Defining challenges that pandemic posed to IT service teams

ManageEngine, Zoho Corporation’s enterprise IT management division, announced the findings of its survey, The State of ITSM Two Years Into the COVID-19 Pandemic, which followed up on a similar survey conducted in 2020 to better understand the challenges that the pandemic has posed for IT service teams.

According to the most recent findings, organizations are dealing with a new set of issues that were not previously considered top priorities.

• With three-fifths of the workforce now working in a hybrid mode, managing IT assets (46%) and communication and collaboration (41%) have emerged as the biggest challenges.
• Both jumped to the top spots, registering a positive difference of 11% and 7%, respectively, when compared to the 2020 figures.
• The most significant shift in reported challenges was a drop from 36% to 22% for securing company and client data in a distributed network. This change is likely the result of the proactive efforts of IT teams to ensure remote working risks were minimized.

“The survey clearly reveals that traditional IT needs to transform itself in the post-pandemic world to cater to the new realities in the workplace,” said Kumaravel Ramakrishnan, evangelist at ManageEngine. “Self-organizing teams, high-velocity workflows and a digital-first approach to customer experience are the hallmarks of new age, democratized IT. At ManageEngine, our focus is on helping customers embrace these changes and better support their users and businesses in hybrid workplaces.” 

Studying the 2-Year Pandemic Impact on ITSM Teams 

ManageEngine surveyed 437 IT professionals globally across a range of topics in late 2021 to learn how well organizations have coped over the now two-year-long pandemic, the impact on operations, and which factors have influenced success.

The survey focused on seven ITSM-related topics, including work locations, the impact of employees working remotely, financial and asset management implications, the business view of IT, security and governance issues, third-party services and technology assistance, and business continuity success levels. The survey yielded key insights that can assist organizations and teams in remaining efficient and secure in the face of a distributed workforce.

“Organizations worldwide learned invaluable lessons from the pandemic, including what’s most important to them and their end users, the importance of IT to business operations and the changes needed to meet the needs of a hybrid workforce,” said Ramakrishnan. “ITSM teams played a critical role in ensuring that business operations continued during the pandemic, from overseeing BYOD policies and the provision of mobile assets to implementing self-service features and chatbots, investing more in business continuity planning and offering IT service delivery and support.”

Other Key Findings From the Report

• Employees are better equipped: Compared to the beginning of the pandemic, an additional 47% of organizations are now providing mobile assets to employees.
• IT teams see their value rise: Fifty-two percent of respondents think IT is now viewed and treated better because of the pandemic, and another 14% think IT has always been highly regarded.
• BYOD policies are still absent: Two years after workplaces were totally disrupted, 40% of organizations still do not have a BYOD policy.
• User experience falls short: Thirty-four percent of organizations still do not offer users self-help capabilities, and 52% do not have chatbots.

The full report, The State of ITSM Two Years Into the COVID-19 Pandemic, is available on ManageEngine’s website.