Most IT departments accrued significant goodwill during the global pandemic thanks to their efforts in keeping businesses running despite the rapid move to home working. As much as it raised the stock, it also refocused on the need for these teams to be business innovators and not simply the “custodians of the IT infrastructure.” The pandemic can be seen as the proverbial “fork in the road” for IT departments in many ways. They can either continue to focus most of their time on the “keeping the lights on” or run-the-business activities or invest more in business innovation activities that extend way beyond the traditional view of IT’s change-the-business remit. The “fire-fighting” that IT excels at is not necessarily what organizations need in 2022 and beyond. There’s a need to reassess the purpose of it’s capability to understand how it could better support the business – from operations to outcomes. As already mentioned, the pandemic started this move – even if only temporarily – with the need to enable a remote workforce, their ways of working, and the processes they were part of. While what follows areIT industry “buzz phrases,” and none are new in terms of being IT service management (ITSM) trends, each offers the ability for IT departments to deliver innovation and added value to their businesses:

  1. Digital transformation

Research shows that 80% of organizations accelerated their digital transformation initiatives during the pandemic. It was great to see, but we also need to call out that it required the unfortunate nature of the pandemic to get businesses and their IT teams to embrace the need finally. Digital transformation covers so many innovation opportunities across three key areas:

  1. New digital products and services that exploit technology and data
  2. Enhanced customer engagement mechanisms that use technology and data to the best advantage
  3. Improved business-function operations that eliminate manual processes and their barriers while using technology and data to optimize their operations and outcomes. Are IT teams going to sit and wait to be asked, or is it going to proactively offer “better ways” by exploiting existing and new technologies?

2. Enterprise service management

Much has been written on “sharing of ITSM capabilities to improve the operations, services, experiences, and outcomes for other business functions.” But enterprise service management should be much more than the vehicle for delivering the third digital transformation element listed above. It can be used to improve employee experience across business functions and, with it, employee productivity.

  1. Employee experience

Not only is employee experience inextricably linked to the operations and outcomes of IT, but one also has the opportunity to lead the way (likely in conjunction with HR) on business-wide improvement of employee experience. Especially in the enablement of hybrid workers – that spend time working at home, in the office, and at other locations – and the improvement of the productivity of all employees.

  1. Artificial intelligence

As already mentioned, enterprise service management offers up the opportunity to bring in new capabilities to IT operations that can then be extended to other business functions to improve their operations and outcomes (as well as services and experiences).

It’s a great opportunity for IT teams to be seen (and act) as innovators. Not only by introducing the new technology and its benefits but by doing so in a way that optimizes the use, costs, and benefits. For example, ensuring that the same technology is used across business functions to meet similar needs. This approach reduces complexity and cost and makes it easier for employees to engage with AI-enabled capabilities. Something that elevates the IT department from point-solution-based problem-solving to being strategic innovators.

The article was authored by Satyen Vyas, CEO, of Symphony SummitAI, and can be reached at Satyen.Vyas@Symphonysummit.com