choosing the right itsm tool · choosing the right itsm tool presented at ‘itsm: attack your...

Worcester Polytechnic

InstituteInformation Technology Services

Choosing The RightITSM Tool

Presented at

‘ITSM: Attack Your Incident Management Challenges With the Right Tools and Strategies!’, NERCOMP, September 25, 2019

Chris Chagnon

[email protected]

@chag0n

Kevin Wheeler

[email protected]

@nivek71



Agenda

Discovering (and Defining) Your Needs

Playing the Field

Settling Down

Committing

1

2

3

4

Choosing an

ITSM Tool is like

dating software!



Discovering & DefiningYour needs

Part 1



Discovering Your needs

• Before you can choose the right tool you need to establish business requirements.

A journey of self-

discovery.

Hello self!



Who Will Be Using the tool?

• How many technicians will need to use the tool?

• How many end-users will need to use the tool?

• What licensing models do the vendors have?

Unfortunately for you

all, the good joke

module was a more

expensive license



How Will Users Access the tool?

• Web vs Desktop?

• MacOS, PC, Linux?

• Mobile?

I prefer a tool that’s

only accessible via

terminal in Linux



What does your budget look like?

• Implementation Costs

• Tool Costs

• Licensing Model

• Initial Purchase, plus ongoing maintenance

INTROs Budget



How many Resources do you have?

• Initial implementation

• Ongoing development

• Configuration and buildout

• Do you need to hire? Is Pro-Dev available?

I’m a team of one.

But with my stress

eating there’s a lot of

opportunity for

growth!



Do You Have a Hosting Preference?

• On Premise, self-hosted

• SaaS

• PaaS

• Vendor Managed

I went to the cloud

once. Turns out it’s a

server farm in

Arizona.



What ITSM Processes do you Use?

• What do you use currently?

• What will you want to use?

• Incident, Requests, Change, Problem, CMDB, Release, etc.

Always happy to be

a problem!

Never Change.



What will Integrate?

• What systems do you need to integrate with?

• ERP, Asset Tracking, Facilities, HRCM

• Does the tool have an API?

{{ Insert joke about

API}}



What Are Your Major Pain Points

• If you have an existing system, what are your major frustrations?

• If you don’t, • What processes take the longest?

• What would you like to track and report on?

• What are your processes like? • You cant automate what you haven’t defined.

• Do you need a process consultant first?

I miss the fragrant

scent of paper

tickets.



Do you Have Security/Compliance needs?

• Do you need to partition access?

• Will there be PII?

• What regulations and laws do you need to follow? (HIPPA / FERPA)

• What about A11Y, WCAG, and Accessibility requirements?

• Do you need Encryption?

INTRO Pro Tip:

Make sure that you

and the vendor are

on the same page

about the definitions

of these.



What is your Climate like?

• Do you have top-down buy-in?

• Executive sponsorship?

• How ready is your team? Department? Organization? Users?

• Are people trained / certified in ITIL or ITSM?

I Prefer a sunny

climate!



Self-discovery Questionnaire

o Who Will Be Using The Tool?

o How Will Users Access The Tool?

o What Does Your Budget Look Like?

o How Many Resources Do You Have?

o Do You Have A Hosting Preference?

o What ITSM Processes Do You Use?

o What Will Integrate?

o What Are Your Major Pain Points?

o Do you have Security/Compliance needs?

o What is your climate like?



Putting it all together

• Combine all of your needs into a spreadsheet or document.

• We built one with 400 features and attributes and separated them by process, and vendor.

• You don’t need to do that.

• But you could!



Playing the FieldPart 2



Finding Eligible Vendors

• There are SO many vendors that create ITSM tools.

• Tools range from boutique and niche players, to mid-range beasts of burden, all the way to monolithic tools that do everything and then some.

• Use Gartner, Forrester, and other analysts to figure out which tools are worth a look.

• At this stage don’t be afraid to try some new things.

• The big analysts might not know everyone yet

Swipe Right for

ITSM!



Getting to Know You

• You can fill out vendor contact / sales forms

• Conferences are a huge bang-for-your-buck to meet most vendors in one place.

• Get the right people in the room.

• Sales presentations are okay if you’re new.

• But hands on demos are better

This process is very

similar to what

happens with

moths and

lightbulbs



Settling DownPart 3



Taking thing to the next level

• You’ll start to get an idea of which 3 or 4 vendors mesh best with your needs.

• Send them your spreadsheet and make them fill it out. (Supports OOTB, can be configured, additional cost, not supported)

• Schedule hands on demos and get as many users in front of it as you can.

• Don’t rush this phase.

Vendors will lie to

you.

For legal reasons…I

meant to say…

SOME Vendors MAY

“stretch the truth”



The right fit

• Functionality and design are huge.

• Affordability, supportability, and long term also matter.

• Budget (to us) was important at the end game, but we didn’t bring it up early on.

• Implementation costs were a huge factor.

• Beware Add-ons and modules and upsells

• Licensing can impact operations and expandability.

At this point many

vendors bought us

lunch.

I LOVE LUNCH



CommittingPart 4



Saying I Do

• Compile all of the data, and find what makes the best fit.

• This is best with a small core team.

• Once you’ve chosen, the other Vendors won’t take it well.

• We got some MUCH better pricing, free service offers, etc when we broke up with our finalists.

• Its up to you whether those offers are tempting enough.

Moths? Maybe it

was more like

sharks in a sea of

chum.

I LOVE CHUM



Sign the dotted line

• Get EVERYTHING in writing.

• Make sure you understand escalators, and increases, data ownership, and beyond.

• Prepare and align a SoW if you are having implementation services.

The real contract

was the friends we

made along the way



The Honeymoon Period

• You have a system. You’re happy. They’re happy.

• Now get to work!

• Create a training and implementation plan and timeline.

• A well trained team will make the process easier.

I reserve the right to

remain untrained

and still complain!



Questions?End

choosing the right itsm tool · choosing the right itsm tool presented at ‘itsm: attack your...

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