IT Services Management – ITSM for short – is de riguer for most companies with more than a handful of connected employees. Our wired world means processes, policies, and most of all support are required to keep operations running smoothly.

Few companies outside the actual tech world, however, have a proper strategy in place for their ITSM. Here are some top tips to get CIOs and CTOs really thinking before implementing.

1. Be the (wo)man with a plan. Don’t take your ITSM day by day and hope for consistency and desired outcome. Really strategize and decide what you want from your ITSM, how it will affect the bottom line (positively and negatively) and what steps need to be taken to get you where you want to go. Failure to have an outline leads to ad-hoc ITSM, chaos, and user disatisfaction.

2. Customize, customize, customize. There are great management software programs out there, and plenty of sales people wanting you to buy their wares, but don’t be fooled into thinking that the base model will do. Every organization has different needs, yours included. Before purchasing a system, sit down with the rep and talk about how much customization can be added both initially and over time. What will it cost? How many upgrades are included? Is there an option for user-created customization? Really tailor the product to your organization, so the users can understand why this program, above all others out there, will make their lives easier.

3. From Adam Bender at Computerworld, interviewing Applaud UT’s Mark Richards, comes one of the most basic yet overlooked tips of all:

Logging customer problems should be quick.

“If your service desk needs to take two minutes or longer to log a call, it’s too long,” says Richards. Simplifying the logging process by limiting the number of fields to be entered can reduce logging time to 20 seconds, he said.

We couldn’t agree more. No management system is perfect, and problems will occur. When they do, response should be efficient and comprehensive. Those who log the issues should have a database that will allow them to search for patterns, which hopefully will lead to tweaks and changes to resolve recurring snags over the long term. For larger problems, knowledgeable support staff should be available both over the phone (or chat), and for on-site resolution.

4. Communicate with users. Before purchasing or implementing, get staff buy-in. Seek out opinions of what is currently missing in your ITSM system, and blue sky what users would like to see. Narrow down the fantasy into reality, then do your shopping, as per Tip 2. Before a full roll-out, put together a group of beta-testers from within different departments of your organization to help troubleshoot and create an overall user implementation strategy.