A View From The Frontline Report – A Vendor’s View – Geoff Rees, Director of Sales & Operations, Sunrise
Once again, the SDI survey on ITSM software tools has been returned and once again there’s both a pat on the back and a shot across the bows for the ITSM software vendors. Many customers are happy with the tools they use, their capabilities and the service they receive – while to others, tools are limited in functionality, usability, and their present supplier can’t or won’t help them achieve their goals. It’s a circle we’ve all seen many times, and while software advances increase the scope of what IT teams can address with what were once simple products, in practice many organisations fail to implement the basics effectively, which regardless of some vendor claims, does take time and commitment. Researching, writing and executing process is a challenge, as is identifying needs and persuading people to use technology, even if it should make their lives a whole lot easier. Translating the dream into functions, effective processes, dashboards and reports is not resolved at the push of a button.
And so, there’s a gap, the customer becomes frustrated and the vendor can’t find a way to meet their needs, they part company and the cycle starts again. Well, at Sunrise, one of our many roles is to help bridge the gap and deliver on our customers’ dreams. We couldn’t possibly have been in the Service Management software industry for 25 years otherwise!
Let’s take that wonderchild, AI, for example. Actually, let’s not, let’s take the objective. Which is most likely to be efficiency and teams providing great service to their users and customers. Streamlining manual tasks isn’t new though, even if its name is – digitisation. Automation via workflow rules has been around for many, many years, yet it’s still near the top of the trends list here, because many organisations still don’t do it, or don’t do it well. We’re expanding on this theme soon in our blog, but in short there are some basics that can be easily achieved, including new starter tasks, approval cycles for equipment requests and task allocation for optimal queue handling at the service desk. If you’re doing all three of those already, good for you, you have my blessing to scratch the surface of AI and the learning processes that go with it. Otherwise, honestly, this is doable now – if the restriction truly is your ITSM tool or vendor then maybe it is time to look elsewhere.
Reporting is always up there too. If your ITSM tool is anything like Sunrise, it should be able to collate, cut and run data every which way, produce flexible and legible graphs and give your boss and the management team insight into those critical factors where IT services underpin the business. Again though, the value lies in the translation of objectives into requirements. And the trends list continues – self-service, usability, processes, integration… nothing’s new but the issues raise their head time and time again. Keep an eye out for our upcoming blog posts on all of these common issues – at Sunrise we’ve seen it before and what’s more we’re here to help you get to the bottom of it!
Geoff Rees, Director of Sales & Operations, Sunrise
