IT service management remains effective in remote working environments - survey
A new survey has found 72% of IT professionals state IT service management continues to be effective in a remote working environment, and cloud services, knowledge management and self-service adoption makes remote ITSM easier.
The State of ITSM in the COVID-19 Pandemic survey from ManageEngine interviewed more than 500 global IT professionals, and highlights the ramifications and challenges the COVID-19 pandemic caused for IT service teams.
The survey focused on five facets of ITSM impact of employees working remote, financial and asset management implications, security and governance issues, third-party services and technology assistance, and business continuity success levels.
The survey found 72% of IT professionals affirm ITSM's continued effectiveness even in remote work scenarios. However, only one in two organisations have a bring your own device policy to support continued productivity in new remote work environments.
As employees began working beyond the corporate perimeter, the data and tools local to their network became out of reach, according to the research. A majority (78%) of IT professionals overcame this hurdle by transitioning to cloud services.
Further, global IT teams have adopted new tools and applications to accommodate a dispersed workforce. This led to an increased requirement to update knowledge articles and user documentation to address the new technologies.
The survey found a considerable minority of organisations do not have self-service (28%) and virtual agent (24%) technologies to offset the workload.
According to the research, 4 out of 5 respondents believe IT will have greater appreciation in terms of budgets, salaries and recognition of efforts, post crisis. Only 15% of organisations were under-equipped with the necessary applications and tools to enable remote working, well into the crisis.
Only 40% of organisations confidently agreed that they are equipped to tackle the increase in security and privacy concerns related to employees working outside the office.
Among the organisations that outsourced ITSM, over 70% were satisfied with their MSP's performance. Interestingly, IT self-service was non-existent in 28% of the respondent's organisation.
The survey found most organisations had a business continuity plan (BCP), leaving only 20% without one. A reliable BCP was an important factor for successful remote IT support.
"The pandemic has brought IT organisations to the front line from the back office overnight," says Rajesh Ganesan, vice president at ManageEngine.
"How well a business has performed in the last few months has a lot to do with how well its IT organisation has been able to enable remote work, and this trend will only intensify," he says.
"As businesses strive to survive, compete and eventually lead in these tough times, closing the technology gaps highlighted in the survey will be a priority. We understand this shift and are adding capabilities to our product line to help empower our customers."
