IT Service Management (ITSM)

IT Service Management (ITSM) is an approach to providing, managing and continuously improving IT services in a methodical way. The goal is to organize IT services so that they support business processes as effectively as possible and are aligned with customer needs. Instead of thinking in purely technical terms, ITSM puts service orientation at the center: clear processes, defined workflows and roles ensure that IT teams handle requests efficiently, resolve problems faster and implement changes in a controlled manner.

ITSM also introduces metrics and best practices to increase quality and productivity in the IT department. Overall, ITSM transforms the IT organization away from improvised ad-hoc actions toward a customer-friendly service provider with traceable processes and continual improvement, typically supported by dedicated ITSM Software.

Frameworks such as ITIL provide the reference model for ITSM processes. Suitable ITSM software helps to manage such processes centrally and document them traceably.

See also: Information Technology Infrastructure Library and Service Desk.