InvGate Blog

Wow, 2020 is over already. From some perspectives it couldn’t finish soon enough, but we’re proud of the hard work of all the IT professionals around the world in this troublesome year. We’re sure that you and your IT colleagues played a key role in helping your organization to keep going during the first wave of the global pandemic. With all the fire-fighting it might have been easy to forget how the IT community’s combined knowledge, skills, and experiences were, and continue to be, instrumental to business operations and outcomes. We’ve tried to do our bit to help out too, not only through our products and services but also via the sharing of IT service management (ITSM), IT asset management (ITAM), digital transformation, learnings and best practices in this blog.  This looks to be working, with 2020 seeing a 31% increase in traffic to the blog. And, as always, some blogs fare better than others in readerships terms. If you’d like to catch up on any of our most read blogs that you missed, this post lists out our most popular ITSM blogs of 2020. As you’d expect, many relate to the global pandemic and the needed responses.

Topics: ITSM, ITAM

While our previous ITIL 4 blogs have covered the IT asset management (ITAM), service desk, and risk management practices, the demands of the coming year place an emphasis on the need to improve things. These improvements could relate to operations, services, outcomes, experiences, relationships, or something else. And, ideally, will be managed and delivered via a formalized approach such as ITIL continual improvement.  

Topics: ITIL, Continual service improvement, Continual Improvement, ITIL 4

The latest ITIL 4 IT service management (ITSM) body of knowledge brought about many changes to the ITIL v3/2011 best practices. These “structural” and approach-based changes have been documented in many, many blogs such as “New ITIL 4 Features and What They Mean for Your Organization.” But there has been less written about the new and changed processes/practices – with there now 34 ITIL 4 practices instead of the 26 ITIL v3/2011 processes (and four functions). One of these new practices is risk management, the detail of which we outline in this blog. 

Topics: ITIL 4, risk management

When you stop to think about how hard your IT service desk personnel are working – especially after what has been a very busy and problematic year, to say the least – you might want to introduce some IT support changes that allow your IT service management (ITSM) processes and enabling technology to take some of the pressure off your overworked people. Done right, this is a win-win – you’ll also get better IT support operations and outcomes as you change to serve and protect your IT support people better.   You’d not be alone in wanting this – after all, no one wants their people to burn out, struggle with their health and/or productivity, or leave to pursue less stressful career options. Plus, there’s definitely a need to optimize your IT support capabilities to better meet the needs of your business and its employees.  So, what can you do? To help, this blog offers up answers to two of the most important questions that need to be asked (and answered) before making the changes that will improve the work lives of your IT support personnel. 

Topics: IT support

Goodbye 2020 and hello 2021. Let’s hope that the new year brings with it better times for us all, both socially and at work. In terms of the latter, the wide scale impact of the global pandemic made 2020 a year of unprecedented workplace change. Changes that in turn impacted the role and business needs of IT service management (ITSM) and the IT service desk in particular.  

Topics: IT Service Desk

Have you ever stopped to wonder why the very diligent implementation of new technology – to time, cost, and quality – doesn’t deliver the expected benefits? IT self-service capabilities are usually a great example – with only limited adoption by employees (with it, therefore, difficult to realize the anticipated return on investment). There might be a variety of reasons that this happens, with a common one being the lack of recognition of the technology implementation being a people change because it affects the traditional ways of working. Consequently, there’s limited or no investment in organizational change management tools and techniques. 

Topics: ITIL 4, Organizational Change Management

It’s safe to say that many of us will be glad to see the back of 2020, with 2021 hopefully bringing with it a return to normality (or as close as we’re able to get to it). This applies to both our social and work worlds, but in terms of the latter, things are likely to have changed forever. Especially in terms of IT service delivery and support. Where it leaves most IT departments with the need to change, and ideally to optimize, their IT service desk capabilities for both new ways of working and the differing expectations of the employees being served. So what do you need to do? And where should you start? 

Topics: IT support

The latest version of ITIL – ITIL 4 – was released in 2019 with a new focus and a different portfolio of IT service management (ITSM) guidance. For anyone interested in IT asset management (ITAM), a key difference was the inclusion of ITAM as a core ITIL 4 ITSM practice. If this IT management discipline is new to you, then ITAM can be described as the service management practice that helps you to maximize value, control costs, manage risks, support decision making, and meet regulatory requirements. In other words, ITAM is the practice that helps you to keep track of your IT asset estate, to ensure that the appropriate licensing is in place, and to maximize potential by managing assets from provision through to retirement.  To help, this blog looks at the key guidance points within the new ITIL 4 ITAM practice. 

Topics: ITAM, ITIL 4

Thanks to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations have been forced to undergo rapid transformations in how they operate, including their use of technology. Cloud-based applications, personal devices, and working from home all often become the rule rather than the exception. Now, as things start to settle down (on what is likely to be a long road to recovery), there’s a renewed focus on ways of working and how technology can help to optimize business operations and outcomes. To help, this blog looks at how IT service management (ITSM) can aid your organization’s much-needed digital transformation in the ‘new normal’. 

Topics: ITSM, Digital Transformation