IT Service Management

IT Service Management (ITSM) is defined as a process-based practice intended to align the delivery of information technology (IT) services with needs of the business, which emphasizes benefits to customers. While the process at its core concerns technology, this focus on the client is key.

IT Services embarked upon a path of implementing ITSM frameworks in early 2010 with the goal of establishing a common and convenient way for all faculty, staff, and students to interact with IT Services, whether requesting a service, finding an answer to a question, or requesting assistance. ITSM helps organizations define processes which insure that these interactions generate a set of consistent, timely responses that ensure a high level of service quality.

ITSM is often implemented through a set of frameworks. There are many, some of which are complimentary to others, such as ITIL, COBIT, PMBOK, PRINCE, CMMI. IT Services has selected to build its path on ITIL.

Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL as it is commonly called, describes a set of good practices in the provisioning, management, and support of services by the IT community. It encourages the IT organization to re-imagine all of its processes in a customer-centric way. Additionally, a prime focus of ITIL is Continual Service Improvement, commonly called CSI. The principle behind CSI is that there must be a non-stop process of review, alignment, and renewal. It drives the organization to review every aspect of itself emphasizing that everything has a life-cycle from introduction to retirement.

Initially, IT Services will focus on four processes:

• Incident Management (restoring a service that broke)
• Problem Management (identifying the cause of an incident)
• Change Management (assessing and scheduling technology changes)
• Project Portfolio Management

To unify these processes, IT Services uses ServiceNow, a single system of record for all IT processes.