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Bridging the ITSM divide - the case for an ‘as-a-Service’ model

Bridging-the-ITSM-divide---the-case-for-an-as-a-Service-model

For organisations of any size, across any sector, seamless IT isn't a 'nice to have'; it's an essential part of efficient, secure operations and - in turn - sustainable business growth. In other words, establishing the right approach to service management is critical, so tickets are always assigned to the right resolver, and any issues can be resolved as quickly as possible. But as organisations scale up and their IT ecosystems naturally become more complex, with the requirements of multiple teams needing to be factored in, this often becomes easier said than done.

The natural solution is an IT Service Management (ITSM) platform, which intelligently automates multiple aspects of IT workflows - including incident, request, problem, and change management - and provides end users with a range of self-service options, including online portals and knowledge bases, typically based on the globally-recognised ITIL framework. However, for all the considerable advantages these platforms offer, their successful implementation frequently proves challenging for example:


  • Designing a bespoke ITSM platform in-house is extremely complex and time-consuming, and so may not be practical for internal IT teams. As a result, as organisations scale up, they find themselves in an 'IT limbo', where a simple spreadsheet is no longer fit for purpose, but a full-scale ITSM deployment will not be achievable

  • Most off-the-shelf ITSM platforms only offer limited scope for tooling, which can be a problem when highly specific compliance obligations must be adhered to

  • If an organisation wishes to maintain its own, in-house resolvers (i.e. their internal IT team), relying on a third-party for ITSM services may prove problematic, as the provider may not wish to provide full access to their own system, as opposed to user access

Based on these challenges, it seems like what's needed is a solution to bridge the gap, allowing smaller IT operations to access the benefits of ITSM without the cost and complexity of a fully bespoke deployment. While this has been largely considered impossible for a number of years, our ongoing conversations with organisations already utilising our evolving portfolio of Managed IT solutions, we realised there had to be another way… 

This was the impetus for our ITSM as-a-Service platform, which combines the industry-leading ServiceNow® platform with leading-edge domain separation technology within our own MSP environment. This makes all the benefits of robust ITIL capabilities readily accessible to IT environments of all sizes via proven, standardised approaches that take away the traditional complexity while still maintaining enough flexibility to accommodate most established workflows.

For example, if an organisation wishes to maintain its own resolvers, as in the example above, we are able to offer a fully separated instance to enable this, with tickets automatically distributed back to the designated agent.

We are able to take this further for organisations who predominantly work with third-party providers, seamlessly integrating our platform with the wider IT ecosystem without putting the integrity of critical data at risk. Tailored instances for specific tasks can also be implemented, if required.

In this way, we empower our customers to take their Managed IT ecosystems to the next level, with ITSM as-a-Service providing the tools to achieve greater control and visibility of their IT workflows, with ample room to scale and pivot as their requirements evolve. 

The full range of benefits offered by this new model are already revealing themselves, with one NHS organisation's revamped service desk having achieved... 

  • 75% of IT tickets resolved at the first point of contact
  • More than 5,000 gold ratings from end users
  • An NPS raised from 57% to 90%

  … but this is all part of a longer journey, where we reconsider IT's wider role across organisations, shifting perception of it from an ongoing financial burden to a powerful driver of business growth and innovation. However you wish to develop your IT workflows in response to your organisations' evolving requirements, get in touch today and take the first step towards making this a reality.

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HMPPS’ Telemedicine programme and the power of technology as a force for social change

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The public sector's relationship with technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate, as familiar legacy systems are increasingly phased out in favour of leading-edge digital infrastructure that offers levels of scalability, sustainability, and operational resilience that would previously have been dismissed as impossible.
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A new model for technology partnerships in the Hospitality & Leisure sector

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The Hospitality & Leisure sector is inherently people-focused, with the personal touch making all the difference to guests' experiences. But, as we have already discussed on this blog, the multiple lockdowns in response to COVID-19 have forced to the entire sector to adopt new ways of engaging with guests, utilising next-gen smart technology to deliver truly bespoke experiences and streamlined access to a wide range of services.
  3599 Hits

When is ‘sovereign’ truly sovereign?

When is ‘sovereign’ truly sovereign?
A new approach to managing and hosting critical data in support of the UK's Defence and national security

In a comparatively short space of time, the integrity of the UK's data has become a top priority for our Defence sector, with bad actors mounting an increasingly sophisticated range of attacks to disrupt critical services, potentially putting lives at risk and compromising our national security.
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Retail 4.0: How technology is driving the move from products to experiences

retail-4-0-how-technology-is-driving-the-move-from-products-to-experiences
For a number of years now, the evolution of the Retail sector has typically been positioned as brick-and-mortar shops - including many longstanding fixtures of UK highstreets - fighting a losing battle against online retailers, such as the seemingly monolithic Amazon. However, the reality of the situation is not quite so clear cut…
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$10 million reward offer for apprehension of unmasked LockBit ransomware leader

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Do you know Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev?

If you do, there's a chance that you might well on the way to receiving a reward of up to $10 million.

Law enforcement agencies across the US, UK, and Australia have named Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev as the mastermind behind the notorious LockBit ransomware group, estimated to have extorted $500 million from companies worldwide.

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Why a new standard of operational resilience is required for the UK Finance sector

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In a heightened cyber threat landscape - where ransomware attacks are increasing in frequency and sophistication - and having weathered the challenges of COVID-19 and the resulting move to hybrid working, the Finance sector is still continually challenged to demonstrate to its customers that critical services will remain available no matter what, and that sensitive financial data will remain fully secure at all times.

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Maintaining operational resilience in a changing Finance sector

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The Finance sector has always been one of the most dynamic, rapidly evolving industries, and this shows no signs of changing any time soon. But while shifts in the landscape may well open new opportunities, they will also come with new challenges, and it is the organisations who are ready and able to face these head-on who will continue to thrive in the years ahead.

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Leveraging pioneering SASE technology with Gartner’s 2024 Magic Quadrant™ Leader, Cato Networks

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Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is rapidly establishing itself as the solution of choice for the next generation of enterprise networks, where optimal control, visibility, and scalability are essential. In the first quarter of 2024 alone, the SASE market experienced a 23% surge, as more and more organisations began taking advantage of its capabilities.

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Be prepared: optimising cyber security in an increased threat landscape

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In light of recent geopolitical events, and the increased threat to corporate infrastructure, organisations across the UK must assume that they will be forced to contend with a cyber-attack in the near future and prepare accordingly. Indeed, the NCSC has already set out its own guidance to help organisations bolster their defences, which we strongly advise you to read and implement.

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The best of all worlds: embracing the BYOD model without putting critical data at risk

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In just a few short years, the way we work has changed forever, with employees at all levels now working at home, in the office, and on the move, communicating and collaborating with customers and colleagues in ways that would have previously been inconceivable. However, as we have seen in recent months, with numerous high-profile cyber-attacks on corporate infrastructure, we can never allow ourselves to become complacent when it comes to the security of critical data. In other words, while we should certainly be ready to explore new models of working, the opportunities on offer must not blind us to potential cyber risks.

Let's consider, for example, the now ubiquitous Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model…

The BYOD model simply means employees are allowed to utilise whichever devices they like for work purposes, utilising them to connect to corporate networks in and out of the office. While this concept has existed for some years now, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns saw numerous organisations rush to implement the concept at scale, ensuring their employees could transition to remote working with minimal disruption.

While this was largely successful in terms of maintaining BAU as much as possible, in the years since lockdown, many organisations have found that these hastily implemented policies have introduced a number of challenges – some obvious, some less so – for internal IT teams.

These include:

  • Allowing employees the freedom to use their preferred devices without compromising the integrity of corporate infrastructure  
  • Ensuring users' personal data is not inadvertently put at risk
  • Maintaining full compliance with an evolving range of data protection regulations
  • Ensuring a diverse range of devices and operating systems all receive the latest security updates as soon as they become available
  • Ensuring corporate security policies are consistently enforced every time employees connect to the corporate network, without this requiring an impractical level of manual effort

All IT teams will already have systems and processes in place for asset management, ensuring corporate devices are kept secure throughout their lifespans and that users are equipped with whatever they need to best fulfil their roles. However, when employees are free to connect through whatever devices they like, control and visibility become increasingly difficult to maintain.

IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms must therefore evolve, providing IT teams with the tools they need to accommodate BYOD and other new ways of working without requiring the inherent cost and complexity of building a bespoke solution in-house.

We explore these challenges in our latest report, Rethinking IT Service Management: A New Model of Seamless IT for the Modern Workforce, in which our IT experts posit a new approach that allows for a truly holistic view of all workflows while still providing employees with the flexibility to which they have become accustomed. 

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Compliance cannot be an afterthought – it must be inherent in the design of all IT Service Management platforms

Compliance cannot be an afterthought – it must be inherent in the design of all IT Service Management platforms

The regulatory landscape is more complex than ever, with organisations across the public and private sectors having to meet an increasingly stringent range of obligations across all aspects of their services, including their IT ecosystems. Far from a box-ticking exercise, this is an essential part of strengthening business' overall security and resilience in the face of numerous aggressive, highly sophisticated cyberattacks. Indeed, as we closed out the first half of 2025, 67% of medium businesses and 74% of large businesses had experienced a breach or cyberattack of some description[1]

The evolution of the regulatory landscape is an appropriate response to these threats, helping minimise the risk of serious breaches affecting critical services that citizens depend on. To this end, G-Cloud bids require organisations to have IT Service Management (ITSM) tooling in place, in full compliance with the ITIL standard, without which they will be unable to bid on some of the most sought-after public sector contracts.

This presents a number of singular challenges for organisations, many of whom will not have the time, resources, or internal expertise to develop a bespoke ITSM platform in-house. However, most off-the-shelf platforms lack the flexibility required to accommodate the required tooling.

As a result, too many organisations will miss out on potentially lucrative business opportunities. But rather than treat these new compliance obligations as a burden, we should look at them as an opportunity to establish a new standard for ITSM deployments, ensuring they continue to form the foundation of seamless, secure IT that supports organisations' efficiency, innovation, and ongoing growth. This means a 'best of both worlds' scenario, where the cost efficiency and streamlined deployments of off-the-shelf solutions is combined with bespoke solutions' ability to accommodate the most rigorous compliance obligations.

This will require a whole new approach to

ITSM – one which we explore in depth in our latest report, Rethinking IT Service Management: A New Model of Seamless IT for the Modern Workforce. Inside, our own IT specialists explore the emerging challenges that successful ITSM deployments present to organisations, along with all the operational and business benefits that a world-class platform can open up. If you are in any doubt about whether your ITSM platform will remain fit for purpose in the years ahead, do not make any new investment until you have considered this information. Read the report now, and do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like to explore any aspect of your unique digital journey with our experts.

Don't Let Outdated Systems Leave You Exposed — The Future of Seamless IT Support

Modern ITSM is no longer optional - it's essential. The rise of remote work, tougher regulation, and growing cyber threats has exposed the limits of traditional, reactive systems. Weak workflows, lack of integration, and compliance gaps are risks that can't be ignored.

This whitepaper sets out a new framework: AI-powered automation, integrated security, and scalable architecture built for modern demands. It explains why compliance isn't a burden but a competitive necessity - especially in the public sector - and argues that expert delivery is just as important as the right tools.

Dive in if you want to future-proof your IT, protect your data, and avoid being caught out when the next crisis hits.

Rethinking IT Service Management
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Vodafone blackout highlights urgent need to optimise the security and resilience of critical infrastructure

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On Monday 13th October, Vodafone customers experienced a blackout of internet and mobile services, with more than 130,000 reports flagged to web outage monitors. In many cases, business users reported they had been left unable to trade, or even communicate with colleagues or customers, throughout the outage, leading to a demonstrable loss of profits. This included other telecoms providers utilising Vodafone's network, who were similarly affected.

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The finance sector rises to meet its latest cyber security challenges

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The finance sector is required to have one of the most sophisticated cyber security postures in the world, with bureaus, banks, finance companies and insurers working closely with their technology partners to ensure sensitive financial data is managed, stored and transferred, with a stringent range of international security standards that must be adhered to at all times. However, cyber criminals have demonstrated repeatedly that they are constantly working to breach even the most sophisticated security ecosystems, devising new ways to exploit both technological vulnerabilities and human error.

  3504 Hits

Three steps to more secure employee passwords on World Password Day

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Passwords are often more associated with individual and consumer cyber security, but they are an essential part of an organisation's overall security posture. For example, you wouldn't leave the windows open overnight as this would allow easy access into the building for thieves. In the same way, a weak password offers cyber attackers easy access to your corporate infrastructure, after which they can use these credentials to escalate permissions until they granted themselves administration privileges, at which point the risk of financial and reputational damage becomes truly serious!

  3315 Hits

The Retail sector is fundamentally changing, and technology has a critical role to play

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The past decade has been a challenging one for the Retail sector, to say the least. Much has already been written about the impact of online shopping and streaming services on the high street, and the rise of COVID-19 and recent supply chain disruptions have only compounded the challenges facing even the most established brick-and-mortar retailers.
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Developing a new breed of security to suit the new ways in which we consume content

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The way in which we consume content has changed forever. Physical media and prescheduled TV and radio have rapidly given way to the convenience, accessibility, and range offered by streaming services. Independent content creators share the digital stage with the most well-established industry leaders, and numerous organisations have embraced the mantra that 'content is king', utilising online video as a key tool for building engagement with their prospects and customers.
  3730 Hits

Embracing the pop-up: how to ensure you are ready to meet your ideal customers anywhere

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The Retail sector is more diverse, dynamic, and rapidly changing than any other time in its history. This not only encompasses the way customers make their purchases – with online shopping, click-and-collect, and in-person shopping all converging to offer true, end-to-end experiences – but also the way retailers open and operate new sites. Whether this means trendy pop-up shops, kiosks at other brands' locations, or booths at events, retailers from up-and-coming start-ups to global leaders are no longer relying on fixed high-street locations to welcome their customers and put their wares on display, instead making sure they are present wherever their ideal customers are, and fully prepared to offer a world-class experience that builds brand recognition and loyalty.

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Cultivating a new breed of cyber security for the new shopping experience

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Retailers - be they small local shops, online sellers, or top global brands - generate, transfer, and store more data than ever before, ranging from customer data (both online and in-store, as we have considered in previous articles), to supply chain and asset tracking data. Whether it's shopping online or utilising in-store apps to access the latest savings and special offers, the way customers shop has fundamentally changed forever, with the data they generate online and in person allowing retailers to build up unique personas that drive truly bespoke experiences.

  3754 Hits

Data-driven manufacturing - laying the foundation for tomorrow’s interconnected workflows

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Manufacturing workflows are evolving at an unprecedented rate, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. The increasing effectiveness and affordability of 'smart' technologies and the Internet of Things means IT and OT are increasingly interconnected, with increasing volumes of data flowing between sites and devices on an ongoing basis.

  2856 Hits
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