With time, companies of nearly all types and sizes are embracing different forms of IT technologies and services. From technology giants to MNCs making FMCG and insurance companies- they all need to deploy IT services to stay competitive and make profits. However, deploying diverse kinds of IT services and managing these is far from easy. For managing myriads of IT services and resolving problems related to operations, these businesses often use comprehensive IT Service management or ITSM tools. A lot of them also resort to ITIL methodologies to make sure the ITSM tools can be utilized to the maximum and IT services can be operated to meet business targets.
Understanding the importance of ITIL
ITIL was created way back in the 1980s in the UK as a set of guidelines for implementing the best IT practices in workplace scenarios. Over the years, it has matured and become capable of catering to needs of companies using latest technologies and IT services. Now, it is managed by UK based AXELOS. The ITIL certifications are much sought after in IT service industry and IT professional sit for these certifications exams to enhance their skills and widen career scopes. There are 5 levels of ITIL certifications starting from Foundation and ending in Masters.
Skills required for boosting your position in ITIL and related fields
While obtaining training for ITIL certification and passing the exams will give your career a boost, that alone may not be enough. It is true that obtaining ITIL certification helps enhance efficiency in IT service handling and management. To ensure that you can make best use of acquired ITSM skills in workplace and extract most out of the ITSM tools used, you need to develop certain qualities or attributes. These are:
- Communication skill- To ensure you can make best use of ITIL methodologies in workplace while using ITSM tools, developing excellent communication skills is necessary. This includes communication required for interacting with colleagues at workplace and interaction with the customers. In workplace setups using ITSM tools, employees of various different departments need to share and use same IT services and tools- as part of workflow. If your communication skills are good- sharing work and syncing with other departments will not be a problem. This will be more of use when using shared resources and assets.Similarly, communication skills play a pivotal role when resolving customer queries and grievances while using ITSM tools. This will help you in making customer understand possible solutions and options. This will lead to enhanced customer relations.
- Analytical skills- It is important to sharpen analytical skills to ensure you can make good use of ITIL methodologies while handling ITSM framework at workplace. This will help you in deciding possible way out when problems crop up in workflow. Whether it is a hardware failure or snag in cloud service, by using analytical skills you will be able to figure out the most apt solution for the situation. Analytical skills also come in handy when you need to come up with an alternative solution to a problem or snag.
- Negotiation skill- While using ITIL methodologies and using any ITSM tool, it helps if you possess good negotiation skill. Based on the type of work involved and products sold by the company, you may have to negotiate with third party agencies, raw material suppliers and various other agencies. Such negotiations may be necessary when using different types of IT services. Using your negotiation skills you can execute tasks in a way that turns out to be beneficial for the company.
- Instant problem solving skill- While using ITIL methodologies can help you handle IT services in the organization efficient and organized manners, sometimes you may end up in unprecedented situations. You have to remember the fact that ITIL is an evolving set of guidelines that is modified and augmented from time to time for catering to changing IT technologies. So, if you face a crisis related to IT service usage or unforeseen snag, coming up with a solution fast is what you need to do. While the existing set of ITIL guidelines may not be relevant in some such scenarios, you can use your experience and knowledge in ITIL methodologies to come up with nearest and feasible alternative solutions.
- Observation skill- While passing ITIL certifications will help you enhance skill set and knowledge in handling IT services, having sharp observation skills is like icing on cake! Without sharp observation skills, it will be hard to locate sources of IT service related issues at workplace and trace the roots. This skill will also help you in identifying hints of an upcoming system snag or conflict and evade that in future. This eventually will lead to fewer interruptions at workflow and cost saving.
- Coordinating skill- To make the best use of ITSM tools at workplace while adhering to ITIL methodologies, you need to have good coordinating skills. Based on type of workflow and scenario, sharing resources with other teams may be a necessity. You can utilize ITIL principles in such scenarios through deploying coordinating skills. Conflicts arising between the departments can be resolved or minimized using this skill as well.
- Adaptability- IT technologies keep changing quite fast and what is deemed latest today may become obsolete in less than year. So, the methodologies for managing IT services at workplaces have to be adapted accordingly. Same adaptability is required in users handling such tools and services. Your knowledge in IT service and tools will have to be utilized but sometimes, you may have to deploy things in a different way to suit workflow in the organization.
- Capacity to cope with stress- No matter how skilled you are or what levels of ITIL certification you possess, dealing with IT service related processes can be quite taxing on the mind. Besides, knowledge in ITIL methodologies surely helps in resolving IT service related issues and handling them- but it is no magic bullet solution. IT professionals using ITSM solutions have to adhere to deadlines, shifting client needs and they also have to face unforeseen snags and solve them fast. So, you need to develop the capacity to work efficiently amidst stress.
- Capacity to learn new things fast- Even if you possess ITIL certification, you may have to pick up a lot of new things when trying to deploy those methodologies at workplace where ITMS framework is in use. It is a fact that different companies use different ITSM tools and you have to learn a lot of things fast to cater to workflow requirements. Surely, the knowledge in ITIL core concepts will be of help but your efficacy in picking up workspace related skills matters a lot.
Where it all leads to?
As it is, possessing ITIL certification will help you in bagging good jobs related to IT Service. However, your personal skills like adaptability, negotiation skills, coordinating capacity will be of great use in workplace where you have to use ITSM frameworks. These skills will ensure you can make proper use of ITIL methodologies at workplace. It will also be advantageous from the organization’s perspective.
