Digital transformation is typically an enterprise-wide effort that can span multiple departments and business units. Therefore, it’s critical to have a digital transformation plan developed and communicated from top leadership down through the organization with measurements and controls in place to monitor progress and ensure accountability. After developing a digital transformation plan, organizations must decide who will lead their digital transformation effort and how it will be managed. 

IT Service Management (ITSM) is one management approach that is widely used by IT today and it’s a proven and effective method for delivering value added services to end users. ITSM supports organizations implement new services and process improvements that are based on automation, collaboration and transparency. Many organizations are tasking IT to lead their digital transformation efforts, and clearly ITSM is well positioned to play a central role in managing an organization’s digital transformation journey.

As part of the Digital Transformation journey, organizations are investigating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ways they can leverage it to accelerate their digital transformation in their organizations. AI will take digital transformation to the next level by increasing business agility, providing insights into business and customer trends, speeding up decision making and implementing smart automation. AI is a “game changer” and will be discussed in future blogs.

When looking to implement an Artificial Intelligence solution for ITSM, it is essential that there is an understanding of the make-up of the tickets that are processed through the current solution, as this will determine the implementation framework. Incidents that are predictable and repeatable (deterministic) are easier to automate than those that are more complex, varied and unpredictable (non-deterministic).

As a result, each implementation of an Artificial Intelligence based ITSM solution will be different and will need tailoring to the specific firms requirements. However, regardless of the complexity of the implementation and the length of the overall implementation, the end results and benefits are similar:

• Better levels of service 
• Improved user experience 
• Always available 
• Reduce inconsistencies and mistakes
• Reduced costs 
• Better staff utilisation 

There is little doubt that Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Assistants, Machine Learning, along with the development of new technologies such as Big Data, will continue to develop and get smarter filling all aspects of our everyday lives.

As such IT departments should be actively developing strategies for how this technology can be used to help reduce costs, improve the user experience and actively benefit the business. IT Service Management should be at the forefront of these developments.

Source: Business Computing World