What to read about ITSM: books, blogs and recent articles
Today, ITSM and ITIL are written more and more often - including large sites like Forbes and TechRadar . Covering all the variety of sources and publications is physically impossible.
Therefore, we have prepared for you a digest in which we collected the most interesting resources devoted to the implementation of ITSM in companies of various “calibers”. These are books and articles about the management of services, as well as personal blogs of ITSM experts.
Image of Sascha Kohlmann / CC
We will tell you what to look for if you are thinking about automating business processes in your company. The article examines examples of situations where automation is beneficial (exclusion of monotonous procedures), and when it becomes just a burden (if you are a startup, with constantly changing work processes).
Researchers say that 81 percent of customers of all companies are always trying to solve problems with a product or service on their own. Therefore, many organizations launch self-service portals. When users themselves find the answer to their question, the company saves money for technical support .
The article gives four more reasons to introduce a self-service-portal and some tips on its organization. They are based on the experience of Per Mikkelsen, an expert who has been working in the field of ITSM and CRM for twenty years.
There are many articles about ITAM. But in this material we tried to combine the best practices on the topic. We give step-by-step algorithms for the implementation of IT asset management systems: how to build a financial model, how to optimize the costs of various kinds of licenses and improve the quality of control over suppliers . All this with block diagrams of interaction of IT systems and departments of the company.
The service approach can be used not only in the IT field - it is a tool that helps reduce transaction costs in other areas. We will tell you where to start the implementation of the service desk beyond IT , tell you about the reasons for the failure of many similar projects and give cases of successful implementations . Among the latter: the automation of the personnel department, the preparation of acts of reconciliation and even the ordering of dishes in the dining room.
An article about what is possible and what cannot be trusted to the ITSM consultant and how to evaluate its work. All recommendations are based on the experience of Stuart Rance, an ITIL expert, a participant in international ITSM conferences, and a consultant at Optimal Service Management. On how to choose the right ITSM consultant, Rance prepared a separate material .
The Naumen solution for automating IT management based on machine learning increases the speed of decision making by technical support by 70% . But you can optimize the company's business processes not only with the help of intelligent digital tools. Our architect and analyst Dmitry Malkin tells how to do this with the help of an intuitive user interface of the ITSM system and the "seamless" implementation of new functions.
Companies in their work have to take into account UX, CX and EX - user experience, customer and employee. The article tells how brand perception influences customer behavior (in particular, their loyalty) and what needs to be done so that the user experience is always positive.
SIAM (Service Integration and Management) is an approach to managing service integration, which aims to simplify the work of companies with third-party service providers. According to Markets and Markets, in three years, the market value of SIAM solutions will reach four billion dollars. But not everyone is able to implement this methodology. In his article, the head of the ITSMF UK association, Barclay Rae (Barclay Rae) examines the most common causes of the failure of SIAM projects.
Another material of Barclay Ray - in it he cites five difficulties that companies face when implementing problem management systems and gives ten solutions to them. Note that Ray also participated in the creation of a series of video interviews in which he spoke with representatives of the IT industry about ITSM, DevOps, ITIL, and service management in general.
This is our blog, in which we share our experience with ITSM-systems, we give client cases and we try to explain everything difficult in the field of service management in simple words. The materials in the blog will be useful both for beginners who are just beginning their “immersion” in ITSM, and for those who are “brewed” in the subject for many years.
The blog has been going on since 2013, during which time more than a hundred feature articles have accumulated there. Here there are the latest news from the ITSM industry, best practices from experts, case studies, webinars, infographics, as well as tutorials from the How to Create a Template for Email Alerts series.
Blog AXELOS updated with new publications several times a week. The results of research related to the development of global ITSM practices and success stories of companies are presented. Here you can find proven recommendations and cases from the organization developing ITIL.
This is the blog of ITSM-specialist Greg Sanker, who has been working in the field of information technology for almost 30 years: he was an IT operations manager at Hewlett-Packard, now he leads the Oregon Tax Services Department of Services Management. Last year, he even published the book IT Change Management: A Practical Guide ( IT change management: a practitioner's guide ).
Sanker managed to "fill the cones" in the management field and gives advice on the implementation of ITSM, based on his personal experience. Topics cover a variety of issues: from the principles of creating service catalogs to estimating the cost of maintaining the IT infrastructure .
Rob England is an expert in ITSM and DevOps and author of several books on the subject . He says that true skepticism is the search for evidence, the testing of ideas for strength and the rejection of any subjective assessments in order to highlight something really worthwhile among information noise. Therefore, in his blog you will not find intrusive advertising and praise for the benefit - just a sober look at the management of IT services, ITIL and CMDB.
Usually, England makes brief publications that take no more than a minute to read. For example, here he describes ten agile-principles that interfere with project management, and here he sets out his thoughts on the impact of ITSM on DevOps.
Ryan Ogilvie (Ryan Ogilvie), an adept ITSM practitioner, tells readers how to get around the difficulties in implementing IT management systems. A distinctive feature of this ITSM blog is a set of simple and clear examples from the author’s life as illustrations to complex information processes. The syllable is simple, easy to read. New posts are published regularly - 5–6 times a month.
This is one of the books of Rob Ingland, author of The IT Skeptic blog , which we talked about above. Under the cover are examples of projects in which ITIL should and should not be used. It outlines the subtleties of the best practices described in the five volumes of the third edition of ITIL. For those who have very little time to read, the author cites a hundred of the most popular recommendations and ready-made checklists on the topic .
Picture of Robert Agthe / CC
Patrick Lencioni (Patrick Lencioni) - a writer and head of the organization The Table Group, which advises management teams, wrote a book in the genre of a business novel about employees of a fictional enterprise. The author hopes that in this way the reader will be able to present himself as one of the book’s heroes and to understand more deeply the peculiarities of teamwork.
"Five vices of the team" will suit anyone who would like to communicate more productively with colleagues: both managers and ordinary specialists. Lensioni wrote other books, for example, “ Why not everyone loves going to work. The truth about employee involvement ”and“ Five temptations of the CEO ”.
Another book from IT skeptic Rob Ingland. He disassembled the abundance of failed cases for the introduction of ITSM and ridiculed (moderately) the authors of the "abstruse" books on the topic. The author warns that the “Introduction to Real ITSM” is intended for the prepared reader: many jokes and comments will be understood only by those who work in the industry or have dealt with ITSM.
This book was not written for profit - all the money from sales goes to charity. Jeffrey Tefertiller, ITSM consultant and ITIL expert, just decided to share his experience and tell company executives how to get the most out of business for ITSM. The author also maintains your YouTube channel .
Practical guide: how to build a successful career in the management of IT infrastructure. The author of the book - Art Carapola (Art Carapola) - managed to work in 26 countries and visit the “shoes” of an electrical engineer, system developer and infrastructure development manager.
Readers praise Karapola for an easy syllable and an abundance of life examples: positive and negative experience in risk assessment and budget management. Especially the "Lord of Infrastructure" is recommended to CIOs who work in small and medium-sized businesses.
Of course, these are not all the resources that are worth paying attention to in the field of ITSM. We will replenish the list of interesting resources on the topic in the new thematic digests. There are several other books on the topic, including a reference book with the latest ITILv3 practitioners, in the itSMF library , an association of organizations and IT management professionals. You can also find guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of ITSM systems in the almanac of the Russian ITSM forum .
Therefore, we have prepared for you a digest in which we collected the most interesting resources devoted to the implementation of ITSM in companies of various “calibers”. These are books and articles about the management of services, as well as personal blogs of ITSM experts.
Image of Sascha Kohlmann / CC
Selection of articles
Business Automation: Pros and Cons
We will tell you what to look for if you are thinking about automating business processes in your company. The article examines examples of situations where automation is beneficial (exclusion of monotonous procedures), and when it becomes just a burden (if you are a startup, with constantly changing work processes).
Why do you need self-service portal
Researchers say that 81 percent of customers of all companies are always trying to solve problems with a product or service on their own. Therefore, many organizations launch self-service portals. When users themselves find the answer to their question, the company saves money for technical support .
The article gives four more reasons to introduce a self-service-portal and some tips on its organization. They are based on the experience of Per Mikkelsen, an expert who has been working in the field of ITSM and CRM for twenty years.
There are S.L.O.N.a in parts. Implement ITAM and not choke
There are many articles about ITAM. But in this material we tried to combine the best practices on the topic. We give step-by-step algorithms for the implementation of IT asset management systems: how to build a financial model, how to optimize the costs of various kinds of licenses and improve the quality of control over suppliers . All this with block diagrams of interaction of IT systems and departments of the company.
The obvious benefit: how and why to use the service approach outside IT
The service approach can be used not only in the IT field - it is a tool that helps reduce transaction costs in other areas. We will tell you where to start the implementation of the service desk beyond IT , tell you about the reasons for the failure of many similar projects and give cases of successful implementations . Among the latter: the automation of the personnel department, the preparation of acts of reconciliation and even the ordering of dishes in the dining room.
How to get the most out of attracting ITSM consultants
An article about what is possible and what cannot be trusted to the ITSM consultant and how to evaluate its work. All recommendations are based on the experience of Stuart Rance, an ITIL expert, a participant in international ITSM conferences, and a consultant at Optimal Service Management. On how to choose the right ITSM consultant, Rance prepared a separate material .
"Stop is prohibited", or do not be afraid to develop ITSM-system
The Naumen solution for automating IT management based on machine learning increases the speed of decision making by technical support by 70% . But you can optimize the company's business processes not only with the help of intelligent digital tools. Our architect and analyst Dmitry Malkin tells how to do this with the help of an intuitive user interface of the ITSM system and the "seamless" implementation of new functions.
"X-Factor" service management
Companies in their work have to take into account UX, CX and EX - user experience, customer and employee. The article tells how brand perception influences customer behavior (in particular, their loyalty) and what needs to be done so that the user experience is always positive.
SIAM - what is it and how does it work?
SIAM (Service Integration and Management) is an approach to managing service integration, which aims to simplify the work of companies with third-party service providers. According to Markets and Markets, in three years, the market value of SIAM solutions will reach four billion dollars. But not everyone is able to implement this methodology. In his article, the head of the ITSMF UK association, Barclay Rae (Barclay Rae) examines the most common causes of the failure of SIAM projects.
How to manage problems: 10 tips for success
Another material of Barclay Ray - in it he cites five difficulties that companies face when implementing problem management systems and gives ten solutions to them. Note that Ray also participated in the creation of a series of video interviews in which he spoke with representatives of the IT industry about ITSM, DevOps, ITIL, and service management in general.
ITSM blogs
NAUMEN
This is our blog, in which we share our experience with ITSM-systems, we give client cases and we try to explain everything difficult in the field of service management in simple words. The materials in the blog will be useful both for beginners who are just beginning their “immersion” in ITSM, and for those who are “brewed” in the subject for many years.
ITSM365
The blog has been going on since 2013, during which time more than a hundred feature articles have accumulated there. Here there are the latest news from the ITSM industry, best practices from experts, case studies, webinars, infographics, as well as tutorials from the How to Create a Template for Email Alerts series.
AXELOS
Blog AXELOS updated with new publications several times a week. The results of research related to the development of global ITSM practices and success stories of companies are presented. Here you can find proven recommendations and cases from the organization developing ITIL.
ITSM Transition
This is the blog of ITSM-specialist Greg Sanker, who has been working in the field of information technology for almost 30 years: he was an IT operations manager at Hewlett-Packard, now he leads the Oregon Tax Services Department of Services Management. Last year, he even published the book IT Change Management: A Practical Guide ( IT change management: a practitioner's guide ).
Sanker managed to "fill the cones" in the management field and gives advice on the implementation of ITSM, based on his personal experience. Topics cover a variety of issues: from the principles of creating service catalogs to estimating the cost of maintaining the IT infrastructure .
The IT skeptic
Rob England is an expert in ITSM and DevOps and author of several books on the subject . He says that true skepticism is the search for evidence, the testing of ideas for strength and the rejection of any subjective assessments in order to highlight something really worthwhile among information noise. Therefore, in his blog you will not find intrusive advertising and praise for the benefit - just a sober look at the management of IT services, ITIL and CMDB.
Usually, England makes brief publications that take no more than a minute to read. For example, here he describes ten agile-principles that interfere with project management, and here he sets out his thoughts on the impact of ITSM on DevOps.
The service journey
Ryan Ogilvie (Ryan Ogilvie), an adept ITSM practitioner, tells readers how to get around the difficulties in implementing IT management systems. A distinctive feature of this ITSM blog is a set of simple and clear examples from the author’s life as illustrations to complex information processes. The syllable is simple, easy to read. New posts are published regularly - 5–6 times a month.
Books on IT Infrastructure Management
Mastering ITIL. Skeptical guide for decision makers
This is one of the books of Rob Ingland, author of The IT Skeptic blog , which we talked about above. Under the cover are examples of projects in which ITIL should and should not be used. It outlines the subtleties of the best practices described in the five volumes of the third edition of ITIL. For those who have very little time to read, the author cites a hundred of the most popular recommendations and ready-made checklists on the topic .
Picture of Robert Agthe / CC
Five vices of the team. Leadership Parables
Patrick Lencioni (Patrick Lencioni) - a writer and head of the organization The Table Group, which advises management teams, wrote a book in the genre of a business novel about employees of a fictional enterprise. The author hopes that in this way the reader will be able to present himself as one of the book’s heroes and to understand more deeply the peculiarities of teamwork.
"Five vices of the team" will suit anyone who would like to communicate more productively with colleagues: both managers and ordinary specialists. Lensioni wrote other books, for example, “ Why not everyone loves going to work. The truth about employee involvement ”and“ Five temptations of the CEO ”.
Introduction to Real ITSM
Another book from IT skeptic Rob Ingland. He disassembled the abundance of failed cases for the introduction of ITSM and ridiculed (moderately) the authors of the "abstruse" books on the topic. The author warns that the “Introduction to Real ITSM” is intended for the prepared reader: many jokes and comments will be understood only by those who work in the industry or have dealt with ITSM.
Managing IT Services for Managers: How ITSM Works
This book was not written for profit - all the money from sales goes to charity. Jeffrey Tefertiller, ITSM consultant and ITIL expert, just decided to share his experience and tell company executives how to get the most out of business for ITSM. The author also maintains your YouTube channel .
Infrastructure Master: A Roadmap for IT Leaders
Practical guide: how to build a successful career in the management of IT infrastructure. The author of the book - Art Carapola (Art Carapola) - managed to work in 26 countries and visit the “shoes” of an electrical engineer, system developer and infrastructure development manager.
Readers praise Karapola for an easy syllable and an abundance of life examples: positive and negative experience in risk assessment and budget management. Especially the "Lord of Infrastructure" is recommended to CIOs who work in small and medium-sized businesses.
Of course, these are not all the resources that are worth paying attention to in the field of ITSM. We will replenish the list of interesting resources on the topic in the new thematic digests. There are several other books on the topic, including a reference book with the latest ITILv3 practitioners, in the itSMF library , an association of organizations and IT management professionals. You can also find guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of ITSM systems in the almanac of the Russian ITSM forum .