As technology advances and digital initiatives grow, businesses find it challenging to prioritize requests, allocate workforce, and manage project costs within an increasingly complex IT infrastructure.
Many companies are meeting these challenges by implementing ServiceNow ITBM solutions that help develop and manage business services. However, successful implementation and ongoing management of these platforms often require adhering to specific ITBM best practices.
What is ITBM?
Information Technology Business Management, or ITBM, is a process and toolset for developing and managing IT-driven business services. ITBM aids companies in understanding how technology influences business decisions and short and long-term objectives.
ITBM helps guide businesses in:
- Demand management
- Risk assessment and management
- Strategic portfolio management
- Change Management
- Finance management
- Operations management
Some businesses may shy away from ITBM implementation, viewing it more as a luxury and not a necessity. However, those companies might consider the broader perspective that ITBM provides.
ITBM offers a better view inside the current IT infrastructure by tracking financial and workforce impacts and exploring and evaluating various business scenarios. As a result, ITBM can scale up and down in response to expected business demand, optimize costs, and assist overall IT transformation.
Five ITBM Best Practices
While deploying an ITBM solution may be simple, organizations may not benefit from it entirely without adhering to certain best practices for implementation and ongoing governance.
Following these steps will aid in maximizing the ServiceNow ITBM. Here are some guidelines for putting ITBM into practice:
1. Evaluate and Identify a ServiceNow Partner
Many businesses assume that preparing for a ServiceNow rollout should be exclusively an internal endeavor. However, those businesses may be unaware of the potential benefits of partnering on a ServiceNow implementation.
Those benefits include the following:
- ServiceNow platform experience
- Quality leadership
- Long-term goal coordination
- Ongoing support
An experienced and thoughtful ServiceNow partner should have a comprehensive understanding of the proposed platform, significant industry experience, and an awareness of potential pitfalls and how to avoid them.
2. Establish the Objectives of Your Company
Once you have chosen your ServiceNow partner, you might establish initial objectives and implementation benchmarks to track the ITBM installation progress.
Establishing those objectives often begins with identifying immediate business concerns and most pressing needs and outlining how ServiceNow can aid the company in addressing those concerns.
The following step is often determining which features offer the most value at installation (and should therefore be an immediate consideration) and which ones are long-term considerations that the company can grow into over a predetermined period.
3. Create A Long-term Strategy
After establishing company objectives, you should consider their immediate effects on implementation and how they can influence specific long-term goals and ongoing system management.
Establishing those long-term goals requires taking specific steps to create your ServiceNow blueprint. Those steps often include the following:
- Designating authorized personnel for modifying the ITBM platform
- Establishing platform governance policies
- Developing ongoing maintenance procedures
- Identifying potential ways ITBM implementation might alter the current IT dynamic
Enlisting a ServiceNow partner can be beneficial to your company to complete these steps and initiate ServiceNow execution.
4. Obtain Stakeholders Signoff
Most company stakeholders do not have advanced IT experience and are typically unaware of the advantages ServiceNow provides and how its features might solve many technology-related problems. However, an involved undertaking such as ITBM implementation requires their signoff.
Project managers and department heads responsible for using ITBM solutions will spend the time and resources to learn the platform. First, however, businesses should provide stakeholders with education and a clear explanation of ITBM and how it benefits stakeholder business investments.
5. Design a Proof-of-Concept Plan
Management might consider creating a Proof-of-Concept (POC) plan to help stakeholders better understand the ITBM implementation process, increasing the likelihood of stakeholder buy-in.
An effective POC establishes that a proposed project has realistic and achievable objectives. It can assist project managers in anticipating procedural gaps that can hinder implementation progress and provide team members and other contributing parties with the ability to provide feedback.
A POC plan might help businesses answer the following questions before they put significant effort into the initiative:
- Does an ITBM implementation align with company services?
- Is this a new program or a variation of an existing one?
- What department will be primarily responsible for running and managing the platform?
- What is the scope of ITBM partner services?
Let Cask Help Plan Your ServiceNow ITBM Integration
As more companies turn to digital innovation to drive new business, enhanced IT capabilities become more and more crucial to keep pace in an increasingly tech-heavy world. Investing in an ITBM implementation can help organizations develop the necessary proficiencies to offer top-notch IT services.
However, a successful installation often requires careful planning and adherence to a set of ITBM best practices. Partnering with Cask in the preliminary stages of implementation can help promote a smooth transition and the effective performance necessary to meet immediate and long-term objectives.
Request a quote today and discover how our ServiceNow ITBM solutions can drive innovation and help you outpace your competition.
