IT Service Management & ITIL

IT Service Management (ITSM) encompasses all activities that involve the design, creation, delivery, support and lifecycle management of IT services. Unlike ad‑hoc technical support, ITSM is characterized by defined, repeatable processes and a focus on treating IT as a service delivered to customers. It goes beyond fixing day‑to‑day issues by managing the entire service lifecycle and aligning IT activities with business goals. Principles rooted in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) enable proactive and preventative management, continuous improvement and a customer‑centric mindset.

Why adopt ITSM?

The rise of digitization, decentralized computing and higher industry standards has created a demand for an IT management approach that streamlines processes across integrated services. ITSM frameworks provide clear processes and documentation so issues can be resolved efficiently and traced when needed. They empower IT teams to share knowledge and continuously improve, fostering cross‑department collaboration. Adopting ITSM improves customer satisfaction, prevents small incidents from becoming major problems and enables organizations to deliver IT services based on priorities and business value.

Core processes (ITIL)

• Incident management: Restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the impact on business operations.
• Problem management: Identify and eliminate root causes of recurring incidents to prevent future occurrences.
• Change management: Control the lifecycle of all changes, enabling beneficial modifications with minimal disruption.
• Configuration management: Maintain a configuration management database (CMDB) that records the relationships between IT assets and services to support other processes.
• Service level management: Define, negotiate and monitor service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure services meet business requirements.
• Continual service improvement: Use metrics and customer feedback to identify opportunities to improve services, processes and technology.

Benefits

• Consistency & quality: Standardised processes ensure predictable service delivery and reduce errors.
• Alignment with business: Services are designed to meet organisational needs and deliver value to customers.
• Risk reduction: Formal change control minimises outages caused by poorly planned modifications and improves compliance.
• Efficiency & collaboration: Clear workflows and knowledge sharing enable faster resolution, cross‑department cooperation and improved productivity.
• Customer satisfaction: Proactive incident prevention and continual improvement create a better experience for users and stakeholders.

Free Resources

• Axelos ITIL Resources – Official guidance on ITIL certification and best practices.
• ITSM Body of Knowledge (ITSMBOK) – Comprehensive resource for ITSM practices.
• Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) – Alternative framework providing service management guidance.
• GLPI – Open‑source IT asset management and service desk tool.
• Snipe‑IT – Open‑source asset management for tracking hardware and software.
• OTRS/Znuny – Open‑source ticketing and service management platform.