Public authorities can go beyond IT service management to provide more benefits to internal and external customers from one common core, writes Phil Rawlinson, managing director of AlfaPeople.
ITIL has become a regular feature of IT service management in the public sector, providing a set of detailed practices to align it with the organisation’s needs. But there is the potential to achieve much more by stepping up into modern enterprise service management (MESM).
MESM is a way of looking at IT service management within end-to end operations and communications, from ITIL and citizen relationship management to development and service delivery, project management, social engagement and beyond.
Service management can be immediately turbo-charged by harnessing the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform – and cost-effectively if your organisation already uses the platform for citizen services. The familiar CRM platform instantly adds a new dimension to managing IT with a suite of integrated applications that provide a view of core processes, supporting the flow of information between departments and helping them to coordinate activities. This places MESM at the core of digital transformation efforts.
The key feature is that the platform does what is expected of a good CRM system: providing a means to communicate with customers through a range of channels; building a picture of their interactions with the support team; and providing the workflow function to ensure they receive the required support efficiently and effectively.
This combines with the Microsoft Operations Management Suite and our Provance IT service management package to provide an effective service for internal and external customers of the IT team.
Revenue source
It effectively supports the ambitions of some public authorities to provide a shared IT service management for others, opening up a possible source of revenue and contributing to the efficiency of the public sector as a whole.
AlfaPeople, a specialist in applying MESM through Microsoft Dynamics 365, has identified four key pillars for a successful solution. The first is to think beyond traditional service management and follow the user journey from first contact to action, communication and service management.
Secondly, it should be able to leverage an omni-channel approach, combining communications from customers and users via different channels into a unified data source, underpinning operations and providing a true single view of the customer.
This applies not only to traditional channels such as email, webchat or text message, but also to new alternatives such as Azure and the Dynamics Operations Management Suite – which can proactively discover devices, log information and notify the technical service delivery teams that there is a potential issue.
Innovation factor
Thirdly, it should encourage organisations to take advantage of innovation, keeping up with the rate of progress in our digital world and managing change at a rapid, cost-effective pace that empowers users. This is made possible by the inbuilt flexibility of Dynamics 365, which enables new developments to be integrated while users continue to work on the single platform to which they are accustomed.
Finally, it should be ready to provide users with meaningful insights, both operational and predictive, to support their decisions on where to allocate resources and future planning. Tools such as Microsoft Power BI and Azure Analytics integrate easily into the platform and can provide the basis for performance analysis to lay the ground for innovation and improvements. Meanwhile the Provance ITSM within Microsoft Dynamics 365 produces 11 dashboards for each stage of the PinkVERIFY assessment process.
The public sector needs an approach to service management that extends investments in existing platforms and empowers employees. Using your core Dynamics 365 platform to develop next generation, modern enterprise service management does just that.
There are major opportunities for public sector organisation in MESM. Learn more by:
- Joining AlfaPeople at a brunch briefing on 22 June in London
- Downloading the white paper below