What is ITOM – IT Operations Management?

IT Operations Management, also known as ITOM, concerns the bulk of an organization’s required technological components and applications. Operations Management’s tasks include managing elements within the IT structure of an organization, such as individual applications, storage, services, connectivity requirements, and networking. ITOM provides many crucial services regarding management and maintenance to the IT sector, freeing the rest of the team to focus on more critical tasks. This, in turn, will not only increase productivity within the entire IT sector but will also allow your organization or company to generate more profits.

IT Operations Management is tasked with organizing an organization’s hardware and software and several other resources. Some of the required resources for ITOM include desktop, mobile, web server, and cloud, all of which need to be purchased, configured, and maintained by professional staff. In this article, you will learn what the tasks of IT Operations Management are and how they can benefit the IT structures of your organization.

What are the tasks of IT Operations Management?

A properly running and functioning ITOM is crucial in any organization, and the scope depends on its IT structures. IT operations management is responsible for growing the company’s catalog of services when it expands its IT infrastructure and/or application installations. IT Operations Managers ensure that all services and applications the organization offers are stable and available for business use when needed. ITOM achieves this by focusing on IT structure activities in three essential areas of service:

· Network Infrastructure Management

The network infrastructure, in this case, concerns all of the equipment and software necessary to offer internal and external communications for the organization. IT Operations Managers ensure that communication occurs smoothly and without any issues. This includes various maintenance activities such as establishing remote access networks, managing the internal communication system, or maintaining network security by updating the appropriate antivirus software and managing firewalls.

· Computer Operations & Help Desk

A help desk is one of the most vital services necessary for the steady functioning of almost any organization reliant on IT structures or software. IT Operations Managers take care of a number of help desk services, such as incident response, event response, and request fulfillment. ITOM is also in charge of scheduling and monitoring data backups, communicating with users about possible maintenance downtime and network outages, managing the development and distribution of user profiles, and implementing a disaster recovery strategy for the IT business.

· Server and Device Management

in addition to network infrastructure within the IT organization, IT Operations Management supervises network endpoints such as servers and devices. ITOM manages the servers responsible for hosting some of the most important business applications on a day-to-day basis. This includes server maintenance, upgrades, and software

patching. IT operations managers are also commonly in charge of assigning the various IT assets available to the organization to users (devices responsible for communication such as desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and so on) and ensuring that programs have the storage space they require to run smoothly.

IT operations management benefits

While IT operations management is necessary to run an organization relying on any developed IT structure, it is worth learning about all the possible benefits of a well-run ITOM. Knowing what functional IT Operations Management can offer your organization can greatly improve the positive impact it can have on your IT structures. These include, but are not limited to:

· Scalability – an ITOM platform is designed for large organizations that need to scale their operations. Because of that, most platforms offering IT operations management also provide services that allow easy scalability to organizations that want to expand their IT structures.

· Time to Market – nowadays, business and technology are constantly and rapidly evolving. Because of this, ITOM implementations are now much faster than in the past. A modern IT operations management platform can be set up and functional in weeks, allowing your company to reap the benefits of your IT investments.

· Improved User-Friendliness – the IT staff and customers are the platform’s primary users. Because of that, one of the key elements of running an IT structure is ensuring that it’s simple to use and gives its users enough control to manage their tasks. A specialist from IT Operations Management can help you manage a help desk by providing appropriate support to both the organization workers as well as potential clients while at the same time streamlining the structures and software, making it easier to use and, in turn, possible generating greater profits.

· Boost productivity – having a well-functioning IT Operations Management in your organization can help significantly improve the overall performance of your IT structures. With ITOM, it is possible to solve issues and queries thanks to the data gathered from monitoring infrastructure component performance. With this technology, IT Operations Management can help greatly improve workflow and productivity in your organization, functionally reducing the time necessary for maintenance.

· Reduced operational costs – running an efficient IT Operations Management can help your organization save resources that would otherwise be spent on various maintenance tasks. An ITOM can significantly reduce expensive fixes and escalation of technical issues within the IT structures, effectively reducing total operational costs.

· Reduced downtime – employing an IT Operations Management can effectively reduce downtime in the IT structures of your organization. With an ITOM, it is possible to proactively fix technical issues as they appear, ensuring that your IT sector can run smoothly and allow the users to work without stopping, increasing productivity and total profits.

· Business continuity and disaster recovery – an IT Operation Management can greatly improve business continuity with effective disaster management. One of the functions of ITOM is to prepare your IT structures for possible damage and loss of data and to minimalize the effects of these events. This, in turn, means less downtime caused by trying to recover lost or compromised data, which directly benefits the overall productivity of your IT structures and possibly the entire organization.

· Refocus your IT team’s efforts – by relegating many IT management tasks to ITOM, Operations Management can significantly aid your IT team’s endeavors. Since an ITOM can take care of several issues regarding application and IT structure maintenance, it can allow the rest of your IT team to focus their effort on areas that would be more beneficial to your organization.

Summary

Investing in an IT Operation Management can amount to considerable expenses. However, as it is now clear, a well-running ITOM provides many great benefits to the IT structure of your organization. Also, any company or organization must deliver software to its users. IT Operation Management can help streamline the communication between the IT sector of your organization and its users, ensuring that the software or application delivered is functional by providing necessary support. If you’re looking to improve the functioning of IT structures within your organization, consider investing in your ITOM or one of the outsourced Operation Management offered by some of the Managed Service Providers. Whichever you choose, IT Operation Management will be of great aid to your organization and its IT structures.