Ivanti announced findings of a new study which shows that nearly half (45%) of IT professionals reported doing a run-through of supporting remote workers prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. 41% of other non-IT departments also reported doing a remote work run-through.
For many organizations, this preparation has paid off. 61% of IT professionals feel they are consistently providing the same level of service working remotely and 47% said their quality of user experience has not suffered because of remote work.
These are among the findings of the Ivanti study which also assessed the value of Enterprise Service Management (ESM) tools during the recent influx of remote workers. ESM, which extends the use of IT service management (ITSM) processes to also address business-centric use cases in departments including HR, facilities and customer service, is proving to help organizations remain productive during this time of dramatic business change. The new study found that 65% of IT professionals say efficiency is ESM’s top benefit.
The cross departmental support of ESM contributes to its benefits. Nearly half (48%) of the survey respondents said ESM workflows crossed two departmental processes 25% of the time. In fact, when it comes to the number of non-IT services, workflows or requests IT helps with per quarter, respondents replied:
- 31% – said 1-2 non-IT services, workflows or requests
- 30% – said 3-5
- 17% – said 6-10
This has resulted in business departments also seeing ESM’s value, with 64% finding efficiency to be the top benefit, followed by productivity (53%), improved experience (43%) and better alignment between department and end user expectation (42%).
When asked which departments IT professionals collaborate with the most on ESM initiatives, the survey found:
- 60% – Customer Service
- 53% – HR
- 40% – Facilities
The adoption of ESM isn’t new for most organizations. According to the survey, 29% of IT professionals reported they have been working on ESM initiatives for anywhere between three and five years, 34% reported the process has taken one to two years, and 23% said less than a year.
Since implementing their ESM program or solution, IT has realized valuable benefits, including:
- 55% – process improvements
- 47% – improved IT experience
- 44% – streamlined operations
- 42% – staff productivity
- 42% – automated processes
- 41% – reporting
“By hyper-automating processes and empowering users with self-service technologies such as chat bots, ESM technology has risen to support efficiency and user productivity demands in the face of our new remote-working world,” said Ian Aitchison, senior director of product management, Ivanti. “By bridging cross-departmental workflows, ESM is not only empowering IT to be more proactive and responsive, but also helping businesses remain productive and resilient in the face of changing workplace dynamics.”
The study surveyed 385 IT professionals. Research was generated online by Ivanti during May and June of 2020.
Related News:
Remote Workers Now Being Hired from All Over the US and Around the Globe
70% of Financial Organizations are Concerned about Insider Data Theft During Remote Work
