Serviceaide’s AI-First approach demonstrates how cutting-edge technology can be seamlessly integrated into everyday operations to enhance efficiency and service delivery. Our AI-powered solutions, such as Luma AI and ChangeGear ITSM, enable organizations to automate routine tasks, streamline workflows, and improve overall performance without the need for a complete system overhaul. Below, we explore several real-world […]
In an era where efficiency and customer satisfaction are paramount, the integration of AI into service management is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. But what if you could unlock the power of AI without the costly and disruptive “rip and replace” strategy? With the Serviceaide AI Platform, you can seamlessly activate AI across your […]
In the rapidly evolving landscape of modern enterprises, the need for agility, scalability, and efficiency has never been greater. Enter Enterprise Service Automation (ESA)—a comprehensive approach designed to automate and optimize service delivery across your organization. But what exactly is ESA, and why is it becoming a cornerstone for businesses looking to stay ahead in […]
Serviceaide is revolutionizing digital service management. Unlike other competing industry solutions, ChangeGear’s plaftorm includes an AI-based virtual agent and copilot. This improves end user experiences at every step of their interaction. With seamless, omnichannel support, and smart automation you can dramatically reduce response times, eliminate human errors, and improve resolution rates. This significantly enhances first […]
When the idea of embarking on a digital transformation seems overwhelming and expensive, focus on a specific type of process transformation. This is one of the quickest ways to drive value. You can start with IT (Information Technology), a single business function, or cross the entire enterprise. What is Digital Process Transformation? With digital process […]
Leverage AI for Enhanced Self-Service and Support During the Holiday Season The holidays often bring a surge in customer inquiries and support requests for businesses across industries. While customers are piling up and employees are trying to finish key assignments, support staff have sugar plums dancing in their heads. From planned vacations to end-of-year appointments, […]
Lately, I hear the term digital transformation used interchangeably with business transformation. That is not correct. There are similarities but also key differences. As we look at the four pillars of a digital transformation approach, I will point out the differences. There are four key areas that you need to include in your approach for a […]
Expressing gratitude should not be a once-a-year event. While we are about to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., it’s a nice time to express our thanks to the many people who contribute to our success.
What is IT Change Management? Within an organization’s IT environment, it is crucial to implement changes in a streamlined, controlled, and coordinated way to ensure business continuity. Introducing newer technologies to the IT infrastructure, system updates, staffing changes, etc. can affect security, business productivity and operations if not properly managed and implemented. The IT Change […]
What is IT Asset Management? IT asset management is a process that tracks every component of an organization’s IT infrastructure. This includes hardware and software at the highest level. Common items include PC’s, mobile devices, software licenses, servers, and any other technology assets. For manufacturing companies, they can track everything down to part level details […]
In the realm of IT service management, traditional metrics often fall short in delivering valuable insights into the actual value delivered to the business. This has led to IT service desks being treated as cost centers. However, a shift in perspective is needed. With the technology available today and your understanding of the business, you […]
Is Self-Service on your IT checklist? Service and support management solutions continue to evolve as expectations for service delivery increase across the enterprise and new technologies become available. These improve the level of service and reduce the cost of service. The two aspects should go hand in hand to create self-service. Formerly in the domain […]
A Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a centralized repository that stores and manages information about an organization’s IT infrastructure and business processes. It is used to track the relationships and dependencies between different IT components, such as hardware, software, and services, as well as the people and processes that support them. In the context of […]
The world is facing a labor crisis. It is hard to find people, and it is difficult to retain them. Sadly, this much-bemoaned worker disruption shows no signs of abating. Businesses across all industries are feeling the pain, leaving many unable to provide foundational services. The delays and disruptions have not altered customer expectations, though, […]
Businesses have been striving to simplify formerly complex problems and meet their digitization objectives for decades, beginning with the first microchip in the 1950s. Consider the banking industry — before ATMs, customers were at the beck and call of in-person banks, operating during the short ‘banker’s hours’ to conduct financial transactions. If relying on human […]
What is a CMDB? CMDB, or Configuration Management Database, is a term associated, or at least has its origin, with ITIL, the set of IT Service Management best practices developed by the UK’s Government. The topic can be highly complex, with a wealth of information written on ITIL and the associated guidance for CMDB implementation. […]
Many types of incidents come through the IT help desk during an average month, but a few specific categories stand out that may require extra attention. Organizations can create a support ecosystem that gets them through everyday tasks, but unless they can deal with the unconventional incidents, their help desk teams will always be trying […]
Service desks historically were viewed as cost centers. In 2021, annual IT Service Desk spend accounted for over 4% of Total IT Spending. The median IT Service Desk spending per end-user was $164, which reflected a 9% increase year-over-year. These investments can be significant, and it is important to point to business benefits such as […]
What is shift-left? “Shift-left” is a phrase that is commonly used when speaking about service and support management. As companies are under pressure to reduce the cost of support and improve end-user satisfaction the conversation around shifting left is becoming more mainstream. The shift-left approach refers to moving service actions or steps closer to the […]
End-user training is one of the keys to the successful implementation of any software. Given the importance, we wanted to provide an overview of the process. At Serviceaide, we sell easy-to-use, easy-to-customize software for both ITSM and enterprise service management solutions. Regardless of whether you are an IT analyst or other service professional, software that […]
The holidays are a time of giving, family, and food. We all love the holidays but in the workplace they tend to disrupt productivity. Employee vacation time, holiday parties, and office closings interrupt workflow if the proper tools are not in place. The good news is we have tools to drive automation and self-service so […]
If you’ve ever wondered how to gain better visibility into your IT service management team’s processes, KPIs and metrics hold the key. The KPI journey, however, is about way more than simple numbers and scores. Investing time in the right metrics may have countless positive impacts for your business growth and customer relationships. But these […]
Change is a constant that companies and compliance professionals must continually endure. Corrective actions, process improvements, policy adjustments, and new products and services are just a few of the changes that impact businesses every day. Think back to the last time you needed to implement crucial changes—quickly. What happened? Did you cringe at the thought […]
We face changes every day. On a personal and professional level. We hear about mergers and acquisitions (M&A) but most people ignore them unless you have a vested interest in one of the companies involved in the M&A. The executive teams at Serviceaide and SunView Software decided to embrace change because we recognized an opportunity […]
This is the THIRD blog in our series that explains how to leverage Service and Change Management for Compliance by capturing all the information necessary to process change approvals and establish auditable records. Feel free to check out our previous posts. In our first blog post, we explain why Business Process Compliance is a key […]
The world post-COVID-19 is forever changed. Many of the trends that were underway prior to the pandemic have been accelerated. How we work, how we learn, how we entertain, how we communicate have undergone, in some cases, a radical reset. I came across an article from the World Economic Forum written in the Spring of 2020. The […]
This is the SECOND blog in our series that explains how to leverage Service and Change Management for Compliance by capturing all the information necessary to process change approvals and establish auditable records. In our first blog post, we explain why Business Process Compliance is a key part of the foundation for building a successful […]
When we set out to write this article, our team discovered that we all had a different notion of the meaning of the word “compliance.” For some people, the first thing that came to mind was employees following—or in this case, bypassing—a company’s processes to achieve their own personal goals or desired results. Other people […]
This is the FIRST blog in our series that explains how to leverage Service and Change Management for Compliance by capturing all the information necessary to process change approvals and establish auditable records. In this article, we explain why Business Process Compliance is a key part of the foundation for building a successful organization. Our […]
Maintaining the life-saving safety equipment that your workers depend on is an important, challenging, and sometimes overlooked task. Your CISO is responsible for ensuring instruments like high-pressure condensate pumps and a safety valves are working properly, and your systems must be ready to alert workers to potential hazards at a moment’s notice. Without the right […]
The Cyber Resilience Review (CRR)[1] is an interview-based assessment that evaluates an organization’s operational resilience and cybersecurity practices. This assessment is derived from the CERT Resilience Management Model (CERT-RMM), a process improvement model developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute for managing operational resilience. The Cyber Resilience Review evaluates the maturity of an organization’s […]
Executive Summary – Cybersecurity and Change Management On June 27th, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity Gap Assessments are due to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). For impacted organizations that have not implemented proper change controls, this means a huge risk as failure to comply will result in daily fines, audit findings, and potential public […]
This is the THIRD blog in our series that that explains how Extending the Reach of IT Service Management (ITSM) can benefit your organization much like XaaS has helped companies like Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon turn shoppers into engaged subscribers. In our first blog post, we talk about What Sparks ITSM into “x Service Management […]
This is the SECOND blog in our series that explains how Extending the Reach of IT Service Management (ITSM) can benefit your organization much like XaaS has helped companies like Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon turn shoppers into engaged subscribers. In our first blog post, we talk about What Sparks ITSM into “x Service Management (xSM),” […]
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a method of software delivery that allows data to be accessed from any device that has an Internet connection and a Web browser. While the “idea” of SaaS has been around since the 1960s, the Web-based technology required to support SaaS did not mature until the late 1990s. Around that time, companies […]
This is the FIRST blog in our series that explains how Extending the Reach of IT Service Management (ITSM) can benefit your organization much like XaaS has helped companies like Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon turn shoppers into engaged subscribers. In this article, we talk about What Sparks ITSM into “x Service Management (xSM),” where ‘x’ […]
Business leaders in functional areas such as HR, Finance and Facilities may not have heard of ITIL but they recognize their business demands better service and support. Without a technical background, they may not understand the importance of ITIL and what it means to the delivery of service and support. ITIL is a framework of […]
Large companies are divided into groups that are naturally independent. These internal departments are not designed to collaborate with each other as much as they are to execute a function or mission for the company. As a result, silos are created, thought processes are constrained, and business goals are unrealized. When business departments do require […]
Facility management encompasses a wide range of services that ensure the functionality, comfort, safety, and efficiency of your work environment. In general, facility management enables a productive workplace by bringing disparate systems together. While an IT service desk agent ensures the operability of an employee’s desktop technology, for example, a facility manager handles all the […]
Realizing a Problem Exists is the First Step to Solving It Conventional wisdom has led most people to believe that electric companies need to be stable and reliable—above everything else. While this perception is certainly accurate, utilities also face lesser known, but equally difficult, challenges associated with managing and securing their geographically dispersed infrastructure. Florida […]
This is the THIRD blog in our series that explains why Collaboration is the Core of Service Management Excellence. In our first blog post, we explained The Value of Omnichannel Self-Service in the Digital Age and how it aligns all your company’s existing modes of communication into a single customer-focused experience. In our second article, […]
This is the SECOND blog in our series that explains why Collaboration is the Core of Service Management Excellence. In our first blog post, we explained The Value of Omnichannel Self-Service in the Digital Age and how it aligns all your company’s existing modes of communication into a single customer-focused experience. In this second article, […]
In this THREE-PART SERIES, we explain how and why Collaboration is the Core of Service Management Excellence. In Part 1, we discuss The Value of Omnichannel Self-Service in the Digital Age and how it aligns all your company’s existing modes of communication into a single customer-focused experience. Offering options in the way that your customers […]
This is the FIRST blog in our series that explains how and why Collaboration is the Core of Service Management Excellence. In this article, we explain The Value of Omnichannel Self-Service in the Digital Age and how it aligns all your company’s existing modes of communication into a single customer-facing experience. Offering options in the […]
The most common activity that your IT support agents are involved in every day is handling incoming requests. Your team needs to be ready when a new incident or service request is raised, so they can respond as quickly as possible. However, with requests arriving in so many ways: requests, phone calls, emails, ad hoc, […]
We have all been there at one time or another… You call into a service desk looking for help, only to be passed from one person to another, waiting on hold each time and having to repeat your story again and again to each person who is ‘there to help you’. If this is happening […]
This is the THIRD blog in our series that unravels the mystery behind the question What is AITSM and Why Do CIOs Need to Face It? In our first blog post, we explained how AI Enables the Transformation of ITSM in 2021 and Beyond. Our second article examined why Companies Bet BIG on Conversational UI […]
This is the SECOND blog in our series that unravels the mystery behind the question What is AITSM and Why Do CIOs Need to Face It? In our first blog post, we explained how AI Enables the Transformation of ITSM in 2021 and Beyond, while this article examines why companies are investing so much money […]
In this THREE-PART SERIES, we unravel the mystery behind the question What is AITSM and Why Do CIOs Need to Face It? In Part 1, we explain how AI Enables the Transformation of ITSM in 2021 and Beyond. Once your organization overcomes the paradigm shift involved in moving from a traditional IT Service Management (ITSM) […]
This is the FIRST blog in our series that unravels the mystery behind the question What is AITSM and Why Do CIOs Need to Face It? In this article, we explain how AI is enabling the transformation of IT Service Management (ITSM) systems in 2021 and beyond. Our second article examines why Companies Bet BIG […]
IT Service Management (ITSM) is a customer-focused approach to managing information technology tasks with an emphasis on continually improving efficiency and effectiveness, while reducing cost. The objective of ITSM is to ensure that the right people, processes, and technology are put in place so your organization can achieve its business goals and objectives. When Artificial […]
To better help you understand how AI systems like SunView Willow AI™ work, we will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the way AI systems are constructed. What follows is a high-level breakdown of the components of an AI system, an explanation of how the AI system learns, and how that learning is implemented. What […]
In this section of our newsletter, we typically provide a sneak peek into SunView Software’s 2021 Product Pipeline, which reveals some of the significant features that our Engineering Team is currently developing. This month, however, we decided to do something a little different. With the growing popularity of artificial intelligence and AI-powered solutions for businesses, […]
This is the THIRD and final blog in our series that solves the equation that has been puzzling IT professionals ever since the acronym “ESM” gained traction on the Internet: Does ITSM + EAI = ESM? Our first blog explained The Evolution of Enterprise Service Management (ESM). Our second post outlined the steps you should […]
This is the SECOND blog in our series that solves the equation that has been puzzling IT professionals ever since the acronym “ESM” gained traction on the Internet: Does ITSM + EAI = ESM? In our first blog post, we explained The Evolution of Enterprise Service Management (ESM), while this article outlines the steps you […]
In this THREE-PART SERIES, we will solve the equation that has been puzzling IT professionals ever since the acronym “ESM” gained traction on the Internet: Does ITSM + EAI = ESM? In Part 1, we explain The Evolution of Enterprise Service Management (ESM). Services—in various forms—have been around for hundreds of years. There were (and […]
This is the FIRST blog in our series that solves the equation that has been puzzling IT professionals ever since the acronym “ESM” gained traction on the Internet: Does ITSM + EAI = ESM? Here, we explain the evolution of Enterprise Service Management (ESM). Our second post outlines the steps you should take for Shifting […]
Modern technologies and software that deliver instant access to everything from 1-click purchasing to mobile banking are engrained in almost every aspect of our daily lives—thereby providing people with immediate gratification. Whether you personally consider your employees to be “shrewd go-getters” or “self-proclaimed elites,” modern “knowledge workers” have evolved to expect the same level of […]
Companies like Uber, Grubhub, Airbnb, and others have disrupted their industries, transformed customer experiences, and achieved massive valuations over a very short time—using teams that are a fraction of the size of their well-established competitors. You might be wondering, “Good for them, but how did they do it with limited resources? How can I apply […]
This is the THIRD and final blog in our series discussing Effective IT Asset Management during COVID-19. Our first blog explained how to Manage the Productivity of Your Remote Workforce. Our second post outlined the steps you should take to Secure Your Remote Workforce During and After the COVID Pandemic. Today, we will explain a […]
This is the SECOND blog in our series discussing Effective IT Asset Management during COVID-19. Our first blog explained how to Manage the Productivity of Your Remote Workforce, while this article outlines the steps you should take to secure your remote workforce during and after the COVID pandemic. In our final article in this series, […]
In this THREE-PART SERIES, we will explore practical ways to effectively manage your company’s IT assets during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In Part 1, we explain the essentials for Managing the Productivity of Your Remote Workforce. Leadership is still about mobilizing people in your organization around common goals to achieve targeted objectives, but executives […]
This is the FIRST blog in our series discussing Effective IT Asset Management During COVID-19. This blog focuses on how to manage the productivity of your remote workforce. Over the next few weeks, we will outline the steps you should take to Secure Your Remote Workforce During and After the COVID Pandemic and then we […]
ChangeGear’s new Asset Management module was designed to help everyone in your company gain a deeper understanding of your organization’s tangible and intangible assets across their lifecycles. Its advanced capabilities can be used to manage valuable company assets such as computer hardware, vehicles, electric generators, artwork, and just about anything else that your company owns. […]
As we begin 2021, everyone is hopeful that COVID-19 will become a distant memory and life will return to “normal” again. However, we all know that returning to “normal” will never happen. The pandemic caused a seismic shift from conventional tried-and-true methods of doing business to a digital-driven economy that most companies were not (and […]
We frequently hear from customers that they have more information distributed across their organization than ever before. All too often knowledge management is not a priority, and teams rarely track what users are looking for but cannot find. Information may be inaccessible or unusable by the people that would benefit from it. We call this […]
“More than 59 zettabytes (ZB) of data will be created, captured, copied, and consumed in the world this year,” according to a new update to the Global DataSphere from International Data Corporation (IDC). In the same forecast, IDC predicts that data creation in the next three years will exceed data creation in the previous 30 years combined. […]
The world has changed dramatically in recent weeks in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. With most major cities and populous areas under quarantine and social distancing becoming the new norm, millions of people around the world have been forced away from the office and are now working from home. This sudden, massive shift to a […]
Given recent events, I have received a number of questions around business continuity. Let me be clear, that while COVID-19 has placed a new emphasis on business continuity, it should not be a temporary conversation that stops once a vaccine is created. Preparing for the unexpected is critical for every business. It should be done […]
I am fascinated by how technology in the artificial intelligence space is evolving. Some concepts are still in the ideation phase, while others are productized and available today. The steady rise of chatbots and virtual agents demonstrates how technology is playing a larger role than ever in the world of service and support. As a […]
The global pandemic and economic crisis is a challenge for everyone. I want to let you know that we focused on our customers and partners. Meeting their needs. Answering questions. Leveraging technologies to keep business operational. Our service and support has not been impacted and we continue to offer 24 x 7 availability. Our goal […]
The term Artificial Intelligence is becoming common place. Companies are actively implementing chatbots and more advanced, intelligent virtual agents. We are rapidly finding technologies and processes to improve service management, drive lower cost and faster resolution. The end result is improved customer service (internal and external) and greater efficiencies. Yet, this is just the tip […]
Technology is becoming increasingly advanced, so much so, that virtual agents (VA) or chatbots can automate vital business functions, once only performed by human employees. As businesses grow, one of the most challenging questions modern leaders face is, should we hire more human employees or explore automation using artificial intelligence (AI)? The fact of the […]
It’s that time again. Predictions for the next year are rolling in and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s radar. I expect that will re-ignite the fear that AI technology will replace people. Fear sells articles and the idea of machines not just taking over people’s jobs, but turning evil is what movies are made […]
One of the things I love about working with customers is the opportunity to get feedback on our products and come back with improved solutions to their challenges. The introduction of our new dashboard for Serviceaide’s Intelligent Service Management (ISM) product is a great example. After a round of beta testing, we are launching the […]
Last week we set up shop in the Startup Zone at SpiceWorld in Austin. Two of our best and brightest product and account experts attended: Rich Graves and Mark Surles. They shared their perspectives below. If you haven’t attended, SpiceWorld is one of the most lively IT shows with over 2,500 attendees and 1,200 organizations […]
The drive for digital transformation across entire organizations invites AI-driven chatbot technology to improve employee engagement and efficiency. (IT) service management is no longer dedicated to IT, and rightly so. IT purpose-built tools have become so flexible that tool functionality easily extends across department lines to serve enterprise-wide service management needs. ITSM tools are becoming […]
Conversations in the C-suite of just about every business focus on how to harness the power of today’s digital tools to drive growth, improve the bottom line, and improve the customer experience. However, as competition to hire top talent heats up, they are also looking to fund initiatives that focus on employee experience and retention. […]
Bright Horse always look for new innovations, tools and services that can help our customers on their service maturity journey. Everywhere, the talk is of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and NLP (Natural language processing), and the rise of chatbots and virtual agents are seen as core routes to improving the experience of IT […]
Although some businesses blend desktop support and help desk functions together, in many companies there is no overlap between them. This can lead to chronic problems. Intelligent chatbots, also called virtual agents, address these issues by bridging the gap between the two teams. Fully Formed A key role of a help desk is to triage tickets […]
Serviceaide is now an Advanced Technology Partner of the AWS Partner Network (APN) APN Technology Partners provide software solutions that are either hosted on, or integrated with, the AWS platform. Technology Partners include Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), SaaS, PaaS, developer tools, management and security vendors. Serviceaide lets you focus less on problem resolution and more […]
News travels fast, according to a famous idiom. Or, more accurately, bad news travels fast. There is, however, little evidence to confirm that the speed of propagation of one type of news differs from that of another. I am aware of an exception though. The information acquired by a virtual agent is instantly available to […]
The Technology Sales Channel is Changing I’ve spent much of my career working within, thinking about and researching technology sales. While there are certain tried and true paths to success, the past few years have seen new channels emerges, ones that don’t always run directly through the CIO’s office. To illustrate this change let’s focus […]
There’s seldom a day goes by when I don’t see news about artificial intelligence. And rightly so—the maturity of AI is improving rapidly and the potential for transformation is unprecedented. Chatbots are getting a lot of attention. Some chatbots are relatively simple and limited to answering questions with pre-loaded answers, while others are intelligent and […]
One thing that is constant in the modern workplace is change. And, while no one can predict the future with certainty, it’s clear that help desk teams need an IT service management solution that evolves its functionality—not only are IT teams being asked to manage an increasingly complex array of apps, devices, and systems, customers […]
Innovative and rapidly maturing technologies such as artificial intelligence provide leaders with unprecedented opportunities to transform business. And, while some programs involving artificial intelligence can be complex and require many people and many months to implement, you shouldn’t assume that these characteristics apply to every project that involves artificial intelligence. Luma is a virtual agent […]
Customers are indispensable assets for any size and type of organization. They require excellent products and services to build trust, remain loyal, and return time and time again. Failure to provide an excellent customer experience will threaten the survival of your organization. So, what is customer experience and why is it important? Customer experience is […]
The best virtual agents can avoid the need for some tickets to be submitted to help desk by offering up information that a user can use to self-service an issue or by resolving the issue directly by triggering an automated workflow such as a password reset. When a ticket does need to be submitted a […]
Technology is meant to make our lives easier. In reality, however, implementing new software can be painful, and every one of us has struggled through our own deployment nightmares. Many people, consequently, are apprehensive about implementing new and better solutions. Serviceaide is passionate about enabling you to deploy innovative solutions that have the potential to […]
Every IT service desk has the goal of providing great experiences to its customers. Indeed, in a recent poll by HDI, 71% of organizations said that improving customer experiences was a key factor motivating new technology implementations or upgrades. Providing round the clock support is a key theme of almost any strategy created to deliver […]
Innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning, provide unprecedented opportunities to transform the efficiency of IT service desks. It’s crucial, however, that these technologies be applied in ways that evolve service desks and empower organizations, without disrupting them. Users expect more Research shows that a major reason why people avoid […]
Human interactions have decreased as businesses become increasingly computerized. And, although automation increases IT service desk efficiencies and improves costs, the heavy focus on traditional automation methods has caused the experiences of end users to suffer. Business is inherently human and employees want their engagements with the service desk to be conversational. This is a […]
When you’re going to invest in a technological solution, you want to be certain that you’re making the right choice. Reading or hearing about case studies of customers that have implemented the same solution not only provides a sense of reassurance, it also might spark new use cases you might not have considered previously. The […]
For several decades, there has been a relentless increase in the complexity of running an information technology organization. IT teams have worked diligently to keep pace. One of the first ideas was the creation of service desks providing telephone support. From the beginning, however, providing assistance by phone had scale issues—the growing volume of requests […]
Are you wondering how a virtual support agent can benefit your company? Well, you’re not alone. Gartner predicts that upwards of “25% of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020.” Since Luma, our Virtual Support Agent (VSA), is being adopted at an accelerating pace this […]
In the course of our writing for the new Serviceaide blog, we want to tackle the topics, tools and issues around IT service and customer support that interest you most. To that point, what is more compelling, powerful, and often misunderstood than Artificial intelligence (AI)? AI has made huge strides in recent years, and chatbots […]
When ITIL was introduced in the 1980s, its goal was to create a set of best practices for the use of IT in government. Over the years, ITIL’s usage has broadened outside the sphere of government and is now utilized the world over to make IT departments more efficient and effective. Developments in technology have […]
Well-implemented Service Catalogs can improve support efficiency and reduce IT costs. But when considering the value of a Service Catalog to a business, the support team also needs to take an “It’s not about me, it’s all about you” perspective. In a previous post, we showed you how a well-implemented Service Catalog improves IT efficiency […]
If we’ve learned anything from the rise of digital transformation, it’s that organizations often struggle to keep pace with the increase in requests on the service desk. Year over year, organizations are taking on more end users, applications, systems, and devices. As the enterprise continues to embrace digital services and ESM, IT must get better […]
Until the last couple of years, the topic of “AI” still conjured thoughts of science fiction for many. Now it’s becoming the buzziest of everyday terms. In our new white paper Will Virtual Agents Improve Your Support Model? we take on a key application of AI, as Dale Clark provides an easy-to-comprehend explanation of the technology underpinnings […]
A support organization’s success is fully dependent on the actionable knowledge available to their team. Much of that knowledge comes directly from the experience and background of the support team members. But the days have long since passed when it was reasonable to expect the support team to have direct knowledge of the ever-expanding combination […]
“The Zap was very easy to setup and the customization options are very useful.”– David Shears, Systems Engineer, MNI Services Ltd. Organizations today are using an ever-increasing number of applications to support their employees and customers. These apps add tremendous value to the company but often add complexity for the support team to manage. The support […]
Users prefer the real-time and conversational nature of phone support, but for support teams it’s extremely expensive to staff to meet customer demand in the modern 24×7 work week. So, users are pushed to self-service interfaces and catalogs. Because these tools are built by support, often using their IT terminology, these tools can be hard […]
What a show! The Serviceaide team enjoyed being a first-time exhibitor at the 9th annual Ingram Micro Cloud Summit place in sunny Boca Raton, Florida. The Ingram Micro gathering was a great place to meet up with resellers, service providers and cloud technology companies. Partnerships are crucial to business in the cloud, and the event […]
Customers of CA Technologies’ ITSM Suite and some earlier Service Desk Manager versions are getting an opportunity for exciting new capabilities from a somewhat unlikely source – Serviceaide. CA Technologies recently signed a partner agreement with Serviceaide to smooth the way for CA customers to use Serviceaide’sLuma SaaS-based virtual agent technology with existing SDM implementations. And Serviceaide […]
In the not so distant past, if you asked me about significant updates, or the general state of IT support/IT Service Management (ITSM); the answer was inevitably “not much has changed”. In fact, very little has been done over the years to simplify core processes and improve productivity. Serviceaide was founded to rewrite the ITSM […]
By the end of this month, four letters will change your business forever: GDPR. GDPR stands for “General Data Protection Regulation,” and it’s a piece of legislation in the EU designed to protect consumer information. It will go into effect on May 25, 2018, and it will have an impact far beyond the EU’s borders. […]
Raise your hand if this situation sounds familiar: you need to make changes within your organization, and these changes are crucial and quite urgent. At the same time, there are regulations that might get in the way of these changes. How do you navigate regulatory compliance while implementing vital changes at your company? The answer […]
John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” By now, you would think that humans would understand that change is constant. However, when it comes to managing change within the enterprise, challenges abound. These challenges are […]
The IT department has a lot to worry about these days. From the weighing demands of the CIO in light of digital transformation, to preparing for IT outages during times of disaster, not a day goes by without a new challenge to tackle. Some concerns that are always top of mind for IT are the […]
For those who are new to ITIL and ITSM, there is often confusion surrounding the management of IT assets and CIs, and how it figures into the greater scheme of the IT organization. After all, ITSM (and enterprise service management in general) refers to the model for designing, delivering, managing and improving the way IT […]
What is the number one dilemma of the CIO trying to support and bring value to the business? While managing a core IT staff and driving innovation through technological services are primary concerns, the main priority that is always top-of-mind usually comes down to one thing – cost. How much overhead cost will it take […]
Lately, you may have heard a lot about Enterprise Service Management (ESM) and even more about the value of carrying over established industry best practices from ITSM to serve greater functions of the business beyond simply IT. To start, it may be best to get a refresher about IT Service Management, ITIL, and their respective […]
I want you to think about all the different types of organizations you may have worked for. Whether they were Finance, Communications, Energy, Agriculture, or Transport organizations when they had limitations in getting their service delivery to the next level they likely had limitations on how they viewed their metrics. Why? It’s simple; we (as […]
We are deep into the throngs of hurricane season. Following the catastrophic events in Houston from Hurricane Harvey and the looming threat of the now category five Hurricane Irma approaching Florida from the Atlantic, thousands of people and businesses are either preparing for the worst, or recovering from absolute disaster. For IT teams, keeping systems […]
On its surface, the term change management can seem somewhat broad and ambiguous, yet it holds highly specific meanings depending on how it’s used within the enterprise. A simple google search will return varying degrees of how CIOs and IT organizations think of change and what those management concepts mean for both the people and […]
The enterprise sure likes its acronyms. ITSM, ITIL, ITOM… it seems like there is no shortage of tools, software, methodologies and best practice abbreviations popping up on vendor websites and analyst reports. And just like the aforementioned segments, there are often misinterpretations or confusion among those new to the IT industry when trying to describe […]
This entry is written as part of “The End User Advocate” blog series, an informal examination of IT processes and the people who interact with them. When your end users have a problem, they don’t want to spend hours on the phone trying to resolve it. Attention spans are going increasingly short and users want […]
For years now, ITIL (formerly known as the IT Infrastructure Library) has remained the cornerstone and industry-standard best practice framework for supporting, managing and aligning IT Service Management with the needs of the business. Trademarked by AXELOS, ITIL acts as a governing agent for IT, and uses the ITIL Service Lifecycle to map the entire […]
There has already been much written about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI); and machine learning and chatbots in particular. Some of this media attention is in awe of the technology itself – and yes, it is super smart. But some of it talks to “the machines” taking our jobs, which might be a concern […]
There’s a great deal of information available on the Internet regarding ITIL and why it continues to be the industry standard for governing ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) in the enterprise. However, it can be confusing to read and digest this vast amount of information and come away with a clear understanding of how adopting […]
Along with most internal IT departments, in either the private or public sectors, higher education institutions continue to need to provide IT support to their end users – students, faculty members, and other employees – in line with what now seems like an age-old mantra of “doing more with less.” But it’s no longer just […]
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance mandate is always a top of mind concern for any IT decision-maker involved in the healthcare sector. MedicineNet defines HIPAA as, “A US law designed to provide standards to protect patients’ medical records and other health information provided to health plans, doctors, hospitals and other health […]
People like to talk and write about the future of IT service management (ITSM). It might be because it seems cooler than the ITSM status quo. It might also be because people don’t want to retread over the same ground gain – after all, blogging has been around since the start of the millennium. However, […]
Over the last couple of years, the importance of knowledge management to IT service management (ITSM) and service desk operations in particular has increased. IT organizations are tasked with “doing more with less (people)” – or the growing complexity of the IT estate, including the continuing impact of bring your own device (BYOD) and “shadow […]
Every now and then someone will ask “What are the best sources of IT service management (ITSM) and service desk (and possibly even customer service) advice?” There are of course many paid-for information sources, such as industry analyst firms, and while I might cheekily state that people should seek help and advice from their ITSM […]
Every business is at least a little bit different from other companies. As no two organizations are the same, finding technologies that will have the same positive impact on distinct businesses can be difficult. This isn’t to say that out-of-the-box software is not valuable, but instead to point out that companies will need to develop […]
Becoming a mature IT organization is the goal of just about every IT department. Even if an organization’s IT team is comprised of one expert who works with different solution providers to flesh out technology services, that individual will want to develop efficient, streamlined operations. Large organizations need to strive for IT maturity or risk […]
New innovations in automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning have made a major impact on the new digital workplace and have opened the door for new possibilities as well as new challenges. How can IT organizations leverage these technologies to improve the agility and overall quality of their IT service delivery? The Challenges Ahead Today’s […]
Many types of incidents will come through the IT help desk during an average month, but a few specific categories stand out as needing extra attention. Organizations can create a support ecosystem that gets them through everyday tasks, but unless they are able to deal with the unconventional incidents, their help desk teams will always […]
Establishing an effective incident management strategy is critical if you want to be able to step forward into mature IT service management configurations. Advanced ITSM modules may come across as more exciting than incident management, but you need the core gains offered by incident-focused advances to move forward. Think of it this way – what […]
Configuration management databases (CMDB) are invaluable in giving organizations better transparency and control over their IT operations. This is possible because a well-maintained CMDB identifies all of the configuration items within the IT setup, defines how they relate to one another and provides a roadmap for how different processes revolve around those systems. Want to […]
The IT Infrastructure Library has established best practices and operational frameworks to help organizations provide efficient and reliable IT service management processes. This process began decades ago when ITIL initially emerged as a leading ITSM framework, and the reference guide has continually evolved and matured over time. Frequent updates and additions to ITIL have made […]
The continual service improvement phase of The IT Infrastructure Library is a strategic period focused on finding ways to make consistent updates and upgrades to a company’s IT service management strategies. The need to both understand exactly where a company’s ITSM plans rest in the moment and where they need to go moving forward makes […]
Incident escalations are one of those nitty-gritty IT service desk issues that have a huge impact on everyday operations. Well-implemented strategies for escalating incidents can ensure quality response times are maintained, keep high-level engineers focused on the most important projects and help your support staff move quickly and efficiently through service requests. However, poor incident […]
A change management solution can play a key role in helping organizations establish a stable, consistent IT environment. Building this type of setup hinges on having a change management solution in place that complements broad IT service management plans and provides the control, communication tools and governance companies need when handling change operations. Finding a […]
Avoiding an IT service desk upgrade because the deployment is so complex is not unusual. Establishing a service desk setup can be an incredibly complex and difficult process that involves tightly integrating the service management modules into the broad IT infrastructure and changing end-user processes to align with service desk capabilities. In many cases, the […]
Data analytics processes are starting to have an impact on just about every operational sector, including the IT service desk. Organizations that apply analytics processes to their service management strategies can position themselves to take full advantage of their personnel and technology resources. The end result is a much more streamlined, intuitive service desk setup […]
Financial institutions face unique technology challenges that demand incredible precision and efficiency in day-to-day IT operations. Banks increasingly need to deploy robust IT applications and services to meet the needs of internal users and consumers that are moving toward online and mobile forms of financial services. This creates an environment in which complexity is common […]
The IT Infrastructure Library features such a complex and fully-featured set of best practices that it can be hard for IT leaders to get started with the advance service management framework. One way to overcome this barrier and get ITIL-based service management plans off to a good start is to begin differentiating between various types […]
Discussions of change management often focus on IT operations, but there are many segments in which organizations must carefully assess their procedures in a variety of areas and consider implementing change-focused solutions. This requirement is clear in the manufacturing segment, where information and operations technologies often interact in ways that create unique challenges. In manufacturing, […]
End-user training is one of the keys to the successful implementation of any software. In this series of blog posts, I will provide an overview of the process. Although I am not personally a trainer or instructional designer, I did work with some talented professionals in a previous role as Project Manager for a distance […]
Technology drives efficiency in nearly every company today. The dependency on technology for productivity drives the need for efficient processes for resolving technology incidents. Every company needs an effective support organization powered by Service Desk automation. A proficient Service Desk can prevent employees from wasting hours of their time on something that could be solved […]
Here at SunView Software, we often help our customers insure that their Service Catalog is working efficiently and helping all of their line-of-business customers. Today’s post is all about efficient use of your Service Catalog. Oh, you don’t yet have a Service Catalog, then you have come to the right blog post. In Defining IT […]
A great way to drive your IT Organization’s maturity to the next level is to separate your standard requests from break/fix type of incident tickets. This helps to free up the Service Desk to better manage Incident types that are not standard low impact changes. It is not unusual for an organization to start with […]
One of the most important roles an IT Organization can provide is the Lifecycle Management or Portfolio Management of their services. This requires a high level of maturity for the organization but is an advanced step in the implementation of an ITIL-based ITSM solution. By building your ITSM solution around an ITIL-based framework, you can […]
The purpose of a Service Catalog is to help your users understand how the IT organization can help them do their jobs. An ITIL-based Service Catalog allows your customers to know: what will be delivered, when it will be delivered, what it will cost and what is the expected service level. If you are implementing […]
Your help and service desk operates a lot like the postal service. Like mail, users (customers/requesters) will always have issues. As much as technology helps us all, it has its bugs, and flaws that must be fixed. Even if your IT systems functioned with 100% up times there would still be requests to be placed, […]
Can ITIL and Agile coexist? I believe that the answer is an overwhelming YES! From an ITIL perspective, the move to increased development agility creates an even greater need for a well-defined framework and set of governance in place. This integration helps to ensure a superior level of quality across the entire infrastructure of development. […]
