One of the most important documents you can have at your disposal as a release manager is the corporate release management policy. This is the document that sets out the key terms of release...
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### ITSM Basics: What Is Service Transition? (Part 1)
> Here we explain the responsibilities within service transition and offer up some top tips for successful service transition within your own organization.
- Published: 2018-12-11
- Modified: 2023-02-19
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-what-is-itil-service-transition-part-1
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change advisory board, change management, configuration management, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, knowledge management, release management
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Be warned – I’m about to get all ITIL on you as I explain what ITIL's service transition is. A good place to start is that – it’s the phase of the service lifestyle that deals with change. Put simply, service transition deals with retiring the old, introducing the new, and managing both internal and external moves while maintaining service quality standards. OK, maybe that wasn’t as simple as I’d hoped. Please let me try again. At its core, ITIL’s service transition book/phase is made up of the following processes (or capabilities): Transition planning and support Service asset and configuration management Change management Change evaluation Release and deployment management Service validation and testing Knowledge management This blog – and part 2 to follow – explains what each of these is responsible for and offers up some top tips for successful service transition within your organization. 1. Transition Planning and Support This process (or capability) can be seen as a set of activities that align to project management; with it the process that provides overall planning for service transitions and coordinates the resources that they require. The key functions of the transition planning and support capability are to: get a handle on all transition activity across the service landscape, ensure that there are no clashes, ensure overall quality, and ensure the correct policies and procedures are in place. Top Tip: Make Stakeholder Mapping Count When setting up your transition planning and support capabilities, make sure that you have your key stakeholders...
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### How to Replace Your IT Service Management (ITSM) Tool
> Here industry authority Stuart Rance share his approach to selecting a new IT service management tool, and how to plan your migration.
- Published: 2018-12-04
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-replace-your-it-service-management-itsm-tool
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: IT service management, ITSM, ITSM Tool
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
One of my customers was using a very old IT service management (ITSM) tool. It was no longer supported by the vendor, and really didn’t meet their needs, so they asked me to help them choose a new tool, a tool that would better suit their needs and that would be able to support all the new ideas that they couldn’t implement with the old one. I want to share the approach we took to selecting a new tool, and planning the migration, because many of the things we did might be appropriate for other organizations too. What Is the Vision? We started by chatting to the manager who was sponsoring this work. We asked lots of open questions: What was their vision for the tool, for ITSM, and for IT generally? What did they want to be able to do that the current tool was making difficult? What budget did they have? Were there any time constraints on when the tool should be replaced? Were there any other constraints that might affect our work? What was their experience of working with vendors, both suppliers of software licenses and organizations that provide software as a service (SaaS)? This gave us a pretty good idea of what we needed to achieve, at a very high level. It rapidly became clear that what the company really needed was to change the way that IT services are supported, and that replacing the ITSM tool, while vitally important, was in fact only a small...
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### What Do We Want from ITIL 4? The ITSM Industry Speaks
> We collected opinions from various ITSM professionals worldwide to understand what they wish to see in ITIL 4.
- Published: 2018-11-27
- Modified: 2024-06-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/what-do-we-want-from-itil-4-the-itsm-industry-speaks
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Agile, BRM, CSI, DevOps, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITIL Practitioner, ITIL v3, ITSM, Lean, VeriSM
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Update since publication: The latest version of ITIL – ITIL 4 – was released on Monday 18th February. To find out what is actually covered in the latest version, along with what has changed, please read this blog by ITIL 4 author Stuart Rance. If you’ve been waiting for a new version of ITIL, then you likely have your own views as to why a new version is needed. This will probably include the fact that it’s been a long, long time since ITIL v3 was released in 2007 and then the 2011 refresh of that. But beyond the need to make ITIL more current – catering for areas such as cloud, DevOps, and customer/employee experience – how else should ITIL 4 differ from the ITIL versions of old? By the way if you’re personally unsure as to why an update is needed you might like to check out this blog from our dear friend Stuart Rance. In this blog I’ve crowd-sourced the opinions of 34 practitioners, consultants, analysts, and trainers – aka a selection of people from different IT service management (ITSM) walks of life and geographies – to find out what they want to see in ITIL 4. So here goes... ITSM Practitioner Views Okay, before you bite my head off, I appreciate that most of you are ITSM practitioners no matter where you work and what you do. However, it seemed an appropriate term to denote people who will, or might, be using ITIL 4 “in anger on...
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### 5 ITSM Trends and Predictions for 2019
- Published: 2018-11-20
- Modified: 2021-08-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/5-itsm-trends-and-predictions-for-2019
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, COBIT, customer experience, enterprise service management, HDI, IT4IT, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITIL Practitioner, ITSM, SDI, security, VeriSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The world we live in (or on) will soon be another year older and, despite what we see in the news, hopefully another year wiser. The same is true for the IT service management (ITSM) community, in that I’d like to think that the industry has moved itself forward in 2018. But what does 2019 hold for ITSM, and what should ITSM practitioners be focused on in the months ahead? It’s why I’ve written this blog – to help you to understand what could be important for your IT organization (because, after all, there’s no “one size fits all” in ITSM). But first, a quick check on what happened (in ITSM) in 2018. 2018 in Review 2018 seemed to be a very busy year for ITSM – at least in terms of the available help and guidance – with changes all around, including that: VeriSM continued to market the need for a “service management approach for the digital age,” and its second publication – “VeriSM: Unwrapped and Applied” – was launched. More people seem to be hearing about VeriSM thanks to the clever idea of using its many contributors as “global ambassadors,” especially at international ITSM events. The Open Group continued to spread the word on IT4IT as an “IT framework for delivering value to the business. ” AXELOS continued the build up for the new version of ITIL in 2019 (although originally announced in 2017). It’s now called ITIL 4, but there are no fixed delivery dates yet though...
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### Creating the Business Case for Enterprise Service Management
> Discover the benefits of Enterprise Service Management investments as Stephen Mann presents key statistics from a new report.
- Published: 2018-11-13
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/creating-business-case-enterprise-service-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: enterprise service management, ESM, HDI, HR, ITSM, OCM, Organizational Change Management
- Blog authors: Stephen Mann
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
There are many reasons for adopting an enterprise service management (ESM) strategy – i. e. the widespread use of IT service management (ITSM) principles, best practices, and technology in other business functions. It could be a need to achieve all three of “better, faster, cheaper,” or perhaps the delivery of automation and other back-office-performance enhancing capabilities as part of digital transformation. But if you’re sat there contemplating your organization’s first foray into enterprise service management, or looking to further invest in it (beyond just the adoption of the corporate ITSM tool by another business function), then how do you build a business case that can add more color to the calculation of the time (and therefore money) saved by the automation of back-office operations and other labor-saving capabilities? In this blog, I share some statistics from the new HDI “The State of Enterprise Service Management” report that show how the organizations that have already invested in enterprise service management have benefitted; which will hopefully be of use in your business case for enterprise service management. The Level of Enterprise Service Management Adoption As described in the blog: “Enterprise Service Management Good Practice: The Vital Third Part of Digital Transformation,” when organizations are asked whether they’ve adopted enterprise service management there’s a spectrum of scenarios that can elicit a “yes” response. With two common ones being: The use of the ITSM tool by other business functions – for instance, “Let’s use the ITSM tool to help HR” A proactive approach to...
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### What’s Coming in ITIL 4?
> Discover what's in store with the upcoming release of ITIL 4, the latest iteration of the renowned IT service management framework.
- Published: 2018-11-06
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whats-coming-in-itil-4
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: IT service management, ITIL, ITIL 4, ITIL Practitioner, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Update since publication: The latest version of ITIL – ITIL 4 – was released on Monday 18th February. To find out what is covered in the latest version, along with what has changed, please read this blog also by Stuart Rance. A new version of ITIL will be released early in 2019. Much of the detail is not yet publicly available, but here is an overview of what we know so far. What’s ITIL? If you’re not already familiar with ITIL then please read my blog What Is ITIL. In summary, ITIL is the world’s leading best practice framework for managing IT services. What’s in a Name? The next version of ITIL will be called ITIL 4. Many people think that the previous version was called ITIL V3, but that name was never in fact used. The first three releases were all just called ITIL at the time, by the publishers, but most people knew them as ITIL V1, ITIL V2, and ITIL V3. The Previous Versions ITIL V1 ITIL V1 consisted of a large number of separate books, each describing a particular process. The first of these books was released in the 1980s and others came out over a period of about ten years. ITIL V2 ITIL V2 was released in 2000 and 2001. Most people were only familiar with the service delivery and service support publications, which covered 10 core processes and the service desk. There were also a range of other publications covering application management, infrastructure management,...
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### Test Your Software Asset Management: Request a Vendor Audit
> Test your software asset management by requesting a vendor audit - ensure your assets are in check. Read now
- Published: 2018-10-30
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/test-your-software-asset-management-request-a-vendor-audit
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: IT asset management, ITAM, SAM, software asset management, Software Audit
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Are you happy that your organization is fully compliant from a software licensing perspective? Do you feel comfortable that all the right checks and balances are in place, with nothing to fear from a software vendor audit? If so, then what about putting this to the test by inviting in a software vendor to stress test your capabilities? Please read on to understand more. Now that you’ve picked yourself up off the floor, I’ll continue. While this idea might seem sheer lunacy to start with, it actually makes a lot of sense. That by targeting a particular software vendor, and their offerings, you’re able to stress test your IT asset management (ITAM) and software asset management (SAM) capabilities. From the accuracy of your license compliance calculations to your ability to respond in an efficient manner when software vendor audits occur (usually out of the blue). Positioning the Concept Before I go any further, it’s worth stating that this isn’t an ITAM or SAM best practice. It might not even be an ITAM common practice (but hopefully you can help to establish this by responding in the comments section below). It’s an idea offered up to help improve your organization’s ITAM capabilities. There are, of course, risks and potentially unwanted side effects of taking such an action: Your organization might come up short in terms of compliance, with the associated penalties. But hopefully a software vendor will look on the situation more kindly than if they’d initiated the audit, i. e....
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### ITSM: Are You Managing Services, or Just Incidents & Changes?
> IT service management is about much more than just managing incidents and changes. If you’re not maximizing the value you create for customers through ITSM, then this blog will help you get started.
- Published: 2018-10-23
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/are-you-managing-services-or-just-managing-incidents-and-changes
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: continual service improvement, CSI, IT service management, IT Services, ITIL, ITSM, Service Design, Service Operation, Service Strategy, Service Transition
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
IT service management (ITSM) is about much more than managing incidents and changes. If you’re not managing services, to maximize the value you create for customers, then this blog will help you get started. What is IT service management (ITSM) about? A lot of organizations that I’ve worked with would say that the answer is obvious. It’s about managing operational issues such as incidents, service requests, and changes. And, of course they’re not wrong. These things are important; they have to be done, and done well. But, if managing operational issues is all we think about, then we will never be in a position to provide the services that our organizations deserve. This is why you need ITSM. What Is a Service? A good starting place for thinking about what we need to do is to think about what we mean by services. ITIL (the leading best practice for ITSM) defines a service as “A means of creating value by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve... ” This should remind us that the reason for activities such as managing incidents and changes is to create value for our customers by helping them to achieve their desired outcomes. And if we are to do this effectively, we need to understand what our customers are trying to do, and how IT services can help them to do that – so that we are in a position to manage everything required to ensure that the IT we provide creates value for our...
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### DevOps Is ITSM (Like It or Not)
- Published: 2018-10-16
- Modified: 2022-07-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/devops-is-itsm-like-it-or-not
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: DevOps, IT Help Desk, ITIL, ITSM, kanban, Swarming
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
ITSM seems to have many definitions. The definition you get depends upon who you ask. My friends here at SysAid have defined ITSM as “the craft of implementing, managing, and delivering IT services to meet the needs of an organization. It ensures the appropriate mix of people, process, and technology are in place to provide value. In other words: ITSM is the art of making a business run. ” They’ve also made a great video on this: My definition of ITSM is similar: ITSM is about providing and managing the right combination of people, process, and technology to enable a business to meet its objectives and deliver measurable value. Many treat the term “ITSM” as a synonym of ITIL. While ITIL may tout itself as the “de facto” ITSM standard, I would argue that ITSM and ITIL are two distinct concepts. ITIL is more about the what and how; ITSM is more about the what and why. In other words, ITIL is just one approach for ITSM. And there’s been little reason to make that distinction – until recently. Because DevOps has shaken up the ITSM world. That's ITSM, so What's DevOps? If you ask five different people, you’ll likely get five different answers to the question “What is DevOps? ”. Some will say it’s about automation. Some will say that it’s about eliminating IT operations. Some will say that it’s about microservices or containers or continuous deployment or any number of technology-related concepts. Everyone agrees that DevOps started with...
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### 3 Key Responsibilities of the IT Help Desk (and How to Meet Them)
> Explore the crucial role of the help desk in providing excellent IT services to businesses and the key responsibilities for success.
- Published: 2018-10-09
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/3-key-responsibilities-of-the-it-help-desk-and-how-to-meet-them
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: customer service, help desk, Knowledge Base, knowledge management, reporting, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
For many companies, the IT help desk acts as the face, or the front of house, of the IT organization. It handles employee issues and service requests, while also dealing with most, if not all, of the communications between end users and the IT organization. The help desk is a crucial player in delivering IT services to the business and has a number of responsibilities it needs to uphold in order to be successful. In this blog post, I explain three of the key help desk responsibilities and offer advice on how best to deliver against them. 1. Deliver Great Customer Service (As Well As Great Outcomes) First and foremost, in the current times of employees experiencing superior customer experiences in their personal lives (and bringing the same expectations into the workplace), the number one responsibility of any IT help desk should be to deliver against end-user needs while also providing great customer service. That said, it’s easy for IT organizations to fall at this hurdle because they’re too internally focused, with help desk policies and processes (and how these are implemented) serving technical teams ahead of customers. Hopefully however, your help desk exists to serve your organization’s end users, and the roles they fulfill, and so it’s their needs that you put before anyone else’s. This should include providing your customers with information they need, resolving their tickets efficiently, communicating with them about business impacting issues and changes, and generally just being easily accessible when they need you. End...
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### DNA of IT Support – Everything You Need to Know
> Are you thinking about a career in IT support? This article breaks down the key roles of everyone involved in IT support and all the key processes.
- Published: 2018-10-02
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/dna-of-it-support-everything-you-need-to-know
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: help desk, help desk agent, help desk analyst, IT support, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Are you thinking about a career in IT support? Or are you looking to formalize and improve your company’s current IT support capabilities through the introduction of an IT help desk structure? Either way, you probably want to understand more about how the roles/people in IT help desks (or service desks), and the wider support ecosystem, are organized and work. Plus, the sorts of skills and capabilities they need. So I thought it might be helpful to spell it all out. Let’s take a look at: How IT support is commonly structured Key teams and roles The interrelationships between the different parties There’s No One IT Help Desk Structure to Rule Them All If you recognize this Lord of the Rings pun, then you would probably do well in IT support. This aside, it’s important to understand that different organizations will shape their IT support capabilities in different ways (plus, they might call it a help desk, service desk, or something else). As you would expect, each organization will work in the way that’s best suited to their business needs. That’s why there’s not just one single recommended IT support model to be followed. There are, however, IT support “building blocks” that are commonly used, which include: The IT help desk (or service desk) 2nd-level IT support Deskside support (or field services) 3rd-level and 4th-level IT support I’ll cover each of these separately including the common roles and what they entail. The IT Help Desk The IT help desk is...
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### 6 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started in IT Service Management
> Learn IT service management lessons from experience. Gain insights to avoid pitfalls and improve ITSM strategies.
- Published: 2018-09-25
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/6-things-i-wish-id-known-when-i-started-in-it-service-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: incident management, ITSM, metrics, problem management, service desk, SLAs
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I’ve been working in IT service management (ITSM) for many years now, and I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way. So I thought it’d be nice to share some of the things that I’ve learned from my mistakes in the hope that they’ll help others avoid them. Here are the top 6 things that I wish I’d known when I started in ITSM: 1. ITSM Is All About People Before I was an IT service manager, I worked in technology. I started doing incident management and problem management because I was good at fixing hardware and software. As I embarked on this new ITSM career, I was told that ITSM was all about people, process, and technology but everywhere that I worked the “people” in that phrase was ignored. Like many others with a technical background I found it easy to focus on processes. It was easy to grasp how important they were, and how they could help to create repeatable and reliable outcomes. The teams I worked with, and eventually led, understood the technology and developed great processes. Obviously, there were people involved– after all, someone carried out the processes or made sure they were carried out or complained if they were not working correctly. But it took me a long time to recognize that if the people involved were not on board, even the most fabulous processes were never going to cut it. Because ITSM is more about people than about anything else. I now spend...
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### Making ITSM a Business ‘Good Practice’
> SysAid offers tips on transitioning ITSM from IT best practices to business good practices, aligning IT operations with organizational goals.
- Published: 2018-09-18
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/making-itsm-a-business-good-practice
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: CX, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I recently attended a networking event for IT professionals during which one of the speakers discussed “How to Market IT Internally and Externally. ” The presentation’s core message was that every interaction with the IT organization is an opportunity to market the IT organization. Every interaction with IT is an opportunity to influence how the organization thinks about IT. What Do People Think about IT? How are the interactions between your IT team and your business colleagues influencing how your leaders think about IT? Are your business colleagues thinking these things about IT? Does any of the following sound familiar? “They work on an island. ” IT has no awareness of what's going on around them within the business. “They are focused on the wrong client. ” The customer of the business is located outside of the organization, not within the business. IT is too focused on internal things, rather than organizational objectives and goals. “They don’t understand the business. ” IT doesn’t understand business drivers, the competitive landscape, or the products and services offered by the business. “I can’t make sense of what they’re telling me. ” IT communicates using technical terms, instead of language that is business-relevant and meaningful. “I can’t even ask a question unless I have a ticket. ” IT is too focused on executing process instead of delivering business value and a good experience. “IT is a black hole. ” Reports published by IT have no meaning or relevance to the rest of the organization....
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### Has GDPR Made the World a More Secure Place?
> Learn about the implications of GDPR on global cybersecurity efforts and its role in promoting data security.
- Published: 2018-09-12
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/has-gdpr-made-the-world-a-more-secure-place
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: cybersecurity, GDPR, IT, ITSM, security
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Unless you’ve been in a disconnected state for the past two years, the beating of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)-deadline drumroll has grown louder and louder every day – culminating on the 25th of May 2018 with the GDPR “go live. ” Not only did the enforcement for GDPR come into effect on this date, but the UK government even went a step further by updating their Data Protection Act, to include all GDPR info. Please have a listen to my GDPR podcast if you like to consume information this way. So now that we have an additional set of privacy laws to comply with, everything is safe and secure, right? Well not quite, if history has taught us anything we should know that: not everyone complies and, even when they do, compliance does not equal information security. There’s so much more to learn in regards to what GDPR means for information security, so in this blog I’ll explain what else needs to be done (besides pure compliance) to protect your organization. GDPR Article 32 – the Security of Data Processing I could attempt to run through the 88 pages, and the 99 GDPR Articles, of the formal GDPR document, but many people have already blogged on this (for example: How to Explain GDPR to a 5 Year Old and
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### How to Get a Job as an IT Service Desk Agent
> Explore the benefits of starting your IT career on a corporate IT service desk with SysAid's insights into entry-level opportunities.
- Published: 2018-09-04
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-get-a-job-as-an-it-service-desk-agent
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, help desk software, IT jobs, IT service management, IT support, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Getting a job on a corporate IT service desk is a great idea if you want a career in IT. The IT service desk is a common entry-level role into the IT industry, which means that you don’t usually need fancy qualifications or a super-techy brain to get on board. The IT service desk can be the perfect place to gain an understanding of the world of IT and will also give you a great view of other IT and business departments. This can be incredibly beneficial if you’re not sure which career path you ultimately want to take. It’s also a great place to get to know the company you work for and the products they offer. You don’t just see them, you get right down into the depths of them – learning what they are and how they work. This will then put you in great stead for internal promotions as well as giving you transferable skills to take elsewhere when you’re ready to leave. But how do you get a job as an IT service desk agent? What skills and experience do you need to get an interview and then land the role? In this post I look at some of the essential skills that make for a great service desk agent along with advice on the experience and qualifications that will help you to land the job. Understanding the Needs Across Skills, Qualifications, and Experience There are certain skills that you will need to have if...
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### 10 Reasons Why Self-Service Is Important for Your IT Department
> Discover why self-service is vital for IT departments with SysAid's insights into the importance of empowering users.
- Published: 2018-08-28
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/10-reasons-why-self-service-is-important-for-your-it-department
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer experience, customer service, CX, help desk, self-service, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
You’ve probably heard by now that IT self-service portals are all the rage. But is it all just a fad or is self-service the direction that every IT service desk needs to be taking? If you’re sitting on the fence about whether or not your IT department should adopt self-service, please take a look at these 10 reasons why I believe self-service is here to stay and how it will benefit your organization (if adopted correctly). 1. Your Customers Want and Expect It Your IT service desk is all about providing awesome customer service – this should be the basic first goal of any service desk. And part of providing a service that wows customers is giving them what they want and expect. Without running any customer service surveys, I can confidently tell you that your customers definitely want and expect speedy service, speedy resolutions, and answers probably before they’ve even asked their questions. Why? Because we’re living in a fast-paced world where we – as consumers – can often get what we want, when we want it. This kind of living is making us impatient and any time we can’t get an instantaneous response we’re likely to get annoyed quickly, particularly if something is wrong and we need it fixed. The art of waiting is lost, and IT departments need to catch on to this if they hope to continue achieving high-level customer satisfaction scores. Customers want quick and easy, and self-service can deliver. 2. You’ll Empower Your Customers...
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### 5 Ways to Reduce Telephone Calls to Your IT Help Desk
> Many IT help desks face high workloads and limited resources, prompting help desk managers to seek ways to ease the pressure on their agents.
- Published: 2018-08-21
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/5-ways-to-reduce-telephone-calls-to-your-it-help-desk
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: CSAT, customer satisfaction, help desk, help desk software, password reset, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
With so many IT help desks struggling with too much work and not enough resources, it’s no wonder why help desk managers are constantly on the lookout for ways to relieve the pressure on their agents – while ensuring that quality support is provided to end users/customers. As you certainly already know, telephone calls are a common and standard way for customers to report their IT issues (to the IT help desk) and to make requests. But, when your agents are taking calls all day long, other areas of the desk can suffer, such as ticket escalation management, training, or document/knowledge article creation. Plus, end users – who desperately need support – waiting in lengthy call queues can become irritated and your help desk can suffer from a negative reputation. With that in mind, I offer you 5 ways to reduce the volume of telephone calls to your IT help desk – such that your agents can be freed up to concentrate their efforts elsewhere. 1. Create and Use a Knowledge Base A knowledge base is an in-solution or online capability that can be accessed by customers and technical support staff alike. It holds information such as user guides, lists of frequently asked questions (FAQs), and technical documentation. By providing a self-service knowledge base to end users, you can encourage your customers to search the available information to resolve their own IT queries. If you notice that a particular need/question is being expressed/asked repeatedly, write up a document explaining the...
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### How to Level Up Your Skills to Stay Relevant in ITSM
> Explore the significance of continuous improvement in processes, services, and honing ITSM skills by following ITSM expert Stuart Rance's.
- Published: 2018-08-14
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-level-up-your-skills-to-stay-relevant-in-itsm
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Agile, continual service improvement, CSI, DevOps, ITSM, Lean, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Continual improvement isn’t just for processes and services. You also need to continually improve your skills and knowledge too. This blog is about continual improvement, but today I’m not going to explain how to improve your processes, or your IT services. If you want advice about those areas have a look at these blogs: 5 Tips to Help Prioritize Your CSI Improvements How to Continually Improve Your Service Portfolio – Even If You Don’t Have One! Managing a continual service improvement register Continual Service Improvement (CSI) - The Most Important Service Management Process This blog is all about professional development. This is not something that will take care of itself, and you should understand that it is far too important to simply leave to the discretion of your employers. You need to think about how you will develop the skills and knowledge that are going to be needed by IT service management practitioners in the future, because this is the most effective way to guarantee that your employers and customers value what you contribute, and helps to put you in a position to choose work you can take pride in and that you enjoy doing. Valuable Skills Can Become Obsolete When I started working in IT, I was a hardware support engineer. It took me many years to develop the skills needed to do this, but I became very highly skilled in diagnosing computer faults using my oscilloscope to trace what the computer was doing, and reading circuit diagrams to...
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### The Curse of “Faster, Better, Cheaper”
> At what point should you prioritize innovation over speed and cost? Explore the balance between efficiency and creativity. Learn more today!
- Published: 2018-08-07
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-curse-of-faster-better-cheaper
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: continual imrpovement, continual service improvement, CSI, help desk, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Is there a point where you should no longer invest in being “faster, better, cheaper”? At what point should you focus more on innovation and experimentation and less on continual improvement? Make no mistake – I am a big believer of continual improvement. But when the focus is only on “faster, better, cheaper” – it will actually work against an organization. Need an example? A Harvard Business Review article discussed the impact of Henry Ford’s nearly singular focus on “faster, better, cheaper. ” It talked about his disruptive innovation – the moving assembly-line process for the manufacturing of automobiles. This allowed Ford to produce and sell the Model T at a significantly lower price than his competition, enabling the creation of a new, rapidly growing market. In doing so, Ford froze the design of the Model T, which allowed him to better refine the moving assembly line process. As a result, Ford was able to further cut costs and produce more automobiles faster. Ford grew from manufacturing 10,000 cars in 1908 to nearly a million cars in 1920! But in 1920, General Motors introduced some new concepts and innovations in automobile manufacturing, such as installment selling, used car trade-ins, and annual model changes. Ford stubbornly stuck with his cycle of improvement and saw his 1921 two-thirds market share fall to about 15% in 1927. The curse of “faster, better, cheaper”? Is “faster, better, cheaper” getting in the way of experimentation, innovation, and creativity at your company? Is “faster, better, cheaper”...
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### 5 Ways Your IT Service Desk Can Add Value to Your Organization
> See how reviewing your IT service desk can uncover improvement areas and hidden issues in a chaotic work environment.
- Published: 2018-07-31
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-your-it-service-desk-can-add-value-to-your-organization
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: automation, customer service, IT service desk, IT service management, ITSM, self-service, service desk, Shift left
- Blog authors: Danny Tashiev
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Sometimes you need to take the time to step back to see where your IT service desk could do better. Including where it sometimes manages to make issues for itself that just go unnoticed in such a chaotic work environment. So in this blog post, I want to look at a few areas that your IT service desk should explore – to help it to “work better” and to thus add more value to your organization. 1. Shift-Left Shift-left is an IT service management (ITSM) concept that aims to move the resolution of issues, or provision of service, closer to the customer. So, Level 2 tasks are moved to Level 1 where possible, and Level 1 (and potentially Level 2) are moved to Level 0, i. e. self-service. With the ultimate goal being for the customer to help/serve themselves whenever they can – saving time and money while offering a quicker and better IT support experience. Think about your own organization, I bet there are engineers doing tasks that lower-level personnel could be doing as well but more cheaply. This means your organization is currently paying more than it needs to for IT support. Perhaps your desktop support engineers are doing simple first-line support fixes because your service desk doesn’t have the right tools or training for the job. Or maybe your service desk agents are logging tickets for end users because you don’t have a self-service portal. You see how this works? When you start to shift tasks left...
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### 6 Reasons to Automate Your IT Service Request Tickets
> Automate IT service request fulfillment to boost efficiency, meet SLAs, and ensure customer satisfaction.
- Published: 2018-07-24
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/6-reasons-to-automate-your-it-service-request-tickets
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: automation, help desk, IT service requests, ITSM, request fulfillment, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The request fulfillment process is an important one for the IT service desk, but I often find that it gets forgotten about, or at least left at the bottom of the pile – with the incident and major incident management processes tending to dominate. IT service requests, though, should be treated seriously because your end users will always need assistance in this area. Whether it’s to request additional software, gain access to a certain system, or maybe to ask for a new piece of hardware to name just a few. A good service request process can be one of the quickest ways for an IT service desk to “up its game” to provide higher-quality support, but it’s often an area that instead receives a high level of complaints due to the aforementioned negligence. Can you imagine an end user asking: “How can you fix a major incident in a matter of hours but take weeks to grant me access to a key system I need for my job? ” If this kind of question sounds familiar to you, then it might be time to look at how you can improve your IT service desk’s request fulfillment process. With one improvement opportunity to look at right away being automation. That’s why, in this blog post, I look at 6 reasons why your IT service desk should automate its service request workflows to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and customer experience. 1. Save Time Here’s what a simple, authorized request workflow might look...
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### The 5 Time-Saving Tips for Busy SysAid Agents - Revealed
> Being an IT agent is tough with endless ticket queues. Time becomes a precious resource. Find out how to manage it effectively.
- Published: 2018-07-17
- Modified: 2024-05-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/the-5-time-saving-tips-for-busy-sysaid-agents-revealed
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk, IT, ITSM, self-service portal, service desk, Slack, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Being an IT agent is challenging, the queue of tickets can seem endless, and so, your time becomes one of the most precious and scarce resources there is. Because of this (and always hearing from our customers about how hard-pressed for time they are), we decided to sit down, put our heads together, and create a webinar with our top 5 time-saving tips for busy SysAid agents (which you should check out here). The best part? All of these 5 recently-added features are already included in your SysAid Service Desk and there are absolutely no paid upgrades needed to use them. So, in case you missed the webinar or you just prefer to read through an abridged version, this blog post is your hot ticket to our top time-saving tips. Here we go... Tip #1 – Keep Your Ticket Queue Clean with Merge Tickets Multiple tickets about the same issue can clog up your queue and add so much time to your day-to-day workload. But now, there’s a way to fix that... . Cloud customers have been enjoying their Merge Tickets feature for a few months, and we’re about to release this to on-prem customers. You get to decide which agents have permissions to merge tickets, where tickets end up getting merged to within your help desk, and what status the tickets will be set to when tickets are merged. So with this cool feature, you can focus on solving the actual issues in the main ticket, instead of trying...
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### When Should ITSM Change Management Start?
> Why is it that most organizations don’t start change management until they are ready to deploy the change? ITIL and ITSM authority Stuart Rance blogs.
- Published: 2018-07-10
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/when-should-itsm-change-management-start
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change management, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
ITIL says that IT change management should evaluate changes before anyone starts designing or building them, but most organizations don’t start change management until they are ready to deploy the change. I don’t think either of these is right. Most IT organizations have a process for managing IT changes. This usually involves taking steps to ensure that the change won’t cause things to go horribly wrong. To initiate change management someone logs a request for change (RfC), and the change is then reviewed to ensure that appropriate testing is carried out, that security and other risks are considered, that compliance and other constraints are taken into account, etc. The change management process also schedules changes – to try and prevent conflicts – for example, where one change involves the use of the same resources as another. One big difference I see between organizations is the timing of the RfC, the point in the change lifecycle when they expect an RfC to be raised. Most of the IT organizations I see don’t raise an RfC until after they have built and tested the change, and it is at this point that the change management process kicks in to evaluate the change before authorizing deployment to a production environment. However, according to ITIL (the world’s leading best practice framework for IT service management), organizations should be raising an RfC before anyone designs or builds a change, allowing change management to consider the costs, risks, and benefits before authorizing design activity to proceed....
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### The Emerging “X Factor” of Service Management
> Delivering the best experience to customers, users, and employees is the game-changer and differentiates the progressive service management organizations.
- Published: 2018-07-03
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-emerging-x-factor-of-service-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: customer experience, CX, employee experience, EX, IT service management, ITSM, service desk, user experience, UX
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Service management has always been about providing business value and outcomes. But now, providing business value and outcomes are not enough. An “X factor” has emerged. What is this “X factor”? The experience. The experience has become an enormously critical aspect of IT service management (ITSM). Why? The reason is simple – people. It’s the people that make service management work. The best-defined processes are pointless unless people follow them. The most effective and valuable services do nothing if there is no one consuming them. But even more than that, it’s because people have emotions. It’s the experience that creates the emotional connection between the service provider and the people consuming services. This means that good service management not only must deliver real business value and outcomes, it also must deliver an outstanding experience. It’s About the Experience There are several perspectives from which people make this emotional connection with an organization. Let’s explore three of those perspectives: the customer experience, the user experience, and the employee experience. 1. Customer Experience While there are a number of elements that define the customer experience (CX), a Forbes magazine article suggests that it boils down to perception of an organization’s brand. CX is a customer’s perception of their rational, physical, emotional, subconscious, and psychological interaction with any part of an organization. This perception affects customer behaviors and builds memories. Why does this matter? Simply put – customer loyalty. When a customer feels valued by an organization and feels that they’ve...
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### 5 Ways to Recognize and Reward Staff Performance on the IT Service Desk
> Importance of acknowledging & incentivizing IT service desk agents' performance. Discover why it's crucial in a challenging work environment.
- Published: 2018-06-26
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-to-recognize-and-reward-staff-performance-on-the-it-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Recognizing and rewarding the performance of your IT service desk agents is of paramount importance. Why? Because an IT service desk can be a tough place to work – the negativity of end-user complaints, the monotony of churning tickets, and the constant need to adapt to changes and ever-increasing workloads can take its toll. Recognizing and rewarding the performance of your IT service desk agents is of paramount importance. Why? Because an IT service desk can be a tough place to work – the negativity of end-user complaints, the monotony of churning tickets, and the constant need to adapt to changes and ever-increasing workloads can take its toll. Recognizing great and consistent performance is a key way to keeping your IT support staff engaged, motivated, and happy. However, a lot of the time, when we think about rewarding our staff, we immediately think of money. But, while pay raises and bonuses are a great motivator, money is really just one piece in the jigsaw. Plus, often as a service desk manager, monetary decisions may not rest with you anyway. So, you need other ways to show your staff that you recognize and appreciate their efforts in delivering IT support. In this blog, I offer 5 ways to better recognize and reward staff performance on the IT service desk. 1. Introduce Gamification As an IT service desk manager, you’re probably already tracking the performance of your agents by measuring certain key performance indicators (KPIs). Examples include how many tickets service desk...
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### Everything You Wanted to Know About IT Self-Service but Were Afraid to Ask
> Discover everything about IT self-service in this comprehensive guide by SysAid.
- Published: 2018-06-19
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-it-self-service-but-were-afraid-to-ask
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: IT service management, ITSM, self-service, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT self-service continues to be an in-vogue capability for overstretched IT support organizations and a key IT service management (ITSM) area of interest. But how much difference will the introduction of self-service make to your organization? The answer is: “It depends. ” IT self-service “does exactly what it says on the tin” and it should mirror the consumer-world capabilities already available to people in order to support or “serve” themselves. Although, it’s worth thinking of self-service as a spectrum of capabilities, not just access to a service catalog and the ability to log issues online. For instance, self-help or even self-care in the form of knowledge bases, application/software downloads, or asset auditing (where end users can agree or disagree with a list of the IT or business assets assigned to them), say. However, the growing consumer-world adoption and exploitation of self-service is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it makes end users/customers more amenable to using self-service – because they already use it. But, on the other, it creates a high benchmark for corporate self-service capabilities to live up to. And, unfortunately, it has commonly been too high a benchmark for many corporate IT organizations – with service desk institute (SDI) survey data showing that only 17% of companies have realized the promised return on investment from their self-service initiatives, in the main due to low adoption levels. Looking Forward to a Brighter Self-Service Future Thankfully though, things are looking up for IT self-service due to: Organizations learning from...
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### How to Design an ITSM Process
> Creating a new ITSM process should leave you feeling energized rather than drained. Understand what you’re trying to achieve, and then do the work.
- Published: 2018-06-12
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-to-design-an-itsm-process
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: IT service management, ITIL, ITIL best practice, ITSM, process design, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I was working with a customer recently to help them design a new change management process. We were able to work very quickly because fortunately it was quite easy for the many different teams involved to agree to adopt the new approach; and the customer seemed very pleased with the way things went. I can assure you that there was no magic involved. So how did we do it? As we developed the new process, I found myself wanting to share some of the important principles that structured the way we set about creating the process. I think it can be very helpful to anyone in the same situation. Here are the principles employed: Involve All the Stakeholders Start Where You Are Keep It Simple Think About Flow Don’t Be Rigid About How You Use Swimlanes As you may be aware, two of these principles come directly from the ITIL Practitioner guidance (Start Where You Are, Keep It Simple); another two could be derived from the ITIL Practitioner principles more indirectly (Involve All the Stakeholders comes from Collaborate, Think About Flow comes from Work Holistically); and the remaining one (Don’t be Rigid About How You Use Swimlanes) we developed for our process design work. For those of you who are not familiar – in process design, a swimlane is a horizontal section of a flowchart that shows all the work done by a particular role or person. It helps to align the flow of work with the organization design. This...
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### People, Process, Technology, Automation - The Next Evolution of Service Management
> Learn how automation can elevate operational scaling, enabling individuals to focus on high-value tasks with the gift of time.
- Published: 2018-06-05
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/people-process-technology-automation-the-next-evolution-of-service-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: AI, automation, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, processes
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
If you’ve been around IT service management (ITSM) for any time, you can easily recite the three aspects of ITSM: people, process, and technology. Frankly, the best way to implement ITSM is to first address the “people,” then develop “processes,” and then put into operation the “technology. ” Some organizations follow this approach and have great success. But many organizations jump from a cursory look at “people” directly to the “technology” in their ITSM implementations. Still, other organizations just start with “technology,” hoping for a quick, out-of-the-box fix to their service management challenges. In my opinion, “technology” is always the easiest part of the equation. Typically, ITSM technology takes the form of a software solution that captures tickets, routes work, and perhaps features a self-service portal. These solutions have been tested against typical use cases and, generally speaking, they work. However, “people” continues to be the most critical aspect of any ITSM implementation. The "people" part of ITSM requires some time and effort. Anchoring ITSM into the organization means a change of the collective mindsets of individuals. This shift demands more than just a couple of training classes and a smattering of emails, ITSM success relies on the engagement, buy-in, and support of all people involved. Which brings me to “process. ” A process is a defined sequence of activities that transform inputs into outputs. Why do so many organizations 'dance around' process design? Because. Process. Is. Hard. Because process design and implementation mean that as an organization, you’re putting...
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### 5 Reasons Why Your Organization Needs Problem Management
> Discover the top 5 reasons why problem management is crucial for your organization in this SysAid article.
- Published: 2018-05-29
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/5-reasons-why-your-organization-needs-problem-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: help desk, incident management, ITIL, ITSM, MTTR, problem management, service desk, ticket management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s not uncommon for an organization to be missing a problem management team (or suitable resource), yet the ITIL-espoused problem management capability is arguably one of the most important IT service management (ITSM) areas within an IT department. The ITIL problem management process investigates recurring incidents, the root cause of incidents, and provides a formal focus on incident prevention. Without a formal problem management capability, these activities tend to fall into a black hole. So, if your IT service desk keeps seeing – and feeling – the same repeat incident tickets, they have a large volume of incidents coming in, or they have a customer satisfaction (CSAT) score that’s embarrassingly low, then, problem management might just be the ally you need to get sorted. In my blog, I provide you with five great reasons as to why you need to explore the opportunities, and benefits offered by problem management within your organization. 1. Reduce Your Incident Ticket Volumes (and the Time and Effort These Consume) Your IT support staff are picking up the phone (or answering emails) and having the same conversations – maybe even with the same people – again and again. Then they’re fixing the same issues repeatedly. Your incident reports show you the “repeat” trends – the same categorization, the same users, the same incidents. Sounds familiar? This reason this happens is that the tickets are only being looked at incident level – so you have a problem management gap. This means that the incident (the symptom)...
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### Customer Experience: How Well Do You Really Meet End-User IT Support Needs?
> Explore the balance between task execution and outcome significance in IT, delving into the dangers of prioritizing speed over user assistance.
- Published: 2018-05-22
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/customer-experience-how-well-do-you-really-meet-end-user-it-support-needs
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: healthcare support, IT support, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stephen Mann
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
How often are we so engrossed in what we’re doing to consider the impact (of what we do or don’t do) on the people we are serving? Or, put another way, how often is task execution seen as more important than task outcome? IT support is an excellent example of how it can be too easy to focus on the mechanics of rapid ticket closure over truly helping the end user or customer. For years I’ve wanted to write a blog related to “To Kill a Mockingbird” – a book I read, and a film I first watched, at school. However, as there’s so much in it that makes you think, until now I couldn’t find a specific focal point from whence to start an IT service management (ITSM) blog – something related to how well we deliver IT support, especially something that would make us rethink how we deliver that IT support. Thankfully, a prolonged stay in the hospital has helped me find that focal point – using a quote from the book and film’s Atticus Finch: “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. ” A variation on an older Native American quote. My hospital stay reminded me of the book and, turning it to ITSM, also how easy it is to deliver IT services and support without truly knowing the situation and needs of the end user (or customer). It’s Not Up to You to Decide How Great...
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### 10 Skills and Capabilities Required of a 2020 ITSM Professional
> Explore vital IT service management (ITSM) skills for 2020. Gain industry influencers' insights on the role's future direction.
- Published: 2018-05-15
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/10-skills-and-capabilities-required-of-a-2020-itsm-professional
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: AI, Analytics, continual learning, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Want to know where you and your colleagues need to be – skills-wise – in 2020? Then this blog is for you. It offers highlights from a free-to-download SysAid eBook that uses the knowledge and experience of 20 IT service management (ITSM)-industry influencers to predict where the ITSM professional role is heading over the next few years and beyond. Given the rapid rate of change across both business and IT landscapes, the roles of ITSM professionals – and the environments they work in – are also undoubtedly going to need to change. Future ITSM roles will of course still need to do some of what they do now or, put in more value-centric terms, they will still need to deliver against organizational needs and meet required outcomes using some of their existing skills and capabilities. But what other skills and capabilities will ITSM professionals need to: Deliver IT and business services that consistently meet organizational needs – including the increasingly higher, consumer-world-driven, demands of employees Ensure that the organization can continue to operate (on a day-to-day basis), including the quality of the offered IT support capabilities Seamlessly bring in new, and changed, internal and externally facing services as needed Provide insight into what’s being achieved and where issues and opportunities lie Regularly deliver improvements across services, operational processes/capabilities, and performance Employ new ITSM practices and technologies in the pursuit of the above? Your immediate answer might be: “Your guess is as good as mine! ” Download the eBook Collectively Envisioning the...
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### Change Models: For When a Standard Change Is Not Flexible Enough
> Learn how to swiftly implement impactful business changes with change models. Efficiently address updates without needing a CAB.
- Published: 2018-05-08
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/change-models-for-when-a-standard-change-is-not-flexible-enough
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: CAB, change advisory board, change management, change models, ITIL, ITSM, standard change
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I recently found myself discussing the use of change models with a customer. This customer, like many others that I come across, thought that every IT change should be classified as either a standard change, or as a normal change requiring review by a change advisory board (CAB). Change models, as my customer agreed, allow change management to be much more flexible than that. ITIL (the most popular best practice for IT service management) says that there are three types of change: Standard changes Normal changes Emergency changes I’m not going to say any more about emergency changes here, except to note that they should only be used when you have to change something urgently to fix an incident. ITIL describes a change model as a way of planning how to manage a particular type of change – they can be used to plan any of the three types above. I’m going to explain all about change models; but before I do that, let’s remind ourselves of the essential differences between standard changes and normal changes reviewed by a CAB. Standard Change This is a low-risk change that follows a well-documented procedure and has been pre-approved. Each standard change has a detailed procedure that specifies exactly how it will be implemented, and this includes things like: Who is authorized to request this change? Who is authorized to implement the change? When is the change allowed (which days and times, or at what point in the business process)? Which services,...
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### How to Stop Sending Every Flipping RfC to a CAB
> If your IT organization funnels every Request for Change (RfC) to a Change Advisory Board (CAB) for implementation approval, then you’re doing change management wrong.
- Published: 2018-05-01
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-to-stop-sending-every-flipping-rfc-to-a-cab
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: CAB, change advisory board, change authorization model, change management, ITIL, ITSM, RfC, service desk
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
If your IT organization funnels every Request for Change (RfC) to a Change Advisory Board (CAB) for implementation approval, then you’re doing change management wrong. If this is happening in your IT organization, do you even know why you’re doing that? What is the real value of sending every RfC to the CAB? I would agree that some RfCs do require review and advice from a CAB – but every RfC? Or even most RfCs? I think not. In my experience, there are four reasons why organizations send all or the majority of RfCs to a CAB: The change management process is poorly designed. The business requirement for making the change (“what is the target result? ”) is not clear. The scope of the RfC is not clear. There are some in IT more concerned with going through the motions than doing good work. A well-designed change management process should facilitate, but not overly control, the implementation of changes. An effective change management processes removes as much friction as possible by providing clarity regarding how changes will be managed. At the same time, a good change management process strikes the right balance between protecting the managed environment from a malformed change and making changes to that environment. If change management is well-defined and well-executed, only a select few RfCs (with the emphasis on ‘few’) should be brought before a CAB. Ever. Why Your CAB Doesn’t Work Why are many organizations frustrated with their change management process? Because how a CAB...
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### What’s the Impact of DevOps on Business Continuity?
> SysAid explores the impact of DevOps on business continuity, highlighting the role of new IT management approaches in ensuring resilience.
- Published: 2018-04-24
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/whats-the-impact-of-devops-on-business-continuity
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: Agile, Business Continuity, DevOps, help desk, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Business continuity – the art of keeping the business in business – is nothing new. But how is business continuity affected by newer approaches to IT management such as Agile and DevOps? And how should organizations be adapting their traditional business continuity capabilities in light of these approaches? Why do many organizations know that without fit-for-purpose technology they would not exist, and so introduce Agile or DevOps methods, but still fail to ensure that their new practices help to ensure that their technology is available in all circumstances? And why is it that ensuring the continuity of an organization is often considered important only after a crisis has occurred – the proverbial closing of the gate after the horse has bolted? This blog looks at how business continuity capabilities need to change in light of the impact of Agile and DevOps. We Live in a World of Constant Change Organizational requirements change rapidly. The strategic plan you created in the past, and previously only updated annually, is now out of date within a quarter. Agile and DevOps practices have already been adopted to help resolve complex business issues, in these times of flux, through technology improvement – providing organizations with an increased certainty of intent, quality, and safety. But why isn’t integrating the potential impact of Agile or DevOps into business continuity practices always considered a sound and highly-valuable idea? I think it is. So please read on for more on why Agile and DevOps also have a part to...
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### ITAM Is Now a Top 5 “ITSM Process” Adopted by IT Support Organizations
> ITAM is in HDI’s top 5 service management processes adopted by support organizations. Read more on our blog.
- Published: 2018-04-17
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/itam-is-now-a-top-5-itsm-process-adopted-by-it-support-organizations
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: help desk, ITAM, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Ever stop to wonder what your IT-industry peers are doing/using to provide superior IT support experiences? Thankfully, if you do, support-professional membership organizations such as HDI are on hand to share aggregated views of what’s currently popular (and not) in the IT support world. In my experience, IT pros like to benchmark. Sometimes it’s related to metrics, and how something like first contact resolution (FCR) stacks up to IT service management (ITSM)-industry averages. Sometimes it’s related to who’s doing what – either from a general interest point of view or, more importantly, when assessing where best to invest next in terms of ITSM capabilities. So, it’s great to understand what’s happening in, and is achieved by, other IT organizations. Take for instance, the most-commonly adopted ITSM processes. This blog covers these, with some associated opinions and help, but first a quick warning... The Dangers of Industry Benchmarks/Statistics It’s hard to write about IT industry statistics without playing devil’s advocate a little – it seems only right to do so, such that those consuming the data/information do so with the realization that most benchmarks and statistics need to be taken as indicative rather than gospel. For instance: Surveys, benchmarks, and other statistics are usually aggregates or averages based on a variety of organization types, and will probably never entirely reflect an organization such as your own The survey respondents might report what they think, or kid themselves is the situation rather than the actual situation (or, conversely, they might humbly undersell...
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### Be Careful How You Use Metrics
> SysAid offers insights into effectively utilizing metrics to enhance service delivery and ensure customer satisfaction.
- Published: 2018-04-10
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/be-careful-how-you-use-metrics
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, KPIs, metrics, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
People will do whatever it takes to meet the targets you set, even if this is not the right thing to do for your customers. Most of us who work in IT understand the importance of using metrics to ensure we deliver good service, and I have written many blogs about defining them, for example: Defining metrics for change management Defining metrics for problem management Defining metrics for incident management Each of these blogs explains the importance of defining critical success factors (CSFs), and then defining key performance indicators (KPIs) to support them, and each blog gives examples of CSFs and KPIs that might be suitable for the specific topic. But even if you are confident you have good CSFs and KPIs in place, things can go wrong. In this blog I am going to point out some of them, and make some suggestions for ensuring you use your CSFs and KPIs to help you deliver great services. What Makes a Good KPI? When you are defining KPIs it’s important to remember the meaning of the three words: Key. The KPI must measure something important. Don’t be tempted to define hundreds of KPIs – a small number is much more effective. I recently saw this summarized in the great phrase: There’s a reason the dashboard in your car doesn't have 20 gauges. You need a small number of carefully selected targets to help you maintain a focus on the things that really matter the most right now. Performance. The KPI...
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### The Difference between “Outcomes” and “Outputs” Makes a Difference!
> Shifting from an “output” to “outcome” mindset may not be easy, but it’s critical to the ongoing relevance of IT within a business.
- Published: 2018-04-03
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/the-difference-between-outcomes-and-outputs-makes-a-difference
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: IT organization, ITSM, KPIs
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In another SysAid blog, I used an analogy of a pizza delivery to illustrate the point about the difference between outcomes and outputs. The outputs of a pizza delivery service are the pizza itself and the delivery of the pizza. Regardless of what pizza delivery store you may use, the outputs are the same. Why do you choose one pizza delivery service over another? I would argue that the outcomes you get from the chosen pizza delivery meet or exceed your expectations. Think about it. It’s one thing to get a pizza delivered. It’s completely something else to have the pizza that is delivered be the actual pizza you ordered. And that the pizza is hot, tasty, and didn’t make you ill from eating it. And the reason why you order pizza from your favorite place rather than some other place is that you receive consistently good results – or outcomes – when you order from your favorite place. Outputs vs. Outcomes Let’s move from the pizza delivery analogy to the perspective of IT working within a business. What are some examples of outputs from the IT organization? A delivered report A closed ticket A completed transaction What are some outcomes the business wants to achieve from using services provided by IT? Enhanced or protected brand reputation Products shipped to the right customer at the right price Retained or new customers Increased revenues Increased market share Customers feeling valued by the business The business feeling that the results of doing...
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### Change, ITSM Tool, Robot, Metrics, and Cloud Learnings from SDI
> Explore insights on Change, ITSM Tool, Robot, Metrics, & Cloud learnings from SDI in this article by SysAid.
- Published: 2018-03-28
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/change-itsm-tool-robot-metrics-and-cloud-learnings-from-sdi
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: change management, ITSM, KPIs, SDI, SDI Conference, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I’ve now been back from the Service Desk Institute (SDI) 2018 conference (SDI18) for nearly two weeks and I still can’t believe what a whirlwind of IT service management (ITSM) and service desk knowledge-sharing it was. I’ll definitely go to SDI19 if allowed the time. There was some great content available – with the usual ITSM-conference issue of needing to choose between competing sessions across multiple streams. I had to make some tough choices, and I’m now using this blog to share, with the wider (and global) ITSM community, some of the things I learned. But, before I jump into the content nuggets, it’s also worth mentioning the conference’s “feel” – that, unlike some of the other conferences I’ve been lucky enough to attend, you get a real sense that the SDI conference is built around the attendees. That the conference is all about the SDI members and their needs. It’s a great experience if you ever get the opportunity to attend. So, What Did I Learn? Well, the first thing is that: “time and tide waits for no man (or woman). ” I had planned to see so much more at SDI18, but the pace of session delivery was rapid. Plus, of course, then “work happens. ” Filming SysAid demo with SDI’s Scarlett Bayes I did find some great nuggets though in many of the sessions, including: Vawns Murphy – “How to Manage Change Like a Rockstar! ” The ITSM. tools-hosted ITSM Vendor Showdown panel – a fun, yet...
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### The Service Management Conversation is (Rapidly) Changing
> Join the evolving conversation on service management in 2018. Explore how it's becoming a strategic business asset.
- Published: 2018-03-20
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-service-management-conversation-is-rapidly-changing
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: DevOps, digital transformation, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Is 2018 the year that service management emerges from the back room and is seen as a strategic business asset? Traditionally, service management has been viewed as “something that IT does. ” Or even worse, something that only the “help desk” does. But over the past year, the service management conversation has been changing – rapidly. What’s Changed? Several recent events have driven the change in the service management conversation. Here’s just a few that come to mind: First, other approaches such as Lean, DevOps, Kanban, Agile and others have seen more uptake as organizations realize the benefits from applying those methodologies. Technical capabilities have caught up – or even driven – new capabilities for service management. Artificial intelligence, chatbots, robotic process automation, and digital transformation have enabled or even propelled new efficiencies in service management. Major announcements in service management, such as the publication of VeriSM™ followed by the AXELOS announcement of the first refresh of ITIL® since 2011, have re-energized thinking in the service management community. Perhaps one of the most significant developments is that service management is moving beyond IT. Service management is moving into the enterprise, as organizations realize how defined processes and services can improve productivity. Value stream mapping helps organizations understand how value flows through an organization, not just through IT. Mapping the true value stream highlights the collaboration that is required across an organization to produce value. No single part of the organization can produce and deliver value without the help of all...
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### 5 Tips for IT to Better Manage the Customer Experience
> Customer experience is vital for corporate IT and users. Aligning with consumer standards is crucial to prevent dissatisfaction.
- Published: 2018-03-13
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/5-tips-for-it-to-better-manage-the-customer-experience
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: customer experience, CX, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Customer experience is becoming increasingly important to corporate IT departments and the people they serve. For those who provide workplace IT, customer, or end-user, experiences need to improve in order to match consumer-world equivalents. Failing to do so only increases the potential for employee discontent with corporate IT services and support. The terms “customer experience” and “customer satisfaction” are often used interchangeably, but they are not quite the same thing: Experiences are the individual emotional responses during an interaction (with a product or service provider). Satisfaction is an emotional measure, or rating, of how the customer felt after the interaction. Sometimes satisfaction can be surveyed any time following an encounter, but is most accurate when measured at the “point of experience” – immediately after a specific interaction. Feedback solicited and collected at the point of experience has more weight because it’s closest to the situation the customer recalls, both in context and timing. And a delay in collecting feedback is one of the biggest mistakes when surveying for satisfaction, along with asking too general a question, asking about multiple encounters, or covering too long a period. In (better) understanding customer experience, it’s important to understand something called “moments of truth” (MOTs). I’ll get to that soon. The Stages in Customer Experience The lifecycle of an experience can be viewed from the customer or the provider perspective. The customer perspective typically has three major stages: before, during, and after consumption or use of a product or service. The provider perspective is...
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### 5 Steps to Start Improving Your IT Organization, for the Non-Unicorns Amongst Us
> SysAid provides practical steps for IT organizations to start improving their operations and delivering better services.
- Published: 2018-03-06
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/5-steps-to-start-improving-your-it-organization-for-the-non-unicorns-amongst-us
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Agile, DevOps, IT service management, ITIL best practice, ITSM, Lean, Theory of Constraints
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Some highly visible IT organizations have adopted ideas from DevOps, Agile, Lean and other frameworks to help them deliver great customer experience, with lower cost and higher quality. But what about the rest of us? How can we start to improve? We Can’t All Be Unicorns When I go to IT service management (ITSM) conferences, or read ITSM blogs, it’s easy to form an impression that every organization has completely changed how they manage IT. I hear about unicorn organizations that have adopted DevOps, Agile, Lean and other frameworks to enable them to deliver much more value, faster, with lower overheads, and greater customer satisfaction. This newer style of an IT organization typically has enormous competitive advantages over their legacy competitors. Their IT services are flexible, and able to respond very rapidly to changing business needs. They don’t talk about IT-business alignment because it’s a natural part of how they work. They have lower costs with higher quality and they have more satisfied customers as well as more satisfied IT staff. Then I go out to visit real IT organizations that have hired me to help them, and more often than not I find a totally different story. Here’s a table summarising the major differences between the old ways of working that I see in many of the real IT organizations I’ve worked with, and the new ways of working that everyone talks about. OLD NEW Command and control culture with well-defined processes that should be followed Collaborative culture with...
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### 10 Tips for Public Speaking at Work and ITSM Conferences
> Speaking in front of large groups of people, whether at IITSM conferences or elsewhere, isn’t a natural thing.
- Published: 2018-02-27
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/10-tips-for-public-speaking-at-work-and-itsm-conferences
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: IT conferences, ITSM, public speaking
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Speaking in front of large groups of people, whether at IT service management (ITSM) conferences or elsewhere, isn’t a natural thing. It’s definitely an acquired skill with multiple facets – from being able to speak in a comfortable manner, knowing what and what not to say, to getting the delivery right such that you receive future invites to speak elsewhere. But this capability should start with the ability to speak well at work. The great thing about a career in IT is that, at almost every level, you’ll find opportunities to speak in front of groups of people – whether colleagues, suppliers, or potentially customers. Then, once the workplace speaking is conquered, the ITSM industry offers numerous opportunities to extend your speaking prowess and reputation. For instance, there’s the Service Desk Institute (SDI) conference in March and the HDI conference in April/May each year. Example Workplace Speaking Opportunities Some workplace public speaking scenarios could include: Convincing others of the need for a new IT management or ITSM tool – succinctly explaining how the benefits outweigh the costs. Delivering a status update to stakeholders – quickly getting to the point and talking in an authoritative and convincing manner. To workshop a new process or improve upon an existing process – leading others in brainstorming, option analysis, and consensus achievement. Communicating during a major incident review – ensuring that different stakeholders get what they need, in the manner they prefer. Leading the change advisory board (CAB) or a Scrum retrospective – not...
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### Umpteen Reasons Why “It Depends”
> SysAid provides assurance of success in ITSM implementation, offering guidance on key considerations for organizations engaging consultants.
- Published: 2018-02-20
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/umpteen-reasons-why-it-depends
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, ITSM implementation
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As an organization begins to engage with a consultant regarding ITSM implementation, the conversation typically turns to the topic of “how can we be assured of success? ” What is the consultant’s standard answer to nearly any question? “It depends. ” I know I’ve used that answer myself – perhaps more than I care to admit. Don’t you find hearing that answer a bit frustrating? I know that when I sat on the client side of the table, I often became frustrated hearing that answer. “Depends on... what? ” Well, now that I’m on the consultant’s side of the table, I’ve found that “it depends” is often the right answer to the question “how can we be assured of success with ITSM? ”... . But it is not THE answer. So What Does It Depend On? Here are my (far from comprehensive) umpteen reasons – in no particular order – why ITSM success “depends. ” Cultural climate – The impact of the organization’s cultural climate cannot be overstated. This is the most significant factor in the success or failure of an ITSM initiative. While culture can be influenced, it cannot and will not be changed quickly. Knowing whether the cultural climate is one of “command and control,” collaborative and always learning, or “anything goes” directly impacts all other aspects of the ITSM implementation. Maturity – Are the proper mechanisms for governing the activities of the organization in place? Governance starts with the organization’s Mission-Vision-Goals statement, which should be the basis...
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### Learning the Language of Customer Experience (and Its Importance to Corporate IT)
> Discover how customer experience in corporate IT evolves as employees merge personal-life expectations with work.
- Published: 2018-02-13
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/learning-the-language-of-customer-experience-and-its-importance-to-corporate-it
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: customer experience, CX, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The thing called “customer experience” is becoming increasingly relevant, and important, to corporate IT departments – with employees bringing their consumer-world, personal-life, experiences and expectations into the workplace. But what is customer experience? Please read this blog to find out more. Outside of work, each day every one of us has multiple “service encounters,” where we interact with a product, a service, or its representatives. During an encounter, we interact with technology, people, and information; and create an impression of the level of empathy and professionalism, and the quality of what is provided. Of course, this impression is largely based upon an emotional response – our “experience” – what we feel, and what we remember. And each interaction can inflame, placate, or neutralize the emotion carried forward from the previous interaction. Thanks to the concept we know as “consumerization” – employees bringing their personal-life experiences and expectations of services, support, and customer service into the workplace – customer experience is becoming increasingly relevant to corporate IT departments. I originally wrote about customer experience in a 2016 blog called “Bridging the Gap Between Service and Customer Experience,” but given the growing interest and importance of this subject, it’s definitely time to revisit the topic again. Experiences Matter The more an interaction moves your emotional dial – the more important it is to everyone involved. These types of interactions are known as “moments of truth” (MoTs). A bad experience can easily override a successful outcome, such as successfully reserving a flight seat...
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### 9 Guiding Principles That Can Help Improve Your Service Desk
> Explore nine guiding principles that can enhance your service desk operations and improve customer satisfaction.
- Published: 2018-02-06
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/9-guiding-principles-that-can-help-improve-your-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The ITIL Practitioner Guiding Principles aren’t just for management. Here are some examples of how service desk agents can use them too. I often talk to people about the ITIL Practitioner’s Nine “Guiding Principles,” which are helping many IT organizations move from a process focus to a more business focused view of how to manage IT. If you’re not yet familiar with these principles, I highly recommend you first read my blog Back to ITSM Basics: The 9 Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner. What I’ve noticed recently is that some people think these principles are just for management, that they are about how to design a management system. This is true, but it’s not the whole story. In the same way that IT service management (ITSM) processes are intended to guide everyone in IT, so too are these guiding principles. Everyone involved in delivering services can use the principles to help them focus on the things that really matter, and so do a better job both for their customers and for their own organization. So, what practical implications does this have for service desk agents? In this blog, I want to bring you some real-life examples. Examples of the 9 Guiding Principles in Use 1. Focus on Value If you take this guiding principle seriously then you know that everything you do should be based on maximizing value for your customers and you act accordingly. And if every single person in your IT organization does the same, then your customers...
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### How to Use AWS Managed Services to Learn About ITSM and Hyperscale Cloud
> Discover ITSM and hyperscale cloud through AWS Managed Services. Read now on our blog.
- Published: 2018-01-30
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/how-to-use-aws-managed-services-to-learn-about-itsm-and-hyperscale-cloud
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: Amazon, Amazon Web Services, AWS, cloud, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As Amazon Web Services (AWS), the market leader in public cloud services, paves the way with industry good practice for cloud service management, their AWS Managed Services offering can be used to truly better understand the required changes for IT service management (ITSM) in the context of cloud – whether you’re using AWS services or not. You’re probably hearing more and more talk about how the cloud affects ITSM but not necessarily what you need to do, meaning, there’s lots of information on the fact that there are new challenges and that things will need to change, but not enough on what this would actually entail. There’s no cloud-focused version of ITIL yet. But there’s something that can be consumed to better understand the impact of cloud on ITSM – the new AWS Managed Services (“Infrastructure Operations Management for AWS”) offering. And let’s not assume that this is a one-way need for learning – because, while ITSM pros might need to understand how cloud impacts their role, cloud pros will also need to understand more about service management. So here’s what I think we need to do. Getting Started The first step in learning more about ITSM in the context of hyperscale cloud (via AWS Managed Services) is to, as with all AWS services, read the FAQs. And remember that you can learn from the AWS online documentation – to improve your IT service delivery and support – even if you aren’t, and don’t plan to use, AWS Managed Services....
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### 6 ITSM Service Management Tool Questions Answered
> Service management tools can break the costly cycle of switching ITSM solutions every 3-6 years.
- Published: 2018-01-23
- Modified: 2024-07-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/6-itsm-tool-selection-questions-answers
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: cloud, ITSM, ITSM tools, on-premises, service desk
- Blog authors: Stephen Mann
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Basic
With organizations continuing to regularly switch ITSM solutions, every 3-6 years (according to industry analysts), it’s become an unfortunate, unwanted, and expensive technology-investment cycle that needs to be broken. That’s why I was invited by the fine people at SysAid to present my recent webinar Your 7-Point Checklist for Selecting the Right ITSM Tool. I wanted to give you my recommendations and tips of how to find the right fit for your organization’s needs. The webinar raised a number of good questions, and since there wasn’t time to answer them all, I wanted to follow up with this Q&A blog for the benefit of all. (And if you haven’t watched the webinar yet, go do that too – it’s available on-demand. ) Q&A with Emphasis on the “A” The questions here are based on the questions we received during the live event. I took the liberty of expanding on a few for the purpose of learning and spreading the (wealth of) knowledge. Here we go... 1. What would you say is the most important tip in the webinar? Let me start with a quick review of my recommended 7-point checklist: ITSM process enablement Usability Self-service Business intelligence (BI) and reporting Automation Configuration, customization, and integrations Vendor relationship and (lack of) communication For each one of these I had 5 tips – making a total of 35. All are valuable, but if one – and only one – was to be highlighted as being the most important, then I would go...
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### The One Change Management Measure that Matters (But No One Measures)
> Discover how IT can showcase ITSM value by capturing and reporting key metrics that reflect business value.
- Published: 2018-01-16
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-one-change-management-measure-that-matters-but-no-one-measures
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: change management, ITIL, ITSM, KPIs, metrics, service desk
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
In one of my previous SysAid blogs, I said that one of the primary purposes of the change management process was “to ensure that a change delivers the intended result... if a change is implemented, but it does not deliver the intended result, this points to larger issues that must be addressed. ” But ask any Change Manager about what change management measurements they capture and report on, and you’ll likely get a list of “usual suspects” that looks something like this: Number of RFCs Number/percentage of approved/rejected RFCs Number/percentage of RFCs reviewed by CAB Number/percentage of successfully implemented changes Number/percentage of (detected) unauthorized changes Number/percentage of “emergency” changes ... And so on and so on. But do any of these measures really matter? Don’t Mistake “Activities” for “Results” We have to distinguish between activities and results. All of the above-mentioned measures are at least ‘nice to know,’ especially for change managers as they try to facilitate and manage the flow of RFCs and changes through the change management process. But all of these measures are internally-focused. Outside of IT – outside of those responsible for the change management process – do these measures have any meaning? What do these measures mean to the business? For example, consider “number of RFCs. ” Yes, it’s good to understand the volume of change requests coming into the process. But how many RFCs are too many RFCs? And if there are too many RFCs, what is the course of action – ask...
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### Meltdown and Spectre: What Should You Do?
> Gain insights into mitigating risks associated with Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities with guidance from ITSM and cybersecurity expert Stuart Rance
- Published: 2018-01-09
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/meltdown-and-spectre-what-should-you-do
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: cybersecurity, IT security, ITSM, Meltdown, Spectre
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There has been a lot of reporting in the press about Meltdown and Spectre, a couple of recently identified IT security issues. Some of my customers have been asking me whether they need to worry about these. I gave them the typical consultant’s answer. Yes, and No. Because the best response to these newly identified threats is exactly what we should already be doing to protect ourselves and our customers against security threats. What are Meltdown and Spectre? Let me break it down... These two attacks both exploit the fact that modern CPU hardware can be tricked into executing instructions that would normally be disallowed. No one can see the results of executing these instructions since they remain invisible. However side effects can be detected. Specifically, an attacker can check whether specific addresses have been copied to cache memory by timing how long an access takes. An attacker can then build up a picture of what’s in memory that they aren’t allowed to access, one byte at a time, and can eventually identify, for example, an encryption key. Almost every modern CPU chip is vulnerable, including those used in PCs, servers, phones etc. Meltdown allows a user application to see the contents of system memory, which should be something that’s forbidden. This access could allow a malicious program to access passwords, encryption keys, and other highly sensitive information. Although Meltdown is fairly easy for an attacker to exploit, patches are already available for most operating systems. Sometimes these patches...
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### 2018: More of the Same, with a Few Step Changes
> I think that we’re going to see many of this year’s trends continuing into 2018, and that they’re going to lead to a surprising conclusion. IT will stop being viewed as a necessary evil, a cost center that needs to be run more efficiently.
- Published: 2018-01-03
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/2018-more-of-the-same-with-a-few-step-changes
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: AI, automation, chatbots, customer experience, cybersecurity, DevOps, enterprise service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I think that we’re going to see many of this year’s trends continuing into 2018, and that they’re going to lead to a surprising conclusion. IT will stop being viewed as a necessary evil, a cost center that needs to be run more efficiently. Instead, it will take its rightful place as a valuable, and highly valued, contributor to the business. Here are my six predictions for IT, and for IT service management (ITSM), in 2018. 1. Most Computers Will Be Invisible If you ask people to count the number of computers they own, a typical answer might be 2 or 3. They’ll be thinking about their desktop PC, and maybe a couple of laptops, for example. Some people will go further and include their phones and tablets in the count. But there are already many more computers in a typical home and most people probably don’t even notice them. They are embedded in a host of everyday consumer objects: cars, washing machines, light bulbs, toasters, WiFi routers, TVs, smoke alarms, thermostats, and the many other devices that already form part of the “internet of things” (IoT). These devices typically run Linux, or some other dedicated operating system, and they already outnumber the things that we think of as computers. IoT devices are starting to appear in our work places too, and that trend is set to accelerate. This is something that should make all of us pause for thought, because it’s going to have an impact on...
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### 4 Ways the Digital Age Is Dramatically Changing IT Support
> Discover how digital transformation is reshaping customer service and IT support. The evolution has just begun!
- Published: 2017-12-19
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/4-ways-the-digital-age-is-dramatically-changing-it-support
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: digital age, digital consumer, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We have long left the era of traditional IT help desk or service desk models, where break-fix or incident management reigns. These no longer meet the expectations of the consumers and citizens living and working in this digital age. Digital consumers expect so much more of IT service delivery and support, with this outlined in my previous blog: 3 Ways Our Technology-Led World Is Changing. A service support function, such as a service desk, might represent an organization’s brand and public face (if dealing with external customers), or alternatively it might help ensure that employees are able to keep working (as is the case with internal IT support). And every service provider – whether externally or internally facing – must decide how much support they will offer for any given product or service, ranging from none to total. Thankfully, most companies now realize that the support department is where relationships are created, repaired, and of course broken and lost to a competitor. However, digital has changed the rules of customer and service support, dramatically, and it's only just begun. The needs created by the expectations of the digital consumer have a significant and immediate impact on: (1) service support strategies, (2) operating models, (3) use of technology, and of course (4) the skillsets of support professionals. In this blog, I’d like to dig into all four of these. 1. Support Strategy All support organizations, no matter how big or small, need to apply “digital” to their thinking now. And a...
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### 3 Ways Our Technology-Led World is Changing
> Technology changes our personal & work lives – influencing expectations of products/services, IT support, and customer service alike. How do we adapt?
- Published: 2017-12-12
- Modified: 2022-03-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/three-ways-our-technology-led-world-is-changing
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: 3D printing, advanced robotics, AI, bots, digital consumer, drones, Highly-automated vehicles (HAVs), IT support, service desk, wearables
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The world is changing around us. Technology is changing both our personal and work lives – from what we know and what we can do, to influencing our expectations of products and services, support, and customer service. And it’s showing no sign of slowing down. Highly-automated vehicles (HAVs), 3D printing, advanced robotics, drones, wearables, and smart homes – we have truly entered the “fourth industrial revolution” heralded by Klaus Schwab in his book of the same name. Propelled by the introduction of IPv6 in 2012, and the now almost unlimited connectivity of anything-to-anything, the lines are blurring between the physical, digital, and biological. These “cyber-physical systems,” combined with social media, cloud, and mobile computing, plus touch- and voice-activated interfaces, are the driving forces behind the “digital age. ” We’ve not quite returned to Smell-O-Vision (if you’re old enough to remember this), but the days of Captain Kirk controlling the Enterprise turbo lift with a simple voice command are certainly upon us. And who’d have thought a small portable phone could be a more powerful computing method than our earlier desktops? We have all swiped our way to apps and information, and many of us have already let a stranger into our homes in the form of Amazon’s Alexa (Echo) and Google’s Home smart speaker devices. So What Should We Expect More of in 2018 and Beyond? At SysAid, we expect technology and consumer-driven changes to focus on the following three factors: The rise of the digital consumer Consumer-driven expectations in...
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### In 2018, Great IT Service Delivery Will Require ITSM Alchemy
> Discover the synergy between DevOps and ITIL as they work hand in hand to enhance traditional IT practices.
- Published: 2017-12-05
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/in-2018-great-it-service-delivery-will-require-itsm-alchemy
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Best Practice Frameworks, COBIT, IT service management, IT4IT, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stephen Mann
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
ITIL, the popular IT service management (ITSM) best practice framework, is no longer the de facto approach for ITSM. Not only are there valid alternative approaches, so much has changed in the world since the last version – ITIL 2011 – was released, with more and more organizations now potentially requiring guidance and help from a mix of different ITSM approaches. There’s currently a lot of talk about how DevOps and ITIL are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. That DevOps helps to improve the traditional ITIL best practice approach for change and release management, along with incident and problem management, and continual service improvement (CSI). And some ITIL practices can help with DevOps. From my point of view, this makes sense, as: DevOps doesn’t replace the entirety of ITIL (with its 26 processes and four functions) ITIL isn’t dead yet (thankfully we have yet to see “the baby being thrown out with the bathwater,” and Using a blended approach allows organizations to choose a way that works best for them – which was always the meaning of ITIL’s mantra of “adapt and adopt. ” Plus, this blending of approaches is nothing new – there have been “ITIL-complementary” approaches to ITSM and IT management for decades. With something called “ITIL Plus,” the use of ITIL and one or more other approaches, in vogue circa ten years ago. It’s something that still happens, we just haven’t talked about it as much as we could have – that is until the potential...
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### Defining Metrics for Problem Management
> Many define KPIs for their ITSM processes by looking in books & copying metrics other organizations use. Bad idea. Here's a better one, from Stuart Rance.
- Published: 2017-11-28
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/defining-metrics-for-problem-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, problem management, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Editor’s Note: While reviewing the level of readership of our blogs, we couldn’t help but notice that certain blogs never lost their popularity over the years. This is one of them – with thousands of unique views every month. We thank Stuart Rance for his words of wisdom that clearly sustain longevity (the advice is as relevant today as it was when it was original published). So, ICYMI, we’re pleased to republish this blog for your convenience. Many people define KPIs for their IT service management processes by looking in books (such as ITIL Service Operation) or by copying metrics that other organizations use. This is rarely going to give good results, because KPIs need to INDICATE the PERFORMANCE of the KEY things you care about (that’s why they’re called Key Performance Indicators). In the worst cases I have seen ITSM processes with huge numbers of so-called KPIs that are measured and reported even though nobody uses the values to drive any changes in behaviour or improvements in business outcomes. I recently wrote a blog titled Defining Metrics for Change Management in which I explained how you can create KPIs that support what you are trying to achieve. A number of people contacted me after reading that blog to ask for examples of how to derive KPIs for other ITSM processes. I decided to write this blog about problem management KPIs because this is one process where many organizations I have worked with had very poor KPIs. Remember you shouldn’t...
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### How to Explain GDPR to a 5 Year Old
> SysAid simplifies GDPR compliance with its informative blog post, breaking down complex regulations into understandable concepts.
- Published: 2017-11-14
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/how-to-explain-gdpr-to-a-5-year-old
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: cloud, data, data protection, GDPR, service management
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you’re not familiar with the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), then you’d better start learning now. Even if you’ve never been to Europe you still need to obey this law if you ever use or manage ANY personal data about anybody who lives in the EU. GDPR will come into force in May 2018, and it’s complicated. If you work for a huge multi-national company with a dedicated information security department they’ve probably been working on this for at least a year so you’re unlikely to have much to worry about. But what about the rest of us? What do we need to do to be ready for GDPR? Well, obviously the first step is to understand what we’re being asked to deliver. Unfortunately, most explanations of GDPR are quite complex, but though it may be difficult to explain GDPR in terms that make sense even to a five year old, it’s not actually impossible. Instead of talking about sharing information, I can illustrate most of the key points by talking about sharing toys. For anyone who wants to read an explanation in more formal language, I’ve taken all my headings from the
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### Top 4 Keys to Self-Service Portal Success & More
> Don’t consumers want self-service? So why aren’t your consumers using the self-service portal? Why isn’t the self-service portal saving your service desk?
- Published: 2017-11-07
- Modified: 2024-05-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/top-4-keys-to-self-service-portal-success-more
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: end-user portal, help desk, ITSM, self-service portal, service catalogue, service desk
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Consider this scenario. After a few months of work, your IT organization has rolled out the new self-service portal. There were a few announcements made in the corporate newsletter, and service desk agents are letting callers know about the new portal during contacts with the service desk. But the new self-service portal hasn’t had the positive impact that was anticipated. Consumers are not utilizing it as envisioned. In fact, the volume of calls to the service desk have increased, with a number of those calls regarding issues with the self-service portal! And it hasn’t helped that as part of the justification for implementing the self-service portal, two service desk agent positions were eliminated to meet a cost-saving goal. Yikes! Don’t consumers want self-service? So why aren’t your consumers using the self-service portal? Why isn’t the self-service portal saving your service desk? Yes, Consumers Want Self-Service An effective self-service portal is essentially support that never sleeps, available 24/7 and provides a consistent experience for end users. After all, most people prefer to find answers to their questions and issues on their own, on one's own time. Many would rather not have to make a phone call to the service desk if they don't have to. With the increasing pace of technology advancements and the rise of the digital economy, self-service is really the only viable, long-term solution for fulfilling consumer expectations. A recent FastCompany. com article provided some compelling statistics regarding why the future of customer service is self-service: 39%...
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### 7 Ways to Diagnose IT Incidents and Problems
> You need to train and mentor service desk and IT support staff in techniques they can use to diagnose incidents and problems. Read more now...
- Published: 2017-10-31
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/7-ways-to-diagnose-it-incidents-and-problems
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: incident management, ITIL, ITSM, problem management
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
You need to train and mentor service desk and IT support staff in techniques they can use to diagnose incidents and problems. They won’t become good at this just because they have the right technical knowledge and ITSM process skills. Every IT organization has processes for managing incidents and problems. Often these are based on ideas from ITIL, the world’s leading best practice for IT service management. According to ITIL, an incident is “An unplanned interruption to an IT service or reduction in the quality of an IT service... ” and a problem is “A cause of one or more incidents... . ” The incident management process helps to restore normal service, and the problem management process helps to reduce the impact of future incidents. Incident and problem management processes define the steps people should take to manage and resolve issues, and they nearly always have a box labelled “Investigation and Diagnosis” (or something very similar) where something magical is supposed to happen. For the people whose job it is to fix things when they go wrong, the most important activities are diagnosing the issue, and working out how to fix it. Of course, they have to do all the other things in the process, like update records and notify users when they have a resolution, but most of their time is spent doing “Investigation and Diagnosis. ” When we train service desk staff and support staff, we often send them on technical training courses, to make sure that they...
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### VeriSM: There’s a New ITSM Good Practice Approach in Town
> Much of ITIL 2011 is still relevant, but how does an ITSM practitioner know what is? Welcome VeriSM - a new ITSM approach for guidance.
- Published: 2017-10-24
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/verism-theres-a-new-itsm-good-practice-approach-in-town
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Best Practice Frameworks, cloud, COBIT, DevOps, IT service management, IT4IT, ITIL, ITSM, VeriSM
- Blog authors: Stephen Mann
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
ITIL has been the IT service management (ITSM) best, or good, practice “frontrunner” since the 1990s despite the birth, or evolution, of other approaches. And there’s no doubting that it has helped tens of thousands of organizations. However, the latest version of ITIL was released over six years ago and, despite the release of ITIL Practitioner Guidance and ancillary papers from AXELOS (such as ITIL and DevOps), the ITSM community needs more current, joined-up, ITSM guidance. Six years has seemed a long time in the ITSM world – as so much has changed. Not only have we seen the growth in cloud adoption, there has also been the rise of DevOps and the realization that the “consumerization effect” applies to so much more than the use of personal devices, apps, and cloud services in the workplace. ITSM is now, in so many ways, a different beast to when ITIL 2011 was written (and then reviewed and published). Of course, much of ITIL 2011 is still very relevant, but how does your average ITSM practitioner know which bits these are? Plus, where do they easily get guidance on the things that weren’t included in ITIL 2011? Considering the Relevancy of Current ITSM Best Practice A recent ITSM. tools “future of ITSM” survey revealed that: “Only 24% of respondents think that existing ITSM best practice has kept up with the changing IT and business landscapes. ” And the delay in refreshing, or reimagining, ITIL 2011 has opened up a gap for other...
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### 5 Ways to Improve Your Capacity Management
> Most organizations have some form of capacity planning & management in place today, but many haven’t advanced the practice beyond the basic data-gathering
- Published: 2017-10-17
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/5-ways-to-improve-your-capacity-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: capacity management, ITIL, ITSM, SLA
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Capacity management is (or at least should be) a core strategic process of your IT service management (ITSM) practice – as understanding the capacity of each IT service, and the factors affecting capacity of services, is a key element of building appropriate and impactful service level agreements (SLAs). And, in turn, this level of capacity should represent the business essentials that organizations need to achieve. Most organizations have some form of capacity planning and management in place today, but many haven’t advanced the practice beyond the basic target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Capacity Management and Improvement With the arrival of managed services and readily-available cloud services, many in IT believe capacity planning doesn’t need to extend beyond a reactive nature. But as any savvy ITSM practitioner hopefully knows, maintaining a reactive posture is a potential “death sentence” to service operations and customer satisfaction. Just like all ITSM processes, the capacity management processes should always be improving (via the continual service improvement (CSI) process). However, it can be difficult to convince colleagues that the steps they have been using, sometimes for years, are now insufficient to manage capacity for modern IT operations. Where to Start with Capacity Planning Improvement As IT team members often do, bringing up an improvement discussion will generate a list of “quick fixes” for capacity. Some of these ideas will have good value, some will only address symptoms of bigger issues, and some will simply lead to the continuation of the status quo. And it’s important not to jump into...
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### Your Cybersecurity and ITSM Questions – Answered!
> SysAid addresses cybersecurity concerns in ITSM, offering practical advice on improving security measures.
- Published: 2017-10-10
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/your-cybersecurity-and-itsm-questions-answered
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: cybersecurity, GFI, IT service management, ITSM, patch management, ransomware, RDS
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Here are the 16 questions posed during a recent “Ask the Experts” webinar about cybersecurity challenges, and a summary of our answers. You can learn more by listening to the webinar. On September 27th 2017 I took part in a webinar titled Your Cybersecurity Challenges in ITSM. Ask the Experts. The webinar was hosted by Oded Moshe, VP Product at SysAid and we were also joined by Ian Bugeja, Director of Product Management at GFI Software. We asked people to send in their cybersecurity questions during the two weeks leading up to the webinar, and then answered them during the event. We also encouraged participants to add more questions during the webinar, and answered those at the end. The questions that we answered during this webinar varied widely. Some were strategic, others more tactical; some were about people and processes, others were about technology. Overall, I think the webinar offers a great overview of the security issues that IT people are concerned about. Here are the questions that were asked, and a summary of the answers we gave. If you want to hear more detail, then please listen to the webinar. Q1. Who should be in charge of IT security? This was the first question that we answered, and like many of the other questions it does not have a single definitive answer. We discussed the fact that the board of management (or equivalent in public bodies) is ultimately accountable for the security of business assets, but that they will usually...
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### The Top 20 Questions About SysAid's Self-Service Portal - Answered!
> We’ve gone ahead and answered all of your questions about SysAid's Self-Service Portal, with the top 20 questions featured in this blog post.
- Published: 2017-10-02
- Modified: 2024-05-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/the-top-20-questions-about-sysaids-self-service-portal-answered
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: IT service management, ITSM, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: Danny Tashiev
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
On September 12th SysAid hosted its wildly successful webinar on its Self-Service Portal, one of the newest features slated for release in the upcoming on-premise Summer 2017 release, (v17. 3) which is currently in beta testing and is scheduled for general release at the end of November, 2017 (already available on cloud). During the webinar, participants got a chance to view the new and improved Self-Service Portal, learn about valuable, new feature updates, how to get started with their new SysAid Self-Service Portal, and check out the upcoming SysAid Product Roadmap. Throughout the webinar, the response was enthusiastic - we received nearly a whopping 100 questions in total. We’ve gone ahead and answered all of your questions, with the top 20 questions featured in this blog post, and the remainder answered in the SysAid Community Forum. Keep reading to view the most frequently asked 20 questions during our webinar. Your Top 20 Questions on SysAid’s Self-Service Portal Q1: Can you link a request template in a toolbox widget item? A1: Yes, please see this online help page to learn how to set this up. Q2: Is it possible to customize and filter the fields on the scoreboard, based on subtype? A2:We're currently developing the ability to customize the scoreboard columns and also the ability to filter the results by static filter; this will allow you to filter out the irrelevant results. Q3: In the webinar, the Self-Service Portal shows the scoreboard and FAQ displayed together, in a side-by-side view. Can you customize the positioning?...
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### SysAid Seeks & Destroys in Week-Long Hackathon
> During a week in September 2017 we teamed up and competed to proactively search and destroy bugs in a first-time, week-long SysAid hackathon event.
- Published: 2017-09-26
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-seeks-destroys-in-week-long-hackathon
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: hackathon, IT service management, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Perhaps even more than our customers (like you) — our SysAid R&D and Product divisions despise bugs. We aim to continuously improve our software so when bugs creep up, we often shriek louder than a kid who sees a roach crawling across the kitchen floor. When we become aware of programming issues we normally take deep breaths and prioritize how we handle them. A week during September 2017 was totally different. This time we teamed up and competed to proactively search and destroy bugs in a first-time, week-long SysAid hackathon event. Our posse of IT exterminators didn’t waste any time. Nope, this time — armed with only our brains and a common purpose — we awoke at sunrise and began hunting and debugging as has never been done before. In total, we managed to fix, close, and verify 135 bugs! Rafi Rainshtein, SysAid’s VP R&D said, “It was really important for us, as a team, to dive into the details and work to resolve new, as well as long-standing, bugs. It was an opportunity to not only think and work outside the box, but also test our potential and help direct us for future hackathons in our continuous strive to improve the SysAid product. ” Bug Fixes & Unexpected Results This hackathon was a smashing success (no pun intended)! Our teams managed to discover and squash key bugs, including: User experience fixes Support issues Restoring archives Fixing API bugs Adding dynamic browser tab title for service requests Identifying important new...
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### 3 Steps to a Practical, Real-World On-Ramp to DevOps
> Discover the essential three steps to kickstart your DevOps journey, Read the full article now on our blog.
- Published: 2017-09-19
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/3-steps-to-a-practical-real-world-on-ramp-to-devops
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: AWS, cloud infrastructure, DevOps, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Everyone seems to be talking about DevOps but, if you are new to it, it might all seem a little overwhelming. This blog directs you to three steps to take in starting with DevOps that will help your organization and its people to begin in the right places and with the right things. One of the hardest things about DevOps is knowing where to begin. This is because to “do DevOps” you seem to have to suddenly start doing a lot of new people, process, and tool things all at once. For example, you need applications and infrastructure to be automated. So: Are your applications and infrastructure automatable? Do you have the right tools? Do you have the right skills? If not, what do you have? Where and what are the gaps? In an organization that doesn’t use DevOps today, where applications are launched over a gaping chasm – propelled, sometimes shot down, via manual ITIL-based processes – it has become good practice to adopt the following three-step approach. Doing it this way means not trying to swallow the pineapple in one gulp, instead slice it into three: DevOps-ify the application release stream, then DevOps-ify the infrastructure release stream, then Release whole environments/stacks. A Cautious, Practical Three-Step Approach to Apply DevOps This three-step approach can be visualized in the diagram below. The reality might have some overlaps, but this is generally a clean approach: Allow me to explain... Step 1: Creating the Application Pipeline Regardless of the type of application,...
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### Defining Metrics for Change Management
> The first thing to do when you are thinking about KPIs is to decide what they are for. Who are the stakeholders for any reports that you will generate?
- Published: 2017-09-12
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/defining-metrics-for-change-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I was working with a customer recently and they asked me what key performance indicators (KPIs) they should use to measure IT change management. After thinking about this for a while I offered them some suggestions, and I’m going to share them here, because the ideas may be useful to other people.
Editor’s Note: While reviewing the level of readership of our blogs, we couldn’t help but notice that certain blogs never lost their popularity over the years. This is one of them – with thousands of unique views every month. We thank Stuart Rance for his words of wisdom that clearly sustain longevity (the advice is as relevant today as it was when it was original published). So, ICYMI, we’re pleased to republish this blog for your convenience. I was working with a customer recently and they asked me what key performance indicators (KPIs) they should use to measure IT change management. After thinking about this for a while I offered them some suggestions, and I’m going to share them here, because the ideas may be useful to other people. Please don’t just copy the KPIs that I suggested for this customer, but look at the way we derived them and think about what you need to measure. Who are the stakeholders for any reports that you will generate? In this case we wanted to measure the effect of process improvements that we were planning. The reports will be used by the change manager, the IT operations manager, the project management office (PMO) and the service level managers. We spoke to the various stakeholders, to understand what was important to them and identified four critical success factors (CSFs) for change management. These CSFs were: Protect the business from the adverse impact of IT change Facilitate the rate of change that the...
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### How to Continually Improve Your Service Portfolio – Even If You Don’t Have One!
> Learn why boosting your IT service portfolio is key for organizational success. Unleash the potential of every IT organization's.
- Published: 2017-09-05
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-to-continually-improve-your-service-portfolio-even-if-you-dont-have-one
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: continual service improvement, CSI, ITIL, ITSM. service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Every IT organization has a service portfolio, even if they don’t think of their services in this way. Making improvements to your service portfolio is essential if you want to deliver services that help your customers achieve their goals. When I sat down to write about how to apply continual improvement to a service portfolio, I realized that some IT organizations might believe that this blog is of no relevance to them, because they don’t have a service portfolio. But the fact is that every IT organization has a service portfolio, and this blog is especially relevant for those who have not yet grasped this. What Is a Service Portfolio? And What Makes Me Certain that You’ve Got One? ITIL, the world’s leading best practice framework for IT service management, says that a service portfolio is “The complete set of services that is managed by a service provider... ” A moment’s thought is enough to tell us that every IT organization has some services that they manage even if they don’t think of this as a service portfolio. If you deliver services of any kind to anybody then those services are your service portfolio. Even if you haven’t written them down as a list, and even if you don’t charge for them, you must have some idea of what you are supposed to be delivering. It is this set of services that I am writing about. If you don’t yet think about the set of services you offer in this...
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### Is it Time to Reconsider the IT Support Walk-Up Channel?
> Explore the evolution of IT support channels from the late 1980s "walk-up" approach. Learn how IT issues were handled back then!
- Published: 2017-08-29
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/is-it-time-to-reconsider-the-it-support-walk-up-channel
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: IT support, ITSM, service desk, walk-up help desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
“Walk-up” is perhaps the oldest of IT support channels. In the late 1980s, if you had an IT issue you’d probably need to track down someone who could help. You could call someone you knew, but a far quicker way of getting speedy help was to walk into the IT work area. Before companies had formalized their “catch and dispatch” IT help desks and then their more proactive IT service desks on the back of IT service management (ITSM) best practice, it was commonly acceptable for end users to literally walk up to local IT support personnel to seek help, as an alternative to calling. It was aptly named the “walk-up” channel. Then many more access and communication channels were added to the mix, i. e. a greater investment in telephone (with all sorts of call management technology), email, web forms, chat, self-service portals, and even social-media-based options. But what happened to the “walk-up” route? The IT Service Desk Evolution IT service desks have become experts in dealing with the growing volumes of IT issues and how best to use scripts and IT support tools, with an optimal (although some would say “minimal”) number of support personnel employed to resolve end-user issues as quickly as possible (and within defined IT support targets) – all while, ideally, meeting a business requirement for a certain level of customer satisfaction. It has been great in terms of performance improvement, with the walk-up channel replaced by seemingly more efficient, and more customer-focused, alternatives. But...
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### Why I Love Unreasonable Customers
> Why unreasonable customers can be great! See how SysAid turns frustration into loyalty
- Published: 2017-08-22
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/why-i-love-unreasonable-customers
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer satistaction, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Call it human nature, politeness, or political correctness. Maybe it's just easier, but we humans, generally speaking, are kind when dealing with people. When the waiter asks how the meal was, we tend to say it was “good”, or “fine”, or some other polite, vague generality. It makes for pleasant interactions, but, from a continual improvement standpoint, it does precisely no good. The "Unreasonable" Customer But there are also those rare, few “unreasonable” customers – those who are not happy with your product or service. They’re not just unhappy; they’re going to let you know what they think. Sometimes, they have “unreasonable” expectations for your services. Things like: “It shouldn’t take two weeks to get a new PC. I want it in two hours! ” “Why should I have to call you to get software installed? I should just be able to add it like I do on my mobile phone! ” Unreasonable, right? The fact is, any time you hear a customer say, “Why can’t I... ? ” it should give you reason to pause and ponder “Yeah, why not... ? ” It might be that what they think should be, is truly unreasonable. But the very act of thinking through: Why they want what they want, and What would have to change to make what they want possible can have great value. Just by merely asking the question, your “unreasonable” customer has done you a great service, by providing you with a perspective that you didn’t previously possess....
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### 3 Canaries in Your Cloud: Advanced Cloud Release Management
> The IT “playing field” is leveled with public cloud as it brings world-class IT management & ITSM capabilities to all. Read Now
- Published: 2017-08-01
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/3-canaries-in-your-cloud-advanced-cloud-release-management
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: canary release, cloud, ITSM, release management
- Blog authors: Rafi Rainshtein
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The IT “playing field” is essentially leveled with public cloud, because it brings world-class IT management and IT service management (ITSM) capabilities to all. Release management is a good example of this. It’s hard not to get the feeling, when using a leading public cloud service provider, that at your fingertips you control a large, complex supercomputer that straddles the globe. It’s packed with advanced features, democratically available to those even with the smallest of IT budgets. Public cloud delivers enterprise-grade features, although many would say “better than enterprise-grade features,” for enterprises down to Mom and Pop Shops. I’m talking about features and capabilities that used to be only the province of billion-dollar IT budgets in a handful of the largest global banks. For instance, the leading public cloud service provider in question has made top-quality release processes democratically available to everyone (in the cloud). In this blog, I want to drill down into how companies can benefit from such capabilities to improve their release management. Public Cloud’s World-Class Release Capabilities Included in this is world-class continuous integration and delivery tools that enable everyone to do advanced release management techniques such as “canary releases” – “a technique to reduce the risk of introducing a new software version in production by slowly rolling out the change to a small subset of users before rolling it out to the entire infrastructure and making it available to everybody. ” Source:
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### 5 Cloud Service Practices for “ITSM as Code”
> We often focus too much on IT service management (ITSM) processes and technology, and then we underestimate how much the people are the real ITSM glue.
- Published: 2017-07-11
- Modified: 2022-03-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/5-cloud-service-practices-for-itsm-as-code
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: Amazon Web Services, AWS, cloud, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Rafi Rainshtein
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT service management has traditionally been a process-driven discipline, supported by the growing use of automation. In 2017, the increased popularity of cloud services offers up even more opportunities for greater use of automation – let’s call it “ITSM as code. ” In the ITIL Practitioner Guide from AXELOS, there's rightly a large focus on the soft skills required to manage modern IT services. That’s because we often focus too much on IT service management (ITSM) processes and technology, and then we underestimate how much the people are the real ITSM glue. While ITIL provides best practice to ITSM professionals on how to improve service via policies, processes, metrics, and controls, cloud service providers (CSPs) such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) now offer capabilities that in effect enable this ITIL guidance to be programmatically applied to cloud services. Let’s call it “Service Management as Code. ” CloudFormation Azure Resource Manager Deployment Manager In the AWS Well-Architected Framework white paper, one of the five recommended pillars of the framework is “operational excellence. ” This pillar aligns nicely with the ITIL Practitioner guidance, and all the design principles and best practices contained within it are actionable in code. And while the above is an AWS paper, its practices are applicable to other CSPs and in this blog I want to outline five ways in which CSPs enable Service Management as Code. 1. API-First Practice With CSPs, the metrics and controls for all...
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### Back to ITSM Basics: Do You Deliver Valuable Services, or Just Technology?
> Gain insights from ITSM expert Stuart Rance as he steers IT organizations to shift focus from tech to business.
- Published: 2017-07-06
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/back-to-itsm-basics-do-you-deliver-valuable-services-or-just-technology
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: customer service, CX, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you work in an IT organization, you may be tired of being told that you should focus on creating value for customers. You already know that you should be delivering end-to-end services focused on customer needs, not just managing technology, but what does this actually mean in practice? Isn’t managing the servers, the network, the storage, and the applications enough? Somebody has to and isn’t that how IT creates value? I’ve worked with a number of IT organizations who asked for help understanding how they could move from a technology-focus to a business-focus, and there isn’t a simple solution that works for everyone, but here are some ideas that have helped some of my customers. A Customer Example I once worked with a financial organization that offered more than 800 different IT services. Seriously. Each service was based on an application that the business used, and the service level agreement (SLA) for each application specified lots of measureable targets. There was regular monthly reporting, showing how well the IT department had delivered to all of these SLAs. As you can imagine, the sheer number of SLAs, and the amount of data they generated, meant that the reports were overwhelming. Everyone could see that they needed to make the SLAs, and the reporting, more business focused, but they were grasping at straws on trying to figure out how. The best thing about this particular IT department was that they had some really good business relationship managers (BRMs) who clearly...
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### Why ITSM Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
> There are some rumors that IT service management (ITSM) is dead. No way – I’m here to tell you that ITSM is far from dead. Read more...
- Published: 2017-06-27
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/why-itsm-is-more-important-now-than-ever-before
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: digital transformation, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There are some rumors that IT service management (ITSM) is dead. No way – I’m here to tell you that ITSM is far from dead. In fact, I think this is a great time for ITSM, and a great time to be an ITSM professional. With technology such an integral part of every bit of a business, the line between business and IT is blurred, perhaps even non-existent. ITSM is no longer a “nice to have,” or something that only the service desk does. ITSM is the means by which IT delivers business capability. ITSM is the enabler for realizing real business value from the use of technology. But some ITSM implementations have fallen short. Where ITSM Has Fallen Short ITSM was always intended to answer the following three questions: How do components work together to enable services? How do services provide business capabilities? How can a business best leverage its IT capabilities? Unfortunately, in many cases, ITSM is implemented only to address the “squeaky wheels,” meaning such ITSM implementations are only operations-focused. Of course, these ITSM rollouts deliver incident management, change management, service desk, and maybe request fulfillment – all important processes to have. But then they stop at that. Services are not defined, design and strategy activities are not formalized, and continual improvement is an afterthought. The rationale for stopping is that the “squeaky wheels” in IT operations were addressed. Some ITSM implementations fall short because they are more about processes, less about services. In the rush to...
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### How to Help an Angry User in 5 Easy Steps
> When you work on a service desk, calls from angry users can be difficult and emotions can get in the way. Here's effective steps to manage these situations.
- Published: 2017-06-13
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-help-an-angry-user-in-5-easy-steps
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, help desk, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
When you work on a service desk, calls from angry users can be very hard work, not least because of the way we’re likely to feel about them. Being at the other end of an angry phone call or email, is never pleasant, and being confronted by an angry user can be very trying. What’s worse is that while managing the call is our responsibility, resolving the issues may not be. So what can you do to help a customer when they are so angry? How can you get past the anger so you can help resolve their problem? And how can you manage your own feelings? In my years in the IT industry, I have had to deal with many angry users, and customers. Here are some of the things that I have found effective. 1. Accept that the User Is Entitled to Their Anger The first thing you need to do is to accept that the caller is entitled to their anger. Even if you KNOW that the user is wrong, they are unlikely to be angry for no reason. So, listen to what they have to say, and try to understand why they feel angry. If you can work out what it is about the situation that has resulted in a furious user, rather than one just asking for help, you will have a much better idea of what you can do to help. For example, the user may be angry because a minor IT failure has...
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### 8 Tips on How to Plan for Configuration Management - Part 2
> Read on to learn more about how best to get started with configuration management through effective planning.
- Published: 2017-06-06
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/8-tips-on-how-to-plan-for-configuration-management-part-2
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: asset management, CMDB, configuration management, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oren Zipori
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
In the first part of this blog series I provided my first four tips for creating a configuration management plan. These related to getting a common understanding of the basics, setting the right scope, agreeing a naming convention, and knowing more about your IT estate. This blog offers four more tips, taking it to eight in all. Please read on to learn more about how best to get started with configuration management through effective planning. Tip 5: Watch the Edges One of the most closely aligned IT service management (ITSM) process to configuration management is the change management process. Therefore, your configuration management plan needs to cover how change will interface with configuration and at what point in the change lifecycle the configuration management process will need to be called upon. Referencing your change management process in your configuration plan means that there’s appropriate support in place to ensure that when a configuration item (CI) is updated, the configuration management database (CMDB) or configuration management system (CMS) is also updated, such that what you have in your CMDB or CMS matches exactly what you have in your production environment. Nothing will make your configuration management capability fail quicker than your CMDB or CMS having incorrect or out-of-date information. Thus, control is a critical aspect of configuration management. Also, work closely with change management personnel to ensure your processes are in sync. For example, you could put a process step in place where a change can only be closed off as...
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### 8 Tips on How to Plan for Configuration Management - Part 1
> We’ve all probably heard the phrase “fail to plan, plan to fail” but never has this been more pertinent than when planning for a corporate IT configuration
- Published: 2017-05-30
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/8-tips-on-how-to-plan-for-configuration-management-part-1
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: asset management, CMDB, configuration management, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oren Zipori
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
We’ve all probably heard, and even used, the phrase “fail to plan, plan to fail” but never has this been more pertinent than when planning for a corporate IT configuration management capability – from strategizing, through selling the investment in it, to using it to make a difference to IT and business operations. Ideally, configuration management is one of those ITIL and IT service management (ITSM) processes that should sell itself, but the reality is that it’s much harder to get buy-in for configuration management than say change management. Then, once an initiative has been started, configuration management is an ITSM capability that can quickly spiral out of control, consequently failing to deliver on the promised positive business outcomes, and thus it needs very careful planning in order to be effective. Don’t worry though, this blog contains the first four, of a total eight, top tips for creating an effective configuration management plan, one that you’ll have no trouble “selling. ” Tip 1: Start With the Basics Start by explaining that ITIL’s service asset and configuration management (SACM) is the process (or capability) responsible for ensuring that the assets required to deliver IT services are properly controlled, and that accurate and reliable information about those assets is available when and where it is needed. This information includes details of how the assets have been configured and the relationships between assets. It's also a case of setting the scope and boundaries for configuration management – what it is and isn’t, and...
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### How Cloud Changes ITIL Capacity Management from the Vague to the Specific
> Don’t be fooled – by the cloud tech-talk of instances, databases, code, and APIs – into thinking that cloud is all about technology.
- Published: 2017-05-23
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/how-cloud-changes-itil-capacity-management-from-the-vague-to-the-specific
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: capacity management, cloud, ITSM. service desk
- Blog authors: Rafi Rainshtein
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Don’t be fooled – by the cloud tech-talk of instances, databases, code, and APIs – into thinking that cloud is all about technology. Unfortunately, this kind of tech-talk can convince IT service management (ITSM) professionals into thinking that cloud is just another technology evolution with zero impact on ITSM. However, those that realize cloud is all about business, applications, service, and operations will understand the impact across the ITIL ITSM best practice framework – in particular, the impact on capacity management. Cloud requires a different capacity management process to that used for traditional, on-premise IT services. The key changes are in the following five approaches, all of which make capacity management more granular, and move from the long-range “vague” to the short-range “specific”: Forecast horizon is shorter Speed of change is faster Blend of resources is finer Automated changes in response Balance of CapEx and OpEx An ITSM professional that understands these five cloud capacity management approaches will be a huge asset to any organization, measured in terms of the business bottom line as well as service quality. 1. Forecast Horizon is Shorter Buying the full IT stack for on-premise IT service delivery is a long, difficult, complex, and expensive process. Want to know how long? It takes months, maybe nine-to-twelve months is standard, to design, procure, and deploy any reasonably complex system on-premise. Once procured, it has a lifetime of three, five, or seven years. Maybe longer. This is the long, long, length of the on-premise capacity management horizon....
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### Yes, WannaCry Makes Me Want to Cry
> By now we've all heard about the ransom attack called WannaCry - what can we do to protect ourselves and our organizations?
- Published: 2017-05-16
- Modified: 2023-02-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/yes-wannacry-makes-me-want-to-cry
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: cyber security, patch management, security, service desk, wannacry
- Blog authors: Oren Zipori
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
One of my biggest fears as an IT manager is coming to work one day and finding out that my company network was hit by a ransomware attack. So you can imagine my reaction when I read the world news on Friday (May 12th) regarding the wideransom attacksthat were taking place and affecting very large institutions, places where you’d think they were completely covered with their security standards. As it turned out, this was happening worldwide but the big hit was felt mostly in Europe. Ransom Run by the Rotten MafiaBy now we all know the name of that ransom attack is “WannaCry” (official nameRansom:Win32/WannaCry) and like all other ransomware attacks, it encrypts files on an affected computer as well as any other network files that are available for that computer. After the encryption, the hackers of this ransomware leave a text message or some kind of a note notifying the user that their files have been encrypted and the only way they can get their data decrypted is to pay cash, and then the “nice” hackers will send over a key to unlock all their files. It’s literally a ransom situation by the mafia in cyberworld! After reading a bit on the WannaCry ransomware I understood that the best way to protect ourselves from such an attack is to deploy theMicrosoft Security Bulletin MS17-010fix, which was released in March 2017. Yup, not that long ago... . hence many organizations and individuals had not done so before the insane cyber...
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### The Emerging Cloud Service Delivery Manager Role
> Clouds are services, not products or technologies, so who better to manage them than an IT service manager with a “special set of skills.” Find out more...
- Published: 2017-05-09
- Modified: 2022-03-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/the-emerging-cloud-service-delivery-manager-role
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: cloud, DevOps, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Clouds are services, not products or technologies, so who better to manage them than an IT service manager with a “special set of skills. ” Let’s call them Cloud Service Delivery Managers. The type of organization that has heavily invested in IT service management (ITSM) is likely to be the “complicated” kind of IT organization that uses many cloud service providers to provision IT services. And while even the smallest, “simplest” organizations might be using multiple clouds for business and are struggling to manage all the different cloud bills, user accounts, and integrations – imagine that pain times-a-thousand. It’s the reality for these complex organizations as they juggle cloud, DevOps, ITSM, and possibly even service integration and management (SIAM). Cloud Management Complexity According to the RightScale State of Cloud 2017 Report, which is based on a survey of over 1,000 practitioners, the cloud “situation” is getting increasingly complicated as cloud pushes into all aspects of business. From end users using cloud storage for work files, and cloud mail for email, to now replacing whole data centers with large cloud service providers – cloud is everywhere! Plus, DevOps loves cloud. Thus, the challenge that all organizations have, regardless of size, is cloud service management. This ranges from consolidating the bills from the various services into finance all the way to some service administration and being the central point for standards and compliance. And the secret is to not “get in the way” while simultaneously de-risking the consumption of cloud services for...
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### How Do You Measure IT Services?
> All the IT service providers I’ve worked with assure me that they measure the services they provide by using metrics & KPIs to document what’s been agreed.
- Published: 2017-05-02
- Modified: 2022-03-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/how-do-you-measure-it-services
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, KPIs, metrics, service desk, service management, service provider, SLA
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
All the IT service providers I’ve worked with assure me that they measure the services they provide. They use metrics and KPIs to do this, and have service-level agreements (SLAs) with their customers, which they use to document what’s been agreed. Unfortunately, most of the metrics and KPIs that I’ve seen only measure and report the things that service providers can control, and not the things their customers actually care about. This tends to result in reports that show service providers meeting most, if not all, of their targets, even when customers are distinctly unhappy about the service. This happens so frequently that the phenomenon even has a name: the “watermelon SLA”. When you look at a watermelon from the outside, all you see is green. Delve a bit deeper and you discover that most of the fruit is red. In the same way, we report that everything is meeting its targets (it’s all green), but if you delve into the customer’s experience you find that it’s not very good (it’s mostly red). So, what can service providers do that will help them to delve that bit deeper and focus on what matters? What’s Important to Customers? When service providers think about any service, they need to pay attention to what’s important: the value of the service, the intended outcomes, the costs, and the risks – together referred to as VOCR. Here is a brief summary of what we mean by these terms. Value is a measure of...
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### The 7 Deadly Sins of Change Management
> Is your change management process in the way of making changes? Don’t give up – these fixes will move it from being the barrier to being the value enabler.
- Published: 2017-04-25
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-7-deadly-sins-of-change-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: change management, help desk, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Many businesses, and IT organizations, become frustrated with a lack of agility and responsiveness with their change management process. Rather than being viewed as a “value enabler,” the change management process is often seen as overly bureaucratic and a hindrance to getting things done. But in my experience, these issues usually boil down to a poor implementation and misunderstanding of the purpose of change management. What Is the Purpose of Change Management? The change management process has three primary purposes: To ensure the appropriate planning, review, coordination, and communication of a change. While not all changes are created equal, all changes must have the appropriate degree of planning, evaluation, approval, orchestration, and communication. Without these elements, there can be no control over the managed environment, which ultimately means that the business cannot rely on IT. To protect what’s already in production. A change must have no negative impact to services that are already in the managed environment. To ensure that a change delivers the intended result. The whole reason why a change is being made is to deliver a planned result. If a change is implemented, but it does not deliver the intended result, this points to larger issues that must be addressed. Seems rather straight-forward and common sense, doesn’t it? So why do so many change management implementations result in frustration, subterfuge, and headache? Perhaps you’ll recognize some reasons in my list below. Learn about SysAid Change Management The Seven Deadly Change Management Sins Every request for change has...
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### 4 Reasons Why ITSM Is a Key Investment for SMBs
> Discover why ITSM is a key investment for SMBs with SysAid's insights into the returns and benefits of effective IT service management.
- Published: 2017-04-18
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/4-reasons-why-itsm-is-a-key-investment-for-smbs
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT service management (ITSM) is not just a “big company” opportunity – as both the need and the benefits are not solely dependent on the relative size of an organization’s IT estate, employee numbers, and/or budgetary power. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) should also look to ITSM as a route to better quality IT services and support, increased efficiency and effectiveness, reduced costs, and a better employee/customer experience. Plus, ultimately for better business outcomes, enabled through the delivery of better IT. And while the economies of scale might mean that there’s greater potential for financial savings in larger organizations, the limited resources (money and people) of SMBs means that ITSM might actually have a more significant impact. As ITSM empowers SMBs to “do (and deliver) more with less. ” Arguments as to Why SMBs Don’t Need ITSM This has already been touched on in my opening section, but it’s worth taking a closer look – for example, that SMBs potentially think: “We don’t spend enough on IT to make ITSM worthwhile” “We don’t have enough people to do ITSM” “ITSM will cost more than it saves” “We don’t need the 26 processes and four functions of ITIL” I could go on, as it’s easy to offer many reasons – or excuses – as to why SMBs don’t need ITSM. But many of these reasons are shortsighted, overlooking the fact that ITSM investments can be as big or as small as you need them to be. And, as with any reasoned...
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### A Beginners Guide to Serverless Computing
> The “serverless” computing paradigm emerged a couple of years ago. This blog explains & visualizes serverless for IT professionals who are new to the topic
- Published: 2017-04-12
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/a-beginners-guide-to-serverless-computing
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: Amazon Web Services, AWS, cloud, Lamda, serverless computing
- Blog authors: Rafi Rainshtein
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
The “serverless” computing paradigm emerged a couple of years ago in Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a new cloud service called Lambda – a serverless computing platform. And now, even though it’s mainstream, it nonetheless can still be new or unknown to many in the IT industry. This blog explains and visualizes serverless for IT professionals who are new to the topic, covering: The misleading serverless name Serverless on a napkin Comparing serverless to other computing paradigms The serverless ecosystem The serverless sweet spot So please read on to learn more about serverless. 1. The Misleading “Serverless” Name Why is the name “serverless” misleading? It’s because code still needs to run on a server somewhere. But in the case of serverless, it’s not your server. With serverless, the cloud service provider (CSP) is doing all the low-level infrastructure work for you. You don’t see the servers (even though they’re out there somewhere). So, therefore, from your perspective, there are no servers to manage, hence – it’s serverless. There has been much rhetoric about the name. Some people have wanted to change it to functions-as-a-service (FaaS), which is very accurate but it didn’t stick. Maybe we are now all aaS-ed out? So “serverless” it is then. And there’s even a series of global serverless conferences now. 2. Serverless on a Napkin There are five simple steps to understanding how serverless works, under the covers, but first, the headline – serverless is an event-driven compute paradigm. It works as follows: You write...
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### 5 Tips to Help Prioritize Your CSI Improvements
> Discover 5 tips in this blog to maximize value quickly and affordably by prioritizing impactful improvements.
- Published: 2017-04-04
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/5-tips-to-help-prioritize-your-csi-improvements
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: continual service improvement, CSI, help desk, IT service management, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I have often said that, in our rapidly changing business and technical environment, continual service improvement (CSI) is the most important service management process. If you don’t keep improving what you do, then you don’t just stay still, you gradually fall behind. This happens because: Your competitors keep improving, which causes customer expectations to keep rising even if you don’t improve. Your customers’ needs evolve, hence delivering what they used to need no longer delivers the value they’re looking for; to keep up you have to deliver what they need now. There are many well-publicized examples of organizations that failed to adapt to a changing environment and so went out of business. Here are some ideas of how your IT staff can contribute to help ensure your company doesn’t join them. Identify Your Improvement Opportunities Before you can prioritize improvements, you need to identify what improvements you could make. It’s surprisingly easy. Create a CSI register for logging and tracking improvement suggestions, and then: Ask IT staff what improvements are needed. The people who do the work always know what’s problematic, and what needs to be improved. When I work with IT organizations, I always ask people what needs to be improved and they invariably give me a long and accurate list. Ask customers what improvements are needed. Do you really know how your customers experience your services? Do you know what they love and what they’d love you to do better? This is even more important than asking...
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### How Hot Is Your F11 Key?
> Learn about SysAid's innovative F11 key feature, enhancing user experience by streamlining access to the Self-Service Portal.
- Published: 2017-03-30
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/how-hot-is-your-f11-key
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: asset management, help desk software, ITSM, self-service portal
- Blog authors: Danny Tashiev
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Hey there, long time no blog post! I’ve been working in SysAid for more than two years now, and lately it has come to my attention that many of our customers don’t know about the SysAid Agent F11 hotkey feature. This is one of our blowout, unique features–which is also incredibly easy to implement and use–so I felt the need to rectify this situation. Time for a quick refresh! Simplify IT for the End User, Get the Good Life You DeserveAnyone who works in IT and support knows how difficult it can be to get an end user to properly describe an issue that they’re having. Don’t even get me started on what happens if you ask them to provide a screen capture–in a good scenario it will require launching a screen-capturing app, taking a screenshot, saving the file and sending it your way by an email or attaching it to a ticket. Not all end users know how to use, or even have, a screen-capturing app. But even if they do, it only adds more steps where something might get screwed up and delay the resolution time of the issue, i. e. the IT ticket–which becomes *your* problem. SysAid simplifies this with its F11 hotkey. When the SysAid Agent is installed on the end user’s machine, all they have to do is hit the F11 key, and SysAid will capture whatever is on their screen, and automatically openSysAid’s Self-Service Portal, in order to submit a ticket with the screen...
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### 5 Ways to Better Equip the IT Service Desk for Enterprise IoT
> There are of course going to be far more than 5 things that could be done to help IT service desks but here are five to get you thinking...
- Published: 2017-03-21
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-better-equip-it-service-desk-enterprise-iot
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: asset management, Internet of Things, IoT
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
While smart, connected devices in the home such as Amazon’s Echo get much of the media attention around the Internet of Things (IoT), there are many other IoT use cases already in the wild – especially use cases that relate to the improvement of business operations and services. Whether it’s automation, data collection/monitoring, controlling previously “dumb” devices, or something else, the use of IoT devices in the enterprise is growing rapidly as businesses seek to improve operations and the customer experience, gain greater insight into operations and service quality, and capitalize on new revenue streams. The Impact of IoT on the Corporate IT Service Desk These enterprise IoT “infrastructures” need supporting, and the existing corporate IT service desk/help desk is the most likely home for that support capability. Some might argue that support should lie with the business function that supplies the IoT-enabled service – for instance, that the facilities team should support a connected intelligent heating system. However, many of the issues that enterprises have already encountered with IoT devices relate to such business functions simply not understanding the risks and management needs, of what is ultimately technology. It will probably be an ongoing topic of debate for many companies, as the different lines of business “empires” want to keep or gain control of things, but for now, let’s assume that the corporate IT service desk has responsibility for IoT devices and the dependent services. There are a number of things that will affect them, such as: Increased volumes....
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### Feeling Good about Your Help Desk
> Learn about the significance of delivering a positive help desk experience and its impact on user satisfaction.
- Published: 2017-03-14
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/feeling-good-about-your-help-desk
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: CX, help desk software, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Everyone has a help desk these days, and the service that a help desk delivers will probably cover a range of aspects. The service will be delivered by a combination of human-to-human and computer-to-human interactions, by calls/emails/chats to help desk agents and use of the self-service portal via an organization’s integrated help desk software system. That combination of people and automation is what delivers support to the users. Along with the actual support, how that support is delivered in terms of the way people feel afterwards, will very much affect how willing those users are to us it again. https://www. sysaid. com/help-desk-software The help desk deals with both incidents and requests in a similar way, although there is a key difference between them: Requests is a user asking for something new or different, like a PC upgrade, additional software, or new access rights Incidents are when something has gone wrong and the user is looking to get it put right. So, requests are things you actually want to happen – improvements and new capabilities; incidents are things that nobody wants to happen. Measuring the Help Desk Because the help desk costs money – for staff, equipment, software, etc. – organizations feel the need to measure its performance, and its cost. So they record the money spent and measure metrics that describe how effective it is. Typically, organizations will measure the desk using a set of tension metrics to give a broad and balanced view of how well the help desk...
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### Hide and Seek With Problem Management
> It's possible you think you're not doing problem management but it's only just hidden. Stuart Rance easily takes you to the real deal (out of hiding).
- Published: 2017-03-07
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/hide-and-seek-with-problem-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: help desk, ITIL, ITSM, problem management, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
If I asked you how your organization does problem management, would you, like so many of the people I have worked with over the years, tell me that you don’t do it? You know you ought to, of course, but you simply don’t have the time and resources to get started. I’m willing to bet that if you’re one of those people, and you asked me to take a close look at the running of your IT operation, you’d be surprised. Because, quite often, when I look at what people who work in IT organizations actually do, as opposed to listening to what they tell me they do, I find that they’re already quietly getting on with many of the things that need to be done to manage problems. They just don’t call what they do problem management. Too often people believe that problem management is something formal and complex that can’t be put in place without specialized tools and extensive training. And so they fail to recognize the power – or the potential – of the steps they’ve already put in place. I’m always really pleased when I come across a situation like this, because it’s a great position for an organization to be in. It only takes a very small amount of effort to create an effective problem management capability when you’re building on what’s already being done. (See my blog Back to ITSM Basics: Start Where You Are for some more thoughts on this idea. ) So...
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### A Different Way of Looking at Categorization
> How do you define your categorization scheme? Are you making common mistakes? Benefit by looking at it differently, from the consumer's angle.
- Published: 2017-02-21
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/a-different-way-of-looking-at-categorization
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, IT service management, ITSM, outside-in thinking
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Categorization is a critical aspect of many IT service management (ITSM) processes. Categorization helps us: Route work associated with an incident or a request Produce effective management reporting that enables further analysis or process improvements Translate what a consumer is telling us into something that IT can understand and do something about There’s a lot of good advice about categorization that is readily available via an internet search. A couple of great articles can be found right here on the SysAid blog. Stuart Rance shared his thoughts about categorization in his post titled Improving Categorizing Incidents. Another SysAid blog post, Incident Categorization – Reasons and Consequences, discusses the benefits of a good categorization scheme and the consequences of poor categorization. But how do you go about defining your categorization scheme? I have some ideas about categorization that I’d like you to consider. Good Categorization Is About Balance The most important thing to understand about categorization is that it is all about balance. If a categorization scheme is too simple, it will inhibit work flow and trend analysis. The categories will simply be too broad or vague to facilitate effective process execution or continual improvement. The other end of the spectrum is a categorization scheme that is overly complex. While further definition may help with more precise workflow and analysis, this comes at a cost – the up-front time it would take a service desk agent to determine the exact category of an incident or request. While...
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### The Downside of Using Email to Manage IT Support
> There are a number of reasons why email & other personal productivity tools are used for IT support. But easy isn’t always best…or even appropriate.
- Published: 2017-02-21
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/the-downside-of-using-email-to-manage-it-support
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: help desk, IT support, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stephen Mann
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There are a number of reasons why email and other personal productivity tools are used for IT support, for example: Most IT staff usually have access to email IT staff know how to use email The email technology has already been “paid for” in providing a set of tools for personal productivity reasons So it’s easy to think of email as being a cheap IT support technology, one that’s easy for IT support people to use. But easy isn’t always best... or even appropriate. Breaking Down the Issues with Using Email to Manage IT Support Let’s consider IT support operations – key activity by key activity – in the scenario where we’re part of a group of service desk agents using a communal email inbox to receive and manage end-user incidents and service requests: Original source: A Companion to ITIL (v2) Phase 1. Incident Detection and Recording An end-user email comes in and it’s automatically “recorded” – because it’s sitting there as an entry in the communal inbox. However, does it contain all the required information from the end user? Well, we can’t say, as this will differ by issue or service request type (plus service requests might be mixed in with the far more time-sensitive incidents). We could use an email template to help end users provide the right information though; maybe even something showy that requires different information based on the issue or service request type. But what do we do if the end user calls by phone,...
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### Is the Term “Service Desk” Merely an ITSM Marketing Coup?
> Discover why the term "help desk" is being replaced by "service desk" in ITIL, and why 23% of IT professionals still use the old term.
- Published: 2017-02-14
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/is-the-term-service-desk-merely-an-itsm-marketing-coup
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: help desk, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There are lots of different names for “the corporate team or function that provides internal IT support to end users. ” Examples that I’ve seen used on my IT service management (ITSM) travels include: IT help desk Service desk IT support Support center Technical services/technical services center Technical support (center) Technical customer support Level 1 support Frontline support And there are probably many more. But how often do each of these get used “in the wild”? And are some of the names better than others? Let’s Start with What HDI Members Use HDI, which is a professional association for the technical support industry, showed how different names are used by its members in their 2015 Support Center Practices & Salary Report: Source: HDI 2015 Support Center Practices & Salary Report So we have service desk at 36% and help desk at 23%, with the remaining 41% of companies using a variety of other names. Have We Been Killing Off the IT Help Desk One ITIL Exam at a Time? In many ways the HDI results are to be expected. ITIL, the most commonly-adopted ITSM best practice framework, took the IT help desk of old, and IT operations best practice, and built a body of ITSM advice around them. But, as ITIL and ITSM evolved, the term “IT help desk” no longer fit the new world of “managing IT as a service” and the term “service desk” was deemed to be a better name for the help desk 2. 0 –...
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### Enterprise Service Management Is Not Just for Service Requests
> Discover how incident and problem management can extend beyond IT into enterprise service management (ESM).
- Published: 2017-02-07
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/enterprise-service-management-is-not-just-for-service-requests
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: enterprise service management, ESM, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Enterprise service management (ESM) is the use of IT service management (ITSM) tools and processes to support other lines of business within an organization. It’s a term that’s generally used by IT people, who know and understand ITSM, but may be off-putting to those less familiar with IT. In fact, I enjoyed a presentation by Elina Pirjanti at the itSMF conference in Estonia last year, where she asked us to stop calling it “enterprise service management” (in fact, she wrote a blog about it too). Everyone else in the organization thinks of this way of working as “digitalization” or “digital transformation” and we should use their language, rather than trying to force IT language on the rest of the organization. And this is fair enough, at least up to a point; particularly when I know that all the articles I’ve read about ESM recently have a focus on using ITSM tools to help manage service requests from business units such as HR, legal, or facilities. This is certainly an important use case, and is something that almost every organization should be doing. ITSM tools are great for logging and tracking service requests, as well as supporting automation of request fulfilment, and providing reporting so that you know how well you’re doing. Why would we not choose to take advantage of these capabilities that are already at hand? Here are my thoughts on how you can take advantage of ITSM to help other areas of your organization... Providing a Single...
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### Back to ITSM Basics: The 9 Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner
> Whatever you’re responsible for in IT, the ITIL Practitioner guiding principles can help you focus on what’s important. ITSM guru Stuart Rance explains how.
- Published: 2017-01-31
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-9-guiding-principles-of-itil-practitioner
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: AXELOS, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
In a previous blog I talked about “starting where you are” as a guiding principle for people who want to improve outcomes for customers. I talked about how this means not throwing away everything you already do and starting again from zero, and how following this principle can really help you to do a great job when you’re planning IT service management improvements. What I didn’t mention was that “Start where you are” is one of the guiding principles in the new ITIL Practitioner Guidance, which was launched in February 2016. I was delighted to be included as one of the authors of this publication, and I want to tell you a bit more about it. The ITIL Practitioner Guidance describes nine guiding principles, and I believe everybody in service management should think about all of them, because if you follow these guiding principles, they can really help you succeed. In addition to Start Where You Are, the other ITIL guiding principles are as follows: Focus on Value: Everything you do should be based on maximizing value for your customers. Design for Experience: Think about, and manage, how your users and customers experience your services and their interactions with you. Work Holistically: Consider the end-to-end value chain, and how all the bits fit together. Don’t optimize one process or activity at the expense of the overall service. Progress Iteratively: Make a series of small improvements, rather than trying to create one enormous project. Agile works really well as an approach to...
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### Using the Knowledge from Within (Your Help Desk)
> The most powerful concentration of useful knowledge & awareness in organizations resides right inside the help desk. How to retrieve it and the benefits.
- Published: 2017-01-24
- Modified: 2022-01-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/using-the-knowledge-from-within-your-help-desk
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: help desk, IT service management, ITSM, knowledge management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Having an external perspective is valuable, and even essential, for an organization to establish improvement ideas. That ability to ”see the wood for the trees” coupled with knowledge of the broader world outside your organization can be helpful. That’s why consultants are often worth the money: to deliver that outside world view and help an organization adopt approaches that have proven to be helpful to others. This is often referred to as following best practice, and getting external help to do so – a traditional IT service management (ITSM) approach taken by many CIOs and IT managers. But there is another, often equally important, perspective (aside from the wider world view) that an organization should be aware of in pursuit of continual improvement. And that’s the perception based around familiarity, local knowledge, and shared experience, which is available to companies that want them. These are far cheaper than the external consultant path, and will complement and refine best practice approaches. The most powerful concentration of useful knowledge and awareness in many organizations resides right inside their help desk – especially true if that help desk is internal and local to the user community. Let Your Help Desk Help You Collecting and analyzing data is an important and valuable exercise. At the heart of good problem management is working with the collected incident data, seeking trends and patterns, and initiating corrective or, better yet, preventative actions. Don’t stop doing that, but remember also that users are people, and the heart of...
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### Major ITSM Improvements Should Start with Small Steps
> Discover how agile software development principles benefit IT Service Management (ITSM) in Stuart Rance's insightful blog post.
- Published: 2017-01-17
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/major-itsm-improvements-should-start-with-small-steps
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Agile, help desk, IT service management, ITSM, self-service, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I visited two very different customers recently. They had very different problems and the solutions I suggested for them were also very different. But there was one thing that they had in common — they had both delayed starting the improvements they knew were needed because the costs and risks were too high. Instead, they had done nothing and so allowed their problems to continue completely unchecked. For both these customers, the solution was very similar. Both needed to “Start where you are”, “Keep it simple” and “Progress iteratively”. These are three of the guiding principles from ITIL Practitioner, and between them they encourage IT service managers to adopt an agile approach to resolving issues, rather than taking on big, risky, expensive IT service management (ITSM) projects. I created a few podcasts on these topics for SysAid’s Back to ITSM Basics project, so please do listen to those if you are interested. If you also need improvements that seem too expensive, or too risky, then read on to learn how you can get started. A Big Organization with a Big Problem One of the organizations that I visited is very large. It provides support services to many external customers all over the world, and has lots of service desks. Some of these service desks are dedicated to a single customer, others support multiple customers, and some are for internal users. Some of them provide logging and dispatch only, others provide level 1 support as well. While many of the...
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### How to Deliver More Value from Your Help Desk
> A great help desk can do a lot more than just the essentials. Here are some things to think about if you’re ready to take the next step. Find out more...
- Published: 2017-01-10
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/how-to-deliver-more-value-from-your-help-desk
- Categories: Help desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In my previous blog, What’s Essential for an IT Help Desk? , I discussed the things that every help desk should do. These were: Log and manage calls from IT users Resolve incidents Generate useful reports Continually improve If you’re not already doing all four of these, then please go and read that blog to help you initiate some of the changes you need to make. If you’re already doing all the essentials, then you might want to think about ways of using your help desk to create more value for you, and for your customers. A great help desk can do a lot more than just the essentials. Here are some things to think about if you’re ready to take the next step. Identify and Manage Problems The trouble with excellent incident management is that incidents keep happening. No matter how good you are at managing incidents, and how grateful users are for the service, they still suffer from the disruption to their work and wish they had not needed to call you in the first place; you are using up valuable resources managing something nobody actually wanted to happen. This is where problem management comes in. Problem management can help you to: Stop incidents from happening, or at least make them less frequent. Reduce the impact of any incidents that you can’t prevent. This means that your users get a better service, and your help desk has less work to do. That’s a win-win for you and your...
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### Back to ITSM Basics: Start Where You Are
> If you’re involved in ITSM improvements, and especially if you’re fairly new to the field, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Start smart and stay in control!
- Published: 2017-01-03
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/back-to-itsm-basics-start-where-you-are
- Categories: ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you’re involved in ITSM improvements, and especially if you’re fairly new to the field, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. One thing that can really help you to focus is to follow the principle “Start Where You Are”. It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Of course you should start where you are. After all, where else could you possibly start? But this principle captures some very important ideas in a really simple phrase, and by following it, you can avoid many of the mistakes that can cause IT service management projects to fail. What “Start Where You Are” really means is don’t throw away everything you already do and start again from zero. If you try to impose a completely new way of working, without building on what’s already in place, you will inevitably waste time, money, and effort. AND you will alienate the very people you need to have on your side. When you tear up everything that people are doing and tell them to start working differently, you’re bound to stir up opposition – and sometimes outright resistance. If you do this, then it can become really difficult to integrate the changes you need into your organization and culture. It’s much better to start by looking at how people currently work and talking to them about it. If you can engage them, then you can actively involve them in thinking about how to build on what they do now so they can deliver better outcomes in the future....
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### The Case of the Ignored Business Case
> What happens when your business case for ITSM is created but ignored? Here’s 7 things you could try, from Doug Tedder, ITSM consultant.
- Published: 2016-12-27
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-case-of-the-ignored-business-case
- Categories: ITSM
- Blog authors: Doug Tedder
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
“What advice do you have when your business case for ITSM is created but ignored? ” This is what @sysaid tweeted to me in reply to my tweet regarding my blog The Case of the Missing Business Case. https://twitter. com/sysaid/status/803235463532265473 What a great question! As I talk about in my original blog, every IT service management (ITSM) implementation should begin with the development of a business case. The business case provides IT with an opportunity to demonstrate its understanding of the business it serves by objectively discussing the opportunities, risks, benefits, and deliverables of the ITSM implementation – in business terms. A well-written business case articulates the needed investments, in terms of people, time, and money, as well as how ITSM implementation supports business goals and objectives. It helps make the ITSM implementation a business initiative, enabled by IT, and not just another “IT project. ” But most importantly, the business case secures the first critical deliverables for any ITSM initiative – senior management investment and support. ”Yes, I did all of that, but... ” You wrote a strong business case. You addressed all of the pertinent topics. And your business case gets ignored. Now what? Has all of the time developing and writing the business case been for naught? Don’t give up just yet. Here’s 7 things you could try. First, check yourself. Objectively review your business case from the perspective of senior management. Are your assumptions reasonable? Have you clearly articulated resource needs and anticipated benefits. Is...
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### Machine Learning – the Next Big Thing for ITSM in 2017
> In 2017, ITSM tool vendors will be partnering with machine learning technology partners. SysAid CEO Sarah Lahav presents some interesting use cases.
- Published: 2016-12-20
- Modified: 2022-01-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/machine-learning-the-next-big-thing-for-itsm-in-2017
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, machine learning, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As 2016 ends and we look forward to another year in IT service management (ITSM), one wonders what we (ITSM pros) should be focused on in the next twelve months. There’s been a lot of buzz this year about things such as DevOps, enterprise service management, customer experience and consumerization, and digital transformation. But I think there’s a wealth of opportunities for us and the businesses we serve in another area – automation. Not the process automation that we’ve benefited from since the early days of ITSM tools, or the orchestration that has made virtualization and cloud so much easier. I’m instead referring to a different type of automation, where we “cede power to the machines” and their ability to learn, i. e. machine learning – “the study and construction of algorithms that can learn from and make predictions on data” (source: Wikipedia), where: “Advanced machine learning algorithms are composed of many technologies (such as deep learning, neural networks and natural-language processing), used in unsupervised and supervised learning, that operate guided by lessons from existing information. ” Source: Gartner IT Glossary And Gartner recently stated that: “Smart machines will enter mainstream adoption by 2021, with 30 percent adoption by large companies, according to Gartner, Inc. Technologies including cognitive computing, artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent automation, machine learning and deep learning fall under the umbrella term for smart machines. )” But I’m far more bullish about machine learning from an ITSM and IT support (or for any service and support scenario) perspective,...
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### How to Meet Customer Expectations
- Published: 2016-12-13
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-meet-customer-expectations
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer satisfaction, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
One of the biggest problems we have to deal with in IT service management (ITSM) strikes whenever we fail to meet the expectations of our customers and users. No matter how good the service, and no matter how well we support it, when we don’t deliver what people expect they’re unhappy. I’ve worked with lots of IT organizations who regularly failed to meet expectations, and who don’t accept any responsibility for this. There always seems to be an excuse, for example: “Their expectations aren’t reasonable. ” “The business doesn’t give us the resources we’d need to do that. ” “We’ve delivered what the service level agreement (SLA) says the users are entitled to. ” “We didn’t prioritize it because the customers didn’t tell us it was important. ” “We can’t introduce new functionality as fast as they want, we’re far too busy resolving issues as it is. ” “We can’t make that change, it’s far too risky. They’ll have to wait. ” Perhaps you’ve heard things like this in your organization; maybe you’ve even said some of them yourself. If that’s the case, then maybe it’s time for some serious reconsideration. If you want to deliver a great service to your customers and users, explaining why you can’t do things isn’t good enough. What the most effective ITSM organizations do is to take responsibility for managing customer expectations. Of course, this is easy to say, but not so easy to do. Here are my suggestions. If...
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### What’s Essential for an IT Help Desk?
- Published: 2016-11-16
- Modified: 2022-03-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/whats-essential-for-an-it-help-desk
- Categories: Help desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
An IT help desk can easily take on a huge range of activities, but if you have limited resources then you must think about the essentials. This is true even if you’d like to grow your help desk over time so that it delivers every capability of a fully featured enterprise service desk; it’s much wiser to start with something more limited, deliver some value to your customers, get some feedback, and then grow incrementally, rather than trying to start everything at once. So what are the essential things that a help desk has to do? Here’s my list, based on my many years of experience in the industry. Log and Manage Calls from IT Users One of the most important capabilities of an IT help desk is great interaction with users. This means that you must provide a user-friendly way for customers to contact the help desk, and you must make sure that every user interaction is captured so that it doesn’t get lost. Typically, users contact the help desk by telephone, but if you can provide other channels such as a web portal to help users contact you, then that’s even better. Every time a user contacts the help desk, you must create a record showing what they asked, and how you responded. Even if it’s just a quick question that you could answer straight away you should always keep a record; one day you might need to know what happened, and if you don’t record it then...
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### Your Help Desk Is Alive and Well
- Published: 2016-11-07
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/your-help-desk-is-alive-and-well
- Categories: Help desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The help desk was a new idea for IT departments back in the 1980s and 90s. That’s when organizations figured out that it was far better to have a team of people fielding all the calls for help that came in to IT, rather than having the engineers’ work disrupted by breaking off what they were doing to answer the phone calls from users needing help. Justified by that initial benefit, help desks appeared and evolved across the IT industry and across the world. Despite an initial goal of minimizing disruption to IT, the positive benefits of a dedicated group focused on communication, for the user community, quickly became evident. At its heart, a good help desk does exactly what its name implies – it delivers help to those who need it. The New Terminology Beginning around the year 2000, the IT service management (ITSM) scale and scope moved up and onwards – and one of the apparent ”upgrades” has been the substitution of the term help desk by the term service desk to imply a wider range of responsibilities, most especially the capture and completion of service requests. While that’s all good and true, it shouldn’t take all our attention away from the initial purpose of the help desk; those basic help desk skills and functions are still needed and, indeed, are still there inside the modern service desk: help is delivered and service requests are resolved. We need to remember that a key role of ITSM organizations is...
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### Defining Metrics for a Help Desk
- Published: 2016-11-01
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/defining-metrics-for-a-help-desk
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Some time ago, I wrote a blog about Defining Metrics for the Service Desk. Recently someone asked me what about the help desk? This person works for an organization that doesn’t have an enormous service desk, with hundreds of agents and a complex multi-level service catalogue. Instead, there’s a help desk with just a few technicians who provide support to their users. I’ve worked with IT departments from several small- and medium-sized organizations. In one organization, the help desk consisted of just two technicians whose manager also managed many other people in a variety of different roles. In other organizations, the help desk may have up to 30 or 40 agents, but they don’t operate on the same scale as a large corporate service desk. Many of the differences between a help desk and a service desk stem from this difference in scale. Typically, a help desk doesn’t have the kind of sophisticated telephone system that routes calls and generates statistics on how long it takes each agent to answer the phone. Instead, staff use a combination of a normal telephone and a web-portal to receive calls from users, and respond to them. The behavior we want to encourage, the metrics needed to encourage that behaviour, and the data available for actually doing the measuring, are all likely to differ significantly from what works best for a service desk. But Some Things Don’t Change... Some of the advice I offered in my blog about metrics for a service...
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### 10 Tips for Providing Negative Feedback
- Published: 2016-10-25
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/10-tips-for-providing-negative-feedback
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Working in IT, particularly on the IT help desk, can often be a “glass half empty” rather than a “glass half full” experience – with many of the day’s activities related to things that have gone wrong. So it’s easy to avoid anything else that is remotely negative in nature, but unfortunately if something is wrong – in terms of people, process, or technology– one has to bite the bullet to provide negative, but hopefully constructive, feedback. Here I provide ten tips for providing such feedback, along with advice on how to ensure that you go about it the right way. 1. Check, Check, and Recheck Are you 100% sure that the person you’re providing the negative feedback to is deserving of it? Are you sure that the issue isn’t simply because of bad instruction, faulty processes, misunderstanding, or someone else’s mistake? Always ensure that you have all the facts, and never make assumptions. You’ll only create further damage if your feedback is based on inaccuracies and/or is un-deserving. 2. Highlight how improvements can be made When a person receives negative feedback it’s common for them to go into defensive mode. They can often become upset, and worse still, apathetic – the result of which means they actually get worse, not better. It’s also often the case that an individual simply can’t see a way to be better. Think of how many times you’ve completed what you thought was a simple task, only for one day somebody to point out...
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### Users, Customers – What’s in a Name?
- Published: 2016-10-18
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/users-customers-whats-in-a-name
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It isn’t often I get to start an IT service management (ITSM) blog with a William Shakespeare quote, but he put it perfectly in Romeo and Juliet: “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. ” Sadly, as our Shakespearean heroes discover in their tragic demise, human society does indeed get hung up on the names, labels, and words we use. ITIL® has been guilty of hijacking words from the English language and assigning them their own special ITIL meanings (you know like “incident” or “problem”), which has caused many people to get confused and miss the significance of the concept being described. Just like in Shakespeare’s play, all that baggage of the Montague and Capulet families damages the simple meaning of a boy and a girl in love. So... ITSM Users and Customers Let’s focus now on one important concept that I find gets very confusing because of the terminology. In ITIL, the terms customer and user are given significant differences in meaning. The customer has financial involvement – they pay for the service. This could mean actually paying with real money, but not always. Sometimes it might be the budget holder who is charged, or it might just be signing off on a business case without tangible money being transferred. But in each case, the customer is in a position to see the bigger balance between the cost of the service and the benefits it gives. The user is just that –...
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### Small IT Support Teams Without Desks Can Still Benefit from Help Desk Technology
> Discover how small IT support teams without desks can leverage help desk technology effectively with SysAid.
- Published: 2016-10-10
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/small-it-support-teams-without-desks-can-still-benefit-from-help-desk-technology
- Categories: Help desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The term “service desk” can give rise to a number of conversations, and sometimes arguments. For instance, should you call it a help desk, service desk, or something else? And for companies with relatively small, and probably very busy, IT support teams, the idea of having someone sitting at a desk waiting to answer the phone is a people overhead that they just can’t afford. But don’t let the “desk” in service desk and help desk put you off formalizing and better enabling your IT support people – whether it’s through the adoption of industry best practice for IT service management (ITSM) or the investment in a fit-for-purpose help desk or ITSM tool. Maybe, just maybe, if this technology category was called “IT support tools” it might instantly seem more relevant to your company’s lean and mean IT support operations. Looking at the Small IT Support Team Status Quo All companies have some form of IT support but are they performing as well as they could be? Of course the largest of companies need to have formalized and often highly-populated IT support teams – here there’s so much IT gluing business operations together, that things are bound to occasionally go wrong. So they’ll have a help desk (or service desk), plus other ITSM activities, enabled by fit-for-purpose ITSM technology. At the other end of the company-size spectrum, IT support staff can’t always be justified. With the very smallest of companies using self-support and peer-support (most likely ably assisted by Google),...
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### How to Manage Your IT Problems
- Published: 2016-10-05
- Modified: 2022-12-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-manage-your-it-problems
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
IT organizations often spend huge amounts of time, money, and other resources on managing incidents, but they spend surprisingly little on problem management work that might reduce the number of incidents in the first place. This is often due to poor understanding of the difference between incidents and problems, and insufficient knowledge or understanding of how to manage problems. Why Do We Distinguish Between Incidents and Problems? Many people confuse incidents and problems, so let’s start by making the distinction clear An incident is an unplanned interruption to an IT service, or a reduction in quality of a service. Incidents have an impact on users, and on the business, and the purpose of incident management is to restore normal service. A problem is the cause of one or more incidents. The purpose of problem management is to manage the problem, eliminating future incidents where possible, and reducing the impact of incidents that can’t be prevented. So, incident management helps you get the business working again, problem management helps you prevent future incidents, or at least make them less painful when they do happen. In the bad old days, when IT was a very technically-focused function, most IT teams didn’t distinguish incidents from problems. If something broke, then somebody would work on it until it was mended. IT technicians paid little attention to the business impact of whatever it was they were working on, and the customer just had to wait until it was fixed. But when we learned to distinguish...
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### 5 Ways to Recapture Your Service Desk Team’s Lost Motivation
> Discover 5 effective strategies to reignite your service desk team's motivation in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2016-09-27
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-to-recapture-your-service-desk-teams-lost-motivation
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Roy Eldar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Come the end of a busy week, does your IT service desk ever look a little bit like the set of a western movie? The atmosphere is dry and barren. Random objects are strewn across the office like 21st-century tumbleweed. With your team members staring blankly into the distance, eyes burned by the constant glare of their monitors, tired and reeking of apathy. It’s been a heavy week, and you’ve been consistently ambushed with incidents. The service desk has spent day after day in the firing line of end users, having to repeatedly circle the wagons under the glare of SLAs and stretching performance targets. And now your team is tired. Pinned to the notice board is a sign, “Wanted: Motivation. ” Best not to mention the wild west reference to dead or alive. The Good, the Bad, and the... Unmotivated Looking around at your team you start to wonder when the motivation disappeared and how long it’s been gone, but it’s no good following the hoof prints back down the already well-trodden trodden path. Instead you need to get back on your horse, perhaps after drinking your milk, and rally your riders. And here’s a few suggestions on how to re-motivate your team to face another week, month, or even year of the IT support wild west: 1. Listen up, partner! Communication is crucial – listen to your team and instigate a collaborative feedback cycle. According to research by weekdone. com, 39% of workers don’t feel that their input...
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### Is Your Business Value in Color?
- Published: 2016-09-20
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/is-your-business-value-in-color
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
ITIL® tells us that there are three components to business value: Business outcomes Customer perception Customer preferences Once this has been successfully memorized for the ITIL Foundation Certification exam, most people then forget it. That’s a shame because it gives an insight into why customers might be less impressed with the services they’re getting than expected. In this blog, I’d like to take a look at how each of these concepts can help us get things right. Business Outcomes IT service providers generally focus on what IT applications and IT infrastructure actually do – their outputs. But to deliver genuine value, we need to think in terms of outcomes – the end result for the customer and the organization as a whole. So, a service provider’s first challenge is to see beyond initial outputs from their IT services and understand the outcomes: how they influence the customer environment. That requires learning about the service in the customer environment, things like: What business services does your IT service support? Never mind what you meant, how is it actually used? (In fact, is it actually used at all? ) How many of the features, which you got excited about building, are exciting to the business as well? We can illustrate this by analogizing it to the difference between using a car and a requirement to travel. The outputs of owning a car are about driving; the outcomes might be the ability to get to work or the shops, or impressing the neighbors...
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### Bridging the Gap Between Service and Customer Experience
- Published: 2016-09-13
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/bridging-the-gap-between-service-and-customer-experience
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer experience, CX, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
“Customer experience” you say. What the heck is that? If this sounds like you, don’t worry, you’ve come to the right place. You see we’re big evangelists of the customer experience and believe that it’s something that every organization should have the opportunity to wrap their head around and to introduce into their business. Why? Take a look at organizations such as Apple, Disney, Virgin, and Tesla. What’s the one thing that these companies all have in common? Other than being some of the biggest names in the world of customer service (as well as all being valued at over a billion dollars or more), they all understand the importance of the customer experience, and have “gone above and beyond” to ensure that their organizations are finely-tuned customer experience machines. Yet, What They’re Doing is Nothing New In fact, the entire idea of customer experience is nothing new. A quick bit of Googling and you will discover that the UK department store John Lewis has been crafting its customer experience for more than a 100 years. What is new, however, is that more and more organizations are taking customer experience on as a means to improve their competitive advantage through wowing their customers. So What Does this Have to Do with ITSM? In IT, and in IT service management (ITSM) roles in particular, we strive to provide great IT services but many of us have yet to make the leap to providing a great service experience. But who can blame people?...
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### Supplier Management Is More than Just Negotiating Contracts
> Explore the depth of Supplier Management beyond contract negotiations with SysAid.
- Published: 2016-09-06
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/supplier-management-is-more-than-just-negotiating-contracts
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk, supplier management
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We all know IT organizations that run into difficulties working with their suppliers. They seem to really struggle, enduring fractious relationships and contracts that don’t meet their needs. On the other hand, some IT organizations enjoy positive relationships with a range of suppliers and seem able to get really good value for money. What is it that helps them achieve this? And what gets in the way? Some Contracts Are Not Perfect Some of the IT organizations that I work for rely on their procurement department to manage their suppliers. I’ve worked with a number of IT organizations that have less-than- ideal contracts with their suppliers due to typical scenarios like this: IT gives their requirements to procurement. Procurement negotiates and agrees on a contract with a supplier. The contract is not an exact match to the original requirements, as procurement has made a decision based on cost, and the ability to meet what they consider to be the most important requirements. The IT organization is then left to pick up the pieces and manage as best they can. The contract doesn’t meet the required needs, the supplier isn’t helpful, the customers aren’t happy, and IT gets the blame. But it’s not their fault - and the contract has another five years to run. Good supplier management can help you to manage situations like these. You may be stuck with a poor contract, but that doesn’t mean that you have to put up with poor service from your supplier. Everyone...
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### Incident Categorization – Reasons and Consequences
- Published: 2016-08-30
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/incident-categorization-reasons-and-consequences
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Roy Eldar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I was thinking about incident management and categories and it came to me that really, every single day, we find ourselves being categorized and pushed into a specific pigeonhole. In fact, it happens so often and naturally that we’ve come to expect it: Like in the frequent surveys after online purchases when we’re asked to choose from a pre-set list of responses, for example “good, average, bad,” or “rate us from 1 through 9” When we buy insurance or complete a tax return, we must always choose a work classification. If we don’t fit into one of their pre-set categories, then we just have to pick the nearest fit. And, of course, when we log a call, even if we (as end users) aren’t presented with a list to choose from, we know the operator, whether human or automated, is deciding which of their little virtual boxes we best fit into. And if it’s via a self-service portal, we’ll end up choosing our own best-fit pigeonhole. I mentioned insurance above deliberately since a friend of mine just changed his job role from marketing support to a training role. When the insurance company was advised of this role change, the premium increased by 7%. Now that’s the power of categorization! Categories Help Us Process Data Meaningfully While we may not always like it, or might feel that it isn’t human-oriented, this kind of categorization is a vital part of getting data and metrics collected, analyzed, interpreted, and used for improvement. Without...
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### What’s Better in ITSM, Getting It Right or Looking Good?
> Discover the key to success in ITSM: Is it about getting it right or simply looking good? Join SysAid for insights.
- Published: 2016-08-23
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/whats-better-in-itsm-getting-it-right-or-looking-good
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I recently ordered some items from a web site that I’d used before. The checkout price was $30, which I paid with a credit card and then forgot about it and got on with life while waiting for the items to arrive. A few days later I was checking my credit card statement, and there was the transaction, but at $31. 85! Of course $1. 85 isn’t worth too much effort, but it wasn’t the money, it was the principle. So I went back to the website and submitted a ticket pointing out the error. Within 30 minutes, I had a profuse apology and compensation with $10 worth of freebies - nice! Truth is, I made lots of purchases lately, but all of the other purchases were below my attention threshold in terms of service. I clicked to place the order, and then I clicked to make the payment. That payment left my account as expected, and the goods came to my door, also just as expected. They were perfectly ordinary, everyday purchases. I might talk to my friends about what I had bought, the good (or not-so-good) price I paid and so on, but I wouldn’t mention the service quality. When you think about it logically, that is what good service should be – all but invisible, delivering what you expect without fuss or incident. So, why was the one transaction that went wrong the one I ended up most impressed with? Certainly it has a lot more to...
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### Why Can’t Our Customers Be More Like Us?
- Published: 2016-08-16
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/why-cant-our-customers-be-more-like-us
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: customer experience, CX, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sivan Kroitoru
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Why do we IT service management (ITSM) people have trouble understanding and predicting how our customers and other colleagues in the business will behave? Really understanding the customer’s perspective requires more than good intentions. On occasion, our own attitudes and preconceptions get in the way. Sometimes it feels like we’re struggling to understand a foreign language, and there is a reason for that – in a way, that’s exactly what is happening. Our own opinions can deflect us from accurate observations, seeing a familiarity that isn’t really there. A Language Lesson: False Friends When we see familiar things, we relax our guard, trust our instincts, and make presumptions. This can cause trouble. An example is false friends between languages – we see or hear a word or phrase in another language that is very similar to one in our own language, but it means something very different. Sometimes it’s just amusing. Doors labelled in English are a nightmare to Portuguese speakers, for example: if a sign says “push” they are more likely to pull it, fooled because the Portuguese word for ”pull” is ”puxe”, pronounced ”pushay”. You can understand the confusion. Other examples can hurt more than your pride – many Dutch words mean what they sound like in English, so see ”fietspad” and you might presume fiets = feet, pads = path and you stride confidently along what must be the footpath. Good logic but actually ”fiets” is bicycle and you are walking on the bike track; it will...
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### Do You Know When to Break the Rules?
- Published: 2016-08-02
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/do-you-know-when-to-break-the-rules
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, ITSM. service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
My colleague Ivor McFarlane once described the concept of intelligent disobedience to me. This term was first used in relation to guide dogs. Service animals need to be trained to obey their owners. However, there may be times when the dog has more knowledge about the environment than the owner – for example if the pedestrian crossing light is green but a car is approaching very fast. In that case obedience would actually pose a threat to the owner’s safety. Dogs can be trained to exercise judgement and to refuse to obey orders when this is the case. This idea has important business applications; we can train staff to exercise judgement rather than always mechanically follow rules or predetermined scripts. Staff who know when they should NOT follow the rules, and who are empowered to act on this knowledge can make better decisions. When you are aware of a concept such as “intelligent disobedience” you find yourself noticing situations to which it applies. I was shopping in a large department store recently, and I spotted an unfortunate interaction between a shop assistant and a customer. The customer was a young woman, who was very modestly dressed and wearing a headscarf. She approached the changing rooms and spoke to the male shop assistant on duty, asking: “Do you have any female staff members in this area? ” The shop assistant was very polite and explained that there were female staff members, but they were all “too busy” to serve...
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### A Fashionable Route to ITSM Capacity Management
- Published: 2016-07-26
- Modified: 2022-03-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/a-fashionable-route-to-itsm-capacity-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: capacity management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Capacity management was an important driver for the development of ITIL®. The original team writing the ITIL books back in the 1980s evolved from an earlier team dealing specifically with capacity management and performance measurement. Initially, capacity management was almost completely technically focused, reflecting the expensive hardware and storage days of the 1980s, where efforts were rightly focused on getting the best possible performance – and maximizing the capacity – of the hardware available, to secure the best possible value for the considerable quantity of money typically spent on that hardware. Changing Focus Since those days, the scope of ITIL capacity management has evolved and expanded to reflect changing times: Performance management focuses on the most expensive and/or most loaded aspect of the system’s supporting services. Over the last 30 years we have seen that move from processing power, memory, and storage to network bandwidth; and that will surely change more in the future. The human capacity aspects have changed too, with a range of skills shortages causing focus on automating tasks and maximizing the use of the rarer or more expensive skill sets. More significantly, ITIL now sets out a capacity management scope that is much wider than operational infrastructure. That scope stretches from business capacity, through service capacity, and then down into the traditional focus area of component capacity. But, for many, this wide spectrum is neither well understood, nor well practiced. The sheer scale of this range makes it difficult to appreciate, especially when viewed from an...
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### 3 Common Traits of Super Successful IT Service Desk Staff
> Discover the 3 common traits of highly successful IT service desk staff in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2016-07-19
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/3-common-traits-of-super-successful-it-service-desk-staff
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Roy Eldar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Your IT service desk staff are hopefully warriors, battling incidents and tirelessly delivering against service requests on a daily basis to ensure the smooth running of the technology that supports and drives your organization forward. But sadly, due to the high intensity of the service desk role, people move on and need to be replaced. So what should you be looking for in an IT service desk candidate? Do you replace “like for like” or do you look to take your team to the next level? A level where the service desk is about more than just providing technical support, with customer service and the customer experience a growing requirement of end users whose expectations are rising in line with their personal-life experiences of technology, service, and support. The Changing Corporate IT Support Environment The world is now so technology driven that it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that your next hire should be a computer whiz, with a knack for newer technologies. But the reality is that the person you should be searching for is a different beast, especially with the ongoing technology evolution. While this new technology is more critical to business operations, it is often much easier to support – without the technical knowhow needed for legacy IT. Of course you could just employ a low-paid script follower now that the technical knowledge is becoming less important. But will that really work? I’d imagine not, especially given the aforementioned rising expectations of end users...
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### How to Persuade Management to Support Your Idea, Every Time
> Discover effective strategies to consistently win management support for your ideas in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2016-07-05
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-persuade-management-to-support-your-idea-every-time
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Has this ever happened to you? You’re asked to look at a pressing issue and report back your findings and ideas at the next management status meeting. You interrupt what you're doing, invest time, do the research, and develop a rationale for what's causing the issue, as well as some ideas on how it can be addressed. The status meeting is well attended by all the right decision-makers. You present your ideas, your logic is irrefutable, your research and data bulletproof. Heads nod in agreement. It seems to go well. The meeting ends, and when back at your desk a “ding” signals the arrival of an email thanking you for your ideas. A short time later, you hear from others your proposal has been parked. What went wrong you wonder? Too often people make the mistake of focusing too much on the content and not enough on how it’s delivered. There is a huge danger in using a ‘one size fits all’ approach when presenting ideas. You suspect this is at the root of your disappointment. Developing a Strategy of Persuasion In an earlier blog I discussed how to approach writing a communications plan. If you recall, a checklist emphasized a number of key considerations regarding potential audiences, including knowing beforehand who they are — identifying and characterizing each 'persona', their interests, and the language and keywords (buzzwords) they commonly use. In this blog, I'd like to focus on how to develop your strategy to persuade each persona, and avoid...
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### 5 Tips for Supercharging Your Change Management Process
> Discover 5 powerful tips to supercharge your change management process in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2016-07-05
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/5-tips-for-supercharging-your-change-management-process
- Categories: ITIL
- Blog authors: Nicole Katz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
When creating a request for change (RFC), it's tempting to stick to the bare minimum. After all, most of us have better things to do than populating endless forms with information that nobody really needs to know. I mean what are the chances of the requested change going wrong? Apparently pretty high it seems, if the oft-quoted incidents-related-to-change numbers are to be believed. So with a high proportion of incidents caused by a change can you really afford to be slapdash when submitting an RFC? So what can you do to make your RFC process, and forms, better? Here are my top tips for supercharging your requests for change. 1. Ensure that All the Required Supporting Players Are On Board You may have internal and/or external supporting players as part of your RFC process. So it's essential that they are aware of what, and when, work needs to be done. Sounds like common sense, right? Well yes it is, but you'd be amazed how many times this dependency isn't taken into consideration. It's also critical to your change management process that you ensure that such supporting players have the bandwidth to carry out what you’re asking and within the timescale proposed. Just presuming that those required to help with RFCs are just sitting around waiting for you to give them something to do will definitely cause you issues. In order to keep your change process running smoothly, and to keep your colleagues happy and on-side, you’re going to want to...
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### Are You Pedalling Furiously but Getting Nowhere Fast?
> Struggling to make progress despite your efforts? Learn how SysAid can help you overcome obstacles and move forward efficiently.
- Published: 2016-06-28
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/are-you-pedalling-furiously-but-getting-nowhere-fast
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I was riding home on my bike recently when the traffic lights turned red, as they do. I stopped, and waited for them to turn green again so I could go. There were cars all around me. When the lights finally did turn green I pedalled as hard as I could to try to get clear of the traffic and into a safe space at the edge of the road. Unfortunately, my bike picked that exact moment to develop a fault. The freehub that is supposed to disconnect the wheel from the chain when you are rolling down a hill decided that now was a really good time to go into operation. But it wasn’t supposed to. The result was that no matter how hard I pedalled – and believe me, I pedalled as hard as I could – the bike just stayed still, before slowly starting to topple over. I felt like a character in a classic cartoon, working hard but making no progress and heading for a fall. Later, when I’d had a bit of time to recover, I started to ask myself what it was about this incident that felt so oddly familiar. And then I realized that it’s a great metaphor for what is wrong with many of the IT organizations I’ve known. However hard they work, they never seem to get anywhere. The thing is, no matter how hard we work, we can’t make any progress unless everything is...
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### Service Desk and ITSM Nuggets from SITS16
- Published: 2016-06-16
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-and-itsm-nuggets-from-sits16
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: AXELOS, help desk, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As an exhibitor, it seems to take forever to plan for the Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS) but, once you are there, the two-day event is a case of “blink and you’ll miss it. ” Of course if you didn’t attend this year’s event, then you’ll have missed it anyway. Not just the ocean of IT service management (ITSM) vendors displaying their respective wares but also the hectic schedule of educational sessions. Thankfully, this is where this blog comes in – it’s a potted summary of some of that educational content, organized in a number of action-based statements: Benefit from ITIL Practitioner Don’t forget the negative impact of self-service success Look to the Twitter stream Get the basics right 1. Benefit from ITIL Practitioner ITIL Practitioner was referenced in a number of SITS presentations, Paul Wilkinson even recommended that you “pin up the nine guiding principles of ITIL Practitioner on your wall” and use it as a reference in your day-to-day activities. These principles are: Focus on value Design for experience Start where you are Progress iteratively Observe directly Work holistically Keep it simple Collaborate Be transparent For those of you who might not be familiar with the new ITIL Practitioner publication (and exam), I recommend that you read Stephen Mann’s blog: 8 Things that Stand Out in the New ITIL Practitioner Guidance Book. You can also find more information by visiting the official ITIL Practitioner page on the AXELOS website. Stuart Rance also talks about how to...
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### Emergency Room Syndrome in ITSM and Real Life
- Published: 2016-06-07
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/emergency-room-syndrome-in-itsm-and-real-life
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Roy Eldar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I was trying to get support from a supplier recently and, after considerable delay in reaching a service desk agent, I was upset to be able to hear the boredom in his voice. It was a routine call perhaps, but I was having a domestic crisis and needed something fixed that day. Why was this guy sounding so uninterested? In the ITIL® Service Transition book, the authors made up a term to describe this: “Emergency Room Syndrome”. In that book the term is used to describe the need to remember – as a front-line service agent – that however routine the job and the situations become to you, it is essential to remember that many customers are experiencing disruptive events for the first time. They will be upset, possibly frightened and probably tense and stressed. Good agents will not only be aware of that, but will respond and support that level of crisis, offering calm but interested support and prioritizing in accordance with the customers’ needs, not their vision of routine. Common to You but Unique to Them The Service Transition book analogizes this attitude to that needed in a hospital emergency room, where the doctors and nurses have seen it all before but for each patient, it is new and frightening. The service desk agent I spoke to on the phone that day did not act in this way, so I had no choice but to calm down and let his routine approach lead (eventually) to getting my...
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### Please, Don't Just "Do" DevOps!
- Published: 2016-05-31
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/please-dont-just-do-devops
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: COBIT, DevOps, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
DevOps is currently very fashionable, and so I hear lots of people talking about how their IT organization will be doing DevOps over the next year or so. The trouble is, as soon as I hear this I cringe, because I can’t help thinking about all of the failed improvement projects these same IT organizations have run in the past. Their stories are remarkably similar and they go something like this... ”We Tried That and It Didn’t Work” When ITIL was the new approach that everyone wanted to use, these organizations decided that they were going to “do ITIL. ” This tended to involve devoting lots of resources to a huge, tool-based, monolithic project, with a team of hard working and technically expert consultants who spent many months – sometimes even years – buying tools, creating process documentation, and configuring the tools to match. The IT organization was then tasked with attempting to follow these new processes. All too often they had virtually no understanding of the reasoning that underpinned the new processes, very little focus on their customers, and even less focus on creating value. The results of these projects were predictable; lots of money was spent but no value was created. These organizations later said, “We tried ITIL a few years ago, and it didn’t work”. Some of these same organizations next tried to implement COBIT. As you may know, COBIT is a framework for the governance of enterprise IT, and like all governance approaches it must be...
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### 3 Tips for Creating and Keeping a Cohesive ITSM Team
> Forge a Unified ITSM Team: Streamline Workflows & Collaboration with SysAid. Read Now!
- Published: 2016-05-24
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/3-tips-for-creating-and-keeping-a-cohesive-itsm-team
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Leading and managing an IT service management (ITSM) team can be tough. Not only do you need to think about your own performance, how you feel about your job, and your motivation, there are also the perspectives on the team as a whole and of the individual team members. Team dynamics are an interesting thing – I guess that anything that involves people and the unpredictability of human behavior always is. Even if you’ve handpicked each team member from the crème de la crème of the ITSM industry there will still be times when day-to-day operations are adversely impacted by personality clashes, personal issues spilling over into work, and general slumps in performance. Sadly, it can be even more difficult in the real world, where your ITSM team might be an “inherited” mixed bag of great people – some brimming with potential but have yet to deliver on it, and maybe the odd one or two who think that they are paid to attend work rather than to actively embrace and participate in work. So what can you do to make your ITSM team, and its members, work together better and reach their full potential? 1. Allow for Suggestions, Comments, and Complaints How you encourage, react to, and deal with all feedback makes a big difference to team dynamics, team performance, team motivation, and your standing as the team leader. Suggestion schemes, especially those that offer rewards for useful suggestions, are a good example. They are often set up to...
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### 8 Recommended Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS16) Sessions - Try Saying That After a Few Beers
> 8 Recommended Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS16) Sessions - Try Saying That After a Few Beers - SysAid Blog
- Published: 2016-05-17
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/8-recommended-service-desk-and-it-support-show-sits16-sessions-try-saying-that-after-a-few-beers
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, SITS
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Are you going to the annual Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS16) in London? It’s a free-to-attend IT service management (ITSM) and service desk event where not only do you get to see just about every ITSM tool vendor on the planet, and there’s a few, there’s also a wealth of great ITSM and service desk seminar content available to attendees. It’s not too late to register for the event, if you can get to London for the 8th or 9th of June. I’m very pleased to be attending SITS again this year, it’s a great ITSM event, but the reality of attending has hit me – with so much quality seminar content to choose from, which sessions do you see and which do you sadly have insufficient time to make? At SysAid we call this “Sophie Danby’s choice,” that’s having to forgo quality presenters and topics due to the competing seminar streams. Unfortunately, it’s a common issue across the global ITSM event circuit that we never seem to be able to avoid. So Who and What Should You Plan to See at SITS16? If you are a regular visitor to the SysAid and Joe the IT Guyblogs, then you’ll know that I’m not going to spend my 1000 precious blogging words trying to brainwash you into visiting the SysAid stand at SITS (but you are of course more than welcome to come by to say hello, and our swag this year is seriously top-notch! ). Instead, I’ll be...
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### Demystifying the Latest Cloud Terminology - Part 2
> Demystifying the Latest Cloud Terminology Part 2 - Gain insights into the latest cloud terminology and trends in part 2 of SysAid's blog series.
- Published: 2016-05-10
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/demystifying-the-latest-cloud-terminology-part-2
- Categories: Cloud
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
In Part 1 of this blog series, I covered what cloud native applications and microservices are – and left you dangling as to what containers are. I also mentioned “bees” but that’s irrelevant. Here, in Part 2, I explain: Containers Hybrid and composite clouds Software-defined everything What Are Containers? The history of containers is almost as long as the history of virtual machines, although people seem to think containers are new. Nope - containers have been around for decades and, in a cloud context, they’ve been used by Google for nearly ten years already. The reason everyone is talking about them now is because they’ve been made easier to use by a company called Docker. That reminds me, I need a new pair of chinos. Containers can be thought of as light-weight, operating system-dependent virtual machines. They don’t have the isolation qualities of real virtual machines but they don’t have all the heaviness of virtual machines either, such as the longish boot times and the self-contained operating system. Containers have mostly been available on Linux and they use operating system features to isolate resources for an application. So an application running inside a container thinks the world is as big as the container and has no idea that it’s “riding on the back of one of four elephants (physical servers), which are on the back of a large turtle (data center) swimming through space. ” It’s all sounds very Yellow Submarine. Containers are loved by developers, since Docker solutions went...
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### Demystifying the Latest Cloud Terminology - Part 1
> Demystifying Cloud Terminology Part 1 - Dive into the world of cloud computing, understand the latest terminology and concepts with our blog series.
- Published: 2016-05-03
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/demystifying-the-latest-cloud-terminology-part-1
- Categories: Cloud
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
The cloud is now ten years old, if you view Amazon Web Services (AWS) as kicking off the cloud industry with its inaugural EC2, S3, and SQS services back in 2006. It’s an industry, and IT offering, which has been through the proverbial hype-cycle to become a mainstream IT solution that’s now used and accepted by enterprises of all sizes, and in all industries, around the world. However, the general public’s understanding of cloud doesn’t tally with the maturity of the cloud. A recent US survey revealed that half of Americans think that cloud computing is affected by the weather (and this was before Google data centers were hit by lightning). In Australia, a quarter of active cloud users didn’t know they were using the cloud. This is okay though as one of the benefits of cloud is hiding the complexity of the IT. It’s not just the general public that struggles with cloud. New cloud providers and new cloud services have turned the cloud terminology dial up to eleven (did you like my Spinal Tap reference? ) to make the cloud look like an even more complex place – even for hardened IT professionals like me (Editor: who are you kidding, Joe? ). To help, or at least to confirm people’s understanding, this two-part blog demystifies some of the latest cloud terms: Cloud native applications Microservices Containers Hybrid and composite clouds Software-defined everything What Are Cloud Native Applications? Applications are a combination of programming languages, software architectures, supporting services,...
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### What Value Are You Creating from Your IT Job?
- Published: 2016-04-27
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/what-value-are-you-creating-from-your-it-job
- Categories: ITIL
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We all like to believe we are doing a good job. We all take pride in our achievements. But sometimes those of us who work in IT focus on the wrong things, particularly when the successful completion of technical tasks can be so satisfying that it takes on a life of its own. Clearly, we must be technically proficient. But it may be less obvious that technical proficiency is simply NOT enough. Unless we focus on creating value for our customers, whatever we do simply won’t be good enough. Why Does It Matter? One organization that I worked with had an IT configuration manager who was a real expert in his field. He deployed data collection tools to gather all the information that might be needed, and he carried out regular audits to make absolutely sure that the configuration data was complete and accurate. He was very proud of the quality and quantity of information that he maintained. When I asked him who used this information, and what they used it for, he confessed that he really didn’t know. He had never thought to identify who his customers were, or what information they actually needed to do their jobs. I talked to some of the other IT people in the organization and discovered that nobody used this configuration data at all, for anything. The time consuming and painstaking configuration management work had absolutely no value, to anyone! In an oddly similar manner, relying on superficially straightforward and cost...
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### DevOps Success via the Service Desk
- Published: 2016-04-19
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/devops-success-via-the-service-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: DevOps, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you ask what a service desk is you might get any of these responses: IT operations or IT service management (ITSM) team: “The team we give the responsibility of dealing with IT issues. ” And the more cynical among them might add “... but little in terms of knowledge or tools. ” Business users: “The people who can help us with our IT issues ... some of the time. ” Development: “A worthless and unskilled part of IT. ” Okay the last one might be over-the-top cynical but the service desk/help desk can struggle to be valued outside of IT operations. The Role of the Service Desk in DevOps Thankfully, DevOps can help to change and improve this perspective by using the service desk as the pivot point between Dev, Ops, the business, and suppliers. DevOps is the cultural effort of getting Ops to see into the world of development and project teams, while also providing a mechanism for Dev and the project management office (PMO) to better understand the impact of change on production environments and, more importantly, on the customers. So the service desk can be the lynchpin for how communication, collaboration, and the enhanced use of automation can enable technology to better support business processes and operations. Think about what the business wants from IT: Better features or products, on a more timely basis Deployed in a secure, reliable, and cost effective manner Supported 24x7 So it is a lot more than just the delivery of...
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### ITSM Improvement: 3 Steps to Happy Self-Service Customers
> Discover 3 steps to keep self-service customers happy in this ITSM improvement guide by SysAid.
- Published: 2016-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/itsm-improvement-3-steps-to-happy-self-service-customers
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, self-service, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Today’s tech-savvy customers are taking their consumer-world IT issues into their own hands, with customers now looking online for answers in preference to calling or emailing the supplier to help them to fix the issue. Welcome to the era of the self-service-empowered customer! And self-service adoption continues to grow. Forrester Research has stated that self-service usage has increased from 67% in 2012 to 76% in 2014; and, according to a 2011 Gartner prediction, by 2020 the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. It was a bold prediction and we might not fully make it but we probably won’t be too far off as consumer-world self-service continues to gain traction. But how is employee self-service being encouraged within organizations, especially IT self-service? Supporting Employee Self-Service With the rise of the empowered self-service customer outside the organization, logic and common sense says that these customers will expect similar self-service capabilities when they are at work, i. e. as employees or end users. So how can you build a self-service ecosystem that keeps your end users satisfied? 1. Construct a Knowledge Hub Get, and keep, your end users using self-service by building a “hub” or knowledge base to house your knowledge – with knowledge articles that allow end users to answer their own IT-related questions. End users are keener than ever to solve their own issues rather than relying on customer service in their personal lives, so IT organizations can leverage this consumer-world success...
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### At HDI 2016, Make Time for These ITSM Thought Leaders
> Discover the must-see ITSM thought leaders at HDI 2016. Join SysAid for insights and innovation.
- Published: 2016-04-05
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/at-hdi-2016-make-time-for-these-itsm-thought-leaders
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: HDI, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
So Pink16 is done and dusted, and it’s already time for the second of the year’s IT service management (ITSM) industry’s “grand slam” events – HDI. Alas, I’ll be missing out on this one too, but it doesn’t stop me from dreaming about who I’d like to hear speak if I were there. My far-more-famous colleague Joe the IT Guy will be at HDI 2016, and no doubt he will be using my session suggestions for his post-HDI blog – some guys definitely have all the luck! HDI is a Special ITSM Event I really like the HDI event, as in line with its previous name – the Help Desk Institute – there’s often a lot of practical content that service desk staff, in particular, can use as soon as they are back in the office. There’s also a heavy emphasis on customer service, not just IT support. Thus, some of the HDI content can be ahead of the curve when it comes to the changing dynamics of corporate IT support and the growing expectations of end users (although HDI would deliberately call them customers! ) You’ll see what I mean from my suggestions below, it’s pretty much about all hands-on stuff... So What Do I Recommend? Maybe this should be more like “So who do I recommend? ” as I’m a firm believer that while it’s good to attend the sessions of people that you know nothing about – in that you might learn something new – it’s also...
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### ITSM Tool Selection Basics: 10 Tips to Make RFP Stand for “Right Fit Procurement”
> Discover expert tips for selecting the right ITSM tool in this insightful article from SysAid.
- Published: 2016-03-30
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-tool-selection-basics-10-tips-to-make-rfp-stand-for-right-fit-procurement
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, RFPs, service desk
- Blog authors: Stephen Mann
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
As Joe the IT Guy said in his recent HDI blog on selecting a new IT service management (ITSM) tool – “Selecting any new technology is a serious matter. ” In particular, there’s little fun to be had with the request for proposal (RFP) process, for all the involved parties. And, having been involved with RFPs on both sides of the seller-buyer divide, I can tell you that RFPs are never fun, but even more worryingly, they can also be dangerous. You might be thinking “Dangerous? Really? ” So consider one of my favorite, and most oft-used, ITSM tool selection statements – “If you ask the wrong questions then you’ll get the wrong answer. ” In my opinion, we continue to see a never-ending series of “wrong answers,” i. e. less than successful ITSM tool implementations, that has industry analysts stating that ITSM tools are, on average, replaced every “n” years (where n is usually between 3-5 years depending on the analyst firm). The ITSM Tool Blame Game Many will blame this ITSM tool replacement cycle on the technology implementation process or the fact that key people and process issues weren’t addressed when moving from the old tool to the new one. These people are not wrong. However, more blame needs to attributed to the tool itself – not that the new tool is imperfect but the fact that the tool might not have been the best option for the procuring organization. The wrong questions were asked and the company...
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### What’s Wrong with IT Service Management Maturity Assessments?
> Learn about the pitfalls of IT Service Management Maturity Assessments in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2016-03-22
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whats-wrong-with-it-service-management-maturity-assessments
- Categories: ITIL
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As an IT service management (ITSM) consultant, customers sometimes start by asking me to carry out a maturity assessment. They usually tell me that they want to know how they compare to other similar organizations, and how they rate against an industry approved scale. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there? When I was less experienced I assumed that my customers understood what they were asking for, and knew why they wanted it, and my job was simply to carry out the assessment that had been requested. I even developed tools to help me deliver consistent maturity assessments based on the ITIL service management process maturity framework,. But I know better now. I have learned to ask more searching questions, so that I understand what my customers’ real goals are, and then provide a properly focused assessment that will help to solve their problems. Assessments Can Be Valuable So, what’s wrong with maturity assessments? And is there something more valuable that you can and should do instead? To answer these questions we need to start by thinking about why an assessment might be needed in the first place. What is it for, and what value does it create? Many customers ask for assessments because they are planning improvements. It’s just good sense. If you’re planning to make improvements, then you need to understand what you are currently doing, for a number of reasons: To identify, and help prioritize, the things that need to be fixed To create a baseline so...
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### Working in IT: 5 Tips for Dealing with Undermining Behavior
> This post relates to a personal experience with undermining behavior and offers advice for dealing with it.
- Published: 2016-03-16
- Modified: 2024-11-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/working-in-it-5-tips-for-dealing-with-undermining-behavior
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Nicole Katz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Working in IT can be difficult at the best of times, with operational and organizational change often a particularly difficult “nut to crack. ” We can, of course, use proven methodologies and techniques, such as those by Lewin and Kotter for organizational change or PRINCE2 and Agile for project management and development, but sometimes there is a very-human “spanner thrown in the works” – that of “undermining behavior. ” And of course this does not only happen in times of change, and it does not only happen in IT, but when it does happen, it is wise to understand how to spot it and then how to deal with it. This blog relates to a personal experience with undermining behavior and offers advice for dealing with it. IT is ultimately about people working together effectively and any such barriers to success need to be prevented wherever possible. Undermining Behavior is Not Always Easy to Spot A new IT procurement process had been designed in a collaborative and inclusive manner, tested with multiple focus groups, and people trained across all the IT teams. Yet, for some reason, one IT team could not reach the desired metrics and outcomes of the new process. We retrained that IT team. But there was no improvement. We talked with the IT team’s leader regarding the importance of the new procurement process. We were assured that the IT team understood the importance of the new process. We even received a commitment that the IT team’s leader...
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### A Practical Approach to Getting Started with Service Catalog
> Discover a hands-on guide to kickstarting your Service Catalog journey with SysAid.
- Published: 2016-03-09
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/a-practical-approach-to-getting-started-with-service-catalog
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Recently I presented a webinar on getting started with service catalog. It's a topic that comes up often because getting started can be harder than it looks – especially without the support of a full IT service management (ITSM) program. If you know you need a service catalog but aren’t sure where to get started, the webinar offers a practical approach to get you up and going with a basic service catalog. Some of the common challenges that organizations face when trying to build the service catalog are: Staff may think: ”Our users know what we do” IT services evolve too rapidly Changes are made with little formal change management Siloed organization: poor/informal communication between teams - app dev, infrastructure, and support “We are technology (not service) providers” Lack of service owners Cultural resistance Lack of organizational support Lack of time and attention to build it Thinking that 'service catalog' is a document – “We already have one... somewhere... ” If any of these sound familiar, I encourage you to watch the webinar and download the whitepaper. Your Questions and My Answers Below are my answers to some questions asked during the webinar. Q1:"If you need to create a request catalog within a very short timeframe, what is the least amount of information you would recommend to publish in a live catalog, before being able to circle back and add/fill in more information? "A1:Kind of a 'minimum viable product’ approach. I like the question, partly because it's realistic. Of course, the...
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### Pink16: Some of the ITSM Wisdom That Shouldn’t Stay in Vegas
> Discover valuable ITSM insights from Pink16 conference in Vegas by SysAid.
- Published: 2016-02-25
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/pink16-some-of-the-itsm-wisdom-that-shouldnt-stay-in-vegas
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Enterprise IT, ITSM, PINK16
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As always, the annual Pink Elephant IT service management (ITSM) conference (and Las Vegas itself) was a blast. Some of what happened in Vegas of course has to stay in Vegas, but much of the session content deserves to be shared with a wider audience. You’ve heard of “Joe Public,” well you can now think of me as Joe Public Service. It’s not easy when you’re an intergalactic ITSM superstar but, with the help of a blonde wig, sunglasses, and a few pseudonyms, I was able to sneak into a number of Pink16 sessions without the attendees being distracted from the presenter by my sheer awesomeness. Sadly, it happens a lot if I don’t go in a little like Daniel Radcliffe at Comic-Con. My Pink16 Key Learnings Learning number one, unfortunately, is that people still know that it’s me if I try the Spider-man suit approach. It didn’t help at Pink16 that The IT Skeptic didn’t follow my lead with a superhero pants-outside-the-tights costume. So I won’t try that again. I did get some good ITSM learning though. If you read my good friend Dena Wieder-Freiden’s pre-Pink16 blog, you’ll notice that I took her advice on which sessions to attend. Plus, I snuck into fellow New Yorker Alan Berkson’s session on enterprise service management. So here is my session-by-session breakdown... “The IT Renaissance” with Rob England, The IT Skeptic One of the great things about Rob’s presentation was that it joined, or pulled, a number of things that we tend to...
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### Who Is Your Customer?
- Published: 2016-02-24
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/who-is-your-customer
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Great IT services create value for customers, with a focus on customer experience and customer satisfaction. Organizations that deliver IT services must manage a balance of people, processes, and technology. When it comes to people you need to consider the skills and behavior of IT staff, but it is even more important to focus on the most important people, your customers. This is not a new message, but it bears repeating because far too often the main focus of the people delivering IT services continues to be on the technology and the processes. A Team with No Customers! I was teaching an IT service management (ITSM) training course recently, and some of the students worked in a group that managed infrastructure. They delivered storage, servers, and networking to application teams, who used these as building blocks to create IT services for the business. I asked some of these students who their customers were, and they said that they didn’t have any customers. Really? ! This reminded me of another organization where I worked some years ago, where there was a team who configured and deployed monitoring software to thousands of servers. People on the operations bridge told me that the monitoring software generated thousands of red alerts every day, and they picked out the really critical ones, ignoring the others. This was obviously a very risky way to detect events so I asked the team responsible for the monitoring software who their customer was. “We don’t have customers,” I was...
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### ITSM Basics: Change Impact Assessment - Part 2
- Published: 2016-02-16
- Modified: 2021-08-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-change-impact-assessment-part-2
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
In part 1 of this blog, I focused on what to look, and ask, for when assessing a change. Here, in part 2, I go further, and beyond the impact assessment, to look at minimizing the potential for adverse IT and business impact from poorly planned or executed changes. You could argue that the title of my blog is now inappropriate but, in my opinion, it’s good to talk about change impact and the potential risks rather than change management per se. You could argue that this blog also dips its toes into release management too. But, if you have time to argue about blog titles, you probably need to find a more engaging job. Don’t Skimp on Change and Release Planning Sadly, it’s not just a case of hitting a big red button and cackling “fly my pretties, fly. ” A good plan clearly sets out who does what, where, and at what time. Sounds simple but I’ve lost count of the amount of time I’ve had to spend rounding up engineers that were distracted mid-change or just weren’t aware of what they should be doing... “Oh right, that was today wasn’t it? ” Sometimes it’s like herding cats. So make sure that you’ve got any handover periods highlighted and primary and secondary contact details for everyone involved. Mobile signals can drop and Exchange servers can glitch, so make sure the people involved are contactable at key times. Post-Implementation Testing Can Make a Big Difference How do we know...
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### ITSM Basics: Change Impact Assessment - Part 1
- Published: 2016-02-09
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-change-impact-assessment-part-1
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
One of the things that worries me most about where the IT industry is headed is how we sometimes get so caught up in “the new stuff” that we forget to make sure that we have all the basics covered. A good example is change management, which can be easily overlooked while we’re looking at, and then researching, the newest and shiniest trends, and technologies, in the world of IT and IT service management (ITSM). Unfortunately IT change doesn’t happen in isolation. In fact, these days it’s common for IT change to be business change – and it can impact the whole organization around it, and all the people touched by it. Consequently, changes that are inadequately assessed, managed, and reviewed can have a significantly harmful impact on both IT and business operations. In my opinion, not taking change seriously is akin to playing business-continuity Russian roulette. Of course change will always involve a certain level of risk, but taking the time to properly assess the impact of a change can make things significantly less risky for everyone involved. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how brilliant your service desk is, or how talented your tech support people are, if you get changes right the first time, you’ll break less things, generate less incidents, and have happier end users. It’s a win, win, win situation! What to Look for When Assessing a Change I’ve seen some pretty poor excuses for change requests in my time. Some have been so bad that...
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### Why ITSM OpEx Efficiencies = IT Efficiencies
- Published: 2016-02-04
- Modified: 2022-01-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/why-itsm-opex-efficiencies-it-efficiencies
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: Enterprise IT, ITSM
- Blog authors: Dennis Drogseth
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Advanced
In preparing for this blog I interviewed a global support manager at an international agribusiness corporation where SysAid was enabling increased end-user responsiveness, improved asset and change management, and enhanced OpEx efficiencies overall. As it turned out, this very strong narrative aligned very well with EMA research data on how IT service management (ITSM) operational efficiencies are impacting IT OpEx effectiveness overall. Looking at this bigger picture, the role of ITSM teams is growing, not shrinking in importance. ITSM is increasingly providing a source of governance and efficiency in supporting all of IT in incident and problem management, release management (including agile and DevOps), change management, and asset management. In many cases ITSM teams are also leading the charge in supporting mobile requirements both for IT service consumers and IT professionals for improved efficiencies. So given all these trends, which I’ll examine in a little more depth in this blog, I think it’s safe to say that ITSM operational efficiencies reside at the very center of improving IT efficiencies overall. Before going any further, I should mention that the data points I’m referring to in this blog are taken from three different research projects: one on digital and IT transformation; one on ITSM futures, and one on next-generation asset management. Let’s start with the growing role of ITSM teams in supporting IT more broadly. Workflow and scheduling are part of the reason why ITSM integrations reach out to support operations and other IT groups. This is especially true as workflows...
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### Pink16: So Little Time, So Much to Learn
- Published: 2016-02-02
- Modified: 2022-03-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/pink16-so-little-time-so-much-to-learn
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, PINK16, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s that time again, for one of IT service management’s (ITSM) “grand slam” industry conferences – Pink Elephant’s Pink16, now in its 20th year at the swanky Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. But sadly not for me, instead I’ll be watching the conference from afar this year (via Twitter). It doesn’t stop me dreaming of the sessions I’d attend though, and I’ll be recommending these to my colleague Ami Shimkin and anyone else willing to listen. The theme of this year's conference is “IT @ The Speed of Change” – with Pink Elephant stating that IT teams now “need to be quick, lean, innovative, proactive, timely and effective. ” As per usual, there’s a wide range of content, some would say too much content, crammed into three days across the following session types and tracks: Keynotes “Power hour” Pre-conference optimizers IT leadership IT strategic management Lean IT and Agile Service support and operations “How to” ITIL clinics and workshops DevOps Organizational change management Pink Think Tank Tools and technology Cyber risk and security management Ask the expert breakfast club Half-day workshops So much content that it really is an excuse for human cloning. Alternatively, you just have to realize that you can’t see all the sessions you want to, pray for minimal session clashes, and selectively pick what you imagine to be the best use of your limited time. But I’m happy to help, with the following suggested sessions. And please excuse the odd early-bird session – I selected what...
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### How You Can and Should Manage Availability of IT Services
> Explore effective IT service availability management techniques in this SysAid guide. Master the art of maintaining smooth IT services.
- Published: 2016-01-26
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-you-can-and-should-manage-availability-of-it-services
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
In my recent blog 5 New Year’s Resolutions for ITSM Practitioners, I recommended that people should think about how they manage availability. I was surprised by the number of people who contacted me to say that they thought I had got this one wrong since availability management isn’t that important. I don’t think I got it wrong and this blog explains why. Well-run IT services make a huge contribution to a customer’s business, and this means that when those services aren’t available, the negative impact can be huge too. If we don’t plan to deliver the right level of availability, we’re just relying on luck, and, as we all know, hoping for the best isn’t a viable management strategy. Availability management activities can be broken up into three distinct areas: Understanding and negotiating customer requirements Designing services so they are able to deliver the required availability Ongoing management to ensure agreed targets are met or exceeded Understanding and Negotiating Customer Requirements How available does a critical IT service need to be? How often have you worked with customers where there are no clear availability requirements beyond “It must be available all the time” or “We want 100% availability”? The biggest problem with this kind of target is that it gives you no guidance on how to design the service and its recovery mechanisms. You should never agree to targets like these. You will fail. Maybe not this week or this month, but eventually there will be some downtime. What’s more,...
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### ITSM and Business Intelligence: Why Do We Continue To Ignore Our Wealth of ITSM Data?
- Published: 2016-01-19
- Modified: 2023-02-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/itsm-and-business-intelligence-why-do-we-continue-to-ignore-our-wealth-of-itsm-data
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: Business Intelligence (BI). Big Data, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stephen Mann
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I’ve written about IT service management (ITSM) and the opportunities of business intelligence (BI) before, but that was four years ago, as an industry analyst. Since then, I’ve seen very few vendors shouting about the fact that they have upped their reporting, and potentially BI, game. It’s really odd, especially when you consider how the ITSM marketplace has embraced the Nexus of Forces, a concept (developed by global research and analysis firm Gartner) that describes “the convergence and mutual reinforcement of social, mobility, cloud and information patterns that drive new business scenarios. ” So while the ITSM world has dipped its toes into the first three of these forces (social, mobility, and cloud) with varying degrees of success, the latter (information patterns) continues to be largely overlooked. Why do we continue to waste the BI opportunity that sits atop our wealth of ITSM data? So What about Information and BI for ITSM? ITSM solutions house a great deal of IT-related data. Whether it be in a configuration management database/system (CMDB/CMS), a service catalog, or within the more-transactional records for incidents, service requests, problems, and changes. But how many IT organizations are using this data to better understand their past and to influence their present and future? We might look for incident trends for problem management purposes. And we often have a death-by-metrics approach to performance reporting, where it can take someone a week to pull together a monthly reporting pack that gets very little attention or reads. But beyond the...
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### Problem and Incident Management Benefit from a Joint Effort
> Boost Problem and Incident Management with collaborative efforts. Discover more at SysAid.
- Published: 2016-01-12
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/problem-and-incident-management-benefit-from-a-joint-effort
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Nearly 30 years ago, ITIL® launched itself on an unsuspecting world with five books published. One of those was called Help Desk, and another one dealt separately with Problem Management. The separation of two requirements – dealing with calls and getting people working again – was one of the key elements of the fledgling ITIL guidance. The help desk, via the incident management process, was meant to deal with the immediate effects and get people working again. Problem management, on the other hand, was all about finding out what went wrong and preventing it from happening again. They Are Different But... In the 1990s ITIL advocated the need for a clear distinction between incident and problem management, but later thinking promoted the idea that integration of the two is very beneficial. Like with all the ITIL processes that are considered part of service management, the basic principles are ones we are used to in our everyday domestic lives. For example, let’s think about cooking one of your regular recipes – something simple like pasta bake. You get it prepared and ready for the oven, and then can’t find the baking dish you normally use. What do you do? Dinner has to be ready on time so you use a different dish, a bit bigger than your usual one. The bigger surface area will affect the outcome of the dish a bit – topping will be spread out more, thinner depth causes quicker cooking, changing the texture slightly perhaps? So... maybe...
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### Change Management Webinar - The Listeners Speak
- Published: 2016-01-06
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/change-management-webinar-the-listeners-speak
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Ivor Macfarlane
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
In my recent webinar for SysAid, Never Underestimate the Importance of Change Management, I had the chance to ask three polling questions to those listening. Encouragingly, we got around 160 answers to each question – easily enough to justify us talking about the result. First though, a gentle warning. This wasn’t a professional survey with a balanced sample of people. It is what those who attended the webinar thought. So, we can assume this is the situation for interested people in the ITSM profession who are motivated enough to subscribe to a change management webinar. My webinar (which by the way you can still listen to if you haven’t already) set out to make a few simple points: Don’t have IT change management as something separate from an organization’s overall change management. Since IT is part of every aspect of the organization, it should be involved in changes from the beginning. Focus your change management efforts on the changes where you need to make a decision, accepting high-level instructions that you cannot alter, and delegating as much authority as you can via standard changes. Look at how a changed service, or a new one, performs – not just immediately after go-live but also a while later, seeing actual behaviour, adoption, and usefulness of the service. Polling Questions So, what I wanted to find out from the listeners was how some folks were doing with those ideas. Therefore, I asked the following poll questions. 1. “When is your CIO/IT team asked...
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### Looking Both ITSM Ways When Crossing the Service Street
> Discover SysAid's ITSM guide, emphasizing the value of diverse perspectives in navigating the service landscape.
- Published: 2015-12-30
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/looking-both-itsm-ways-when-crossing-the-service-street
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
IT services – actually all services – look different to those supplying them and those receiving them. This separation of perspective is not at all trivial: on the one hand, there’s the customer who judges a service received based on how well it supports their work or life, and on the other hand, those working on the service delivery focus wholly on its means of production, delivery, and maintenance. I believe that having awareness and empathy towards each others’ perspectives leads to real improvements to the service. In businesses today, with the ongoing move towards outsourcing, multi-sourcing, offshoring, and the like, the logical and physical separation of customer and supplier seems to be growing. So perhaps that makes this a good time to look at how much extended knowledge of the ‘other side’ is useful, and how much is just a source of distraction. While we’re at it, I’ll give my recommendations on how I think organizations can get that balance right. On the One Hand ... From the customer perspective, the service is all about the use that can be gained from it. Success is about good answers to questions like: Does it help me do my job? Is it there when I need it? Is it easy to use? Effective use of a service is absolutely possible with minimal understanding of how it works. Think about the car you drive. How well you understand the engine, transmission, etc. makes very little difference to how useful it is to...
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### 5 New Year’s Resolutions for ITSM Practitioners
- Published: 2015-12-29
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-new-years-resolutions-for-itsm-practitioners
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
New Year’s resolutions are traditional at this time of year. So I’ve been thinking about what would be great resolutions for people who work in IT service management (ITSM). Here are my top five suggestions for you to consider. Measure and Report What’s Important Do you create lots of reports, full of numbers, charts and tables? When did you last talk to your stakeholders about what’s really important to them, so that you could make sure that your reports are relevant and focused? A short report that has the information your customers really need is much more valuable than a long report full of numbers that they don’t care about. The beginning of a new year is a good time to reflect on what you’re reporting and consider whether you could create more value by reporting less. So why not take the time to review what you’re doing, and make changes if they’re needed? Remember to talk to your customers before you make any changes, to ensure that you really are improving their experience. Stop Doing Things that Don’t Create Value Whenever I carry out ITSM process reviews, I always discover things that people do just because they’ve always worked that way. Eliminating activities that don’t create any value is a great way to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and speed up ITSM processes; and it’s surprisingly easy to do. Create a process diagram on a piece of paper and list all the activities you do. Even better, make the time...
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### 10 IT Predictions for 2016
- Published: 2015-12-22
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/10-it-predictions-for-2016
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Anyone can predict the future, although whether they are right or not is a different matter. Just look at the Y2K predictions, or those stating that online shopping would never take off. Or that the Apple iPhone would never sell – I bet Nokia was relieved to hear this back in 2007. There must be lots of cloud predictions too – in particular that large companies wouldn’t adopt cloud or even software-as-a-service (SaaS) due to security concerns. Finally, if you want to go old-school technology, that the Titanic was unsinkable. Despite these, the tech media will no doubt be full of 2016 predictions as the New Year approaches. And neither this prediction blitz nor my list of failed technology predictions is enough to stop me from using my crystal ball... My 2016 IT Predictions in Summary In my opinion, 2016 will be characterized by power shifts as corporate IT, and the technology it employs, transforms at an exponential rate. The impact of these power shifts will affect line of business attitudes to IT supply, and corporate IT budgets and priorities; which will in turn change technology vendor approaches. Importantly, it’s not just about the changing technology but also how corporate IT is viewed and how the supply and demand models required to meet growing business requirements for technology need to change. Many of my predictions have already started to appear during 2015, via early adopters, and will continue to become mainstream in 2016. 1. The Balance of IT Power...
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### Winter 16 Beta Bliss: Reporting...Redefined
- Published: 2015-12-17
- Modified: 2023-04-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/winter-16-beta-bliss-reporting-redefined
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, reporting, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Danny Tashiev
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
“The new reporting is SUCH an improvement! I love the new design too, but the functionality in the reporting though... Fantastic. ” -lola412 “New reporting is a big improvement” -cdkarp “Thanks for updating the Reporting UI. It's definitely much improved. ” -GopherTech Hey guys! It’s SysAid Beta time again and I feel like we’re in a winter wonderland – well, it is the season, right? SysAid Winter 16 (also known as v15. 4) On-Premise Beta testing is progressing quite nicely – we’re receiving lots of positive reactions and constructive feedback from our Pathfinders, and have recently moved to Beta Phase 2. Part of the feedback resulted in our opening numerous bugs, which our R&D team is busy fixing literally as I’m typing this :) Winter 16 Highlights In case you haven’t already heard, allow me to go over with you what the whole fuss is about: New Reporting Module & BI Analytics! We’re introducing a new, drag-and-droppable UI, with loads of improvements to make reporting smooooooooth and easy. Combined together with the upcoming BI Analytics module (which was announced in November and is due to be launched at the official Winter 16 On-Premise release), both will complement SysAid's existing set of analytics features, including IT Benchmark and our animated summary of metrics, in order to assist managers to: Accurately track relevant KPIs according to organizational goals Gain an overview of team performance and organizational processes Present metrics to management in a professional and engaging manner, with customized branding Make conclusions...
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### What’s the Future of Corporate IT and ITSM?
- Published: 2015-12-16
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/whats-the-future-of-corporate-it-and-itsm
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
While we were at FUSION, the joint itSMF USA and HDI IT service management (ITSM) conference, we asked a number of the IT and ITSM professionals in the Expo Hall three quick questions about the future of IT: Where do you see the corporate IT department in five years’ time? With the consumerization of IT continuing to drive employee expectations of corporate IT, how will this potentially disrupt the way companies deliver IT? What IT process or activity is the most important in creating superior user experiences to boost user/customer satisfaction? We also tweeted the survey a few times post-FUSION, which helped to take the number of survey responses to a healthy 331. I like to think of it as a quick pulse check for IT professionals and their IT organizations – we’d have liked to ask more questions, but have you seen how difficult it is to get people to engage with surveys these days? Nonetheless, the survey results, while limited in their scope for ease-of-completion purposes, show that corporate IT organizations need to change, and to change in a number of different ways. The Corporate IT Department in 2020 – Smaller and with New Skills Thankfully only 3. 6% of respondents think that there will no longer be corporate IT departments – but given who answered the survey that would be like turkeys voting for Thanksgiving or Christmas. × Nearly half of respondents (48%) expect IT departments to contain fewer people in five years’ time versus the 28....
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### The First Call Resolution Paradox
- Published: 2015-12-16
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/the-first-call-resolution-paradox
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
You’ve no doubt heard the saying "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. " Therefore, naturally, we try to measure things so we can effectively manage them. Makes sense, as far as that goes, but there's a lesser-known saying - "be careful what you measure, it just might improve. " Be Careful What You Measure Somewhere along the way, the world of call centers became enamored with first call resolution (FCR). The idea is fairly sound, really – customers who are helped immediately (on the first call) are happier, more satisfied customers. But, as Doug Tedder points out in The First Contact Resolution Trap, it may not be the end-all metric it's often though to be. Hear me out on this one. Having good people with solid technical skills and the right tools does wonders for rapid issue resolution. No denying that. But, looking a little closer at the factors that underpin FCR, we find: Common issues that are relatively easy to resolve High volume of short calls Low volume of unique issues requiring significant research So, how do we improve FCR? By getting really good at resolving common issues. And if that’s what you measure, well then (you know what they say), that’s what you’re going to get – a focus on how we react to incidents. It could be argued that we should work to get stock answers to questions and shorten calls; more common questions, shorter calls. But, I contend that the real value of...
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### Change Management Webinar – Here’s Your Questions Answered
> Join our Change Management Webinar to get all your questions answered by SysAid experts!
- Published: 2015-12-10
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/change-management-webinar-heres-your-questions-answered
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Ivor Macfarlane
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Not so long ago, I presented a webinar on change managementcalled Never Underestimate the Importance of Change Management. Normally webinars are a lonely alternative to conventional seminars, because instead of looking at faces of real people, during the webinar it’s just you and a telephone and the hope of people out in cyberspace listening. This time though, with good responses to our three polling questions (that’s another whole very interesting blog coming soon) and lots of questions from the listeners, I felt much less alone. The only downside though was that there wasn’t time to answer all of the listeners’ questions, hence this blog. Most of the questions call for the traditional consultant’s first response: “It depends”; and this deserves attention in its own right. Best practice is about documenting approaches that seem to have worked for someone – be they best practices about IT service management (ITSM), cooking, or anything else. Whether they’ll work exactly like that for you depends on how matched your situation and circumstances are to those where the best practices initially succeeded. Add in the wide variation in pressures and constraints that face different organizations and you see the limitations of a generic answer. I wrote about that recently here so I won’t go on about it again; instead let’s dive into those questions now. Please note that some answers could be an entire blog on their own, but I will be as brief as I can here to fit everything in. Question: "I’m about...
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### Reap All of the BYOD Benefits and None of the IT Headaches with Nubo VMI
> Maximize BYOD benefits effortlessly with Nubo VMI - SysAid. Discover more in the full article.
- Published: 2015-12-07
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/reap-all-of-the-byod-benefits-and-none-of-the-it-headaches-with-nubo-vmi
- Categories: BYOD
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Enterprises continue to cruise full speed ahead towards a truly mobile reality, and the ITSM industry is no exception. Many businesses are looking at how to efficiently mobilize enterprise apps, asset and incident management and many other services without the substantial burden that device management has placed on IT resources. Luckily, a groundbreaking innovation has arrived that can gives businesses the simplest and most secure route to maximizing the benefits of BYOD, which as you know is all about giving your employees the tools and information they need to be productive, and add value by making timely and informed business decisions from wherever they are. Today that means being able to access top-notch enterprise and consumer apps from your smartphone or tablet. SysAid has partnered with Nubo Software, a leading innovator of Virtual Mobile Infrastructure (VMI) technology. Allow me to explain a little about Nubo. We are a cloud-based remote enterprise workspace that lets you remotely deliver any mobile app to your employees with zero implementation time or maintenance needed. Instead of installing and managing native apps on personally owned devices, your business apps are run virtually from a mobile OS on a secured cloud. Those apps are transferred to smartphones and tablets as a display, using a remote display protocol made specifically for mobile performance. Your users access the workspace by downloading the Nubo thin client app from Google Play or Apple’s App Store. Since the environment is entirely remote, zero corporate data is stored on employee devices, offering...
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### Work on a Service Desk? Say What You’ll Do, then Do What You Said
> Discover how to excel on the Service Desk with SysAid - state your tasks and deliver on them.
- Published: 2015-11-24
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/work-on-a-service-desk-say-what-youll-do-then-do-what-you-said
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer experience, CX, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Customer satisfaction isn’t only about the quality of the service you deliver, it’s just as much about how well you set and then meet customer’s expectations. The most important thing to get right when you’re providing services is to say what you’ll deliver and then deliver what your customers expect. If you reliably meet customers’ expectations – every time – then those customers will value your service. If, on the other hand, you let customers down then they will be dissatisfied with your service, even if their expectations were unreasonable and could never have been met. Setting Expectations People who work on a service desk/help desk have a great opportunity to delight customers, by simply making sure that customers know what is going to happen, so that when you deliver services to them they get what they were expecting. On the other hand, if you set expectations incorrectly, or fail to deliver the service that you said you would, that leads to dissatisfaction. I recently phoned my broadband supplier to ask them to switch my internet connection to a different phone line. The person on the service desk told me that this would take 30 days, and they immediately sent me an email with an exact timetable for the switch, saying that they would deliver a new modem the day before the switch, and I should return the old modem in the same packaging. I was pretty sure that the two modems were the same so this seemed a...
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### FUSION15: People, Process, Technology, and Even More People
> Discover the synergy of people, process, technology, and more in FUSION15 with SysAid.
- Published: 2015-11-17
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/fusion15-people-process-technology-and-even-more-people
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: FUSION15, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I’m back from a wonderful trip to New Orleans for FUSION15, plus a sneaky little post-event vacation, and I wanted to capture some of the great insights and advice the presenters at FUSION15 had to offer. Obviously there are only so many sessions an individual can attend at a multi-stream event, without the benefit of cloning, and there were many more sessions that I wished I could attend but was prevented by clashes. However, I think I chose my sessions well and, without realizing it, I appear to have attended sessions across the IT service management (ITSM) mantra of people, process, and technology (or product if you are totally up-to-date with your ITIL training). So here are some key points I picked up. “We Don’t Do People” Stuart Rance (ITSM legend, consultant, trainer, and ITIL author) started with this mantra, stating that we talk about IT services being supported by people, process, and technology, but too often we invest all our time and effort in the processes and technology, and forget about the people. Stuart explained how we can significantly improve the IT organization by focusing on people, offering a number of real-world stories about how the attitudes and behaviors of IT staff can dramatically influence the customer experience. Stuart challenged the audience with questions, including: When you recruit, do you require people skills as well as tech skills? How do you measure and reward people? Is meeting your SLA more important than making your customer happy? All of these...
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### The Help You Need to Adopt Continual Service Improvement
- Published: 2015-11-10
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-help-you-need-to-adopt-continual-service-improvement
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: continual service improvement, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Continual Service Improvement (CSI) is one of the most important concepts in ITIL, but very few IT organizations put anything in place to make it happen. Everyone knows that they need a service desk, and that they need incident management and change management. An IT organization without these things would deliver terrible service and have customers that are completely dissatisfied. I think that the same applies to CSI. If you aren’t continually improving your services, your processes, and your technology, then at best you will stagnate, while your competition gradually leaves you further and further behind. Staying still is not an option when everyone else is improving; it’s just a way to gradually decline into irrelevance. It’s fairly easy to get started with CSI and it can make a huge difference to the value you create for your customers. In this article I’ll give you some practical suggestions of things you can do to make CSI work for you. Why Do You Need CSI? When you design a new service, or a new process, or some new infrastructure, it’s never 100% perfect. If you spent the time it would actually take to eliminate all errors and inefficiencies, it would take so long that every project would be delivered too late to have any value. This means that whenever you create a new (or updated) service (or process) it already has things wrong with it even before you get started. If you have CSI in place then this won’t matter, because...
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### Usable Metrics Are More than Just Numbers
- Published: 2015-11-04
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/usable-metrics-are-more-than-just-numbers
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Roy Eldar
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We live in an age of measurements and analytics, where organizations like to calculate how well they are doing, and how well (or badly) their employees are performing. This applies to IT service management (ITSM) where metrics, business dashboards, key performance indicators, and similar terms are everyday ITSM speak. So... we have lots of numbers that represent what we do, and we hear that ”the numbers do not lie,” but too many organizations don’t make use of these numbers as they should; meaning they don’t derive the right information or follow up with the right actions, based on the outcomes. One of the reasons service desk performance metrics are so under-used is the apparent belief that the numbers mean one specific thing when, actually, they often mean very little without context. Trends and Contexts Matter More than Values If you tell me you weigh 70 kilos, it tells me what you weigh. If you also tell me that you were 71 kilos last week and 70 the week before that, then I know more about you, and can surmise something about your lifestyle. If I then discover that you have just taken up weightlifting and are building up your size and strength for a competition, then I’d no doubt be more impressed than I would’ve otherwise, without that knowledge. The same applies to ITSM. Many organizations measure their user or customer satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 5. Telling me you scored 3. 9 might sound good, but less...
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### The ITSM and DevOps FUSION
- Published: 2015-10-14
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-itsm-and-devops-fusion
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: DevOps, FUSION, IT service management, ITSM
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The IT service management (ITSM) event season has kicked-off again, and it’s time for myself and the rest of the SysAid clan to jet off to the annual FUSION Conference – which this year is being held in fabulous New Orleans. I’ve already packed my saxophone. Taking place from the 1st – 4th November, we’ll be joining over 1,500 delegates to “roar into the modern age of service management. ” What to Expect at FUSION Well despite the “roaring” part, I’m assuming that there are not going to be real lions involved (can someone please verify this for me? ). Unless of course Roy Atkinson is planning on serenading us with a version of the Lion Sleeps Tonight, in full costume, during one of his many presentations (I have it on good authority, from the very honest Sophie Danby, that he has been known to thrown down a tune or two while sharing his ITSM wisdom at events). Roy – please give us a heads up if this is going to happen, I will need to bring my camera! What you can actually expect to hear and see at FUSION is presentations from a wide range of industry-renowned speakers on a variety of ITSM-based topics such as: Change Management Incident Management IT Asset Management Problem Management That’s right, we’re not just focusing on the ITSM basics anymore – we’re playing with the big boys. In fact, this year the FUSION team is also introducing a brand new co-located...
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### 5 Reasons the Service Desk Should Care About Information Security
> Discover why the service desk should prioritize information security in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2015-10-08
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-reasons-the-service-desk-should-care-about-information-security
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: IT security, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In many organizations there is a separate information security team that deals with all things relating to security. This team is responsible for designing and implementing all the controls needed to protect the organization, and for managing all major security incidents. So why does the service desk need to be involved, and what contribution should it make? Here are five reasons that you should consider: 1. Everyone’s Responsible for Security The first and most obvious reason is that information security, also known simply as InfoSec, isn’t just about process controls or technology controls that we can delegate to the InfoSec team and then ignore unless they affect us directly. Good information security depends on a good balance between people, process, and technology controls, where the people controls affect a broad range of personnel in the organization – all of whom need to take some responsibility for security. Service desk agents, like everyone else in the organization, need to know what information security policies apply to them, and need to take responsibility for following these policies. Typical policies that everyone needs to follow include: Acceptable use policies– what you are allowed to do with email, social media, the company network, etc. Mobile device or BYOD policies– how personal devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones should be managed Password management policies– how often you have to change your password, rules about how passwords are made up, and whether you’re allowed to record passwords Remote working policy– rules for how people...
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### How to Write a Communications Plan
- Published: 2015-09-30
- Modified: 2022-03-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-write-a-communications-plan
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s human nature to seek out others to communicate. Through communications we learn, relate, help, influence, and play. Communication is the currency and propellant of our society. Thanks to technology we are connected and able to communicate more today than at any previous time in our recorded history. We have become ‘digital citizens’ and many of us ‘digital consumers’. Add to this that pretty soon just about any device will be able to interact and communicate with any other device (the infamous Internet of Things concept), what could possibly go wrong? Plenty it seems. From home life, to work and everything in between, it seems a “failure to communicate” is cited as the biggest risk and the primary cause when things go wrong. “I didn’t know”, “You didn’t tell me”, “I didn’t realize”, and the infamous “That’s not what you said” are recognizable claims from the victims of poor or missing communications. The biggest reason offered, for failing to communicate properly, is time. That is, not enough time to prepare a communication plan to ensure it’s effective, and not enough time by the recipient to read and digest properly. Hopefully, through reminding you of the key concepts and basic principles of communications, I can help you decide if, when, and how much time you will invest to make sure your communications have the desired effect. The Communication System Firstly, communication is the act, by one or more persons, of sending and receiving information as messages. Such messages are...
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### ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Change Management
- Published: 2015-09-24
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-basics-a-simple-introduction-to-change-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: change management, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
If you read my blog regularly you’ll know that I’ve already written simple introduction blogs related to: Incident management, and Problem management Now it’s change management’s turn. To misquote Amazing Fantasy #15 – the first Spider-Man comic ever! – “with IT change, comes great responsibility! ” (The original comic quote was: “... with great power there must also come -- great responsibility! ” if you’re interested). The need for change, IT or otherwise, is an unavoidable part of modern business life, whether that change is: Reactive – aimed at resolving errors or to adapt to changing business or IT requirements, or Proactive – which could be to provide new products, services or functions; to reduce costs or to increase efficiency; or to increase performance or operational effectiveness Change management, put in simple terms, is ensuring that such changes are managed and implemented in an optimal manner and with a sufficient level of control. So it’s a process, or collection of discrete activities, that allow organizations to consider, agree, and deploy changes to their IT ecosystem as easily, quickly, and cheaply as possible while effectively managing risk... more on this later. So to give you an introduction to change management, I’ll briefly cover: Where change management fits in The objectives of change management ITIL definitions of change management The “change lifecycle” The benefits of change management I refer to ITIL – the IT service management (ITSM) best practice framework – a fair bit (you might think too much) but you can...
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### Look Harder to Find the Real Heroes of Problem Management
> Uncover problem management heroes with SysAid - your solution for efficient IT support.
- Published: 2015-09-17
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/look-harder-to-find-the-real-heroes-of-problem-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, problem management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Everyone loves heroes, and not just in comic books. Heroes come in and save the day when things go wrong, and naturally anyone suffering as a result of that ‘going wrong’ is pleased to be saved. Society employs heroes that are there to save us if a misfortune occurs: firefighters, police, and even the army; and we expect our utility suppliers (water, electricity, gas, telephone, etc. ) to have such heroes too, ready to go out in the worst weather to fix any damages. But actually what we, as customers and consumers, would prefer is that things just keep working seamlessly – no water or power failures in the first place – and certainly we don’t ever want to need firefighters rushing to our homes. We like to know that the hero is there, but we don’t want to actually need them and their heroics. Problem Management In service management (whether applied to IT or non-IT), the biggest and bravest heroes live inside the problem management team, notably the reactive problem management team, seeking out root causes and solutions to fix what goes wrong. Just like firefighters, many of these guys enjoy their work the most when faced with challenges and having to fix catastrophic failures or mystery issues that require analysis and skill to solve. However, if we judge this team only on how well they react to disasters and issues, then we inadvertently set up a mechanism whereby the more things go wrong, the better they look. It’s...
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### People, Process, and Technology – 3 Things or 1?
- Published: 2015-09-08
- Modified: 2022-03-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/people-process-and-technology-3-things-or-1
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Nicole Katz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
For as long as ITIL has been around (26 years) and longer, it’s told us that Service Management needs a triple focus. People, Process, and Technology all must be addressed if services are to be delivered and supported as well as they should be. It sounds simple enough, yet it can be hard for people in IT to see past the technology sometimes. After all, most guys joined the IT profession to play with technology toys. So they get understandably disappointed when told to look at other aspects. The Three-Legged Stool It doesn’t work having a great process without people who can deliver it, and it’s not good having the best of all possible software tools if you don’t have good processes to support it. It’s like a stool with two perfect legs – it can’t do the job it’s supposed to do. In the picture you can see the three legs do their jobs separately. Of course they have to be built to a common specification, at least be the same length, otherwise you will get a lopsided stool and fall off. For service management, considerably more integration is needed: each of the proverbial legs (process, people, and technology) needs to be built with the others in mind to deliver the best solution for a particular environment. Integrated Build, Maintenance, and Improvement For example, designing processes needs to take into account the people who will be required to operate these processes. If you build a theoretically perfect process that...
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### Self-Service Webinar Q and A
- Published: 2015-09-02
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/self-service-webinar-q-and-a
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, self-service, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I really enjoyed delivering a webinar with Stephen Mann recently. The webinar, which was called Real-World Tips for Self-Service Success, attracted a large audience, and generated some great feedback. If you missed the live event then you can still listen to the recording by following the link, and if you want a brief synopsis of what we spoke about, read this blog. If you would prefer to read more about the topic (with or without watching the webinar) then start playing the webinar and click on the Attachments button to access our white paper. Quite a few attendees typed in questions, and although we didn’t have time to answer all of them during the live event, we have given them some thought. So here are my answers to some of the questions. If your company doesn't have ITIL in place, do we need to approach self-service in a different manor? Not at all. Nobody has “ITIL in place”. ITIL is just a set of best practices that you can adopt as part of your management system. You must have some kind of processes in place for managing incidents and requests, and I assume you have a service desk or something very similar. All of the ideas and suggestions we made about self-service were general ideas about IT service management, none of them was specific to ITIL. Any ideas on how knowledge articles can be written or related so nuggets of wisdom can be interwoven into a self-service process -...
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### The Secret Life of Incidents
- Published: 2015-08-26
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/the-secret-life-of-incidents
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, help desk software, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Everyone knows that incident management is designed to manage the overall life of an incident. Start to finish. Cradle to grave. But what does that really mean? The standard, accepted practice is that (most) incidents are started at the service desk/help desk – aka "Level 1 support". In fact, the service desk is generally synonymous with incident management ownership. The role of service desk employees includes ensuring timely and effective resolution. Issues that cannot be fixed at level 1 are escalated to specialty teams, also known as Level 2 (or 3) “resolver” groups. Resolver groups have deep technical experience in a specific technology area (network, servers, application, etc. ) We’ve all heard horror stories of incident tickets that spend days, weeks, or months getting kicked from queue to queue. It’s a concept I call “bus therapy”. Basically, when a resolver group either can’t resolve a ticket, or doesn’t know what to do with it (and before the SLA expires! ), they assign it to some other random queue, making it someone else’s problem. The reason I call it bus therapy is because it’s like buying a one-way ticket to some other town, wishing it well, and sending it down the road, hopefully never to be seen again. This happens when there’s not clear ownership for incidents. And when that happens, guess who suffers. You got it – the customer. Who’s On First? Incidents that are created, worked on, and resolved by the service desk are pretty straightforward. Ownership is clear,...
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### 5 Tips To Improve Your Service Desk’s Customer Service
> Discover 5 key tips to enhance your service desk's customer service in this SysAid article.
- Published: 2015-08-19
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-tips-to-improve-your-service-desks-customer-service
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: CX, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Sadly, many IT departments don’t see the importance of delivering great customer service to their end users. After all, it’s not as though the end users can leave them for another support provider, right? Technically this is true, but it’s also wrong... Have you heard of a new-fangled thing called Google? At a recent IT service management (ITSM) conference in London, a great point was made: “No ITSM tool vendor is the leader in providing technology to help solve IT issues. That award goes to Google. ” And according to Forrester Research, only 17% of IT issues actually make it to the corporate IT service desk/help desk. So where does the other 83% go? End Users Have Consumer-Driven Expectations of Support and Can Self-Help End users are becoming increasingly more tech-savvy and their expectations of IT are increasing daily (to match the service experiences they receive in their personal lives). So why would they want to deal with a potentially unhelpful service desk analyst who doesn’t respond to their ticket for three days, when they can simply type their issue into a search engine (although we don’t actually recommend this) to find a workaround or fix for their issue themselves in mere minutes? In my opinion, given the continued rise of Shadow IT, personal cloud services, and BYOD, corporate IT departments cannot afford to ignore their end users nor to deliver a bad service experience. So make the most of the opportunity you have right now to improve your service...
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### Service Desk Tension Metrics
- Published: 2015-08-12
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-tension-metrics
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Sets of best practices for service management – like ITIL for example – are full of good ideas and good advice, and all that good information is valuable, but sometimes you are able to generate added value by combining two elements of advice from different parts of the guidance. If you look in ITIL® 2011’s Service Operations book (Chapter 6. 3. 5), you’ll see a list of relevant metrics about service desk/help desk performance. Now go to ITIL’s Continual Service Improvement (CSI) book (Chapter 5. 5. 2) and you’ll find some words about tension metrics, which are different metrics that effectively compete with each other. Each book has some pretty good stuff on their own, but put them together and you really start getting somewhere! Metrics, of course, are just things you can measure to give you an idea of how well something is performing. We use metrics every day – for example we might measure a car by how fast it goes or how much fuel it uses to cover 100km. This is, in fact, tension metrics. The faster your car, the more fuel it is likely to use. You might choose to drive slowly to save fuel, or quickly to save time. You won’t be able to do both because the two compete with each other – there is ‘tension’ between them. Metrics for a Service DeskIf you focus only on one metric, it is usually simple enough to meet, because you are basically disregarding all other factors....
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### IT Managers Need a Vacation Too
- Published: 2015-08-04
- Modified: 2021-08-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-managers-need-a-vacation-too
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s summer time in the Northern hemisphere, and many of us are getting ready for our annual holidays. It’s really great to get away from work for a while, but some people don’t get much relaxation because they are constantly interrupted by emergency calls from work. There are things you can do to make these calls less likely, and that’s just as important a part of holiday planning as booking the flights and the hotel. If you’re going away tomorrow then it’s probably too late to do these things now, but you could get started as soon as you get back, so that next year’s holiday will be more restful. Share Some Knowledge Think about the things that only you can do. What would be needed so that someone else can do them? Could you provide written instructions, or teach somebody else how to do it? If so, then share that knowledge. It will have benefits for you and your organization all year round, not just when you’re on holiday. Automate Routine Tasks One great way to reduce the impact of being away for a while is to automate some of the tasks you usually carry out. You should only automate things that are well understood, reasonably frequent, and fairly simple. If you don’t understand the task thoroughly then automation will go horribly wrong. If the task isn’t reasonably frequent, then the effort needed to automate it will be too high compared to the effort it saves. If the...
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### 7 Service Desk Myths Debunked and How to Kill Them
- Published: 2015-07-28
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/7-service-desk-myths-debunked-and-how-to-kill-them
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Danny Tashiev
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
TV programs such as The IT Crowd and the Dilbert comic strips convey IT teams and service desks in a comical yet often negative manner. They are very funny, I know I laugh at them, but they are funny mainly because they are based on truths – truths that have been with IT and the service desk for far too long. Sadly, I’m sure that many people resist calling service desks based on the assumption that what they've seen and read is correct. However, the humor is often based on generalizations or snapshots from a previous time in the history of the corporate IT organization. Many IT organizations have moved on from the 1990s and I’d like to think that most service desks definitely have. So in this blog, I’d like to challenge some of these IT assumptions and help you to bust some typical service desk myths... 1. IT folk work in the basement and hate interacting with people. We may work in secure rooms sometimes because of sensitive data and systems yes, but basements... rarely. In fact, in the future we are likely to see more and more service desk staff placed out amongst the other business employees, or in walk-in clinics and Genius Bars. Global analyst firm Gartner have been pushing this greater visibility and interaction for a few years, as employees start to expect what they get with their consumer technology from the corporate IT department. As for hating to interact, that just doesn’t add up,...
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### ITIL's 4 Ps Need Another P - Purpose
- Published: 2015-07-23
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itils-4-ps-need-another-p-purpose
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The corporate IT service desk gets a lot of criticism. More specifically, service desk agents get a lot of criticism. They often get accused of using their service desk role as a stepping stone to "a better IT job. " They are commonly chastised for following scripts, even when the scripts are completely inappropriate (but are the best they have under the circumstances). On a more personal level, they are often treated as a herd rather than individuals; tar brushed with generalizations such as having poor interpersonal and customer service skills. On the upside though, they are assumed to know more about IT than most. So What? I'm getting to a point (of sorts), but first I wanted to throw out a few of the mean, but not unnecessarily untrue, things that are commonly said about IT help desk or service desk agents. I've been there and bought the t-shirt. So how well do IT service desk agents do? Individually and collectively? They often hit the SLA/operational targets that their IT paymasters have forced upon them - such as first contact resolution levels, speed of response, and correct incident classification percentages - but they still fail to have a glowing reputation with end users (their business peers). This includes even those that are touted as IT superheroes within IT. Is the Issue Simply that Service Desk Agent Performance Is Poorly Targeted? There's no denying that some IT organizations have way too many service desk metrics, often metrics that conflict and/or...
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### Practical Tips for Self-Service Success
- Published: 2015-07-20
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/practical-tips-for-self-service-success
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, self-service, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Many IT organizations see employee self-service as a ‘knight in shining armor’, ready to solve all their service desk issues in one quick project. However, for many organizations, their investment in self-service often results in a white elephant rather than a white knight, i. e. it’s a possession that is useless or troublesome and which soaks up money and other resources without delivering much return on the investment. A self-service white elephant typically has low rates of adoption and utilization – often due to an overemphasis on the technology. There’s a Webinar for That Sadly, these suboptimal self-service projects are a common issue, and consequently my good friend Stephen Mann and I are running a free webinar this Wednesday, July 22 that will offer practical tips for self-service management success, based on what some organizations have done to get self-service right. UPDATE: This webinar is now avaiable on-demand here. We’ll show you how these organizations have succeeded, by: Understanding the common challenges and potential pitfalls with self-service. Offering practical advice on how to design, launch, manage, and encourage the use of an employee self-service facility for IT (or any other corporate service provider). Providing sensible actions that will help you to either get started with, or to improve upon, self-service within your organization. Here’s a quick overview of what we’ll be covering. The Benefits of Self-Service The main beneficiary of self-service is the business people who need to engage with, and rely on, IT but there are also benefits for...
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### Service Desk Challenges and Joys at Georgetown University Law Center
> Service Desk Challenges and Joys at Georgetown University Law Center - SysAid
- Published: 2015-06-29
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/service-desk-challenges-and-joys-at-georgetown-university-law-center
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Georgetown University Law Center is home to high-profile professors who have served for the U. S. Supreme Court as well as graduate students streaming in from 67 countries. Situated just a few blocks from DC's Capitol Hill, Georgetown Law is a bustling hub for law-making and academia. Recently, I had the opportunity to ask the university’s Tier 3 Senior Technician, Dustin Nigro, about his insights into managing the service desk for a prominent educational institution. What do you believe are the biggest service desk challenges and considerations for a university or any educational institution? BYOD is one of our biggest challenges. Students, by nature, tend to be early adopters of technology and often use multiple devices and email addresses, so it can be challenging to track an individual, their assets, and their email history. Students also tend to use the latest devices and apps on the market, and they need all of these to function within their academic environment. We’ve been dealing with BYOD for much longer than most organizations – it’s magnified like crazy in the education sector. Another challenge is creating the right service desk culture. Academic institutions often have a deep-rooted organizational hierarchy. At Georgetown Law, we’re providing services for a diverse group of people comprising of many VIP guests (members of the Supreme Court for example), internal university faculty, staff and graduate students. The VIPs in our community prefer to interact with people that they are familiar with and prefer to receive a more personal...
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### Significantly Enhance Your Service Desk Operations with Our New Barcode Add-On
> Enhance service desk operations with our new Barcode Add-On from SysAid. Optimize efficiency and streamline processes today!
- Published: 2015-06-18
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/significantly-enhance-your-service-desk-operations-with-our-new-barcode-add-on
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: asset management, service desk
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I’m delighted to announce that we’ve added a new mobile asset management add-on and application (on iOS), which provides barcode scanning, audit, and reporting capabilities to the SysAid Service Desk/Help Desk. This is available as an add-on to our Configuration Management Database (CMDB). The add-on (which has been driven by SysAid customers), will help those facing challenges such as: Loss of assets The inability to track inventory, including checking out and in scenarios Limited auditing and reporting capabilities So What Does It Do? The add-on allows you to create a new asset by scanning its barcode; it is then synced with your SysAid account. Subsequently, you will be able to track the asset in the CMDB for the rest of the asset’s lifecycle. . In addition, you will be able to add the cost and asset type, as well as the condition and depreciation formula to be used. Once an asset is scanned into the CMDB, you can immediately check out that asset to a person or location. At regular intervals, with the use of a barcode reader or using the SysAid barcode app on your mobile device, you can scan assets and access them in real time from the CMDB record. You can also update the record to include things such as: asset condition, ownership, and location. This data will then sync with your CMDB. Using the app you can process inventory intake and audit different people and different locations (rooms, floors, buildings) that have been assigned ownership of the...
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### Using Theory of Constraints to Help Continual Service Improvement
> Utilize Theory of Constraints for effective Continual Service Improvement with SysAid.
- Published: 2015-06-16
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/using-theory-of-constraints-to-help-continual-service-improvement
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: continual service improvement, CSI, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I’ve written about continual service improvement (CSI) before. If you haven’t read my previous articles then you might like to look at Continual Service Improvement (CSI) - The Most Important Service Management Process and The Help You Need to Adopt Continual Service Improvement. These will give you some background on what CSI is, and how you can get started. Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a set of “thinking tools” that were developed by Eliyahu Goldratt. TOC was popularised in a novel called The Goal, which described how TOC solved a range of problems at a fictional manufacturing plant. I can’t describe the various TOC tools in detail in this blog, but I will try to show how some of the TOC tools can make a significant contribution to your CSI efforts. One key principle of TOC is that you need to consider the whole system, not just one aspect of it. This is a really important idea when you are thinking about continual improvement. TOC reminds us that sometimes improving one part of the system will make no difference to your overall result, and it is even possible that an improvement to one part will make the overall result worse. TOC summarises this with the statement “Any improvements made anywhere besides the bottleneck are an illusion”. For example you should not think about how you can improve “incident management” or “problem management” or “knowledge management” in isolation. These processes work together to deliver value to your customers and you need...
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### SITS15: Who Said Some Good Stuff at the ITSM Conference?
> Key takeaways from the SITS15 ITSM Conference with SysAid - concise summary for you.
- Published: 2015-06-08
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/sits15-who-said-some-good-stuff-at-the-itsm-conference
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, SITS15
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The ITSM Show (formerly known as the Service Desk and IT Support Show, SITS) is done and dusted for another year – congratulations to Toby Moore and his colleagues on a very well organized and delivered IT service management (ITSM) event. We are all hopefully back at work now but what did we learn? Or for those that didn’t attend did they learn anything from the event’s Twitter stream (#SITS15)? I hope we and they did, but just in case I have pulled together some sage advice from the sessions I attended and the Twitter stream. So What Did I Learn (Or Think Was Valuable to Others)? On Service Desks “You are NOT the break/fix center, you have to take a strategic view. ” – @jarodgreene "Some people want the EasyJet of Service Desks. Some want BA. Know your customer expectations & what you can deliver. " – @stephenmann “Your service desk should challenge your customer's expectations. Otherwise you'll never innovate at the rate you need to. ” – @patb0512 “67% of service desks spend their time firefighting incidents. Even actual fire fighters don't spend that long on it! ” – @GBaylisHall "Only 17% of IT issues actually make it to the Service Desk. " – @stephenmann (stat via Forrester Research) “None of the vendors at #sits15 are the leaders of ITSM. Google is the number 1 tool used to solve IT issues! ” – @stephenmann “Outsourcing your service desk disconnects vital business users from the most vital business...
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### SysAid 15.2: Your Voice, Your Service Desk
> Experience the evolution of service desk solutions with SysAid 15.2! Learn how SysAid puts your voice at the center of service management.
- Published: 2015-06-03
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-15-2-your-voice-your-service-desk
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I have a confession to make: for me, the most exciting times, in the realm of my job, which I have the privilege to take part in, are the official releases of SysAid Help Desk Software. Even today, after orchestrating over a dozen On-Premise official releases, I still get the same excitement and butterflies in my stomach... . I am writing this blog after finalizing a great beta with our Pathfinders who helped test and fine-tune this release so it will be optimized for all of you. The content of this release is especially focused on your requests. 100% of the enhancements and fixes came directly from all of you — our customers. We always put resources on issues and challenges you raise to us; this time we put all of our resources on your issues. What’s New in SysAid 15. 2? I would like to pick a few of the enhancements that I think are particularly worthy of sharing their story. The first bunch of enhancements is related to the SysAid Agent. We had several improvements over the past few releases, and 15. 2 continues that momentum. Ability to Download Agent Logs from Within the Asset Form Simply add the get logs field to the asset form and you’re able to download the logs of any SysAid Agent. This enhancement is actually one of those issues that “helps you help us to help you... . ” SysAid Agent logs are usually required for our support engineers to help troubleshoot...
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### We Need to Talk...About Change Management
- Published: 2015-05-27
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/we-need-to-talk-about-change-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
You know those awkward conversations that start with “we need to talk”? Well, it’s time. We need to talk. About ‘change management’. Ever see someone endorsed for ‘change management’ on professional networking sites, and wondered what kind of change management? Ever thought, “wait, they don’t know anything about IT Service Management”? There seems to be a fair amount of confusion around the term ‘change management’. Most of us IT service management folks think of IT change management, emphasis on the ‘IT’. Project managers think of changes in the scope or definition of a project - change management being the formal process to review and approve material changes to the project scope, schedule, or resources. Yet another is organizational management of change, frequently known as ‘change management’. This change management has to do with the people aspects of changes in an organization, and is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘transition’. A Rose by Any Other Name Add to these a host of also-known-as variations: Change control Change board Change enablement Change leadership Transition management Management of Change (MOC) Change adverse culture Not to mention: Game changer Culture change Theory of change Change agent Course change Change framework And my favorite: Spare change Adding to the difficulty is that many of them are closely related. ‘Change control’, for instance, is often used interchangeably with ‘IT change management’. ‘Change board’ and change advisory board (CAB) are often used to describe the same thing. Change management is a process that’s covered in the ITIL® Service...
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### The 2015 ITSM Show – The Greatest Show on Earth
- Published: 2015-05-19
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-2015-itsm-show-the-greatest-show-on-earth
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: IT service management, ITSM, service desk, SITS
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It may be in a completely different month to normal, and at a new venue, but the buzz around the upcoming SITS15 - IT Service Management (ITSM) Show (formerly known as the Service Desk and IT Support Show) is as intense as ever. After all, it’s one of the biggest ITSM events in the world (as what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, we’ll just completely ignore that big shiny Knowledge thing), so what’s there not to be excited about? ! The Content Whilst this event is primarily an ITSM tool vendor exhibition, its ITSM presentations should not be underestimated. Some of the hot topics at this year’s event include: Service integration and management (SIAM) – what it is, it’s importance, and best practice Customer experience – as opposed to user experience, it’s a new hot topic in ITSM Service catalogue – still popular after all these years, but it is so hard to get service catalogue right Continual service improvement – it should be the first ITIL “process” adopted but often gets lost in a melee of incident, problem, and change investment DevOps – so hot you might burn your fingers, find out why its DevOps and ITIL, not DevOps instead of ITIL Service desk success – listen to those who have been there, done it, and bought the t-shirt If you feel a little spoilt for choice and aren’t sure which sessions to attend, then let me help with some personal recommendations based on my knowledge of the...
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### COBIT 5 Plays Well with Others
- Published: 2015-05-13
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/cobit-5-plays-well-with-others
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: COBIT, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Are you looking for an overarching IT framework that is compatible with other IT standards and approaches? Do you need help in building the business case to justify investments in IT service management and IT governance? Are you looking for a way to have the governance of IT considered as part of overall governance of the enterprise? Then let me introduce you to COBIT®! Since its introduction in 2012, COBIT 5 reflects the evolution of COBIT from an audit and control approach to an overarching governance and service management framework. Let’s take a closer look at COBIT and the benefits that COBIT can provide for an organization. What Is COBIT? COBIT, formerly known as Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology, is a framework created by ISACA® (formerly known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association) for IT management and IT governance. First released in 1996, COBIT focused initially only on auditing. The current version of COBIT, COBIT 5, integrates previous ISACA guidance, including Val IT™, Risk IT™, and COBIT 4. COBIT 5 also aligns with other IT standards and frameworks, such as ITIL®, ISO/IEC 38500, and others. As a result, COBIT 5 provides a truly comprehensive framework for helping organizations achieve their objectives for the governance and management of IT. Why COBIT? COBIT can be used within any size and type of organization, as it’s written in non-technical language and looks at integrating the governance of an organization from end-to-end, not just the governance...
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### My SysAid Beta Adventure
- Published: 2015-05-12
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/my-sysaid-beta-adventure
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Danny Tashiev
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
A warm hello to all readers. I'm Danny, and some of you may already know me as the Technical Community Manager over in the SysAid Community. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been managing the beta phase of the SysAid 15. 2 Help Desk Software On-Premise release with our instrumental set of Pathfinders. Our focus, as with any Beta, was to collect as much customer feedback as possible regarding improvements and feature requests, and to make SysAid harder, better, faster, stronger! As part of 15. 2, we made a wide range of improvements and tweaks, whilst implementing many sought-after features, such as third-party integrations , the ability to decide your own ticket prefix , being able to update agent settings directly from the Asset List without uninstalling and reinstalling the agent , and many many more – in total over 100 new enhancements (fresh features and multiple improvements). Smooth Sailing Beta The importance of the Beta is to ensure that everything is thoroughly tested – not only internally here at SysAid, but also by the awesome customers who volunteered to participate in our beta-testing Pathfinder Program. Despite the cautionary tales of my co-workers suggesting to bring a sleeping bag to the office, I was surprised by how calm the whole process has been. The first "pre-beta" phase, testing On-Premise 15. 2. 00 on MySQL, went smoothly and some customers not only installed it on MS SQL as well (despite our warnings! ), but also adopted it in their production...
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### What Is ITIL?
- Published: 2015-05-05
- Modified: 2024-06-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/what-is-itil
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If I type “What is IT” into my favorite search engine then the suggestion “What is ITIL” appears near the top of the list of suggestions, so I guess lots of people must be asking this question. Unfortunately this is one of those questions that is very easy to ask, but quite difficult to answer. I followed the links that I found when I searched for “What is ITIL”, but the explanations I found were often written in language that would be quite hard to follow if I didn’t already know what ITIL® is. Here are some examples: https://www. axelos. com/best-practice-solutions/itil/what-is-itil “ITIL advocates that IT services are aligned to the needs of the business and support its core processes. It provides guidance to organizations and individuals on how to use IT as a tool to facilitate business change, transformation and growth. ” http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Information_Technology_Infrastructure_Library “ITIL is a set of practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. ” The Short Answer I guess if you’re reading this article then you’d also like to know what ITIL is, and that explanations like these have left you still searching, so here is my attempt to answer the question. I’ll start with a one sentence explanation, just so you can compare my attempt with the ones I found on my internet search. ITIL is a way of ensuring that investments in IT create real value by providing a consistent, structured framework for planning,...
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### Change Evaluation: The Seven R's Revisited
- Published: 2015-04-29
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/change-evaluation-the-seven-rs-revisited
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
The 2011 version of ITIL introduced the lesser known change evaluation process. It’s a great addition, and I haven’t seen a lot written about it. The first thing to know is not every change requires a formal change evaluation. It’s intended to be used primarily for major changes, where the complexity and scope of the change warrants careful and formalized evaluation. Change evaluation comes with its own Seven R's - a handy same-letter list that’s easy to remember, and can help make sure we’ve explored the most common sources of issues with proposed changes. Here’s the seven R’s: Who raised the request for change (RFC)? What’s the reason for the RFC? What return is the change expected to deliver? What risks does the change pose? What resources are necessary? Who is responsible for the key tasks? What's the relationship between this and other requested changes? The list is not intended to be a set of required fields on the RFC form; modern IT systems are far too complex. It’s intended to be used in the evaluation process to trigger deeper thinking about a proposed change and uncover potentially hidden sources of risk and unintended consequences. A Great Start The R’s are a great start, but we really need to do a little more serious detective work. Remember, change evaluation is reserved for major changes, where there’s often a great deal of complexity and high visibility. Let’s put on our detective hats, and take a closer look. Raised Who raised the...
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### Software Asset Management: How to State the Case for Obtaining a SAM Solution
> SAM makes a compelling case for a solution in this SysAid article. Read more know on our blog.
- Published: 2015-04-22
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/software-asset-management-how-to-state-the-case-for-obtaining-a-sam-solution
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, SAM, software asset management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
So you’re the “go to” guy or gal within IT, and IT service management (ITSM) has been your life for the last five years. You can soak up ITIL and ISO 20000, and your team is well versed in the nuances of ITSM and how that has been moulded within IT to deliver great service to the rest of the business. And then someone says to you “What about Software Asset Management (SAM)”? Your IT budget has been apportioned to various projects and training requirements for the next 12 months, and your ITSM solution doesn’t come with a reconciliation engine to enable comparisons of inventory data to proof of entitlement (contracts, licenses etc. ), which in turn could produce a license compliance report. Plus the CIO has said there is no money in the budget “for another tool, on a topic I have little comprehension of. ” (Sorry – I’m sure some CIOs understand SAM! ) So what’s a hard-pressed IT manager to do to try and enforce some degree of SAM discipline within a company without a bona fide SAM solution to measure his/her efforts? Below are a few ideas that could make the job of managing an IT estate a little bit easier, as well as acting as a way to state the case for obtaining a SAM solution in next year’s IT budget. Control Spending on Software The organizations where SAM is weakest will most likely have the most liberal financial control also. ...
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### Meeting Business Needs: Doing the Right Things and Doing Things Right
> Discover how SysAid meets business needs by focusing on doing the right things and doing them right.
- Published: 2015-04-14
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/meeting-business-needs-doing-the-right-things-and-doing-things-right
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Good business-IT alignment (please note that I use this well-known and oft-used phrase reluctantly as IT is part of the business) relies on two things: doing the right thing and doing things right. Without both of these, what IT does will never live up to what business colleagues and stakeholders need and expect; where: Doing the right things” means executing IT initiatives that support business strategy. Doing things right” means executing these initiatives in a way that delivers the proposed value within the required timescale and cost constraints. How Does IT Normally Fare? In my opinion, IT can sometimes do the wrong things badly. But it’s less common for IT to do the right things well, at least in the eyes of business colleagues. The two key factors here are business-IT alignment and operational excellence. When there is a disconnect between the business and IT there can be a reduction in the business value generated, even if IT is run very efficiently. And if IT has issues with its operational efficiency, it may struggle to deliver value to the business, even if it does know what the business needs. This can be represented in a simple matrix that shows IT maturity in the context of business alignment and IT operations. So What Can IT Organizations Do? Organizations want and need to move up and to the right (into quadrant C), with this desire driven by different instincts on either side of the divide. The IT department wants to focus on...
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### Improving Categorizing Incidents
- Published: 2015-04-07
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/improving-categorizing-incidents
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, incident management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Recently a customer asked me how many different categories they should have for managing incidents. They seemed to think that, like a magician, I could pull an “ideal” number of incident categories out of a hat, and that they could somehow compare themselves to this to see if they had the right number. I gave them the typical consultant’s answer of “it depends”, because there really isn’t any right answer to this question. If you only have 3 or 4 categories then you are almost certainly doing something wrong, but if you have more than 1,000 categories then you probably have it wrong in the other direction. Between these extremes it really does depend on the scope of your service desk and what you’re using the categories for. What Are Incident Categories Used For? There are lots of different things you might use incident categories for. Typically organizations use incident categories to help them: Determine what information the service desk should ask for when logging an incident; for example if the user cannot log in to their laptop then you may want to find out what username they are using and what domain they are logging in to. Identify the correct SLA for the incident, which will tell the service desk how quickly the incident needs to be resolved. Identify scripts or tools that should be used for initial diagnosis of the incident. Decide which group or team will carry out initial diagnosis of the incident; for example there may...
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### Workshop as a Blog: How to Mature a Service Management Process
> Learn how to mature a service management process with this workshop turned blog by SysAid.
- Published: 2015-03-31
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/workshop-as-a-blog-how-to-mature-a-service-management-process
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: IT service management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
. I recently attended itSMF Norway 15 Conference. What an incredible experience with some of the most dedicated people in IT service management! I had the privilege of being one of the Service Bazaar workshop leaders. My session was How to Mature a Basic Change Management Process. The format was groups of up to 8 attendees in each of three 90-minute workshops. Each group had industry leaders (including ITIL book authors) and beginner practitioners side-by-side. The sessions were lively to say the least, and everyone learned something. Me? I got a triple dose, and learned the most. This blog isn’t a traditional How-To, but rather a summary of some gems that came out of my three workshop sessions. Note that while the sessions focused on maturing Change Management, what we learned applies to any process. Start With Why Leadership expert, Simon Sinek, gave a TED talk entitled Start With Why. He explains how the human brain is wired to need a why before accepting what or how. One of the challenges we face in IT service management (ITSM) is our tendency to focus more on the process, and less (often much less) on the desired outcomes and business value they create. In other words, we jump directly to what and how, and bypass why entirely. If we (and the business we serve) aren't in agreement and completely clear on the business outcomes that the proposed process maturity will achieve, we've already lost the battle. So, before we set out to...
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### Human Communications Protocol
- Published: 2015-03-26
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/human-communications-protocol
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
How many times does the word ‘communications’ get mentioned as an issue in your organization (and we’re not referring to networks and routers)? The basic human function of communicating information accurately and appropriately between people seems to pop up regularly as the reason for failure, the stumbling block, the broken link in the supply chain, and generally as the barrier to success. Often the term ‘communications’ is used to cover a multitude of issues, from lack of information, to too much information, plus of course inappropriate information. Usually, however, this comes down to the extent to which individuals are aware of their own communications actions (or lack of them) and how this is received or experienced by others. Often it’s about misunderstandings, or in some cases personality clashes – i. e. when people don’t get on with each other. The net result however is usually some form of problem: waste of money, delay, additional cost, failure of delivery, loss of service, missed business opportunity, etc. So communications failure isn’t just about people not being nice to each other – it’s a real business problem. Consider the following scenario: Your organization may be implementing a new technology service and needs some external (paid) consultancy to help with technical implementation. However the consultant is booked to arrive on a day when the person who needs to give said consultant access and support to your infrastructure isn’t available, or even aware of this happening, so the cost of the consultant is wasted. Why...
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### We Don’t Do People!
- Published: 2015-03-18
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/we-dont-do-people
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
. When I started in the IT industry I was a fairly junior hardware engineer. One day I went out with an experienced engineer to learn about a particular mini-computer that he was going to mend. It was a complex problem and I learned a lot from watching him work. On returning to the office our manager told us that she had received a complaint from the customer, because the engineer had been rude and didn’t provide updates about what was happening. The engineer’s reply to his manager was so shocking that I still remember the exact words he used. What he said was “I don’t do people, I only do computers”. That is an extreme example, but I still see a similar culture throughout the IT industry. There are far too many people in IT who think that their role is to manage the technical components, they “don’t do people”. Even in IT organizations that claim that customer experience is the most important aspect of what they do, I often don’t see the investment of time and resources that would be needed to make this true. We often represent IT service management as a balance of people, process, products, and partners, like this... ... but whenever I see a project to implement or improve an aspect of IT, or IT service management, the people aspects usually have insufficient planning and far too little investment. One example of this was a recent post on the Back2ITSM Facebook group, where James...
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### Governance: Management? Leadership? Culture!!
- Published: 2015-03-10
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/governance-management-leadership-culture
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Basic
One of the most quoted words in use in tech management and marketing these days is ‘governance’. What do we actually mean by this and why is it such a big and ongoing topic? Governance refers to "all processes of governing, whether undertaken by a government, market or network, whether over a family, tribe, formal or informal organization or territory and whether through laws, norms, power or language” (Wikipedia) Governance is the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority necessary to manage a nation’s affairs (OED) We get that fact that it’s about overseeing and running and managing. In fact, it’s basically running the show. So is governance just another word for management? In some ways this could be true and often the term governance is used both separately and interchangeably from management, particularly when referring to processes and IT Service Management (ITSM) functions. For example: “the Problem Management process had no governance”, “there is a lack of governance around the implementation of the new ITSM tool”, or “our IT organisation suffers from a lack of governance”. Some words are frequently used in a nebulous way as a means of sounding intelligent or interesting but actually avoiding the issue, like “we need better governance here” when we mean “management isn’t doing its job” or “this process has no governance”’, meaning “no one is owning or managing the process”: Whatever the taxonomy, there are often issues around the management and policing of processes, tasks, and general areas of work delivery that need...
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### Hospital IT Heroes
- Published: 2015-03-03
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/hospital-it-heroes
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Over the last few weeks I had the opportunity to speak with several customers in various industries about the exciting and quirky ways that they’re using SysAid’s ITSM solution in the field. I’m truly amazed at the myriad of ways in which they have implemented their service desks – from Australian emergency services to Italian fashion designers; from elite U. S. universities to Irish hospital networks. I was fortunate enough to talk with Andrina O’Neill (pictured above), Senior Systems & UC Engineer/Service Desk Supervisor at St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services – Ireland’s largest independent provider of mental health services for adults and adolescents. Andrina is based at the organization’s main campus – St. Patrick’s University Hospital (associated with Trinity College). She is the pioneer IT professional who was brought into the hospital six years ago to assist in revamping the existing ineffective service desk in order to provide better quality IT services. Coming from a background of IT in the corporate sector, Andrina experienced a professional and mental shift upon entering this not-for-profit hospital environment. I asked Andrina what it’s like to switch working environments, what challenges she faced in reconstructing the IT processes across multiple centers, how the hospital is making use of the service desk, and what she believes she’s achieved so far. What was it like to move from the corporate sector into a charity-based healthcare organization? When I started working at St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services, I was forced to change my whole mindset from being...
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### Defining Metrics for the Service Desk
- Published: 2015-03-03
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/defining-metrics-for-the-service-desk
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I have written a number of blogs about metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) recently, each focussing on a different area of IT service management. These blogs were very popular — this is clearly an area where lots of people are looking for help. Here are some links in case you’ve missed any of them. Defining metrics for change management Defining metrics for problem management Defining metrics for incident management How to make sure your KPIs are balanced One response I got to the earlier blogs was “What about the service desk? ” so here are my thoughts on how you could set about defining metrics for your service desk. Principles to Think about When You Are Defining Metrics and KPIs In previous blogs I explained how important it is to define your own metrics, not just copy the list of KPIs from an ITIL book, or this blog. Every organization is different and the examples in a book or a blog are just there to help you think about possibilities, not to be used unchanged. You also need to keep reviewing your KPIs, as the things you care about will change over time and KPIs that worked well for you in the past may no longer be relevant. Remember the “K” in KPI stands for key, so you should focus on key things that are important to you; you should not measure and report every number you can. You also need a clear understanding of your objectives, and the...
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### Information Technology: What Business Are You In?
- Published: 2015-02-24
- Modified: 2024-06-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/information-technology-what-business-are-you-in
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Think Nike is in the athletic shoes and apparel business? Not on your life. “Nike sells shoes but it’s not in the shoe-selling business. It’s in the business of selling emotion and aspiration. Nike sells achievement, Nike sells perseverance and Nike sells Victory. “ (Brandstories. net) If you ask most IT people what business they're in, their answer will invariably focus on “technology”. But are we actually in the technology business, or something more fundamental (like enabling business outcomes)? Fatal Attraction If you asked White Star Line in 1910 what business they were in, they would say the transatlantic shipping business. It was an industry engaged in a fierce competition for bigger and faster ships – deeply reflecting their focus on shipping (with a lesser focus on moving people). Every organization must answer The First Question of Innovation: What Business Are You Really In? Both in its design and its operation, White Star Line’s Titanic was intended to demonstrate dominance and superiority in the competition for bigger and faster ships — a focus that turned out to be both misguided and fatal. Had they foreseen the arrival of air travel and its wholesale takeover of transatlantic shipping, they may have made other choices and still be in business today. That's Entertainment Harvard Business School lecturer Theodore Levitt coined the phrase Marketing Myopia to describe the failure of organizations in defining their mission too narrowly. Had Hollywood stuck to its roots in celluloid film technology, it would have been kicked...
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### 10 Best Practice Tips for IT Transformation
- Published: 2015-02-18
- Modified: 2022-01-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/10-best-practice-tips-for-it-transformation
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We talk a lot about transformation in IT. That the changing IT landscape is causing us to evaluate and ultimately adopt new technologies. Or at the other end of the spectrum, that business transformation is driving the need for new, and more, IT services to support new business and new business models. 2014 was definitely a year filled with “digital business” talk, with the associated opportunity (for either glory or failure) available to corporate IT organizations. At a high level, most corporate IT organizations are up-to-speed with the need for both IT transformation per se, and that business transformation is also driving the need for IT transformation. But IT transformation is ultimately organizational change – changing the people and process as well as the technology. And when we start to talk about organizational change within the IT organization, it can start to seem scary, or scarier, given that the people part of the ITIL-espoused “people, process, product, and partners” (formerly people, process, and technology) can be a significant barrier to change. At best, it’s a banana skin waiting to be slipped on. 10 Tips for IT Transformation So what can you do to better traverse the common barriers to IT transformation (and to avoid any potential banana skins)? My good friend Ken Gonzalez gave some sound advice, and a few laughs, on this topic in his recent session at the Pink Elephant Conference in Las Vegas. My 10 tips are strongly influenced by Ken’s content. So think about the following...
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### Pearls of ITSM Wisdom from SysAid’s Competitors
- Published: 2015-02-12
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/pearls-of-itsm-wisdom-from-sysaids-competitors
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There’s no law that says different IT service management (ITSM) solution vendors can’t play well together. In fact some of my favorite people work for the competition, or used to. Last year I spoke with some lovely ITSM people, gainfully employed by SysAid’s competitors: Patrick Bolger of Hornbill – this was actually in December 2013 but Pat always is early, and first, to the bar. John Clark of Microsoft Ashok Srivastava of Kovair Stephen Mann of ServiceNow – well he was there when I spoke with him. Arvind Parthiban of ManageEngine – and again he was there when I spoke with him. I’m beginning to think that undertaking a blog interview with yours truly might be the ITSM vendor kiss of death. In any case, all of these guys (note to self – I must interview some ladies in 2015) gave their personal answers to questions such as: What do you think is the most important element missing from traditional ITSM? And why? What do you think is the biggest mistake that people can make in ITSM, and how can it be avoided? What one piece of practical advice would you give to somebody working on the Service Desk? What one piece of practical advice would you give to the CIO of a company with regards to ITSM? If you could change one thing about the ITSM industry as a whole, what would it be and why? What do you think the ITSM trend to watch will be in the...
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### ITSM Basics: A Simple Introduction to Incident Management
- Published: 2015-01-27
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/itsm-basics-a-simple-introduction-to-incident-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: incident management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Joe The IT Guy
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Don’t tell anyone but for some reason I can post to the SysAid blog now... and to start I want to provide a simple introduction to incident management. Humble is what I do best. Oh, and I’d better be on my best behavior. So I’ll quickly cover: What incident management is Major incidents and service requests The objectives of incident management The “incident lifecycle” The benefits of incident management If you read my blog, then you know I refer to ITIL quite a bit (you might think too much) but you can quite easily use your own self-created process and activities or look to alternative sources of advice such as ISO/IEC 20000, ISACA’s COBIT, USMBOK, or Microsoft’s MOF. Where Incident Management Fits In To set the scene, corporate IT organizations need to consistently provide: Uninterrupted IT and business services A level of service that meets customer needs at an acceptable cost Speedy resumption of service when IT issues or failures occur, particularly when these issues adversely affect business operations Incident management can help with all three, but will support the latter point for the most part. Incident management helps to keep business services available and employees productive. And most IT shops already do some form of incident management – though they might call it IT support, help desk, ticketing, service desk, or something else. Put simply, incident management is the process or set of activities used to identify, understand, and then fix IT-related (but business impacting) issues, whether it be:...
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### The Service Desk and Relationship Management: All You Need Is Love
> Discover the importance of Service Desk and Relationship Management in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2015-01-20
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-service-desk-and-relationship-management-all-you-need-is-love
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, relationship management, service desk
- Blog authors: Greg Sanker
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
“Hi, just calling to say everything is working great today! ” said no Service Desk caller. Ever. Like it or not, your customers have a relationship with IT. Sometimes good; sometimes bad. They are built over time, one interaction at a time. The truth is, every call to the Service Desk either builds it up or tears it down. In reality, we are all Relationship Managers, and everything we do affects those relationships. Researchers have identified universal factors that shape all relationships. Successful Service Desks apply these principles of human behavior to relationship management. I'm No Psychiatrist, But... Having to call the Service Desk is rarely happy times for the customer. How those 'unhappy moments' are handled has a lasting impact. If we excel at rapid service recovery and have great first call resolution, but we're not managing the whole customer experience, we're missing the single greatest opportunity to build customer relationships. Jim Rohn wrote about 8 Traits of Healthy Relationships over at success. com. He lists a set of “basic elements” that can enhance all human relationships. Now, I'm no psychiatrist, but it seems to me the same elements can apply to IT Business Relationship Management, especially at the Service Desk. Let's have a look and see how it works. Love No surprise, topping the list is love. Just above air and food on Maslow's hierarchy is love (friendship and belonging). He describes love as “... a commitment we make to people to always treat that...
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### 15 ITSM Tips for 2015 - Part 2
- Published: 2015-01-13
- Modified: 2022-01-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/15-itsm-tips-for-2015-part-2
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In my blog last week, I recommended 6 tips that you might like to consider as New Year’s Resolutions. They were all about things you can do for your IT organization. This week, I would like to continue with 9 more tips (making a convenient 15 for 2015! ) that deal with things you can do for yourself, for your own professional development, and to help protect valuable information. Here we go - Tip 7 — Find a mentor We all need to develop our skills, knowledge, and competence if we want to keep up with the rapidly evolving IT industry. There are lots of things you could do to help you with this, but probably the most important is to find someone who can be a mentor for you. The job of a mentor is not to teach you, but to act as a sounding board for your ideas; to talk through the issues you face at work and help you to come up with approaches and solutions that might help you. You may want a mentor who is an expert in IT service management, but it can be equally helpful to work with someone who knows and understands the organization you work for, or the industry you work in, or can offer guidance in other areas such as managing people or projects. Don’t be afraid to ask someone you respect to act as a mentor. The worst that can happen is that they will say no (but PLEASE...
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### 15 ITSM Tips for 2015 - Part 1
- Published: 2015-01-06
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/15-itsm-tips-for-2015-part-1
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As 2014 draws to a close I’ve started to think about what’s going to be important for IT service management (ITSM) professionals in 2015. Here are 15 tips that you might like to consider as New Year’s Resolutions for 2015. Some of these tips are focussed on improving IT service management or information security management to help your IT organization, and others will help with your personal development as an IT professional, but all of them will help to improve how you deliver IT services to your customers in 2015. Tip 1 — Spend more time with your customers It’s amazing how much you can learn about your customers by simply spending time with them while they are working. One IT organization I work with sends every member of the service desk out to work in a business unit for one day every year. They started to do this when analysis of customer satisfaction ratings for incident management showed that service desk agents who had previously worked in the business were getting much better ratings. They now have superb customer satisfaction ratings for nearly every incident. You may think that you know what your customers do, and what’s important to them, but if you don’t spend enough time just sitting with them to understand how they work then you will never be able to deliver great customer service. Tip 2 — Focus on customer experience in everything you do I have heard many people talking about customer experience, but few...
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### 2014 in (Content) Review
> 2014 in Content Review - SysAid Blog. Gain insights into industry trends, IT best practices, and SysAid's journey throughout the year.
- Published: 2014-12-30
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/2014-in-content-review
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
One year ago, at the end of 2013, we were at the cusp of something new with the SysAid Blog. The plan for 2014 was to concentrate on publishing best practices, which would be applicable not only to SysAid customers, but to all IT professionals too. Our aim was to bring true value to the IT service management (ITSM) community on a global level. So What Did We Deliver in 2014? With 75 blog posts, we managed to increase our viewership by 100% from last year. I believe that we achieved this by delivering: A great mix of basic ITSM guidance, to help people get started with their implementations in their organizations Advanced guidance to help more experienced people make improvements, beyond the basic implementation Thought-provoking, innovative ideas to help move the industry forward We’re concerned about what you are reading, not just what we are writing. And the post that you read the most, with over 6500 unique views, was If You Don't Have an SLA, You're Delivering Bad Service. This blog points out that customers always want more than they have, and it’s no different in IT services, so you must have a proper SLA (service level agreement) in place with these basics: clarity, agreements, and accurate monitoring of delivery. Also in the top-read blogs of 2014: Defining Metrics for Change Management ITSM consultant and ITIL author Stuart Rance enriched our blog this year with his popular series on metrics. In this one, Stuart describes the steps to...
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### What Can Estonia Teach You about IT Service Management?
> Discover what Estonia can teach you about IT service management in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2014-12-18
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/what-can-estonia-teach-you-about-it-service-management
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: IT service management, ITSM, itSMF Estonia
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The 2014 itSMF Estonia conference, held in Tallinn last week, was an international IT service management (ITSM) fest. The circa 180 delegates had travelled from 12 countries (including strong Finnish and British contingents) and the presenters came with a variety of international perspectives. It differed to many of the other international itSMF chapter and global IT service management (ITSM) conferences I’ve previously attended, in that: It was a single day event – which very handily kept the conference and travel costs (and time spent away from the office) down. There was a single session track – itSMF Estonia President Kaimar Karu had billed all the sessions as keynotes. He wasn’t too far from the mark as the rapidly delivered content was of a high quality. I’ll not cover all of the conference content in this blog, it wouldn’t be possible. Instead I’ll come back to a number of sessions in greater detail in additional blogs. These will include: “Fast Delivery” by Adrian Cockcroft of Battery Ventures “How to definitely make an ITSM project fail” by Bartosz Górczyński, chairman of itSMF International. And I believe Stephen Mann has promised Toby Moore of ServiceDesk360 a blog on his “Consumerization of Service” presentation. The Importance of Customer and Workforce Experience David Wheable, of Forrester, started the conference with the importance of customer experience. Not just that companies with better (external) customer experience outperform the stock market but also that customer and service experience are also applicable within the enterprise. David used Forrester research...
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### 15 IT Trends for 2015
- Published: 2014-12-11
- Modified: 2021-08-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/15-it-trends-for-2015
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: BYOD, cloud, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
To shepherd in the New Year I’ve created a list of 15 IT trends for 2015. They’re in no particular order, and most are not new – they’re just more relevant in 2015 given the long lead time for mass corporate adoption of new technologies, practices, and thinking despite what industry pundits get excited about and predict... Increased automation. There’s no escaping that people costs continue to be a big part of total IT costs. The use of cloud services will continue to reduce this (with cloud service providers achieving lower costs through both economies of scale and the use of automation) but there is still a need to reduce human touch points, and the associated costs, within corporate data centers and operational environments – with speedier delivery and fewer human errors secondary benefits. 2015 will see even greater automation adoption by corporate IT organizations under pressure to reduce costs and better demonstrate business value. Continued cloud adoption. IT organizations will continue to move IT services (whether buying SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS) to third-party cloud service providers. Security will continue to be a cause for concern, especially as the media’s breach article frenzy continues. However, the ability to integrate (with existing on-premise and newer cloud services) – and have always-up service availability – will rise to be two very practical concerns for enterprise cloud adoption. From an IT management point of view, organizations will need to continue to seek out people with the ability to manage suppliers and service delivery....
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### Car Insurance, Broadband, and the Real User Experience
> Car Insurance, Broadband, and User Experience - SysAid: Discover insights on managing IT services efficiently.
- Published: 2014-12-01
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/car-insurance-broadband-and-the-real-user-experience
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Recently I had to undertake that wonderful annual task of renewing my car insurance. I did the comparison-website bit, phoned a couple of brokers, and of course went directly to a number of insurers’ own websites to see if they could beat the comparison sites. What shocked me was not the very range of prices offered for the same cover, but the performance of the respective websites, some of which had obviously been designed with fibre and cable broadband speeds in mind, rather than the copper that still provides the majority of access. One site I actually gave up on, because it would probably have been quicker to drive to my local insurance broker and have a chat! The serious issue here is that not everyone is in the office using a PC, with a high speed internet connection, and we shouldn’t design our processes or select our systems around that scenario. Not All Broadband Is Equal The expectations of all users in terms of performance and response across the internet are getting higher. You only have to see the faces of smartphone or tablet-using commuters on a train when it moves from an LTE/4G area to 3G. Whilst many cities now have good fibre to premises, and increasingly high-speed publicly-available WiFi, you do not have to travel too far outside to find that these are not available to physical premises, or mobile users. I have a friend who works in rural England, with a respectable 7MBPs broadband connection over...
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### Whose Fault Was It?
- Published: 2014-11-25
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whose-fault-was-it
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: customer experience, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We all know that IT service management is about people, processes and tools, but for some reason we always seem to focus on the processes and the tools and forget about the people. I once worked with an organization where the first question that was asked after a major incident was always “Whose fault was it? ”, or something very similar. The senior IT manager needed to have someone to blame for everything that went wrong. As a direct result of this management style the organization never managed to improve. It was almost impossible to find out the truth about what sequence of events had led to a major incident because everyone was hiding vital information in an effort to avoid being the person that got the blame. Contrast that with the ideal of a “blameless post mortem”. This is the idea that you should make it easy to share and learn from mistakes. If somebody in the organization makes a mistake and has the confidence to tell their colleagues immediately, then everyone can work on rectifying the situation, and thinking about how to avoid it happening again. Because the mistake is identified early it can usually be fixed sooner, reducing both the impact and cost of the mistake, and because everyone knows what happened there is a good chance that a repeat of the mistake can be avoided in the future. This idea of sharing our mistakes and learning from them is not just useful for incident management. The...
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### SysAid 14.4, Are You Ready for More?
- Published: 2014-11-24
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-14-4-are-you-ready-for-more
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Michael Slabodnick
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of SysAid's latest release SysAid 14. 4. Sure, I may not be as crazy as Steve Ballmer, but there’s a sense of energy as we approach the final stages that is to be the latest offering from SysAid. The beta testing community, also known as SysAid Pathfinders, has been putting 14. 4 through the testing wringer, and everyone couldn’t be happier with the results. The beauty of version 14. 4, in my opinion, is our desire to have you — our friends, customers, and community — to be the drivers of the product. During the past few months our product development team has been working closely with our customer community to identify which direction to take for version 14. 4. More Functionality Release 14. 4 has a lot of improvements, many of which are based on customer feedback. In fact, at last count, there were over 40 specific performance enhancements to help make IT life easier. Some of the top favorite features include: The ability to report on value changes for a specific field Linked items on templates now are automatically copied over to the new record Access to information (request status, IT service status, FAQs, and ‘how-to’s) Addition of a backout plan action item in change management The history log of a record now includes the reason for a priority change For further details on SysAid version 14. 4, be sure to check out the Release Notes....
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### Self-Service: The Benefits and 5 Tips for Success
- Published: 2014-11-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/self-service-the-benefits-and-5-tips-for-success
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, self-service, self-service portal
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The launching of a self-service portal – a web-based application aimed at the end users, providing 24/7 access to IT services and support – has been on the IT service management (ITSM) “hot tickets” for the last few years. The primary driver for IT to launch a self-service portal is often to reduce the volume of calls coming in to the service desk (and thus to reduce IT support costs), but there are also benefits for the end users. For instance, many end users are now tech-savvy and want more autonomy in dealing with their own IT issues. Thus, by providing a digital interface that’s simple to use, end users would be able to handle minor issues and information requests that would otherwise come to the service desk. For example, it’s estimated that 20-30% of calls to the service desk are password-related issues. If even half of these can be handled by the end users themselves, the reduction in calls to the service desk will be a not-insignificant 10-15%. And, with fewer inbound calls coming from less complicated issues, the service desk can focus greater resources on solving the more complex issues hurting business operations. Self-Service Portals Defined A self-service portal is a collection of self-help and self-service functions that are exposed to the end users. These can include any or all of the following capabilities: Self-logging of incidents Self-resolution of issues using a knowledge base Access to information (request status, IT service status, FAQs, and ‘how-to’s) Self-logging of service...
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### How Can You Create an SLA that Helps to Delight Your Customers?
> Learn how to craft a customer-centric SLA to delight your customers with tips from SysAid.
- Published: 2014-11-05
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-can-you-create-an-sla-that-helps-to-delight-your-customers
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, SLA
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
IT people tend to like technology, and we like things to be clear and unambiguous, with proper facts and figures. In some other areas of expertise people are more comfortable with things that are abstract, less well-defined and harder to measure, but we tend to stick to the facts. This cultural difference can lead to big problems when it comes to negotiating and agreeing on service level agreements (SLAs) with our customers. We want the content in our SLA to be well-defined and unambiguous. All our books say that metrics should be SMART (specific, measureable, achievable, relevant and time-based), and everyone in IT agrees that SLA targets must be written like this. The trouble is that our customers are often quite bad at defining SMART targets, so we usually have to do it for them. We don’t just ask the customers what they want and write that down, because their ideas aren’t SMART enough, so we go to the customer with a generic SLA and tell them that we can negotiate this number or that number, but we rarely agree to completely change the whole way we write about services. One result of this approach to negotiating SLAs is that customers don’t feel ownership of the SLA, they think of them as “the IT SLAs”. In many cases customers think that the SLA is there for the IT department to hide behind, reporting numbers that mean little to the business but failing to deliver the services that they really...
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### Everything ITSM in Less Than Three Days
- Published: 2014-10-28
- Modified: 2022-02-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/everything-itsm-in-less-than-three-days
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: FUSION14, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Well FUSION 14 was a whirlwind of ITSM Goodness (the royalties check is in the post Barclay Rae). Working the SysAid booth, trying to attend conference sessions, meetings with clever people, and the informal networking can be tough when you’re small. Although IT service management (ITSM) BFG Michael Slabodnick was also probably looking forward to the weekend at home post-FUSION 14. This blog is a quick snapshot of the event, which SysAid will build upon over the next few months via our blog sites:I have written a number of blogs about metrics and KPIs recently, each focussing on a different area of IT service management. Here are some links in case you’ve missed any of them. https://www. sysaid. com/blog http://www. joetheitguy. com/ Key Takeaways The conference sessions started with an interactive presentation that, for me, set the scene for the issues and opportunities that would run throughout the conference – courtesy of Jenny Rains, Cinda Daly, and the customer service demi-god that is Roy Atkinson. Some of their key points, based on recent HDI research, were that: “Service organizations are still challenged to demonstrate business value and to support sustainable business growth. ” “Service and support models are changing to streamline, enhance mobile and remote support, bolster shift-left, AND become the single point of contact for all business services. ” Automation and self-service are growing in use. Two great statistics were that: remote control technology is now (unbelievably) more common in support centers than incident management technology, and 85% of...
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### How to Make Sure Your KPIs Are Balanced
- Published: 2014-10-21
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-to-make-sure-your-kpis-are-balanced
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I have written a number of blogs about metrics and KPIs recently, each focussing on a different area of IT service management. Here are some links in case you’ve missed any of them. Defining metrics for change management Defining metrics for problem management Defining metrics for incident management It's great to have well thought out KPIs for individual ITSM processes, but if you combine them all you will end up with a huge unwieldy report that’s of very limited use to anyone. Every report must be useful to its audience, and everything in the report should be focussed on that audience. Somehow you need to create balanced reports for different audiences, but they all need to derive from the data that you have collected about what you are doing. My preferred approach to achieving this is to use a balanced scorecard. What is a Balanced Scorecard? A balanced scorecard is a way of thinking about metrics that helps you to focus on strategic goals. The balanced scorecard defines four perspectives, and every report should include metrics that are balanced between these. Financial metrics help you to understand how well you are using your organizations’ resources. Customer metrics help you to understand how well you are serving customers’ needs, and how satisfied the customers are with your services. Internal business processes metrics help you to understand the efficiency and effectiveness of your internal processes, and whether they are meeting their agreed goals. Learning and growth metrics help you to understand how...
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### FUSION14: Bringing the ITSM Community Together for the Greater Good
> FUSION14: Network & Level Up Your ITSM Skills! Join SysAid & the ITSM Community.
- Published: 2014-10-14
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/fusion14-bringing-the-itsm-community-together-for-the-greater-good
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: FUSION14, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In the words of Peter, Paul, and Mary (or, if you prefer, John Denver), "All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go ... " for SysAid's first visit to FUSION – an annual IT service management (ITSM) conference for ITSM professionals and IT leaders, brought to the ITSM Community by: itSMF USA – a member-driven organization, and the United States chapter of the itSMF international organization, organized into local interest groups (LIGs) and special interest groups (SIGs) located in over 43 major metropolitan areas; and HDI – a professional association and certification body for the technical service and support industry, serving a community of more than 120,000 technical service and support professionals. We’re pretty excited about being there, meeting friends old and new, and learning more about ITSM in the conference track sessions on the 20-22 October 2014. Socially Yours If you can’t make it, but still want to hear what’s happening, you can follow the Twitter stream using #smfusion14 or follow the accounts of people I know will be tweeting there (some of them way too much): Charles Araujo Mauricio Corona John Custy Ken Gonzalez Suresh GP Jayne Groll Matt Hooper Joe The IT Guy Andie Kis Stephen Mann Michael Slabodnick Rob Stroud Doug Tedder SysAid and some of the other ITSM tool vendors Me And hopefully many more people. Sadly there will be no Patrick Bolger there this year though. Even though he works for a competitor, we still love him. Content Is King FUSION is renowned...
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### BYOD: Will IT Departments Live Long and Prosper?
- Published: 2014-10-07
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/byod-will-it-departments-live-long-and-prosper
- Categories: BYOD
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Last week at Interop, New York’s Javits Center was abuzz with IT professionals seeking practical advice on IT management good practices (and the technology to support them). The conference element included the following tracks: Applications Business of IT Cloud Connect Summit Collaboration Infrastructure Mobility Risk Management & Security Software-Defined Networking (SDN) This BYOD* and mobility-related blog is the first of a number of SysAid blogs based on the Interop sessions – with the intention of spreading the Interop advice and good practice wider than its physical attendees. BYOD and Star Trek Michele Chubirka, a security architect and best practice researcher, presented on “BYOD: Beating IT’s Kobayashi Maru. ” For those of you not up on their Star Trek folklore, Kobayashi Maru refers to a no-win situation, or the need to redefine the problem. In this case, that in Michele’s opinion: “The answer to BYOD cannot be, “No,” but a qualified “Yes, and... . ”” The point is that BYOD is not something that can be prevented, bar situations where industry legislation or regulations limit the use of certain technology – corporate or otherwise – in the workplace. And, instead of fighting BYOD, corporate IT organizations should be looking to ensure that they are ready for, and accommodating to, BYOD – and both protecting business assets and operations, and optimizing employee productivity. BYOD Needs Policies and Standards Michele stated that organizations need to have the following in place for BYOD: High-level BYOD policy Acceptable use policy (AUP) End-user agreement (EUA) Data...
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### Interop: a First-Timer's View
- Published: 2014-10-02
- Modified: 2022-03-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/interop-a-first-timers-view
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: Interop, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Well, SysAid’s and my first day at Interop New York was a busy one. As Joe the IT Guy states in his pre-Interop blog, SysAid is the only pure-play IT service management (ITSM) vendor at the event, which meant that we had some very meaningful conversations with attendees about ITSM, service desks, IT support, and improving IT service delivery. It was a very different experience to the many ITSM events we have previously exhibited, and in a good way. But you don’t want to read about the SysAid booth traffic. And, while I was on the booth most of the day, I still managed to attend the four keynotes and a Women in IT lunch panel. Keynote Gems I enjoyed the four keynotes to different extents based on what I took away from them and how the presenters engaged me. I’m quite black-and-white with presentations – I’d rather listen to a poor presenter deliver great content than a great presenter with poor content. Plus, of course, the personal relevancy of the presentation makes a massive difference. The first keynote, Ben Haines of Box being interviewed by R Ray Wang, offered up a number of gems such as: "The common thing across all industry verticals is the need for speed of change. " "We talk in weeks and months for delivering new services not years. " "We need to think about users at the center of everything we do now. " With R Ray Wang throwing in an insightful: "Users want...
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### CVE-2014-6271 aka Shellshock Bash Bug
- Published: 2014-09-28
- Modified: 2021-08-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/cve-2014-6271-aka-shellshock-bash-bug
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
sysaid. com/... /cve-2014-6271-aka-shellshock-bash-bug Remember Heartbleed? Back in April, I was flooded with questions from our customers, so I wrote that blog post about it when the hype was about as big as Apple’s iPhone 6 announcement. Well, guess what? Five months later we’ve got a new vulnerability with an equally awesome name. Meet "Shellshock" - an awesome bug with the potential to be a as big as Heartbleed. Today, I wanted to put together something definitive, both for me to come to grips with the situation, and for others to separate the hype from the true underlying risk. sysaid. com/... /cve-2014-6271-aka-shellshock-bash-bugWhat Is Bash and Why Do We Need It? Let’s start at the beginning. Bash is a *nix shell or in other words, an interpreter that allows you to orchestrate commands on Unix and Linux systems, typically by connecting over SSH. It’s been around since the late 80s where it evolved from earlier shell implementations (the name is derived from the Bourne shell) and is enormously popular. There are other shells out there for Unix variants, but the thing about Bash however is that it’s the default shell for Linux and Mac OS X, which are obviously extremely prevalent operating systems. What Is the Vulnerability? The flaw involves how Bash evaluates environment variables. With specifically crafted variables, a hacker could use this hole to execute shell commands. A good example could be an application calling a Bash shell command via web HTTP or a Common-Gateway Interface (CGI) in a way...
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### Defining Metrics for Incident Management
- Published: 2014-09-23
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/defining-metrics-for-incident-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: incident management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
I have written about how to define metrics and KPIs for IT service management processes before. In Defining Metrics for Change Management I discussed the importance of identifying stakeholders, and defining CSFs and then using these to help you think about what KPIs you should measure and report. In Defining Metrics for Problem Management I continued this theme, and showed how the KPIs that you find in best practice publications like ITIL may not be suitable for your needs. In response to these earlier blogs, I received some requests for more blogs in the series, and in particular a request for guidance on metrics for incident management. So here are my thoughts on how you can define metrics for incident management... The first question to ask is what is incident management for? What are you trying to achieve? This won’t be the same for everyone, but most organizations will want something like: We resolve incidents quickly, so they don’t have a significant impact on our customers We prioritize incidents appropriately, based on their impact and urgency We communicate well so that customers and users understand what is happening and when they can expect their incidents to be resolved Customers and users are satisfied with the way we handle their incidents We recognize repeating incidents and log problems to help reduce future business impact We make efficient use of our incident management resources Ideally our KPIs should help us to understand whether we are achieving these goals, and should provide trends...
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### ITSM: Shift Left, Left, Left...
- Published: 2014-09-17
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/itsm-shift-left-left-left
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, Shift left
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
When looking at ways to improve your IT support and service desk, it’s always useful to take a look at what managed service providers (MSPs) are doing, since their entire business is based on successful and efficient service delivery – so they will always have some good ideas to consider. The Shift Left Concept One of the most prevalent of these ideas over recent years has been the concept of shift left – which means moving the activity of providing resolution support as close to the front line and customer as possible. The concept is simple. By moving the capability and delivery of resolution work to the immediate front line, this reduces waiting time for customers, simplifies support activity and (important for outsourcers) reduces the actual cost of dealing with the incident. So, an incident fixed at the front line might cost $10, whereas the cost rises steeply for 2nd and 3rd level support to $100/$300, due to the increased numbers of staff involved, their costs, the cost of extended user downtime, etc. For many organizations, at a very basic level this is the prime activity that they might look at, in terms of service modeling, i. e. how they define the sort of service and service levels that are provided by their support structure. There are also often questions raised about the value of this approach, notably with the development of self-service and crowdsourcing in recent years, particularly as the models and norms of IT Support and IT service...
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### Evolution and How to Keep IT from Going Extinct
- Published: 2014-09-09
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/evolution-and-how-to-keep-it-from-going-extinct
- Categories: Cloud
- Blog authors: Michael Slabodnick
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
When I hear about Shadow IT and comments that the IT department will soon be dead, here are a few ITSM panicking thoughts I've heard so far: Cloud computing is destroying the data center. IT as we know it is going away. Save yourself and change careers now! Perhaps an exciting job in exotic bird grooming? Now that the panic is over, I want to reiterate what I’ve stated many times before – IT service management (ITSM) will never go away. After all, a service can have several means to deliver value. As long as expected outcomes are being produced with little to no risk, it doesn’t matter if the technology is in a private datacenter or being hosted by Amazon. With that in mind, here’s a survival guide on how not only to survive, but what to do to excel in the new way of IT. Survival Guide Think services: It's important for everyone in an IT group to understand that technology is nothing more than the tools used to deploy services in order to create value. Since the strategic value proposition will be the future role of IT, the next step is key to success. Map business outcomes to services: I once heard a brilliant idea from Mark Kawasaki, an ITSM practitioner at Emory University – “map business outcomes to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB)”. In other words, when you design a solution, understand how it will produce value for business processes. Build the service maps: Along with...
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### The Cloud Behind the Curtain - Why ITSM Matters
- Published: 2014-09-03
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/the-cloud-behind-the-curtain-why-itsm-matters
- Categories: Cloud
- Blog authors: Michael Slabodnick
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I’ve enjoyed working in the technology field for well over a decade. Either working on the service desk, in the process arena with incident management, or as a developer building creative solutions, I’ve always felt that the overall goal of IT was to make everything for customers as easy and seamless as possible. Mobile devices, virtual desktops, IP phones – all things that are designed to allow a person to connect with their workplace and perform their job from almost anywhere with any device they find preferable. For the better part of my IT career, these things have always been supported by the system administrators, developers and engineers living behind a mysterious technology curtain, existing for the purpose of getting people to ignore the technology and focus on how to best use a solution. The Wizards of IT This curtain is where IT service management (ITSM) exists. ITSM never focuses on servers or databases, but has the goal of looking at how services are delivered to the customer. Not ignoring hardware, ITIL® (formerly the Information Technology Infrastructure Library) outlines the best practice for how to design, operate, change and improve IT as efficiently as possible, while providing high quality and value of services. Building a Curtain Within the Curtain Something ironic has been taking place during the last few years. The same hardware and technology we’ve been keeping behind the curtain has itself started to disappear from IT, essentially going behind another curtain that IT organizations don’t touch. A process...
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### Clearing Up the Myths of CMDB
> Clearing Up the Myths of CMDB - Gain clarity on CMDB (Configuration Management Database) and debunk common myths with SysAid's informative blog post.
- Published: 2014-08-27
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/clearing-up-the-myths-of-cmdb
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: asset management, CMDB, IT service management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
"You can't achieve value from your investment in IT service management (ITSM) – ITIL processes, training and tools - if you haven't got a fully functional integrated, single-source of truth Configuration Management Database (CMDB). " This has long been trumpeted out at meetings and events, generally (although not always) by people who have no idea what this is or how to achieve it. If there's one element that has been used (deliberately or otherwise) to slow down and scupper ITSM projects then it's been this – the impenetrable world of CMDB, or Configuration Management System (CMS), which is part of Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM). CMDB can be a convenient way of grinding a project to a halt, often by technicians trying to achieve the unachievable with unnecessarily high expectations regarding quality and levels of detail (which cannot be easily defined and maintained). What better way is there to ensure that nothing will change by spending time on an impossible task that no one understands? ! Often it is not clear to organizations what the point of Configuration Management (CM) is, and this therefore can lead to failed expectations on all sides. Certainly it is a topic that most agree is important and useful (somehow), but few actually have a clear vision of what CMDB looks like, what is needed to make it work and how to get there. Owing to this, several ‘myths’ of CMDB have evolved over the years, including: As a CMDB is seen as a...
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### IT Service Management at LEADit - It’s as Easy as ABC
> IT Service Management made simple with LEADit - Discover how SysAid streamlines your processes effortlessly.
- Published: 2014-08-20
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/it-service-management-at-leadit-its-as-easy-as-abc
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, LEADit, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
With an awesome 674 delegates (its biggest turnout yet), we were not left disappointed by our first visit to the Annual itSMF Australia Conference and Exhibition (LEADit). The passion for knowledge, the enthusiasm of IT professionals, the amazing presenter line up of IT service management (ITSM) speakers, the first-class entertainment, and the penguin, made this a truly unrivalled event. A huge thank you to the remarkable team at itSMF Australia, we had a blast. From speaking with delegates at our booth (when Joe The IT Guy let people step away from him and the camera that is) and also managing to catch a couple of presentations ourselves, it seemed to be that the main theme running throughout the conference was “Attitude, Behaviour and Culture” aka The ABC of IT – aka the human aspect of ITSM and service delivery. Essentially we have to remember that IT isn’t about the technology (yes you did just hear a technology provider say that), it’s about the business and it’s about people. There were plenty more messages to be heard throughout the conference as well (most of which seemed to be underlined by ABC) and overall a great deal to learn from. It’s impossible for us to do justice to all of them, so instead we’ve listed what key takeaways we brought back from the event (with some suggestions for further reading for those who weren’t fortunate enough to attend). Key Takeaways Agile methodologies in ITSM are gaining ground. This message was even more...
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### How Long Should an ITSM Project Take?
- Published: 2014-08-19
- Modified: 2021-08-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/how-long-should-an-itsm-project-take
- Categories: ITIL
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I know that the question “How long should an ITSM project take? ” is going to get an answer of “It depends on what you’re trying to achieve”, but stay with me a while and see if you agree with my view on this. I was running a workshop for a customer recently, helping them to create an operating model for IT support. Participants in the workshop included people from many different parts of the customer organization, and an independent ITSM consultant who the customer had selected to do any process development work that was needed. The customer already had working processes for most ITSM areas, the trouble was that they had different processes in each of many countries. As part of our plan to consolidate some of the work to fewer locations the customer needed to develop new processes for incident management, request fulfilment and knowledge management. The first stage of the project would require development of the new processes, including defining all the categories, priorities etc. that would be needed by the service desk, and also defining how existing knowledge could be shared more effectively. A later stage of the project would actually deploy these new processes. I was absolutely astonished when the ITSM consultant told the customer that the process development work would take at least 12 months to complete. Both the customer and I explained that we didn’t need “perfect” processes, just something that was good enough to continue the project. We intended to use continual...
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### 4 Things You Need to Know About IT Maturity Assessments
> Discover key insights on IT Maturity Assessments with this quick guide from SysAid. Read now on our blog.
- Published: 2014-08-13
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-it-maturity-assessments
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: IT maturity, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
IT maturity assessments come in many shapes and sizes. Some are broad and look at a large number of areas, like strategy, culture, governance, people, skills, transparency, risk management, security, processes, asset management, customer satisfaction and supplier management. Others are deep, looking in detail at how your organisation aligns to a best practice framework, like ITIL or COBIT. Either way, an IT maturity assessment is designed to benchmark your current IT capabilities against a fixed scale. It will give you a baseline – a snapshot of where you are now – from which you can plan a roadmap for improvement. An IT maturity assessment tool can be a valuable tool, but some planning is needed to make sure you get value from your effort - so here are some of the things you should be aware of... You Need to Have a Clear Purpose The first question you need to ask is why do I want to assess my IT maturity? If it’s to benchmark your IT capability against the rest of your industry, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. If it’s to arm yourself with a maturity score to fend off attacks from the business, think again. To get the most value, you need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. An IT maturity assessment is worth nothing without a commitment to acting on the result. The value of an IT maturity assessment lies in the context of improvement. It will tell you where...
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### It's 14.4 O'Clock in the Cloud
- Published: 2014-08-12
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/its-14-4-oclock-in-the-cloud
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I can't believe how fast time flies. It's been only a few weeks since our last release and already our next Cloud release is about to be launched. SysAid 14. 4 is packed with really great features for all of you to enjoy, and of course several more fixes and improvements. I’ll guide you through some of my personal favorites. New Report: Track SR Field Changes We added a new report that runs on the history records of the Service Records (SRs) and can report any changes in field values. You can: Define the threshold for the report that includes the number of changes. Select any field, from Priority to Category and even Assigned Agents. Get the initial value and the current value with the details of who updated and when. Display in the report all the values that appeared for the selected field during the SR’s lifecycle. I'm sure you'll find this report very useful, especially those of you who follow the CSI (Continual Service Improvement) processes. You can track the quality of services and the processes behind them by identifying areas that need improvement. For example, when there are a lot of changes to the assigned agent or category or even priority, then all these changes affect the quality of service you provide; this report will help point out the SRs you would probably want to look into in your weekly/monthly review. Links Between SysAid Items and Solution Models In Release 14. 4, be sure to pay attention...
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### Whipping ITSM into BDSM
- Published: 2014-08-05
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/whipping-itsm-into-bdsm
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Michael Slabodnick
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Why do I keep reading such statements as “get rid of IT from ITSM? ” Is it that Service Management simply needs to get out of the IT world? I can get that—we want to try and project the belief that IT has been growing its involvement with the business. In fact, there are the ongoing debates on whether IT will survive the next 10 years, if it'll take over the business, or if regular users will become so technically adept, that the business will eventually do away with IT. Since I'm not an astrologer, I can't predict what's going to happen in the next decade, although if I had to guess, I’d say not much will really change and all of this talk is mostly hot air. But I do have an issue with just stating "get rid of IT from ITSM," and the issue is simple. Look, people can grasp the idea of Information Technology. Ask anyone, and they'll probably say "its computers and stuff. " Easy. In fact, I'm all for dropping "Information," since technology itself is a good enough descriptor for defining our use of computers as tools. But if we completely get rid of IT from ITSM, then what are we left with? Service Management? Can you imagine meeting new people at a party (and I mean a real party, not Fusion, Pink or SDI, and telling someone you work in Service Management? I've just started getting used to the blank stares I get from...
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### Advice for Improving Customer Satisfaction on the IT Help Desk
> Discover top tips to enhance customer satisfaction on the IT help desk in this article by SysAid.
- Published: 2014-07-29
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/advice-for-improving-customer-satisfaction-on-the-it-help-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
“The customer is always right,” right? Whether that old adage is true is irrelevant. But there is another saying that should be plastered on the walls of every IT help desk: The Customer is Always the Customer. And, as a customer, each is entitled to polite service, accurate information, and timely resolution of any issues. The following tips for IT help desks will help you improve customer satisfaction levels. Remember that ITSM is not just about the technology; ITSM is about people. Staffing a help desk with people who are both technically savvy and customer-centered is a fundamental building block of a successful IT help desk. Tip #1: Remember – your job is to help the customer Sometimes, you may become frustrated by customers’ endless requests. In these situations, take a step back to understand how your customer feels. Try to view the situation from their perspective. A customer may need a password reset, which in the grand scheme of IT challenges, seems trivial. But, to the customer, the password issue hinders their work and causes a major problem. When addressing your customers, understand their frustration, empathize, be patient and polite, and offer easy-to-follow guidance and effective solutions. This is the golden rule of customer satisfaction: treat your customers as you would want to be treated. Tip #2: For the resources you provide to be useful, they must be easy to find and understand If you have a thorough knowledge base that nobody uses, or if your team...
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### Can You Imagine a World Where IT Professionals Do Not Exist?
> Imagine a world without IT professionals. Dive into this thought-provoking article by SysAid.
- Published: 2014-07-25
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/can-you-imagine-a-world-where-it-professionals-do-not-exist
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Before you click play, imagine a world where IT professionals do not exist. Throughout the year we stand by all of you amazing IT people. We appreciate everything you’ve done in the past 365 days. This year was full of IT challenges, like BYOD, shadow IT, cloud, and Heartbleed, not to mention standard day-to-day challenges, like keeping up the good service, coping with end users, aligning to business needs, and so much more. In the industry this year, a new discussion was started on what the future holds for the IT role, what it will look like with the growing trends of BYOD, shadow IT, and cloud. Many even went as far as to say the role of Service Desk Analysts and SysAdmins would potentially not exist a few years from now. At SysAid, we know exactly what you do and have no questions about the important role you take in the success of your organization. We don’t see your roles disappearing, in fact we believe that with the new changes, the organization will only need your IT skills even more. So... as we do every year here at SysAid for System Administrator Appreciation Day, we’re happy to once again provide you an opportunity to look at an alternative reality that will make you laugh and will show our growing appreciation to all of you great IT people and everything you do—365 days a year. Happy SysAdmin Day! Cheers, Sarah Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter,...
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### Knowledge Management Is Not Just About Document Repositories
- Published: 2014-07-23
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/knowledge-management-is-not-just-about-document-repositories
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, knowledge management
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
When I ask people how they acquire the knowledge they need to do their jobs they describe a huge variety of approaches that work for them, including working with other people, attending training, reading books and blogs, watching videos, trial and error, being mentored and more. When I ask IT management what tools and techniques they use in their knowledge management programs they often just describe tools that are used for managing and sharing documents. If our knowledge management efforts are focussed on this very limited view then we will never equip our people with the knowledge they need to be effective and efficient. If we remember that knowledge only has value when it is available to someone, either because they remember it or because they are guided towards it at the time they need it, then that can help us to understand what knowledge management needs to achieve. It’s much more than just storing documents in a repository. When you create a knowledge management programme, you should focus on achievable outcomes that will generate some short term value that you can then build on. Don’t start with an enormous over-arching programme that will take years to implement and even longer to create value. It’s good to think about the entire scope of where you may want to be in the long term, but make sure that you have manageable steps to get there and that each step has measureable ROI. One place that many organizations start to implement knowledge...
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### 5 Tips for Creating a Successful Service Catalogue
- Published: 2014-07-17
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-tips-for-creating-a-successful-service-catalogue
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service catalogue, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
A service catalogue offered as a self-service facility can bring a number of benefits to both the IT organization and their customers. For example, it can provide IT with an opportunity to streamline the interface between itself and end users. And in doing so, IT can potentially improve business user productivity and reduce costs. It sounds almost too good to be true. By providing end users with a go-to hub for “everything IT”, you can take the strain off the service desk and keep your IT customers happy by giving them another option. No more waiting in call queues. Now they can order services and get status updates at the click of a button. Do it right and you have an efficient digital interface for business users. Do it wrong and all you end up with is another piece of expensive shelfware. The truth is that many service catalogue projects fail to deliver the predicted benefits because they are handled as technology projects. Start with Business Benefits Thinking about what the business needs should be the starting point for any IT project – and a service catalogue is no exception. A service catalogue is an end-user tool, so it needs to work for end users. What IT people think it should look like doesn’t really matter. They don’t have to use it. Ultimately it’s about improving business user productivity by making it easier and faster for business people to source the technology they need to do their jobs better, not...
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### SysAid 14.3 – It's Your Voice that Matters
- Published: 2014-07-14
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-14-3-its-your-voice-that-matters
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
For me, one of the greatest things about introducing new features in new releases is the fact that they get even better - and it’s all because of YOU! SysAid 14. 3 is a prime example, and I’ll get to that in a minute, but first I cannot stress enough how important it is for us at SysAid to listen and get feedback from all of you out there. The best place to get this feedback is in our Community, where we communicate on a daily basis and the conversations are priceless. I encourage you all to join in - find the forum(s) and discussions that you’re curious about and hop on, or start something new. I’ll be there in addition to many of our staff from Product and Customer Relations, plus our dedicated Customer Community Manager, Michael Slabodnick, who is THE man to go to if you’ve got any questions or ponderings. He can be very philosophical at times. Of course there are also additional communication methods to communicate with us (as well as with your peers), such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, for example. And obviously there’s always the old-school email :). So what features did we improve in SysAid 14. 3 you ask? I’ll take you through some of them. Category-driven templates A few releases ago, we introduced category-driven templates, based on your requests to be able to set up a customized form for various use cases based on categories. We developed this and allowed you to...
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### Debunking the Top 3 Customer Service Myths
- Published: 2014-07-09
- Modified: 2021-08-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/debunking-the-top-3-customer-service-myths
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The less complaints from customers, the better, right? Well, not exactly. When it comes to customer service many companies believe that receiving fewer complaints means their customers are indeed happy. However, research proves that it’s quite the opposite. In fact, the majority of unhappy customers never complain, they simply leave and never come back. Moreover, companies today have an extremely skewed sense of their ability to deliver top-notch customer service. According to this American Express survey, only one-third of survey respondents think businesses have made steps to improve customer service, while the businesses themselves think otherwise. That being said, companies that encourage a two-way dialogue with customers stand to do better, while those left in the dark are guaranteed to suffer. Despite the many theories around the subject of customer service, many “myths” are still abound. In order to clear the air once and for all, we’ve debunked the top three customer service myths below. The “truths” may shock you. Myth 1: The majority of customers complain when they have a problem Debunked: The truth is that less than 25 percent of customers actually complain when they have an issue, while an astounding 70 to 90 percent never complain at all. Moreover, instead of complaining to their provider, customers will tell an average of three people “bad” things about their provider. So why are customers so hesitant to complain? Most customers won’t bother to complain because they feel it’s either too difficult to reach the appropriate representative or they are...
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### SysAid Support is About to Get Even More Supercalifragilisticexpiali-Help-You!
- Published: 2014-07-07
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-support-is-about-to-get-even-more-supercalifragilisticexpiali-help-you
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We're very excited – because SysAid has further upped its commitment to exceptional customer service. We've made some structural changes to enhance the way in which we deliver support – splitting general customer support away from technical support – and, as a result, our personal service to you will improve. It's not because our service wasn't great before, but because you – our amazing customers – deserve better than just "great" service. You deserve exceptional service that's simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! We want to ensure that you get maximum value from your investment in SysAid and we firmly believe that part of this is receiving the greatest customer experience possible. We value your loyalty, and we understand that without you we wouldn’t exist. What will change? We're introducing a new team dedicated to “Business Services,” where every customer will have a dedicated Account Manager for non-technical inquiries. Your Account Manager will be responsible for: Managing your relationship with SysAid General queries and questions about the product and/or service Assisting with implementations and upgrades Handling complaints Facilitating any training/advisory requirements Providing information, such as changes to service, new releases, etc. Ultimately your Account Manager will be responsible for ensuring that all your needs are fulfilled. By providing you with ONE point of contact we hope to build a superior relationship that helps us to better understand and anticipate your needs. By splitting customer support (“Business Services”) out from the Technical Support team, Technical Support will be able to focus 100% of their efforts...
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### High Touch, Transparency, and Good Customer Service
- Published: 2014-07-01
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/high-touch-transparency-and-good-customer-service
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Hanan Baranes
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Quick word association. I say “Customer Service” and you say... . No wait time High 1st call resolution Rapid issue resolution and service delivery Friendly, knowledgeable support staff All good stuff, to be sure. But these days, it's just expected. I mean, no one's writing home about good, basic customer service when you call for support. Richard Nugent wrote an excellent piece on Do What You Say and Say What You Do. The article is about leadership, and he makes an excellent point about the relationship damage caused by a disconnect between what you say and what you do. It's no different in IT Service Management. If customers are expecting one thing, and get another, or if IT says they will deliver a service at an agreed level, and do not – the relationship will be damaged. The sad truth is, it takes a lot of time and effort to build the relationship, but very little time to damage it. Not new news, you say? Perhaps not, but things are changing rapidly in technology. Your users have unprecedented options for enterprise-grade IT services on the open market. They experience incredible levels of delivery in the services they consume outside their jobs. They're also increasingly social online, and have instant access to global opinions on technology and service. Like it or not, you're in competition with both the services and the perceptions to which your users have access. The bar's been raised. Long gone are the days when their only experience...
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### We’re Challenging IT Pros Across the Globe to Let the World Know What It Is They REALLY Do
> We’re Challenging IT Pros Across the Globe to Let the World Know What It Is They REALLY Do - SysAid Blog
- Published: 2014-06-16
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/were-challenging-it-pros-across-the-globe-to-let-the-world-know-what-it-is-they-really-do
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We're celebrating our successes of 2014 with the initiative "The IT Log," a video collaboration challenging IT professionals to show the world what they really do. The IT Log invites all IT pros (or appreciators) to submit 90-second ‘day-in-the-life-of’ videos through our iOS or Android app. The videos will be compiled into a crowd-sourced documentary in time for the New Year on January 1st, 2015, and $4,000 in cash prizes will go out to the top five submissions. At SysAid we feel that outside the industry no one seems to really know what IT professionals do. The IT Log is an opportunity for everyone in IT to get creative, challenge the stereotypes, and win respect for the entire industry. Whether you keep a datacenter up and running or take on hilarious help desk requests, it's time to show the world who you are and what you do. To participate in The IT Log, you need to download The IT Log app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Using the app, you can record a 90-second (or shorter) video and submit it directly to The IT Log. Videos will be posted on The IT Log website and Twitter (#TheITLog). At the end of every week, our IT Log team will announce the "Best Video of the Week. " From this selection, we will be inviting the IT community to vote on a "Fan Favorite of the Month. " When submissions close in November, a vote will be held to determine...
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### What To Do When the CFO Says, "You Need to Reduce Costs"
> Learn how to handle the situation when the CFO demands cost reduction in this article by SysAid.
- Published: 2014-06-14
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/what-to-do-when-the-cfo-says-you-need-to-reduce-costs
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Your Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is responsible for the financial health and prosperity of the company. In very simple terms, the future of the company depends on more income and outgoings. These days IT is a major cost center, underpinning many aspects of the business. So if the CFO comes to visit, thumping the table to reduce our IT costs – what can we do? What Options Do We Have and What Should We Do? In an ideal world, all of our IT costs would be closely aligned and paired with the IT services they enable. Each of our services would be quantified in terms of value, and the components parts required to deliver the service (partners, services, people, assets, and so on) would be measured and quantified against the value they deliver. In this case, when the CFO says cut costs, we can reply and say “what services do you want cut or reduced? ” Reducing the number or quality of services would theoretically reduce costs. So Much for IT Management Theory... Back down here on earth, IT management is not usually that closely aligned or organized, and many organizations lack the maturity and management controls to manage value closely. If your IT Value and IT Services are not yet aligned, the best target to aim for - to reduce IT costs in this short term - is to identify WASTE. Here are three tactical projects to eliminate waste and save money. These projects are ‘low hanging fruit’; they...
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### If We Could Just Talk to Our Customers
- Published: 2014-06-10
- Modified: 2021-08-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/if-we-could-just-talk-to-our-customers
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There is currently a lot of good industry guidance and advice around how IT organizations need to get out and engage with their customers. This is essential in order to develop a positive and effective customer/supplier relationship, to also identify customer needs, and to set practical service-level expectations for delivery. All of this is a vital although often missed area of service management and service delivery, as part of service strategy and design, service level management, service catalog, business relationship management, and service portfolio management. One difficult challenge with this is around how to actually get customers to engage and participate in this process. This can be used as an excuse sometimes, but it is a difficult topic – i. e. who do we engage with and how do we get them interested and involved? The cry of ‘we tried this before and no one was interested’ is a familiar challenge to any project trying to get moving and do the right thing by engaging and listening to customers. It’s not of course acceptable to use this as an excuse (although granted in some rare situations it can be very difficult), particularly if this only then serves to prolong an IT-centric set of service level targets that don’t add any value to either the service provider or the customer – so here are a few tips to make this work. 1. Who to Talk to There are no absolute rules for this, however it’s important to try and get a...
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### Five Reasons Why You Need to Embrace Virtualization
- Published: 2014-06-02
- Modified: 2021-08-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/five-reasons-why-you-need-to-embrace-virtualization
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Though many leading economists across the globe agree that the economy is indeed recovering, albeit slowly, many business owners may still feel otherwise. In fact, companies across all verticals are tightening their belts as they navigate today’s still reeling economic climate. In addition to smart spending, many IT decision makers are implementing technology solutions designed to increase operational efficiencies while reducing costs. One such solution is virtualization, the process in which virtual versions of infrastructure and hardware, operating systems, computer networks and more are used in data centers instead of physical equipment. Virtualization allows companies to realize substantial operational efficiencies that simply aren’t possible when using only physical equipment. It provides companies a variety of benefits, including the following five: Lowered energy consumption: Virtualization allows companies to consolidate their physical servers by migrating them to virtual versions. Whereas physical servers, generally speaking, never run at maximum capacity, virtual machines can be fully optimized, allowing companies to only use the resources they need. Anyone who has been inside a data center knows how loud and cool such environments can be. Virtualization frees companies from having to spend lots of money on the costs associated with energy and keeping equipment that cool—something especially attractive in an era of rising utility bills. Reduced expenditures: In addition to the aforementioned cost savings, businesses that choose to virtualize their data centers are able to operate in the same capacity with far less equipment, such as network gear, servers and numbers of racks needed. Less equipment...
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### Smart Ways to Dispatch Your Service Records
- Published: 2014-05-29
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/smart-ways-to-dispatch-your-service-records
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, ticketing
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
If you’ve ever attended one of our courses, then you must have heard the term Let SysAid Work For You. This might sound like a slogan we use in order to sell SysAid, but I promise you, it is just a description of the reality. SysAid can help reduce your response time dramatically if you implement the automation features it contains. Let’s start from the beginning. The foundation for providing a customer with good service starts with receiving the service request or incident (service record) and dispatching it to the right group of people in the shortest amount of time. SysAid can help with this goal. Know Your Service Desk The first thing you need to do is research and understand your organization’s IT needs, and construct your service desk processes accordingly. This can take some time to do, but it’s worth investing the time in the long run. Start by taking two sheets of paper. On the first one write everything you are doing today, for example: what stages does a service record go through from the minute it appears in your list until someone starts working on it, what categories do you have in your service desk today and who normally handles them, etc. Look at your list and see what you would want to change. Then write down the new and improved process on the other sheet of paper. Sometimes we do things not in the most efficient way, just because we are used to it. Be...
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### What’s the Point of Configuration Management?
- Published: 2014-05-20
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/whats-the-point-of-configuration-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: configuration management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I have been working with a customer who wants to improve their service transition processes, and I came across a situation which I’ve seen too often in the past. The configuration manager was working very hard to maintain information in the service management tool. There were regular updates whenever changes happened, lots of auditing and verifying the accuracy of records, and regular reports showing how well configuration management was working, but nobody I spoke to was making any use of the configuration information. I spoke to a wide range of people in the IT organization, asking them what configuration information they used, and how they accessed it, and they all told me that they didn’t use any of the official configuration information because they didn’t trust it to be accurate, they couldn’t use the tool, and anyway it never had the information they actually needed. This company had implemented what I sometimes call a "write only database”. They were investing time and money in creating and maintaining configuration information but getting absolutely no value whatsoever from their investment. It is situations like this that result in the bad reputation that ITIL and ITSM sometimes have in IT organizations. People see lots of bureaucratic work but no value coming from it, and they naturally rebel against this. If nothing is done about it then this can result in people starting to lose respect for other service management processes, because they perceive them all to be very similar. It would be easy...
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### If You Don't Have an SLA, You're Delivering Bad Service
> Discover why having a Service Level Agreement (SLA) is crucial for delivering top-notch service according to SysAid.
- Published: 2014-05-13
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/if-you-dont-have-an-sla-youre-delivering-bad-service
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, ITSM, service desk, SLA
- Blog authors: Hanan Baranes
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Seems like everybody's talking about Service Level Agreements these days. What's the big deal? Can't we just deliver good service, and not waste all this time with Service Level Agreements? Not if you want to give good service! Simple Human Nature Human nature is a funny thing. Remember back to Economics 101 with supply and demand, and all that jazz? One thing I remember very well: human wants are unlimited. Customers always want more. It’s how it works. In economics, it's counter balanced with limited supply, and the tension in the middle sets the price that the market will tolerate. It’s an agreement, if you will. It's no different in delivering IT Services. Did you ever hear that customers want it all, and they want it all for free? Left to their own devices, customers will always want more than IT is able to deliver. It comes down to this - you will never have satisfied customers until you: Have clarity of what the service is (and is not! ) Agree on Service Level Requirements Monitor and Report delivery against requirements This is the basis of a Service Level Agreement (SLA). Keep reading to find out why you have to have an SLA to have good service. Clearly Define Services We all know about assumptions. About how, well, you know, how they're not good, and breed misunderstandings? Good service starts with a clear understanding of the service to be delivered. Without clarity, you're fighting human nature to want more than...
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### It’s All About You - A Huge Thank You to Our Customers
> Discover why it's all about you! Join us in expressing immense gratitude to our customers at SysAid.
- Published: 2014-05-08
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/its-all-about-you-a-huge-thank-you-to-our-customers
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Last week we attended the Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS) in London, and by far the best thing about the entire event was getting to catch up with so many of our customers at our booth. We were also incredibly fortunate that many of them joined us for dinner in Kensington on the evening of Tuesday 29th April. Whilst other vendors were out partying with the SITS organizers (standard protocol for exhibitors the first night of SITS) we were spending time with those that really matter – our customers. A Huge Success The evening was a great success and one that we hope to replicate across the globe in the near future. The informal setting, the drinks flowing, the delicious food, the incredible passion for ITSM bustling round the tables – it was a brilliant night. What I love most about spending time on a personal level with customers is listening to them talk about the challenges they are facing and getting to know what real day-to-day IT looks like. When we understand that, then we can do everything possible to improve their lives. Thanks Also to Our Friends We don’t exist without our customers (nobody in business does), but it’s also important for us to remember who our friends in the industry are and how they help contribute to our success. Whether it be people who simply actively share our articles and insights on social media, people who contribute to our content, or those who just openly...
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### Like a Virgin - ITSM for the Very First Time
- Published: 2014-05-07
- Modified: 2022-02-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/like-a-virgin-itsm-for-the-very-first-time
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, service desk, SITS
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Well I’m finally back in the real world after the whirlwind experience that was the Service Desk and IT Support Show in London (SITS14) last week in London. Whilst it wasn’t the first time that SysAid was exhibiting, it was personally my first visit to the show, and I’m pleased to say that it lived up to the hype. The great thing about SITS is that its free, so even with travel costs from outside of the UK you're likely to find that it's a more cost-effective option for you to attend than other high profile ITSM events. If you haven’t got yourself to an event like this yet, get talking to your manager. The learning experience and opportunity to interact with peers and industry superstars (including Joe the IT Guy of course) is priceless. Let’s Start With a Low and End With a High First of all, I need to highlight one downside to this particular event. The busy exhibition hall made it incredibly noisy in the speaker rooms, which meant that it was often very hard to hear the presentations if you didn't get the right seat. Everybody had told me that I was not to miss Patrick Bolger’s session on Reimagining the Role of IT, but unfortunately I did - not because I wasn’t in his session, but because I was sitting off on the side and could hardly hear anything he said. The event is obviously first and foremost an exhibition, and the content comes second,...
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### How to Take Your Help Desk Career to the Next Level
- Published: 2014-05-05
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/how-to-take-your-help-desk-career-to-the-next-level
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Did you know that the recruitment of skilled labor in specialized areas like information technology has become highly competitive? According to a recent CareerBuilder study, IT is one of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs this year. For rookie IT workers, the help desk can be a launching pad for a rewarding career in IT. Help desk employees must balance customer service skills with technical know-how, and learn business processes and crisis management alongside technical hardware and software skills. This unique combination makes the help desk a true roadmap to a promising career, teaching inexperienced IT professionals the diverse skills they will need as they advance in their careers. Below are a few of the skills you’ll need to perfect in order to make the transition from help desk to senior-level IT: Customer service aptitude: The help desk teaches soft skills such as patience, communication, conflict resolution, and leadership as well as hard skills such as troubleshooting, applications, and operating systems. These skills are a requirement for almost every job a help desk technician might advance to down the road. Tech Savviness: As a help desk technician you learn an array of valuable technical skills, such as opening and closing tickets, tracking and organizing customer issues, and utilizing Web-based tools. However, in order to take your career to the next level you have to continue your training and earn certifications and credentials. For example, finish off your CompTIA A+ certification Crisis management abilities: People often call the help desk in a...
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### What Is SysAid's Service Level Agreement?
> What Is SysAid's Service Level Agreement? - Learn about service level agreements (SLA) and how it ensures quality and reliability in IT service delivery.
- Published: 2014-04-23
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/what-is-sysaids-service-level-agreement
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, service desk, SLA, SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
My customers ask me this question all the time – what is SysAid’s SLA? Up until recently my answer was always, “We don't have an official SLA but we strive to reply within 24 hours. " Today, I am thrilled to change my answer because now SysAid does have an official SLA! ! ! Countless hours have been spent in meetings, planning, rethinking our work processes, changing the way we answer phone calls and chats, fixing replies to emails, creating new routing and escalation rules, adding new functionalities by using the new Email Rules feature, and much more. All our investment in this reform was done in order to bring a better service experience to our customers. Introducing SysAid’s Bronze, Silver, and Gold Support Lineup We divided our customers into three SLAs: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The customer's SLA is determined by their license value, including the SysAid edition, number of agents, and number of assets. Internally, within Customer Relations, we completely reorganized the department according to the new SLA, and now we have four separate teams: Bronze, Silver, and Gold who are dedicated to service the customers in their respective SLA, plus the Cloud Infrastructure team of course. We’ve been working within the new structure for a few months already, learning and adjusting the work process all the time. From this experience, we came up with the following: Bronze customers usually need more tech support than account management so that is why we decided to allocate to all Bronze...
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### How to Manage a Tech-Savvy Workforce
- Published: 2014-04-22
- Modified: 2021-08-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/how-to-manage-a-tech-savvy-workforce
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Look out baby boomers, the millennial generation is taking over the workforce. In fact, millennials will make up 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025. These are the individuals born between 1982 and 1993 who love technology so much that they would rather have access to social media than a bigger paycheck. Having grown up learning about technology, millennials quickly adapt to new trends and emerging technology – something that is quite beneficial for businesses that want to remain on the cutting edge. Millennials have vastly different expectations for the workplace compared to baby boomers, so it’s important to meet their unique needs and create a workplace environment in which they can flourish. Below are some tips on how to do this: Implement collaboration tools: Millennials are social by nature, meaning they prefer collaborating with others to get tasks done. Encourage collaboration by implementing tech tools such as instant messaging, videoconferencing, Skype, and Google Hangouts. Let employees choose what device they use: Allowing millennials to work with the devices they are most familiar with will help improve productivity and increase engagement. In fact, research states that employees are more comfortable with their personal device, which in turn makes them more productive. So you can see how enabling a BYOD (bring your own device) environment can be valuable to your organization. Ask for input and listen: Millennials tend to keep a finger on the pulse of the latest innovations. Take advantage of their knowledge and ask for their input on...
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### CVE-2014-0160
- Published: 2014-04-10
- Modified: 2024-06-02
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/cve-2014-0160
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The last few days have been all about the OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability, officially called CVE-2014-0160. Many of you surely heard about it, read about it, and talked about it, but did you really understand what all the noise is about? TechCrunch published: Massive Security Bug In OpenSSL Could Affect A Huge Chunk Of The Internet, and IT News reported on a serious issue at the Canada Revenue Agency. Why is this specific security breach getting so much exposure compared to others? Well, to get a better understanding of what exactly we’re talking about I believe it’s first important to understand what is OpenSSL - as most of you probably have no clue what is it or you believe you don’t use it. So what is OpenSSL? The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative effort to develop a robust, commercial-grade, full-featured, and Open Source toolkit implementing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols, as well as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library. The project is managed by a worldwide community of volunteers that use the Internet to communicate, plan, and develop the OpenSSL toolkit and its related documentation. Are you using OpenSSL? Good question. Are you using Nginx? Apache? VPN? SMTP/POP/IMAP? Network Appliances? XMPP? Even if you aren’t using OpenSSL directly, each of these services could be using the OpenSSL library, and this makes you exposed. Now what’s all the noise about Heartbleed? Well, the Heartbleed bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic...
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### Customer Love in London - What You May Be Missing Out On?
> Discover the essence of Customer Love in London with insights from SysAid. Uncover what you might be overlooking!
- Published: 2014-04-09
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/customer-love-in-london-what-you-may-be-missing-out-on
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: IT service management, ITSM, service desk, SITS
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It’s nearly that time of year again. Time to head to the annualIT service desk and support show (SITS)in London (29th-30thApril), and we couldn’t be more excited. It’s not just the event itself that we’re excited about either. On the evening of Tuesday 29thApril we’ll be hosting dinner and drinks at theKensington Marriotfor some of our beloved customers and its bound to be a blast. Customer Dinner Where: Kensington Marriot Hotel (10 minute walk from the event) When: Tuesday 29th April 5pm – 7pm Who: The invitation is open to all of our customers (and even prospects too). Just get in touch if you would like to attend. Why: Simple. We want to say thank-you for being a part of our SysAid family and we want to spend some time with you! We’ve also invited industry analysts and consultants, so this is bound to be the perfect opportunity to ask any burning process questions that you might be struggling with. You don’t have to be attending SITS to join us either (although we highly recommend that you check the event out – it’s free to attend). This invitation is open to any SysAid customer. We also appreciate that the whole of the UK doesn’t revolve around London. Do you live in the North or the Midlands? We hope you can still join us. Struggling to get approval/budget? Let us know and we’ll see what we can do to help. The Event Allow me to start with a shameless plug for...
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### My Feet Are Killing Me!
- Published: 2014-04-07
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/my-feet-are-killing-me
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: HDI, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The long hours and back pains notwithstanding, I have to say that HDI 2014 was a magnificent conference with terrific content, amazing folks, and a whole lot of fun and laughs along the way. I talked about some of that in my previous blog; here’s a continuation with more highlights from Thursday and Friday. Highlights of Sessions Randi Zuckerberg – Inside the Mind of the Modern Customer The Thursday morning keynote was about the future of technology - from Google Glass to self-driving cars. Who would’ve thought 10 years ago that we’d have Facebook or iPhones for that matter? We asked 20 people in our office what technology invention they’d like to see in 10 years’ time and got an array of responses, such as: Google Glass in mass production Getting rid of the keyboard, mouse, and screen - Google Glass can replace the screen and voice should replace keyboard Hologram presentations Flying cars Time travel, and teleporting More advanced wearable technology Muting device for your spouse (! ) Artificial Intelligence Integration of all household and office electronic devices Technology that provides outdoor light inside the home, even when windows are not accessible We heard Patrick Bolger say that if there will be the possibility of inserting a chip to your brain, he is the first one to sign up. Can you just imagine what life for the service desk will be when people start getting chips inside their heads and then IT needs to support THAT software/hardware? Oh my....
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### ITSM Magic, No Magician Required
- Published: 2014-04-03
- Modified: 2024-02-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsm-magic-no-magician-required
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: HDI, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We're back again in the States, this time in the land of ultimate magic, Orlando, Florida, for the annual HDI Conference. Here’s our first blog from the event, after experiencing a fantastic day and half, so far. Highlights of Sessions Roy Atkinson – Step Away from the Computer: Customer Focus in Desktop Support Roy's session looked at the growing importance of customer experience on the service desk. Customers used to be powerless with no choice but to accept whatever service they received from IT support, but in this day and age that is no longer the case. The most interesting part of the session for me was when Roy shared some recent research conducted by HDI in conjunction with Robert Half Technology. One question that the survey posed was: What do you think are the most important characteristics for someone working in IT? The results were as follows: 88% of respondents stated "a passion for customers" 80% of respondents felt that a "desire to continue to learn new technology" was the most important characteristic 75% said social intelligence 71% stated "a proactive approach to problem solving" A further 71% stated "the ability to collaborate" as an important factor I must admit I was surprised by some of the responses. For starters, if you're working on a service desk and aren't interested in technology then you might want to consider that you're in the wrong job! That said, it was highly reassuring to find "a passion for customers" come out on...
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### IT Benchmarks: Customer Satisfaction Surveys
- Published: 2014-03-31
- Modified: 2021-08-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-benchmarks-customer-satisfaction-surveys
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, ITSM, KPIs, surveys
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Following on from my last IT Benchmark blog on Knowledge Management and Reuse, this time around we are going to look at Customer Satisfaction Surveys and how to encourage responses. The Benchmark The average response to Quick Surveys (upon closing tickets) is 8. 67%. This figure is alarmingly low, and there are many opinions as to why that is, but it effectively comes down to: Surveys are too complicated or long People tend not to respond when service was average – only the really happy end users or the really unhappy end users will probably take the time to complete a feedback survey People feel as though their survey responses disappear into a black hole The Advice My advice for encouraging users to respond to Quick Surveys is: Ensure that it is always easy for your end users to provide feedback. Even if you only opt for the most simplistic method of eliciting feedback – sad face or happy face! Ask questions about the experience they had, not what you did – otherwise you know the mechanics were right, but does that necessarily mean that the end user was happy? Communicate to your end users that you want to hear their feedback and that you are listening (and you need to show them that you listened by acting on the feedback they give you) Share your Quick Survey response details with your end users: Highlight percentage of responses and service satisfaction If your service satisfaction responses are poor, highlight how...
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### What Is Change Management For?
- Published: 2014-03-26
- Modified: 2021-08-11
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/what-is-change-management-for
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: change management, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Whenever I look at the tools, processes and metrics that IT organizations implement for their change management processes I see a huge difference between what I think change management is for and what they appear to value. When I think about change management, I see two distinct purposes: To facilitate the rate of IT change that the business needs To protect the business from the adverse impact of IT changes These two purposes are equally important, and if change management doesn’t do a great job of both of them then it really isn’t being very effective. Most IT departments I work with focus almost exclusively on risk management (protecting the business from adverse impact of change), often causing the speed of change to be so low that it leads to customer dissatisfaction. So, here’s an exercise for you. Have a look at your change management metrics and mark each one a) or b), or both. I suspect that the vast majority of your metrics relate to risk reduction (b) rather than to rate of change (a). Another similar exercise you can do is to review the activities in your change management process flow and assign each of those to one of these purposes. You are likely to find the same issue. Many IT organizations have change management that is so bureaucratic and slow that it becomes unpopular with the business. Part of the reason for this is that they haven’t gone to their customers and asked in a straightforward way...
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### ITILandMe Does It SysAid Style
- Published: 2014-03-17
- Modified: 2022-05-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/itilandme-does-it-sysaid-style
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Today is a milestone day for SysAid – it is the 1st day of employment for our 1st USA-based employee! We could not be more thrilled to welcome Michael Slabodnick to the SysAid family. In order to introduce him to everyone inside the company as well as our extended SysAid Community, we asked him a few questions... to get to know him. Take a look:1. What is your background in the IT industry? How many years? Where have you worked? I could say I’ve worked in IT for about twelve years, but in reality I’ve been working on computers since I was five. To try and not give too boring of an answer, I took on programming in high school because I thought computers could get me a date. I was wrong, but at least it set me up for a nice career. Eventually I landed as an intern on a helpdesk in college to help pay for beer money and that kept me in IT support for the next five years. Eventually I got to the point of hating computers and attempted to join the ranks of the highly depressed dental field. Lucky, I didn’t get into dental school and came back to IT where, by chance, I landed a job titled “Incident Coordinator” at a hospital. I really had no idea what I was doing at the time, but people told me I did a good job and eventually I ran into ITIL and IT Service Management (ITSM)....
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### What the Donald Duck Are You Measuring THAT For?
- Published: 2014-03-12
- Modified: 2024-02-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/what-the-donald-duck-are-you-measuring-that-for
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: HDI, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
At the end of March we'll be heading to Orlando, the home of Disney World for the HDI Annual Conference (HDI 2014) taking place 1-4 April. There's lots of things for us, and you, to get excited about when it comes to this event but there is one thing in particular that I'm personally really looking forward to, and that's the "metrics and measurements" track. For all of you reading this who are familiar with SysAid, you'll know that this is a topic that we hold very close to our hearts. As far as we are aware, we are the only ITSM tools vendor who provides customer-generated performance benchmarks as part of its solution. For us, our IT benchmarking module is just as important as any of the standard service desk features. Benchmarking allows you to understand where you sit in the industry and how you compare to your peers. More importantly it provides you with critical information to be able to make informed business decisions and improve your IT performance. How Can Benchmarking Help Me? By creating and gathering your own benchmark data, or by using the benchmarking module within SysAid, you can see where your strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to your IT operations. How many incidents have been handled per by hour? How many tickets have been closed in the past 24 hours? What is your average response time to a service request? How many of your users are utilizing the knowledge base? How many...
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### What Are the First 3 Steps You Need to Take to Successfully Migrate Your Organization to Cloud?
> What Are the First 3 Steps You Need to Take to Successfully Migrate Your Organization to Cloud? - SysAid Blog
- Published: 2014-03-10
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/what-are-the-first-3-steps-you-need-to-take-to-successfully-migrate-your-organization-to-cloud
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: cloud
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
You can’t escape the fact that IT systems – both software and hardware – tend to get out of date and require high maintenance costs very fast. You can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a large project and just three years later you will have to re-invest the same amount over again. This makes migrating to the cloud a very important option to consider. In most cases, migrating to the cloud opens a whole new set of services – like DRP, backups, better security, regulations and certifications and more – and ensures that you are always up to date without re-investing all that time and money. So it makes sense that many of you would be considering making the move to cloud, but where do you start? To help you with this question, I have mapped out the 6 key steps that you need to take when migrating to the cloud and this blog post will review the first 3. Step 1: Map Current Environment This is toughest of the six steps, and unfortunately there are no shortcuts. Some of the things that you need to look at are: Business users – Who are they? License costs / plan – Do you understand them? You must check what you already have in place and what your budgets are. Are your licenses on subscription or are they lifetime licenses? R&D development / Maintenance costs –Are the costs internal? Are they outsourced? Are they as part of a service? Integrations...
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### IT Benchmarks: Knowledge Management and Reuse
- Published: 2014-03-03
- Modified: 2024-05-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-benchmarks-knowledge-management-and-reuse
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, knowledge management, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Following on from my last IT Benchmark blog on Incident Classification Categories, this time around we are going to look at Knowledge Management and Reuse with statistics, benefits, and advice on how to implement a Knowledge Base. The Benchmark On average: Amongst small IT departments with up to 3 agents, only 37% of them utilize an end-user Knowledge Base For 4-10 agents, it’s 44% 11-20 agents, it’s 57% 21 and above agents, its 50% An effective Knowledge Base has multiple benefits, including but not limited to: It helps the end user get up and running more quickly (and it saves time and costs too) It helps new agents become effective more quickly Consistency – it provides consistent information to employees in one centralized location 24x7 access – it is available at any time and anywhere online for members to use at their convenience Secure connection – end users can get answers securely online, unlike via email and telephone However, it is of no use spending the time and resources setting up a Knowledge Base if you aren’t going to effectively communicate it to the business, ensure that it remains updated, and encourage your end users to use it. Implementing an end-user Knowledge Base of Frequently Asked Questions to help make you users self-sufficient is a win-win situation. You empower your users by enabling them to troubleshoot their own issues, and you also cut down on the number of incidents received to the helpdesk. The Advice My advice for setting up...
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### Continual Service Improvement (CSI) - The Most Important Service Management Process
- Published: 2014-02-25
- Modified: 2021-07-27
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/continual-service-improvement-csi-the-most-important-service-management-process
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: continual service improvement, ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Sometimes people ask me which service management process they should implement first, or which process is the most important. They probably expect me to give the typical consultant’s answer of "it depends", but I don’t because there is one clear and obvious answer. Every IT organization that wants to implement service management should start with continual service improvement (CSI). (Yes, CSI doesn't always mean Crime Scene Investigation! ) I’ve never come across an IT organization that does nothing at all to manage their IT services. They all manage incidents, changes and releases, and they all monitor the infrastructure and design new solutions to meet business needs. I have carried out ITSM assessments for organizations that insist they have no capacity management or availability management, and discovered that technical staff are actually doing most of the required work, they just haven’t formalized the process and they don’t measure and report what they are doing. What do you think would happen if you attempt to “implement” a process such as problem management or availability management without first really understanding what work is currently being done, what outputs it is creating, how effective it is, and what resources it is using? The most likely outcome is that you would design a process that conflicts with existing activities, that people won’t accept the new process, and that the overall effect will be to reduce service quality rather than improve it. Many people think that implementing continual service improvement involves lots of bureaucracy and extra...
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### The Power of People at Pink 14
- Published: 2014-02-20
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/the-power-of-people-at-pink-14
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, PINK, service desk
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
On the third day at Pink14 I was fortunate to have a much better opportunity to chat with delegates and attend more sessions, which gave me great insight into some of the challenges and struggles attendees are currently dealing with. One theme that seemed to keep appearing was that no matter what the specific problem was that someone was dealing with, the stumbling block was people. This was heard throughout the presentations too, that ITSM is becoming less and less about tools and processes and increasingly more about the people. Another reoccurring theme that kept popping up from practitioners was that they knew what they needed to do to be successful in ITSM, they knew what they needed to change, but that they can't get management interested. Unfortunately we see this a lot across the industry; it's easy for us to assume that problems stem from the IT department not knowing what to do on specific projects, but in a large number of cases it's not a matter of what they know or don’t know that is the problem. It is understandably difficult to get management to buy-in, specifically when no relationship really exists between the management and IT teams, and unfortunately there is no holy grail answer to this. However at SysAid we recommend that you start with transparency. Set up and hold weekly meetings with management for sharing and reporting your deliverables. If management doesn’t know what you're doing they’re likely to be less interested when you approach...
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### Day 2 for SysAid at Pink14 Conference and Exhibition
> SysAid's Day 2 at Pink14 Conference & Exhibition. Stay updated with SysAid's latest ventures and insights.
- Published: 2014-02-18
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/day-2-for-sysaid-at-pink14-conference-and-exhibition
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, PINK, service desk
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Monday, Feb 17th – Steady streams of visitors to the SysAid booth continued on the 2nd day of Pink14. What a thrill to get such fantastic feedback, not only on what we offer as an IT service desk tool, but also in regards to our physical booth. Several exhibitors even approached to take pictures of our booth and ask for details on our booth designer... for that, we’re honored and thankful to our internal art department and Quadrant2Design. Additionally, keeping with the IT superhero theme of the conference, a big shout-out must go to our lovable Joe The IT Guy who is indeed our special IT hero. The kissing and hugging and photo-shoots with Joe don’t seem to be slowing down... maybe he’ll even get a billboard in Las Vegas before this is all over :). Session Highlights Lucky for me, I was able to move away from the booth for a few hours and attend some incredible sessions. I’d like to mention a bit of what I saw: The opening keynote with Colonel Chris Hadfield was extraordinarily inspiring. There wasn't a dry eye in the house for his presentation. Besides being a famous and accomplished astronaut, he is also a skilled and funny presenter, with a wonderful singing voice too – this I learned from his rendition of “Ground Control to Major Tom” at the end of his presentation. Stories from The Colonel’s life conveyed messages important to the IT service management industry; his advice really resonated with the...
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### Day 1 for SysAid at Pink14 Conference and Exhibition
> SysAid kicks off Day 1 at the Pink14 Conference and Exhibition. Stay tuned for updates!
- Published: 2014-02-17
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/day-1-for-sysaid-at-pink14-conference-and-exhibition
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, PINK, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Sunday, Feb. 16th – Along with my Dream Team, wake-up time was early, Yes, we’re in Las Vegas but I didn’t really care what everyone was doing the night before because we are first-time exhibitors at the Pink Elephant show and I wanted to be sure that we would be 100% ready when the exhibition doors opened at 5:00 pm. Needless to say, we were more than ready, and absolutely amazed by the throngs of people passing through the aisles and by the positive and enthusiastic reaction to our booth/presence at PINK14. The SysAid booth was bursting with people eager to know more about us and wanting to take photos with the famous Joe The IT Guy. Check out some of the photos on our Facebook album. I was surprised to hear so many people tell me that they have no idea about our customer numbers, specifically in the USA (where 40% of our customers reside). I was also surprised by the number of people who said they have no ITSM tool at all and manage everything manually or via an in-house built-in tool. A lot of people said the reason is cost. The truth is managing service is all about the process, so with a good process you can probably even manage a service without a tool. Last year we encountered a customer who was providing excellent service and did not use any tool at all. They had three different sheets of paper in different colors, representing the priority...
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### 10 Tips to Help Prepare You for Your Next Conference
> Get ready for your next conference with these 10 helpful tips from SysAid!
- Published: 2014-02-10
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/10-tips-to-help-prepare-you-for-your-next-conference
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
After experiencing a lull during the holiday season, the conference and exhibition circuit is back in action. In fact, just this past month, the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) posted its largest and best show to date, hosting 32,000 exhibitors and 150,000 attendees. Attending a conference is a great opportunity to network with others, learn new things and best practices, investigate new products, and strengthen existing relationships. For those of you in the ITSM sphere, there are several very popular and large conferences happening in the upcoming months – Pink14 in Las Vegas on Feb 16-19, HDI in Orlando on April 1-4, followed by The Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS) in London on April 29-30. If you're planning on attending any of these (or others), you should consider the following 10 tips to help you prepare: 1. Plan Ahead for Out of Office: One of the biggest challenges in attending a conference is leaving your normal business duties behind. In the weeks leading up to the conference be sure to get work done ahead of time to ease your workload. Moreover, let your clients know that you will be traveling during the allotted time. 2. Determine a Budget: Although extremely beneficial, conferences and tradeshows can be costly as there are many elements to consider such as hotel accommodations, registration fees, travel, transportation, and more. Make sure you sit down with the appropriate people in your organization to set a budget. 3. Set a Goal: Setting a well-defined...
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### Top 5 Tips on How to Deliver Exceptional Customer Service
> Discover top 5 expert tips for delivering exceptional customer service in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2014-02-05
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/top-5-tips-on-how-to-deliver-exceptional-customer-service
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
There's no doubt that today's 21st century customers are in the driver's seat. Not only do they have higher expectations than ever before, but they have no qualms about ditching their current provider for the competition. And with the cost of acquiring a new customer far exceeding what it costs to retain an existing one, it's critical for businesses to provide world-class customer service. For some companies, however, this is often easier said than done. With the large number of communication channels available for consumers to connect with businesses, it can be difficult to quell every customer complaint. Yet, if businesses follow the Golden Rule – treat others how would you like to be treated – and these top five tips, customer service can be made easy. Here we go... 1. Stop Talking and Start Listening (Everywhere): Today’s consumers are everywhere. Not only are they ringing your phone, but they are surfacing en masse in your email inbox and social media platforms. Because of this, it is critical to have a pulse on your company’s communication channels as one missed interaction can lead to one less customer or worse. One unanswered customer complaint on social media can be seen by thousands of users, which needless to say reflects poorly on the company, not to mention can cause a major PR headache. Some of the best help desk representatives spend most of their time listening, not talking. Avoid having the customer repeatedly explain their dilemma to multiple representatives, as this will...
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### 4 Tips: How to Get the Most Benefit from the New SysAid Announcements Feature
> Discover 4 tips to maximize the benefits of the new SysAid Announcements Feature in this informative guide by SysAid.
- Published: 2014-02-03
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/4-tips-how-to-get-the-most-benefit-from-the-new-sysaid-announcements-feature
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Did you get a chance to look at the new Announcements feature in our latest release? The new SysAid UI launched in SysAid 9. 1 introduced many improvements to the user experience, including a more organized menu layout (with new permissions system per menu item! ), better usage of page width, and one structured page for all Settings. . But on top of all that, I think the new Announcement feature is absolutely the best. It’s right on the top menu bar, in a bright green color that stands out so you can’t miss it. This is the place where all important messages appear for the IT administrator(s). In previous versions, the messages used to show up in three different places, depending on the message type. With the new Announcements feature, all messages are now showing in one location - visible anywhere within SysAid - and all admins on the system are instantly updated when a new message is posted. The types of messages showing in Announcements are: News published in SysAid by the administrator Instant messages between IT admins Notifications on new Service Records Notifications from SysAid regarding new releases, maintenance alerts, etc. How to Make Good Use of the Announcements Feature Keeping the Announcements list clean and tidy will allow you to benefit from it. Here’s a few tips on how you can do that: Disable unnecessary notifications. If you find it difficult to keep up with all the announcements (you get more messages than you can read),...
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### Why You Should Stop Doing Problem Management
> Discover why traditional problem management might be hindering your IT success. Learn from SysAid why it's time to rethink your approach.
- Published: 2014-01-30
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/why-you-should-stop-doing-problem-management
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, problem management, service desk
- Blog authors: Stuart Rance
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Few IT organizations are really good at problem management; it is often only used for managing the aftermath of major incidents. I think that one of the reasons for this is confusion in the way we distinguish incident management and problem management. We could do a much better job if we changed how we think about these concepts. I see two big issues with the way we currently define incident and problem management. 1. Failures that have not yet impacted service to users are not well handled by either incident management or problem management. The ITIL definition of an incident says it is: "An unplanned interruption to an IT service or a reduction in the quality of an IT service. failure of a configuration item that has not yet impacted service is also an incident. For example failure of one disk from a mirror set. " Even though I wrote this ITIL definition, I really don’t agree with the final sentence. If there has been a component failure that has no impact on any users then we don’t need to follow most steps of the incident management process, and we don’t want the outcome of incident management, which is to restore service to users as quickly as possible. We can’t use problem management to manage these failures, because ITIL defines a problem as: "A cause of one or more Incidents. The cause is not usually known at the time a Problem Record is created, and the Problem Management Process is...
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### Pink 14 Annual Conference and Exhibition Is All About the Personal Experience
> Pink 14 Annual Conference and Exhibition focuses on delivering a unique personal experience, presented by SysAid.
- Published: 2014-01-28
- Modified: 2024-04-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/pink-14-annual-conference-and-exhibition-is-all-about-the-personal-experience
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, Pink14
- Blog authors: Sophie Danby
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We're getting very excited now as it’s only 19 days until the Pink Elephant 18th Annual International IT Service Management Conference and Exhibition (PINK), where we will be super silver sponsors! We’re excited not just because it’s our first time at PINK, not just because it’s our first time exhibiting at an ITSM conference in the US, but because it gives us an opportunity to meet all of you lovely people who are as passionate about ITSM as we are! It’s Not All About Selling Now let’s be honest, we know that you know that for most vendors these sorts of shows are all about sell, sell, selling! You know what we’re talking about, right? Where you can’t even walk past a booth without a scanner being pointed at your chest to relieve your badge of all of your personal details? Where if you had a dollar for every time a salesperson asked you "are you looking for a tool" - you’d be a millionaire? But that's not how SysAid is going to roll at PINK 14. If you want a pushy sales speech, go and talk to one of the other vendors. However, if what you want is a human conversation about ITSM best practices or perhaps a dedicated 1:1 session to discuss your tools requirements in an environment where the demo is all about you and your needs and not about the end sale, then come and see us. You can even have this discussion with our CEO...
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### SysAid Blog Celebrates 1st Birthday
- Published: 2014-01-24
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-blog-celebrates-1st-birthday
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
One year ago SysAid extended its multi-layered approach to social networking by starting this blog. We ventured to create a hub for conveying important ideas and trends – along with practical advice – for practitioners in the IT industry. We got off to a great start! To celebrate the one year anniversary, I took a look back over the year to see what you guys were reading the most. From 67 blog posts in total during 2013, and with over 31,000 unique views - here are the Top 5: Watch the SysAdmin Day Movie Trailer: Revenge of the SysAdmin To the best of my knowledge, never before has a software company produced a mafia-style movie trailer starring its own employees! Our tribute to system administrators around the world, in honor of SysAdmin Appreciation Day, combined the Sopranos and daily life dealing with IT tasks and needy end users. Based on the reactions we got, I’d say we were spot on :). Release Preview: SysAid’s Fresh User Interface! In July, we finally unveiled a sneak peek at the much-anticipated new UI inside SysAid. It was a complete transformation and we received wonderful feedback. Our graphic design team along with the product management team worked tirelessly to test the waters before making final decisions, and yet still listened to special requests and adjusted a few things during the Beta period. Migrating Exchange to Google Apps: This is My Story Oded Moshe, SysAid’s VP Product, had a story to tell that apparently struck...
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### IT Benchmarks: Incident Classification Categories
- Published: 2014-01-14
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-benchmarks-incident-classification-categories
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Following on from my last IT Benchmark blog on Customer Access Channels and Improving Service, this time around we are going to look at Incident Classification Categories – their levels of use, the problems they can cause and the benefits of simplifying your classification. The Benchmark According to our figures, on average customers have a total of 205 categories defined in their Service Desk. However, only 34 categories on average are actually in use. IT has a tendency to set up too many categories in implementation because they see incidents from an IT point of view as opposed to a customer point of view, i. e. based on technology domains, devices, etc. However, the fact that only 34 categories on average are being utilized, shows us that not only are the end users not using the additional 171 categories, but neither are the system administrators! IT generally wants to help the customer as quickly as possible, and complex categories can often slow them down. It also risks the category of ‘other’ becoming a ‘dumping ground’ that kills the value of incident management information, simply because it’s easier to use ‘other’ than having to browse through numerous categories to find the one that they actually require. My guess is that even Stephen Hawking would struggle to categorize an incident with 205 categories to choose from. The Advice My last post discussed ways to encourage your end users to the use the Self-Service Portal, and effective classification is certainly one of those...
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### The Revolution of the Embedded Database in SysAid
- Published: 2014-01-09
- Modified: 2021-08-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/the-revolution-of-the-embedded-database-in-sysaid
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Ever since the very first release of SysAid, we made sure to support several database types. To this day, SysAid supports Microsoft SQL, MySQL, and Oracle, as well as an embedded database type - Derby. The Derby database was great for most small-medium sized businesses using SysAid because it is lightweight, requires no maintenance or handling through its lifetime, and it provides decent performance on small databases. This is now changing. SysAid is adding more features, capabilities, and audit logs. This means that the database is growing faster than ever. Even the smaller customers using SysAid see their database growing rapidly and performance degrading with time. On the other hand, customers using SysAid with an external database are enjoying better performance and virtually unlimited scalability in terms of database size. In addition, some customers are also taking advantage of the possibility of running reports directly on the database with third-party software (which was never possible, or at least it was not easy, to perform with Derby). All these reasons - plus the ones Oded discussed in his blog - have lead us to stop supporting the Derby database and concentrate our efforts in providing a better product. Starting with version 14. 1, the Derby database will no longer be supported. Customers upgrading from earlier versions with Derby database will be required to migrate their data into one of the other supported database types. What Do You Need To Do? First, check if you are even using the Derby database. If...
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### Google Apps vs. Microsoft 365: Who Packs the Bigger Punch?
> Discover who packs the bigger punch between Google Apps and Microsoft 365 in this SysAid comparison.
- Published: 2014-01-06
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/google-apps-vs-microsoft-365-who-packs-the-bigger-punch
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Everyone loves a good rivalry. Whether it’s talk show hosts Leno and Letterman battling it out on late night TV or heavyweight champs Ali and Frazier throwing combinations in the ring – everyone has their favorite. But rivalries aren’t just for the boxing ring and late night TV. In fact, the technology industry has sprung some of the most intense rivalries throughout history. Google versus Microsoft, anyone? Google and Microsoft have been embroiled in an ugly battle for some time now. In one corner sits Google, the creator of Google Apps, and in the other corner sits Microsoft, the inventor of Microsoft 365. While there’s no shortage of opinions on which tech giant packs the bigger punch, we are here to give you all the facts and let you decide who the real winner is! Let the battle begin... Productivity Applications Google Apps and Microsoft 365 are both well-known for their productivity applications, which include word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet software. When it comes to word processing, both Google Docs and Office Web Apps have easy-to-use interfaces. However, Microsoft is probably better suited for users that are already familiar with Microsoft’s products. In terms of presentation and spreadsheet software, Office 365 takes the cake as it boasts more advanced presentation features and most users are already familiar with the formulas and features of Excel. On the other hand, others prefer Google Spreadsheets for its ability to easily collaborate. For example, multiple people are able to share and edit documents within...
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### Progressing from 2013 to 2014: It Is All About You!
- Published: 2013-12-30
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/progressing-from-2013-to-2014-it-is-all-about-you
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
2013 was a great year and it is all thanks to you... SysAiders around the world, you rock! Just as 2013 comes to an end, I would like to summarize briefly a few highlights that happened this year: We released two SysAid versions that included 34 new features and 146 bug fixes. We delivered the first step in our end-user interface revolution. We implemented patch management. We lost one database We exhibited at one trade show (SITS13). We initiated SysAid On The Road and already visited 5 customers. We had 12 webinars, 392 eLearning course participants, 1062 Community discussions, and 4 Pathfinder Roundtables. But for me, our biggest achievement this year is our new Contributions feature implemented in SysAid 14. 1. This new feature enables us to celebrate our achievements together all year long. It is our way to thank each and every one of you for every Feature Request implemented that was your idea, every bug resolution that was fixed thanks to your report, and every SysAid On The Road visit that allows us to learn something new and implement it in the product for the benefit of the Community. Our first special thanks on our 1st and 2nd contributions go to our valuable and irreplaceable Community member Michael Z, who was also our first visit with SysAid On The Road this year, in Denmark. Thanks to Michael's requests, users can now set reminders to alert them of an expiration date for a knowledge base article (FR #13525) and...
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### Top 4 Considerations When Moving to the Cloud
- Published: 2013-12-23
- Modified: 2021-08-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/top-4-considerations-when-moving-to-the-cloud
- Categories: Cloud
- Blog authors: Oleg Sin
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Intermediate
Since it burst impressively onto the scene in the late 1990s, when Salesforce. com introduced the concept of delivering enterprise applications via a simple website, the buzz surrounding cloud computing has showed no signs of slowing down. Conversely, this technology trend has just begun to make its mark. In 2013 alone, researchers predicted that the cloud market will burgeon to $160 billion. The cloud has been celebrated for the many benefits it affords businesses—both large and small—such as lowered capital expenditures, simplified maintenance and upgrade processes, increased flexibility, mobility and scalability, business continuity and, with a competent SaaS provider, even improved IT security. While the cloud has many uses, its capabilities have found a strong footholding in the IT service management sector. This is because 91 percent of IT decision makers have a positive opinion toward cloud computing, according to a national survey. As an IT professional, you're constantly on the lookout for tools that will help you perform better and more efficiently, which makes it difficult to resist the cloud. But before you jump head first, there are considerations you must first bear in mind. Security Data security in the cloud has been a point of contention for some time. According to a recent Alsbridge survey of 250 IT decision makers, 45 percent of respondents were concerned about the release of sensitive data as a result of a major security breach. However, despite participants concerns, only 10 percent believe that the cloud has yet to prove its worth and...
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### itSMF Estonia 2013: One Day in December
- Published: 2013-12-17
- Modified: 2022-01-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsmf-estonia-2013-one-day-in-december
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, itSMF Estonia
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Last week I had the privilege to attend and to speak in another leading itSMF event in Europe - This time it was Estonia https://konverents2013. itsmf. ee/ What a fantastic event! It was held at the Swissotel in beautiful Tallinn, the oldest capital city in Northern Europe, on a date that is very unique as well - December 11th 2013, which is 11. 12. 13, a rare sequential day on the Gregorian calendar that will not occur again for 90 years. The next time a similar date will occur will be February 1, 2103 – 01. 02. 03 (not 2003). The organizers are definitely paying attention when picking dates for their events. When do you think their 2012 event took place? That’s right, on December 12th - 12. 12. 12. Now about the event itself... it was a full day packed with a super interesting agenda and more than 140 eager-to-be-enlightened ITIL advocate delegates from several countries in the surrounding region. Highlights from the Sessions After the great welcome and introduction by our host, none other than Kaimar Karu, President of itSMF Estonia, we dived right into the fascinating world of Delivering Service Operations at Mega Scale by Alan Levin from the Microsoft Operation Center. Now I hope you are sitting down while I go through these numbers: The MS Operation Center is in charge of more than 200 Cloud services, delivered to more than 1,000,000,000 users (that is 1 BILLION for those of you who lost track of the...
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### What's New in SysAid 14.1?
- Published: 2013-12-12
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/whats-new-in-sysaid-14-1
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
My previous blog explained how and why we're jumping from SysAid 9 to SysAid 14. 1, the latter being the subject of this blog. Just doing my part to keep you all updated! Next week, we're beginning to upgrade our Cloud customers to the latest version of SysAid—version 14. 1—and we're starting Beta 14. 1 for our On-Premise customers. You probably heard a lot of talk about it because it will include the new Patch Management module, which is something I will address in another post and webinar. But, for now, I want to talk about some other really great features we added, which give tremendous value in your day-to-day tasks. Convert Incidents to Requests and Vice Versa The first feature I want to mention is the option to convert incidents to requests and vice versa. This is specifically for those of you who utilize the SysAid ITIL package. You have incidents and you have requests and often you find out very quickly that your users don’t always know the difference between them, causing you to be stuck with an incident, when actually the issue involved is a request. So what do you do? Instead of trying to deal with it by deleting/duplicating/copying related items, SysAid just added a button that allows you to instantly convert the service record from an incident to a request or the other way around. Note that the button will be enabled only if you allowed it inside the permissions. We want to give you,...
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### IT Benchmarks: Customer Access Channels and Improving Service
> Explore IT Benchmarks on customer access channels and service improvement in this article by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-12-10
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/it-benchmarks-customer-access-channels-and-improving-service
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: customer service, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In this day and age we have access to a lot of data and information, but we don’t always necessarily know how to use it. In a recent presentation that I conducted at the itSMF UKConference and Exhibition in England, I looked at real numbers and statistics (taken from our own customer-aggregated benchmark data) and discussed ways in which you could utilize the data to help improve basic issues faced on the Service Desk. As many of you would obviously not have been able to see that presentation, I’ve decided to turn it into my very own blog series of benchmarks and advice. One message that I am keen to make clear with this blog series is that you don’t have to be a SysAid customer to benefit from it. The series will utilize SysAid data, but the advice given will be applicable to anybody within the ITSM industry regardless of which tool you are using. So please help share the advice given in these blogs amongst your peers and colleagues for the benefit of the entire ITSM community. In the series you can expect to see statistics and advice on: Incident Classification Categories Knowledge Management and Reuse Customer Satisfaction Surveys If there is anything else that you would like to see addressed as part of this series then please leave a note in the comments section of this article. Today, we start with looking at customer access channels and how to improve service. The Benchmark The average percentage of...
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### Productivity vs. Security: BYOD Pros and Cons
> Explore the advantages and disadvantages of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in the workplace. Is it a productivity booster or a security nightmare?
- Published: 2013-12-03
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/productivity-vs-security-byod-pros-and-cons
- Categories: BYOD
- Blog authors: Ilan Hertz
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The debate over whether or not BYOD (bring your own device) is an effective policy focuses on two major issues: productivity and security. Proponents of BYOD stress the fact that allowing employees to use personal devices for business increases productivity immensely. A recent survey of over 500 executives by CIO Insight showed that 63% of the participants had an increase in productivity as a result of their BYOD policies. On the opposite end of the spectrum, BYOD does create new issues in terms of security. It is
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### SysAid's New Version Numbering System Keeps It Simple
> Discover how SysAid's simplified new version numbering system is keeping things straightforward and efficient.
- Published: 2013-11-27
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaids-new-version-numbering-system-keeps-it-simple
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Here at SysAid, the "naming" of our software has always been a technical issue of incrementing the numbers as we release new features... and new versions. When I joined the company in 2008, we were at SysAid Release 5. Since that time, there’s been two major releases each year, so we went from 5. 5 to 6 to 6. 5 to 7, and so on. Last year we reached the 9th generation of our product with the latest release 9. 1. With the numbers rising and before entering the 2-digit arena (aka Release 10), we figured it’s the perfect time to improve the logic to our naming convention. So we began to rethink our numbering strategy/policy. So What Did We Do? We decided to break up the concept and give value and meaning in the version number that will indicate when the specific version was released. The first 2 digits would represent the year – in other words 14 for 2014, and the next digit after the period would represent the specific quarter in that year, e. g. SysAid 14. 1 means the 1st quarter of the year 2014. Common Language for Cloud and On-Premise SysAid has Cloud releases as well as On-Premise releases. Cloud is always a little ahead of the game, getting the releases quicker, with On-Premise getting it a few cycles after. Although for Cloud the naming convention is actually less relevant than for On-Premise—because Cloud is always updated, so you don’t need to know which version...
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### SMCongress - Viewed Through a Customer Lens
- Published: 2013-11-25
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/smcongress-viewed-through-a-customer-lens-2
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
At FUSION 13, the annual joint itSMF USAandHDIconference, a group of pre-selected people came together to consider and report back on the future of the IT service management (ITSM) industry. There are many articles and blogs that cover the group’s outputs ranging from the SM Congress site, through a CIO. com article by the group’s initiator Charles Araujo, through to blogs that take a number of different views on the group’s outputs, including: A little less SMCongress a little more action please by James Finister, European SIAM Lead at Tata Consultancy Services Some initial thoughts on the service management congress by Jon Hall, Lead Product Manager at BMC Software Thoughts on SMCongress by Rob England (aka The IT Skeptic), Managing Director at Two Hills Ltd The, or should I say your, service management call to action by Stephen Mann, Senior Manager, Product Marketing at ServiceNow ‘Revolution? ’ – Congress! by Barclay Rae, Owner at Barclay Rae Consulting These are blogs that cover a wide range of views on the merits of and issues with the SMCongress and its outputs. But I want to put those to one side for now; well, actually for the rest of the blog. I want to give you my views. I want you to think of it from the point of view of our customers. Putting Our Customers First Let me lay my cards on the table. I love our customers – we succeed because they succeed. I want them to be the best they...
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### Gartner's Top IT Predictions for 2014: BYOD and Cloud Computing to Take Over
> Stay ahead with Gartner's 2014 IT predictions - BYOD and Cloud Computing trends by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-11-21
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/gartners-top-it-predictions-for-2014-byod-and-cloud-computing-to-take-over
- Categories: Cloud
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: VP/Director of IT
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In the world of technology, timeliness is extremely important. Being the first to take advantage of new and popular trends gives you more time to implement and perfect them. So when Gartner unveils their annual predictions for IT trends for the forthcoming year, it’s a good idea to pay attention. After looking through Gartner's top 10 IT predictions for 2014, two things are very evident: Companies need to start preparing for an influx of mobile device usage in the workplace The Cloud will become an even more integral part of ALL IT needs We have already seen these trends emerging heavily throughout 2013. The Software as a Service (SaaS) industry has been experiencing tremendous growth thanks to the growing popularity of cloud computing, and BYOD has been a hot topic for nearly all of 2013. It’s safe to say that Gartner's predictions aren’t too far off. Are Companies Ready for Mobile Growth? Gartner estimates that the amount of mobile technology will be growing exponentially through 2018. For most people, this isn’t very surprising. The problem that Gartner sees is that some companies aren’t prepared for the rate in which mobile device usage at work will grow. According to Gartner’s report, “The unexpected consequence of bring your own device (BYOD) programs is a doubling or even tripling of the size of the mobile workforce. ” The question that CIO’s will have to ask themselves is whether or not they have the infrastructure and protocol in place to handle that much growth....
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### itSMF UK Conference and Exhibition 2013: Review from a CEO and First-Timer
> Discover a CEO's perspective as a first-timer at the itSMF UK Conference and Exhibition 2013 in this insightful review by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-11-12
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itsm/itsmf-uk-conference-and-exhibition-2013-review-from-a-ceo-and-first-timer
- Categories: ITSM
- Tags: ITSM, itSMF UK, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Well, Oded Moshe, Joe the IT Guy, and I are fresh back from the UK following our very first visit to the itSMF UK Conference and Exhibition in Birmingham last week. It was cold, and it rained a lot, but I’m pleased to say that the event itself made up for both of these facts. The wide-variety of event content was delivered by: high profile names; IT consultants; vendors; and people with proper IT jobs, and between the three of us we attended numerous sessions looking at topics ranging from effective problem solving to gamification, from financial management to change & release processes, and more. It would be a tall task for us to write about every presentation with passion, so instead we’ve decided to highlight the sessions that stood out to us most. Energise your Service Desk for the Future & Cure Your Service Desk With Customer Experience – John Rakowski, Forrester Research This session was one of the ones that stood out from the rest. It offered clear and simple advice, often much needed in the ITSM industry. John discussed the increasing need to better manage the experience of end users. He advised that you can no longer ignore the phrase “customer experience”, and that it’s now becoming a case of “adapt or die”. The great thing about John’s presentation was that he didn’t just preach about customer service, he provided actionable advice for attendees to take away and use to better their business. One of the things...
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### 5 Techniques IT Departments Are Learning from Apple's Genius Bar
> Discover 5 techniques IT departments are adopting from Apple's Genius Bar in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-11-06
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-techniques-it-departments-are-learning-from-apples-genius-bar
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: Apple, Genius Bar, help desk, service desk
- Blog authors: Ilan Hertz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Frustration, confusion, and a general disconnect all describe the current relationship between many IT departments and business-side employees. However, the concept of the Enterprise Genius Bar is improving the way help desks operate within companies today. The Enterprise Genius Bar is essentially an Apple Genius Bar for the workplace. Within the Apple Genius Bar, customers are encouraged to bring their devices in to learn more about how they operate, how to resolve basic issues, and to see what other technology is available. This interaction eliminates the wall that exists between a typical help desk and customers because both parties are face-to-face and the entire experience has a more personal touch. An Enterprise Genius Bar brings the same model into the workplace. The modernized enterprise help desk has already been successfully implemented by SAP, and many more forward-thinking companies are planning on adapting the concept. Even companies that have not fully adapted the Genius Bar model are at least taking some cues from the idea. Here are a few Genius Bar inspired improvements and techniques that IT departments are making. 1: Employee education One of the biggest complaints amongst help desk staff is that too much of their time is spent helping company employees fix basic issues that they should be able to resolve on their own, such as not being able to log in, restoring deleted files from the recycle bin, or slow internet speeds. Instead of immediately changing an employee password, restoring deleted files remotely, or restarting the router,...
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### Movember: SysAid Helps Change the Face of Men's Health
> Discover how SysAid is making a difference in men's health this Movember.
- Published: 2013-11-04
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/movember-sysaid-helps-change-face-mens-health
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: Movember
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Have you heard of Movember? It's a month-long event that takes place annually during the month of November that involves growing mustaches, in order to raise awareness for prostate cancer and other male cancer initiatives. Call it a campaign, a fundraiser, whatever you want. The point is to get people talking, so more men will get checked, and hopefully prevent serious long-term illness or even death. SysAid wants to participate and help raise both awareness and money! Last week, all SysAid employees were notified that if they grow their mustaches during the month, SysAid will donate $25. 00 per person to the Cancer Society. Personally, I won’t be able to grow my mustache (thank goodness ;) but I do hope all my male colleagues will feel the peer pressure and humanitarianism, and stop shaving their upper lips! Help Increase Our Donation We want to raise even more money... so we’re opening up the offer to all SysAid customers around the world. Anyone who grows their 'stache and sends us a photo of themselves at the end of Movember, with SysAid running on a screen in the background (so we know you really are a customer), we will donate to the Cancer Society $25. 00 in your name as well. Photos should be posted directly to our Facebook page, or tweeted to us @sysaid (use the hashtag #movember). If you are extremely shy, you may also email the photos to community@sysaid. com, and we’ll be sure to make the donations. Please...
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### Get Off the Bench and Make Your Mark Through Effective Benchmarks
> Make your mark with effective benchmarks! Learn more in SysAid's latest article.
- Published: 2013-10-30
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/get-off-the-bench-and-make-your-mark-through-effective-benchmarks
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: help desk, ITSM, KPIs, service desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Ahead of my presentation “Get off the bench and make your mark through effective benchmarks” at the itSMF UK Conference and Exhibition next week, I wanted to start a discussion about IT metrics and benchmarks. IT people love statistics and most IT organizations are run on performance metrics. But what do the metrics really tell you about the relative level of your success? Are you purely measuring operational efficiency or are you measuring how well you support end user and customer needs? Are you beating all your performance targets but continue to be viewed as an unresponsive, slow, uncommitted, and detached IT organization – something that business colleagues have to, rather than want to, work with? “But we beat industry benchmarks” I hear you cry. But do you? Are they representative of your organization and your customers’ needs? And were they created before One Direction were born? You need relevant and timely benchmarks and a mindset that appreciates that beating the benchmarks is not enough – that the benchmarks and other performance metrics are a launchpad for improvement activity not a medal of honour. Statistics and Mystics However, statistics can mean different things to different organizations with different IT operational models and maybe even different cultures. Take the use of email as a service desk access channel for instance. The graph below (taken from our IT Benchmark module) shows that there is a wide range of email usage amongst SysAid customers ranging from 0% to 100% email. Let’s consider those...
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### Managing the Explosion of BYOD with Mobile Device Management Solutions
> Manage the BYOD surge effectively with Mobile Device Management Solutions. Read more in our blog article.
- Published: 2013-10-23
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/managing-the-explosion-of-byod-with-mobile-device-management-solutions
- Categories: BYOD
- Tags: asset management, MDM, mobile device management
- Blog authors: Oleg Sin
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon is taking businesses by storm. Now, more than ever, BYOD programs are becoming commonplace in the workplace, helping to satisfy the needs of today’s 21st century worker – who's accustomed to using the latest high-tech devices. In fact, businesses are encouraging employees to bring their own devices to work. According to a Gartner study, half of employers will require employees to supply their own device for work purposes. Moreover, 38 percent of companies expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016. "The era of the PC has ended. Employees are becoming more mobile and looking for ways to still be connected wherever work needs to be done," said Phil Redman, research vice president at Gartner. "The convenience and productivity gains that mobile devices bring are too tempting for most companies and their employees. ” While the benefits of BYOD – including creating new mobile workforce opportunities, increasing employee satisfaction, and reducing or avoiding costs – are abundant, the movement has dramatically shifted the roles of IT departments, bringing on new challenges, such as security risks, policy requirements, increasing IT workloads, high mobile management costs, and privacy issues. “Securing corporate data on mobile devices is a big challenge, but one that companies must embrace. Enterprises are struggling with how to support and secure this dynamic workforce,” added Redman. To help combat these challenges, effectively support BYOD initiatives, and gain full control over all mobile devices entering their IT management software system, CIOs and...
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### 4 Metrics for Monitoring the Performance of Your Self-Service Channels
> Discover the top 4 metrics for monitoring your self-service channels' performance in this SysAid article. Read now
- Published: 2013-10-16
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/4-metrics-for-monitoring-the-performance-of-your-self-service-channels
- Categories: Service Desk
- Tags: ITSM, KPIs, self-service, self-service portal, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Famed management consultant and researcher Peter Drucker once said, “what's measured, improves. ” While companies have long used KPIs in call centers for this reason, they haven't had a lot of other metrics for measuring performance in other customer service channels. FAQs, publicly-facing knowledge bases, communities and other forms of self-service provide a lot of value to companies, the primary one being deflecting tickets from the call center. Some of Hewlett Packard's community articles are viewed as many as 1,500 times for example. While many of these page views are likely people just causally browsing, others could be from site visitors that might have called for answer in an alternative scenario. Now that an increasing number of customers prefer these digitally-based channels, it's time companies apply the same level of scrutiny to performance in these channels as they do in the call center. Here's four metrics your company can use to monitor and maximize the value you get from your self-service channels. Percent of Community Questions that Receive a Response In order for customers to actually want to use your self-service channels, they have to believe they will actually get a response. For this reason, it's important that you monitor the percent of community questions that receive a response—ideally this would be 100 percent. Percent of Community Questions that Require an Employee Response In order to ensure all of the questions in your community receive a response, you will likely need to have someone responsible for moderating the community. Several...
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### Under the Hood...Replacing Our Default Embedded Database
> Discover the process of replacing our default embedded database at SysAid in this insightful read.
- Published: 2013-10-08
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/under-the-hood-replacing-our-default-embedded-database
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Every good software relies on a good database, which allows the software to run smoothly, to allow growth, to be robust, and of course to secure the consistency and availability of your data. SysAiders that chose our Cloud offering don’t have to worry or manage the database or any other technical aspect related to hardware, installations, upgrades, etc. For SysAiders that have chosen to go with our On-Premise offering - we have always allowed you to select and manage your own database. But we also took care of those who want a simple and easy installation by having an embedded database that is automatically set up during the installation process, providing a worry-free environment that can be treated as a black box. We constantly improve our product and the technology it is based on, both in aspects that are visible (like the new UI), as well as aspects going on under the hood. This time around we decided to upgrade the embedded database to MS SQL Express - a top tier database that will bring you improved performance, allow you to grow, and have SysAid run on the newest technologies available out there. New installations, starting from SysAid 9. 1 released this October (2013), already include MS SQL Express as the embedded database. Our R&D is investing a lot of effort in creating an automatic migration from Derby (our previous embedded database) to the new database, so when you upgrade to one of our next releases in 2014 - this...
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### SysAid Customer Relations Take a Trip to the Blue
> Sysaid Customer Relations: Take a Trip to the Blue: Discover how Sysaid prioritizes customer satisfaction and fosters strong relationships.
- Published: 2013-09-30
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-customer-relations-take-a-trip-to-the-blue
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: Sivan Kroitoru
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
On September 15th we had our annual Customer Relations Day, a day to relax away from the office without the normal separation of borders between managers and staff, where we can take a little bit of a load off. We decided to drop off our burdens at the beach and hop onto a boat, and have a day out in the sun. As you can imagine we spend most of our time in a closed office where we hardly see the sun (which I personally don’t complain about but maybe I’m not the norm). And no, that wasn't our boat. This was what we went on. I am the one next to the really tall guy on the right... oh, the problems of being short. After our boat took us into the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea, a few of us decided to jump in—some with more skill than others. After a 3-hour boat ride, we came back to land at around 1pm. But the day was not over yet! After handling the waves of the ocean, we then drove to a beautiful villa, where we were treated to a superb steak lunch by the pool. The hot tub was pretty relaxing too. Above you can see the final photo of the day where we made a pact - whatever happens at The Villa, stays at The Villa. You will just have to imagine the rest ;). -Sivan Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter, Google+,...
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### 4 Features That Will Improve Your Life as an IT Admin
> Elevate your IT admin role with SysAid - uncover 4 essential features to streamline your work efficiently!
- Published: 2013-09-24
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/new-release-sysaid-9-1-webinar-4-features-that-will-improve-your-life-as-an-it-admin
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Preparing training material and informative content is always challenging and fun at the same time. Lucky for me, I get to have fun almost every day in my role as SysAid Academy Supervisor. Every month we prepare a webinar that we think can make you a better SysAider, and this content is available for you at any given time on our YouTube Channel. This month, however, is even more exciting because we're having our New Release Webinar, and we're going to show you our brand-new release version 9. 1 in all its glory. I assure you, this is not one to be missed! Hosted by our VP Products Oded Moshe, this webinar promises to be both educational and entertaining. And, we’re making it even more enjoyable to watch as we play a game that will give you a chance to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card. 4 Categories, All You Need In this webinar we are going to show you our new UI and its major improvements, which is the result of over one year of researching our users’ needs . Aside from it being very nicely designed, it also brings a fresh and much more efficient approach on how things are organized. We have come to the conclusion that everything we do today falls under four main categories: Service Desk, Assets, Analytics, and Tools. All about this and more is going to be presented by our Creative Director Maurice Hason. It's Time to Submit a Service Record One of...
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### Nubo - World's First Remote Android BYOD Launches
- Published: 2013-09-23
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/nubo-worlds-first-remote-android-byod-launches
- Categories: BYOD
- Blog authors: Israel Lifshitz
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I just got back fromTechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013and have a lot of news to share with all of you. In 2011, I founded my second company, Nubo. Nubo is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) startup that has now officially left “stealth mode”. As many SysAid customers know, more end users than ever are bringing their smartphones and tablets to work. The trend is clear. My CTO and I flew from Tel Aviv to San Francisco to participate in TechCrunch’s yearly event. I wanted to launch Nubo in the midst of the cream of the crop of IT startups and there’s no better place. (You can read TechCrunch’s article about Nubo here. ) We set up a booth and spoke with hundreds of visitors. The techies were fascinated by Nubo’s “Android on iOS” capability (more on that below), and IT journalists wanted to know how we succeeded in virtualizing the mobile experience. Are you curious? When I founded SysAid, I saw the need for a comprehensive ITSM platform. There were other products out there, but none that had my "all-in-one" approach. The same goes for BYOD. My three tenets of BYOD are:1. Native mobile experience2. Zero work data on device3. Identical user experience for Android and iOS A Remote Workspace for All Mobile Devices Nubo is a remote workspace which allows the management of one work environment for all iOS and Android devices. Employee apps, corporate data, shared files and folders are all synchronized and located in one remote environment,...
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### How We Celebrated the New Year with the SysAid Race!
> SysAid Rings in the New Year with an Amazing Race! Teamwork & Fun Fuel Success.
- Published: 2013-09-12
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/celebrated-new-year-sysaid-race
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Last Sunday on the 1st of September we had our annual corporate event celebrating the Jewish New Year - Rosh Hashana. As the HR team, it was our job to arrange the event. We kept everything a secret from all SysAid employees to encourage curiosity and heighten the experience. Haha... it was devious but really fun! The "operation" took off at 2:00 PM by sending out an email to the whole company explaining that everyone was being placed on teams. Each team got a color and received a t-shirt and hat to match. Team spirit was beginning to buzz at this point. By 3:00 PM we all gathered in front of our building to receive instructions from the "journey manager" who also exposed the day’s mission – The Amazing Race. He explained that we will need to solve rather complicated riddles for a few hours, to move from one place to another, and to reach the final destination by evening. The confused faces, mixed with smiles and cheers, were hysterical! After some picture taking and giving out the maps and instructions, we finally departed at 4:00 PM with each team driving away in their own jeep, complete with private driver, water bottles, and healthy snacks. We had an incredible experience combining fun and teamwork while visiting historical sites with some of the most stunning views. At 8:00 PM all the jeeps drove up to the final location where the big party was about to begin. But first, we wanted to...
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### My Year in Tanzania as a Support and Integration Engineer
> Tanzania - Support and Integration Engineer at SysAid. Boosting tech solutions for seamless operations.
- Published: 2013-09-09
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/year-tanzania-support-integration-engineer
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
"Sometimes they hear a thundering sound when there are no clouds. They assume the gods have eaten too much and their tummies are rumbling. " - from the 1980 cult movie The Gods Must Be Crazy Working on a project in Africa is a very interesting and challenging task. Though the people, at least in Tanzania, are very positive and gentle, they spend their lives in a different dimension, which would not be understandable to a western man. The mantra that best describes their perspective on life is Hakuna Matata – Take It Easy! Regardless to what is happening, they always take a rest, and say Hakuna Matata. Never mind if half of the country has no access to the Internet, or expensive equipment is stuck in customs for seven months and they are losing the money as a result of it. Perhaps the relaxing sound of waves and cool breeze from the Indian Ocean made their mentality cool, optimistic and carefree. One more thing to know about the locals—when you are going to a business meeting in Tanzania and want to bring a gift—don’t bring a watch because it will be 100% useless. They’ll use it as a nice piece of jewelry, but they won’t use it as a tool for time measuring. Time in Tanzania flies in a different way, and their hour does not contain 60 minutes as a regular hour does in the rest of the world. But let's come back to our story. So, what...
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### SysAid 9.1 Beta Keeps Rocking Onwards
- Published: 2013-09-02
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-9-1-beta-keeps-rocking-onwards
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
So far, 90 companies have upgraded to SysAid 9. 1 Beta: 11 Pro 25 Pro Plus 54 Enterprise/Full Here’s what was happening at the beginning of the Beta Season. Today we're delivering a new Release Candidate, so if you're feeling left out – please join our Pathfinder Program now and stay in the know, while truly making an impact on the final release! Just ask our amazing and devoted Community powerhouses, like @techguy, @karlson, @MichaelZ, @jasoncherkas, @larronni, @5. 7FSN, and all the rest. I personally want to thank you all for everything you put us through ;). We still have a full month before the final release, and we are working with a dedicated team of developers to fix as many issues as we can to bring you the best release to date. Category-Driven Templates This is one of the more anticipated features our On-Premise customers, who have been waiting patiently and certainly won't be disappointed. Basically, for those who don't know, this is where SysAid allows you to create dynamic forms and match them to different types of service records. Agents love it because the form is designed specifically to the issue that the end user is having. The end user loves it because once an issue is pinpointed through the categories (in the End-User Portal), the rest of the form is basically filled out dynamically, so there won’t be much else to do besides clicking the Submit button. . NET Agent SysAid's new . NET Agent for Windows...
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### The Challenges of Modernising ITIL: The AXELOS Chronicles
> Explore the challenges of modernizing ITIL in "The AXELOS Chronicles" by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-08-27
- Modified: 2024-04-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-challenges-of-modernising-itil-the-axelos-chronicles
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: AXELOS, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Continuing our series of looking at the changes going on in the ITSM area, I want to examine perhaps some of the issues facing the newly formed company to take the ITIL and Project Management Best Practices into the future. Fact File: Nov 2012: Tendering Process for the Best Management Practice Portfolio announced. Formerly owned by the UK Government Cabinet Office, but widely adopted in organisations globally for IT Service Management and Project/Programme Management Best Practices. April 2013: Tendering Process completed and a joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Capita Announced. July 2013: Joint Venture becomes AXELOS, and appoints CEO Peter Hepworth as they get ready to be fully operational Jan 2014. July 2013: AXELOS runs first workshop with Project & Programme Management and IT Service Management community representative That Was the Past, What’s the Future? There is some interesting stuff emerging from AXELOS in the wake of the newest updates from the workshops, earlier this month, looking at modernising the approach, amongst other things. This has particular resonance for me—now I do not consider myself particularly long in the tooth but it is a sobering thought that I have worked for 21 years and shockingly I theoretically have the same amount of years ahead of me. Depressing thought. Now I try to put myself back in my 23 year old shoes when I first started work – learning about technology, grasping concepts perhaps more rapidly than older counterparts, full of enthusiasm for the journey ahead. In a way,...
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### Signs It's Time to Upgrade Your Free Asset Management Software
> Upgrade your asset management software with SysAid. Streamline your processes and boost efficiency today. Read More
- Published: 2013-08-21
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/asset-management/signs-time-upgrade-free-asset-management-software
- Categories: Asset management
- Tags: asset management, help desk, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Whether you’re a small startup with limited funds or an established company just trying to test different software, many businesses make the initial decision to use free asset management software. Free software is cost efficient, handles the basic needs of many companies, and allows you to experience the benefits of asset management without going all in. However, there will eventually come a time when free asset management software will no longer suffice. As your business grows and expands, so will your IT needs. In order to make sure your asset management software will be able to support your needs, here are some signs to let you know when you’ve outgrown your free software. 1. You need frequent technical support Most free software vendors’ offer limited support through community forums or access to a FAQ section. This might be sufficient for startup companies that are bootstrapping, but larger sized companies with multiple needs tend to run into a lot more technical issues that need to be resolved quickly and subsequently require access to phone and email support 24/7. Consider the amount of time and resources used to figure out how to solve technical issues on your own. That time could be much better used for completing projects or other high priority tasks. With 24/7 support, issues can be resolved immediately. 2. You have a high number of users If your company is growing rapidly, you will need software that can accommodate all of the users and their devices (especially if your...
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### Everything You Need to Know About SysAid 9.1 Beta
- Published: 2013-08-19
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/everything-need-know-sysaid-9-1-beta
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Joseph Zargari
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Happy Beta testing to all our dear Pathfinders who have been enthusiastic and thorough, helping us ensure the official release is even better. I have summed up the highlights of the 9. 1 Beta testing, but if you want more in depth information or to post your own comment, please visit the Beta Issue Forum on our Community. And, of course, if you want to become one of our elite Beta Testers, we welcome you with open arms to join the league of SysAid Pathfinder here. You will get an exclusive look at SysAid new Release 9. 1 and be the first to test all its new features! What People Are Saying about the New UI So far, Pathfinders have given the following positive reviews about the new UI: “More professional... The top menu allows for quick one-click navigation to most pages. ” “Everything is faster, more overview, very successful. ” “A large plus and a smiley for column auto scaling! ” “Very happy about the new Category Template relationship. This will help to assign Special templates to different requests. ” And some critiques: Pop-up windows should open wider so users can scroll down and read all the information/ to reach the buttons. In the Customize List on select pages, the check box spacing needs a more defined break between menus and lists. Patch Management Update Big thanks to@Tech-Guyfor bringing up the issue of Patch Management, which is not included in this release. No worries though because Patch Management will...
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### SysAid 9.1 On-Premise Beta is Here!
- Published: 2013-08-12
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-9-1-on-premise-beta-is-here
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Ilan Hertz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The excitement level here at SysAid is increasing because we just started the beta season for SysAid 9. 1 On-Premise! Beta season is great, as this is the time when we bring out all our hard work and share it with our most enthusiastic and involved users. the SysAid Pathfinders. The SysAid Pathfinder Program enables you to check out beta versions before the full On- Premise edition is released, take part in roundtables so you can share your input and feedback, and even receive fun gifts (last release our Pathfinders received a cool solar mobile charger). It is easy to register and take part in the program. Simply fill in the short form here, and you will receive information immediately about the current beta and all future ones too. What Happens During Beta Season? Our designated beta team is here to take care of any bug or issue that comes up during the season. Anyone who installs the new beta, whether in a test environment or a production environment, gets priority when reporting issues regarding the new release. We try our best to solve all the issues before the full release, which is scheduled for October 1st. Where Should You Leave Your Feedback? Our beta forum has vibrant discussions regarding all the new features, so be sure to take part in the discussion and have your voice and opinion heard. Fact: SysAid has developed many features based on Pathfinder feedback! We are here—reading, listening and responding. You can also email...
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### The Magical Mystery Tour of Metrics - The Real Power Inside ITSM Reporting
> Discover the real power of ITSM reporting with "The Magical Mystery Tour of Metrics" by SysAid. Uncover insights that drive success!
- Published: 2013-08-06
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/magical-mystery-tour-metrics-real-power-inside-itsm-reporting
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Back in my previous life, I would work occasionally with a mythical figure who could do magic—The Reporting Guy. Here was a person who could pull all kinds of details from the ITSM solution and come up with the most incredible spreadsheets, pivot tables and slide decks imaginable. There were colours, graphs, numbers that changed magically if you changed something else—all by the flick of a magic wand (or probably an Excel macro). Of course there were the kinds of calculations you would expect to see in a normal ITSM solution, such as the numbers of incidents and service requests, including those resolved within their Service Level Agreement (SLA) time. But the Reporting Guy had the ability to pull all kinds of facts and figures and manipulate them to do all kinds of things—a pied piper of spreadsheets, if you will. Of course I am being perhaps a little facetious, because often in larger projects and deployments, teams work independently of each other and occasionally cross paths. So while my erstwhile numerically-minded colleague could macro numbers to death, from my perspective at the time, so long as the tool captured that core data for it to be pulled out and acted on, then all was well. It is only when you lift yourself away from just looking at the tool that you realise why Service Reporting deserves to be a process in itself, and needs some operational AND strategic consideration. You come to realise that the ITSM Reporting Guy was...
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### Introducing SysAid Cloud Release 9.1 with Brand-New UI
> Discover SysAid Cloud Release 9.1 featuring a fresh UI design. Upgrade your IT experience with SysAid!
- Published: 2013-07-31
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/introducing-sysaid-cloud-release-9-1-brand-new-ui
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
So you are a SysAid Cloud customer, and you are used to getting new features every few weeks, but this is more than just a bunch of new features—it is a whole new experience! If you are an On-Premise customer, don’t worry, we are launching the Beta on Aug 11th that will include the new UI plus many more features we have added since 9. 0. 533. So stay tuned... . For me, this release is one of the most exciting releases in the past few years. Every release that introduces new features is always exciting, but there is something special about this one. First the planning of this release spanned over a long time—much longer than previous releases and included a lot of research as you probably read in Maurice’s blog post a few weeks ago, but most importantly in this release, we focused on the experience of working with SysAid. 9. 1 has been available as a Release Preview as of June 30th, and since then a large amount of you Cloud customers have asked to be upgraded to this new exciting release. Well the time has come that the rest of you join the party! Some Background on Release 9. 1 Let me tell you a bit about this new release: We kept in mind new design approaches and trends that have been introduced to the world in the past few years via various new services (mainly social) and software that became part of our day-to-day living....
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### Touch-Tone Phone Menus: Helping or Hindering Hopeless Humans
> Touch-Tone Phone Menus: Exploring the Impact on User Experience - Read now on SysAid blog.
- Published: 2013-07-29
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/touch-tone-phone-menus-helping-or-hindering-hopeless-humans
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
In the modern world, technology operates in a neutral space where it can be used to fulfill a variety of potentialities. This is not something unique to modern technological advancements—people have often commented how the two greatest orators of the 20th century were Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther King. Their talents were equal, what separated them was how they chose to direct and harness these talents. Well here in the 21st century, technology is king and as much as we mere mortals often find ourselves gazing with awe upon the newest fad—be it a website, a smartphone or a service— that doesn't mean that it is benefiting us in a meaningful way. Obviously the potentiality for technology to be harmful is vast and I do not need to highlight the dangers of war and the deadly role technology can play in that arena. For me, I often find interest in those technologies that were maybe once helpful but due to lack of forward momentum have become a weight around our virtual necks. A great example of this are touch-tone phone menus. Their ubiquity is only matched by the pained expressions universally displayed by those who have to suffer long minutes waiting to hear which number will generate a real person on the end of line, any person, even the wrong person! As someone who likes to keep up with the lesser news stories of the day, I was therefore greatly heartened that someone had taken the proverbial digital bull by...
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### Watch the SysAdmin Day Movie Trailer: Revenge of the SysAdmin
> Check out the trailer for the SysAdmin Day Movie, "Revenge of the SysAdmin" by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-07-25
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/watch-sysadmin-day-movie-trailer-revenge-sysadmin
- Categories: General IT
- Tags: help desk, IT support, ITSM, service desk, SysAdmin Day
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Have you ever fantasized about what your life would be like if you, say, hired the Mafia to handle your service requests? Hmmmm, interesting, right? Well, SysAid has created a short, HILARIOUS movie trailer starring members of the SysAid team that combines the Sopranos and your daily life dealing with IT tasks and needy end users. Wishing you all aHappy SysAdmin Appreciation Day—we appreciate what you do as an IT admin every day! Hope we gave you the gift of hysterical laughter on your special day. Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where we are always listening.
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### Call of Duty to Shape ITIL and the Best Management Practice Portfolios
> Explore how Call of Duty is reshaping ITIL and the best management practice portfolios in this article by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-07-22
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/call-duty-shape-itil-best-management-practice-portfolios
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: ITIL, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Some time ago, I wrote about the latest happenings after the announcement by the UK Government Cabinet Office to enter into a joint venture with Capita for the Best Management Practice Portfolios. At the time, things were ominously silent on the communications front, but Capita had been busy buying up what looked like strategic purchases in view of the joint venture. What’s Changed? We know a lot more since that piece was published back in May. The concern for many in the industry was that maybe contributors who worked for vendors and clients in the industry would lose that sense of detachment in continuing to work now with a commercial competitor. But now, just three months on, there is a lot to reflect on, not all of it negative. At the Know 13 conference, representatives from NewCo (as it was called) engaged with key members of the ITSM community to set the new scene – The Red Herring in the Moat of Castle ITIL. And this month, NewCo has announced their new CEO, their new name and now the first of what should be a series of workshops involving more of the great and the good of the ITSM community. With the new CEO coming from games company Activision and the focus on gamification, I can be allowed the liberty of punning with a games title, but seriously – a lot has changed in a short space of time. What’s Good? The positive thing from this is that slowly but...
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### How to Motivate Your IT Support Staff for Better Performance
> Discover effective ways to motivate your IT support team for improved performance in this insightful article by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-07-17
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/motivate-support-staff-better-performance
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Increasing productivity should be a top priority for every IT support staff. In order to get more productivity from your staff, they need to be motivated. Contrary to popular belief, financial gain is not the sole motivator for all employees. Motivation comes from a variety of sources. In order for employees to perform better, it’s your duty to find out what motivates them. Determine What Motivates Employees The first step of improving your IT support staff’s performance is to determine what their motivators are. Humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow created a visual representation that describes the basic needs of all human beings called the Hierarchy of Needs. The chart is setup as a pyramid and consists of the following level from bottom to top: Physiological Needs. The basic needs necessary for human survival such as food, water, sleep, and air. Security Needs. The things that make you feel secure, such as stable employment, healthcare, a home. Social Needs. The need to belong - having friends, family, a loving relationship. Esteem Needs. Having personal worth, reflecting on your self-esteem, and personal value. Self-Actualization. As the highest level on Maslow’s chart, self-actualization is when you become self-aware and don't desire acceptance or approval from others. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is important because it helps determine the best way to motivate the individual members of the support staff depending on where they are in hierarchy. For example, a young entry level IT support intern is probably at the bottom level. In this case, simply...
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### How Can Microsoft Win the Enterprise Customers Back in Windows 8.1?
> Discover strategies for Microsoft to regain enterprise customers in Windows 8.1. Learn more in this SysAid article.
- Published: 2013-07-09
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/can-microsoft-win-enterprise-customers-back-windows-8-1
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: Israel Lifshitz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
SysAid recently released some amazing stats that show that the adoption rate of Windows 8 in the enterprise market is very low compared to the adoption rate of Windows 8 in the consumer market. (The same applies to past versions of Windows. ) Having a Windows version that an enterprise would be interested in adopting is not only in Microsoft’s best interest, but also the enterprise’s. Company IT departments are so invested in the Microsoft environment, so a lack of progress for a long period of time can also mean a lack of progress in productivity. Here are my 5 pieces of advice on how Microsoft can do better and offer a better solution for enterprises in future versions: Problem 1 - UI changes in Windows 8 were too dramatic I like changes in user interface (UI). Every product should be improved over time to offer a better user experience (UX), to give an answer to new technologies (e. g. touch devices) and update the design. However, when you have too many changes in one version, it confuses the users. Enterprise users are even more conservative about such changes. The solution for that problem is simply allowing the enterprise customers to keep some of the old Windows 7 UI elements (e. g. bringing back the start button). As a result, that will help people become more familiar with the new UI and also aid in dealing with resistance. Problem 2 - Windows 8 was designed for tablets and not PCs...
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### Behind the Scenes: Building a Website for a Software Company
> Discover the process of crafting a website for a software company in this behind-the-scenes look.
- Published: 2013-07-03
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/behind-scenes-building-website-software-company
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
So, how does one embark on the huge task of redesigning a website? While there are certain epiphanies and creative ideas that pop into your head as you do the most mundane things, like take a shower, the majority of website planning happens when you sit down and work through the bigger goals. While I won’t go through the more technical stages of website building that SysAid underwent (research, sitemap, wireframes, design/mockups, content, implementation and more), I will highlight the values that I chose to focus on and use as a compass throughout the website creation process. It is these values that kept the marketing team focused, mindful, and most of all, inspired. Reflect the Product UI The UI serves as the gateway between the user and their ability to easily and successfully use a product to its full capacity. Visitors recognize that and are therefore looking primarily for a software that is easy-to-use and nice to look at. While visitors can be impressed by a nicely designed website, if the software they are investing in doesn’t have that same look and feel, it’s really just a marketing gimmick. Therefore, a main goal of ours was to put the new SysAid product UI on display and give a true reflection of what the product is like to view, navigate, and use. SysAid has invested immeasurable time and energy into developing a clean UI that lets users easily navigate through the software, access all the features, and interact with SysAid exactly...
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### Release Preview: SysAid’s Fresh User Interface!
> Sysaid Release Preview: Sysaid's Fresh User Interface: Get a sneak peek at Sysaid's new user interface designed to improve your service desk experience.
- Published: 2013-07-01
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/release-preview-sysaids-fresh-user-interface
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: help desk software, ITSM, service desk, SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We have been more-than-hinting for some time now about the cool stuff we’ve been working on here at SysAid, particularly the user interface (UI) makeover on the Service Desk, which started about one year ago. Our Chief Product Designer, Maurice Hason, writes all about the process here. So many customers on Facebook and Twitter have been asking me for screenshots and sneak peeks but I was sworn to secrecy :). Today, though, we are thrilled to announce the Release Preview of our next version of SysAid that includes the first phase of the new UI. After months of research, including observations of user behavior, we reorganized the way the SysAid menu items appear in a more structured, logical, and intuitive way. Watch the video below to see for yourself: So What’s New? We created a main menu that includes the functionalities most used, according to the surveys we conducted. We took all of the system settings and put them in one place according to their topics. We created a Personal Menu. We reorganized all the functionalities into 4 main categories: Service Desk Assets Analytics Tools And this is just the beginning. We've got lots more ahead. Check It Out Now If you want to play around with the new UI, you can see it from the instant demo on our website or even sign-up for a new Trial from the homepage, which now offers the SysAid version with the new UI. What’s Ahead? During August we’ll be rolling out the...
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### The Process of Giving a Facelift to an IT Management Software
> Revamp your IT management software with SysAid - discover the process of giving it a facelift!
- Published: 2013-06-26
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/the-process-of-giving-a-facelift-to-an-it-management-software
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) is not a new topic. I remember two decades ago it was called MMI (machine man interface) and was given other assorted names over the years. However, in more recent years it has become increasingly more important as we see new applications and technologies like Google/Gmail, iPhone , Facebook, Twitter and others educating users to a certain experience when interacting with software. I work at an IT management software company whose core product was developed 10 years ago. We had a major face-lifting six years ago that reached the end of life, and now we have been working for the past 12 months to create a new innovated user interface that will give the best experience to people using our software. The work included a lot of research. The research was fascinating. We examined the most used pages, the most common flows, mouse movements and more. We did this by physically watching users (who volunteered) while they worked in the current version of the software. We know there are different roles that use the software, hence we worked on a solution that fit most use cases. During the process we had several options for almost every element. And I can tell you up front that with the professional team I worked with, there were very few definitive rights and wrongs. Instead, for every dilemma, we uncovered the pros and cons. Then, gathering together all the knowledge we accumulated—we took decisions. Planning a project...
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### How Much Should a Good Service Desk Software Cost?
- Published: 2013-06-18
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/much-good-service-desk-software-cost
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
As someone who has been in the IT services industry for several years, I am often asked - what is the right price to pay for a help desk solution? This seems to be a very easy and straight forward question to answer, however it is also one of the more challenging questions, and in this blog post I will try to explain why. The first question you should ask yourself when looking at help desk solutions isn't necessarily how much does it cost, but rather it should be what am I looking to achieve from having a help desk software. For example, is your goal to make your IT department more efficient, improve their operational flexibility, or create a knowledge base for time optimization? Having a solution that saves you time will save you money, and make much happier end users – including your CEO, who you always want to keep happy. The next issue to tackle is: where should I start? Most IT managers look for a solution that solves a temporary issue. However, they should be looking at the big picture, whether it is a better way to control their assets, ITIL work flows, or mobile device management (MDM), among others. Regardless of the specific issues, they must consider the following questions: What will their IT department look like in the future? Will the service desk software grow along with them? What additional functionality does the software offer that they do not use at the moment, and...
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### 8 Cool iPhone Features That You May Not Even Know Exist
> Discover 8 hidden iPhone features you didn't know existed! Explore more at SysAid.
- Published: 2013-06-11
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/8-cool-iphone-features-that-you-may-not-even-know-exist
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
For all those iPhone users out there who like to discover new features that they have and don't know about (also known as the surprise factor), I am putting together here a few tips I found over the past few months, I personally was surprised by most of them, and I actually use them in my day-to-day activities, so I thought you may also enjoy them. Now, I know I am not the only iPhone user out there who knows a thing or two about the device, and I told myself that besides the tips I know, let's see if other iPhone users from SysAid could help. So I went social and asked all iPhone users in the company to contribute to this blog—making this the first crowd-sourced blog post written by us. I'll probably blog about the process in the near future... . it was fun! So a big thanks to all SysAid employees for their suggestions as well as the WOW inputs from the rest of the team who maybe didn't have ideas but "liked" specific tips that were posted, thereby helping me to sort and filter out the best ones. Here goes:1. Built-in dictionary to look up definitions of words. Just select a word and then launch the option Define:2. Speak - yes you saw that correctly - the image above also has a "Speak" option. You can find the speaking options under Settings -> General -> Accessibility. Turn it on and you can instantly have a...
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### Effective IT Change Management: How to Get Everyone On Board
> Discover effective IT change management strategies with valuable tips from SysAid in this engaging read.
- Published: 2013-06-05
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/effective-change-management-get-everyone-board
- Categories: ITIL
- Tags: asset management, change management, ITIL, ITSM
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent person. I’ve been working in ITSM for many years and I understand the mechanics behind change, but it has always been one of the hardest, most arduous of processes to get right. For those who may be new to ITIL and Change Management, the textbook definition defines change as: "The addition, modification or removal of anything that could have an effect on IT services. " What this means is, the scope for change management could cover anything from the architecture, the processes themselves, alterations in the tool as well as physical changes to the assets themselves. As an ITSM Architect, testing change records through whatever tool I had deployed, reviewing process documents talking about lead times into the mists of the future, I found myself musing as to why things get so complicated. Who best to help me tackle this than a former change manager, of course! Claire Agutter has been an ITIL® principle lecturer since 2007, involved in exam panels for ITIL V2 and V3 and provides online ITIL training through IT Training Zone Ltd. Claire gained her practical experience of ITIL in the real world, including change management at the UK Highways Agency. Why Are People Suspicious of Change Management? One of the dangers, when organisations implement change management is to go too deep too soon, and Claire identified two ways that change management can be utterly messed up. She said: "One way is to not do enough...
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### 5 Ways to Stay Healthy as an IT Agent
- Published: 2013-05-29
- Modified: 2024-05-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/5-ways-stay-healthy-agent
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
For many of us in the IT Service Management world, our time at work takes up the majority of our waking life. Glued to our technology and hunched over our keyboards, it seems like there’s no time to focus on health in the office. But while having a great career does involve certain sacrifices along the way, your health shouldn’t be one of them. Here are 5 basic and easy tips that will keep you physically and mentally sound at the office. 1. Take a Hike, Literally Well not literally, but you should get up, walk around, and stretch. We spend on average 40 hours a WEEK sitting at a desk, which can cause muscle pain and have other adverse effects. Stand up and move around every 30 minutes, and always use the stairs, not the elevator. It’ll keep your body awake and your mind more focused. If you can leave your cubicle, take a 15 minute break and walk outside. Mobile apps, like SysAid Mobile Apps, give IT agents the ability to manage tickets on-the-go—so they can take a quick stroll around the block without having to worry about missing a ticket. 2. Posture Counts Yes, yet another thing your mother was right about: good posture. Sit close to the workstation, put that 2,000 page HTML 4 book you never read under your monitor to keep it at eye-level, and sit with legs at a 90-degree angle resting your feet on the floor. Remember, you're spending 8+ hours sitting...
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### FIFA Goal-Line Technology: #Gamechanger
- Published: 2013-05-22
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/fifa-goal-line-technology-gamechanger
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It is likely that many years into the future, historians will look back at this decade as the time when technology truly penetrated all walks of human life. It is a sign of how easily humans can adapt to the changing landscape of the world in which they live, that people do not wonder at the preponderance of smartphones, Wi-Fi and CCTV. These inventions have and are still reshaping the ways in which we live our lives, but yesterday’s innovation is often tomorrow’s outdated and unwanted tool. In the tech world, we alwaysstrugglestrive to keep up with the times. Since the time of the TV remote control's inception during the late 70's, we have increasingly utilized technology to improve upon tasks regularly and easily undertaken by human hands. While some may bemoan the lack of manufacturing jobs today as being a direct inheritance of automated production lines, it is clear that the replacement of humans in favor of machines is a one way trend. This may explain why so many people are looking to enter the IT world—at least there are still lots of jobs for people who are making sure that the machines are still working! Often this machine-human replacement is due to the fact that humans can rarely match the accuracy and consistency in technique and observation that man-made machines are capable of. Certainly sports fans around the world would agree with this sentiment (this would include myself as a proud, football-mad Englishman). As a result, I read...
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### SysAid Wins the Gold for Most Innovative IT Software from Network Products Guide
> SysAid wins gold for Most Innovative IT Software from Network Products Guide. Discover more about SysAid.
- Published: 2013-05-14
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sysaid-wins-gold-innovative-software-network-products-guide
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
It was a black-tie event in Las Vegas and our brazen VP Customer Relations, Joseph Zargari, took the long flight over there to graciously accept the award on SysAid’s behalf. We're truly honored to have received this year's Award for Most Innovative IT Software! Joseph gave a short acceptance speech that we thought was spot-on to what we all feel here at SysAid. Tell us what you think: Shimon Peres, the President of Israel and a Nobel Peace Prize winner said: "Innovation can help transform barren deserts into flourishing fields and pioneer new frontiers in science and technology. " Leading the market with innovation technology is a main goal here at SysAid. By giving our users all essentials in one service desk, we help them stay at this frontier with an efficient software that has the best user experience possible. l thank you very much for this recognition, and I assure you that SysAid will continue to remain current, user-focused, and innovative. Congratulations to all the winners of last week's 8th Annual 2013 Hot Companies and Best Awards! Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where we are always listening.
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### Capita - Best Practice Visionaries Or Just Out On A Spending Spree?
> Capita: Are They Best Practice Visionaries or Just on a Spending Spree? Find out in this SysAid article.
- Published: 2013-05-09
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/capita-best-practice-visionaries-or-just-out-on-a-spending-spree
- Categories: ITIL
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The last few weeks have been pretty big for the ITSM industry. First we had the Service Desk and IT Support Show (SITS 13 Europe) where the great and the good of ITSM and ITIL gathered. But more importantly, we had the announcement of the results of the tendering process for the best practices portfolio announced by the Cabinet Office in the UK at the end of last year. These include amongst them ITIL and PRINCE2. The "winner" is Capita – a service company providing business process management and service solutions, with staff based in UK, Europe, South Africa and India. But I say "winner" because already, the industry is trying to determine the future of the brands. The Announcement Released in the UK national press in terms as dry as toast, the focus seemed to be on how much this would benefit UK taxpayers, without actually telling a non-IT (or indeed ITIL) comprehending reader what it meant. Somewhat bafflingly, ITIL and PRINCE2 were described as "hidden gems". It would seem that what appears to be the bread and butter best practice guidance across the breadth of IT, have been the IT equivalent of Indiana Jones, scavenging for priceless artefacts. The material in this portfolio is deployed worldwide so describing the joint venture as a direct boost to the UK economy is chronically narrow-minded to say the least. The majority of projects I have worked on as an ITSM Solution Architect have had a reach far wider than the British...
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### 6 Best Practices When Incorporating Online Chat in Your Help Desk
> Discover the top 6 best practices for integrating online chat into your help desk strategy with SysAid.
- Published: 2013-05-08
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/6-best-practices-when-incorporating-online-chat-in-your-help-desk
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The word "chat" has changed its definition over the years as the internet became an integral part of our everyday lives. Today, when people say, "lets chat about it," it is highly probable that they mean: let's chat on Facebook, Google, Skype or MSN. What is so appealing in using online chat rather than sending an email or talking over the phone? If you have ever used online (or live) chat before, I’m sure you know the answer. With online chat, you have the ability to convey a message briefly, yet very clearly, and unlike an email message—you get an immediate response. That is why chat is a great tool to utilize when you are providing technical support. As a customer relations expert in SysAid, I can say that using chat is one of the most effective means of communication with your users. If you are managing a help desk and your performance is being measured by the number of tickets you open and close, you would most definitely find that using a chat console to take questions from your users and answering them on the spot, will dramatically reduce the number of tickets you get. Here are a few best practices I can give you from my experience, if you would like to incorporate chat in your helpdesk or IT department:1. Find a chat console that is easy to use and will give the user a nice, smooth experience. If you already use SysAid as your help desk software,...
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### My SITS 2013: A Service Desk Show with Sensible People Saying Sensible Things
> SITS 2013: Join us at the Service Desk Show for sensible discussions with sensible people - SysAid.
- Published: 2013-04-30
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/sits-2013-service-desk-show-sensible-people-saying-sensible-things
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
This time last year, I was just about to commence a new career as a writer and ITSM Analyst, and kicked this all off with two days at SITS 2012. In that year, I have written for a number of IT and ITSM related publications, and the experience was a very different one from twelve months ago. This time last year, I was walking round, introducing myself as the new girl in school and getting to know the wealth of IT Support vendors, training companies and consultancies on the scene. I knew quite literally a handful of people. This time, I could not pass a corner without recognising people I had met at itSMF UK events and regional meetings, vendors, consultants, and the buzz this year was great. My Highlight The highlight over the two days for me was the Breakfast Briefing on Day 1: Demonstrating Service Desk Value with Meaningful Metrics. Panel members were: Tony Probert - European Managing Director, Cherwell Howard Kendall - Founder, Service Desk Institute Rosh Hosany - Global Service Desk Manager Ken Goff - Consultant and Briefing Facilitator Dean Coleman - Director of Client Services, UKN Group The briefing was accompanied with a glossy set of results from a survey, but interestingly the survey was not put to the business, but rather put to the service desk. There are two key elements to what I’d like to term the mishap of metrics. Hands up who has configured a system to collect all kinds of numbers,...
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### Surveys: Pat On the Head, Or Beating Stick?
- Published: 2013-04-27
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/surveys-pat-on-the-head-or-beating-stick
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Every now and again, an all-too-rare thing happens to me these days—I get great customer service! More often than not, bad customer service can leave us even more agitated than the situation we needed assistance with. It makes me wonder—do we, as IT Service Management professionals, value excellent service more in spite of the fact we work in the field of Service Delivery, or because of it? Customer service should matter in all walks of life. Bafflingly, this is not always the case. But do we ever bother to praise good service, or even respond to surveys? Although the ability to use an integrated survey function is integrated now into many tools, it is really not as simple as all that! Less is More Many organisations get the survey aspect totally wrong. A prime example is my very own bank, which changed a perfectly good online banking scheme into a cartoon-iconed, effectively dumbed-down service that promptly crashed completely on its first day. To add insult to injury, I was sent a survey, after having to resort to calling the telephone banking service after the umpteenth crash. Making matters even worse, given my level of irritation, the survey went on for ever. There was an abundance of questions, and the longer the questions dragged on, the more cutting my responses became until I wrote a missive the size of War and Peace berating the whole system. Did I ever get any feedback on my feedback – not surprisingly, no! Why Do...
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### Day 2 at SITS13: It's Been a Whirlwind
- Published: 2013-04-25
- Modified: 2022-10-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/day-2-sits13-whirlwind
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, SITS
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
We have been very busy here at SITS13... and I do mean VERY BUSY! To be perfectly honest, I had every intention of attending some educational sessions during the conference, but our booth has been rocking like crazy and we had crowds of IT experts, Service Desk Managers, IT Directors and more flocking our way—all wanting to learn more about our offering and take photos with Joe The IT Guy. I was happy to speak to the dozens of SysAid customers that attended the show and stopped by to say hi and pick up one of our freebies. The small mushroom desk hoovers were a real hit! Proud to see SysAid doing their part to make the world a cleaner place :). I just came out of my session Benchmarking & BI: Sat Navs for Service Desks. With all the amazing speakers at SITS13, luckily, I had a full house. The audience was very intrigued by the subject and was not shy about asking questions. They are actually stopping by our booth right now while I am writing this blog because they want to learn more about our benchmarking program and how to utilize the SysAid Community for best practices and tips to improve. What a wonderful feeling – thanks to everyone who came to listen and learn! During my presentation, I showed how BI and Benchmarking tools help guide the Service Desk and make sure it improves the service you deliver. The presentation and examples will be available in...
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### SITS13 in London - Day 1 on the Exhibition Floor
- Published: 2013-04-23
- Modified: 2021-07-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/sits13-in-london-day-1-on-the-exhibition-floor
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, SITS
- Blog authors: Ilan Hertz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
At 9 o’clock this morning we were like busy bees taking care of all the last minute details for our booth opening at SITS13. We really didn’t know what to expect. And then – BOOM – at 9:30 on the dot, it started. Masses of people entered the exhibition floor and came by our booth (it's Booth 519, in case you haven't already come by) to check out all the things we’ve prepared for you. What a great feeling! Tons of people visited our booth today. Apparently our little hoover vacuum cleaners are a big hit, and who doesn't love green M&Ms to munch on? But really, the star at our booth has got to be Joe the IT Guy. We had people lining up to take a photo with him, including IT analyst from Forrester, Stephen Mann and Ros Satar of course. Check out some of the photos below, and see many more on Facebook – please go and tag yourselves there! With so many people asking to see a demo, David and David were talking until their mouths were dry. But all the people are so amazing, it’s terrific. If you want a demo and didn’t get one, please let us know. Thanks to all who came by today. We are excited for tonight's Meetup at Courtfield Pub. If you haven’t got a voucher yet, please stop by. And don’t forget – we are raffling off an Xbox Kinect as well as an Apple TV. You got to...
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### Mind the Gap
- Published: 2013-04-22
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/mind-the-gap
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, SITS
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
The weather has been perfect here in London, sunshine all day, every day! We are all here in Earls Court, CEO Sarah Lahav, Oded Moshe, Ilan Hertz, Elana Katzor (that's me), David Zargoski, David Freeman, and of course, Joe the IT Guy! Might I add, Joe is MORE handsome in person :)We walked down glamorous Regents St. and bought our raffle prizes: the Apple TV and Xbox (with some games! ) at the world’s largest toy store, Hamelys, a full seven floors of pure fun, toys, and games! We also made sure to pick up some green M&Ms for our booth—so don’t forget to come by and take a handful. Our booth #519 is also taking shape, and it is looking great. You will soon see how our design represents SysAid, and how it includes all the essentials in one service desk. As we prepare to meet IT professionals from all around the world, we wanted to discover similarities and differences of everyone by asking you all: What are your essentials for your Service Desk? Now, we are off to meet our fabulous customers from the company Oasis located right here in London. Will post pictures of their offices soon! Even though Frank Sinatra said its usually “a foggy day in London town”, we have yet to see one... Cheers! Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where we are always listening.
---
### Internal Customer Service - Is It Really So Important?
> Discover the significance of internal customer service in this intriguing article by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-04-17
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/service-desk/internal-customer-service-is-it-really-so-important
- Categories: Service Desk
- Blog authors: Sarah Lahav
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I think all of us, as consumers, can easily understand the value of good customer service, and I mean external customer service to the customer. But did you ever think about how important and valuable good internal services can be? Whenever and wherever we travel (by plane, train, or other) , or go shopping, whether it be online or in the physical stores (yes, they still exist people! ) – we are consumers and we understand the concept of service and the level we should expect... . and it's definitely not the kind of service musician Dave Carroll found on a major American airline: What happens to us as employees? When we come to work we understand that we should be provided with satisfactory working facilities and if something goes wrong, we understand that we can and should push to get it resolved. However, the effort invested in getting our issues resolved results in loss of working hours from the person who needs the service and the person who has to give the service. The time being spent on phone calls, emails, and the like, could be very time-consuming. Let's take a moment and look at what SERVICE means. There are 4 main principles: Professionalism Quick response time Transparency of information And always work with empathy and a smile Whether you are the one providing the internal service inside your organization or not, always think of yourself as a customer. If the service you receive from any department (whether it’s...
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### Is My Level of ITIL Better Than Yours?
- Published: 2013-04-11
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/is-my-level-of-itil-better-than-yours
- Categories: ITIL
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I only ask, because the other day I spotted a forum where a keen, recently Foundation-certified person was handed a short sharp rebuke, for asking if he could include the official logo on his résumé to show off his new skill. His chastiser was a Red-Badge old-salt who brought up the fact that this poor person was one of hundreds of thousands marching out of courses with their new certificate. Was it Better in the Good Old "Red-Badge" Days? In ITIL® v2, a red lapel pin was awarded to those candidates who passed the Service Support and Service Delivery exams. At the time, this was the highest qualification before the introduction of ITIL V3 and very highly rated. So What Changed? The ITIL books basically got a bit of a face-lift and were split into 5 books and the exam structure changed. People still started with Foundation, but perhaps it was deemed to be a little easier to pass. Let's be honest – Foundation gives you the low-down on the terminology and the basics, and for many is a tick in the box within their organisation to show you can understand the terminology and concepts. This is no bad thing – it is a good start to have your support teams all singing from the same song sheet, and helps them to understand what your ITIL/ITSM Strategy may be, further down the line. And I can even forgive the poor unfortunate who, filled with a sense of missionary zeal at...
---
### Come and Meet Us Face-to-Face at the Service Desk Show, 23-24 April in London
> Come and Meet Us Face-to-Face at the Service Desk Show, 23-24 April in London - SysAid
- Published: 2013-04-03
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/come-and-meet-us-face-to-face-at-the-service-desk-show-23-24-april-in-london
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: ITSM, service desk, SITS
- Blog authors: Ilan Hertz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Here at SysAid we are in the midst of preparations for the Service Desk & IT Support Show (SITS13) which will be in London's Earls Court. We are thrilled to meet our customers and all the IT professionals who will attend the show. So what are we planning to do there? So much! First of all, we will be in Booth 519, where you will meet two SysAid experts both called David (we decided to make it easy on everyone to remember their names :-). David & David will show you around SysAid and give you a live tour of all the essentials that come packaged with our service desk. Do you have deeper technical questions? You will have an option to ask Oded our VP Products directly. Feel free to also ask him about SysAid future plans because we are heading forward in full speed. While you are there, be sure not to miss Oded’s presentation on the 24th of April, 11:40am–12:20pm, Theater 2: Benchmarking & BI – Sat Navs for Service Desks. Oded is an experienced speaker and this new lecture he is preparing promises to be very interesting, educational, and eye-opening for sure! We will also be happy for you to have a chat with Sarah, our SysAid CEO, who will be with us at the show. She loves talking and chatting about IT, about SysAid, and about life in general. When you feel you will need a bit of a break from the show, come over...
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### 10 Tips to Improve Your Google Apps Experience
- Published: 2013-03-24
- Modified: 2025-03-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/cloud/10-tips-improve-google-apps-experience
- Categories: Cloud
- Tags: Google Apps, SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
After reading Oded Moshe’s post Migrating Exchange to Google Apps: This is My Story, I thought it would be nice to follow up with a post covering some cool stuff that I learned after my company switched from MS Exchange to Google Apps. Here are my 10 tips to making your work with Google Apps more interesting and efficient: 1. Use Chrome. It has more advantages than any other browser for Gmail. Keep it all in the family, so to speak. 2. Use Gmail and Calendar as pinned tabs: open 2 tabs, one Gmail and one Calendar, right-click on each and select Pin tab). This way Chrome will remember these tabs next time you open it. 3. Set pop-up notifications, like you had in MS Outlook, for each new email message. You can get these notifications by going to Settings → General (tab) → Desktop Notifications, and then select the radio button for New mail notifications on. Don’t forget to click the Save Changes button (this applies to all the Settings). 4. Also as in Outlook, you can set a preview window for all email messages. Just go to Settings → Labs (tab). Find the Preview Pane lab and enable it. 5. A really great little feature I found in the Google Labs gives you the option to call back an email (undo) after you already hit “Send”. Tell the truth – how many times did you hit the Send button too soon? Maybe you included your boss in an...
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### Request Fulfillment: Keep It Simple
- Published: 2013-03-20
- Modified: 2022-01-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/request-fulfillment-keep-simple
- Categories: ITIL
- Blog authors: Ros Satar
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
So you've read the ITIL book, been on the course, copied and tweaked the diagrams in PowerPoint/Visio and you have a bunch of things you can loosely term as service requests or standard changes. Surely translating that into a singing, dancing process is comparatively easy? But the book says... . Well I am not going to spout out what the good book says here—people are capable of reading for themselves. But what I will say is that the key to any process implementation is your adoption of the guidelines to suit your requirements. But the tool can do... I am a very strong advocate of the need to really understand what the requirements are before you even tackle process, tool, organisation and who is in charge of the coffee. In fact I would go as far as to say—the tool does not even matter at this point. But we have ALWAYS done it this way The reason an organisation is looking to implement (or improve) an existing process has a business rationale attached to it—more often than not to save money. That may be through outsourcing, it may be through more automation to free up skilled staff to help meet other business drivers, but rest assured there is almost certainly a value behind it. How It Works in the REAL World I am sure many of us have seen issues when trying to implement Request Fulfillment. Over-complex steps involving too many people Single point of failure in some steps where...
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### Honoring Excellence on SysAidday 2013 – Where We Started and Where We Are Going
> Honoring Excellence on SysAidday 2013 – Where We Started and Where We Are Going - SysAid
- Published: 2013-03-18
- Modified: 2024-04-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/honoring-excellence-sysaidday-2013-started-going
- Categories: SysAid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Yesterday marked our annual SysAidday, a company event that joins everyone together, from every department in SysAid, to discuss our goals and ambitions for the coming year. Our newly appointed CEO, Sarah Lahav, emceed the event, which opened with a history lesson from Israel Lifshitz, SysAid Founder and Chairman, who recounted the story of how it all began. I believe that the newbies at the company, as well as the old-timers, were intrigued by the story and felt a sense of belonging to a truly innovative company. Honoring excellence was the theme of the day, and it started by calling up all the individuals who have been at SysAid for over 5 years. There were gifts, pictures, and great rounds of applause to all the honorees. And while all this was happening, I couldn’t help but think of Justin Timberlake’s hosting last week of Saturday Night Live and having a whole celebration of being welcomed to the 5-Timers Club at SNL! I wonder if anyone else was thinking about this? :) The day continued with presentations from representatives from each department. As someone who works in Marketing, I can tell you for sure that it was very enlightening to listen to the presentations that were given by R&D, Sales, Product, Customer Relations, and Finance/IT. To hear what everyone is working on makes me impatient for the new projects and releases ahead. Now I know how our customers feel! In my presentation, representing the Marketing department, I hope I was able...
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### The Cult of Google Glass: Building a Customer-Centric Community
> Explore the customer-centric community around Google Glass in this compelling article by SysAid.
- Published: 2013-03-12
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/general-it/cult-google-glass-building-customer-centric-community
- Categories: General IT
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I want to be a Glass Explorer! Let me explain. I recently entered Google's Twitter and Google+ competition to become a Glass Explorer, giving me a shot at purchasing a pair of wearable augmented reality glasses for a whopping $1,500, and the privilege of testing them out before they become available for public sale. To understand how out of character this is for me, you should know that my laptop is pushing 5 years old and only recently did I acquire a used second-generation smartphone. In short, I am far from a gadget junkie. Putting aside the excellent marketing campaign that Google has executed around Glass, I had to ask myself, why I so desperately wanted these glasses? I think the answer lies in the fact that with these glasses, I become part of a very small, but unique community where my feedback matters, is taken seriously and could ultimately be integrated into the end product. This possibility makes me extremely invested in the whole idea. Google’s customer-centric approach is a large part of the company’s success and has allowed it to become one of the most popular and loved corporations in the world. With the love that people display for Google products, one could say that it enjoys an almost cult-like following. While the cult appeal of consumer oriented companies is more or less understood, B2B companies can also benefit from this model and develop methods to leverage the knowledge, passion and enthusiasm that come with a cult following....
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### Adopting ITIL Best Practices Into Marketing Processes
> Discover the benefits of implementing ITIL in marketing with SysAid Insights. Read our article on the blog now.
- Published: 2013-03-06
- Modified: 2024-04-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/adopting-itil-best-practices-marketing-processes
- Categories: ITIL
- Blog authors: Ilan Hertz
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Marketing is a mess. This isn’t a secret. The average marketing department needs to take care of marketing materials for internal and external purposes, content creation, advertising, social media, the corporate websites, and so much more. There are many tools around today, which can help the modern marketing professional to bring some order into these processes. They can be task management tools such as Trello or Asana, they can be complex project management tools such as Clarizen, or they can be dedicated marketing management tools that are built especially for marketing departments: Pardot, Google AdWords, HubSpot, etc. Recently, after almost two years of working at SysAid, marketing IT management software, I realized that the modern marketing department is actually quite similar to the modern IT department. Both departments: Are service-oriented: mostly to internal company departments, but many times to external sources. Have assets: IT departments have computers, servers, laptops, mobile devices, etc; marketing departments have images, documents, logos, template, PDFs, videos, and any other marketing material asset. Require monitoring abilities: IT departments require network monitoring; marketing departments require web and social media monitoring. Require structured working processes to cope with the scattered project and task flows. Rely heavily on technology. We see a new organizational job description arising: the marketing technologist, which is the IT representative within the marketing department. Scott Brinker, a Chief Marketing Technologist, describes it best in his blog (https://chiefmartec. com/): “Marketing has become a technology-powered discipline, and therefore marketing organizations must infuse technical capabilities into their...
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### 3 Essential Changes You Must Make to Your Service Desk to Support BYOD
> Discover the 3 crucial changes needed for your service desk to effectively support BYOD. Learn more from SysAid.
- Published: 2013-02-12
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/3-essential-changes-must-make-service-desk-support-byod
- Categories: BYOD
- Tags: BYOD, ITSM, service desk
- Blog authors: Israel Lifshitz
- Role / functions: IT Manager
- ITSM maturities: Basic
No doubt that BYOD (bring your own device) has changed the way users are working today. However, your service desk was designed in times where most users used a company-owned PC and used it inside the office. If you want to continue to provide the best service to your organization, you need to change your service desk so it will also give support to BYOD users. I think the best way to find out what you need to change in your service desk is to look at what changed as a result of BYOD. Let’s take a look. Basically, three factors have changed: The huge variety of devices The location where your users are working and need support Time that your users are working (they no longer only work during regular office hours) From these factors alone, we immediately discover the main issues that need to be checked in your service desk, i. e. availability of devices, accessibility from outside the organization, and service times. Allow Access From Outside the Company To successfully support BYOD users, you need to be available from anywhere in the world—meaning, always available via the Internet. Most service desk/help desk software in our time is web-based so you "just" need to find a way to open it to the Internet. One way is to move your service desk to the Cloud. If your vendor has a version of your current solution on the Cloud, then this should not be a big problem. If you prefer...
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### What Would Warren Buffett Do? Advice for CIOs on BYOD
> Get insights on BYOD strategies for CIOs inspired by Warren Buffett. Read more on SysAid.
- Published: 2013-02-04
- Modified: 2024-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/byod/warren-buffett-advice-cios-byod
- Categories: BYOD
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: CIO
- ITSM maturities: Basic
So what does Warren Buffet have to do with BYOD (bring your own device)? Warren Buffet is not only one of the wealthiest men in the world, but he is also considered the most successful investor of the 20th century. And his involvement in the insurance business (heading Berkshire Hathaway) confirms that he is an expert in measuring catastrophic risk—one of the main issues CIOs are concerned with today in embracing BYOD in the workplace. They simply don’t want to risk a decrease in security when it comes to sensitive company information. SysAid Founder, Israel Lifshitz, a zealous BYOD Believer, took some pointers from the great Warren Buffet in offering advice to CIOs on how to preserve maximum productivity with BYOD, while maintaining much-needed corporate security. Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook where we are always listening.
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### Patch Management - How To Do It Correctly
- Published: 2013-01-31
- Modified: 2021-12-20
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/sysaid/patch-management-correctly
- Categories: SysAid
- Tags: asset management, patch management
- Blog authors: Oleg Sin
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
Hello everybody, For a long time already, lots of our existing customers and prospects have been looking for integrated Patch Management capabilities in SysAid. Recently we decided to accept the challenge and look deeper into it. That’s where I come in. As SysAid Product Manager, I'm leading the required research and making sure that the requirements sent to R&D cover all our customer needs in regards to Patch Management within SysAid. It's obvious that patch management is a critical issue. What is also clear is the main objective of a patch management program: to create a consistently configured environment that is secure against known vulnerabilities in operating system and application software. I found interesting that according to Project Quant Patch Management Survey, most organizations are not happy with their patching processes: 38% rely at least in part on user complaints to validate successful patch deployments; 68% are unable to measure time to deploy patches; 30% of Windows-based computers had not been patched a full three months after Microsoft published a security bulletin. Last month I posted a poll in the SysAid Community to check how you keep your IT infrastructure up-to-date with the latest important security patches and software updates. From the poll results I was able to deduce some very noteworthy points. Firstly, the good news is that most of our customers (94%) are attaching importance to the Patch Management process and dealing with it, this way or another. However, most of our customers (93%) don't have a dedicated...
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### 5 Tweaks to Revamp Your SysAid Help Desk!
- Published: 2013-01-28
- Modified: 2024-05-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/5-tweaks-revamp-sysaid-help-desk
- Categories: Help desk
- Tags: help desk, service desk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Role / functions: Service Desk Agent
- ITSM maturities: Basic
I don't have time to spend making technology easier for me to use. If I need to download this, update that, or purchase extra space, newer versions, or whatever it is, in order to make my dailysocialcomputer life easier--I'll push it off until tomorrow. And by tomorrow, I mean maybe in 3 months... So to all you IT agents, I have created a list of quick and easy TWEAKS, that's right, things you can do while listening to a Rihanna song on your headphones. These 5 tweaks will really make your SysAid Help Desk more useful and productive. Here they are: #1: Personalize Your View Benefit: Monday morning your service desk looks like one long list of service records, and it is often hard figuring out where to start. In order to make things more efficient, SysAid lets you define a list view that will filters that long list. Although you can always use the advanced filter to help sort through the list, defining a list view will provide a more permanent solution for list clutter that you can apply with one click. For example, set up a list view that will filter the list by a specific agent, end user, topic, etc. —it all depends on the SQL query that is set up for this view. Now you can remove or add columns in the list, and create a personalized view to help you be efficient on even the busiest days. #2: Provide More Communication Channels Benefit: SysAid Service...
---
## Resources
### Agentic AI & Responsible Adoption: Unveiling SysAid AI Agents
> Built for your IT environment to proactively anticipate needs, make intelligent decisions, and take action, all while learning and adapting over time.
- Published: 2025-03-20
- Modified: 2025-04-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/turbocharge-2025-with-agentic-ai-unveiling-sysaid-ai-agents
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Built for your IT environment to proactively anticipate needs, make intelligent decisions, and take action, all while learning and adapting over time.
---
### How Educational Institutions Can Improve Their IT Support
- Published: 2025-02-27
- Modified: 2025-03-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/how-educational-institutions-can-improve-their-it-support
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
---
### SMART 2024
> Join us at SysAid SMART'24 on November 19 to discover the latest trends and innovations in IT operations. Learn from industry experts, enhance your SysAid skills, and network with like-minded professionals.
- Published: 2024-10-10
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-2024
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Get Ready to See the Next Gen of ITSM in Action - SMART'24 is Back!
---
### Top 5 IT Metrics You Must Track: A Practical Guide to Collecting, Analyzing, and Reporting with SysAid Analytics
> Tired of guessing when it comes to assessing ITSM performance? Want a clear, data-driven strategy to showcase your IT team’s value? Join us now
- Published: 2024-10-07
- Modified: 2024-10-31
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/top-5-it-metrics-you-must-track-a-practical-guide-with-sysaid-bi-analytics
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Empower your IT teams with AI and no-code tools!
- Published: 2024-09-23
- Modified: 2024-10-07
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/empower-your-it-teams-with-ai-and-no-code-tools
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### How SysAid Uses AI to Redefine IT Service Management
> Discover why collaboration is crucial at the service desk with insights from SysAid.
- Published: 2024-09-23
- Modified: 2024-09-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/how-sysaid-uses-ai-to-redefine-it-service-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Collaboration at the Service Desk Is Key, Not Compromise
> Discover why collaboration is crucial at the service desk with insights from SysAid.
- Published: 2024-09-23
- Modified: 2024-09-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/collaboration-at-the-service-desk-is-key-not-compromise-2
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Gen AI Under The Hood: Lessons Learned From 7,000 Active SysAid Copilot Users
> Curious about Gen AI and its impact on ITSM? Join us for an in-depth look at SysAid Copilot's architecture and technology. Learn from real-world customer experiences and discover how Gen AI is revolutionizing IT Service Management.
- Published: 2024-09-02
- Modified: 2024-09-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/gen-ai-under-the-hood-lessons-learned-from-7000-active-sysaid-copilot-users
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Stop Firefighting, Start Thriving: Mastering IT Service Desk Excellence with Gen AI
> Join our upcoming webinar to learn how SysAid Copilot's AI Chatbot for Agents can transform your IT service desk overnight.
- Published: 2024-07-16
- Modified: 2024-12-08
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/mastering-it-service-desk-excellence-with-gen-ai
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Join our upcoming webinar to learn how SysAid Copilot's AI Chatbot for Agents can transform your IT service desk overnight.
---
### 2024 ITSM Mega-Trends Report
> State of Service Management Report Deep dive into the minds of 1,200+ IT professionals from across the globe to discover the winning tactics and trends you need to gain a competitive edge in the IT industry
- Published: 2024-07-08
- Modified: 2025-02-10
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/2024-sysaid-annual-report
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: eBooks
Gen AI – it’s all anyone can talk about these days. But for IT leaders on the frontlines, the question is: what does this mean for their day-to-day?
---
### Mega Trends in ITSM
> Join this data-driven webinar to explore the top trends in IT service management (ITSM) and how generative AI is revolutionizing the user experience.
- Published: 2024-06-16
- Modified: 2024-12-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/mega-trends-in-itsm
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
We'll discuss how organizations are adopting generative AI and the main challenges they face.
---
### Panel Discussion: The Impact of AI in Service Management
> The Impact of AI in Service Management: Panel discussion on how AI is transforming IT service desks
- Published: 2024-05-12
- Modified: 2024-12-25
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/panel-discussion-the-impact-of-ai-in-service-management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Join us for this insightful webinar and discover how Gen AI within Microsoft Teams can revolutionize the service experiences you provide.
---
### Revolutionize Service Experiences with Gen AI in Microsoft Teams
> Join us for this insightful webinar and discover how Gen AI within Microsoft Teams can revolutionize the service experiences you provide.
- Published: 2024-03-27
- Modified: 2024-12-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/revolutionize-service-experiences-with-gen-ai-in-microsoft-teams
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Join us for this insightful webinar and discover how Gen AI within Microsoft Teams can revolutionize the service experiences you provide.
---
### Product Roundup LIVE
> Gain a 360° view look at next-generation AI features in our Product Roundup webinar. See live demos, and ask Product Managers your questions.
- Published: 2024-03-13
- Modified: 2024-12-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/product-roundup-live
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Gain a 360° view look at next-generation AI features and more in our Product Roundup webinar
---
### Gen AI Strategies for Superior Service Management
> Discover firsthand how generative AI can take your service management to new heights. Learn innovative approaches to crafting and executing digital strategies to ultimately deliver superior service for unmatched customer satisfaction and operational excellence.
- Published: 2024-02-12
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/gen-ai-strategies-copilot
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Discover firsthand how generative AI can take your service management to new heights.
---
### Turbocharge 2024 with AI unveiling SysAid Copilot
> AI-powered ITSM in 2024: Join us on SysAid Copilot Launch Event. Boost MTTR, with meaningful AI Insights with Copilot and its cutting-edge generative AI
- Published: 2024-01-25
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/turbocharge-2024-with-ai-unveiling-sysaid-copilot
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Unleash AI-powered ITSM productivity in 2024
---
### IT Onboarding Checklist
> Start your new job with confidence! Our comprehensive IT onboarding checklist and expert tips ensure you’re fully prepared from day one.
- Published: 2023-12-06
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/it-onboarding-checklist
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
What is IT onboarding? IT onboarding is the strategic process of integrating new personnel into the corporate digital ecosystem. It is a workflow that equips employees with the necessary tools, knowledge, and access to seamlessly navigate the corporate technology infrastructure. Such that they have all of the technology they need to do their jobs. What is included in onboarding? The onboarding process includes access provisioning like email accounts, network access, and software permissions. It ensures that computers, phones, and other devices are prepared in advance with the right software and apps. There is also the dissemination of training materials, ensuring that employees know their way around the building and anything else an employee needs to successfully integrate into a company. What is the typical onboarding process? There is no definitive IT onboarding process; every company is different. However, there are similarities across organizations like hardware and software configurations, network access, getting the employee used to the programs they will use, who to turn to for IT support, etc.
---
### What’s the difference between a Help Desk and a Service Desk?
> Learn the essential differences between help desks and service desks. Dive into our blog article today and enhance your IT support strategy!
- Published: 2023-11-12
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/whats-the-difference-between-a-help-desk-and-a-service-desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
What is a Service Desk? A service desk is a single point of contact within a company that manages IT incidents and service requests, as well as handling communication with end-users. It’s a primary IT service within the discipline of ITSM as defined by ITIL. The service desk is designed to provide end-to-end ownership of these issues for the end-user, with a focus on restoring service as quickly as possible and minimizing any potential disruptions to business operations. What is a Help Desk? A help desk is a centralized resource or service that provides IT assistance and support to end-users, typically related to technical issues or inquiries. It’s often staffed by knowledgeable professionals who can provide guidance, troubleshoot issues, and offer solutions to help end-users resolve their IT issues efficiently. Can a Company have an IT Help Desk and not a Service Desk? Yes, a company can have an IT help desk without having a service desk. While both help desks and service desks provide support to end-users, they serve different purposes. An IT help desk primarily focuses on resolving technical issues and providing technical assistance to end-users. On the other hand, a service desk is a broader capability that encompasses IT support as well as other non-technical services such as service coordination. So, it’s possible for a company to have an IT help desk without having a service desk.
---
### SMART'23 | It’s All About Experience: How Generative AI Transforms Service Management
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-08-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-its-all-about-experience-how-generative-ai-transforms-service-management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | Bringing IT All Together With One Integrated Service Desk
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-08-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-bringing-it-all-together-with-one-integrated-service-desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | Liberation: Putting AI to Work for Your Organization and Your People
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-08-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-liberation-putting-ai-to-work-for-your-organization-and-your-people
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | Case Study: A New Approach to IT Service in an Old City
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-08-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-case-study-a-new-approach-to-it-service-in-an-old-city
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | Case Study: Breaking Down Silos for Holistic Service Management
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-case-study-breaking-down-silos-for-holistic-service-management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | Keynote: Tales from the Wild West - Former CIA CISO Shares Some Stories
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-keynote-tales-from-the-wild-west-former-cia-ciso-shares-some-stories
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | Closing Keynote: The Big Bang - Generative AI and Service Management
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-closing-keynote-the-big-bang-generative-ai-and-service-management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | A Time to Shine: SMART Awards & Winners Panel
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-a-time-to-shine-smart-awards-winners-panel
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | Welcome to SMART 2023
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-welcome-to-smart-2023
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'23 | Welcome to Day Two
> SysAid SMART 2023 - VIRTUAL CUSTOMER CONFERENCE
- Published: 2023-11-06
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart23-welcome-to-day-two
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### How to Successfully Implement Service Desk Software
> Learn the necessary steps to successfully implement service desk software & their importance to help optimize your organization’s customer service experience.
- Published: 2023-08-31
- Modified: 2024-05-28
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-successfully-implement-service-desk-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Learn the necessary steps to successfully implement help desk software & their importance to help optimize your organization’s customer service experience.
---
### How to Successfully Implement Ticketing Software
> Learn how to successfully implement ticketing software throughout pre-implementation, ticketing software set up, & post ticketing software implementation.
- Published: 2023-08-22
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-successfully-implement-ticketing-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Learn how to successfully implement ticketing software throughout pre-implementation, ticketing software set up, & post ticketing software implementation.
---
### How to Select a New Service Desk
> Learn what you should consider before selecting a new service desk such as service desk features and options, service desk cost, user feedback, and more.
- Published: 2023-08-09
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-select-a-new-service-desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Learn what you should consider before selecting a new service desk such as service desk features and options, service desk cost, user feedback, and more.
---
### How to Successfully Implement Help Desk Software
> Learn the necessary steps to successfully implement help desk software & their importance to help optimize your organization’s customer service experience.
- Published: 2023-08-09
- Modified: 2024-05-28
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-successfully-implement-help-desk-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Learn the necessary steps to successfully implement help desk software & their importance to help optimize your organization’s customer service experience.
---
### Reach for the Cloud [Healthcare]
> Healthcare was long deemed unfit for Cloud migration. After all, worrying about complying with HIPAA and GDPR regulations alone would give any SysAdmin anxiety, and for good reason. This webinar will provide you with data-based insights about healthcare cloud migration, along with addressing regulatory compliance and patient privacy concerns.
- Published: 2023-07-12
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reach-for-the-cloud-healthcare
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Fuel Healthcare Success: Overcoming HIPAA Compliance and Security Challenges
---
### How to Successfully Implement ITSM Software
> Learn the steps you need to take to successfully implement ITSM software, streamline your IT processes and make the most out of your IT tools.
- Published: 2023-07-03
- Modified: 2024-05-28
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-successfully-implement-itsm-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Learn the steps you need to take to successfully implement ITSM software, streamline your IT processes and make the most out of your IT tools.
---
### How to Integrate IT Asset Management With Your Service Desk
> Learn how to integrate IT asset management (ITAM) softwares with your service desk to allow for a seamless integration while boosting your IT efficiency.
- Published: 2023-07-03
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-integrate-it-asset-management-with-your-service-desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Learn how to integrate IT asset management (ITAM) softwares with your service desk to allow for a seamless integration while boosting your IT efficiency.
---
### 2023 State of Service Management Report
> State of Service Management Report Deep dive into the minds of 1,200+ IT professionals from across the globe to discover the winning tactics and trends you need to gain a competitive edge in the IT industry.
- Published: 2023-06-14
- Modified: 2024-07-08
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/2023-state-of-service-management-report
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: eBooks
Knowing exactly where the IT world is headed in terms of budgets, challenges, and goals is like striking gold. Read on to be at the top of your IT game
---
### Reach for the Cloud [Public Sector]
> 2023 data and actionable tips for safe and compliant Cloud migration for Public Sector organizations
- Published: 2023-01-25
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reach-for-the-cloud-public
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
2023 Data and actionable tips for safe and compliant cloud migration
---
### Reach for the Cloud [Manufacturing]
- Published: 2023-01-12
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reach-for-the-cloud-manufacturing
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
AWS Best Practices & Expert Tips
For the Manufacturing Sector
---
### Barrachd Sets up Their End Users for Success with SysAid
> Boost end-user success with SysAid. Learn how SysAid can enhance user experience and efficiency.
- Published: 2022-11-23
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/barrachd-sets-up-their-end-users-for-success-with-sysaid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### Priory Group's IT prioritizes flexibility and ease of use with SysAid
> Priory Group prioritizes flexible IT solutions with SysAid for enhanced efficiency and productivity.
- Published: 2022-11-23
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/priory-groups-it-prioritizes-flexibility-and-ease-of-use-with-sysaid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### The A&A Group Utilizes SysAid’s Workflows to Optimize Their Business
> Discover how the A&A Group maximizes business efficiency with SysAid's workflows.
- Published: 2022-11-23
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/the-aa-group-utilizes-sysaids-workflows-to-optimize-their-business
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### University of London Saves Big with SysAid
- Published: 2022-11-23
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/university-of-london-saves-big-with-sysaid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### Omni ISG unifies their IT with SysAid, boosting efficiency
> Boost IT Efficiency with Confidence: Learn More About the Omni ISG & SysAid Partnership!
- Published: 2022-11-23
- Modified: 2024-11-11
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/omni-isg-unifies-their-it-with-sysaid-boosting-efficieny
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### Spectrum Health's IT Blossoms with SysAid's ITIL-Aligned Tools
> Discover how Spectrum Health's IT flourishes with SysAid's ITIL-aligned tools. Learn more in this article by SysAid.
- Published: 2022-11-22
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/spectrum-healths-it-blossoms-with-sysaids-itil-aligned-tools
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### Bacardi conquers business after applying SysAid’s IT principles
> Explore how Bacardi utilizes SysAid's IT principles for effective business operations.
- Published: 2022-11-22
- Modified: 2025-01-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/bacardi-conquers-business-after-applying-sysaids-it-principles
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### Sense redefines what customizable IT means with SysAid
> Discover how Sense redefines IT with SysAid in this insightful article.
- Published: 2022-11-22
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/sense-redifines-what-customizable-it-means-with-sysaid
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### Scope’s budgeting is made easy with SysAid
- Published: 2022-11-22
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/scopes-budgeting-is-made-easy-with-sysaid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### Scope sees IT all with SysAid’s revolutionary Asset Management
> Discover how Scope Sees All with SysAid Asset Management. Unlock the power of SysAid for comprehensive asset management.
- Published: 2022-11-22
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/scope-sees-it-all-with-sysaids-revolutionary-asset-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### MobileEye streamlines IT processes with SysAid
- Published: 2022-11-08
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/video-testimonials/mobileeye-streamlines-it-processes-with-sysaid
- Resource categories: Video Testimonials
---
### SMART'22 | Digital Employee Experience: The Opportunity for IT to Transform How We Work
> Join us at SysAid SMART 2022, the annual virtual conference showcasing the latest trends and innovations in IT service management.
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-06-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-digital-employee-experience-the-opportunity-for-it-to-transform-how-we-work
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'22 | The Future of Cloud with AWS
> SysAid SMART 2022, Annual Virtual Conference, Join AWS expert Jerry Pang, who will be sharing his personal insights and predictions on the future of Cloud.
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-the-future-of-cloud-with-aws
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'22 | Reimagining Employee Experience: SysAid for Teams
> Join SysAid SMART 2022 Annual Virtual Conference for the latest insights and trends in IT service management.
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-reimagining-employee-experience-sysaid-for-teams
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'22 | How Innovation in IT Translates into Real Impact
> SysAid SMART 2022: Join our annual virtual conference for the latest insights and trends in the industry.
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-how-innovation-in-it-translates-into-real-impact
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'22 | ITIL 4 is not about changing what we do - it’s about changing how we do it
> SysAid SMART 2022 - Annual Virtual Conference: Join us for the latest in IT service management innovations and trends.
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-itil-4-is-not-about-changing-what-we-do-its-about-changing-how-we-do-it
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'22 | The Future of Service Management: A Tale of Two Futures
> Join the SysAid SMART 2022 Annual Virtual Conference for the latest insights and trends in IT service management.
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-the-future-of-service-management-a-tale-of-two-futures
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'22 | Awards Ceremony & Winners Panel Discussion
> Join us at SMART'22 for the Awards Ceremony & Winners Panel Discussion hosted by SysAid. Get inspired by the brightest minds in the industry!
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-awards-ceremony-winners-panel-discussion
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'22 | A Word to Customers from SysAid CEO
> SysAid SMART 2022, ANNUAL VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-a-word-to-customers-from-sysaid-ceo
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'22 | Opening and Welcome from SysAid CEO
> SysAid SMART 2022, ANNUAL VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
- Published: 2022-10-11
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/smart-22-opening-and-welcome-from-sysaid-ceo
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### The Ever Enjoyable Erik Snider
> IT After Hours Podcast: 2022 IT Trends with Ben Brennan & Erik Snider
- Published: 2022-08-22
- Modified: 2024-05-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/the-ever-enjoyable-erik-snider
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
### Launch Event: SysAid for Teams
> Join us to hear SysAid’s CEO visionary keynote, an insightful customers panel, and a real talk on how to make your employees happier. Together, let's reimagine the employee experience.
- Published: 2022-06-13
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-for-teams
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
Join us to hear SysAid’s CEO visionary keynote, an insightful customers panel, and a real talk on how to make your employees happier.
Agenda - 60 minutes of inspiration! Welcome & SysAid CEO KeynoteSysAid for Teams in Action: Product DemoCustomer Panel DiscussionClosing Remarks
---
### Employee Experience Through An ITSM Lens: What’s The Secret?
> Learn what employee experience is, why it’s important, and how ITSM can help you to provide the ultimate employee experience.
- Published: 2022-05-17
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/employee-experience-through-an-itsm-lens-whats-the-secret
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Learn what employee experience is, why it’s important, and how ITSM can help you to provide the ultimate employee experience.
---
### 2022 State of Service Management
> First-hand insights, outcome, and technology trends from over 1,200+ IT peers to successfully navigate 2022.
- Published: 2022-05-11
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/infographics/2022-state-of-service-management-infographics
- Resource categories: Infographics
Get practical tips to inform your strategy and stay ahead of the ever-evolving IT field.
---
### The Complete Guide to Automated Chatbots for ITSM
> Automated chatbots are useful to increase sales, service productivity, and efficiency. But how do they relate to ITSM? Find out here.
- Published: 2022-05-09
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/the-complete-guide-to-automated-chatbots-for-itsm
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Automated chatbots are useful to increase sales, service productivity, and efficiency. But how do they relate to ITSM? Find out here.
---
### What is ITSM
> IT Service Management (ITSM) is a process used to manage the activities involved in designing, creating, delivering, supporting & managing IT services.
- Published: 2022-03-24
- Modified: 2024-11-04
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/what-is-itsm
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
IT Service Management (ITSM) is a process used to manage the activities involved in designing, creating, delivering, supporting & managing IT services.
---
### 2022 State Of Service Management
> We asked +1200 professionals to share their insights on IT. They’ve spared nothing. The Data's out. And it's a big one.
- Published: 2022-03-13
- Modified: 2024-06-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/2022-state-of-service-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Workflow Automation
> Discover Workflow Automation with definitions, examples, benefits, comparisons, and more. Learn everything you need to know.
- Published: 2022-02-24
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/workflow-automation
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Let us define what is Workflow Automation for you with definitions, examples, benefits, comparisons, and much more. Learn all you need! Explore now! 💡
---
### SMART'21 | SysAid SMART - It’s All About the Love!
- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-smart-its-all-about-the-love
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | SysAid Workshop: How Do You Know You're Doing a Good Job?
> Join SMART'21 Workshop on Good Job Assessment by SysAid for insightful discussions.
- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-workshop-how-do-you-know-youre-doing-a-good-job
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | SysAid Workshop: Troubleshooting Your Asset Management
> Join SMART'21 Workshop on Asset Management Troubleshooting for expert insights and solutions.
- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-workshop-troubleshooting-your-asset-management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | Case Study: Automating Staff Onboarding & Offboarding
> Automate staff onboarding and offboarding with this SMART'21 case study featuring SysAid.
- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/case-study-automating-staff-onboarding-offboarding
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | Reimagining the Virtual Workplace
- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reimagining-the-virtual-workplace
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | Giving CPR Can Save Your IT & Business Health
> Learn how giving CPR can save your IT and business health in SMART'21 by SysAid.
- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/giving-cpr-can-save-your-it-business-health
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | Lessons Learned from Two Decades of Tool Implementation
> Discover valuable insights from two decades of tool implementation in SMART'21 by SysAid.
- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/lessons-learned-from-two-decades-of-tool-implementation
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | Is Service Automation the Future of ITSM?
> SMART'21: Discover the latest in Service Automation for IT Service Management with SysAid.
- Published: 2021-10-25
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/is-service-automation-the-future-of-itsm
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | What Does It Mean to Be Employee-Centric in the Digital Workspace?
> The digital workspace has evolved from a concept to a reality for business, and IT is at the frontline of this change. SysAid SMART 2021.
- Published: 2021-10-24
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/what-does-it-mean-to-be-employee-centric-in-the-digital-workspace
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SMART'21 | The Future Is Fast and Transformation Is Key
> SMART'21: Explore the Fast Future Transformation with SysAid in this insightful session.
- Published: 2021-10-24
- Modified: 2024-05-09
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/the-future-is-fast-and-transformation-is-key
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### The Way & Where You Want IT. SysAid’s New Release
> Introducing SysAid’s newest features including Zapier integration—for automating processes across your favorite business applications.
- Published: 2021-08-26
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/the-way-and-where-you-want-it-sysaids-new-release
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Your Guide to building a Digital Workspace
> The challenges and opportunities of the digital workspace and IT’s key role in the transformation.
- Published: 2021-06-22
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/your-guide-to-building-a-digital-workspace
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Get Your Self-Service Charged Up!
- Published: 2021-06-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/get-your-self-service-charged-up
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
---
### Eliminate Complexities of Ticket Management with Built-In ITAM
> Streamline IT ticketing with SysAid's IT Asset Management (ITAM). Auto-populate data & optimize workflows for faster resolution.
- Published: 2021-06-18
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/eliminate-complexities-of-ticket-management-with-built-in-itam
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
---
### Get more visibility, make better decisions
- Published: 2021-06-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/get-more-visibility-make-better-decisions
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
---
### Digital Workflows 201
- Published: 2021-06-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/digital-workflows-201
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
---
### Reduce COVID-19 self-reporting burdens and compliance risk
> Learn how to use the new Worksafe app, which simplifies daily self-reporting of location and health status, while automatically alerting management to potential exposure at work.
- Published: 2021-06-18
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/reduce-covid-19-self-reporting-burdens-and-compliance-risk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
---
### Creating amazing self-service experiences
- Published: 2021-06-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/creating-amazing-self-service-experiences
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Jump-start your remote support
- Published: 2021-06-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/jump-start-your-remote-support
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### The ‘New Normal’ Automation boom
> One thing that’s clear; COVID-19 will herald an automation boom. Take advantage of advanced automation to take your service desk to the next level.
- Published: 2021-06-18
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/the-new-normal-automation-boom
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### 2021 State of Service Management Report
> Uncover the latest insights, outcomes, and trends in research conducted among over 1,000 IT professionals across industries around the globe.
- Published: 2021-06-14
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/2021-state-of-service-management-report
- Resource categories: eBooks
Good problem management can provide enormous value, by reducing IT service failure and by limiting the impact of failures when they do occur.
---
### ITSM Podcast: Do You Deliver Valuable Services, or Just Technology?
> Listen to ITSM expert Stuart Rance's podcast as he breaks down the basics in his soothing voice.
- Published: 2021-05-30
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/itsm-podcast-do-you-deliver-valuable-services-or-just-technology
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
### ITSM Podcast: The 9 Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner
> ITSM guru Stuart Rance podcasts, The 9 Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner
- Published: 2021-05-30
- Modified: 2024-05-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/itsm-podcast-the-9-guiding-principles-of-itil-practitioner
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
### ITSM Podcast: Start Where You Are
> ITSM guru Stuart Rance podcasts, explaining a few of the basics...in his own serenading voice.
- Published: 2021-05-30
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/itsm-podcast-start-where-you-are
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
### Save Time with Automation
> Save Time with Automation - Watch SysAid's video on saving time with automation in IT service management and streamline your workflow today.
- Published: 2021-05-23
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/save-time-with-automation
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Collaboration at the Service Desk Is Key, Not Compromise
> Discover why collaboration is crucial at the service desk with insights from SysAid.
- Published: 2021-05-23
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/collaboration-at-the-service-desk-is-key-not-compromise
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Joe the IT Guy Learns to Be Proactive
> Joe the IT Guy Learns to Be Proactive - Join Joe the IT Guy on his journey to becoming proactive in IT service management. Watch the video for tips.
- Published: 2021-05-23
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/joe-the-it-guy-learns-to-be-proactive
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #13: Which ITIL Processes Should You Start With?
> Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #13: Learn how ITIL processes begin with SysAid.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-13-our-customers-needs
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #12: Change Management Best Practices
> Discover Stuart Rance's IT Service Management Tip #12 on Change Management with insights on SysAid.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-12-change-management-best-practices
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #11: Why Should You Practice Availability Management
> Get insights on Change Management with Stuart Rance's ITSM Tip #11 on SysAid.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-05-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-11-why-should-you-practice-availability-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #10: Shift-Left Concept
> Explore the insights and expertise of renowned ITSM thought leader Stuart Rance. Learn about the latest trends and best practices in IT Service Management.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-10-shift-left-concept
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #9: Share Your Knowledge
> ITSM Tip: Share Your Knowledge - Gain insights from Stuart Rances on sharing knowledge effectively in IT service management.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-9-share-your-knowledge
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #8: Set the Right Expectations
> Stuart Rance shares ITSM Tip #8: Setting the Right Expectations in this SysAid article.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-8-set-the-right-expectations
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #7: How to Choose a Framework
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-7-how-to-choose-a-framework
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #6: Fully Understand Your Customer's Needs
> Learn how to fully understand your customer's needs and tailor your products or services to meet their expectations.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-6-fully-understand-your-customers-needs
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #5: Focus on Customer Experience
> Stuart Rance, a renowned ITSM thought leader ITSM Tip #5 focuses on Customer Experience with SysAid.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-5-focus-on-customer-experience
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #4: Don’t Focus Your Service on Technology
> Stuart Rance shares ITSM Tip #4: Prioritize Service over Technology in this insightful article on SysAid.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-4-dont-focus-your-service-on-technology
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #3: Design Your Process
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-3-design-your-process
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #2: Define Metrics that Drive the Right Behavior
> Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #2 focuses on driving the right behavior metrics for improved IT service management. Discover more in this SysAid article.
- Published: 2021-05-20
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-2-define-metrics-that-drive-the-right-behavior
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### Stuart Rance ITSM Tip #1: Choose the Right Staff
- Published: 2021-05-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/videos/stuart-rances-itsm-tip-1-choose-the-right-staff
- Resource categories: Videos
---
### 10 Superhero Tips for Service Desk Managers
- Published: 2021-05-12
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/tips-service-desk-managers
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### 10 Superpowers to Strengthen Your Service Desk
> Empower your service desk with these 10 superpowers! Discover how to strengthen your support system with SysAid.
- Published: 2021-05-12
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/10-superpowers-to-strengthen-your-service-desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### How to Choose the Right Help Desk for Your Small Business
> Struggling to handle your help desk with a small team? Discover how the right features can streamline tasks, freeing up time for other priorities.
- Published: 2021-04-26
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-choose-the-right-help-desk-for-your-small-business
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
If you only have a few employees, managing the help desk can be quite the challenge. A help desk with the right features can simplify these tasks enormously and allow your employees to focus on other matters. Find out which help desk is perfect for you.
Time needed: 5 minutes. You’ve got a great group of IT support people working in your small-to-medium business (SMB) – they know their stuff, work hard, and often stay late to get the job done. But you still need more. Your business is growing, and technology plays a key part throughout – from customer engagement and support through to product/service delivery. And thus, you can’t afford for business operations to be adversely affected by any form of technical issue. Whether it be related to faulty equipment, application issues, security incidents, or something else. Add more people Add more people Invest in IT help desk software Invest in IT help desk software
---
### Convert a Customer Complaint into a Sale – 8 Tips for Help Desk Staff
> Learn to turn customer complaints in live chat into new sales opportunities. Uncover the reality of complaints and how to use them for business growth!
- Published: 2021-04-25
- Modified: 2024-05-29
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/convert-a-customer-complaint-into-a-sale-8-tips-for-help-desk-staff
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
Here are some simple ways you can convert customer complaints via live chat into new sales opportunities. Customer complaints being bad for business is a myth, learn how to handle complaining customers and generate new sales!
---
### 10 Reasons to Choose SysAid's Help Desk Software
> 10 Reasons to Choose SysAid Help Desk: Learn why SysAid's help desk software is the best choice.
- Published: 2021-04-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-reasons-to-choose-sysaids-help-desk-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Articles
SysAid Help Desk Software offers a powerful ticket management tool, IT asset management, self-service, MDM, chat, password reset, benchmarks, and advanced automation.
---
### 10 Reasons to Choose SysAid’s IT Service Management Software
> 10 Reasons to Choose SysAid ITSM: Discover the benefits of SysAid's IT service management software.
- Published: 2021-04-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-reasons-to-choose-sysaids-it-service-management-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Articles
You may already be familiar with SysAid’s IT service management software, or may be trialing it now. If not, you will be interested to learn some of the reasons why you should consider it for your organization
---
### What is a Self-Service Portal
> What is a Self-Service Portal?: Empower users to find answers and resolve IT issues on their own.
- Published: 2021-04-21
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/what-is-a-self-service-portal
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### 2021 STATE OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT
> Discover the key findings from our newest research conducted amongst over 1,000 IT professionals from various industries around the globe.
- Published: 2021-04-19
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/2021-state-of-service-management
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Better Problem Solving With Knowledge Management
> Produce knowledge articles more efficiently, work with them more effectively, and ultimately improve employee and customer satisfaction.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/better-problem-solving-with-knowledge-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
Produce knowledge articles more efficiently, work with them more effectively, and ultimately improve employee and customer satisfaction.
---
### Five Reasons the Service Desk Should Care About Information Security
> Don't Let Service Desk Issues Become Security Breaches! Learn how to prioritize information security for a more secure & efficient IT environment.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/5-reasons-the-service-desk-should-care-about-information-security
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
ITSM thought leader and security consultant Stuart Rance shares his insights on why the service desk needs to prioritize information security.
---
### Business Intelligence: Take an Informed Approach to ITSM
> BI for ITSM will give you better decision-making, business process optimization, and increased operational efficiency and effectiveness,
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/business-intelligence-take-an-informed-approach-to-itsm
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
If you aren’t using BI for ITSM in your organization, you’re losing out on better decision-making, business process optimization, and increased operational efficiency and effectiveness, among other things.
---
### 5 Tips To Help You Improve Problem Management
> Good problem management can provide enormous value, by reducing IT service failure and by limiting the impact of failures when they do occur.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/5-tips-to-help-you-improve-problem-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
Good problem management can provide enormous value, by reducing IT service failure and by limiting the impact of failures when they do occur.
---
### Thinking About a Service Catalog, But Your Organization Isn’t Ready For It?
> Get practical guidance on how you can get started with a basic service catalog, even if your organization isn’t ready for a full ITSM program.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/thinking-about-a-service-catalog-but-your-organization-isnt-ready-for-it
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
Get practical guidance on how you can get started with a basic service catalog, even if your organization isn’t ready for a full ITSM program.
---
### 8 Tips to Help You Improve Service Level Management
> service level management (SLM) tips, including Customer satisfaction, customer-facing KPIs, and continuous improvements.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/8-tips-to-help-you-improve-service-level-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
ITSM thought leader Stuart Rance sets the record straight on service level management.
---
### How to Start Collaborating
> An exciting workshop designed to help you collaborate with other teams and third parties.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/how-to-start-collaborating
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
An exciting workshop designed to help you collaborate with other teams and third parties.
---
### 5 Top IoT Trends for SMBs
> Internet of Things (IoT) trends SMBs absolutely must adopt. SysAid CEO sheds some light on leading IoT trends SMBs. Read now.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/infographics/5-top-iot-trends-for-smbs
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Infographics
Internet of Things (IoT) trends SMBs absolutely must adopt.
---
### How To Initiate Continual Service Improvement
> How to initiate continual service improvement (CSI) within your organization - workshop.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/how-to-initiate-continual-service-improvement
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
How to initiate continual service improvement (CSI) within your organization - workshop.
---
### Practical Steps for Planning Your ROI Business Case
> Practical steps for planning your ROI business case. This guide will help you build a strong business case for an ITSM investment.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/how-to-build-a-business-case-for-itsm
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
This guide will help you build a strong business case for an ITSM investment.
---
### 15 ITSM Tips
> 15 Tips for ITSM (IT service management) resolutions.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/15-itsm-tips
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
ITSM thought leader Stuart Rance put together a list of IT service management resolutions.
---
### 6 Tips to Help You Improve Change Management
> ITSM thought leader Stuart Rance offers tips to help you make sure your change management process is effective.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/6-tips-to-help-you-improve-change-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
ITSM thought leader Stuart Rance offers tips to help you make sure your change management process is effective.
---
### Never Underestimate the Importance of Change Management
> This white paper will get you thinking about your change management process, and help you figure out what works best for your organization and when.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/never-underestimate-the-importance-of-change-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
This white paper will get you thinking about your change management process, and help you figure out what works best for your organization and when.
---
### Your 7-Point Checklist for Better ITSM Tool Selection
> Understanding and agreeing what’s really important to your organization when choosing the right ITSM tool and vendor doesn't have to be difficult.
- Published: 2021-04-18
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/your-7-point-checklist-for-better-itsm-tool-selection
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
Understanding and agreeing what’s really important to your organization when choosing the right ITSM tool and vendor doesn't have to be difficult. Here are some recommendations (you’ll need to download the report to get all the tips!)
---
### 6 Tips to Help You Improve Configuration Management
> Effective configuration management can improve how well you carry out every single ITSM process. here are 6 tips to help you improve.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/6-tips-to-help-you-improve-configuration-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
Effective configuration management can improve how well you carry out every single ITSM process.
---
### 6 Tips to Help You Improve Incident Management
> Constantly improving incident management will ensure you can deliver the best possible outcome with the lowest possible use of resources.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/6-tips-to-help-you-improve-incident-management
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
ITSM thought leader Stuart Rance offers tips to help improve your incident management.
---
### Highlights From Our Future-Readiness Survey
> Explore the reasons for self-service, discover its benefits for you and your customers, and learn how to avoid common pitfalls in this insightful paper.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/the-future-of-itsm-survey-infographic
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
What ITSM professionals are thinking and doing to “survive and thrive” in this rapidly changing IT service.
---
### Alphabet Song A-Z: 26 Keywords For The Modern ITSM Lexicon
> Joe the IT Guy sheds some light on ITSM terms you should become familiar with - 26 keywords for the modern ITSM lexicon.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/infographics/the-a-z-of-modern-itsm
- Resource categories: Infographics
Joe the IT Guy sheds some light on ITSM terms you should become familiar with.
---
### How To Provide Top-Notch IT Service That Your Customers Will Love
> Download our free white paper: ITSM ‘Back To Basics’ Might Not Be What You Expect and learn the basics every IT organization needs for success.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/itsm-back-to-basics-might-not-be-what-you-expect
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
Learn the basics every IT organization needs for success.
---
### What is ITSM?
> ITSM is complicated, so we’re going to cut through the jargon, break ITSM into its elements, and address some common misconceptions for you.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/what-is-itsm-getting-to-grips-with-it-service-management
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
Break ITSM into its elements, and address some common misconceptions for you.
---
### The Future of ITSM
Survey Results
> The future of ITSM survey results shows the potential future challenges and opportunities organizations face.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/the-future-of-itsm-survey-results-2019
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
The future of ITSM survey results shows the potential future challenges and opportunities organizations face.
---
### Skills and Capabilities Required of a 2020 ITSM Professional
> Insights from 20 service management experts, influencers, and analysts on what you need to succeed as an ITSM professional in 2020.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/skills-and-capabilities-required-of-a-2020-itsm-professional
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: eBooks
Insights from 20 service management experts, influencers, and analysts on what you need to succeed as an ITSM professional in 2020.
---
### The Ultimate Tips Guide for Getting Started with ITIL
> Discover how to kickstart your journey with ITIL through SysAid's comprehensive ebook on getting started with ITIL.
- Published: 2021-04-14
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/ebooks/how-to-get-started-with-itil
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: eBooks
Joe the IT Guy offers advice on how best to plan, or improve, your adoption of ITSM’s most popular best practice.
---
### 7 Tips to Help You Adopt Continual Service Improvement
> Continual service improvement (CSI) is one of the most important concepts in ITIL, but few IT organizations put anything in place to make it happen.
- Published: 2021-04-13
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/7-tips-to-help-you-adopt-continual-service-improvement
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
What should I consider when implementing self-service?
---
### Self-Service to the Rescue
> SysAid's whitepaper explores the benefits of self-service solutions in ITSM, offering guidance on implementation and optimization.
- Published: 2021-04-13
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/whitepapers/self-service-to-the-rescue
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Whitepapers
What should I consider when implementing self-service?
---
### SysAid’s Brand-New UI
> SysAid's releasing a brand-new user interface (UI) with a fresher and simpler user experience that will speed up your IT service delivery.
- Published: 2021-04-13
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/ui-refresh-webinar
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Workshop: Workflows 101
> Learn how to build and modify workflows with Workflow Designer, Digital workflows help to break down silos and drive up employee productivity
- Published: 2021-04-13
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/workshop-workflows-101
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
WORKSHOP: I DIDN'T KNOW I CAN DO THAT
---
### Critical Organizational Success Factors & Practical Guidance For Service Request Management
> In this practical joint Pink-SysAid session, we’ll explore the necessary building blocks to achieve the ultimate goal of automated service orchestration.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/pink-webinar-09-19
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Get Lean, Get Agile, Get Automated, or Get out of the Way!
> In this joint Pink-SysAid webinar, we’ll discuss how businesses can provide exceptional quality without compromising on speed. ‘Do more, by doing less!’
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/pink-webinar-1219
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Get More Out of SysAid and Drive Business Impact
> Discover what is new in SysAid and how it will help you drive business impact.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/q1-product-webinar
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### How to Select a Service Desk for Educational Institutions
> Choose SysAid's Service Desk for Education for top-notch support tailored to educational institutions.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/selecting-service-desk-for-educational-institutions
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### SysAid’s Jira Embedded Webinar
> ITSM and DevOps have come together with the new SysAid-Jira integration, providing you with a seamless end-to-end experience.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-jira-embedded-webinar
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Never Underestimate the Importance of Change Management
> Enhance change management processes - attend our webinar to discover challenges in change management and how to overcome them.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/11-2015
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Automate Joe Gives You Back 30% Of Your Time!
> Built-in service orchestration engine that powers a new level of productivity – slash ticket resolution time and drastically enhance service delivery.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-06-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/automate-joe-webinar-0320
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### How To Start With Service Orchestration
> Built-in service orchestration engine that powers a new level of productivity – slash ticket resolution time and drastically enhance service delivery.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/automate-joe-ga-webinar
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### 5 Risks Organizations Face Using Homegrown Service Desk Solutions
> Find out the risks organizations face using homegrown service desk solutions.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/homegrown-solution-risks
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Real-World Tips for Self‑Service Success
> Gain insights into cybersecurity challenges in ITSM with SysAid's webinar, addressing key concerns and solutions.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/07-2015
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### The Right Metrics for Your Service Desk
> FREE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR - IT Help Desk Performance Metrics. Understand the importance of correctly interpreting your metrics data.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/05-2015
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Improving Incident Management
> Learn to improve your incident management process in this on-demand webinar given by renowned ITSM consultant Stuart Rance.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/03-2015
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### How a Service Desk Can Prevent a Heart Attack
> IT availability and performance can mean the difference between life and death. It’s time to check your organization’s pulse.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/how-a-service-desk-can-prevent-a-heart-attack
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Your Cybersecurity Challenges in ITSM - Q&A with the Experts
> The impact of data breaches can be irreversible. Are you aware of the security processes in ITSM? Ask the experts YOUR questions answered.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/cybersecurity-and-itsm
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### How to Choose a Solution to Replace Your Homegrown IT Helpdesk
> Discover what’s new in SysAid and how it will help you drive business impact. If you’re using a homegrown solution, that’s a titanic mistake.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/replace-your-homegrown-it-helpdesk
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Get More Out of SysAid and Drive Business Impact
> Discover what’s new in SysAid and how it will help you drive business impact.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/get-more-out-of-sysaid-and-drive-business-impact
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Say Goodbye to Remote Control Hassle
> "Launch remote support sessions directly from incidents, with embedded TeamViewer
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/sysaid-teamviewer-embedded-webinar
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Recipe for Success: 7 Key Ingredients for a Successful RFP
> Discover the essential 5-step recipe for success in creating a winning RFP.
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/building-a-successful-rfp
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Vitamin KM - Better Problem Solving with Knowledge Management
> Join our webinar to boost ITSM and service desk workflows. Learn how to cultivate a healthy knowledge culture with effective knowledge management.
- Published: 2021-04-11
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/09-2015
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Taking Control of Digital Workflows in the Age of Coronavirus
> A modern, simple, and intuitive process builder that helps you configure workflows on the fly.
- Published: 2021-04-11
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/workflow-designer-0420
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### A Practical guide to help you get started with Service Catalog.
> Get started with a practical approach to service catalog implementation.
- Published: 2021-04-11
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/02-2016
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### It’s Your Time To Shine With BI & Analytics
> SysAid’s BI Analytics provides the most comprehensive view of service management performance and trends; turning insights into action.
- Published: 2021-04-11
- Modified: 2023-08-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/bi-webinar
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### How to Encourage End Users to Adopt Your Self-Service Portal
> Join this webinar to learn how to encourage your end users to adopt your SysAId Self-Service Portal.
- Published: 2021-04-11
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/self-service-portal-webinar
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### 5 Time-Saving Tips for Busy SysAid Agents
> Join this webinar to learn how IT can successfully close the mobile security gap with Nubo’s virtual mobile infrastructure (VMI).
- Published: 2021-04-08
- Modified: 2024-05-23
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/5-tips-webinar
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Your 7-Point Checklist for Selecting the Right ITSM Tool
> Join ITSM industry analyst Stephen Mann’s webinar to discover how best to select the ideal ITSM solution that's right for your organization.
- Published: 2021-04-08
- Modified: 2024-04-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/7-points-itsm-webinar
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Does My Organization Need Help Desk Software?
> Overwhelmed by support requests? SysAid's help desk software can streamline IT ticketing & improve service
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/does-my-organization-need-help-desk-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### 10 Reasons to Choose SysAid’s IT Asset Management Software
> Manage IT assets efficiently. Discover 10 reasons to choose SysAid's IT asset management software
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-reasons-to-choose-sysaids-it-asset-management-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Articles
Customers choose SysAid’s IT asset management solution because of its versatility in offering both cloud and on-premise delivery models plus a highly flexible range of price and support options. Here's 10 more reasons.
---
### 10 Reasons to Choose SysAid’s Ticketing System
> 10 Reasons to Choose our Ticketing System - Discover the top reasons why our ticketing system stands why it's the right choice for your organization.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-reasons-to-choose-sysaids-ticketing-system
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Articles
There are many ticketing systems out there for customers to choose from. While many will have similar capabilities, some will not, and the capabilities will differ in terms of breadth and depth.
---
### Does My Organization Need IT Asset Management?
> Unsure about IT asset management? SysAid helps you decide. Discover if your organization needs it!
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/does-my-organization-need-it-asset-management
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### How to Build & Manage a Knowledge Base
> Empower your support staff and end users to resolve common IT issues faster and enhance your knowledge base, with SysAid Knowledge Management
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-05-28
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/how-to-build-manage-a-knowledge-base
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### Does my organization need it service management software
> Discover if your organization requires IT Service Management Software with SysAid.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/does-my-organization-need-it-service-management-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### What is IT Help Desk Software
> Discover efficient Help Desk Software solutions with SysAid! Streamline your support system for enhanced productivity.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-10-14
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/what-is-help-desk-software
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### Why Outsourcing Help Desk Is Risky Strategy
> Why Outsourcing Help Desk is Risky: Discover the hidden costs and drawbacks of outsourcing
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/why-outsourcing-help-desk-is-risky-strategy
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### Does My Organization Need a Ticketing System
> Help Desk Software offers a powerful ticket management tool, IT asset management, self-service, chat, password reset, benchmarks, and advanced automation.
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/does-my-organization-need-a-ticketing-system
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### What is an IT Service Desk
> Discover the key benefits of an IT Service Desk. Learn how it serves as a single point of contact (SPOC) between your company and customers. Explore today!
- Published: 2021-03-25
- Modified: 2025-02-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/what-is-an-it-service-desk
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### Useful IT Asset Management Tips
> What can you do to increase your chances of IT asset management (ITAM) success? Here's 9 tips to make it happen.
- Published: 2021-03-21
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/useful-it-asset-management-tips
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### Useful IT Service Management Software Tips
> Useful IT Service Management Software Tips - Explore practical tips for optimizing your IT service management software and maximizing its effectiveness.
- Published: 2021-03-21
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/useful-it-service-management-software-tips
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### Useful Ticketing System Tips
> Useful Ticketing System Tips - Discover useful tips for optimizing your ticketing system in IT service management and improving efficiency.
- Published: 2021-03-21
- Modified: 2024-06-03
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/useful-ticketing-system-tips
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Articles
---
### 10 customer support tips for startups
> New Startup? Don’t forget to set up your customer support team right away! Learn how to create a world-class customer service operation in just a few days
- Published: 2021-03-21
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/articles/10-customer-support-tips-for-startups
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe
- Resource categories: Articles
New Startup? Don’t forget to set up your customer support team right away! Learn how to create a world-class customer service operation in just a few days
---
### ITIL 4 Webinar on Demand
> Join our webinar to hear how the new version of ITIL builds on the success of ITIL V3 but has a much better focus on creating value for customers.
- Published: 2021-03-15
- Modified: 2024-06-30
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/itil-4-webinar-on-demand
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Take Control Of The Way Your Work Flows
- Published: 2021-03-15
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/workflow-designer-0320
- Blog authors: Oded Moshe, SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Harness the Power of TeamViewer Embedded
- Published: 2021-03-12
- Modified: 2024-08-06
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/virtual-events-and-webinars/teamviewer-embedded-webinar
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Virtual Events and Webinars
---
### Automation Matters, Even More So During A Global Pandemic
> if you’re still contemplating your automation strategy, the unfortunate global crisis has now brought you to a critical juncture. We’ll break it down into 5 main benefits you can achieve.
- Published: 2020-07-15
- Modified: 2024-05-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/automation-matters-even-more-so-during-a-global-pandemic
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
### Email is so 2019. What’s filling the gap in 2020?
> During the COVID-19 pandemic, what has become clear is that everyone needs a ticketing system – not just IT.
- Published: 2020-04-22
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/email-is-so-2019-whats-filling-the-gap-in-2020
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
### Take Control Of The Way Your Work Flows
> Take Control of Your Workflows: Podcast on how SysAid helps manage and optimize workflows
- Published: 2020-04-02
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/take-control-of-the-way-your-work-flows
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
### How To Better Support Your Home Workers – With Remote Control
> With your employees working at home, having easy-to-use remote control capabilities is essential. we cover tips and practical use cases.
- Published: 2020-03-30
- Modified: 2024-04-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/how-to-better-support-your-home-workers-with-remote-control
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
### Slash 30% of Your Time With Advanced Automation
> Doron Youngerwood, SysAid Director of Product Marketing, discusses why 2020 is the year of automation and provides practical steps to level up your productivity and show true value to your organization.
- Published: 2020-02-26
- Modified: 2024-05-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/resources/podcasts/slash-30-of-your-time-with-advanced-automation
- Blog authors: SysAid
- Resource categories: Podcasts
---
## News
### SysAid Announces General Availability of Agentic AI Platform with AI Agents for ITSM — Easy to Use, Secure, and with Enterprise-Grade Capabilities
- Published: 2025-03-25
- Modified: 2025-03-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-announces-general-availability-of-agentic-ai-platform-with-ai-agents-for-itsm-easy-to-use-secure-and-with-enterprise-grade-capabilities
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Wins 2025 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service Among Over 2,100 Nominations Across Industries
- Published: 2025-03-18
- Modified: 2025-03-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-wins-2025-stevie-awards-customer-service
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Enhances AI-Driven ITAM with Advanced Discovery, Powered by Partnership with Lansweeper
- Published: 2025-02-23
- Modified: 2025-02-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-enhances-ai-driven-itam-with-advanced-discovery-powered-by-partnership-with-lansweeper
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Copilot Customers Showcase Significant Productivity Gains with AI-Powered ITSM
- Published: 2025-02-19
- Modified: 2025-02-24
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-copilot-customers-showcase-significant-productivity-gains-with-ai-powered-itsm
- News categories: Press Releases
SysAid Recognized in 2025 Gartner® Innovation Guide for Generative AI Technologies
---
### SysAid Welcomes Softchoice as Partner to Deliver AI-Powered ITSM Solutions to Its Customers
- Published: 2024-12-05
- Modified: 2024-12-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-welcomes-softchoice-as-partner-to-deliver-ai-powered-itsm-solutions-to-its-customers
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Recognized as one of the Emerging Leaders in the 2024 Gartner® Innovation Guide for Generative AI Report Technologies
- Published: 2024-11-21
- Modified: 2024-11-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-recognized-as-one-of-the-emerging-leaders-in-the-2024-gartner-innovation-guide-for-generative-ai-report-technologies
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Copilot Named a Winner of the 2024 Generative AI Product of the Year Award
> SysAid today announced that its innovative IT service management (ITSM) solution, SysAid Copilot, has been named a winner of the 2024 Generative AI Product of the Year Award by global media company TMC
- Published: 2024-10-21
- Modified: 2024-10-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-copilot-named-a-winner-of-the-2024-generative-ai-product-of-the-year-award
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Now Available on AWS Marketplace, Extending Reach and Streamlining IT Procurement for Customers
- Published: 2024-10-07
- Modified: 2024-11-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-now-available-on-aws-marketplace-extending-reach-and-streamlining-it-procurement-for-customers
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid is recognized as a Sample Vendor in the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for IT Management Intelligence, 2024, and Gartner Hype Cycle for ITSM, 2024, in the Operations Assistant Category
- Published: 2024-09-26
- Modified: 2024-09-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-recognized-as-a-sample-vendor-in-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-it-management-intelligence-2024-and-gartner-hype-cycle-for-itsm-2024-in-the-operations-assistant-category
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### BDO South Africa Transitions to SysAid, Upgrading Its Legacy Enterprise Service Management Platform
- Published: 2024-09-03
- Modified: 2024-09-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/bdo-south-africa-transitions-to-sysaid-upgrading-its-legacy-enterprise-service-management-platform
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Hits 100+ Customer Milestone for SysAid Copilot and Continues to Release Innovative Features Enhancing it’s Gen-AI Driven IT Service Management Offering
> SysAid announces a significant milestone with over 100 organizations using SysAid Copilot. The latest AI-driven enhancements, including Image Analysis from Chatbot, redefine IT Service Management, streamlining workflows, and boosting efficiency. Discover how SysAid continues to lead in ITSM innovation.
- Published: 2024-08-15
- Modified: 2024-08-15
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-hits-100-customer-milestone-for-sysaid-copilot-and-continues-to-release-innovative-features-enhancing-its-gen-ai-driven-it-service-management-offering
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### TrustRadius Awards SysAid with Prestgious 2024 Tech Cares Award
> The TrustRadius Tech Cares Award is granted annually to a select group of innovative businesses dedicated to excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
- Published: 2024-08-13
- Modified: 2024-08-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/trustradius-awards-sysaid-with-prestgious-2024-tech-cares-award
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### From End Users to Agents: SysAid Continues to Innovate and Transform the IT Service Management Experience by Unveiling its AI Chatbot for Agents
> SysAid redefines IT service management with its AI Chatbot for Admins, offering instant solutions, reduced MTTR, and a more efficient admin experience.
- Published: 2024-04-16
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/from-end-users-to-agents-sysaid-continues-to-innovate-and-transform-the-it-service-management-experience-by-unveiling-its-ai-chatbot-for-agents
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Strengthens Executive Team with Strategic Appointments: Paul Snelson as Senior Vice President of Sales and Nitai Fine as Vice President of Product
> SysAid, announces key executive appointments: Paul Snelson as Senior Vice President of Sales and Nitai Fine as Vice President of Product.
- Published: 2024-03-28
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-strengthens-executive-team-with-strategic-appointments-paul-snelson-as-senior-vice-president-of-sales-and-nitai-fine-as-vice-president-of-product
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid expands its global footprint, announcing a new strategic partnership with BDO in South Africa, bringing Generative AI-Powered ITSM to new regions
> SysAid partners with BDO in South Africa to bring cutting-edge AI for ITSM, delivering unparalleled value to organizations of all sizes in the region.
- Published: 2024-03-14
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-continues-to-expand-its-global-footprint-announcing-a-new-strategic-partnership-with-bdo-in-south-africa-bringing-generative-ai-powered-it-service-management-to-new-regions
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Copilot, Enhanced with Gen- AI Powered Features, Gains Unparalleled Momentum, with Dozens of Deals Signed
> Discover the transformative power of SysAid Copilot, the next-gen solution revolutionizing IT teams' efficiency and organizational productivity.
- Published: 2024-03-14
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-copilot-enhanced-with-new-generative-ai-powered-features-fuels-unparalleled-business-momentum-with-dozens-of-signed-deals
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid expands globally with Hatchit Studios, bringing AI-powered ITSM to Australia & New Zealand
> SysAid partners with Hatchit Studios to introduce SysAid Copilot, its advanced generative AI solution, to the ANZ market.
- Published: 2024-02-06
- Modified: 2024-05-27
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-continues-to-expand-its-global-footprint-through-a-new-strategic-partnership-with-hatchit-studios-introducing-generative-ai-powered-it-service-management-to-the-australian-and-new-zealand-mark
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### New SysAid Copilot counters ineffective chatbot deployments with next-gen, generative AI-powered IT Service Management
> New SysAid Copilot counters ineffective chatbot deployments with next-gen, generative AI-powered IT Service Management - SysAid
- Published: 2024-01-11
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/new-sysaid-copilot-counters-ineffective-chatbot-deployments-with-next-gen-generative-ai-powered-it-service-management
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### Consist and SysAid announce a new partnership bringing the power of advanced Generative AI-based IT Service Management to the DACH region
> Consist and SysAid announce a new partnership bringing the power of advanced Generative AI-based IT Service Management to the DACH region - SysAid
- Published: 2023-10-09
- Modified: 2024-05-27
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/consist-and-sysaid-announce-a-new-partnership-bringing-the-power-of-advanced-generative-ai-based-it-service-management-to-the-dach-region
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### TrustRadius Honors SysAid with Coveted 2023 Tech Cares Award
> SysAid receives the prestigious 2023 Tech Cares Award from TrustRadius. Learn more about this recognition!
- Published: 2023-08-09
- Modified: 2024-04-18
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/trustradius-honors-sysaid-with-coveted-2023-tech-cares-award
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Recognized by SIIA as Best IT Management Solution
> SysAid awarded Best IT Management Solution by SIIA - Learn more about SysAid's recognition here.
- Published: 2023-06-29
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-recognized-by-siia-as-best-it-management-solution
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Recognized in Enterprise Service Management Landscape, Q2 Report
> Technology leaders with an understanding of the value, expect from an ESM vendor, learn how vendors differ, and investigate options based on market focus.
- Published: 2023-06-22
- Modified: 2024-05-22
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-recognized-in-enterprise-service-management-landscape-q2-report
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid appoints Avi Kedmi as new Chief Executive Officer
> SysAid, a leading provider of IT service automation, announced today that Avi Kedmi has been named as its new Chief Executive Officer.
- Published: 2023-04-24
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-appoints-avi-kedmi-as-new-chief-executive-officer
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid is recognized as a 2023 Gartner Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for IT Service Management Platforms for Midsize Enterprise
> SysAid is recognized as a 2023 Gartner Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for IT Service Management Platforms for Midsize Enterprise - SysAid
- Published: 2023-04-02
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-recognized-as-a-2023-gartner-peer-insights-customers-choice-for-it-service-management-platforms-for-midsize-enterprise
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Is Again Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Tools
> SysAid Is Again Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Tools - SysAid
- Published: 2022-11-08
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-again-recognized-in-gartners-magic-quadrant-for-it-service-management-tools
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Joins AWS ISV Accelerate Program
> SysAid Launches SysAid for Teams, a conversational chatbot in Microsoft Teams to improve employees’ experience, anywhere.
- Published: 2022-10-19
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-joins-aws-isv-accelerate-program
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Joins AWS ISV Workload Migration Program
> Streamline Your Cloud Operations with SysAid & AWS! This integration is a unified platform for managing IT services and resources in the AWS cloud.
- Published: 2022-05-24
- Modified: 2024-07-21
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-joins-aws-isv-workload-migration-program
- News categories: Move to cloud, Press Releases
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### SysAid and Oomnitza Partner to Provide Customers with Insights and Management Across Enterprise Technology and Services
> Stay informed on the 2022 State of Service Management with SysAid. Gain insights and trends in service management practices.
- Published: 2022-04-20
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-and-oomnitza-partner-to-provide-customers-with-insights-and-management-across-enterprise-technology-and-services
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid is recognized as a 2022 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Customers’ Choice for IT Service Management Tools
> Discover why Employee Experience is a top ITSM priority for 2022 in the latest SysAid report.
- Published: 2022-04-04
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-recognized-as-a-2022-gartner-peer-insights-customers-choice-for-it-service-management-tools
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Report Finds Improving the Employee Experience as a Top ITSM Priority in 2022
> Employee Experience named as a Top ITSM Priority in 2022 in SysAid report
- Published: 2022-03-30
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-report-finds-improving-the-employee-experience-as-a-top-itsm-priority-in-2022
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Is Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Tools
> SysAid forms strategic partnerships to address the rising need for ITIL-compliant service automation solutions, empowering IT professionals.
- Published: 2021-08-31
- Modified: 2024-05-16
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-is-recognized-in-gartners-magic-quadrant-for-it-service-management-tools
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid expands its global footprint by partnering with leading software resellers, bringing the digital workspace to companies of all sizes
> SysAid expands its global reach by partnering with leading software resellers, bringing digital workspace solutions to companies worldwide.
- Published: 2021-06-03
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-expands-its-global-footprint-by-partnering-with-leading-software-resellers-bringing-the-digital-workspace-to-companies-of-all-sizes
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### Service automation takes over as top priority in 2021 for IT organizations, according to SysAid customer survey
> Of the 1,011 customers who participated in SysAid’s survey, 56% ranked the use of automation to improve productivity as their number one goal for the year
- Published: 2021-04-12
- Modified: 2021-07-27
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/service-automation-takes-over-as-top-priority-in-2021-for-it-organizations-according-to-sysaid-customer-survey
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Named Best Ticketing Software Company of 2021 by Digital.com
> The platform was highlighted among the most reliable systems for tracking and resolving customer requests
- Published: 2021-01-06
- Modified: 2022-05-17
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-named-best-ticketing-software-company-of-2021-by-digital-com
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Earns the 2020 Tech Cares Award From TrustRadius
> SysAid Wins 2020 Tech Cares Award: Recognized for exceptional customer support by TrustRadius.
- Published: 2020-09-23
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-earns-the-2020-tech-cares-award-from-trustradius
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Launches Worksafe App to Reduce COVID-19 Self-Reporting Burdens and Compliance Risk as Employees Return to Work
> Learn how SysAid's Worksafe app simplifies COVID-19 self-reporting for returning employees, reducing compliance risk and administrative burdens.
- Published: 2020-06-02
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-launches-worksafe-app-to-reduce-covid-19-self-reporting-burdens-and-compliance-risk-as-employees-return-to-work
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Wins SIIA Award for Best IT Management Solution
> As employees start to return to offices, stores, and factories, SysAid’s free Worksafe app simplifies employees’ daily self-reporting requirements.
- Published: 2020-05-21
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-wins-siia-award-for-best-it-management-solution
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Unveils Workflow Designer, the Easiest Way to Create, Share, and Optimize Digital Processes
> SysAid Unveils Workflow Designer: Easiest way to create, share, and optimize digital processes.
- Published: 2020-03-31
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-unveils-workflow-designer-the-easiest-way-to-create-share-and-optimize-digital-processes
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Launches Refreshed UI Designed to Accelerate Ticket Resolution
> Simplify employee health checks & ensure compliance. Free Worksafe app by SysAid flags risks & locks accounts
- Published: 2020-03-19
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-launches-refreshed-ui-designed-to-accelerate-ticket-resolution
- News categories: Press Releases
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### SysAid Launches Partner Program to Meet Demand for a Comprehensive, Mid-Market ITSM Solution
> SysAid Launches Partner Program: Providing comprehensive ITSM solutions for the mid-market.
- Published: 2020-02-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-launches-partner-program-to-meet-demand-for-a-comprehensive-mid-market-itsm-solution
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### Housing 21 and SysAid Win HDI Award for Advancing Elderly Care Across the UK
> Housing 21 wins HDI award for smoother IT changes! See how SysAid helped them improve service delivery.
- Published: 2019-11-21
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/housing-21-and-sysaid-win-hdi-award-for-advancing-elderly-care-across-the-uk
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Ranks #1 in G2 Momentum Grid® for Service Desk
> SysAid Ranks #1 in G2 Momentum Grid: Leading the way in service desk software user satisfaction
- Published: 2019-08-06
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-ranks-1-in-g2-momentum-grid-for-service-desk
- News categories: Press Releases
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### SysAid Unveils Automate Joe, Built-in Service Orchestration for ITSM
> Automate repetitive IT tasks! SysAid Automate Joe simplifies service delivery across your IT infrastructure
- Published: 2019-06-26
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-unveils-automate-joe-built-in-service-orchestration-for-itsm
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Wins Gold Medal in IT Service Management from Info-Tech
> SysAid placed at the top of the ITSM pack with 100% of reviewers planning to renew their service
- Published: 2019-05-14
- Modified: 2022-01-27
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-wins-gold-medal-in-it-service-management-from-info-tech
- News categories: Press Releases
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### SysAid Survey Reveals a Strong Correlation Between Appreciation and Wellbeing in ITSM Organizations
> Show you care, boost IT wellness! SysAid survey finds appreciation key to employee wellbeing.
- Published: 2019-03-25
- Modified: 2024-06-05
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-survey-reveals-a-strong-correlation-between-appreciation-and-wellbeing-in-itsm-organizations
- News categories: Press Releases
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### SysAid announces $30 million investment to deepen its commitment to improving productivity of IT and operations in mid-market organizations
> The investment by leading tech growth fund IGP will accelerate SysAid's growth in the ITSM market and beyond
- Published: 2018-11-20
- Modified: 2022-03-13
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-announces-30-million-investment-to-deepen-its-commitment-to-improving-productivity-of-it-and-operations-in-mid-market-organizations
- News categories: Press Releases
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### SysAid Service Desk Ranks in Top 5 for Implementation and Ease-of-Use on G2 Crowd
> G2 Recognizes SysAid as a Leader in Service Desk Solutions! Get the award-winning IT service management you deserve.
- Published: 2018-07-18
- Modified: 2024-05-26
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-service-desk-ranks-in-top-5-for-implementation-and-ease-of-use-on-g2-crowd
- News categories: Press Releases
---
### SysAid Recognized as a Leader in the Israel Tech Scene by G2 Crowd
> Strong user ratings place SysAid among the top five B2B tech companies in Israel
- Published: 2018-01-11
- Modified: 2022-05-12
- URL: https://www.sysaid.com/news/sysaid-recognized-as-a-leader-in-the-israel-tech-scene-by-g2-crowd
- News categories: Press Releases
---