IT Service Management is the new Rock and Roll!

Now how do you play this thing again?...

IT Service Management is the NEW ROCK AND ROLL! Sounds cool doesn’t it? I’ve always wanted to be in a band, tour the world, receive endless adulation from my legions of fans, and finally I can achieve this through IT Service Management! OK maybe not. IT Service Management is not quite as cool as that, and it is most definitely not the new rock and roll. However, as IT Service Management professionals we are in danger of making the same mistakes that the music industry has made over the past 15 years, and all because of two words – Social Media. Let me elaborate…

A few weeks back I attended the Service Desk and IT Support Show at Earls Court, London. I had a great time – the event was jam-packed with demos from ITSM toolset vendors, interesting presentations from ITSM professionals, and panel discussions involving some of the most highly regarded ITSM experts in the industry. Social Media was of course a big topic for discussion in a lot of these sessions, and the discussions tended to focus on ‘what is it?’ and ‘what does it mean for IT?’. By the end of my 2 days it had become apparent that Social Media has split the IT Service Management world into two camps. The first camp is one that views the rise of Social Media as something to be weary of – it cannot be controlled and doesn’t fit into the IT Service Management world as we know it, and hopefully it’s just a passing fad that will go away soon. The second camp views Social Media as something that should be embraced – we need to pay close attention to it and how people are using it, and work out how to support it within the business.

Here’s my view. The rise of Social Media and its impact on our society cannot be ignored. It represents a fundamental step-change in communication behaviours and attitudes, allowing a plethora of ways to share information about ourselves and the world around us. The kids of today (i.e. our IT consumers of tomorrow) are more literate with Social Media than most grown-ups could ever wish to be. Social Media is not a fad, it is here to stay, and we need to understand and embrace it! Yes clearly I am in the second camp…

So, here’s where the rock and roll bit comes in. We have seen a disruption very similar to this towards the end of the 90s with the emergence of filesharing networks – all of a sudden people had access to free (albeit illegal) music or films at the click of a mouse button. The music industry split into two camps (sound familiar?) – one that tried to shut down filesharing sites and prevent people using this new technology, and the other that attempted to understand this new technology and derive value from it. Over the past 10 years the music industry has suffered massive decreases in revenues, huge drops in profits, and falling physical sales. Technology has revolutionised the way people consume music, filesharing has not gone away, and the record labels that tried to cling to the old values and close down the filesharing sites are now the ones clinging on for survival.

Now let’s come back to the dilemma about Social Media and the impact it has had on the way people use IT. You should ask yourself a simple question:

Which camp am I in?