Future IT roles will become more challenging, say 82% of IT service management pros in survey

ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company and creators of ServiceDesk Plus, the IT service desk software used by more than 100,000 organisations worldwide, announced the results of its IT Service Management Future Readiness survey.

The survey, which was conducted in collaboration with ITSM.tools, consisted of ten questions that focused on the opportunities and challenges ITSM will see in the future. It was presented to ITSM professionals and garnered over 300 responses, yielding key findings in five distinct areas.

ITSM is getting shaped by the cloud, AI and a millennial workforce

Interestingly, while a majority of ITSM professionals (57%) feel that their IT teams deliver equal or better service than consumer-facing companies, 77% also believe that they need to do better to match the expectations of the incoming workforce of millennials.

The timing of this survey — almost coinciding with the widespread outage of a cloud service provider in February 2017 — also brings to the surface a strong affinity for cloud technology. Even with this incident, only 8% of respondents had a negative opinion about cloud. Also revealed in the survey, only 16% of respondents said that they view the development of AI as a threat to IT jobs, contradicting what’s seen as a popular notion.

The relevance of ITIL in a changing ITSM landscape

While only 5% of respondents feel that ITIL and other published ITSM practices are irrelevant, roughly 66% believe ITIL and other ITSM best practices have failed to keep up with the changing ITSM landscape. These findings reinforce the need for ITIL to reinvent itself to keep pace with the changing trends in IT.

“The ITSM industry is continually evolving in response to its micro and macro influencers, like technology, people, practices and government regulations,” said Rajesh Ganesan, director of product management at ManageEngine. “Being aware of potential future challenges and opportunities helps ITSM professionals stay relevant and responsive to changing landscapes in IT and business, giving their organisations a competitive edge.”

“It’s interesting — and worrying — that 82% of survey respondents believe that working in IT will get harder over the next three years,” said Stephen Mann, principal analyst and content director at ITSM.tools.

“There are multiple root causes, including: nearly two-thirds of respondents think that the current local and global political climate is adversely affecting IT recruitment; only 24% of respondents think that existing ITSM best practices have kept up with the changing IT and business landscapes; and 77% of respondents think that there is still more to be done to meet the expectations of millennial employees. Ultimately, as an industry, we still need to invest more in getting modern IT support right.”

The key findings: Strong affinity for the cloud; AI not a threat to jobs

    • Working in IT: 82% of ITSM professionals believe that the IT roles of tomorrow will be more challenging — and the majority of the workforce currently feels undervalued by management.
    • Impact of politics on IT staffing: More than 60% of respondents feel that current global and local political scenarios — like Brexit, the recent U.S. election and Australian immigration policies — will adversely affect recruitment for IT roles.
    • New technology: Cloud technology continues to enjoy positive feedback from ITSM professionals in spite of a major outage. Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t seen as a major job disruptor yet, with only 16% of respondents saying it will affect IT jobs.
    • Best practices: Only 24% of ITSM professionals show confidence in the existing ITSM best practices, including ITIL, making a strong case for their revamp.
    • Meeting service expectations: With an incoming millennial workforce, 77% of ITSM professionals believe that IT teams will have to do more to manage the expectation gap between younger and older employees.

The IT Service Management Future Readiness survey by ManageEngine and ITSM.tools is available for download here.

Read the ITSM Future Readiness survey report and view the infographic at http://ow.ly/Roag30e5Ay2

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow OR @jcIoTnow

RECENT ARTICLES

Get a US$50 Amazon voucher for sharing your IoT brand knowledge

Posted on: March 28, 2024

We want to know what you know about the IoT space. Just 3 minutes could earn you a US$50 Amazon digital gift card!

Read more

Enhance EV charging performance with cellular connectivity

Posted on: March 28, 2024

Electric vehicles (EVs) are steadily growing their market share at the expense of internal combustion engine vehicles. The growth is fuelled by several factors. Perhaps most importantly, prices for EVs have started to drop as competition in the industry is intensifying. New players and models are emerging, prompting several established EV makers to lower their

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more