A new client has decided to invest in a crisis and incident management capability, taking you under contract for advisory purposes. The client says they have an existing ITSM (IT service management) platform which can be used for critical event management processes. What’s wrong with that? Here’s what clients need to know about ITSM.
What is ITSM?
ITSM is the generic term used to describe a strategic approach to the design, delivery, management, and improvement in the way businesses use their information technology.
Originally configured to go beyond the traditional model of IT support, ITSM is meant to be more inclusive, describing the end-to-end processes and tools IT teams use to manage services, inclusive of all information technologies within the organization.
What ITSM can’t do
Well, what’s wrong with that?
Indeed, ITSM processes and actions offer clear efficiencies in IT resource and incident management, e.g., helpdesk support and trouble shooting. But not all incidents emerge out of IT.
Risks and hazards come in all shapes and sizes. Even those that don’t emerge from IT are likely to have major ramifications for IT services.
Unfortunately, ITSM offers nothing for the response to those types of incidents, including natural hazards, reputational threats, and physical security threats. And it’s these non-IT-specific incidents that are increasing in kind, cost, and intensity.
How ITSM solutions leave your clients out to sea
The same goes for ITSM-based software.
IT teams solely reliant on ITSM software and tools don’t have the requisite all-hazard processes and operational tools to help manage most incidents. For instance, a process that’s as simple as coordinating with operational business managers on non-IT incidents is beyond the remit of ITSM.
Indeed, ITSM doesn’t give IT teams the language or processes to coordinate with operational business managers in response to incidents that are not-IT-centric.
Why’s that?
Narrowly focused on the fulfilment of changes, ITSM doesn’t provide the requisite situational awareness for any incident that’s not wholly an IT incident. It provides neither decision-support tools nor crisis comms.
Those aren’t the only critical event management challenges ITSM software and tools don’t solve. Here are three big ones:
- Getting timely information to all stakeholders during a critical event
- Providing a centralized location for critical information, such as impacts, responses, and key messages
- Going beyond routine IT systems-support to help the rest of the organization
Unlike ITSM solutions, all-hazards software and tools manage all incidents
What does? That’s where critical event management and crisis management software platforms come in.
In contrast to narrowly-tailored ITSM software tools, critical event management platforms provide enterprise-wide situational awareness and coordination for any critical event – not just IT disruptions.
And that’s not all.
Having not originated as IT operations tools, critical event management platforms can be owned by any team in the organization – not just the IT organization. That makes it easier to get everyone on the same page with the same business-objective perspective, which improves visibility and situational awareness.
These platforms also allow for better coordination with operational business managers; and as the platforms don’t require change management, like ITSM software, there’s no need for extra IT resources.
But don’t just take our word for it. Noggin’s Partner Program gives you access to our critical event management solution, which will give your clients a leg up against the competition that’s still reliant on ITSM software tools. Learn what else the Noggin Partner Program has to offer.
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