IT Service Management – a gaze into the Future

A gaze into the future. That sounds exciting in terms of prospects and frightening given the expectation. We seem to be advancing at an incredible speed with technology spearheading and impacting our lives in ways we would have imagined, and that realized sooner than expected. The reality is the frightening aspect because of the sheer pace and the gap that stems from our preparation. According to Gartner’s prediction for 2016, some interesting insights that probably upped the ante would be

·               By 2018, 6 billion connected things will be requesting support.

·               In Gartner's IoT forecast, by 2020, more than 35 billion things will be connected to the Internet 

·               In 2016 spending on new Internet of things (IoT) hardware will exceed $2.5 million a minute. by 2021, 1 million IoT devices will be purchased and installed every single hour. 

Of course, we expect smartness not just from people but in the products made by the people. When a solution is proposed, pay attention and give equal weightage to the service aspect as well.   Going by the stats presented, there is going to an increased dependence on human intervention, the algorithm and artificial intelligence in place notwithstanding.

·               We also estimate that 47% of devices will have the necessary intelligence to request support. Things everywhere, from connected vehicle engines to connected prostheses, will be requesting support from humans and human-managed businesses.

The stress on system and humans is significant to assess the way things will turnaround tomorrow. And that suggests the need of qualified professionals in ITSM. If the numbers in the stats are mind boggling, think about the demand that will be generated as a result and in terms of readiness what it takes to be prepared to face the challenges ahead. Last of all it should not end in a number crunch falling short on headcount. Looking yonder, specialization and skills in service management will prove crucial and critical.

The advice to aspirants, especially those engaged in handling and managing of IT systems must step out of the comfort zone and step up their credentials, wherein training and certification will establish credibility. ITIL and COBIT come across as commendable certification that should bolster your candidature.  The digital divide is blurred and soon the switch to digital is expected to be complete attributing to the spike in the number presented. ‘47% of devices will have the necessary intelligence’ is a whopping number. Skilled professionals are clearly the order of the day. The support mechanism will be ramped up strategically so as to speed up service request, which calls for an innovative approach and solutions to enhance efficiency and improve request-response time.  

So it’s going to be Digital Business all the way going forward. So pay due diligence to yours and organization’s preparedness by anticipating changes and geared up face ensuing challenges.  Its definitely unprecedented to read news like ‘By 2018, 2 million employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a condition of employment.’ From a service perspective, for the system to be up and running, downtime is just unthinkable and SLAs charted will determine the uptime expected, which should be '200%'. So where are we heading? And how are we placed should the prediction come true? It might be baffling but to disbelieve would be disastrous.  It’s a clear indicator that systems would go up and so will the coordination to streamline. IT Services would hold a prominent portfolio. And if you are service personnel, its time to roll up your sleeves and start preparing to face tomorrow.