The Fusion 12 conference came and went and I was a bit sad not to have attended (a “bit” is an understatement).  Since I couldn’t be a part of Fusion 12 (does that mean I attended Fission 12?) , during the few days I hung on to every Tweet and post that came out of that conference like I was some meth-head looking for the next fix.  Some of it was good, some of it was bad…some of it was “meh.”  But one of the contributors that never failed to provide fantastic and thought provoking information was Chris Dancy, a.k.a., ServiceSphere.  From one of his (many) Tweets, he posted a great blog post on his journey to BMC (http://www.servicesphere.com/blog/2012/10/29/but-i-do-miss-the-kings-myit-my-journey-to-bmc-software-reve.html).  In the article, he commented that BMC gave insight into something he’s wanted to see for years – a “mobile only” solution.  I’ve blogged about the same thing before as well, and while I’m more than happy to admit that Chris is incredibly influential in my own ITSM sphere (he’s good at that…hence fitting for “ServiceSphere”), I don’t have the luxury of getting to see any forthcoming products from vendors.

But…I do own a blog, and every once in a while those vendors happen to stumble across it (I’m sure it’s because they’re looking for my “What If Chuck Norris Had Written ITIL” post).  Since I don’t want to take the chance of missing an opportunity to communicate what I would want to see in an ITSM mobile only solution, here’s a simple vision of how such a product should work.  It’s not 100% complete, but I’m hoping someone can deliver it for Chanukah this year (or maybe next).

1.  For the first day of Chanukah, I want a mobile-only ITSM solution.  And when I say mobile-only, I mean “only” mobile…no web portal, application or primary interface that overshadows the mobile UI.  I want an app (and an app is the way to go, IMO) that can give me enough streamlined flexibility to provide an ITSM solution without having to use a computer.

2.  For the second day of Chanukah, I want a mobile-only ITSM solution with an admin iPad app.  Maybe it’s a little redundant to have separate apps, one for phone and another for a tablet, but I do want to be realistic and point out that a phone simply does not have enough screen real-estate to provide admin development.  But…a tablet does.  And since I love my iPad anyway, I don’t mind sitting down on the couch to build some gamification into my ITSM platform.

3.  For the third day of Chanukah, I want a mobile-only ITSM solution, with an admin iPad app and built-in social media.  That’s right, social media should be part of the solution right out of the box.  Why some kind of social media feature?  Because email is archaic, old and annoying.  We should get rid of it, and being social (I personally like Twitter since people get right to the point in 140 characters) is the way to go.

4.  For the fourth day of Chanukah, I want a mobile-only ITSM solution, with an admin iPad app, built-in social media , and geolocation.  And why not geolocation?  We live in a universe that traverses time and space, and the only way to provide great customer service is to know where things have gone wrong.  Geolocation is an essential piece of the data, regardless of it’s an incident, asset, or even a change.

5.  For the fifth day of Chanukah, I want a mobile-only ITSM solution, with an admin iPad app, built-in social media, geolocation, and gamification.  Since I had a (very) brief amount of fame for building gamification into ServiceNow, I can’t ignore my past success of having fun at work.

6.  For the sixth day of Chanukah, I want a mobile-only ITSM solution, with an admin iPad app, built-in social media, geolocation, gamification, and flexibility.  Flexibility is such a broad concept, so let me narrow it down as a type of “vision.”  Any decent ITSM tool would have a basic set of tools, such as incident, change and problem.  But what if I want to make a custom form and database table?  I want the flexibility to create such a thing from my iPad admin app.  The form doesn’t have to be very gorgeous, in fact, the simpler the better, however I have to be realistic that every company would require flexibility in customization some part of their deployment.

7.  For the seventh day of Chanukah, I want a mobile-only ITSM solution, with an admin iPad app, built-in social media, geolocation, gamification, flexibility, and push-notifications.  Ok, the push-notifications may be a given if it’s a mobile app, but I wouldn’t want to leave out an obvious feature that can easily get overlooked.

8.  For the eigth day of Chanukah, I want a mobile-only ITSM solution, with an admin iPad app, built-in social media, geolocation, gamification, flexibility, push-notifications, and WSDL integration.  I don’t want to overlook the fact that all tools need to have integration points, and this is no exception.  Of course, the WSDL endpoints should be easily configured from the iPad app.

There you have it, my “8 Days of Chanukah” laid out.  I’m sure that one day we’ll hit the tipping-point for going all mobile, but until that time comes I’m waiting to see someone make the first move.  If it doesn’t happen soon enough, I may just take over and provide my own ITSM solution.  And I’m just crazy enough to try it…

 

 

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Started working in IT in 1999 as a support desk analyst as a way to help pay for food during college. Studied Electrical Engineering for two years before realizing biochemistry was more fun than differential equations, and so ultimately graduated with a Biology degree in 2006. Having (reluctantly) failed at getting accepted into dental school, embraced working in IT and has gone broke becoming an ITIL Expert. Likes to jog, sing camp songs, quote Mel Brooks movie lines and make dumb jokes and loves working for an Israeli tech company where December 25th is a regular work day.