The Next Evolution of Enterprise Service Management

Enterprise service management – using IT service management (ITSM) capabilities to improve other business functions’ services, operations, experiences, and outcomes – is one of the oldest ITSM trends still relevant to IT organizations and their businesses. What started as the sharing of ITSM tool capabilities to improve the operations of business functions, such as Human Resources (HR) and Facilities, has become a platform for business-wide digital transformation.

However, it’s important to appreciate that the traditional enterprise service management approach must continue to change. It has definitely evolved since the early days of enterprise service management in the late noughties, but there still needs to be another evolution to maintain its relevance to businesses and their employees.

'There still needs to be another evolution of enterprise service management to maintain its relevance to businesses and their employees.' says @Joe_the_IT_Guy. See his thoughts here. #ITSM #ServiceDesk #ESM Share on X

Enterprise service management pre- and post-pandemic

The global COVID-19 pandemic was a watershed moment for enterprise service management. The need for greater digital enablement to help tackle the needs of a distributed and remote workforce and wider digital transformation needs required the replacement of antiquated manual business practices in both front-office and back-office operations. Enterprise service management and ITSM tools (or platforms), in particular, offered the capabilities internal service providers required to keep operations working and both service provider and service receiver productive.

In the same way that the pandemic accelerated digital transformation for 80% of organizations, the corporate need for digital enablement also elevated the opportunity for enterprise service management. In many ways, enterprise service management and the corporate ITSM tool were a ready-made route to the digital enablement that organizations needed.

However, like many of the rapid improvements made to help organizations survive the challenges of the pandemic, enterprise service management was designed for a pre-pandemic world, and while it served a purpose during and even post-pandemic, it’s time to reconsider its ongoing suitability and where it needs to further evolve. 

'Enterprise service management was designed for a pre-pandemic world, & while it served a purpose, it’s time to reconsider its ongoing suitability and where it needs to further evolve.' - @Joe_the_IT_Guy #ITSM #ServiceDesk #ESM Share on X

Let’s start with the elephant in the enterprise service management living room – its name.

To be or not to be “enterprise service management”

Enterprise service management is a name that reflects the original intentions of the approach. In the late noughties, the drive was about sharing ITSM best practices – usually based on the ITIL body of ITSM guidance – with other business functions. The ITSM tool was shared, too, but it was very much about sharing service management capabilities with other business functions across the enterprise. However, it is debatable whether these business functions viewed their new capabilities as service management rather than simply improving operations and outcomes.

Nowadays, it’s highly unlikely that other business functions, such as HR and Facilities, want enterprise service management. They want digital transformation or digital enablement and capabilities that enhance and automate their operational workflows. It’s why IT organizations hopefully don’t lead with the “enterprise service management” name when selling the opportunities to other business functions. 

Surely, it’s about time we stopped calling enterprise service management what the IT industry wants (or wanted) to call it and rename it based on business function needs.

'Surely, it’s about time we stopped calling enterprise service management what the IT industry wants (or wanted) to call it and rename it based on business function needs.' - @Joe_the_IT_Guy #ESM #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

Further breakdown functional silos

One of the benefits of enterprise service management (or whatever we call it) is better employee experiences. After all, enterprise service management brings swifter operations and better outcomes. There’s also a greater choice for employees when it comes to methods for engaging with the internal service provider, and the availability of better operational insights can lead to more improvements.

Business functions are definitely better versions of themselves with enterprise service management, and they’re better able to meet the ever-rising expectations of employees. However, despite the operational standardization that enterprise service management brings, it can still lead to functional silos and an overly complicated route to service and support for employees. For example, a manager wanting to rearrange the IT equipment in their shared work area might not know whether to contact IT or Facilities and be bounced from one to the other. Or an employee might expect the IT response to their work-affecting issue to be quicker than the HR response to something that doesn’t stop them from working, but it isn’t.

The solution is for the disparate business functions to collectively build their services around the employees rather than themselves. Such that employees can have consolidated routes to service and support, no matter their request, and aligned service level targets. It truly is the employee-centric support that the individual business functions are already aiming for in their likely disparate employee experience programs.

Your enterprise service management approach must evolve to bring AI capabilities to other business functions, says @Joe_the_IT_Guy. Here he explains why. Share on X

Use enterprise service management to corporately benefit from AI more quickly

Given the media attention related to ChatGPT, most employees will know the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to help them in their work. The big question is whether they’ll start to use personal AI-enabled capabilities at work before their business function, perhaps aided by the corporate IT organization, provides them with something that’s corporately mandated and controlled. Think of it as the AI equivalent of Shadow IT that moved from devices, through software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, to cloud services. I bet “Shadow AI” is already something consultants are talking to C-level leaders about!

In the same way that enterprise service management and the corporate ITSM tool have brought workflow automation and other digital capabilities, such as self-service, to business functions, it can also help to quickly bring AI-enabled capabilities. It’s just another element of the ITSM tool that can be shared, with customization as needed. For example, through focused large language models (LLMs) that make the generative AI capabilities within ITSM tools suited to HR operations and needs. 

Ultimately, as we see more AI-enabled capabilities become the norm in ITSM operations, your organization’s enterprise service management approach must evolve to bring them to other business functions (whether in workflow automation, self-service, analytics, or other shared capabilities).

What are your thoughts on the next evolution of enterprise service management? Please let me know in the comments.