As the world of IT continues to change and evolve, so too must the tools and processes that support it. One area that has seen significant changes in recent years is iPaaS (integration platform as a service) – an integration and automation tool. This relatively new technology is quickly gaining traction as a way to streamline IT operations and reduce costs. But what many organizations don’t realize is that iPaaS can also be used to improve IT Service Management (ITSM). In this blog post, we’ll explore how iPaaS can be used to augment ITSM processes and improve overall efficiency. So, if you’re looking for ways to take your ITSM game to the next level, read on!
Defining iPaaS and IT Service Management (ITSM)
iPaaS, or Integration Platform as a Service, is an emerging integration and automation tool gaining traction in the ITSM industry. iPaaS is a cloud-based platform that connects different systems, technologies and applications both on-premise or within the cloud. It enables companies to deploy and maintain integration flows without using middleware and specialized hardware between a company and third-party software or within an organization. It also facilitates a frictionless transfer of data between different applications, allowing businesses to streamline their workflow and improve their output.
ITSM is all of the activities carried out, planned, delivered, operated and controlled by an IT organization to provide IT services to employees and/or customers. ITSM ensures that IT services are implemented, managed and delivered in ways that meet an organization’s needs while still providing added value to employees, clients, consultants and more.
How iPaaS Helps with ITSM
IT Service Management tools can bring a wide range of capabilities and process benefits that enable teams to develop, deploy and manage IT services efficiently. iPaaS solutions leverage those same gains from ITSM tools while providing an extra layer of functionality in connecting multiple on-premise and cloud systems. Through efficient orchestration of processes, iPaaS can help with ITSM through process automation, error mitigation and enhanced visibility across multiple clouds. Moreover, with strong governance due to centralized control centers as well as API development capabilities for integrating complex applications, iPaaS can make a significant contribution to the success of an organization’s ITSM strategy.
The benefits are tenfold when you combine a no-code iPaaS solution with a codeless ITSM tool. This makes both more easily accessible across a business – meaning groups outside of IT can build integrations and automations for their own tech stacks and use their own service portal to manage project requests and deliverables. This enables Enterprise Service Management (ESM) and can be a great way to boost efficiencies and transparency across the entire organization – not just IT.
How iPaaS and ITSM Complement Each Other
The two systems can work perfectly in tandem with each other to create a comprehensive and seamless operation of everyday tasks. The combination of the two allows organizations to focus on efficiency and streamlining tasks, while also ensuring that every aspect of operations is monitored for accuracy.
This symbiotic relationship between ITSM and iPaaS systems results in the effective use of resources, increased organizational opportunities and overall better performance. Furthermore, by using both systems simultaneously, workflows can keep things running smoothly and without significant delays – improving productivity from both sides.
Overall, these two systems provide just what is needed to make any organization successful and efficient. And many organizations are seeing the benefits.
“We are starting small, hoping to use automation to take tickets and automatically deploy software to endpoints, to onboard and offboard users with Active Directory and distribution groups,” Mark Hayes, information technology leader at Pima County, said.
The county is using TeamDynamix ITSM and iPaaS together as part of a supercharged ITSM strategy.
“Prior to TeamDynamix, we didn’t have the ability to automate things and build workflows to do things that eliminate toil and redundancy for our employees,” Hayes said. “iPaaS is going to help us a lot with this and save us time.”
Better Together: iPaaS and ITSM
Integrating iPaaS and ITSM solutions can significantly improve the overall performance and reliability of any IT services. By bringing together the services associated with integration, such as data collection, message queuing, ETL processing, security protocols and more, with traditional ITSM tools used for service management and automation, organizations can deliver better quality IT services to customers.
Examples of how these two solutions can be used together include streamlining incident management processes by leveraging real-time monitoring capabilities to quickly detect issues and optimize automation activities; accurately collecting data from multiple sources to drive automated reports and service optimizations; or integrating existing applications into broad system architectures using secure APIs.
When combined, iPaaS and ITSM enable a more efficient use of resources while significantly improving the quality of IT services offered.
At Pima County, one process automation that’s saving significant time is onboarding and offboarding employees – something every organization deals with.
“You don’t need to waste so much time when it comes to onboarding,” Hayes said. “It really is such a sour experience for a new hire to come in, in this day and age, and sit around for three days waiting on their computer to show up. We need to get out of that mode and iPaaS is going to help us do that.”
Abd when it comes to offboarding Hayes said, “As a government organization we get audited by the state every year and they want to know what these stale accounts are doing sitting here. Offboarding is currently a very manual process – having to review the list from HR of people who are no longer employed with us and manually revoke their privileges from all the different systems and software and disable their accounts. There’s absolutely no reason for that to not be automated.”
The Benefits of Using iPaaS and ITSM Together
By using iPaaS and ITSM concurrently, organizations gain access to a wide range of powerful tools for streamlining IT infrastructure. Unlike ‘traditional’ integration tools, iPaaS makes it possible to connect any set of cloud, mobile, and on-premises services — from various platforms or technologies — in an easy and cost-efficient way.
When used together with ITSM software, the power of integration is further extended thanks to its efficient ticket-tracking system that can be used to monitor service delivery performance, increasing overall reliability and uptime.
Moreover, both systems allow for great scalability, which is important in a rapidly changing IT environment. Altogether, combining the capabilities of iPaaS and ITSM promises improved efficiency in operations as well as enhanced customer satisfaction.
Here are some more advantages of using ITSM and iPaaS together:
- Seamless Process Automation: iPaaS enables the integration of various applications and systems, allowing smooth automation of IT processes. By combining iPaaS with ITSM, you can automate service request fulfillment, incident management, change management and other ITSM processes. This integration streamlines workflows, reduces manual efforts and enhances operational efficiency.
- Enhanced Data and Application Integration: iPaaS facilitates the seamless exchange of data and integration of different applications within the IT ecosystem. When integrated with ITSM, iPaaS can connect service desk software, asset management systems, monitoring tools and other ITSM-related applications. This integration ensures consistent data flow, improves data accuracy and enhances the overall IT service delivery.
- Improved Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction: By leveraging iPaaS capabilities, ITSM platforms can provide enhanced service delivery to end-users. With iPaaS, you can automate incident routing, prioritize requests and ensure timely resolutions. This integration enables faster response times, efficient ticket management and improved customer satisfaction.
- Agility and Scalability: iPaaS offers flexibility and scalability to adapt to changing business needs and IT landscapes. When combined with ITSM, it allows organizations to quickly integrate new applications, services or systems into the ITSM framework. This agility enables IT departments to respond promptly to evolving business requirements and scale their service management capabilities as needed.
Overall, integrating ITSM and iPaaS on one platform enables organizations to automate processes, improve data integration, enhance service delivery and achieve higher levels of efficiency and customer satisfaction.
With iPaaS and ITSM together you can create a comprehensive system that can be used to manage all aspects of IT services. By using these two tools together, businesses can improve efficiency and quality while reducing costs. Combining iPaaS and ITSM can improve communication and coordination, reduce errors and downtime and increase your organization’s agility.
To learn more about trends in ITSM and iPaaS check out the latest market study from InformationWeek: State of IT – Resource Drain.