'ITSM Lite' - ITSM in bite sized chunks

Lee Healey
Nov 7, 2022
3 min read

Let’s be honest, the concept of having a “Lite” version of anything is not really new and we’re not trying to claim "ITSM Lite' as a “super new” approach to the delivery of ITSM services.

But taking a bite-sized approach that suits the explicit needs of our customers works exceptionally well for many, as being pragmatic and structured directly to match their unique requirements.

We also know the ITSM has become quite the beast these days.. taking ITIL4 as an example, 34 far-reaching practices feels like a mammoth task for any organisation to attempt to master.

The important thing to always remember of course is ITIL, along with other frameworks, are just that - frameworks i.e. a set of guidelines for you to adopt (and adapt) as needed.

So regardless of the current levels of ITSM maturity, good or bad, we often find that customers make significant progressive steps improving their Service Management, Service Delivery and the customer or user experience, by adopting a phased (or bite-sized 'Lite') approach, to improvement of specific practices across a broad spectrum of possibilities.

For instance, a recent customer wanted help during an organisational de-merger and re- acquisition period. IT Services that had been predominantly managed and delivered by the former parent company were to be managed and delivered by a combination of the new parent company, the organisation themselves, and a raft of global suppliers supporting multiple thousands of employees spanning 10’s of countries and organisational divisions.

For a plethora of reasons, we always knew that pragmatism was required and we were already looking at a short list of priorities. On paper the reduced requirement sounded straight-forward, but as with all things, the “devil is in the detail” - As was the appetite to embed and run 'fandangled' new ITIL / ITSM processes at an exceptionally busy time, as everyone is too busy with other separation stuff.

But with an approach of 'ITSM Lite', i.e. only taking the really important parts of each practice, the team were able to focus on the creation and improvements of specific practices that were highlighted as priority for the critical deadline and go-live. Now, some hardcore practitioners out there may disagree here, and in fact one of our own team said "it cant work" and "we're breaking the processes as they are all so aligned with each other" ...

However pragmatism prevailed.. and we found a way to break things out, and soon enough, the complexity started to become easier again and critically, was easier to swallow for all involved to bring 'ITSM Lite' to life.

Practices such as Service Catalogue, Service Desk, Major Incident Management and Change Management were just some of those highlighted as critical for the deadline and go-live. So working closely with the ITSM platform vendor, we followed best practice, but keeping one eye on 'just enough essential process'.

So having taken an 'ITSM Lite' approach, the next phase will be CSI (Continual Service Improvement). It is a safe to assume that CSI should form part of the initial prioritised list of practices, as it is CSI that continues the thrust to not only improve the practices and processes already in place, but CSI also helps determine the priority of additional practice creation.

And let's not forget one of the really important guiding principles from ITIL4 - 'Start where you are' .. which is exactly what we needed to do here.

So whether your organisation has a mature ITSM suite of practices or just starting out, taking an 'ITSM Lite' approach and just taking those practices, or only parts of practices that are critical for you right now, can yield superb results directly aligned to your unique needs (and deadlines!).

So dont be scared by the monster that is ITIL or ITSM. Whatever you take from it, even if only in bite sized chunks, it can be extremely valuable.

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What is ITSM?

Information Technology Service Management processes include a range of activities designed to deliver and support high-quality IT services for your business. These can include incident management, problem management, change management, and service-level management. Additionally, ITSM involves continuous enhancement processes to improve service delivery, increase efficiency and reduce costs. By adopting strong ITSM practices, your business can improve service quality, customer satisfaction and achieve greater alignment between IT and business objectives. This holistic approach ensures that IT services are effective and integrated with your overall business goals. As ITSM focuses on aligning IT services with your business’s needs, you can ensure that IT processes and services support and enhance business operations. This is achieved through a structured approach to managing IT services, guided by best practices and methodologies such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). These models provide guidance on best practices for delivering and supporting technology and other enterprise services and can help companies align their capabilities with their business goals and strategic objectives.
What is ITIL and how does it underpin ITSM?

We adhere to the ITIL Framework in delivering our ITSM consultancy services. ITIL is a globally recognised set of best practices for ITSM that helps businesses provide consistent, high-quality IT services. By implementing ITIL processes and principles, we ensure that your IT operations are standardised, efficient and aligned with industry standards. ITIL4 is the latest version of ITIL, designed to help enterprises navigate the new technological era known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This version introduces a more flexible, modern approach to ITSM, emphasising its integration with other areas of business management.
What are the core practices and processes in ITSM?

Effective ITSM revolves around a number of processes. Whilst there are 34 practice areas in ITIL4, there are often a core set of practices that many of our clients are particularly interested in optimising. As understanding and implementing these processes can significantly enhance the performance and quality of IT services within your organisation. Incident Management Restores all service operations back to normal as soon as possible, minimising to lessen the impact on your operations. This process might involve logging, categorising, prioritising, and resolving incidents, ensuring which can help mitigate disruption to users and the business. Configuration Management Keeps an updated record of IT infrastructure - hardware, software, and network components - in a centralised configuration management database (CMDB). This database provides accurate data on configuration items (CIs) and their relationships. Change Management Ensures any changes to your IT services are controlled and coordinated. This process evaluates the impact of changes, approving them through a structured workflow, and ensuring successful implementation with minimal risk. Service level Management Defines, negotiates, and monitors service level agreements (SLAs) between the service provider and the customer. This process ensures that agreed-upon service quality and performance levels are consistently met. Asset Management Tracks and manages your IT assets throughout their lifecycle to ensure efficient use and cost control. You maintain an accurate inventory of hardware, software, and other IT resources through this. Problem Management Identifies, analyses and resolves the root causes of incidents. Proactively addressing underlying issues can prevent recurring incidents. This, in turn, provides improved system stability and reduced downtime. Request Management Handles the lifecycle of user service requests, such as access to applications, software installations or information enquiries. It ensures requests are managed efficiently to provide a streamlined approach that fulfils user needs and enhances satisfaction. Knowledge Management Captures, organises and shares knowledge to improve efficiency and support decision-making. By leveraging a centralised knowledge base, your IT teams can quickly resolve incidents and problems, and end-users can find the right solutions to common issues.
Why is ITSM important to organisations and their IT (and Enterprise) teams?

Implementing the right ITSM strategy and optimising your tooling can provide a range of benefits for your company, including: Improved Efficiency and Cost Savings By streamlining processes and automating routine tasks, ITSM can help your enterprise work more efficiently and reduce the time and resources required to deliver and support IT services. Good ITSM is a silent enabler of success across a range of organisational goals. Improved Compliance and Risk Management ITSM can help you ensure that your IT systems and processes comply with industry regulations and standards. It also ensures that you are effectively managing risks associated with your IT operations. This can help you avoid costly disruptions and legal consequences. Increased Productivity Effective ITSM practices can help your business prevent problems and fix them quickly if they do occur. This can help you lower costs—outages cost money—and increase productivity and employee satisfaction. Better Customer Satisfaction You can improve customer satisfaction and build stronger relationships by delivering high-quality IT services that meet customers' needs. Improved Service Quality ITSM ensures that IT services are delivered consistently and meet agreed-upon service levels, leading to higher customer satisfaction and better overall service quality. Business Continuity ITSM processes like incident and problem management ensure that disruptions are minimised and services are quickly restored to ensure business continuity. Strategic Alignment ITSM aligns IT services with business objectives, ensuring that technology initiatives support and drive business growth. This alignment helps you make informed decisions and prioritise projects that add the most value. Enhanced Collaboration ITSM promotes a collaborative environment where IT teams can work together more effectively, sharing knowledge and best practices to improve your delivery of services. Proactive problem-solving Through problem management and a proactive approach, ITSM helps your IT teams identify and address the root causes of incidents to prevent future issues and reduce downtime. Continuous Improvement ITSM encourages continuous monitoring and improvement of IT processes, allowing your IT teams to refine and enhance their service delivery regularly. Better Resource Management With ITSM, IT teams can manage resources more effectively, ensuring that personnel, technology, and budget are allocated optimally to support business requirements.
Do you provide ITSM tooling support and what tools do you specialise in?

The ITSM People are completely agnostic with ITSM tools and not tied to any vendors. Given the close relationship between ITSM related processes and ITSM tools, we often get involved in tool selection projects, or making recommendations on how to improve tools and get the best value from them. We work with tools such as ServiceNow, BMC, Jira, ManageEngine, Fresh, Halo and Xurrent.