Should You Choose an IT Management Software 2024

Addison Albert December 8, 2022December 8, 2023

IT service management (ITSM) is a strategic approach to planning, delivering, and supporting IT services that meet the needs and expectations of customers. These tools help IT teams design, create, deliver, and improve IT services in alignment with business goals.

According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, the market size of ITSM was valued at $4.15 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $15.65 billion by the end of 2027. This indicates that more and more organizations are adopting cloud-based ITSM solutions.

But how do you know if you should choose an IT management software for your organization? If you are new to ITSM, this guide will provide helpful information and tips on choosing and implementing IT management software.

What Are the Benefits of IT Management Software?

Before we dive deep into the discussion, let’s find out some of the notable perks of ITSM tools. Here are some of the benefits of IT management software:

Enhance IT efficiency and productivity: An IT management software can help you streamline your IT processes and workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and reduce errors and rework.
Improve IT infrastructure performance and reliability: An IT management software can help you monitor, manage, and optimize your IT infrastructure, such as servers, networks, devices, and applications.
Reduce IT costs and optimize resource allocation: IT management software can help you control and reduce your IT costs, such as hardware, software, maintenance, and labor. You can track and analyze your IT spending using IT management software, identify and eliminate waste, and optimize your IT budget.
Strengthen IT security and compliance: An IT management software can help you protect your IT assets, data, and users from cyber threats, such as malware, ransomware, phishing, and data breaches. By using IT management software, you can implement and enforce security policies, standards, and best practices and comply with relevant regulations, such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001.
Facilitate better decision-making through data-driven insights: An IT management software can help you collect, store, and analyze data from various sources, such as IT assets, services, processes, and users. By using IT management software, you can generate and visualize data-driven insights, such as key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, dashboards, and reports.

How Can You Choose an ITSM?

Now, let’s get to the main topic. The following section will guide you on how to choose the best ITSM for your needs:

What are Your IT Management Needs?

This is the most important step. You must identify IT management needs and the best fit for your organization. Here are some steps you can follow to do that:

Identify Your Challenges and Pain Points

Many organizations face IT management pain points like systems downtime, security vulnerabilities, budget overruns, etc. You need to evaluate these areas for improvement carefully. Common trouble spots include aging infrastructure leading to performance and reliability issues, lack of visibility into IT spending, and insufficient internal expertise stretched too thin.

Evaluate Your IT Environment’s Size, Complexity, and Growth Potential

The scale of an organization’s IT infrastructure and the pace of its growth impact what resources and solutions are needed. Small businesses can likely get by with lightweight cloud-based management tools. However, large enterprises require robust solutions with advanced automation and analytics. Planning for future expansion also avoids having to rip and replace down the line.

According to a study by CompTIA, the average salary for an IT manager in the United States is $117,694 – $154,083. Outsourcing can provide a cost-effective alternative, especially for smaller businesses.

Consider Budget Constraints and Internal IT Expertise

It’s no secret that IT management can be costly. Evaluating your budget and internal IT expertise is crucial for determining the most cost-effective solution. Do you have the resources to hire a full-time IT staff, or would outsourcing some tasks be more economical?

A study by Gartner found that businesses waste an average of 20% of their IT budget due to inefficiencies and a lack of visibility into their IT environment. With the help of an ITSM, you can pretty much cover this weak link.

Define Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Once an IT management strategy is implemented, key performance indicators track how well it works. Common KPIs include system uptime percentage, time to recover from outages, user satisfaction survey scores, and service desk ticket resolution rates. Setting quantifiable metrics and monitoring them over time measures progress and highlights what’s working vs. areas needing improvement.

Make a Precise Decision in Terms of Your Needs and Resources

Once you have outlined your needs, it is time to pinpoint an IT software management tool that aligns with your goals. The following are some tips that can help you in this regard.

Weigh the pros and cons of each shortlisted ITMS: Creating a table listing out the core functionality, ease of use, infrastructure requirements, and cost model of 2-3 leading options can help compare and evaluate their respective merits and downsides.
Align the software’s features with your specific IT needs and goals: Matching must-have use cases like multi-site monitoring, granular asset tracking, and automated patch management against prospective tools’ features ensures they can deliver on current and forward-looking requirements.
Consider the long-term cost of ownership and scalability: The ongoing costs beyond just license fees can add up substantially over years of use, making TCO evaluations critical. Factoring in expenses for additional storage, users, training, maintenance, and integration with existing infrastructure offers a realistic budget impact forecast.
Select the software that best meets your organization’s requirements and budget: The final step is to select the software. You must weigh all the factors you considered in the previous steps and make a balanced and informed decision.

What is the Best Fit IT Management Software Per the Above Criteria?

After a gentle discussion, it’s time to finalize our pick. Per our research and experience, we highlight Electric.ai as our top pick.

Electric.ai is a company that provides IT management software for small and medium-sized businesses. It aims to simplify and standardize IT for its customers by offering cloud-based and on-site services, expert guidance, and real-time support.

Additionally, Electric.aI helps businesses manage their IT assets, configurations, monitoring, service desk, reporting, analytics, IT projects, and security. Moreover, it provides an AI chatbot that helps you resolve most issues and can provide accurate suggestions.

What Makes Electric.ai Different?

Some of the things that make Electric stand out from the crowd are:

Real-time inventory tracking of all devices
Network Health Monitoring with preventative alerts
Streamlined device security updates
Automated policy and software deployment
AI-powered support assistant Gigawatt
Simple employee onboarding/offboarding
Deep HRIS system integration
Access control and security clearance for employees to access systems
Deploy Cybersecurity policies and apps

Conclusion

Summing up, an ITSM is a tool that helps companies to automate their tasks and handle security. However, the real trouble is finding software that can fit you. For this, you have to determine your needs, weigh the benefits and risks of the tool, and consider the budget restraints. After making all the comparisons, you can finalize one tool that hits the target for you.