News Feature | November 1, 2016

85% Of IT Pros Say Self-Service Analytics Enhance IT Service Delivery

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

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Analytics can also improve service desk efficiency and can identify gaps in the ITSM process.

According to the results of a ManageEngine survey, self-service analytics would enhance IT security delivery according to 85 percent of IT pros. An additional 36 percent say it would improve service desk efficiency, and 30 percent think it would identify gaps in the IT service management (ITSM) process. And when it comes to the critical area of reporting, while 43 percent prefer to generate their own reports, 21 percent of users reported they depend on third-party software or other teams.

ITSM has become increasingly important for the IT strategy of organizations, and companies are now seeking better solutions for IT services delivery and efficiency via better ITSM processes. As ManageEngine notes, “This increases the importance of tracking and measuring critical KPIs. However, due to overwhelmingly large amounts of data, users find it challenging to manually access, track and analyze critical help desk information quickly. Analytics solutions enable users to visually analyze critical information so they can improve IT service delivery.”

ManageEngine’s Everything You Need to Know About ITSM Analytics survey indexed the attitudes of 160 IT professionals from around the globe to understand their needs when it comes to analytics solutions to derive insights from their service desk data. Respondents were queried regarding ease of use, data accessibility, and the overall benefits of a BI tool. The survey revealed some common data analysis challenges and preferences among service desk users, including:

  • Report creation takes too much time, with 48 percent stating it took more than 30 minutes to create a service desk report. On-demand reporting is also paramount, according to the results.
  • Increased dependency on other sources to create reports, including visualization tools, query reports and third-party reporting software or support teams. Report customization is also critical, with 43 percent preferring custom reports over standard ones.
  • Incident management modules need more attention. Almost one quarter (22 percent) of respondents said that incident management was the module that needs more reports, followed by asset management (17 percent), and greater customization for change management (13 percent).
  • Deep analysis can reveal hidden gaps in the ITSM process. Proactive incident reporting can assist in the early detection of repetitive issues, while analytics tools help assess unprepared situations and improve efficiency overall.

“While this survey highlights the importance of analytics when it comes to enhancing IT service delivery, it also sheds light on what users expect from an analytics tool,” said Sridhar Iyengar, vice president, ManageEngine. “There are currently many analytics tools in the market, but most are too complicated, require expert assistance, or are too time-consuming and expensive. Based on the survey findings, users want a self-service analytics tool that will allow them to build and personalize reports quickly. Empowering users in this regard is the first step toward achieving any form of process efficiency.”