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Discussion topic Incident management Productivity Secrets of the IT department

Secrets of the IT department – Part 1

Like them or loathe them, all employees will need, at some point, to interact with the support services offered by the IT department. In this series of short articles, we uncover some of the secret workings of the IT department, finding out what is jargon and what is just common sense that can apply to all of us, regardless of our role, work, or profession.

Crisis, what crisis? The art of managing incidents

Incident management isn’t just industry jargon; it’s an essential process that aids organisations of all sizes swiftly and efficiently resolving unexpected issues. Picture it as the hospital A&E department for any problems that crop up, from glitches in a computer network to a broken kettle in the staff room.

What is an incident?

Simply put, an incident is an unexpected interruption or a decline in the quality of a service or process. Incidents can vary from minor inconveniences to major disruptions, impacting anything from your home Wi-Fi to a multinational firm’s data centre.

Why incident management matters

Employing a structured approach to incident management ensures that any issues are rectified in the fastest, least intrusive way possible. This not only pleases customers or employees but also preserves the organisation’s reputation while conserving time and resources.

The incident management life cycle

The life cycle of incident management typically consists of four stages:

  1. Identification – spotting the issue
  2. Classification and prioritisation – assessing its impact and urgency
  3. Investigation and diagnosis – finding out what’s wrong
  4. Response and recovery – fixing the problem and restoring normal service.

Example: The broken kettle

Picture arriving at your workplace only to discover the kettle isn’t working. In incident management, this is categorised as a low-priority incident, and someone gets tasked to sort it out.

Example: The inaccessible company website

Next, imagine if your company’s website crashes. This is a high-priority incident as without it, your company’s customers cannot buy new insurance policies or administer existing ones. A team would be hastily assembled to diagnose and remedy the problem, minimising the outage duration.

The benefits of doing this well

Implementing a top-notch incident management strategy yields many advantages:

  • Rapid recovery – effective incident management ensures that disruptions are contained quickly, limiting any negative impact on business operations.
  • Customer retention – swift resolution of issues enhances customer experience and contributes to customer loyalty.
  • Streamlined communication – a well-defined incident management process improves internal and external communication, providing timely stakeholder updates.
  • Regulatory compliance – many industries have standards for incident response times; efficient incident management helps you meet these regulations and avoid penalties.
  • Data-driven improvements – analysing past incidents can offer actionable insights that drive ongoing improvements in the IT environment and broader organisational strategy.

With excellent incident management, organisations can maintain high service quality, even when things go awry, building trust and long-term success.

Your thoughts?

Now that you’re acquainted with the fundamentals of incident management, we’re eager to hear your views. Have you ever had to manage an incident in your workplace? What approach did you take?

Does this small secret from your IT department make what they do make more sense? Does it explain why you have a good or bad impression of your IT department when you contact them for support? What do they do well? What infuriates you?

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Discussion topic Productivity

Unlock success by promoting innovative ServiceNow uses and recognising the service management heroes

You drive your organisation’s success as a dynamic team that maintains and enhances ServiceNow for IT and various other core business functions. Within your team lie the unsung heroes: developers, solution designers, product owners, architects, and other skilled professionals.


This article emphasises the importance of effectively promoting your work, showcasing the innovative uses of the ServiceNow platform in service management, and personally introducing your team members to the broader organisation. By doing so, you create awareness and recognition for your efforts while highlighting your team’s valuable contributions to delivering exceptional service management solutions.


Driving innovation and collaboration in service management

By openly sharing successful projects and enhancements, you demonstrate the ServiceNow platform’s ability to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and elevate the employee experience within service management. This motivates other teams to explore fresh possibilities and nurtures a culture where innovation and collaboration thrive, fostering an environment where ideas are exchanged, and collective growth is encouraged.

Highlighting cost savings in service management

By promoting successful projects and enhancements, you showcase the benefits of leveraging the ServiceNow platform and highlight the measurable cost savings attained. Through specific examples that illustrate the platform’s ability to automate manual tasks, optimise workflows, and reduce operational costs, your team raises awareness regarding the significant financial advantages that could be realised across other business functions through effective service management practices.

Sharing service management best practices and lessons learned

Through effective communication, your team can openly share valuable insights, best practices, and lessons learned from successful service management projects and enhancements. This knowledge-sharing approach prevents duplicated effort, expedites project delivery and ensures that the organisation benefits from the collective expertise in service management. By leveraging these shared insights, your team can continuously improve service delivery and enhance overall organisational effectiveness in service management practices.

Enhancing cross-functional collaboration in service management

By promoting your team’s accomplishments and showcasing the innovative uses of the ServiceNow platform in service management, you foster collaboration among diverse business functions. Increasing awareness of the platform’s capabilities and successful implementations inspires cross-functional teams to align their efforts and work together. This heightened collaboration improves service delivery and cultivates a sense of unity and shared purpose across the organisation’s service management endeavours, leading to enhanced outcomes and a more cohesive working environment.

Introducing team members

Besides promoting the ServiceNow platform and its innovative uses, it is important to introduce your team members to the broader organisation. Doing so creates awareness and recognition for the individuals behind the scenes who contribute to delivering effective service management solutions. This can be achieved through various engaging methods, such as short Q&A sessions or ‘Five minutes with’ discussions, providing an opportunity for a lighthearted introduction to the people in your team. Through these introductions, you highlight your team members’ key roles and expertise, fostering a greater appreciation for their work within the organisation and strengthening collaboration and understanding across teams.

Promoting platform adoption and enhancing employee satisfaction in service management

Effectively communicating successful projects and enhancements in service management significantly influences platform adoption and boosts employee satisfaction. By showcasing the advantages of the ServiceNow platform and the positive outcomes it delivers in service management, employees are encouraged to embrace and utilise its capabilities. This increased platform adoption leads to improved self-service options, reduced service response times, and enhanced employee satisfaction with service management processes. By effectively conveying the benefits of the ServiceNow platform, your team empowers employees to fully embrace it, resulting in heightened satisfaction with service management operations.


Final thoughts

The key to driving awareness, increasing collaboration, and maximising the benefits of the ServiceNow platform in service management lies in effective communication, promoting innovative platform uses, and introducing team members to the broader organisation.

Your team gains a reputation for continuous improvement, collaboration, and innovation in service management by actively showcasing successful projects, sharing best practices, and raising awareness of cost savings.

Additionally, introducing team members brings visibility to their invaluable contributions, nurturing a sense of recognition and appreciation. These collective efforts strengthen cross-functional relationships, enhance platform adoption and satisfaction, and ultimately contribute to the overall success of service management within the organisation.

Keen to learn more about how GWIT could help your team to communicate its successes? We’d love to hear from you.


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Productivity

Government departments told to find 5% budget reductions

The news this week that government departments must find 5% budget cuts, might make a good headline.

But in the context of savings from implementing digital workflows and questioning ways of working, it’s not very ambitious.

We know that a number of government departments now make use of cloud-based platforms such as ServiceNow.

But what’s not clear is whether there is a robust system for assessing whether work moved to digital platforms passes the, ‘why on earth are we doing this?’ test.

All too often at GWIT we see businesses wanting to replicate manual processes on digital systems.

We’ve always done it this way

… is a common refrain. It’s understandable because change can feel threatening. But taking such a stance is a wasted opportunity.

Implementing digital workflows is a golden opportunity to step back and reflect.

Why are we doing this?

What value does it add?

Can we automate this?

Done well this process always delivers significant productivity gains. Plus it frees people up to do more valuable work.

Culling ’10 projects’ per department is an arbitrary number. It certainly won’t be effective if the remaining projects all continue to run inefficiently.

Huge BAU productivity gains are there to be had across the public sector, from GP surgeries to government departments.

In a post-Brexit world, will there be innovation aplenty, along with better ways of working across our public services? Or just more of the same old done in a way Sir Humphrey would be proud of, but pretending to be 5% cheaper?