itSMFI 2016 Forum Focus - December Forum Focus ITSMFIV3 | Page 18

By Barclay Rae—CEO of itSMF UK
The worlds of technology and service management are at last realising the value of their greatest
assets – people. We hear an angle in every article now on the need to develop our people and
their skills – across a broad range of competencies.
This is a great development. It focusses our minds on the
real issues, challenges and differentiators that help us to
understand our own personal value and what we need to do
to get the best out of our colleagues, reports, managers and
leaders. “It’s (and IT is) all about people” is fast becoming
our industry’s clear rallying call.
This is a very positive step and long may it continue! We are
a service industry – this relies on people. Our focus can shift
from an obsession with technical skills and capabilities
which, although they are an essential component in our
working life, do not provide the full rounded template for a
‘professional’.
We have long decried the lack of a simple definition of our
(ITSM) industry and its own place in the scheme of things –
how many of us have successfully described our roles and
work to those outside of the IT(SM) bubble?
an organisation with clarity and pride. From a business
viewpoint, we manage risk and cost and also help to
improve the stability and consistency of IT services, which
for many of us effectively means running the business of
the planet.
As we introduce more and more automation and
robotics into our business and IT working lives, there is a
need for a greater focus on human interaction when it is
needed. Person to person interactions may be more limited
and irregular experiences as self-service comes to the fore.
As such they will have more positive or negative impact
when they do occur, and need to reflect the highest levels
of professionalism.
“So what do you do?”
“I work in IT – actually no, I’m really part of the
‘business’. Well, I do business things in the IT world
and try to make that more ‘human’. No that’s not
fair, I work on processes and try to manage the
expectations of users, well customers, no really they
are users…”
“Erm, can you fix my PC or not..?”
This conversation will sound all-too-familiar, and it stems
from a lack of identity for a group of professionals who are
rapidly becoming critical to the business operation.
We should be proud of what we do in IT Service
Management and be able to describe our value and place in
18 itSMFI Forum Focus—December 2016
It is not acceptable and highly risky to leave these
interactions or ‘moments of truth’ to chance and at the
mercy of some technical people who perhaps don’t have
the appropriate means of communication to fully deliver
this to expectation. Current business and industry demands
mean that the customer experience must be properly
managed and professionalised.
IT and Service Management are at a critical crossroads.