Efecte was recently involved in a German study about Enterprise Service Management (ESM). This study investigates how companies from the DACH-region, i.e. Germany, Austria and Switzerland, manage their IT services, and in particular, other services such as HR and financial services, or customer service. The study was carried out by the German magazines CIO and Computerwoche together with sponsors including Efecte. The results of the study confirm my assumptions about the current state of ESM adoption, but also contain some surprises when you look at things from a Nordic perspective.
The study reveals that the IT department is clearly seen as the driver for Enterprise Service Management projects. Therefore, as was also stated in an earlier whitepaper by my colleague Florian Hennhöfer, ESM offers the IT department great potential to become a true business partner for all functions of an organization. Beyond traditional IT Service Management, the study revealed that the most typical Enterprise Service Management scenario is IT security management. 46% of the study respondents say that they have “ITSM-like” standardized and automated processes in place for managing IT security. The runners up in ESM application popularity were customer service management, technical services management, facility management and management of HR services.
Interestingly, the main drivers for the use of ITSM and ESM solutions in German companies are the optimization of processes and cost reduction. Based on that, one could make the conclusion that ITSM and ESM are still seen as a means to “keep the lights on”, instead of growing business or innovating something new. Higher quality of services comes in third, closely followed by customer and employee satisfaction. In the more disruptive end of the spectrum, 22% of the respondents feel that they can drive digital transformation with ITSM and ESM tools and best practices. We at Efecte believe that this is the agenda that will gain more popularity in the coming years. Thinking of digitizing operations and fully digitalizing entire businesses, what would be more important than that the processes behind digital services are clearly defined, that routine tasks are automated to the fullest, and that you have flexible tools to support this development?
DACH-based organizations and especially German companies have typically been more cautious in moving their IT solutions to the cloud than their peers in the Nordics. However, only 22% of the 370 German, Austrian and Swiss companies that responded to the study said that their ITSM or ESM solution is still entirely on-premises, i.e. installed locally. That means that already almost 80% of the respondents are running their solution in the cloud or have a hybrid approach. This level of cloud-readiness was, of course, a delightful finding to a cloud-based software vendor like Efecte.
Efecte has noticeable ITSM and ESM experience from the Nordics and we are swiftly gaining foothold in the German-speaking market, too. One example of our customers in Germany is mobilcom-debitel, who utilize our solution to manage their services and IT assets. The value of organization-wide Enterprise Service Management has also recently been showcased by Efecte’s customer Alko. This Finnish alcohol retailer brought the topic of service management and related process automation directly to its leadership team, which resulted in a holistic view of all services – both internal and external. Based on that, the company could choose a solution and start development from a standpoint that most enterprise services could be delivered and managed through the same system and end-user tools.
If you would like to hear more about Efecte’s solutions for Enterprise Service Management or get your copy of the study (in German only), please do not hesitate to contact us.
