Most organisations have an IT service management (ITSM) tool. Industry surveys show that it’s fewer than 10% of organisations that don’t. But the industry also still sees high levels of ITSM tool churn. Some of this will be due to the procuring organisation not buying the right ITSM tool for its needs (which could be due to the wrong questions being asked or “over-promising”) or not investing sufficiently in its introduction (perhaps the set-up or organisational change management use). But it could also be due to the relationship, or lack of relationship, the procuring organisation has with the ITSM tool vendor. To help, this blog looks at how IT organisations can get more from their ITSM tool vendors by sufficiently focusing on the interactions and relationships they can have.
Recognise the knowledge-based value ITSM tool vendor personnel can offer customers
When considering a new ITSM tool, looking beyond the technology to see the people is important. Not just the pre-sales consultants and salespeople involved in the selling process but also others such as product management personnel, marketing teams, and implementation or professional services staff. Not only do all these people know about the ITSM tool you’re considering, but many will also know a lot about ITSM. In particular, how other customers have tackled issues that might be similar to your own.
I think it’s scary how much “hidden” ITSM knowledge, skills, and experience ITSM tool vendor people have. You’ll see it during the selling process and tool implementation, but what about after this? That ITSM knowledge is still there and available. So, don’t be afraid to ask questions about the issues you’re experiencing (not just the ITSM tool’s capabilities). It doesn’t even need to be during the procurement process. Speak with your account manager or use the vendor’s online community, if there is one, to pose your question(s). Either way, you’ll hopefully be put in touch with ITSM tool vendor personnel who can help based on what they’ve seen at, or achieved with, other customers.
Another good approach is to take the time to talk with vendor personnel at their booths at ITSM events. It doesn’t even need to be your tool vendor. Simply ask what other customers have done when facing a similar issue. If the booth representatives don’t know the answer, they’ll pass it on to someone who can help.
But this is just one aspect of getting the most from your ITSM tool vendor; another is ensuring you get the qualities you expect from your vendor from the get-go.
Include vendor relationship aspects in your ITSM tool selection criteria
If you stop to think about the elements commonly included in ITSM tool request for proposal (RFP) documents, there are often hundreds of questions or data points related to the minutiae of ITSM needs. For example, whether an incident ticket can be reopened after being closed. While questions such as these might seem valuable, individually they might be insignificant compared to the quality of the eventual ITSM tool vendor relationship.
In the same way I always expect the best of people, because who wants to do a bad job, it’s hard to imagine that any software vendor, let alone ITSM tool vendor, doesn’t want customers to be successful when using their procured software or services. However, no matter the intention, it requires the right actions to ensure that the intention is met.
It’s also hard to believe that any customer organisation would want an ITSM tool purchase transaction that simply exchanges licensing or subscription pounds, dollars, euros, or yen for access to software or services. It might sound cliché, but the customer organisation and the ITSM tool vendor must “win” together; otherwise, they will eventually “lose” together.
So, what can your organisation do to improve the probability of working with an ITSM tool vendor that values its relationships with its customer organisations? Ideally, in a way that they seek “shared successes”. Of course, pertinent questions can be asked in the RFP process. However, while an ITSM tool vendor can answer them honestly, this is only their perspective. The customer’s perspective also needs to be heard. Reference customers are one source of this insight, but they’re usually reference customers because they are the “happiest of customers”. Beyond this, a little research can go a long way. For example:
- Networking at ITSM events, asking your peers what their relationships are like with their ITSM tool vendor
- Dipping into ITSM tool vendor online communities to get a feel for customer engagement and to see how customer queries and issues are handled
- Looking at peer review data insights (but recognise the potential issues these websites have)
- Look to IT industry research reports for signs of vendor “reach” limitations or customer discontent.
There are, of course, other avenues to find out what customers think of their ITSM tools vendors and the relationships they have. The important point is to do what you can to find out what the vendors do to help with customer success and how to get the most from your current or future ITSM tool vendor.
What should you look for as signs of good ITSM tool vendor relationships?
In some ways, much of this relates to your organisation finding an ITSM tool vendor it feels it can work with. Ideally, that vendor has demonstrated successful relationships with its existing customers across various areas of the customer lifecycle, including:
- Marketing and sales – for example, efficiently responding to information requests, helping with business case creation, or the flexibility demonstrated in contractual negotiations
- Tool implementation – the quality and timeliness of the interactions, from truly understanding customer needs to creating innovative solutions when needed
- Support – not only the effectiveness of day-to-day support capabilities but also the guidance and support provided via customer communities, local user groups, and bigger customer events
- Product development – while this might not be an immediately obvious relationship indicator, the level of an ITSM vendor’s R&D investment and product development velocity, especially based on customer inputs, can be a good indicator of vendor responsiveness
All these aspects offer insight into how an ITSM tool vendor, and perhaps partners, focus on shared success and not simply selling software or services.
One final point to note is that if your organisation wants to get the most from its ITSM tool vendor, it must also play its part. If you’re lucky, sitting and waiting for a valuable relationship to appear might work. However, your organisation will increase its luck by proactively working at the relationship it wants (and perhaps needs) with its ITSM tool vendor.
