Gartner expects business spending on IT to increase 6.8% in 2024, reaching $1.5 trillion by the end of the year. But given the volume of investment in IT services, isn’t it strange that the same approach isn’t applied across other departments? 1
Enterprise Service Management (ESM) is a fast-growing offshoot of ITSM that seeks to correct that discrepancy. It uses the same approach that works so well for IT services to deliver improvements across every business department – and this blog provides a comprehensive overview of the concept.
What is Enterprise Service Management?
ITSM processes have been used for decades to ensure IT delivers the maximum value for organizations. But as technology becomes a central part of every aspect of modern business, it became clear to leaders that other departments like HR and marketing would benefit from a similar approach.
Enterprise Service Management (ESM) uses established ITSM principles to deliver consistent (and much better) service within every area of business. This empowers professionals within each department to benefit from self-service systems, automation and more connected IT systems.
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Why is Enterprise Service Management Important?
ESM has gained traction within forward-thinking business for two key reasons:
The first is expectation management. The average business user is used to high levels of convenience, connectivity and efficiency. They own smartphones, use high-speed internet and likely order goods online – all of which creates an expectation that a similar level of service will be available at work.
When these expectations are not met, employees are likely to discuss the experience with their colleagues and friends. This has a cascading effect across employee engagement and retention, and may even harm your reputation – making hiring more difficult.
The second is business optimizations. The quality, speed and efficiency of your business services have a direct impact on overall organizational performance – and a lack of effective service management within any department can cause significant disruptions.
Our experience at DeskDirector has shown that HR teams could save 10 hours every week with the right solution. This is a single example of better service management producing tangible business results – and it is far from the only one.
What Are the Benefits of Enterprise Service Management?
1. Improve Employee Experience
Employees routinely underutilize the services available to them, which in turn has a direct impact on your business’s performance. ESM ensures they understand exactly which services are available, how to access them and what they will achieve.
It accomplishes this through:
- Clearer definitions of services through optimized service catalogs
- Fast, easy access to vital services
- Greater autonomy through comprehensive self-service portals
- More consistent and higher quality service that continually improves over time
The net result is higher service usage, as well as increased employee engagement and satisfaction
2. Enhance Business Services
Many business processes are not properly assessed or optimized to the specific needs of individual departments. HR, marketing and procurement are likely to use services in very different ways – but this is not factored into most standard ITSM systems.
ESM ensures services are tailored to the specific use-cases of individual teams and adjusted to ensure they perform optimally. This includes increased use of automation and greater integration with other departments to remove data silos and increase collaboration.
3. Elevate Overall Business Performance
With higher service usage, optimized systems and greater collaboration, the result of ESM is to dramatically improve the average business’s performance. This is augmented by a greater capacity to track and optimize individual services – compounding the improvements over time.How to Choose an ESM Platform
The best ESM platforms offer the following four benefits:
1. User-Friendliness
Rather than adding complications or confusion to your system, the right ESM platform should streamline and simplify service management. Ideally look for the capacity to centralize data and gain greater visibility of the full enterprise system.
2. Seamless Integration
Effective ESM requires extensive integration across all your existing systems – otherwise it will run into constant hurdles and produce new data silos. Look for a solution that integrates with the tools you use every day, such as Microsoft Power Automate, Teams, or SharePoint.
3. Smart Automations and Ticketing
As your use of IT services expands throughout the organization, you need to ensure maximum efficiency through automation and reliable ticketing. Look for a solution that makes it easy to automate workflows, triage tickets and manage the daily functionality of your system.
4. Customizability
Your organization’s specific services and strategic goals are unique – and your ESM should reflect that. Custom configuration should be intuitive and quick, to ensure you can adapt the system to your specific needs, as well as adjusting it as those needs evolve.Elevate Service Across Every Department with DeskDirector
With unique integrations, powerful automations and seamless ticketing features, DeskDirector delivers everything you need to achieve truly effective Enterprise System Management. Users have increased ticketing adoption by 20% and seen tickets resolved 4x faster.
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