There’s a lot of interest in enterprise service management (ESM) – the use of IT service management (ITSM) principles, best practices, and technology to help other business functions to improve their operations and results across quality, speed, and cost. But there’s probably even more interest – and this time not just in IT – for digital transformation. Particularly because other business functions such as human resources (HR) professionals, say, are reading and hearing about the need to digitally transform their back-office operations (and will probably have no idea what enterprise service management is).

So, other business functions will have a need to digitally transform. But what they might not have, however, is a technology-based solution to their need, one that can improve their possibly antiquated, manual, ways of working.

The IT department will hopefully be able to help, and they might already have a proven solution to hand.

One Possible Solution: The Corporate ITSM Tool

When you stop to think about how ITSM tools have revolutionized IT service delivery and support – automating workflows, providing insight in operations and performance, and delivering smarter ways of working such as knowledge management and self-service portals – there’s no reason why these can’t be applied elsewhere within the organization.

It’s enterprise service management in action. But, it’s also back-office digital transformation.

TheBack-Office Digital Transformation Benefits Provided by ITSM Tools

There are a variety of benefits that an ITSM tool can offer to other business functions wishing to improve their operations and performance (and to the organization as a whole). These include:

1. Enterprise-wide standardization. Not only optimized processes, with business-function variations where needed, but also a common way of working, look and feel, and service-consumption model for employees.There’s also the opportunity to provide a single point of service and support as maturity levels grow.

2. Improved operational efficiency and effectiveness. Optimized processes and a fit-for-purpose ITSM tool help to ensure that all employee and customer issues and requests are dealt with in line with agreed service levels.

3. Reduced operational and transactional costs. Optimized workflows, automation, and orchestration eliminate unnecessary manual effort. This is enhanced further through employee self-service and other self-help capabilities.

4. Better access and communication channels. A suitable ITSM solution offers a choice of channels including telephone, email, self-service, chat (and potentially chatbots), and a self-service portal “broadcast” channel.

5. Improved employee experience. This is thanks to the provision of modern, consumer-like capabilities such as service request catalogs, self-help and self-service, and anytime anyplace access to services and information. Plus, quicker resolutions.

6. Better service-portfolio management. ITIL best practice, and the ITSM tool, can be used to manage business-function services from service strategy through to service operation. Helping to ensure that services, including support, are consistently meeting customer and end-user requirements and expectations.

7. Improved collaboration. A fit-for-purpose ITSM tool makes it easier for work to flow between individuals or groups, and to be worked on collectively, even across business-function boundaries.

8. Greater visibility into performance. Staff and management have real-time insight into operations and performance against service-level targets. This also provides a platform from which to demonstrate the business value delivered.

9. A platform for continual service improvement. The increased visibility also helps with the identification of improvement opportunities. And, if adopted, the ITIL continual service improvement (CSI) capability provides a formal mechanism for improvement opportunities to be identified and progressed.

10. A better return on investment (ROI) for the corporate ITSM tool. The more business functions, and staff, that use the ITSM tool the better the ROI realized from it.

There are, of course, others. If you have reaped other benefits from using your ITSM tool in other business functions, please let us know in the comments.