ITSM Vendors discussion

What happens when 3 major ITSM Vendors get together for a chat about the industry?

Rod Weir, CEO of PRD Software made these comments….

I enjoyed this discussion.

Coming from a vendor position, I absolutely agree with Graham when he says that there is an enormous amount of expertise and knowledge at the vendor level for implementing, configuring and organizing a helpdesk/service desk. As vendors, we live day-in, day-out communicating with organizations that are trying to achieve success in this area.

The majority of vendors in the ITSM space build software based on this collective, collaborative knowledge. Hard-won knowledge that is spread over years of business activity, and thousands of prospective clients and organizations. We’ve seen every type of helpdesk and service desk. We know this industry.

Software design and coding is something that is not done lightly - it takes a tremendous amount of business understanding, process engineering, case and use studies and well as best-practice alignment to deliver a solution that is realized through software. Countless hours of tech support, feature requests, industry engagement and face-to-face involvement all go into making an ITSM solution.

It’s a pity that organizations don’t fully access or acknowledge this resource when it comes to training, configuration and advise. It sometimes seems that a generic list of “must do’s” in a product capability assesment / RFI etc is a callous, clinical way of filtering solutions. Don and Tony agree on this (as I’m sure every vendor does). There is more to it than just checkboxes of technical capability.

ITSM/ITL training organizations that offer “certified” helpdesk/service management courses/frameworks seem to attract the attention of those with control of a corporate wallet as the way forward in service delivery.

In my experience, this type of training means little if not delivered within the context and operating framework of the solution (software) that is chosen. The context simply isn’t there to relate. Theory doesn’t translate if you cannot apply it back at work!

This is where the vendor can really shine.

When you pick a solution that meets your RFI, a smart organization will get the vendor to do the training, (ITIL) and map every process, every concept directly to the tool that will be used. Vendors know a lot more about ITSM than just software - remember, they make software based on the standards, the best practices, the frameworks. They know the industry!

Ah, don’t get me started….;-)

Love this series and concept. Thanks Barclay!

Rod