Complete guide to IT operations management (ITOM)

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Aug 19, 202413 MINS READ

Providing reliable and consistent IT service delivery for users on the front end always begins with your efforts to improve operations on the back end. IT operations management (ITOM) emphasizes the optimization of back-end processes, ensuring that technical teams have the tools needed to perform their duties, a structured set of practices in place to guide their actions, and a sound understanding of how their technical infrastructure is connected.

As IT environments become increasingly complex, spread out across various physical locations, digital channels, and the cloud, ITOM has become more important than ever before in ensuring that all technical components continually operate in harmony.

Tag along as we breakdown why IT operations management is so important in the modern digital age and how to verify that your approach is best serving your customers and contributing to broader organizational goals. 

What is ITOM (IT Operations Management)?

IITOM acts as an IT service management (ITSM) framework that encompasses the administration of an organization's technology infrastructure and its operational processes. This typically involves the monitoring, control, and optimization of all technical resources, including hardware, software, networks, and data centers. The primary goal of ITOM is to ensure the seamless functioning of IT services by overseeing key aspects such as performance, availability, and capacity. 

Key functions of IT operations management

From managing devices and services to automating critical processes, ITOM incorporates a range of essential functions that help businesses optimize their technological operations. By understanding these core capabilities, businesses can better leverage the framework to reduce operational costs, enhance service reliability, and improve overall IT performance.

Network infrastructure management

ITOM tools can track the performance, availability, and security of network devices such as routers, switches, and servers, ensuring that they’re functioning optimally. They continuously gather data about network traffic, usage patterns, and potential bottlenecks, allowing IT teams to detect and address issues before they escalate into significant disruptions.

Furthermore, ITOM enhances network security by monitoring anomalies and potential security threats in real-time. It allows companies to implement proactive measures to safeguard their networks, such as automated alerts for unusual activity, traffic spikes, or unauthorized access attempts.

Help desk management

One of the main functionalities of ITOM in a help desk system is its ability to automate ticket assignment based on predefined rules, ensuring that each request is directed to the most appropriate team or individual. This reduces manual intervention and eliminates delays in responding to support inquiries.

Another key advantage of operations management in help desk environments is its capability to integrate with ticketing systems, giving support teams access to detailed insights about incidents, configurations, and past service requests. This function enables the desk to troubleshoot issues more accurately and provide solutions based on comprehensive data.

Server/device management

Through ITOM, companies can maintain a comprehensive inventory of devices, applications, and services, verifying that all assets are properly tracked and managed throughout their lifecycle. This includes automating tasks like software updates, configuration changes, and patch management, which minimizes the manual effort required and reduces the risk of inconsistencies.

It also simplifies the management of service-level agreements (SLAs) by providing tools to define, track, and enforce performance benchmarks across different services and devices. With ITOM’s asset and configuration management capabilities, organizations can ensure that all resources are functioning within agreed-upon parameters, helping to prevent potential service disruptions.

Common IT operations management  functions

Managed IT Operations is broad enough in scope to cover a business’s entire IT environment, while still being flexible enough to hone in on specific initiatives. How your organization decides to utilize it will depend on the specific challenges that you face; though, in general, common ITOM functionalities include:

Predict Issues

By continuously monitoring system performance and analyzing historical data, ITOM tools can detect patterns that may indicate impending problems. For example, an unusually high CPU usage over a consistent period might predict a potential system overload. By employing machine learning algorithms, ITOM can analyze vast amounts of data to predict issues like hardware failures and application performance degradation. 

Minimize user impact

Utilizing ITOM’s automated monitoring tools empowers organizations to detect issues in real-time and trigger immediate responses. Automated ticketing systems generate alerts and create support tickets as soon as anomalies are detected, which are then routed to the appropriate IT teams for quick resolution.

Change management within ITOM is another critical area that helps minimize user impact. Implementing changes in the IT environment can pose significant risks if not managed properly. ITOM tools automate the change management process by scheduling changes during low-impact periods, such as maintenance windows, to minimize potential disruptions.

Deliver DevOps

One of the key aspects of DevOps is the seamless integration of development, testing, and deployment processes. ITOM tools support this integration by providing a unified platform where both development and operations can collaborate. These resources offer automated workflows that streamline the process of code deployment, infrastructure provisioning, and configuration management. 

By expediting these processes, ITOM reduces the potential for errors, speeds up deployment times, and ensures that applications move from development to production smoothly.

Automate workflows

Automated ticketing systems can detect issues and generate tickets without human intervention, ensuring that problems are promptly addressed. These systems also typically prioritize and route tickets based on predefined criteria, such as the severity of the incident or the affected services. 

Configuration management is another area where ITOM excels in workflow automation. Keeping a real-time inventory of IT assets is essential for maintaining operational efficiency and compliance. Automation tools can continuously update configuration management databases (CMDBs) with new assets and changes to existing ones.

Connect Data

A core functionality of ITOM is to aggregate data from various sources within the IT environment, such as servers, networks, and applications. This unified approach provides companies with a comprehensive view of their entire technical landscape.

Furthermore, CMDBs serve as repositories for storing information about IT assets and their relationships. ITOM tools automatically update the CMDB with real-time data on hardware, software, and other components. This dynamic inventory of IT assets provides a single source of truth for technical operations, helping teams understand how different components interact and depend on each other.

ITOM vs ITSM key differences

IT service management (ITSM) and ITOM are both critical components of an organization's IT strategy, but they focus on different aspects of technical management.

ITSM primarily deals with the delivery and management of IT services to end-users based on best practices, typically outlined in frameworks like IT infrastructure library (ITIL). It encompasses processes such as service transition, problem management, and service request management. Its goal is to ensure that IT services meet the needs of a business and its users, emphasizing service quality and process efficiency.

On the other hand, ITOM focuses on the administrative and technical aspects of managing IT operations. It involves the administration of assets, such as servers, networks, and storage, and consists of activities like performance monitoring and capacity planning.

While ITSM is concerned with the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of service delivery, ITOM is focused on the ‘where’ and ‘how well’ of the underlying technology. Essentially, ITOM ensures that IT infrastructure is running efficiently and securely, providing the necessary foundation for ITSM processes to function effectively.

Benefits of IT operations management

An effective ITOM approach can offer companies a plethora of benefits that promote an optimized and secure technological infrastructure. It’s important to first identify unique IT pain points and goals to determine how the framework can best serve your business’s needs.

Benefits of IT operations management

An effective ITOM approach can offer companies a plethora of benefits that promote an optimized and secure technological infrastructure. It’s important to first identify unique IT pain points and goals to determine how the framework can best serve your business’s needs.

Centralization

By consolidating IT operations, companies are provided with a unified view of their technical architecture, which helps facilitate improved oversight. This integration allows IT operations teams to manage resources and monitor performance from a single, centralized platform, rather than dealing with disparate systems. As a result, IT operations management promotes a holistic understanding of IT environments, ensuring consistency in configurations, policies, and security measures.

Scalability 

Scalability is vital for IT organizations with evolving business needs that strive to avoid compromising their service quality. ITOM practices assist in these efforts by automating repetitive tasks and standardizing processes. AI-powered tools offered through ITOM can reduce the manual effort required to deploy new servers, configure networks, or update software, allowing businesses to quickly adapt to changing requirements without significant downtime.

Risk reduction

The comprehensive overview offered through ITOM provides companies with enhanced visibility into their IT assets. This centralized monitoring allows for real-time tracking of system performance, enabling IT teams to detect potential issues early.

Furthermore, ITOM supports risk reduction by ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements. These solutions often include features for tracking compliance status and generating reports, making it easier for businesses to demonstrate adherence to regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS.

Enhanced service delivery

Managed IT operations encourage continuous improvement in service delivery by providing valuable insights through its reporting features. By analyzing data collected from various IT operations, companies can identify trends, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement. This data-driven approach empowers IT teams to make informed decisions about resource allocation, process optimizations, and more. For instance, by understanding usage patterns, organizations can leverage resources more effectively to meet peak demands and improve service levels.

Increase compliance and security

Sound ITOM blueprints typically include rapid incident response and recovery measures, which are crucial for minimizing the impact of security breaches. These solutions can provide real-time alerts and detailed logs that help IT teams quickly respond to security incidents. With automated incident management workflows, ITOM can streamline the process of detecting and mitigating threats, ensuring that security incidents are resolved promptly. This not only reduces the potential damage from breaches but also ensures that companies can quickly resume normal operations.

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ITOM best practices

To truly harness the power of ITOM and ensure you're not just meeting but exceeding expectations with its upgrades, consider these essential strategies:

  • Align IT goals with business objectives: By ensuring IT strategies are aligned with wider business goals, organizations can avoid miscommunication and misdirection. It’s all about creating a symbiotic relationship where IT initiatives drive business growth, and in turn, the business supports IT innovations.

  • Embrace automation: In a world where speed, efficiency, and accuracy are paramount, relying solely on manual processes is a recipe for lag and error. Automation in ITOM doesn’t just mean faster results; it's about consistency, reliability, and freeing up human resources for tasks that demand creativity and problem-solving.

  • Prioritize security and compliance: Innovation shouldn’t come at the expense of security. As IT landscapes become more complex, the risks associated grow in tandem. Prioritizing security means ensuring every new application, tool, or process is vetted, safe, and compliant with industry standards. It’s about proactively defending your IT resources while you continue to build and expand it.

  • Foster continuous learning and adaptation within your IT team: The tech world is ever-evolving, and what’s considered on-par today may be obsolete tomorrow. Cultivating a culture of continuous learning ensures your team remains at the forefront of these changes. Encourage them to attend workshops, certifications, or even just regular brainstorming sessions. When your team grows, your IT operations flourish.

By integrating these practices into your ITOM strategy, you're setting the stage for operational excellence, sustained growth, and innovation. Remember, it's not just about managing operations but elevating them.

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Challenges in IT operations management

Throughout your use of ITOM technology and frameworks, you may run into occasional difficulties in different areas of your game plan. Fortunately, with a little bit of teamwork, proactive planning, and creative thinking, many of these potential challenges can be easily overcome, possibly even leaving your organization stronger for the experience. After all, as they say, “adversity is preparation for greatness."

Integrating legacy systems

Connecting with legacy systems may be difficult when implementing IT operations management practices due to their outdated architectures and lack of standardization. Legacy systems often rely on proprietary technologies and custom interfaces, making them incompatible with modern ITOM tools. Data integration is a primary challenge, as legacy systems may store data in disparate formats and locations, creating difficulties in aggregating information.

To alleviate these concerns, organizations can adopt several strategies. One popular approach is to invest in modernization initiatives to update legacy systems when feasible. This might involve refactoring applications, migrating data to modern platforms, or implementing middleware solutions. By modernizing these systems, businesses can improve their interoperability, scalability, and agility, making them more compatible with ITOM practices.

Security in a dynamic environment

In dynamic environments characterized by frequent changes, maintaining control over security configurations and access permissions can be challenging. Rapid provisioning and decommissioning of resources can lead to misconfigurations, increasing the risk of security breaches and compliance violations.

To remedy this, companies should implement a defense-in-depth approach that incorporates multiple layers of security safeguards. This includes deploying network segmentation, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems to create security zones and enforce access controls. Additionally, implementing encryption, data masking, and tokenization techniques can help protect data both in transit and at rest, further reducing the risk of data breaches.

Cost management and ROI realization

Leveraging ITOM initiatives often require substantial upfront investments in infrastructure, tools, and personnel training. Businesses may experience difficulties in accurately estimating the total cost of ownership (TCO) and ongoing operational expenses associated with ITOM solutions. Initial implementation may also involve complex licensing models and hidden costs, making it challenging to accurately predict expenses.

It’s recommended that organizations conduct thorough cost-benefit analyses and ROI assessments to evaluate potential ITOM technology and investments. Furthermore, employing cost optimization strategies such as workload consolidation, resource pooling, and cloud migration can help reduce infrastructure costs and enhance cost efficiency. 

Leveraging automation

Integrating automation tools with existing infrastructure may require developing custom scripts to bridge compatibility gaps. Additionally, ensuring the coordination of automated workflows across different systems can be difficult, especially in dynamic and hybrid cloud environments.

To assist in these efforts, companies should adopt a phased approach that starts with automating low-risk, high-volume tasks and gradually expands over time. Prioritize initiatives based on their potential impact on efficiency and risk reduction, focusing on time-consuming tasks that can be easily standardized. It’s also vital to invest in sufficient training of IT staff to develop their expertise with AI-based tools, enabling them to implement automated workflows effectively. 

ITOM best practices

While ITOM frameworks provide a reliable foundation to build upon, it’ll be up to organizational leaders to ensure that best practices are employed to maximize their potential. A competent ITOM game plan typically involves extensive monitoring measures, task automation, incident response protocols, and more.

  • Implement monitoring tools: Deploy comprehensive tracking tools to monitor the availability and health of IT services in real-time

  • Automate routine tasks: Utilize AI-driven features to expedite repetitive tasks such as system updates, data backups, and IT patch management

  • Ensure scalability and flexibility: Design IT systems with scalability and flexibility in mind, allowing them to accommodate growth and adapt to changing business requirements

  • Implement disaster recovery plans: Develop robust disaster recovery and business continuity procedures to mitigate the impact of hardware failures, cybersecurity attacks, or natural disasters

  • Continuously monitor performance: Regularly analyze the performance of IT applications, identifying bottlenecks and optimizing resources to enhance user experience (UX)

Accelerating business growth with ITOM

To truly appreciate the gravity of IT operations management potential for your business services, let's walk through a scenario:

Retail's digital makeover

Suppose that a mid-sized retail chain aspires to enhance its customer experience (CX) and streamline its operations.

The retailer starts its digital makeover by adopting a cloud-first strategy, moving its on-premises infrastructure to a scalable cloud computing platform. By employing IT operations management best practices and solutions, it’s provided with comprehensive monitoring capabilities that promote seamless migration and ongoing optimization. The business can automate the deployment and scaling of its e-commerce platform as well, ensuring high performance even during peak shopping periods.

Next, the chain leverages IT operations management tools to integrate AI-driven insights into its operations. By implementing automation tools, the retailer can analyze vast amounts of data generated by its sales channels, inventory systems, and customer interactions. This enables it to predict demand trends, optimize inventory levels, and personalize customer experiences. For instance, these analytics can identify which products are likely to be popular in different regions, allowing the company to stock stores accordingly.

Finally, ITOM’s automated incident management verifies that any IT issues affecting point-of-sale (POS) systems or online storefronts are quickly detected and resolved. The retailer can also utilize specialized tools to enable remote management of in-store Internet of Things (IoT) devices, ensuring that they operate efficiently and contribute to an interactive shopping environment.

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Harness the power of ITOM with Freshservice

Freshworks’ Freshservice serves as the premier ITSM software available to businesses today, delivering robust ITOM, IT asset management (ITAM), and ITIL capabilities.

By employing Freshservice’s change management tool, IT teams can implement well-governed change control processes that allow for standardization and automation, while its service health monitoring assists in spotting root causes and prioritizing incidents based on user impact. Additional features include alert management, cloud management, IT modernization, and more, helping optimize your IT services in all areas of operation.

But don’t just take it from us; satisfied client Aaron C. extols Freshservice’s comprehensiveness and automation capacity, saying, “It's not JUST a ticket queue. Compared to the industry heavy-hitter, Zendesk, Freshservice features lots of powerful automation that can cut the busywork out of a technician's day. The idea of a single pane-of-glass for break/fix, projects, hardware and software inventory, and knowledge base, coupled with these time-saving automation, was too compelling for our org to pass up.”

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What is the difference between ITSM and ITOM?

ITSM primarily deals with the delivery and management of IT services to end-users, while ITOM focuses on the administrative and technical aspects of managing IT operations. Essentially, ITOM ensures that IT infrastructure is running efficiently and securely, providing the necessary foundation for ITSM processes to function effectively.

What is an example of ITOM?

Imagine that a large financial services company needs to ensure the high availability and security of its IT infrastructure to support its online banking platforms. It might adopt an IT operations management solution to monitor and manage its complex IT environment, which includes data centers, cloud services, network devices, and application management.

What is included in ITOM?

Key components of IT operations management include infrastructure monitoring, problem management, change management, configuration management, and much more. IT operations management integrates these various components to ensure the efficient and secure operation of an organization's IT services.

What IT roles work in ITOM?

Team members that might contribute to ITOM efforts include IT operations managers, system administrators, network engineers, and IT service desk analysts. Together, these employees ensure that IT operations run smoothly and remain aligned with business objectives.

More Resources

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