The Future of IT Support

As technology continues to progress, the ways we receive or send information changes and evolves. We now live in an age where the average person has access to a smartphone or a personal computer and can download hundreds of gigabytes of data in mere minutes.

The past few years have shown that social media websites are now the dominant method of dispersing information, which leaves the conventional methods of IT struggling to keep up. In order to meet the modern day demands of digital information analytics and services, the future of IT support needs to be looked at from a systemic and developmental perspective.

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Evolution of IT Support

There are many things to keep in mind when it comes to the evolution of IT support in this day and age, so here are a few places where the future of IT support has room to grow.

Information Technology Service Management (ITSM)

ITSM is defined as the collection of all processes that involve the creation, planning, delivering and control of IT services for customers. Every single one of these aspects will have to be carefully managed to make sure that clients or customers receive their services in the most efficient and effective manner possible. It should go without saying that the future of IT support hinges on maximizing customer satisfaction, and ITSM is one of the essential keys in this process.

For example, managing configuration of software and hardware is a crucial step in this process so that all tools will be highly optimized. Locations and specific services – such as the inclusion of more face to face video communication or real-time messaging – should also be taken into account regarding the configuration of management protocols.

While systemic configuration of tools and processes is important, management of tasks, problems, opportunities for change and databases all need to be subject to ITSM as well. Any corporation that can optimize the management of their tracking, analytics, assets and databases pertaining to troubleshooting or FAQs will thrive because their infrastructure will be running like a well-oiled machine.

Queue Management Systems

Since social media delivers information to people at incredible speeds, the future of IT support will depend on doing its best to keep up with this pace. This is where queue management systems come into play.

The management of any and all requests is essentially the primary objective of any queue management system. It accomplishes this by having a tracking method of queues designed to measure and predict the resulting workload so that the IT organization can assign tasks without overworking staff.

Priority systems are also put in place so that a variety of technical issues can be resolved in order of their immanence and severity.

For example, incident queues can be prioritized on a scale from least to most urgent or impactful. This measurement alerts the relevant team dispatched to the task on how soon the incident should be taken care of. This same priority scale can also be easily applied to queues pertaining to requests and even assets. Whenever new hardware or changes are incoming, they can be addressed in an efficient manner dictated by the priority scale. A queue management system can also apply to logs of acquired assets that include data pertaining to their financial information.

Queue management systems are vital for ironing out some slack in an IT infrastructure, like entering more queues via phone or through email. This kind of system is helpful for cutting back on time spent on calls and for increasing assignment efficiency.

Business Service Management (BSM)

An important part of BSM is creating opportunities for more interactions with customers. These can include mobile apps and social media platforms. As mentioned above, these kinds of technologies are surpassing conventional IT methods when it comes to the delivery of digital information. Therefore, it is extremely important for any IT company to successfully integrate the usage of social media and mobile apps into their business service management to ensure the future of IT support.

BSM describes the relationship between business transactions and IT infrastructure. It has existed for quite some time but has evolved into placing a heavier emphasis on customer service management. The main objective of BSM is to maximize the value of the IT organization in the eyes of its customers via efficient and reliable technology solutions, which is a very important aspect concerning the future of IT support.

A few tools and methods are necessary these days for a successful BSM protocol. The management of events is one example. Proper event management will take note of all system-related events so that they can be measured and evaluated accurately for IT analytics.

Automation, which is only increasing in frequency every year, is another important characteristic of BSM. Any tasks that can be performed reliably by automation should be considered, especially if such automation can engage in important processes like deployment management and changing priorities based on the relevant requests.

Self-service is another growing aspect that is undoubtedly influencing the future of IT support as more customers are seeking self-service portals.

Remote IT Work Management

Now we are seeing more and more people receiving the opportunity to work from home. This comes with many benefits as workers don’t have to spend extra time or money to drive to work every day, and it gives companies the option to assign tasks to staff if they cannot come into the office due to any external circumstances.

While this presents itself with many conveniences to everyone, it still needs to be managed effectively. Working remotely is still a new phenomenon for many people and so some education and perhaps even training will be necessary to fully optimize this dynamic.

There are several issues that can pop up when someone is working at home. Without in person supervision, employees can sometimes feel that they won’t know how to work as efficiently as they do in the office because of the lack of direct communication with management. Additionally, locating information from coworkers can actually take longer while working remotely.

Remote workers also risk getting distracted by working in a sub-optimal environment. They may not have a designated workspace or they may be working with children at home that require supervision. There is also the danger of social isolation setting in with remote workers spending too much time by themselves.

To address these issues, managers should begin engaging with more face-to-face video calls and even daily or weekly check-ins to keep in touch with remote workers. This is helpful not only for clarifying management but for staff morale as well. These opportunities of giving employees some social and emotional encouragement should never be overlooked for the sake of staff and for the future of remote IT support as well.


Prepare for the Future of IT Support

The future of IT support has a lot of hurdles to jump over in the coming years but any organization that can follow the above guides should expect to remain a competitive and thriving business down the line. Contact us today for a comprehensive review of your businesses’ IT practices and how and where they can be improved. We will work with you to not only have your business operating in it’s most efficient state but also it’s most secure state.