Fostering Business Relationships: Beware of Your Shadow IT (Pt. 2 of 3)
Jared Richardson
Successfully modernizing IT service management operations is directly connected to how you’re engaging with the users who come to you with problems.
The risk of lack of engagement is already apparent through Shadow IT implementations when a business group or department acquires, builds, or implements a technology without IT’s participation.
This poses a significant security risk and creates issues of scalability and supportability since the system is standalone, not integrated and not scaling well. All of this translates to an increased volume of incidents to the service desk.
When you develop trust and build relationships with business users, they know they can come to you with questions. By having the conversation, IT helps the business understand its needs, and the solution will most likely be better overall because everyone is involved from the outset.
You simply can’t achieve success without the support and engagement of the business users, business leaders, and influencers you serve. Once identified, meet with them regularly and have clear objectives, whether through travel or in-person business productivity teams.
You’re more likely to be included in departmental decisions about new services and less likely to be supporting a Shadow IT service implementation that places your team in firefighting mode and casts doubt within the organization whether the ITSM operation is valuable and relevant to the business.
Remember that every interaction with your users is an opportunity to develop and improve relationships. Put yourself in their shoes as you evaluate each interaction they experience with the ITSM team. What little extras would enable you to have a better experience? This includes not only how users work and the services and experiences you need to build into your self-service, but also how they would prefer to engage.
Posts in this series:
