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Join in for a #CommunityChat | March 14 | Uninterrupted IT, Unstoppable Business

Join in for a #CommunityChat | March 14 | Uninterrupted IT, Unstoppable Business
rashmi.nag
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Introducing #CommunityChat or as we call it ‘Courtside with community’, an informal conversation among community members over cups of our favorite beverage.
I am currently writing this post with a tall glass of iced coffee in my hand :coffee:

This time around, we will be discussing all things ITSM - 

Topic of the hour: How to use ITSM & ITOM together to make your business unstoppable.

 

Here’s a list of questions we’ll be tackling in this chat - 

  1. What are the top priorities for IT leaders in 2022?
  2. How do IT leaders make the leap from tech leaders to business drivers?
  3. How to transition from traditional IT to DevOps?
  4. How to create delightful technology experiences for agents and employees?
  5. What are some challenges organizations face when setting up their enterprise service management, and what are the different solutions required to address them?

How does it work?

  • To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the Quote option
  • You can reply to each others threads/ posts to keep the conversation going
  • Be polite and respectful of other people’s opinions
  • Feel free to add any questions/ doubts too if you have any. Our in-house specialists and other community members maybe able to help you.

We’ll see you on March 14, sharp at 9:30 AM PST

 

In the meantime, register for our virtual IT summit now!

 

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks

74 replies

rashmi.nag
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On a lighter note:

POV: Our #CommunityChat participants right now

POV: Our moderators right now

 

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
zachary.king
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Hoping to be able to make it to this chat. Should be a good one!

- Zach / ITSM Solutions Engineer
rashmi.nag
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Hi everyone! Good morning, afternoon, evening to all of you joining us for today’s #CommunityChat.

We have less than an hour to go and I thought it would be great to pop-in, say hello and get you all prepped for the chat.

Here are a few things to know before we get started on our #CommunityChat:

  1. To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering the first question Q1, start your answer with A1.

  2. If you cannot make it at 9:30 AM (PST) or even if you’re past time, you can still post your answers to a particular question.

  3. You can like/ reply to each others comments to keep the conversation going.

  4. Be respectful and mindful of your comments to others and remember to abide by the community guidelines.

  5. Feel free to post your questions around this topic as well. Our members and experts present today might be able to help you out.

  6. I will make sure to engage with all of you to make this conversation engaging and fruitful.

  7. Don’t forget to have a great time here. Grab your favourite beverage and join us at 9:30 AM PT!

Tagging a few folks here to be a part of the chat and share their insights:
@manns @zachary.king @GlennA @vishnu.selvaraj @Vishal Nema @ramsundar.radhakrishnan @Anusha @alyssia.correa @rhea.desouza @rubi.odell @raymondcanilao @lavjoson @JiriGrohmann @Denise.S.P @Warden Brown @Krystal A @Jovita @Bharadwaj @mmccoy @Sophie Murgatroyd @i.cameron @finn @mark.uther @vijay_2am @SLuethi @daniel.soderlund @KeithW @Parul Gupta @Johan L @pkleshick 

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
vishnu.selvaraj
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Got my shot of espresso ready! **cracks knuckles**

manns
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A1. What’s also interesting to see is how IT priorities have changed in the last half decade (hopefully in line with business needs changing):

 

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
manns
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A1. Another that’s more specifically for IT Leaders is trying to move the dial on the business perceptions of IT (and not just in terms of EX). I’m old enough to remember when IT was considered a “business innovator,” before it became “the custodian of the IT infrastructure.” It’s a harsh and gross generalization but, importantly, trends such as ESM, EX, and AI-enablement allow for the repositioning of IT teams as business innovators again :)

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
manns
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Keep those wonderful answers coming your way! :grinning:

Our next question in today’s conversation is...

Q2: How do IT leaders make the leap from tech leaders to business drivers?

To answer this question, start your answer with A2, signifying the answer for Q2.

I think my add-on answer to Q1. starts to cover this:

A1. Another that’s more specifically for IT Leaders is trying to move the dial on the business perceptions of IT (and not just in terms of EX). I’m old enough to remember when IT was considered a “business innovator,” before it became “the custodian of the IT infrastructure.” It’s a harsh and gross generalization but, importantly, trends such as ESM, EX, and AI-enablement allow for the repositioning of IT teams as business innovators again :)

BUT we also need to make a pivot from focusing on “what we do” to “what we achieve through what we do.” Some might call this a value or outcome focus (and EX sits here nicely).

 

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
zachary.king
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A2: To become a business driver, there needs to be an environment that leads customers to feel comfortable utilizing the available IT departments and resources. When companies can improve the relationships between IT and end users, both can really drive their business to succeed. This seems like a rather vague answer but ultimately we need to remove the stigma that IT departments create more problems than they solve.

- Zach / ITSM Solutions Engineer
zachary.king
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A1: In my opinion it is going to be shrinking the gap between employee experience and user experience. It is one thing to take industry leading platforms and make them available to your employees. But those technologies need to be easy to use and adopt into your organization. And then from there they should unite the employee and customer in a unified approach to solving problems.

- Zach / ITSM Solutions Engineer
manns
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A1. Each organization will hopefully have their own top priorities based on business needs but we can see groupings of what most interests ITSM professionals/leaders. This list is from a survey re ran at the start of 2022 (we were late in doing so), it shows most interest in:

  1. ITSM “advanced”
  2. Enterprise service management
  3. Digital transformation/digital workflows
  4. People (including attitude, behavior, and culture (ABC))
  5. Employee experience management

Versus for 2021:

  1. Digital transformation/digital workflows
  2. Artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning
  3. Automation
  4. People (including attitude, behavior, and culture (ABC))
  5. Enterprise service management and ITIL 4 (joint)

Source: https://itsm.tools/hottest-itsm-trends-2022/

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
vishnu.selvaraj
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A1. What’s also interesting to see is how IT priorities have changed in the last half decade (hopefully in line with business needs changing):

 

Interesting pattern. I’m more curious to know about ITSM “advanced”. Could you maybe shed some light on it, @manns ?

vijay_2am
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Keep those wonderful answers coming your way! :grinning:

Our next question in today’s conversation is...

Q2: How do IT leaders make the leap from tech leaders to business drivers?

To answer this question, start your answer with A2, signifying the answer for Q2.

A2: The evolution of CIOs/CTOs is rapidly maturing into a strategic enterprise leader with critical knowledge across the technology ecosystem, which is core to company success,” says Craig Stephenson, managing director of the North America technology officers practice at Korn Ferry. “Some could argue that in the near future, when asked about succession, the executive with engineering, product, cloud, data, and security experience is certainly a succession candidate for roles beyond CIO and CTO. We are seeing this occur much more frequently

 

Source: https://www.cio.com/article/304341/cios-make-the-leap-to-business-leadership.html

Regards | Vijay
vishnu.selvaraj
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A2: Here’s my take -

Market the importance of tech internally!

IT leaders should consider devising strategies to educate their peers on the importance of using tech to transform their business. How can they do it?

Explain how a tech upgrade or a new software application will have a positive impact on the company’s strategic direction and business goals. Quantify the gains in dollars. Put (big) numbers to it.

They can also host internal events to announce the changes in the tech stack. Conduct quizzes, meet and greets, pop-up stalls within the office premises, viral campaigns etc. The goal is to educate the employees on the benefits of IT/tech stacks, because IT is the business!

Leaders can also involve volunteer employees to test a new application within the company ecosystem. Create “change champions”, feature the employees in newsletters and public displays. 

Word of mouth >>» all marketing!

manns
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A2: To become a business driver, there needs to be an environment that leads customers to feel comfortable utilizing the available IT departments and resources. When companies can improve the relationships between IT and end users, both can really drive their business to succeed. This seems like a rather vague answer but ultimately we need to remove the stigma that IT departments create more problems than they solve.

The last line here is important and the reason why we need to get better at measuring IT’s performance. Moving away from measuring the “mechanics” of IT support, say - how many and how fast - to focus on the difference that’s being made. Only then will we unearth the many hidden issues that the self-centric measurement of IT performance misses (e.g. lost end-user productivity caused by ticket bounces or ineffective self-service capabilities).

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
Veena
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A2: Here’s my take -

Market the importance of tech internally!

IT leaders should consider devising strategies to educate their peers on the importance of using tech to transform their business. How can they do it?

Explain how a tech upgrade or a new software application will have a positive impact on the company’s strategic direction and business goals. Quantify the gains in dollars. Put (big) numbers to it.

They can also host internal events to announce the changes in the tech stack. Conduct quizzes, meet and greets, pop-up stalls within the office premises, viral campaigns etc. The goal is to educate the employees on the benefits of IT/tech stacks, because IT is the business!

Leaders can also involve volunteer employees to test a new application within the company ecosystem. Create “change champions”, feature the employees in newsletters and public displays. 

Word of mouth >>» all marketing!

Great take on this, Vishnu!

To quote our CIO, Prasad Ramakrishnan, “Technology out there is now like a utility. Everybody has an opinion, and everybody needs to participate in the process.”

To add on to your point, I think it also helps to run polls and surveys to check if the technology deployed six months ago is still relevant for the employees to do their jobs well. This way, you’re constantly assessing the tool’s features and functionality to make sure it’s still relevant. 

manns
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A1. Circling back on ITSM “advanced,” it’s likely many things that are called out explicitly in the survey. That while it was intended to be “what we don’t do now” or “what we don’t do now because it’s too hard (or because we don’t need to)” we can see that it’s so much more.

For example, placing the focus on value and employee experience, through enterprise service management (or digital workflow enablement) opportunities to extend ITSM for the benefit of other business functions, to what could be considered the most critical area to address – people.

@vishnu.selvaraj 

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
vijay_2am
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Ahhh..we’re already mid-way through the session. Your next question is here:

Q3: How to transition from traditional IT to DevOps?

Begin your answer for this question with A3.

A3: As far as i have seen, its been a complete upside down when we compare it to how/what we used to do as an IT resource and what/how we do now using DevOps.

As they say “Change is the new Parmanent”.

Keep updating yourself

Regards | Vijay
manns
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A4. I think the simplest starting point is to stop assuming that you know best!

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
manns
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A4. Once the right perspective is being taken (based on demand rather than supply-side views) we can start to look at what’s needed, how well we are currently doing, and what’s need to close the gaps (and ensure that we continue to improve in line with changing needs and expectations).

This is where all the lovely ITSM trends such as the focusing on value, employee experience, enterprise service management (or digital workflow enablement), people development, AI-enablement, metrics reassessment, etc. can then play a part.

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
rashmi.nag
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How fun this was! I’m in awe with the amount of knowledge we’ve all shared in the last one hour and been able to help and learn from each other. 

It does not end here, keep those answers and questions coming your way.

For those of you who were not able to join us LIVE, this thread will stay open for you to share your answers when you’re free. Looking forward to reading them.

I’d like to thank all those who contributed to today’s discussion, making it valuable, engaging and a resource we could refer to at any point! :heart:

@manns @zachary.king @vishnu.selvaraj @Ishan @alyssia.correa @Isaac Thomas @rhea.desouza @Veena @vijay_2am 

See you next time!

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
manns
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Looking forward to this chat :)

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
manns
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Looking forward to this thanks :)

Cheers, Stephen || https://ITSM.tools
rashmi.nag
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Welcome welcome to the first #CommunityChat as part of the March Madness Campaign powered by Refresh Community!

This is going to be an informal conversation among community members (all of us) over cups of our favorite beverage, sharing and talking about our topic of the day: How to use ITSM & ITOM together to make your business unstoppable.

Gear up and let’s get started.

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks
Isaac Thomas
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Showtime!!! :wine_glass::wine_glass:

-- Isaac
rashmi.nag
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A1: In my opinion it is going to be shrinking the gap between employee experience and user experience. It is one thing to take industry leading platforms and make them available to your employees. But those technologies need to be easy to use and adopt into your organization. And then from there they should unite the employee and customer in a unified approach to solving problems.

Completely agreed! It should be a seamless experience for both your user and employees!

Cheers, Rashmi || Team Freshworks

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