Recurring Issues Have Started to Erode Trust in IT, According to New Report From Info-Tech Research Group

To regain trust, IT leaders need to improve incident and problem management before potential future challenges occur.

TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2023  /PRNewswire/ - IT departments are typically able to resolve issues assigned to them quickly, leading to increased confidence in organizational IT function. However, recurring incidents that impede an organization's ability to reduce incident volume or to allow upper-tier support staff to engage in planned work as opposed to managing crises have started to erode that trust in IT. To help IT leaders rise above crisis mode and implement structured incident management that will enable effective problem management, global research and advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group has published its latest research-backed blueprint, titled Improve Incident and Problem Management.

The firm recommends the best way to break the trust-damaging cycle is for IT leaders to implement better structure and processes and right-size the approach. Many organizations struggle with establishing a consistent incident management process to better categorize, prioritize, and resolve incidents and enabling faster resolution time through well-defined escalation protocols. Although IT can fix the issues that come their way, preventing incidents from occurring through identifying and resolving the root cause via problem management is something IT has struggled with. Additionally, IT leaders need to work on leveraging event management to predict problems before potential incidents occur.

"Incident management teams often find themselves too busy to create the knowledgebase (KB) articles or track the incident data that will save them time in the future," says Frank Trovato, research director at Info-Tech Research Group. "It can be difficult to set aside time for preventing incidents when staff is already busy resolving existing incidents and working on projects. Eventually, it becomes a vicious cycle that keeps them constantly in firefighter mode."

Effective problem management drives business value by preventing incidents, but the firm's research suggests it starts with good incident management. This produces the data needed to identify problems that are driving recurring and related incidents. According to Info-Tech's findings, organizations struggling with incident management and the subsequent erosion of trust are typically faced with the following barriers:

Unresolved issues: 

• Tickets are not created for all incidents.
• Tickets are lost or escalated to the wrong technicians.
• Poor data impedes root-cause analysis of incidents.

Low productivity:

• There is a lack of cross-training and knowledge sharing.
• Time is wasted troubleshooting recurring issues.
• Reports are unavailable due to lack of data and poor categorization.

Poor planning:

• Lack of data for effective trend analysis leads to poor demand planning.
• Lack of data leads to lost opportunities for templating and automation.

The blueprint suggests overcoming these challenges by implementing structured incident management that will drive efficiency and build a knowledgebase to expedite future incident response. When it comes to problem management, it's best organizations acknowledge that they have limited time and therefore start with obvious problems, such as recurring incidents, and then expand from there as problem management reduces incident volume.

To learn more, download the Improve Incident and Problem Management blueprint.

To learn more about Info-Tech Research Group, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading information technology research and advisory firms, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals. The company produces unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For 25 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with IT teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and over 200 IT and Industry analysts through the ITRG Media Insiders Program. To gain access, contact [email protected].

SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group