How to Create the Perfect Match in Your ITSM Portfolio

Do You Have a Match?

When I ask this question of an ATO, I am looking to see if your course can light a fire in my people’s productivity. It’s a fact – we need to build skills to meet business objectives but as the skills demanded by business change, ATOs have the responsibility to provide what the industry needs and that means a portfolio to match the skill set within ITSM. That doesn’t mean your portfolio needs a complete overhaul but certainly a health check.

Make Sure You Perform a Health Check on Your Portfolio

When you know what and why certain skills are being demanded, then performing a health check on your portfolio and ensuring it matches the skill sets needed in ITSM is far easier. Of course, there are the official sources of the certification frameworks such as Axelos, HDI and ISACA. If you’ve been paying attention to the chatter within the industry then you’ll know the current frameworks are not dying but evolving. As a result, there are new certifications on the horizon and others that require remapping to show how these certifications are not in isolation but support and interact with one another and the various ITSM roles.

In June, the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is launching version 6 which contains updated ITSM skills. This is certainly worth a look as frameworks such as COBIT use it to help define and standardize the current and evolving skills.

Are You Listening in the Right Places?

However, you need to be in a wider skill talk loop – be where the people in ITSM roles are having the conversations. What ITSM channels are you listening to? How actively are you participating in these channels? One of the best places to do this is at ITSM Conferences. This year I’ve been to itSMF Norway and itSMF Sweden conference and I am about to embark on my third for 2015 at SITS15 in London on 3 & 4 June, as a speaker and Keynote Panelist. If you happen to be there, please feel free to tap me on the shoulder and say hello.

Looking back at the program content, the conversations being held in the various social forums and what’s coming up at SITS15 and other conferences later in the year – one topic does stand out to me – Knowledge Management! It is the one area I find that is threaded through all areas of ITSM whether it be the frameworks, processes, technology or, most importantly, the people aspects.

For every other topic spoken about, without knowledge management, all the rest fails. I guess that’s why I’m so passionate about Knowledge Centred Support (KCS). Every role from the Support Center Analyst through to CIO needs the collaborative and easy flow of data and information in order to build and use the knowledge required to make their decisions more accurate and wiser.

Looking beyond the HR Tick

The skill sets in ITSM, today require more flexibility and adaptability than ever before. The courses ATOs provide are not only about globally accepted standards but content and trainers that facilitate the improvements and changes organizations are making. ATOs need to be interacting on a deeper level with customers in helping them understand the why of the particular courses, not as an HR tick in the box but the practical applicable knowledge the individual brings back into the organization.

Do yourself a favor, get to the next ITSM conference and if you’re having a booth, that’s great but make sure you get yourself to some of the sessions, chat with the speakers and the attendees about the topics and why they’re important to them. Find out where they are experiencing their challenges, what they are seeking to know and then compare those to the skill sets within your portfolio of courses. Do you have a match? If so, then you know and are able to show your customers they are not just going to achieve a training ROI but an ROI on their bottom line.

ITpreneurs library of courseware has one of the largest variety of ITSM content in the market. Tap into it and expand your portfolio. More offerings, more revenue—without the hassle