Enterprise Service Management

What is Enterprise Service Management (ESM)?

 

Ralph Bockisch
Ralph Bockisch
20.02.2020

What is Enterprise Service Management?

In short, Enterprise Service Management (ESM) means the organization and control of all processes and services in all departments within a company. This includes, for example, the hiring of new employees in the HR department, the allocation of tasks in facility management or the processing of customer inquiries in customer service.
What sounds simple at first is anything but trivial to implement. ESM is based on the idea of controlling all of the aforementioned services using a single management tool. The implementation and digitization of the different departments mean a lot of effort, but it is worth it. More than half of all German companies are aware of the advantages of a functioning ESM and therefore plan to introduce it in the coming years. But how did Enterprise Service Management come about and how exactly does it work?

How did ESM come about and how does it work?

Originally, service management was mainly in IT. The so-called IT Service Management (ITSM) included the central organization of the processes and thus ensured a higher use of resources. Using a catalog of requirements, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), the ITSM has been adapted and expanded across industries over the years, increasing its effectiveness more and more. In the course of time the question arose as to why only IT processes should be standardized. Why could not other areas of the company also benefit from the advantages of process optimization? This is how the idea of Enterprise Service Management came about..

The idea and the functioning of the ESM are defined by the service lifecycle. This includes five phases:

  1. The service strategy: In the first phase, the strategy with which the service is to be implemented is determined. Factors to be considered are the customer needs, strengths and weaknesses of the company and the technical setup.
  2. The service design: In the second step is considered, on the one hand, which results the service management should bring, and on the other hand, how the service offering can be implemented.
  3. The service creation: In the next step, what has been decided so far is implemented. The appropriate technical infrastructure is selected and the services are digitized.
  4. The service operation: In the fourth phase, the services are put into operation and extensively tested. Do they live up to expectations, are they effective and efficient? And most importantly: do they bring the customer the desired added value?
  5. The service improvement: In the fifth and final step, continuous improvement is ensured. Deficiencies identified so far are addressed and processed.

What does EcholoN offer?

Due to the developments described, ITSM and ESM are now two different service offers that can both be used in the company. The EcholoN developers were aware of exactly why solutions were developed in both areas: The EcholoN IT service management solution and the EcholoN service management system.

EcholoN IT Service Management solution - what is it and how does it work?

Bill Gates put it aptly some time ago:
“The first rule of any business technology is that automating an efficient operation increases efficiency. The second rule is that automating an inefficient operation will increase the inefficiency. "

The EcholoN IT Service Management Tool was developed according to this statement. It has a modular structure, which means that it can be specially adapted to the respective needs of the company and continuously expanded. It covers all ITSM requirements defined by ITIL in order to ensure optimal efficiency. The EcholoN IT Service Management solution also offers the following advantages:

  • Support of business processes: In order to actually be able to handle the respective processes efficiently, it is important to be able to access all necessary information at any time. EcholoN ensures the necessary transparency and thus supports the service workers in the processing and coordination of their service activities. Due to its modular structure, the tool can be adapted to the respective business processes of a company.
  • Access via a web client / web app: With the EcholoN web app, the often very time-consuming postprocessing of the service reports is no longer necessary, as the respective work steps can be reported back to the system immediately. In addition, the browser application can be used on any device.
  • Uncomplicated organizational management: With EcholoN, all organizational units can be created and managed. So everything can be seen at a glance.

The software is therefore an efficient and profitable solution for your IT to standardize and simplify processes. But what is the difference to the general EcholoN Service Management System?

The EcholoN Service Management System - what is it and what is different about it?

While the ITSM is specifically aimed at the processes within the IT department, the EcholoN Service Management System centralizes all service activities in the company. It thus fulfills the character of enterprise service management, which aims to organize all service processes in a way that conserves resources and is effective. Thanks to the customizable service management solution, orders can be managed and processed and the control of maintenance or repair work can be optimized. The response time to customer inquiries is shortened, which significantly increases satisfaction. The bottom line is that all process steps benefit from this uniform system.

Conclusion

If companies decide to learn from the experience of IT service management and to digitize and standardize all departments in the company, ITSM becomes ESM. This brings a high degree of efficiency, convenience and quality with it, provided it is implemented correctly and a software solution that is actually suitable for it is used.

If you have any questions, please contact our EcholoN service staff - we will be happy to help you.