10 essential skills for ITSM IT pros

IT Service Management - ITSM refers to the entire pool of activities involving design, creation, delivering, supporting and managing IT services. Although the most common perception is that ITSM is just “IT support”, it represents in fact much more than resolving day-to-day issues. They are responsible for end-to-end management of those services, which are crucial for the company.

Managing the complexities of Information Technology is critical to organisation’s success. Understanding IT service life-cycles, following best practices, and understanding how to reap the benefits of a solid IT strategy are important to meeting the needs of the company.

In the article below we gathered the 10 most essential skills for IT Service Management professionals and how they can impact their professional perspective. Mastering all of them are not imperative to succeed, but for sure the more the professionals can develop themselves in these areas the more their careers can benefit from it.

Automation

Automation is a growing trend in customer service — most often in the form of chatbots and automated processes. Skilled ITSM professionals will need to keep an eye on how automation will grow in the business. While automation will help increase e­fficiency, it won’t be able to do everything a human can do. ITSM pros will have to oversee automation in the coming years and know when it’s time to step in.

Artificial Intelligence and Analytics

Artificial intelligence is already gaining traction in the enterprise to help automate processes and to deliver detailed analytics. AI will completely change the landscape of ITSM in the next decade and organizations will rely on ITSM frameworks to manage the new technology.

Business Management

ITSM professionals need a balance of technical skills and business acumen to understand how business goals align with IT. This kind of knowledge is getting more and more relevant in the market, as soft skills are crucial to deal with the cultural and generational mix that most of the companies face nowadays. The ITSM framework helps organizations blend the line between IT and the business side, so you’ll want to know how the business works to run an effective ITSM strategy

Change Management

With the speed of change accelerating in today’s enterprises, change management is becoming a necessary skill for ITSM success. Digital transformation sees businesses undergoing major changes to processes and IT infrastructure, making it vital for IT pros to stay on top of business objectives, workflows and IT activity.

Communication

Communication skills are essential for everybody, in the ITSM area wouldn’t be different. ITSM pros need to know how to communicate highly technical information to customers, clients and business users who may not understand IT terminology. They need to know how to effectively deliver information to people in a way that best suits their understanding.

Continued Learning and Agility

ITSM programs are continually improved and adjusted as technologies change or as business goals shift. To stay relevant in IT, professionals need to be on top of the latest trends and have an idea of how to adjust and prepare the business for disruptions or new technologies. In this process ITSM certifications and training courses play an important role and can help organizations with its digital transformation strategy.

Customer Service

ITSM is all about service — so an ITSM pro needs experience dealing with customers and clients. You’ll need to have a strong understanding of what customers want, how to respond to complaints and a knowledge of customer service portals and other software. Understanding how to interact with customers is a cornerstone skill for any ITSM professional.

Interpersonal Skills

The process of communicating amongst teams, internal and external stakeholders, executives, and other business units it’s also an important part of the ITSM professional daily life. In this context it’s essential to know how to work with others, especially those who might not understand the technology at play in a service environment.

Innovation

An ITSM professional needs to be innovative to understand how past, present and future technology will work together in the enterprise. Not only do they have to stay on top of the current technology, but they might be asked to integrate legacy systems or to prepare the organization for a new disruptive technology.

Problem-Solving

An ITSM professional can’t hide away in the IT department, they need to help make IT accessible to the rest of the organization. To help address large-scale technological issues within the company, so they will need to have strong problem-solving skills to help lead the organization in the right direction.

IT Service Management Training

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