Enterprise software sales representatives are profiting from companies that believe purchasing expensive platforms resolves organizational inefficiencies. Half of the ITSM implementations out there are disasters waiting to happen, and the vendors continue to sell the same ineffective solutions to the next batch of people.
Take the IT director at a mid-sized manufacturer who dropped 60 grand on a “best-in-class” ticketing system last year. Six months later, his users were sneaking around the system by texting technicians directly because filling out the forms took longer than walking down the hall. Response times went from two hours to two days overnight.
The problem? He automated his broken processes instead of fixing them first. Now, he’s got expensive digital garbage instead of cheap manual garbage.
Why IT service management fails when done backwards
Consultants love selling ITSM frameworks because they sound important and are expensive. ITIL certification courses, process workshops, change advisory boards – it’s all billable hours for fixing problems that shouldn’t exist.
Most IT departments run like volunteer fire departments. Everything’s an emergency, nobody documents anything, and the guy who knows how the ancient ERP system works is three months from retirement. Slapping a formal process on top of that mess just makes the dysfunction more expensive.
The companies that get this right treat IT Service Management (ITSM) like running a restaurant kitchen. Orders come in, get prepped by the right cook, and go out fast. No drama, no heroics, just consistent execution.
The hidden cost of bad implementations
Poorly designed ticketing systems turn simple requests into bureaucratic nightmares. Users fill out 12-field forms to get a mouse replaced. Technicians spend more time updating ticket statuses than fixing problems. Managers receive dashboards full of meaningless charts that make everything appear fine, while the building burns down.
Training budgets get slashed because “it’s just software,” so nobody understands why clicking 17 buttons to close a ticket makes any sense. Users revolt, technicians circumvent the system, and six months later, everyone pretends the old way was better.
How ticketing systems should support service delivery
The best ticketing systems are boring. Users submit stuff, technicians fix stuff, and everyone goes home on time. No fancy dashboards, no complex approval workflows, no integration projects that take eight months to deliver nothing useful.
Smart IT departments buy simple tools and utilize them effectively, rather than complex platforms they struggle to understand. A basic ticketing system that everyone uses is preferable to an enterprise solution that sits empty.
Features that make or break user adoption
Self-service portals are effective when they resolve issues more quickly than calling the help desk. Password resets should take 30 seconds, not 30 minutes of form-filling. If users can’t figure out how to request something in under two minutes, the design is broken.
Mobile apps matter because nobody wants to fire up a laptop to report that the printer is jammed. The systems that are often overlooked are those that require desktop browsers and Java plugins.
API integrations sound great in sales demos, but turn into expensive customization projects that break every time something gets updated. Sometimes the simple approach of copying and pasting between systems works better than the “elegant” solution.
Getting implementation right from day one
Skip the consultants and figure out what’s broken internally first. Map your current processes, time how long things take, and ask users what drives them crazy. Most problems are obvious once someone bothers to look.
Pilot programs with friendly departments reveal problems while you can still fix them cheaply. Rolling out half-baked systems company-wide because the contract starts January 1st is how you end up with expensive disasters.
Measuring what matters to users
Forget the ITIL metrics and track what people care about: how long they wait for help and whether their problems get solved. When users stop complaining and start saying good things about IT, the system works.
