Top 7 integrations for your ITSM tool

Behind the scenes, nearly every major web service has an API—an “Application Programming Interface”. APIs are bits of code that allow applications to pass data/information back and forth using a system of requests and responses. From booking your flight ticket to checking the weather forecast on your phone, APIs are everywhere.

Modern cloud-based ITSM tools leverage these APIs to integrate with several other applications to talk to each other, thus creating a highly interconnected network. Integrations let your ITSM platform connect to other applications and data sources like security, HR, infrastructure monitoring tools, etc., and house them all in a single IT ecosystem.

Why do you need ITSM integrations?

Gone are the days when ITSM was limited to IT teams. Most organizations are at some stage of their digital transformation journey, more so after the global pandemic. IT service management has pivoted from being a passive service organization to an active business enabler. At this scale, it is crucial that your ITSM platforms act as the central hub for all your technology-related activities. All high-performing organizations of today are prioritizing seamless IT integrations that enable superior employee experiences. 

The two key benefits of ITSM integrations

1. Reduced manual errors: In a modern organization, important data used to support IT service management processes can be stored at multiple locations across different applications. While triaging issues and delivering services, locating the relevant data can be tedious. Integrations between your ITSM solution and other tools that are responsible for storing business unit-specific data can simplify this process. This way, all the mission-critical applications in your organization are brought under a single IT ecosystem. With such smart integrations, you also greatly reduce the risk of manual errors by your service desk teams which are prone to happen while switching between multiple app windows.

2. Increased productivity: Organizations should ensure that employees have access to all support services with just a few clicks (or taps). Consider the services required in an  employee onboarding process for example—allowing ITSM integrations with human capital management tools can streamline and automate an entire process that could otherwise take weeks. Right from provisioning hardware assets like laptops, ID cards, audio devices, and company merchandise, to application access, authorization, and access control, ITSM integrations ensure that your employees are armed with all key resources right from day one.

On the other hand, with integrations doing most of the heavy lifting, your internal service teams are left with more time on their hands to focus on important tasks. Some ITSM integrations offer end-to-end automation of workflows that span across multiple applications. All this can have an accumulated impact on your employee productivity levels.

If you want to incorporate integrations into your service desk, but are not sure where to start, here is a guide to the top 7 ITSM integrations you need:

1. Incident management: Integrate your ITSM tool with your ticketing portal/incident management tool. This helps to link a new incident with corresponding issues which helps build a stronger knowledge base and also builds a workflow for faster issue resolution. This integration also helps to automatically input important information like date, time, name of the user, associated asset(s), and a description of the issue. This helps with a systematic ticketing process and minimized the impact of issues on business.

2. Customer relationship management:  Connect your customer relationship management tool with your ITSM to resolve client issues as soon as possible. This helps customer success managers to get better visibility and hence helps clients to resolve their issues faster. Once a case is created, it can either be matched with a current one or a new one can be created. Once the details are entered, the customer success manager resolves the issue as soon as possible. Maintaining records is also an important best practice as it helps keep up transparency.

3. IT asset management: You can improve your asset management strategy with the help of integrations. Making use of a good ITAM tool helps the organization manage the inventory of hardware and software along with information about contracts and renewals. This helps to save costs and prevents shadow IT and the sub-optimal use of resources. It helps to manage SaaS licenses, the money spent as well as the renewal or redeployment of these tools.

4. IT operations management: ITOM or IT operations management entails the effective management of capacity, availability, and performance of the IT infrastructure. This includes the computing, network, and application resources. One way to integrate ITSM with ITOM is through monitoring tools. This helps manage events and happenings and also sends notifications of issues that arise before the user contacts the service desk.

5. Remote monitoring and accessibility: With this feature, experts can log into the end-user’s devices and make updates, handle troubleshooting, and also eliminate incidents before they become a bigger problem. Remote monitoring and accessibility also help to proactively manage updates for the end-users, which goes a long way in helping to avoid downtime and increase productivity.

6. Analytics and metrics: By integrating your service desk with an analytics tool, your organization can get insights and visibility into the performance. It provides detailed reports and visuals to help get a clearer understanding and thus, how can performance can be improved and how to make critical decisions. Other than just reports, you can also make integrations with employee survey software to get real-time feedback from your employees. These can give actionable insights into the actual employee experience and user satisfaction

7. Onboarding/human resources systems: A crucial part of employee experience is the onboarding process. Integrating your ITSM tool to a HCM (Human capital management) or onboarding system can help new employees have a smooth onboarding process. The tool can automate the process of providing new employees with the physical assets and software programs that they need to start work. With asset allocation and system accessibility taken care of, new employees can join their new work environment with ease. 

ITSM integrations with Freshservice

Designed to modernize your IT service management, Freshservice is a right-sized ITSM tool that fits right into your existing business ecosystem. Applications like Slack, MS Teams, Zoom, JIRA software, G Suite, and more can be seamlessly integrated with Freshservice. This not only makes day-to-day business operations easier but also, enhances business value by boosting productivity.  [Learn more about integrations on Freshservice here.

Are you curious to give Freshservice a try? You can get a free 14-day trial of this ITIL-aligned, intelligent ITSM tool. What’s more, you can sign up instantly in minutes with no credit card details required.