BMC Helix ITSM: Modernizing Service Management
“A fool with a tool is still a fool.” In regard to information technology, it means the best technology in the world will not function effectively if the process and culture of the organization is fractured. This applies to digital government services as well. IT teams within government agencies have the potential to modernize and consolidate their technology, but it begins by refining the process and culture of IT Service Management, which includes developing an improved incident response model and focusing on meeting the digital expectations American citizens have when interacting with government, ultimately empowering these agencies to fulfill their mission objectives.
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For federal agencies seeking IT modernization initiatives, BMC’s pedigree as a market leader speaks for itself. They have been in the top-right of Gartner’s ITSM Magic Quadrant for nearly a decade, and its BMC Helix ITSM is one of only three enterprise solutions with a FedRamp designation of IL-4 or higher, further emphasizing the platform’s success within the private sector as well as the federal government. It is BMC’s strong technology foundation that has allowed Flycast Partners to assist various federal agencies in consolidating and refining their IT Service Management practice from a process and culture standpoint.
Part of the current Presidential administration’s Executive Order is to improve inter-agency information exchange to more swiftly identify and respond to cyberattacks. This shines a light on the service desk team’s essential role in securing information systems, protecting data, and proactively safeguarding against emerging threats. After all, how can an agency begin to get a handle on securing their digital environment if they are without the processes to understand fundamental information like Incident Management, Problem Management, collision detection, and vulnerabilities created due to change requests or the lack of a change request?
In many ways, service desk teams are the boots on the ground when it comes to cyberattacks. Arming them with the proper tools is imperative for agile and accurate reporting, which in turn allows strategic decision-making when responding to said attack. With a firm handle on Incident Management and Problem Management, along with the right amount of AI the BMC Helix ITSM platform provides, IT support teams have the ability to quickly identify anomalies based on the consistencies or inconsistencies from something as simple as mass incidents being reported, which can then be flagged as a problem and reported over to the Defense Information Systems Agency or the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency with accurate data on these findings.
To effectively serve their clientele, the American people, federal agencies must build a pleasurable and seamless user experience. BMC Helix ITSM addresses digital expectations twofold: the customer requesting service and the IT support fulfilling it. For example, when a retiree goes to the Social Security Administration website to inquire about benefits, it is very doubtful the retiree is going to immediately understand the directions provided, create an account right away, and quickly access the right knowledge article. Most likely, the retiree is going to call the help desk number and contact IT support directly. In this instance, does the IT personnel have the solution to swiftly address the Social Security benefit question? Or is the current IT support model more about taking notes and sending the retiree to another person in the department who has the knowledge to assist? And what is their queue like? How many other person-to-person interactions are they handling throughout the day? Additionally, how can the agency break the pattern of someone signing up for benefits without repeating into the phone, “Operator! Operator!” or “Option Number Two”?
For many, this sequence of events is not atypical, yet there is a way to right the ship. This can be accomplished through an easily accessible and constantly curated knowledge base empowering IT support to quickly find the information needed in order to be successful in assisting the retiree through the process. By adopting the dynamic capabilities of modern ITSM, the user is happy because there is no need to wait for information or contact anyone else, and IT support is happy because their CSAT score has not dropped from a frustrated citizen who has had an unpleasurable experience with a government service.
From the citizen community’s point of view, many have questioned why government services continue to employ a predominantly phone-based model as well as use websites with rudimentary self-service features rather than provide the same seamless feeling of ordering from an e-commerce website. For users, the experience of requesting and accessing information from digital government services should be as easy, quick, and accommodating as ordering a pizza, a rental car, a book. With solutions like BMC Helix ITSM, government agencies can provide an intuitive, commercial-like interface and the same level of high-quality service without breaking the budget.
Notably, federal agencies do not realize the entitlements available to them from a migration standpoint. BMC has a realistic understanding of the challenges IT faces in the public sector. To kickstart IT modernization efforts, they have put together a license migration program for BMC Remedy and BMC Footprints, acting as a like-to-like trade-in with little to no cost for BMC Helix ITSM. By first addressing the procurement of the licensing, it allows agencies to focus on the process and culture of IT Service Management, establishing a foundation of efficient customer service with the means to transform IT support’s traditional cost center model to a value center.
Alongside BMC Helix ITSM’s effective cybersecurity enforcement and elite FedRamp designation, the platform provides the standardized results agencies and citizens are looking for with IT modernization. Above all, each agency is unique in its own way and requires specific needs—from a technology, people, and mission statement perspective—and Flycast Partners is qualified to thoroughly discuss and evaluate each of these distinct qualities on a one-on-one basis.
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Or contact Flycast Partners to speak to an ITSM expert.
