Reduce helpdesk workload & elevate your IT team with good ITSM

The charity sector has undergone significant transformation in recent years, with digital acceleration, shifts in working models, and increasing pressure on internal IT resource acquisition and retention. This has necessitated a rethinking of IT Service Management (ITSM) within the sector.

In this article, charity IT specialists, Smartdesc, and ServiceNow’s nonprofit team ServiceNow.org share their advice and guidance on how to improve your ITSM function, and free up your IT team to focus on furthering the mission of your organisation.

The Digital Shift

The charity sector changed drastically in the past two years. The Charity Digital Skills report found that the majority of charities are now committed to digital service delivery, with 73% planning to continue delivering in this way and 71% offering them within a hybrid delivery model. This shift towards digital service delivery, with cloud services commonplace and AI starting to proliferate, is highlighting the need for a robust ITSM framework that can support these new modes of operation.

The human experience of IT service management

Radical changes in how and where we do business — sparked by a worldwide pandemic — have sped up the need for digital transformation. But successful transformation doesn’t just involve new technologies. People drive the change. They play a foundational, critical role in enabling organisations to achieve business resilience, fuel innovation, and provide excellent customer experiences. A recent ServiceNow report found that providing positive employee experiences drives real results for organisations in terms of productivity, retention, and customer satisfaction.

The Role of ITSM

Smartdesc’s own charity IT research project recently revealed that over 50% of leaders are finding IT talent an increasing challenge. ITSM plays a crucial role in ensuring that organisations deliver IT services in a way that is efficient, reliable, and cost-effective. For charities, this means being able to deliver services to their beneficiaries, manage their operations, and communicate with their stakeholders effectively with relatively limited resources.

ITSM can help charities achieve these goals by providing a structured approach to managing IT services, reducing the “noise” from the helpdesk, and shift the focus of internal IT colleagues to more valuable mission-enabling initiatives which also provide better job satisfaction and help in staff retention as a time when corporate wage inflation and cost of living can trigger a flight risk.

Challenges and Opportunities

Charities face unique challenges when it comes to ITSM. They need to ensure that their IT systems are secure (the sector is the third-most targeted in the world, due to the sensitivity of the data held) and able to support their operations. Whilst the shift to cloud is largely delivered, IT teams face a new workload that revolves around managing multiple cloud systems, complex licensing models, and a predominantly remote workforce.

Value for money remains a top priority; every pound spent on IT is a pound that needs to be justified in furthering the organisations’ charitable activities

However, these challenges also present opportunities. By adopting a robust ITSM framework, charities can improve their efficiency, reduce support overhead, save cost, and improve the quality of their services. This can help them to deliver more impact for their beneficiaries and make a bigger difference in their communities.

A good ITSM framework is not just about managing IT services. It’s about making IT a strategic enabler, rather than just a cost centre. By having an IT Service Management (ITSM) framework in place that is built on industry and sector best practice, you will realise multiple benefits:

1. Improved Service Delivery: ITSM ensures that IT services are delivered in a consistent, professional and efficient manner. This can lead to improved business operations and fewer distractions, enabling staff to better serve their stakeholders.
2. Cost Efficiency: ITSM can help charities make the most of their IT investments by ensuring that resources are used efficiently, assets are tracked, and IT support teams are better organised. This can lead to significant cost savings, allowing more funds to be directed towards charitable activities.
3. Risk Management: ITSM includes processes for managing risks associated with IT. This can help charities protect their data and IT infrastructure, reducing the risk of data breaches and system failures.
4. Enhanced Decision Making: ITSM provides valuable data and insights that can inform strategic decision-making, for example via Asset Lifecycle Management. This can help charities make informed decisions about their IT investments and strategies to keep them relevant and current.
5. Increased Agility: ITSM can increase agility by enabling charities to quickly respond to changes in their environment. This can be particularly beneficial in the fast-paced digital world.
6. Better Integration: ITSM can improve integration between IT and other areas of operation, for example Facilities, Resource Planning, Volunteer Onboarding and HR, leading to more streamlined and effective operations with less manual handling of data.

Transforming your ITSM Model

ITIL is the leading framework for best practice IT service Management, which has three overarching aims: organisations gain optimal value from IT, IT services align with organisational strategies, and the IT service user experience is at the heart of the IT service and support model.

ITIL benefits from clear categorisation of IT incidents, requests, changes, projects, and problems, which each flow through distinct processes. As part of ITIL implementation, these processes are defined and documented, built into the ITSM toolset, such as ServiceNow, and IT team members are trained to follow the workflows. The ITIL Implementation and use of the ITSM toolset goes hand in hand, with the toolset configured to guide colleagues through the best practice processes.

This way of working delivers the most favourable team resource efficiency and best experience for end users.

Here are 6 key phases to consider:

1. Assess the current ITSM maturity level: It’s essential to conduct a gap analysis of the current ITSM maturity level. This assessment will help identify the areas that need improvement and the areas that are working well. You can use an ITSM expert to lead this, and include plenty of stakeholder and user engagement, listening and gathering feedback to shape the new design and help with buy-in.
2. Define the scope: Define the scope of the ITSM model by identifying the IT services and the gaps from the previous step. This will help you understand the requirements and design the ITSM model accordingly. For example, you might already deliver Incident Management well, but how is Change Management handled? What about Service Requests (Joiners/Leavers/Inductions etc.)? Is there a process for Problem Management (similar incidents that keep occurring)? What about Asset Management? Do you want to offer staff a self-help portal to encourage more self-service?
3. Define the processes: Define the processes that will be used in the ITSM model based on the scope. You can use process mapping tools such as Miro or Microsoft Visio to illustrate these, and base them on the core ITIL processes, tailored to deliver the desired changes set out in the scope.
4. Assess the tools: Selecting the right ITSM tool can be a project in its own right, and it can be valuable to bring in someone external to help run the process. Taking the time to get your scope, requirements and processes clearly defined will greatly help here, and this documentation should be shared with vendors as early as possible. Likewise, ensuring you include stakeholders and end users from across the organisation in the process is time well spent to help set the project up for success.
5. Implement the ITSM model: We typically recommend starting with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to get the service live sooner, then growing and enhancing it over rolling releases. Again, expertise and experience are critical.
6. Monitor and improve: Monitor the ITSM model and seek regular feedback from staff. No system is perfect at launch, and the value will increase over time by adapting and evolving it through active listening. Review points should be structured and booked in ahead of time, for example on a quarterly cadence, for the years ahead, ensuring you have a vehicle to identify areas that need improvement. You can use the ITIL Continual Service Improvement (CSI) model to identify, implement, and track improvements.

The Future of ITSM in the Third Sector

The future of ITSM in the charity sector is likely to be shaped by several key trends. These include the continued pressure on internal IT resources, the ongoing increase in digital service delivery, the ever-growing importance of data security, and the need for greater collaboration between IT and other areas of the business.

ITSM has a crucial role to play in supporting the digital transformation of the sector. By adopting a robust ITSM framework, charities can ensure that they are able to deliver their services effectively, manage their operations efficiently, and make the most of the opportunities presented by digital technology. As the sector continues to evolve, the importance of ITSM is only likely to increase.

Where to get help

Smartdesc are ITIL & ITSM experts and can help at any stage of your journey, including;

• Service delivery reviews and ITIL/ITSM strategy
• IT support team reviews
• Target operating model design
• ITSM toolset implementations
• Additional IT support team resource (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd line)
• Outsourced support teams
• Hybrid support teams
• Service Delivery Manager as-a-service
• Project Management resource

Your ITSM model goes hand-in-hand with your IT resource structure. We recommend reviewing Smartdesc’s recent article on hybrid outsourcing, which includes example charity IT team structures that balance in house IT resource with specialist subject matter experts to achieve the right skills mix at the right investment level.

ServiceNow have also published a free guide on ITIL to ensure all IT colleagues are speaking the same language. A great place to start for IT colleagues who are just setting out on their ITIL journey.