Last week I was talking to a vendor representative for a service management tool. The meeting went pretty well but there was one part that I just had to bite my tongue on because my “matter of fact” personality would have been harsh. The rep was discussing how the new version of the tool (which isn’t out yet) would automatically search user names while they were being typed. Great. Fantastic. I don’t think he knew that Service-Now already has this feature. In fact, even Open Ticket Request System, a free and open-source product, already has this feature. I’m sure the rep was just pointing out an improvement that was being made and as a software company, I applaud them for making improvements. But the truth of the matter is they’re behind and saying a feature is “coming out” when others already have it just means they’re playing catch-up and it really makes me feel a little disheartened. This isn’t to say that the particular vendor has bad software, in fact it’s been around for a while and overall I would say it’s pretty solid. At that particular moment I wasn’t “wowed” by something that should have been included in the current release. Now, I know I’m generally difficult to “wow” and quite honestly, I have had almost no emotional responses to several exciting events in my life, but this interaction really adds to my opinion that most IT Service Management vendors are behind (see http://www.itilandme.com/?p=197).
Browsing Posts published by Michael
So yesterday, I was sitting at my desk, listening to an online ITIL training course and going about my happy go-lucky day, when a group of people came walking through my area. One of the individuals of this group stopped at my cubicle and said “Hey, it’s Michael from Yammer.” (If you don’t know about Yammer, it’s basically a Twitter-like system for specific domains). So it was great to see some fellow “yammerites” at my place of work, but one of them made a comment that got me thinking (which can be dangerous from time to time). The comment went something like “sorry we’re not on Yammer a lot, but thanks for carrying the torch.”
Here I am, in a department that historically lives in silos, and I’m trying to actually break out and communicate with others. But apparently IT isn’t the only one that lives in a silo; other departments in my organization live in silos as well. In fact, this place has more silos then any commercial farming operation. It’s really kind of sad and indicative of a core problem when we can’t even take the first step towards aligning IT and the business, which is simply just communicating with each other. Ironically, this is a problem at a time when everyone lives in social networks and it’s never been easier to communicate.
I wish I could come up with some big “lesson” from this problem, but I think it’s pretty obvious. Excuse me now, my silo is calling.
I really don’t know how to express this opinion so I thought it best to ask…why does it seem like ITSM software is behind the rest of the industry? And maybe I’m wrong in having this opinion, but we recently went through choosing a vendor for a Service Management tool and I wasn’t seriously impressed with many of the vendors when it comes to the general direction of computing.
Here’s what I’m talking about: I’ve seen a good amount of vendors advertise their alignment with ITIL v3. They’re just now aligning themselves with “good practice” processes? I would hope these tools would be developed with good practice in mind all along. Those same vendors have recently started offering SaaS solutions. I don’t know about you, but SaaS and cloud computing have been around for a few years now and it looks like it’s here to stay. So why are some of the big vendors just now deploying a SaaS solution? And what about mobility? With the exception of a mobile browser interface, it just doesn’t look like many vendors are seriously considering the trend towards mobile computing.
As much as I love to complain, I think it’ll be a bit more constructive if I add in my “wish list” of where I’d like to see this software go. First, go live in the clouds. I don’t want to worry about server resources or availability when it comes to software that’s supposed to help me manage resources and availability. Second, get in gear with mobility. Make the apps for Android, Blackberry, iOS and Windows 7 (yes, I decided to add Microsoft to the list) that not only allows me to check Incidents or close tickets on the go, but also allows me to submit RFC’s, update CI’s, approve new KB articles, update self-service messages, etc. And finally, get ready for social networking integration because “everyone’s doing it.” (on a side note, I don’t endorse giving in to peer pressure, but the best way to get people involved is by using the communication streams they already know and love).
I could be completely off base and out of touch with the software that’s available. If I am, please let me know. But if I’m not, I hope the vendors pick up on the trends and start building their software for the IT Service Management of tomorrow. If you need help, please let me know (especially if you’re based in a geographic region where the lowest average temperature is above 50 degrees Fahrenheit).
If there’s one movie about self-confidence that I love it’s You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go see the movie. On one hand I absolutely love the cocky attitude portrayed by Adam Sandler, but at the same this is absolutely the worst mentality to have when it comes to IT Service Management, and since I’m reviewing Continual Service Improvement, I found a great topic for blogging.
Ok, so I bet you’re thinking “gee, thanks Michael, now you want me to have an inferiority complex?” Of course I don’t! But people in my work-place, like others out there, probably never have a thought that the entire IT department could be outsourced. I work at a hospital and replacing an IT department wouldn’t be realistic, but having a mentality of business security really wipes away motivation and reason for Continual Service Improvement. It’s true other motivating factors can be implemented, such as performance reviews and pay bonuses, but there’s really nothing scarier than the prospect of an any department being wiped away by a competing body, and this is the importance of treating IT as its own business entity. And besides, you never know when the key business executives may find an opportunity to downsize or remove your IT department, so why take the risk?
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