Who has Responsibility for ITSM Tool Selection?

The Responsibility lies with whom?

As a vendor of ITSM solutions, it is paramount for us to understand which parties are responsible for selecting their ITSM tool. This ensures we can build engagement programmes geared to address the challenges of the particular stakeholder groups and build mutual understanding and trust. 

This article came about because we’d remembered an SDI (Service Desk Institute) survey a few years ago and from their conversations with Service Desk professionals it had led them to the conclusion that there was a broad range of individuals with influence over a procurement – kind of what you would expect right? 

This got us talking internally about our own experiences and particularly during the pandemic period of the last two years, had we noticed anything different? 

Interestingly though, this broad range reported by the SDI, orbits around a key nucleus of core stakeholders, specifically the Service Desk Manager (SDM) and not the Financial Controller or other Budget Holders such as Operational Directors, Shareholders or Company Owners. 

All responses to the SDI survey questions indicated the Service Desk Manager would be either be a key member of a procurement team, a leading member of a Project Board or solely responsible for the final decision.

Who has control of the Budget?

With the expectation that Service Desk Managers would have considerable influence over the procurement of a new ITSM tool, a series of questions were asked to gauge that influence. The aim was to see if and how this influence translates to the stages of the procurement process.

Questions included points on the ability of an individual to challenge the request for reductions in IT spending, ability to influence budget and whether they contributed to the preparation of the budget with a Divisional Head or Accountant? 

By looking at the answers to the survey, the level of involvement of the Service Desk Managers showed varying ranges of influence. This cascading level of influence meant you can begin to categorise the overall influence levels and this is what we will look at in Part 2.