How to make your IT the source of innovation with ITSM principles

The IT department in your company can be the best source of technological and corporate culture innovation. The best driving force behind it is usually IT Service Management (ITSM). This approach introduces various tools and processes that foster creating groundbreaking solutions, streamlining work, and relocating resources to more valuable activities. Not to mention that certain ITSM principles can benefit other departments as well. Explore our article on how to turn your IT into a source of innovation and enjoy numerous advantages for your entire business.

Innovation can have many meanings. Merriam-Webster defines it as a new idea, method, device, or introducing something new. McKinsey&Company adapts a more business perspective: it’s the systematic practice of developing and marketing breakthrough products and services for adoption by customers. We’d like to apply a middle ground, where ideas are developed, tested, and then used in business.

Before we can bring these innovations into practice, we need to find the best place to create them. We have a few promising candidates in most companies: R&D, Product Development, or Operations and Process Improvement. However, we wanted to offer one which is usually neglected – IT.

The IT department often deals with the most advanced technologies and applies highly efficient work processes. Successes with innovations in this department often radiate on the entire company. You can find many examples of businesses that scaled Agile – a typical IT methodology – and paved their way for brilliant results. Following this, we would like to explore several ideas that will help you turn your IT into an innovation hub using an approach called IT Service Management (ITSM). If you need more background on ITSM principles, please refer to our previous article. Here, you will discover innovations that can benefit all your company.

Let’s start with automation – the process whose main goal is eliminating repetitive tasks. Automation and innovation are intertwined. A Forbes article mentions that “[a]utomation can trigger innovation by freeing up resources and providing data and insights.” Within the ITSM principles, automation involves leveraging automation tools and practices to streamline IT operations and create opportunities for novelties. There are many areas where automation can support your work and help bring a fresh perspective. Now let’s move on to integration which is mostly about making tools communicate with each other to make work easier and faster. Incorporating additional systems is a strategic approach that allows the IT department to apply various external tools and platforms. The expected outcome here is to foster creativity, streamline processes, and drive innovation. Let’s analyze the crucial aspects of this approach.

IT security has always been a top priority. Especially with these staggering numbers. The Internet Crime Report 2021 issued by the FBI claims that the losses generated by cybercrime in 2016-2021 amounted to 18.7 billion USD. So the question remains: what kind of novelty deriving from ITSM processes or tools can help you handle this issue?

For starters, ITSM principles help you find a way to enhance the use of your security information and event management (SIEM) systems. This includes creating security policies that specify the permissible use of APIs, authorization protocols, data encryption norms, and incident response procedures. Your security platform should also support ITSM principles and integrate with ITSM software to streamline incident management and change control processes.

As a result, you will automate the processes of detection and response to security threats. For instance, when a security breach is found, the system can automatically quarantine affected components, initiate incident response procedures, and alert security IT teams. This will result in enhanced security, reduced response times, and greater protection against data breaches or cyberattacks.

Even if certain incidents are impossible to prevent, automation may assist in their resolution. For example, when a server’s performance falls below a certain threshold, automation tools can trigger actions to allocate additional resources or restart the server to prevent downtime. Thanks to such automation, you can improve system reliability.

Automation can be used to monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and ensure compliance. For example, if an SLA stipulates a response time of 2 hours for critical incidents, ITSM tools can automatically escalate unresolved incidents to higher-priority teams if the deadline is approaching. This usually means that the incident is moved to a more senior developer or specialized team if the first responder doesn’t resolve it within a given timeframe. Such clever solutions can support you in ensuring adherence to SLAs, improved customer satisfaction, and efficient allocation of resources based on priority.

To make things more interesting, ITSM tools can automate the process of requesting and provisioning services, such as granting access to software tools or supplying virtual machines. customers can request these services through a self-service portal, and automation ensures that access is granted swiftly. Consequently, you can guarantee increased efficiency, reduced manual intervention, faster service delivery, and improved customer experience. This automation also allows the IT department to focus on more strategic and innovative tasks.

Automation allows you to generate reports and analytics on key performance indicators in IT. These include incident trends, customer satisfaction, and system availability in a much easier way. The data can help IT departments make informed decisions and identify opportunities for innovation. Furthermore, reporting automation tools can be distributed among the entire company, thus securing a more efficient way of gaining insights.

Gartner describes innovation management as “a business discipline that aims to drive a repeatable, sustainable innovation process or culture within an organization.” But how does this work in practice? Integrating ITSM tools with ideation and innovation management platforms, like IdeaScale or Planview IdeaPlace solutions, can streamline collecting, evaluating, and implementing innovative ideas. IdeaScale can integrate with Jira, so when your idea reaches a certain stage in IdeaScale, you can open it as a second story in Jira. From there, you can manage your idea as any other Jira story. More information on this specific integration is available in this video.

Let’s consider the following scenario. A support engineer identifies a recurring issue, so they submit an idea for improvement through an integrated platform. The IT department can then evaluate and prioritize these ideas for implementation. This will eventually lead to the creation of a culture of innovation, a structured approach to idea management, and the implementation of valuable improvements. Moreover, if you play your cards right, you can make this culture take root in the entire company.

Integration with DevOps and CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Docker, or Kubernetes can automate deploying software and updates. ITSM solutions can trigger automated deployment processes when a change request is approved. Consequently, you can gain faster and more reliable service updates. Then you can benefit from accelerated service deployment, improved service reliability, and innovation in software delivery.

One of the greatest driving factors behind innovation is customer input. Your customers can be critical in helping you create the best solutions. After all, the company’s job is to serve customers. Why not provide them (both internal and external customers) with what they need based on their ideas? Feedback loops within ITSM processes involve seeking and applying customer feedback to drive continuous improvement and innovation in IT services. After all, Continuous Improvement is an IT term signifying that the process of making things better never stops. And from here, the road to innovations coursing through the veins of the entire company seems natural.

There are many ways in which you can get customers involved in promoting company changes. With ITSM principles in place, you can easily incorporate customer satisfaction surveys and feedback mechanisms. Let’s take an example: after each service request is resolved, customers can receive a survey asking them to rate their experience and provide comments. The IT department can analyze this feedback to identify areas for improvement, thus bringing a customer-centric approach to innovation, and improved service quality.

Since we are discussing service requests, you can allow your customers to request new services or changes to existing services. For example, a department may request access to a specialized software tool to improve its workflow. Other advantages of such an approach include a competitive edge in customer-focused service delivery. In addition, the research from the “ESM: The (R)evolution of ITSM” report on promoting ITSM support in non-IT areas shows some interesting results. Although almost half of the initiatives (45%) come from ITSM teams, 10% of influence comes from lines of business while 5% of influence is entirely customer-based.

The last idea is about ideas. Wait, what?! Yes, you got it right! ITSM principles encourage providing a platform where customers can submit ideas and suggestions for service improvements. A customer may suggest a new feature for a software application or propose a process change to enhance efficiency. This strategy will not only give you a structured approach to idea management but also enable the implementation of valuable improvements. This platform can also become an important asset in the aforesaid ideation and innovation management activities.

The role of customers does not end with regular feedback. They can happily offer a far greater perspective. The IT department can simply engage them in usability testing to gather insights on new or updated services. Before releasing a major software update, customers can deliver feedback on the user interface and functionality. This will eventually lead to reduced rework and customer-driven product innovation. Another interesting example comes from the MeasuringU website: you need only 5 customers for testing to find 85% of interface issues.  

If you incorporate customers into your service development, you might want to reconsider your workflows. ITSM processes can support an iterative approach to service development. In this approach, customer feedback is regularly collected and used to refine services. For example, a project team developing a company-wide intranet portal can release and gather customer feedback in iterations, making continuous improvements based on customer input to create innovation that evolves with changing requirements.

IT is prepared always to advance. ITSM processes often include Continual Service Improvement (CSI) initiatives that aim to constantly improve IT services. By systematically analyzing incidents and service data, the IT department can identify areas for enhancement. For example, after a series of security incidents, the IT department may initiate a CSI project to implement enhanced security measures and policies (or automation options as stated above).

The benefits of applying the CSI approach include improved service quality, reduced security risks, and alignment with best practices. Also, creating a culture of Continuous Improvement (which is deeply connected with CSI) has a positive impact on the entire company. It is because other departments will also be driven to test out improvements and innovations within their bounds.

This take on the topic of innovation might be a bit indirect. Nevertheless, the greatest ally of innovation is peace of mind (although some might point to great inventions from times of turmoil). This can be provided by a few ITSM features. The first one is predictive analytics. When it’s incorporated, ITSM tools can foresee incidents before they happen. For instance, using historical data, the IT department can predict potential hardware failures and proactively replace aging components.

Another useful method includes self-healing systems. Their capacity stretches even to hardware issues and relates to the aforesaid topic of automation. Servers, storage devices, and network equipment can have sensors to monitor their condition and use algorithms to forecast incidents. When the system predicts an impending hardware failure, it can initiate a repair process, and even clone endangered data to a spare drive. This approach can be a giant leap towards innovation as employees don’t need to worry about certain issues anymore. Other benefits can be minimized service disruptions, improved overall system efficiency, and saving money on unnecessary downtimes.

Change management is another essential aspect related to ITSM principles where innovation also matters. The ITSM Docs website enumerates several objectives of this procedure:

Although change management is a popular term, you might come across the more modern version of this concept called “change enablement” as per ITIL 4. Many people use these two terms interchangeably, nevertheless, there are slight differences. You will find some valuable information on change enablement here.

Coming back to our main topic, change management allows for monitoring and controlling all the elements altered while applying improvements. This area covers a wide range of situations within the company. They usually comprise new software or application releases (or upgrades), security enhancements, hardware innovations, product launches, and other processes. They can even include complex and long-term changes such as Cloud migrations. How does change management help you navigate among all this while promoting innovation?

Firstly, change management is a highly structured approach. It often involves thorough testing, customer training, and phased deployments. Secondly, change management may include a merger of the old with the new, namely, integrating new solutions with existing ones. Among the numerous benefits of change management, you can find operational efficiency, reduced number of errors/downtimes, and customer satisfaction. Not to mention that change management is innovation-friendly – it allows for implementing new things in a safe environment. This approach is worth considering in other departments as well.

Another aspect strongly related to innovation is release management. It is an essential component of ITSM processes that focuses on managing and deploying software releases, updates, and changes in a controlled and structured manner. Although it might seem a simple process, ITSM Docs enumerates 20 steps that it must follow. Release management allows you to maintain a sense of controlled innovation by handling software-related processes.

Let’s start with version control. By implementing version control and maintaining detailed change logs, the IT department can ensure that software releases are well-documented and traceable. Speaking of control, a controlled situation is your best ally here. Maintaining staging and testing environments allows the IT department to test software releases in an environment that mirrors the production environment.

You can still kick up the release management process a notch. The IT department can establish a Change Advisory Board (CAB) responsible for reviewing and approving proposed changes and releases. And to remain customer-driven (as suggested above), you can also apply User Acceptance Testing (UAT) which involves end-users testing software releases to ensure they meet their requirements and expectations. In short, any IT department that adopts release management can minimize the risks associated with software changes, ensure stable and reliable services, and drive innovations that benefit the entire company.

Maintaining an organized service catalog and managing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can contribute to promoting innovation in two ways. Firstly, it demonstrates best practices that can be followed by all departments. Secondly, it helps with handling day-to-day tasks and issues, thus leaving more time for creating innovations. Let’s see how ITSM principles can help you achieve this.

The key to innovation is to empower the customers to make their independent quests as well as provide them with the necessary tools to solve their problems. One idea here is self-service portals. They let customers request and access innovative services on their own. For example, customers can request access to cloud-based collaboration tools or advanced data analytics services. This can lead to improving customer experience while reducing the workload on IT staff. It’s also a popular choice. The ITSM Tools website published the following survey results: 16% of employees loved their self-service portals while 43% didn’t express their emotions so lavishly, but still found them usable.

Another important aspect of innovation is transparency. It’s easier to come up with creative ideas when you know what you are working with. The service catalog presented by IT can define standardized services with clear descriptions and pricing models for innovative services. This can include offerings like advanced data backup and recovery solutions, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), or specialized security services. If you’d like to see an example of a service catalog compliant with ITSM principles, ITSM Docs has one for you.

To increase transparency, the service catalog can include detailed descriptions of innovative services and customer guidance. Then, the customers will have it easier to understand how to take advantage of these services effectively. With such clear definitions, you can have a better understanding of costs and easier decision-making for customers and stakeholders. This can also support introducing innovative projects since more resources will be available for experimentation.

The icing on the cake related to empowering customers is the shift-left approach. It stipulates that, for instance, software testing should be done at the early stage of the software development life cycle. This, in turn, guarantees that certain defects won’t be passed down in the creation process, testing will receive sufficient resources and easier issue resolution. Such a situation eventually leaves more room for creativity and innovation.

The service catalog can incorporate performance metrics, allowing customers to see key indicators like uptime, response times, and resource utilization for services such as cloud hosting or SaaS applications. This will add up to aforesaid transparency as well as accountability, and the ability to make data-driven decisions about service usage and optimization/innovation.

These are not the limits of the service catalog. Since ITSM principles also include cost control, the service catalog frequently offers budget management tools. These allow customers to track and navigate costs associated with innovative services. Customers can set budget limits and receive notifications when they approach those limits. Such tools can prove beneficial both within the IT department as well as outside of it. They guarantee cost control, efficient resource allocation, and adherence to budget constraints.

Stable workflows are a great reason to create innovation. After all, when everything is going well, it’s time to reach higher goals (not slack off as some might think). That is why SLAs play such an important part in organizing work. ITSM principles greatly emphasize the proper structure and execution of SLAs. There are many ways to achieve this.

The first good idea is to let customers help you with establishing SLAs. Some organizations allow customers to define their agreements within certain limits. Furthermore, SLAs can include provisions for personalized service levels. A company can offer premium SLAs for VIP customers, which could include faster incident response times or access to advanced support services.

To make things interesting, SLAs can include clauses related to service innovation. For instance, the IT department can commit to regularly proposing and implementing innovative features or improvements to existing services within predefined timeframes. Only with such an approach can you get services that evolve to meet changing business needs.

Innovation is often achieved when the company’s accumulated knowledge is applied in new ways. That is why knowledge management is essential for any business. It is an important aspect in terms of ITSM principles that involves capturing, sharing, and leveraging knowledge within the IT department and across the organization. Its ultimate role is to foster collaboration. But how does knowledge management contribute to innovation? Let’s find out!

ITSM tools can facilitate the creation and maintenance of a centralized knowledge base. It should contain information on common issues, solutions, best practices, and documentation. This knowledge base can serve as a go-to resource for IT staff and customers seeking answers to common questions. Thanks to it, you can gain improved customer self-help capabilities, and enhanced collaboration by providing a single source of truth. What is more, promoting the idea of a knowledge base across the company can have a positive impact on all work processes and employee morale as well, thus fostering innovative thinking.

Collaboration is crucial to solving modern business problems, especially cross-functional collaboration. Yet, with the old organizational silos still prevailing, it might be difficult to achieve. The Forbes article mentioned earlier suggests a good starting point: “[o]ne of the biggest challenges in creating a culture of innovation in any organization is breaking down the silos that exist within the organization.” Luckily, ITSM principles can successfully breach such gaps.

A good example involves incident management. ITSM systems can enable collaborative problem-solving by allowing IT staff to create and participate in discussion threads related to incidents or issues. Team members can collectively work to find solutions, share their expertise, and document resolutions. Thanks to this, the company can enjoy faster incident resolution, increased knowledge sharing, and improved problem-solving abilities.

ITSM principles also encourage creating collaboration workspaces where teams can share documents, work together on projects, and exchange ideas. For instance, an IT project team can use these workspaces to manage projects and document findings and outcomes. This approach can have a crucial influence on project management. To move matters even further towards innovation, you can establish incentives for IT staff to actively contribute to knowledge management. Recognize and reward team members who consistently share valuable knowledge and innovative solutions. This will encourage knowledge sharing across the company and embrace the culture of innovation.

As you can see, innovation can come from IT in many different forms. Among them, you can find:

The specific choice will depend on the circumstances and the functioning of a given department (or even the company as a whole). Nevertheless, each of them can bring great innovations and great benefits as well if applied correctly. The key to victory is making IT and business meet and establishing some common goals related to promoting innovation in the company.

The truth is that the number of innovations that can be created is limitless. The only limit is the scope of your imagination… and your budget. Speaking of that, make sure you invest in novelties that support your business. Nevertheless, don’t be afraid to think outside the box and experiment from time to time. Who knows what galaxies you can reach when you are bold with technology?